Please join me for the first meeting of New Media Interchange on Wed, May 28, 2008 at 7pm
The location is Panera Bread in Studio City
Ventura Boulevard (map)
about 4.30 miles away
12131 Ventura Boulevard
Studio City, CA 91604
(818) 762-2226 | phone
(818) 762-5566 | fax
They have several good space indoors, a large patio and free Wifi.
There is a constant fight in New Media to rise above people’s preconceptions about what New Media is. Often they think it is ugly, cheap and stupid. One way to defeat this myth is to constantly be locating and showing high-quality New Media content.
In that regard, here are 2 sites that always have the highest production values and great content.
…and…
Mark Bittman, a k a The Minimalist, deconstructs quiche for a delicious breakfast treat.
I came across this FREE service, TubeMogul (http://www.tubemogul.com/), thanks to a Twitter message from TanjaB (http://twitter.com/tanjab), who was attending the Digital Hollywood Conference.
Getting your video productions out to a wide variety of web sites increases your exposure and can help to drive traffic to your web site and advertising revenue.
TubeMogul will take your video and allow you to submit it to 15 different video sites with a few clicks, including the appropriate title, description and keywords.
You need to visit each site at least once to set up your account and profile, but then you enter that login information to TubeMogul and it can submit new videos directly from its interface. As an added bonus, the site also allows you to track all your videos, on all the services in once central location.
Just a note to say that New Media Interchange is growing every day and we would love to have you.
My main goal is to bring folks from traditional media and new media together so we can all benefit. I think that we each have information and skills that others can use.
You can become involved with New Media Interchange by joining our mailing list at:
http://groups.google.com/group/newmediainterchange
and visiting our wiki at:
http://newmediainterchange.pbwiki.com/
The wiki has a Skills Bank page where you can list your skills so others can find the information that they need.
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Check out this latest version of Mortgages Made Simple. Our lender offered to refinance us at a lower interest rate for no cost. It can happen to you, too. — Douglas
Loan Modifications, Do they really happen – April 25, 2008
Loan Modifications have become a hot topic lately due to the subprime crisis, but are they the proverbial leprechaun with a pot of gold, or that elusive shooting star? We actually know two people that were offered incredible loan modifications from their lender. 
The interesting thing in both cases was neither were subprime borrowers and both were contacted by their lender. And one was our Co-host/producer. We’ll tell you their stories and….
If you’re not feeling so lucky, you can contact your lender and ask for a loan modification. With a lot of persistence you can get it done. For a brief list of lenders who are more likely to help you out please email us.
The folks at CommonCraft.com have done it again. An excellent video which explains podcasting in a few minutes.
I will be producing a LIVE re-broadcast of a concert by our friend, Andrea Louise, tomorrow (Saturday) at 12 Noon PDT. We are hosting a LIVE chat via uStream while we and the fans watch the show from tape.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/andrea-louise-live
or watch directly from here, using the video player and chat room below.
You can purchase Andrea’s CD, So Far, direct from CDBaby.com
I am looking to launch yet another meetup (Oh Noes!) , but one in an area I don’t think is currently being served in LA. I want to bring together New Media Tech folks like Flash animators, podcasters, videobloggers,etc together with creative and entertainment types like writers, actors and directors so that we can share information on producing New Media.
This idea grows out of my Podcasting and New Media for Writers class that I teach for the UCLA Extension. I have had a really good time with that class as it focuses on “doing.” We talk as much about the creative side of the New Media as we do the tech and everyone has something to bring to the table. At the end of the class, everyone has produced and released the first episode of their production, ready to continue as long as they wish
While there is a social element to all meetups, I want to focus on the Interchange of ideas and sharing real world, useful information that we each need to know. I imagine a “5-minute meeting” where you can ask a pressing question and provide a great resource (web site, book, person, etc) to share with the group. Then we can break up and discuss whatever we wish.
If there is already something like this, please let me know. If you are interesting in the New Media Interchange, contact me directly at douglas@welchwrite.com. If there is enough interest, I will find a venue and start to select a date.
Link: New Media Interchange Google Group Mailing List
Link: New Media Interchange Wiki
Chris Brogan writes a long blog post explaining why the next PodCamp Boston will require a $50 registration fee.Unfortunately, this is only the biggest in a long line of “unconferences” that are turning from a community-driven, open access event into a closed, money-making conference. Here is my response which I posted as a comment to his blog.
Well, this certainly puts the stake in the whole “unconference” philosophy. Once again we see how something great is eventually turned into a money-making enterprise that serves the few instead of the many. I have been fighting this same battle with nearly every tech event here in LA.So $35K for an unconference? This is absolutely ridiculous. No one says there has to be breakfast, coffee, snacks, lunch, dinner, free beer at an unconference. We are there to converse and learn. If the price of these items to so onerous, simply don’t provide them. Ask people to bring something to share, bring water, etc. That fact is, we have come to see an unconference as a big party, with all the associated accoutrement and the price keeps going up. Give us space, intelligent people and a few borrowed projectors and we will have a conference. The rest is absolutely superfluous.Maybe if we turned it into less of a party, fewer people would flake out on it, since fewer people would sign up to begin with. Size is the curse of an unconference and Boston PodCamp clearly proves that. Strip it to the bare, and useful, parts and a PodCamp will shine. Overload it with fees, food and flakes and it dies, crushed under its own weight.
I have been talking for a while about how podcasting can help to promote sales of books and it seems some authors are starting to get on the podcast bus.
I love The Splendid Table with Lynne Rossetto Kasper, but I found I was rarely around a radio when it aired. As podcasting started, I found myself wishing that more shows would podcast after air, simply so I could enjoy them. Well, The Splendid Table crew started to podcast a few months ago and I am an avid listener. I have to imagine that their listenership jumped dramatically once folks could listen on their own terms.
Now, Kasper and producer, Sally Swift have created a book entitled The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper. (Available April 8, 2008) More importantly for this blog, they have also started a podcast to accompany the book. The first episode is casual and comfortable and discusses topics expanded on in the book.What a great way to expand their exposure, starting first with their loyal listeners of the radio show, and then branching out to a whole new audience via podcast.
What a great way to take one audience and bring it over to an entirely new product. Every author should be doing this regardless of whether they are writing a cookbook, novel, short stories, essays, whatever. Of course, writers often tell me “oh, my readers aren’t interested in what I have to say outside my books.”…and they’re wrong. People love insight and insiders knowledge. They would love to hear how you came up with the idea for the book, the basis of the characters, and your trials and tribulations while writing it. Writers shouldn’t sell themselves short. There are people interested in them and their work, even they only reached out and engaged them.
If you are creating anything, you should seriously consider creating a companion podcast. If you could have your own personal television of radio station, dedicated to your products — why wouldn’t you? This is exactly what you have in podcasting.
Here is a perfect example of what I was talking about earlier when I said that all authors and booksellers should be recording their talks and presenting them on their web sites and podcasts.
Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, presents a talk on the ideas in his latest book at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Harvard made a point of recording the talk and released it on their web site and via podcast. Shirky was then able, through no extra effort of his own, to re-post the video to his own site.
Harvard wins. Shirky wins. The publisher wins. We win, since we can see a talk we would have been unable to see otherwise.
Last week I wrote an essay on how booksellers and authors could make great use of new media to help get their message out. The first step in the process is to simply capture the content they are already creating each time they host a book reading in their store. In that regard, I am looking for booksellers who might be interested in having me in to record their readings so that I can share them via a dedicated web site.
In that regard, I am looking for booksellers who might be interested in having me in to record their readings so that I can share them via a dedicated web site.
I would start here in Los Angeles, but I can foresee accepting media from all over the country (and the world) into a larger system broken down by location, genre, etc.
So, now I am looking for my first partner in this endeavor. Are you a bookseller who regularly hosts author readings in your store? Are you an author has an upcoming reading in the Los Angeles area? Do you already have audio or video content of a reading that you would like to share? If so, drop me a line in the comments below or send an email to douglas@welchwrite.com.
As the economy started its recent downward slide, the overall mood of the country (and the Internet) has turned dark, too. This is only to be expected, of course, but it can bring about an even more insidious problem. It can cause your most important lessons and messages to be buried beneath the weight of negativity. In most cases, you might not recognize this is occurring, but your audience most certainly will.
The danger of continued negativity was brought home this week when I noticed that two of my favorite tech info sources seemed to be falling into a deep hole. Their blog posts and Twitter messages took on a darker and cynical tone. Nothing, it seemed, pleased them. Sure, there was an occasional gem buried among the doom and gloom, but it was becoming difficult to find the insight among the complaining. Even worse, I was wondering if it was even worth the trouble of looking for them.
…when you are addressing an issue, you must try to provide some possible solutions. Otherwise you’re simply complaining.
Let me be clear. I don’t recommend putting on a Pollyanna face and pretending all is sunshine and lollipops. Facing issues is the only way to solve them. Rather, when you are addressing an issue, you must try to provide some possible solutions. Otherwise you’re simply complaining. Further, these solutions should be a the forefront of your writing, posting or Twittering. Dwelling on an issue and then throwing out a possible solution at the end has little effect, even if your solution is top notch. It can’t counter the overwhelming bad feeling you have established.
On a related note, it is important to monitor the tone of your micro-blogging, using services like Twitter and Pownce. When quickly dashing off message after message, you can miss the overall town you are giving to your readers and followers. It is very easy to develop a reputation for cynicism, or downright meanness, as people start to see your messages as part of a whole. You might only think of them as small, individual message, but anyone reviewing a page of your posts sees the overall tone. If you want to gain a better understanding of how your are presenting yourself, you need to look back over your archived messages and view them as someone who had never heard from you before. What would they think of the person, and the message, related in those posts?
Problems, errors and omissions need to be addressed, but if you aren’t providing solutions…if your messages aren’t providing hope above scorn…you are likely to be branded as a simple curmudgeon. This damages you, your message and limits the impact we so all desire.
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This is the audio from my talk A Year of Visibility at BarCampLA-5 on March 1, 2008. The audio quality here is slightly better than the video segment, as I was using my lavaliere mics.
Listen: A Year of Visibility
Last Wednesday night, I went to a friend’s book reading at the Barnes and Noble nearby in Encino. Unlike a typical attendee, though, I made a point of talking to our friend and asking if he had thought about recording, and then podcasting, his reading. In fact, he had not, but quickly thought it would be a great idea. So, with camcorder and MP3 recorder in tow, I captured the entire 30+ minute event. We will be doing some light editing on the content and then releasing it on his web site, and probably mine.
Now, this begs the question…why aren’t more bookstores recording their readings and then letting this content build awareness of their store and the services they provide? They are scheduling these readings anyway, so how much more work is required to capture the content?
Not much really. A small audio recorder and an average camcorder are all you need. Sure, they might have to find someone to output the audio and video into MP3 and MP4 formats for the web, but I am guessing that they all know someone who can do that, even if they haven’t yet learned themselves.
What do they have to gain from capturing this content? Let me count the ways!
A lot of these benefits also effect other organizations and companies, so you are sure to see something similar in future examples. Every individual, every company and every non-profit can find some way in which podcasting can enhance their work, build their profits and get their message out to the world.
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Douglas speaks on Podcasting Now! at BarCampLA-5 on March 2, 2008.
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I didn’t take a lot of pictures at today/yesterday’s Lunch 2.0 meetup. I think I was too busy talking with folks. I met a lot of great people, as always.
Since the location was downtown, right across the street from the Central Library, I took the Orange Line to the Red Line and exited at 7th Street/Metro station. A couple of blocks walk and I was there. I have known for years that the best way to go downtown is on the subway. (SMILE)
A few more photos below…
