Editing recordings – including GoToMeeting – a reason to think ahead
TheVP
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By and large, 1080 Group and TheVirtualPresenter are about soft skills… “Microsoft Word doesn’t make you a writer, and a web conferencing tool doesn’t make you a great presenter, promoter, or producer.”
BUT, we have hearts of teachers and servants, so when it becomes easy to point you toward a resource that would be useful, I’m not going to hold back.
In this case I bumped into a blog post – details below – about how to edit a Citrix GoToMeeting/Webinar recording using a third party tool. And the reason I’ve chosen to share is this:
Web conferencing tools are optimized for collaborating and presenting live. NOT for content authoring. And while it’s easy to make recordings with web conferencing tools, if for any reason you want to edit the recording, well, they just don’t do that.
Some (like Webex) allow you to truncate the beginning or end to cut off the welcome script or end-of-event Q&A, but there’s no cutting out the f-bomb that the veep dropped in the middle (true story). Others (Microsoft LiveMeeting, Citrix GoToMeeting, et al) allow you to download a standard .wmv file that’s editable in a tool capable of editing video. And when you’re shopping, don’t forget to ALSO ask the vendor about how you then host the edited video…
Which brings us to a useful blog post about editing GoToMeeting recordings using Camtasia. I don’t know Sam, but this useful even if you aren’t a GTM customer, and I thought I’d share. Why?
Every day I get asked about free or cheap conferencing, often in relation to Webex or other premium service. The pre-supposition is that they’re all the same, and something else is cheaper.
ALL conferencing is inexpensive when compared to the cost of labor – and unless you figure out how labor and process is impacted in your organization, you’re not asking pro-level questions.
Get clear on your use-case and your process. A pickup and minivan can both haul gravel or kids, but…
Sam
Roger,
I’m glad you found my post useful. I have a follow-up post here [1] that addresses a common hang-up readers have run into.
I certainly agree with your premise — that workflow is all important when comparing tools like these. As a marketers or salespeople or educators we all have better things to do than fighting our tools.
I use Camtasia for two things — occasional editing, which I really try to avoid because it’s time consuming, and converting the recordings to Flash, which is more easily viewed on the Web. I do the latter every time.
We’re currently considering a switch from GoToWebinar to another service for our webinars, mostly due to issues we’ve had with the GTW audio service. But your article does remind me to think more broadly about our workflow.
For example, Adobe Connect Pro is a bit more expensive than some of the other options we’re looking at, but doesn’t require any conversion steps at the end to get a Flash video. (No idea how it handles editing.) That point alone could result in a huge time savings for us.
Thanks,
Sam
[1] http://sam.charrington.com/blog/how-import-gotomeeting-wmv-recordings-camtasia-studio-part-2
Bry
Today Citrix Online demoed a new free product called GoView (www.goview.com). It allows people to record, edit and share screencasts. Presumably, it will help GoToMeeting and GoToWebianr customers get around some of the issues you noted in your article with editing recordings and figuring out how to upload them.
It appears hosting is included in this… n0t sure how Citrix Online hopes to make money. And it looks like you can just use GoView as a stand-alone product. Heads-on competition for Camtasia.