“Besides,” this person added. “I can just listen to the sessions when they’re published.”

I loved the challenge to consider what makes PAB an incredible conference.  I’m sure others in the PAB community have their own thoughts.  (Feel free to share them in the comments to this post, or post your own thoughts)

SIZE MATTERS

One of the early hypotheses adopted for PAB is that the impact of an individual’s experience is inversely proportional to the number of people gathered.  That’s to say, the smaller the conference, the better the experience.  PAB is the only social media conference we know of that is structured around a small capacity.  This bakes in the possibility that everyone will have a chance to meet, if not connect with, everyone else at the conference.

PUTTING THE PROGRAM BACK INTO CONFERENCES

We’ve heard far too many people say that conference programs are meaningless to them so they spend their time in the hallways socializing.  We have nothing against socializing at conferences and believe that there should be ample time to do so built into the program (at PAB, we allocate 15 minutes of each hour to socializing).  Socializing, though, can happen anytime and anywhere — you don’t need a conference (fee or free) to bring people together to socialize.

Bob and I strongly believe that a worthwhile conference has a meaningful and engaging program.  We put most of our time and energy into making sure that each PAB has a program worthy of other people’s time, energy and money.

COMMON EXPERIENCE

PAB’s one-room, one-track program means that everyone who attends gets to experience the same speakers, same sessions and same ideas.  There are no difficult decisions to make on which sessions to sacrifice to be in the audience of a particular session.  Everyone can participate in the common conversation about program content throughout the weekend and after the conference wraps up.  The opinions and interpretations are all unique and that brings extraordinary value to the “one-tent” approach.

HOUSE GUESTS

Bob and I decided to craft the experience of PABsters being guests of a home.  This means we act as hosts, working hard to ensure that everyone is made to feel welcome.  We do the fussy stuff, operate the sound system, help speakers connect their equipment, introduce them and run the microphones around during the interactive part of the program.  Our guests can sit back, relax and enjoy the weekend.  Based on feedback from previous years, we enlisted the help of five people this year to serve as Ambassadors, making sure that PAB newcomers were made to feel welcome and that anyone looking lost, lonely or confused would be helped.

The couches and round tables helped, too.

RE-ENERGIZING LUNCH

In order to keep the program moving and to make sure that the community has the physical and cerebral energy to keep going during the Saturday afternoon, we’ve always made sure to provide a good lunch.  We’ve kept people at the conference site by offering a fantastic buffet each year.  Lunch includes options for the vegan and meat sets, and a great dessert table.

I’M ON A BOAT!

The annual boat cruise has been a highlight of the social part of the program.  Nothing brings people together like being out on scenic Lake Ontario for two hours.  For the last two years, we’ve included an open-mic on the main level of the two-storey boat.  Partners and family members of the PAB community are invited to join us on the boat cruise at no charge.

SECOND TIER

With the exception of PAB06 (our inaugural year), the PAB program has steered away from the basics of recording, publishing and distributing content.  We’ve worked hard to make sure the program offers opportunities for new media and social media enthusiasts and professionals to think differently about the tools and how to use them.  The hope is to challenge the community to do something new.

Newcomers are reminded that there’s a room full of people with podcasting experience and favourite tools and toys, all of whom are eager to share their ideas over a coffee or beer.  It’s not the equipment you use or how you use it, it’s what you want to communicate and how you communicate it that matters most.

MMMMONEY

Money was an unwelcome discussion topic for the first three years of PAB.  This was largely for two reasons.  First, making money from new media and social media should be an advantage, not a catalyst.  That is, producers should focus on doing something remarkable, then figure out if there are opportunities to make money.  Second, and more importantly, we believe that new media and social media were not at a mature enough state to have a meaningful conversation about money, monetization and business models until this year.  PAB09 was the first year in which money was programmed into the discussion — and the dialog was definitely productive and respectful.

CAMPFIRE DISCUSSIONS

I hadn’t considered this until Adam Gratrix mentioned it during his recent appearance on John Meadows’ On The Log podcast.  Adam pointed out that the original idea for PAB was to meet at a campground and to share ideas around a campfire.  The magic of PAB, according to Adam, is that the community has managed to transplant that campfire conversation from the outdoors to a conference room.

BEING THERE

We often hear from people who are thankful that we publish the content of each PAB as audio programs in the months following each conference.  We do this to help advance the conversation and provide added value for the community.  Anyone who believes they’re attending a conference by watching or listening to the verbatim content from the program is only cheating themselves.  It’s the experience of being present for the sessions, discussion and socializing that makes the conference a reality.

HAS ITS OWN PLACE

Among the feedback we received so far about PAB09 is the comment from one person that PAB is what this person had hoped Mesh would be.  That kind of feedback reinforces the value of PAB and makes it okay that Bob and I volunteer hundreds of hours each into planning and running each PAB conference.

Really, we never created PAB to compete with other conferences.  Our goal is to hold an annual conference that fills a void left by, even augments, the other conferences.

PAB IS ABOUT NOT SETTLING

It becomes comfortable planning PAB on a solid foundation each year.  With the exception of PAB06 (our first year and the most risky of all of them — just organizing a conference), we’ve been able to tweak and refine the conference approach each year and build on the previous year’s success.  When things become rhythmic and comfortable, people will settle.

PAB is about trying new things, exploring new ideas and making things more engaging.  PAB is about figuring what the limits are and how to get beyond them.  We must practice what we promote by constantly improving.  That’s why we made the decision to move PAB to Ottawa, and to shake things up a bit.  We’ll still work from the same foundation; it’s just time to test its strength.

While we may have conceived it and taken the reins PAB is a community event.  We value that the community trusts us with this event and providing direction.  Perhaps that’s the most unique component of PAB.

YOUR TURN

What makes PAB unique for you?

Oh yeah! We take a group photo each year. (photo: Bob Goyetche)

As part of my session, I had the entire room participate in adopting a Curiosity Manifesto:

1. Asking one question is only the beginning.
2. Seek a greater understanding, not a solution.
3. A curious attitude will set you free.

I will be blogging about PAB09 in the coming days.

This marks the first time PAB has had a taste associated with it.  Which means that you can enjoy PAB all year round and show your appreciation to Molson at the same time.

The PAB09 program begins tomorrow with a video workshop from 2:00-4:00pm, and the kick-off and keynote speech by Jowi Taylor at 8:00pm.  There’s still space so register and be a part of Canada’s premiere new media conference.

That photo makes me want to have a cold beer!

The real issue is that city council had initiated an international design competition which was suddenly and unexpectedly terminated by Lansdowne Live.  A small group of city representatives are in closed-door negotiations with Lansdowne Live and have already begun approaching the federal government to explore funding options for the project — all without public consultation.  The plans seem to be something of a moving target and what the public has seen does not look good.  This includes turning a quiet residential street into the primary access route for a major box-mall shopping development and theatre complex, reduced parking for increased business and residential, and the expansion of seating in a vacant football stadium that has housed two failed CFL franchises in the last 15 years.

Jean Pigott calls Lansdowne Park the Living Room of Ottawa.  It’s been a gathering place for more than 130 years.  It’s where rural and urban came together for the first time at the Agricultural Fair, where Ottawa’s first professional baseball team played and where troops gathered before being shipped overseas.  It’s 40-acres of public land next to the UNESCO World Heritage Rideau Canal.  Lansdowne Park is such a heritage site that when city council voted many years ago to tear down the Aberdeen Pavilion (also known as the Cattle Castle) and a city manager unilaterally overruled the council’s vote, he was praised by the city as a hero for having saved the heritage and spirit of Lansdowne and millions of dollars were invested into the restoration of the pavilion.

Basically, the City of Ottawa and Lansdowne Live are endorsing a closed-door, sole-sourced development project for a major piece of prime public property.  The same municipal government requires competitions for sidewalk construction.  This makes Lansdowne Live a city issue, not just an issue for Glebe and Ottawa South residents.  As one of the speakers at yesterday’s rally said, Lansdowne Live may be one of the best or perhaps the best option for developing Lansdowne Park.  However, without an open and competitive process that embraces public input, noone will ever know.

The press was out en mass for yesterday’s rally and CJOH news ran a piece about it.  If you pick up today’s Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Sun or Metro you won’t know the rally took place.  There isn’t a single mention of the rally.  With all due respect to the Ottawa Citizen and Lanark County, I would consider this issue to be significantly more important (certainly more current) than the 50th anniversary of the Inferno in Lanark, the Citizen’s front-page story.  The rally did make front page news on 24 Hours.

Developer control of the city agenda is not really news here in Ottawa — at least, not for the last 30 years — nor is the absence of transparency or integrity in our elected officials.  However, a major issue like this escaping the papers is a bit unusual, particularly on a semi-slow news day.  Conspiracy theorist would suggest there’s developer advertising dollars at play.  I think the local newspapers have failed to live up to their responsibility.

For more information, follow Friends of Lansdowne Park.

Here is a quick summary of the program:

Friday, June 19, 2009

• Make Your Camcorder Sing Like a Canary (Paul Lyzun)
• Keynote (Jowi Taylor)

Saturday, June 20, 2009

• What Have We Lost? (Bob Goyetche)
• JOLT! Now Here This! (Scarborough Dude)
• Curiosity Thrilled the Cat (Mark Blevis)
• JOLT! JUICE: Get Your Creative On (Tod Maffin)
• While You Weren’t Looking: From the Visibile to the Audible (Valerie Hunter)
• JOLT! Reach Out and Touch Someone (Daniele Rossi)
• Unkempt - The Creative Workflow of a Storyteller (Tim Coyne)
• JOLT! Podcasting Through the Side Door (Rob Lee)
• Why Monetization is Vital to New Media (Chris Penn)
• JOLT! Search Engines and Trust (Jay Moonah)
• A Good Picture is Worth a Thousand Words (Marko Kulik)
• JOLT! You Will Not F&*^#*g Talk About Me In Your Podcast (Tim Coyne)
• Develop Samurai Skillz to Help You Change the World (Rick Claus)
• JOLT! Are You Building or Are You Coasting? (Chris Brogan)

Sunday, June 21, 2009

• Pecha Kucha (community-organized)
• Spice Up Your Life: Creativity, Community and the Art of Masala Film-Making (Katherine Matthews)
• JOLT! Where Do You Want Your Content, Today? (Rick Claus)
• A Healthy Mistrust of Authority (Neil Gorman)
• JOLT! Alice in Podland (Yvonne Erlichman)
• We Are All Shanachies (Connie Crosby)

Have you registered for PAB09, yet?  If not, click here.

And it worked.  I believe the success of BookCamp TO was largely due to the energy people brought with them and Hugh McGuire’s brilliant kick-off speech in which he said that the goal of the event was “not to find solutions but to be equipped to ask better questions”.

Clearly BookCamp was long overdue. It was electrified as people who love books were given the opportunity to express their concerns about the current state and the future of the publishing industry to people who were similarly interested in hearing what was being said.

I find it interesting that the challenges being faced by the book publishing world are the same as or similar to the struggles faced by the music industry, radio, newspapers and now television. It seems to be a time of universal renewal.

There were three recurring themes that I found particularly interesting.

BRANDING

Noting that the market is strongest for personalities, most publishing houses invest their energy in promoting their authors (this is great if the author is a known entity). However, publishers are forgoing their own identity and personality.

This, of course, it not true of all publishing houses. Harlequin, O’Reilly and Oxford all serve specific niches for which there is an obvious branding opportunity (and one they’ve all worked very well). For generalist houses like Key Porter the opportunity for branding is not specifically obvious. This was the subject of an interesting and ongoing discussion. At one point I suggested that publishers need to do more to create their own brand and identity — promoting authors, particularly those that aren’t signed to a long-term deal, is gambling with the publicity budget. When Key Porter expressed concern about the idea of passing on a particular title because it doesn’t match with the house’s brand, Nathan Maharaj asked “what’s more important; brand equity or publishing a book?” Eden Spodek suggested that houses like Key Porter could focus on vertical niches within its catalog and build imprints with their own communities (e.g. Key Porter Cooks, Key Porter Travels, Key Porter Business…).

DESIGN

Books have always been as much about form as they are about content. Print publications allow publishers to control the form of the book and increase their impact through the visual experience. Of course, this is particularly true of textbooks, photography, business and children’s books. The move to electronic ink means rethinking the form and publisher control over it.

There are two types of electronic publishers: the gatekeepers of literature and culture; and, the curators of literature and culture.

Amazon’s Kindle (only available in the US) is a gatekeeper of literature. For the power of publisher control over form and design, the Kindle requires Digital Rights Management (DRM, something the music industry once required and is now abandoning) and Amazon decides what will be published on its platform. This means that individuals are not able to create their own books and make them available on the Kindle. It also means that the books you buy for the Kindle cannot be viewed using any other technology.

The OpenEBook.org project is working on an open standard for electronic books and readers. The standard uses coding which offers limited control of form by book publishers. This means that things like images and kerning have to be considered (or excluded) for the whole of electronic readers with their various screen sizes and resolutions. The advantage is that individuals and organizations (York University being one example discussed in the session) have the ability to make their works available electronically for all platforms including iPhones. BTW, Sony has embraced the open standard for electronic books (yes… the same company that created Betamax).

PROMOTION

Publishers have long depended on authors (and illustrators) to participate in the process of promoting their books. Until recently, most of that promotion was done through word of mouth and book tours. Now we have blogs, podcasts and social media networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Ning, and communications tools such as Twitter.

The problem is that the how and why to use the tools is too often an afterthought. Publicity departments think of these tools tactically, not strategically. They tell their authors without thought that they need to use everything and the kitchen sink. The result is disjointed and confused and becomes a nightmarish headache for the author to maintain. Furthermore, the author’s efforts may have nothing to do with the marketing strategy or worse, could work against it.

There also seems to be a misunderstanding of the tools. Someone said that it shouldn’t mean “you suck” if you can’t build a network of more than thirty people around your book to which Mitch Joel said quite bluntly, “yes, you suck”.

PARTING THOUGHTS

If we don’t breed young readers now, there will be noone interested in books no matter what form they’ll be available in twenty years from now. That’s why I read The Carrot Seed aloud to kick off my session on book, author and publisher promotion. The idea was to get people away from thinking “if you build it they will come” to understanding that “if you attend to it and nurture it no matter what people tell you, it will grow”.

BookCamp was invigorating and, I believe, just the beginning. The conversation needs to continue. Publishers need to work smarter and maybe a little harder to reshape what they do in the digital age; they need to think carefully about their own brand as well as the brands of the people they work with; they need to consider if they want brand equity or to just publish books; they need to understand the digital tools and why and how to use them; and, they need to look at the industries that have already dealt (or are currently dealing) with similar struggles in an effort to stay relevant and ensure their future.

There’s a lot to learn and an abundance of creative ways to keep the publishing ecosystem strong without dictating how the ecosystem will look and feel.

Books have the ability to involve readers in the story in a way that no other media can.  With the exception of storytelling, books are the original hot (and niche) media and remain strong to this day; whether fictional stories to which we can relate, non-fiction books that spread original ideas or children’s books that open young minds to amazing possibilities and creative ways of thinking.  It is this unique and important role they play that has made the discussion about books and their future a recurring theme of late and the subject of a growing number of conferences and forums including today’s BookCamp Toronto.

In my session, The Carrot Seed: A new model for book, author and publisher promotion, I will be exploring some of the creative ways books have been promoted and how communities have formed around books and their creators.  While the focus of my session is on ways to raise awareness of books, the underlying message of my session is that the publishing industry’s greatest challenge isn’t the technology through which books will be made available, but the continued development of talent that will attract new audiences, keep growing literacy levels and inspire readers of all backgrounds.  Without that foundation, the entire book industry will fall down.

My session draws on three assumptions (while there are more, I’m focusing on three):

• books have always been recommended by trust agents
• review space in traditional media is shrinking
• economics demands that publicists do more with less and book creators are now an integral part of the promotion strategy

I’ll be highlighting a number of promotional approaches that I feel are particularly interesting and I will share some dos and don’ts to help the publishing industry work with book bloggers and podcasters.

Here are some of the specific campaigns that I will reference in my session:

• The Graveyard Book and its video tour (Neil Gaiman)
• The Best Laid Plans (Terry Fallis)
• Pow! Right Between the Eyes (Andy Nulman)
• The Softwire (P. J. Haarsma)
• 30 Poets/30 Days (Greg Pincus)
• Rock Stars of Reading documentary series (Just One More Book!!)

Relevant links:

• CRTC announcement
• Michael Geist’s analysis

I wonder if my old CHUO friends Tom Metuzals, Natalie Lalonde and George Regan will be on hand.

I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit, more so this weekend while I spoke at and attended the Radio Without Boundaries Conference in Toronto. My theories are still in development so I’m treating this entry as a way to better understand my thoughts and possibly hear from others who have their own ideas.

Let’s open with a tour I recently had of the Rogers radio facility in Ottawa. Four radio stations broadcast from the building:

• CHEZ 106 (Classic Rock)
• KISS FM (Top 40/CHR)
• Y105 (New Country)
• OLDIES 1310 (Oldies)

The tour took place at 7pm so the radio station was empty — even the studios. Well, not all of the studios. CHEZ 106 had on-air talent that evening in order to take phone calls for their 10pm music face-off. The other three stations were voice tracked.

If you’re unfamiliar with voice tracking, think of it as an iTunes playlist on the radio. Earlier that afternoon someone sequenced some music and ads, recorded the voice interjections and programmed the whole night into a computer. The studios were empty because the computers were playing that program; like a robot. In fact, Oldies 1310 uses voice tracking for the entire day with the exception of the morning drive (probably 3 or 4 hours out of a 24 hour day).

Let’s consider what that means. Overnight time slots were historically reserved for rookies to develop their talent during the hours that listenership was down. If the talent became good, they were considered for other timeslots — evening, midday, afternoon drive and eventually the coveted morning drive. It was like the farm system in a baseball organization; you start in the minor leagues and eventually work your way up as a starter in the majors. Overnight voice tracking means radio stations no longer have a farm system to develop talent. Who will replace the pros?

More importantly, how do you appeal to the younger audience? How does a radio station cater to the 18-24 market with a Program Director and a jockeys that grew up wearing bell bottoms (or perhaps pastel colours and thin leather ties) when they first became a fashion craze? Research? Ratings?

As near as I can tell, the 18-24 market is listening to their iPods because they can program what they want to hear. Why?

• They don’t have to hear the same songs every 90 minutes.
• They can hear more than 200 songs.
• They can use the shuffle mode and be surprised by which songs come up.
• They don’t have to listen to long commercial breaks.
• The person that’s programming their local station may not even live in the area so the programming decisions being made may not accurately reflect the interests of the area.

By picking formats that may be cost effective now, radio stations have established what I’ll call auto-obsolescence — as the people who grew up listening to radio when it was a significant player continue to… well… grow up, there’s very few people who will take their place as listeners. Radio isn’t going to die, it’ll just outgrow its purpose.

MAKE OLD NEW, AGAIN

I have this crazy idea. I don’t know if it would work. Certainly, some people I’ve shared it with think it’s too risky and wouldn’t be profitable. I’ll share it anyway.

What if one radio station in a particular metropolitan area replaced voice tracking with real people around the clock? What if that radio station expanded its playlist from 300 to 3000 (or more) songs? What if that radio station trusted its on-air talent enough to collaborate with programmers and make something fresh and exciting? What if that radio station thought of 18-24 year-olds as more than part of the CPM formula (to attract advertisers) and having a more important role at the station than just being interns that do the jobs nobody else wants to do?

I think those ideas could put personality back into radio. The novelty alone should make the radio station attractive to those who care about radio and intriguing to those who haven’t yet become interested in it. Advertisers might similarly be excited about being part of something out-of-the ordinary and might commit to be a part of the change.

The shift might buy the radio station six or twelve months of time to prove that this format could work. It could die miserably or it could eek out profit enough to continue. It could be wildly successful, marginalizing the competition and transforming radio in the process. It could put the soul back into private radio, something Paul Ingles claims was sucked out in full back in 1999.  Not that saving private radio is something people are lining up to do, though I do wonder if the death of private radio could have a cascading effect on all radio.

Public radio (which I love) suffers from different challenges and I’m still working on my thoughts about those. Thankfully, though, there appears to be a healthy group of 18-24 year-olds actively involved in public radio.

That’s why I grabbed a front row seat for Oh, Shut Up! Who needs a narrator anyway?, a session by Chris Brookes‘ at the Radio Without Boundaries conference.  Chris was connected by Skype from his home in Newfoundland (a family emergency kept him at home) and with the help of Paolo Pietropaolo at the conference, played clips of radio news coverage dating as far back as 1937 (the Hindenburg disaster) and 1939 (the King and Queen leaving by boat from Newfoundland), through to some very recent documentary programs which used a combination of sound and sparse narration.  We explored the role of narration in each clip, paying particular attention to how the narration makes the audience either a spectator or participant and how much authority the narrator assumes.  We also discussed some cases where the narration was gratuitous.

Like the Jens Jarisch session The Inner Sound of the Outer World at Third Coast, Chris’ session will have me exploring new possibilities in my production work.  Either that or I’ll be self-consciously stuck where I am.

The segment relates to the coverage of Ottawa Mayor Larry O’Brien’s criminal trial.  I’ve been following the trial closely and have noticed that there are three categories of online coverage by the media.

DIGITAL COURT REPORTER

Ottawa Citizen reporter Glen McGregor has been exercising his home-row key skills through his live “Twittering” of the trial.  His role as an online digital court reporter has meant he has to run two Twitter accounts (obrientrial and obrientrial2) as the flood updates sometimes violate a limit Twitter has set on the number of posts one can make in an hour on a single account; while one account recovers from the sanction, Glen jumps over to the other.  His 140-character or less updates are a mix of observations, paraphrased comments, verbatim quotes and the occasional humourous reflections (like who might play a particular witness in the movie-version of the trial).

BLOG UPDATES

The CBC’s Cory O’Kelly and Alistair Steele took a few days to find their rhythm with their blog coverage of the trial.  Their posts range from extremely short (less than 200 words) to medium length and include factual accounts or light analysis of cross examination, testimony and procedure.  While the titles of their posts have become more attention-getting, there is still the occasional ”Up Next” and “Cory O’Kelly writes…” which weakly invite me to find out what’s going on.

The Ottawa Sun is also in on the action.  Susan Sherring and Derek Puddicombe have taken a more snappy approach to their blogging, using imagery and a little humour in largely one-sentence paragraphs — a digest style.

ONLINE JOURNALISM

Then there’s traditional and thoughtful journalism.  Most of the analysis and pure journalism is coming from the CBC which probably explains why Alistair and Cory haven’t been as thorough and regular in their blog.  Because they still have to file radio and television stories, and write reports for the CBC.ca, their focus is on their journalism background.

VERDICT

This is an exciting time for news junkies.  Glen feeds my need for immediacy and unfiltered facts from which I can develop my own assumptions and make my own judgements.  He’s truly doing it better than anyone else.  Alistair and Cory provide me with analysis and observations in a style I’m familiar with and that allows me to test my assumptions and judgements.  I feel like I’m in a better position to trust the media when I can get both the unfiltered details and the analysis on the same story.

Now, if the websites could only be overhauled for the user experience so that the information is easier to find, faster to navigate and that uses more contemporary ways of highlighting audio and video content!

My session is from 2:15 to 3:05, immediately following Hugh McGuire and before Mitch Joel.

UPDATE (May 28): My session has been moved to 3:15pm on Saturday.  Follow the BookCampTO website to see the schedule and monitor any updates to the program.

The next day, Marc took his plan to the streets for the annual Great Glebe Garage Sale.  Decked out in a homemade sandwich board that read “Need a hand?”, Marc socialized with people, spread good cheer and handed out 4000 cards he made up the night before to promote his established photography business and his new venture doing odd jobs including (as indicated on his hand outs) yard work, painting, gardening, washing, scrubbing, lawn mowing, poop pick-up and spring cleaning.

Marc’s approach is that spreading good cheer and shaking people’s hands is a great door opener — the original social media.  It allows you to eliminate doubt about the person you are, something that is always open to question if you launch your business exclusively on the web.

That philosophy works.  Marc’s already booked business.

In my view, Marc did seven things that work very well:

• he never panicked
• he devised a simple plan
• he acted on the plan
• he met people face-to-face
• he stood out
• he spread good cheer
• he struck while the iron was hot

Good luck, Marc!

Before I share some of the lessons I learned, here are some statistics that help illustrate the scope of the project:

• source video recordings:  13hrs
• source audio recordings:  25hrs (includes sync-audio)
• source photographs:  1200
• editing time per video episode:  330 hours (averages to just under 16 hrs/episode)
• produced video programs: 2 hrs and 56 mins (13 episodes)
• produced audio programs: 2 hrs and 18 mins (8 episodes)
• total production: 5 hrs and 14 mins (21 episodes)
• the project is completely self-funded (no advertisers, sponsors or grants)

CAMERA WORK AND VISUAL EVIDENCE

There’s a lot to be said about spontaneity and capturing the moment.  Rock Stars of Reading depended on the recording equipment being the eyes and ears of the event.  Having said that, it would have been helpful to plan some of the camera work to ensure steady shots and good visual evidence.  In fact, the biggest hole in the documentary series was the abundance of b-roll at the expense of sufficient and effective visual evidence.  I didn’t know the distinction when we set out on the trip; I’m painfully aware of it, now.

I should note that we only bought our “spur-of-the-moment” video camera 12 hours before we set out for principle photography so starting with some basics like shopping around to pick out and buy the best camera for the job would have been a good start.

SUPPORT CREATIVITY WITH HEALTHY HABITS

Rock Stars of Reading was a hobby project so most of the editing and production work was done between the hours of 9pm and 3am.  That means I limited myself to three hours of sleep quite a bit and once pulled that 9-3 shift six days in a row.  I have nothing against being hard core about work you get paid for and hobbies you don’t, and I know about the power of working on creative projects when the world around you is still.  However, it’s important to eat well and get plenty of sleep, particularly if you’re engaged in demanding creative projects.

CONNECT WITH THE PEOPLE AND MATERIAL

Because I spent so much time (virtually) with them during the editing and production phases of the project, I became tightly connected with the people featured in the documentary series.  I became intimately familiar with their ideas, manners and words.  This offers a significant advantage since I was able to ensure that the messages they delivered were properly communicated in both video and audio (remember, they delivered them in person and the messages are received differently through a viewfinder than when two people are in the same physical space).

The disadvantage to this type of connection is you can feel artificially close to the characters and after 330 hours hanging out with them, you feel an absence when you realize you won’t be up with them from 9pm-3am tonight.

REVEAL THE STORY

At PodCamp Toronto I delivered a presentation called Content Paleontology: One approach to media production workflow and creative process.  The concept is that I don’t decide what the story is nor do I draft it, write it or tell it.  I go to where I believe the pieces of the story are and uncover them, record them and organize them in the way they reveal the story to me.  It’s an amazingly invigorating and exciting process that I as an editor/producer participate in — I don’t lead it.  Being a good editor means being able to identify the pieces that tell the story through their presence or absence from the final production.

KNOW WHO THE STAR IS

The star of the video is the combination of people, content and context that form the subject of the documentary.  As cinematographer, sound recordist, director, editor and producer, you are merely the vessel through which those stars shine.  Be minimalist in your appearance on the screen and how much of your voice appears in the final product, even if the documentary is meant to be fun and interactive.

By way of example, Michael Moore often places himself at the centre his controversial films which makes him as much of the story as the targets of his films.  That might have worked well in his personal essay Roger and Me, but the line blurs when it comes to his more critical films which Barry Hampe refers to as Docuganda.  Conversely, the only time you see or hear from Ken Burns in his brilliant and epic documentary films including Baseball, Jazz and The War is in the opening and closing credits.  His award-winning films are respected because they’re reflective, powerful and they let the people, places and events that shaped the world tell the stories themselves with minimal narrative.

In the case of Rock Stars of Reading, I reserved my appearance as the main character for the first and last episodes of the series which served to set up and conclude the purpose of the documentary and considered what changes our experiences have had and will have on us.

And those are five of the many lessons I will take with me to my next project.

Which reminded me of another ad I’d seen which takes place on an escalator.

Then I remembered this video.  Who knew elevators could serve as such an effective channel for a creative ad campaign?

It’s like having a digital court reporter.  The information is coming, unfiltered, from journalists with fast moving thumbs and decent data plans for their mobile devices and laptops.  They’re approach has been to quote testimony (Kilrea said O’brien told him “We could have just rat fucked you.” posted by @obrientrial) and provide occasional observations (Clarification: Sherring was allowed in the first two days because the argument over cameras/berries wouldn’t effect her testimony. posted by @obrientrial) and updates (We are recessed for lunch. posted by @obrientrial).  There’s even a dialog between the folks following from home and the journalists in the courtroom (Folks, if you want to message me, DM rather than reply b/c I’m not following anyone on this account. posted by @obrientrial).  They even add a personal touch and levity sometimes (And please join me in toasting my grade 9 typing teacher at Glebe Collegiate. Here’s to you Mrs. Homerowkeys. posted by @obrientrial).

Before the trial, one journalist told me that he found the 140 character limit of Twitter to be too restrictive, so he would be focussing on longer-form blog reports.  I respect his reasoning though I have to admit that the immediacy of Twitter has made his blog posts somewhat redundant and the delay leaves holes in the information for us in the virtual gallery — unless, of course, his blog posts offer a quality summary that includes the context that’s missing from the Twitter stream.

Steve Fischer from CBC Ottawa Television stopped by to interview me about this new phenomenon in courtroom coverage for tonight’s newscast.

Ottawa Citizen reporter Greg McGregor included the following two paragraphs in his coverage of Judge Cunningham’s groundbreaking decision:

Cunningham said he was aware it would be difficult if not impossible to stop the instantaneous transmission of private or protected information that came up during the trial.

“That’s a risk I’ll have to take,” he said in his ruling, which allowed that instant transmission to the blogosphere is now a reality. “That is the world in which live.”

In the midst of all their excitement to report that they have permission to tap away at their electronic keyboards in the courtroom, none of the media coverage I’ve read to date has provided links to websites or blogs featuring live coverage of the trial, nor do they share the hashtag they’re using for Twitter updates from the courtroom.

Missed opportunities as of 6:30am, May 5:

• CBC
• Metro News Ottawa
• Ottawa Sun
• Ottawa Citizen
• Globe and Mail (national)

As you can expect, hospital bills can get quite expensive and health insurance doesn’t cover everything.  That’s what inspired Jone MacCulloch to rally a group of people together for a fundraising auction for Bridget.

I’m participating in the auction by offering audio production and creative direction services for a single ten-minute audio production.  Depending on the type of work I do with the winner, the value will range between $450 and $1000.  Bidding begins at $100.  To read the details of my auction item or to make a bid on my auction item, follow this link and leave a comment.

For more about about Bridget Zinn, click here.

What makes the Amazon “glitch” so significant is not so much that it happened but that Amazon and its public created a situation in which it could happen.  Amazon has become an Internet-retail-monopoly-of-sorts.  It has earned its status by very strategic and effective business decisions and a consumer community that endorsed its approach.  Let’s be honest, shopping on Amazon is more convenient and easier than going to the nearest box store or shopping mall, you don’t have to deal with bad customer service, there’s a wider selection and it arrives at your door.  Who wouldn’t want to take advantage of that?

Many people question why the public is so worked up about the glitch and Amazon’s response.  To me, the answer is obvious; Amazon has a responsibility to its merchandise, the people it represents and the people it serves.  Even if there was a glitch in their computer system (and I don’t know anyone who has given this suggestion even passing endorsement), Amazon amplified a huge mistake into a public relations nightmare by dismissing it as a technological problem.  Did they learn nothing from Tylenol???

Amazon made no fans except, perhaps those that are assumed to have lobbied Amazon against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender literature — adult and children’s books.

If this was indeed a glitch, Amazon needed to very quickly:

• admit that they made a mistake (it doesn’t matter that it was technological)
• admit that this mistake goes back to as early as February
• admit that there is a lot of evidence that supports the claim that a conscious decision was made
• assert that the mistake looks very bad for them
• admit that the public will be able draw many damning conclusions about the mistake
• assure the public that they have no biases against LGBT literature and art
• assure the public that they are working to identify and correct the mistake
• apologize to everyone whose work had been discriminated against by “glitch”
• apologize to the public for not being more careful
• apologize for not taking their responsibility more seriously

This is a classic case of a company dismissing the first rule of PR: “mess up; fess up”.

Instead, Amazon has provided ample evidence to support the common belief that it consciously made a significant and discriminatory change in their policy regarding books about alternative lifestyles, regardless of content.  They’ve also opened the door to scrutiny about their more open policy for books that incite racial and religious hate.

This should serve as a wake up call for everyone that makes online purchases — share the wealth, spread the risk and buy from companies that take their responsibility seriously.

You will no longer find links to amazon.com on this site.  I encourage you to make your online purchases from an online retailer of your choice.  For books, I recommend both Powell’s Books and Chapters.

As more companies flock to social media and discover the power of text, audio and video content on the Internet (whether podcasted or streamed) we’re seeing more of that same approach to corporate communications.  The difference is the public has more power to choose the content it wants and very few of us want to listen to or watch a senior executive talk at us from his or her expensively decorated office — particularly in an age when many of their peers are in the press for unusual accounting practices, bankruptcies, use of corporate jets for personal reasons and, what the heck, Ponzi Schemes.

People relate to other people, not companies.

As exciting as a company may be, its personality is actually the personalites of its people and their ability to engage with others.  In my view, dressing the company and its management team in Hollywood production actually buffs off the humanity and showcases the marketing budget.

Having said that, many companies are actually making great efforts to embrace the social media culture.  I’m not talking the ones that are using every available tool (and there are many) and pumping out as much content as possible.  I’m talking about the companies that understand people want more meaningful information and ideas and they want the presentation to be engaging; even entertaining.

Be real.

One such example is Microsoft.  They began publishing their audio-based IT Manager Podcast in February 2007. The IT Manager team’s purpose is to be the connection point (with no strings attached) for the broad ICT community in Canada, from student to CIO. For about a year-and-a-half, they delivered slick and informative interviews which were scripted and read by both the hosts and guests, all of whom are experts in their fields.  The programs were recorded in an acoustically pristine studio and the performances were directed, sometimes requiring participants to do multiple takes of what was supposed to be a natural dialog.  You can’t disguise that as real.

I was contracted to reinvent the IT Manager Podcast and I’ve worked closely with the Microsoft team to transition them out of a recording studio with a script, to a meeting room using discussion points to impromptu discussions on the floor of a gaming conference.  Getting out of the recording studio has allowed host Rick Claus and his guests to relax and have a fun while adding energy to what some might consider to be dry topics.  And they don’t have a coach telling them how to be themselves.  You can hear how real it is.

Where do you connect with others?

This week we released something unusual for an enterprise-level podcast; an experiment.  Rick recorded a discussion with two information security experts in a coffee shop, the activity of which increased their energy.  After listening to the recording I suggested we make the coffee shop part of the story and pitched the idea of weaving together a narrative about the topic and guests with the sound of Rick ordering his coffee and pastry, adding cream and sugar and then waiting for his guests to arrive.  That led into a conversation about an important corporate issue in an environment where many business people like to conduct off-site meetings.  The result is real and relate-able, especially when the clerk at the coffee shop runs the vacuum — something we made light of in the show.  Mainstream media has conditioned us to think this kind of activity is unusual and unacceptable.

Don’t just use the tools to communicate; know how to use them to connect.

Just because a company or enterprise can afford to do big budget productions, doesn’t mean they should.  Certainly never at the expense of presenting real people and relevant information.  They must choose their media and tools carefully and then produce something as authentic as possible.

The real fun is in revealing the personality while delivering the message.  Making that happen and working with people that care about relating to their audience is why I love my work.

Maybe I’m small
but I have feelings
and they can get
hurt and right now
they feel that way
hurt

I’ve cross posted this photo at GrowingEnthusiasm.com, which our daughters may use to share some of their art.

Also, there’s a review of a book called I Am Small on the Just One More Book!! children’s book podcast today.  The discussion about this fantastic and gentle book is what reminded me of this photo.

The question of how we consume media resurfaces on a regular basis.  I believe this is because the way in which we consume media evolves (more than changes) as technology advances.  So, I’m kicking off my polls with the ever popular… How do you consume media?

In answering the question, please consider the majority of your media consumption.  That said, you may select as many of the available options as apply to your media consumption habits.

I’m never satisfied doing what I can already do.  It’s important to me to constantly explore new ideas, new tools and new techniques.  That trait led me to produce a documentary video series on an under-served niche, drawing on my audio production background and some of the production techniques I’ve observed in the media — particularly by some of the most interesting documentary producers.

Yesterday, I published the first video, which sets stage for a series of intimate and insightful videos that showcase creativity, the creative process and the inner workings of the children’s book industry.

The entire series will be available here.

Next challenge?  Perhaps a full-length feature.

Of course, the applause may have also had something to do with the presence of cinematographer Mark Ellam that the film’s creator, Brett Gaylor, was on hand for the screening.  You’d think he was a rock star the way the audience carried on.  And perhaps he is.  He’s a hometown boy, the movie is on a hot-button issue and the work he produced (like many of the works featured in the film) is a mashup in its own right.  And to prove RiP is part of the culture, not just paying lipservice to it, the entire film is available for remixing through the site OpenSourceCinema.org.  Representative mashups created by the community using footage made available during the production of the movie though that site found their way into the film.

RiP proposes a manifesto based on four assertions.

1. Culture always builds on the past
2. The past always tries to control the future
3. Our Future is becoming less free
4. To build free societies, you must limit control of the past

The assertions are then supported using some very interesting studies about several people including Girl Talk (the talented, creative and iconic remix artist), Larry Lessig (the forward thinking remix lawyer), Cory Doctorow (the popular remix activist) and Gilberto Gill (the Brazilian musician and progressive remix politician).  I particularly enjoyed learning about Gilberto Gill because he represents the first time I’ve heard of a federal Minister of Culture (for the administration of former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva) who was a contributor to culture, not a controller of it.

RiP is not a about making all things free and destroying progress.  The movie is about the changing times and how balance is needed to ensure that innovation is encouraged, not stifled; beneficial to all, not just the powerful; and becomes a matter of social and civil cooperation, not criminal justice.

Creators and consumers of social media are the best positioned to raise awareness of this movie and its message.  I highly recommend that you make an effort to see it so you can understand why.

I had really wanted to speak with Mark after the movie.  The line to collect our Mouse Liberation Front membership cards was long.  I collected mine, gave him my phone number and offered him a beer for the opportunity to speak more to him about the movie and how it was made.

What I’ve noticed over time is that children’s books and their creators have been treated very traditionally in the media.  In fact, I’ve even noticed this on the web where some of the most interesting interviews with authors and illustrators have been low on production value (e.g. ten-minute video interviews of a talking head).  There is so much talk about the importance of children’s books and literacy and how fun it is to learn to read and to read aloud, but the way we promote this in the media suggests otherwise.

That’s part of my thought process as I’ve been producing a series of (roughly) fifteen-minute videos about the amazing people behind children’s books.  It’s been a six-month project and will likely be another two before I’m done.  Why so much time?  I’ve drawn on some of the most entertaining and engaging ways to produce programs that I’ve experienced to date, and have come up with a few ideas of my own.  The result is a series of videos which give the children’s book industry the pop-culture treatment enjoyed by niches such as fast food, the environment, movie stars, sports, music and technology, to name a few.  My hope is that this approach will make the videos and the subject interesting to everyone, from those that are passionate about children’s books and creativity, to those that aren’t particularly interested in books at all.

The video series will be published on the Just One More Book!! website beginning on March 31.  I’ve already produced ten videos and I expect there could be as many as another ten by the time I’ve finished the production work.  There are also a few audio programs as part of the series and I expect I’ll do a short “making of” documentary once I’m all done.

In an effort to help promote the series, I extracted a short section from Part 1 which kicks off our road trip and highlights images and short clips that will appear later in the series.  What I enjoy most about this particular clip is that it uses energetic music to illustrate that childen’s books, their creators and events are exciting enough for a six-day road trip.

Photo: I am Legend Movie Shoot New York uploaded by Michael McDonough

One of the ways I motivate myself to think critically and creatively about my production style (and the meaning of the projects I produce) is to constantly ask myself questions throughout the production process.  My toolbox is filled with old standards such as “so?”, “so, what?”, “what’s missing?” and “what would be better left unsaid?”.  Like a jazz musician, the old standards must be in my repertoire as a foundation and in the event my stuff doesn’t land.  The real art, though, comes in presenting my own ideas in a fresh way.  This means I need to expand my repertoire and toolkit with fresh ways of thinking on a regular basis.

Enter Nick Clark, the Chief Director of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.  In November, he gave Andrea, me and our two daughters, a guided tour of the museum.

At one point, Mr. Clark discusses the museum’s approach to education.  The staff structures the exhibits and programs around Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS).  In simple terms, this involves asking three questions:

• What’s going on in this picture?
• What do you see that makes you say that?
• What more can we find?

“The Carle” strives to motivate visitors to ask themselves those questions about the art on exhibit as well as about the exhibits themselves, the layout of the rooms and the spaces in the museum.  Most importantly, the experience isn’t strictly about the content of the art on display but the context of the art on display, the context of the display and the context in which the display exists.  The questions apply to everything.

The best part is that the VTS questions apply to everything we experience on a daily basis.  This gives everybody plenty of opportunities to practice asking and answering the questions about anything and everything.

When it comes to producing audio and video programs, VTS have motivated me to think more creatively about what I’m actually hearing or seeing and how the pieces work individually and together to communicate ideas and tell stories.  I find myself identifying new connections between the various elements and how they reveal additional ideas and stories that weren’t part of the original plan.  The good thing is that thinking about the questions and their answers has pushed me in new directions.  On the other hand, that rethinking adds more production time to my projects.  That works well for the hobby stuff, but becomes expensive for someone in the business world.

The key question is number three… what more can we find?  For the project I was working on tonight, that caused me to dig through source material I’d cut to see if the newly discovered ideas were better represented in the clips I’d dismissed.

I think it would take a special person to apply VTS to their media consumption habits.  It’s my belief that most people listen to audio programs and watch videos largely for entertainment and to give their brains a rest.  Relatively few people listen to a podcasts (as an example) and try to push their engagement with the program to such a level as to think critically and creatively about the material.

Perhaps because I do more producing than consuming, I see VTS being used by media consumers with academic and artistic interests.  Mashup artists spring to mind since they seem to be the amazingly fast at pushing ideas forward with music and other content.  I suspect they naturally apply the questions to things they hear and see.

I’m particularly excited about VTS because they reinforce my belief that both media production and media consumption achieve far more through context than content.  The individual elements (the content) serve as a starting point for the ideas, but the backdrop and the relationships between the elements (the context) open many more exciting possibilities.

LESSON #1: CLIENTS AREN’T PAYING FOR THE SHOW

Chris ended his magic show by saying that he loves what he does and considers it play, not work.  His clients aren’t paying for the show, because he does that for fun.  His clients pay for the paperwork, contracts and other administravia he doesn’t enjoy nearly as much.

LESSON #2: RECOMMEND THE NEXT PERFORMER

It turns out that the organizers of this magic show also arranged a magic show by another performer last year.  At the end of last year’s show, the performer recommended Chris Pilsworth for this year’s event.

LESSON #3: EXHIBIT PROFESSIONAL COURTESY

At the end of the show, I recognized Eric Leclerc, a magician I’d seen perform before.  I approached him to remnisce about that appearance and asked him if he had any business cards with him (they’re cool… made to look like baseball cards).  He declined giving one to me noting that it wasn’t his performance and therefore not his place to promote himself.

It’s unfortunate this event has been canceled; the faculty and program was top notch!

I can’t help but wonder if this represents an overall disinterest in effectiveness and accountability in government communications.  What would make a program like this more appealing to the public sector?

Aside from the idea of doing a show together, we haven’t really decided on much, yet.  That’s part of the excitement of this project.  I’ll be able to say more about this after our recording session.

It began on October 9 with a series of mishaps I documented on my blog.  I submitted a claim to United on October 16.  After two months of calling their Customer Relations department on a weekly basis, during which I was shielded from their Claims Department, I finally received a call from Claims agreeing to pay CDN$675.03 in flights, hotels, baggage fees and meals, and US$48 in taxi fees.  They even offered me a $300 travel voucher.   That was December 14.  United has failed to deliver on their offer.  Each time I call, I’m told that they will look into the status and get back to me.  They never do.

For some reason, I decided to fly with United over the Christmas holidays (despite my recent experiences or perhaps because they had finally offered to reimburse me).  That turned out to be a different nightmare.  United misplaced our two suitcases for six days.  We had to shop several times to keep our family of four in fresh clothes, toiletries, shoes (we arrived in boots), swimsuits (it was a holiday after all), hats and mits (we could have replaced snow pants for a snowshoeing expedition, instead we canceled it), replace misplaced holiday gifts and even buy a new suitcase to carry everything home.  Despite how frugal we were, that total came to US$873.64.  I submitted a claim for that amount on January 5, 2009 and have heard nothing from United on it.

In all, United is in possession of US$921.63 and CDN$675.03 of my personal funds.  That doesn’t count the time I invest in the numerous phone calls to their customer relations department at a minumum of 20 minutes a piece.

I get the feeling that United is trying to wear me down from reclaiming my money and wonder how many other people are in a similar situation.

Radio Without Boundaries is a conference about radio and transmission arts.  The seventh installment is taking place May 28 through 30 at the West Studio, Artscape Wychwood Barns, Toronto.  I hope to see you there!

Mike Z has invited a significant amount of scrutiny.  His allegiances have been well documented in a series of critical blog posts, news reports and, most recently, a series of scathing yet humourous videos on YouTube.

As with most of the scrutiny, the videos poked fun at Mike Z’s routine use of the Nortel corporate jet for personal travel, loading his executive team with GE buddies (all very well paid), his famed internal ‘ZMail’ and the canceling of all active and future severance packages while trying to hang on to executive salaries and bonuses (Mike Z himself refused to reduce his salary from $9M to $1, something that is customary among executives of financially troubled companies).  One of the seven videos has accumulated nearly 36,000 views in just one month, more than twice the number of views boasted by an official Nortel video posted on YouTube one year ago.

As the company continues to restructure, laying off thousands of people at a time without a penny of severance or compensation, Mike Z has been pushing for $46M in retention bonuses for the same executive team that brought Nortel to its knees.  Meanwhile, employees, fearing for their future, are anxiously looking for new employment opportunities as far from Nortel as possible.  The same innovative and hard working people that Mike Z is counting on to repair the hull and run the bilge pumps long enough to make Nortel business-worthy, again, are the one’s jumping the rails and swimming to less turbulent waters.

Which means that either the retention money is going to the wrong people, or the mass exodus is part of Mike Z’s grand plan to keep the money for him and his GE buddies.

As the husband of a Nortel employee, watching Nortel pitch downward used to be painful and stressful as each round of layoffs went from being a periodic possibility to a daily reality.  Now it’s unavoidably comical.  The once mighty darling child of Canadian high tech and innovation, bursting with talented people and patented visionaries, is now the Titanic.

Fortunately, today is cause for celebration!  After twelve years of faithful and committed service to Nortel, Andrea took a new job and submitted her resignation.  It’s an exciting time and the celebrations will be going on for a few weeks, yet.

And now we can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the captain can go down with the ship and our family was fortunate enough to have made it safely to shore.

Today, that changed.  I received an update from the group which identified the 10 bestselling CDs for February, a list of upcoming releases and some staff picks.  Suddenly, I find myself curious about this music and wanting to check it out.

I probably shouldn’t be as excited as I am about these notifications.  But, what I like most is that the people (employees and customers) that compiled this list and sent it to the group are real people that I see in my neighbourhood everyday (sometimes even the store).  This means that I know where the recommendations come from.  They’re real!  It’s not based on sales statistics, click-throughs and record company promotions.  It’s based on the musical tastes of people I can relate to.

And here’s what the message says…

Subject: Compact Music UPDATE

Top 10 Best Sellers (February):

1) Jenn Grant “Echoes”
2) Slumdog Millionaire Soundtrack
3) M.Ward “Hold Time”
4) Jill Barber “Chances”
5) K Naan “Troubadour”
6) Jeff Beck “2007: Performing This Week…”
7) Beirut “March of the Zapotec/Realpeople Holland”
8) Keith Jarrett  “Yesterdays”
9) Dan Auerbach “Keep It Hid”
10) Antony & the Johnsons “Crying Light”
————————————————————————————
*COMING IN MARCH*

Neko Case
U2
Catherine MacLellan
Bell Orchestre
Great Lake Swimmers
Diana Krall
Arvo Part
Joel Plaskett
Swan Lake
Bruce Cockburn
Handsome Furs

+ SO MANY MORE!!!
———————————————————————————-

*Staff Picks*

Ian:
Soundtrack of our Lives “Communion”
Von Bondies “Love Hate & Then There’s You”

J-Dawg:
Steven Wilson “Insurgentes”
M.Ward “Hold Time”

Rex Knightlington:
Beirut “March of the Zapotec/Realpeople Holland”
Malajube “Labyrinthes”

Alexander:
Erik Satie “Composer”
Nash Ensemble “Beethoven: String Quintets Opp 4 & 29″

Rockstar Liam:
Morrissey “Years of Refusal”
Lily Allen “It’s Not Me It’s You”

Megan:
Neko Case “Middle Cyclone”
Slumdog Millionaire Soundtrack

The digital revolution: on one hand it’s facilitating the ubiquitous creation of art; on the other it’s displacing art with science.  Warm analog recordings made way for clarity of sound and smaller products meant smaller, less substantial art.  While I love my iPhone and the convenience of MP3s, they’ve amplified the de-coupling of music and visual art from products.

I was pleased that John Meadows covered this in the Direct to Disc episode of On The Log, largely because it made me think about the changes to book publishing and how the move to digital ink is affecting book buying and book reading habits.  The biggest casualty of this evolution will be books that depend on visuals as part of the reading experience — children’s picture books — which depend on the vibrancy of colour, the warmth of tone, the use of space and the overall design which includes the dimensions, size, shape and materials.  It would be quite an impressive piece of palm-sized technology that would translate that to the digital world.

Photo: Iconic (whiteboard) album covers uploaded by Simon Lieschke.

As part of my session, I plan to highlight several book creators I learned about through social media, including Richard Michelson.  Ironically, Richard will in another room at the same time as I’ll be presenting, talking about The Sydney Taylor Awards.  Richard is the laureate of two Sydney Taylor’s this year marking the first time in the 40-year history of the awards in which one author claimed both The Sydney Taylor Book Award (equivalent of a gold medal) for As Good as Anybody, and The Sydney Taylor Honor Award (equivalent of a silver medal) for A is for Abraham.  The awards are being handed out during a banquet on the Tuesday evening.

See you in Chicago, Richard.  And, congratulations… again!

UPDATED to correct an error I made in reporting about Richard’s session.

Where most media production workflow and creative processes front-load the work and effectively write the story, Content Paleontology back-loads the work and reveals the story through a series of steps.

EXPEDITION: The Paleontologist begins by venturing into the field to find new material.  Sometimes there’s purpose to the location of choice, other times it’s based on a hunch.

UNEARTH: It’s important to work in a wide area and gather as much material as possible because you never know which pieces will be needed to form the final work.  An organized Paleontologist will do some high-level cataloging of the material that was gathered.  I did this for one specific project for which I gathered 13 hours of video, 25 hours of audio and over 2000 photographs.  Oh… and in the case of (digital) Conent Paleontology, back up your material to multiple disks!

CONTENT: Back in the lab (er… studio), the material must be reviewed for relevance.  In this step, I review all of the content and look for the pieces that feel to me as though they are part of a larger story.  I keep those pieces and discard everything else.  While keeping the good stuff is the end goal of this stage, I tend to think of this as the first of several subtractive steps, the main goal being to remove the chaf.  I call this “editing for content”.

FORM: This is where the like pieces are organized into groups.  I take all of the little elements that feel like they’re part of a larger story and put them together.  In many respects, the Content Paleontologist is just a medium that is doing the bidding of whichever stories reveal themselves.  There are many different stories that will want to be told.  The Paleontologist’s job is to identify the most interesting stories and help them along.  I call this “editing for form”.

ASSEMBLE:  This is one of the most involved steps in the process.  It requires understanding how the pieces fit together and then sequencing them in a way that reveals the story/ies in a compelling way.  There are many millions of ways to do this and ultimately it’s the job of the individual to make some tough decisions.  It requires a bit of science and a bit of creative interpretation.

CONTEXT: Sometimes elements such as narration, music, and audio or video processing are added to help embellish the important parts of the story.  The result of this stage is not to manipulate the story, but to help accent the story in a way that helps the audience understand what they’re looking at and/or listening to.

EXPERIENCE: The result should be more than just a finished piece of work.  Someone who listens to or watches the program should share some of the same experiences as a member of the audience that you did during the production process.  In addition to the story that reveals itself, the final work should highlight some of the things that can be learned and include universal truths.  There’s a little bit of each of us in the audio and video we consume.  That’s why we enjoy listening to music, watching movies and reading books.

Photo: Pig Dig uploaded to Flickr by MomPOM/Jenn.

Amid fears that Canada’s culture is being drowned in a sea of online video from around the world, federal regulators are looking at setting up a $100-million fund to support homegrown programming on the Internet.

If I have my facts straight, that assertion is incorrect.  ACTRA proposed such a fund in their written submission and presentation to the CRTC’s hearing on Canadian broadcasting in new media which began yesterday.

I wouldn’t consider reading a report, listening to a few people speak and then engaging in a debate with them over their thoughts to be “looking at setting up a $100-million fund” any more than hearing Alain Pineau say “broadcasting is broadcasting no matter which platform you use” means the CRTC is planning on making every Canadian who produces content on the web get a broadcast license.

Day two of the CRTC hearings begin at 9amET today.  You can watch a live video stream on cpac.ca.

I learned about one particular site which boasts the tagline “If it’s worth reading, we’ve written it.”  Of course, they haven’t written anything.  The site creators are automatically pulling down content from the legitimate book review site Becky’s Book Reviews and presenting it as their own.  As with many Flogs, they’ve attached Google ads to the site (by the way, you can probably report them to Google and have their Google ad account terminated).

Today, Becky blogged about the unscrupulous site in a post she titled “Don’t be Fooled by Imitations” and, as you probably guessed, her post was pulled down to the Flog site.  Too bad it’s an automated site and the post probably won’t cause the site owner any reaction.

1. Defining broadcasting in new media
2. The significance of broadcasting in new media and its impact on the Canadian broadcasting system
3. Are incentives or regulatory measures necessary or desirable for the creation and promotion of Canadian broadcasting content in new media?
4. Are there issues concerning access to broadcasting content in new media?
5. Other broadcasting or public policy objectives
6. The appropriateness of the new media exemption orders

As part of its public notice announcing the intent to hold public proceedings, the CRTC identified preconditions that suggested a need to review the environment for broadcasting in new media.  These include:

• insufficient levels of Canadian content on the Internet
• evidence that the new media environment is having an impact on various aspects of the business model of traditional broadcasters
• increased availability of high-quality video programming on the Internet

For the purpose of the hearings, the CRTC has provided the following assumptions:

• Canadian content: Historically, the creation and presentation of most professional Canadian content has required some form of production subsidy. Generally, Canadians are the primary audience and consumers of Canadian content.
• User-generated content: As stated in Broadcasting Notice of Public Hearing CRTC 2008-11, the Commission is not concerned with user-generated broadcasting content. That is, the Commission does not seek to inquire into the content, quality or availability of material created by individual Canadians in a personal capacity.

It’s easy to get excited about all of this setup information and the framework which has been established for the public hearings.  For example, many hobbyist and amateur producers of new media content (user-generated content) are likely to get worked up that user-generated content is being specifically excluded from the proceedings.  It’s not.  And, anyone who plays or works in new media knows that user-generated content is intrinsically intertwined with all other media production and distribution methods in the world of new media.  That became clear during the first two presentations at the CRTC hearings on Canadian broadcasting in new media earlier today.

The CRTC has front-loaded the hearings with submissions from the arts communities.  Alain Pineau spoke on behalf of the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA).  Among other things, his presentation identified concerns over fees charged by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Wireless Service Providers (WSPs) for access to an increasingly rich pool of content that demands comprehensive data plans using infrastructure, much of which has been built using taxpayer money and government concessions “for the public benefit”.  At one point, Mr. Pineau suggested that these are “new money” not “new media” proceedings and proposed that ISPs and WSPs should be contributing to the development of Canadian content, noting that some of the same organizations that have a say over Canadian content are the same organizations that own the infrastructure over which new media content is transmitted.

While his presentation was filled with insights such as (and I’m paraphrasing, here) everything old is new again and questions including what is the difference between professional and hobbyist user-generated content, Mr. Pineau was decidedly under prepared for the cross-examination that followed.  When asked to elaborate on his request to measure the various aspects of new media, Mr. Pineau was unable to offer any concrete thoughts.  That was during the gentle and conversational part of the discussion.  Then he faced Timothy Denton’s very concise, very focused questions.  Mr. Denton cornered Mr. Pineau on the issue of the requirement of broadcasting licenses for average citizens that may create new media.

While it was hard to know exactly what CCA’s specific concern was, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) was clear in their message.  With actors Colin Mochrie, Bruce Densmore and Charlotte Arnold on the presentation team, ACTRA was unapologetic in their efforts to solicit more money to support the creation of Canadian content.  Mr. Mochrie pointed out that a “3% levy of the 2007 ISP residential broadband revenues of $3.3 billion would generate $99 million annually” from “very substantial profits” made by businesses that “are obligated to give back to the system that serves them so profitably”.  They also pushed for regulation of new media while opposing the inclusion of amateur user-generated content in such regulations.

ACTRA was far better prepared for the debate that followed their presentation, a debate that explored the relationship between professional and hobbyist user-generated content.  Mr. Mochrie and Mr. Densmore agreed any content they created personally that promoted their work and appearances in commercial and public media would constitute professional user-generated content that would be subject to regulation under the terms of their definition.  While I applaud that, I also fear its ramifications since many people (myself included) have promoted their appearances on radio and television, as well paid speaking engagements, using audio and video programs that fall under the definition of new media.

I’m disappointed in the definition of and discussions about Canadian content, so far.  Canadian content need not be funded, nor created by established media production facilities nor experienced professionals.  There’s far more content published by Canadian citizens on a daily basis than the combined efforts of the media houses.  Dismissing amateur productions is denying the very nature of the Internet that fostered the creation of new media.

I believe we need to invest heavily in professional productions to sustain an industry that informs and entertains as well as sustains our Canadian culture and identity.  Does that mean that a levy shouldn’t also go to people that are generating popular amateur user-generated content?  Should ISPs be required to pay someone for the privilege of distributing the content that’s helping to convert an increasing number of people to broadband services?  Does creating content turn the average person into a broadcaster requiring a license?

I hadn’t intended to be so interested in the hearings.  Now, with more questions than answers, and the concern over the nature of the presentations and the level of preparedness of the speakers, I will be glued to the hearings as much as possible.

That’s because of the restrictions I set for myself.  I decided that if I couldn’t deliver an entertaining and information message in ten minutes, it wasn’t worth telling, and also that I should maximize the use of the time to deliver as much detail as I could, noting that too many radio shows skim the surface of an issue instead of refining their line of questioning to dig deep into a single issue.  I suspect that’s to appeal to a broader audience.

Like many podcasters, I wanted a large audience and decided the best way to attract one was to be completely self-indulgent; if I wasn’t enjoying myself and fulfilling my own passion and selfish curiosity while learning something new from the content and its creation with each episode, why would anyone else want to listen?

That’s worked for the most part.  I’ve found that catering to my own interests and letting MY passion drive my media production effort results in something worth listening to.  I suppose my informal mission statement is “if it’s something I wouldn’t invest the time to listen to, why would I expect that of others?”.

It’s not an easy approach.  It takes time, energy and a lot of creativity to produce the finished result.  Most of all, it requires me to make a lot of tough choices; choices that result in internal conflict.  It’s quite possible that I’ve aged more as a result.

I’ve presented and blogged about editing techniques (read blog posts on the subject of editing here and here), and I’ve also shared some ideas on how to make editing decisions.  However, I find myself thinking a lot more about what I do these days because of a presentation I’m working on at the moment and the fact that I’m immersed in a video production project that’s forcing to think more carefully about the editing decisions I make.

I’ll be talking more about this during my Workflow and Creative Process session at PodCamp Toronto this coming weekend and will blog more about the subject after the conference.  In addition to exploring the production approach of another podcaster and a radio production team I’ve interviewed, I’ll be sharing some of the main elements of my own style.  In order to help me organize my thoughts (and perhaps build a buzz and dialog about the presentation before it happens), I thought I’d put some of the main headings I’m considering here.

• Be a student
• Production restrictions
• Delivery
• Inform and entertain
• Engaging
• Story
• Tough decisions
• Listening/watching

With all of the different things there are to talk about, thirty minutes will probably fly by very quickly.  In fact, I’ll probably have to limit the number of topics I bring up in my session.  Following a recent request to conduct a webinar on interviewEE skills, I’m thinking that I may have to create a series of webinars on the art of production.

Publishing giant, Random House joined Twitter on April 11, 2008.  Their bio claims that they are the “World’s Largest English Trade Publisher”.  They haven’t issued a single Twitter update (that’s right, ZERO updates) to their awaiting audience of 577 followers (amazingly large given they’ve done nothing), and they aren’t following anyone.  That, despite a healthy number of references to Random House in Twitter.  Sadly, Random House would look a lot better if they hadn’t opened the account at all.

Little Brown Books may not be as big as Random House, but they have a vibrant community and conversation on the go.  Their follower:following ratio is almost even (2640:2655) and they’ve issued 865 updates since they joined Twitter on July 28, 2008.  Unfortunately, and perhaps due to their Twitter success, they’ve been unable to keep up with the conversation and following a recent call for input on their upcoming newsletter, failed to acknowledge a number of responses.

Social networking is an amazingly inexpensive communications tool and a fantastic way to reach out to your audience.  However, it is a commitment which carries with it a public declaration.  As marketing and communications becomes more rooted in the digital world, companies will be judged by their actions and inactions using, among other things, tools like Twitter.

We recorded the show on Wednesday.  It includes nine comments in all, each one exploring a different approach to making money from social media.  That makes each model proven.  To what degree?  We cannot say since, as Bob pointed out, only one person shared their actual gross revenue.  I will say this, though; none of the models shared was based on CPM (Cost Per Thousand impressions, an approach that pays money based on the number of groupings of one-thousand downloads).

I’m very excited about this show because it really does push the conversation forward and provides an informative destination for the people that (on their first awareness of podcasting) ask the question “how do I make money from it”.  I think that it will be to the money conversation what our September 2006 car episode with Julien Smith was to the Social Networking conversation.

CPB episode 130 will be published at 6:00pmET tomorrow (February 15).

A day care is a parent’s boldest move into a trust relationship.  You put the trust in the staff to make the best decisions for you and your child, your child puts their trust in you that you will return at the end of the day and you put your trust in the child for forgiveness.  Like any relationship, it takes time to build that trust.

But it’s a different type of trust than the kind that exists between friends and partners.  It’s the kind of trust that affects a child, and the child-parent bond.  It’s the kind of trust that depends on the staff’s capability to to the needs of a wide variety of people (personalities, energy levels and ages — in both the children and parents).  It’s the kind of trust that helps independent consultants understand it when a client entrusts their business to them and says “this is my baby; take care of it”.

Leaving “our” day care will be hard because of two people in particular.  When we dropped off our daughters in the morning, we always felt that there was a real hand-off and that our daughters were in their care.  On the odd occasion when we’d had a rough morning or that one of our daughters was upset, they knew what to say and how to say it; sometimes all they had to do was share a smile or empathetic look, other times they gave us each a hug and said nothing.  These two people just know.  It’s intuitive and in many cases they can’t even explain how they do what they do.  Regardless, it worked.  And it changed our day.

I’ll miss the day care and its community.  Most of all, though, I’ll miss interacting with these two people on a daily basis.

If you’re looking for case studies in trust relationships and the people who exemplify customer care under complex conditions, seek out the elite in day care staff and take them out for a coffee.

One specific sentence in the session description caught my eye:

If properly implemented in practice, the fair dealing doctrine can facilitate access to the raw materials creators need to make documentary films while fulfilling their own reasonable requirements for copyright protection.

It sounds like it will be an incredibly informative event featuring panelists Peter Jaszi and Sean Flynn from Washington College of Law, Tina Hahn from the Documentary Organization of Canada, and David Fewer and Jeremy de Beer from the University of Ottawa.

I’m sure the discussion will have relevance to those in social media as much as it will for traditional filmmakers.

RSVP to techlaw@uottawa.ca or on the Copyright Culture and Documentary Films event page on Facebook.

For more information, visit the University of Ottawa’s Law and Technology Faculty website,
the Law and Technology at uOttawa Facebook group or the website for this panel, http://letsdoccopyright.ca.

I am honoured to be among the “Distinguished Faculty” that includes Mike Kujawski (Best Practices to Market Governmental Services on the Web), Brendan Hodgson (Practical Crisis Communication Strategies in a Web 2.0 World), Patrick Cormier (Choosing Collaborative Technologies to Improve Internal Communication in your Office), Gord McIntosh (Getting Feedback from the Media: Improving Communication Strategies with the Press), Meghan Warby and Colin McKay (Transforming a Crowd into an Audience: Creating Online Campaigns to Promote Social Awareness), and Parker Mason (Be Proactive, Not Reactive - Best Practices In Monitoring the Media and Understanding How the Media Now Monitors You).

The title of my session is Moving the Conversation Online: Reaching the Public Through Social Media Tools and the summary is as follows:

There are public and private sector offices who have found that implementing audio and / or video digital media files within their internal and external websites is a cost-effective way to transmit information to and engage with the public. Easily transferable to mobile devices, they are useful for those who do not have regular access to the Internet and for citizens with disabilities. In this session, learn the costs and benefits and lessons learned from others who are using audio and / or video digital media files, on:

• What content is suitable to transmit?
• Best tips on marketing your podcasts to the public
• The importance of targeting a demographic before you begin
• Measuring the success of your audio and / or video podcasts: Who is listening and are they getting the most relevant information?

The event is taking place April 21 and 22 at The Westin Hotel in Ottawa.  If you’re interested in attending, please contact me and I can provide you with a 15% discount code.

As part of my preparation, I paid particular attention to the audio programs I’m most fascinated by and made note of the production and storytelling elements that made those programs interesting, compelling and engaging.  Then I examined the audio programs I’ve made to-date to discover how I incorporated the elements I value the most.  This was particularly interesting because I think I did most of that intuitively, not methodically, and hadn’t yet examined the pedigree of my artistic development.

Video is a very different media.  While I’ve done some video production work over the years, the documentary project I’ve taken on is far more complex and ambitious than anything I’ve done to date (audio or video).  So, I watched a number of documentary movies and made notes about the things the filmmakers did and how they did them.  I’ve also been influenced by short video clips, trailers and interviews I’ve found on the web.  Anything that captivates the viewer is meaningful to me because I believe that video is a media that should only be used to tell stories in a visual way.

My hope is that my production efforts achieve three storytelling goals:

• The audio and video stories offer some synchronicity
• The audio and video work together to tell slightly different stories; stories that one medium can tell better than the other and that could be consumed in isolation
• The audience is engaged by the final product and, after each video program is viewed, finds itself thinking about the content for a while afterward

This all sounds very scientific, and perhaps this is true about creating the individual elements within the production.  However, I find that the whole process is about creating something based on feel and art (which I suppose sounds a bit… something I can’t place my finger on).

Of course, it takes significantly more time and energy (by an order of magnitude) to properly edit compelling video than just audio alone.  I value that time.  I’ve always felt the finished product is a trophy of a process I find enjoyable, frustrating, fascinating and educational.

Thanks!

On one particular occasion, we’d decided to take the quality of our audio recordings to the next level.  I’m not sure how that decision came about.  It was probably me (the Gear-Head that I am) wanting to use some spiffy new equipment even though my own gear was quite good and we’d perfected ways to capture the best sound from various instruments with it.  On the other hand, my tape deck limited us to eight tracks of audio so it may have been that we mapped out the arrangements and decided we needed more tracks.

We regularly rented microphones and effect processors and had on a few occasions even rented ADAT systems — digital tape recording machines that made it possible to record up to eight tracks of audio on each tape.  For this particular demo recording session, we rented a whole mess of equipment including high end Drawmer, dbx and Eventide processors, fantastic mics, preamps and two ADATs.  We made one ADAT system the master and the other the slave which gave us sixteen tracks of audio.

The recording sessions went very well.  Bob’s musical ideas were free flowing.  Combined with my occassional musical idea (or mistake that was turned into an idea) and my lyrics, the sessions were a creative success.  To make the most out of the time with the rented gear, I had programmed the drum machine the night before and then during the session I’d quickly get through my bass parts and then spend my time at the console.

On one particular day, the slave ADAT unit lost its mind.  As we worked on one particular song, the slave unit would get to a certain point in the song and begin rewinding which killed the recording.  It would rewind the entire length of the tape unless we stopped it.  Then I’d have to re-sync the two units and start over, again.  This went on for quite a while — always the exact same moment on the tape, always the same quirky behaviour.  It made recording the song impossible and the session itself amazingly frustrating.

We tried turning the machines off for short periods thinking they needed a break.  Apparently, they didn’t.  This went on for four hours.  Then, just as suddenly as this quirky behaviour had appeared, it stopped and the systems all began to play nicely together.

I’ve always been a Gear-Head.  On reflection, though, despite the improvements in sound quality and sleek new features that new technology offers, the best work I’ve ever done has been with equipment that I’ve spent hours working with.  It’s not just about figuring out what the equipment’s designed to do and how to do it, but how to make the equipment do things the way you want them to be done.

Despite the failings of my M-Audio Firewire 1814 audio card, failings that can only be overcome by using a beta driver that’s two revisions old (M-Audio promised me a fix back in August and fell silent since, which makes sense since it now looks like they’ve discontinued it) and the necessity for a USB dongle to make my Cubase software work, I love my studio.  I love that I’m able to use the same equipment in my home, office and on the road.

Podcasters should be come very close with their audio gear, learn its idiosyncracies, how to work around them and take advantage of them, the sonic qualities of their headphones and speakers and how to refine their production techniques.  Most of all, especially for the important projects, use the gear you know, not the gear that’s cool.

(I may dig through my old tapes and find some recordings I can share.)

One story is worth sharing now.

I asked Jowi about his interview technique and being able to connect (something I consider to be one level beyond engagement) with his guests.  It was something that Chris and Paolo had raved about to me, noting that Jowi is a listening interviewer.  As part of his answer, Jowi relayed a story that has shaped his approach.

While working a Sunday morning shift in a health food store in Toronto many years ago, Jowi noticed Brian Eno (yes, THE Brian Eno) was walking about the store.  He was obviously looking for something that he couldn’t find.  Before Eno left, Jowi intercepted him explained that the album Ambient 4 had changed his life and that Remain in Light was the best pop album ever produced.

Eno looked back at Jowi and said “Thank you very much.  Do you know where I can get good croissants?”

Even before Jowi explained the relevance of the story for interviewers and people in general, I felt intruiged by the idea of Eno looking for pastries and felt that I knew something more about the person that creates incredible music.  Which, of course, is what Jowi was getting at in the telling of the story.  Interviewers tend to spend too much time getting to the wizardry and the status of individuals and forget about what connects us as human beings.

Who doesn’t love a good croissant?

In addition to my own approach, and that of other podcasters I’ve been speaking with, I’ll be discussing some of the workflow and creative process used in The Wire as part of my presentation at PodCamp Toronto.

Note: You can hear a interview with Paolo Pietropaolo on Inside Home Recording episode #66.

The date’s not so important to us and we’ve never been so invested in making a big deal out of our anniversary.  Having said that, ten years is a nice round number that’s easy to get excited about.

After I proudly announced our anniversary on Twitter this morning, our friend Susan Murphy sent a congratulations message and I started to think that it really shouldn’t be such a big deal that we’ve been married for ten years.  I suppose there are a lot of relationship stories that suggest otherwise.  I replied by saying “It’s easy and fun. Anyone can do it.”

There’s no major magic to making your relationship and anniversary something worth celebrating that doesn’t need to be celebrated at all.  I’ll share the secret with you. Celebrate your relationship everyday.  It sounds corny, but if your relationship is worth a big annual event involving a babysitter, limo and an expensive dinner, then it’s worth celebrating with the little things on a daily basis (btw, we once celebrated our anniversary with daycare friends and a few boxes of KD).  You shouldn’t have to wait for a full year to remind your partner how much you love them, appreciate them and have fun being with them.  And you don’t even have to be Facebook friends to prove it.

Anyway, I found myself demonstrating dialing phone numbers in my palm until I leaned on YouTube.  I found this video created by a phone company when rotary-dial technology was groundbreaking — the true “olden days”.

I love this idea and the willingness to help out.  I wish it did something more to help move people at a reasonable pace.  If people would amp up their carpooling efforts, moving about the city wouldn’t take a couple of hours.

By the way, councillor Clive Doucet was handing out free hot chocolate to bus-strike-weary pedestrians as they passed by Bank and Third, yesterday.  What a great way to perk up someone’s day as they trudged through the heavy snowfall.

What are you doing to help out during the strike?

Neil Gaiman has become a rock star not just because of his books, not just because of his movies, not just because he’s become an icon of science fiction culture, not just because he won the Newbery Award for The Graveyard Book two days ago. Neil is a rock star because he embraced social media long before most of us and he’s good at it. In fact, he’s changing an industry with it.

I had the privilege of speaking with Neil about some of the cool things he’s doing to connect with his fans and promote his books. Besides the fascinating writing on his amazingly popular blog (it’s actually more of an online journal since he doesn’t allow comments), Neil keeps his legions of fans up to date on Twitter. Yesterday afternoon he had 13,478 followers. At the time of this post he has 15,888 followers. According to Neil, he’s been gaining about 1,000 new Twitter followers each day for the last week.

It gets more amazing. Neil convinced his publishers to post videos of him reading The Graveyard Book online — for free. If watching him read the book doesn’t appeal to you, you can browse the book online.

Neil Gaiman is helping to redefine the publishing industry on the terms of the social web. Because they’re listening to him, Harper Collins is on the cutting edge.

You can hear my interview with Neil on the Just One More Book!! children’s book podcast. I’m hoping that we’ll have a chance to interview Neil, again, to discuss the overall impact of these initiatives.

Photo from Neil Gaiman’s Twitter feed.

As part of an assignment, students of a class I’m taking have been asked to familiarize ourselves with a November 2007 video of Rick Mercer’s visit to the production facility of the ZENN (Zero Emmissions No Noise) car company in St. Jérome, Quebec.  While the video is just over a year old, not much has changed.  In Canada, the car is only legal on roads in Quebec and British Columbia while in the United States, there are supposedly no restrictions that I can find (other than the inconvenience of importation paperwork).

Let’s examine the tools and what they do.

Levelator is a free tool created to simplify the process of increasing audio levels for recordings that captured very little signal (the foreground audio you want to hear such as a person speaking or a musical instrument).  It was created by the The Conversations Network (TCN) to make life easier for the average podcaster by eliminating the need to learn how to produce audio.  TCN recognized that most people who get into amateur podcasting don’t have an interest in understanding compressors, limiters and normalizers — much less do they have the time to learn how to use them.  They just want to publish their podcast.

Simplicity is the key to the Levelator.  A user drags a file to the application and it decides the best way to increase the audio levels.  The problem is that when Levelator amplifies an audio signal, it also amplifies audio noise, some of which may not be obvious in the source recording.  So, if you have a refrigerator running in the room in which you delivered a masterful monologue, the listener is likely to hear as much from your fridge as they will from you.

For the average podcaster, that’s fine and I respect that.  Someone who bills for their audio production services should be delivering value to their client by using the right tools for the job.  This is not about someone “whose eyes have never stung from the sweet sweat of a hard day’s work” (thank you Michael Bluth), this is about being honest and realistic about the work you do and the necessary tools to do it.  Sometimes, audio level problems can be improved by tweaking the EQ; perhaps some compression or limiting could be applied.  Using a paint roller to do quarter-inch detail work is the wrong approach.  Levelator takes away the guess-work and the flexibility and the results can demonstrate that.

As the name suggests, SoundSoap is for cleaning up your audio.  It’s been designed to help reduce (maybe even remove) unwanted noise (such as hums, hisses, rumbles…), clicks and crackles from a recording.  SoundSoap has also been designed for simplicity.  The user plays a section of audio that has the noise print with no signal (e.g. the ambient noise of the room when noone is speaking) and SoundSoap determines how to best reduce that noise from the recording, even when someone begins to speak.  Then, presto, you get a better signal-to-noise ratio in your audio.

I use SoundSoap on occassion and find that in many circustances it does a fantastic job — though I often find myself dialing back the amount of noise reduction and threshold it auto-selects for me, and tweaking some other settings.

So, consider a situation where you have a recording noisey enough to merit SoundSoap and quiet enough to need something like Levelator.  Imagine what Levelator will do to the recording, including constantly fluctuating the ratios of signal and noise.  Think about which order these two tools could be applied and the effects of either order.  While both strive to increase signal over noise, these tools are not necessarily complementary and anyone who produces audio for money should not put that much trust in automation.

When I think about the monetization discussions that have been taking place on the Canadian Podcast Buffet over the last few weeks, this stands out as another example of someone who asked the question “how can I make money from podcasting?” without asking themselves if they have something unique to offer and the capability to deliver it.

Mike Z talked a great talk and inspired Nortel employees.  He asked them for their trust.  He said the right things to people who needed to hear them and many, not all, employees decided that they needed to get right behind their president.  Despite their efforts, Nortel continued to fall and now finds itself in the midst of restructuring after filing for bankruptcy protection last week.  Now, employees — past and present — find themselves with pensions, severance and even salary at risk.

In An Open letter to Mike Z posted to the Nortel Insider blog, today, Desk Jockey puts Mike Z on the hot seat.  He points out the employees put their trust and support into Mike Z, largely because it was asked for.  According to the letter, Mike Z put that trust and support through a variety of challenges.

The letter details Mike Z’s decisions to replace longtime loyal executives with friends, deflect questions when one of his hand-picked management team assaulted a female university student and how he boldly lied to employees about the impending bankruptcy. Desk Jockey also asks questions about Mike Z’s regular use of the company’s jet for personal trips to his family in Chicago and about current plans for unwarranted executive bonuses (likely in the millions).

Perhaps the employees were wrong to blindly trust Mike Z.

Perhaps they were wrong to not hold Mike Z accountable after his first misstep.

Perhaps the balance of power and the unwillingness of decision makers to have to answer questions or be held accountable to employees for their decisions has made employees at all companies uncomfortable with being viewed as “the trouble maker”.  However, far too many executives through history have provided far too many arguments for genuine communication, authentic transparency and the same kind of performance scrutiny and respect they expect from their employees.

Oddly, the core elements used to build real trust relationships haven’t changed since the dawn of relationships.  What needs to change is the assumption that position affords privilege.

Most people can get over the money.  We smart over the squandering of trust.

From my small home office in Ottawa, I felt as though I was truly a part of two major events in world history: the inauguration of the most charismatic, inspiring and deserving man as the President of the United States, and the creation of an environment that harnesses collective energy to build a collaborative and interactive news experience.  Both take an inclusive approach to building a new world.  It’s hard to say which of these have done more to define Barak Obama as a leader of the world, not just President of the United States.

In his speech, Barak Obama delivered a powerful message “to the leaders of the world”.  He said “you will be judged by what you build, not by what you destroy”.  It’s a message that applies to everyone, really; world leaders, world citizens, corporations, etc… And true to that message, the team of CNN, Facebook, Cisco and Microsoft built something new.  They used technology to propel the feeling of community in the news world. I felt as American as I’m ever going to be.  I also felt Canadian, Spanish, French, Afghan, etc… I really felt like a citizen of the world, all from my seat.

That small collection of technology companies won’t need to advertise to me any longer.  They were guests of my house, yesterday, as I was a guest of theirs.  They didn’t pontificate to me from my television screen, they invited me to participate — in text and video — with my computer.  I became addicted to that level of engagement very quickly.

Many people will argue that television news died, yesterday.  I argue that television news was redefined.  Besides, not everyone has a computer with a decent Internet connection.

It was a “Pow! Right Between the Eyes” moment if there ever was one.

Thanks to Andy Kaplan-Myrth for bringing this to my attention.

From the newly launched whitehouse.gov website, comes this page about copyright on the site:

Copyright Notice

Pursuant to federal law, government-produced materials appearing on this site are not copyright protected. The United States Government may receive and hold copyrights transferred to it by assignment, bequest, or otherwise.

Except where otherwise noted, third-party content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Visitors to this website agree to grant a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free license to the rest of the world for their submissions to Whitehouse.gov under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Where has Barak Obama been all this time???

The first meetup of podcasters in Ottawa took place at the Chateau Laurier Hotel on May 26, 2005.  It was organized by Tod Maffin.  He was traveling across the country on a speaking tour and organized informal gatherings of Canadian podcasters along the way.

I’d largely forgotten about this meeting until a recent series of conversations with UBC student Tracy Fuller who’s doing her thesis on the history of podcasting in Canada.  I was surprised to find three photographs and nearly ninety-minutes of audio on a hard drive I labeled “Archive”.

It turns out the May 26, 2005 gathering of Tod, Maurizio Ortolani and myself might hold historical significance.  In an email exchange last week, Tod wrote “I’m almost certain this would have been the first meetup of Canadian podcasters ever”.

This episode of my Sound Connections podcast features excerpts of the meetup including discussion about the soundseeing tour of my appearance on All in a Day (CBC Ottawa drive-time radio show), some of the podcasts and listening habits of the time, our own podcasting activities, the difference between radio and podcasting, technology and other geekiness, magic moments in podcasting and scoring permission to play some great independent music.  You also get to hear the lounge’s player piano, sometimes too well.

The following podcasts (sorted alphabetically) are mentioned:

• 2Down (Ian Macleod)
• AIRpod (various)
• ARC23 (Adam Cohoon)
• Bob and AJ (Bob Goyetche and AJ)
• Catfish Show (Cat and Bob Goyetche)
• Daily Source Code (Adam Curry)
• Electric Sky (Mark Blevis)
• In Over Your Head (Julien Smith)
• MacCast (Adam Christianson)
• Morning Coffee Notes (David Winer)
• NAC podcasts (Maurizio Ortolani)
• CBC’s Quirks and Quarks (Bob McDonald)
• Really Learn Spanish (Johan van Rooyen)
• Rock and Roll Geek Show (Michael Butler)
• Swing is in the Air (Jacques Emond)
• Yeast Radio (Madge Weinstein)

Listen to audio of the June 9, 2005 podcast meetup that brought together podcasters from Montreal and Ottawa for the first time.  See a photo of that meetup.

This amazing little gadget works with a specialized notebook to literally capture everything you write in the exact position you write it — a form of geo-location on paper.  Coupled with its ability to audio record and timestamp everything as it records, you’re able to play back audio from any cue point by tapping the pen on some text at which you want the timestamped audio to begin playing.  Exactly!  Start thinking about lectures, meetings, brainstorming sessions, conferences, press events, interviews, etc…

The entire contents of the pen can then be syncronized with your computer — audio and paper complete with everything you wrote and drew on the page.  So, you end up with a recording and a facsimile version of your notes, be they text, charts, graphs and even doodles in the margin.  It gets better.  The desktop software can recognize your handwriting.  Whether you write in block print or cursive, the search function allows you to plain text search your notes.  And, it’s surprisingly accurate, even with messy chicken scratch (though, expect a few false positives).

I used mine in the first lecture of a night class I’m taking this term and I can barely find the words to describe how impressed I am.  But don’t just take my word for it.  The Pulse Smartpen won Best in Show at this year’s MacWorld.

By the way, the pen also doubles as a great portable audio recorder.  I used it to record a presentation I had to give to the class.

This is a product I will totally endorse and pimp!

Thanks to Whitney Hoffman and her LD Podcast interview with Dr. Andy van Schaack, the educational advisor for Livescribe.

* The Livescribe Pulse Smartpen even has some useful applications (e.g. calculator) and some entertainment (e.g. a piano application).  I expect more of this kind of thing will be developed over time.

The organizations that take the social-media leap of faith will likely find that doing social media well for the long-term takes money and effort.  It takes commitment to build a community, earn its trust and develop a rhythm of delivering great content; responding effectively and consistently.  That kind of engagement can’t be automated or scripted (yet, I suppose).  People, not machines, make social media happen.

One can also argue that the level of public/community interest can wain over time if the organization’s social media engagement becomes rhythmic and predictable.

These are the reasons why event-specific uses of social media and new media are extremely attractive as an on-ramp for adopting a long-term social web strategy.  A short-term engagement can serve as a barometer for a permanent campaign and can identify the potential for greater returns — both financial and trust-based.

For organizations that have already adopted social media, events offer an opportunity to get even more creative and explore new ways of engaging the public.  For organizations that are contemplating the use of social technologies, events offer an opportunity to test the waters and experience, first-hand, what social media can achieve.

How will you integrate a social media campaign into your next conference, convention, milestone anniversary, trade show, gala or product launch?

Photo: Obama Inauguration by kodama_atpl.

Children from around China gathered a year later, each with a beautiful flower.  Only one child, Ping, admits defeat.  Despite all of the effort and care, Ping’s seed never grew.  In fact, none of the seeds were capable of growing since they’d all been cooked before they were distributed.  Though ashamed, Ping was the only one courageous enough to accept the situation as it was.  Even Ping’s friend questioned Ping’s thought process.

“You’re not really going to the Emperor with an empty pot, are you?  Couldn’t you grow a great big flower like mine?”

Of course, Ping’s empty pot earned him the entire kingdom.

How well connected are you to your “empty pot”?

Since many are free and easy to use, social media tools make it easy to create new gathering places.  Many communities have taken advantage of this and have established strong and active communities on specific areas of interest.  I belong to several of these.  More significantly, I find it easy to abandon some of these communities because, at some point, they all go through the same misguided effort to reach as many people as they can and in the process, spread themselves too thin.

“Nobody goes there anymore; it’s too fractured.”

The communities typically started by a group of established bloggers and/or podcasters deciding to create a common gathering place to discuss, socialize and even coordinate.  It usually started with a closed forum of some sort, perhaps a Yahoo! group or Google group.  Then Facebook came along and some eager member of the community would create a Facebook group.  Everyone joined the new site meaning they now had two places to go.  The community began to slowly fracture as those that preferred the new and exciting tool (Facebook) exiled from the forum.  When Ning came along, someone created a group in that site.  Again, each member of the community created a profile in Ning and tested it out.  And, again, a small number of people that preferred Ning established permanent residence there.  Then came Community Portal pages, Facebook Fan Pages, Wikis, Twitter, Jaiku, Plaxo, Plurk, etc…

At their core, all of the tools serve a common purpose and boast common functionality. So, why do we spread ourselves out so thin? Why do successful bloggers and podcasters re-establish their community gathering places all over?

Social media enthusiasts live in a bizarre paradox in which they must appeal to as many people as possible and still work to centralize the digital relationships and conversation so that any single person can manage to stay on top of the discussion. Fracturing the community means a lot of cross-posting between sites, lost conversations and chasing rathing than engaging.

Many companies that want to adopt social media internally or externally struggle with the same issue.  They want the shiny new toys, they want to look like their agile and that they embrace the technology so they adopt every tool imaginable.  The result is that noone knows where to go so noone goes anywhere.

UPDATE (this part somehow didn’t make it to the post): I’m a member of a community that is going through this struggle right now.  Among my concerns is that while this exploration into new sites may exciting and open new possibilities, it sends a very fractured message to the members of the community.  On one hand, shaking things up can reinvigorate things, but it can also be the beginning of a weakening of the foundation.

To date I’ve been happy with the plugins I use, which include:

• Enhanced WP-ContactForm
• FriendsRoll
• PodPress
• Sociable
• Subscribe to Comments
• Viper’s Video Quicktags

I’ve been thinking about adding a captcha plugin to my one of my sites.  John Wiseman suggested wp-ReCAPTCHA, though I wasn’t convinced that he’s crazy about the idea of adding captcha functionality.

Rob Blatt insisted that Meet your Commenters is a must have.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t work with WP2.7, yet.

Which WP plugins are your favourites, must-haves and stay-away-froms?

If the reports are to be believed, this week is the do-or-die week for the ailing company.  The company could be two days away from bankruptcy, two days away from purchase or two days away from just another day.

I don’t believe that the Canadian government will let Nortel collapse.  Besides having invested heavily in Nortel-the-company over the years, the Canadian government depends on a lot of Nortel equipment to do business around the clock.  We’re talking about telephones, telephone switches, data switches, routers, VPN gateways, etc…  If Nortel manufactured it, it’s probably in a Canadian government datacentre or office somewhere.  A Nortel shut down would mean the equipment would no longer be supported and that’s a business, operational and security risk the government can’t afford.  The outcome could be crippling.

So, I’m forecasting some sort of bailout.

Of course, I could be wrong.

The same principles can be applied to social media and new media.  That is, reading a blog, listening to audio and watching video alone does not get to the root of how something was conceived, developed and communicated in a way that makes the final creation appealing.  You need to become a Reverse Engineer.

I found myself thinking about the concept of reverse engineering this morning and came up with the following five pointers to help guide the effort of learning from great content.

Look beyond your own interests.  This is particularly true if you want to create a Blue Ocean within your community/niche.  Explore multimedia content in areas completely unrelated to your interests.  If you’re interesting in skiing, find out what basketweavers are doing to make compelling content.  If you’re in the music industry, find out what the amateur radio folks are doing to keep that hobby and community alive and thriving in the face of changing times.  If you’re in marketing and public relations, study how IT folks communicate.

Explore all media.  One of the most exciting ways to create new content is to find ways to adapt approaches used in one media and apply them to another.  Find a writer who crafts stories/features/reports/books in a way that could be adapted for use in the audio format.  Maybe the way a movie was edited can be adapted cleverly for print.  Figure out how the visual storytelling approach of a documentary film can be applied to audio.  Watch how the sequences are cut.  Close your eyes to determine if anything can be delivered just as effectively without visuals.  Find elements of one medium and adapt them into your own style.

Study with your senses.  Good writers and journalists, audio hosts and sound artists, actors and cinematographers all deliver synaesthetic experiences in their own ways.  They’ve figured out how to appeal to their audiences’ senses and experiences.  The best of these talents are able to put us — virtually — in the situation they’re communicating, complete with the filter of our own lives.  How they do this is not limited to the words they choose and the pictures they paint.  The pauses, the inflection, the intonation, the modulation, the camera angle, the proximity of the microphone and many more elements all work together to create a full experience.

Ask questions.  If you have access to the people that create content you admire, ask them a few questions on how they do what the do.  Having said that, I’ve found that many people are thrown off when asked.  For these people, it’s intuitive and they don’t know where to begin to explain what they do.  If you do it over a coffee or beer, there may be less pressure for them to figure out how to explain things in words.  If you’re up to it, ask if you can shadow them for a day and ask questions as they come up.

Create.  Once you think you have a handle on your sources, start experimenting.  Taking things apart to learn how they work isn’t nearly as much fun as trying to apply your new found knowledge.

Photo by ctpctp.

The bonus structure is largely based on the door to the aircraft closing on schedule, the plane taking off on schedule and the plane landing on schedule.  So, if bad weather hits either the departure or arrival airport, the employees are immediately penalized in their profit sharing and bonuses.  If an unrelated emergency takes place in the air or on the ground (e.g. a runway closed due to a crash or disabled aircraft) causing a cascading effect on air traffic in the area, the employees are immediately penalized in their profit sharing and bonuses.  When her Christmas eve flight was canceled due to bad weather and she had to spend three days away from home (including her day off, Christmas Day), the airline added insult to injury by penalizing her bonus/profit sharing for the flight cancellation.  Measurement isn’t based on individual capabilities, execution of responsibilities or measured predominantly on one’s ability to deliver good customer service; it’s based on external factors over which noone has control.

It turns out that this is very bad for morale.  The airline that employs this flight attendant happily delivered a $76 cheque as her annual bonus.  That same airline delivered a $2.6M bonus to its president for his annual bonus.

How is your company’s bonus and profit share program structured?

Award winning radio producer, writer and host, Jowi Taylor will be kicking off PAB2009.  This will be the first keynote presentation at Podcasters Across Borders since Shelagh Rogers opened our inaugural conference in 2006.

During his years with CBC Radio, Jowi hosted the long-running and multiple award-winning program “Global Village”. He was the host, writer, co-creator and co-producer of the incredible documentary series The Wire — which won the 2005 Peabody Award, the 2005 Prix Italia and the 2005 Director’s Choice Award at the Third Coast Audio Festival — and the follow-up series, The Nerve: Music & the Human Experience, which aired on CBC Radio’s Inside the Music

In addition to his radio work, Jowi is the force behind Six String Nation, a project in which a guitar was made using 63 pieces of history and heritage from every part of Canada representing many different cultures, communities and characters from across the country. The guitar has traveled the country, being played in homes, bars, concert halls and at festivals by everyone from guitar hacks to well-known musicians including Bruce Cockburn, Colin James, Feist, Jane Siberry and The Mighty Popo.  Our very own PABster, Sean McGaughey, has also had the privilege to play the 6SN guitar.

Click here to register for PAB2009 while space is still available.

At the same time, I’m still producing content.  In fact, I spent a good part of the day completing the first pass edit of 4 hours of video content, which included lining up a separate audio source to the video recordings.  I’ve brought the primary pool down to about 90 minutes of content.  There will also be a smaller secondary project which has a pool of about 20 minutes of content.

It’s important to remember to enjoy both the product and the process!

All the best to you and yours for a happy, healthy and safe holiday season!

Sincerely,
Mark

Photo sourced by Michael Ain

So, I followed the link, submitted the order, installed the Amazon downloader, clicked the link to download the album and then…

This seems like obvious front end messaging, doesn’t it?

People shouldn’t get too excited about the government taking its cues directly from social media.  I believe the Facebook group served as a vehicle for information dissemination and the debate over approaches for students to plead their case to the government.  While there was the typical flaming and pontificating of uninformed opinion, I was impressed by the amount of informed discussion, productive debate and collaborating/strategizing.  In that respect, the Facebook community, made up largely of non-voting students, served a significant purpose and achieved an incredible victory.

Did Facebook change the government’s mind?

In the end, I believe it was the letter-writing, emails and phone calls to MPs that made the difference.  A lot of that was clearly organized through the Facebook group.  Social media alone did not win the fight.  It was the balance between old and new, and speaking to the government on its terms.

Government and businesses, though, will have to learn this new way of interacting with their audiences.  The marketplaces, railway cars and town halls are now on the Internet and smart phones.  Commerce and policy are relocating and those that choose to ignore this move (or choose to fear it) are limiting their usefulness.

As part of the interview, I was asked to provide three-to-five steps for government and business to consider in their move to embrace social media.  I’ve adapted them slightly from the way in which they appear in the article:

1. Acknowledge social media– Just as organizations have used written and phone surveys to gather public sentiment and feedback, social networks – such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter – can be a very effective means of finding out what people think of policies and what they would like the organization to achieve.
2. Join various forums – Rather than trying to block access to social networks (which seems to be the blanket approach the days), an organization should research which online “gathering places” are appropriate for its operations and then develop policies and practices on how to use these sites.
3. Create your own “gathering place” – Adopt an existing social networking tool or develop your own social networking site to create a place where people can reach you and engage with you. Many companies bolster in-house communication between leaders and employees with the use of corporate wikis, podcasts or blogs. Special sites designed to cultivate online communities are also very useful in elevating an organization’s public profile.
4. Listen to the people – Any form of communication is no good if one of its participants turns a deaf ear to the other.  Social media amplifies this need to listen.  If your organization isn’t prepared to meet the needs of its target audience, why does it exist?
5. Engage/respond – When you receive feedback or gather data, you need to act accordingly. Realize that your “community” is vital and that it needs feedback and action from you as well. Provide people with the information they need at the time they need it and provide them with suggested actions that keep them engaged with you.

We’ve become friendly with author Sheree Fitch since we interviewed her for JOMB episode 54, published on November 13, 2006, and we’ve always told her how disappointed we are that Sleeping Dragons and other children’s books she’s written, are no longer available.  For Sleeping Dragons, that ends when the 20th anniversary edition is released on January 25, 2009.

A two part series on the release is being featured on Just One More Book.  Part one was released earlier today and part two will be released on Monday (December 15).

This is the second time a JOMB testimonial has appeared on the dust jacket of a children’s book.  The first time was on Lee Edward Fodi’s book Kendra Kandlestar and the Door to Unger.

It’s been easy to worry about the plugin.  Some time has past since the last update (code or even news of plans), and, more obviously, the disappearance of the support forums following a SPAM attack.

I spoke with PodPress creator Dan Kuykendall, yesterday.  Dan has been busy with work and his new dual-role as both a techie and CEO and hasn’t been able to attend to PodPress on a day-to-day basis.  He did say that he’s working on a new release and expects to put some time into the coding during the holidays later this month.

So, if you’re a PodPress user, hang in there!

I called on the goodwill of my own community and specifically asked influential people like Mitch Joel (3,500 followers), Chris Penn (3,500 followers) and Chris Brogan (25,000 followers) to help spread the word to their networks and they helped spread the word.  More people continued to retweet the appeal for voters.  It seemed exciting to me that there would be a chance at helping Kyle and Brady win their money.

Alas, Ashoka’s Youth Venture website is not ready for prime time.  The voting interface regularly fails or gets stuck when you submit your vote then tells you that you don’t have appropriate privileges to vote.  You’re supposed to be able to vote once each day (not so).  To make matters worse, the contact page doesn’t load so you can’t report any problems.  I found another route to report concerns, and after 48 hours have heard nothing.

I blew the call.  It would have been far better to appeal to everyone to donate $5 to the My Own Book Foundation.  Even if only 3,500 people donated $5 each, Kyle and Brady would raise $17,500 — much more than they stand to win through a site that for all, intents and purposes, doesn’t really exist.  Imagine if 25,000 people pitched in???

So, this year I’ve decided to go with setting goals, publicly, because achieving goals is something we all have control over.  I’m also hoping that I can inspire others to do the same (that’s both a goal and a prediction).

Here, in no particular order, are my hobby and professional goals for 2009:

• Create a mentor group for myself

• Produce something that will be picked up by public radio

• Officially begin an ambitious documentary project I have in mind

• Help make PAB2009 the most exciting social media conference of 2009

• Increase the number of my speaking engagements

• Discover new and exciting ways to use media for communications and engagement

What are your goals?

Photo: Gol / Goal by Antonio Martinez.

Be sure to participate in the survey.

Hat tip: Terrence McLean.

Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party have been claiming that Canadians elected the Conservative government and that they specifically chose him as Prime Minister of Canada.  We didn’t.  Canadians don’t elect the Prime Minister.  Canadians vote for the individual or party to represent their riding.  It’s very locally-minded with the hope that the party they support will be elected to govern the country (or at least provide balance in the House of Commons).  When Parliament convenes, the members of the House select the governing party and, by extension, the Prime Minister.  The decision is obvious when there’s a majority party; that is, a party with more than half of the seats in the House of Commons, not just more seats than any other single party or group of parties.

It’s good sense for the ‘minority’ governing party to work collaboratively with the other parties in the House of Commons if they expect to have support for their agenda.  Now, more than ever, collaboration is an exciting idea for many people in the world.  Not so for old-school politicians, especially (so it would appear) the Conservatives and Stephen Harper whose political future is at stake here.  After all, he called an unnecessary election (breaking his own govern-your-term policy for an opportunistic power-grab), won more seats and yet managed to lose support of the House after only six weeks.

Don’t get me wrong, the Conservatives have collaborated with other parties in the past.  They managed to rally the support of The Bloc for some key votes over the last few years.  Oddly, they’re accusing the newly struck Liberal-NDP coallition of including a separatist party in their agreement.  Not so.  They’re counting on Bloc support for key votes.  Oh… and the opposition leaders did gather around the Canadian flag, by the way.

It’s very easy to be confused by soundbites played out of context and the misinformed arguments and shouting over the last week.  Don’t be misled by the accusations being thrown around, or be convinced by the Conservatives that the Parliamentary and Republican systems of government are the same.

I’m guessing that Canada’s elementary and even high school politics lessons haven’t covered the intricacies of our current situation.  I certainly hope they do now.

Photo of Stephen Harper from the Ottawa Sun, December 3.
Photo of Jack Layton, Stephane Dion and Gilles Duceppe by Chris Wattie/Reuters.

It works like this:  if you use Flickr, go to the sixth page of your photostream and pick the sixth picture there, then post it to your blog.  The resulting photo (below) captures fellow panelists in action at the Kidlit ‘08 conference in Portland, OR.

And because it’s a meme, I’m obliged to tag six more people.  I’ll tag Steve Garfield, John Meadows, Bob Goyetche, Bill Deys, Sylvain Grand’maison and Daryl Cognito.

The call is to offer my thoughts on “why we should look at life as one, rather than life as fragments scattered across the universe”.  I believe the answer is simple.  We are one.  We’ve all evolved from the same explosion.  The same energy created the universe, put the sun and planets into orbit, established the earth and sky, made water, organized the weather, sprouted plants and put heartbeats, thoughts and emotions into animals.

On a day to day basis, we tend to take this unity — this connectedness — for granted.  It takes people like Barak Obama (the catalyst for Keith’s post) to inspire us to act together for positive results, the kind of results we haven’t seen for many years.  What makes people like Obama so important is that they approach their work and their life with the goal of ensuring that everyone wins.

Sadly, it also takes people that start wars and create conflict to remind us of our connectedness. They believe in exclusive unity for the privileged; the kind of unity that comes at someone else’s expense.

The trick is to decide which way better serves the lot of us for our short time on this planet.

Photo: Mobius Tattoo by Spacemanbob.

CLUETRAIN MANIFESTO

Many books have been written about social media, communications, engagement, influence and interaction.  To me, The Cluetrain Manifesto is required reading to understand why all the other books matter.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE WITH SOCIAL AND NEW MEDIA

Perhaps the best example of amateurs doing what media organizations can’t do (or won’t do) to make this world a smaller place by sharing real stories about real people in unimaginable situations is the Alive in Baghdad video podcast.

PUBLIC RELATIONS RESOURCES

Since the class is about public relations, I highlighted a FEW of the MANY high-quality public relations, communications and marketing social media-based resources on the web.

• Six Pixels of Separation (blog and podcast)
• ProPR (blog and occasional media)
• For Immediate Release (podcast)
• Inside PR (podcast)

COMMON CRAFT: SOCIAL MEDIA IN PLAIN ENGLISH

COMMON CRAFT: RSS IN PLAIN ENGLISH

This problem has apparently been amplified by the fact that, according to one National Gallery of Canada volunteer, the elevator has been out of service for many months (I believe the volunteer said three) bringing with it inconvenience and frustration for people who get around in wheelchairs.  It turns out that the elevator has been out of service for repairs that are taking so long that the Gallery’s Plan Your Visit webpage includes a notice of Parking Garage Elevator Closure.

So, why is it that a public institution can get away with a huge maintenance and public service issue like an out of service elevator?

Workflow and the Creative Process - A discussion on how to pull together recorded content, chop it up, mix it up and sequence it in a way that delivers a message and/or tells a story that engages your audience.  This session is not about tools; it’s about proven techniques and approaches for developing and producing engaging content — whether the result is 60 seconds or 60 minutes.

First up, the theme… Outside-in: Learning from beyond the fishbowl.  The concept behind this theme is to evolve the conversation from being inside the fishbowl to drawing on skills, communications styles, experiences, innovations and people from outside of the social media and new media communities.  We want our program to energize, motivate and advance the community.  ANYONE interested in submitting a speaking or JOLT proposal within this theme should click here and read the details in the post.  Like last year, we’re asking speakers to model their sessions on the TEDtalks.

Second… as of this moment, you can register for PAB2009 at the early registration rate of $120/person.  This rate is available until midnight on December 31 or if we reach capacity of 120 people, whichever comes first.  Beginning January 1, 2009, registration becomes $150/person.  ANYONE interested in attending is invited to register and be a part of an amazing community and an incredible event.

Finally… this year you can reserve your hotel room online.  The Holiday Inn is in the process of renovating all of its hotel rooms so, by the time the conference begins, the hotel will have made the shift from the 1970s to the 2000s.  Remember to reserve your hotel room at the conference rate of $160/night (plus taxes and parking) while rooms are still available.  Rooms have two double beds and complimentary high-speed Internet access.

Don’t forget, PAB is promoted through word-of-mouth.  Help spread the word!

There’s always something new to learn and new ways to challenge yourself — pushing your work to new horizons.  I enjoy that learning process; the zen cycle where the student becomes the master, and the master the student.  I’ve also heard it referred to the black belt fraying and becoming white again.  It’s humbling and invigorating.

I find myself at one of those crucial times of trying to push my skills to the next level.  I’m taking a different approach this time, more methodical and perhaps even academic.  I’ve been listening to podcasts and radio programs with a more critical ear and open mind and watching television programs, movies and documentaries with more focus.  It’s a self-study process in which I’m dissecting the ways stories have been pieced together, how real and implied visuals are incorporated into the context of a program, how audio backdrops are crafted and how narration is used to move the story and engage the audience.  I’m particularly interested in how certain elements used in video presentation can be adapted to audio presentation and vice-versa in the hopes that something new could be created.

I plan to look carefully at a variety of content from amateurs and masters and will happily accept recommendations and guidance from anyone.

My journey has begun by studying the masters (obvious though they may be)… Ira Glass and Ken Burns.  Given the opportunity, I would do what I could to apprentice/work/slave for each for a few days.  I’d love to learn more about their thought processes, research techniques, how they develop and piece together their ideas and put it all together.  I don’t think any of that can be properly communicated in featurettes.  To truly learn that stuff, you have to be in the middle of the action.

Ira?  Ken?  Any members of your teams?  Where do I sign up for my bootcamp?

Photo: Pushing him up into the red by Pupski.

While the discussions at pcott08 centred around the publication of content and not the interaction through social media, digital dialog is why most people participate.  Publishing content online is just the beginning of the process of engaging with other people and further developing one’s thoughts.

The grassroots often refer to the ethos of social and new media.  What they describe sounds like the current of an ocean; the energy that makes online content and engagement exciting and ever evolving.

To me, the communications process begins with selecting content, developing it (even if only in one’s mind as part of a stream of consciousness), delivering it (including the context in which the content is delivered), recording it, editing it (if you so choose), mixing it (not just for levels but adding music and additional audio for audio backdrop), producing it, publishing it and promoting it.

Perhaps it’s the process-mindedness of many in the community that causes them (myself included) to become squirmy when they hear others use the word monetizing, not so much with turning hobbies into businesses.  The way most people drop that word and idea into a conversation is very final — an end, not a process — and they seem genuinely disinterested with quality of content, context and conversation in a way that emphasizes their interest in slapping a price tag on it.  They seem unconcerned and impatient when it comes to discussing and learning the skills that make people effective communicators, great storytellers, thought leaders and capable content producers.

You can’t build a house without a foundation and a frame so you may as well enjoy the process of design, materials selection and construction.

Photo: I has…part of a roof by BoneDaddy.P7.

UPDATE:  Other current discussions on this theme…

• It’s all about skills, baby! by Bob Goyetche
• Building a Business, Not Monetization by David Peralty

According to the Snowsuit Fund website, “a donation of $35.00 is all it takes to dress a child warmly”.  That means that PodCamp Ottawa will be keeping 9 children comfortable this winter.

If there are any Podpress code experts lurking around and willing to help solve some problems, I’d be more than happy to hear from you!

The community and its events are inclusive.  Anyone who wants to attend is welcome.  Invitations to participate are implied.  Invitations to speak or submit speaking proposals are open.  Oddly, some women and individuals from different cultural backgrounds that have expressed their concerns have never submitted speaking proposals to the events I’m involved in.  I respond by requesting they submit proposals and make the effort to increase multicultural and female participation.  There’s only so much the community organizers can do and I can assure you that we have made efforts to reach out to the under-represented.

The Canadian Podcast Buffet was created as a resource and meeting place for the community.  We don’t define who’s in the community, only that it exists for all to join and contribute.  Podcasters Across Borders was created to bring the community together in a single physical space.  We don’t decide who comes, only that the event is organized and those willing to sign-up and travel to Kingston can be part of the scene.  Speaking proposals are welcome from everyone.  I know that the same is true of the PodCamp movement — events are planned and invitations to participate are open.

Andrea and I have been talking about this lately because planning for PAB2009 is about to ramp up.  The PAB community has been built on word of mouth which emanates from CPB.  If you feel that we need more people from a particular country, cultural background or gender, it’s up to you to help increase that representation by spreading the word and inviting the people you feel the community will benefit from meeting and listening to.

Communities thrive when they are made up of mixed opinions and backgrounds.  Make sure you help create the environment in which we can all grow.

Photo: PAB2007 Group Photo.jpg by Sean Joyner.

Please be sure to bring a pillow or something comfortable to sit on the floor with, $10 for the Snowsuit fund and a money to contribute for our pizza lunch.

If this is your first PodCamp Ottawa, take a few minutes to read the Guiding Principles on the PodCamp Ottawa wiki.