Intelligence and national security geeks should see this new YouTube video from Chris Rasmussen, a social media specialist at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. I have never seen something like it: an employee of an intelligence agency using YouTube to critically evaluate a critical assumption about American intelligence agency production.
YouTube Used for Intelligence Reform Agenda
YouTube Used for Intelligence Reform
June 30, 2010 by
PodCamp Boston
June 29, 2010 by
PodCamp Boston is scheduled for September 25 & 26, 2010 will host the 5th annual un-conference for the Boston area podcasters, so make sure you get your calendars in order now.
A PodCamp is a usually free BarCamp-style community UnConference for new media enthusiasts and professionals including bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, social networkers, and anyone curious about new media. PodCamp is not just about podcasting! If you are interested in blogging, social media, social networking, podcasting, video on the net, if you are a podsafe musician (or want to be), or just someone curious about new media, then please join us — and bring a friend or colleague.
A PodCamp is a usually free BarCamp-style community UnConference for new media enthusiasts and professionals including bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, social networkers, and anyone curious about new media. PodCamp is not just about podcasting! If you are interested in blogging, social media, social networking, podcasting, video on the net, if you are a podsafe musician (or want to be), or just someone curious about new media, then please join us — and bring a friend or colleague.
Using Podcasts for Blogs
June 28, 2010 by
Many individuals are called upon to give presentations, but many have no formal instruction on how to deliver the most effective presentations. So for the benefit of those who might need a bit of help, we have put together a primer for presenters...
Using Podcasts for Blogs
Using Podcasts for Blogs
iPhone 4 Camera “As Good As They Get”
June 26, 2010 by
Macworld’s Heather Kelly has done a side-by-side comparison of the camera and video camera quality of current generation smartsphones, and the new iPhone 4 came out on top.
Photo quality:
The iPhone 4 had, by a healthy margin, the best exposure and color scores of the entire bunch, beating out even the point-and-shoot cameras. It did run into trouble in the sharpness and distortion categories, performing much lower than the pocket cameras and similarly to the Droid.
Video quality:
t was the iPhone 4’s video capabilities that really stole the show in our lab tests. Of the eight devices we rated for video, only the Flip Video M2120 scored higher. The Flip, which also records 720p, 30fps video, had just slightly better video quality than the iPhone 4, even in low-light. The Flip did have far superior audio quality when compared with the iPhone 4, which had the same audio score as the Droid X.
The bottom line? The iPhone 4’s camera isn’t good as a dedicated camera of video camera. For a camera on a smartphone, though, it’s currently “as good as they get.”
The improvements in the iPhone 4’s image quality make it a much better solution for mobile blogging and vlogging than earlier iPhones and a strong competitor to other smartphones.
You can compare video examples from the iPhone 4, Droid X and other smartphones at aperobot’s channel on YouTube
How To Create A Podcast With Public Radio Quality Sound
June 25, 2010 by
The Sound Of Young America’s Jesse Thorn explains how to create a podcast with public-radio quality, with relatively inexpensive gear, out of your bedroom:
- I use Shure SM7 microphones. These are famous for being the mics that Michael Jackson used to record his vocals for Thriller, but they’re really a great all-purpose microphone. They’re also tough and cheap – at least compared to other studio vocal microphones. They cost about three hundred bucks, and the next step up is several thousand. They work great for my purposes because their pickup pattern really emphasizes the guest and de-emphasizes the guy outside my window with the leaf blower. Very forgiving.
- My mixer is a Mackie Onyx 1620, with the optional built-in firewire audio interface. The SM7s need a lot of gain (signal boost) and Mackie has a reputation for having the cleanest microphone pre-amps.
- For phone interviews I have a Telos One. We actually don’t do phone interviews anymore, but I do do “tape syncs,” which are the poor man’s way to link up two studios – no ISDN here, so I just put a remote guest in a studio, call them up, record on both ends, and match them up later.
- My CD player is the cheapest rack-mounted CD player I could find.
- Same story with my headphones and headphone amp. I listen back on B- headphones, because I figure that’s how most people will listen anyway.
- The radio on my desk (which is also my monitor) is a Tivoli Audio Model Three, which is a wonderful machine that I recommend highly – especially if you get it for $14.99 on clearance at Target, which I did.
- I record on a PC in Adobe Audition 3. I started with Audition’s predecessor, Cool Edit, which was $19.99, and Audition is like three hundred bucks, but that’s the cost of being “professional.”
- I do my backup recording with a Zoom H4 flash recorder, and store my many huge files on a Drobo with four terabyte drives in it.
- My shows are hosted with the very good folks at Libsyn.
The bulk of the cost for Thorn’s home podcasting setup was his Shure SM7 mic, his Mackie mixer & audio interface, and Adobe Audition.
While Thorn has a mixture of low-budget and professional gear, he says that the key to getting good audio quality is not the gear, but how you use it.
” Too many people try and record with one mic shared between multiple people, or with an onboard or headset mic. That won’t fly. My friends at Never Not Funny recorded their whole first season with mics that their producer Matt bought 3-for-$10, and it sounded fine.”
via BB, Maximum Fun
Firefox 4 Going Flash-Free
June 25, 2010 by
The Register reports that Firefox 4 is going flash free:
Mozilla vice president of products Jay Sullivan says that unlike Google, the open source outfit has no intention of bundling Firefox with Adobe Flash – or with a plug-in that runs native code inside the browser.
Mozilla believes that the future of online applications lies with web standards, including HTML5.
“Our idea of the web where you can use these technologies that are scriptable, that interact with the rest of the page, that can be mashed up and linked into and linked out of,” explains Sullivan. “These native apps are just little black boxes in a webpage. That’s not something we’re pursuing. We really believe in HTML, and this is where we want to focus.”
Currently, Firefox attempts to minimize crashes by running plug-ins in processes separate from the browser proper. But long-term, Mozilla plans to work around Flash.
“We’re trying to balance the reality of the web today,” explains Sullivan. “Flash is there. Our users are going to use it, and it’s going to crash. We want to protect them from that. But over time, we really believe that HTML5 is the future.”
Rude Behavior Causing Americans To Tune Out Social Networks
June 23, 2010 by
More than one-third (34%) of Americans are "tuning out" social networking sites, with 39 percent doing so because of rude behavior, according to a new survey by Weber Shandwick and KRC Research.
"We prefer to communicate through social networks the same way we do in everyday social settings. We tend to congregate around shared interests. We want to know who we’re talking to. And if there is a difference of opinion, we expect respectful dialogue. If not we tune out," said Weber Shandwick’s President of Digital Communications Chris Perry.
"This reality should be top of mind as companies and institutions increasingly operate in social media. It’s a personal medium. Same rules of shared interest, transparency and respectful discourse apply."
Nearly half (45%) of Americans have defriended or blocked someone online because of uncivil comments or behavior, while 38 stopped visiting an online site because of its incivility. In addition, 25 percent have dropped out of a fan club or online community because it had become uncivil.
The survey asked Americans to rate the civility of 18 aspects of daily life. Blogs rated more uncivil than social networking sites and Twitter (51% vs. 43% vs.35% respectively). While half of Americans say blogs are uncivil, a much larger 72 percent view the political world and government as uncivil.
"Let’s face it. Incivility can be found everywhere today. Blogs, in particular, are mostly open terrain – practically anyone can comment to a post, often anonymously," said Leslie Gaines-Ross, Weber Shandwick’s chief reputation strategist.
"On the other hand, social networks, such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter, are usually tighter communities with little anonymity and greater accountability for who is speaking."