DEN + CFF Senate Hearings + Vimeo = A Finished Product

Ever try uploading a 45 minute video to a Web 2.0 site? I spent days trying to find a host that would upload a film intact. When exasperation set in, I took it to my students and one of them suggested Vimeo. That was before exams and senior week activities, so I finally tried it--and I love it. I wanted embeddable code (Curriki worked, sans code), a fast upload and conversion, and enough space in an account that one upload would not send me in a searching frenzy for another broadcast channel.

The good news: a finished product of the CFF Senate Hearings when Lance Rougeux, Jennifer Dorman, and I testified before the joint Education and Technology & Communications Committees on December 4, 2007. Thanks to Jennifer Dorman and her connections, we were able to get the hearings converted from analog (I know I should have TiVo) to digital, and then finally to a blog format. Here it is, at last.


Classrooms for the Future Senate Communications and Technology Committee and the Senate Education Committee Hearings 2007 from RJ Stangherlin on Vimeo.

While I'm on a commercial roll, let me count the ways I love Vimeo:

1. Can be added to Facebook, Myspace...
2. Badge additions (you can add channels and albums to any Badge you create)
3. Posts to Flickr
4. Avatar feature (clicking any "avatar" aka user image will take you to that user)
5. Spam filters
6. Fast even in high use time (they apologize for a 20 minute wait)
   
7. Converting time during transcoding: displays time and percent remaining--no high anxiety here.
8. Lots of messages to let you know where you are in the process--great for a first-time user.
9. 500 MBs per week (though not forever, I think)
10. More family oriented.
    

A special thank you to the DEN team--Scott, Lance, and Matt-- for affording Jen and me the opportunity to represent STAR Discovery Educators and what they bring to education every day in their classrooms.