Although I didn’t have the chance (or the $$) to go to FOWA (Future of Web Apps), I had a great time last Sunday at BarCampMiami. For those unfamiliar with the concept of BarCamp (and no, it doesn’t involve mixing cocktails for tips), check out the wiki here. They sum it up like this:
BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants.
Greg Linch (@greglinch), student at the UM School of Communications, worked with BarCampMiami coordinator Alex de Carvalho (@alexdc) to bring specific sessions focused on news innovation tailored for us journos who were in the house. There were quite a few of us. I got to meet Twitter friends Danny Sanchez (@dannysanchez) of the Orlando Sentinel and Journalistopia and Mathilde Piard (@mathildepiard), Columbia J-School grad and web editor at the Palm Beach Post as well as a slew of other tech-minded smart people.
One of my favorite presentations came from Rick Martinez (@digx) of FIU about evolving news. “There is not a newspaper industry. There is a news industry” rang very true. Not sure why we cling to the print product with our cold, dead hands. That’s a different post.
Rick Martinez of FIU and Greg Linch of the University of Miami
I spent yesterday and today (Wednesday and Thursday) as a fellow at the WeMedia Conference at the University of Miami. My job as a volunteer was to twitter the breakout sessions with the #wemedia hashtag as a way for people who couldn’t make it to track all the good ideas being tossed about. If you follow me on Twitter (@malcolli), you can see a rundown of a few of the breakout sessions.
It’s amazing to see people from so many different types of organizations (Journalism, non-profits, startups) collaborating on how to use media to innovate and better their futures. It sounds cheesy, but it’s true.
Brian Storm of MediaStorm
David Liu, CEO of TheKnot.com
The #WeMedia buzz began almost instantly around the Twitterverse in the morning intro session as awards were given to Game Changers in the realm of advancing media. As a political nerd, I was a tad (ok, maybe more than a tad) devastated that Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe wasn’t in physical attendance to accept his award. Twitter, ZeFrank and others were honored. Go to the web site for a better rundown. The twitterers in the room started to slowly emerge and the convo took off.
Because I was there as a volunteer twitterer who was encouraged not just to tweet a play-by-play but to add my voice to the mix, I made a point not to hold back. Granted, the caliber of participants was very high and I wasn’t sure how much value they would see in tweets from a 22-year-old recent college grad 3 months into her first newspaper gig, but I found that the presenters appreciated the instant feedback and honesty.
During a social media session with Susan Mernit (@susanmernit), formerly of AOL and Yahoo Personals and fellow Twitter-holic, she was using her BlackBerry to scan our tweets since she knew that some of us were actively tweeting the session. Hats off to her. Perfect example of a how Twitter is a tool and not just a silly site for sharing what you had for lunch. I sent out a tweet saying I thought the session was a little too basic and she jumped right in and got the ball rolling to get to the higher-level stuff (like Facebook Connect, which I’m trying to get really familiar with).
Susan Mernit (left) and Rebecca Watson of Real Girls Media (right)
On the downside, I had over 200 tweets over the two-day event, which wouldn’t normally be on the downside except that I do have some followers who I bet were completely overwhelmed and annoyed by a long stream of #wemedia, #wemedia, #wemedia.
This makes me rethink an issue that came up a few months ago about whether or not to split up my tweets into two accounts; one for Mallory Colliflower, the conference-attending working professional and one for Mallory Colliflower, the chick who checks icanhazcheezburger multiple times a day, swears from time to time, likes to share music and stay in touch with friends.
More importantly, because of the buzz and conversation about the WeMedia conference we were able to generate on Twitter, #WeMedia trended in the #2 spot twice during the conference. Quite a feat if you want people to be talking about what you are doing and saying. I managed to be the top trendsetter for the #WeMedia hashtag and had the second-highest number of retweeted posts, behind Tom Kennedy (@tomkennedy), multimedia editor and consultant from Arlington, Virginia. More stats here.
Was my mission accomplished? I give a confident ‘yes.’ Between Greg, Mathilde and another Columbia graduate Veronica Zaragovia (@verozaragovia), we managed to provide a service to the media-minded who couldn’t make it to the conference as well as meet and connect with people who had similar and differing thoughts on what was going on in front of all of us. In regards to that, the bloggers over at the WeMedia page have done an excellent job summarizing and analyzing all of the discussion that took place. I won’t try to duplicate what they’ve already done so well, so head there for more.
Big ‘thank you’ to the organizers of the event, particularly Chad Capellman (@chadrem), WeMedia’s web producer and to Greg Linch for inviting me to join the team. I was thrilled to meet all of the people that I did and hope to hear more from and about them in the future.
Just a quick post to commemorate the inaugural post of E-Journalist in the Making back on Oct 31, 2006. I could mark the occasion with a list of important stats; number of posts, comments, most-read-posts, etc., but looking at the numbers only makes me realize how much more I could and should be doing this. So instead I will pretend that it is New Year’s Eve and resolve to make the coming year more blog-tastic.
I’ve bid Gainesville a fond farewell and made my way back into the bedroom I’ve spent most of my life occupying in my parents house. There are some obvious adjustments I’ve been getting used to. No more innocent bottles of wine with roommates on nights when our TV shows were on. No more loud jam sessions when I would let my music blast throughout the place. It’s a step back in time without a doubt. But… In any situation where a big transition is being made, it’s most helpful to look at the positives. Just today, Sunday, the first day of my life back at home, has so far led me to believe that this living arrangement isn’t going to be complete hell. Spending 4 years living independently away from the nest has built my character and shaped my personality, but there are plenty of perks to being back here in mommy and daddy’s house in Hollywood.
A real kitchen in a real house. Having parents who are culinarily inclined is something that can be easily taken for granted when you’re a teenager who just wants to be fed quickly and left alone. I’ve always enjoyed cooking fresh meals for myself and my roommates and my TV is turned to the Food Network about 90 percent of the time. But the kitchen I had in my tiny rental apartment was absolutely disgraceful. I had only enough counter space to put one small cutting board, crappy appliances and crappy cookware. It’s nice to be back in a big-girl kitchen with parents who enjoy cooking too.
A gadget-loving dad. As a college student who scrimped and saved, I could never afford to splurge on a Wii or a Playstation or the games that I wanted to go with it (Guitar Hero!). Even if I did have the cash, my GPA couldn’t afford having the games around either. We had a hand-me-down monstrosity of a tube TV with fuzzy picture and limited cable. I lived with it. It’s college, it’s normal not to have nice things. I now appreciate our living room’s 52-inch plasma and digital cable more than ever and am thankful for a father who rocks out on Guitar Hero just as much as I do (probably more) to keep up to date with the versions that come out. Don’t let me sound like a spoiled brat. These toys are for him, but living at home lets me take advantage too.
A backyard. One of the best things about moving from a tiny apartment in a cramped complex in the woodsy area of Gainesville back to my parent’s house in Hollywood is that now I can remember why I love South Florida weather so much by lounging in the backyard. Who wouldn’t want to tote their laptop outside and make this their office:
If you’re a fellow-geek and you DON’T watch “Attack of the Show” on the G4 channel, then you might as well be surfing the net on a dial-up connection. It’s a 60-minute news-style show that dishes on all things technology, computers, gadgets and video games, with a dash of wit, a sprinkle of comedy and a couple of hot hosts to garnish it off. It’s basically everything you’ve already read on the blogs today, compacted and humor-fied for TV. Nonetheless, it’s a very entertaining show with a kick-ass Web site to boot, and I seem to always get some really surfable and share-worthy links after each episode.
After last night’s Blog Watch segment on street artists around the world, I looked them all up and found some awesome stuff I wanted to share. So if you’re into stuff like grassroots artists making a statement by creating beautiful peices of art out in public for everyone to enjoy, or just appreciate utter coolness, check these out…
Banksy
A graffiti / stencil street artist from the UK who challenges society and politics using his artwork.
A group of performance artists from Japan who treat their paintings and pieces as ever-evolving living things. They’re known for their time-lapse videos of themselves repainting a single space several times over.
Although I have none of my own (and this is when my friends would call me out for being all talk and no action about getting one), I’ve always been a little fascinated with people getting inked. My mom got her first and only tattoo sometime when I was in middle school, a goldfish on her ankle with some little blue bubbles, and asked me to be her tattoo artist. I also got a request from my sister to sketch a sunflower to use as a guide for her tattoo on her back. And now I’ve been sitting on my plans to get a fleur de lis somewhere on my ankle for about two years but just can’t manage to take the plunge just yet.
But I digress. Instead of stepping up to the plate, I get a big kick out of seeing other people’s tattoos, especially ones that take a step out of the box and hold a lot of personal meaning. I don’t mean family names written in old english, or crosses, or tribal tramp stamps.
One of my favorite blogs recently is Carl Zimmer’s Science Tattoo Emporium, which lets readers with a scientific background who’ve got ink to go with it share their photos and passions for their profession. I bet the tattoo artists who are approached by these guys get really excited to take a break from coi fish, lotus flowers and chinese symbols to bring these peices of art to life. Check some out.
Carl Zimmer is a “science essayist,” and according to his own bio,
