Spin Flow

Spin Flow

the fine art of moving digital media

the fine art of moving digital media

an Outhink sponsored community website about media production for the creative professional

an Outhink sponsored community website about media production for the creative professional

Welcome Rachel

Summer Spin RachelI am excited to be working with my friend Rachel Toole.  She is home from NYU for the summer and we are collaborating to document the process of implementing SpinFlow principles at Outhink, Inc.

Yes, Outhink.  Everyone can derive value from more SpinFlow training and discipline.  Like Tai-Chi or a martial art, SpinFlow requires study and practice.  There are no colored belts, but clearly there are masters and there are people who have a passion to create and wish to spin and flow media with ease.

So how are we doing it?  First we are establishing modern networking lines of communication between us and, to that end, we have created a pair of blogs (mine's a vlog, hers will be soon also; others may follow).

Much of our discussions and activities will revolve around using SpinXpress, ANT and vlogs.  You can find all the details and my first video related to this on my new vlog.  Rachel is free to do whatever she likes with her blog and I think it's already very interesting.

You are invited to observe and participate through the comments, we are very interested in your feedback and value quality interaction.

Rachel's Summer Spin blog.    My Spin Summer 2005 vlog.

Posted by apperceptions on June 17, 2005 at 12:59 AM in News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Podcast Interview - Markus Sandy

I'm too stoked.  Chris Ritke was kind enough to ask me for an interview for his podcasts.  I had too much fun and it's now on the 49Media.com.

Please visit 49Media for the complete post.  Here is a link to the mp3 file.

"Chris speaks with Markus Sandy about Spinflow.org, video blogging, vlogifying people and organizations, Podcast Hotel, Spincasting, videoblogging street teams, Blogher & a Spinflow sponsored west coast vlogger meetup, SpinXpress and more."

Chris was also so kind as to put the podcast on the Internet Archive.  Thanks Chris.

Posted by apperceptions on June 11, 2005 at 01:25 AM in News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Commentatry: Micahel Meiser

While chatting with Michael Meiners recently, the topic of conversation turned to collaboration and Michael made some remarks that were so relevant to the "Collaborative Video" article that I had to ask him if I could include them:

I can imagine a Star Wars created by collaboration of it's most uber fans.
That's what makes Wikipedia rock.
What a small group of star wars fans can do with a $20K budget as with Star Wars Revelations.
Now imagine the economics of creating the movie.
Creating a collaborative process to which these people can create the movie themselves.
The creation becomes part of the entertainment.
Costs are infinitely less.
Community and possibility sales stronger.

Click here to view collaborative star wars video.

Posted by apperceptions on June 1, 2005 at 02:55 AM in News | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Interview: Ryanne Hodson

Ryanne Hodson has recently built a tribute to Videoblogging Week 2005.  This year there were 28 participants. So far, that is. New discoveries still pop up from time to time.  In fact, I was born to videoblogging myself that very week. Thus, I had little visibility as I started to learn the ropes about how to build my digital presence and interaction through a combination of blogging, participation, collaboration, video and syndicated newsfeeds.  As a result, I was one of the last ones added to the list (cool for me, as it puts me at the top of the Videoblogging Week 2005 blog for the moment!)

Here is my interview with Ryanne:

Spinflow: How did the idea for VBW2005 originate?   How did most people find out about it?

Ryanne: The original crew of vloggers did one last summer.  This is when there were under 10 people vlogging.  Adam Quirk of bullemhead.com suggested we do another one, why wait til the summer?  He posted a message on March 26th to the Yahoo Group list saying:

"-2005 UPDATE- Bullem Head proposes Video Blogging Week 2005 commence immediately."

Let's do it! Another one! I propose a theme: "Who Cares" where each day you post a video directed to an audience of ONE person. The videos can all be to the same person, or each of the seven can be to different people. Or, just post one video every day this week and pretend your audience is one very important person."

And so it began!

Spinflow:  Did any particular aspect of the 2005 event stand out as you put the VBW2005 retrospective site together?  Why did you put up the VBW2005 site?  Why is it important to document and share this?

Ryanne: The reason I created the blog was to showcase the power of collaboration that this community has the ability to harness.  With a day's notice we just picked up and went with it.  I happened to be moving my entire life from Boston to New York that very week.  So i got to document from packing my apartment to actually living in a new city. I know I wouldn't have been as adamant about documenting every day if it hadn't have been for Adam's proposal and all the other vloggers immediately and passionately jumping on board.  I am just amazed at the raw number of videos produced that week.  I remember being in art school and trying to get collaborative projects with more
than 5 people to happen; it was impossible.  To see almost 30 people from around the world document their week with such diligence is any artist's dream, so I had to create a document that people could link to that really said "Hey, look what we did!"

Spinflow: Rumor has it that you are coming to California for Blog Her Con.  Is that true?

Ryanne: Yes!  I will be presenting along side with podcaster Lisa Williams of http://www.cadence90.com/wp/.  We will be teaching people how to put video and audio up on the web; really it's not hard!!!  Every blogger who can post a Flickr image or change their header jpeg can do this. Get more info on Blog Her here:  www.blogher.org

Spinflow: If so, is there any chance you will have time for a little California Videoblogging Community meet up or dinner while you're there?

Ryanne: Of course!  I'm always up for geek dinners.

Spinflow: You've setup the Vloggercon2005 conference site, the freevlog.org sites and tutorials with Michael Verdi and now the VBW2005 site.  What collaborations lie ahead?  What collaborative projects interest you?

Ryanne: Jay Dedman, Michael Verdi and I are forming a non-profit organization to teach and spread videoblogging to the world.  We envision physical spaces, like classrooms, where people who don't have access to equipment can learn to videoblog.  Right now, the only thing besides eating and trying to pay rent that is important to me is to teach and spread videoblogging.  I spend much of my week meeting people in offices, houses, community centers and teaching them that they have a place where their voices can be heard, on the internet through video!  This is the collaboration that most interests me, working with others who want to spread the good word, that word being videoblogging.  Anyone who has started videoblogging will tell you: It changes your life.

Spinflow: Do you think there will be another VBW in 2006?  How will (or should) it be different from 2005?

Ryanne: Yes there certainly will be a Videoblogging Week 2006.  It will stand apart from VB Weeks of the past because of the sheer number of vloggers that will take place.  We see 2-3 new people start videoblogging A DAY.  By next year I expect more than a hundred vloggers to take part in more countries than we can think of.

Posted by apperceptions on June 1, 2005 at 02:51 AM in News | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Speed Jamming Update

Jay over at www.momentshowing.net posted a great link on his blog:

Meet two relatively new videobloggers who have blown my mind.
Josh Leo lives in Michigan.
Phil Hamilton lives in Massachusettes.
Even though they live in different states, they created a video where they played music together.

Needless to say, I checked it out and found the following post by Josh Leo:

Phil Hamilton lives Near Boston in Massachussets, I live in Grand Rapids Michigan. When I saw that he played mandolin, I immediatley wanted to somehow collaborate musically. Well, we did more than that, and added video into the picture. This is is the result of our efforts, it is not perfect, but fun none the less. (For all of you who were wondering, that is a Mountain Dulcimer that I am playing.)  Music Across the Miles

Icon_speedjammingTalk about speed jamming!  They even posted their video to the Internet Archive through OurMedia.  Click the pic to view the video.

Posted by apperceptions on May 8, 2005 at 01:06 PM in News | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

freevlog.org

I just got a sneak preview of Michael Verdi and Ryanne Hodson's HOT new freevlog.org site.  They have worked very hard to put together a truly great website where you can watch excellent tutorial videos that teach every step of the process of setting up your own video blog.

Learn from the pros how to publish videos that are hosted through OurMedia and the Internet Archive.  The tutorial videos even show you how do set up an RSS newsfeed for your new blog in FeedBurner so you can podcast and publicize your new video "channel" on Mefeedia.  Wow!

As they gratiously mention on the site, both Michael and Ryanne are recipients of Outhink "SpinFlow" sponsorships which helped provided them with the opportunity to pursue this collaborative work and to share it with us all under a Creative Commons license (just like in their tutorials, they posted all these videos on the Internet Archive)..

The site should be available by the time you read this.  I really dig it's hot colors.

And every bit of it is free!  That's why they call it freevlog.

What's next?  Michael is finally returning home to San Antonio and Ryanne is off to BlogNashville.  Check back to find out what other great things they plan to share next.  Check out their blogs and for sure check out freevlog.org.

Posted by apperceptions on May 6, 2005 at 04:13 AM in News | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Talking SpinFlow

I had a great time the other night meeting with musician and Keyboard Magazine contributor Stephen Fortner to talk about SpinFlow.  Special thanks to Bela Canhoto and her new coordinator, Cinzia Fiorante, for arranging a great little get together Saturday evening in beautiful Santa Barbara, where Stephen resides. 

We met at Opal's (used to be Brigette's back when I lived there) and had a very nice meal and some great conversation.  Later we headed over to Epiphany (used to be Soho's) for some desert and coffee.  Jan Stammnitz from Native Instruments was also in town and joined us for some late night treats and conversation about his intersting work at Native Instruments

Like many other creative pros, discussion boards and on-line forums are an important tool for Stephen in communicating with his readers and fans.  It seems that everyone I speak with lately says something similar.  Part of moving media is communicating with others and overcoming technical hurdles; forums provide a great place to share knowledge.  Thanks for sharing Steve!

Posted by apperceptions on April 27, 2005 at 01:43 PM in News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Back from NAB

Just back from attending NAB in Las Vegas.  Three things that stood out were:

  1. The people.  After many years working in the silicon-valley semi-conductor industry where an air of competitiveness is the norm, it is refreshing to attend a show like NAB where everyone is trying to help each other.
  2. How much people "get it" that p2p products like SpinXpress can be used to significantly reduce shipping costs and save time.  We got a lot of people excited.
  3. The number of people that Robert knew and the quality of the conversation with them.

Posted by Dave Toole on April 21, 2005 at 11:22 AM in News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack