Jun 24
Posted: under Blogging, Blogs, Digital Migration, Mobile Uploads, Online (Multi)Media.
Tags: Audio MIT media
Here’s a short audio file i recorded at the close of the Civic Media conference this week at MIT. I’d like to add my own thanks to the sentiments expressed herein; thus was a fabulous antidote to the general malaise afflicting so many of our traditional media brethren… http://audioboo.fm/boos/395702-final-thoughts-and-thanks-at-civic-media-conference-at-mit-media-lab [...more]
Here’s a short audio file i recorded at the close of the Civic Media conference this week at MIT. I’d like to add my own thanks to the sentiments expressed herein; thus was a fabulous antidote to the general malaise afflicting so many of our traditional media brethren…
http://audioboo.fm/boos/395702-final-thoughts-and-thanks-at-civic-media-conference-at-mit-media-lab
Jun 12
Posted: under Mobile Uploads, Mobile Web Design, New Media and Politics, Politix, Web/Tech.
Tags: mobile web, politics, QR code, town hall
This got written up in the Congressional Quarterly; considering that the constituents in Cal-33 overindex for mobile web use, this is a real stroke of genius. After the meeting was over, I helped at least 3 people load the QR reader software onto their phones so they could take advantage of this… IF QR codes [...] [...more]
This got written up in the Congressional Quarterly; considering that the constituents in Cal-33 overindex for mobile web use, this is a real stroke of genius. After the meeting was over, I helped at least 3 people load the QR reader software onto their phones so they could take advantage of this…
IF QR codes are starting to cross over into political messaging like this, does that mean that they’re finally going to make the jump from gimmicks on soft-drink cartons to something that’s actually useful in our daily lives? I know that they’ve done the “BoomSplat” at least two times in the last four years, since I first started studying them as part of the case study I did on mobile advertising for the NAA. Part of that is the hucksterism of some of their more ardent proponents, who have harebrained schemes like affixing QR codes to every object of note in an urban environment, all in service to the concept of providing “historical context” to the objects we encounter every day. Which sounds like a really great stoner-grade dorm room concept, but which breaks down right about the time that a muffler shop owner gives you the Louisville Slugger shampoo for slapping what looks like graffiti on his store.
Jul 06
Posted: under Mobile Uploads, Travel.
Tags: London, Thames River, tourist shot, uploaded from iPhone
Dave at the Tower Bridge, originally uploaded by Wordyeti. Walking around London, I was struck by how much I recognized from old episodes of Dr. Who and Monty Python. Also, by the helpful little painted warnings at every intersection, warning the no-doubt “thick as two planks Yanks” to look in the proper direction for oncoming [...] [...more]
Walking around London, I was struck by how much I recognized from old episodes of Dr. Who and Monty Python. Also, by the helpful little painted warnings at every intersection, warning the no-doubt “thick as two planks Yanks” to look in the proper direction for oncoming traffic.
It was quite chilly in the morning when I began my stroll around the Old City; by the time this picture was taken, I had been walking for more than eight hours, and my feet were throbbing. Still, the blue sky and fleecy clouds were so cheerful that I almost discounted all the griping and grousing that the Fleet Streeters had always filled my ears with, when justifying their move to L.A.
Jul 06
Posted: under Digital Migration, journalism, Mobile Uploads, new media, Online Video, Travel.
Tags: certificates, frustration, Georgia, group shot, Premiere Elements 8, State Department, students, Tbilisi, video training, YouTube
Tbilisi Journalist Graduation, originally uploaded by Wordyeti. These are the journalists from the smaller cities & towns outside of Tbilisi, Georgia. They’re all grinning happily, because they’ve managed to survive my intense one-week course, where I set them all up with their own blogs, and then sent them into the field to shoot, edit and [...] [...more]
These are the journalists from the smaller cities & towns outside of Tbilisi, Georgia. They’re all grinning happily, because they’ve managed to survive my intense one-week course, where I set them all up with their own blogs, and then sent them into the field to shoot, edit and post online news videos.
A crucial part of every learning process is making mistakes. They learned not to try to take on too ambitious a project when using makeshift multimedia tools. I learned not to use Adobe’s Premiere Elements 8. That has got to be the buggiest video editing system ever inflicted on an unsuspecting public. I use Premiere Pro all the time and love the rest of Adobe’s various iterations of the Creative Suites … but Elements is Satan on a CD. My students were throwing their headsets across the room in frustration as it crashed … lost work … necessitated a hard reboot of the system … crashed again … corrupted the footage … (rinse, repeat).
I finally installed Sony’s Vegas Video on their systems; not as user-friendly for beginners as the “Grandma-ware” that Elements is known as … but it at least would make a J-cut or an L-cut without locking up the system. Unfortunately, Vegas Video wouldn’t import the footage from the Flip cameras with the audio attached. So we had to export the audio tracks from Premiere, and then import them into Vegas and sync the audio with the visuals.
I was told that this was actually a quite valuable experience, because real-world conditions for indie journalists in Georgia are pretty much like this. Working on cobbled-together secondhand equipment in sweltering offices, where the electrical power is subject to sporadic outages. And when the wind shifts to blow in over the nearby market … well, you want to close the windows, no matter how hot & humid it is.
I just noticed – my arms look inordinately long in this photo.
