Question: What is streaming?

Answer:
Streaming across the Web or the Internet has been growing in popularity for a few years, but in 2020, because of the pandemic, became very popular. I expect that it will continue to be used widely but not quite as much once we get the coronavirus under control.
Streaming is where you are sending a live transmission (or signal) across the Internet carting voice and video of what is going on right now. It is live so what you see is what is occurring.
This has meant that church services could be broadcast across the Internet without people needing to be at the church. Classes can be taught to students at home from teachers who may be at home or either of them could be other places. Although streaming is mainstream now, on back several years I have streamed class sessions to my students when I was sometimes somewhere well away from the campus or my house, like being at the national BB match in Arkansas or the Kiwanis convention in Paris, France.
Streaming is quite often done using social media as many of them have made the service available there. However, people can do streaming using other services. Popular places that streaming occurs include Facebook and YouTube. When you do the communication services like Zoom, TEAMS, WebEx you are using similar services of the Internet.

Streaming does require a lot of resource through the Internet as it is live video, and video is large. Improvements have had to be made on the Internet with ISPs, and the senders have had to make sure their equipment and connection speed can handle the heavy traffic.
Most of the streaming services will record the stream also so that then people can watch and listen later. Things like church services - this is great as now you are not time bound on when you can watch, and if the service is special to you, you can tell others, and they can still watch.
Streaming has been a wonderful tool to help us stay in touch when we are distancing ourselves for health. It will continue as things improve so those unable to attend events can now still see (and they will expect it), and the rest of us who can gather can and be the social creatures we are.
Send your questions about computers to Dwight Watt via e-mail at dwight@dwightwatt.com and tell him that you read this in this paper. He will pick a question to answer each week.
Dwight Watt does computer work for businesses, individuals and organizations and teaches about computers at a college in northwest Georgia. His webpage is www.dwightwatt.com. His e-mail address is dwight@dwightwatt.com.