Call me psychic but I’m pretty sure you’ll all be aware of the royal wedding taking place on Friday morning. Prince William and Kate Middleton are getting married, and the event is being streamed live online. Will the Internet be able to cope?

Kate and William Royal Wedding

Prince William of Wales is marrying Kate Middleton (officially known as Catherine) on Friday April 29 in a ceremony set to begin at 10 am BST and last until around 2pm BST. Whether you personally are interested in seeing the nuptials taking place and all the surrounding hubbub, a significant proportion of the population is.

Hundreds of television channels around the world are showing the royal wedding live, but the event is also being streamed in full online. The official YouTube channel of the Royal Family is hosting the full ceremony, as is the NDN, and any other website which has paid the asking price to embed the feed.

In all, around 2 billion people are expected to watch the royal wedding between William and Kate, with 400 million of those estimated to be doing so on the Web. Which begs the question: Will the Internet with the bandwidth demands?

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The latest royal wedding, between Prince William, second in line to the throne behind his father Charles, and Kate Middleton, is taking place on Friday, April 29.

For the first time in history, a royal wedding is being live streamed on the Internet, and with a little help from YouTube we’ll all be able to watch Kate and William tying the knot.

The Royal Wedding Streaming Live

The Royal Family have had a presence on YouTube for over three years now, with the Queen and her clan having posted hundreds of videos of events and speeches in that time. But the royal wedding between Kate and William calls for something altogether more ambitious.

As announced on the Official Royal Wedding Blog, the wedding will be live streamed on YouTube on The Royal Channel. Google has produced “a live stream ‘gadget’” which will air from 10am until 2pm on the big day. That means the journey to and from Westminster Abbey, the balcony appearance, fly past, and of course, the ceremony itself, will all be aired live on the Web.

The live video stream will be accompanied by a commentary on Twitter, and additional clips, photographs, and links.

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The chances are you didn’t attend Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. The chances are you were watching it on television instead or, as many people did, watching the live stream on the Web.

Sanity And/Or Fear

There have been a number of political rallies of late, mostly by people on the right-wing, with the Tea Party in particular managing to get millions of people out to Washington DC to show their support for a certain kind of politics.

But this was different, this was the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, and it was designed to bring people from all sides of the political spectrum together to show that they can unite for the greater good. Possibly.

250,000 people actually showed up to the rally led by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, but million watched at home, many on the Internet.

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Persuasive Online Video is the world’s first class dedicated to using web video to influence and change behavior.

It was born out of the Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab based near Silicon Valley and was founded by BJ Fogg and Enrique Allen in the Spring of 2009.

The education takes the form of a series of winter workshops (open to the public for a fee – see below) and a follow up Stanford class in the Spring, with the aim of furthering research into the intersection of the online video industry and academic innovation.

The methods and metrics for changing behavior using online video are the core concepts of the course.

A Persuasive Online Video Assignment in Action

The example video below is an assignment from the class where students picked a controversial cause to promote, and then utilized online video to spread the message:

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U2 are a hugely popular group with fans from every part of the world, many of whom will never get to see the band live. But YouTube is offering those fans the chance to experience the next best thing - live streaming of their California gig this Sunday (Oct. 25).

Live Streaming

Live streaming video is an everyday occurrence on the Web these days, with lifecasting sites such as Justin.tv, UStream, and Livestream (formerly known as Mogulus) offering everyone the chance to air an event to the wider world.

Last month saw Livestream launch Livepack, which includes all the kit required to film and stream live events such as weddings, graduations, and concerts. And all in a compact enough size to fit in a backpack.

U2 On YouTube

While that is a brilliant innovation, live streaming of big events is still a relatively rare treat for Internet users. I’m talking about rock concerts from big, well-known bands. Like for instance, I don’t know, U2.

Which is exactly who is lined up for a live streaming event on YouTube this coming weekend. As the video below previews, YouTube will live stream U2’s sold-out gig at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in California this Sunday.

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Michael Jackson’s memorial service and public funeral will take place at 10am on Tuesday, July 7. It’s expected to be one of the biggest media events to have ever taken place. And the event will be available to watch via live, online video streams, with smartphones such as the Apple iPhone making mobile viewing possible.

Michael Jackson died after suffering a cardiac arrest on June 25, 2009. Attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. His death has prompted an outpouring of emotion not seen for many years, probably since Princess Diana died in 1997.

His death, and the reaction of people around the world to it, has been well documented by online video. First, there was the reaction videos, then tribute videos popped up, and continue to do so even now, ten days after his death. There was also the shockingly sad footage of Jacko rehearsing for his This Is It tour just two days before he died.

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The annual tennis championships at Wimbledon in London, England yesterday, and for the third year in a row, all the action is available online to either stream live or download later.

Unfortunately it isn’t free. The cost is £12.90 for UK residents or $24.99 for those elsewhere. This does however buy you an all access pass to every match and all the highlights for the duration of the tournament.

Windows Only Yet Again

Once again though, Apple Mac and Linux users miss out, with a computer running a Windows OS among the system requirements for the service. This is obviously down to the DRM issues involved.