Leeds Social Media Surgery

It is important to note that I am writing this article from the perspective of a University student who wishes to develop a career in technology/web/digital/social media consultancy, and not that of a patient or surgeon at Leeds Social Media Surgery.

On the 2nd of February I attended the 2nd Leeds Social Media Surgery, located at The Round Foundry, with the intention of becoming a future surgeon.

I contacted John prior to the event asking if I could be a surgeon, having spent my time at university studying the practical uses of social media as a tool for communication, distribution of digital content (as well as having the personal experience, of using a wide range of social media tools for various purposes) I felt I would have some valuable knowledge that I could pass on to other people.

As the event approached I felt a little uncomfortable with being a surgeon as I have no prior experience in consultancy. This made me feel a little uneasy and I felt it would be better for me to watch and observe at my 1st session just so I could get a feel for how the surgeries worked.

From my observations I found the surgery to be a relaxed informal chat (as most social media events tend to be) where by patients had questions and surgeons talked through and demoed software / tech that could address the patients problems.

I sat in on a session where by a local community paper (Black & White News UK) wanted advise on re-establishing their paper, they wanted advice on how to take the content from the paper and publish it online, and if taking the content online was the right way to go.

Rick, (the surgeon who I sat in with) advised on how taking content online removes printing cost, there is no longer the need in investing time (and) or money in to physical distribution if the content is online. He also demoed how twitter can be used as a simple way to publish content up to a website and furthered this demo by showing that it is possible to interface with twitter from your mobile phone, thus allowing a website owner to publish fresh and engaging content to a website, while being on the move and away from a desktop computer.

When ever I attend any social media event I always find that I learn something new and inspiring and this was not an exception at the social media surgery. Rick talked about a concept I had not heard of before called 'reverse publishing' where by you take a selection of your best online content and then use this to generate a print article for distribution.

I know I have the knowledge and ability to advise people at future surgeries as I am often advising friends and family ways in which they can get leverage from social media to make their lives easier, talk and interact with people who have similar ideas and interests, or as a way to find prospective clients who would be interested in the services their business has to offer.

Although currently I do not feel I am fully equipped to take on the role of a consultant I do hope that with the right guidance and by further building my experience in this role I am able to rise to the challenge at the next surgery and advise my 1st patient.

Below I have included some images I took while at the Leeds Social Media Surgery, I am happy for other people to use them in their own blog posts, I just request you credit them to me and link back to my twitter page.

Multimedia Journalism - Audio Blogging

I recently came across an article entitled "10 new years resolutions to make you a better multimedia journalist - by Adam Westbrook"

One thing that struck me was the mention of audio. I have previously considered making audio podcasts, but this is one area of journalism and reporting that I have the least experience in.

It also seems to be (at least in my mind) audio is one of the least developed areas of social media. The only audio site that springs to my mind is audioBoo when I think of social audio online.

With that said I wish to develop and become more competent in the area of audio. In the subsequent blog post I plan to post more audio content so I can become more familiar and confident in this area. Below is my 1st ever audio blog post for you to feast your ears upon! :)

1st Ever Audio Post (Originally posted on Tumblr)


I would love it if you could listen to this piece of audio then tell me your thoughts about audio blogging.

Have you ever tried creating or publishing an audio blog before?

Do you have a favourite place to up upload or host your audio blogs?

Do you think the audio blog an established niche?

Are you aware of any popular audio bloggers?

Do you think audio blogging will ever pick up enough interest to become as popular as the written blog or video blog?

Please leave me a comment on this post and let me know your thoughts.

iCaptureLeeds

I am in the process of creating the photoblog iCaptureLeeds

Although I worry I will be diluting the brand by posting across multiple blog platforms and other social media sites. I do however hope by doing this I will reach the largest number of people possible

I have registered on various site and platforms and I am now in the stages of skinning and customising each one. I really need help with this as this is not one of my strong points and it is slowing me down from the launch. Having to create multiple skins is also a bit of a pain in the neck and is a slow and time consuming process

I am also in the process of writing a description on the blog to post as info for people who want to know more about the project.

This is what I have so far

iCaptureLeeds is the name of an iPhone Photograpy Blog created by Luke Beaumont.
Pictures are updated on a daily basis. Subscribe to see stunning pictures of Leeds taken through the lens of an iPhone.

I feel I am currently suffering a mental block and this description does not truly represent what the blog is about.

I also need to create an avatar to represent the project online I have downloaded a few images that I have identified have an association with this project.

Below is a 1st attempt at creating an avatar to represent the blog



Again I would appreciate any help with creating an avatar for this project.


I am thinking that it may be best to get posting on this blog before I have "missed the boat" and worry about skinning later

I won't "promote" the blog to people until I have skinned it and got it looking suitable for public consumption. However if you read this blog post you can consider yourself one of the beta testers for the blog.


So that is where iCapture Leeds currently stands,

You can find and subscribe to the blog in the following places

Blogger
Tumblr
Posterous
Twitter
FaceBook
Flickr

Please subscribe and follow the blog and help me with the testing process

I will be uploading the 1st batch of test pictures in the next couple of days

Many Thanks

-Luke

If you would like to help out with skinning or creating an avatar please e-mail lukeb3000 [at] gmail [dot] com

iPhoneography - Which blogging platform is best?

So tomorrow I will be launching my new iPhoneography blog

My preference for a name is still iSeeLeeds however I have also thought if I want to establish myself as the 1st and premier iPhoneographer of Leeds perhaps the name theiphoneographerleeds would be a good name, but is it possible a little too long and wordy for a URL?

My next challenge is to decide on which blogging platform to use. I want as many people to be able to follow this blog in a way that is simple and easy for them. I need to select a platform that the majority of people use. From personal experience of people I have met in the Yorkshire Digital Community I believe this to be blogspot. However I think if I take the Yorkshire Digital Community out of the equation a larger number of (photographic / arts) people use tumblr.

There is always the possibility to cross posting using a desktop blogging application, but then this would make it harder for me to go back and respond to comments. (Would I be possibly be spreading myself (and my work) to thinly)

As previously mentioned I wish to bring this blog to the attention of people in Leeds and possible develop an iPhone Photography Community in the Leeds / West Yorkshire / Yorkshire area.

I am aware that on my own that I will not be able to reach many people, therefore a plan to approach other bloggers with interests in photography, digital media and technology to write about my project. I could also ask people who cover art projects with in the Leeds area to write about my project with the aim of gaining more publicity for the project.

If I want this project to be taken seriously by other media outlets I feel I will also need to work with other people to help me design and create skins for my chosen blogging platform. If you would like to help me out with this part of the project then please leave a comment below. In the bio of the iPhoneography project I will give you credit for your work and link back to you.

So that is where the project currently stands but ….

The question still remains, what is your favourite blogging platform? Let me know in the comments. Also suggest ways in which I can build up followers and a community around iPhoneography

Mobile Phone Photography Blog

I am hoping to purchase a new phone before the 1st of January

This has presented me the opportunity to start a new Internet blog about my unique discoveries.

When considering a new mobile device, camera capabilities are the most prevalent player in my decision making process.

Previously I have owned a Nokia N80 (with a 3 megapixel camera) and a Nokia N95 (with a 5 megapixel camera). This time around I am considering the iPhone 3G S. The iPhone 3G S' camera is 3 megapixels, but people with a knowledge of digital cameras will know megapixels only equate to how big you can print the picture and not image quality. It is the camera sensor that that gives the image it's quality and with that said I believe the sensor in the iPhone 3GS's camera is very capable of producing good images for online distribution and sharing. [See images taken with iPhone 3GS]

I have previous dabble in mobile phone photography and more recently learnt how to competently use a digital SLR camera. With this in mind I am planning on setting up a blog around the subject of mobile phone photography.

Blog Outline

Initially I am going to aim to take one interesting or unique picture a day and post it on this new blog

Initial Goals

My aim for this blog is not only to interest and entertain people by documenting the world around me, I also wish to generate a steady flow of traffic to this new project.

Further Challenges that may be posed

A personal goal I wish to achieve is to use a service such as Ad-Sense to generate relevant adverts on the blog. I hope to make my 1st online revenue stream in 2010!

Finally

If I can find the time I may also write articles about camera phone photography. I would also like to invite users to submit their iPhone pictures to also be posted (just to add some variety to the blog)

An initial starting point with any new blog is coming up with a suitable name

Here are some initial thoughts I have had to help me formulate a name

Living in the city of Leeds the majority of pictures will taken in Leeds

I will be using an iPhone to take these pictures

My current favourite name I have generated is 'iseeleeds'

Other names I have come up with include iphotoleeds & iphoneographyleeds

I am not sure if these names are a little too specific as pictures may not always be taken in Leeds. My reasons for having such a specific name is that I envision the initial community for this blog will be built up around people in Leeds (as this is where the majority of pictures will be taken) then through social media and "word of mouth" more people will discover the blog.

If you can think of any further ideas or inspiration for the name of this blog then please leave them in the comments of this post.

Testing Microphones

Having previous worked with video at a home / diy level I was aware that audio would be an important factor in giving this video a professional edge.

I wanted to test out the different microphones (directional, lapel and the built in camera microphone)

I shot some test footage using various microphones in locations of varying noise. One location was the college canteen at lunch time.

When watching the footage back I found that the built in camera microphone picked up noise from the whole canteen and my voice appeared muffled and somewhat in audible.

The directional microphone provided better results, but I found it some what inhibitive when presenting and talking to the camera.

The conclusion of this research was that a lapel mic would best suit my podcast I wished to create. The lapel mic gave me a freedom to not "fidget" while holding a directional microphone and was just a personal preference.

Unfortunately I accidently managed to destroy the video results of these microphone tests. All I have to evidence this work is a picture of myself in college with a lapel mic that I took to post on a social networking website.

LINK TO IMAGE

Location Development

Feed back I got at the 1st crit was that my location was somewhat bland and not visually stimulating or engaging for my target audience.

I did some further research into alternative locations and recorded my results in to a power point file which I have embeded below

Alternative Locations

View more presentations from lukeb3000.