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Last week StoryTold, stopped by the Stickam Office for a visit before playing a show at Newport Beach.
StoryTold is one of the first bands to truley take advantage of all of Stickam's features. Streaming nightly fan interactions and Live shows from their national tour. Oh yah and they also ROCK most hard.
If you haven't heard them yet, check out their:
Official Website
Myspace Profile
and Stickam Profile Page
Happy post Memorial Day!
Well every thing is back to normal here in the Stickam office. Busy busy trying to enhance and improve the new Host Chat features..
I’m sure you’re wondering how the Stickam staff spent their national holiday—lots and lots of BBQing, surfing, baby caring, partying, reading, and pure vegetating.
Well, when there’s more to update or something remotely interesting to post or if someone makes me write something, then I’ll add more information. If not, I’ll write yah on Wednesday!!!
So the Host Chat was an utter success!!! Everyone loves the video quality, the fabulous video switcher, the convenient chat opener/closer, clear functions, and visible chat block.
Yah RIGHT. It was a flop. No one liked the new chat.. well, some people did. But yah, wasn’t the response level we were targeting.
The chat is for you guys!!! The Stickam users! So what was the solution to this problem?...Hours upon hours of discussion and reviews of member feedback.
So hold your horses!
We’re going to enhance our features and quality by mid-next week. We apologize for any inconvenience(s).
Imminent changes:
- option to select old or new player(s)
- clearer video streaming
- bigger text entry area
- Host stays in the large window
- clearer functions
So the chat is plasma screen-esque, dotcha think? Our intentions were good; we’re doing this for you guys! We meant well, not to scare the living ba gee-gees out of you.
But if you take some time to accustom yourself to the new chat style, you’ll find it very agreeable we promise.
OK until next time, hold tight, converse with friends, and have a pleasant weekend! BYEBYE
Today we released our newly designed host chat window. There is some cool new features including new privacy settings, ways to resize the chat window to suit your needs, and an easier to use record function. Since it's a completely new layout with lots of new stuff, I'll do a quick how to here.
This is the window you should first see when you go live. You'll notice that the text chat area and guest video screen isn't immediately viewable.
You can open the text chat window with this button:
If more than one guest is on camera in your room you can use this button to view them:
At anytime you can also choose to close these sections with these buttons:
Once you have more than one user in your room on camera, your cams preview window will become a thumbnail in the bottom right of the main chat window. If you want to hide or stop your feed you can mouse over your screen and use these buttons: 
The _ minimize button will hide your cam screen and the X button will turn off your cam.
If you want to show your cam screen again after minimizing it, just click your name on the user list and choose show video from the menu.
You can also view guests media, profile, kick, and ban a guest by clicking their name from the user list and choosing options from the menu.
If you want to see a different guests video on the main screen you can use the 
swap button by mousing over that persons video screen. This let you swap out anyones cam into the main screen, even the hosts.
Beside everyones screen is a volume slider that lets you control the sound level for each persons live feed individually.
If you want everyones sound muted immediately then click on the mute all button. Clicking it again will turn back on everyones sound.
One of the coolest features of the new Chat window is the record button. Now you can instantly record a short video and have it appear in your video section of your Stickam player. It records the host only and can last up to an hour of recording. This could work really well for vbloggers out there.
To the left of the settings is your logoff button. Clicking on the settings button brings up this window:
I'll just go through what each option does:
Sound Alert - Alert's you when you receive a message.
Window Focus - Your chat window will focus when you receive your first message
Mute Mic - Automatically start video chat with your mic on mute
Exclude from whos live -Remove yourself from the Who's Live list on Stickam
Private -Stops other members from entering your room and disables your live feed on external Stickam players.
Who can chat- This allows only other Stickam members to enter your chatroom
Disable video feed - This turns off everyone but the hosts live feed.
Broadcast Only-This disables both other members video and text chat and allows you to broadcast your feed only. Good if you want to use stickam as your own tv show.
Video Setting - Changes the size of your live video feed. Choose small to save CPU/network resources on your computer.
The weather today in LA is so atypical of The Angels. I don’t like it. Gloom, overcast, rain, COLD, should not be allowed here. Yes, Los Angelians are spoiled with wonderful weather and that notion should be maintained. Oh well… earlier in the office, I couldn’t see the city, well, hardly—completely covered in fog. Now I can see the bustling metropolitan streets and buildings, but it’s still gloomy and wet. WAH WAH WAH
The green tea packets were all gone this morning so I drank some other tea that tasted similar. BUT when I went back, the tray was refilled with all the green tea packets an intern could ask for.
I HAVE TWO LEFT FEET. OK so I totally ate it in the office today. I was running towards the meeting room, tripped on my foot and went soaring through the Stickam air and slid down the not-so-soft carpet on my knee. Now I have a weird, blistery scab thinga ma-jigger on my knee. Yay!!
HAHA we made a train last Friday en route to our meeting room. Ben, Randy, and I joined forces and made the ultimate office chair train. I was the designated engine that drove the caravan, while Randy and Ben steered towards the room. We had to disperse once we got there because everyone was already seated and staring at us. Oopsies.. it was a Friday? 8P
So the blog's comments have been activated again. I thought that it was set to auto post but apparently thats not been the case. Its probably a good thing that it wasn't since theres like 250 spam comments. Unfortunately there were about 40 real comments we missed so I'd like to apologize for not responding to any of them. I only knew of their existence today.
I am glad to know people actually read the blog and comment though.
A few members of the Stickam crew were taking a break outside when suddenly a short gypsy-like woman started chanting to us, wide-eyed, “Haamuhnuh-haamuhnuh-haamuhnuh-haamuhnuh.” My immediate thought was that she was casting a curse on us… now I’m not always superstitious, but dude, how could I help but think.. so vexing.
So that lasted about 10 minutes. Funny, there was a hushed silence and lots of glances were exchanged. She kept chanting then suddenly pointed to one of our guys’ hair and said, “cute hair.” Or something along those lines… Then continued her chanting.
We decided to walk away and go back up. Worse comes to worse, the security guards would stop her if she followed us.. she did follow us.
She said something about the apocalypse and that we needed to find God or something.
There are some random people around the world… makes it that more interesting. 8]
Meetings meetings meetings. Tuesday’s meetings were extra productive. We’re banging heads daily to provide you a better, greater, fantastico Stickam.com. I’m so excited I’m having convulsions.
I still have Avian Flu, but it’s getting better. My throats kills and smoking definitely doesn’t help, trust me, I’ve experimented. Beyond that the energy is high around the office. We all of ants in our pants, screaming to deliver the new site with a BANG!
The weather is beautiful. I’m trying to concentrate on this blog and think of something to write with the least bit interest, but I’m terribly distracted by my live chat. Oh lordy. Stickam’s addicting. There are people in my chat room having an engaging conversation about American politics. I love it…. makes the world have greater depth. 8]
OK seriously, I’m wasting too much time staring at this screen and wondering what to write. Anything worth writing that is.. Check back Friday to discover something new in the intriguing yet oh so scary world of Stickam.com!!!!!
Byebye 8]
5.16.06
Good Morning Stickam Blog readers! I apologize for the irregularity of my input. I’ve been a tad out of commission since last Thursday when I caught the avian flu. No I’m kidding, but I did contract some virus(es) from someone. So I went home early Friday and Monday, but now I’m BACK!
Here is the latest update since my last introductory statement. Well as some gamers may already know, I went to the Electronics Entertainment Expo aka E3 aka E CUBED, not E3, convention along with Hideki, Mayumi, and Aaron. While Hideki and Mayumi documented the convention in Japanese, Aaron and I embarked on a live Stickam tour of E3. Had it not been for time constraints, we would have interviewed each game representative to get the exact, latest details on each new product. Instead, we decided to film each game to allow the Stickam viewers to “see” it for themselves and provide a little commentary. However, with hindsight, we should have interviewed the representatives of the major, popular games, like the 3rd generation Playstation or Wiii. Anyway, that was our first attempt. Trial and Error, right? Haha.. oopsies.
Since then, the team has been actively researching the latest events around Los Angeles and are going to get coverage of poppin’ urban scenes such as the sprouting art galleries of “modern,” urban art, concerts, festivals, etc. Watch out for announcements! Most will be filmed live, as some will just include photographs. I’m going to the Munky King Grand Opening this Thursday… so for you toy collector enthusiasts, watch out!
Anyway, on a personal note, I cannot wait until the Sun stays out so I can hit the beach for some volleyball and rollerblading!
OK that’s it for now…
http://www.stickam.com/profile/heidiswoan
medicine head Heidi
So after this week of E3 I've had to spend my whole weekend resting to recover. Walking to the Convention center once or twice from the Bank Tower isn't so bad. But walking there at least 2 -4 times a day with a heavy bag full of electronics starts to catch up with you. So what were some of the highlights? Live streaming the halls with Heidi was a blast even though she insisted on calling E3, E cubed. I was lucky this year in running into a few journalist friends who could get me into several company parties a night including the Wired magazine party that had Robin Williams demoing Spore. Finally, playing the Nintendo Wii was totally worth the wait. You can see lots of the videos i shot from within the booth on the E3 player.
Oh yah heres a hugely geeky picture of me holding some huge anti-tank gun out side of the south hall at the convention center:
First of all, we would like to thank you all for your patience. Stickam was put under maintenence for about 6 hours. So why was the site put under maintenence? Stickam has been gaining more and more users everyday, and maybe you noticed it, but our site was slowing down from all the traffic. So the architecture of the whole site was changed so that we could compensate for all the users. Since the change, the site has become much faster. Go ahead and try it out. Click on a link and you'll see the difference in speed. That was the main reason why it took so long for the maintenence. On top of this we've also added more features:
The "Who's Live" page has changed so you can see all users on one page, and see their status with a symbol explaining whether they are live, online, or in a chatroom.
The search function has been enhanced. You can now search for Stickam members by zip code, location, or country.
Finally, you can now see all the users that you've banned. Some of you may have a mile long list now, but you can now unban any users that you've forgiven, or accidentally banned. So if you dont want to talk to your friend just ban them, and you can always unban them later. You can do this from the control panel on your "My Page".
Thats it for now, we hope you enjoy all the changes, and we'll keep on working on adding more features.
Stickam
Net Tuesday LA - Immigrant Rights and Technology
Click to view Stickam's press release of May Day. As some may already know, Stickam covered Los Angeles's Immigration Rally LIVE on May 1, 2006.
Stickam will be streaming the Electronics Entertainment Expo AKA E3 live from the Show floor. Expect to see the stream sometime in the afternoon Wed, Thurs, and Friday this week as we tour the various booths and show off the latest in video gaming.
Also check out the recorded videos and photos from the show. View the player here.
No I'm kidding, it's just Heidi. 8]
My name is Heidi, Hi D, Hidee, Hydee, Heidie, Hydie. My super duper blog-writing skills landed me a marketing internship with Stickam.com.
I returned to Los Angeles April 28, 2006 after a three-month attendance at Columbia University. Following a change of heart, I flew straight back to Los Angeles to pursue my educational and professional career.
Fast Forward..
So here I am—typing away at this blog thingy while fifteen strangers in my Stickam chat room stare curiously at this girl (me) typing away at her computer.
If you honestly care to know how I feel about this job. Well, in all seriousness… it’s absolutely perfect. My ultimate professional goal is combine graphic designing, advertising, and marketing into one profession.. but more on the business side. At Stickam.com, I’m experiencing exactly that. Wow, who would have guessed?
Beyond the work, the people are great. I’m not just saying that cuz they’ll probably be reading this entry at some point.. I mean, if I hated them I’d probably outright say it. Or if someone smelled insufferably bad, I’d have no qualms about publicizing their name. So what was I saying? Ahhh yes… the people are great. All of them bring their unique ideas to the table with open-minds. This is definitely a relaxing atmosphere, yet everyone works hard at their responsibilities. Do what you enjoy!
I’ll just fly over some of the highlights. I don't want get into too much detail about my job and bore the living bageegees out of you. I’m sure you want to read the juicy gossip.
So here it goes:
The first day I was here.. or the 2nd, I don’t remember… anyway.. I got a Japanese lunch box with eel, rice, and some other unidentified objects. It tasted OK, not the best in the world.. but what I definitely didn’t appreciate about it is how much gas it gave me. My stomach was stretched to the max by the end of the day. Lordy, my first few days here and I have a bloated stomach. No way did I want to remedy myself and scare my co-workers the living hello away. So I endured the pain for a couple of hours. Waddled up the hill like a pregnant woman, got into my car. 8]
I forgot my access keycard once or twice and had to run all the way back to the office to retrieve it. Sometimes I outright forgot it; a patient co-worker would accompany me to the security desk to allow me back in the building.
I like our meetings, discussions, debates, they’re all very productive.
Going back to food again, I’m now on a Spam Omusubi binge—span & rice wrapped with seaweed. Oh lordy it’s good!
Well, I’m excited about the new layout and features that are coming out VERY soon. So hold your horses and prepared to be blownnn away!
I’ll be back again for another entry later. Byebye!
You can find me at: http://www.stickam.com/profile/heidiswoan
I'm usually always on live.
We've gotten some questions on how Stickam has been broadcasting events like Mayday live from the street. Its fairly easy if you have the right equipment. Heres what you'll need:
1 - A laptop with a standard PC card slot.
2 - A wireless broadband card from Verizon or Sprint like this:
3 - Webcam or DV cam.
4 - Backpack or messenger bag to carry your laptop in.
Once you have your Wireless card and web cam all set up with your laptop just login to Stickam and go live. Put your laptop in a backpack and your camera pointed at something interesting and there yah go, instant live streaming from anywhere!
By Chris Lee
April 30, 2006
IT was one of those Information Age ideas that probably seemed so simple on paper: take one part YouTube.com, a streaming video website; add another part iChat video web conferencing technology, throw in free bandwidth and hundreds of megabytes of free storage and, voilà! — Stickam.com, the Internet's latest social networking website/video communications player.
Of course, as soon as generation MySpace got ahold of Stickam, which launched in Feburary, its uses began proliferating quickly. First came streaming karaoke from a Glendale bar — and the gateway realization that rock bands could use the site to host their shows.
Then last month, radio station KLOS-FM (95.5) used Stickam to stream its Mark & Brian morning show from the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, to 13,000 viewers.
And now a small but growing segment of the site's 40,000 registrants are using the platform to beam live music, often from concert venues, out to a potentially vast audience — a first.
"There's a growing population of bands using this to show their shows," says Aaron Novak, a marketing director for L.A.-based Stickam. "You sign up for an account, put the Stickam player on your webpage or blog or myspace.com page. And as long as you have a working webcam and your computer supports a Flash player, any number of people can tune in to the stream."
The site is free, although paid premium accounts will become available later. "We're trying to get new users," Novak explains.
latimes.com
You can Check out our Mayday - Los Angeles covereage here or view this player:
Also check the Stickam mentions on:
http://boingboing.net/
http://www.laist.com/
http://blogging.la
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