September 29, 2010 • 11:28 pm 0
Friend of New Media Interchange, Grant Baccioco, producer and actor in The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd posted this excellent video tonight and I wanted to share it here as an example of the pro-quality work people can turn out using today’s New Media tools.
In this entry for the GoDaddy Commercial Contest, Undead Brad and Undead Fred use GoDaddy to insure a steady supply of “Brrrrraaaaaaaaiiiiinsssss!” for them and their zombie buddies.
September 22, 2010 • 8:32 pm 0
What a great little production. I am always amazed at how much work goes into stop-action animation and doing it at this scale just seems crazy. Here is the info from YouTube.
“Professor Fletcher’s invention of the CellScope, which is a Nokia device with a microscope attachment, was the inspiration for a teeny-tiny film created by Sumo Science at Aardman. It stars a 9mm girl called Dot as she struggles through a microscopic world. All the minuscule detail was shot using CellScope technology and a Nokia N8, with its 12 megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss optics.
See more projects and how the ‘Dot’ film was made at http://www.nokia.com/nseries or http://www.facebook.com/nokia”
Take 1:37 to put a little joy into your life today! (SMILE)
Filed under: Elsewhere, New Media, News, Show, Technology, Video
September 21, 2010 • 10:07 am 1
Douglas E. Welch attended this panel discussion on Monday night high atop LA City Hall in the Bradley Room. Councilmember Eric Garcetti was on hand as were 4 panel members to discuss social media and government. This event was part of Social Media Week LA, part of a series of global social media events.
Filed under: Community, Events, New Media, News, Social, Video
September 10, 2010 • 2:42 pm 0
Tracy Pattin of Sizzlecaster.com and SizzleintheMIddle.com couldn’t resist shooting a bit of video of us getting a little silly at our latest New Media Mastermind meeting. Enjoy!
If you’re interested in joining our monthly New Media Mastermind, send email to douglas@welchwrite.com
September 4, 2010 • 12:39 pm 0
This post originally appeared in Careers in New Media…
I find WordPress easy to maintain and manage and the number of plugins available for it make it quite extensible, even for someone like me who really isn’t a programmer, although technology-savvy. I do like having my own install of WordPress on my own web host, as opposed to having my blog hosted elsewhere — at least for my own personal blogs. I do use WordPress.com extensively for other, shared project blogs, though. I even have one blog still hosted at Blogger.com, where I started.
Speed is more a function of your web host and the number of plugins/features you have installed on your WordPress site. As with anything, installing too much cruft can slow it down. I find that the amount of traffic you have is more a concern than the actual software though. WordPress has caching plugins available to help in high-load environments., though, so that can help if you have a really popular web site.
I don’t find I have to “watch it like a hawk” to keep it running. In fact, I don’t think I have ever had a problem with WordPress other than those I have caused myself through badly configured plugins or themes. You should be able to maintain WordPress by yourself, as typically it only involves clicking a few buttons and waiting for the upgrade. In fact, I always recommend that bloggers know how to control and maintain their own blogs, rather than relying on someone else — especially if that person is charging by the hour for basic maintenance.
The new automated upgrade utilities built into WordPress make it almost a plug and play environment. Most web hosts have a one/two-click install for WordPress, making it even easier.
Overall, I like WordPress, both self-hosted and hosted at WordPress.com. It serves me well and I regularly recommend it to others.
Do you have a question? Why not drop me a line? Use the Comments link above, send email to me@douglasewelch.com or call the voice mail line at 818-804-5049
Filed under: Elsewhere, Member, New Media, Opinion, Question and Answer, Software, Wordpress
September 3, 2010 • 11:31 am 0
This post originally appeared in Careers in New Media…
Enter WordPress Database Backup, a free WordPress plugin available from austinmatzko.com.
On each of your self-hosted WordPress blogs, download and install this plugin and then activate it via the WordPress Dashboard. Once installed, you can force an immediate backup that can be downloaded to your local computer or, and I prefer this method, an automatic backup which wakes up and then emails the backup file. I keep a separate Gmail account just for this purpose.
Now, whenever there is a WordPress upgrade, I check to make sure there was a recent automatic backup and then proceed with the upgrade, secure in the knowledge that all my content is safe.
Do you have a question? Why not drop Douglas a line? Use the Comments link above, send email to me@douglasewelch.com or call the voice mail line at 818-804-5049.
Filed under: Elsewhere, Member, New Media, Question and Answer, Real World Example, Wordpress
September 2, 2010 • 5:30 pm 0
New Media Interchange’s “Get Read. Get Heard. Get Seen.” Initiative
Every blogger, every podcaster, every online video producer has, at one time or another, said “I could do better than that!” while watching mainstream or broadcast media. The fact is there are New Media productions that are far better than some of the current fare seen on network and cable television, heard on mainstream radio or read in the mainstream press.
The technical issues of producing quality New Media have been long overcome. Shows can be produced in high-definition video and high-quality audio using little more than consumer camera and recorders and the equipment that is built-in to most computers today. Skill and craft can be learned over time, with many producers already approaching, if not exceeding, broadcast quality.
What New Media producers truly need today is exposure — a way to bring their work to a mainstream audience, wherever they might be. While the Internet allows producers to break free of the distribution stranglehold of mainstream radio, television and press, they are still encumbered by the lack of an easy method of getting their shows in front of a mainstream audience, on the devices they already use. Lack of technical knowledge and inertia insure that mainstream media is all that most people will ever know. It is time for New Media to takes its place among the old and stand as a worthy successor to the mainstream media with whom many of us grew up. It is time to bring New Media into everyone’s home as a peer to current mainstream media.
New Media isn’t just “Amateur Hour” as Steve Jobs called it in his recent speech introducing the new AppleTV. People want mainstream Hollywood entertainment only because their exposure to alternatives has been severely llimited by technology and inertia.
The New Media Interchange “Get Read. Get Heard. Get Seen” Initiative is the first step in this process. New Media Interchange has always sought to assist New Media producers in gaining the knowledge necessary to produce New Media. Now, NMI is reaching out to help producers get their work to the largest audience possible.
What are your ideas?
The NMI “Get Read. Get Heard. Get Seen” Initiative is designed to get your New Media projects to the largest audience possible, using both existing and new methods/existing and new media.
The first stage in this process is collecting and brainstorming ideas on how this might be accomplished. Then, together, we can pursue the best of these ideas in a coordinated fashion.
In this initial phase, we are looking for all ideas no matter how crazy they might seem. New Media itself seemed crazy only 5 years ago, so who knows what might be possible in the next 5 years. This is your chance to expand the meaning, influence and reach of New Media beyond its limited roots.
Many of us have connections to, and knowledge of the mainstream media systems. This knowledge is paramount to finding ways to merge mainstream and New Media to produce the next generation of media and better serve future audiences. NMI looks to you to provide your skills, your knowledge and your energy to this initiative to serve both yourself, your fellow New Media producers and your potential audience.
Get started!
Are you interested in pursuing NMI’s “Get Read. Get Heard. Get Seen” Initiative?” Join this new NMI Mailing list — Get Read. Get Heard. Get Seen. This mailing list will be dedicated to this specific initiative so as not to overburden the main NMI mailing list. There we can explore all the possibilities and also coordinate action on those ideas we find most interesting.
Join New Media Interchange’s “Get Read. Get Heard. Get Seen.” Initiative and help bring the power of New Media to everyone — producers and audience alike!
New Media Interchange 