Software: WordPress 3.4 released and available for install

June 13, 2012 by Douglas E. Welch

I try to take a moment each week to make it WordPress Wednesday on my web sites. This means I check for updates to themes, plugins and the WordPress software itself. Today I saw that WordPress has released their 3.4 update for all those self-hosting WordPress on their own web sites. Offering myself up as a guinea pig, I have installed it on one blog and all seems to be well

There are bug fixes, of course, but also a flurry of new features, although most mainly look like “under-the-hood” enhancements that will take a while to be adopted by the theme and plugin community. You can find a complete list of improvements on the WordPress web site and get an overview int he video below.

Download the latest version of WordPress here

Troubleshooting: Powerpress Plugin vs. PushPress Plugin – Disappearing podcast links

May 6, 2012 by Douglas E. Welch

I was having a difficult time releasing my latest gardening podcast last night. The PowerPress plugin I use from Blubrry.com was silly refusing to accept a podcast enclosure link. I could past in the URL of the media file, click verify to assure the file existed and press Update on the WordPress post, but once that complete the enclosure information would be gone. It was very frustrating.

I could see that the PowerPress plugin was working on my other blogs and even on past posts to the garden blog, so it looked like something that had changed recently. I try to keep all my WordPress plugins up-to-date to prevent malicious attacks on my blog, but it looks like this time an update had broken something else. In this case, an older plugin, unrelated to PowerPress itself, was the culprit.

After quite a long time trying various searches for an explanation, I finally came across this post — “PowerPress Media URLS keep vanishing” on the Blubrry.com Forums. It seems that the plugin PushPress was no longer compatible with newer versions of WordPress and it was interfering with the PowerPress plugin in some way. Sure enough, deactivating the PushPress plugin cleared up the problem and allowed me to, once again, post my podcasts.

I am posting this in hopes that if and when someone else runs into this problem, my post will be easier for them to find during their search for a solution.

Link: PowerPress plugin from Blubrry.com

News: Discovery Communications buys web video studio Revision 3

May 3, 2012 by Douglas E. Welch

An interesting acquisition, but I wonder what Discovery is getting out of the deal. Are they looking to do more web-based entertainment or are they basically hiring a bunch of web video talent to create new properties for Discovery or bolster their existing properties. Only time will tell. I wish them the best and hope that they can find a fit within Discovery.

Discovery Gets a Web Video Arm, Courtesy of Revision3

“…Here’s a proof point: Discovery Communications, parent of the Discovery Channel, has purchased Revision3, a Web video start-up that makes and distributes its own shows, like “Tekzilla” and “Epic Meal Time.”…”

Read the entire article at AllThingsD.com

Geek and Sundry Channel launches today! – April 2, 2012

April 2, 2012 by Douglas E. Welch

Update: I have already checked out a couple of the shows released from Geek and Sundry today.

Felicia Day’s “The Flog” was cute and gives out some good recommendations as well and a great segment on Blacksmithing. It is silly and fun. I look forward to seeing more of these.

Tabletop with Wil Wheaton looks interesting too. I need to set aside time to watch the compete show, but it is part talk show and part gaming show. Along with each episode are in-depth interviews with the guests from each show, which is a nice addition.

Check out Geek and Sundry and let me know what you think. I am looking forward to more from them and other YouTube Channel partners in the future!

—-

Ok, call me a geek (and many do) but there are several shows on this new channel that I would consider watching. I already watch the guild, of course, but the sizzle reel makes the other look really interesting too.

There is not a lot of info, but some of the shows listed and showing quick video snippets are Felicia Day’s The Guild, which already has a large following, Wil Wheaton’s Tabletop, which looks to be a show with celebrities playing various board games. (Which looked more interesting than it might sound), Dark Horse, which provide animated versions of indie comics, Written by a Kid, which looks like writers listening to kids tell a story and then they animate the story, and Sword & Laser, a science fiction and fantasy book review show.

It is hard to tell the exact focus of these shows from the short video, but I am subscribing to the YouTube Channel. It looks to be a very interesting lineup. The channel premieres April 2, 2012.

Geek and Sundry with Felicia Day, Wil Wheaton and More!

“The producers of “The Guild” bring you a diverse line-up featuring the very best of indie geek culture! — Coming April 2, 2012!”

Geek and Sundry with Felicia Day, Wil Wheaton and More! – New YouTube Channel

March 17, 2012 by Douglas E. Welch

It is hard to tell the exact focus of these shows from the short video, but I am subscribing to the YouTube Channel. It looks to be a very interesting lineup. The channel premieres April 2, 2012.

Geek and Sundry with Felicia Day, Wil Wheaton and More!

“The producers of “The Guild” bring you a diverse line-up featuring the very best of indie geek culture! — Coming April 2, 2012!”

YouTube Education uses New Media to spur lifetime learning

February 1, 2012 by Douglas E. Welch

Online education seems to be exploding of late and the biggest New Media powerhouse is helping to spread the message.

YouTube Education

Get more into learning

YouTube EDU brings learners and educators together in a global video classroom. On YouTube EDU, you have access to a broad set of educational videos that range from academic lectures to inspirational speeches and everything in between.

Come here for quick lessons from top teachers around the world, course lectures from top-tier universities, or inspiring videos to spark your imagination.

YouTube Education collect and organizes a wide variety of educational material for easy searching and watching. These include short lectures and demonstrations from teachers from all over the world and full college level seminars for this that really want to dive in.

Lifetime learning is a great use of New Media. It brings directly into your home, office and school information and education that was tied up in academic silos accessible only by a few. While you can’t get your degree online via YouTube Education, you can certainly improve your knowledge in whatever topic interest you most.

Link: YouTube Education

New Product: MicW iPhone/iPad Microphones

January 27, 2012 by Douglas E. Welch

MicW Professional Microphones

I had 2 separate friends mention these iPhone/iPad compatible microphones in the last several days. Both saw them at the manufacturers display at the MacWorld Expo that was held in San Francisco this week.

Portable devices are now capable of recording high quality audio, but sometimes you want a better mic, or more suitable microphone when out recording in the field.

I haven’t heard the quality of these mics, but my friends and the web site have certainly piqued my interest. I will see if I can get a demo model here at the Careers in New Media office so I can record some audio and share it with you.

For now, here is an audio sample using the i436 mic (picture below) from the company’s web site

Download i436 Violin Sample

[audio:http://www.mic-w.com/down.asp?f=uploadfile/i436%20violin.mp3]

Other samples from MicW web site

Elsewhere: YouTube’s got big plans for web TV: specialized channels with niche and original content

January 8, 2012 by Douglas E. Welch

I am so amazed it has taken this long for something like this to occur. I figured back in 2004 that podcasting would break open the media industry and provide a lot more alternatives to traditional, but media, programming. As they say, though, it can take a long time to turn a battleship. It is good to see some movement in this area, though.

It is important to remember that we do have alternatives to the typical programming provided by television, radio and movie producers. Where technological and monetary constraints kept the average person out of the media market, this simply isn’t the case today. Anyone can produce a show and, given enough experience and talent, can produce a show that is better, and has higher viewership than even the best cable-aired shows.

I have been advising people to use podcasting, YouTube and others to get their message out for the last 7 years and will continue to do so. We all have a unique message to offer the world and there will always be an audience, both large and small, that will find us, if we put our message out there.

YouTube’s got big plans for web TV: specialized channels with niche and original content

YouTube’s come quite a long way from its roots as a repository for random videos from the public. It’s gone from “Chocolate Rain” and the Tron guy to streaming Disney classics and now creating original, quality content.The New Yorker spoke extensively with YouTube’s Global Head of Content Robert Kyncl about the site’s future plans, and YouTube’s got its sights set on grabbing a big slice of TV’s $300 billion pie. Kyncl thinks the future of TV is in niche content, and YouTube’s original channels are just the vehicle to deliver it direct to your digital door. The site is commissioning people and companies to create the channels (as opposed to individual shows or pieces of content) which gives the creators freedom to program their channels as they see fit — all YouTube asks is that they provide a certain number of hours of programming per week. This production model is apparently pretty attractive to content producers, given the talent that’s on board and the amount of content that’ll be rolling out over the next six months.

Read the entire article

Voiceover class starts January 12, 2012 at UCLA Extension

January 6, 2012 by Douglas E. Welch

Our friend, Janet Wilcox, will be starting her UCLA Extension voiceover class again in just a week. If you are interested in getting started in the industry, this could be the class for you. I will be speaking to her class about New Media this session, as I have done in the past.

Class Description:

Pursuing a Career in Voice Overs

Do people say you have a wonderful voice? Gain a comprehensive understanding of the tools needed to excel in TV and radio commercials, animation, narration for documentaries, and other areas of voice over work. Instruction includes breath and microphone technique, script analysis, finding characters spontaneously, and how to keep it fun, even when the pressure’s on. Participants also learn how to pursue a career in voice over.

Janet Wilcox’s Bio

Writer, producer, and actor with extensive experience on both sides of the microphone. Ms. Wilcox has written and produced promos for HBO, ABC, and The History Channel, among others. As a voice over talent, she has been heard on Lifetime, HBO, E!, Cinemax, and AMC. She is the author of Voiceovers: Techniques and Tactics for Success.

WordPress 3.3.1 Security and Maintenance Release

January 4, 2012 by Douglas E. Welch

Just in time for WordPress Wednesday. Take some time to update your WordPress installs as well as your plugins.

WordPress 3.3.1 Security and Maintenance Release

Posted January 3, 2012 by Ryan Boren. Filed under Releases,Security.

WordPress 3.3.1 is now available. This maintenance release fixes 15 issues with WordPress 3.3, as well as a fix for a cross-site scripting vulnerability that affected version 3.3. Thanks to Joshua H., Hoang T., Stefan Zimmerman, Chris K. and the Go Daddy security team for responsibly disclosing the bug to our security team.

Download 3.3.1 or visit Dashboard → Updates in your site admin.

Start Your New Year Right with my eBook Discount

January 2, 2012 by Douglas E. Welch

Start Your New Year Right with my eBook Discount

The New Year is always a great time to rededicate yourself to old projects and start new ones. Don’t consider them resolutions, but rather a re-lauch of your most important projects!

As my part in helping you with that endeavor, my Kindle eBooks are now on sale for 2 weeks only. Usually $4.99, both Cultivating Your Career Reputations and Social Media Self Preservation are now only $2.99 unitil January 15th, 2011.

* Kindle books are readable on almost any computer platform including Windows, Macintosh, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android smartphones and tablets. Download the free Kindle Reader software

Wishing You A Very Productive New Year in 2012!

All About Douglas – Choosing what you want to see and hear

December 25, 2011 by Douglas E. Welch

I have a lot of interests, as most of you already know. Therefore, I have a lot of different blogs, events, and groups in my portfolio of online engagements. I also try to make myself available wherever people want to converse. This means that each of my interests usually has multiple presences on the Internet.

Here is a list of almost all of the ways you can talk with me and learn about what is happening in my life and work. You don’t need to, nor should you, try to subscribe to all of them. That would only lead to you seeing multiple copies of the same information. Rather, pick and choose whatever ways you would like to consume my “content.”

If you are a heavy Facbeook user, you might want to join my pages there. Is Google+ catching your fancy? I have a home over there, too. Maybe email is your thing? No problem, almost all of my content can be emailed directly to your Inbox. My goal is to make my content available in whatever way makes the most sense to you. It also means you can contact me and converse with me on your favorite online services.

This list is also broken down by interest. If you want to see everything I post and share, the first section is where you can find it. This will contain information from all my areas of interest including events, careers, gardening, technology and my organizations. Maybe, though, you are only interested in my gardening information. You can narrow your reading to my gardening blog or Facebook page. The same applies for careers, technology and my organizations. Select whatever is most interesting, and valuable, to you.

Thank you for supporting me, my blogs and podcasts and my organization of the years! I look forward to talking with you — and sharing more with you — in 2012.

Event: 6th Annual Live Reading of A Christmas Carol – Dec 18, 2011

December 12, 2011 by Douglas E. Welch

E-Book PDF: Open in New Window | Download (234.0KB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Our 6th Annual LIVE Reading of Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol will take place on Sunday, December 18, 2011 at 6pm EST/3pm PST.

Our annual holiday reading of this classic Dickens’ story. We bring together frends and family to read sections from a condensed version of the story — said to be made by Charles Dickens himself — for his own live, public readings. Follow Scrooge, Bob Crachit, Tiny Tim and all the familiar characters as they both teach and learn what Christmas is all about.

Tune in while you prepare your Christmas cookies or wrap your Christmas presents. Join the “spirits” of the season!

Click Here to Watch/Listen Live to A Christmas Carol

Consider having your own reading of A Christmas Carol, or other favorite story, as a way to gather friends together and share a unique experience. You don’t have to broadcast it like we do, but why not share it with the world!

This year’s show is sponsored by WelchWrite.com, Eclipse-1 Media and New Media Interchange.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Enjoy more Christmas Carol in your own home!

Free download of “A Christmas Carol” – Text/ePub/HTML/Kindle versions available

Free download of our reading script of “A Christmas Carol” – PDF format

The audio CD of Patrick Stewart’s one man version of A Christmas Carol is absolutely amazing. We saw the show several times here in LA and met Patrick one evening. His version of “A Christmas Carol” was the driving factor in starting our own yearly reading of the story.

More “A Christmas Carol” on Amazon.com

Are you using Google+? Check it out!

November 7, 2011 by Douglas E. Welch

I have been using Google+, the new social network from Google, for several weeks now. In light of by usual advice regarding social networks, I would encourage you to go check it out. As someone who is interested/involved in using social media, it is important to keep an eye on what is happening in the “industry.” Checking out new social media services should be something you do on a regular basis. It doesn’t mean you will find every site useful to you or your work, but it will allow you to take quick advantage of those services that offer you some benefit.

The truth is, we often don’t know which sites will be useful to use until we sign up and use them for a short period of time. I abandon far more services than i use on a daily basis, but I still believe it is important to be aware of those services and how some may become important into the future. You might not have a direct use for them now, but changes in life and business might suddenly bring them to the fore.

So, head over to Google+ (familiarly known as G+) and get started. You probably already have an account to use there if you use any of the other Google services like Gmail, Google Calendar or YouTube.

You’ll find me on Google+ here at my profile.

Note: Today you will see a ton of messages about the new Brand pages that G+ opened up just this morning. Things should settle down to a more usual volume and type of traffic as the day goes on. Don’t let all the Brands scare you away.

eBook: Social Media Self Preservation (Kindle) by Douglas E. Welch

September 28, 2011 by Douglas E. Welch

My first Kindle-format eBook is now available on Amazon.

The great thing is that is doesn’t require a Kindle to read. You can get free Kindle software for nearly any device (Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, Blackberry) and read the book there.

Please share this with your friends using the email and social media icons below.

Description:

Social Media Self Preservation: Taking advantage of social media without losing your mind

7100 Words

Price: $4.99

Using social media as part or business or personal life can seem overwhelming and fraught with pitfalls. There is a way, though, to make the best use of social media without falling into the traps of lost privacy and social media burnout.

This guide explains what you need to know as you start your journey into social media and how to make social media productive for you.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Why Social Media?
Chapter 1: Which social networks should you join?
- Be Found!
- Reserving your name
- A few social networks to get you started
Chapter 2: How to decide who to include in your online community
- It is all about value
- Where to begin building your online community?
Chapter 3: Maintaining your online community
- Re-evaluation
- No longer needed
- People Change
- Too much information
- Information you can find elsewhere
Chapter 4: What to share online
- Share your knowledge and expertise
- Share your work
- …but my work is secret!
- Share your life
- Balance in your social media sharing

Project: Videos for UCLA Extension Writers’ Program Publication Party

June 27, 2011 by Douglas E. Welch

We just completed a project for the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program where we recorded their annual Publication Party and then created videos for each of the speakers which could then be used on their instructor information pages as well as on YouTube for the world to see.

This is a great way to promote your projects and events and you can and should do the same. Capture the content you are already creating and share it with the world!

Watch this video and others from the Publication Party on YouTube

My wife, Rosanne, and I have worked as instructors for UCLA Extension for many years so when this even was scheduled they came to us knowing that we worked in New Media. Rosanne, has taught television writing and together we have taught “Podcasting and New Media for Writers” both online and as a 1-day workshop on the UCLA campus.

I was out of town on another project during this event, so Rosanne acted as the on-site producer and our good friend, Liam Johnson (@editorliam) handled the shooting and the editing of the final videos. If you are looking for an editor for your project, I highly recommend Liam. He is quite creative and dedicated.

You can find all the videos on the UCLA YouTube channel (you will need to scroll down a bit to find the videos), as related videos to the one embedded above or on the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program Instructor Bio Pages.

Careers in New Media

Helping to Build New Careers in New Media

Category Archives: News

Software: WordPress 3.4 released and available for install

Troubleshooting: Powerpress Plugin vs. PushPress Plugin – Disappearing podcast links

News: Discovery Communications buys web video studio Revision 3

Geek and Sundry Channel launches today! – April 2, 2012

Geek and Sundry with Felicia Day, Wil Wheaton and More! – New YouTube Channel

YouTube Education uses New Media to spur lifetime learning

New Product: MicW iPhone/iPad Microphones

Elsewhere: YouTube’s got big plans for web TV: specialized channels with niche and original content

Voiceover class starts January 12, 2012 at UCLA Extension

WordPress 3.3.1 Security and Maintenance Release

WordPress 3.3.1 Security and Maintenance Release

Start Your New Year Right with my eBook Discount

Start Your New Year Right with my eBook Discount

Wishing You A Very Productive New Year in 2012!

All About Douglas – Choosing what you want to see and hear

Event: 6th Annual Live Reading of A Christmas Carol – Dec 18, 2011

Project: Videos for UCLA Extension Writers’ Program Publication Party