tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16165742187129252782024-03-18T23:27:04.430-04:00Digital FutureTom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.comBlogger70125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-86237002093369470192012-12-11T15:27:00.004-05:002012-12-11T15:27:58.429-05:00Using digital tools to mourn, support others While Capital District residents have had some trying times lately as multiple tragedies struck the area, they've also shown us, and, <a href="http://espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/story/_/id/8708243/tim-tebow-new-york-jets-responds-tweets-calls-injured-matt-hardy">in some cases</a>, <a href="http://mashable.com/2012/12/04/tim-tebow-calls-teen-twitter/">the nation</a>, just how powerful they can be when they come together in support of each other.<br />
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Locals were first struck by the tragic news of a <a href="http://troyrecord.com/articles/2012/12/05/news/doc50bef1da520b6351701252.txt">Dec. 1 highway crash which claimed the lives of area high school student athletes</a> Deanna Rivers and Chris Stewart.<br />
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As area friends, classmates, and family members mourned, the community came together in a locally unprecedented, massive movement on social media asking professional athletes Tim Tebow and Missy Franklin to call surviving students Matt Hardy and Bailey Wind as they lay recovering in the hospital.<br />
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The effort when far beyond the Shenendehowa or Shaker school districts where the students were enrolled, their teammates, or even people who knew them directly. Accounts from across the area described just about everyone getting some kind of message on Twitter or through other means to retweet or pass along the message.<br />
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The hashtags #<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23TebowCallMatt&src=typd">TebowCallMatt</a> and #<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23MissyCallBailey&src=typd">MissyCallBailey</a> spread like wildfire on Twitter - so much so that the <a href="http://troyrecord.com/articles/2012/12/04/news/doc50bd6dea20437222415419.txt">athletes actually responded</a>, providing a small amount of joy to students who suffered a terrible loss and had only begun to start dealing with that fact.<br />
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<i>The Record</i>'s own <a href="http://twitter.com/LauraAmato">Laura Amato</a> <a href="http://capitaldistrictsports.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-power-of-people.html">wrote her own post on the power of people</a> in this situation and <a href="http://capitaldistrictsports.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-power-of-people.html">I'll refer to her for more on this</a> amazing community outreach which stands as a great example of what these digital tools can be used for.<br />
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In a similar show of community support, residents of Mechanicville came together over the last week following the news that <a href="http://troyrecord.com/articles/2012/12/11/news/doc50c5f6c0ef059803877742.txt">a local Marine serving in Afghanistan was killed in action</a>.<br />
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We provided coverage of the return of Anthony Denier's body on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/troyrecord"><i>The Record</i>'s Facebook page</a> by posting photos from the receptions and motorcade transportation and instantly started getting feedback from community members wishing the family the best in these hard times, remembering Denier as they knew him and much more.<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151274530119501.488604.323072279500&type=1">The album we posted</a> was shared more than 40 times in the last 24 hours, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151274637914501&set=a.10151274530119501.488604.323072279500&type=3&src=https%3A%2F%2Fsphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-ash3%2F522632_10151274637914501_2072721621_n.jpg&size=800%2C656#">some photos</a> went <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151274637859501&set=a.10151274530119501.488604.323072279500&type=3&src=https%3A%2F%2Fsphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-prn1%2F61311_10151274637859501_1536319902_n.jpg&size=800%2C492#">practically viral with more than 150 shares and 360 likes</a> as they were spread by readers and community members - just another example of the great power of social media to connect people in need, whether for news and information, social interaction, or support in times of need.Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-60664903228492507292012-11-09T15:32:00.000-05:002012-11-09T15:32:00.036-05:00Crowdsourcing advice for the next presidentAnother exciting Election Day has passed for the nation and we can once again begin to count the days until the next Super Bowl of the news industry begins.<br />
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Election coverage has evolved greatly in past years from times when results had to be called in for print to present day when we can have reporters live tweeting their coverage from the parties held by major political camps.<br />
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This year also brought change in our coverage with respect to how <a href="http://www.digitalfirstmedia.com/">Digital First Media</a>'s <a href="http://www.netnewscheck.com/article/20872/thunderdome-takes-shape-at-digital-first">Thunderdome</a> project allowed us to bring a wide variety of national, presidential election coverage to our audience while being able to be more focused on our local races at each of our respective papers.<br />
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While you can see all of the great coverage the Thunderdome team has been working on lately on <a href="http://www.dfmpolitics.com/?domain=troyrecord">our politics page</a>, a project that I thought worked particularly well on Election Day was one where they dispatched our DFM reporters across the country to ask voters one simple question - "What advice do you have for the next president?"<br />
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Reporters then took a photo of the voter and e-mailed their responses to the central Thunderdome team, which organized the posts and distributed them nation-wide.<br />
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It was really such a simple thing, but it provided a great nation-wide look at voter opinions as they exercised their constitutional rights at the polls.<br />
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Here's <a href="http://www.dfmpolitics.com/2012/11/the-best-advice-for-president-barack-obama-from-voters-on-election-day/">some of the best advice provided by voters</a> as part of the project, as selected by Thunderdome staffers. I'll also post some of our local submissions from Troy below.<br />
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Local submissions:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">"Just make the world a better place, that's the best you can do. Good luck, being President is a handful." </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Christina Walker (Troy,NY)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">"Just make the world a better place, that's the best you can do. Good luck, being President is a handful." </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Christina Walker (Troy,NY)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqij7wFyUte9rCvDXNxHbKy9rn9soE6xRlDGYlqTPZm35m7-Rnd70z6MonpWyiv4Pb6JrQ9EMrjdod9GPGqFI74jLFjiF9wJYLNTZfFD2JMDkjx-dwMd4gppy9jV0kaiNX_DGptUzNfvCa/s1600/John+Petersen_Troy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqij7wFyUte9rCvDXNxHbKy9rn9soE6xRlDGYlqTPZm35m7-Rnd70z6MonpWyiv4Pb6JrQ9EMrjdod9GPGqFI74jLFjiF9wJYLNTZfFD2JMDkjx-dwMd4gppy9jV0kaiNX_DGptUzNfvCa/s320/John+Petersen_Troy.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">"</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">It's time to build up America and forget foreign trade. We are already deep in debt to China and they sell more here than we will ever sell there." </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">John Petersen (Troy, NY)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">"We need more money. People aren't making enough to keep up with the economy. We're working 2-3 jobs just to make ends meet."Eddie Zepf (Troy, NY)</span>Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-23526833970938970682012-10-23T13:40:00.005-04:002012-10-23T13:40:50.136-04:00Full guide on how to start podcastingI've recently had the time to finish assembling a complete podcasting guide for anyone looking to try this at their own property.<br />
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As always, leave any questions or comments you might have and please download and subscribe to <a href="http://bit.ly/MiddayRamble">Midday Ramble</a>!
<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/106373158/Podcasting-Guide-Sept-2012" style="-x-system-font: none; display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px auto; text-decoration: underline;" title="View Podcasting Guide Sept. 2012 on Scribd">Podcasting Guide Sept. 2012</a><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="" data-auto-height="true" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_31188" scrolling="no" src="http://www.scribd.com/embeds/106373158/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-2g1ju0fbrj3ml6rjh9ya" width="100%"></iframe>Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-16316929851555296212012-07-20T12:46:00.003-04:002012-07-20T12:46:31.689-04:00Live blog from Saratoga Race Course Opening Day<iframe src='http://embed.scribblelive.com/Embed/v5.aspx?Id=53233&ThemeId=5938' width='600' height='600' frameborder='0' style='border: 1px solid #000'></iframe>Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-61249491717090040372012-05-10T10:59:00.001-04:002012-05-10T10:59:37.112-04:00PODCAST: Vito Ciccarelli - The man behind Troy's music<span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">In Episode 5 of </span><a href="http://bit.ly/MiddayRamble" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #004080; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Midday Ramble</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">, Tom Caprood sits down with Vito Ciccarelli, longtime music coordinator for the City of Troy.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">During the conversation, Ciccarelli touches on his history in the music industry, how he grew the Powers Park concert series in Lansingburgh into what it is today, upcoming concerts in the city, and even some new special events coming in 2012.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">To see what he is up to, as well as what the city has planned, make sure to check out the upcoming events page on </span><a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2012/05/10/entertainment/www.troyny.gov" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #004080; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">www.troyny.gov</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">.</span>
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</script>Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-82179125350412014302012-04-27T14:52:00.001-04:002012-04-27T14:53:17.756-04:00Podcast: Heady Productions, EDM, and partying on the Hudson<span style="color: #363636; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Yesterday, we launched our third episode of the Midday Ramble podcast!</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">In this episode, Andrew Beam sat down with Brian Alverado, Joshua Cross, and Shane Morris of </span><a href="http://heady-productions.com/pages/headys.shtml" style="background-color: white; color: #ca1a00; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 21px; text-decoration: none;">Heady Productions</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">, a local media conglomerate that brings together the arts, media, and entertainment to capture the beauty and process of creativity and express it in unique and engaging live events throuhgout the Capital District. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">They talk about how the group went from running college parties in basements to booking a 300-person, multi-floor show on the </span><a href="http://www.captainjp.com/index.html" style="background-color: white; color: #ca1a00; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 21px; text-decoration: none;">Captain JP Morgan II Cruise-liner</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> for the 100th Anniversary of the Titanic back on April 14, 2012, as well as what the guys hope to work on in the future.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">For more information, check out their website at </span><a href="http://heady-productions.com/" style="background-color: white; color: #ca1a00; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 21px; text-decoration: none;">http://heady-productions.com</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">.</span>
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<a href="http://www2.troyrecord.com/podcasts/MR_Pod003.mp3" style="background-color: white; color: #ca1a00; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 21px; text-decoration: none;">DOWNLOAD THE EPISODE</a> <span style="color: #363636; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">here and please subscribe at <a href="http://bit.ly/MiddayRamble">http://bit.ly/MiddayRamble</a>!</span></span>Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-64207673125521633752012-04-27T14:48:00.000-04:002012-04-27T14:49:11.587-04:00Podcasting with an iPhone<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Segoe UI', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;">Just a tip for anyone who wants to do this - </span><br />
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We held an community arts forum on Tuesday discussing the future of the local arts scene with the heads of some major theater and performing arts organizations. We had around 80 people turnout for the event, which was great for our first off-site Community Media Lab event.</div>
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Going into the forum, I knew I wanted to try and record the audio from the forum for a podcast, but, after talking to the folks who operate the theater at the local college where the meeting was held, I realized there was no "Live Sound" setup and getting one there would be difficult.</div>
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After visiting the space and seeing how it was setup - more for an intimate, small audience rather than a packed house of thousands - I hoped that the acoustics of the room would help the sound of the recording.</div>
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Of course, without a sound setup, I wasn't able to record the way that we've been doing our podcasts so far (with two microphones and a USB preamp). Instead, I decided to use my iPhone and a $1 app called Audio Memos. In doing previous research, I had read that this app had some better features than Apple's built in audio recording app, so I grabbed it and set my phone on the table next our moderator for the duration of the forum.</div>
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An hour and a half later, I grabbed the phone, popped in my headphones and gave the recording a quick listen. The results weren't half bad considering none of the speakers actually had a microphone in front of their mouths. The app even picked up for audience questions fairly well.</div>
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The next day, I dragged the audio file out of iTunes (via the Apps menu on my iPhone), threw it into Levelator, and was able to import it into Audacity and work with the file like any other podcast we've done. </div>
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I just wanted to share the fact that this method does work well, since this could be especially useful for anyone looking to do mobile podcasts or interviews in the field without lugging the higher-end audio equipment around.</div>
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I'm hoping to launch the podcast of the forum sometime tonight or this weekend as a "Bonus" episode, since we're releasing new episodes once every two weeks and it would throw our schedule off to try and jam it in later on.</div>
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Here are some videos of the full forum for anyone who'd like to watch - </div>
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<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" id="cs_player" width="625" height="430"><param name="movie" value="http://eplayer.clipsyndicate.com/cs_api/get_swf/3/&auto_next=1&auto_start=0&page_count=12&pl_id=21451&show_title=0&va_id=3449276&version=1&windows=1&wpid=9998" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://eplayer.clipsyndicate.com/cs_api/get_swf/3/&auto_next=1&auto_start=0&page_count=12&pl_id=21451&show_title=0&va_id=3449276&version=1&windows=1&wpid=9998" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="625" height="430" /></object>
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<embed src="http://eplayer.clipsyndicate.com/cs_api/get_swf/3/&auto_next=1&auto_start=0&page_count=12&pl_id=21451&show_title=0&va_id=3449347&version=1&windows=1&wpid=9998" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="625" height="430" /></object>Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-90276696098756762732012-04-04T16:03:00.001-04:002012-04-06T13:54:45.079-04:00Here's how to get a podcast onto iTunes<div>Here’s what happened over the last week which took me from starting to plan an entertainment podcast to having one up on iTunes within 7 days:</div><div><br />
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</div><div>- During the week of March 19th-23rd, I discussed the idea of doing a podcast with one of our reporters, Andrew Beam, who is a big music fan and was very interested in getting something like this up and running.<br />
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</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZfKFvpwL1lH51lHxniH1YFhT5QzfRKBuWdmvTtHBbYlhYmXXK2kMSYSKDPrHmvdJMSZMevA5UVjCsqeoJ8JVUo6qtxZvVQhpL8iTCAx2k-Gu4R6oiYnq4IbZBeEKcv6km5Weh4ug_XBGs/s1600/Setup2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZfKFvpwL1lH51lHxniH1YFhT5QzfRKBuWdmvTtHBbYlhYmXXK2kMSYSKDPrHmvdJMSZMevA5UVjCsqeoJ8JVUo6qtxZvVQhpL8iTCAx2k-Gu4R6oiYnq4IbZBeEKcv6km5Weh4ug_XBGs/s320/Setup2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>- I gathered two Sennheiser microphones that we had around the office for our Sony HD camera and an M-Audio USB audio interface that I had (<a href="http://www.guitarcenter.com/M-Audio-MobilePre-USB-Portable-Audio-Interface-701368-i2344777.gc">http://www.guitarcenter.com/M-Audio-MobilePre-USB-Portable-Audio-Interface-701368-i2344777.gc</a>) and hooked the setup into my laptop to see if it worked.</div><div><br />
</div><div>- After only testing to make sure that Audacity recognized the input from the mics, I gave the equipment to Andrew with the plan that he would try it out for a few days and we would work up a plan while he started reaching out to some local bands and entertainment outlets to see if they’d want to sit down for an interview.</div><div><br />
</div><div>- Things ended up moving much faster than we had originally had anticipated when Andrew found a local musician who was excited to do the podcast but was heading out of the area after the weekend. We ended up forgoing much of our initial planning and scheduling the interview for that Sunday, which Andrew did a great job with, even though he didn’t have any mic stands at the time - <a href="http://ow.ly/i/wPM3">http://ow.ly/i/wPM3</a>.</div><div><br />
</div><div>- After the interview, I went through the recorded audio and realized that, besides the fact we had a guest that moved away from the microphone a little too often, the audio didn’t sound as clear as I had hoped.</div><div><br />
</div><div>- While browsing the web trying to learn about podcasting, I found a program called “Levelator” - www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator - which I used to save me a lot of time that would have been spent even out audio levels throughout the hour-long podcast.</div><div><br />
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</div><div>- The end result was still not the best thing in the world (a lot of hissing and low volume as the program raised the low signal to as close to a consistent level as it could), but it was certainly better than the original.</div><div><br />
</div><div>- Before I went to record the second episode, I spent a night on Google trying to figure out why the input volume was so low and sound quality was so bad. After a while, I found out that everything sounded much, much better once I had the latest driver installed for the M-Audio interface. If you ever use the one above, I would recommend that you download this driver if using Windows - <a href="http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support.drivers&f=1067">http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support.drivers&f=1067</a></div><div><br />
</div><div>- After that, Andrew and I sat down on March 29th and recorded an intro for the first episode, edited it with a song clip the musician provided and the audio he had recorded previously. (FYI, I learned that it’s best to make your audio tracks Mono in Audacity so that the file will take up less space.)</div><div><br />
</div><div>- Finally, I had to figure out how to get the final MP3 up as a podcast.</div><div><br />
</div><div>- I found this site – <a href="http://theaudacitytopodcast.com/">TheAudacityToPodcast.com</a> – which was very helpful in terms of how to’s (I skimmed the text on a lot of the pages, but would imagine the actual podcasts are even more informative).</div><div>For anyone who doesn’t know how to use Audacity for recording, there’s a podcast for that: <a href="http://theaudacitytopodcast.com/tap060-how-to-record-and-edit-a-podcast-with-audacity/">http://theaudacitytopodcast.com/tap060-how-to-record-and-edit-a-podcast-with-audacity/</a></div><div><br />
</div><div>- After making the final MP3, I had to make sure it had all of the tags and snazzy cover art (I made ours with free microphone clip art and our paper’s logo in Photoshop) needed to translate into a podcast and be recognized on iTunes. I used a free program called MP3tag - <a href="http://mp3tag.de/en/">http://mp3tag.de/en/</a>.</div><div><br />
</div><div>- For hosting the MP3, I uploaded it to a folder on a JRC server that I have access to. Then I made a blog on Blogger.com to run the RSS feed that would fuel the podcast. You basically need to write all of your description for an episode (called “Show Notes”) in a new post and link directly to your MP3 file at the end.</div><div><br />
</div><div>- I used Feedburner.com to “burn” the RSS feed from that new blog and make it iTunes-friendly (here’s a how-to: <a href="http://theaudacitytopodcast.com/tap053-how-to-setup-and-use-feedburner-for-blogging-or-podcasting/">http://theaudacitytopodcast.com/tap053-how-to-setup-and-use-feedburner-for-blogging-or-podcasting/</a>) and then tested it using the podcasting app (I use DownCast) on my iPhone.</div><div><br />
</div><div>- To get it listed on iTunes, I just had to load up the iTunes store, click on Podcasts, then “Submit a Podcast.” Once you submit, you have to wait for iTunes to approve your submission. It look less than a day for them to get ours listed on iTunes.</div><div><br />
</div><div>- That’s pretty much it! I’m still working out the best way to track the metrics of podcast downloads and am working on the best ways to promote our podcast now that it’s out there.<br />
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- By the way, you can do all of the above using just USB headsets plugged into your computer if you don't have access to external microphones.</div><div><br />
</div><div>- More updates to come!</div>Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-66430109564870346272012-01-26T14:21:00.008-05:002012-03-07T14:18:35.694-05:005 tools every digital-first newsroom should learn; Goals for 2012<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.25in;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">Here are my choices for top digital </span><span class="il" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">tools</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);"> that every newsroom should be familiar with:</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.25in;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;"><br />
</span></i></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>1)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></b><b>Storify</b> – A great tool that you can use to gather tweets, photos, Facebook posts and tons of other media on any subject or hashtag you can search for. It’s also great because you can pull only local tweets and each “story” is can be embedded on your site. We use it a lot for displaying extensive live coverage.</div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-indent: 0.5in;">Examples:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-indent: 0.5in;">Troy voter fraud trial - <a href="http://storify.com/troyrecord/troy-voter-fraud-trial-jan-2012" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">http://storify.com/troyrecord/troy-voter-fraud-trial-jan-2012</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.5in;">Current coverage of murder trial in 18-year-old case - <a href="http://storify.com/troyrecord/murder-trial-of-george-mott-iii-jan-2012" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://storify.com/troyrecord/<wbr></wbr>murder-trial-of-george-mott-<wbr></wbr>iii-jan-2012</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.5in;">Coverage of NY Gov. Cuomo’s state budget proposal - <a href="http://storify.com/troyrecord/gov-cuomo-s-2012-2013-proposed-nys-budget" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://storify.com/troyrecord/<wbr></wbr>gov-cuomo-s-2012-2013-<wbr></wbr>proposed-nys-budget</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-indent: 0.5in;">More at <a href="http://storify.com/troyrecord" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://storify.com/troyrecord</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>2)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></b><b>iMovie</b> – I find iMovie to be invaluable if you’ve got a Mac around that you have access to (most JRC dailies have at least one desktop in their newsrooms, from what I understand). The software is more powerful and comes with better options than editing video in FlipShare or through Syndicaster. It also makes slideshows ridiculously easy to put together and upload as a video file to our sites.</div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>For anyone who doesn’t know how to use iMovie, I wrote up this tutorial recently for my staff: </b><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Mb2o23112DodfQiRdrnjHXImXsKLB7FYqsdHWJ9q3AY/edit?hl=en_US" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://docs.google.com/<wbr></wbr>document/d/<wbr></wbr>1Mb2o23112DodfQiRdrnjHXImXsKLB<wbr></wbr>7FYqsdHWJ9q3AY/edit?hl=en_US</a></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Some examples of slideshows, videos, made with iMovie:</div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2012/01/24/sports/doc4f1e3edee644f770049195.txt" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.troyrecord.com/<wbr></wbr>articles/2012/01/24/sports/<wbr></wbr>doc4f1e3edee644f770049195.txt</a></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2011/12/15/news/doc4eea50267d094137129398.txt" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.troyrecord.com/<wbr></wbr>articles/2011/12/15/news/<wbr></wbr>doc4eea50267d094137129398.txt</a></div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></div><a name='more'></a><br />
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<div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>3)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></b><b>Google <span class="il" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffcc; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">Tools</span></b> (Calendar, Maps, Docs, Voice, etc…) – I use most of these almost daily to help organize my time, add easy visuals to articles on fires and other location-based incidents, and share documents with others. Google Voice (which Karen Workman and Mark Lewis helped train most of the company on already) is also a great tool for gathering crowdsourced audio clips.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.5in;">Examples:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.5in;"><a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2012/01/11/news/doc4f0dffe93cacf807017043.txt" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.troyrecord.com/<wbr></wbr>articles/2012/01/11/news/<wbr></wbr>doc4f0dffe93cacf807017043.txt</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.5in;"><a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2011/12/19/news/doc4ee7587deaab8410463349.txt" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.troyrecord.com/<wbr></wbr>articles/2011/12/19/news/<wbr></wbr>doc4ee7587deaab8410463349.txt</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>4)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></b><b>HootSuite / Tweet Deck – </b>Both of these are applications to help manage your social media accounts in one place. I use Hootsuite every day to balance updates to our multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts and schedule updates throughout the day. The great part about both of these (HootSuite is web-based, while TweetDeck is a download) is that they let you organize your feeds and hash tags you’re following by columns. For example, I use columns for our main feed, mentions, #jrc, and lists of our staff, local news media, and others.<b></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.25in;"><a href="http://www.hootsuite.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">www.hootsuite.com</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-indent: 0.25in;"><a href="http://www.tweetdeck.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">www.tweetdeck.com</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-indent: 0.25in;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span class="il" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffcc; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">5</span>)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></b><b>Cover It Live – </b>Web-based software which lets you open up an online chat window in about 30 seconds. It’s easily embedded on our websites and can be used for just about anything from covering sports games to a political debate. It’s also very simple to incorporate Twitter feeds into the chats.<b></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.25in;"><a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">www.coveritlive.com</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.25in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.25in;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;">Goals for Q1, 2012</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;"> – I’m trying to get <i>The Record</i> much more involved in community engagement. We plan to build on our past successes (and hopefully a grant from JRC) to construct a fully-functioning Community Media Lab in our building in the coming months. We’re going to start holding community forums again in our existing community room within the next month and plan to track success by our attendance, engagement during sessions, and follow up with those who attend to attract them to interact with us on a more regular basis.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;">This will help our staff by providing more opportunities to interact with our audience, learn what the crowd actually wants to read, and promote themselves as multimedia journalists. I’d like to be able to record each session for the web and have a reporter do an article on what was discussed to help promote and spread the word about us opening our doors more often.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;">Additionally, I am working with my editor Lisa Lewis to try and step up local music coverage with content from area bands, concerts, photos, and videos of performances on the web. We believe this will help us offer attractive online content while helping us appeal to a younger local audience (which is comprised by 3 colleges within our city limits).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;">To accomplish these tasks locally, I’ll be working with our editor Lisa Lewis, Head Photographer Mike McMahon, and joint editors of our “Weekender” entertainment publication from The Record as well as the nearby Saratogian. I’ll also be asking questions of fellow lab members Chris March and Ivan LaJara, who have both attempted live concert coverage, as well as those at properties like Torrington who have had success with CML events.</span></div>Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-54114780870903759482012-01-13T15:07:00.002-05:002012-01-13T15:15:53.980-05:00Discovering the power of Google VoiceAfter some beneficial training from our colleagues in <a href="http://www.journalregister.com/">Journal Register Company</a>, reporter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/knowak_record">Katie Nowak Roberts</a> and I were given the task of using <a href="https://www.google.com/voice">Google Voice</a> to produce a crowd-sourced digital project on a local topic. After some initial trial and error, Katie's project became a huge success, gathering a whopping 170 responses.<br />
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Her final project - <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2012/01/13/news/doc4f0dffe93cacf807017043.txt">located here</a> - has now been listened to nearly 160 times in just two days.<br />
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<object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F33098631"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F33098631" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"></embed> </object> <a href="http://soundcloud.com/katieroberts/who-should-fill-the-vacant">Who should fill the vacant Rensselaer County Legislature seats?</a> by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/katieroberts">katieroberts</a><br />
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To illustrate how this happened and what she believed the benefits were, I asked Katie to write a few paragraphs on her experience. I encourage you to read what she wrote below and consider getting to know Google Voice as one of the most valuable tools in a digital journalist's arsenal.<br />
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Here's what Katie had to say:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">"For my first Google Voice project, I asked our readers to share their New Year’s resolutions for 2012.<br />
<o:p> </o:p>I received zero responses.<br />
<o:p> </o:p>Dejected, I asked readers on Twitter for suggestions of other topics I could use that would perhaps get me the results I was looking for.<br />
<o:p> </o:p>Again, I received zero responses.<br />
<o:p> </o:p>Thanks to the quick thinking of our Digital Specialist, Tom Caprood, I was presented with perhaps the most perfect topic of them all: who people wanted to fill two vacant seats on the county legislature. There had been a lot of discussion and rumors floating around about who would get the jobs after former Democratic legislators Lou Rosamilia and Peter Ryan left those posts to become mayor and deputy mayor of the City of Troy, respectively. And it seemed almost inevitable that former mayor Harry Tutunjian would get one of the slots. (He did.) This seemed to be something people were passionate about, so I dutifully recorded my message on my Google Voice account and waited for messages.<br />
<o:p> </o:p>Almost immediately after we pushed out the question on Twitter, Facebook and our website, the calls started coming in, sparse at first, and then within minutes, sometimes seconds, of each other. By the end of the first day, I had 40 messages. By the time my Sunday deadline rolled around, I had 170.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The response was overwhelming to say the least. Of course, not all of the messages were useable, or worthwhile – I got some blank messages, some repeat calls from people unsure if their last attempt worked, and a couple pocket dials. One of the latter came from a group of people who, unbeknownst to them, could be heard plotting to call me back from different phones, using different voices, to cast their vote for a former City Council candidate to take the seat, presumably to make it appear as though he had the support of the entire community, not just a handful of scheming friends with little else to do. Then they did call me back – and though not from different numbers, they did use slightly altered voices, an unnecessarily strenuous effort I had to applaud. Another of said supporters called me two times in a row, obviously drunk, singing the person’s name. The project certainly had some hilarious moments, to say the least.<br />
<o:p> </o:p>Overall, the project helped shed some light on what people in the community were thinking, which is a valuable resource no matter what subject a reporter is tackling. Knowing what people are talking about, what makes them hopeful or irate or ambivalent, is beyond helpful when writing, if only to have some background to work with when staring at a blank page. Though I don’t think my project is perfect, and am confident that my editing skills and audio-selecting abilities will get better with time, I was proud of what I produced.<br />
<o:p> </o:p>Going forward, I think any political story we tell would do well to involve a Google Voice component in some capacity, whether it’s focusing on an election or political appointment, the passage of a controversial bill or law or localizing a national story. I think crime stories would also make a natural backdrop for a project, since families and communities on both sides of court cases and emergency occurrences are so emotionally invested in the topic, emotion that envelopes all our readers. When I was covering the Joseph McElheny murder trial last fall, I couldn’t believe how many people commented on my stories and replied to my tweets. I wonder how many more and varied responses I could have received had I also suggested people call my Google Voice account to talk about it.<br />
<o:p> </o:p>Collecting responses to scenarios like those above would also be a great opportunity for finding additional story ideas. With the pulse of the people (and their dial tones) at our fingertips, the possibilities are truly endless."</blockquote><br />
My own first project was done on whether people were in support of a new McDonald's in a highly-trafficked section of Troy. While I received only 10 responses, I was still very pleased with how the project came out and the potential for using this tool in the future. <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2011/12/23/news/doc4ef4bddb0f16b585848878.txt">Click here to view my final project.</a><br />
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<div class="BodyType"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="BodyType"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="BodyType"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="BodyType"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="BodyType"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="BodyType"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="BodyType"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="BodyType"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="BodyType"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="BodyType"><o:p></o:p></div>Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-86293054545894065032011-11-09T18:36:00.001-05:002011-11-09T18:44:32.729-05:00The Record's LIVE election coverageWe had great success in implementing different types of LIVE Election Day coverage at <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/"><i>The Record</i></a> on Nov. 8, 2011.<br />
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To start things off, on Monday, our City Editor, Jim Franco, held a live chat on his <a href="http://recordtalespin.blogspot.com/">Talespin blog</a> and on TroyRecord.com, inviting readers to come talk about politics on the night before polls opened.<br />
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That chat attracted 51 readers from 6 to 7 p.m. and a total of 216 comments sent between Jim and the various readers that participated. A replay of this chat is available at the end of this post.<br />
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On Election Day, we also <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2011/11/05/news/doc4eb5795137f5f883844931.txt">setup a SeeClickFix widget</a> on our homepage and encouraged readers to share any issues they ran into at polling locations around the area. While we didn't receive any reports this way, it was a great way to invite users to share information and I'm certain we'll use it again, especially going into the winter months.<br />
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Around 7 p.m., we live-streamed a video session with Jim Franco and local political experts from both major parties to discuss the election. The three were set up in front of webcam in our Community Media Lab and took questions from readers that were submitted through CoverItLive and displayed on a wall-mounted TV. This allowed them to easily read questions and comments as they came in and choose which ones to respond to on camera.<br />
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For being the first time we had done this type of live "show," I thought we had great results with 120 viewers of the video stream, 111 readers of the chat/question submission segment and a total of 93 comments sent over the hour. The topics varied over the show from who the panelists thought might win in each local race, to how local voter fraud issues might affect the races and what political party might control the city in the morning.<br />
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For some reason, the video broadcast but didn't record (may have been some user error there), so I can't post an embed of the video clip here. However, we thought it went so well I'm sure we'll do something similar again in the future.<br />
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After results started coming in around 9:30, we tweeted out the results as we got them and made sure to update readers when final numbers were entered or if a race would be decided by absentee ballots. For the biggest local races, we also made sure to utilize SMS and let our subscribers know which candidates claimed victory.<br />
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By the end of the night, we had all that was mentioned above, a slideshow of photos from both political camps as results came in, reaction videos with political candidates, and the first versions of most political stories on the website by just after midnight.<br />
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All in all, I considered the night a digital-first win for election coverage and can't wait to do it again next year.<br />
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Here are the live chats mentioned above: <br />
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="550px" scrolling="no" src="http://www.coveritlive.com/index2.php/option=com_altcaster/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=e3f15b1286/height=550/width=470" width="470px">&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=e3f15b1286" &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Talespin Election Chat&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;</iframe><br />
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="550px" scrolling="no" src="http://www.coveritlive.com/index2.php/option=com_altcaster/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=ad1ff27006/height=550/width=470" width="470px">&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=ad1ff27006" &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Election Day LIVE STREAM&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;</iframe>Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-5567290262772631582011-10-06T12:15:00.001-04:002011-10-06T12:17:05.720-04:00R.I.P. Steve Jobs - You were a technology hero<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYxP3Sqza1UWo74y59ADzNkojdEZFt5e9GVUF8sGD3IuKUfYQ_jGgtnKhI0WjzB-xUnERhUu8zD6-c4RGHUYUkU9Eyi02JhybcwbHfkGB2TAHTWBXj6mz03KupmI03v9hH_BKUmeoZLYRk/s1600/t_hero.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYxP3Sqza1UWo74y59ADzNkojdEZFt5e9GVUF8sGD3IuKUfYQ_jGgtnKhI0WjzB-xUnERhUu8zD6-c4RGHUYUkU9Eyi02JhybcwbHfkGB2TAHTWBXj6mz03KupmI03v9hH_BKUmeoZLYRk/s320/t_hero.png" width="320" /></a></div>Like the rest of the world, I was shocked by the news last night that Apple co-founder and former CEO <a href="http://troyrecord.com/articles/2011/10/06/news/doc4e8cfb09d8191250074253.txt">Steve Jobs had passed away</a>.<br />
<br />
It was public knowledge that he had long dealt with health problems and it was assumed his recent departure from the company's CEO post had something to do that. <br />
<br />
However, I don't think any of us really expected that it would come so soon, or that it would happen just one day after Apple announced its latest must-have product - the <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone">iPhone 4s.</a><br />
<br />
While not everyone loves Apple and their products, you can't deny that this man made a huge impact on technology and how we use it in our daily lives.<br />
<br />
It's sad that I'll never have the chance to meet or talk to him. <br />
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My first Apple product was a second-generation iPod. I remember how amazing it felt to be able to hold thousands of songs - anything I could think of to listen to at the time - in my pocket. I followed that purchase a few years later with a fifth-generation iPod-video. Again, it was so cool in my mind to hold even MORE music and now be able to watch music videos, movies, and TV shows on a screen that I could bring anywhere.<br />
<br />
I eventually made my credit card take the plunge and purchased an aluminum MacBook as my personal computer in 2008 and never looked back.<br />
<br />
I never cared too much about the PC vs. Apple battle. Hell, I used PCs exclusively for most of my life. To me, using Apple computers just clicked after I picked one up. It's not that they're perfect. They suffer from a great deal of problems just like their counterparts running Windows, Linux, and other operating systems. <br />
<br />
<br />
There's just something about the way these devices operate - simply, powerfully, and without headaches trying to figure them out (for the most part) - which makes them invaluable to us. <br />
<br />
I won't say that a Mac is greatest computer in the world or that the iPhone is the greatest mobile device, but in my mind there's no doubt that they forever changed the future of technology.Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-65706314087303165642011-08-17T13:47:00.001-04:002011-08-17T15:02:04.741-04:00JRC papers sweep AP awards for online contentWhen it comes to digital projects, it can be sometimes be hard to evaluate progress. Sure, you can check the growth in your page views, number of visits, and reader comments, but it can still be difficult to know how much of an impact you're really making in your community or the journalism industry as a whole.<br />
<br />
Because of this, I have to say I was surprised to take a look at results of the <a href="http://www.ap.org/newyork/2010-11NYSAPAContestResults.html">2010-11 New York State Associated Press Association Awards</a>. In addition to noticing <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/">The Record</a> pick up a few awards for writing and photography, I quickly saw that, for the first time in years, if not the first time ever, <a href="http://www.journalregister.com/">Journal Register Company</a> newspapers took all three prizes in the awards for Online Content for publications with a circulation under 25,000.<br />
<br />
From the AP Award website:<br />
Online content<br />
1st, <a href="http://www.dailyfreeman.com/">Daily Freeman</a>, Kingston, Live tweets from the Kingston murder trial, Patricia Doxsey, Ivan Lajara<br />
2nd, <a href="http://www.saratogian.com/">The Saratogian</a>, Saratoga Springs, Road to the Title: Saratoga Springs High School Ice Hockey team, James Sherrill<br />
3rd, <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/">The Record</a>, Troy, Bringing the World Series trophy home, Kevin Moran, Ed Weaver, Brian Bouyea, Bill Passonno, Tom Caprood, Chris Fitzgerald<br />
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<br />
<a name='more'></a>Personally, I think this says a lot about the impact the changes at JRC have been having on the industry. People are taking notice that our newspapers are really trying to adopt the Digital-First mandate we've been given and to first and foremost experiment.<br />
<br />
While I can't speak for the other NY papers specifically, I know that we at <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/">The Record</a> have initially had mixed results with our efforts in crowdscourcing news projects and trying new digital endeavors. <br />
<br />
With that being said, we worked our butts off trying to come up with ways to get the 2010 San Francisco Giants World Series Trophy to make a trip to Troy, NY in light of the team originally began in the city in the late 1800's. We dug up old archive stories, interviews with the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and, most importantly, created an online petition for the public to sign and show the <a href="http://www.mlb.com/">MLB</a> that they wanted this to happen.<br />
<br />
After submitting hundreds of signatures to <a href="http://www.mlb.com/">Major League Baseball</a>, we heard word that Troy had been added on the list of stops the trophy would make on it's trip to Cooperstown. In May, the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Records-petition-to-bring-the-World-Series-trophy-home/122077714519616">trophy finally arrived</a> and hundred of local citizens turned out for the event. <br />
<br />
I have to say that getting the a major league team to bring a World Series trophy 3,000 miles as a result of your efforts is a pretty great feeling. Getting an AP award for it as well is just icing on the cake. [Annnnnd now I want cake.]<br />
<br />
Congrats to all JRC properties who took home an award for our hard work and experimentation over the past year!Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-92025142161977748772011-08-03T18:26:00.000-04:002011-08-03T18:26:21.257-04:00Crowdsourcing interviews with political candidates for election coverage<a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/">The Record</a> has an exciting new feature for our political coverage - regular interviews with Troy's mayoral candidates <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2011/08/01/news/doc4e3630d4e8f97193744740.txt">Lou Rosamilia</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=10&ved=0CFkQFjAJ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.troyrecord.com%2Farticles%2F2011%2F04%2F12%2Fnews%2Fdoc4da32e861c8e2556246085.txt&ei=xck5TuWGI-2n0AGk1LDcAw&usg=AFQjCNH3goYUd16PO14yUjnOrbw6mLAmbQ&sig2=z3eVQF7ztMWs4JsqzctQdw">Carmella Mantello</a> answering questions submitted by our readers.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>Every two weeks we ask our readers to submit what they would like us to ask the candidates. After the submission deadline passes, we scan through the submissions and select three questions to ask the candidates on camera (we select these only so that we don't repeat a question from week to week or air any personal attacks that may get submitted).<br />
<br />
Once the election season kicks into high gear after Labor Day, we plan to make these videos an integral part of <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/">The Record</a>'s election website.<br />
<br />
In addition to providing great video coverage of the election, we think that this will be an excellent way to help build stronger relationships with our readers and encourage them to interact with us more in the future.<br />
<br />
FYI, we are <a href="http://troyrecord.com/articles/2011/08/03/news/doc4e3332e2e002a728794783.txt">currently accepting questions</a> today for the fourth round of candidate interviews in case any of you readers are located in Troy.<br />
<br />
Here's a look at our past interviews to date:<br />
<br />
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</div><div><br />
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</div>Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-68972843478618669472011-06-29T18:34:00.000-04:002011-06-29T18:34:22.535-04:00Catching up on digital/community projects at The RecordIt's been far too long since I've updated this blog, so let me start by catching you up on the digital projects that we've been working on at <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/">The Record</a> over the last month.<br />
<br />
First off, I'd like to update everyone on the success we had with <a href="http://tcaprood.blogspot.com/2011/05/record-is-live-tweeting-its-first-muder.html">live-tweeting our first murder trial</a> in Rensselaer County Court last month.<br />
<br />
Reporter <a href="http://twitter.com/Canfield_Record">Dave Canfield</a> spent more than three weeks sharing details from inside the court room, attracting a large number of new followers and helping change the way local trials are covered in the Capital District. <a href="http://www.timesunion.com/">The Albany Times Union</a> also began to tweet the trial, along with local television station anchors who were camped out at the courthouse, but only after our reporter got the OK from the judge to start doing so from inside the courtroom with his laptop.<br />
<br />
Here's a recap from the reporter's point of view:<br />
<blockquote>Covering a recent murder trial on Twitter as I sat in the courtroom with a laptop proved more engaging with readers than anything else I’ve done here at The Record.</blockquote><blockquote>We asked for special permission to cover a long-awaited double-murder trial on Twitter, breaking the usual rules of no cell phones—let alone computers—in the courtroom. It increased the number of followers I had on Twitter by a third by the time the trial had ended.</blockquote><blockquote>It got the most important revelations about a well-known 9-year-old murder case out there faster than any other means I can think of could have. The added followers aside, putting our hashtag feed on our main page at <a href="http://troyrecord.com/" target="_blank">troyrecord.com</a> put it out there to people who do not use Twitter as well. I heard from some of those people.</blockquote><blockquote>I also heard from various followers asking about the testimony or sharing their thoughts. The mothers of both prosecutors began to follow me. Family members of both victims did as well.<br />
<a name='more'></a> When I tweeted about readbacks requested by the jury during deliberations and what they might mean, the mother of one of the victims came and asked me about it minutes after I posted the update, curious about what I thought.</blockquote><blockquote>Then, like so many other times, I was surprised how many people were watching.</blockquote><blockquote>It will be worth asking to provide similar coverage to every trial that comes up here in Troy; this trial proved that.</blockquote><blockquote><i>- <a href="http://twitter.com/Canfield_Record">Dave Canfield</a></i></blockquote><br />
In total, Canfield gained more than 60 new followers over the course of the trial, with a handful of users (including other news organizations) retweeting his observations as he continued to send updates, which, according to previous reports from TweetReach.com, reached around 4,000 individuals over that time.<br />
<br />
We considered this a great success and look forward for the opportunity to add this to our coverage of other course cases, and other live events, going forward.<br />
<br />
--<br />
<br />
The Record also recently began setting up events and partnerships for the use of our on-site Community Media Lab at 501 Broadway in Troy.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUkubCvP-CNq_brgbhL-NKDLp6axkXrOYL4U2PMbIHYIg_4ibhyprDAqJ2CY7wRR9-vM77bYJVu3FKPobjQ2qrrwPpRnp37gsMuJjg48V-5drmXLWj_aWIq2v0uGoe-NCpkPv_cYPNVi5a/s1600/IMG_1080.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUkubCvP-CNq_brgbhL-NKDLp6axkXrOYL4U2PMbIHYIg_4ibhyprDAqJ2CY7wRR9-vM77bYJVu3FKPobjQ2qrrwPpRnp37gsMuJjg48V-5drmXLWj_aWIq2v0uGoe-NCpkPv_cYPNVi5a/s320/IMG_1080.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Last week, for Troy Night Out - a monthly arts and culture even in the city's downtown which is held on the last Friday of every month, we displayed the work of a<a href="http://troyrecord.com/articles/2011/06/24/news/doc4e043208b9417074792685.txt"> family of local photographers as well as a musician offering live music</a> to the crowd that came out.<br />
<br />
While our attendance could have been a little higher, it was great to experiment in offering different programs in the space to benefit the community that we're a part of.Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-42341946780340418842011-06-06T19:57:00.000-04:002011-06-06T19:57:52.198-04:00College of Saint Rose wall of communications notables<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7aLtZ78QUn2FvVd_TMrkSXUQ4gFasEJr8K5gLIYGZRgTSG41_XTkROp43jdHu7dFw_9m3a312EBoAMw-WmlsVHtfuf1G4bIk0yZ4h-9X310BQlEh5ESxqCWw5tjpaZ65p4eqSNBnIoNr5/s1600/Notables1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7aLtZ78QUn2FvVd_TMrkSXUQ4gFasEJr8K5gLIYGZRgTSG41_XTkROp43jdHu7dFw_9m3a312EBoAMw-WmlsVHtfuf1G4bIk0yZ4h-9X310BQlEh5ESxqCWw5tjpaZ65p4eqSNBnIoNr5/s200/Notables1.jpg" width="149" /></a>On Friday, I attended a small alumni ceremony at my alma matter, <a href="http://www.strose.edu/">The College of Saint Rose</a>, where I was honored as part of a newly-unveiled wall of the college's Communications Alumni Notables.<br />
<br />
I got word that this was happening a few months ago but was never really clear on the selection process behind it before that night. After talking to a few of my former professors, many of whom I had not seen in four years since my graduation, I learned that the wall was designed to showcase what some of the department's graduates were doing in the world - including a mix a those just starting out and other who had been out in the communications field for years.<br />
<br />
<br />
The idea is that the wall will be updated and panels will be rotated out to honor future graduates and other alumni who continue to do great work in the field and make a name for themselves and the Saint Rose Communications Department. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRPsuETwBGVQHyeRgfvF66WIsU1737RERyGu0Mh9cmbdWlv8fKib46EY6lkfSy2lt_HZ6mlb2dW3EYu1c8S8n2zTX3nZ_GTVPW3lYJrZwTInbfKxzGYY7lgs5btNgJNh9ZJYA93D4eWiFZ/s1600/Notables.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRPsuETwBGVQHyeRgfvF66WIsU1737RERyGu0Mh9cmbdWlv8fKib46EY6lkfSy2lt_HZ6mlb2dW3EYu1c8S8n2zTX3nZ_GTVPW3lYJrZwTInbfKxzGYY7lgs5btNgJNh9ZJYA93D4eWiFZ/s320/Notables.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>It is certainly a great honor to be recognized for my work with <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/">The Record</a> and <a href="http://www.journalregister.com/">Journal Register Company</a> after only a few years in the field. I can't thank Fred Antico, Mary Alice Molgard, Cailin Brown, and everyone else at Saint Rose enough for the recognition as well as the education I received there.<br />
<br />
If you're interested in seeing the full wall, visit the college's Center for Communications and Interactive Media located at 996 Madison Ave. in Albany.Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-63111826223382372102011-05-10T16:43:00.001-04:002011-05-10T17:02:55.359-04:00The Record is live-tweeting its first murder trialThere is big news in the city of Troy this week with<a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2011/05/07/news/doc4dc4da8e32754815447189.txt"> the start of a double murder trial</a> built on a <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2002/01/29/today%27s%20stories/3115872.txt">9-year-old case</a> that was built for years <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2007/08/04/today%27s%20stories/18663681.txt">against two men</a> and <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2010/03/02/news/doc4b8cab9e2cba8706040206.txt">nearly went to trial in 2010</a> before a <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2010/06/16/news/doc4c1852acf250d686730869.txt">third suspect was named and linked to DNA evidence</a> at the murder scene, causing <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2010/07/17/news/doc4c407bb2cd57a416038138.txt">the original charges to be dropped against the two former suspects</a> and <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2010/07/31/news/doc4c53bf5618c44102450761.txt">Michael Mosley to be indicted for both murders</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://troyrecord.com/articles/2011/05/10/news/doc4dc82410c30f8656736334.txt">Opening statements began</a> in the case Monday, May 9 and <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/">The Record</a> is providing as much coverage as possible throughout the proceedings.<br />
<br />
In addition to a installing a widget listing prior articles on the case going back several years on our <a href="http://troyrecord.com/">TroyRecord.com</a> homepage, we also decided to take a lesson from our sister paper <a href="http://www.dailyfreeman.com/">The Daily Freeman</a> and attempt to live-tweet the courtroom proceedings complete with witness testimony.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
Audio/visual recording of these parts of the trial is normally forbidden in New York, but after making a request to the judge handling the case, our court reporter Dave Canfield (<a href="http://www.twitter.com/Canfield_Record">@Canfield_Record</a>) was granted permission to use his laptop in the courtroom as long as he did not disturb anyone and was out of view of the jury.<br />
<br />
The tweets began around 9:30 a.m. this morning as the trial began using the hashtag #MosleyTrial. As of 4:24 p.m., a total of 40 tweets about the trial had reached 4,065 people according to <a href="http://tweetreach.com/reach?q=%23MosleyTrial">Tweet Reach</a>.<br />
<br />
Watching the live coverage pour in through the embedded HootSuite feed on <a href="http://troyrecord.com/">TroyRecord.com</a> has been exciting to watch for our staff members and hopefully our readers as well. As the trial continues we'll continue to ask them how they are consuming our coverage and how we can do it better.<br />
<br />
Check out the feed of tweets below:<br />
<object height="350" id="hootsuite_embed_34397" width="300"><param name="movie" value="http://static.hootsuite.com/hoot-embed.swf"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"></param><param name="flashvars" value="primaryColor=ffffff&refreshRate=0&query=%23MosleyTrial&title=Mosley+double+murder+trial&profanityFilter=1"></param><embed src="http://static.hootsuite.com/hoot-embed.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="350" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashvars="primaryColor=ffffff&refreshRate=0&query=%23MosleyTrial&title=Mosley+double+murder+trial&profanityFilter=1"></embed></object>Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-10285566505945005252011-05-06T17:43:00.001-04:002011-05-06T17:58:58.195-04:00The Record pulled it off - the World Series trophy came to Troy!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH9mq9FpILOZ8cpiNVM8uTm8_ksrWu3LxJFVVh8YHdeQJL36R00HbRq5uChpe6fhyphenhyphenfqXFRsd8sLr2HZfyG1x22bkfn7QirBHfTqunksPGzMu4cbskJcj8Eh68dWpG5lf4ixjmyDrO_3Cuh/s1600/TROPHY_050311B+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH9mq9FpILOZ8cpiNVM8uTm8_ksrWu3LxJFVVh8YHdeQJL36R00HbRq5uChpe6fhyphenhyphenfqXFRsd8sLr2HZfyG1x22bkfn7QirBHfTqunksPGzMu4cbskJcj8Eh68dWpG5lf4ixjmyDrO_3Cuh/s320/TROPHY_050311B+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>From editor <a href="http://recordeditor.blogspot.com/2011/05/trophys-coming-trophys-coming.html">Lisa Lewis' blog earlier this week:</a> <br />
<br />
"For more than a decade, <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/sports/trophy">Record Sports Editor Kevin has worked</a> hard to get <a href="http://www.mlb.com/">Major League Baseball</a> to acknowledge the Collar City for its contributions to America’s national pastime.<br />
On Thursday, the city of Troy gets that recognition when the <a href="http://www.sfgiants.com/">San Francisco Giants</a> bring their 2010 World Series championship trophy to the Joseph L. Bruno Stadium for a public viewing from 5 to 7 p.m. <br />
The visit is the result of a collaborative effort between Kevin and the <a href="http://www.tcvalleycats.com/">Tri-City ValleyCats</a>. Team owner Bill Gladstone and general manager Rick Murphy used their contacts to reach out to the Giants about a possible visit to upstate New York after Kevin and his staff launched a petition drive to get the Giants to bring the World Series trophy to Troy."<br />
---<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsOaSQK84imtghnSEzMXmdFVVyQqpluCWP5vAuvcFN83h61-v8Xh3YzZLkB3ctxkhcjtvrXXk9lhCNKx1oZ4VK6g_8ocQPk9bSvKku3LMdt7uUvdpsvLlCXD3ia2TGYOvGeaLXaivnq82Y/s1600/TROPHY_050311J+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsOaSQK84imtghnSEzMXmdFVVyQqpluCWP5vAuvcFN83h61-v8Xh3YzZLkB3ctxkhcjtvrXXk9lhCNKx1oZ4VK6g_8ocQPk9bSvKku3LMdt7uUvdpsvLlCXD3ia2TGYOvGeaLXaivnq82Y/s320/TROPHY_050311J+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The day we had been waiting for<a href="http://troyrecord.com/articles/2011/05/06/news/doc4dc39efb93218427382484.txt"> finally arrived Thursday</a> as a ceremony was held at Bruno Stadium to <a href="http://troyrecord.com/articles/2011/05/06/sports/doc4dc37404bd92b223966467.txt">welcome the World Series Trophy to Troy</a>.<br />
<br />
Hundreds of Giants fans from the Capital District and beyond lined the stadium waiting to get their picture taken with the historic trophy belonging to the team whose <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/sports/trophy">roots began in Troy more than 100 years ago</a>. <br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1058658653"><br />
</a><br />
<a href="http://troyrecord.com/articles/2011/05/06/sports/doc4dc41b0507fce115117248.txt">Click here </a>to view a special commemorative publication <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/">The Record</a> produced to showcase the history behind the visit.<br />
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Check out the recorded stream below of the trophy unveiling press conference and a sampling of the line of fans waiting to be a part of the event.<br />
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<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" height="296" id="utv726661" name="utv_n_479854" width="480"><param name="flashvars" value="loc=%2F&autoplay=false&vid=14503706&locale=en_US&hasticket=false&id=14503706&v3=1" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf" /><embed flashvars="loc=%2F&autoplay=false&vid=14503706&locale=en_US&hasticket=false&id=14503706&v3=1" width="480" height="296" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" id="utv726661" name="utv_n_479854" src="http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" /></object><br />
<br />
We were very pleased to see such a great turnout for the event, especially after all of the local effort that went into the project.<br />
<br />
A big thanks to the <a href="http://www.tcvalleycats.com/">ValleyCats</a>, the <a href="http://www.troyny.gov/">City of Troy</a>, <a href="http://www.mlb.com/">Major League Baseball</a>, and, of course, the <a href="http://www.sfgiants.com/">San Francisco Giants</a>!Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-79905428540441517702011-05-06T16:54:00.001-04:002011-05-06T16:56:16.944-04:00How to get video production up in your newsroom<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3VZWhEDs30XmzFbJoXTiMTerqZS_28sSLZobr3SqVseRQ-tXoKfozhCRIapRZal5wFhLw_vYiSVk1rsJtzwd_qZyTy82me7bLaJJ_p20IcZURaxwXTcMG6CoyoAFxtcMVxvlczicyUX1m/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3VZWhEDs30XmzFbJoXTiMTerqZS_28sSLZobr3SqVseRQ-tXoKfozhCRIapRZal5wFhLw_vYiSVk1rsJtzwd_qZyTy82me7bLaJJ_p20IcZURaxwXTcMG6CoyoAFxtcMVxvlczicyUX1m/s320/photo.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>We fell into bad habits at <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/">The Record</a> in recent months and were not keeping a close eye on <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/video">video production</a>. As a result, we ended on of our weeks with a total of only four videos being produced, despite having seven reporters between news and sports. <br />
<br />
To remedy this, we held a staff meeting with all reporters and editors in both the news and sports editorial departments to discuss the need for video quality video production to be part of everyone’s workflow going forward. Several reporters asked questions and walk away with a better understanding about what we wanted to see from them. <br />
<br />
Our editor, Lisa Lewis, also added the incentive of a $25 gift card as a prize to the reporter who could produce the most videos over the next month to add some friendly competition to the mix. I made up the leaderboard that you can see above and have been updating it daily to track the progress of video production and so that the reporters know where they currently stand.<br />
<br />
As a result, <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/">The Record</a> went from producing four videos one week to 17 the next, and a total of 30 last week. <br />
<br />
Everyone now seems to have a better understanding about how to handle production moving forward and we'll be keeping a much closer eye on the numbers to ensure they don't slip so much again in the futureTom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-25842081069420872522011-05-06T16:21:00.001-04:002011-05-06T16:22:13.822-04:00Small, engaged crowd for The Record's horse racing community forum<a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/">The Record </a>hosted another community forum in our Media Lab on April 28 on the subject of Horse Racing Handicapping, hosted by <a href="http://troyrecord.com/articles/2011/05/06/sports/horseracing/doc4dc372cb6e4d1681971962.txt">Nick Kling</a> – a nationally-known horse racing handicapper who has worked as a columnist with <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/">The Record</a> for around 20 years. <br />
<br />
While only seven individuals showed up, <a href="http://troyrecord.com/articles/2011/05/06/sports/horseracing/doc4dc372cb6e4d1681971962.txt">Kling</a> made the forum very interactive, asking each member of the audience what they hoped to get out of the event and what specific questions they wanted to have answered before leaving that night. He then took the time to go through sample racing forms line by line to explain a few different ways that one could use the information available to make an informed pick at the race track and even discussed some options for how to go about wagering for those interested. <br />
<br />
Despite the small audience, each person who attended the session was heavily engaged for over an hour and a half, with several noting they would have liked to have stayed longer if it had been possible. We also had seven people watching for practically the entire event on our live stream. A recorded clip of that stream is located below.<br />
<br />
<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" height="296" id="utv743153" name="utv_n_356099" width="480"><param name="flashvars" value="loc=%2F&autoplay=false&vid=14339529&locale=en_US&hasticket=false&id=14339529&v3=1" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf" /><embed flashvars="loc=%2F&autoplay=false&vid=14339529&locale=en_US&hasticket=false&id=14339529&v3=1" width="480" height="296" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" id="utv743153" name="utv_n_356099" src="http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" /></object><br />
<br />
This was a great example of how valuable engaging your audience can be. If seven people were interested enough to stay at the session for nearly two hours, there's a good chance each of them will come back to a future Record event and even participate in our interactive crowdsourcing efforts down the road.<br />
<br />
Now we just need to figure out how to get larger crowds engaged on the same level.Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-86938287687143619292011-04-27T14:26:00.001-04:002011-04-28T14:11:56.382-04:00Results of my 30-day project to grow TroyRecord.com bloggersMy 30-day project of training newsroom staffers to recruit and serve as contacts for new community bloggers on <a href="http://troyrecord.com/">TroyRecord.com</a> reached its deadline with just over half of the number of new blogs that I had originally hoped to attract in that time period. However, all of the staffers involved learned new skills through this project and believe that they will do well in their recruitment efforts going forward.<br />
<br />
By using the resources already compiled by fellow ideaLab members Kaitlyn Yeager and <a href="http://opnewsroom.blogspot.com/">Karen Workman</a>, I was able to pass along easy-to-understand instructions and tips to both our staff members and the bloggers they recruited from our readership without trying to recreate the wheel, so-to-speak, and do it all on my own. <br />
<br />
Kaitlyn’s <a href="https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=ddmcn3vx_1hcrb8vfv">“Blogging 101” presentation</a>, which she had shared previously with me after using it in several of <a href="http://www.registercitizen.com/">The Register Citizen</a>’s blogging classes, was a great resource for me to have on hand. I used it to go over the basics with staff members on setting up a <a href="http://www.wordpress.com/">WordPress</a> blog from scratch and encouraged each of them to send the document out to their recruits as well. <br />
<br />
I ended up approaching 12 <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/">Record</a> staffers to participate in this project over the last month – each of our seven reporters between news and sports and a few of our newsroom editors as well. As I had originally planned, I approached each employee in either a small group or one-on-one to make sure that I could engage each of them as I outlined the project and address any initial concerns they may have had. <br />
<br />
Several of the employees involved had some ideas of potential bloggers ready to go from Day 1 and were quickly able to secure the interest of their recruits and help me get blogs added to <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/blogs">TroyRecord.com</a> within a week or two.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
Others took a few days to brainstorm the idea, as I encouraged, and came back with bloggers a bit later in the month.<br />
<br />
Thankfully, none of the employees flat out rejected the idea of making the extra effort to help improve <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/">The Record</a>’s available content through its community blogger network. While some had not yet recruited any blogs by the initial 30-day deadline, several of them have bloggers lined up that they have begun working with. Others were heavily involved with two ongoing murder trials every day (our court reporter), working around vacations and a skeleton staff in addition to other special projects at the time (our sports reporters). Still, each staffer involved has made some effort towards making this goal a reality going forward, which I consider a success and will depend on as we continue to try and grow our blogger numbers throughout the year.<br />
<br />
Additionally, after a suggestion from Jon Cooper, <a href="http://www.journalregister.com/">Journal Register Company</a>’s VP of Content, to reach out to fellow JRC staffers who were among the leaders in the company for community blog recruitment, I was able to arrange a very-helpful call with <a href="http://opnewsroom.blogspot.com/">Karen Workman</a>. As a fellow ideaLab member and reporter for <a href="http://www.oaklandpress.com/">The Oakland Press</a> who has been very involved in attracting new bloggers for her publication, Karen was able to provide me with great insights into what she and her fellow staff members had found to work best from their own experiences with blogger recruitment. <br />
<br />
One of Karen’s tips was to make sure potential community bloggers, as well as existing ones, know that they can monetize their blogs – even if only through the use of Google Ads to start – and how being linked with a professional news organization will help drive a lot of web traffic towards that goal. This is something that we have previously not discussed very much with our bloggers and is something I’m in the process of discussing with our newsroom staffers to pass along to the great bloggers they have helped bring on board. <br />
<br />
The whole notion of educating bloggers on ways to make money from their work, even when we currently cannot pay them directly, makes perfect sense, as any incentive we can offer to these citizen journalists will encourage them to produce quality content and strengthen our brand.<br />
<br />
Karen also suggested that I review a presentation on Search Engine Optimization compiled by her colleague - yet another ideaLab member, <a href="http://idealabblog.blogspot.com/">Marissa Raymo</a>, and distribute the information to each of our bloggers so that they can understand the best practices that will help get them more web-traffic and have their blogs appear on the precious first pages of results for several major online search engines. <br />
<br />
I’m currently in the process of distributing this data to our blogging community and believe it will be very beneficial for everyone going forward. <br />
<br />
Looking back, I am glad I selected this project at the end of March to have the chance to focus on educating our staff and teaching them this new skill. This project will continue to go on well past the 30-day deadline at <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/">The Record</a> as I hope to eventually educate all the staffers in this building on the subject and have each of them tasked with attracting two blogs every month going forward. <br />
<br />
This is also a model that can be used at any news property, both inside <a href="http://www.journalregister.com/">JRC</a> and beyond, and I am excited to see how it will spread across the news industry as others try to survive using digital first model that <a href="http://www.journalregister.com/">JRC</a> is now known for.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">New blogs added throughout the month included:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://catscorner.mlblogs.com/">'Cats Corner</a> </div><a href="http://recordcommunity.blogspot.com/">Rules of (Community) Engagement</a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://libertyphile.com/">The Libertyphile</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://troyartbeats.blogspot.com/">Art Beats </a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://artolution.wordpress.com/">Artolution (Art|Revolution) </a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://newbiemt.wordpress.com/">NewbiEMT </a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://getorganizedgetsimple.wordpress.com/">Get Organized. Get Simple. </a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.generationxmomblog.com/">Generation X Mom</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://thebookofev.wordpress.com/">From Congo to Colonie </a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://p2ptravelcountdown.blogspot.com/">P2P Travel Countdown</a> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://chandragirl.blogspot.com/">The Average Athlete </a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://civilwarny.wordpress.com/">Upstate New York in the Civil War </a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://amandamcdowell.wordpress.com/">Writes of Passage</a> </div>Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-63836606409794296482011-04-18T18:20:00.002-04:002011-04-20T12:04:59.347-04:00Using Photosynth to create 360-degree images of news scenes<a href="http://www.photosynth.net/">Photosynth</a> is a free online tool available which "synths" several photos together, allowing you to create 360-degree views of any scene you'd like without very much effort.<br />
<br />
While you can view the completed "synths" online using both a Windows PC and a Mac once you've downloaded the Silverlight plug-in, you need to use a Windows computer to create each project. This makes sense since <a href="http://www.photosynth.net/">Photosynth</a> is a <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/">Microsoft</a>-run project.<br />
<br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="300" src="http://photosynth.net/embed.aspx?cid=d3d17ab6-be98-45e4-b524-256ea7fe8bae&delayLoad=true&slideShowPlaying=false" width="500"></iframe><br />
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The first thing you need to do when you're ready to start trying this website/software out is a group of photos which will be stitched together.<br />
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I've found that it will take around 20 photos to make a smooth 360-degree image in your final product. I recommend that you use the following steps to guide you through the process and make sure you have enough images to complete your scene before you get back to your office - especially if you are trying to use this tool for coverage of a breaking news scene.<br />
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1) Pick a fairly central location at the scene you're trying to capture if at all possible and pull out your camera or camera phone (I used my iPhone 4 to take the images used in the synth above and it worked great).<br />
<br />
2) I'm assuming most of you won't be carrying a tripod around with you for these unless you have a special scene that you've planned ahead for and want to capture just right. However, if you have a tripod with you, arrange your camera so that it's as level as possible and align the tripod so that you'll be able to rotate the camera in a complete circle without change the vertical position of the lens.<br />
<br />
3) Once you're ready to go, start snapping your images and rotating slightly in one direction to the side, taking another image, and continuing in this manner until you've gone past your starting point.<br />
<br />
*<b>The key is to make sure you get at least 50 percent of the area you photographed last in your next photo*</b><br />
<br />
For example, don't take a photo of three buildings and then rotate and take a photo of the next three buildings to the right or left. Instead, include two of the same buildings in the next shot.<br />
<b> </b><br />
I learned this after a few tries. If you don't show enough of the previous image in the next shot, the software won't pull all of the images together and may in fact leave a whole section of your 360-degree view out of your finished product.<br />
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4) When you have all of your photos, download them into a folder on your computer and head to <a href="http://photosynth.net/">Photosynth.net</a>. Once there, you can make a free account and download the Windows software you'll need to assemble your synth.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEIhol2hZ-A9n8-fvj13QpBmwhkNXTRxl7359u6tRk6AdPV6HuESm8uQdOe5xTw7OC9yrisoLIewYSKilqiIMLZyVN_niddPdasqXjVBiDOuWw1CNHhLD8ZcapGtf8R0D3HaYrbQ0ONWVQ/s1600/Photosynth1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEIhol2hZ-A9n8-fvj13QpBmwhkNXTRxl7359u6tRk6AdPV6HuESm8uQdOe5xTw7OC9yrisoLIewYSKilqiIMLZyVN_niddPdasqXjVBiDOuWw1CNHhLD8ZcapGtf8R0D3HaYrbQ0ONWVQ/s320/Photosynth1.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>5) Once you've installed the software, launch the program and login with the account information you created on the website. When that's done, click on "Start a New Synth".<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0A6DVK_BjMXBqZzJ9ADcwsQX6-BYZJL3PGivJjNkUcq84k-wJstFBvhZ79OzOrCgasKrJu7q30m6e-3ppoXgZi4kHAALIQPZfHqf9GdKaxRa0BOlaziA3_ZM35b5RN5BH2e0H-Vfsmruz/s1600/Photosynth2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0A6DVK_BjMXBqZzJ9ADcwsQX6-BYZJL3PGivJjNkUcq84k-wJstFBvhZ79OzOrCgasKrJu7q30m6e-3ppoXgZi4kHAALIQPZfHqf9GdKaxRa0BOlaziA3_ZM35b5RN5BH2e0H-Vfsmruz/s320/Photosynth2.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>6) On the next screen, select "Add Photos" and navigate to the folder where you placed all of the photos you want to use. Highlight them all or use the keyboard shortcut CRTL+A and click "Open". <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVXCNZjNAOx3Wb2_Jag3FZXBByK0LZqACtSiipD9_ltheqvZl4j8j57M2XEcCL4p9_hLZ1tXl0LspDlpW6EyyYNo-mhzrVQDDTt81u76rKl3V1oevvenhzWKlMeYOasVepv3neMlKPwp25/s1600/Photosynth3.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVXCNZjNAOx3Wb2_Jag3FZXBByK0LZqACtSiipD9_ltheqvZl4j8j57M2XEcCL4p9_hLZ1tXl0LspDlpW6EyyYNo-mhzrVQDDTt81u76rKl3V1oevvenhzWKlMeYOasVepv3neMlKPwp25/s320/Photosynth3.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>7) You can now use the available fields on the left to name your Synth, add descriptive tags, and write out a description that will be posted to the Photosynth website with your finished product. You can also choose whether to make your project public or private, and add information about copyright as well.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLgilUr-CVDGseLfXpvkr1rviFEZDjbiIAUVxNBCOpbklbXljdJkxhJocdokFsu0JCrkWczC3Wid1paNmst4PZhNtWYQBbPDtHcONWGeQd3f79pXo6uOjbK3MMU9gz8ML2wE4Tzqh1d5jr/s1600/Photosynth4.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLgilUr-CVDGseLfXpvkr1rviFEZDjbiIAUVxNBCOpbklbXljdJkxhJocdokFsu0JCrkWczC3Wid1paNmst4PZhNtWYQBbPDtHcONWGeQd3f79pXo6uOjbK3MMU9gz8ML2wE4Tzqh1d5jr/s320/Photosynth4.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>8) When you're satisfied with all of your entries, hit "Synth" at the bottom of the window.<br />
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9) Now you have to wait for the program to finish the stitching process and upload your project to the Photosynth website. On my Windows 7 netbook, this generally took about 20-30 minutes each time, but would probably go faster on a more powerful machine.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNkGktIay4s4q7xH3HjDqqvSkqzaPzwUhz7Mbk9fXf0wayNKgUhsk35dHcjp6tCGdelRTsgWwFl-SUDkGWMq0OE6N-M-5JAtLxkRzmfClnVZEpr4O2o0_wsFbRGYlZYlM_ZEBwlsBAqf6T/s1600/Photosynth5.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNkGktIay4s4q7xH3HjDqqvSkqzaPzwUhz7Mbk9fXf0wayNKgUhsk35dHcjp6tCGdelRTsgWwFl-SUDkGWMq0OE6N-M-5JAtLxkRzmfClnVZEpr4O2o0_wsFbRGYlZYlM_ZEBwlsBAqf6T/s320/Photosynth5.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>10) When the upload is finished, click "View Synth" to be taken to your online product, where you can make any final changes to the appearance before saving your finished image.Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-31138216586774489532011-04-14T12:07:00.000-04:002011-04-14T12:07:58.452-04:00NYPA 2011 convention, part two - LinkedIn, Computer-Assisted Reporting<span style="font-family: inherit;">As promised, here are some more of the great tips that I picked up while at the New York Press </span>Association's annual convention last weekend.<br />
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When most people think of the social media networks making the most noise these days, their minds instantly go to <a href="http://www.facebook.com/troyrecord">Facebook</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/troyrecord">Twitter.</a> Those are the ones you tend to hear about most often in day-to-day life for keeping up with your friends, family, and colleagues, as well as the world.<br />
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Growing somewhat in the background for the last few years, but regularly on the mind of business professionals and job seekers versed in the digital would, was <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/">LinkedIn</a>, a networking site which now has <span class="status-body"><span class="status-content"><span class="entry-content">70 million members worldwide.</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="status-body"><span class="status-content"><span class="entry-content">I attended this session, led by <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/shannonkinney">Shannon Kinney</a>, with fellow <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/">Record</a> editor/community engagement guru <a href="http://www.twitter.com/rebeccatrecord">Rebecca Eppelmann</a>. As she has already done a great blog post on the information we took from the session, I'd recommend <a href="http://recordcommunity.blogspot.com/2011/04/linking-in-to-linkedin.html">her post on the subject</a> for <a name='more'></a>the details.</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="status-body"><span class="status-content"><span class="entry-content">One thing I'm interested to experiment with in regards to LinkedIn, besides getting a company page for <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/">The Record</a> set up (if LinkedIn's customer service would stop telling me that our domain name has already been associated with another account, so we can't use it), is to see if having reporters on the site would help them grow sources they normally wouldn't find via their Facebook or Twitter accounts.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="status-body"><span class="status-content"><span class="entry-content"><br />
</span></span></span><br />
<span class="status-body"><span class="status-content"><span class="entry-content">Hopefully when I find some free time (or learn what it's like to have that), I'll be able to try it out more and report back on my findings.</span></span></span><br />
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</span></span></span><br />
<span class="status-body"><span class="status-content"><span class="entry-content">--</span></span></span><br />
<span class="status-body"><span class="status-content"><span class="entry-content">Another interesting session was one put on by Doug Haddix on "Computer-Assisted Reporting," which provided a wealth of resources for tracking down the hard data that is the heart and sole of investigative journalism. Today, thanks to the massive amounts of technology we have, such data can rather easily be found online.</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="status-body"><span class="status-content"><span class="entry-content">Rather than try to summarize all of the valuable links Doug had for everyone, <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/nypaHaddix">here is a link where you can download both of his NYPA presentations</a> - the one mentioned above and another on "Web for Watchdogs."</span></span></span><br />
<span class="status-body"><span class="status-content"><span class="entry-content"><br />
</span></span></span><br />
<span class="status-body"><span class="status-content"><span class="entry-content">I'd recommend giving both of his presentations a read and see what you might be able to apply to your own newsroom. I know that's what I'll be doing!</span></span></span><br />
<span class="status-body"><span class="status-content"><span class="entry-content"><br />
</span></span></span>Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-2723709059381876752011-04-12T16:37:00.000-04:002011-04-12T16:37:01.093-04:00NYPA 2011 seminar in Saratoga Springs, Part 1Over the weekend I was able to once-again attend the <a href="http://www.nynewspapers.com/">New York Press Association</a>'s annual convention at the Gideon Putnam in Saratoga Springs, a meeting of staffers from mostly weekly publications across the state which gathers a number a great presenters each year to talk about a variety of topics in the field.<br />
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On Friday I attended a great session on the effective use of Social Media by Regina McCombs of the Poynter Institute (<a href="http://www.delicious.com/reginajmc/nypa11">here are all of her links from the presentation</a>) and walked away with some great tips that I hope to soon be able to incorporate into <a href="http://www.troyrecord.com/">The Record</a>'s newsroom.<br />
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One of these was that journalists can develop relationships with their audience via their personal <a href="http://www.twitter.com/troyrecord">Twitter</a> accounts. This was not new information, as I had heard it and tried to stress it to our Record reporters in the past. However, the example she provided - journalist Jason DeRusha (<a href="http://www.twitter.com/derushaj">@derushaj</a> on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/">Twitter</a>) - was especially interesting since he posts the stories he’s working on every morning and gets user input, not worrying about other news outlets competing for the story first.<br />
<a name='more'></a> This is something I'd really like to see happening more often with our reporters because I believe there is great value to building those kinds of relationships through social media which could lead to dozens of new real-life contacts and sources for them to work off of.<br />
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McCombs also brought up the fact that many news organizations are able to grow fans on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/troyrecord">Facebook</a> and followers on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/troyrecord">Twitter </a>by curating and being very careful about what they're posting to which network, instead of always publishing everything out to both.<br />
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We have been pushing pretty much all of our stories out to both social networks for over a year and have seen positive growth in both areas, but I'd like to see how much better we can handle this for our readers by more carefully curating the stories for each network. I also wonder whether we will see more reader interaction if we present certain stories in different ways on Facebook especially, since more readers tend to interact there rather than just pass along a link as they do on Twitter.<br />
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I'll update the blog with more info from the convention soon, so stay tuned!Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616574218712925278.post-34193112227795496792011-04-04T22:49:00.001-04:002011-04-11T13:54:49.828-04:00Social Media forum instructional for newspaper staff and public<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi18nhahyphenhyphenugU0usheRkQSEc-1Xch9IuETcWBcO45PhivlO5ZHF4rhWxuHM4pM60Wg5hnhT8Vj-MmfT_0z8DRd7XoEcaKxmOP3tIIeQ2dLtWM25pD0uPGh-Y7CeX1fe16rvPUdg-rjAAWMMj/s1600/SOCIAL_MEDIA_033111+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi18nhahyphenhyphenugU0usheRkQSEc-1Xch9IuETcWBcO45PhivlO5ZHF4rhWxuHM4pM60Wg5hnhT8Vj-MmfT_0z8DRd7XoEcaKxmOP3tIIeQ2dLtWM25pD0uPGh-Y7CeX1fe16rvPUdg-rjAAWMMj/s320/SOCIAL_MEDIA_033111+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cailin Brown and Rhea Drysdale. </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>We had another great community forum at The Record on Thursday, Mar. 31 which focused on getting the most out of Social Media. <br />
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<a href="http://outspokenmedia.com/about/rhea-drysdale/">Rhea Drysdale</a>, CEO of Outspoken Media in Troy, talked about the benefits of using social media for personal branding, using tools for two-way conversations, and using tools like TweetDeck and others to manage data feeds.<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.strose.edu/academics/schoolofartsandhumanities/communications/facultycontact">Cailin Brown</a>, an associate professor who teaches journalism at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, discussed the benefits of social media from a journalism perspective, based on her experience both as a reporter and professor, including some of what she currently teaches as best practices to her students.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
<a name='more'></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAUxlaYV-rNVgMKj8ldEc7LMqVPkt6ei0e-gvAgRUjCuBTMC2WKTpgnBvEzb5VJ4pXF-4cRmXyiARTHXO_GD_AO4J1PTCWhWyKiUIoJHzsudKFgNsoKy23G93dVPE2d1E6emN4uS-c4rsI/s1600/SOCIAL_MEDIA_033111A+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAUxlaYV-rNVgMKj8ldEc7LMqVPkt6ei0e-gvAgRUjCuBTMC2WKTpgnBvEzb5VJ4pXF-4cRmXyiARTHXO_GD_AO4J1PTCWhWyKiUIoJHzsudKFgNsoKy23G93dVPE2d1E6emN4uS-c4rsI/s320/SOCIAL_MEDIA_033111A+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The crowd that turned out was a mix of Record staff members and adults of varying ages looking to learn more about using social media to promote their blogs, articles, and organizations.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">While much of the presentation was geared towards journalism, both speakers pointed out that all of the points could apply to just about anything you want to use Social Media for.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Watch the entire 2-hour presentation below in the recorded stream of the event.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" height="296" id="utv353548" name="utv_n_9489" width="480"><param name="flashvars" value="loc=%2F&autoplay=false&vid=13688972&locale=en_US&hasticket=false&id=13688972&v3=1" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf" /><embed flashvars="loc=%2F&autoplay=false&vid=13688972&locale=en_US&hasticket=false&id=13688972&v3=1" width="480" height="296" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" id="utv353548" name="utv_n_9489" src="http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" /></object>Tom Caproodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15541422230053616625noreply@blogger.com0