Libbi Skypes the Web

21 April 2009 by Libbi.

 I’m now multimedia on the web, getting my toes wet in the audio-visual surf.

I got a small, inexpensive Web camera on Amazon, a Microsoft Lifecam VX-1000. We had a headset microphone from my days as a hardware and software reviewer. It took all of 15 minutes to install the camera and plug in the mike, download Skype and sign up. I don’t know why I thought this would be a long, difficult process complete with gnashing of teeth and rending of garments, but I did and so put it off for way too long.  I won’t say the result is Emmy-level, but it’ll do.

I’ve done this at the urging of my friend DearMYRTLE, author of DearMYRTLE’s Joy of Genealogy, and she was one of my first Skype callers! She and I have plans to help spread the knowledge and fun of family history research with these tools; stay tuned to our blogs for details!

Further, I am researching the subject, thanks to my editor at McGraw Hill, Roger Stewart. On his recommendation, I am reading How to Do Everything with Online Video by Andrew Shalat and How to Do Everything with Podcasting by Shel Holtz with Neville Hobson. These two books, in the first chapters, have already taught me a lot about how I can use these simple, cheap tools to help me reach out to the wonderful world of genealogists out there! They are well written, organized and illustrated, and so far I’m finding them most helpful.

Ways I intend to use these technologies:

• Communicate with the progeny. My daughter has had Skype for quite a while now; I hope my son will when he starts his graduate education at Duke
• Communicate with cousins and other relatives
• Communicate with genealogy peers, associates and friends
• Perhaps, once I finish reading the two books above, create my own video blogs for your use and enjoyment!

However, I do realize that the days of working in my jammies until time to go to the gym may be over, because you never know when a colleague might ring in on video! Still, I’m like a kid with a new toy right now, and excited about what this can mean for online genealogy.

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