Web On-Demand (June 04, 2008)

Kind of a funny title, don’t you think? But when you really look at it, the web is rarely available the way you’d like it to be during a presentation. I read a blog a while back about a classroom where the teacher used a term I hadn’t heard before…"Google-jockey". One of her students would act as a scribe/surfer (Google-jockey) and as the class discussed certain ideas, the student would race through search terms in Google, Wikipedia and other filtered sites to enhance learning.

As you’re going along clicking links and seeing new, interesting things, you can use the Freepath favorites button to slam that new thing right into your active playlist. Just look at the end and you’ll see it there.

This is just one example of how live web sites come into play with today’s communication. More and more business sites are part of a sales person’s value proposition to clients. The interaction a customer can experience with a product’s web tools is more important than just the aesthetic design of the site. PowerPoint does a good job of embedding a screen capture, but moving easily from one site or page to another is a chore.

Freepath (especially running in the advanced Dual Screen set up) is unparalleled in moving between any local client content and web content. In fact the URL tool in the Freepath AV rack lets your Google-jockey (which may be you…) type or paste any new website in on the fly. You, of course have the hyper-organized option of getting all the URL’s you want into your playlist the night before, and going straight to them.

If you’re one of those lucky bums with a Luidia eBeam or SmartBoard, or the like, you’ll find Freepath’s full screen mode to be quite good at moving through your playlist, including all that great web content. In fact, as long as you’re using the navigation buttons and screen unlock, you can even navigate with your input device of choice right at the board. Every link becomes a new path to something new. (of course, you’ll be aware of what’s appropriate for your audience. Freepath does a lot of things, but censoring you isn’t one of them.)

So time to see the web in a new light. Since you don’t have to screen capture the pages you want to show, we think Freepath has just cut your prep time into… real time? What a concept!

Private Beta (July 02, 2008)

A few weeks have elapsed since the last blog post. We’ve been really busy getting the private beta program together. By now you’ve probably noticed a whole new website. These are action packed days for us Freepathers as we test out and gather information about how the sites and application are working.

Also you’ve maybe noticed this thing called myFreepath. We’ve not said much about that up to now because it is the single biggest feature change in Freepath. This novel approach to sharing the load of developing quality presentations by combining a downloadable application with an online community will increase productivity and cut down on prep time. Playlists from your network of colleagues appear instantly in your installed version of Freepath for instant download. Or, you can browse the community and download a playlist with your browser.

I’d encourage you to join the private beta if you haven’t already, and set up your myfreepath account so you can grab that ideal user name before some other less deserving person does it. We’d like to get some good uploads of your favorite playlists soon. We’re getting lots of feedback on the application, now we’d like to see some .play files pushed up to the community.

Here’s an idea: make several playlists out of your favorite YouTube clips. (Just use the URL they provide and paste it into your playlist.) Then tag them with some relevant terms and use the “Upload a Playlist” link in your profile to make it publicly searchable and downloadable.

As a matter of fact, any collection of websites would be great in a playlist. If you want to invite some colleagues to join myFreepath, as well, feel free to begin creating groups and uploading .play’s to those groups for collaboration.

Remember you’ve got 100mb of free space up there. We’d love to see you make good use of it.