'Video journalists': Inevitable revolution or way to cut TV jobs?: "OJR introduces its first live collaborative story. This week, five writers take turns crafting a wiki-style article on 'one-man bands' who report, film and edit their own video stories. OJR's Mark Glaser gets it going.
Pity the pioneer. The trail-blazer might be first to latch onto an idea, but that also means those defending the status quo see a bull's eye on his head. Thus it is for Michael Rosenblum, called a "prophet" and "guru" in the quotes on his bio but also derided as a profiteering con-man by readers of the Lost Remote blog after a recent Q&A.
Rosenblum's idea is to bring "video journalists" to TV newsrooms and beyond, one-man bands that can report stories, shoot digital video, edit it on laptops and broadcast it. His client list already includes the BBC, New York Times TV and Oxygen, and he is currently helping to train VJs at local TV stations such as KRON in San Francisco and WKRN in Nashville.
Rosenblum sells his vision to station management by promising to cut the cost of production by 20 percent to 70 percent with no loss in picture quality or storytelling. In fact, he argues that TV news can improve by giving many more people the tools to tell stories rather than the four or five news trucks full of equipment that limit what they can cover.
But critics see him as the ultimate snake-oil salesman, breaking down the longstanding cameraperson/on-air personality duo and threatening the jobs of traditional TV newsgatherers while cozying up with cost-conscious management." (more)
Forbes.com Best of the Web: "In May 2004, a couple of guys who put videos on their blogs started a Yahoo Videoblogging Group. One year later, while the cost of digital video cameras dropped, the community had grown to 800 members. Vloggers trade thousands of messages each month filled with new ways to compress video files and friendly invitations to regional 'vloggercues' (think barbecues for vloggers). "
Watch Me Do This and That Online - New York Times: "Can you vlog a dead horse? Only if you make a video of it and post it on the Web.
After blogging came photo blogging and then, suddenly last year, video blogging. Video bloggers, also known as vloggers, are people who regularly post videos on the Internet, creating primitive shows for anyone who cares to watch. Some vlogs are cooking shows, some are minidocumentaries, some are mock news programs and some are almost art films. "
A full plate of information at the Bite of Seattle: "While it's not exactly the best of Seattle, the Bite of Seattle, now in its 24th year, remains a fun way for food lovers to celebrate all their senses on a summer weekend.
There's the tasting, of course. This year, more than 50 restaurants share flavors from a dozen countries at $5 a plate or less.
There's the music. Live music from bands and musicians of every musical persuasion will be offered from start to finish each day. Dancing, by the way, is a great way to burn off those calories." (more)
By PENELOPE CORCORAN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER RESTAURANT CRITIC
Savvy foodies will be scouting the best booths at this weekend's 24th annual Bite of Seattle festival, which runs through Sunday.
This year, more than 50 restaurants and 40 food companies are dishing up flavorful creations at $5 or less for each entree or combination plate. (more)
YouTube.com Provides Video Hosting For Bite of Seattle 2005 Digital Point-Of-View Photo/Video Contest
Thousands Of Festival Attendees Can Publish Their Videos To Premiere Online Publishing Site
Seattle, WA – Everyone that attends the 24th annual Bite of Seattle festival of food, drink and entertainment July 22-24 at the Seattle Center with a camcorder, digital camera or video recording capable cell phone is eligible to enter their videos through YouTube.com, a five-week old free RSS enabled video-blogging community, into the Bite of Seattle 2005 Digital Point-Of-View Photo/Video Contest.
To enter the online video contest, videographers will need to open a free account on YouTube.com
Video File Size: 100 megabytes (maximum)
Video File Formats: WMV, AVI, .MOV, .MPG
Contest Tag: biteofseattle
"As the Internet evolves from a single user, text based dial-up experience to a robust broadband international multimedia community, YouTube will scale to the heavy demands placed on it,” explains Chad Hurley, YouTube founder. “Regional events like the Bite of Seattle in techno savvy regions like the Puget Sound provides an excellent hands-on showcase for the public, our partners and the press. The age of video-on-demand as well as personal broadcasting has arrived.”
“We are very fortunate to be working with the best of breed in free video sharing sites today,” states JOlmsted, the online digital Seattle Summer 2005 Events contest organizer. “The YouTube.com management team has been a breeze to work with and their engine is straight forward and simple for the technology challenged to utilize.”
YouTube is a new service that allows people to easily host and browse personal video clips. It is clear that digital cameras with video recording capability are quickly becoming a commodity consumer technology. As people continue to record more personal video clips, YouTube will fill the same need for videos that Flickr did for digital photos.
Running since 1982 - when the first Bite attracted 75,000 - the event has become quite an institution on the food and drink circuit, offering the chance to discover new world recipes and enjoy the downright delicious grub. It moved to Seattle Center in 1986 and now annually attracts something in the region of 450,000 over its three days.
Hosting over 60 restaurants, the event cooks up an extraordinary set of statistics: there are over 3.5 miles of gas pipes laid to enable the cooking; 15 miles of electric cable; 2000 gallons of hot water used; 175,000 pounds of ice for the 12,000 gallons of pop and - perhaps most importantly - 365 kegs of beer!
About the Digital Photo/Video Contest
Flickr.com is the social photo-sharing site that is being used to host contest images. An expanding prize list, theme categories, corresponding blogs, links, photo highlights, files and more information, is now available on the Yahoo Group FreFair and the View-Point Blog
The Seattle Bite of Seattle Digital Point-Of-View Photo/Video Contest is NOT associated with the Bite of Seattle.
Monster Energy drink prizes (hats, t-shirts, and Monster Drinks) will be given to Bite Of Seattle Video/Photo of the Monster Booth/Product, food, drinking and faces contest themes.
Seattle, WA – Everyone that attends the 24th annual Bite of Seattle festival of food, drink and entertainment July 22-24 at the Seattle Center with a camera, picture cell phone or camcorder is eligible to enter their multimedia points-of-view in the Bite of Seattle 2005 Digital Point-Of-View Photo/Video Contest at Yahoo Group FreFair
Flickr.com, a free photo sharing site, and YouTube, a free video sharing site. Individuals do not have to enter the contest to share their digital photos or videos. Links to images, video, photo galleries or blogs can be sent to frefair (at) yahoogroups (dot) com. (NOTE: As of July 18, the video sharing host was changed.)
7Online.com: Join the Eyewitness News Team!: "There's news happening every minute around the region, and now if you see it, you can share it and be part of the Eyewitness News Team!
Just send us your video or still images right here on 7online.com, or directly from your cell phone by Emailing them to Eyewitness@abc.com
We may use your pictures or video on an Eyewitness News broadcast! "
Wired News: Blogging + Video = Vlogging: "It was inevitable: Bloggers who previously wrote endlessly about everything from politics to tech tips to how to fry an egg on a hot sidewalk can now take their commentary, advice and random experiments to the next level by filming and broadcasting their work, thanks to the latest web trend -- video blogging.
Video blogs -- also known by their shorter, clunkier name, vlogs -- are blogs that primarily feature video shorts instead of text. "
PC Magazine: Flickr Pics Capture London Terror: "News about Thursday's terrorist attack in London spread across the Web like wildfire with up-to-the-minute details on news and blog sites. A new form of online news outlet seems to have emerged as well- photo sharing sites such as Flickr, which encourage users to share photos and comments in a communal setting.
After four bombs rocked the city, killing at least 37 and wounding more than 700, Flickr members started to pool photos from the event that include pictures of people standing behind blocked streets, armed men boating toward Parliament, and a chilling photo of people evacuating a train via a dark subway tunnel. A total of about 300 photos have been contributed, and certain photos have been viewed up to 6,000 times." (more)
blinkx Makes Podcasts and Video Blogs Fully Searchable for the First Time: "In addition to offering a wealth of news and entertainment content, blinkx, the smartest thing on your computer and on the Web, has added Podcast and Video Blog channels to www.blinkx.tv, making these two sources fully searchable for the first time. Bringing thousands of hours of podcasting and video blogging to a single destination, www.blinkx.tv will find user-generated rich media by simultaneously spidering the Internet, and enabling users to upload their own content to the service."
The orange Organic & Natural Experience booth will be at the Bite of Seattle, July 22-24.
The Organic and Natural Experience (ONE) was developed by MusicMatters and their partner brands to make it easy for people to learn about the benefits of incorporating organic and natural products into their lives.
The 2005 summer tour includes twenty partners showcasing The Organic and Natural experience to millions of individuals nationwide.
Fremont Fair Video Interview: Jennifer, representing Odwalla, and Kathren, MusicMatters, discuss products, partners and the program.
HYPERLINK THIS: New York artist Christina Ray's Grafedia tag on a Brooklyn lamppost. Replies are posted on her website. COURTESY OF JOHN GERACI
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
PORTLAND, ORE. – At a bus stop in Seattle, in blue chalk on the sidewalk, is a mysterious scribble: pote-kitea@grafedia.net. The cursive e-mail address is underlined in blue - a signal to passersby that they can use their cellphones to text message the address and receive a response. It is like hyperlinked text on the Internet, only here a phone, not a mouse, can "click" on it. Graffiti artists are said to "tag" buildings, and practitioners of high-tech graffiti tag their e-mail address in blue underlined writing or on a distinctive yellow arrow to indicate their presence.
What people see when they type in the address posted on the wall or sidewalk ranges from the artistic - haiku and photography - to the practical - travel recommendations and advertisements. It's like a hidden code that links a person with others who have passed that way.
Graffiti, though illegal and considered a nuisance by cities, nonetheless remains a feature of urban life. In some quarters, tagging is viewed as a form of expression in the hands of artists. Grafedia - hyperlinked text on real surfaces - follows the same urban grass-roots traditions, though it may yet be co-opted by commercial interests as an advertising vehicle.
Another company that facilitates high-tech graffiti is Yellow Arrow, which concerns itself with questions such as: When does an object become art? What makes a landmark? Who says what counts?
By providing a name and address, anyone can register at yellowarrow.org (Watch Video) and order arrow stickers through the mail. Each arrow contains a code and a phone number. As with Grafedia, people can stick the arrows anywhere (their front doors, their jackets, their bumpers) and upload a file to the website, which anyone can access via cellphone or the site. Even travel guidebook "Lonely Planet" has caught wind of the project and encourages travelers to leave a trail of stories in the form of arrows wherever they go.
22 Jul 2005 (Starts 3rd Fri of every Jul) Restaurants and food companies gather together each year at the Seattle Center to present the ultimate gastronomic experience - the Bite of Seattle festival of food, drink and entertainment. From goulash to dolmathes, satay to pizza, treats from around the world are available for visitors to try, along with outdoor beer gardens, cocktail and wine stalls.
Live music is also laid on - bands ranging from jazz to rock and calypso to soul ensure that the entertainment never ends (and there's often stand-up comedy thrown in too).
Running since 1982 - when the first Bite attracted 75,000 - the event has become quite an institution on the food and drink circuit, offering the chance to discover new world recipes and enjoy the downright delicious grub. It moved to Seattle Center in 1986 and now annually attracts something in the region of 450,000 over its three days. (more)
If you enjoy looking at wild and crazy people in various costumes and body paint, check out the Flickr.com tag "MermaidParade". It was one of the most popular "tags" on the free photo sharing site last week.
2005 Mermaid Parade June 25th, 2005 Coney Island, NY
Founded in 1983 by Coney Island USA, the not-for-profit arts organization that also produces the Coney island Circus Sideshow, the Mermaid Parade pays homage to Coney Island's forgotten Mardi Gras which lasted from 1903 to 1954, and draws from a host of other sources resulting in a wonderful and wacky event that is unique to Coney Island.
The Mermaid Parade celebrates the sand, the sea, the salt air and the beginning of summer, as well as the history and mythology of Coney Island, Coney Island pride, and artistic self-expression. The Parade is characterized by participants dressed in hand-made costumes as Mermaids, Neptunes, various sea creatures, the occasional wandering lighthouse, Coney Island post card or amusement ride, as well as antique cars, marching bands, drill teams, and the odd yacht pulled on flatbed.
U2log, a fan based blog, has over 300 members in their Flickr photo sharing group. You can see hundreds of digital photos now online from todays concert that took place in the heart on London.
Purchase a Cool Tag™ at CLIF BAR events and you will keep 300 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) — the main contributor to global warming — out of the air. That’s roughly the same as neutralizing the global warming emissions generated from traveling 300 miles in the average car.
How does it work?
For each $2 Cool Tag sold, CLIF BAR invests $2 in NativeEnergy’s WindBuilderssm program, helping the Rosebud Sioux Tribe build the Rosebud St. Francis Wind Farm in South Dakota. Wind farms deliver clean, renewable energy to the grid without releasing CO2 into the air — thereby displacing energy that comes from polluting facilities.
Purchase a Cool Tag™ at CLIF BAR events and you will keep 300 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) — the main contributor to global warming — out of the air. That’s roughly the same as neutralizing the global warming emissions generated from traveling 300 miles in the average car.
