UStream.tv - The Next Big Thing?

In the realm of the whole Web 2.0 thing, many new web sites have emerged. We have YouTube, Digg.com, Twitter.com, and oh so many more. Now we have UStream.tv to add to the list. First off, what is UStream.tv? Well, I’ve been playing with it for a bit and it’s basically a “Live YouTube” – What I mean by that is instead of recorded videos that were uploaded to a site you can stream yourself live for whoever wants to watch. You can do live video casts with the interaction of users. How do you interact you ask? Well, you can have a chatroom setup on your video page and users can talk to you via the chat. However, UStream’s chat is very limited and you can request to have your chat moved to the WyldRyde IRC Network (for free).

I’ve setup my own small little show to mess with it (The Jeff Show) and I didn’t have any issues with it recognizing my webcam or microphone. That’s always a good sign. Of course, UStream is still very new and is going through major growing pains. If you’re going to do a show with a lot of people watching (200+) it can be a little problematic sometimes. However, keep it mind the site is still very young and that these issues will be worked out eventually. UStream.tv 2.0 is supposed to be out soon, I’m looking forward to that. I’d really like to see what they add/improve.

Now, one last note. If you don’t have a webcam – no worries. You can still use UStream with just a microphone or even if you have a webcam or perhaps or having a bad hair day don’t want to be seen? Still not a problem, you can choose whether you broadcast your webcam or not. I really like that feature as I tend to have a lot of bad hair days. Have you tried out UStream? If you have let me know what you think of it! If you haven’t tried it, go check it out and let me know!