Welcome to my training wheels

This is an exercise in either sanity or insanity, I haven’t decided: A SECOND blog, on a different platform than the first.

It’s an extension of my year-long efforts to “learn multimedia,” whatever that means. Toward that that end, last January I started Blog No. 1, which started out as a blog about learning multimedia, then morphed into a blog about learning multimedia while bike commuting (which in fact I was doing at the time) and lately has started encompassing more multimedia, a bit of running, and very little bike commuting (since it’s the middle of the winter).

So I’ve decided to refine and refocus: Two blogs, one focusing on cycling and running, the other on multimedia. By necessity there may still be a bit of an overlap. But I’ll try to keep them as distinct as possible.

Still, I was pleased to come up with a domain name that suggests a link between the two.

I’m also taking this opportunity to try WordPress; the other blog is on Typepad. It seems that WordPress makes it easier to modify with CSS, which is on my list of things to learn this year. And, I figured it would be good to experiment a bit with a platform I’m not used to.

Since I’m transitioning between blogs, I’ll copy a post from my other blog and stick it here, which it really belongs:

My progress on Howard Owens’ objectives for non-wired journalists

What a weird year 2008 has been.

SO tumultuous and often traumatic, in both the personal and professional realms. And in the world at large as well, obviously.

But in the midst of all of that, I have to say I’m quite pleased (and more than a bit amazed) at all I’ve managed to cram in during my learn-multimedia-on-my-own-time efforts. It’s been hugely time-consuming, not to mention expensive. But I sure have come a long way in a year.

The motivations and inspirations were many. But a key one was this list of “2008 objectives for today’s non-wired journalist” as presented by media blogger and digital journalist Howard Owens.

The concrete list of goals, and suggestions on how to accomplish them, were perfect and just what I needed. So much so that I literally started the new year with my first steps toward one of them: a video to post on YouTube. The annual New Year’s Day Polar Bear Swim.

The fact that this involved freezing my buns off in the water off Coney Island… well, that’s extra credit, right? (On the other hand, the video endeavor gave me the perfect excuse not to go ALL THE WAY IN …)

At any rate. With apologies to those who think that this is truly a blog about bike commuting in New York City … a look back on Howard Owens’ goals and how I did with them.

In the next few days, I’ll devise my new goals for 2009 …

In the meantime, here’s Howard’s list and my results:

 Become a blogger. Start with a favorite topic. For example, if you’re a baseball fan, start with baseball. Find all of the baseball-related blogs you can and become a regular reader of five or six of the best of these blogs. Participate — leave comments; follow links. After three months of blog reading, start your own blog on that topic. Try to post daily for at least six months. For blog topics, avoid anything related to your beat or politics. First, you need to blog about something you are passionate about; second, there are too many political bloggers already (accept maybe for local politics, if you see that need in your community and it won’t conflict with your day job).

Check, check, check. Started one blog at the end of January 2008 with a learn-with-me approach for the AP National Desk staff on how to tackle learning various multimedia skills, bit by bit. Transformed that a few months ago into this, which is supposed to be about taking photos and video while bike commuting (so I can learn how to take photos in the little time that I have) but obviously  often digresses into semi-related territory.

Buy a small digital camera that can take both stills and video. Open an account with a photo sharing site such as Flickr or Buzznet. Take photos and post them. If necessary, use some online tutorials for digital photography. (NOTE: If company will buy you this camera, great, but if not, remember you have a responsibility to invest in your own career.)

Check, check, check, and better. First started using my small digital camera. Then bought a Nikon D40 and am trying to learn more advanced photo techniques. Have transformed from being terrified of still photography (too much technical stuff for my small brain, f-stops, apertures, lots of what looks suspiciously like math) into being thoroughly enamored of it. (Though still terrified.)  Have been absorbing lots of books on exposure and lighting and lenses and whatnot, and checking online forums often. Have gone to a couple of B&H seminars on various photo topics. Now I make photo-taking a major part of the bike commute. Often cart a tripod around on a bike pannier in the winter to take night photos, but need/want to do more of that. Have done some with Flickr but one goal is to do more in 2009. Volunteered once with a program that teaches high school kids in Washington Heights about about photography and want to do more of that – if only it didn’t occur during regular working hours.

With the same camera, make at least three videos. Use the free video editing software that comes with your computer and edit those videos. Post them to YouTube and at least one other video sharing site. There are plenty of online tutorials for shooting and editing video. Your goal here isn’t to make great video, just to learn what is involved in making video so you have the capability in your online journalism tool bag.

LOTS and LOTS of videos. I didn’t use the same camera, though – instead, used the Flip Video cam, the Canon HV20 and the GoPro helmet cam to make a ton of videos, posted to YouTube, Google Video and Vimeo.  Started with the Polar Bear Swim on New Year’s Day (which now has 771 views on YouTube), and then the Ghost Bike Ride on Jan. 6 (done in memory of co-worker Lily’s brother Sam Hindy, and now with 4,569 YouTube views), and kept it up from there. Lots of cycling-related videos. Served as the “official videographer” for the New York Cycle Club’s signature ride. Did a series of video interviews of National Desk staffers leaving as part of regionalization. Most recently, did a video of a headline-writing seminar here at work. Hope to do more of that in the future, since it combines a lot of needs and goals. Edited with iMovie. In 2009: Final Cut Pro.

Related to video, spend at least two hours a week for six weeks on YouTube. Search for topics that interest you and then follow the trails where they lead. Pay attention to the daily most popular and see what other people are watching. Be sure to watch both amateur and professional video.

Yes, and also Vimeo in the past few months. Will spend a lot more time with Vimeo next year, and do some of their projects.

Join a social networking site. Every professional should have a profile on LinkedIn, so make sure you do, also. Facebook has been hot in 2007, but I think you’ll get more out of MySpace, which still remains popular with your future readers. You will get more DIY (the backbone of modern media) experience with MySpace, if you take full advantage of the site features (which, admittedly, I have not). Do Facebook, too, but don’t neglect MySpace.

On LinkedIn. Also Wired Journalists, which counts. And I do a lot on Facebook, including posting a lot of photos and some videos.  MySpace: Nah.

Use social bookmarking. Set up del.icio.us for yourself and use it every day. Learn about tags. Check out Digg and Mixx and similar sites. If you can, get into Scott Karp’s Publish2 beta.

I did this for awhile and then fell out of the habit. Will try again.

Start using RSS. Use RSS to keep up with the news of the day and the blogs you are now reading every day. Make sure your blog has an RSS feed. Here’s Marc Glaser’s guide to RSS.

Yes. Netvibes. I love Netvibes.

If your current mobile phone doesn’t handle SMS (text messaging), get one that does. SMS works best when you have friends who text, so figure out who those friends are (by now, you have them). For neophytes and gray hairs, a phone with a QWERTY keyboard (Treo, or iPhone) works best. Blackberrys aren’t great SMS handhelds because they mix SMS and e-mail together.

Yes.

Learn to twitter. I’m not a big Twitter user myself, but Ryan Sholin and Jack Lail swear by it. I think there is something to be said for learning how this technology may change information dissemination.

Yes. I twitter sometimes. Although not fanatically and probably for no real good purpose. I HAVE used it to follow others and get cool links and insights from them.

Create a Google Map mashup. If you don’t know what those are, google it. If you don’t know what to do or where to start, google it (hint: or you can search this site). There are plenty of tutorials available. It’s easy. All you need is a spreadsheet with appropriate data and enough smarts to follow step-by-step directions.

Yes, although pretty pathetically. Will try this one again next year.

AND things not on Howard’s list and instead were initiatives of my own making that I ended up spending a lot of time on:

Most notably, bought and started learning Dreamweaver and created a Web site to showcase the multimedia efforts from the AP Washington-New York bike rides this summer and fall: http://www.biketourbrats.com … this obviously needs a lot of redoing and tweaking and fixing all the many problem areas (actually I should just start it over from scratch) but I’m still impressed with myself for making it happen.

Related to that, have learned the basics of Photoshop Elements and am now endeavoring to explore more for its creative potential in doing graphical things with photos – so much for the realism of photojournalism! But hey, since I’m doing all of this for my own entertainment, I think it’s quite worthy to explore other visual paths.

And, by the end of the year I plan to post a basic, baby personal Web site made with iWeb … can’t get any easier than that; I just need the time to finish it. I want to get something up as a holder until I can tackle my bigger project, which will be to do a graceful, non-iWeb personal site with Fireworks (after I buy Fireworks) and Dreamweaver. Have two domain names registered, one for each.

One more thing: bought an iTouch pretty much solely for the purpose of getting a feel for what the AP’s Mobile News Network looks like (and of course to use it myself) … as well as other services’ news feeds, and all the other iPhone/Touch apps. Of course I enjoy all the other benefits of the iTouch; but the primary motivation was, indeed, our Mobile News Network and the thought that I couldn’t exist professionally without knowing what’s up with that.

In official work-sanctioned activities: in January I went to a Poynter seminar on audio slideshows, which was pretty weird because at the time I’d never even HELD a DSLR, let alone try to take a picture with one. The photographic efforts were pathetic but clearly the thought and the visual acuity was there; I just couldn’t focus the damn camera. Mainly I got very inspired and all the more appreciative of the impact of multimedia in all its formats.

And later last year, I got to organize one of the AP’s audio slideshow training seminars. It was fabulous seeing so many others learn to love this. And, I did my own audio slideshow of the participants.

After you’ve done these ten things, document what you’ve learned — write something, such as an essay to your editor or a blog post. Discuss how technology has changed media, and follow the string of where that change might lead. What will your job be like in 10 years? What will media be like in five? How will news reach young readers in a generation? Tomorrow?

I dunno. Too much heavy thinking for me at this point. I’m just scrambling to learn as much as I can both so that I can do it myself and so that I can direct others in the future.

 I certainly do foresee a scenario in which we’re all multi-format editors, equally capable of editing words, photos and video, and combinations thereof, and packing them together into just the right presentation.

 And the creative side of me has a yearning to be able to shoot and package some of my own “content” for work purposes.  I’d love to do my own video package. And I think I could. But I think others don’t exactly view that as one of my top 20 responsibilities as a manager …

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