<p>Throughout the ages, communication has been a necessary driving force in the evolution of mankind as a species. We created language when we needed to interact with each other. We further created letters, telephone and then television to interact with each other bypassing the restrictions imposed by distance. The response lag started diminishing and soon with the advent of internet and emails we completely eliminated the factor of response lag from communication.<br><br>However, so far we had only conquered the aural or textual forms of conversation. Admittedly the visual medium was well represented with the invention of television but not a lot had been done to cut down the response lag from the visual mediums of communication. This would prove to be a major roadblock in the path of true connectivity and would continue to puzzle a lot of great minds until the late 80s when the computer systems became powerful enough to stream media and we had enough bandwidth to transmit media across the channels.<br><br>Enter live streaming, the earliest widespread example of live streaming is from 1993 when 'Severe Tire Damage' became the first band to perform live on the internet. Nearly two years later a baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners became the first game to be live streamed on the internet. Ever since then, continuous breakthroughs were made in the field and soon the entire world became completely comfortable with the concept of streaming media on their home systems.<br><br>Entering the new millennium, when streaming media was busy trying to become a mainstay at our homes and offices, another technology was busy making a lot of buzz. Mobile phones, while existing since the 80s had suddenly burst into the public conscience due to slashed prices and advent of new technology. Nearly everything was going mobile. Our gadgets started growing smaller in size and becoming more portable starting with laptops, moving on mobiles and most recently tablets. Every technology that had been created up until that point had to be altered to these platforms. Live streaming suddenly took a back seat for some time while the world rushed to capture everything mobile.<br><br>It was around 2002 that live streaming started picking up in earnest again. Flash player had just become mainstream making it easier for people by having a common architecture for streaming content. Soon companies like Livestream and Ustream sprung up within a few years offering dedicated live streaming solutions on PC and laptops. Mobile live streaming on the other hand, was a market still left untouched mostly due to hardware restrictions.<br><br>Mobile live streaming was a market which picked up in the current decade thanks to players like Meerkat, Periscope, YouNow, and InstaLively. A lot of other players like Livenow, Twitch and others are entering the market from different verticals as well. Mobile live streaming is based on a simple concept. You see something shareable, instead of clicking picture or taking videos, which would be asynchronous method of transfer, you just livestream it to your audience. All the above mentioned apps are doing a great job of it.<br><br>With just a click of a button now, you can go live anywhere in the world. Just as simply, you can find anything you want to watch on these apps or online. The performances at the iTunes festival are streamed live from London every year for everyone to watch. Features like Live Chat make livestreams even more interesting because not only can the world watch these events together but talk about it over chat which brings a sense of community.<br><br>Meerkat made a big impact at the SXSW Music Festival in Texas, as people from around the world had the ability to watch what was happening through the lens of onsite attendees. This is what makes streaming events unique, rather than posting your feelings and experience as you would do on Twitter or Facebook, you can provide a window into what you are truly experiencing in real time. InstaLively is the first app to allow inline sharing of streams on Twitter and Facebook which means you gather a wider audience for your stream. Those who miss out can watch is later, most live streaming apps like Periscope and InstaLively have such a feature.<br><br><em>The author, Prakhar Khanduja, is Co Founder, InstaLively</em></p>
