Nov 7 agenda
Chiedozie: Google Maps at gas stations, on pumps (see my bookmarks)
Rebecca: The Myths of Innovation, Scott Berkun … It’s not the creative process, per se, but there is good reference material on creatives in the book … Plus, gives you ideas how your book will be …
For Alex. 20 tools to see your photos online. (example.)
How to succeed at online video. (mashable.)
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Brittney Gilbert, blogger to TV (Site) (Article)
William Spencer, skater on YouTube, now develops show for MTV (article)
Ze Frank is back! What the writer’s strike means. Reality shows came from the first strike. What’s next? User-generated content? (His site.) (On the writer’s strike — see email.)
Students and Apple commercial. (NYT.) (NewTeeVee.)
Google phone(s). Opportunities for the future. (last100)
Agenda Oct. 25
Tonight we will look at the creative brief and give you guys time to work on your projects. You need to be working on then NOW. Time is running out quickly. (Boy, do I know … my classes as well.)
John Artist Statement and Creative Brief
Important Note
There will be NO class Nov. 1. I am not in town. Use this time for your projects.
Social Media and Social Networks in a time of disaster
Every time there is a disaster — 911, Katrina, the Virgina Tech shootings — I am amazed at how new media plays an important role in disseminating information. The San Diego/California fires are just another example of how people are using new media and social networks to connect people locally and worldwide.
A few examples. The ones I find interesting are on Twitter, which is just now being seen (by the non-techies) as an immediate source of news, whether you are following the fires or the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.
Google maps of San Diego County Fires
More Google maps. Detailed.
The use of cell phones and texting to donate to Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund: Text2Help.
LA Fire Department on Twitter.
Nothing new: blogs. Jim Forbes. Here. Here. Or Facebook. (85 groups.) Others …
RTNDA. The Association of Electronic Journalists. Message board.
California Fires on YouTube. (NewTeeVee.) (LostRemote.)
Search California fires on TwitterSearch. (May have to plug in search words yourself.)
Using Delicious for research, sharing of information
I had you guys sign up for RSS feeds, here is another potent social tool
Oct. 18 agenda and recap
I emailed this to you, but in case you have not read …
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Hello, all.
I am not sure if you will get this before class or not … sorry for the late notice … but I have gotten a few requests from students wanting to work on their projects. One will be out of the class all together. Anyway, this is fine with me. As I said last week, time is running out.
Please come to class with the following:
Your creative brief.
As a reminder, the brief includes not only the creative side of your project but also an understanding of the technical, or how you plan to accomplish your goal.
What I want to do in class is this: go over your creative briefs. If you do not have these, you will work on them in class. Make sure you bring the materials you need.
A recap of what you are working on:
Alicia: She is working on an immigration interview tonight and will not be in class. However, Alicia, I still want your creative brief. Can you send this to me this evening?
Adrian: You need an outline and plan of action for your proposal to your boss regarding the use of new media in the corporate world.
Chedozie: You need an outline of your business plan/proposal; and you need to send me the link to your previous proposal for another class.
Amaorae: She has been out of class the past two weeks working on her Harry Potter videos, website, and other things. Do you have something to show us?
John: Is going to do a portfolio site for his art. I need a creative brief from you.
Alex: Is going to do a portfolio site for his photography. I need a creative brief from you.
Rebecca: Has already conducted an interview for her project. If at all possible, I’d like to hear a sampling of this. Also, I need the creative brief.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
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Homework for next week
John and Alex: artist statements regarding your portfolios. I want to know what your goal is and how you are going to achieve it. Include not only creative but technical insight. Technical is just as important as creative when it comes to new media.
Alicia: plan for your final project. Like John and Alex above, include creative as well as technical.
Adrian: outline for your proposal or presentation to your office. As far as technical, include what you plan to do — produce it in Word or PowerPoint exclusively, or tie in images, video, audio, social media.
Chedozie:
Amorae: update status on Harry Potter videos, show example
Rebecca:
Oct. 11 agenda
As most of you were not in class last week, we didn’t have the planned discussion. Tonight we will pick up where I left off on Oct. 4.
A few notes on your blogs:
Adrian: you’re starting to dig deeper into your subject, little by little.
Alex: nice to see additional night photography, but can you shot something else that’s not frisbee – not that it’s a problem. Shooting other sports — a kid’s soccer game or a middle school football game — will help develop your skills and provide you more portfolio material for the blog.
Alicia — Boo! Links from your city hall post are broken. Yeah! Love the two black and white images and the stories you tell. Very nice. This is what I was hoping you’d get to all along. Now we just gotta work on not so much the writing but the stories told, how they’re organized, and so on. Very nice.
Amorae — She’s not in class, but I’ve been working with her on the side. The website looks great. There are a few videos to watch now. She is updating the world on her progress.
Chiedozie — You’ve been out of class for a few weeks. Two weeks ago I posted some research images for you — but I see you’ve done a little of it yourself with Pump TV and MediaCart. This is a start to what I’m talking about for your blog.
John — Excellent posts on Cottonwood Art Festival and Painting by food coloring. You’ve done two things here I like. One, you posted on how artists can participate in a festival like Cottonwood. Two, you provided names of artists you like, and I would guess websites if they were available. Let’s look at these …
Rebecca — Has been presenting in another class. She has a digital recorder from the ATEC Lab, so I’d like to know what you’ve found out and how you like, or dislike, it. You’ve recorded one interview. Do you have a sample we can listen to? I see you are having some sound editing issues. Talk about them.
I think I have an idea of your final projects now. We need to start working toward these. Alex and John, you are working on portfolio sites for your photography and art, respectively. Alicia, Adrian, and Rebecca are going to do podcasts on their respective subjects — immigration stories, corporate communications, and the creative process, respectively. Amorae is working on her Harry Potter videos. I still need to find out what Chiedozie is planning.
Today is Oct. 11. We have SIX classes remaining — Oct. 18 and 25, Nov. 1, 8, 15, 29. There is no class Nov. 22 due to Thanksgiving. You must get focused on your work.
Oct. 4 agenda
Since it looks like three of you are interested in producing a podcast, we’re going to spend some time talking about it.
We’ll listen to some podcasts from students
We’ll listen to, discuss some podcasts from established podcastersLeo Laporte, Adam Curry (Daily Source Code), Dawn and Drew, mainstream media (see iTunes), others …
We’ll examine the anatomy of a podcast
This diagram isn’t meant to capture the entire podcasting world; rather, it will give you an idea of what’s involved with podcasting.
We’ll discuss your projects
Final Projects
Rebecca — podcast, interviewing artists about the creative process
Alicia — podcast (maybe video podcast) on immigration
Adrian — podcast on improving corporate communications
John –
Amorae — video work and Web site
Chiedozie –
Alex –
Sept. 27 agenda
We are behind after missing a class last week. My fault. This evening we will catch up with the usual . . .
1 — your blogs; some activity here, some not …
2 — your progress/experience with RSS feeds and readers
3 — what the heck have i been talking about — a look at research and reports and how these can fit into your blogs …
4 — if we have time, i’ve been wanting to get to this, we need to work on interviewing
read this on interviewing: the good interview
this isn’t bad either: how to interview someone for a publication
There are a ton of “how to” articles on the Web regarding interviewing. You can get buried in all the yacking, so I’m whittling down the essentials for you:
Preparation. A must. The more prep, the better the interview. Sometimes, however, you have to interview someone without prep. What do you do then? Rely on your ability to talk with people. Be honest. Tell them you don’t know much about the person or the subject. Get the interviewee talking, listen to the answers and see the story develop …
Preparation includes research, making sure the equipment you plan to use is in working order (and that you have pen and paper handy), working on a “skeleton” list of questions (knowing what you need to get, but being flexible enough that you are not asking numbered, successive questions). Just ask. Don’t censor.
The interview itself. Relax. Be yourself. Listen. Participate in the conversation (I tend to talk too much, but I’ve not found that this has hindered me; in fact, it may help as people get to know me, we have conversations and discussions, rather than question and answer sessions). Capture the interview as best you can: audio and video are helpful but amazingly time consuming and may be overkill for simple blog interviews. Listen to what people say, write down items to jog your memory, write up the quotes of interest. Be careful, don’t ask yes-no questions. You’ll get yes-no answers. Keep in mind questions like: How do you know that? What does that mean? Give me an example. Know there will be some throw-away questions; the ones that remain are the ones of value.
Practice. Run the questions through in your head before the interview. Don’t be afraid to fail. You don’t get the answer you’re looking for — something interesting, for example — don’t be afraid to circle around and come at the question from a different angle.
Be flexible.
–more–
examples of research … for chiedozie
Sept. 20 agenda
From the email I sent to the students …
Unfortunately, I must cancel class tonight for family reasons. I never, ever cancel classes, but I’m backed into a corner.
This does not mean that I do not expect two additional blog posts for next week. I do. More on this later.
Also, you were assigned the task of setting up RSS feeds for your area of interest and any other sites you find interesting. Alicia, you were out last week, and I had planned to catch you up in Thursday’s class. Since I will not be there, I’ll make the assignment here, which will serve as a refresher for the others.
You need to set up an RSS account. Use a free Web-based reader — Google Reader (http://google.com/reader), Bloglines (http://bloglines.com), or NewsGator (http://newsgator.com. There are tons of RSS readers out there — Web-based, browser-based, and desktop-based — but I prefer that you use a Web reader so we can share information and discuss your feeds in class.
You are to look for blogs or Web sites (that have RSS feeds) in your areas of interest. For example, John with art, Alex with photography, and so on. I encourage you also to look for feeds — think of them as sources of information and research — for your other classes and interests.
Since class is cancelled, I expect you to come to the front of the classroom next week and call up your RSS feeds in Google Reader, Bloglines, or NewsGator and discuss what you’ve found, how they are helping you with your project and/or other classes and interests, and your general impressions of the RSS experience.
If anybody does not understand RSS, please call me or send me an email. Send me a note if you need the cell number, as I do not want to publish this on the Web.
Now, back to your blogging …
I’ve taken it slow this semester on purpose, giving you an opportunity to ease into blogging, writing, and so on. Many of you — but certainly not all of you — have not posted to your blogs during the week(s). The semester is well underway and I expect you to post to your blogs, even experimentally, in the areas of interest we’ve discussed in class. Failure to do so will hurt your final grade.
I’ve taken a road of discussion and conversation with you regarding blogging and the subjects we’ve talked about. With such a small class, I didn’t think you’d want to hear me “lecture” for two-plus hours. The downside of this approach is that I often talk about the subjects quickly and do not provide slides or class materials for you to review. If any of you are struggling, don’t understand something, want to go back and review a topic, please let me know.
Again, sorry for the inconvenience, but it’s unavoidable.
Dan.
Sept. 13 agenda
Lessons learned.
Dan’s last two days in the blogosphere. How the Internet and new media is alive, that anything you do on the Web can be seen by someone. The digital world leaves footprints. How do you feel about this, the fact that anything you do can spark … like the teen on YouTube.
Your reputation can be built on the web or destroyed, if you are not careful. How do you feel about this? Do you have plans to make a reputation on the web? Do you care? Do you think you need one? Can you survive without one?
Aside: personal branding … facebook … Moo cards … Lorin t-shirts and caps, advertising HIM, not a company
World view: It used to be that your reputation was based on your community, your town, your neighborhood. Now, in a digital world, your reputation can extend worldwide. Do we all need to be known internationally?
Student Progress
Adrian
I’m glad you are starting to capture ideas and stories.
Redding Oil post: use links, like to Redding Oil, or pages on its history or subsidiaries
In both posts: muse on the options you have — blogs, video podcasts, wikis — what’s the best one for your company? You introduce an excellent topic: How do you get people to buy into what you are suggesting when they are “newbies”.
Alex
Nice use of youtube and your image. Did you also put it on Flickr? How can you get your image out there?
How do you feel about putting your images on the web that are not edited, or cropped … from a photographer’s viewpoint/
Alicia
Thanks for the writing on the documentary.
Writing shortcuts in blogs: ppl, lol … this is not SMS texting. Looks sloppy to your readers
Make sure links work
Podcast or video podcast? We need to start working with you on this idea.
Amorae
Ideas for non-Harry Potter work?
Chiedozie
Sorry. Had the link wrong in the blogroll.
Need to post
You put a history of advertising link. Nice. But what is your interpretation or insight?
John
A word for all of us: spell check, be aware of grammar. Yes, blogging is in a real, natural voice, same for all new media. But there is a point where it can be too informal and lazy … not that this is John.
I really like the comment from Mom about exploring art because of deafness. Can you expand on this theme?
Rebecca
The class should look at her work, be aware of each other and how you can help each other out
You mention cognitive neuroscience. Very interesting. Can you link to specific examples or books? Can you follow this theme?
In general
Spell, grammar
Work on theme for a post … focus
Examples and links … what intelligence can you add?
Your opinion or voice, your spin
