I started using Storify in October of 2011 and have recorded some 114 curations since then. I wonder if anyone else is that prolific on the service?

I asked on Twitter but didn't receive a response by the time I had posted, so I will add later, if I get one.

I was a very early adopter of the Storify tool and service, hearing about it at the Online News Association Conference of 2010. 

In 2011, I used the tool to create over 100 stories. I try to budget my time in 2-hour increments for Storifications -- sometimes I get done quicker and sometimes I don't, but you can pretty much say that I spent at least 200 hours in 2011 on Storify. In that time, my most read article was 870 views, and the least read had six views. In total, I generated 12,593 views from my Storify efforts.

Spending 200 hours on Storify hardly qualifies me as an expert, but I've gotten very familiar with the platform and believe that it is a tool that belongs in a journalist's tool kit and should be included in a higher education journalism curriculum.

The best thing about Storify, I believe, is that it allows you to really document the state of now around any social-media happening and to do it in a multimedia fashion. The search tools are top shelf and it compells an editor's steady hand at judgement, and it is easy to do. In fact, it is so easy to do that one can get carried away and share everything. But, that's not the point of Storify. The point is to use your editorial powers to pick the best.

My standards for editing a Storify curation are: truth, attribution, links. I click off RT's when I search, looking for the original providers of a shared nugget. I also edit in reverse chronological order, going to the bottom of a search and working backwards. The published version starts with the oldest first, moving to the newest.

I concentrate on events, such as conferences or meetups. Hugely popular events require that I edit with a heavier hand, and I often use the conference agenda to help me cover each session or panel with at least one tweet. Storify works best with Twitter as that is the source of the freshest real-time information.

About Storify

Storify is a storytelling platform that makes it easy to collect social-media sharing and curate it into easy-to-read form and rapidly share it.

The San Francisco-based service launched in September, 2010, co-founded by Xavier Danman and former AP journalist Burt Herman, with a superb team of engineers including Connor Petzold, Kyle Buza, Adrian Bravo, Vincent Battaglia plus Jeff Elder, marketing director.

You can read more about Storify in this Dec. 30, 2011 Poynter Institute post by Jeff Sonderman
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/157639/three-trends-from-2011-that-will-reshape-digital-news-in-2012/  

How I Use It

I use Storify to create reference materials for conferences that I may not be able to attend as well as maintain a weekly look at the sharing surrounding #SocialTV. In 2011, I curated a Storify article each week on what people were talking about in SocialTV. This helped me engage and identify some of the thought leaders in this emerging field. The first editions were highly read, but the numbers seemed to dwindle as the year went on. 

But, Storify is not just about getting page views. It is a great tool for connecting with others around a subject and for adding new followers and fans.

When you complete a Storify, you can send a tweet out to promote the article, as well as tweets to let those you have quoted know that they have been quoted. The Storify tool adds a link, but it also lets you edit that link. So, I use it to point to Social Media News NY with the hopes of attracting more fans and followers to the page.

While there are others out there who have created Storify posts that attract thousands of views, I'm happiest using the tool to share knowledge on an event that may not be covered in this fashion and as a reference for later. My favorite Storify for 2011 is coverage of the Virtual Edge summit in Las Vegas in January. The information shared was of such high value that I was inspired to do further curation and share that alongside of quoted tweets and status updates.

Events and Storify work well together in creating community. Events should encourage people to share on their social networks, and then have someone curate the information using the Storify tool to honor the sharing and to create educational content that will feed community. This is something that can be done after the conference.

However, due to Twitter API limitations, and depending on the volume of sharing coming from an event, you should do the curation rather quickly, or you will end up reaching the chronological limits.

I try to add shared images, Facebook updates, and YouTube videos for some posts, but have noticed that real-time video sharing from conferences is a real opportunity for enhancing an event and providing unique content. I call this "video quotes" and you can click over to my YouTube channel (http://youtube.com/mmkrochmal) to see these.

Mo Krochmal Storify Scoreboard for 2011

@storify = 100 curations for 12,593 views

1. 1. Gamification Summit 2011, Jan. 20, 2011
   870 views, 43 quotes
   
2. 2. #TVGoesSocial Summit June 23, 2011 #SocialTV
   520 views, 90 quotes
   
3. 3. Social TV Headlines June 12, 2011
   455 views, 9 quotes
   

20 Storify curations with #socialTV for 1,600 views

12,593 views

• 5 articles in single digits for views
• 79 in double digits for views
• 28 in triple digits for views

Hanging my Head

Friday Afternoon #AEJMC Roundup (Aug. 12, 2011)
6 views, 55 people quoted

Most useful article

Distance Curation of Virtual Edge Summit (Las Vegas) 01/11
141 views, 61 quotes

Blog post with additional information

http://krochmal.wordpress.com/2011/01/15/are-virtual-events-the-next-big-thing-for-brands-virtual-events-hub/

Reflection

Social-media tools hit the web every day and I try my best to keep on top of what's new and what's good. My approach is two-fold -- I find and test constantly, but I also think about what I want to do and collect and create by searching for tools that will let me create a solution. Sometimes, it is a one-time tool, other times it is a dashboard. I try to share my knowledge broadly.

For 2012, I would like Storify to have been analytics tools, specifically around how Storify posts are shared. Doing this analysis was really painful. Storify has added individual analytics for each post and you can view mine on my profile page --

What is hard to measure is the ripples that a Storify creation makes -- is it shared with others' networks and how many tweets are sent back to the author after a new one is published.

Additionally, there should be a social element in a Storify build, one that lets people comment and engage.

Will I use it as much this year? I don't know. I have a regular schedule for using Storify and that's on Sunday afternoons, when I turn to the SocialTV conversation and create a weekly report. Over the last month, I stopped including top stories in my treatment and launched a separate report, using Delicious Decks to create a log of top stories for TV news. My first storify included both and had over 500 views. But, I think that is the novelty of the field and the product.

Some of the Storify collections I do are purely a learning experience -- I check out conferences that I would like to attend, but can't, and I dive deep to learn.

For me, Storify is an educational tool, and one that allows me to share my learning and interests with others.

I will definitely continue to curate SocialTV sharing on a weekly basis and select conferences where I can add value. Additionally, I am offering Storify services around live events, a valuable tool for creating a community that continues well after a event's final keynote.

I hope you will join me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Iphone video of dramatic scene from "Tin Cup." Grab the 3 wood. Grip it, and rip it!

---

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult -- Seneca 

Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are the products of editing, rather than authorship -- George Wald, Annals of the New York Academy of Science, 1975

***

Last week, I decided to devote the final days of 2011 to think and to do as much as possible for my baby, Social Media News NY.

Basically, I'ma single dad, trying to raise up this beautifully rambunctious daughter who is learning how to connect to world, and honor others and be a gainful and responsible member of society.

Social Media News NY began as a partnership in the late spring, but circumstances changed and it became a singular operation and the focus of my professional life and the highlight of a year focused on social media and innovative and entrepreneurial journalism.

This last week of 2011, I made it my mission to share my deep enthusiasm and passion, learn as much as I can, reflect, connect and discover in a journey that will culminate on New Year's Eve as my virtual #hackathon will close.

Although I am well connected to social networks, this has a personal journey, perched in front a computer only going out for a couple of meetings and food.

Background

One of the most meaningful experiences in my life was the three years that I was a professor of digital journalism, a singular honor and an incredible opportunity.

I left that path in 2010, unsure of the future in an economy in shambles.

As 2011 comes to an end, I know a few things about me: I am a journalist and I'm an educator.Those two words describe my core ethics and values. I honor the truth, seek to share it and to help my fellow human beings to be the very best that they want to be and can be.

Social Media News NY is unlike any other journalism enterprise out there. It is a work in progress and likely will never reach a point where it is staid.

Each day, each week, each month is uncharted territory and I'm sailing with only my internal compass as a guide.

My formative experience as a journalist was working in small community newspapers in North Carolina, covering sports. Sports journalism, to me, is a window onto the human condition. Sports is a lucrative business, but also a reflection of some of humanity's best -- and worst -- traits. I am not a fan. A journalist shouldn't be, but I admire the Yankees as an organization, as well as the NY Giants and the Dallas Cowboys and the Mavericks and San Diego. I love a great play or a moment when an athlete shows us what the body and mind together can do.

As a sports journalist, I looked for the friction, the drama, to quickly create a narrative. When the game is done, and the fans are leaving, the sports journalist's job is to poke and prod, analyze and share a little window into a game that is evanescent and disappears into the fog of time all too quickly. I've covered literally hundreds of football games, countless basketball games as well as every other athletic endeavor.

About 10 years into my career, I felt that computers were really changing the way I was working and I could see the future. So, I gave up my job and went after a master's degree at Columbia University, moving from Washington, NC, to New York City, leaving a job of responsibility and honor for a great unknown. Gave up owning a house, and cars to follow a winding path that leads here, to the end of 2011, and looking out into a yawning maw with only that inner compass pointing the way.

The realities of economic life are pressing. Can Social Media News NY be an enterprise? That is the question that I must ask, and respond as honestly as I can. I can't let my passion and vision cloud my mind. I belive that it can, and that I have to step up and "ask the ask."

Last night, I watched the 1996 film, "Tin Cup," with Kevin Costner. It's the story about a hugely talented golf professional mired in the badlands of Texas, who gets the opportunity to go on the biggest tournament in the game, the US Open. At the end, he has a choice of playing it easy, or playing it to the heart. <Spoiler Alert>He doesn't take the drop, but plays it through.

I used my iPhone to capture the moment as it played on my TV on Thursday night. I hope the owners of the movie will forgive me using a small segment of this film for educational purposes. I, like Tin Cup, am hitting on the 18th tee, shooting over water to a slippery green.

I don't go into 2012 with a blueprint, but I do have a mission and it is one about revenues. I believe in the vision of SMNNY -- it is, at first, a community around the news that I can gather and the really wise people I can find.

I can not do everything, but I can do a lot, leveraging tools, helping others shine and telling stories that others are not telling. And, my hope is that people will feel it important enough as a platform that they will share their events and analysis, on our wall, content that they host and post elsewhere. We don't want to host the content, we want to be a hub of a community and support it.

We cover New York's emerging community of social media professionals. We are business oriented, and human. We have shared many different types of content and still can not predict how something will do. We judge by shares, likes, retweets and comments and find that the 90-9-1 rule applies to this. We want to change those numbers and seek increased conversation.

We think there is a need for real-time community social journalism finding credible information, illuminating people and growing and connecting.

Popular Feature

One of the most successful features on SMNNY over the past 6 months has been photo albums from events. These have attracted likes and viewers. They are quick and easy to produce. My inner journalist hates that each and every one is not tagged with name, age and job. But, we hope that the pictures will attract people to the page and the content, and that they will tag their own and like the content and come back for the conversation. We need to get cards printed that give all the information and hand it out.

We also need a large branded silk scarf for setting easy step-and-repeats! We shoot a lot of photographs at events -- almost nightly -- and quickly share them on Facebook as an event album. Each tries to get group photos (Facebook poses), a sense of the space, the edibles offered, any information and slides that were shared. Each is story told in images. Sometimes we write individual captions, but with upwards of 100 photos that make the editor's cut, it's hard to do.

We also do "video quotes" from the audience at a panel discussion or a speech. We monitor a presentation, listening to the speech and anticipate a great quote or informative sentence or two and share that as rapidly as possible. Often it is by pulling the card out of a camera and uploading it. We would like to do that on our mobile, but it really takes battery life.

We propose to increase our mobile usage with the goal of being as close to 100 percent mobile as we can be. We don't think we will be completely mobile as a desktop is still the best way we know to produce our favorite kinds of content. We leverage tools. I was a former tech journalist for CMP Media, covering IT and the rise of the Internet and electronic commerce.There, I learned how to find and new tools. As a professor, I sat at the leading edge of the journalism tools space and selected and tested tools rapidly, then integrated them into the classroom and my journalism curriculum to rapidly teach students the basics of multimedia digital reporting in 15 weeks.

SMNNY uses Storify, Scoop.it, YouTube, Posterous, Tumblr, PicsPlz, Qik and many, many other emerging tools to curate content.

We need to take a day or two to set up management systems on our iPhone and iPad so that even out of the office, we can continue to share meaningful links. We don't link to everything and the most status updates we have posted in one day is 20 with 12 or less being the ideal. We think of our Facebook Page as the hub of our activity.

Since we are a young publication, this was a great choice to use in terms of building an audience rapidly, as we sit on 692 Page "Likes" in 6 months and 2 weeks of operations. We look forward to reaching 1,000 "Likes".

Our Channels

Krochmal's Twitter account is our news wire, even though we own @SMNNY on Twitter.

When we set up our mobile management, the goal is to enable more frequent sharing on the @smnny account. We like to be the first to find and to share. That's what we think you can count on from us. If we have shared it, we have made a quick judgement that it is fresh, that we've at least glanced at the content, and have made a quick judgement on its veracity.

We try to add some context and attribution. YouTube. Krochmal's YouTube channel is our main distribution point for videos -- as well as the Facebook Page. We plan to focus on YouTube in the New Year from a programmatic point of view and plan a refit of our channel page. We will also integrate the individual YouTube videos we share with our new Livestream.com/SMNNY presence, built on the first day of the hackathon. Here we will be posting our new video programming and monetization program.

If your organization sponsors the professional account on a service, you will be the branded sponsor. Social Media News NY brought to you by . . . We want to be able to create a full day's worth of unique content and then a week's worth of content, leveraging the material we gather as part of our reporting and sharing it in many different ways.

We have fixed costs and limited time, so that any media we get should be maximized. We need to establish an e-mail list and give that list first priority on new content, sending it out ahead of our public sharing.

We create a lot of curated content and do original multimedia reporting. In 2012, we are going to create premium content, and offer research and analysis services. You will be able to hire us to do research and reporting on a per-hour basis on a quick turnaround basis. We will offer a discount on the rate if we can offer the content, at a later date, for premium consumption. Say, we do a report on the Borough President of Manhattan's social media presence for someone. We would like to offer that for broader consumption a month later.

We would like our community to commission our reporting, giving us topics to puruse, and even giving us a stipend to pursue it. We will contribute two hours a week to this community goal with the hopes of increasing that. We would like to earn at least a roundtrip subway fare, partial overhead, and a meal out of the deal and would like to set a mechanism for easily collecting payments of $1.

We know that jobs are hugely important and we would like to be a trusted partner in connecting those that need talent. We believe that Social Media News NY should be a great economic community hub, connecting buyers and sellers. We would like to be able to assemble virtual teams for projects and earn money to pay team shares for successfully completed projects. We need a payments platform and an electronic barter and projects marketplace. We need to come up with Amazon Turk wishlists and earn revenues from building curated collections of data.

This holiday season, we have curated and collected articles published about #mocial and social media predictions for 2012. We would like to mine that information, but haven't a workflow to make that happen.

Would love to have tools that help us do that rapidly and efficiently. Imagine a world cloud from the top prediction stories for 2012 -- what would bubble to the top? I'd like to see that. We need a better website.

Our SocialMediaNewsNY.com website right now is pretty much brochureware. We have a vision for the kind of site that we want, but don't have the wherewithall to build it. Maybe we can host a weekend hackathon to create the interface. Wonder if great food and drink would convince a crew to spend a January weekend building this.

We are really proud of the progress we have made with Social Media News NY. We say "we" and we mean we. While there is a very small team of daily players -- mostly "me" -- the community can be so much larger than that and can do things together that were just not possible before. I think we can create jobs, wealth and a greater knowledge and can do journalism in new ways. We look forward to our next scoop, which will likely be our first. We haven't practiced the kind of "shine light in dark places; comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" kind of journalism that we talk to our students about.

The first six months of SMNNY have been about learning how to efficiently do social media based multimedia reporting and build community and brand. The next six months must be about creating revenues, jobs and building the complexity of our journalism. We are at the 18th tee, looking into our bags. Will we reach for the 7 iron?

We thank Carmina Perez, Marilyn Zayfert and Karen Sieminski for their contributions as we started up and we thank you all for playing a big part in this experience. There are others to thank to. We are only just beginning.

***

We may add more thinking to this later in the day. It is afterall a hackathon and we still have work left to do.

 

 

 

Last week, inspired by a presentation from Facebook about how they use hackathons for engineering and marketing, I decided to experiment with the format and see if it would a useful way to engage my friends, get fresh ideas and to complete a lot of projects in a short amount of time.

On Monday, I launched the virtual #hackathon with an agenda of projects and, well, just me and my social media. It has been an amazing experience that now has passed the halfway mark.

As we got to Thursday, we are excited about a Google Hangout meeting we have coming up, the projects we have completed and the things we want to complete in the few days we have left before 2012.
***

Our day started with a coffee meeting with a young entrepreneur doing exciting things with television, sports and Spanish. We shared some ideas and some stories and I look forward to collaborating.

***

Stopped by the Apple Store on 68th Street in the city, where it was totally less crowded than the 5th Avenue store, which had a line down the block. Crazy. What was even crazier is Apple hardware -- I need some cords, and a keyboard to do some stuff with my iPad 1.0 and the cost is chilling -- I run a low budget operation and I'm going to have to find ways to find some capital investments. Maybe 2012.

***

At 2:30, starting to prep for Google Hangout. Step 1: reboot all computers. Always a good idea when you are doing something processor and memory intensive like streaming.

***

7:38 -- Accomplished Google Hangout and had 6 people drop by. Plans for any kind of structure really didn't pan out. We had a thought that we would guide a conversation, but we didn't get enough people at a time to allow that. Think it will take some time. Tuesday's Hangout, with 22 people visiting, was probably an anomaly and it comes down to getting a person with a following to be in the crew. They apparently have a following and they come into a hangout and hang out. There is apparently an organic culture in these public spaces and it's something to be aware of.

Today's Hangout featured a few tech challenges. At one point, the folks in the hangout used the chat feature to say they couldn't hear me, but could hear each other. One suggested I check my volume. Yep, that was it.

I pushed forward with this Hangout and am grateful that there were some alpha testers available.

Yesterday (this is a hackathon), I invested a couple of hours thinking and planning Hangouts and how to structurie them.

I'd like to do them regularly and see if we can attract engaging personalities to share what they know, and to have participants able to leave the virtual event with more than memories. 

I added some new tools to my MacBook Pro to try and bring some additional multimedia capability to an event. I think Hangouts can be a learning experience, and should be. I have some experience in both teaching and integrating technology into a curriculum and there has never been a better time.

And, at the same time, there is an opportunity to program a schedule. On of the focus points for this week is to deep dive into being more video oriented. I've created a livestream channel, set up a monitor and camera system, added an hour's worth of recurring programming with highlight videos from the past six months of reporting about Silicon Alley's emerging social media professionals and businesses.

We successfully tested Google's video group webchat service on Tuesday, connecting at 3:38 before the 4 p.m. scheduled start. We tried some new tools to create a more layered live production capability and experiende.

We can now pretty confidently connect a Google hangout with a live streaming service, Ustream, and also summon graphics and previously recorded video onto the screen during a live event, as well as record it for replay and archiving. We marketed the event on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus (Krochmal's account). We think we might be able to share on LinkedIn as we foresee our programming to be business casual.

The next challenges are to tweet and status update while producing a live stream. And, create a transcript. We fell woefully short on that department.

Post production: We will be able to bookmark moments during a Hangout, and download the file. You can view the archived video at the link below.

This was our first attempt at producing a real-time social video educast. We see this as blending our abilities to moderate a conversation, create educational programming, connect people from across the globe and share this all, asynchronously or synchronously.

You can view the (extremely boring) video on the link below. Once you have the player up, you can also click below to go to specific highlights (first visitor and tinkering with the screencast capabilities).

http://ustre.am/:1jCaT 

This is a pretty cool tool with really powerful capabilities for my journalism and educational work.

We would like to add the streamcast to our Livestream.tv/smnny channel for inclusion in the programming rotation. This first video will not likely make that but we can see times when it would be a great to offer that on a rotating basis, or on demand. 

Thus far, we have engineered this to work on a Mac, with Ustream. We would like to engineer this on a PC with the Livestream service. 

After that, we would then test it in the field. We would like to add a higher quality camcorder just to see if that offers an improvement. We would also want to add a sound board with a quality microphone.

Then, we will call on our journalism skills to invite quality guests and engage a group.

More is to be done, but this is yet another product that we can add to our porfolio for this week's effort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sustaining effort over a period of time is the challenge and what I see as the hurdle for the middle of the week.

Thus far, we have overcome some technical challenges -- like setting up a Livestream channel as we did on Monday.

On Tuesday, we had the goal of creating new tools for displaying and sharing images on video but ended up engaging in Google Plus Hangouts, discovering a community of very smart people.

We did come up with some ideas on sharing photographs, but after wrestling with this a bit, we decided not to reinvent the wheel -- Facebook and others offer ways to display images that are good enough and we can develop innovation as relatively small side projects.

Our goal is really to enable the rapid production of edited reportage -- with images and text -- for use on video streamcasts. We see the need there for this. Ideally, an iPad connected to a streaming service would allow us to produce and display graphics and images more easily.

Today, we are going to think about content, packages, story ideas, programs and more.

Think we will go on Twitter and start connecting with our community.

***

Day 2 statistics: 1 blog post: 29 views; 3 Facebook Page posts, 2 likes, 3 new Page "likers," and 3 comments; 29 Twitter updates, 30 interactions, 11 new followers; 1 Hangout: 22 new people.

***

Thinking ahead to Thursday. Planning to convene a 1-hour afternoon hangout to gather revenue generation ideas for journalistic Facebook Pages. Do the preparation.

***

Start thinking of a marketing program -- need ancillary materials, such as print and a video advertisement.

***

Daily Process -- Post recurring content -- subject curations. Today, it's Pinterest social media board, and the aggregation of our video interviews on Magnify.net as well as scanning headlines and posting relevant stories. Today, we found two items featuring some top New York social media practitioners and shared them with our community. 

When we feel like we have enough fresh content shared, we update our hackathon billboard and begin that portion of the day. 

***

At 3 p.m., have accomplished a lot, but nothing to speak of. Came to a decision to spend the day organizing and thinking about the structure of an ad-hoc conferernce or panel discussion using Google Hangouts. Started by tweeting the idea and seeing if there would be any interest, feedback. Nothing. 

We will share more during the next 24 hours as we focus on the Hangout as an opportunity to get some great thinking together. We want to moderate the discussion -- as needed -- invite great thinkers, innovators, strategists and users to talk about the business of running a business of information on Facebook. 

We want to record the conversation to archive
We want to offer a transcript of the conversation

We want a fast pace, and social interaction with an audience

We want to have takeaways

We want it to be a memorable and a valuable experience.

How long should it be? Half hour, an hour?

What should the platform provide?

Script, quick hellos and etiquette for the duration of the chat in about the length of two tweets.

Will be operated by one person.

***

7:36 -- Afternoon was spent hacking on a Mac to add some features to a Google Plus Hangout and other video com services. As of this point, not finished.

Andrzej Sienko, one of my former students and my teaching assistant came by and brought my TV set into the smart set by connecting an old IBM Thinkpad to the set, allowing me to view on the big screen things from the small screen. Need to update Flash to v11 to make Hulu work. This old system may not be up to that.

***

11:25 -- The #hackathon veered across the path today. We were able to connect a laptop to the TV and mayhem will ensue when we update Flash on our ancient IBM Thinkpad. Think we'll start with a reboot.

----

Our friend, Jeff Namnum, suggested we try Google Current producer. We did and we were able to link Social Media News NY, our YouTube channel and this blog into one content item on Currents. Pretty slick, and a fast way to aggregate and mobilize my crazy constellation of accounts. I've been blogging for years on Posterous, I've posted at least 25 video interviews that I like on YouTube and launched a news community on Facebook.

Facebook is the hub for a lot of the tools that I use, and now this Google authoring tool gives me access to this new network of people predisposed to interacting with journalistic content. But, it is more of an aggregation archive readable on your device and, I think, is part of the next step of SMNNY as it moves to more and more video programming.

***

Writing content for Thursday's Day 4 virtual hackathon activities, where we can test some software to add additonal content and to moderate and stream broadly a Hangout using a classroom hack, and Ustream.

****

We have gotten the word out about the hangout by tweeting about it, creating a Facebook event, posting to Google Plus adding it to and will do so again in the morning. The first public hangout we held, on Tuesday, was really fun, with great folks popping in, and a collegial atmosphere charged with energy. Hope that is a part of this culture. 

****

Meantime, our to-do list lengthens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using Vuvox service, created a persistent and updated slideshow of top Instagram photos hashtagged #iphoneography:

 

This week, to prove that there is productivity between Christmas and New York, I'm doing a virtual hackathon, focusing on creating new platform tools and workflows for Social Media News NY, a startup news community.

Becoming more facile with integrating video and being able to do it via mobile device is a top priority for the upcoming year. The vision is to think about populating and programming a 24-7/365 channel with original video and news, gathered efficiently and shared socially, in innovative ways.

On Monday, I built a platform on Livestream and populated it with an hour's worth of my video interviews from the previous six months as published on YouTube and the SMNNY Facebook Page.

Now, I have a setup of webcam and channel for hosting live streams and other edited programs. Today's goal is to find and create a photo application that will allow images and accompanying text to easily be published and displayed in front of the camera. 

As this project unfolds, I have two models in mind -- 1) the professor's rostrum, digitized, and 2), a news channel's presentation platform, made simple and easy.

Throughout the day, I'll refresh this posting with notes and observations.

***

[Analytics for Dec. 26, 2011 activity -- 37 tweets, 24 mentions on Twitter; FB Page 9 posts, 1 like, 9 comments; Posterous -- 1 post, and 122 views] 56 posts to 33 mentions. 2 new page likes and +9 "talking abouts"

***

Launched Day 2 at 11:45 p.m. Let's see what progress can be made today.

***

In hackathon mode, researching photo slideshow, non-Flash, tools available. Opened Google hangout and shared link at 1:15 pm. 

Started planning tomorrow's project -- shoot video at the 140conf holiday gathering using Canon Vixia HF R11 and lights and shotgun mic with tripod to get 2012 predictions! This requires a different and a more substantial kit than I usually use. For this, I'm using a really sturdy Sony tripod and two LED lights as well as a shotgun mic. This will then require a new process to edit the segments into one piece. I use iMovie on my Mac for video editing and have been able to go from file on a card right into the editing template I have set up.

This requires an intermediate step for preparing the video for editing. If I had know that, I wouldn't have purchased the camera. But, I did and so, now, I have to figure out a way to make it work.

In video, I have a rule of thumb: The longer after the event you wait to share the video, the better production values it should have.

People are accepting of a little rougher cut from a smartphone video when something is fresh.

I could take lights and use the onboard mic on my iPhone 3GS to capture sound and edit the video in my mobile and share it in near real time. I've been using the Splice and Vimeo apps to do some on-board editing on my mobile. I haven't mastered it yet.

***
Google Hangout turned into an amazing experience this afternoon, starting with old friend Aliza Sherman in Alaska, talking about social media, and then joined by some Hangerouters who are apparently pretty savvy about finding a great conversation. The hangout lasted for several hours, ending when I cut it off at 4:13 p.m.

I am totally flabbergasted at how good the hangout experience was -- civil, educated, great content, smart people and it just came from tweeting the link.

The hangout drew some gurus from the hangout world, coming to talk about the future of digital TV and streaming.

Learnings: The group was well moderated, folks were civil and sharing, and the content was compelling. Would like to be able to capture the conversations for rebroadcast, but was unable to. But in a word, instant talk show. The chat feature is usesful as would be a transcriptist to capture the links and the content for further review.

Hangouts can be a big ole time suck. There has to be some etiquette for conducting one that is inclusive and balanced with shared conversation.

And, should be able to edit it into a shared file, either an edited video, or a capture of the event.

***

At 6:30, with a pouring rain coming down, I opted to stay in for the night and miss the 140Conf holiday party, which is pretty meaningful as I have many friends in that group and will hate not being able to connect. But, we have storm warnings and I put the time to productive use.

Thinking I'll mess around with connecting a DTV camcorder to laptop and see if that can be used for streaming. Perhaps will also connect a microphone.

***
Reflection -- I am really excited by today's Google Hangout. It really was the first open hangout I'd conducted. Previously, I interviewed Brian August about his 9/11 project, and I had convened some of my former students to test it out.

This started slowly with a student from Algieria, no picture on the screen, and a few others from that area of the world. I attempted to engage, but it was awkward. Then, a friend of mine from Alaska popped in and we started talking about social media, and then some of the cool kids from the hood popped in, all knowing the lingo, and popping into a great conversation. Definitely think we had high quality folks engaging in the conversation, and a few people who were watching.

Personally, I'd like a more free-for-all, and tighter thoughts. Wonder how to embrace this new role of moderator? First off, should there be? Second, if so, is the convener of the room the moderator?

I'd like to record the conversations for replay on my Livestream channel and see if I can build programming through this method. Lot of work to fill a 24-7 slate and do it 365 days a year.

***

9:32 -- Just got off the phone with a former student, who is a skilled online gamer and a former assistant of mine. We got talking about the hackathon and then started talking about games, and this ignited a hack project for Social Media News NY. We are bringing gamification into it. Hopefully, we will have a stream set up.

Google Hangouts
Some links:
http://gphangouts.com/ 

Google's commercial for Hangout, with the Muppets.

Hangouts go Mobile, via Information Week
http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/smart_phones/232300527 

Generate a lower thirds graphic
http://www.hangoutgraphics.com/ 

How to Hang Out, via Social Media Examiner
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-hold-your-own-google-hangout-and-why-you-should/ 

Google Plus Hangouts and Educators
http://the8blog.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/more-communication-options-with-extras-in-google-hangouts/

How to be appropriate in a Hangout
https://plus.google.com/118328436599489401972/posts/GaJrZhgtPvo 

 

 

 

 

 

To try and be as productive as possible in the week between Christmas and New Year, I am conducting a virtual hackathon. It's me and whomever wants to share a word of wisdom and take the time to connect. So, I launched this at 3:30 on Monday, December 26, 2011.

The goal of the hackathon is to clear the decks of projects that have been stalled, or haven't gotten past the idea part and to rapidly build new tools and design workflows for Social Media News NY, my startup news community.

The big goal in 2012 is to integrate more and more video -- live and edited -- into my daily community journalism covering the world of social media professionals.

 

So, the first step is to see what live video sharing streaming service would be best. I've had a Livestream channel since that company was formerly named Mogulus. Additionally, I've shared a lot of content on Ustream.tv and I'm very happy with the functionality.

But, live streaming in a news environment will require social, integration of graphics and previously prepared video as well as the ability to record and archive the productions, and to download them.

Process

Step 1 -- Boot up Acer Laptop

Step 2 -- Set up Logitech Webcam
(find standard screw, remember to get a few more and maybe a wing nut).

Step 3 -- Log into Livestream and create Social Media News NY at livestream.com/smnny  

Step 4 -- Plug in webcam, test

Step 5 -- Fill out paperwork for focus, brand, and program.

At this point, scroll to the top of the page to see slideshow for step-by-step notes and photos.

---

11 p.m. -- Livestream.com/smnny went "live." Loaded top videos from Social Media News NY reporting from the last six months to create an hour's worth of video interviews in 2-minute bytes. This will loop on the SMNNY channel and will be available on demand, also. 

First program for the channel. Think about the other 23 hours in the day, and then the other 365 days. And, about monetization.

Took 8 hours to go from zero to partly programmed original content.

The channel needs branding and more content. An easy next step would be adding narrative to the video events. Livestream will allow you to live edit a show.

The next step would be to set up a microphone, and allow the computing unit to also function as a video editing station for video from our next generation camera, a Canon HD camcorder.

Additionally, the next camera for the Livestream product would be a 10-year-old Sony with a Firewire tether for higher quality streaming with a one-camera setup.

Additionally, the next step is creating a tool for slideshows that works on mobile devices or monitors to be able to bring it into a webcast.

The model is delivering a live presentation of content for rebroadcast, and for social interaction at the point of delivery -- for one person, and it should be mobile. Build it in the lab, test it in the field.

Our resolution for 2012 is: More video, more programming, run efficiently, be lean, grow revenue.

Already in 2011, we have integrated video into our processes, from conducting live streams for our journalism colleagues at Hacks and Hackers and ONA NYC, to covering conferences with HD video quick bites, iPhone scene setters, mobile editing.

We want to test our ability to produce a live news show with content we curate and share via text, images and sound -- a linear show, a Facebook status, photo albums and to do it better and better and to be able to offer services as we build out to 24-7/365 original programming of social media related programming.

 

The goal of the hackathon is to construct next-gen platform technology and quickly create multimedia reports about the process as well as integrate this into our existing platform.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a slide deck created from following the events at Virginia Tech on Friday, Dec. 9, 2011. Journalists may find some helpful tools among those discussed. Feel free to e-mail or comment with ideas and critiques. Rough draft was composed late that evening for editing later.