Have you heard about the new social network Blab? I only heard about it myself a couple of weeks ago. It’s been called Periscope for friends. (You can find my post on Periscope Here.)
It’s a great video chat app that allows four people to live stream video at the same time while other people can watch and take part by writing in a side bar. There is a great article about it, on Mashable, Here, which explains all the great ways Blab has been used so far. For instance a couple of people at a concert at the front and then another other couple behind the scenes talking to people with their phones. It’s a very social, interactive and easy to use app.
It’s also linked directly to Twitter so you sign in with your Twitter account which makes it easy to share your Blab chat link and you don’t have to fill in profile info etc. as it’s already there.
The reason I’m talking about Blab today is that I’ve been involved in a couple of Blabs. The BritCrime authors have found Blab and thought it a great way to continue to engage with people after the festival. (Writing is pretty isolating and being accessible to readers and talking to other writers is pretty great.) You can watch one of our previous Blabs Here. You need to use Chrome or Firefox as Safari doesn’t work with it. You can use your iOS phone though. (Which can make you mobile and gives you more scope with it.) During our Blab we chatted about the motivation of writing. We also operated a bit of a hot-seat situation where is one person drops out the seat someone else can jump in which makes it more interesting and great fun. We are planning to do lots more Blabs in the coming months.
The next one planned is for this Thursday 10th September at 8.30 p.m. GMT. It’s on books and writing and will include thriller writer Simon Toyne. If you fancy joining Simon and others then you can find the Blab already set up Here, all you have to do is subscribe to it.
If you’ve had a look at it, do you think it’s something you’d use? And if so, how do you think you’d use it?
Sounds interesting – I saw Denzil Meyrick use Periscope at his book launch up here, to link up with the US. He’s doing very well, especially in Scotland, particularly the West Coast.
That’s cool. I don’t use Chrome and video is not my thing, but it will be a great tool for others.
It sounds intriguing, Rebecca. I’ve heard of it, but didn’t know anything about it ’till your post. I may have to check this out. I can see it being very useful for a few different kinds of situations.
That was fun. I like the big pictures, instead of GHO’s tiny row at the bottom.