My Birthday Wishes

My Birthday is this week and friends and family have been asking what I would like. There aren't too many things I really need so I've had to think long and hard about what I want and I've come up with a list.

I don't think I'll get all of these things by my birthday but I do hope that by next year this time all of my birthday wishes have come true.

My Birthday Wish List (in no particular order)

1. Beers on the Diggnation Couch with Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht.

2. A comedy writing lesson from Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine of Ask A Ninja.

3. Cocktails on the set of Tikibar TV with Dr. Tiki, Lala and Johnny Johnny.

4. Discover some new music and a cool new websites with Steve Woolf and Zadi Diaz of Epic FU.

5. A "How To Snowboard Episode" of French Maid TV.

6. A massage after playing paintball with The guys from Big Fantastic.

7. Getting a cool new video gadget the same time as Steve Garfield and having Steve set it up for me and explain to me how to use it.

8. Share a bottle of wine with Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV

9. Being able to watch all of my friends shows on my TV as easily as I can watch Heroes or any other Network or Cable TV Show.

10. Some hugs from my online video friends because we are all making more than a living from online video.

Online Video Leaders: Steve Garfield - The Nicest Guy in Online Video

Online Video Leaders a series of blog posts to honor those pioneers who have laid the groundwork in getting Internet video to where it is today.

It was January 1, 2004 when Steve Garfield took his videos and added them to his blog. That very well could make him the Father of Video Blogging or Vlogging. It definitely makes him a pioneer in online video and an Online Video Leader.

Since the early days Steve has been a correspondent for RocketBoom, a work for hire video guy / video blogger, an online radio show host, he teaches at Boston University and even got his Mother video blogging.

Last year Loic le Meur of video conversation site, Seesmic interviewed Steve Garfield in this video and there's some great info in it as Steve talks about video blogs he's discovered and how people are making money in online video.

I run into Steve at conferences and trade shows every now and again where he's speaking and I'm always impressed how Steve manages to find the coolest new cutting edge technology faster than anyone else and gets into it like a kid opening presents on Christmas day. Steve's curiosity and boyish charm have served him well on the Internet. As a true leader in Online Video, Steve is also known in the online video community as the nicest guy in Internet Video.

There's also another great Interview with the Father of Video Blogging on Veoh.

Be Sure and Visit: Steve Garfield Dot Com where you can try and keep up with what Steve Garfield is up to next.

Palintones

Add some Palintones to your mobile phones

Steve Garfield Makes a Book for His Mom

How To: Make a Blog Book with Blurb

Steve Garfield made a hardcover book of his mother's blog, 'My Mom's Blog' using Blurb.com. The book came out great and his mom loved it.

He had two problems. The first is that you can't do a global search and replace on the text from within the Blurb booksmart software. The second problem is that once you edit your book with the blurb booksmart software, you can't save it as a clean PDF without the blurb branding.

Two books seen in the video:

The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott.

Be the Media compiled by David Mathison.

Your Mobile Phone: The Ultimate Personal Media Creation Tool

The New Media Expo is the world's most popular convention for podcasters, bloggers and online content creators. If you are serious about online video it's an event that you shouldn't miss.

This is part of a blog series that highlights a session or event happening at New Media Expo - hopefully enticing you to come join us online video content creators in Las Vegas August 14-16, 2008.

There are few people that I know that are on the cutting edge of technology that still speak "English." Steve Garfield is one of those people and he's a really nice guy. Steve is one of the most respected people in the online video community and he has a lot of information to share.

DON'T MISS STEVE GARFIELD'S SESSION.

Your Mobile Phone: The Ultimate Personal Media Creation Tool
Track 5: New Media Strategies
Instructor: Steve Garfield of SteveGarfield.com
Description: You may think you need expensive HD video cameras and a Ph.D in video editing software to create interesting content. But no! Inexpensive video cameras available on many cell phones today can be used to tell stories without a lot of editing and without expensive lighting and time-intensive pre-planning. In this session, you'll learn how to convey your ideas and stories in a way that will capture the attention of the viewer and keep them coming back for more. Practical tips for mobile video blogging will be discussed so that you can start creating content the moment you step outside the workshop door. You'll also learn the best places to post your content, how to best present the video clips on your website or blog, and how to get attention for your media early-on.

The New Media Expo conference web site has outstanding resources including the Official New Media Expo podcast and various podcaster templates and documents, and links to all the speakers' blogs.

Oh, you might also want to Book your hotel now and get your free Expo Hall Pass before the price increase.

Express LLC Sponsors Online Video Reality Series for Vogue

Super Blogger / Super Vlogger extraordinaire Steve Garfield sent me a link to this story and video By RACHEL DODES of the Wall Street Journal: "Express LLC, a clothing retailer that is trying to court young fashionistas, paid in the "low seven figures" to be the show's lead sponsor..." of Model.Live for Vogue.

Thanks for the link Steve!

Don't be Dissin' The Twitter

Tim Bourquin, the Founder and CEO of TNC New Media the company behind the New Media Expo has said some things on his blog and in his news letter about Twitter that I take issue with. Rather than post my comments on his blog I will share them with you here. (cause I needed a good post today)

Let me start off by saying that I like and respect Tim Bourquin and his brother Emile Bourquin. They put on the best show for new media content creators and I will be speaking there in Las Vegas August 14-16.

The title of Tim's post is "Social Networking. Not Social. Not Networking."

and part of the post:

"I’ve always thought of “social networking” as a bit of a misnomer. Sitting in front of a computer screen writing 140 character messages on Twitter or commenting on a blog or tagging photos on Facebook doesn’t feel like networking to me - and honestly, it doesn’t feel very social either. Having a beer with friends and colleagues = social. Talking shop with someone I just met at a reception = networking.
Now granted, I’m a conference organizer, so “old-fashioned” meetups with people is how I believe “real” social networking takes place. So I had to laugh today when I read a blog post that had the following line:
“Twitter has been down for about an hour - how are you spending the time?”
As if Twitter was the only way to spend time and finding other things to do was a challenge! Has it really gotten that bad for some people?
If every website and email server worldwide went down for several hours during a weekday, I might actually be wondering myself how to spend that time. Picking up the phone and making a few calls would probably be the answer. But a single site?"


I think Tim needs to get with the program. Like a phone, Twitter is a tool. A new tool that people are just learning to use. A tool that informs, entertains and a tool that creates community and even conflict.

To me Tim sounds like an old sales guy who says he doesn't need to use a computer. I think Tim has just not found how to make Twitter work for him yet. But I know he will.

I'm sure Tim has seen people come to his events. They stand in the corner and never approach anyone. They don't know how to network at an event. Then they shoot Tim an email after the event is over and tell Tim they didn't meet anyone at his conference.

I've not yet made a sponsorship sale for French Maid TV by using Twitter but I am very close to closing a sponsorship deal in which I know my Tweets (I like to call them "Twitters" but that's not cool) got the ball rolling.

Now I must give Tim Bourquin some credit, he is not the only one out there complaining about or having trouble getting their heads around Twitter. Andrew Baron (@andrewbaron) of Rocketboom has said, "I'm still not happy with how I use my Twitter account. 'Still trying to find a good use for it." and Search Guru John Battelle (@John Battelle) who is still lurking and learning how best to use Twitter said that he's not yet following lots of people on twitter because he thinks that the publishers that he represents would, "think it's most imp. for me to take that next client call.."

Twitter is a new tool but it's also the water cooler of our group's "now" and just like a water cooler in an office building there are some folks who are goofing off hanging around the water cooler but there are other folks who are learning important information on how to do their job better.

Take for example Pete Cashmore (@mashable) CEO of Mashable.com He has made good use of Twitter and keeps us all informed of breaking news items he's posted on his blog. Steve Garfield ( @stevegarfield ) of Steve Garfield.com let's us know when he's found a new gadget or is streaming live from some place that we want to see. And Scott Beale ( @laughingsquid ) of laughingsquid.com shares his photos from the coolest hippest events around.

I'm use to working in an office full of people and because of that I never used IM except in rare cases but now that I've downsized and work alone until I'm in production I use Twitter as a gateway to other humans as well as a clearing house to find out what the latest cool Internet posting are and what events are going on that might be of interest to me. I've also started meeting new people who are approaching me about consulting for them. All this reminds me of when I was a young freelance line producer at Disney MGM Studios in Florida.

When I would get done with a gig or was close to finishing a shoot I would hang out in the client lounge at The Post Group at the Disney MGM Studios. I knew that the client lounge was where producers who could hire me would be hanging out while their project was going through the final editing process and that soon they would be starting a new job in which they might need a line producer. It was the water cooler of Disney MGM and I got many a job hanging out there and drinking free Coke. Every once in awhile I would get a free lunch too. Other freelancers came for the free cokes and chat but I saw that client lounge as a networking tool.

Twitter is the water cooler of our community and of other communities that I don't belong to. I've already got a few free drinks because of Twitter, gone to some great parties because of Twitter and networked with great people because of Twitter.

So Don't Be Dissin' The Twitter!

Why go to conferences anymore?

http://qik.com/video/33329

The only reason I can see to go to a conference anymore is for the one on one relationship building aspect. Other than that you can get all the information blogged, twittered, pownced, podcasts or live video cast as in the above video from Steve Garfield.

Okay it's still fun to go to the event.

The Revver Wordpress Plug In

Okay, so now Revver has created a Revver Video Plugin for Wordpress. What does this mean for you and me the Online Video Producers well other than Revver needing a French Maid TV episode explaining "How To Install the Revver Video Wordpress Plugin" and another French Maid TV episode explaining "How To Upload Video" it means quite a lot. Especially if you produce an online video that people want to create video responses to.

Just think of all the videos on Youtube that get video responses posted on them. Well if you use the Revver plugin and people post video responses to your Revver videos on your site, you will get paid money from Revver when people watch the ads that get posted on the video responses.

Nuff said?

Have a look at LOLCATS and see how it integrates into their site. Maybe someone can talk Steve Garfield into posting a video response to one of the cat videos and we can all see how it really works.