PodCamp Boston to charge $50 for admission

April 15, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

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.

Follow the great on-going discussion here

Perfect Example: The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper

April 3, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

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.

Perfect Example: Book reading/talk by Clay Shirky

March 26, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

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.

Link: Book Talk at Harvard’s Berkman Center

New Project: LA Book Readings on audio and video

March 24, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

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.

Continuous negativity can cloud your message

March 20, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

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.

Audio: A Year of Visibility from BarCampLA-5, March 1, 2008

March 9, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

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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.

[audio:http://welchwrite.com/cip/audio/2008/cip-visibility20.mp3]

Listen: A Year of Visibility

Why Podcast? Example 01: Book Signings

March 8, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

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!

You gain your own, personal radio and television channel where you control the programming and can get your message out to customers throughout the globe
Reading is distributed to thousands of people, instead of just the 20-30 (maybe) who were actually able to make it to the store
Placing the video on YouTube and your web site raises your store’s visibility at little cost to you
Authors can place the video on their web site, further spreading the video and your brand
Gain authors goodwill by providing them content for their web site and showing them how the Internet can be used to promote their books themselves. (I find that unless the author is famous already, most publishers marketing departments don’t know them from Adam or Eve. Authors MUST promote their own work)
Include web, audio and video links to the author’s book linking directly back to your online sales site. (You DO have one, don’t you?) This drives sales from people well outside your local geographic area and helps to monetize your readings well beyond those who might attend in person
Create a video archive of readings which attracts visitors to your web site and continues working 365/7/24. Even better, if one of these authors suddenly becomes famous, you already have golden content on your site
You develop a reputation for benefitting authors, as well as yourself, in the local and national book publishing circles. Authors might start selecting your store over another, since they know they will get something more than the average bookstore reading.
With a bit more work, (only a little but more these days), you could turn book readings into online, real time book discussions, allowing audience members around the world to ask questions via text, audio or video

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.

Audio: Podcasting Now from BarCampLA-5 on March 2, 2008

March 6, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

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Douglas speaks on Podcasting Now! at BarCampLA-5 on March 2, 2008.

[audio:http://welchwrite.com/cip/audio/2008/cip-podcasting-now.mp3]

Listen: Podcasting Now from BarCampLA-5 on March 2, 2008

Podcasting Now from BarCampLA-5

March 5, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

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Click to Play

Podcasting presentation from BarCampLA-5, held March 1-2, 2008

A Year of Visibility

March 4, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

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Click to Play

A session from BarCampLA-5, held March 1-2, 2008.You can be the best coder, artist, writer, janitor, whatever, but it no one knows what you do, and how well you do it, does it really matter?

Editing video on Nokia N95

March 2, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

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Editing video on a phone….you bet!

Lunch 2.0 @ Oversee.net

February 28, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

Lunch 2.0 @ Oversee.net
Originally uploaded by dewelch

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…

BarCampLA-5 is This Weekend – March 1 & 2

February 26, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

(Updated 2/26/08 217pm: (from BarCampLA Twitter) – While a more formal announcement is coming later tonight, we’ve upped the number of attendees to 250 people. http://icanhaz.com/bcla5-guests)

The latest installment of BarCampLA is coming this weekend and I will be there. You should be, too. Check out the web site at BarCampLA.org

BarCamp is an unconference, which means the program is developed entirely by those attending. Everyone who comes is also a presenter. Come listen to sessions on business, technology, PR…whatever strikes our fancy and then give others the benefit of your expertise.

I am hoping to present 2 sessions at this BarCamp:

A Year of Visibility 2.0 – You need to let people know what you do, and how well you do it, if you want to take your life and career to a new level. I will show you how to go about raising your visibility in whatever realm you wish and the tools that can help make it happen.

Podcasting Now! – Using free Internet tools, you can be podcasting within minutes. I will give you step-by-step instructions on how to start podcasting right from BarCamp itself. No need to take weeks getting set up. Pick up you cell phone or camera and start podcasting TODAY!

Openings to attend BarCampLA-5 are filling up fast. Get your name in today or, at least, get on the waiting list. You don’t want to miss it.

Elsewhere Online: Twitter background guidelines – Croncast

February 25, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

template size Twitter background guidelines – Croncast

Twitter background guidelines

Ever wanted to make an interesting Twitter background? Here’s how I did it.

Side note: This post comes to you straight from an email reply to fellow long-time podcaster Michael Geoghegan in regards to my Twitter background.

Also of note, this layout works best on higher res monitor settings. I imagine that most active Twitter users that are going to be viewing the site as opposed to sms or mobile versions are on high res settings. That said, let’s roll.

(Continues on web site)

(Via CRONCAST.)

Writers, don’t abandon new media in face of a contract deal

February 4, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

Since last weekend there has been a lot of talk about a possible end to the on-going WGA strike against the AMPTP. While it will certainly be great to get everyone back to work, I wonder if the writer’s new found interest in New Media will be one of the first casualties of any agreement. I would hate to see writers slip back into the “same old, same old” world that existed before the strike. Writers have so much to gain from new media and abandoning it now will stunt their ability to take control of their own careers and creativity and allow the producers to maintain much the same power they had before the strike.

I would hate to see writers slip back into the “same old, same old” world that existed before the strike.

New media matters to writers, because:

It seems unlikely that producers will ever agree to a plan which allows the majority of profits to come to the creators of television and movies. New Media understands that those directly involved in the creation of media both deserve and require the bulk of the rewards from their creations.
Writers gain the freedom to engage directly with their audience without any pre-filtering such as occurs with network television and mainstream films.
Writers gain the ability to engage viewers and listeners around the world and not artificially limited by current distribution agreements
Writer take their rightful place as the founding creative of their works, without which no subsequent product could be produced. Writers are not necessary evils, they are the fountain from which media products flow

The end of the WGA strike does not mean the end of New Media. In fact, the New Media genii is out of the bottle and no amount of wishful thinking will stuff it back in. The entertainment world is changing and will continues to do so with, or without, you. If you don’t seize the opportunities that New Media provides, I can guarantee you that someone else will.

Super Happy vlog House in Ojai on weekend of Feb 16

February 1, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

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Just got this via the BarCampLA mailing list. It sounds like a great way to spend President’s Day weekend and work on your audio and video projects.

Lan Bui and the OC’ers suggested another Super Happy Vlog House

We’re on for weekend of Feb 16th (bring your valentine for an Ojai getaway)

http://superhappyvloghouse.pbwiki.com/OjaiDigitalDojo

make media, make a vlog*, flickr walk in the los padres forrest next door, relax in the spa, whatever.

hope you can join us.

(* drupal and wordpress geeks especially welcomed)

http://digitaldojo.blogspot.com/

Monitor your virtual personalities

January 28, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

I have been using Twitter for a while now and watching my over 200 “friends” twittering away I began to see a definite “personality” associated with each individual, myself included.There was one, fairly well-known, podcaster who I began following as I have enjoyed his shows, his writing and his talks at the annual Podcast Expos. After a week or so of following him, though, I began to see a side to his online personality that was quite disagreeable. Despite my previous good experiences with him, I found his Twitterstream to be angry, depressed and combative. If you judged him only on what you saw in his Twitterstream, you would probably have avoided him, had you ever met him in person. After about 2 weeks, I finally stopped following him.Did her ever hear from others how he was perceived? Did he notice himself the personality he was projecting through his stream? I don’t know, but it made it very clear that everyone needs to monitor what they saying, and how they are saying it, online and make sure their online personality fits with their “real world” personality. Otherwise, they may be making very difficult for others to understand them.

…it made it very clear that everyone needs to monitor what they saying, and how they are saying it, online and make sure their online personality fits with their “real world” personality.

Using Twitter as an example, you can go back and review pages and pages of your own messages, isolated from the surrounding conversation. A quick trip through your archives can be very illuminating. You can very quickly get an overview of the tone of your messages and the content. Are you replying a little or a lot? Are the messages clear or filled with jargon? While your tone will vary from day to day, do you see a tendency to be nasty, dismissive, mean? If that is your usual personality, so be it. There is, at least, a consistency between you online and offline personalities. It is when the personalities don’t agree that things get weird and followers get confused. Much like my example above.Now, repeat this exercise for your other social network communications and even your email. What are you really saying about yourself online? What impression (especially the all-important first impression) are you making on folks who first meet you online?

Set my FLVs free!

January 22, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

As you can see from my recent blog posts, I am using a wide variety of online video tools to capture classes, comments and conversation whenever I can. One concern has cropped up recently, though. Most of these services record the video in FLV (Flash Video) format. This means I can embed the videos in my web pages, but I cannot send them out to my podcast subscribers.

As I have mentioned in past, for the largest effect, videos should be available both on a web page and for automatic delivery via podcast. In order to create some podcast ready videos, I figured I would simply convert the FLV videos into MPEG-4 videos and then release them in my podcast feed. Unfortunately, this has proven to be very difficult. Despite trying 5-6 different pieces of software, the closest I have come is a converted video, but no audio. No go!

You can check out some of the conversation about this in my Twitter stream.

I have been talking with a number of people about this issue and some have suggested simply recording everything locally, so I had my own copy of everything I did. While this would work, the additional work would defeat the purpose of easy, ad hoc, recordings like those from Seesmic and uStream. My goal is to use the ad hoc recording tools to capture content that might otherwise be missed and then use that content in as many places as possible. The content has already been recorded, I should be able to use it anywhere.

“The heavy use of FLV formatted video online has started to cause me some concern. I am beginning to feel that my content is being locked into a particular service and format with very little opportunity to re-use it elsewhere.”

The heavy use of FLV formatted video online has started to cause me some concern. I am beginning to feel that my content is being locked into a particular service and format with very little opportunity to re-use it elsewhere. The advantages to using quick, ad hoc, video capture are great, but I wonder what I am losing by using these services.

Got any hints on how to reliably convery FLV videos to MPEG-4? Let me know in the comments! I really need to find an answer.

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January 20, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

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DGA/AMPTP Agreement “same old, same old”

January 18, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

A lot of people are crowing about the DGA/AMPTP agreement today. Looking over the details of agreement, though, it looks like the “same old, same old” to me.

For me, New Media requires that the bulk of monies generated by creative products belongs to the creator of those products. When I see figures like sub-one percent payments I can only be reminded about how little creatives have received for their work when sold on cable networks, VHS and DVD. You would think after being squeezed out of substantial revenue when these media appeared, everyone would be very careful about the same types of deals when applied to new media. Any system that uses flat rate payments virtually guarantees that creatives will not be fairly compensated for their work.

The AMPTP keeps touting “we don’t know how successful this will be”, but one only has to look at the explosive success of DVD sales to see exactly where online distribution is headed. In fact, since the costs for online distribution are significantly lower, and the global nature of online distribution, the potential earnings could skyrocket. One only has to look at the overall success of the Internet to understand where the world is headed. In my mind, there is no doubt that online distribution will become the default method for delivering entertainment in the next 5 years. This isn’t some unproven method. Millions of people have been distributing millions of hours of entertainment over the Internet for the last 10 years.

Finally, why are the DGA accepting fractions of a penny for their work when, if they produced their own material, and distributed it online, they could retain the bulk of any monies, as well as control, over their own work. Just what are the producers providing these days that justifies the huge percentage of profits they take?

The entertainment world is changing and the current DGAagreement shows no effort to understand that fact. It is more of the same. As the old adage goes, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” What does it mean when guild members accept being “fooled” a millions times over?

Careers in New Media

Helping to Build New Careers in New Media

PodCamp Boston to charge $50 for admission

Perfect Example: The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper

Perfect Example: Book reading/talk by Clay Shirky

New Project: LA Book Readings on audio and video

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.

Continuous negativity can cloud your message

…when you are addressing an issue, you must try to provide some possible solutions. Otherwise you’re simply complaining.

Audio: A Year of Visibility from BarCampLA-5, March 1, 2008

Why Podcast? Example 01: Book Signings

Audio: Podcasting Now from BarCampLA-5 on March 2, 2008

Podcasting Now from BarCampLA-5

A Year of Visibility

Editing video on Nokia N95

Lunch 2.0 @ Oversee.net

BarCampLA-5 is This Weekend – March 1 & 2

Elsewhere Online: Twitter background guidelines – Croncast

Writers, don’t abandon new media in face of a contract deal

I would hate to see writers slip back into the “same old, same old” world that existed before the strike.

Super Happy vlog House in Ojai on weekend of Feb 16

Set my FLVs free!

“The heavy use of FLV formatted video online has started to cause me some concern. I am beginning to feel that my content is being locked into a particular service and format with very little opportunity to re-use it elsewhere.”

Subscribe to Careers in Podcasting and New Media via Email

DGA/AMPTP Agreement “same old, same old”