Collaborative and Distance Communication

               When thinking about collaborative and distance communication I came across a very unique app. I have been familiar with Skype for a while now, and how you can keep in contact with friends located far away from you. When it first came out it was just you and another person. Now there is an option where you can have a group Skype. I have not used it for a while so now there are probably more features I’m unaware of. This new app is called Periscope.

                Periscope takes technology to a new level. It started with the idea of seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. You can post pictures of places you have been, but would it not be better if you could see a live stream? Instead of taking pictures, Periscope allows viewers to see what is going on as you are broadcasting. They could see the adventures you’re going on, the people and animals you love, special events, etc. You can broadcast pretty much anything, and anyone can join the broadcast. The only way the viewers interact is through comments and tapping the screen making hearts pop up. Similar to Instagram, but there are multiple hearts and not just one. You can “like” the video anytime they provide something that you like. I think this is a great idea. However, I’m not enjoying it all that much right now because I don’t know anyone else that has one. None of my family members, friends, or acquaintances has one. It would be very entertaining if I could share, or even view what they are up to.

                It made me start thinking about snapchat and the video capability on there as well. However, those are only a few seconds long each. Periscope provides a steady stream of video. You are able to interact with the broadcaster. Snapchat does not allow you to do that in such a direct way. Periscope also makes your broadcast global, anyone can access it and the Snapchat story only shows it to your “friends”. It just depends on who you want to see your story. According to the privacy policy of Periscope the videos are only up for 24 hours after the broadcast, unless it is deleted by the broadcaster. You are able to save your videos which would make them viewable by whoever you wanted to share that video with.

               It was interesting watching a few videos earlier today. There were many videos about schools, locations, leadership, and religion. Some of them were interesting and others were pointless in my opinion, just people trying to get people to view their broadcast. I fell into that trap because I’m new to Periscope and wanted to see what people would broadcast about. One of the broadcasts I clicked on was about this college student in California, and how many hot chicks he was around. I’m sure there was much more to the broadcast but that’s the part he was at when I joined.  The broadcast name was “college life” so I clicked on it to see what was going on. It was kind of entertaining to see how “college life” was portrayed at a different University. He did not show any others in the video. It was just him talking about his college life and what he was going to do. So I didn’t stay on that broadcast for very long. I then clicked on a leadership broadcast. That was the complete opposite. It was very educational, and provided good information. I believe that broadcast was out of Austin Texas. Just from the few broadcasts that I watched I think Periscope could be very educational, if used properly.  

                I think it’s a great idea, and hopefully more of my friends read this blog and want to try it out! Let me know what you think and your experiences with Periscope!