I’ve posted this little ditty a few times but it’s buried deep in 4,000+ posts. So here it is a again, tagged and categorized, for your listening pleasure. The song was recorded sometime back in the ’60’s (?) to promote the town (and the sponsoring businesses). Feel free to download the song, re-post, spread it far and wide. May it play for a 1,000 years.
Author Archives: Steve Mays
Alabama paper launches paid site for Crimson Tide sports
Found this story by Joer Strupp at Editor & Publisher. This strikes me as a very smart move for a newspaper. I can see Alabama fans paying for this kind of niche content.
NEW YORK The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News is the latest to launch a new paid Web site for its newspaper, announcing the creation of a new site devoted to University of Alabama athletics.
The daily paper, owned by The New York Times Company, will charge $10 per month or $59.95 per year for access to the TidesSportsExtra.com site, according to a release. It will be separate from the paper’s main Web page, which remains free.
“The site will offer in-depth coverage of University of Alabama athletics, including specialized blogs, forums, user profiles and video,” an announcement stated.
Added Chris Rattey, the News’ director of new media: “TideSportsExtra provides University of Alabama fans with content they cannot get anywhere else. With photos, blogs, video and extensive coverage, the site will offer an unparalleled fan experience.”
Among the paid-only items on the site will be columnist Cecil Hurt’s new blog, along with his columns and Internet talk show. “In addition to experiencing richer content, Web site users will be able to engage and participate more easily with comments, photos and videos, creating a deeper online community,” the announcement added.
The announcement comes one day after the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette launched PG+, a new paid site that offers additional blogging, discussion and community interaction online.
The company I work for has the marketing rights for the University of Alabama.
Is “social media the new punk rock?”
I wasn’t much into punk and can’t say I really understood it. The video draws some interesting comparisons. [via Hear2.0]
Inglourious Basterds
Reply
My thoughts on Quentin Tarantino’s new movie, Inglourious Basterds:
- Mr.Tarantino makes movies for himself. He tells the story he wants to tell, the way he wants to tell it. If it runs two-and-a-half hours, that’s how long it runs.
- He likes actors. He gives them lots of words to say and the time to say them. And plenty of business with their hands while they’re doing it.
- He likes shoot-outs and doesn’t sanitize them. We see the blood and gore but it doesn’t feel gratuitous to me.
- He must have a great music collection. The soundtrack for IB is fun and effective.
- He respects his audience. IB has lots of scenes that are entirely in French or German, with sub-titles. If you’re not still sounding out the syllables, you’ can keep up.
Inglourious Basterds was a smart, funny movie that reminds us what Hitler and the Nazi’s were “really” like. And Brad Pitt was very good.
“Having fun trying new things”
That’s how my friend (and MD) Jeff describes my job. Today he invited me to speak to a group that goes by the nome de nerd, “Geek Salad.” They meet with some regularity but I’m unclear on their raison d’être:
My friend Steve Mays works for Learfield Communications in Jefferson City will present for 20 minutes or so on “Having fun trying new things”. Steve has the enviable job (IMHO) of evaluating new technologies for his organization. And he’s effective and productive! He holds court at the Coffee Zone in Jefferson City on High Street most AM’s.
Is that really my job? Is that anybody’s job? Let’s just pretend that it is. I’m looking forward to meeting these folks and sharing some of my favorite Gadgets & Apps.
UPDATE 9/1/09: Had coffee and nice chat with the Geek Salad gang this morning. Bunch of smart doctors and university types at University of Missouri.
What does it mean with the doctor tweets “oops?”
I got a call this morning from Matt Kelley, a reporter for Radio Iowa (one of Learfield’s news networks). He was working on a story involving Twitter and he wanted to check a couple of terms. Here’s the story (minus the audio):
A Cedar Rapids medical center plans to use the social media tool Twitter to broadcast a surgery to the world next week. Doctors at St. Luke’s Hospital will perform a hysterectomy, and other procedures, as people who’re interested follow along via web browser or mobile device. Hospital spokeswoman Sarah Rainey (RAY-nee) says it’s an educational opportunity.
Rainey says, “We have marketing consultants who will be in the operating rooms with the surgeons as the surgery takes place and as the physician communicates exactly what he’s doing, we will have our consultants tweeting, or typing in conversation to bring it to the outside world.” She says two doctors will be performing the operation on a 70-year-old woman using robotic surgery techniques. The play-by-play will be sent out over the micro-blogging service in messages of 140 characters or less.
“He’ll be talking about how the anesthesiologist is now placing the patient under sedation and here’s my first step, so he will be talking as he goes through the procedure,” Rainey says. “You’ll hear him say, ‘Scalpel, please,’ or whatever he may need to instruct the O-R team to help him with.” She expects a wide host of Iowans — and people around the globe — to follow the surgery, starting at 10 AM next Monday.
She says they’re targeting people in the Twitter audience, roughly between the ages of 25 and 45. “We’re looking for people that just might want the opportunity to go into an O-R suite and see what happens without visually seeing all of the stuff that maybe they don’t care to see,” Rainey says. The hospital recently featured a “webcast” of the same type of surgery so anyone in the world could watch it live over their computers.
“With the webcast, you actually got to see everything that was going on in the O-R suite,” Rainey says. “It might be cutting open the patient, it might be a little blood, it might be the suction part, so for some people it might’ve been too much. Tweeting, on the other hand, is communicating through emails and tweets so it’s a little gentler on the eyes.” She says St. Luke’s will be the first Iowa hospital to “Twitter-cast” a surgery. To follow it, go to the hospital’s website “www.stlukescr.org” and click on the Twitter icon.
My friend David insists this is a “gimmick” and nothing more. That nobody would have the slightest interest in following this procedure on Twitter. I’m not as convinced.
Seperating the Twitter wheat from the chaff
I think I mentioned trying TwitBlock.org, a website that scans your Twitter followers and ranks them for “spamminess.” Higher the score, more likely to be spam. Looks at things like how many people you foll0w, how many times you’ve tweeted, and so forth. It’s not perfect but it’s better than nothing. And my rule of thumb is, “When in doubt… block.”
I’ve heard from one acquaintance who wanted to know why I blocked him. I unblocked and the pot’s right now. But there are sure to be more. Just ping me.
KCI making good use of Twitter
I twittered a few nice words about the Kansas City International Airport this morning and someone at KCI was watching or searching. Either way, they were listening and retweeted my praise. A quick check of their Twitter stream provides such useful nuggets as special prices by airlines; news that the Chiefs are homeward bound; update on the weather; links the twitter feeds of airlines serving KCI. All good stuff.
Sure, they only have a couple hundred followers but that grow. And the cost? A few minutes by someone with a clue. If you fly regularly from KC, why wouldn’t you tap this resource? Well done @KCIairport
“The audience isn’t the audience anymore”
Thanks to Michael Kruse, a staff writer for the St. Petersburg Times for one of the best stories yet on the challenges facing “media exclusivity” in sports. In the interest of full disclosure, the company I work for (Learfield) pays serious money for just the sort of exclusivity described in in this piece, which focuses on a recent change in the media policy of the SEC, one college sports premier conference.
“… earlier this month (the SEC) sent to its 12 schools an eye-opening new media policy. It places increasingly stringent limits on reporters and how much audio, video and “real-time” blogging they can do at games, practices and news conferences. But even more interesting is that the policy also includes rules for fans in the stands. No updating Twitter feeds. No taking photos with phones and posting them on Facebook or Flickr. No taking videos and putting them on YouTube.
A conference spokesman said this policy was meant to try to keep as many eyeballs as possible on ESPN and CBS — which are paying the SEC $3 billion for the broadcast rights to the conference’s games over the next 15 years — and also on the SEC Digital Network — the conference’s own entity that’s scheduled to debut on SECSports.com later this month.”
The reporters covering sporting events have always (well, at least since blogs and such came along) been under certain restrictions regarding blogs and how much audio/video they could put online. The new policy by the SEC is “the most stringent language yet in college sports.”
“Ticketed fans can’t “produce or disseminate (or aid in producing or disseminating) any material or information about the Event, including, but not limited to, any account, description, picture, video, audio, reproduction or other information concerning the Event. …”
Sounds like I couldn’t call my brother and describe a thrilling touchdown run. God forbid, I took a photo or video clip and emailed it to him. The Times story included some really good quotes, like this one from Mike Masnick, editor of the blog techdirt:
“If it reaches the point where it’s not just 15 people doing this, it’s 1,000 people, it gets more and more difficult to stop,” he said. “At which point you either stop letting fans into games or you figure out a way to deal with the fact that fans are going to do this.”
…and this one from new media expert Clay Shirky:
“The idea that people can’t capture their own lived experience is a losing proposition.”
I encourage anyone involved with collegiate sports (and related media) to read the full story. Here’s my take-away:
“The audience isn’t the audience anymore. The SEC’s greatest supporters are now also the SEC’s biggest competitors.”
Gnomedex 9.0
In a few days I make my annual pilgrimage to Seattle for Gnomedex (“a technology conference of inspiration and influence”). This is the only conference I attend and it’s important enough that I pay my expenses when necessary. I consider it a valuable investment (and tax deduction).
It’s a very small conference. Maybe 300 people? Brief bios of this year’s speakers give you some idea of the eclectic nature of Gnomedex. Here’s how one hoary attendee described the event:
“Every year I come back from Gnomedex with a sense of perspective. A better understanding of where I am on the technology continuum (for lack of a better term)… Attending Gnomedex is like cresting a hill and –for just a few minutes– I can see some of the smart kids way off on the horizon, running toward the future. I won’t catch them, but it’s nice to get a glimpse every now and then.” [More on the Gnomedex philosophy]
This is an easy conference to keep up with. This is the conference where I first heard about blogging, Twitter, social media and so much more that has become part of our lives. These are the geeks who come up with these little time munchers. I have no idea what I’ll learn this year but I’m all tingly with anticipation.