Using New Media At The DNC Convention - How Zennie62 Does It

This video presents the "production process" behind the planned use of New Media at the DNC Convention by Sports Business Simulations' SBS Media / Zennie Zeigeist blog.

New Media -- DNC Convention Broadcast

Objective: to quickly and cheaply bring text, audio, and visual information that generally tells a story to as many people as possible in as short amount of time as possible.

Instruments Hardware and Software

Hardware:

1. MacBook -- Has "iMovie" software built in that makes editing movies easy.
2. Sony Camcorder -- Used to make videos and feed to computer
3. iPhone -- used to take photos and also to make mobile blog posts which feed to Zennie's Zeitgeist remotely.

Software:

1. Blogger -- the online home of Zennies's Zeitgeist blog.
2. iMovie -- used to edit the videos uploaded from the camcorder
3. Google -- used to get information and articles on related subjects that then can be linked to in a blog post.
4. Twitter -- updates on Twitter post at the Zennie62 Twitter page, on the Zennie's Zeitgeist Blog, and on my Facebook page all at the same time.
5. Facebook -- Zennie's Facebook page has his blog posts from Zennie's Zeitgeist.
6. Widgets -- Zennie's Zeitgeist widgets are on other blogs in the SBS blog network, from the NFL Business Blog to Oakland Focus.
7. FriendFeed -- allows commentary on blog posts and videos that appear on Zennie62's FriendFeed page.
8. FeedBurner is the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) system used on Zennie's Zeitgeist for yet another way to distribute our blog news to people and as it appears on the blog, automatically.
9. YouTube -- the main home for Zennie62's videos, which are then embedded in the Zennie's Zeitgeist blog and also on Zennie's Facebook page and linked to on Twitter, which is also on Zennie's Facebook page.
10. iReport -- CNN's version of YouTube, where I will upload videos for daily use by CNN.
11. TubeMogul -- permits simultaneous upload of one videos to 15 different video distribution sites, from YouTube to Blip.tv, and Dailymotion, and others.

Harry Denton Lays Down On The Filmore, Literally

Harry arrives at the Balboa Cafe

From San Francisco Scene / SF Politics

If you'd have told me that I'd end my evening into very early morning trying to convince the legendary Harry Denton not to lay down in the middle of the intersection of Filmore and Greenwich after what he admits was a drunken bender, I'd have said you were nuts.

Well, you weren't. What I saw was the embodiment of Old San Francisco in action. Harry Denton's a throwback to the days of a bar called "Henry Africa" and Herb Caen and the Three Martini lunch, and Carol Doda. Denton is fun, San Francisco style. But what I now understand that to mean is a kind of ultimate freedom we don't see today. And when we do see it, we just don't know what to do.

Ok. This is what happened.

I decided to visit the Balboa Cafe in San Francisco, really because I'm used to the place and thought that the Olympics would be on television and I could watch the games with a crowd that may be yelling "Go USA" or something like that. But I forgot that it's Saturday night and the only time one may release such a cheer was in watching someone else neck in public.

So when I arrived, the Balboa -- partially owned by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom -- was boringly crowded. People in clicks. Scores of lovely women. The Olympics were on TV. Chatter and laughter, but the same familar din one hears on a Saturday night at that place. Nothing special.

Enter Harry Denton.

Harry Denton is a true San Francisco legend. The man the San Francisco Chronicle calls one of the city's most visible bon vivants, and a promoter and owner of several successful establishments, from Harry Denton's Southside Bar which was on Folsom street in the 80s, to Harry Denton's Bar and Grill on Stuart Street, and Harry Denton's Rouge and Harry Denton's The Starlight Club atop the St. Francis Hotel. Harry has established himself as a celebrity long ago. He has a list of fans -- including me -- and a fierce following of people. I think Harry also senses that San Francisco's become a little boring.

So, Harry walks into the Balboa with a couple I've never seen before, goes around to the side bar area and during greeting us all -- I'd just seen him at the REAF Benefit called "Help Is On The Way" the last Sunday -- "I'm really fucked up." Harry had a lot to drink, and was blowing off steam after a reunion of people associated with the late bar Henry Africa. I was happy to see Harry because he's really a nice person who is always ready with a smile or a quick wit, and he's got an eye for the ladies, even though he's Gay, which is great for me because he points a straight bachelor like me in the right direction.

Anyway, I told my friend Lance, one of the bartenders that all we needed to complete the circle of famous San Francisco night crawlers was Johnny Love. Well, the person I've known since 1990 walked in just five brief minutes after I said that. It turned out that Johnny, Harry, and my friend Rick were all at the Henry Africa reunion, and had got a table outside.



I was invited to join them.

We were all outside and Harry was in rare form. He was well aware of his condition, saying "I need to blow off steam." He did. Harry made fun of the lot of us and just in general was a total riot, occassionally tossing beer bottles to the ground, which refused to shatter -- I'm not making this up -- less they ruin the sprit of the proceedings.

At that point, it was clear something strangely, weirdly magical was happening, at least to me.

Johnny Love sitting On Harry Denton's Lap

After a time, not too long, it was time for all to leave the Balboa. We'd went inside for a bit just before closing and then had a devil of a time getting Harry out, but we did. Then weirdness set in. Johnny walked off with his girlfriend, but without telling Harry or Rick he was going to return. Harry insisted on waiting for Johnny, but eventually realized he wasn't coming back after a long episode of waiting and trying to keep Harry from falling.

Since the numberr were reduced to me, and Harry and Rick, I wound up with the task I assumed which was keeping Harry upright. That was tough. At that point Harry decided that he wanted attention. He said so: "I want attention", and proceeded to try and lay in the middle of the intersection of Filmore and Greenwich. I successfully stopped him from the act, and as he was nearly hit by a car -- but I did this solo.

In getting Harry back to the sidewalk I was livid with the onlookers, many who had taken time to talk to him and give him pats on the back, but would only look at Harry rather than come out and help me with him. At that point, seeing them as part of the shallow and spineless masses that let events like Columbine happen and allow people to be mugged and attacked before their eyes, I collectively gave them my finger.

I was pissed.

Getting Harry into a limousine was a chore, and I did not succeed at the time, but then Harry elected to try a second stint at laying down on the Filmore. Only this time he insisted and while I grabbed his arm, he fought me off, and as I talked to him about how the police may show up ("I don't care"), Harry laid right down on Filmore.

My first thought was expressed to Harry "Hey, the police are going to get you." Harry didn't care, and sure enough an SF police cruiser pulled up, and as the officers got out of the car and approached Harry, something nice happened. Other people -- not part of the throng I gave my finger to -- stepped forward to help me get Harry up. The numbers of people -- about 10 -- was great enough to convince the police to get back into their car and continue on their way: they did.

Harry stood up and held his arms skyward as if to say "I did it" and the crowd standing on the Filmore and Greenwich sidewalk erupted into spontaneous applause. It was surreal.

Finally, the crowd broke up and once again I was tasked with having to get Harry into a limo, but this time I had help from guys who used to work for him and saw him. We got Harry into a limo and on his way home.

Whew!!

Harry Denton showed me and the crowd what San Francisco was all about: personal freedom. Laying down on the street was the ultimate act of freedom and fun. Something we used to see in the City when people were less judgemental and information was less fragmented.

Don't get me wrong, I like -- love -- New Media, but there's something missing in today's society. It's this watered-down P.C. culture, and while I love that it's less racially insensitive and more diverse than in the past, it's also less just plain fun. It's like everyone's worried about doing something wrong or being accused of doing so by someone else and certainly not willing to take charge of anything or take action against an injustice.

Enter Harry Denton.

Harry wanted to have old fashioned fun and the people of the city and even the police parted the way and let him. It was glorious.

Chicago Tribune / LA TImes Shrink - Tribune Co Fires Staffers

On the very day the New Yorker jumps the shark, the Tribune Company announces firings, including the editor of the Chicago Tribune and the publisher of the LA Times. The reason: readers flow to online sources and advertisers go with them.

What Is New Media To You? - WISE-SF Panel Intro

Blogs, New Media and You – A WISE Panel Discussion - A panel discussion featuring:

Rebecca Weeks - Real Girls Media
Cathy Brooks - Seesmic, Inc.
Irina Slutsky - Geek Entertainment TV
Christine Kerner - KOFY TV20
Leyla Farah - Cause+Effect PR
Paula Storti - Worldwalk Media
Stephanie Quilao - Back In Skinny Jeans
Patti Mangan - TangoDiva.com

Zennie Abraham - Sports Business Simulations

Monday, March 31, 2008
Time:
5:30pm - 8:30pm
Location:
Hotel Kabuki
Street:
1625 Post Street
City/Town:
San Francisco, CA

5:30 - 7:00 - Event Reception/Hosted food & beverages
7:00 - 8:00 - Panel Discussion
8:00 - 8:30 - Q & A

(moderator)


The OBJECTIVE: For each audience member to be at least encouraged to start a website or a blog, use their email signature to connect to them, and link it with several social network pages…and understand how to use this assembly, and the value of what they have personally and professionally.

The secondary objective is pure networking. So the event will be one hour of networking followed by one hour of panel discussion. We open our doors to women who are part of the SF Bay Area New Media Industry to come to this event. There will be a raffle for a prize as well.

WISE members are encouraged to bring friends, and as this is an open recruting meeting, we're inviting you to come and become a member of Women In Sports and Events. See http://www.wisesf.com

We will take questions from the audience that are relevant to the discussion at the time during the talk, and have a Q and A session for general questions afterward.

1. Topic One: What’s a Blog and Why Should I Have One, Versus a Website?
a. What’s a blog good for? (Marketing yourself, or your firm, etc.)
b. How do I start a blog? (Where does one go? I recommend Blogger.com because it’s free and easy to use; what’s your view? What’s “BlogHer” all about?)
c. But I’m not a writer! (Some think that they have to take part of their day to blog; is that true?)
d. What are some common blogging mistakes and misuse?
e. If I’m starting a blog for my office, what should I avoid doing?
2. Topic Two: Ok. I Have This Blog, And Now I Am To Link It To A Facebook and Linkedin Page? Why? Isn’t That Dangerous?
a. What do I need a Linkedin and Facebook Page For? (Business connections; discovering events of interest.)
b. Do Successful Business People Use Linkedin and Facebook – or MySpace? (What folks like AOL founder Ted Leonsis get out of Facebook and Linkedin,)
c. What are some common ways that people misuse Facebook and Linkedin?
3. I want to start an online community for my office; what do I do?
a. How can I use the work-based online community to help my work?
b. What are common ways that work-based online communities are misused?
4. Topic Three: I’ve Got A Blog, Facebook, and Linkedin Pages and an online community at work – Now I need YouTube? Can It Help Me?
5. Can I Make Money From All Of This? How?
6. OK. I’m set up with all of this, but I’m not getting a lot of traffic. What do I do?
7. What are “Internet Trolls” and what should I do about them?
8. Questions from the audience.

For non-WISE members, the suggested donation is $20. WISE is a non-profit organization.

CBS' Les Moonves Gets YouTube and New Media - Wired

I loved reading this interview with CBS Television head Les Moonves as it reveals a person who gets new media and how it impacts CBS. Why can't Viacom have this view?

CBS Chief Isn't Worried About YouTube or Google — 'As Long as We Get Paid'

Frank Rose 05.16.07 | 2:00 AM

CBS President Leslie Moonves

What happens to network television in the Internet age? As broadcasters confront ever-shrinking audiences and increasingly Net-savvy advertisers, that's a big question in certain quarters of New York and Los Angeles. With hits like CSI and Survivor, CBS president Leslie Moonves is the current ratings champ, but he knows Wall Street is ultimately going to judge him on how he manages the transition to the digital world. Moonves talked to Wired about user-generated video, tiny TVs, and how those clips of his wife made it onto the Internet.

Wired: Right now, traditional broadcasting accounts for the bulk of your viewership and income. Will that change?
Leslie Moonves: I think many years from now, people will still watch television, though it will probably be 150 inches wide. What will change is the ability to get CSI not only on TV but also on the Internet, even watching it in a foreign country as it's playing in the US.

Wired: Major advertisers, including Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble, are shifting money from network television to the Internet. How concerned are you?

Moonves: We're not. There are plenty of people who are willing to pay $2.6 million for 30 seconds on the Super Bowl and hundreds of thousands of dollars for American Idol. There will be advertising dollars on the Internet. We're there as well. We win either way.

Wired: How do you feel about Google trying to get into television advertising?

Moonves: Hard to say. Right now we like selling our own inventory.

Wired: Does user-generated video pose a threat to traditional television?

Moonves: Only when they're taking content without permission. Genuine user-generated content — like the guys from OK Go dancing on the treadmills, which I liked a lot — I don't think poses any threat. A lot of it is garbage; you know, your cousin Fanny sitting outside on a swing. But there's some great amateur stuff coming out. They don't have to steal the professional stuff.

Wired: Will professional television change in response?

Moonves: It already has. We have a bunch of people coming up with ideas for original shows that are very cheap, very experimental. There isn't a lot of advertising revenue on this, so you need young people who don't want a lot of money yet. They will later.

Wired: You were in talks with Fox and NBC to join their partnership to distribute programming on the Internet — the so-called YouTube Killer. Why did you decide not to?

Moonves: What was difficult for us was the idea of exclusivity. We would have had to funnel every piece of content through that mechanism. It didn't give us the freedom we wanted to make partnerships all over the place. We're so much in the infancy of the Internet; three years from now, this is going to seem like the dinosaur age. We've got to learn about users — how much they're using, why they're using it, when they're using it — and we have to connect with them. We think we can accomplish as much alone as they're doing together.

Wired: There's a lot of CBS material on YouTube. How does that work?

Moonves: You have to look at it in two different ways. One is content that you will get paid for directly, and the other is promotional content. Our attitude is, either pay us for it or give us promotional value that will eventually lead to our getting paid for it.

Wired: How do you tell the difference?

Moonves: If there's a one-minute clip of CSI, or user-generated clips like different shots of David Caruso taking off his glasses, that's great promotion. If they were showing a whole episode of CSI and we weren't getting paid, we'd object.
Wired: Do you have your own favorite YouTube video?

Moonves: My wife is the host of Big Brother. Her name is Julie Chen, and she'll say, "Da da da, but first we do this." So they mashed together her saying "but first" a couple dozen times. Literally. In different outfits. And when you cut it together like that, it appears very robotlike. They called her the Chenbot.

Wired: Recently, you made a deal with Verizon Wireless. Do you think mobile TV is going to work?

Moonves: We think wireless is going to grow tremendously. Do I think people are going to watch an episode of Survivor on a 2-inch television set? I doubt it. But I do think somebody's going to go to a grocery store in the middle of a football game and watch that game.

Wired: Of all these new distribution channels, what's the most valuable?

Moonves: They're all good. We don't care how you get our content — over the air, over cable, satellite, the Internet, or on your cell phone — as long as we get paid for it.

Contributing editor Frank Rose (frank_rose@wired.com) wrote about 2007 Rave Award winner Michael Wesch in issue 15.05.

Betsy Morgan - CBSNews.com Head Now CEO Of Huffington Post - NY Times

Besty Morgan at the Webby's -- From Flickr.com

Betsy Morgan
Originally uploaded by jdlasica

As New Media advances and overtakes Old Media, more and more executives are making the transition, thanks to well-financed efforts like The Huffington Post.

In this case, the Huff Post -- a blog site that's a amalgam of articles with commentary, and of which this writer is a contributor -- has brought on Betsy Morgan .

Morgan says, "This is a tremendous opportunity to work with Arianna and Ken. In less than three years, The Huffington Post has distinguished itself as a major player in interactive news. HuffPost's range of contributors is extraordinary, its breadth of coverage expansive, and its network of online communities unparalleled. I look forward to helping steer the site toward even greater heights."

Earlier this year, Morgan said that CBS needed to figure out how to get bloggers onto the site, whom she calls "microjournalists." Now, she will be in the middle of a blogger-laden company.

Ms. Morgan joins The Huffington Post from CBS Interactive, where she was in charge of the network's 24-hour on-demand news service. Under Ms. Morgan's leadership, CBSNews.com has been an industry-leading provider of advertiser-supported free video across the web and wireless platforms. CBSNews.com has been recognized with several prestigious industry awards.

Before joining CBS Interactive, Ms. Morgan was a Vice President of CBS News in charge of business development, digital media and new television ventures. She began her career at CBS as the Head of the CBS Television Network's Strategic Management Group working in the Office of the Chairman and CEO of CBS. She has also worked for News Corporation's American Sky Broadcasting and before that started her career in investment banking. Ms. Morgan has a BA in political science and economics from Colby College and a MBA from Harvard Business School.

ABC News And Amada Congdon Still Together For Now

Contrary to many posts, ABC News Vlogging Star Amanda Congdon is still with the network for now. She reports on her blog...

Wow. A girl goes on vacation for a week (my first week off in over a year– I was in production on Christmas!) — and look what I come back to! Whew. Contrary to some reports, AC on ABC WILL resume next week, as I mentioned in my most recent episode. However, I’ve decided not to continue at ABC once our year together is up (and it ain’t up yet) in favor of a new, innovative project that will take every ounce of my time and energy. Brian Stelter over at the New York Times has some accurate coverage.

Thanks to everyone who has written me… I appreciate all the supportive emails, myspace messages, etc. I’m excited (kinda giddy actually) for what’s ahead– should be interesting. In the meantime, see you next week on ABC for a special military-themed episode.

I hope ABC comes to a moment of clarity and gives Amanda more involvement in how their news reporting is done. One can only hope...