A Periscope stream that happened on Monday, May 25 in the middle of a New Braunfels thunderstorm. It was pretty scary. Credit: Periscope / Omar L. Gallaga / AMERICAN-STATESMAN
In this week's Digital Savant column, which ran in Tuesday's print edition and on MyStatesman.com, I talk about the relatively new app Periscope, for streaming live video from a phone, and what it's impact might be.
The app debuted in late March and the column was written late last week, but already since the story was filed, two big things have happened. The first is that on Tuesday, the app became available for Android users, opening up live streaming to a whole new audience of users.
The other thing that happened were historic floods and storms in central Texas that, for me at least, made Periscope even more vital. While I could see plenty of photos on Instagram and Tweets about how people were dealing with the storms, there were very few live video streams not being done by traditional media outlets. With Periscope, it felt like I was flipping channels at times, seeing live footage of storms and storm damage. It's stuff like this that makes me think Periscope could be a game-changer for covering disasters and other live news events. I found myself doing a short Periscope stream from my house during the worst of the Monday storms and had to shut off the app when our power went out, my cat darted into the yard and the lightning and thunder became too intense.
Here’s an excerpt from the column, in which I list 10 things I find compelling about the app:
7. A few weeks ago, Oprah Winfrey started using Periscope. I haven't watched Oprah on TV for years, but I was mesmerized by her on Periscope as she aimed her phone backstage at "Late Show With David Letterman" or took charge at her magazine, asking questions of her managing editor with Gayle King always within viewing range. Oprah is great at Periscope. Without the layers of camera operators, editors and TV signal clutter, when it's just a phone between you and Oprah, it feels like magic. Oprah magic.
8. Authors are using Periscope in clever ways. Margaret Atwood is expected to drop a book into a time capsule today, broadcasting it on Periscope. Friends who have books published have used Periscope to show readers what their writing spaces look like. Actually writing anything while broadcasting via Periscope is not so exciting, but some visual artists, such as Amanda Oleander, who has about 100,000 Periscope followers and 12.5 million hearts, are becoming celebrities within the medium. Talented Periscopers such as Oleander are almost inventing a new language, doing what they do in front of a camera while also keeping a running dialogue with the fast-scrolling messages on screen.
You can find the full column here. Let me know in the comments what you think about Periscope. Are you using it? Do you think it's overhyped?
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