Live mobile video streaming with Bambuser

Bambuser may sound like an instrument of magic from Harry Potter but it is in fact a Web 2.0 service (with associated smartphone apps) that makes it possible to broadcast over the Web live video from your phone, via 3G or wifi.

In order to try it out, all you need to do is set up a free account at bambuser.com then download the appropriate app for your smartphone (most flavours are supported). There are also paid-for premium accounts which give you various branding and privacy options, an important point about the free account to bear in mind being that anyone can access your live stream.

Bambuser came to prominence earlier this year as activists and protesters across the Middle East used it to communicate with the world during the Arab Spring. From this perspective, the major advantage over recording video then uploading files to YouTube or other video sharing sites was that even if the authorities confiscated people’s phones, the video streams were already available. (For more on this see this article at socialtimes.com .)

Within HE, people have already discovered that Bambuser can be very useful if you need a quick and easy way of doing live conference session streaming. Live streams are archived and available afterwards, apparently indefinitely. We’ve been testing it, as you can see from the photo, and will be helping the Library to use it during their Staff Showcase on September 14th .

As with YouTube, it’s very easy to embed Bambuser video streams into blog posts, websites – or even Learn pages. But please be cautious before using this, or any other new Web 2.0 service, in anger – there may be hidden catches for unsuspecting users, which is why we’re testing it ‘in controlled conditions’.