Now listed on Alltop

I'm now listed on http://twitterati.alltop.com/.

Cool! 21 down on the right. Right next to @JuliaRoy

My Mom's Blog is now on http://moms.alltop.com/ Bottom right.

Thanks @chrisbrogan for letting me know you can submit sites.

Talking web video tonight at 10PM EST

Talking web video tonight at 10PM EST with @1timstreet



@johnherman, and


Leslie Poston aka. @geechee_girl

Plus:


DavidTames aka. cinemakinoeye

on Topics on Fire: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/23040.

Listen in!

You can listen to the archive of this show here:



Audio [ mp3 ]

It was fun.

Experiences with my Dunkin' Donuts Barack Obama card

Just used the revised customised Dunkin' Donuts Barack Obama card (bottom).

The clerk said: "Wow! That is SO cool! You should think about telling Dunkin' Donuts about that."

Me: "You can make them on the Dunkin' Donuts website."

Ironic.

People who lead the military are hopeful that we now have a reality-based President

Top Officers Hopeful That Obama Will Bring More Realistic View Than Bush

12 Hours Ago:


New title:

Joint Chiefs Chairman 'Very Positive' After Meeting With Obama

jayrosen_nyu I've been waiting for this headlline (1/2): "Top Officers Hopeful that Obama will Bring a More Realistic View than Bush."

jayrosen_nyu But (2/2) the Washington Post changed it! Now blander: "Joint Chiefs Chairman 'Very Positive' After Meeting With Obama."

jayrosen_nyu In other words, people who lead the military are hopeful that we now have a reality-based President, according to the Post

Interview for Tweetabix

Tweetabix interviews Twitter users as to how they use Twitter be it for fun, community or business.

Here's my interview:

Q1 Name

Steve Garfield

Q2 Twitter username

@stevegarfield

Q3 Location

Boston, MA

Q4 Website

My main site is SteveGarfield.com.

There you can find links to my blog, Off On A Tangent and my video blog, Steve Garfield's Video Blog, plus other info on learning videobloging, photography and live streaming.

Q5 Bio

Steve Garfield is an advisor to media and internet companies about online video, a speaker at conferences on mobile video broadcasting, video producer and teacher of New Media Tools for Journalism at Boston University.

Q6 When did you start using Twitter and how were you introduced to it?

I started using twitter in early 2007. It's hard to pinpoint the exact date. Did you know that twitter history only goes back 40 pages?

I resisted Twitter for a while.

I knew Chris Brogan was on it so one day I sent him an SMS telling him I was at the train station.

I didn't get it.

Then I joined.

Added friends, yet again, on yet another social network.

But this time it was different.

Although I had thought that it would be silly to post about what I was doing every minute of the day, I found that I could send out a question to my friends and get a quick answer.

There is a living and breathing community here. It's not static. It's alive!

Became addicted during SXSW 2007.



Q7 What are your typical Twitter habits on an average day (e.g. frequency & time of day most active)?

I usually send out tweets during the day. Yesterday I sent out 30:

12 were @ messages to someone.
2 were questions
3 were text posts
12 were posts with links to video, blog posts or meetups
1 was a retweet

I entered my username into twitterstats to get detailed stats and also just signed up for twequency.

Twequency measures your daily Twitter frequency and compares it with your friends’. Who’s been tweeting the most twequently?

Q8 What are the main reasons you use Twitter (e.g. business, marketing, fun, community etc)?

The main reason I use twiter is for community. It's fun to have people with me all the time. Twitter has also supplanted my blog as a place for sharing links.

I'd like to send a shout out to Frank at comcastcares. He recently helped me solve some technical issues.

Q9 What aspects of Twitter do you love?…

I like the fact that people are always there to interact with.

Q10 …and dislike (if any)?

I don't like how twitter changes full URL's to shorted URL's after I've spent a lot of time fitting my post into exactly 140 chaaracters. After the tweet posts, I get mad when I see the URL changed into a tinyurl.

Q11 If you could make changes to Twitter what would they be?

If I could make changes to twitter I'd add a group functionality.

Q12 If you Tweet from a PC or a Mac which Twitter applications do you use and why (e.g. main Twitter site, Tweetdeck etc)?

I use twhirl because it allows me to have multiple windows open at once.



Q13 When posting Tweets via mobile, what applications do you use most (e.g. Twitteriffic, Tweetie, Twinkle etc)?

I use iTweet on an iPhone.





Q14 What other Twitter apps and tools do you use and would recommend?

I love twitter search. I use URL shorteners from within twhirl.

Q15 Do you actively seek followers? If so how do you go about increasing your followers?

I've got a message on my blog that says:

Want more frequent updates follow me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!

That let's people know where the action is.

Q16 Do you automatically ‘follow’ back or are you more selective?

I automatically follow everyone who follows me. If they turn out to be a spammer, then I unfollow.

Q17 If looking for people to follow what attributes do you look for?

I look for funny.

Q18 What type of behaviour would make you unfollow someone?

I stop following someone if they repost the same tweet over and over again. Sometimes I'll unfollow someone of they post a tweet that breaks my browsers window, like typing in, "ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!"

That's annoying.

Q19 What tips do you have for newbies?

Read others nad see how they are using twitter. Be real. Don't just autopost your blog titles. Make it fun!

Q20 Do you use an auto welcome message?

No.

Q21 How do you find new people to follow (e.g. Twellow, Summize, friends of friends etc)?

I usually follow friends of friends, twitter links on blogs, and people I meet in real life.

Q22 How many Twitter accounts do you have? If more than one - how many actively used?

I have two accounts and actively use them both. On my main account @stevegarfield I follow 6,379 people and on my secondary account I follow 118.

Q23 What are your views on Magpie?

Haven't looked into it.

Q24 Do you know what hashtags are and do you use them?

I use them for larger events and conferences when part of the experience is following everyone else's tweets.

Q25 Qwitter - do you use it? If someone unfollows you do you reciprocate?

I do use Quitter. I think it's funny to see what makes people quit you. I usually don't reciprocate.

Q26 If you agree that Twitter should be monetized do you have any suggestions how?

I wouldn't mind seeing a reasonable number of inline ads.

Q27 What other social media communities do you belong to? Which do you use more often?

I belong to the Yahoo! videoblogging group. Facebook and a number of NING groups.

I read the Yahoo! videoblogging group regularly and post when I've got somethign to share or answer.

Q28 Any famous people you’d like to see join up with Twitter?

I'd like to see Larry David on twitter.

Q29 I’m looking for interesting people to follow - who do you recommend and why?

Imogen Heap - My favorite musical artist
Jay Rosen - Great links to citizen journalism
1Tim Street - Good info on video production
Scott Simpson - Funniest tweets
Baratunde Thurston - Conscious comic & vigilante pundit
GordonWinston-Smythe - Anchor of Goodnight Burbank
Scott Beale - A must follow during SXSW

Q30 Suggestion for someone to interview next?

I'd be interested to hear from Imogen Heap.

Interview on tweetabix

Allandale Farm Christmas Trees Fresh Off the Truck

Allandale Farm
259 Allandale Road
Brookline, MA 02467
617-524-1531 (voice)

Watch the alternate version on YouTube with 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' music.

Strangely Ironic Book Meme - The Atheist Blogger

Strangely Ironic Book Meme - The Atheist Blogger:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 56.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next seven sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

The closest book:

The Word of Mouth Manual, Volume II:

The Glory of jojoba.

You're so knowledgeable and enthusiastic that one of your buddies asks, "What are you getting paid?"

You're a little offended by the question. "Of course not. This is really good stuff," you say.

For a moment, your caffeinated sunscreen seems like more of a friend than the friend does.

For fun, I've also got The Ninja Handbook:

DO NOT carry your sword whimssicaly or in staged musicals.

DO NOT throw your sword. You should have plenty of other sharp and deadly things to whip at people.

DO NOT stab, slice, or thrust toward yourself unlessyou are absolutely certain you can stop the sword before it stabs, slices, or thrusts you (demonized limbs are an exception).

DO NOT be hesitant about using y our sword in conjunction with another weapon. If it is a proper Ninja sword you should be able to attach chains and bull whips for building up speed an reaching around corners, bat shurikens, flip other nonjas, do anything your freaky mind can think of in the heat of battle.

You'll have to buy the book if you want to read more... There's too much to type...

Obama Negotiating to Keep His Blackberry

Barbara Walters Obama Interview On ABC (VIDEO):

"WALTERS: How are you going to get along without your Blackberry?

OBAMA: (Laughs). This is a problem. I, you know, one of the things that I'm going to have to work through is how to break through the isolation ... the bubble that exists around the president. And I'm in the process of negotiating with the Secret Service, with lawyers, with White House staff ...

WALTERS: You might have a Blackberry?

OBAMA: Well, I'm, I'm negotiating to figure out how can I get information from outside of the 10 or 12 people who surround my office in the White House. Because, one of the worst things I think that could happen to a president is losing touch with what people are going through day to day."

Excellent.

[A 24 Hour Trip to New York] filmé avec un iPhone

[A 24 Hour Trip to New York] from M. Ward on Vimeo.

Excellent photos, natural sound and narration.

Macys Parade Rick Roll

The Macy's Day Parade just Rick Rolled us with Rick Astley live and lip-syncing Never Gonna Give You Up! Best Rick Roll ever! Very Funny. Crappy YouTube VIDEO of my Comcast TiVo recording.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm pretty sure my video was was the first up on the web since I streamed it almost live to Qik. Qik then automatically posted a link to twitter and then cross-posted the video to YouTube. It's a great way to share breaking news.

Later as people had more time to put up better quality, you see versions of the Rick Roll Macy's Parade like this on YouTube. It's still a recording of the TV screen.

Have you seen a better version?

Here's another Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade RickRoll on YouTube.

Watch this one in High Quality, MACY'S DAY PARADE BIGGEST RICK ROLL.

Update: 11/29
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade RickRoll (Widescreen HD)
[ Click Watch in High Quality ]

Has NBC or Cartoon Network put up a version yet? Not that I can see. Missed opportunity for them.

Please comment with a link to a better vision of the live Rick Roll if you find one...

CNET: Thanksgiving parade gets a live 'Rickroll'

A Mobile Version of Your Blog

See a preview on the web:
View a browser based emulation of Off On A Tangent on Your Mobile Phone.

See it on your mobile phone:
View Off On A Tangent on Your Mobile Phone. Emulations displayed at Nokia N95, Blackberry Pearl, Motorola SLVR L7, Sony Ericson W810i, Samsung U900, Android, and Apple iPhone.

Create a mobile version of your blog:
You can get a mobile version of your blog at Mippin.

Cool.

View Off On A Tangent on Your Mobile Phone
http://mippin.com/offonatangent

The One Slide: End of Life Questions

The One Slide: End of Life Questions, originally uploaded by stevegarfield.

Check out: www.engagewithgrace.org.

Engage with Grace and the One Slide Project have one goal:

To help ensure that all of us - and the people we care for - can end our lives in the same purposeful way we lived them.

Here's how you can join the conversation:

Download the One Slide and donate just 2 minutes at the end of every presentation to sharing it with colleagues. Share it with your friends and family. Try to answer the 5 questions for yourself. Store your answers to the questions on our secure site. Make sure you and your loved ones can carry through your wishes.

Just one slide, just one goal. Together we can make an enormous difference.

via [ Universal Hub ]

One thing that's missing from this message is a discussion of assisted suicide and euthanasia.

One my relatives wishes were to "give me a pill," when there was no hope of survival, so that they wouldn't have to go through a long and painful death.

I didn't happen.

There was no pill.

We had to stand by helplessly as they slowly died. It was painful for everyone.

It's inhumane.

It's time to make assisted suicide and euthanasia legal. What is your state doing about it?

Euthanasia ProCon.org
AssistedSuicide.org
Assisted Suicide - Wikipedia
Euthanasia.com
Euthanasia- Wikipedia

A Comcast Customer Success Story using Twitter and Qik

Here's a unique Comcast customer support success story using twitter and qik.

I contacted Frank Eliason, Comcast Director of Digital Care, @comcastcares on twitter, after being unhappy with the support I was getting from Comcast. Someone from headquarters was calling me on the phone and relaying instructions to me from the Comcast/TiVo support people. I was frustrated because the suggestions did not match my problem and something was getting lost in translation.

Frank got me on a conference call with Comcast and TiVo to solve my problem



My initial symptom was that I could not record Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but in fact I could not record any HD Fox or HD WLVI programs.

There wasn't any detailed program data in the online guide for those two channels.



While on the phone call, I asked them if they wanted me to stream my tv's TiVo display live, so they could directly see the issue

They said yes and I streamed the problem while talking with them on the phone:



http://qik.com/stevegarfield#v=597823

The call and live video helped solidify the issue so that they could go back and solve it.

It was much better than having to talk through an intermediary.

Frank at Comcast deserves a lot of praise for this.

He tweeted about it:



comcastcares @stevegarfield Interesting. I am glad that we had you talk with the right people [link]




comcastcares @stevegarfield That is awesome. You have to love the web 2.0 world [link]

They seem to have resolved my problem by refreshing my box with new guide data. They'll let me know the final results of their research next week when they call back to make sure everything is working.

Live streaming is a great way for remote support staff to see problems first hand.

:-)

Thanks twitter, qik, Comcast and Frank!

Update 11/17/10:

Frank talks about this here - The Role of Video in Enterprise 2.0 and Social CRM.

Fifty People, One Question: NYC

Fifty People, One Question: New York from Crush & Lovely on Vimeo.

via [ Zadi ]

A To-Do List for Nokia

Boston Media Makers 10/05/08 by stevegarfield, on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA

Renegade FanBoy writes 15 things Nokia should do before 2009.

I added my list:

1. Bring back, or make available the DIRECT FLICKR uploader. Don't make us use OVI.

2. Bring back a video editor.

3a. Bring back ability to use the A/V cable as audio in on N96.

3b. Give us a cable that allows audio in.

4. Allow visual grid on camera to stay up as the default.

5. Add white balance to video.

Thanks,
--Steve

If anyone can point me to a place to download #1 and #2 I'd be happy.

Blogger Help

Look at all this help I just found on the Blogger Help page:

Video

Images

Audio and Podcasts

Blogger Policies

Report Abuse

My Privacy and Security

BlogThis

Mail to Blogger

Blogger Mobile

Posting & Editing

Archives

Labels

FTP Publishing

Team Blogs, Authors, and Readers

Feeds and Syndication

Comments and Backlinks

Add Ons

Custom Domains

Layouts

Classic Templates

Signing In

Profiles

Settings

Privacy and Security

of Montreal RCRD LBL Radio

of Montreal

RCRD LBL

My feedback on BBC NEWS Have Your Say

BBC NEWS | Have Your Say wanted feedback on the experience of submitting election videos to them.

I commented over on the Qik site. Here's what I shared:

Thanks to BBC for featuring my videos during the election.

It's a great idea and I appreciate all the work that went into it.

The BBC is way ahead of local media outlets in Boston. Hopefully one day soon, local TV stations will see the value in viewer contributions to the extent that the BBC has.

Things I would have liked to see from the BBC, and any other media outlet that highlights user video:

1. A link back on the web page to the original Qik Video

2. A link back to the creator's website with name mentioned.

3. An email from the BBC alerting the video creator that the video was selected to be shown on the BBC site

4. The BBC should download the high quality mp4 file and edit that onto their web page instead of shooting a video of the screen.

5. A personal connection between the BBC and the video submitter. It's a good chance to form relationships.

Thanks, --Steve

Alphacat as Obama with Lisa Nova as Sarah Palin on YouTube Live

I love Alphacat. He does a great Obama impression. Not sure how much longer the Sarah Palin impression will be topical.

The Obama Campaign Supported Citizen Journalists

I covered a number of Barack Obama Boston campaign events this year. The campaign was so nice to both me and other citizen journalists.

When checking in at the big rally at the Boston Convention Center I heard some college students say that the Hillary campaign wasn't as good at giving them access.

Then I overheard some traditional reporters complaining about all the 'college students' that Obama lets into his events as press.

Well, treating the citizen journalists went a long way.

I was just going through my YouTube email inbox and saw this.



Now that is very cool.

Jason Potts from Chronicle says it IS all about me!

John Tobin Talks about Videoblogging

Jason Potts from Channel 5's Chronicle interviews Boston City Councillor John Tobin abotu videoblogging.

Beardyman on YouTube Live

Free Hugs Creator Juan Mann Intros Sick Puppies at YouTube LIVE

The Next Newsroom at Duke

The Next Newsroom Proposal is complete! - The Next Newsroom Project:

"It is with great pleasure that I'd like to announce that we have completed work on our newsroom proposal for The Chronicle, the independent, student-run newspaper at Duke University. The Chronicle’s board has adopted our proposal for a new home. That document will now serve as the basis for negotiations with officials at Duke University."

Going to read this.

Innovation in trying times

GM Chevy Volt by stevegarfield, on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA

Cory Bergman writes:

I re-read Clayton Christensen’s “The Innovator’s Dilemma” (1997) over the last few days, and I’ve concluded he should write a new edition of the book that uses newspapers instead of disk drives as his central case study. Christensen found in his research that time and time again, disk drive companies were made aware of radical new innovations — there were even prototypes built — but chose to ignore them. Why? Because these innovations were disruptive and generated “no value within the established network.” In other words, if you take the disruptive idea and try to make it work inside a company’s existing cost structure, customers, resources, processes and culture, it would be a failure. So instead, these companies focus on incremental innovations and startups are able to take the disruptive ideas and run with them.

Detroit should read the book too.

Mad Men: Fake Don Draper on Twitter Revealed

[ paul isakson ]: Confessions Of A (Fake) Mad Man:

"I'm the person responsible for the tweets of @don_draper, and thus kicking off that whole crazy adventure.

It basically started out as a research project of sorts for a thought I had about being able to extend a character from a TV show into social media in a real way and in doing so, having people connect to that character and the show in even more meaningful ways.

The goal was to just get enough evidence either way (to show that it was true or not true) and get out. Regardless of the outcome, I wanted to create a presentation on the experience and offer to turn over the account to AMC when I was done. But then the AMC shutdown happened, I made real connections with some of the people behind other characters, and it got a little too interesting to walk away from so quickly."

Whoa!

Just like how Flash Mobs got started.

Research!

Star Trek: Uhura Character Poster

Star Trek: Uhura Character Poster, originally uploaded by stevegarfield.

I got this as part of the Star Trek webmaster program.

Head over to the StarTrekMovie.com site for more.

Amazon Universal Wishlist allows you to add Charities

Last year at this time I asked for a way to add charaties to my Amazon.com wishlist.

Now you can with Amazon Universal Wishlist:

It's easy! Simply add the Universal Wish List button to your browser, and start shopping. When you see something you'd like on any website, just click the Add to Universal Wish List button, and the item will appear on your Amazon Wish List.

Take a look at my wishlist and you'll see all the charities I've added there.



Here's are some of my favorite charities I added to Amazon.com:

Oxfam
Amnesty International
Doctors without Borders
The Sharing Foundation

The Jimmy Fund
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Lupus Foundation of America
AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Research

Creative Commons
Electronic Frontier Foundation

Institute of Contemporary Art - Boston
Photographic Resource Center at Boston University

There still are a few regular items for those that feel the need to give gifts. ;-)

Other sites:

ChangingThePresent


Buy Nothing Day

Charity Navigator, America's premier independent charity evaluator.

Have a favorite charity? An alternative idea for gift giving this year?

Leave a comment!

Do You Know What Twitter Is? - College 101 - A Response from Boston University

We had a great time in class yesterday using new media tools to determine what to report on, what tools to use to report a story, and how to distribute.

In this video we decided to respond to the Do You Know What Twitter Is? - College 101 - HackCollege video.

Recorded on a MacBook Pro with QuickTime Pro. Uploaded to YouTube. Then added as a video comment to the 'You Know What Twitter Is? - College 101 - HackCollege video' and twittered.

Great job.

A federal judge has ruled a state law banning Massachusetts residents from buying wine from most out-of-state wineries is illegal.

Adam Gaffin tells us the great news - Hic, hic, hooray! | Universal Hub:

"A federal judge has ruled a state law banning Massachusetts residents from buying wine from most out-of-state wineries is illegal.

Judge Rya Zobel of U.S. District Court in Boston, ruled that the law violates the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution because it lets all Massachusetts wineries to sell locally but blocks 98% of non-Massachusetts wineries from the local market for no good reason the court could discern (or words to that effect).

Her decision is on a suit filed by a group of California winemakers.

Read Zobel's decision [ pdf ]."

Cheers!

I've been complaining about this law for years.

Hopefully, lawmakers will adhere to the ruling.

Interview with Freezepop

I interviewed the local Boston band Freezepop for http://www.wepc.com/


Interview with Freezepop from stevegarfield on Vimeo.

The full interview will be posted over there in a few weeks. Until then, here's a preview.

Visit Freezepop at:
http://freezepop.net

Thanks for Sean, Liz and The Duke! Also thanks to WCVB's Chronicle who was there to film me filming Freezepop. Also, Norhteastern University student Belen Bogado who there to film me being filmed by Chronicle.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/chronicle/index.html

Thanks also to the MiddleEast Upstairs for allowing us to use their space for the interview.

http://www.mideastclub.com/

Turn Your iPhone into an Ocarina and Play Music

SMule: Ocarina [Zeldarian] from SonicMule, Inc. on Vimeo.

Lost Remote: Two new must-have iPhone apps

Every time I show a fellow iPhone owner the Ocarina app (99 cents), they download it immediately. Great use of networked technology and a glimpse of amazing things to come.

You can download the Ocarina iPhone application here for $.99.

Ocarina from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Social Median Obama White House Transition Widget

Checking out the new Social|Median Obama White House Transition Widget.

INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY TWO: THE SECRET HEADQUARTERS EDITION

Harvard Free Culture, ROFLCon, and Public Radio Exchange Proudly Present...

INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY TWO: THE SECRET HEADQUARTERS EDITION
A Gathering Of Boston Tech

November 29th, 2008, 8:00 - 12:00
Berkman Squared, 50 Church Street, Cambridge MA
RSVP on Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1369339/

Boston is full of cool Internet people. Why aren't they meeting each other?

INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY is Boston's monthly party gathering hackers, activists, artists, designers, nonprofits, startups, academics and general geekery to hang out and connect with one another.

*No agenda, no "networking," no presentations. Just beverages, food, ideas and cool people.
*Best of all the price is free, just like your courtesy black helicopter flight to A Secure Undisclosed Location

*This time: come out and meet Boston's Secret Masters of Hidden Hackspace, Homebrew Mad Science, and Cyber Revolution
*Also: hear about our scheme to rent a decommissioned missile silo. And how you can too, on less than $10 bucks a month. (No, seriously).

With Featured Guests and Organizations:
*Jason Bobe, (DIYBio)
*Meredith Garniss and Andrew Sempere,(Willougby and Baltic)
*Alex Hornstein, (NUBLabs) (FabLab)
*David Weinberger, (Joho The Blog) (The Berkman Center For Internet and Society)
*Jake Shapiro, (The Public Radio Exchange)
*Jason Scott (Textfiles)
*Matt Lee (The Free Software Foundation)

Also Sponsored By Information Superhighway Alumni:
Beth Coleman and Kevin Driscoll (CMS), Mel Chua (OLPC), Steve Garfield (Founder, Boston Media Makers), Nate Aune, Brian Del Vecchio and Jon Pierce (Betahouse), Brett Stilwell (Pecha Kucha Boston)

[this message will self-destruct]

Freezepop - "Super Sprøde"

I'm interviewing one of my favorite local bands of all time, tomorrow afternoon.

Freezepop!

Chronicle will be following me around for a story on local video producers.

My day starts with an interview with Boston City Councillor John Tobin at City Hall at noon.

The World's Ugliest Building must be destroyed!

It's going to be fun.

Follow me on twitter for updates.

Common Ground by Scott Strazzante

Common Ground by Scott Strazzante

After living on a farm in Lockport, Illinois, for 73 years, Harlow Cagwin sold his family land to a subdivision developer. Common Ground takes us on a journey exploring the differences and similarities of life in suburbia and life on the family farm.

One of the best examples of multimedia journalism I've seen this year.

RSS

When you click on the RSS link on this blog, you'll get a nice looking page that allows you to get new posts automatically delivered to you.



Click on MY Yahoo!, Bloglines, Google, or Any Feedreader to subscribe.

To make this show up and work on your blog, you need to go into Feedburner and check the setting, Landing page renders as a web page in all browsers:



Otherwise when someone clicks your RSS button in Safari, it''ll look like this:



Note: It's a good idea to use feedburner to serve your RSS feed on your blog.

Hockey!

Chris Daly's Class at BU

Chris Daly's Class at BU, originally uploaded by stevegarfield.

Reinventing the News: Steve Garfield

Dan Kennedy had me visit his Northeastern University class Reinventing the News. He blogged about my visit Steve Garfield on video blogging.

He also had his students blog about it. This was very interesting to me, to be able to read blogs posts by the students, where they talked about my presentation. It's rare that you can get a glimpse of what others think about what you do.

Thanks to all the students for taking the time to write about my visit. Here are their posts:

Miller's Musings: Steve Garfield from....stevegarfield.com!:

He's innovative, energetic, and seemingly full of passion

Magraker: Reinventing the News: Steve Garfield

Steve Garfield is the classic example of the 21st century journalist... Like a passable singer with the ability to chose the right producers to score a number one chart-topper, Garfield picks the right technology for his work through a new medium, and so far it's a hit.

Not For Scientists: Steve Garfield in class

On Wednesday, Steve Garfield (of SteveGarfield.com) talked to our class about videoblogging and how it could be used for journalism. He explained how he puts together video packages and streams live over the Internet...here's a video I shot, of him shooting that video:

A Writer Without A Pen: Steve Garfield

Steve Garfield, video-blogger extraordinaire, came to our Reinventing the News class on Wednesday. He has this really awesome phone/camera/video that can shoot live through Qik, which streams live online. It was something I had never even heard about before he came to talk to our class.

THE MEDIA DINOSAUR: FIGHTING EXTINCTION: Steve Garfield = Not a media dinosaur

In general, this was one of my favorite class presentations, because it really lends to the idea that sometimes the less equipment you have as a journalist the more people feel less threatened and will talk to you.

Ami's Politics:Video+blogging= a video blogger

Videoblogging is a creative, relaxed combination of blogging and broadcast journalism. Reporters have the freedom to incorporate their personality into their work and add some life to it.

BELEN BOGADO: Multimedia journalist

I think Steve Garfield’s visit was really illuminating. He’s the proof of what an entrepreneur journalist can accomplish by self promoting himself and taking full advantage of technology... Garfield is a great example of what a journalist that combines creativity, knowledge and a camera can achieve.

pats down pat: Video blogging

Garfield is obviously well-rehearsed in the different forms of video media and blogging, yet one of the sources of his success was, as he put it, as simple as filming himself and Carol talking about the debate in their room. The show, especially juxtaposed with his Qik demonstration, showed a wide spectrum of results that can come out of experimenting with video journalism and blogging.

THE OTHERS/INVISIBLE LIVES- UNTOLD STORIES: The conversation

The video-blogger Steve Garfield has a quaint style that probably differences him from other video-bloggers and citizen journalists. His videos are fun. Some may be news worthy, like the interviews he made for Rocketboom in the car fair.

another pixelated window:"Hi I'm Steve Garfield from stevegarfield.com"!

I really like what Steve is doing by supplying obscure news like this to his audience. He is leading the way in video journalism and doing it with no professional sound equipment, camera, or even a studio. His only tools are his cellphone and laptop, very modern, very cool.

Note: I've also got the professional equipment, i just didn't bring that along to class.

JESS VOLPE: Reinventing the News:Steve Garfield

Being someone that is new to the world of blogging and video blogging I thought that Steve Garfield's presentation was very informative to me. I was unaware of the websites that you could upload videos to and that you could upload videos directly from your phone to a website. During class Steve uploaded a video of our class directly from his Nokia cell phone to Qik.com and we were able to immediately watch it on the website.

lollipops & crisps: videotape

Garfield showed us the power of live-streaming by taking a video of our class, which appeared on Qik shortly thereafter. He reintroduced us to the power of CNN's iReport and stressed the importance of self-advertisement, encouraging students in the film to plug their own blogs and, eventually, purchase domain names similar to their own. By the end of the presentation, I'm pretty sure we were all jealous of his cell phone.

THINGS AN ELEPHANT SHOULD NEVER FORGET: Quirky Video Journalism

Steve Garfield's vlogs are high on entertainment value and fit his personality.

However, his vlogs aren't simply for entertainment value. They are also designed to educate, like a recent video on the cost to file an absentee ballot, or to break news, such as when he interviews Duncan Hunter.

Of course, he excels in the weird, such as this coverage of the Boston Typewriter Orchestra.

BLOG AGAINST THE MACHINE: BOSTON - Steve Garfield: The man with a fancy phone that serves as a live news crew:

Garfield is renowned throughout the country for his ability to capture news footage without making a big production out of it. It's a one man band for Garfield as he takes advantage of Internet journalism tools: Twitter, Flickr, Myspace, Facebook.

SkyNet has instructed my Comcast HD TiVo NOT TO RECORD Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Despite being listed on the TiVo program guide on my Comcast TiVo and being listed on the Zap2It guide, my Comcast TiVo refuses to record Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on 825 FOX BOSTON HD.



I could not even WATCH Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on 825 FOX BOSTON HD tonight.

I called Comcast and messaged @comcastcares. Comcast called me on the phone a couple of times and have escalated the problem to TiVo.

Anyone else experiencing the problem?

Here's what it looks like:




Here's the listing on Zap2It:

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Complications
Mon, Nov 17, 8:00 PM
Run Time: 60 min.

Genre: Drama, Paranormal
NEW HD CC TV-14 STEREO
Sarah's puzzling nightmares begin to creep into her real life; Derek and Jesse look into a possible Skynet conspirator."

The Carol and Steve Show: Now on YouTube

The Carol and Steve Show first aired on the web starting on 1/1/05. We did 53 episodes that year. One each week!

These shows started being posted before there was YouTube. Now I'm reposting to share with a wider audience.

This episode originally aired January 26, 2005, the weekend of the first big meetup of vloggers in NYC, vloggercon.

This week, Carol and Steve travel to New York.

They stay in a nice hotel that has internet access for $12.95/day, meet Amanda Congdon from Rocketboom, and get tickets to go see Wicked on Broadway.

Thanks for Bill Dawson of XK9 Design for the new show intro graphics.

Subscribe to The Carol and Steve Show YouTube channel to get new episodes as I post them.

Update:

The Carol and Steve Show Player

Quantum of Solace Experience

I ordered tickets for Quantum of Solace online at MovieTickets.com

We chose to see the movie at the Showcase Cinema de Lux Patriot Place.

Ordering ticklets was not that straighforward, since the Cinema de Lux also has a Lux level. So when you order tickets, you have to ba careful.

The Lux level has food and beverage service.

Here's the online seating chart:


To me, that looks like, if you choose the last row, you are three rows away from the movie screen.



It turns out that the Lux level means that there's a balcony at the back of the theatre, so you are not three rows from the screen, more like 53 rows back from the screen.

That's more like it.

Coming Attractions
I got a survey via email when I got home, and they wanted to know which of hte following previews I remembered.

Seven Pounds
Angels & Demons
The International
2012
Bedtime Stories
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Spirit
Valkyrie
Star Trek XI (2009)
Fast and Furious
Yes Man
Watchmen

The ones that I most enjoyed were:

Bedtime Stories
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Valkyrie
Star Trek XI (2009)

Although I am a big Star Trek fan, Bedtime Stories had the best preview.

We did not see previews for Seven Pounds, Fast and Furious, The International, 2012, Yes Man, or Watchmen.

Once we were settled into our seats we were introduced to a SERVICE button at our seat. It was explained that if you pushed it anytime, someone would come and take your order.

Well, that did not work.

We ended up getting served, without silverware and napkins.

Can you imagine?

Plus, the beginning of the movie has garbled sound issues.

Yikes!

It all resolved itself as did the movie.

New James Bond film scores record opening in North America:

The latest James Bond film "Quantum Of Solace" opened this weekend at the top of box office in North America with an estimated 70 million U.S. dollars over the three-day period, a record for the globally popular spy series, according to preliminary figures released Sunday.

NYT: Will President Obama Continue to use Email?

NYT: Obama saying goodbye to BlackBerry? - The New York Times- msnbc.com:

"In addition to concerns about e-mail security, he faces the Presidential Records Act, which puts his correspondence in the official record and ultimately up for public review, and the threat of subpoenas. A decision has not been made on whether he could become the first e-mailing president, but aides said that seemed doubtful.

For all the perquisites and power afforded the president, the chief executive of the United States is essentially deprived by law and by culture of some of the very tools that other chief executives depend on to survive and to thrive. Mr. Obama, however, seems intent on pulling the office at least partly into the 21st century on that score; aides said he hopes to have a laptop computer on his desk in the Oval Office, making him the first American president to do so."

One Block of Street Cleaning Signs on Dunster Road

It's ironic that the City of Boston pollutes the neighborhood with all these signs to enforce a street sweeping parking ban.