Barnsley BarCamp #bcbarnsley

On Saturday the 22nd of May I attended another BarCamp, this time being held at the Barnsley Digital Media Centre

As always it was great to get to hear from a range of different people all who had different, but complimentary interests as to myself. All the talks gave me food for thought I particularly enjoyed the session on JQuery, How to get inspired for photography and A rant about looking for jobs and employment.

By far the thing I enjoy most about attending these events is meeting and talking to new people. On this particular occasion I got talking to Graham who makes beautiful Flash Websites I myself have used Flash, but I was complete astounded at the level of detail when Graham showed me his work!

I once again took my camera with me so I could capture a few images of my day

Created with flickr slideshow.

Images can be seen on Flickr

Flickr Slide show to demo to Leeds Art SU

This is a Flickr slide show it is pulling images from my Flickr account. A slide show like this one can be embed online and something similar could be added to the side bar of a blog.

Each time someones comes to view the blog if new pictures have been added it provides fresh and interesting content for the viewer.

Created with flickr slideshow.

Find my Flickr Account here and follow me

3 Minute Wonder

I have watched 3 Minute wonder on Channel 4 many times. Often finding the program very interesting, but never giving it any thought in terms of the format or how I could adapt the format to help me grow as someone who wishes to produce short videos.

Essentially I would some up 3 minute wonder as a short documentary (3 minutes) on a particular topic


I would like to use this format, to help me produce a number of short documentaries. From having only just watched the program and not as of yet fully analysed the techniques used, it appeared to me as though a lot of voice over is used about the given topic and video backing up what is being said is used as visuals to support the audio voice over. This is broken up with people speaking directly to the camera.

I plan to pick a topic, film some cut aways and then get someone to talk about it.

In my head I am picturing a short (possible a minute) documentary about video games. I plan on capturing disks being put in CD drives, fingers franticly pressing buttons, power switches being turned on.

Thinking as I type I can see there would be the possibility to take this idea and create an advert for a video games console. I would do this by creating a script that shows the benefits of gaming in a positive light. and highlight the gaming system as the machine that can help achieve the positive benefits being talk about.

This is just a small idea that I would like to execute

Creative Careers Fair

On Wedesday 24th February, I attended the creatives careers fair in Bradford, hoping that I would be able to talk to a few businesses and swap business cards with people.

Previously when looking for a job I have talked with small business owners and offered to help out, or I have used social media to contact business owners directly and let them know who I am and what area I specialise in. The careers fair was in stark contrast to this.

As I entered The Atrium at Bradford University there seemed to be a distinct lack of 'buzz' about the room, and many of the stands were empty, which gave a negative feel to the careers fair.

As I walked round I identified a few businesses who appeared to work in the area of digital media. I approached them and talked to a few the relevant of the businesses, but the advice they were giving was very general, such as "when you have graduated send us your C.V." This left me feeling a little disconnected from these large corporations and I did not feel inspired that I would want to peruse things further.

To reflect on this day, I do not think that a careers fair would be my first avenue to use when looking for a job. However given the opportunity to go to another careers fair, if I was free on the day it was being held I would almost certainly attend, as you never know what opportunities are available or who you may meet.

If you are a university student, or someone who works in the area of digital media and you read this blog post, I would be very interested to hear from you in the comments. Please leave me any tips on strategies on gaining employment I am always looking for new and interesting way in which I can market myself.

On a side note I headed over to Bradford Media Museum after the creative careers fair and was pleasantly surprised to find they had a videos games exhibition that contained many retro arcade cabinets. As I had my dSLR camera with me I spent the rest of the afternoon practicing some photography. Pictures will be uploaded to my flickr page soon

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