The New Media Collective

There's a project that's been going on for awhile that I've been meaning to talk about. It's called BX21, and was started by videoblogger, Jonny Goldstein, in the Bronx, NY back in January. The unique program, short for "Bronx 21st Century," teaches inner-city high school kids how to videoblog. According to Jonny, "in the 21st Century, everyone in the Bronx will be able to make their own TV shows and put them on the web. In the 21st Century, youth in the Bronx are taking the lead in the personal media revolution, creating videos and soundscapes and, soon, posting them online."

An initiative of the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (SoBRO), and Vision Education and Media, of which Jonny is affiliated, BX21 is doing its part to close the digital divide by bringing technology directly to those that most need it. The students, close to 150 of them, from Evander Childs High School and Morris High School, have learned how to create, edit and upload digital videos to a group blog.

Continue reading "Vlogging in the "Boogie Down"" »

Posted by Melanie Morgan at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

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This MEDIA MINDS segment features Anil de Mello, creator of the European-based videoblog, MobuzzTV, being interviewed by Jay Dedman at the Santa Barbara Forum on Digital Transitions Conference that took place April 9-10 in California. This interview is part of a series of videos produced for the conference's videoblog by contributors Dedman, Chris Ritke, Ryanne Hodson, Markus Sandy, Dave Toole, Josh Paul and JD Lasica. To learn more about the conference, check out their wiki.

MobuzzTV is a daily 3-minute videocast produced specifically for mobile phones and small screens. It presents an informative, lighthearted, and irreverent take on technology and current events, presenting "stories of interest to a globally-minded generation."

Posted by Melanie Morgan at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As a cool follow-up to the OUR VOICES interview we did with Zadi Diaz back in February, here's an audio interview with her for the Slave Spotlight segment of the new podcast, Media Slaves.

Media Slaves is a roundtable podcast produced by Debi "Mobile" Jones, Marianne Richmond, Nicole Simon, and Zadi Diaz. The Slave Spotlight segments will feature interviews with each one of the Media Slaves producers, allowing you to get to know them individually through their own words.

If that wasn't enough, check out another interview with Zadi by Chris Ritke of the 49Media podcast produced last year.

Posted by Melanie Morgan at 05:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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I'm absolutely ecstatic to announce the arrival of the new book, Secrets of Videoblogging: Videoblogging for the Masses, by my friends Ryanne Hodson and Michael Verdi. Published by Peachpit Press, this book has been long awaited by the videoblogging community, whose members are featured prominently throughout.

This video, produced for the newly updated Freevlog.com (Freevlog 3.0), features Ryanne and Michael talking about the how's and why's of Secrets of Videoblogging, and all the cool things they cover in the text, under headings like Citizen Journalism and Topic, Tone and Audience.

Dedicated to vloggers everywhere, Secrets of Videoblogging: Videoblogging for the Masses is now available at Amazon.com.

Posted by Melanie Morgan at 03:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

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Vloggercon 2006 is coming soon and for those who have no idea what it's about, here's a video featuring two of Vloggercon's organizers, Schlomo Rabinowitz and Jay Dedman, giving an overview of what the conference is and why you should be there. Produced by Ryanne Hodson, this video is among many others appearing on Vloggercon's website promoting the event convening in San Francisco, CA on June 10 & 11.

(Video originally posted on Ryanne's Videoblog on April 8, 2006.)

Posted by Melanie Morgan at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Andrew Michael Baron and Amanda Congdon from the popular videoblog, Rocketboom, will be live and in person at The Museum of the Moving Image in New York City this Sunday, April 23 at 4:00 pm for the museum's Video Blog Explosion event. Also on hand will be Ravi Jain from DriveTime, and Jakob Lodwick from Vimeo. Admission is $10.00.

Rocketboom, a daily 3-minute newscast, has more than 100,000 viewers. Ravi Jain’s DriveTime is a weekly talk show taped in Jain’s car during his one-hour commute to and from metropolitan Boston. Lodwick’s Vimeo is a popular site for uploading and sharing video clips.

Check out this interview with Andrew and Amanda to learn a little more about Rocketboom. And click on the image below to see what Ravi Jain's DriveTime is all about.

The Museum of the Moving Image, located at 35 Avenue at 36 Street in Astoria, Queens, is dedicated to educating the public about the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television, and digital media and to examining their impact on culture and society.

Posted by Melanie Morgan at 07:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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For those who missed Roger Spence's Videoblogs from Around the Globe presentation at the Echo Park Film Center in Los Angeles on March 30 (see announcement), here's a video recap of the event shot by NMC's own Zadi Diaz and edited by Roger. Enjoy!

(FYI: Roger's the one in the gray cap and shirt.)

(Video originally posted on Of By and For on April 12, 2006.)

Posted by Melanie Morgan at 02:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

To get back in the good graces of the vlogging community, Veoh Networks, Inc. CEO, Dmitry Shapiro, issued an open letter to the Yahoo Videoblogging Group last night apologizing for any misunderstandings or possible wrongdoing, and vowed to never let anything like this happen again. As a peace offering, he even offered up Veoh as a Vloggercon 2006 sponsor. I guess Mr. Shakespeare said it best: "All's well that ends well."

Check out the letter below:

Dear Video Bloggers,

As I have stated in previous messages, Veoh's intent has never been to be a place where publisher's rights are violated. It is our intent to provide an open service where content publishers can easily publish their video and deliver it to the world without the restrictions of traditional broadcast mediums. We are the greatest fans of user created video content, and believe that it is this revolution that will change the world that we live in.

Continue reading "Veoh Makes Nice" »

Posted by Melanie Morgan at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There's been a whole lot brewing in the videoblogging community these last few days over the unauthorized acquisition of videos by the online video service, Veoh. Apparently Veoh has been collecting videos from individual vlog sites as well as video services like blip.tv and OurMedia, and hosting them without the creator's knowledge or permission. They've also not given credit to the content creators for their work.

Videoblogging news site, We Are The Media (WATM), reported extensively about this issue in a post titled What's Going On With Veoh on April 8. The story was also covered on a number of blogs including GigaOM, and Loaded Pun, who has listed some of the pirated vlogs.

Posted by Melanie Morgan at 02:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

It's Videoblogging Week 2006!

I know there's not much time, but get your camera's out and start shooting. From Monday, April 3 to Sunday, April 9, videobloggers across the planet will be shooting any and everything and posting it to their vlogs everyday. This ain't time for fancy editing—just shoot it, get it up there, and tag it so everyone will know where it is.

Learn more at the official (?) Videoblogging Week 2006 site, accept the challenge, and get your vlog on!

(To see last year's vids, check out Videoblogging Week 2005.)

Posted by Melanie Morgan at 04:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I know this is short notice, but if you're in the Los Angeles, CA area, there's going to be a videoblogging presentation given by Roger Spence of 93mm and Of By and For at the Echo Park Film Center this Thursday, March 30th.

Here's the official announcement:

Join us for an evening filled with videos from around the world made by people who have taken blogging to the next level. On Thursday, March 30th at 8pm, HEADUCATE media presents “Of By and For: videoblog selections from around the globe.” Gathered from various blogs, this showcase will feature videos from different countries with topics ranging from experimental to documentary to comedy.

The event takes place at the Echo Park Film Center located at 1200 N. Alvarado Street and Sunset Boulevard. Seating is limited so arrive early (RSVP if you can). Suggested donation is $5. For more information go to: OfByandFor.blogspot.com or call 818-554-2731.

Posted by Melanie Morgan at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the goals of The New Media Collective is to be a source of knowledge to the media making community. To that end, I've created a segment called HOW-TO that will introduce some basic information about various aspects of digital media and the blogosphere.

To kick things off, we'll look at how to find videoblogs and vodcasts. Although both are video driven, the main difference between videoblogs and vodcasts is their point of "view" (so to speak). In short, videoblogs are a type of weblog where entries are comprised primarily of videos (video + blog), whereas vodcasts are videos that are delivered on demand through RSS feeds (VOD). Videos from both vlogs and vodcasts can be viewed either online, on your desktop through software like FireAnt or iTunes, or downloaded into a portable digital media player. For more, see definition.

Continue reading "How To Find VIDEOBLOGS & VODCASTS" »

Posted by Melanie Morgan at 06:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)