Virtual tours

A few weeks back a site was opened, which allowed anyone to make their own 3D-galleries of famous (and not so famous) places around the world. The prerequisite of course being that you have actually been to the place in hand, otherwise there are no pictures to make the gallery out of. This way the site will slowly generate a database of tourists' locations and the people can experience the trip again and again.

I think these kind of virtual environments are pretty cool. The major advantage before ordinary galleries is the fact that the users can move around by themselves, there are no restrictions in the 3D environments. That makes it feel pretty real.

You can make something similar in Yaika! too. I'd imagine it being like this: you make a channel and call it for example Pantheon; you then upload videos, each one of those being shot from a different place in Pantheon (or whatever the location you chose). This allows everyone to watch exactly what they want instead of looking a some long and boring introductory video.

You can easily go abroad without traveling, if you really want to :)

To derive some ideas

Although the following takes place on the Russian version of Yaika!, it's a good example and some encouragement for others nonetheless. The point is that some of the users have started doing somewhat educational broadcasts using Yaika! and I, for one, think it's a brilliant idea.

We have a person who thought it would prove useful to teach self-defense to women. As usual, the Internet is the best place for that as one can maximize the capacity of people able to view those lessons. To be honest, it is pretty rough out there. The teacher is the president of the Estonian Real Aikido association, so he really know what he's doing. Thanks to him a lot more people can roam the streets with confidence.

Another quite interesting broadcast is by a student keen on chemistry. He's going to do a daily show for all the people also interested in chemistry, discussing the Mendeljev table and different reactions between substances. As far as I've heard, he's pretty good, so you'll be in capable hands.

Those two people are broadcasting on Russain Yaika!, but I still think those are some great ideas for shows. People can easily share their knowledge with others, hassle-free.

Some more tricks with videos

Yesterday I wrote about time lapse videos and mentioned that you don't really have to have a video camera to make one. Well, in that sense my topic for today is similar.

I'm talking about stop motion videos. We've all seen it at least once. The "Wallace & Gromit" and "Robot Chicken" shows are great examples, where creatures made of clay run about. The term "stop motion" is pretty much self explanatory. Every scene is carefully constructed and then photographed. This is a very time-consuming and detail-critical process, but the result is well worth it.

A lot of camera owners with a lively imagination have done their own renditions of things using this technique. You don't have to use clay or anything like that, it can easily be done with dolls, action figures or other toys. Here is a quite funny version of Darth Vader's everyday life, done by using stop motion and legos.

Although the technique is time-consuming and requires a lot of patience, it's ultimately fun to see what you can come up with. Also, Yaika! is one of the best places to upload such masterpieces as you friends can view them here with great ease.

Time lapse videos

You can do all kinds of tricks with video nowadays, especially with the help of all the (mostly free) editing software on the web. I personally enjoy time lapse videos, which are ordinary recordings, only played back a lot faster (kind of like fast-forwarding).

A popular theme among time lapse videos is traveling. People film they trip wether it's by car, train, boat or any other means of transportation. Watching that video later after it's been accelerated is quite amusing as you can see where you've been and what happened without waiting too much.

But there's another way to make these videos. You really don't even need a camcorder. A lot of people record a dying or sprouting plant, the view of the sunrise from their window and so on. They don't do it using a camcorder, they use an ordinary camera. The trick is to put it on a tripod, connect it with a computer and then let it take pictures in certain predetermined intervals. This can all be easily achieved using special software, which usually comes with the camera. Later you can reorganize the pictures and view them a slideshow.

Time lapse videos are a great way to observe some painstakingly slow process, which would be otherwise difficult to understand and it's also a lot of fun :) Yaika! is the perfect place for uploading those videos as your friends can then easily view them.

Social networks around us

Social networks have been around since the dawn of mankind. Such networks consist of people who know eachother and interact on a daily basis. But as time has passed, those networks have changed.

As with everything else on our lives, social networks too have changed in the wake of modern technology, namely the Internet. To be honest, the Internet is the sole reason, why the networks are what they are today. The speed that information travels at allows all the people to be interconnected, everyone is easily reachable and exchanging information is a breeze.

The team at Yaika! to has put a lot of effort in developing the social capabilities of the site. We have a fully working comprehensive social network. Every user can add any other user to their personal network and then engage is some more private communication. We also have an integrated messaging system, because if there's no exchanging of information, we can't really call it a network :)

Although social networks have always existed and always will, they have thoroughly changed and so has our opinion regarding their importance.

A fashion weekend

The Viru Center in Tallinn hosts a fashion event this weekend. It's called FIBIT (Fashion Is Back In Tallinn) and it's the largest in Estonia. During the three days all the people interested in fashion can enjoy new clothes lines and even see a few shows.

There are a total of four acts being shown on Friday and people can browse all the latest products the clothes shops have in stock while becoming familiar with the designs of Estonian fashion designers. There is a special show on Sunday featuring the young and rising stars in Estonian fashion.

There's good news for all of those people who would really like to see this event but can't make it to Tallinn this weekend. Yaika! is broadcasting video from FIBIT and this means that everybody can be a part of the fashion show!

Blogs are changing

Blogs are the voice of the people. Most just use them as a good way to document and share their life with others. But time has shown that the blogosphere has a lot more influence than expected.

Blogs have a substantial role in the forming of political opinions. For example, during the Iraq war, there were countless blogs discussing it, bloggers expressing their views. They were in fact a lot more varied than the traditional left-right divide of the political spectrum.

A lot of famous politician too have their own personal blogs. There they can express their opinion "off the record", they can cut out the middleman while talking to the people. By the year 2004 blogs were so widely popular that they were and still are used by many experts and consultants. Blogs also have a significant role regarding the news spreading among people.

I can undoubtedly say that the role of blogs in our society will only increase. The best place to make your own is Yaika! as we have the most comprehensive and easy-to-use environment for doing that.

What's on Yaika!

Yaika! has a noteworthy amount of exciting and humorous video footage stored. I thought I could point some out to you.

Here is a funny video of an enactment of a possible scenario at the videogame convention. Now everyone can understand how some of the more popular of the first video games were really invented.

Some time ago I wrote about how you can successfully use Yaika! to observe your pets. You can find some footage of pets too when browsing Yaika! Right here is a video of a user's aquarium. It somewhat resembles the screensaver provided by Windows, but it's way more personalized as there are actual real fish. You can find more footage of fishes on the same channel. It's a also a great way to show off your pets to other enthusiasts.

You too can recommend funny and interesting videos to others when stumbling upon some :)

Nighttime F1

This weekend the first ever nighttime Formula One event took place in Singapore. It was a large-scale and costly undertaking, but it was a success. The event was truly impressive.

The whole track was covered with high-power lights, which were then doubled in case of emergencies. When you're plowing through a city doing 300 km/h, then it's save to assume it wouldn't be much fun when you'd suddenly be surrounded by total darkness. Formula One cars don't have headlights, you know. The viewers were able to see some spectacular views thanks to the shots filmed from the helicopter.

FIA (F1 executive company) has made a five-year contract with Singapore, which means we'll be able to see more of these nighttime races. It's quite exciting to observe.

The race that just took place is a great example of how networks have to come up with new and exciting ways to keep the audiences on their toes. The emphasis in this business is on new ideas and innovation. Yaika!, too, offers a whole new viewpoint on how to look at entertainment as such. We allow you to create your own content and then easily share that content with others.

Reviewers on the web

The world is full of different media outlets specialized in reviewing every product imaginable. There's a critic or an expert for each product out there. They write and write about all those things, push their opinions onto others, which aren't all that objective might I add.

But we all have the possibility to voice our opinions regarding anything without bosses breathing down our necks or worrying about our paycheck. The more popular of the products reviewed are mostly of the entertaining kind. Movies and music, for example. You'd have to be pretty dense, if you leave the cinema and have no feelings whatsoever. People do love to express themselves and voice their opinions. It's as easy as it'll ever be with the help of the Internet, especially with the huge audience it provides.

The web has a lot of different sites for doing that, places where ordinary people like you and me can say what they think of the latest movies and music albums. If you would also like to do that, then now is the time. You can easily make a separate channel on Yaika! and start broadcasting either video or audio.

Yaika! widget

For those who don't know - a widget is a small program, which everyone can place their website or embed in a email message. You don't have to have any prior knowledge regarding programming and such.

The Yaika! widget allows other to send you video messages without having to register as Yaika! users. To use the widget you must copy the code found here into your blogpost or e-mail signature. A small button appears in place of the code and clicking it allows anybody to send you video messages. You can then view received messages from you inbox on your Yaika! account.

I find this to be a nifty little feature as the users of the widget can make answering them extremely easy. If anyone reads your blogpost and feels the need to immediately argue or agree, then he or she can make a short video announcing his or her opinions in mere seconds. The same applies to e-mails, the receivers can send you an answer in a matter of seconds.

You can find the Yaika! widget by clicking the "Get a Yaika! widget" button on the right side of the site.

The last bits of good weather

The autumn is upon us and the weather is getting worse by the day. We still have the few days left to enjoy the sun and go outside without four layers of clothes. So if you are a sensible person, you really ought to go outside and make the best of it.

As I've mentioned in previous post, video is everywhere. You, too, could easily make a broadcast from a beautiful place somewhere in the nature. What could be better than to enjoy a day out with your friends and family, maybe even have a picnic of some sorts. While being in the wild, you can set up a laptop and a camera and film away. You might even catch a glimpse of an animal or two.

You shouldn't have much trouble finding a suitable connection. Lot's of parks are covered with WiFi, especially in or near cities. And as I've said before, 3G network is perfectly adequate for live feeds. Then there's the possibility of just recording the video and uploading it later.

Now get out there and enjoy the last few rays of sunshine!

Video - It's everywhere

When looking around, one can see, that the video format is starting to take over all forms of communication. Almost all messaging programs in the world allow videofeeds, you can also find that feature on most web based services. Just audio isn't enough anymore for communicating with people over long distances.

I've made some videocalls myself during the last few years, mostly to my friends. Back then we used instant messaging programs like MSN Messenger. Now there are countless versions of different programs of this kind. Most of them (at least the more popular ones) fully support videofeeds. The 3G networks around the world allow people to make videocalls with their phones, too. It's quite easy as most phones today have a built-in camera and support making those calls.

I can say without a doubt that although audio-only forms of communication are the most used in the world today, in ten years or so, video will take over.

Yaika! as the perfect diary

I don't know, how it is now, but back in the day lot's of teenagers (and why not adults) had a diary, usually with a small padlock, hidden away in their nightstand drawer. They wrote all of their most sacred thoughts and wishes in there. To be honest, people still keep a diary as such, but as with most other things in our life, this too is done via the Internet.

This move to the web has come with the liberation of people's minds, they're are no longer in hiding, afraid of showing their "real me". Instead of keeping your worries and success to themselves, people now feel free to share them with others in the depths of the Internet. All the people who still wish to keep their personal business a secret can easily protect their privacy by using a password.

I think Yaika! is the perfect place for keeping your very own online diary. You can add a whole new dimension to your entries thanks to the comprehensive multimedia functions that Yaika! provides. For example, I've almost finished my driving exams. Now, if I want to do a post about my latest driving lesson (maybe it was extra exciting), then I can also add some video footage of said lesson right next to my text blog. I might overhear a funny conversation on the bus and I may be insufficient at describing the truly comical part of it. Well, no worries, I can then easily upload a recording of said conversation (which I could have recorded with my cellphone).

Yaika! is the best platform for keeping your very own web diary, because it supports all the multimedia formats (text, video and audio) and has a comprehensive social network.

Surprising minispeakers

A few days ago, when I was looking at the latest gadget-news, I stumbled upon a nifty little product. It's a pair of capsule speakers called X-Mini. When put together, the speakers take the form of a small sphere which can fit into anyone's pocket. But when you twist it, it opens up to two small and surprisingly capable speakers.

I'm sure most of you are asking the same question - how can something so tiny produce even remotely good sound? Well, to be honest, they really can't produce that good of a sound, but when you're looking for extremely portable little speakers for your iPod or laptop, then X-Mini is the choice for you. Despite their size they're perfectly adequate for short sessions of music or videos. They even have some bass response, which is done with a vacuum area in the speakers.

I can already imagine how you'll stumble upon something very interesting while browsing Yaika! and want clearer sound (laptop speakers are notorious for their bad quality). You then take a small sphere from your pocket, open it up into two speakers and connect to your computer. For random uses X-Mini is the best product.

Chris Pirillo

Chris Pirillo was one of the first people to notice that nothing on TV interested him and started producing his own shows. Chris is a reputable technology buff and always keeps up with the latest of technical innovations. This gave him the idea of doing his own broadcasts on the subject.

The problem was that there were no webpages for doing such broadcasts, so he took use of his own knowledge and built a website from scratch. Youtube was there to allow him to upload prerecorded videos, but Chris wanted to do it live. Now there are numerous sites that offer this kind of functionality, but they all originate from the US. Yaika! is the first of his kind in Europe.

Chris has actually worked as a computer technician and thus knows what he's talking about. You can find his videos on Youtube, CNN and his own website(http://www.pirillo.com/). The latter of the sites named allows you to see Chris live with a chatroom working simultaneously with the broadcast. As I've mentioned before, the main subjects are all related to technology. You can often find commentaries and reviews of the latest electronics and the like.

Just like Chris, everybody has the possibility to make their own shows. From a technical standpoint it's both very simple to prerecord the video and upload it or do it live. Although the last option is quite stressful for the most of us :)

Filming is easy

Everyone who's even the least bit in the know regarding the latest technology knows that you can find cameras on every electronic device imaginable. It started out with just photographs, but nowadays all the cameras are also capable of capturing video. Filming is now easier than ever.

People can record anything they want in video format with ease. Homemade videos became popular in the '80s when the VHS (the ordinary video cassette) came out. As time passed, cameras became cheaper and cheaper and the technology captured the masses. Now we've moved on to the digital age, which makes videos even easier to store and edit.

You don't have to actually buy a camera in order film something. Cameras found on other electronic devices are perfectly adequate to capture the moment, when need be. All us have at least one device equipped with a camera, they're found on phones and even mp3-players. Some of the new phones even have such good optics that the term "camera with a phone" is used :) Also, all the new laptops have integrated webcams.

The editing of the recordings has become incredibly easy, if you do a bit of research. The depth of the Internet contain a large amount video editing software (a lot of it free). Even Windows' own Windows Movie Maker is capable of doing the simplest of tasks.

Where ever you are, you can almost always broadcast it using Yaika!

Yaika! - not just for storing videos

I bet lot's of people who have heard of Yaika! think that it's another run-of-the-mill video hosting site. Well, in reality, that's not the case at all. Yaika! is most certainly not meant for video storage only (unlike Youtube, which is a great website, but not the same principle). It's the social networking capabilities that make Yaika! stand apart from the others. Finding friends and sharing videos with them is a breeze. Also, the user interface is incredibly easy to use.

Another noteworthy difference is the fact, that most of the videos uploaded to Youtube are anything from music videos to full episodes of popular TV shows, but almost all of the videos on Yaika! are purely user generated content, almost nothing commercial. These are more exciting to watch as they are unedited and realistic.

So if you're ever bored, Yaika! is a good place to hang around, you'll surely find something of your liking here :)

If videos aren't for you

Some readers might have the impression, that Yaika! is only meant for broadcasting videos. Well, I want to change that impression. In reality, Yaika! allows you to successfully make radio broadcasts, too. It's just as easy as with video feeds.

Radio shows have quite a few upsides. First of all, it's suitable for people who aren't interested in showing their face in the public webspace, who don't want to reveal their identity. This could because of many reasons, for example, when the subjects under discussion shouldn't really be discussed. Secondly, everyone is not comfortable and confident enough in front of a camera to make a video for everyone else to see. In other words, if you're shy, you don't have to worry :)

To be honest, the so-called podcasts have become quite popular in the Internet during the last few years. They're basically just audio-blogs, but instead of writing all of your thoughts down, you take a microphone and speak into it. This is time saving (no need to type anything) and more interesting for the audience. Telling a story verbally makes it so much better because of all the articulation and emphasis.

If you're not that fond of being in front of a camera, then Yaika! is perfectly good for radio broadcasts, too. And if even that doesn't interest you, there's always the good old text blog :)

Street magic

There has been a time in every kid's life when he or she has dreamed of becoming a police officer or a fireman. A magician is also a popular occupation among children. Most of us have done a card trick to a friend or two. But there are only a few people, who actually have the determination and willpower to practice enough to became a professional.

In the last few years certain kind of magicians have gained a lot more popularity than others - namely street magicians. David Blaine was the man who really took to the masses. Some even believe him to have actual supernatural powers. He walked around the streets of New York with his cameraman and showed all kinds of magic tricks to unsuspecting by-passers. One of the most incredible of them was when David Blaine asked random people to think about the name of the person they love the most and after a few seconds a taxi drove by with the name of the loved one painted on the side. In addition to breathtaking illusions, David has performed some pretty might I even say scary feats. He holds the record for holding one's breath underwater (17 minutes and 4 seconds). A few years ago he spent 44 days in a glassbox above the River Thames in London with only enough water to take two teaspoons a day.

Lately there have been appearing more people with similar talents. One of those people is Chris Angel, who, like David, does some pretty mindboggling tricks (but not as lifethreatening). But what I'm trying to say here is, that all the people who weren't able to make their dreams a reality can do that now. After finishing school and landing on a stable enough job you can have some free time to practice all those swift moves. And if you look at the older posts on Yaika! blog you can find some good tips on how to make a live moving broadcast.

Now all you have to do is start looking for that old deck of cards :)

The fascinating world of Goldberg machines

I don't think a lot of people know what a Goldberg machine is from the top of their head. No worries, you'll soon find out. But I am certain than everyone has seen at least one of them, probably in cartoons (as they are quite difficult to build in real life).

By definition a Goldberg machine is a liberately overengineered apparatus that performs a very simple task in a very indirect and convoluted fashion. This may be hard to imagine, but fortunately I've got some visual aids. Here is an episode of Mythbusters where they construct a Goldberg machine. By the way, the machines got their name after a cartoonist named Rube Goldberg who used to draw such contraptions in his comics.

My call to you is to do some thinking and come up your own Goldberg machine. Then you'll have to build it (I recommend ordinary everyday object as building blocks). You should use the help of your friends too, the more the merrier anyway :) But why not broadcast the whole project? It would be like a Behind-the-scenes sneak preview. People always like watching something exciting happening. They can make suggestions and give you tips, some might even have prior experience.

The main event is still the actual execution of the machine. If you look around, you can find quite a few of Goldberg machines' videos, but you can make it with a twist. It would be really exciting to film the first run live. This way the audience can partake in the suspense of seeing if it all works out exactly as planned.

Showing off your talents

Remember, when a while back I wrote about people who had become famous with the help of the Internet? Well, most of the people covered in that post were a bit weird and extraordinary. This actually isn't the case that only people who show off their peculiarities become popular, not at all. All the so-called "normal" talents are valued by a lot of people.

This can be any kind of everyday activity, something you're able to do very fast or with inhuman precision. It would be better if it was something exciting to watch. Seeing some type 500 words per minute might not be as fulfilling as one might think. The first think I can think of is sports. They're always popular among all age groups. BMX riders, who can jump exceptionally high, pull a hundred backflips and the like. A lot of those "supermen" are hidden away amongst the amateur sportsmen, not as much so with professional sportsmen (we see them on TV every day).

There are other interesting talents, too. The ones that are more on the creative side. Some people have such vivid imagination that they are able to make up a song on a given word on the spot, others can draw you room entirely based on their memories (after having only seen it once). These are more like the talents people are born with, but exhilarating to watch anyway.

It doesn't matter if you have perfected your gift with years' worth of hard work or were just born with it. Show them to other people around the world and do this using Yaika!, the easiest way to make an online video stream.

Share your office life

Everyone, who's ever worked in an office, knows that from time to time it gets pretty boring. I'm not saying that people are lazy and work-shy, it's just that sometimes you have to wait because of someone else. And when people get bored, they find something to do.

A lot of offices have some specific traditions for fighting boredom. Some people throw paper planes out of the windows, others play videogames, everyone's got their own thing. There are work groups that have come up with entirely new games of their own, which are played using ordinary office supplies and the like. They even host championships and the winners receive prizes during company picnics. I've even heard of an office that bets on normal daily things. For example, how many cups of coffee does a certain colleague drink during a day.

If some office worker happens to read this post, I'm sure he or she can name some of their own office's traditions. But why not share those with other people (and workers) around the world? Set up a few cameras and when something is about to happen, start filming and with the help of Yaika! this broadcast will reach all of the world. This way you might get a few new ideas of your own. Be sure to ask for permission from all of your coworkers beforehand :)

If an executive happened to stumble on this post, then he or she shouldn't be too alarmed. In reality people do a lot more work and play around much less than I've made it look like.

The advertisements of modern times

As time goes by it gets more and more difficult to get the attention of consumers. Advertisers have to constantly come up with new and radical ways to make their product noticeable among the general public. But it doesn't really have to be all that complicated.

People now use the term viral advertisement, which is pretty much self explanatory. But to those who didn't get it - a viral advertisement is something that spreads all by itself using the Internet's social networks, just like pathological viruses. This, of course, doesn't mean that they're like spam, being distributed against the will of the receivers. No, the users spread it out of their own free will.

A good viral advertisement always gets straight to the point, but does it in a humorous way. It has to be different from others, stand out. Otherwise the word-of-mouth phenomena won't work, but that is crucial to the success of a viral advertisement, because people like to share funny and interesting things with their friends. I have a great example that was uploaded to Yaika. You can find it here. First of all, it's a beautiful girl, which automatically draws the viewers' attention. Secondly, it all starts with a humorous approach from the very beginning. And finally, everything is made clear with simple and easy-to-understand examples. It's a perfect template for anyone thinking of doing something similar.

If you are at least a bit inventive and funny, then viral advertising is the way to get your products or services out into the public, because it exploits the possibilities of the Internet's social networks and the word-of-mouth phenomena. Your goal is to make something unique and humorous, but at same time talk about the product itself. This is the way to get the attention of consumers.

Keeping memories Yaika! style

I think photo albums are a thing of the past. Video is taking over the world with great speed. You'll notice this trend within recording all kinds of family events and memories in general.

Most of us have a whole separate cupboard specifically for storing all those photo albums. Even I have one :) But more and more people record their lives in video format (this already began in the VHS era). I would like to suggest the idea of video albums. That doesn't mean you'll have to designate another cupboard for stacks and stacks of DVDs and cassettes, but instead you upload them to the Internet. For example, make a separate channel for family events here on Yaika! and start uploading your home-videos.

But what to do with all of those photos collecting dust in the cupboards? Well, you can lend a scanner from a friend or visit your local office supply store, most of them have a service for digitalizing your data. This way you can have all your albums in a digital format, too. There's a whole bunch of websites for maintaining photos and some even let you edit them in some way or another. Then there's the possibility of making a slide-show out of the photos and saving them in video format, thus allowing you to upload them to your family channel on Yaika! Unlike many other video hosting sites, Yaika! allows you to make the channel available to only friends and family.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a thousand pictures.

Sometimes you can just blog

As you might have noticed, every channel has an "Add post" button. Clicking that allows you to publish ordinary text blogs on your own channel. But unlike many other blogging sites, Yaika! has a very comprehensive text editor that has all the main features you can usually find in office suite software. You don't have to have any knowledge in HTML to use it.

All the most frequently used editing options are available. You can add pictures to your text (although the pictures need to be hosted somewhere on the web), you can hyperlink any word and you can even make tables inside your posts, if that makes it easier to understand. It's possible to insert flash-animations and videos. Changing background and font colour is allowed too. It also has the mandatory "Find and Replace" function. There's even a spellchecker.

If your post requires additional formatting and a presentation of some more complicated information than just text, you can easily write it directly in Yaika! There's no need for a separate text editor. But it's also entirely possible to use it for just writing plain text :)

The differences in recording with Yaika!

Recording videos here in Yaika! is a bit different than what you're used to. Of course, I don't mean by principle, recording is still recording, but the difference lies in what you can record.

Firstly, your own live feeds. Just push the "Record" button and after the show is over, you can watch it again and again from your channel. If you have more than one cameras filming, you can choose at any time which camera is being recorded at the moment. You might feel like a real director while doing this on-the-fly editing. Just like actual TV people sitting in the studios, you have a comprehensive view of what all the cameras are showing.

In addition to your own shows you can also record other people's live feeds. Maybe you see someone showing something very interesting (at least to you), but you're afraid the broadcaster will delete it from his or her channel later on. No worries! You can record the show and save it on your own channel. This allows you and all other interested to watch the video again with no limit.

You can expect similar exciting technological solutions from Yaika! in the future, too.

Humour for everybody

Almost each and every one of us enjoys some kind of humor. It's fun to watch something on the TV and laugh out loud, there's no denying it. It's a known fact that laughing reduces stress and relaxes almost every muscle in your body(that is why we feel weak after a laughing fit). Why not amuse others with your own little jokes?

Once again Yaika! comes to aid. Here you can easily broadcast your own sketchshow. Take a couple of your funniest friends alongside and start writing down some ideas. There can be many sources for inspiration. You can make up your own absurd situations or watch some already known shows (Big Train, Monty Python, Blackadder, Dave Chapelle). Still, most of the material comes from real life.

A good idea is to act out some of your own awkward moments in life (we've all had those). Believe me, they're even funnier in hindsight while being a bit exaggerated. You can always portray some of the most common parts of today's popculture. There's plenty of shows out there that have some really funny sides to it that you can make a parody of.

Meeting people in Yaika!

Just like other websites with social capabilities (e.g. Myspace) Yaika! too offers the features and possibilities to make new acquaintances and maybe even close friends. It's entirely possible you'll find your soulmate. Interesting people always attract a lot of other people, who are mostly interested in getting to know one another. Why not use Yaika! as a dating service? A video allows you to get to know the person much better than staring at a picture.

With the recording feature, each one of you can record a somewhat of an introductory video of who you are and what you do. You can place your little video on your channel so that everyone could see it as the first thing see when looking at your account page. After finding someone you can create your own private channel and chat some more over there. It might very well happen that you find an interesting person to talk with or you might even find your future significant other.

Now all you have to do is write down some of your best qualities, sit in front if a camera and start reading them out loud :)

Parties of the future

The following might seem a bit too futuristic, but keep reading anyway.

Let's say you have to organize a party. Now, half of the people are too far away to actually attend, but the urge to have a good time with said people is huge. You can then let someone else organize another party at that remote location and then link the parties together via webcams and Yaika!

Indeed, that would require a lot of cameras and big screen TVs on both ends of the parties so that the effect or partying together would really seem real. But this means there are going to be noticeable expenditures. The aforementioned problem will subdue with time as the cost of electronics is always decreasing, but there's a far bigger issue - people might feel too weird when trying to have good time with other people via webcams. But then again, all new things feel awkward at first.

Of course, if this all is going to happen, it's going to be in the distant future, but it's something to think about. The Internet gives us endless communicative possibilities, we just have to find ways to use them.

Yaika! version update

Yaika! has once again had a version update. We've added a few new features. The most noteworthy of those would be the prominent banner on the front page saying "Get it on!". Clicking this banner allows unregistered users to try and broadcast a live radio- or videoshow using Yaika!

After logging in, all the registered users can see a list of the latest news on the right. The center of the page now features a window with the first lines of the latest post published on this very blog. You can remove if this window if need be. The bottom right corner has a list of Yaika! highlights (the most visited pages).

That's it for now, but there are more upgrades to come soon :)

Something for gamers

Everyone who's a least bit interested in video games, has on an occasion ro two played a first person shooter (FPS). That means that the player, obviously, see the game from a first person perspective. Those games are quite popular because of their online capabilities. Most of them also offer a "spectator mode", which allows the player, as the name states, spectate the ongoing match. One might learn some new tricks or just kill some time this way.

A few days back I started thinking about the possibility of a spectator mode in other games. Most games of other genres don't have that feature out if the box. For example, you'd really like to see, how your friend goes through that particular track with a unreal time in that racing game or how someone gets through an especially though place in a platformer. This is where Yaika! comes in :)

Using special software, you can record anything happening on your desktop just as it you would with a webcam. Then you can broadcast your desktop over Yaika! on your own channel. You can use this trick with different FPS games that actually feature a spectator mode. This way you can lighten the load of the game's own server.

Hopefully I gave you some tips to improve your gaming experience :)

Ideas for posts

There comes a time in every blogger's life when they experience the feared "writer's block". You have a blog, you have loyal readers, but alas, nothing to write about, nothing to share with your peers. There's always the possibility of not writing. But you can also find ways inspire yourself.

Listen to some good music. Go to your local record store and buy a new album. Look for something totally new and unknown for yourself, try something different. Take a couple of your friends and go see a movie. I, for one, suggest the latest comedy starring Steve Carell called "Get Smart" - I guarantee you almost two hours of laughing out loud. If you crave for something more serious then I heard the new Batman movie "Dark Knight" is quite interesting. Later on you can write your one small (or large) review.

There's also travel stories. People like to read about others' adventures and the fact that they take place in a foreign country only adds to the excitement. Writing one's memories is also a way to kind of relive those events. Reading other people's travel blogs is a great way to get new ideas for future destinations. If you have access to the Internet, you could alsu use Yaika! to make live broadcasts on location.

Or you can just go for a walkabout, who knows what you'll encounter on the way. The world full of wonderful things, you just have to make the effort to notice them!

Why do people blog?

Blogging began it's trail of success at the start of the 21. century. It was the time when the term Web 2.0 was coined and new innovative solutions allowed us to creatively use the Internet. Blogging itself is one of the most finest examples of the Web 2.0 principle. But why do people blog?

There's a plethora of reasons. Of the ones that first come to mind, I'd suggest vanity. There's no denying it, people like to show off their success and be comforted when things are bad. It's easy to get noticed. As the Internet provides anonymity to some degree, people feel more free to talk about different uncommon subjects without the fear of direct consequences. Also, the writer gets immediate feedback, making into more like a discussion.

The other major reason is voicing your opinion. You see, the blogosphere is a actually a vast audience, the only difference being that information between the users travels at immensely fast. Ibid the whole interface of different blogging services provides an easy way to publish all kinds of texts and make them easily available for everyone. It's nice to see that the so-called "little people" can also voice their opinion without the hassle of ordinary press.

There are also the people who just like to express themselves artistically. There are many bloggers who regularly publish parts of a continous imaginary story. It's a nice way to play out your fantasies and sometimes escape the boredom of everyday life.

In general the increasing popularity of blogging has been good. People share their thoughts and lives with others, getting new ideas at the same time. Now, Yaika! has made sharing your life extraordinarily easy, come on and give it a go!

How Yaika! came to be

Our CEO Valentin Ivanov had the idea of making this website a few years ago. Back then he wanted to attach a camera to his remote control car and then connect it to the Internet. The idea of driving around and seeing things while still sitting behind your computer seemed quite exhilarating at the time. But it might have had something to do with the popularity of the "Home Alone" movies. Unfortunately, that idea never became a reality. Valentin was also inspired by the fact that he was constantly abroad for business trips and therefore far away from home. So he began to think that it would be nice to be able to share all the experiences and sights with the rest of the family and friends. This is how the idea of personal broadcasting came to be.

Valentin got really eager to make this happen, when he one day discovered that he didn't like anything he saw on TV. He felt that he wanted a bigger say in what is shown on TV, be a part of the shows. Thus Yaika! was born. The name comes from "Ya i kamera" which is Russian for "Me and my camera". And that is what Yaika! essentially is. It's just you and your camera with the whole world in front of you so that you could share it with others by only pressing a button or two.

The team was assembled and started really working on the site in autumn 2007. It took time to properly formulate the concept, come up with the design and build a framework for the site. About 7 months was spent on the main programming, configuring the services and setting up equipment. Creating a website as complex as Yaika! from scratch is a lot of work and it hasn't been all fun and games. But in other words - Yaika! is actually almost a year old.

Active testing is still done by our team here at Yaika! We're constantly adding new features, testing if the servers can handle the workload and if the overall system is stable. A lot of internationally known professional consultants and web engineers are also involved in the progress. When Yaika! goes off beta this autumn, you can be sure that it will be a safe and stable environment.

Celebrities on the Internet

Remember, a few days ago I wrote about people, who became famous with the help of Internet? Well, today I'd like you to point your attention towards the fact, that many already famous people use the Internet to show themselves and talk to their fans.

One of the first celebrities to do so was the rapper 50Cent, who started broadcasting using a popular american video site. This gave him an easy and, more importantly, cheap way to turn to his fans and talk about all kinds of things concerning his career. At the same time he's showing that he too uses the Internet like every other ordinary person out there. People like to relate to celebrities and seeing them do the same everyday things others do makes them feel special in some way.

There are others, like Destiny's Child former member Kelly Rowland, Scrubs' star Zach Braff and so on. Yaika! will hopefully be the place for local star over the world to show themselves, as some have already shown interest in it.

Some more about Yaika! social networking

Our website is more than just a platform for broadcasting, it's also a comprehensive social network. All the users can add other users as part of their network and see those friends right on the front page after logging in. This allows you to have a clear overview of all of your friends' channels. Of course, you don't have to only add your friends, it's also an easy way to keep an eye on interesting people or channels (although subscribing to a channel might be more comfortable).

A big part of the social network is the integrated message system. The users can send messages to eachother using the website's own means. There's also no need to ask for mail addresses or using separate mail clients, it's all been taken care of. You can also send videomails. I already discussed its benefits a few days ago.

If you consider the publishing/broadcasting capabilities I mentioned yesterday and today's topic of social network, you'll have to agree when I say that Yaika! truly is the all-in-one lifecasting platform to share your life and thoughts with others.

Making your channel popular

Your have your own channel at Yaika!, you broadcast shows regularly, talk about different noteworthy topics and from time to time you provide the viewers with a few everyday tips and tricks. But still, for some reason your channel doesn't have too much followers and there aren't any more coming along. This means you have to use other means to make your channel more popular.

One good way to improve your shows is inviting other people to join you. This ensures a discussion will emerge and watching a dialogue take place is much more interesting than your lonely ranting. This also means that all the friends of the guest will probably watch the broadcast, too. And to be fair, it's more interesting to actually talk to someone than go over current affair topics on your own, live or not.

You should also advertise you channel. I don't mean buying primetime slots on major TV-stations, but mentioning it on other blogs and sites you have an account on (e.g. Myspace, Facebook etc.). You can also use the embedded code provided next to each channel or video to put a Yaika! video player onto any of your other blogs. You just have to copy a small piece of code to your blog post and there you go!

A larger audience means more feedback in commentaries and such. This makes it easier for you to improve your shows even more as people give suggestions and whatnot.

I encourage you to use the tips I've provided and I'm quite sure the result will be quick to show themselves.

Yaika! for new bands

I've noticed that in the last few years playing an instrument (mostly the guitar) and forming a band has become an immensely popular activity. Being in one myself, I'm somewhat familiar with the scene. Most of these bands come together just to spend some time with friends and play a few cool tunes, but there's a large amount of musicians out there, who are seriously trying to become known. This text is mainly meant for the latter :)

I'm sure there are a lot of very talented young people in many of those bands, but the problem is, they're not getting enough exposure. This is mainly because of the nonexistent fanbase. But to gain fans, you must perform to a wider audience. You can always try and go to concerts and music festivals, but that's usually quite difficult for a new band. Where else can you find huge amounts of people? That's right, the Internet.

As I've written before, it's incredibly easy to broadcast anything using Yaika! You might think that the onboard microphone of the camera won't have the needed sound quality, but I suggest you use an external sound source. The best way would be to run a cable from the mixer straight to the computer. I'm hoping every decent band practice place has a soundboard.

Now all you have to do is tell all your friends about the upcoming online performance and provide them with a link. If the music is good, the people will come, because word-of-mouth is one of th most powerful marketing tools. You can always record those very performances so everyone could enjoy them on their own time.

Some ideas on using Yaika!

Our website is actually a quite practical environment, too. All the inventive people can find plenty of ways to make Yaika! work in their advantage. I'm going to offer a few ideas of my own :)

In addition to the aforementioned talkshows you can also post some kind of educational videos or tips on how to do things. You can show your friends how something particular works, how to repair or build something. One of my colleagues thought that a live cooking show would be quite interesting. It would be a much more interactive version of your local cooking show. The viewers can be part of the show - cook along with the host and call in to ask for advice or commentary on their own dishes.

If you happen to have a pet, who needs a watchful eye to look over him, or you just want to create a primitive and cheap surveillance system, Yaika! would still be the way to go. It's easy to setup a webcam or too and the best part is, you have access to your live feed from every computer connected to the web.

I encourage you to write your own ideas in your blogs or in the comments section of this one.

There's nothing easier than becoming an Internet superstar

I've always said here in this blog that it's quite easy to gain popularity online. Internet success-stories are becoming pretty common nowadays, mostly because it's getting easier and easier to show yourself online. This also attracts more attention-starved people. The best way to get the attention of others is to do something completely fresh, uncommon and funny.

One of the first Internet superstars was The Numa-Numa Guy. He took a then popular club hit and recorded a video of himself lipsyncing the whole song using among others lot's of weird and funny looking facial impressions. Being hilarious and uncommon simultaneously guaranteed success. I'm actually quite sure that this wasn't his intention at all.

Some of these stars become commercial successes, too. A comedy group from New York called Derrick Comedy uploaded a few of their sketches onto Youtube. After having a few million views there they started getting requests from people willing to pay for their sketches. In other words, the started making money of their hobby.

But last year we all got excited because of a bloke called Tay Zonday, whose song "Chocolate Rain" became one of the biggest Internet successes we've seen so far. Until now he has had already over 26 million views on Youtube alone. What made Tay so special was his exceptionally low voice and the humorous subtitles during his performance. Another remarkable thing was that after a while a number of celebrities made parodies of this newcomer (usually it's the other way around). It went even so far that he had an appearance in the popular show South Park. Tay also got numerous invites to different talkshows.

These are only a few examples among the many more. With the help of Yaika! and it's technical capabilities you too can became an Internet superstar and enjoy being a celebrity (even for a while).

Exciting to watch? Can you make your own?

If you have been fed up with what ordinary TV can offer you and are considering making a reality show or an entertainment program of some kind, keep reading, because I'm going to provide you with a few tips on how to do that. It basically boils down the three following components: laptop, camera, web connection.

First the camera. If your using an Apple laptop, make sure you have a camera with DV (Direct Input) output and you'll also need a FireWire DV cable. This makes your life a lot easier and greatly improves quality! But you can also use generic webcams with Macs with the help of a program called macam. Macam allows you to use a number of different webcams with only on setback. You can't switch to outdoor mode with most of the cameras, which means that most of them will record just plain white picture in the outdoor light. But to really get a good picture, you must buy the Logiteck QuickCam® Vision Pro, a Mac-only webcam with superior quality. It's predecessor Logiteck QuickCam® Pro 9000 is also good and compatible with Windows.

But when using Windows it's a lot easier - all the major camera providers support the Windows OS without any noticeable problems. There still are a few kinks with Vista, but they will be ironed out in time. I already mentioned a webcam worthy of your attention. There are others, but I don't really like them: one's not too good with colors, the other can't handle dark rooms etc. But I generally prefer cameras over webcams.

What else to check on a camera? Well, the following features should be on every camera: it can work as a PC-camera over a USB or FireWire DV connection, the camera has a good optical zoom (it's difficult to get a good picture with dynamic zoom and if you were to send it over the Internet, it's going to be even worse), the camera's recording format is set on 4:3 and it must have some kind of color enhancement software. Our team uses (for testing purposes) a Samsung VP-MX10 camera. It's an outstanding camera, but still a bit weak with colors.

Now on to the web connection. There are many ways to connect your laptop the Internet. If the venue has a LAN network then all you have to do is plug in. If possible you can also use a WiFi connection. The pro of wireless Internet is the ability to move around, but the major con is that it might not be as stable as a wired connection. The third considerable way to connect is 3G. Most civilized places have 3G coverage nowadays and it's stable enough if you don't move around too much. If your using phone-tethering to tap into the 3G network I suggest you use a USB cable instead of Bluetooth to connect your computer and phone (no real difference, but it's safer). It's better to use a mobile modem (provided by most mobile operators).

The computer is just as important. Make sure that the batteries are fully loaded before broadcasting (also find out how long can your computer run on battery power) or find an electrical socket, but that decreases your ability to move around. You can also use extra batteries which can be plugged in on the fly. Our team uses APC batteries. Be sure to adjust your computer's settings as it would be bad if the computer went on stand by or shut down its harddrives during broadcasting. Yaika! uses the latest Flash technology, which is supported by all the major webbrowsers.

Now you just have to press record and point your camera towards the action :)

Yaika! has undergone some improvements

As you might have gathered from the title, our team has made some noticeable improvements to the website. We've been hard at work for weeks and the result is finally here. Among others we have the long-awaited recording feature.

Now to more specific matters. The first thing the users will notice is the somewhat upgraded look of the site. Each video now has a gray circle with the letter i in it. Rolling your mouse over it allows you to see more information regarding that particular video. You'll also see the new header with some new buttons. The "Blog" button which links to this very blog is now easier to find. The other new button is the "Videos" button which brings me to one the new major features.

Users can now upload their own videos to Yaika! Like everything else here, this also has been made as easy to use as possible. For now, each user has a total video limit of 5 hours which can effortlessly compete with other sites offering the same functionality. Watching the uploaded videos is remarkably hassle-free and thanks to all kinds of technological innovations in use we've been able to reduce buffering time to almost none. This means no waiting for a video to load, even when you want to start watching it from some middle part. There's also no need to worry about any copyright infringements as Yaika! doesn't allow other users to record or download any of your videos, thus eliminating the chance of your videos being illegally published somewhere else. You can always show your videos in other places if you'd like to yourself using the embedded code provided next to each video or channel.

When you upload a video to the Internet, you expect to get the credit for it. But what if someone else copies the video and posts it somewhere else? Exactly, you might lose the ratings that originally belonged to you. That's what our site's strict no downloading policy aims to prevent. Now no one can steal your video, upload it again and take your ratings.

As I already mentioned in the introduction, we now have a fully working recording feature, so you don't have to limit yourselves with live broadcasts anymore. As with the uploaded videos, the same no downloading rule applies to the recorded videos. We've also improved our webconnection, so uploading stuff should go quite swiftly and this adds to the simple-to-use experience that is Yaika!

Come visit our freshly upgraded site and explore the new features on your own :)

Ethics and broadcasting

A few days ago I wrote about the technical side of broadcasting. Well, today we're going to look at it from another angle.

By definition ethics is a branch of philosophy, that encompasses right conduct and good life. In layman terms it's an assemblage of ideas which are approved by the society.

But what has this all got to do with live-streaming? You see, there are things you can and things you can't do while broadcasting. It doesn't necessarily need to be prohibited by law to still be wrong, so you should be careful not to upset anyone.

It's common not to show nudity and profanity on public shows which are viewable by minors. Freedom of speech of course grants us the right to talk about anything, but it shouldn't encourage people to use profanities.

One of the most important things is that you must always inform all those filmed that they are being filmed. This especially applies to all kinds of private conversations and the like. It's not pleasant to find out, that you've said something indecent to potentially the whole world. The same goes for locations. If you're not broadcasting from a public area, you must always ensure you've the permits needed for filming in that particular area. More often than not, it's prohibited by law to broadcast from some places, so be careful.

So, the next time you plan on broadcasting something, be sure to follow the aforementioned tips and you'll likely stay out of trouble :)

Video-mail is the future

One of the most interesting features in Yaika! is the ability so send video-mails. It's quite simple - you push record, say what you have to say and push send. The recipient gets a notice in their inbox saying that they have received a video-mail and a link to said video. The recipient then has to do a one-time registration (unless he or she is already a member of Yaika!) and watch the message.

I think this opens up a plethora of new possibilities. First of all, there's no need to actually type anything in (except for the recipient's address, of course). Second of all, we now have the added benefit of body language and facial impressions. This allows us to get our message across much more easily and we don't have to waste our time going through those pesky emoticons :) More often than not it's actually easier to describe something with your hands than your voice. But the best part is still the simplicity. It only takes five minutes (depending on the length of your message) to record and send a message.

This will have a pretty big impact on ordinary mail, because when video-mail start to gain popularity, more and more people will understand and appreciate its benefits. For now, the mail only provides a link to the video, but in the future, I'd imagine there will be add-ons for the mail clients, so that they could play the video without opening a browser.

It's important to note that if you do not wish to show your face (too shy or whatnot), then we've also got that covered here at Yaika! Why not send an audio-mail instead? Everything is the same, just no videofeed.

Come and try for yourself :)

Piracy - what should we do about it?

For the last couple of years piracy has been a somewhat of a sore spot for the Internet. There's been a lot of discussion regarding fighting piracy. In the States quite a few people have even gone to jail and they view piracy as a serious offence here in Europe, too.

I think we can't really make piracy go away just by enforcing a lot of anti-piracy laws, although they do reduce it a bit. There's also no real point in using some copyright software, experience has shown that however sophisticated, those protections will always be cracked, it's only a matter of time. People will also find a way to sneak past the laws or plain old ignore them. It's not that difficult to cover your tracks on the Internet.

The only way to significantly reduce piracy is to make buying easier than stealing. By this I mean games, music and movies (the main victims of piracy). This is already happening as web-based stores are slowly taking over the market. It's starting to look like things are going to change here in Europe, too. With the launch of the 3G iPhone, iTunes is now available in most european countries. I've also noticed that downloading the latest TV shows is very popular. This makes perfect sense as the devoted fans of different shows eagerly want to see the newest episodes. There is no other way to see them, because most of the shows run in Europe with a 12 month delay. Worldwide broadcasting is probably prohibited by the studios' own policies.

The team here at Yaika! is also devoted to making sure no copyright laws are broken. For example, people will never be able to save any of the content published on Yaika! on their own computer. This ensures that it won't be shared later on without permission.

None-the-less, piracy can never be fully abolished as there will always be people who, however time consuming, will use whatever methods to save a few bucks and use the illegal version.

The theory of eight minutes

For now I'd like present you with a few ground rules on broadcasting and on filming in general. Most of these notes come from our own team here at Yaika!, who have determined with they're extensive testing the best setup for broadcasting a live show. This way you don't have to experiment with various configurations, instead you can take our professional opinion and go with that.

Following the next 8 tips will greatly increase your show's success rate so I strongly encourage you to do that. Okay, here goes:

1. Always check out the location thoroughly before filming.

2. Make sure that the venue has a working Internet connection and that it's something faster than dial-up. It's preferrable to have 100-400 kB/s upload speed per camera (that includes audio and video). You can check your connection speed here. Even a 3G connection will do!

3. Have an available electrical outlet nearby or if you're planning to work using batteries, make sure they're fully loaded. Check your computers power setting, too. It would be a shame if your laptop would go to sleep or shut down its harddrives during broadcasting.

4. If you're planning on filming with multiple cameras then makes sure all the computers running the cameras are correctly connected the the internet. The best solution would be if you had your own WiFi or ordinary router. That way you can plug in directly to the venue's network. Be sure to have some extra bandwidth available as it might become slow when everybody's downloading your show.

5. When you're unable to connect multiple cameras with one computer, do the following: start a channel with one of the computers and then call in with all the others. This way the users can see all of your feeds.

6. When using an audio source other than the cameras' own microphones (e.g. the venue's PA), make sure you have the correct cables to connect to the source. You should also check the length of said cables. The next part is very important - makes sure the signal coming from the PA has no static in it and is loud enough, otherwise all the listeners will hear is "khhkhhhkhhkhhhzzzkhzz", which I can assure you, isn't very pleasant. The best solution would be to use a preamplifier between the PA and the computer. This allows you to tinker with the sound until it's exactly the way you want it. You might notice that there's a constant "zzzzz" in the background of your audio signal. That might be the static coming from the electrical wires connected to the computer. Try running it on batteries or move the cables. We had this problem with a Dell laptop!

7. Before actually broadcasting you should recheck all the cables and air a short test show in order to see if everything is working as it should be.

8. Our CEO Valentin calls this the theory of eight minutes or why does that the bread always fall face first to the ground. Believe or not, it actually takes eight minutes to makes sure that everything is in order while airing a show. It's the first eight minutes when you have this tingly feeling inside that something is going to go horribly wrong. This of course applies to only the people behind the scenes. If you're in front of the camera, you've got a whole other set of problems :)

You can read other technical information from our soon opening technical blog.

Would you like to become a president? The story of Jaroslav Staruhhin

About a month ago our team here at Yaika! discovered a man, who was rapidly gaining popularity in the Russian web space. His name was Jaroslav Staruhhin and a some time ago a phsychic told him that he would become the next president of Russia. He was at the time unknown to the general public, but a respected man among the local academic circles. So Jaroslav decided grab the bull by the horns and start his campaign right away.

He started his own reality show called "The City Of Sun" and broadcasted it on the Internet. At first he used a website called Smotri.com, which he didn't really like. The upside was the huge amount of users, but that was also the major downside as they generated more profanities than actual questions or discussions. He then moved on to Teledu.ru, which (in spite of having less users) was just as bad regarding the profanities. After a while Jaroslav discovered Yaika.ru and he is very pleased with it, especially with Yaika! teams efficient comments moderating. He has even done boradcasts on all three websites simultaneously which worked quite well.

Jarsolav has done quite a few fascinating shows already. For example, during one of the shows, he dyed his girlfriend's hair with somewhat of an industrial grade haircolour without any prior training as an experiment to find out if an ordinary person can do it. We had a funny bit in our own office when one of the women working here got upset because she thought the dye had been in the girlfriend's hair for too long and was going to ruin everything. Jaroslav also did this to show that he, as the next president, isn't only a talker but a doer, too. He also invites people on his show regularly. They're always interesting people of different trades to keep the show varied. From time to time Jaroslav reviews the latest movies alongside her girlfriend as a more of an entertaining part.

Each and everyone of you should follow his footsteps (not in becoming the president of Russia :) ) in that you can easily broadcast show, that are too unusual for the ordinary TV, on the Internet. This where Yaika! has the edge, as it's a technologically innovative lifecasting platform. Come and try for yourself!

Yaika! at Almedalsveckan

Now you get to read a bit about what the Yaika! team did at the political conference Almedalsveckan. It took place in July on the island of Gotland, which is situated just east of Sweden. Our team was there with an exclusive right to broadcast live feeds.

The weather was quite dreadful, but as the conference took place indoors, it didn't really affect anything :)

The first day (and a bit of the night, too) was for setting up all the equipment and making sure that everything worked as it should have. There were a few technical difficulties, but the team worked around the clock and by the morning everything was working flawlessly.

While the others were fixing the equipment, Yaika! CEO Valentin Ivanov attended the opening party of Almedalsveckan 2008. In his words it was something similar to a Hollywood movie premiere. There were more than 700 people, security everywhere and even a red carpet, so everyone would feel like a real celebrity.

The first live feed was on the next day in the afternoon (it was filmed with four cameras). Unfortunately the quality was a bit shabby. After a while our team switched cameras and the new equipment proved to be worth it's cost as the quality improved drastically.

There were other broadcasting teams as well. We met with the people from Bambuser.com - a somewhat similar website as our own Yaika! with the big difference being that they mostly film events of all kinds, while Yaika! aims to give everybody the opportunity to broadcast anything they want. Bambuser.com originates from Sweden. A noteworthy fact is that Yaika! was given the permission to film in the main hall, while Bambuser (being 4 years old and local) wasn't :)

During the last days of the conference our team roamed around Visby and recorded a lot of shows. The was partly for testing the upcoming recording feature. We did encounter a problem with the multiple camera setup, but after a lengthy discussion a permanent fix was found.

In general, our team at Almedalsveckan was very pleased with how it turned out to be. There was always something going on and lot's of people to meet. You were also able to enjoy the festivities of the local nightlife. It was fun to see the same serious politicians, how gave speeches during the day, having a great time in the clubs surrounded by beautiful women.

Until next time!

Web 2.0 and Yaika!

I thought I'd introduce the ideas of Web 2.0 and tell you how it's relevant to Yaika!

The term Web 2.0 was coined in 2004. It doesn't necessarily mean that there were any significant technological innovations (those come along on a daily basis), it means that developers and users have found new ways to use the possibilities that the Internet offers us.

Until now, the content on websites was generated by major corporations and enterprises. With the coming of Web 2.0, that is changing. Now the users are making all the content and there's a lot of it. Websites like Blogspot ja Flickr became more and more popular because of their easy to use interfaces and publishing capabilities. Yaika! has the same main principle - easy-to-use interface and we've even taken it a step further, people can now do live broadcasts of their lives.

Another good example of how Web 2.0 works is Wikipedia. Having articles in almost every language in use today, it's one the most broadly used encyclopedias in the world. Following the Web 2.0 principle, the users themselves can write articles on any subject they can think of (providing it's factually correct). There's a behind-the-scenes team of scholars who constantly verify the uploaded information.

The biggest pros of the Web 2.0 concept are constantly improving usability and the vast amount of creators/readers of content. This is a very nice opportunity to show yourself (or your product) to potentially the whole world, voice your opinion and whatever you imagine.

Ideas for posts

There comes a time in every blogger's life when they experience the feared "writer's block". You have a blog, you have loyal readers, but alas, nothing to write about, nothing to share with your peers. There's always the possibility of not writing. But you can also find ways inspire yourself.

Listen to some good music. Go to your local record store and buy a new album. Look for something totally new and unknown for yourself, try something different. Take a couple of your friends and go see a movie. I, for one, suggest the latest comedy starring Steve Carell called "Get Smart" - I guarantee you almost two hours of laughing out loud. If you crave for something more serious then I heard the new Batman movie "Dark Knight" is quite interesting. Later on you can write your one small (or large) review.

There's also travel stories. People like to read about others' adventures and the fact that they take place in a foreign country only adds to the excitement. Writing one's memories is also a way to kind of relive those events. Reading other people's travel blogs is a great way to get new ideas for future destinations. If you have access to the Internet, you could alsu use Yaika! to make live broadcasts on location.

Why do people blog?

Blogging began it's trail of success at the start of the 21. century. It was the time when the term Web 2.0 was coined and new innovative solutions allowed us to creatively use the Internet. Blogging itself is one of the most finest examples of the Web 2.0 principle. But why do people blog?

There's a plethora of reasons. Of the ones that first come to mind, I'd suggest vanity. There's no denying it, people like to show off their success and be comforted when things are bad. It's easy to get noticed. As the Internet provides some degree of anonymity, people feel more free to talk about different uncommon subjects without the fear of direct consequences. Also, the writer gets immediate feedback, making more like a discussion.

The other major reason is voicing your opinion. You see, the blogosphere is actually a vast audience, the only difference being that information between the users travels immensely fast. Ibid the whole interface of different blogging services provides an simple way to publish all kinds of texts and make them easily available for everyone. It's nice to see that the so-called "little people" can also voice their opinion without the hassle of ordinary press.

There are also the people who just like to express themselves artistically. There are many bloggers who regularly publish parts of a continous imaginary story. It's a nice way to play out your fantasies and sometimes escape the boredom of everyday life.

In general the increasing popularity of blogging has been good. People share their thoughts and lives with others, getting new ideas at the same time. Now, Yaika! has made sharing your life extraordinarily easy, come on and give it go!

A small recap

I'd like to write a bit about the events Yaika! has visited. Two of the biggest events were the Erlang Exchange in London and Startup Essentials, which was organized by Sun Microsystems.

First - the Erlang Exchange. It took place on 26-27 June in London. The main idea was to introduce the Erlang programming language to a wider audience. The language itself is a highly reliable software developing environment with the main target group being all kinds of emergency applications (e.g. hospitals). The events required two large halls, one of which Yaika! did some live broadcasting. During the two days people were able too see numerous speakers via Yaika! platform, among others the creator of the Erlang language Joe Armstrong. All the visitors had a change to get their books signed and later on, they could speak to Joe about their own applications. Other noteworthy speakers were Motorola's and Ericsson's representatives Nicholas Gunder and Torben Hoffman. The latter we're interesting to listen even for the technologically non-savvy people.

People from all around Europe were watching the events unfold live with the help of Yaika! There was a funny incident - on the second day a gentleman came up to one of the Yaika! team and said he had thought the conference to be too boring for him to attend, but after having seen the live footage, he had decided to show up anyway. We also talked to the organizer of the event, the founder and CEO of Erlang Consulting Ltd. Marcus Taylor, who told us he was very satisfied with the way the event had turned out.

The other big event was Startup Essentials, which helped new and small IT-projects to gain some credibility and become known around the community. As you might have guessed, Yaika! was there and was one of the few who actually got a permission to provide live coverage. The guys from fav.or.it were also there (we met the a week before at the Being-Digital conference). We also made a few contacts with the intruders.tv team. People are saying that they're going places, so keep an eye on them :) As it was with the Being-Digital conference, Yaika! roamed around the halls, introducing all kinds of technological marvels and at the same time showing off their own capabilities.

Here's a calling to all the people promoting their newfound companies or products - you just need a computer and a webcam to show your products and services to potentially the whole world. Remember, a bigger audience can only mean good!

Yaika!'s team also visited a swedish political conference a week ago. It's called Almedalsveckan and it takes place the island of Gotland (just east of Sweden). It was a high-profile event with loads of security and the Swedish prime minister himself was a among the speakers. Yaika! was once again the owner of exclusive broadcasting rights.

Be sure to keep an eye on this blog as there are more upcoming events in the future!

Welcome to all the current and future Yaika! users

My name is Oliver Vaga and from now on you can get updates on Yaika!'s doings on an almost daily basis. Here you can read all about upcoming events, a few interesting recaps of already happened things and learn about Yaika!'s new features.

Yaika! has actually been up and running for two months, but as usual with new things, there's lots to do. We've been mainly working on making Yaika! a more interesting and simple environment to use. We have a lot of work to do as Yaika! is still in beta, but all the kinks are being worked out and we're steadily moving towards a complete and functional lifecasting platform.

So far the team has been to numerous conferences and introduced our platform to a lot of broadcasting-related people. We even had live coverage of one of the conferences, namely the Being-Digital, which took place in London. Our team walked around the halls and introduced different innovative technological solutions (including our on Yaika! in the process). All we needed for broadcasting was a webcam, a computer and a broadband internet connection. Almost everybody has a PC nowadays, webcams have become incredibly cheap and access to the internet is considered a basic human right in some countries (among healthcare and education).

So, if you have something interesting to say or show, then come on to Yaika!, don't be shy. Come even if you don't have anything to say. You can have a good time watching others and maybe make a few friends in the process.

About Yaika!

Founded in January 2008, Yaika.com is the first localized all-in-one social lifecasting platform in Europe. Our aim is to increase the number of people willing to share their real life moments and experiences with their local community or the entire world.

Yaika! managed to integrate video and radio broadcasting, blogging, social community and a new way communicate into one easy to you platform.
Our users and authors can now stream live video or radio to anyone in the world and interact with their watchers or listeners in a new manner.

Yaika! creates a new way to blog. Every channel created on Yaika! works like a blog. This gives an opportunity to anyone with a laptop or a PC and a camera to instantly stream a breaking story or just anything happening around you live on the Internet without having to go through the process of writing it up first. However, authors still have the options to do so if they wish.

Every channel and every user on Yaika! can create a separate but at the same time interlinked community. This helps to create a greater interaction between the author and their followers.

Yaika! – Making Life Streaming Fun