The web just got a lot smaller. (And that’s a good thing.)
Google Custom Searches, a.k.a Google Co-Op searches, have been quietly working their way onto your favorite websites everywhere. Towards the end of 2006, Google announced the service they’d been piloting with a few partners. The free tool allows anyone with a Gmail account to set up a custom search of a specified list of websites. In this post I talk about creating a new custom search with basic features. I also mention some examples.
For me, one of the most enjoyable aspects of blogging a conference is the opportunity to capture and post video on the blog. Video can add a dynamic element to your blogging, and it can help make the event come alive for your audience. In this closing post on conference blogging, I’ll share a few steps involved in blogging a conference with video. Is it as easy as shooting some video and posting it on your blog? Yes and no.
When I blog a conference with video, I like to ensure that the video clips I shoot will lend themselves to quick, self-contained segments of no more than 2-3 minutes in length. I tend to plan blog posts in advance of shooting the video, with a goal in mind for the topic each post will communicate.
In the first part of this series, I covered a few of the basic techniques and approaches to blogging from conferences. Conference blogging is a great opportunity to introduce new ideas for your readers and provide direct quotes and interviews. In this post, we’ll talk about ways to make the most of the blogging medium itself in the context of a conference while at the same time being sensitive to the needs of your readers.
As a conference blogger, you enjoy many freedoms. You don’t have to stick to the straight and narrow. You can explore new territory and leverage all the benefits of the blogging medium to welcome your readers into the event. Below you’ll find a few ideas do to just this.
Soon it will be spring conference season, and you’ll be hitting the conference circuit. Conferences can provide fantastic material for blogging. In fact, I’ve seen many people get their start in blogging by guest-blogging from conferences for a blogger who can’t attend.
Blog coverage of conferences is getting its share of visibility these days – from the ability of blogs to cover conference developments faster than many main stream media outlets, to suspicion surrounding conferences that don’t allow blogging. [Read more…]
Two thousand six saw the explosion of video blogging and a mammoth reorganization in its pantheon of stars, with Robert Scoble heading to PodTech to do his own video blog covering the Silicon Valley tech scene and Amanda Congdon ditching Rocketboom to do her own sponsored video blog and pursue big-network deals.
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One of my interests is exploring ways new media can have a positive impact on a local community. So six months ago with a partner I launched a video blog exploring the region of Pennsylvania where I live.
More than eighty video segments later, we’re beginning to look for new ways to distribute our short-form video content other than via the WordPress instance that forms the backbone of the video blog. We’€™ve been shooting and editing in the high definition video (HDV) format, with the goal of eventually publishing higher resolution versions alongside the 400×225 Quicktime versions we’€™ve been offering thus far. [Read more…]
