MAKE ME MOBILE

February 1st, 2010

For the multi-media journalist the field is home. Its where the stories live, where the action is. Part of deploying a multi-media journalist plan in your shop must include mobility. The longer a journalist can stay in the field reporting, the more time they have building relevant content for your platforms.

So a key attribute for multi-media journalists is mobile. Anywhere - everywhere and the ability to stay and get the story and send it back, instantly!

In the old days, that could only happen with satellite or ENG trucks, and even more recent with hard line internet connections. Today its all a part of the multi-media journalist arsenal.

Two forces have joined together that has created some effective tools for the field. I’ve written about EyeFi before in our latest book, Live Local Broken News. EyeFi makes a wireless SD chip that can plug into most cameras, and wirelessly transmit files. Previously limited to only Flickr and YouTube, the company is expanding with a brand new device. The EyeFi ProX2 holds 8GB of memory, is a class 6 chip, which means its super fast in capturing standard and HD video and stills.

Here’s the cool part. Pop the chip into any camera that holds an SD card, shoot your pictures and then EyeFi wirelessly sends your images to any predetermined FTP or social media site.

Company CEO Jef Holove told me “while the original chips were made for consumers, we have found a growing contingent of professional journalists and bloggers using EyeFi. In my view .. clearly media organizations are getting smaller and need to move more quickly.”

Holove knows about the downsizing in American media, and sees the EyeFi as another way citizen journalists can supply content to media companies.

“We can leverage ways to level the hurt”, Holove says. “There are plenty of folks that are supplied with cameras that can now send images from the field. There is a necessity for media organizations to leverage the masses for video clips and stills. Media companies quickly need to figure out how we leverage and fact control the information coming in.”

Holove points to CNN’s IReport as a clear indication that the tipping point in user generated content has occurred, and the off the shelf tools like EyeFi is help making it happen.

So here’s the tech stuff. The EyeFi ProX2 runs on the standard 802.11N wireless network, it can also run ad hoc, meaning you can save wirelessly to your computer instead.

It has an endless memory mode, allowing it to delete images as you shoot new ones, and is twice as fast as the original cards. Everything under the hood on this card has been rebuilt. Cost is $149 and can be pre-ordered from the company website.

What? No wireless hotspot available! There is a solution for that too. Enter the wireless mobile hotspot. A little box you can carry in your pocket or car, allowing an instant internet connection. A couple of companies make them Novatel and Sierra Wireless.

Novatel makes the MiFi, which gives you as much as 4G speed, where available, Sprint and Verizon Wireless sell them, along with a $59 monthly fee. Sprint will give you one with a two year contract.

For roughly $200 your multi-media journalist can send you instantaneous images to your website from the field, and transmit video clips while driving to the next breaking story. Do that in a satellite truck.

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HERE IT IS!

January 27th, 2010

The speculation for Apple’s newest device has been playing out for months on the web, while the technology giant remained deftly quiet, until today.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs was beside himself at the announcement: “It’s very thin and you can change the background screen and personalize it any way you want. We built in a great address book, have a great maps application with Google built in. What this device does is extraordinary. You can browse the web with it. It’s the best web experience you’ve ever had. It’s way better than a laptop, way better then a phone. You can turn it any way you want. To see the whole page is phenomenal.”

Apple is known for being a game changer, first with with the Itunes store and music, then with the Iphone and mobile applications, now with the iPad.

Electronic readers have been around for years. Apple knew if they just released another e-reader, it would most likely fail or at best fall in line with all of the other e-reader devices. While (the device) is impressive and has the usual Apple allure, look closer and you will see this Apple is less about technology and more about launching a new medium.

Today’s announcement is much bigger. Apple has once again created a platform for content, not just from traditional publishers, but for anyone - yes crowdsourcing. Its a page right out of the Iphone App Store play book. Supply a free platform development kit and stand back and watch hundreds of thousands develop and post.

Apple has a history of taking an industry in decline, like the recording industry, creating a device that re-energizes interest, and make a great deal of money form it. The new iPad is following along those lines.

This same strategy that lead to more than 100,ooo apps for the Iphone and revenue of more than $1 billion dollars. Apple’s take 30%, helping to double Apple’s overall revenue in 2009.

They did it with Itunes too, selling more than 6 billion songs so far, at a time when the recording industry was in a death spiral from declining sales and pirated music.

The publishing industry is looking for a silver bullet that might pull them out of a multi-year slide, but already publishers are making the error of a “if we print it they will come” mentality.

McGraw-Hill’s CEO Terry McGraw told CNBC, “We have worked with Apple for quite a while. And the Tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system and so it will be transferable. So what you are going to be able to do now — we have a consortium of e-books. And we have 95% of all our materials that are in e-book format on that one. So now with the tablet you’re going to open up the higher education market, the professional market. The tablet is going to be just really terrific.”

Granted publishers will save in printing costs, but that doesn’t necessarily mean revenue growth.

The iPad now opens the publishing, broadcast, entertainment, and journalism industries open to anyone that has content to offer. Legacy may get a company in the door, but it will be the publications that offer better quality and value that will flourish in this new medium. Did people quit reading books and magazines because they were no longer relevant or because they could read better coverage online? Does a poorly produced newscast suddenly generate new viewers in high definition, or amplify the shortcomings?

The iPad goes on sale immediately and ships in 60-90 days. The device will be available in multiple memory sizes (just like the iPhone), beginning with a 16GB model and on up to 64GB. The pricetag, surprisingly, begins at just $499 for the 16GB version and runs to $699 for the 64GB version. 3G models will cost you $829.

Kindle is in trouble.

Technology is forcing change, and giving consumers choices. Mass media should take notice, “the medium is the message”.

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Reaching the Iphone Audience Without an App

November 12th, 2009

When this email hit my inbox from Livestream I had to give it a second look. The headline, “Livestream Launches Free iPhone Service, Delivers ‘One Click’ Live Streaming to the IPhone”. This one I had to see.

Streaming video to the web has been around for a few years, first an expensive task, but now free with ad support. The process: you run your audio and video through an encoder, send it up to a streaming server and down to all of the web users in the universe.

I’m here to tell you all of that has changed. With as little as an internet connected laptop, a camera and microphone, you can now stream not only online but to the 6.4 million Iphone users out there. See I told you, this was special.

Here’s how it works. Follow the link to the company’s website www.livestream.com/procaster, the new Procaster software greets you to download. Not only for PC, but Mac as well. (Good thing because I recently switched, but that’s another story). A simple sign-up and download, and as advertised, your are streaming. The streaming menu gives you a setup option to stream to Iphone, as well as an embed option to place the streaming content on your website, blog or even social media page.

When you sign up with Livestream your user name also serves as your Livestream channel, available to view on Livestream online network, or with a $350 monthly fee seen only privately and without ads served from Livestream servers.

I think this is pretty significant and here’s why. As we move into the continuous news cycle, serving multiple platforms, we will find that not every story deserves a live truck. And lets face it most stations don’t have enough live trucks and staff to stream multiple locations throughout the day. Until now.

Livestream’s announcement states “Livestream is the first to offer a turn-key streaming service that uses the new H.264 HTTP live streaming functionality included in the native QuickTime player that Apple has pre-installed on the iPhone. This means that Livestream producers do not need to obtain iPhone App Store approval to launch their own iPhone live streaming channel, nor do their viewers need to install any application. Streams are viewed using the iPhone’s Safari browser.

“A key breakthrough is that the service doesn’t require any proprietary player or application to be installed on the iPhone. Producers are free to integrate the iPhone live stream with their own website, iPhone portal or iPhone application using the API provided” explained Livestream CEO and co-founder Max Haot.

With this new development from Livestream, one multimedia journalist can setup and stream any story from the field, online and onto Iphone and Itouch mobile devices instantly.

I checked it out and it works. I used my webcam from my Mac Book Pro, launched Livestream Pro, clicked one button and I was streaming. Then to my Iphone I pulled up the Livestream Iphone website iphone.livestream.com and there it was, the same streaming video that I was seeing on my desktop. Awesome!

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Chargers Unite!

October 26th, 2009

I write a little about gadgets. I own my share, and then some. So when I heard the latest news about a world effort to unite phone chargers, I was interested, to say the least. Don’t get me wrong this isn’t about joining all phone charges together to compare amps and ohms and kilocycles. It’s about ONE… One charger, the big cheese, the daddy - Oh! , the Pièce de résistance.

Imagine one charger for all mobile phones on the planet. No more digging through the box at the Marriott Courtyard searching for the cord that, please..please, fits my phone. I know, it’s almost too much to bare.

In the last few days the International Telecommunication Union, or ITU , announced in Copenhagen it backs the idea of a Universal Charging Solution, or UCS to most of us.  One size fits all for all future mobile phones regardless of make or model. The mini-USB is the ITU choice, currently used by most Blackberry, HTC and Motorola phones. One rather larger player in the mobile phone industry is missing in all of this - Apple. But with a worldwide standard on the horizon look for the change.

Not only will the “do I have the right connector” issue disappear, but so will the carbon footprint. According to the ITU, energy efficiency is another advantage.

Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB), Malcolm Johnson said: “This is a significant step in reducing the environmental impact of mobile charging, which also has the benefit of making mobile phone use more straightforward. Universal chargers are a commonsense solution that I look forward to seeing in other areas.”

Standardization of the solution within ITU was completed by Study Group 5 - Environment and Climate Change, and will hasten broad adoption by industry. Based on the Micro-USB interface, UCS chargers will also include a 4-star or higher efficiency rating - up to three times more energy-efficient than an unrated charger.

What does this mean to those in the media world?  Just ask your multimedia journalist.  Reducing the amount of stuff a journalist needs to take into the field  creates efficiency, and helps remove just one more obstacle.

I salute the ITU for its forward thinking, but to be honest before today, I never heard of them.

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Tough Day for Broadcasting

August 19th, 2009

This was a day no one ever wanted to see,  the day we lost Don Hewitt. He died of pancreatic cancer at his home in Bridgehampton, NY. He was 86.

A pioneer, a leader, a teacher, a broadcasting pro. He knew what brought viewers to the television set. “Tell them something they don’t know, and tell a good story” said Hewitt.

He was involved in some of the most historic moments of our time. A few include the Kennedy-Nixon debate, the discovery of network evening newscasts, and the father of “60 Minutes”. He sat with presidents, and coached some of the industry’s best - Murrow, Cronkite, Sevareid, Safer and Wallace.

Don Hewitt was shaping broadcast journalism way before most of us knew it’s meaning. It was Hewitt that helped make it special, guiding thousands into a calling that still flourishes today. A tough teacher, that sent even the toughest reporters cowering.

I had the incredible opportunity last summer to interview Don Hewitt for a book I was co-writing with AR&D, “Live, Local, Broken News. A large part of what Hewitt had to say guided my thinking as we mapped out a plan for broadcast news in the years ahead. Unfortunately, there was not enough room to print all of his comments, but the power of the web allows us to hear his thoughts on broadcast news today, and where it’s headed.

Like any good reporter, I recorded our phone interview and now share clips of it with you. Insights from a pioneer who remained true to his craft, and always believed telling a good story was the answer to most of the industries woes. And at the end of the day he would tell you, “yes, it’s show business, no matter what anyone tells you!”

 Click the blue arrow below and listen to Hewitt’s comments on issues facing the industry.

Google Digs Public Data

April 29th, 2009

As journalists, sometimes the toughest part of the job is getting access to public information, that is supposed to be …well.. public. We’ve all gone through the FOI maze.

Leave it to Google to bring a method to the madness. This week Google launched Google Public Data. A new search engine that will scourer databases and turn it into easy to understand information along with comparisons.

Want to compare the population rate of Santa Clara County in California with the rest of the US. No sweat! This is great perspective. The ability to compare any state and any county in the US.

So far Google is mining data from the  U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau’s Population Division.

But we all know when Google starts something it is only the tip of the iceburg. Imagine what can be instantly charted as this service grows. What are the most traveled roads, what are the best schools in America, which city eats the most hot dogs! (I think that’s Chicago?). But the amount of interesting information that could be compared instantly, is amazing.

We will all be saying “let me Google that” a lot more in our newsrooms in the days ahead.

Enjoy!

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The Internet Journalist v. Traditional Media

April 17th, 2009

By now we are all familiar with the terms, backpack journalist, multimedia journalist, one man band. Some see the transition as purely money saving changes, others embrace it as a new way of thinking and some just do it because they love it.

I fall into the latter category. My first reporter / photographer gig was back in 1981. I was the ultimate mobile journalist. There was tremendous personal satisfaction each time a story came together.

Nearly 30 years later I have come full circle. I wear a different hat as a strategist for Audience Research and Development, but I still have a passion for covering news and telling stories. I also like to practice what I preach.

I launched a little website, DI Buzz back in March. DI, Davis Islands, is the Tampa community where I live. When I  landed here  two years ago, it was obvious this neighborhood was starving for information.  So who better than yours truly and the internet journalist was born.

Things have been going well and the neighbors love the attention, but this past weekend was a turning point. A small sea plane crashed into the bay on Saturday, emergency vehicles blocked the only entrance to the island, and the pilot managed to swim out alive. That’s pretty exciting stuff, I don’t care who you are!

So here I was with my pocket video camera, the Kodak Zi6, covering what turned out to be a pretty important story. I sent a few tweets out about what was happening, which automatically posted to the site with a RSS feed. I shot interviews with an eyewitness, captured the pilot as he came ashore, shot the only video of the plane being fished out the of bay the next morning, including the only comments from the pilot on what actually happened.

All of it ended up online and I even shared pictures, with a courtesy, with a local TV station. I had great sound, great pictures, great information and great coverage. Essentially I beat  or competed with local stations in coverage, because I lived here.

In these days of “how are we going to get the content covered”, I think it would be smart for station leaders to look around for local bloggers and citizen journalists that are doing the same thing. Even better if you have the resources, embed a reporter in key areas of your market, and turn them loose with tools that will allow them to operate online and on-air.

I can speak from experience - it works!

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We Need That Live Shot, Qik!

April 9th, 2009

I can’t count the number of times in the news room when we all waited for the live truck to get to the scene of a story to get first pictures back.

Those agonizing seconds accounted for more than my share of grey hair. (See blog photo) Yes, technology got better, SNG came along and extended our reach for live, but those big expensive, racks of gear only travel so fast.

Last we met , we talked about Skype and it’s introduction to the Iphone. Mobile live video in your pocket. Well there is another app that’s just as stout, for all those non- Ibelievers, and its built for speed, sharing and live, Qik.

In a nutshell Qik allows you to live stream to the web with a video enabled phone. You simply sign up for a FREE account, download the app to your phone and you are off and running. You  can embed the html code in a website, or share it on social apps like Facebook and Twitter.

I love it when someone figures out the potential of what the web gives us and applies it to day-to-day newsgathering. WCBD-TV in Charleston, SC leads the way in using social media to deliver information to its users and viewers. Count on 2 launched a new initiative using Qik. Each of its multimedia journalists carry Blackberry Curve phones and each have their own Qik account.

It allows the station to bring instant live video from the field to the web. News Director Dan Fabrizio says, “We’ve now added a new dimension to our online presence with streaming video. We give you the scoop as it is happening with results live on our website. When our team of reporters is out in the field, we will go live immediately using our mobile devices and broadcast it to our website and partner sites like Facebook and Twitter. ”

 Here is a link to a sample from reporter Larry Collins, covering a recent festival which draws thousands to the area.

The station also used Qik for live updates from the annual Cooper River Bridge Run, going as far as delivering live coverage while runing in the event. Now that’s perspective!

It’s worth a look whether you are a broadcast station or simply want to share live video on your blog or website, and it beats the live truck in delivering pictures every time.

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I’m A Key, Really!

March 26th, 2009

I love cool stuff! Those little gadgets that make complete sense. You know the ones you discover and immediately say, “why didn’t I think of that!” It happened to me on Tuesday.

Storing data keeps getting easier and easier. Introducing the all new iamakey USB flash drive from LaCie. Why, because how many thumb drives and flash drives have we all lost in our short flash drive lifetime? No more, this three “key” collection, is designed to attached to a regular key ring.  It is also tough, thin, and  water and scratch resistan. There is a 4GB version that sells for sells for $17.99 and and 8BG for $27.99.

A multimedia journalist might use their flash key to store file video, graphics and preproduction, text, and images. Having access in the field to what we take for granted back at the shop. Since it’s backwards compatible it works on both USB2 and USB1 devices, and both Windows and Mac machines. They are fast with 30MB/s transfer rates, and 10MB/s write rate.

LaCie inroduced these flash keys the beginning of March. Along with the “iamakey” model there is also the “itsakey” that starts at $14.99 for 4GB, and a pass key that transforms those microchips into a …uh..key.

LaCie sells online and at major electronic stores. Here’s hoping it makes your life just a little easier in the field.

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Perspective from the Most Obvious Place

March 25th, 2009

During the coverage of President Obama’s second White House press conference, something interesting happened. CNN used the web tool Wordle, in the most interesting way.

They captured the text of the presidential press conference and plugged it into the word cloud generating software, and presto – instant perspective. The need for pundits to tell you what was important, really wasn’t needed. The words spoke for themselves. What we saw were the words used most often in big bold letters, lesser phrases and words in smaller letters. So with one screenshot, we learned that the most talked about issue during the event was, the budget, followed by going, as in where are we going or what we are going to do.

This is a great example of how the web and new technologies can be applied to what we do in our newsrooms and content centers, each day. This was brilliant on CNN’s part. They generated relevant content from something that was already available to them, they just had to use it.

Got a big story in the making, or a state of the city or state speech around the corner? Plug in the speech and see the most important words on the politician’s minds, then show it to your audiences. You can bet you will generate audience comments and buzz.

And if you were curious, my Wordle from this article.

Enjoy!

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