Multimedia and more

Okay, I feel like I have been waiting a very long time for this. And now it finally has happened. Someone has built a completely Web-based Flash application over at http://sproutbuilder.com.

This is a momentous occasion for me. I feel like over the last two years, I have been wishing for this very thing to well, sprout up.

OK, enough with the puns. But this application is really really cool. It is, for all intents-and-purposes, Adobe Flash ultra-simplified, and it’s on the Web! And it’s FREE. You launch the Web app without having to download any software (except Adobe Flash Player, but there is a 97 percent chance it’s already on your system) Once inside, you can choose from a number of template themes, or opt to create your own. You don’t even have to setup an account to start using it.

Boy, did I put this baby to the test. I teach an Advanced Flash course at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and one of the first things we do is create a Flash template. A Flash template is simple but powerful. Basically it’s a Flash project with three sections, one that takes you to a Soundslides sections, one that shows a map mashup, and another that plays a video. I was utterly shocked when I found that I could do ALL of this, and MORE, with Sprout.

The interface is very much like Flash. You have a property inspector, tool pallet and a components window.  Building the project was absurdly simple. I didn’t have to click a help button once. Though, this is coming from someone who is quite familiar with Flash. I would imagine someone who has never touched Flash might need a few references to understand how the program works.

You can create buttons, multiple pages, add video, mashups, news feeds, twitter feeds, calendar components… and the best part of all, you never even have to touch a lick of ActionScript. I think that learning code is the by far the biggest challenge for people wanting to really do amazing things on the Web. And now the tools are making is just so much easier.

I tried looking for some of the fall backs to this program. And from what I can tell, there are very few. The major one is that the Flash file is hosted on Sprout’s Web site. They will give you the embed code to put it on your own Web site or blog, but you still are relegated to having hosted on their servers, which seems to be a major issue with news organizations that want branding. It would be nice if they let you download the .swf file — much the same way Picnik.com (a sort of online photoshop) lets you download the photos you edit.

Also, in the Sprout editing environment, there is no timeline. It only works with pages — which is how most advanced Flash projects are made these days. No one uses tweens anymore, unless you’re an animator. Flash has evolved to be something so much more; a non-linear storytelling platform.

It also lacks layer arrangement, which can be frustrating. If one element gets lost underneath another element, you are left using a set of “bring to front” tools to rearrange the layers. It’s a little finicky, and I wouldn’t doubt that a person could get left with a malfunctioned project, especially if it’s complex. But Sprout doesn’t seem like it’s the best platform for overly complex projects. It’s easy and simple. It’s all about User Interface, and that seems to be the emerging trend in software these days.

Apparently a new feature from diet.com is making the rounds and becoming quite popular. The latest is that you can text message the name of a popular restaurant followed by a menu item to “D-I-E-T-1″ or 34381, and it will return all of the nutritional facts of that item. News of this feature has gone viral and has already appeared on several news reports, numerous talk shows and radio stations. I first heard about it on the radio, and now I’m seeing it on digg and other Web sites.

I have to admit, the service works pretty well. It’s free except for the cost of the text message your carrier charges (most carriers give an allowance of text messages). In a test I text messaged “carl’s jr. six dollar” and got back information that their Six Dollar Guacamole Bacon Burger was 1117 calories. That’s not counting the fries or the large soda. Pretty soon I was texting the name of everything I’ve eaten in the last couple of weeks. (I didn’t have the six dollar burger in case you were wondering)

This type of feature isn’t anything new. Lots of organizations are using texting services to get or return information, including Google’s new 411 service. Just text your search query to “G-O-O-G-L-E” or 466453, and it’ll return local info. (Ex. “sushi 94720″ will return sushi restaurants near UC Berkeley).

Local KITS Live 105.3 San Francisco uses text messaging to get responses from listeners to polls or song requests. The DJ will ask a question like “Text in your favorite place to vacation” and within seconds the messages come pouring in. It’s crowd-sourcing at it’s most immediate form.

It seems the only people who aren’t using a text messaging service are news Web sites. At least, I haven’t seen any. A few will provide “SMS alerts” but even then, I’m not sure I want give the power to a company to send me text messages all day about a range of topics I can’t control, dwindling down my monthly 250 text message allowance. I’d rather have the query-answer method any day.

Why is it that the San Francisco Chronicle or the New York Times can’t be the one to provide me with directions to restaurants or the latest movies playing via my cell phone? Google wins again.

The folks over at Vuvox (pronounced View-vox) will be coming to UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism on Wedensday, November 7 at 1:00 p.m. for a demonstration of their new product.

So what is Vuvox? Well, it’s a very creative slide show editor. At least that’s the best way I can describe it. It’s smooth, flashy and young. It looks like something for teenagers wanting to pimp out their myspace page, but only until you delve deeper can you truly appreciate the capabilities of the interface. The best parts are that it’s completely Web based (flash) so there is no program to download, and it’s free for the most part.

I caught a demonstration last weekend during the NPPA conference and was pretty impressed. I remain skeptical however about its applications for journalists. I see some potential, but I just can’t visualize a news organization making much of an effort to adopt such a unique flashy interface.

It was first launched in August, and they will coming out with a new collage feature in the coming months which I must say is very impressive. You can connect a series of photos in a montage, and as the viewer scans through them, there are various “hit points” that are clickable and will bring up additional information about those elements.

Again, impressive, but… once a newspaper does one, I just can’t see it becoming a regular occurrence. Jim Lenahan, the founder and CEO, told me that there are some customization abilities with this product, but they are only available to media companies whom Vuvox has licenses with. I inquired what types of terms or pricing that could be hat for newspapers and journalism outlets, and… well in so many words he basically told me that Vuvox wasn’t interested in contracting with the small folks; only large media conglomerates.

Nevertheless, we have to assess each product as it comes along, regardless of its intention. I’m sure no journalist saw YouTube as a legitimate venue for videos when it first came out. And there are no “journalist” accounts under the YouTube registration.

Who knows… Vuvox could be the next big thing. It would be nice to know that journalists adopted it early on instead of the typical running after the train that left the building.

See a video demo from the DEMO.com conference if you can’t make it to the J-School next Wednesday.