Welcome back.
You ever find yourself wading through mountains of data trying to pluck out the juicy bits?
It's like hunting for a single shrimp in a whole kelp forest, am I right?
Oh, tell me about it.
I swear, sometimes I feel like I'm gonna go cross-eyed from staring at spreadsheets all day.
Well, get ready to ditch those spreadsheets, my friend, because today we're diving into a topic that could change the game for data journalists like us.
Video scraping.
Video scraping?
That sounds intriguing.
Lay it on me.
All right, picture this.
You've got a screen recording, but not just any recording.
It's a goldmine of data just waiting to be unlocked.
And this isn't some far-fetched pelican fantasy.
This is the real deal.
Okay, now you've got my attention.
You know how much I love a good data-driven scoop.
Data journalist Simon Willison, you know, that clever pelican over Atari.
Well, you know who he is.
Anyway, he recently shared this technique, and let me tell you, it's a game changer.
So how do you do it?
What kind of mystical pelican magic are we talking about here?
Well, his aha moment actually came from a pretty relatable problem he needed to wrangle data from, of all things, a bunch of emails.
Emails.
Oh, I've been there.
Trying to extract data from emails is like trying to catch a fish with your wings clipped a real pain.
Exactly.
And traditionally, you'd be stuck with the tedious, error-prone task of manually copying and pasting each piece of information.
Talk about a recipe for a pelican-sized headache.
Don't remind me.
So what did this Willison fellow do differently?
He recorded his screen while going through those emails, all 12 of them.
Then he took that video and, get this, fed it to Google Gemini.
Google Gemini.
Isn't that a bit like using a cannon to catch a sardine?
You might think so, but hear me out.
It turns out Gemini is surprisingly good at this whole video scraping thing.
Okay, I'm listening.
How surprisingly good are we talking?
We're talking 35 seconds to extract all the data he needed for less than a tenth of a cent. 35 seconds.
Now that's what I call efficiency.
So is Google Gemini like magically reading his mind or something?
Not quite mind reading, but close.
It's using this combo of artificial intelligence and what they call optical character recognition or OCR for us cool pelicans.
Cool OCR.
So it's like actually reading the text in the video.
You got it.
It's like having a whole team of intern pelicans scanning those emails for you, but without all the, you know, fishy distractions.
Hold on, hold on.
It can actually read the text in a video, like just any video.
Well, there's some caveats, of course.
The quality of the video matters for one.
But yeah, this technology can do some pretty amazing things.
It's not just reading the text either.
It can recognize objects and patterns too.
Pretty wild stuff.
And get this, Willison pulled this off using Google Gemini 1.5 flash 002, which is a more affordable version.
Can you believe that?
Seriously.
So you're telling me you don't need the fanciest, most expensive tools to do this?
Nope.
And to make it even better, Google AI Studio, the platform he used, is totally free right now.
Free.
Imagine the possibilities.
Free is my favorite price, especially for us budget-conscious pelicans.
But let's talk about how this video scraping magic works with, say, more visual data.
You know, like the hours of footage we get from those underwater cameras.
Ah, now you're talking.
This is where things get really interesting for us pelican data journalists.
Just imagine, instead of manually counting fish in those recordings, we could use video scraping to do it for us automatically.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Slow down a sec.
Are you saying we could ditch the spreadsheets and have the computer count the fish for us?
That's exactly what I'm saying.
And it's not just about counting.
We could analyze the movements of entire schools, track their migration patterns, even identify individual fish if the resolution is good enough.
Wait, hold on.
Did you just say identify individual fish?
Like, from a video.
You bet.
It's totally doable, especially with all the advancements in AI and image recognition.
Think of those facial recognition systems they have for humans.
We could have something similar for our finned friends.
That's mind-blowing.
Although, gotta say, the ethical implications of that kind of tech are a whole other kettle of fish.
Oh, absolutely.
We pelicans gotta use these tools responsibly and be transparent about it.
But for now, let's focus on the incredible potential here.
Video scraping opens up a whole new world for analyzing visual data, even for us pelicans who are used to doing things, shall we say, a bit more organically.
It's like suddenly being able to see the ocean floor with perfect clarity.
After years of squinting through murky water, no more blurry data, just crystal clear insights.
That's the spirit.
And the best part.
Unlike those old-school data scraping methods that require you to be some kind of coding wizard, video scraping is shockingly user-friendly.
Yeah, no kidding.
I've dabbled in coding, and let's just say it's not my forte.
Give me a good spreadsheet over lines of code any day.
And that's totally fine.
Because with video scraping, all you really need is a screen recording and access to a tool like Google Gemini.
It's like the playing field's been leveled, you know.
Now even smaller Pelican newsrooms like ours, with our, shall we say, modest budgets and resources, can tap into this tech.
It's like we're giving a microphone to every Pelican journalist out there.
Regardless of their tech skills or budget, everyone deserves a shot at uncovering the big stories.
Exactly.
This isn't just about being faster or more efficient, although I'll never say no to that.
It's about making data analysis available to everyone.
It's about empowering anyone with a story to tell and the passion to dig into the data to uncover the truth.
This all sounds incredible, truly revolutionary stuff, but let's bring it back down to Earth for a moment and talk about what this means for our listeners, those eager beaks out there, hungry for knowledge.
What's the big takeaway here?
It's about empowerment.
We're talking about giving every Pelican, whether you're a seasoned journalist or just a curious soul, the tools to find stories hidden in plain sight.
Think about it.
How many times have we had to rely on someone else's data, waiting for some big research institute to release their findings on fish populations or ocean currents?
Oh, don't get me started.
I once had to put a whole expose on hold on illegal gillnet fishing, no less, because we were waiting on some pelican in a lab coat to send over their data.
Exactly.
Now imagine being able to gather that kind of information ourselves firsthand.
We could analyze footage from our own fishing expeditions, track the movements of tagged pelicans, even monitor those pesky algae blooms using drone footage.
So what you're saying is this isn't just some shiny new tool in our pelican toolbox.
It's a complete game changer, a paradigm shift in how we gather and understand the information.
Now you're getting it.
It's like we've been given a pair of superpowered spectacles, allowing us to see the data hidden within the world around us.
Amazing.
But it's not just for us journalists, right?
Absolutely not.
Think about the possibilities.
Imagine a pelican citizen journalist being able to analyze footage of a local council meeting, you know, really hold those pelicans in power accountable, or a pelican historian using video scraping to analyze old film reels, uncovering lost details about our pelican ancestors.
Wow.
The possibilities are truly endless.
Who knows what we'll find when we start looking at the world through a data-driven lens?
And the most exciting part is this is just the beginning.
As AI keeps evolving, who knows what other incredible ways we'll discover to turn those videos into valuable insights.
The future of data journalism is looking brighter than a school of silversides reflecting the morning sun.
Well said.
Until next time, keep those wings spread, those eyes sharp, and those minds open.
There's a whole ocean of data out there just waiting to be explored. .
Thank you.