Tuesday, 8 September 2015

Thing 10: Live Streaming

Looking down the barrel of Periscope


I was behind starting this Thing so I missed the Rudai 23 Hangout on Air but I have used Hangouts once or twice myself so am a little bit familiar with the application.

I decided to take the option of looking at the Periscope application from Twitter.   I had never heard of it before reading about it on the Rudai blog but since then, I have actually had it mentioned to me by a couple of people so its reach is definitely spreading.  It is quite a new tool but I think the fact that it is used in conjunction with Twitter will mean that it has huge potential for mass use.

Having downloaded the app to my phone and played around with it a little bit, it is very easy to use and join in the broadcasting fun.

There is obvious potential in using it as a marketing tool and the fact that the broadcasts can be played later means that it could also be a useful way of broadcasting conferences or seminars.

It is definitely a great way of allows its users to be “present” at events that otherwise just would not be possible.

So yes, Periscope is a useful, easy to use, interesting tool.  However, it is also easy to see how it could be used in not so positive ways. Now anybody going to a concert or a sports event can effectively broadcast a feed live to whoever has the app and wants to view it. Because the technology is so new, privacy and piracy laws will need to catch up.

The other query I would have about it is how much of your data plan would be used with substantial use. Maybe that’s not a concern for people with “all you can eat” data plans but those on fixed data plans might have more of an issue with cost.


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