If the recent holidays brought new toys to your household you may now be getting the inevitable question from your spouse:

iMovie and a FireWire camcorder make strong partners.

"Honey, now that we have all this great electronic stuff, how do I get the video of the kids online for my Mom and Dad to see?

At that moment it really comes home (no pun intended). You realize that not only is streaming video accessible to the average Internet user but making streaming video is now in the realm of your spouse, children, or even that group of overpaid sales people you work with. With digital video cameras and entry level computers growing increasingly common, pretty much anyone can put their video online. And they might even be better at it than you.

Plug-and-Play Editing
For a turnkey home video editing system that is easy to use, it is hard to beat Apple's iMac and iMovie. Hard-core PC users may scoff as they fiddle with their cards and drivers. That may work in a professional environment but isn't going to cut it with everyone. The iMac is a solid little computer appliance. The iMac is built for everyone. It's standardized and very easy to work with. Setting it up and using it for digital video is about as easy as it gets.

And isn't that what it is all about? Sometimes our spouses and children have to remind us that producing content isn't about this technical feature or that gizmo. It is about saying something. It is all about plugging in your camcorder, pulling your footage together, and delivering it to people who care.

So in this series of articles, I talk the basic user through putting video online. I'll be using Apple's iMac and their easy-to-use iMovie software. My video camcorder will be a handy little Canon Optura pi. But even if you own a different type of computer or camera, much of what I cover in this series of articles will probably apply to your situation. (Ed. Note: good streaming video requires good filming technique, covered here.)