I’m really excited to announce that Howcast will be part of the Second Annual Alliance Of Youth Movements Summit, which brings together individuals from the private sector, the NGO community, and of some of the most successful online movements from around the globe to explore the role technology plays in civil society and in the fight against violence.
On top of providing informative how-to’s for this years summit, Howcast.com will be streaming the Summit live at: youthmovements.howcast.com beginning at 8:15 a.m. Central Standard Time today and 8:30 am Central Standard Time tomorrow. You can also follow AYM on Twitter at http://twitter.com/aym.
As a co-founder of AYM, it’s really amazing to see the enthusiasm and participation grow over the last year for our nascent nonprofit organization. Stay tuned for more exciting AYM news over the coming days and months.
Howcast has always made it easy for you to share what you know, but now we’re expanding your options: Not only can you upload your own videos to your How-To guide, but now you can also embed videos from across the web!
Starting today, Howcast gives you the option to embed videos from other popular video sites — YouTube, Metacafe, Blip.tv, and Vimeo — onto your own Howcast.com guides. While you can still upload your own videos, and take advantage of Howcast’s innovative instructional video player, the embedding feature allows you to include high-quality videos from other sites alongside your own step-by-step written guide. Have an insanely good family recipe your Aunt Shelly has up on her YouTube page? Now it’s easy as pie (no pun intended) to illustrate with video: Simply write out the recipe as a How-to guide, then embed her YouTube video on Howcast.
Sign into Howcast, click on the “Add a How-To Video or Guide” button at the top corner of Howcast’s main page, and choose “embed a video.” Go to to any of the Howcast-supported web sites, copy your video’s URL, paste the URL into the “embed a video” box on the How-To creation page, and click “Embed.” Once you’ve finished writing your How-To guide, click “Save” to create your How-To, and we’ll magically import the video onto Howcast. Give it a try, and let us know what you think!
We’re excited that we’ve launched our own channel on Boxee today. Boxee is the cool free software that allows you to mix and match your favorite online content with your own personal collection of movies, TV, music, and photos, and then share info about what you’re watching with friends. What does Howcast coming to Boxee mean? You can browse and watch your favorite Howcast videos, recommend them to friends on Twitter and Facebook…. all from the comfort of your couch.
If you don’t have Boxee, you should check it out - it’s free and super easy to install. To get Boxee you will need to register at the Boxee website and download the application. Once you’ve loaded Boxee (or you’re already a Boxee user), go to the App Box on the left menu, and add the Howcast app. Now you can watch Howcast videos whenever you want by going to Applications, then Video, then Howcast!
To get Boxee on your TV, you’ll need to first connect your computer to the TV screen. Check out this helpful Howcast video on the best way to do this (we recommend Monoprice.com for new cables).
The Howcast Emerging Filmmakers Program launched its first contest today — the How-To Video Challenge! It’s a call for filmmakers, web video artists, and inventors to show off their coolest, baddest, flat-out flyest how-to videos. We’re counting on some exciting creative approaches to the how-to format….maybe a new shooting, editing or animation technique; a household hack or tech mod we never heard of; or even a short film that subtly weaves in a how-to lesson.
We lined up a top-notch panel of judges to select our winners including, Peter Baxter, Slamdance Film Festival; Jeff Cooperman, The Colbert Report; Katherine Sharpe, ReadyMade Magazine; Tim Sullivan, Magical Elves (Project Runway, Top Chef). I think finalists will be thrilled to have their work judged by these industry pros, but that’s just the icing on the cake, because our first prize winner will score $2000 and promotion across online, mobile and off-line platforms. (Second and third prize winners will also take home some nice booty — 2nd prize is a Sony Webbie HD camera with accessories and 3rd prize is a Nano and Apple Store gift certificate.)
The contest is the perfect opportunity for us to reward the creativity of the filmmakers we work with and to challenge a whole new community of film and video makers and DIYers. Reinventing the how-to video is a fantastic assignment for these creative folks and we can’t wait to see what they dream up. When we say we want our socks knocked off, we really mean it.
Important Dates:
Entry Deadline: July 28
Voting Period: July 29 - August 10
Winners Announced: August 20
Good luck and happy shooting,
Heather
Managing Producer, Emerging Filmmakers Program
Exciting news! Howcast for iPhone, has topped 500,000 downloads, with over 250,000 downloads in May alone! And, now the Howcast iPhone application is #1 in the Lifestyle category in the iTunes App Store. Another really cool stat is that since it’s release in November 2008, people have been spending an average of 18 minutes finding out how to do virtually anything!
On Monday afternoon, Flashpoint held an end-of-the-semester screening, featuring a visit by one of Howcast’s very first and most prolific Emerging Filmmakers, Michael Sanchez, and some very tasty-looking Pad Thai. Michael shared his tricks for wowing clients (including us) every time; how he balances his professional and personal projects; and his experience as a Chicago-based filmmaker, musician, and comedian. I really wish I could have been there, but I hear contact information was exchanged and some great connections were forged!
Kudos to the Flashpoint students for their great work this semester. They’ve been a pleasure to work with, and I hope we get to work with them again. Also, many thanks to Michael for representing Howcast in Chicago. Michael never ceases to impress us with his funny, smart, great-looking videos. He makes it look so easy! Check out two of Michael’s awesome brand new spots: How To Prevent Constipation and How To Make an Ice Cream Float.
Last week, I had the unique opportunity to be a part of the first technology delegation to visit Iraq which included new and old friends from Google, Twitter, YouTube, Automatic/Wordpress, Meetup, AT&T, Blue State Digital and Wired Magazine. The U.S. Department of State hosted the trip and put together an action packed agenda which gave us the chance to meet with many including President Talabani at Dar-as-Salam Palace, the Chief Engineer of the Iraqi National Museum at the newly opened museum, the President of the University of Baghdad at the University and most importantly students.
I was able to see first hand how Iraqis are dealing with the challenges of limited Internet accessibility (only 5 percent penetration) and huge growth in mobile phone usage (~ zero to 17M active cell phones in just 5 years).
While Iraq has countless challenges ahead (major problems with the electrical grid, continued suicide bombings, lots of government red tape, etc.), we were encouraged by the passion the people we met with have for technology and how it can be used to help overcome some of their challenges (ie. jobs creation, government transperency, etc.).
To hear more about the trip and how it came together, what we learned and how we plan to make sure we don’t let this opportunity go to waste - please check out an interview i did when i had one foot of the plane with Nicholas Carlson at Silicon Alley Insider.
I also wanted to share some pics:
Our meeting with President Talabani
Meeting with Students at The University of Technology
We are so excited to announce that Howcast has been nominated for two Webbys … the Academy Awards of these here interwebs. Howcast was nominated in the How-to/DIY Video category with How To Apply for Unemployment and in the Travel/Tourism video category for How To Pretend You’re a Real New Yorker. There are only five nominees in each category from a pool of 10,000 entries, so this is a HUGE honor for us.
We need your help now to vote for these videos in the People’s Choice Award category:
How To Vote In People’s Choice Award
1. Click on http://pv.webbyawards.com/, and log in or sign up to vote.
2. Find “How To Apply For Unemployment // How-To and DIY” or How To Pretend You’re A Real New Yorker // Travel & Adventure” in the drop-down menu at the top of the page, and click on either of them.
3. Fill in the vote bubble to the right of the title once it appears, and then click on the blue “cast my vote!” icon beneath it.
4. Wait for the page to confirm your vote has been cast, and you’re done!
We’re excited to announce that Howcast will be producing and streaming Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Digital Town Hall of the Americas, live from the Dominican Republic this Friday, and that you’ll be able to submit a question for her to answer. Clinton is holding the Town Hall in anticipation of the Fifth Summit of the Americas. Learn more about the Summit of the Americas and the issues Western Hemisphere leaders will be addressing there at http://townhall.howcast.com/,
We also want to make sure you have your voice heard on topics related to the Summit of the Americas, so we’re giving you an opportunity to ask the Secretary a question and discuss your thoughts with people across the Western Hemisphere. Ask her a question and see if she answers it live on April 17th:
As you tune into your favorite TV shows this week (House, Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Letterman) you’ll notice Howcast’s iPhone application featured in Apple’s new iPhone commercial!
The Howcast for iPhone app, which debuted last fall, is the first iPhone application available from any how-to web site. With Howcast for iPhone (and iTouch) you can
* search for a video to show you how to do just about anything
* watch our fun, high-quality videos in the palm of your hand
* share your favorite videos by e-mail right from your phone
We’re excited that we’ve launched our own channel on 
