I want to

Simple video chat and screen sharing

Don't fancy Google Hangouts? Skype not your thing? Then try Talky which allows you to chat with video and microphone, share your screen, all without any kind of registration at all. Very simple and wonderfully easy to use!

YouNow for video social networking

YouNow is a reasonably new social network based around the idea of broadcasting yourself and chatting to the people who log into your channel. It has about 150,000 broadcasters a day, which is an impressive figure. However, that's the only thing that I did find impressive. Very little by the way of search, and most of the broadcasters seemed to be in their early teens. Really couldn't find a whole lot to be excited about. If you're looking for something that works a little better, I'd be inclined to try Blab instead. 

eduCanon; add interactivity to your videos

eduCanon is a really nice, simple and free tool that can be used to enhance the videos that you create. It's made by teachers for teachers. You can choose an existing video, bring it into the eduCanon dashboard, add in questions in various formats, choose the appropriate actions to use for the responses and you're ready to go.

Brainshark - adding voice to PowerPoint

Brainshark is an attractive tool - you can upload a presentation and then narrate it, creating a nice guide through what you're teaching, selling and so on. You can also upload photographs and narrate a story with them, or record your own podcast online. There are other tools out there which do the same sort of, thing, so this is another addition to that collection. Presentations cannot be downloaded in the free version - but you could always use a screen capture program to do that if you were desperate. I looked for pricing options, but couldn't find any - you had to contact their sales team, which makes me think it's going to be eye wateringly expensive. However there's still plenty that you can do in the freebie.

Qik

Record and share video live from your mobile phone is an interesting little tool. Download the app, sign in with Facebook and you can start streaming live from your phone. I haven't tried this out yet, but it looks really interesting.

Enhance, remix and share web video

Popcorn Maker makes it easy to enhance, remix and share web video. Use your web browser to combine video and audio with content from the rest of the web — from text, links and maps to pictures and live feeds.

Social Live Video

with Kondoot. It says of itself: "Kondoot.com is an Australian-based Social Media company pioneering a new virtual platform — Social Live Video — an innovative, fresh and fun combination of social networking and live-streaming video. Kondoot provides a full suite of free video options including public live broadcasts, recorded broadcasts and video chats as well as games, instant messaging and more. The website enables individuals to become broadcasting masters, sharing their story in a social networking setting, and connecting with friends, family or the world."

What this means in practice is that you have video chats without using Google hangouts, if you're really opposed to using Big G. However, it's more like broadcasting television, where people can see you and you can interact with text chat, rather than more face to face.

Spreecast

via www.spreecast.com

If you're looking for a broadcasting platform and don't want to go down the expense/Google/Facebook route, why not try out Spreecast? It says of itself:

• Up to 4 people on camera at once.
• Unlimited number of people can view (can also be private).
• Recorded live and immediately available for playback.
• Chat, ask questions, join in on camera!

They're still ramping up their product, so it's via invite only at the moment, but it looks a good one to note for the future. I watched through their 'spreecast' which looked fine. You can just jump into a session to be involved if you're invited though.You can then:

1) Chat with others viewing and participating in the spreecast.

2) Submit a “Comment/Question”. The creator and producers of the spreecast will review it, and if he/she chooses to include your question in the spreecast it will appear on screen for all to see.

3) Press the “Join on Camera” button. When you do that, follow the instructions on your screen to allow Spreecast to hook up to your webcam and microphone. You will see yourself appear in a little box in the bottom left. You are not yet on camera, as the producer of the spreecast controls who appears on screen. You will have an opportunity to privately chat with the producer. Your request to join on camera may or may not be approved. If your request is approved, you will be “on deck” in the producer’s Queue to go on the air. When the producer decides to put you on, you’ll go live. Make sure you are ready!

The main disadvantage that I can see is that it's limited to 4 cameras, unlike some other resources like Tinychat which allows a dozen, but to be honest, there's only so much that a reasonable broadband can cope with before it gets too jerky.