Before I go on to talk
about the portal-centric Internet landscape in Korea as I said in the last article, I decided to
write a post on a different topic because the portal topic seems to cover too many areas, so I'll probably need some more time to think through. But
before that, I'll give you guys something juicy again. Namely, "How to
be a broadcasting jockey".
That's what all these livecasting citizen journalists are called. By Afreeca, they are officially named BJs. They are also called Street Journalists. The question is how do you live-broadcast while out in the public?
The key lies in Internet ubiquity. People live-upload video content through WiBro. And the setup looks like this:
You connect to the Internet through your WiBro modem like I did hundreds of times in the past; you capture the scene live with your webcam or better-quality camcorders connected to your notebook. You run some Afreeca applications on your notebook. That's it. You have your own real-time broadcasting station!!
Remember this is only one example of what Internet ubiquity can do for your
country. Now, imagine what could happen when you have this many people
out in the street holding candles; hundreds of them are BJs.
Reuters has an excellent coverage on the topic (via Futurize Korea):
But in this country, one of the most wired and technology savvy in the world, the month-long series of gatherings has also been a valuable testing ground for the latest communication devices, gadgets and websites.
From high-resolution camera phones to instant broadcasting software and water cannon-resistant camcorders, the latest advances in communications were in evidence during the five weeks since the protests began.
Many demonstrators rely on Internet forums to get information on rallying points, weather forecasts and riot police presence. With powerful camera phones, they are able to shoot photos and videos that they can instantly upload on Internet sites thanks to high-speed wireless technology.
It wasn't even a year ago when I had the Joost-on-highway experiment.
Did I imagine what's happening right now could happen in less than 10
months? Heck, no! So there's goes my lack of imagination. OTL.
There's a reason why this blog is taglined Spicy Thoughts on Digital Generation in Asia. :)
