Approaching Logan Airport

Approaching Logan Airport, originally uploaded by The U.S. National Archives.

For the Documerica Project (1971-1977), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hired freelance photographers to capture images relating to environmental problems, EPA activities, and everyday life in the 1970s.

Michael Philip Manheim was one of nearly one hundred photographers hired for DOCUMERICA. His assignment was to document the noise pollution crises in the East Boston neighborhood around Neptune Road.

Manheim captured powerful images of the deteriorating community, illustrating its uncomfortable proximity to one of the nation's busiest airports and the plight of residents living under the landing path of jets on the approach to Logan's busy runways.

Boston Water and Sewer Commission Does Not Suport Auto Bill Pay

In the recent Boston Water and Sewer Commission newsletter that came with my monthly bill they introduce a new website, BUT they still do not allow automatic bill pay.

How much money did they spend to develop this website and WHEN will they allow automatic monthly bill pay from credit card and checking accounts?

Bill Pay page

Note: I've been asking for this since September 2005!

New Live Poll Allows Pundits To Pander To Viewers In Real Time

New Live Poll Allows Pundits To Pander To Viewers In Real Time

Do we really have this yet, anywhere?

Post links in the comments.

President Barack Obama warms up with St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols

P071409PS-0935, originally uploaded by The Official White House Photostream.

President Barack Obama warms up with St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols before the start of the MLB All-Star Game in St. Louis, July 14, 2009. President Obama later threw the first pitch to Pujols. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

This official White House photograph is being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way or used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

Boston Recycles: Capitol Waste Services

Video of the new Boston Recycle bins being picked up curbside by Capitol Waste Services

First Train Home

This is the first song off of Imogen Heap's new album Ellipse. I love it.

Nantucket Lighthouses - Big Pictures

Brant Point Lighthouse, Nantucket, MA (Photo: Steve Garfield CC BY-NC-SA)


Sea Shells and Brant Point Lighthouse, Nantucket, MA (Photo: Steve Garfield CC BY-NC-SA)


Sankaty Head Lighthouse, Nantucket, MA (Photo: Steve Garfield CC BY-NC-SA)


Sankaty Head Lighthouse, Nantucket, MA (Photo: Steve Garfield CC BY-NC-SA)

Get Seen - Marketing a Book

Shannon Vargo and Chris Brogan by Chris Brogan, on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA

Chris Brogan made a great post over on his blog about marketing his book, Trust Agents - Marketing a Book.

I'm remixing his post to give you an update on where I'm at in marketing my book, Get Seen: Secrets of Online Video.

Chris and his co-author Julien, are a few months ahead of me since their book comes out in August and mine comes out in December.

Chris says:

Neither Julien nor I have ever marketed a book like this before. We’ve helped friends promote their books, and we are both avid readers, but the difference between marketing something and liking something are the differences between a marriage and staring at a picture of someone you’ve never met in person. Along the way, I want to share some of what we’ve learned, especially because Trust Agents is a very different kind of book.

That's excellent.

I want to do the same.

The Story So Far

Where I am in the writing process:

I've written the book and sent it in to Wiley. It's being edited now and I expect to get it back shortly to go over their edits and make changes and additions. I'll have two more chances to edit the book before it's final.

If you are reading this and are involved in online video, and have something you are releasing later this year, let me know know so I can consider adding it to the book. :-)

Where I am with marketing:

Site:

SteveGarfield.com/getseen – After talking with my editor Shannon Vargo at Wiley, we decided to host the book's page under my own domain. I put out a survey to my twitter followers to determine whether the book page should be a marketing site or a community. I went with community.



Community:

I built the site with Ning. The splash page has a picture of the book and some marketing info at the top, so it also acts as a marketing page too.

People have already started joining the community. It's going to become a great resource for both readers and non-readers to exchange their experiences with putting video online. I've got a lot of information in the book about cameras too, and this site is going to grow and change with new product releases from vendors. The community has 37 members. Join in to talk about your questions and help others.

Twitter:

@GetSeen – I made a Twitter account for the book to send out major announcements. This account is for people who want to make sure they get announcements about the book on twitter.

People are posting about the book on twitter and I appreciate it.





Facebook:

Get Seen Page – I built a Get Seen Page on Facebook. As of this writing, there are 37 fans. I haven't promoted this page yet, other than having a link to it on SteveGarfield.com and on the Ning Community Site.

Amazon.com:

Get Seen is now available for pre-order on amazon.com.

Speaking:

I'm lining up speaking engagements for this year and next.

I'm also starting to plan the book tour and looking for sponsors for air, hotel and meet up locations.

I've got some ideas about combining the book tour with tweetups and Media Makers meetings.

When I traveled to Phoenix, I brought that community together and this past week I went to Nantucket where they had their first tweetup. I'd love to help kick start ongoing events in your town.

Interviews:

I've started mentioning the book when doing interviews. It's still early for interviews, but if a show is ongoing I'll do an interview now so that the host can see how it goes and have me back on again.

I've recently been on the Mashable Lounge and CNN.com/Live. Appearances there will continue.

Other Touchpoints – Following Chris' example, I edited my email signature to include a link to the book. I’ve added a link to the book into my Facebook bio.

What’s Working?

Here’s some things I know:

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #509,116 in Books

Here are some things I don't know:

I don't know how to see the ranking in specific categories. I'll have to ask Chris how he gets this.

Books > Computers & Internet > Business & Culture > Manager’s Guides to Computing
Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Systems & Planning

I'm not listed in Barnes & Noble yet.

What's Next

Here are some of the things I'm working on:

Get on National TV. Explaining how to put video online will be a great show segment and I'm starting to contact shows about this. You know I'm already talking to one special late night show.

Recruit other video producers to join the community and to share their skills.

I'd love to hear your ideas and get your help. Thanks!

 

Update:

Here's a short URL you can use to link to the book http://bit.ly/GetSeen

Sail Boston 2009 - Big Pictures

Big crowds turned out for Sail Boston 2009 on the Boston waterfront on Saturday. It was a beautiful day with no rain. People lined up to tour the ships, shown here at the World Trade Center. (Photo/Steve Garfield CC BY-NC-SA)


Those with boats toured via water along with sightseeing vessels. There was a trffic cop on a boat too, to keep the little boats moving along. (Photo/Steve Garfield CC BY-NC-SA)


Many of hte mastheads depicted women as mermaids, but this one displayed a mustachioed, long haired guy. (Photo/Steve Garfield CC BY-NC-SA)


This unique view of the Institute of Contemporary art is from a fairly new dock on the water. (Photo/Steve Garfield CC BY-NC-SA)


Lots of people got lots of exercise walking from dock to dock. (Photo/Steve Garfield CC BY-NC-SA)


Viewed through a complex mass of roping, the city of Boston skyline shows through including a glimpse of the Custom House Tower. (Photo/Steve Garfield CC BY-NC-SA)

View more.

Hincman Park Bench to Return to Jamaica Pond

Hincman Park Bench to Return to Jamaica Pond, originally uploaded by stevegarfield. CC BY-NC-SA

This concrete slab in the vicinity of the Hincman Park Bench installation leads me to believe that it might be coming back to Jamaica Pond. I hope so.

The Self-Esteem Generation

Peggy Noonan writes that Sarah "Palin was bad for the Republicans, and the republic":

"For 30 years the self-esteem movement told the young they're perfect in every way. It's yielding something new in history: an entire generation with no proper sense of inadequacy."

Good read.

'The Zookeeper' film set will stay at Franklin Park Zoo

Sam Baltrusis answers my question about what's going to happen to all the movie set contruction they are doing at Franklin Park Zoo.

Loaded Gun: Franklin Park Zoo hosting "The Zookeeper" film set:

"Production crews plan to shell out major money to spruce up the Franklin Park Zoo, with renovations and landscaping slotted to benefit the non-profit zoo for extended period even after the production is done.

Loaded Gun Boston reader Craig Rabe says 'he noticed that the production crew for 'The Zookeeper' has taken over a large part of the middle of the zoo to create a set.' Rabe confirmed with a zoo official that designers 'are spending at least the next six weeks building the set,' with design beginning in late May."

Boston Globe article, Franklin Park Zoo goes to the movies, doesn't mention what's going to happen to the sets.

Blogger 1, Boston Globe 0.

I'd love to hear more details as to what exaclty they are building and how the construction is going to be used in the zoo after the movie finishes shooting.

Web Video Madness

HubSpot's Social Media Marketing Madness [cartoon] Remixed.

Announcing My Investment in Qik

Qik announces new financing:

"Qik is pleased to announce that we have closed another round of funding, comprised of investments from Quest Venture Partners, CampVentures, and strategic individuals. A total of $5.5 million has been raised to continue Qik's growth."

That makes me a strategic individual. :-)

As you know, I've been working very closely with Qik since they first hit the market. From the start, the whole team at Qik has been very responsive to my new feature suggestions.

When I was covering the US Persidential primary in New Hampshire with a Nokia N95, they saw my coverage and sent me an N95-3 so I could stream in 3G.

At one point I told them that I would stop using Qik if there was the possibility that my streaming video would be lost. They fixed that.

I've met the Qik team and presented with Bhaskar Roy at the SXSW and Streaming Media conferences.

As someone who is always looking at new technology and working to demystify the process of putting video on the web, I'm a big fan of Qik's live streaming techology which lets you broadcast live video with the push of a button.

A appreciate the opportunity to participate in this new round of funding and look forward to seeing Qik released on new platforms.

Check out my user page on Qik for examples of how I use it.

Steve Garfield's Beer

Steve Garfield's Beer, originally uploaded by Chuckumentary. CC BY-NC-SA

Having an Efes beer in NYC at Turkish Cuisine.

Turn Your Tweet Into a Pitcure

image provided by twictur.es | original tweet here

Facebook Allows Embeddable Pages

Here's my fan page for Get Seen:

Get Seen by Steve Garfield on Facebook

via [ Mashable ]

The quality of internet reporting: Do Sites Link Out?

I recorded a screencast looking at the quality of internet reporting, specifically whether sites link out, on the launch of Mediaite.

I used the first page of Google Search Results for Mediaite.

Then I visited each site to see if, when reporting on Mediaite, they linked to the site.

Forbes - No
Twitter: Mediaite - No
[ Note: They need to add http:// to the URL to make it clickable ]
The Washington Post - Yes
Fimoculous - Yes
Columbia Journalism Review - Yes
Silicon Valley Insider - No
Gawker - Yes
Politico - Yes

Lee Stranahan interviews Steve Garfield on Making Money Making Art

"Online video guru Steve Garfield talks about his upcoming book "Get Seen! Online Video Secrets" and social media."

Watch this Commercial I'm In for Cisco Collaboration Technologies