Earlier this week, I gave the new video-streaming platform Meerkat some major love—but hinted that there’s a chance we may not be using it in the long run.

The reason? Twitter already has a competitor in wait: Periscope.

The app, which launched Thursday for iOS, promises to bring real-time web-streaming to the masses just like Meerkat does.

“Watching a broadcast isn’t a passive experience like television,” the app developers wrote in a Medium post. “On Periscope, viewers influence the broadcaster by sending messages, and expressing their love by tapping the screen to send hearts.”

If you’re skeptical about the chances that Twitter could walk into this space and put up a good fight, it’s understandable. However, it’s worth keeping in mind that Twitter has already launched a successful secondary offering. Vine has been a valuable tool in the social media toolkit since its launch in early 2013.

Talking Empathy

http://twitter.com/bigmoth/status/581380631009050624

“It’s no longer enough for a conference to have a call for speaker proposals to select speakers and topics. We’ve got to understand the most pressing issues that our target customers face. We’ve got to walk in their shoes to identify their current needs and help them find solutions.”

Velvet Chainsaw Consulting’s Jeff Hurt is always trying to improve the conference experience—a topic that drives some of his more passionate blog posts into interesting directions. That includes his latest one, where he talks about the value of design empathy in fulfilling conference needs.

Hurt emphasizes that event planners should stop focusing on the logistics of event planning and more on the people attending the event.

“In human-centered design, we put people in the center of the process,” Hurt noted. “This is where design empathy blossoms.” (ht @bigmoth)

Other Links of Note

Have five minutes? Don’t let them fade away. Over on Frank J. Kenny’s website, guest blogger Christina Green suggests capitalizing on those moments to build quick engagement.

If you’re an Evernote user, it might be tough to remember all the stuff you have in your many files. But the new app Reflect could help by turning your many files into flashcards.

Dig YouTube? You might dig it even more after taking a gander at this YouTube toolbox infographic on SocialFish.

(Twitter)