joanvinallcox's posterous - Roaming around the webscape!

Oct 29 / 1:25pm

Last Night at the HPCA Meeting

I'm a member of a freelancers' association know as the Halton Peel Communicators Association and last night we put on a a social media workshop. It was fun even though I didn't get to sit in on the other three workshop leaders' presentations. Check out Donna's report on hers here - http://trafcom.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/linkedin-101-for-entrepreneurs-and-business-professionals.html, and Sue's here - http://getitwrite.ca/2009/10/29/twitter-tips-hpca-session/ Rob's may come later.

In an unthinking moment I had agreed to cover audio and video on the web, and the closer we got to the workshop, the more I began to fret. I've had more frustration than success with iMovie and GarageBand, and I've never used MovieMaker or SoundRecorder. I won't say I panicked, but I did regret agreeing.

Donna Papacosta blogged recently on leaving your comfort zone - http://trafcom.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/leaving-your-comfort-zone.html - and as an organizer of the evening, she had put me squarely in that position. I was not in my comfort zone. Why oh why hadn't I asked to do the Twitter presentation, I groused to myself, or the blogging one, or even the one on LinkedIn. But no-o-o, I had to say "yes" to audio and video.

It turned out to be pretty good. The day before, still out of my comfort zone, I made a list of the things I did know how to do with audio and video on the web. Turns out people were delighted to learn how to embed videos and audio clips into Facebook or their blogs. They were also happy to find out that they could make little animated videos at Animoto - http://animoto.com/ - just by uploading photos. They found screencasting interesting and looked at the Twitter-associated tool Screenr, - http://screenr.com/ - and some examples of what I've done with Jing - http://www.jingproject.com/ In fact, you can see a collection of the links I referred to in my JNthWEB wiki here - http://jnthweb.pbworks.com/MultiModal

So it was a good night, a night where I discovered that my audience was happy to learn a number of ways to play with audio and video online, and I was happy to share what I knew with them!

Joan Vinall-Cox
JNthWEB Consulting - http://jnthweb.ca/
Social Media & Learning
Halton Peel Communicators Association - http://www.hpcaonline.org/

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Filed under // HPCA socialmedia

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Oct 25 / 4:54pm

"Digital Strangelove" - Essential for understanding the changes the web is bringing

It's brilliant. Watch it.
http://www.slideshare.net/DavidGillespie/digital-strangelove-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-internet

Joan Vinall-Cox
JNthWEB Consulting - http://jnthweb.ca/
Social Media & Learning

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Oct 24 / 9:30am

Autumn Colors Near Toronto

Fall colours sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant.

Joan Vinall-Cox,
Social Media Consultant
http://jnthweb.ca

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Filed under // iPhone nature

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Oct 23 / 9:27am

Parking Lot in Autumn

Joan Vinall-Cox,
JNthWEB Consulting - http://jnthweb.ca/
Social Media & Learning

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Oct 13 / 4:26pm

Fall

Joan Vinall-Cox
http://jnthweb.ca

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Oct 9 / 8:38pm

The Fun Theory

Joan Vinall-Cox
Social Media & Learning

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Oct 7 / 6:16am

So many tools, so little time!

Yesterday while glancing through my Tweets, I stumbled across a request by @wmacphail to go to an address. Since I've always found his work interesting, I clicked. I ended up on an app he'd embedded in a course wiki, which let me talk to him and another guest. We were on tokbox - http://www.tokbox.com/ - a videochat tool.

I wish I had time to experiment with it. I hope people let me know how it works for them.

When I DMed @wmacphail my thanks for introducing me to tokbox, he sent me another link, showing me how LiveScribe works - http://www.livescribe.com/ - and I fell into equipment lust. I want one, but I'll have to save up first.

I wish I had time to experiment with it. I hope people let me know how it works for them.

Then my colleagues in the HPCA Google Group sent around an amusing video with robot-like characters made with Xtranormal - http://www.xtranormal.com/ - and this tool looked like fun.

I wish I had time to experiment with it. I hope people let me know how it works for them.

While scanning through my Posterous subscription to Steve Rubel's LifeStream this morning, - http://www.steverubel.com/google-preps-server-side-clipboard - I saw the link to the post about the Google Cloudboard - http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/10/google-cloudboard.html - and it looks very useful.

I hope I'll have time to experiment with it. I hope, when it becomes available, people will let me know how it works for them.

In my Inbox this morning, I found an invitation to Google Wave, and I'm so-o-o- curious, and so short of time!

I'm determined to have time to experiment with it. I hope people let me know how it works for them.

Joan Vinall-Cox
Social Media & Learning

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Filed under // Google Cloudboard GoogleWave LiveScribe tokbox xtranormal

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Oct 5 / 8:49am

Getting Published Seminar - Brian Henry

I'll admit it; I tend to be hyper-critical of people trying to teach writing, but only because I've spent over 35 years doing so myself. So when I signed up myself and the young teen I'm mentoring to a seminar on how to get published, I had a cynical edge. I was prepared to spend from 10:00 to 4:00 on a Sunday closeted in a small room in the back of Toronto's World's Biggest Bookstore only because a colleague I respect spoke highly of Brian Henry's impact on her writing, and because the seminar fee was relatively low, aspiring writers being a frugal crowd.

It didn't start well. Just after 10:00, standing outside the locked doors of a store that didn't open till 11:00 on Sundays, directly in the wafting stream of pot smoke, with a 16 year old entrusted to me by her parents - I was having negative thoughts. Then I saw someone approaching the door from the inside; it was unlocked and we were escorted in.

We found our seats, and settled in. Within 10 minutes, I was won over. As a long time teacher, it was clear to me that Brian Henry knew both his stuff and how to manage a class. When participants focusing on their own specific questions interrupted, he answered clearly and then steered back to his (well) planned presentation with no show of irritation. I really enjoyed his sense of humour, and his passion for what he was teaching. Both my young friend and I found him easy to understand and we felt we learned what we needed to know for our next step in getting her novel published - how to write a query letter. Listening to an actual agent who is taking on authors was a bonus.

So thanks, Brian Henry - http://quick-brown-fox-canada.blogspot.com/ - and here's my recommendation to any aspiring writers in the GTA - sign up for one of his seminars - http://quick-brown-fox-canada.blogspot.com/search/label/*%20%20Brian%20Henry%27s%20schedule

Joan Vinall-Cox
JNthWEB Consulting - http://jnthweb.ca/
Social Media & Learning

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Oct 3 / 1:05pm