NMI Blog now has mobile theme

WordPress.com has turned on a mobile web theme for all blogs hosted on their site. Those browsing on an iPhone or other mobile web device will now see the blog in the format below. It is much easier to use the site than before. I know I will appreciate the new theme on my iPhone 3G.

The New Media Interchange Community Site (and all Ning.com based sites) have had a mobile theme for a while. Here is an example of how it appears on the iPhone.

Email is still alive – New Media Answers 016

Tracy Pattin and Douglas E. Welch discuss talk All Things Email in this edition of their on-going series, New Media Answers.

iPod Ready Video

Listen to past New Media Answers episodes

Get New Media Tips via Twitter

Audio: Douglas E. Welch talks WordPress on Small Business Hosting podcast

SBHosting.com posted an interview I did last week talking about the uses and differences between WordPress.com’s hosted blogs and the WordPress software available from WordPress.org.

Listen to the entire interview (30 Mins)

WordPress.org Vs WordPress.com With Douglas Welch

On this episode I talk with Douglas Welch about the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org and when you might want to use WordPress.org vs WordPress.com. WordPress.com is hosted and managed by automattic (the company behing wordpress). If you choose WordPress.com you don’t install or control the software. WordPress.org is the home of the open source wordpress software. [...]

Continue reading…

Video: Dorkbot SoCal – Jeremy Douglass

As part of our community outreach, New Media Interchange has arranged to stream and record Dorkbot SoCal meetings and bring their speakers to viewers around the world. This video was recorded on May 15, 2009 with the assitance of NMI member, Tracy Pattin, from Sizzle in the Middle.

iPod Ready Video

Jeremy Douglass – http://www.playpower.org

People need affordable learning games. Worldwide, 4.1 billion people earn under $3,000 per year, meaning that even a $100 computer is often out of reach for the world’s emerging middle class. Playpower is targeting a $10 platform based on the 8-bit 6502 microprocessor that makes learning games affordable for “the other 90%.” Playpower designs high quality learning games, conducts field trials to confirm that they work, and fosters collaborations between game designers, cognitive scientists and NGOs.

Event: BarCampLA-7 – May 2 & 3, 2009

Saturday and Sunday, May 2 & 3, 2009

OTX Research
10567 Jefferson Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232

BarCamp is an unconference, which means the conference attendees are also the presenters. You meet on Saturday, post your session on a wall chart schedule and away we go. Topics can be anything that you are passionate about.

I am planning on doing at least one New Media-related session, but I have several others I might do, if time permits. I would love to see all of you there, both learning and sharing your knowledge with others.

I am hoping to run a local webcast station live from BarCampLA interviewing interesting people and giving podcasters a chance to record their show live. If you are interested in a 30 minute or 1 hour time slot, please let me know. I will have a signup available as we get closer to the event.

Finally, I also plan on doing our 3rd BarCampLA Acoustic Music Jam on Saturday night, I get a big kick out of this and it was very popular last year.

For more info on BarCampLA, visit http://barcampla.org annd subscribe to the BarCampLA mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/BarcampLA and sign up for BarCampLA-7 on the wiki at http://barcamp.org/BarCampLA-7

See you at BarCampLA-7!

Video: SteadyStick CamCorder Stabilizer Demo

I came across a link to this video in my Twitter stream today from Guy Cochran. This could be a relatively inexpensive addition to your new media toolkit and boost the overall quality of your videos.

News: SpokenWord.org Web Site Goes Live

I have been testing SpokenWord.org over the last month or so and I think it is great. I consider a YouTube for Spoken Word new media projects. I think it will really help audio podcasters, especially, get some more recognition. If your shows are not already registered here, my recommendation is to get them there.

Here is the press release with all the information.

Douglas

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SpokenWord.org Web Site Goes Live

Marin County, California – February 12, 2009 – There are perhaps millions of audio and video spoken-word recordings on the Internet. Think of all those lectures, interviews, speeches, conferences, meetings, radio and TV programs and podcasts. No matter how obscure the topic, it’s been recorded and published on line.

But how do you find it?

SpokenWord.org is a new free on-line service that helps you find, manage and share audio and video spoken-word recordings, regardless of who produced them or where they’re published.

All of the recordings in the SpokenWord.org database are discovered on the Internet and submitted to our database by members like you. SpokenWord.org doesn’t store media files, but rather the metadata such as titles, descriptions, categories and locations, which is why SpokenWord.org can accept submissions from anyone and anywhere.

SpokenWord.org is particularly useful for those with an iPod, iTunes or other media player. SpokenWord.org’s collections are a terrific way to manage all of your spoken-word programs and subscriptions, which can then be downloaded to your media player as a single feed.

SpokenWord.org is a project of The Conversations Network, a U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit best known for its own podcast channels such as IT Conversations (the longest continuously running podcast on the planet) and The Levelator software for podcast, radio and TV audio post-production.

Contact:

Doug Kaye
doug@rds.com
The Conversations Network

New Media Service: Embedr: Embed Videos from Multiple Services in a Single Player

ReadWriteWeb has an excellent look at this new service, Embedr. While not all of us need to embed multiple videos from different sites, this would certainly come in handy in those special cases.

It is great to see the continued development of new media tools and services that mix up media in a million different ways. Your media wants to be shared and Embedr makes it a little easier for people to share the word about your content.

Embedr: Embed Videos from Multiple Services in a Single Player

Written by Rick Turoczy

Embedr is all about speed. To test the service, we created the following player in about 30 seconds – and we were able to do so without even registering.

With online videos, you can never watch – or share – just one. But creating a playlist that allows you to share those videos – especially if they live on a number of different services – can be more difficult than it should be. Usually, you’re stuck with a series of links or a page full of embedded videos. Next time you have multiple videos to embed, try Embedr, a service that takes all of your video content and makes it accessible from a single embedded player.

Embedr is incredibly easy to use. Simply create a playlist and start adding the URLs of the videos you’d like to include. Don’t worry about the order. Once you’ve added all of the videos, you can reorganize them. During playback, videos automatically transition from one to the next. Or viewers can thumb through the screens below the main window to jump directly to the video of their choice.

Read the entire article

New Gear: RODE VideoMic

I saw mention of this new consumer level shotgun mic in my RS feeds today — Douglas

RODE VideoMic – Walk the walk and talk the talk

from The Red Ferret Journal by Dan

Let’s face it, the microphones built into camcorders are pretty rubbish. The cameras might be able to push out HD [...]

Recently Shared: DIY Camera Stabilizer

My fellow Friends in Tech member, Kreg Steppe, shared this interesting link for a homebuilt camera stablizer. I have been wanting one of these. — Douglas

DIY: Camera stabilizer

from MAKE Magazine by Marc de Vinck

Shared by Kreg Steppe

This is really great looking camera stabilization rig. It certainly can compete with the professional models and seems to cost a lot less. I really like the universal joint that allows for some incredible movement.

Inspired by the Steadicam Merlin, and unwilling to spend £500 on that device, I set about making my own, following the basic principles of the Merlin and other similar designs viewable on the internet.

More about DIY: Camera stabilizer

Great video and audio info from Izzy Video

Get great information on producing your own New Media projects from Izzy Video.

I met Izzy at PodCampAZ back in November and he has a host of information to help make your New Media projects the best that they can be. He is also a great guy, so check him out.

Visit the blog, community site and subscribe to the podcast

News: Samson Go Mic to be unveiled at CES

I haven’t laid hands upon this mic, so the term “revolutionary” might be a little grand, but it could be an interesting addition to your podcasting kit. Blue already offers its similar Snowflake mic which you might want to check out. (Links: Blue Snowflake and Blue Snowball)

Samson to Unveil Revolutionary Go Mic at CES
TechWhack (press release) – New Delhi,Delhi,India
Additionally, Go Mic is ideal for applications such as Skype, iChat, webcasting, podcasting, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and voice recognition …
See all stories on this topic

DrupalCampLA – September 13th and 14th, 2008

DrupalCampLA is all about Drupal, a high-end yet free content management system for building amazing, interactive and community driven web sites. If you need to branch out beyond the typical web site fare, Drupal could be for you.

Furthermore, the Drupal users of LA are a great group of people, freely sharing their expertise and showing of some amazing sites.

Best of all, its all FREE!!! (Except for parking, or better still, Metro Day Pass – $5)

One part of a successful New Media strategy is a strong online web presence. Drupal can go a long way towards making that possible.

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From the DrupalCampLA web site…Who is this event for?

Everyone interested in Drupal. Beginners, Designers, Developers, Community Leaders, Artists, Bands & Musicians, Non-technical People, Technical People, PHP Developers, MySQL & PostgreSQL Developers, CSS & Web Standards folk, User Experience Architects/Designers, CTOs, CEOs, Start-ups, IT & IS teams, Photographers, Videographers, Bloggers, Podcasters, DJ’s, Entertainment Agencies, Marketing Firms, Learning and Education Centers, Students, Teachers, Principles, Managers, Project Managers, Development Managers, C#/.Net people, Ruby people, Java people, Python people (no, really), JavaScript & jQuery junkies, Ajax ninjas, Digital Samurai, Models, Open-Source lovers, CMS anyone, Apache heads, LAMP stackers, and of course – Drupal fans!!!

How much does it cost?

The event is free (no ticket charge). We’re ironing out details so don’t get mad if you have to pay for parking each day as this is a really dope event, and everyone agrees it staying free is insane on our part, but we (and our sponsors) are awesome like that.

More info and registration at drupalcampla.com

New Media Tech: MXL Mic Mate

Just came across the MXL Mic Mate when it was mentioned in a Seesmic video tonight. It converts any standard microphone using an MXL connector into a USB mic that can be plugged directly into your laptop.

More info at Amazon.com

Tech: Audacity, LAME and MP3s

For those new to podcasting and new media, I often recommend the free audio recording and editing program, Audacity. This open source program offers you all the basic functions you need to get started.

One quirk of open source programs, though, is that you sometimes have to download additional software to enable some functions. This is the case when using Audacity to output MP3 files. In order to do that, you need to download and install the LAME MP3 encoder. One of the first question I often have to answer is how to do just that.

Luckily, the Audacity

web pages have a quick guide that shows you exactly what you need to do. Appropriately enough, you can find this information at How do I download and install the LAME MP3 encoder?

Any further questions? Add them as comments using the link below and we will answer them here.