Sometimes, great things are going on in your own backyard and you don’t even know about it. Except now I do know about it. For the next couple of days, college student journalists, advisers and faculty members from around the country will be in Nashville to participate in a workshop on using new media tools: audio, video, advanced multimedia, advanced online storytelling. It is being hosted by the Center for Innovation in College Media that is headquartered on the campus of Vanderbilt.
I am very glad such a program has been created to support university journalism programs that are encouraging their students to view themselves as reporters, story-tellers, truth-sharers, analysts — who do not have to limit themselves to words and photos on paper and traditional broadcasting.
A bonus for me: The program is headquartered a few blocks from my office.
I’ll be dropping in and out of today and tomorrow’s workshops and will be posting notes, photos — perhaps some innovative new media — later today.
Later: First, let me send out some major props to Paul Conley, my friend and fellow business media blogger who has been hammering on the topic of j-schools and new media for years. Paul wasn’t actually here at the workshop, but I thought about him so much during the time I was there, that I felt the need to give him a shout-out — Paul, you would have been happy.
The best way I can describe what this workshop is — and a way some of you can replicate it regionally or locally — is to describe it as a Podcamp specifically for college journalists. However, it was highly structured and organized and a little more “officially run” than a true podcamp, the essence of what was covered and how the information flowed was podcamp-like. This workshop — and the incredible new facilities at Vanderbilt where it is being held — may be a little bit more formal than a podcamp, but the idea of using a college facility for a weekend podcamp for student journalists, is an idea that I’m sure someone else must be already doing — if not, why not?
While I’ve met lots of professors and educators through this blog and get a steady stream of email from college students, I haven’t really been on top of this specific topic — college journalism and new media. However, last fall I visiting the City University of New York’s journalism facilities in mid-town where Jeff Jarvis’ interactive journalism program is, and then, today sitting in a half-day with the students and faculty from 40 or so colleges attending this workshop, I can affirm that the evangelism of people like Jeff and Paul and several people I’m now learning about like Bryan Murley at Eastern Illinois University and Ralph Raseth at Ole Miss and an entire community of educators who are very aware of what is taking place — and are now wanting to lead, rather than follow (or worse, merely watch) the parade. I’ll be blogging on this topic more, I’m sure.
I apologize for the jumpiness of
this video I grabbed to demo how my
screensaver uses a stream of photos from my
Flickr-contacts’ photos generated by
Dave’s software, that can found at
at FlickrFan.org.
Dave Winer often describes himself online as a “media hacker.” And today, he’s releasing a new product called — at least for now, FlickrFan. It is quite a cool media hack. And by hack, I don’t mean anything malicious, but I mean, something that’s a result of being able to experiment with technology and content one enjoys and understands in ways others may not.
In this case, the product is a simple desktop tool (Mac only now) that builds on some of his earlier developments related to RSS and OPML and Radio 8 (an early desktop RSS newsreader/blog editing tool). I don’t claim to have any understanding of how it does what it does, but having used it for the past 24 hours, I can tell you what the result is: It streams photos from your Flickr contacts — or other designated sources like the AP photowire — onto your HDTV while it’s in the screen-saver mode. It works also as a screen saver on a Mac.
As your contacts update their Flickr photo stream, your screen saver becomes a constant slideshow of images from your friends. I must admit, while I have lots of Flickr contacts and even subscribe to an RSS feed of them, viewing them as a screen saver provides a much more serendipitous means of discovering what your friends are up to. I added a brief demo of what’s showing up on my FlickrStream — and before you ask, fimoculous is my friend who posted shots from the cool party.
There is more the product does — i.e., it backs up your Flickr photos and it provides a desktop folder where you can drop photos that are automagically posted to Flickr and it will create a Twitter tweet when you add a photo to your Flickr account. But for now, I’m just enjoying the way all those photos from my friends are just showing up on my screen saver.
By the way, I have a Mac mini set up with a HD projector in our office conference room. I’m already thinking of ways we will be using photos from Flickr.com/hammock in that room using FlickrFan.
Doc is showing off: Last night right after sunset, I shot a picture out my Nashville office window and posted it here. This morning, Doc Searls shot an awesome pre-dawn photo (I assume from his home). In my photo, I identified White Bridge road and some car headlights. In his photo, he identifies Venus, the moon, the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. I guess that’s why he’s the A-List blogger and I only have seven readers.
A rexblog technical announcement: The rexblog has been “server erroring” all day but some smart folks are doing something that should keep that from happening (I apologize for being so technical with my explanation.). However, the fix may mean some of you may not get directed to the rexblog over the next 24 hours or so. Don’t worry. I’m still here. Please stand by.
Out my window: Many years ago (April 16, 1998, to be exact), some pictures of a tornado taken from my office window ended up being viewed ’round the world by hundreds of thousands of folks. Unfortunately, those pictures are gone with the wind. A few minutes ago, I took this photo out the same window (those subtle stripes in the clouds are blinds from another window reflecting on the glass). A bit nicer in Nashville this evening.
(For those who know Nashville: photo taken from 7th floor of 3322 West End - corner of West End & Murphy Road, looking due west towards the Richland neighborhood — or, at least, that’s what I call it. The line of lights in the distance are along White Bridge Road. The cars on the right are on Murphy Road crossing I-440.)
Magazines to help Japanese women learn english: From Knight Ridder (via the Kansas City Star), comes a story about magazines marketed in Japan for women who want to learn english.
Quote:
Unlike conventional magazines published for studying English that focus on vocabulary and grammar, the new type of magazine features topics popular with women. Their layouts are also stylish, resembling fashion magazines targeted at so-called office ladies…Although the magazine is nearly entirely in English, it uses only 2,000 words, all of which are taught in middle and high school. The magazine also has a glossary in the back pages, removing the trouble of looking up words in a dictionary.
A new magazine genre? Why isn’t someone trying this in the U.S.? I know there are some publications that are like this aimed at the school market, but is someone trying this at the newsstand?
The last Martha vulturette update: Longtime rexblog readers (please, no oxymoron jokes) know that I used to have a recurring feature that linked to stories speculating about who the next Martha Stewart would be. (For example, here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here.)
My steadfast prediction: Martha, the brand, is not going anywhere. And Martha, the person, is not going anywhere either (okay, so I totally missed that jailtime thing). Americans love the underdog and the rags to riches story. We worship success. However, and this is important to understanding lots in life, so make a note of it: Americans curse the successful. Perhaps curse is not the right word (damn? hate? envy?), but it’s symmetrical when I say, “It’s like I always say: ‘Americans worship success but curse the successful.”
Anyway, it appears that the next Martha is going to be Martha. And, if you can handle the goofy words they use like skien (Rafat Ali once told me what it means, but I’ve conveniently forgotten), here’s an article in Variety in which Mark Burnett sums up everything on this topic in one sentence:
“You journalists love to tear people down, but then you like to build them back up, and we thank you for that.”
I wonder what the opposite of schadenfreude (those Germans have a word for everything) is?(via: iwantmedia.com)
Swag free? Talk about putting a damper on the holidays (second item), Fairchild’s 900 staffers can’t accept gifts from advertisers, sources or vendors this year. (P.S. The item right below it reports that my table-mate-friends (we’ve sat together twice in the past six months) Susan and Susan, have sold Brooklyn magazine.
Get in the holiday spirit: If you live in Nashville, please promise me you’ll attend at least one of the following two concerts. If you don’t, you might as well live in a town where your neighbors aren’t folks like these artists.
Tonight, Wendesday, December 8, at 7 p.m., Christ Church Cathedral, “Nashville Unlimited” Christmas Benefit Concert: A concert to benefit Room In The Inn, a non profit, multi-denominational program that houses the homeless during the winter months. The concerts will be hosted by bassist/ producer Dave Pomeroy and singer/songwriter Don Henry, who will also perform. Confirmed musical guests for the concert include Maura O’Connell, Nashville Mandolin Ensemble, Ashley Cleveland, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Pat McLaughlin, Lorianna, Pat Bergeson (what? no website? but he does have a guitar named after him), and Andy Leftwich (who my assistant — and I have no reason to doubt her — claims went to high school with her). There will be other guests and this annual concert always has special “mystery guests.” Admission is free, with a suggested minimum donation of $10. (Location: Christ Church Cathedral, 900 Broadway, a block away from the Vanderbilt campus oops, wrong cathedral.)
Tomorrow, Thursday, December 9, at 6:30 p.m., Frist Center: The Nashville Mandolin Ensemble performs a free concert at the Frist Center. The concert will last about 1 hour, 15 minutes. Did I mention the concert is free? If you’ve never heard the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble, go. It’s a rather amazing experience.
Bonus suggestion: If you need help for deciding what to do Friday or Saturday night, I have two words (and they aren’t Coyote Ugly, that’s Mr. Roboto’s beat): Station Inn. A huge “Bill Monroe Appreciation” weekend there.
How magazines get started (continued): Hey, this is a grand idea. I think every city in America should follow Annapolis’ lead. “Households in Annapolis should be getting the second edition of the “City of Annapolis” magazine any day now. Mayor Ellen Moyer and members of her staff are excited about the distribution of the publication that has a “Focus on Public Safety” theme.
Quote:
The mayor came up with the idea of putting out one good looking magazine that makes people want to at least leaf through it instead of different departments sending out their own publications that might be discarded.
Anonymous sources: The anonymous vaporzine scout sends me the following item. However, the anonymous scout isn’t quite sure what the source is. Having thus cleared this blog’s rigorous fact-checking process, here’s the item:
Push is a new monthly magazine launching in 2005; it will also be available as an insert in the calendar sections of the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune starting in mid-December.
Custom publishing, more that just a pretty face: Writing for MarketingProfs.com, Chris Scott explores something close to this blogger’s heart, custom publishing.
Quote:
If well planned and thought-out, a custom publishing program can go a long way toward supplementing a company’s existing marketing or promotional programs. Additionally, as the examples show, the concept can work across various industries and business categories. Most importantly, whether a sponsored supplement, a newsletter or a glossy magazine sold on newsstands, a custom publication gives your business the control over how your message is delivered to the audience you want to reach.
If you are a marketer in charge of a really large, global brand, I’d be happy to discuss with you how custom publishing can keep big bullies from kicking sand in your face next time you’re at the beach.
(Disclosure: Your eyes are getting heavy. You are getting sleepy. You are getting sleepy. Whenever I say the phrase “custom publishing,” I want you to think of this.)
Is Apple ’sirius-ly’ considering making Jeff Jarvis’ dream gadget? Were it not for the the fact that the 14-year-old in my house watches TV cable channels about video games, I would not know about the rumors flying today (and here and here and lots of other places) about Apple signing a deal with Sirius (again, this is a rumor) to market iPods that can receive and record the company’s satellite broadcasts (Okay, I’ll start another rumor: Jeff Jarvis has volunteered to be a beta tester for this future version of Howard Stern satellite podcasting.)
The last Martha vulturette update: Longtime rexblog readers (please, no oxymoron jokes) know that I used to have a recurring feature that linked to stories speculating about who the next Martha Stewart would be. (For example, 
