Executing Social Media Conference Day 1

It's not dead yet! From yesterday's presentation, hosted at Coke HQ.

Writers' Strike Nearly Causes Severe Injury

Yeah, because I almost fell out of bed laughing so hard when I woke-up suddenly to news that Hollywood writers are indeed now striking, leaving TV industry execs to make inane statements about new media such as, "If people can't get their shows on TV, it could send people to the Web to find entertainment there." I swear I am not making that up!

Forget writers. TV execs are hilarious just by opening their mouths. Put them on the Big TV. Of course I say, bring it on. The strike. Ain't no unions on the Interwebs. Anyone deprived of just astonishing sources of pure entertainment feel free to watch TrueGritz, where our dubious creativity is always available -- to advertisers too. Or just sit around and watch YouTube. I hear people just are crazy for the thing.

Hahahahahahahahahahahah!

Green Media and CNN

If you caught JMS on AC360 last night, you may, if you are the hardcore media junkie I am, have wondered how much energy was consumed to get that two-way shot with Stipe in Athens up to AC in NYC. A lot, I can assure you, given the price of gasoline used to transport a full MSM crew around Georgia.

Let's assume that a CNN crew based out of Atlanta was sent for the day to Athens, GA to set-up the shot. That's using XXX gallons of fossil fuel, right? In the kind of oversized vehicle needed to schlep all their gear back and forth. (Let's also assume no plane fuel was involved in the making of those TV minutes though, as that would be just thousands of gallons of fossil fuel burned, as opposed to mere hundreds.) And costs involved for that Athens-to-NYC air time were at least in the medium thousands. At least.

Meanwhile, CNN could have leveraged a terrific Green Media Moment (you read it here first; so yeah, you use it, I'll sue the pants off you) to do that live shot, which BTW was not live, but merely live-to-tape as we say in the biz. Notice the nice natural light on Stipe's shot, who was in the same time zone as a 10pm EDT Cooper; that was cool though because doing the shot outdoors saved plenty by not utilizing those energy-guzzling indoor lights.

Instead of incurring the costs for the (fossil) fuel, the superfluous personnel, and the ludicrously expensive satellite feed/uplinking capability needed to get Stipe onto AC360 last night, whereby he could then assist in the pimping of the upcoming green special, Planet In Peril, CNN could have had Stipe fire-up his laptop, plug a DV camera into it, get a wi-fi signal, jump on some live streaming platform like Ustream.tv, and voila -- live GREEN TV! Albeit via the Internets of course, but live or live-to-tape, and totally cool and totally pimp-able for being greener than the rest. A win-win for all. Even the marketeers!

Now of course there would be some energy resources expended to power the Internets-related tools that Stipe and CNN needed to employ to get the great, now-green media to everyone who was seeking such last night, but energy costs would have been drastically lower overall. And think if that laptop could have been... say... solar powered! Now we're talking Green Media, folks.

All the above said though, R.E.M.'s song put the soul into the CNN pictures we were seeing last night. There's energy and power in that kinda human resource that's immeasurable. Let's hope those kinds of energies are renewable, 'cause that's what we'll be left with when the other kinds are gone.

OnLineAthens The Coolest Kids In Georgia Media

OnLineAthens dot com, the online version of the Athens Banner-Herald (note how they brand print and online separately), is seriously head-and-shoulders above the rest of Georgia "traditional" media outlets in offering good, locally-grown multimedia on their pages. Scroll down on their AthFest page to click-on a video featuring the AthFest awards ceremony... still viable and good to watch even after the festival is over.

Not only is OnlineAthens wielding excellent, localized reporting, they're toting some nice DV cams while they're out and about. Too bad the AJC can't tap into a blazing Atlanta music scene right now to offer jack shit. Who even clicks on their one-dimensional site anymore, for that matter? I just go directly to The Blogs... or to Athens.

Heck, OnlineAthens even links you to a site called AthensMusic.com. Talk about your one-stop shopping. Wishful thinking to feel that Atlanta musicians and artists could hope for but a crumb from Atlanta media/Cox Plantation table.

Chances are, when their paper version flutters away one day, and it will, as all papers are in the process of doing, the Athens Banner-Herald won't miss a beat; they "got it" long ago that it's all about the sharing.

Atlanta's Fat Ass

Jeff Haynie, a successfull web-based entreprenuer from metro Atlanta has a fascinating blog entry he's titled: How To Build A Successfull Startup Environment in Atlanta. Note his use of the critical word "environment." Jeff's really on to something here, something we need to help him grow:

I can’t even compare our environments to other major areas like the Valley or Boston - it’s just not much of a comparison. So, I won’t. Atlanta can become it’s own community and has the ability to not only do what others have done before us - but also innovate in it’s community environments. And, we need more people - “completely unknown” around town - to step up and make it happen. We need 100 Billy Payne’s passionate about making Atlanta a successful startup community, as much as the real Payne did for the Atlanta Olympic quest in the late 80s.

Full post here. I urge reading it carefully. There's just so much good stuff all through it. I've had to the good fortune to work with Jeff on media issues and making some cool new media. He's completely inspiring to be around. He gets things like, oh say, SoCon07 done. And Southern Fried Tech.

Like others who have come to get to know one another through SoCon07, PodCamp Atlanta or Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs, Jeff is anxious and willing to help build a strong e-entrepreneur community right here in the SE. Let's hope our entrenched media establishment, some of which he talks about in his blog entry, will keep the faith, the open mind and the initiative needed to help drive just this very thing -- a vibrant web-based entrepreneurial environment and community. Not only is it in our interest, their audience base and eyeballs, it would seem to be in their own self-preservation interests too.

FYI... Jeff's on to BarCamp Atlanta come October! I say... whatever was strong in Mr. Payne, is also strong in Mr. Haynie. Let's move beyond the entrenched way of doing things, the good 'ole boy network. Let's learn, create -- and above all -- share.

Making Integrated Media

Here's a fascinating conversation with Vicki Lynne of Satellite Event Enterprises about blowing-out an event and a marketing campaign in all possible social media ways you can think of! She's really nailed the strategy and the mindset; it's all about... integrating media.

Here's Your Participatory Media!

Boy, the media revolution sure looks pretty and fun!



Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri and Vimeo.

Creating New Media Buzz

I'm giving panel tonight. The topic: Building Buzz For Your Web-Based Business. Join the Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs group tonight at Georgia Tech for this. Starts at 6:45pm. Details are sign-up are here. Hope to see you there!

Blog It Long Time Baby

I'm working really hard on my blogging addiction, so I've cut way back here on the SGR with the more personal kinda posts. However, I see no need to de-continue the media and political stuff, but I like doing that more over at Peach Pundit. It just pisses 'em off so much when I do that it's got to be a good thing! So, make a daily visit to PP part of your nutritious breakfast.

Seen That (former) Cox Plantation Pundit Somewhere Before

I don't know why I bother to respond to things like this anymore, because doing so just makes me tired and mad and sad, and just plain kinda weary in the long run. But Jesus H... this CL picture of Tom Baxter (above) is the same imagery I shot and used in a video about a political event in Atlanta -- weeks and weeks ago.

You can re-view that package here if you must. TB at 02:00 minutes in.

As I said in their pretty little comments place, while Rome burns, or writes up tedious, longwinded pieces about the death throes of traditional media (now there's a topic not heard much about 'round the Internets), new media rage on through the night, acknowledged or otherwise.

Culture Swoon

I can't even see straight I'm so deep into this pop culture apex: Tina Brown on Princess Diana. Brown's book, The Diana Chronicles, is out soon. I'm positively stupid with anticipation. Get me to a B&N quick! NPR's interview with The Right Reverend Culture Mistress (Brown) on the most dazzling pop culture icon ever (Diana) is here. More yummy online goodies such as a book excerpt are there too.

As if that wasn't enough, Jim Long's "new media style" MSNBC package about how to cover Pentagon global photo ops in seven days is here. I gotta ask... the package is tons of fun, but it really points to the elephant in the room: where's the beef? All that network money for a bunch of glamor video shots of Sect. Gates? Where were the live bloggers with the real news? HINT: on Twitter, maybe?!

NOTE TO SELF: Get better highlights. Pay out the ass for 'em if you have to. Buy hair gloss too.

Bloggers Just Rock! Do It On Live Small TV

We made a little Georgia politico-techno mashup history yesterday at the For The People rally with those wacky N. Georgia Dems. Managed to stream the event live via broadband for the whole freakin' planet. I can safely say we were the first to bring Dale Cardwell (below) to a global audience.

(At one point, we had 36 viewers watching!) Blog for Democracy live-blogged the event, and has some great snaps of the production team, complete with one producer and her fat butt.

Ustream.tv, the online service we used to make the rally live, has simply amazing customer service. They weren't able to help us get that annoying hum outta the line (that was on my end, and Lordy knows the Verge New Media staff was generously calling-in expertise and time to help too), but they were there, live, to email back and forth with and take our calls. What a company! They've got extraordinary vision for the future AND amazing, responsive customer service. Snap the heck outta some shares if they ever go public.

And the audio booth dude at the Georgia Mountains Center there in Gainseville was just as kind and patient with us bloggers as anyone could ever be, which is considerable when you think of how many backs have, quite literally, been turned dismissively on some of us as soon as we dare say, "I blog." Thanks so much, master audio dude, for helping us patch-in.

A fine, seriously NEW media time was had by all! Thanks to GAPN for posting the release today too.

Atlanta Press Club New Media Podcast

The podcast is here for last night's Atlanta Press Club event. Many folks enjoyed a lively, very open, un-conference style discussion about all-things-new-media. We barely scratched the surface. Fortunately, APC will be holding a series of discussions on New Media in media.

Free Book At APC Event Thursday!!!!

Come get your free book and jump into the New Media, uh, discussion. Lord knows what this event will end-up looking like. Hopefully nothing like the WSB one last week. I promise to be on my best good girl behavior... for at least the first 10 minutes. Lemme dupe over the APC press release for you:

It's no secret that the way news is gathered, reported and disseminated has changed in recent years. What is not clear is the impact of these changes. Do "new media" trends have staying power? Could they eventually lead to the decline of traditional reporting?

The Atlanta Press Club will hold a series of monthly programs in 2007 that examine the way traditional journalism is changing with the times.Join us for our first program in this series on Thursday, June 7. We'll look at the phenomenon of citizen journalism.

So far confirmed panelists include: Lea Donosky, Atlanta Journal-Consitution; Mark Bauer, WSB; Grayson Daughters, Way South Media, Inc. More panelists will be listed soon.

This is an evening program that is free to APC members and $10 for nonmembers. Networking will be 6-7 p.m. and the program 7-8:30 p.m. The program will be in The Commerce Club building, 18th Floor. Go to http://www.atlantapressclub.org/ to register.

People who attend this program will get a free copy of Manning Selvage & Lee's 2007-2008 Atlanta Media Guide.

Things Change

Let me recount a little story a dear friend of mine told me about when she was a reporter for the AJC and used to cover technology, back when they actually cared about technology...

Friend said she had "sent herself", late nineties I assume, to a biggy music industry conference, just as the music industry was starting to have some serious shifts in their tectonic plates. Napster was running loose through the industry, and the industry was fighting back hard... in all the wrong places. At some point in the Biggy Conference, the head of the RIAA stated that the industry would go digital and drive themselves totally off the industry farm via the MP3, and I paraphrase here, over her dead body.

At that point, a young indie music techno type stood up and yelled towards the titans at the front of the room, "You're a fucking dinosaur, lady." Others took up the chant. All hell broke loose, and my friend, always the intrepid reporter, ran off to call the AJC desk in excitement to say things were just completely in chaos in, gee, of all things... the little 'ole recording industry, and that she needed a LOT of room, like maybe the front page even, to tell this kind of story the way it should be told.

The utterly disinterested (editor) voice on the other end of the phone told her, "You can have 10 inches."

I recount this tale only to warn of times here in a town long run by Cox Plantation Enterprises, and one other alt publication, that the music industry fought and raged against the new, digital machine, and they lost. Their entire industry is in turmoil. And as we move towards what the APC so quaintly calls "New Media" here in the news biz, don't be surprised if we too experience a few You're a fucking dinosaur moments of our own. It's not so much "New Media" as it is an industry-smashing tsunami.

As I mention over at Radical Georgia Moderate, it is a sorry day in hell when journalists like Doug Monroe, who at this point in a fine career should be running papers, are run out of town, and the papers are left to be run into the ground by the likes of Ken Edelstein and Julia Wallace.

Then again, with arrogant, clueless jerks in charge of papers, we have nothing to fear. They’ll only help steer an entire industry right into the ground… just like a lot of aging dinos did with the music industry. As if all the people watching ‘em crash and burn, here on the ground going digital, could care less.

I hope they don’t ask us to come and haul their derisive, dismissive, divisive, arrogant butts out of the wreckage either… we’ve got new media product to keep on cranking.

The Real Georgia Gang

I know you're itching to survey the political scene in Georgia, but you sure don't want to turn on that icky TV and have Dick Williams' little bow tie annoy the bejeezus out of you. Try a Georgia Politics podcast with your morning grits and iPod, instead. This podcast episode includes -- me! And chatter about: Sonny, GA Republican squabbling, The 10th Congressional special election, and New Media impacting the local political process. Enjoy.

Blog entry about New Media turned into quickie column for Georgia Political Digest too.

Clone Your Blog Posts! Make Millions Doing It! Work From Home! Easy Money! HaHaHaHaHa!

The Multimedia ATL

I am just freakin' constantly blown-away by the cool multimedia shit being done by folk here in the ATL. Whether political ads, political campaigns, podcast parties, excellent blogs, videoblogging, music, film, Twitter happy hours, you name it... I am proud as a momma bear to call so many of these creative wonders friends. One dear old friend and colleague, Home Depot TV days, who keeps pushing his own envelope and impressing me on a daily basis is Chilton. Here's something steamy from his world to ours. Where Chilton sees that bad moon a'rising, I see only creative blue sky.

Old Media Noticing New Media In Georgia Politics

(This post cross-posted at Peach Pundit too.)

With the 10th Congressional being one of the few political shows in town, in the country for that matter, won’t be long before Big Media notices all our Little Media efforts here in Georgia, just as the Athens Banner-Herald has. Especially if Marlow makes it to a runoff on June 19th. Then the big guys will be all over us, trust me, because we can then, and only then, say that New Media is likely impacting the political process in the Peach State. Likely.

I caution anyone to use extreme caution when believing a word out of a political advisor’s mouth right now about new media. Not only do they tend not have a clue about new media as a whole, they don’t have a clue about the impact of new media on voter behavior. So when people make statements like this from the OnlineAthens story:

Unless a (newspaper) story’s written about it, the people viewing it (an online video) probably know how they’re going to vote anyway,” (Emil) Runge said.

…trust that they’re pulling statements out of their as* book of facts.

No one, at this point in time, has a clue whether a “traditional” print story about a YouTube video will impact voter behavior or not. Just as no one has a clue whether watching a YouTube video will translate into feet to the polls. There simply is no data right now to support any kind of “new media” political reality.

Let’s hope that some of our fine Georgia (national?) pollsters will seize the momentum of this special election on June 19th to get out there and gather us up some good, hard data on whether or not “new media” influenced not only:

a.) how people voted.
b.) But also did new kinds of media get folks off their butts and actually out of the house to vote at all?

In the meantime, don’t believe any hype coming from “traditional” campaigns on any side about what the Internet vs. traditional media will or will not do for them. They simply don’t know. Anyone trying to dazzle you with statements about the impact of any kind of media on politics right now is simply flying by the seat of their (old media advice) pants.

This Video Belongs To You And Me

To piggyback on Buzzbrockway’s post at Peach Pundit about YouTube warriors, consider the case of Congressional floor (speech) video…. who owns that material, and why has only C-SPAN had ownership and rights to that material… up until now?

Others are at least getting into the biz of selling back to us something that really should belong to us in the first place, least I feel that any and all video generated from the floor of OUR Congress should belong to us — and it should be free to access for any and all YouTube Nation tribal members to use as they see fit.

As the mighty media blogger, Jeff Jarvis says, and I fully agree:

Just as with the presidential debates, that democratic discussion should belong to the people and to truly give it to us, Congress should be doing everything CQ (Congressional Quarterly) is doing — for free.

Jarvis’ post in full is here. Times like this, we need to remind ourselves that we are now The Media.

And if we are, then why are more "traditional" journalists not acting as if they are now The New Media, rather than just waiting around for their bosses to tell 'em how to behave? (Jim Long is just about the lone exception to this sorry state of affairs, bless his new media heart!)

Matt Waite, a reporter for the St. Pete Times, tells it like it is. Preach on Brother Waite, preach on:

I can hear people I know gnashing their teeth already. Why should I do something that costs me time and maybe even money to benefit my employer when I don’t get paid for it? Here’s my response, and it’s two-fold: If you don’t, you run the risk of being first up for layoffs (so you’ll REALLY be uncompensated) and the more skills you have, the better off you are for whatever newspapers evolve into.

Or even if they go away completely. Let’s play fantasyland for a second: newspapers collapse, and all that content goes away. Someone is going to step into that void. Let’s pretend it’s Google and Yahoo and MSN. Do you think for a second they aren’t going to want new media skills? That they’ll be impressed with your paper clippings and your stubborn insistence that you can only write a story for a printed publication?

Come on. Wake up.

Georgia Dems Meet New Media

The Georgia Democratic Party's annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner was a place to not only see John Edwards' hairdo up close and personal, it was also the place to find out just how Georgia politicians are using social media.