Here is the Quicktime of my presentation from last night to the Chattanooga Area Library Association on Web 2.0 and Library 2.0. While a small crowd, they were very interested in what we’re doing at MPOW to try and move ourselves into a more 2.0 mindset and process.
Thanks to Jessamyn, from whom I borrowed the kitty scared image and the general “Don’t fear the user” concept. I briefly considered just using her slideshow and talking over it, because she puts things together so well.
Warning: this is the full-size QT, so be warned.
Make your own Battlestar
I got on the Galactica bandwagon well after most everyone I know…I watched the first few episodes, but never really got sucked in.
Then I got tired of everyone I know talking about it around me, so I just decided I’d catch up on the fraking thing and see what the buzz was about. I’m still not caught up (just finished Season 2) but it’s a good show. There are tons of things I have serious issues with, and I’m just not quite able to get the complete suspension of disbelief going like for Firefly or Heroes. But it’s good, solid, sci-fi TV.
One of the reasons that I decided to start watching, believe it or not, was the coolness of the show’s creators and promotional team. They just launched a Battlestar Galactica VideoMaker page that has on it clips and sound effects to use in your own Galactica videos…amazingly forward thinking of them, and a great way to garner my respect. They were also one of the very first shows to include podcasts of commentaries, which is an amazingly great way to interact with your audience, and add value to your product.
I definitely appreciate the willingness of the Network to involve the audience in new ways, and think this is one of the few ways that commercial video will survive. We are quickly moving into an entertainment era that is post-consumer, and the really interesting shows are providing alternate means of interaction beyond the passive. It’s a brave new world out there, and we’ll see who’s around in 10 years.
A week between posts
It’s been a week since I last got up the gumption to post here, mostly due to the ongoing issues with WP2.1. I’m a HUGE WordPress fan, and have been using it for this very blog since 1.3 or so. The additions to 2.1, for the most part, are welcome and needed, especially the auto-save feature. But it required far too much of my time figuring out how to get my links back into shape (they killed certain php calls in the code), and I still haven’t gotten my byline happy.
The byline on my site was being ran by having a random named link called from the links function of WP…things like “where no one notices the contrast of white on white” and “it’s the one that says Bad Motherfucker on it” were randomly inserted below my title. But now, because they’ve broken the title_li php function in their code, I can’t surpress the “Byline” heading of the category when I try and place the links there.
In all, it’s been very frustrating.
But, good things are coming. I’m on the way (tomorrow!) to Vegas, Baby!, for a much-needed vacation. So expect some pics and stories (well…some stories). Also, I’m working on an interesting analysis of the first foray into Podcasting by myself and my buds over at LITABlog…some cool stuff there as well.