Skoffer is a free service which in my eyes (and I´m involved in the project, so maybe I´m not the most rational guy to ask for a review ) could revolutionize  the web a little bit.

Skoffer.com offers an instant screencasting API (to build screenncasting widgets) which can be build into every desired website-software.

So you might ask why this “could revolutionize  the web a little bit”? I will explain.

There are thousands PC and software support forums, documentation websites/wikis, weblogs, etc. on the web.

Have you ever imagined how it would be if even the hardest question in a PC support forum could be answered by clicking on the button to insert a screencast as answer and showing on the own PC how to deal with the problem (while maybe explaining it via the microphon).

It would be fun to answer even the hardest questions because you don´t have the explain every step in detail. You just show it in seconds.

Even better: If you have ever followed a PC forum you will have noticed that a lot people post questions like “I have a problem with my computer”, without telling the actual problem. And the first answers are friendly nerved voices that say that they can´t help without their crystal balls, and ask for the very actual problem. Now imagine persons who have a question or a problem could click on a button to insert a screencast which shows the problem in the wild (including error messages etc.).

Or if you run a blog:
How cool would it be to be able to insert a screencast to a blog-post easier than an image. No hassle with the installation of a screencast-software (of which some cost a lot of money), recording the video, converting it to a web-compatible format, uploading it and inserting it to a blog-post.

If you run a wiki or another system to build documentations:
People like videos because it´s easier to understand something by seeing it, and videos are faster to record than to write what you mean.
People like it to maintain wikis, don´t you think they would love it to be able to insert a video-tutorial in seconds, with one click.

Skoffer is free and allows to record videos with an unlimited length, unlimited resolution and in unlimited amount.
Since the Skoffer servers use cloud computing they have practically unlimited performance and upload, so the recorded videos can be viewed simultaniously by a practically unlimited amount of people.

In fact I like the idea so much that I made a few Skoffer plugins that use the simple API.

Here are two examples:

Please click on the video-player´s fullscreen-button on the bottom right side while watching the videos.

This video shows how to record a screencast with my Wordpress plugin:

This is the video that gets recorded during the above screencast:

This one shows how to record with my Mediawiki plugin:

This is the screencasts which was recorded in the video above:

With this post I like to introduce you to the MediaWiki plugin. The Wikimedia users Iubito and Assela were a great help because of this (I could learn how to embed a video in MediaWiki content very quickly with that) and this (I could learn how to insert a new button to the toolbar via Javascript from this extensions´s file “mainfile.js”).

Here´s a demo video:

This one shows how to record a screencast with the MediaWiki plugin:

This is the screencast which was recorded in the video above:

How to install the plugin:

Here´s the content of the ReadMe.txt file which is included in the zip file of the plugin.

Please upload the folder “skoffer” from the zip-file you downloaded into the folder “extensions” on your webspace.
To activate the plugin, download your file “LocalSettings.php” from your webspace, add the line below to the end of the file (use you favourite texteditor for that), and upload it again.

require_once(’extensions/skoffer/skoffer.php’);

Please open your Wiki in your Webbrowser and login as an Administrator. Type “MediaWiki:Common.js” in the searchbox and click on “Go”.
Click on the “edit” (maybe it says “create” instead of “edit”) button just like everytime you want to edit a page (it´s not important if the page is empty or already has content).
Copy and paste the content of the file “Code for Common.js.txt” to the bottom of the page and save.THAT WAS ALL. You should find a new button on the edit-page to insert screencasts. I hope you like using the plugin.
Please check http://www.stefanschulzesteinmann.com/skoffer-mediawiki-plugin/ for the latest version of this plugin. [...]

How to use the plugin:

When you edit a page of your wiki, you will find a new button:

Just click it to start the screencast-recorder. The usage of the screencast-recorder is self-explaining so don´t worry. The screencast will automatically be inserted after you recorded it. It will be something like

<skoffer>123456789</skoffer>

, where the 123456789 is the video id.

After you saved (or previewed) your changes to the page of your wiki you will see the actual video you recorded.

Where to download the plugin:

The latest version will always be available from

http://www.stefanschulzesteinmann.com/downloads/
current_skoffer_mediawiki_plugin.zip

Anything else:

Yes, please have fun with it and report bugs and feature requests.

A short video how it works:

This video shows how to insert a screencast with the WordPress plugin:

This is the video that gets recorded during the above screencast:

How to install the plugin:

That´s a thing of less than 30 seconds.

Just download the zip-file, extract it and upload the folder “skoffer” to your “wp-content/plugins” folder of your WordPress installation.

Please log in to your WordPress Administration, go to the “Plugins” page and activtate the plugin. That was all.

If needed: please read the included ReadMe.txt file how to change the size of the video player that displays the screencasts.

How to use the plugin:

You should find a new button on the write-page, to insert screencasts.

Just click it to start the screencast-recorder. The usage of the screencast-recorder is self-explaining so don´t worry. The screencast will automatically be inserted after you recorded it. It will be something like

[skoffer123456789]

, where the 123456789 is the video id. (actually there is a space between the word skoffer and the video id but I can´t write that because I have the plugin installed on this Blog, and the plugin would try to insert a video if I would write it correctly )

If you now save and preview the post, you should see the actual video you recorded.

Where to download the plugin:

The latest version will always be available from

http://www.stefanschulzesteinmann.com/
downloads/current_skoffer_wordpress_plugin.zip

Anything else:

Yes, I hope you enjoy it and report bugs and feature requests.