Tips to get you ready for YouTube live video

Although there hasn’t been much news about it, the Pop17 website scooped a bit of an exclusive the other day when they spoke to YouTube co-creator Steve Chen and he revealed that the video site will start allowing live casting later this year. Chen said that it’s something they’ve wanted to do for a long time and now with Google behind them, they can make it a reality.

So get ready for live video diaries and Big Brother style video blogs where you can watch people eat, sleep, drink and yes, probably that too. The Pop17 video report shows a number of attempts at creating a live casting site such as Justin.tv and Yahoo’s Y! Live which we looked at a few weeks back. The one problem they report with these sites is that they lack users – something that YouTube most certainly doesn’t which gives it so much potential.

So do you fancy yourself as the next big thing on the internet? Fancy strapping a camera to your head and a laptop to your back like Justin Kan has on Justin.tv? By doing so, you can allow the world to watch, hear and see what you are doing 24/7. On a more serious side, it could prove to be an invaluable tool for citizen journalists and activists who want to broadcast events in realtime that the mainstream simply refuse to touch. Before this all happens though, here are a few downloads to give you some practice broadcasting your face to the world in realtime:

Camfrog – Practice your on screen voice and persona on this excellent webcam app

iSpQ VideoChat – Instant messaging but via video rather than text

SuperVideoCap – Capture your webcam performances for review and playback

LiveStream Broadcaster – Broadcast live from your webcam

Live Theatre – Put together your own TV show with this video broadcasting app

If after all that, you’re still lacking inspiration for your broadcasting, check out Alan Patridge’s guide to using a camera “about the size of a slim Panatella cigar” to record his facial expressions during a test drive in a rally car:

[youtube]EaQ8EIudeEQ[/youtube]