There is a lot to process after attending last week’s Streaming Media West conference in San Jose. Aside from all that takeaways relevant to digital media for the enterprise, I also wanted to test out some of the new (or at least new to me) toys for my blog.

First off: The Kaltura Interactive Video Plugin (for WordPress)

(From the Plug-In page)
Add interactive video capabilities to your blog! This is not just another video embed tool – it includes the ability to upload/ record/import videos directly to your post, edit and remix content with an online video editor, enable video responses, manage and track your video content and much more… And Kaltura covers all hosting and streaming costs for FREE up to 10GB.

Highlights
* Upload, record from webcam and import all rich-media directly to your blog post;
* Edit and remix videos using Kaltura’s online full-featured video editor;
* Easily import all rich media (video, audio, pictures…) from other sites and social networks, such as MySpace, Flickr, CCMixter, Jamendo, New York Public Library etc. and;
* Allow readers and subscribers to add video and audio comments, and to participate in collaborative videos;

The Result
Update (12/30/09): This plug-in was causing a major conflict with my WP theme in IE7 and sadly had to be removed from the page. If you do attempt to use this tool, test thoroughly in all browsers!

Granted, this is my first stab at using this tool, but out-of-the-box I wish there was a way to edit the audio directly in the program. Otherwise, very easy to install and use! No need for a heavy-duty editor (except perhaps Audacity or another free audio-editing program) and you’re all set to publish. There is also the option to allow others to collaborate on the videos but I’ve turned this option off for now. The feature to grab images directly from my Flickr site is a nice feature.

The Interface

By the way, Flickr can now store video and offers a very clean embeddable video player with at least one drawback: for videos over 90 seconds long, only the first 90 seconds will play.