Getting Linked

You’ve been experimenting with some form of social media for the past couple of weeks, and written about that experience (I hope!) for this week’s blog post. Now I’d like you to add one more social media experiment to the mix: a Linked In page.

Some of you brought up the potential problems posed by MySpace and Facebook accounts for people who may be looking for a job soon: these pages tend to focus on the fun side of your life and may not create a good impression on potential employers. Linked In offers a solution to that problem. It’s a more professionally oriented social networking site…more like having your resume and potential jobs network online.

So this week, please establish a Linked In account and set up a page on the site.

Also, if you haven’t yet created a link list on your blog, now’s the time to do it. Here’s what you should have in a links list in your blog’s sidebar:

1. A link to this blog
2. A link to your class web page
3. A link to your Linked In page
4. A link to your social media page of choice (your MySpace, Facebook, Twitter or Flickr page, etc.)
5. Links to the blogs you’ve been following for this class
6. Links to a few of your classmates’ blogs (optional)
7. Links to a few web sites that you find useful and/or interesting (optional)

Here’s how to do it in Blogger: In your dashboard, click on the Layout tab, then click on “Page Elements.” You should see an “add an element” link on the upper right side. Click on that and select the “link list” option (and any other options that sound good).

Also, please make sure you’ve got links to your video project on your class blog (in a blog post) and on your class web page.

Online A.S. election guide

Check out the Spartan Daily’s online Associated Students election guide, a multimedia package complete with pics, profiles and videos of individual candidates, as well as links to the Daily’s recent A.S. election coverage. (Consider it another prototype for your final multimedia project.)

This election guide was put together by spartandaily.com editor Kyle Hansen, who took this class last year. (Yes, we profs like to brag on our success stories, and we certainly count Kyle as one of them!)

Like you, he started a blog when he took the class; he’s still writing Kyle’s Comments.

Bee photographer coming to JMC

Brian Baer, a photographer with The Sacramento Bee, will speak to students in Instructor Steve Sloan’s APSC/MCom 63 class at 6 p.m. next Wednesday, April 23, in DBH 226. All JMC students are welcome to attend.

“Brian is a ‘hot shooter’,” says Sloan. “He has one of the keenest eyes I know of. He is an alum of our photojournalism program and is still passionate about photojournalism.”

Extra Credit: If you attend this session, take notes and you can write an extra credit blog post about it. It’ll be worth up to 15 points.

Hot topics for blog posts

Looking for a topic for this week’s blog post? Here are some candidates:

• An Ad Age article on Web 3.0 and the dearth (and perhaps the death) of original reporting
• Blogger Mayhill Fowler reflecting on her reporting of Obama’s “bitter” comments
• The Churner Prize web site/blog, focusing on examples of “chournalism”
• Actor Tim Robbins’ rabble-rousing speech at the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas

If you have some other hot media-related topics you’d like to suggest, please add them in a comment to this blog post.

Two online tutorials

The last two classes have focused on two News U tutorials — Five Steps to Multimedia Storytelling and Telling Stories with Sound — in preparation for your podcast project and your final multimedia project.

If you missed either of these classes, you’ll need to complete the tutorials on your own.

To complete the tutorials, you’ll need to register on the News U website — set up a username and password — and log in. Here’s the link to the News U website: http://www.newsu.org/.

Once you’ve logged in, click on the “Courses” tab, select the “Online/Multimedia” category, and select these tutorials: Five Steps to Multimedia Storytelling and Telling Stories with Sound. Allow 45-60 minutes to complete each tutorial.

When you complete a tutorial, click on the “Course Report” tab and send me a report. That will be my cue to give you credit for completing the tutorial. If you completed these tutorials in class, you’re all set…and you can proceed with the two final projects for this class.

New office hours

I’ve changed my office hours to 2-4 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

For the rest of the month, I’ll be filling in for another JMC instructor who’s recovering from surgery. Her 100w class meets at 12 noon T/Th, so I’ve pushed back my office hours from 12:15-1:45 p.m. to 2-4 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I can also usually be found in my office before class, from 8-9 a.m., but I’m usually getting ready for class so please try to limit any early morning visits to quick questions.

Some sample multimedia projects

Here’s a link to a group of multimedia projects created for this class by Spring ‘07 students. Take a look around and see what they did. It might give you some ideas for your final project.

• Direct link to S’07 student multimedia projects: http://www.jmc.sjsu.edu/student/jour163/projects.html
• Be sure to check out these examples: 
  • Percussion, a multimedia project created by Josh Peterson and Jason Freer, spring ‘07)
  • Burning Water, a multimedia project created by Eleanor Capili, Karie Lingg and Julie Cheng, spring ‘07)
  • San Jose Beer and Food, a multimedia project created by Brett Gifford, Khalid Jivani, Mike Wright and Ramon Hernandez

Video storyboarding: the next step, the next assignment

You’ve been playing with iMovie, creating a short video using stills and video clips recorded with the built-in iSight camera on your Mac.

The next step is to actually plan a video — that is, to come up with an idea for a simple story, develop a storyboard that outlines the story and the shots you’ll need to make it work, and then shoot your video and edit it into a 2-3 minute piece. This will be your video project. (And if you’re really on the ball, you’ll think ahead and create a video that can also work as part of your final multimedia project…thus killing two birds with one stone!)

Your storyboard for your video project is due Tuesday, April 1.

What’s a storyboard, you ask? Here are a couple links to information on storyboards and storyboarding:

• Storyboarding – Resources and Vlogging Assistance, from a BlogHer presentation by Gena Haskett
  • If you missed class on 3/18 and/or 3/20, and did not pick up a storyboard template in class, you can download a sample from this web page. Just scroll down to “Analog Storyboarding” and download one of the two storyboard samples listed…or scroll down to “Digital Storyboarding” and download the (free) software for the Atomic Learning Storyboard Program.
• Five Steps to Multimedia Storytelling – Step 2/Storyboarding, part of an online tutorial developed by News U (click on Dancing Rocks Case Study to see a sample)
• Sequencing: The Foundation of video storytelling – a blog post on the Mastering Multimedia blog, another good resource

UPDATE: To create a video, you need to shoot video…and not just in front of an iSight camera in the computer lab. Some of you are planning to use the video mode in your digital cameras. Some of you are planning to borrow a camcorder from the DBH equipment room after spring break (we’ll hope they survive the Mexico trip).

However, if you’re interested in acquiring a camcorder of your own, here’s one possibility: I just watched NTY Tech Writer David Pogue’s video review of the Flip Ultra video recorder, a low-cost, easy-to-use, “point-an-shoot” version of a camcorder. It’s under $200, and it looks pretty neat. I think I may get one.

Direct link: http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=5599bfb498ac8619a79065bc71eb9549b8620db3

Your Cluetrain Manifesto blog post

I’ve gotten a couple questions about the Cluetrain Manifesto assignment. No, I’m not asking you to read all of it. Yes, I am asking you to read the 95 Theses. And I’m suggesting you might want to look over some of the rest of it, such as the “Elevator Rap,” Introduction and Chapter 6: EZ Answers.

Once you’ve read some of it, I want you to think about it and write a blog post about it. It’s due tomorrow.

Some suggestions: What’s the most interesting thesis, idea or concept you found in the Cluetrain Manifesto? It was written about a decade ago…do you think it’s still relevant today? Does it offer worthwhile ideas about the Web for people in business and the media? Do any of the 95 Theses apply to the media field you hope to pursue?

The web 2.0 video

In case you’d like to take another look at the Web 2.0 video we watched in class this morning, it’s called “The Machine is Us/ing Us” and it’s by Prof. Michael Wesch of Kansas State University. It’s posted on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g