Focusing And Refocusing: Views From An Evolving Life

Arian Teaches Us How to Build a Web Site

So maybe you have some photos you want to share with others.  Flickr and Picasa and such are nice, but don't fully do the trick.  Or maybe you want a place to show off your new audio or video skills.  Or maybe a friend is starting a small business and you want to help promote it.  Or, quite possibly, you just want to learn additional modern media skills and need a way to practice them.

How about your own Web site?

To get us started, I turn to our colleague Arian, who already knows more than a thing or two and is still trying to learn more.  She set out trying to teach us all how to do CSS, but I asked her to back up a bit and start at the beginning.

Before you read Part 1 in a series from Arian, check out her her own Web site (note among other things that she taught herself a lot of these multimedia skills ...)

Here's Part 1 of several from Arian:

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After I sent my first round of CSS blog entries, Paula made a keen observation. Without any knowledge of how to begin to put up a Web site, delving into CSS is pretty pointless. It’d be like teaching algebra to 4-year-olds: They’d quickly grow glossy-eyed, yawn, then start poking each other as entertainment. The result in this case would be similar. Although, maybe less poking.

 

So, she suggested I take a few steps back and start from the beginning. This won’t be a step-by-step “how-to.” Instead, it’s an overview of what you need to know before you begin and a few suggested starting points. When you try this on your own, you might find other resources: better tools, or better deals on domain names and hosted services, etc. When you do, please share by contributing to the comments section.

 

I’ll touch on two technical requirements for putting up a Web site: domain registration in today's post and Web hosting in tomorrow's. These are things you’ll need to know and do before you even start building your site.

 

Creating a Web Presence

 

Domain Names:

 

Everything connected to the Internet has a unique domain name, for example: ap.org or typepad.com. No two domain names are alike, much like there’s only one address to your home.

 

You can get a free domain from a number of places on the Web. Geocities is a good place to start. You get the domain and the hosting service (which I’ll go into next) gratis and within seconds. Plus, it steps you through the entire process.

 

If you want to pick your domain name, say, MyDogRocks.com, you purchase the right to use it for a certain period, usually a year. I like to go to Dotster.com to check on the availability of a domain. They have a “Find a Domain” feature that searches all the extensions (.com, .net, .info, etc.). Dotster , as well as other domain registration services, can also recommend domain names if the name I’m searching for is already taken, for example MyDogTotallyRocks.com.

 

Once I find a domain I like, I could go through Dotster to purchase the domain. But like with many of the things I have mentioned or will mention, the Web has countless other options from cheap to expensive. 

 

Now that you own a domain name (or assigned one from Geocities), you can even create e-mail addresses, e.g. arian@MyDogTotallyRocks.com. This feature and many more benefits of domain name registration are accessed via the control panels after you obtain Web hosting… which leads me to… (wait until tomorrow ...)

Leanne's Adventures In Learning Podcasting, Part 2

Continuing where we left off yesterday:  Leanne notes that she has a terrific handout from the podcasting seminar; see her if you'd like to make a copy.

She adds a few tips from Duy Linh Tu, her instructor at the Mediabistro seminar:

 _ Most of us have a little Web hosting free with our cell phone service or high-speed Internet service. It's a little perk many companies throw in, so be sure to check on that before shelling out money.

 _ If you're recording sound at home, be aware of white noise like the refrigerator hum or the radiator whir. They're sounds you might not even notice that are picked up easily by mics and can't be disappeared in mixing. Many professionals without access to studios pad their bathrooms with pillows and record there. Large rooms produce echo. Smaller rooms less so, he said. And even the slightest wind when recording outside can be bothersome so use your wind screen.

 _ When recording and mixing, make sure your sounds levels are within the optimium range. Podcast listeners are annoyed when they have to adjust their volume controls unnecessarily.

 _ MANAGE YOUR FILES! Podcasting is often episodic and that means lots of audio and data files. Set up desktop folders that make sense to you and can be searched for easily. Duy suggested using a system of calendar years, dates and numbered episodes _ 2008, 03march, episode1 _ so you can easily refer back for theme music or raw audio you may want to reuse.

 _ If you're interested in publishing to iTunes, where most listeners go for their free podcast downloads, know your podcast could take a few days to show up in the iTunes store as each feed is vetted by an actual person to filter for profanity and other issues.

 _ For information on free, legal music downloads, see Creative Commons.  Some artists have made their music available for free download. See Mobygratis

 

Leanne's Adventures In Learning Podcasting: Part 1

 

Leanne came in this morning raving about the podcast seminar she'd just attended.

Of course, she can't do that in front of me without turning herself into a blog entry author.

Before you ask: Yes, ideally we would have done this as an audio Q&A, or she could have done it as a podcast. But severe time constraints require this route for now.

There will be audio supplements sometime in the future.

As for the photo: I left my point-n-shoot at home, so this is a cell phone special that I e-mailed to myself.  I need to work on my cell phone photo focusing skills ...

Now, here's Leanne

Working in sound has always been an interest of mine, despite a deep seated paranoia about the quality of my own voice. Inspired by Ira Glass and other public radio heroes, and buoyed by our training playground/blog, I've decided to pursue podcasting.

 But how to get started?

 At B&H, of course! I needed equipment, and my birthday was on the horizon. After a bit of give-and-take with my husband on price, and a slight seeking out of recommendations and reviews, off I went with my very specific list in hopes of avoiding the buy-more, spend-big abyss.

 I was soon the proud owner of a Zoom H2 (thanks Paula!). I learned later it's the digital training recorder doled out to journalism students at Columbia.

I chose to supersize the memory with a 2GB card at a cost of about $24 since the H2 comes with only 15 minutes of storage. The H2 can take memory cards up to 4GB, but my husband is fond of reminding me we need to send our kid to college, so I stopped short.

I also sprang for a AA battery recharger after reading that external mics will suck the H2 dry, fantasizing I would be out in the field more than in a studio.

Home I went with my purchases ahead of a podcasting essentials seminar I had already signed up for at Mediabistro,  a career and training portal I can now highly recommend as fun and useful. My three-hour evening at the company's laid back offices downtown cost only $65 and promised a soup-to-nuts introduction to podcasting, from buying equipment to "publishing" at iTunes. Mediabistro delivered, and then some in the form of Duy Linh Tu, our instructor.

Duy is a wonderful non-geek geek who didn't snarl at basic questions and DID cast a wry eye on some of the razzle dazzle of multimedia. He's a journalism instructor at Columbia and an accomplished practitioner  who urged us not to break the bank to produce a  quality product.

He loves the H2 as a starter recorder at a cost of $198 or less. He also recommended the M-Audio Podcasting Factory complete with mic and stand, headphones, a "breakout box" for your microphone to interface with your computer and boost quality. The kit _ good for Mac and PC _ can be purchased as cheaply as $90 here.

 There are other kits but Duy likes this one best, urging us to make the purchase for studio quality sound when recording narrations, reserving the H2 for non-studio interviews and other field work. He also recommended listening through headphones at all times while recording.

Duy cautioned that sound equipment can cost thousands, with mics running as high as $1,500, but durable, quality equipment doesn't have to be expensive to be good.

He also recommended Audacity as starter software and used it to walk us through the sound transfer and mixing process after he made a little test recording. Audacity is the free download Paula sought out that we've been playing with on NAT. Watching Duy work with Audacity on a projection screen, the mysteries of WAV imagery and the program's tool bar unfolded.

Duy showed us where to find free, legal music for our podcasts, and how to find and use a Web host or a blog account, along with an RSS server like FeedBurner, to "publish" them.

Tomorrow: Tips from Duy.

 

Tutorials on YouTube

Another contribution from Coralie, who actually wrote this in an e-mail but I'm taking the liberty of turning it into a blog entry.  Because it's VERY helpful to all and hey, because I'm way short on time.

I wanted to share one more free resource: YouTube. I just looked up tons of Dreamweaver (Web site building software) tutorials on YouTube.

Here's  one place that looks geared to newbies, and it's organized pretty well with Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver tutorials. I plan on watching it tonight until my eyes go bleary.

As I've noted previously, lynda.com also has a lot of very helpful video tutorials, though you have to subscribe. 

Learning via video can be extremely effective, either in place of or supplementing the printed word.  I highly recommend it.  (I've used it to supplement my iMovie training and will eventually use it for Final Cut, when I get to it.  And I've used it to learn to knit, Continental style.)

As an aside, here's a little story that's completely unrelated.  Or maybe it's related in some way ... you be the judge:

My efforts to use the helmet cam have been stymied.  Because I can't get the thing out of its casing.  For awhile I couldn't even get it out of the box.  And of course, since it's a helmet cam, it DOESN'T COME WITH INSTRUCTIONS for what the makers no doubt view as an obvious skill possessed by anyone who would order a helmet cam to begin with.

I ran out of time to deal with it over the weekend.  Instead I spent hours doing old-fashioned pen-and-paper editing.

Coralie's Adventures in Multimedia

Coralie mentioned the other day that she'd gone to a Web design seminar recently and is registered for one on Flash.  "Oh really!?" I said. "Tell me more!"

And so she did. From Coralie:

We all know that multimedia and online content are becoming more and more important in journalism. But my eyes were recently opened.

A journalist friend of mine had a job interview with The New York Times. The Times editor suggested she go to grad school because editors there are so impressed with the online experience of recent grads. My friend pointed out that she already has a graduate degree in journalism. And about 10 years of experience.

The takeaway: Even though the editor admitted that most positions at the paper would not require building Web sites and interactives, this has become a basic requirement in many newsrooms.

For a while I’ve wanted to learn about building Web sites and creating online content such as slideshows and interactive graphics. Now I want to stop putting it off, learn and create!

Paula has asked me to share some of my experiences as I seek out this training and practice. And I’d really appreciate any tips and suggestions from people out there.

 

Where to learn?

 

I’m not planning to enroll in grad school, so I started by looking at Mediabistro.   Right now (Feb. 22) they have 44 “New Media” classes available, most in  New York or online. I’m most interested in “Flash for Journalists” or “HTML Fundamentals” which bring up two big obstacles: time and cost.

 Each of the classes cost about $425, and they aren’t offered at times that work for me.

 A quick Google search led me to Noble Desktop, a local computer graphic school. They offer three-day classes for about $900 – but they also offer tons of free seminars.

I went to a seminar this week on Intro to Web Design. It was really good -- the instructor went over some basic html, Dreamweaver and Fireworks. In two hours we saw a basic (and very attractive) Web site built from scratch.

 However, it was a lecture-style class so I need to try this stuff out myself. After this seminar, I’m leaning toward seeking out as much free or inexpensive training as I can, and investing my money in the equipment I’ll need. (I have a three-year-old laptop, poor Internet service and none of the software.)

 In addition to Noble Desktop, Apple  offers free workshops at its stores. I don’t have any Mac experience, so I plan on taking a basic Getting Started Workshop. Their classes focus on Apple software, but I hope there will be some skill overlap. Classes at the new Apple store on  14^th Street are listed here. 

 Finally, this Web site was recommended to me for learning basic html:

It doesn’t take any special software, so anyone can try it.

Does anyone else know of useful information/classes/Web sites?

 

Assembling some tools:

 

My first step is getting a decent Internet connection. I had been using a wireless card from a cell phone carrier, but it was too slow to read the news online. Finally I called a cable company and arranged to get high-speed Internet access next week.

 As for software, Dreamweaver, Flash  and the entire Adobe suite are available for a free 30-day trial period (one of many useful tips from the Noble Desktop seminar). Sounds like a good place to start – and a good incentive to use it a lot for 30 days instead of downloading it and forgetting it.

 Dreamweaver is a kind of user-friendly Web site building software, although it’s helpful to know some html also. Flash is for more complicated things. I don’t know much more, because I haven’t had that seminar yet ;)

 I’ve already heard a lot of conflicting advice on what software to use. Most of it goes something like: The technology is changing so fast that by the time you learn [insert software name here] it will be obsolete. Well, I have to start somewhere, so I plan to work on what’s available to me and hope the skills overlap.

 My first project will be a Web site to sell a friend’s hand-knit stocking caps. We’ll work on it together, and she has plans to incorporate video. I’ll let you guys know when we go live!

Arian's Adventures with CSS

Arian's already far more adept than many of us at multimedia journalism.  But still, there's so much more to learn.  Here's her description -- the first in a series that she plans -- of her most immediate goal:

Based on Bob Ulken's analysis of recent journalism job requirements, one thing we might want to consider adding to our multimedia tool belt is CSS: http://ulken.com/blog/archive/000145.html#tagcloud Granted, in his fancy tagcloud, CSS only appeared four times. But learning CSS - besides it offering its own benefits - can be a stepping stone to learning other stuff - like Flash.

So, what's the big deal about CSS? CSS, Cascading Style Sheets, makes building a Web site easier. Sounds good already, doesn't it?

If I’m using just HTML, I have to repeat of a lot of code to make sure the site looks right. If I don’t do this, I run the risk of a browser getting confused and using its default settings instead. This is one of the reasons why some sites look differently depending on the browser.

Repeating code is annoying, boring, and creates endless opportunities for me to mess it up. On top of that, it could take hours to make a simple change, such as the font or color of text. Then, when I think I’m done, I’ll upload it and find that I missed something. Argh…I hate that.

CSS eliminates having to repeat code. I’ll be able to place all the visual styles of my site in one place. Changes will take minutes, not hours.

I don’t know any of this first hand yet. I’ll be attempting learn this stuff as I go. I plan to put together a little family Web site that incorporates at least the basics.

I’ve kept this entry rather vague on purpose. I didn’t want it to get too complicated. As always, feel free to contribute to the comment section, and I’ll keep you posted with my progress.

Notes from Paula:

The genius Pat Thornton has recommended a couple of ways to get started with CSS:

The World Wide Web Consortium's and w3schools'  guides, as well as this book, which I've actually already ordered.

Fun with Phones, Part 3: All-in-One Reporting Package

Let's pretend this eagle was committing news, rather than patiently perching patriotically as pretty much the first thing I saw after emerging from Penn Station this morning, cell phone at the ready.

And let's pretend the passers-by in the below-linked videos were committing news as well.

Being a journalistically minded sort with the most basic of multimedia equipment -- my cell phone -- I could immediately capture the news I found myself in the midst of, using both still photo and video formats.

And then, using the same cell phone, I could (and did) e-mail the photo(s) and video(s) to an eager editor at my workplace, who if warranted could then share them with the world at large.

OK, so the video is lousy quality, to say the least.  But if it were the only available video, or the first available video, of a significant news event, I bet there would be people at our workplace who would be happy to have it.

Note also that the phone's video recorder captures audio, which would have been much better audio had I actually been talking with someone.  Perhaps it could be audio suitable for broadcast or online use.  Perhaps not -- but at worst, it's a way to capture quotes for later use in print stories even when I don't have a notebook or regular audio recorder handy.

All this from one small tool we all have with us almost all the time.  On top of its use as a device with which to call the desk and dictate.

Yes, we all know that regular citizens do this sort of thing in the midst of news events with regularity. We use their stuff with regularity.

But I bet there are at least a few editors on this desk who haven't gotten around to figuring out how to use their cell phones to capture photos AND video AND audio, AND then how to e-mail the material (not just txt-message it) for potential distribution to our audiences. 

Until recently I'd have sheepishly included myself ... I could take a still picture and save it to my phone, and I could pix-msg it to someone else's phone, but that was as far as I'd gotten.

Let's not be a bunch of journalists who, if caught in a news story (not an unlikely eventuality, considering where we live) can't immediately use the best device at our fingertips to capture the news in all formats and share it with our employer and our audiences.

If you don't know yet, learn now:

1) How how to take a still picture with your cell phone, 2) save it to your phone, and 3) e-mail it (send it to yourself as a test).

Also: 4) Record video (and audio) with your phone, 5) save it to your phone, and 6) e-mail it.

And: 7) Increase the length of the video you can record from the 15 or so seconds that may be the default to whatever your phone (or better, added memory card) can hold.

And: 8) Improve the technical quality of the photos and videos by using the adjustments that come with the phone.  (I haven't gotten that far yet.)

I feel silly for not learning this much earlier.  But better now than never.

On another note ... a few weekends ago I had some success using hosting services (MediaMax and Webng) to stash some stuff for future blog use.  Now I'm failing at these efforts.  The "very bad cell phone video" link below may or may not work.  So alternatively I put a second very bad cell phone video on YouTube.

very bad cell phone video

Fun with Phones, Part 2: Web and Video Surfing

Noreen's post about using her cell phone to judge headline effectiveness, and to increase her work efficiency by reading our top stories en route to work, kick-started my efforts to better use my own phone. Especially considering that when I bought the phone in August, I chose the model and an extra $15-a-month multimedia plan specifically to increase my awareness of and facility with this particular mode of consumer media use.

Like Noreen, I've at least been checking out our stories via my phone.  Sometimes I look at the top news of the day; other times I read our features that I didn't have time to read at work. But  I hadn't gotten  much beyond that, stymied by the fact that I'd lost the manual during my move and hadn't gotten around to tracking it down online.  The phone itself isn't exactly intuitive in some of these areas.

All those months of lost opportunity to become modern.

But inspired by Noreen,  I've now soldiered on.

Last night, I finally figured out how to access specific URLs via cell phone, and added selected ones to a Favorites list on the phone.  Now I can read CNN.com, nytimes.com, Bike Snob and the NYCC Message Board  during the long and annoying wait for the bus, and then on the long and annoying bus ride home.  (When I'm not listening to podcasts. Or maybe while I am.)

I also watched a few Top Headlines videos from NBC and ABC, which come as part of Verizon's VCast service.  Next up:  some pop culture videos, which I can download in the morning and then watch on the subway.

The possibilities are endless.  Maybe I'll move even father away to have an even longer commute to take even more advantage of this excitement ...

Fun with Phones, Part 1: Headlines and Efficiency

A guest post today by Noreen, written amid all the chaos of the week of Feb. 4:

I noticed one of the tech tips for print journalists was to get a phone that could text. I'm suggesting it should go one step further: Use your phone's online capabilities, too.

If you're a Verizon customer, Yahoo (aka us) powers the news feed. I was fooling around with a trial of Verizon's phone web the other day before class and realized this. It was cool for two reasons: We're writing the short headlines for a reason, and if we actually consume them, I think it will make headline writing easier. It was interesting to see the way they come through on a phone -- I skimmed past a couple of stories, mainly because I was using the headlines to determine whether something was new. So if they're not updated, the stories don't get clicked.

Also, from a sheer efficiency point, when I got called in early on Wednesday, I didn't have time to log onto my laptop from home. I checked my phone as Mike drove me in and realized the tornadoes had sprung up while I was sleeping. The upshot was I had already read our latest version when I got in the door, AND knew from a quick call to Marco we had kept reporters on the ground overnight. Made diving into a shortstaffed situation easier.

Seek Your Own Multimedia Adventures ...

Another FocalPower quote that seems especially relevant:

"Most musicians I know don't just play music on Saturday night. They play music every day. They are always fiddling around, letting the notes lead them from one place to another. Taking still photographs is like that. It is a generative process. It pulls you along."

Henry Wessel

So, I'm spending all this time on my own trying to learn at least the basics of shooting video, editing video, recording audio, editing audio, shooting still photos -- and of course, beyond those technical skills, delving into what really makes an audio or visual piece work in the content and the editing ...

Is this because I have some sort of knowledge or even vague suspicion that I'll find myself an audio editor or a video editor or a Web editor in six months, a year, five years? 

No.

Do I think I'd be foolhardy not to start learning it, just in case?

Yes.

Do I think that learning it benefits everything I'm already doing, in both my professional and personal lives?

Yes.

Is it fun?

Yes.

If you -- those of you whose schedules I do -- have similar feelings, here's an offer:

Come up with a slice of the multimedia universe that you want to explore at least superficially. Come up with a proposal on how to do that.  Provide a pledge to share what you find out and what you experience with the rest of us.

Then, schedules permitting, I'll give you a project day or two for said exploration.  I'll do what I can to provide tips, or point you to others who could help a bit.  I'll see what we can do about equipment if needed.

Keep it relatively simple. We can talk about ideas and how manageable they may or may not be.

If you want, you might solicit another staffer and do a joint project.

Maybe a podcast. Maybe an audio slideshow.  Maybe a short video (equipment is more a problem with that than with the other two, but perhaps doable.)  Maybe html.  Maybe an exploration of what Twitter is all about and an explanation to the rest of us. See the Do These Things! section on the left for more ideas.

Most of you learned a whole lot from your week at asap last year.  This year we have neither a week per staffer nor asap.  This is what we can do as a sort of an asap-week-lite.  (Note: These projects aren't by any means expected to be publication-quality, unless you count this blog as publication.  So don't stress over that.) 

Also, I'll continue to pull some of you in to help with the content procuring and production for this blog ...