Vloggers are voters, not reporters

Since this is a video blog, I thought I'd cross-link here to my political blog to an entry about vloggers and bloggers in political campaigns. Lots of talk about that subject in the blogosphere lately.

Mark and Lisa's Golden puppy is now 14 weeks

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Mark and Lisa had a Christmas party last night, so we got a chance to see Samson at 14 weeks old. He's still really cute, but has quite a case of puppy ADHD. :)

Egg nog and rum at work...

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Nothing like a little (illegal) Christmas cheer at work. These are some of my friends in the office. We had a little clandestine egg nog, rum and cookies in my office this afternoon. It was really nice. I love 'em all.

Christmas Cookies

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My wife has been baking for two solid days. We have enough cookies to sink a battleship. The vast majority go out as gifts to friends and family, but a few will go to work with me next week when we finish off the egg nog we didn't drink on Friday.

Email to Amanda re: ABCnews.com debut

Like a lot of other people, I've been waiting with great anticipation to see Amanda's debut on her new "pro" gig with ABCnews.com. Well, I checked it out this morning, and was itching to leave a comment and see what others were saying. But.... no comment area or link. At least that I could find. So, I up and emailed her. Here's what I wrote.

Amanda,

Just got done watching your first installment on ABCnews.com.

So, first off, congratulations!!

The good news:
1. You look and sound fantastic! The pro studio, lighting, editing and sound all contribute to a well-produced piece.

2. I like that you've kept the t-shirt, the hair flick, and best: the old Amanda attitude! (where are the paper tosses, though?)

3. Oh yeah... the content... :) Good stuff for the most part, but see The Bad News.

The bad news:

1. The ads. OMG, they play every time you to try watch something. BAD, BAD, BAD, BAD. At least have the player do a one-time per visit thing. Better yet, no video ads. PLEASE!

2. I'm sending you this email because there's no way to make a comment on that episode. Well, it may be there somewhere, but damned if I can find it.
If you want to keep your vlog-aware fans and create new ones, it's got to look more like a vlog, not ABC News sound bites. I want to comment and see what other people say.

3. No links to the topics you covered. Again, they may be there somewhere, but damned if I can find them, especially when every time I click on something I have to listen to a 30 sec ad I can't pause or skip over. After a couple of tries at finding links, I gave up. Please, please. Ditch the ads.

4. For a weekly gig, I think it needs to be longer, and slower paced. Hope that sometimes you'll also go less pro and more "commando" like AAA. It should be a balance, though. Use the pros to let you be seen and heard better, but not so much that you lose your connection to the peeps, which, as we all know is what vlogs are all about.

5. Again, it needs to look more like a blog/vlog not another brick in the ABC News wall. You need more space, your own page, and you need to have creative control on the design. Don't let the ABC style Nazis tell you different! The medium is the message.

6. On the same note...Use a more normal player please! One with frame shuttle, or at least fast forward. Tell ABC to shove their proprietary player. That would partially solve the ad problem, too. Or maybe better... Cross-post to blip! Yeah!

So, on the whole, a promising start, but you've got to lay it down to ABC. The setting they've put you in is not consistent with the vlog medium's message.

Love ya!!
Yer CT homie,
Joe C.

I followed up a few minutes later with...

I almost forgot! Where's the RSS feed?

:)

JoeC

She replied....

Yup. I'm actively working on all of these things. Turning a big ship.

There are comments though... and links. Check again. :)

did you get the whole javascript joke in the episode? I prefer embedded players too. We're working on it.

Check out amandacongdon.com for my first blog post about the abc process!

Thanks so much for your feedback. I am forwarding it to the big guys. ;)

Where else but in the blogosphere would you get a response like that?
Jeez, I luvs that girl... :)

ps. Steve Garfield has also blogged about Amanda's debut today.

Winter & Fireplace

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The good feeling doesn't last too awfully long into the winter, but at least initially, the fireplace and the couch and a glass of wine are really comfy and cozy when you come home from work on a cold December night.

First snow

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A little video note to Roxanne. This is winter in New England. Temp = 32 degrees F. Light, wet snow. Hawaii winter looks pretty good to me right now!

Boston Media Makers meeting - Dec. 2006

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The monthly meeting of Boston Media Makers took place this morning at Sweet Finnish in Jamaica Plain, MA.  We had a great meeting with lots of very interesting folks from all kinds of backgrounds. We had artists, software developers, film makers, audio producers and others. Sean Fitzroy from BrightCove was the featured speaker and did a presentation on his company.

Stay tuned to http://bostonmediamakers.wordpress.com/ for news on when the January meeting it will be held. 

This group meeting is a great opportunity to meet lots of people involved in new media, video blogging, commercialization, film-making, etc., etc. It's a really relaxed and very friendly and welcoming group, so come join in. I highly recommend it.

Wreath Shopping

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Being the first weekend in December, I was conscripted by the spousal unit to go decoration shopping. There's a little place in our town called Adam's Garden of Eden that has really great handmade wreaths as well as all manner of other holiday decorations. Unfortunately, I didn't realize until I got out there that my camera batteries were low, so I only got a little video. But what I got was very colorful. And, they had complimentary hot cider and cookies! That was good because it was rather cold and blustery today in Connecticut. Happy decorating!