MasterNewMedia Breaking New Media News

Create Your Custom Infographic with Venngage

Sat, 26 May 2012 04:17:01 GMT

Robin Good: Vengage is a new web app which allows anyone to created, edit and personalize professional-looking infographics by utilizing ready-made elements and an easy-to-use interface.

From the Carlispina blog: "The newest tool for creating interactive infographics online is Venngage from the Vizualize.Me team.

Building on the concepts that are at work in the Vizualize.Me infographic resume tool, Venngage allows users to create infographics on any topic with great simplicity.

Despite this simplicity, Venngage is also extremely versatile, offering 14 different infographic templates, each of which is highly customizable, including the ability to resize the overall infographic to meet your specific needs.

... a wide range of data types since it offers more than a dozen different types of charts, a host of symbols and shapes and the ability to add your own images.

Unlike many other infographic tools, Venngage also includes the ability to link to other web content directly in the infographic’s text."

Venngage offers the option to export a .png file, to share your final work on social media, to keep private, or to embed it on any website or blog.

"Unlike image-based infographics, Venngage's infographics are pure HTML elements and 100% search engine optimized."

(Source: Carlispina Blog)

Find out more: http://venngage.com/

See it on Scoop.it, via Presentation Tools

Curate Great Resources and Articles Into an eBook with Readlists

Sat, 26 May 2012 03:23:01 GMT

Robin Good: Readlists is a simple web app which allows you to easily create curated lists of web resources, articles and links and bundle them to a downloadable eBook.

"A Readlist is a group of web pages—articles, recipes, course materials, anything—bundled into an e-book you can send to your Kindle, iPad, or iPhone."

To create a "Readlist" you simply click on the Create a Readlist button and add one url at a time. The system gently grabs metadata info like title and author and elegatly lays it out in an ebook formatted reading index ready to be published.

The service is free to use.

Try it out now: http://readlists.com/

See it on Scoop.it, via Content Curation World

EPUB 3: What It Is and Why It Is So Important for the Future of eBooks

Sat, 26 May 2012 01:25:01 GMT

From the article intro: "If evolution is the cornerstone of life, that's certainly no less true in the electronic world. If you can't adapt — or fail to adapt in time — you're destined to join the ranks of the Netscape Navigators, OS/2 operating systems, and WordPerfect office suites of the world, as a warning to future technology developers that nothing lasts forever, and never in its original form.

In this light, EPUB 3 is more than just bug fixes and tweaks from the last version; it represents a major change in what an ebook can be. It's a whole new beast, you might say.

The ebook market has been going through its own kind of hyper-evolution in the mere four years since EPUB2 was released, and a flurry of new devices and document formats have come and gone in that time.

E Ink technology was all the rage in 2007 when Adobe, Amazon, Sony, and others were entering the market, however, and EPUB2 arrived to meet the new needs of these portable reading devices, with improved presentation capabilities, better navigation, support for DAISY accessibility features, and some advances in global language support.

But EPUB2, like its predecessor and contemporaries, remained a static format, in that its core only allowed for the reading of basic text and image documents."

Read the full article: http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/11/epub3-multimedia-devices-accessibility.html

See it on Scoop.it, via eBook Publishing World

How To Get Tons of Links By Re-Igniting Great Content From Other Authors

Fri, 25 May 2012 22:01:05 GMT

Robin Good: A great presentation by Ross Hudgens on the value of looking at other great content and ideas and turn those to your advantage, without in any way stealing or taking unfair advantage of other's people work.

Recommended. 9/10

Full presentation: http://slideonline.com/presentation/94-link-building-by-imitation

See it on Scoop.it, via Internet Marketing Strategy 2.0

Upload and Share All Your PDF and PowerPoint Presentations With This New SlideShare Alternative: SlideOnline

Fri, 25 May 2012 21:20:45 GMT

Robin Good: If you are looking for a free and simple alternative to SlideShare you may want to give a look to this new free presentation sharing service which allows you to upload PowerPoint and PDF files without much hussle.

Presentations can be viewed in full screen, shared on social media, tagged and categorized, and made available for download if so desired.

The service looks clean, simple to use, and promising. (I needed one).

Examples of other uploaded presentations: http://slideonline.com/presentation/latest

Free to use.

N.B.: There is hardly any information on the site, "About", and "Learn More" links are not working, so be prudent before uploading your whole library here.

Update: As I have just learned from a timely email (who wrote me as am writing this very Scoop - without knowing it) from Julian working on the development team, the only reason is that the service is just brand new... so, just give them time... and lots of feedback.

Try it out now: http://slideonline.com/

(via by Baiba Svenca)

See it on Scoop.it, via Presentation Tools

Good Theft vs. Bad Theft: Curation vs. Republishing Visualized

Fri, 25 May 2012 20:14:03 GMT

Robin Good: Here's a great visualization of how different can be the traits of content re-use. In the left column you can see what would appear to be the ideal traits of a professional curator, while on the right you can immediately recognize the ones of scrapers, republishers, cheap aggregators and other "thin" publishers as Google would call them.

I think it can serve as an excellent reference, when in doubt about whether you are still doing the right thing or not, when it comes to re-using and republishing other people content.

The table is part of an excellent presentation entitled "Link Building by Imitation" and authored by link building expert Ross Hudgens.

Truthful. 9/10

http://slideonline.com/presentation/94-link-building-by-imitation

See it on Scoop.it, via Content Curation World

Social Search To Gain 70% of Search by 2013 + Google Becoming Irrelevant

Fri, 25 May 2012 19:29:14 GMT

Marty Smith: "Not sure I would go anywhere near this far (Google being irrelevant) since Google isn't sitting still. CEO of uber agency WPP just mentioned his company increased their Google spend 17% while flattening out Facebook a week ago on @Squakbox. That said, I do see incursion being made by mobile search, video and social search. The Google castle is in need of defending."

From the original article: "Google’s search marketing services may be becoming irrelevant due to the rise of social search.

That’s in addition to a failure to recognize that Google+ cannot be the sole solution to social search with an always increasing number of web properties.

Info-Tech Research Group expects that Google, which held 90% of the search market in 2010, will only hold 30% in 2013, due to the rising impact of social search".

See it on Scoop.it, via Internet Marketing Strategy 2.0

Create Dynamic Presentations for iPads Right on Your Mac with Presto

Fri, 25 May 2012 15:10:15 GMT

Robin Good: Presto is a system which allows you to author dynamic presentations for iPads. Presentations are created on the Mac with Presto Builder and then exported to your iPad for final delivery.

Presto presentations are non-linear and you can swipe and connect to other slides in multiple ways.

The final content created with Presto can also be shared with your Twitter and Facebook contacts.

The iPad app is free to download.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/presto-player/id512561996?ls=1&mt=8

Presto Builder for the Mac is available inside the Mac App Store and costs: €4.99/$5.99

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/presto-builder/id512551858?ls=1&mt=12

More info: http://www.presto-app.com/

See it on Scoop.it, via Presentation Tools

Audio Conferencing: UberConference Makes It Easy, Visual and Shareable

Fri, 25 May 2012 09:07:59 GMT

Robin Good: UberConference is a kind of audio-conferencing app focusing on making it easier for both the host and the participants to find out more about the other people participating, while "seeing" always who's who, who's attending and who's talking.

UberConference integrates a full conference audio recording function (downloadable .MP3), the ability to mute or "boot" anyone who is not behaving properly inside an event or a discussion, and the option of talking "secretly" just to one or more selected persons (while the others cannot hear you).

To make all of this possible UberConference has created a visual board that displays all participants faces and names, and allows once you click on anyone of them to check their social profile and their online activities.

At the end of a conference the service provides you with a summary report listing you the topics covered, who participated and who talked (and for how long).

Sign-up - Try it out: http://uberconference.com/zyeLduHQ

(Thanks to Ana Cristina Pratas for discovering this one)

See it on Scoop.it, via Online Collaboration Tools

Convert Books to ePub Format: PDF To ePub with Free ePub Converter

Fri, 25 May 2012 08:23:58 GMT

Robin Good: Epub converter allows you to convert pdf, doc and other types of documents and e-books to EPUB format. 2epub is 100% free online converter.

2EPUB allows you to convert PDF, doc and other types of documents & books to ePub format, the standard format for ebooks, supported by almost every reading device including iPad, iPhone, iPod, Sony Reader, BeBook, Nook, Kobo (for Kindle use .mobi).

Nothing to download. Simply upload your files directly on this page by using the "Browse" button.

Input formats: doc, docx, epub, fb2, html, lit, lrf, mobi, odt, pdb, pdf, prc, rtf, txt.

Output formats: epub, fb2, lit, lrf, mobi

Download it here: http://www.2epub.com/

See it on Scoop.it, via eBook Publishing World

Visual Boards To Curate Your Learning Topics: Learni.st

Thu, 24 May 2012 23:11:10 GMT

Heiko Idensen reports in his curated newsradar "Online Curating & Social Learning Tools and Applications": "Learnist is a new pinboard where users can organize their learning materials. It resembles Pinterest except that Learnist is just for sharing learning resources.

The website is still in beta but looks really very promising for both teachers and students.

Here is a set of the main features that Learnist offers to its users :

It is free
Itis easy to use
It has a user friendly interface
It lets users create pinboards around a certain topic
Users can create different boards and invite others to collaborate on them
It lets you pin images,videos, and text to your boards with a single click from Learnist bookmarklet
Users can also upload resources to their boards using URLs

Free to use.

Try it out: http://learni.st

See it on Scoop.it, via Content Curation World

The Beginner's Guide To SEO By SEOmoz With Updates 2012

Thu, 24 May 2012 22:58:32 GMT

From the original article: "SEO strategies have gone through incredible amounts of evolution over the last year. From algorithm updates like Penguin and Panda to new search engine restrictions on overoptimization and spammy links, optimization methods for getting the best rankings in search engines all across the web have advanced.

The recent power of social sharing has had a huge effect on search, and search engine company recommendations to get the best rankings in their search engines have changed as crawl tactics are getting smarter.

SEOs of all levels have had to re-learn strategies and best practices to make sure their website’s SEO is set up for winning results.

The newly updated Beginner’s Guide to SEO is bursting with new changes, but here are some top additions to keep an eye out for:

***Home-grown SEO is a trend that is catching on, but there’s a lot to learn to make sure your site’s SEO is up to par. Whether you’re considered using a consultant, firm, or learning SEO on your own, this new section is a must-read.

***Building for Users, Not Search Engines:

This awesome new section highlights three ways people look for information through search queries fitting into the categories of Do, Know, and Go. What are users looking for?

***The Last Chapter is packed full of new recommendations on metrics to track, analytics software to implement, metrics provided by search engines to use, and tips to applying the data you track towards real life solutions..."

Read the full article here: http://j.mp/LI7qUi

Full guide: http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo

See it on Scoop.it, via Internet Marketing Strategy 2.0

Clip, Archive, Tag and Share Any Text or Image with Sgarf.It

Thu, 24 May 2012 22:22:12 GMT

Robin Good: Sgarf.it is a simple clipping and archiving app which allows you to clip any text or image you find on the web and to archive it, tag it and easily share it on your favorite social networks.

Sgarf.it works as a Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer extension which works invisibly in the background. Once you find something interesting on any web page you need only to select it as you have always done it, and by right-clicking on your selection you will be offered to "sgarf" your clipping.

Once clipped any content can be easily tagged and shared on your preferred social networks.

Free to use.

FAQ: http://www.sgarf.it/sgarf/support

Find out more: http://www.sgarf.it/

See it on Scoop.it, via Content Curation World

New Interactive Storytelling And Publishing Platform For Content Creators And Curators: Qwiki

Thu, 24 May 2012 20:37:46 GMT

Excerpted from the original article on GigaOM: "Qwiki, the start-up known for creating automated multimedia presentations, is launching a new media format that allows publishers, bloggers, web personalities and others to create 60-second video stories that are embedded with other videos, images, maps and links.

It’s like an interactive video slideshow that lets users click on other content throughout a narrated story, so they can choose how deep they want to experience the content.

The service goes into private testing today with some early users and is expected to open to the public in a couple of weeks.

Users can put together a Qwiki by arranging images, videos and maps and other content into six frames.

Each frame can be further edited with a caption and embedded with more images, Tweets, maps and links taken from sources such as YouTube, Flickr, Google Maps and other sources including their personal content.

When the media content is laid down, a user records a 60-second narration for the story with the option of appearing in a small window throughout the Qwiki. The creator decides when to advance each frame.

Imbruce, Founder and CEO, said: "...there are many more features to be added that could make Qwiki even more attractive to its creators and users.

Right now, creators can only tell a 60-second story. But with the ability to add more content, it could really be the starting point for a bigger story. I think over time, Qwiki might be better served by allowing people the option to make videos a little longer.

New online tools, such as Pinterest, are already showing us that self-expression and curation are now very popular. I think it’s logical that a simple tool for mixing video, images and online content could also attract an audience..."

Read the full article:
http://gigaom.com/2012/05/23/qwiki-launches-interactive-story-telling-platform-with-abc-news/

Check out it: http://www.qwiki.com

See it on Scoop.it, via Content Curation World

Present From Your iPhone/iPad By Transmitting To Any Projector-Connected Computer: Air Projector for iOS

Thu, 24 May 2012 06:37:36 GMT

From the official site: "Leave the VGA dongle at home. Project PDFs and photos directly over WiFi.

Air Projector projects PDF documents and photos wirelessly from your iPhone or iPod Touch to a browser connected on the same local network.

No additional client software is required.

Just fire up Air Projector and type in the displayed URL in your web browser.

Then flip through the pages or photos on your iPhone and the remote display updates automatically.

-> Tap and hold to show a laser pointer on the remote screen.

-> Send PDF documents from Mail, or a third party document manager such as Dropbox, to Air Projector to present them.

-> Works great with exported PDFs from PowerPoint or Keynote (note: transitions and animations are not stored in PDFs).

-> Share presentations with remote colleagues via online meeting or desktop sharing software (such as iChat).

Note: Air Projector requires iOS4.0 and above."

You can even use Air Projector peer-to-peer with a computer via an ad-hoc network when a WiFi hotspot is unavailable.

Download on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/pk/app/id388376531 ($0.99)

Free version also available (to test and verify if you like what this app does): http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/air-projector-free/id411380678

Find out more: http://www.qrayon.com/home/airprojector/

(Thanks to Ana Cristina Pratas for discovering this one)

See it on Scoop.it, via Presentation Tools

Prototype Web and Mobile User Interfaces Inside Your Favorite Presentation Program with Keynotopia

Thu, 24 May 2012 06:16:12 GMT

Robin Good: With the free Keynotopia Mockup Bundle, you can draft, edit and sketch highly-detailed elements of a user interface while using only Apple Keynote (but don't fret. There are libraries and themes also for PowerPoint and other presentation tools).

The Keynotopia Mockup Bundle includes:
-> Over 1,000 vector user interface components designed entirely in Apple Keynote. The following templates are included in the bundle:
->> iPhone Mockup Templates
->> iPad Mockup Templates
->> Android Mockup Templates
->> BlackBerry Mockup Templates
->> Web Application Mockup Templates
->> Facebook Mockup Templates
->> OS X Mockup templates
->> Windows 7 Mockup Templates
->> Windows Phone Mockup Templates

"Keynotopia is the largest collection of user interface design templates that enable you to prototype and test your app ideas in 30 minutes or less using Apple Keynote, Microsoft PowerPoint, or OpenOffice Impress.

The templates include thousands of wireframe and high fidelity vector UI components, meticulously designed from scratch in Keynote, Powerpoint and OpenOffice, and fully editable and customizable without needing additional design tools."

The Keynote Mockup Templates Bundle is available in exchange for a simple tweet (normally they are $49).

Find out more: http://keynotopia.com/keynote-mockups-templates/

Templates and Themese Gallery: http://keynotopia.com/themes/

See it on Scoop.it, via The Web Design Guide and Showcase

How To Copyright Your Video Content

Thu, 24 May 2012 05:38:22 GMT

Robin Good: If you are trying to find out how you can best legally protect the ownership of your video content, by using the laws and procedures available in the US, this article is an excellent guide for those just starting on this front.

"An original work of art, such as a video, music, screenplay, or script, is automatically protected by the laws of the U.S. Code, title 17 as soon as you create the work.

However, for added protection, you should place a copyright notice on your script and register it in the U.S. Copyright Office because that registration is necessary to bringing a lawsuit for copyright infringement.

The so-called "poor man's copyright" - mailing a copy of your work to yourself to obtain a postage date - is not adequate to secure registration, and cannot be used in a court of law to support a case o f copyright infringement."

I personally think that it is not a good idea to go the extra mile to protect once own content in this way, if it is published on the Internet and you want it to get maximum exposure and visibility.

But if you have the time and resources to go after your potential future copyright infringers, you are going to get lots of useful information in this introductory guide.

Informative. Resourceful. 8/10

Full article: http://www.videomaker.com/article/15394/ ;

See it on Scoop.it, via Online Video Publishing