Watch free speaker sessions from the Digital Media Innovation Forum 2008

The website takes a quick, free sign up to access (name and email address), but selected conference speaker sessions are now available for free viewing on the Digital Media Innovation Forum 2008 website (sponsored by Limelight Networks).

The video I found most interesting was a panel discussion on Creating Engaging Online Experiences; it featured panelists from Disney.com, Fox.com, Gaia Online, and MTV. There's also videos on The Future of Digital Media, Six Secrets of Successful Rich Media, and others.

If you're interested in learning more about the future of digital content creation and distribution, you may find these videos insightful. The website also contains conference White Papers and blogs.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Five favorite web productivitiy tools

As we spend more time online and use the internet to stay in touch with family, friends, and customers (as the case may be), good web productivity tools get more important.

Here's my five favorite web productivity tools. They've saved me lots of time online, and hopefully you'll find some of them useful, too.

1. The Flock Browser : The thing I like about Flock is, you can have your social networks integrated into your browser. With one button, you can open a sidebar to view Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other updates without opening separate pages. Flock will also alert you to new email messages without having to open your webmail. You can set up auto blog posting, too. (I just pushed a button and a blog window came up so I don't have to log into blogger to post this.) Another bonus? Flock is based on Firefox, so most Firefox plug-ins will also work with Flock. One thing you might find annoying, sometimes Twitter feeds lag. So if you're a power Twitter user, you might be better off sticking with one of the desktop Twitter apps for that. Personally, it doesn't bother me to be a little bit behind, but some might find it bothersome.
   
2. Google Notebook : Do you keep a text editor open for jotting down quick notes or web addresses of things you want to write about later? Google Notebook integrates into your browser so you always have a scratch pad available. You can clip, copy, publish, share, and access your notebook from a mobile device. Plus you can set it up to open in a sidebar. Handy.
3. TinyURL : I love TinyURL. I first used it when I volunteered for the Internet Public Library. It shortens links, which makes them easier to send via IM, Twitter, and even email. You can add their toolbar button to your browser, so any time you want to send a shortened link to someone, just press the button and voila! No problem.
   
4. The TwitterBar : I personally find this very useful. All you have to do is type your Tweet in the address bar and push the little green button -- that's it! If you type your message in front of the URL it posts the link, as well. Nice when you just want to quickly share a link you find interesting, or a new blog post.
5. Delicious Bookmarks (browser Add-on) : I'm a hardcore delicious user, and this browser add-on (works with FF and Flock) opens a sidebar where I can search by tag, or I can use a search field to find links -- without having to visit the Delicious website. There's also a "Most Visited" section right in the toolbar, which I find extremely helpful. Or you can choose "Recently Bookmarked" to see the last five or so places you've been.

There's countless web productivity tools out there, these are just a few that I've tried. I picked them because they're the ones I find myself using on a daily basis. For more ideas you can also check out websites like LifeHacker, and feel free to share any tips or apps you find helpful!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

The Chestnut Tree

An animated short from The YouTube Screening Room -- global, high quality short films.

in defense of firewire | it's time for a Hackintosh!

I have to admit I've been asleep at the wheel with the whole Firewire being phased out of Mac notebooks thing. (Huh? Really?!)

If you have a miniDV camcorder, you probably use Firewire. Lots of external hard drives have Firewire connections, too. So I'm really, really surprised Apple is no longer including a Firewire port on their Macbook notebook computers. I'm equally surprised there seemed to be so little uproar in an informal TUAW Twitter poll.

For me, no Firewire is a total deal-breaker. I travel. I need to work on a notebook. I use a little Sony miniDV camcorder as a deck when I'm logging and digitizing footage. And yeah, I know the whole world's gone mad for HD cameras with digital memory storage (and I guess they use USB 2.0?), but I still record on a good ol' DVX100b. That's miniDV. Tape. For which I need a Firewire connection.

And I know I'm not alone.

So for the small indy producers who still use tape (horrors!) ... and maybe we don't have five or ten thousand to drop on totally new cameras and/or "pro-end" Macs ... do we keep using old systems that freeze up and drop frames? (Because I really need to upgrade my system!) Of course not.

I have a better idea: let's all build a Hackintosh! Now that Mac OS X runs on Intel machines, I believe (I really, really believe) it's possible to run it on a non-Apple machine. I know it's blasphemous! I know it's crazy! I know it goes against every proprietary move Apple has ever made!

But you know, gosh darn it (haha), I've spent a good amount of money on Apple products over the years (over the many years now), and frankly I'm a little annoyed that I've just been priced out of a reasonable upgrade. I've got several thousand dollars worth of video equipment that is NOT getting junked just because Steve Jobs thinks Firewire is passe. But thanks for that, Steve. (I still love iPod touch; no hard feelings.)

After the holidays maybe we'll start a Hackintosh challenge? (Or maybe I just like saying "Hackintosh". It makes me giggle. ha.)

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feeding the virtual dog | why I love Twitter

(sections of this are cross-posted from my personal blog)

So, I wrote some SEO content today. Mmmm…content. What else? Fed my virtual dog on Facebook. Got very into Twitter. I'm finally starting to get how these tools work.

First of all, let me say why I love Twitter: Every time BBC World News starts a new program, I get a message. Every time NPR posts a political story, I get a message. I can either ignore or listen, but either way there's no effort on my part to open Google Reader, check an RSS feed, or otherwise bother myself. I’ve also discovered four new Etsy shops, including one that sells soap that I am completely in love with now.

It’s kind of like delicious meets IM…. Personally, I’m not as into the bloggy-IM aspect of it, but maybe it’ll grow on me. I just don't think I have that much to say. Either way, loving it. I just need to find a good all-in-one app that pulls everything together. Suggestions welcome. (jkerr at vevimedia.com)

So now that I use Twitter, I don’t understand why some major news orgs (yeah, I’m looking at you Washington Post) don’t have Twitter feeds. My favorite so far are NYT, NPR, and BBC — all break their Tweets down by topic/program so you can choose which feeds to follow.

I’m telling you. It's a time saver. Even though now I’m constantly saying, “ooh, new audio!” or “ooh, cute crafty link!” hah

I’m sure there’s more to say. Oh. Check out Crawford if you have time. There are so many good docs going straight to web lately I don’t even know where to start. Thoughts?

Blogged with the Flock Browser

The obligatory awkward first post

As I learn more about how knowledge management is changing, and convergence culture is truly becoming mainstream culture, I decided to start a place where I can keep track of everything.

Not sure yet what this will or won't evolve into, because between Facebook and Twitter any free time I scrape together is totally wasted (ha) ... but we'll see how it goes.

Find me at: