Commanding Chaos for Coworking, Open Source and Creative Communities

May 2007 Posts

Tech is Turning Over

Thu, 05/31/2007 - 08:34 -- rprice

So many things happened while I was "away", or rather, while I was at Fringe. Here are some highlights:

  1. Apple, Inc: Watch YouTube videos on AppleTV, oh, and we really meant it when we said we want to sell music without DRM. Really.
  2. Microsoft: Hey! We've had multi-touch stuff in our labs for a while, but we don't care about home users - we're going after retail and enterprise with Surface! Whatever.
  3. Last.fm: Remember us? We're one of those sites that lets you share your iTunes playlist on the web. Well, CBS thinks our 15M users are worth $280 million! Whoopie!
  4. MySpace: We got really pissed that everyone's using Photobucket instead of our photo hosting, so we bought them for about $250Million!
  5. Google: You can now see a panorama of the place you're trying to find in Google Maps (in 5 major cities). Aren't we the best company ever?

More important than how cool Google is: the blog that brought me all of this news: Lost Remote. Technically, it's a TV blog, but I find all the best stuff there. Seriously, check it out.

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Liberatr.net Returns

Tue, 05/29/2007 - 21:37 -- rprice

For about the last week, Liberatr.net has been down due to the fact that I had to move it to another server ASAP - my email wasn't working, and it was on the list of things to do for about 2 months anyway. The site used 80GB in the month of April (or thereabout). 80GB is nothing to scoff at.

I think I might start hosting my files on Amazon S3 or Cachefly or something as long as it's cheaper than hosting. We shall see.

The important news is: your Liberatr.net feed should be back. It was broken for a while, which must not have been fun.

Since SO MANY posts came out during Fringe, it has made me re-think my quota for the feeds. I've now got the most recent 100 posts in the feed. I hope this doesn't take too long to download...?

If you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, please check out Liberatr.net right away. It's not currently even 10% of what I've got planned for it, but it helps a few people check all my blogs by visiting 2 sites instead of 10.

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Marketing a Fringe Show 101

Tue, 05/29/2007 - 13:40 -- rprice

I seriously think Mark (and me?) should hold a workshop series next year and incorporate it with Beth Marshall's "Yapinars" (which I think is a fancy word for Unconference).


Some highlights: Mark got his friends to make lots of viral promotional videos for him. The photos of the sticky notes were taken by me (or I took very similar ones). The sash across the sign was added on when Mark got Patron's Pick (the reward for selling the most tickets in your venue is to get to play another show that is almost guaranteed to sell out). Inside the program there was a page with about 15 tear-off strips so that you could pass out flyers for the show if you liked (or didn't like) the show.

Mark, please put these pictures in an iMovie project with a soundtrack of your singing and repost it on Blip.TV - this GIF takes forever to load.

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Biting the Bullet - I'm just one of Y'all

Tue, 05/22/2007 - 07:06 -- rprice

This post originally appeared on Blogging Fringe and is in relation to that community site in particular, but I think it also applies to any community-driven site I will ever try to build.

OK, so I realised some time today that I alone cannot make all the videos, take all the pictures, do all the blog posts I want to do AND update the MySpace AND write reviews - I think I have 4 or more reviews I want to do, and they might never get the level of attention I think they deserve.

It's official - if I ask people to write reviews in comments, so should I. If I ask people to leave reviews on the voicemail (321-441-3964), so should I. If I want people to leave reviews on video, so should I and so should all the bloggers. Then we can just blog and be a patron, because we are patrons first - those are the rules. I'll never sit at my tent instead of go to shows. I'll never make buttons instead of talk to other patrons. I'll never make a video instead of just have a conversation with someone. Being a geek comes second. I'm here because I love this, please remember that.

I want people to feel like my opinion is no more important than that of someone in line. That's why we have the voicemail and the Twitter account. To level the playing field. You get exactly 140 characters to say what you think - if it doesn't fit, tought luck, baby! The problem with Twitter is, you need to make an account. Who wants to do that? The phone thing is much easier. So call.

Now I admit that because I know how to make videos and I have the equipment and the ambition, this qualifies me for things like that, and sure I know about podcasting and getting my stuff on iTunes as well, so I'll do that too. Still, this site will never be all it can be until we have a flood of your thoughts and posts. Please help everyone who comes to the site by commenting, calling, sharing and reading.

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Nice name, but why can't I buy Fringe tickets?

Mon, 05/21/2007 - 08:33 -- rprice

Let me start off by saying that it is so utterly amazing that Central Florida has groups with funding who can do stuff like this, and we wouldn't be where we are now without CFACA and UA. Love ya, mean it.

Jim Morris of the Central Florida Arts & Cultural Alliance (they just changed their name from Performing Arts Alliance) recently posted an article called "I get the change, but how are you different than United Arts?". He then tries to describe it. I think I get it, but it's hard to keep tabs...

Who works for UA? Who's in charge of the Red Chair Project? How do I get Florida Creatives Happy Hour listed there? How can I blog for them?

Why isn't there an official RCP blog, and why do Jim and Jessica have their blogs hosted on Google's server instead of their own?

Where are the graphics for the Red Chair Project I can post an official link on my website? (see the Official Joost Beta Tester logo, for example) Joostâ„¢

Where's the iCal/gCal/RSS of upcoming events? Where are the comments on events? Why use a proprietary system? If you didn't use a proprietary system, where are the dang comments and RSS feeds? GO OPEN SOURCE, guys, you'll never regret it! EVER.

Give me a call 407-484-8528. If you don't see this post, I'm sure I'll see Jessica at the Fringe this week.

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2007 Orlando Fringe Festival

Sat, 05/19/2007 - 20:49 -- rprice

The scene at the tent

So this year for Blogging Fringe, in addition to providing day-by-day accounts of what's going on, reviews of the shows we see (we being me and 3+ other people, come help out if you like), making the occasional video and taking some photos, I am doing something else. I have a vendor space in the "Beer Tent" area (beer is NOT Orlando Brewing). So far, I didn't have anything there Thursday on account of the rain and all the stuff to do, and I didn't have it Friday because I was seeing shows, but I actually set up today and had a decent experience.
Amy Salloway
I only made $10 at the tent today, but I think the real goal is to make sure it's serious, to set ourselves apart, and to give the team a home base to work from. I've also encouraged artists to come by the tent and hang out, particularly those from out of town. One such maiden is Amy Salloway, who is a lovely Minnesota girl with a one-woman show about Jewish summer camp. She came by to chat with Emily, Jamie and I tonight over some delicious corn Arepas from the booth next door. I hope she comes back and is the first of many.

Also, I finally met John V. of Radio Rickshaw tonight - apparently, they sponsored the poetry smackdown at the outdoor stage... S.K.I.P. of Nonsense won the prize tonight, and rightly so - he's fantastic. Mark Baratelli said many times that the spoken word community needs to put together a Fringe show next year: he's right. Amy Steinberg's been doing it for years, even Unicornicopia had a show - why hasn't Nonsense Records done something?

After that there was a very small excursion to the Peacock Room where we ran into the Senorita from Matador. Now that I think of it, I could be dropping names all night in this post, but I don't have all night... I have to get up and go fly a kite.

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Heat Fozzy (I love Galacticast)

Thu, 05/17/2007 - 04:38 -- rprice

Galacticast: Heat Fozzy

Subscribe to Galacticast in iTunes

A mashup of Jim Henson's Muppets with action movies like Scarface and Hannibal, and apparently Kill Bill as well. Fozzie never makes an appearance, but they do turn Miss Piggy into bacon... :( This video was on the front page of MySpace today... yesterday is was Tom Green "ghost riding the whip" in the middle of a corn field. Today's video is at least funny.

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Orlando Brewing in a Bottle?

Wed, 05/16/2007 - 02:58 -- rprice

Reposted from an email I just recieved:

Orlando Brewing


Hand-Crafted, Organic Ales now in Bottles

For the first time ever, Orlando Brewing Red Ale is available in bottles! Now you can take our beer home with you. Six-packs and cases of Red Ale are for sale at the Orlando Brewing Taproom, the only place to buy them. Supplies are limited... so get yours soon!

This week is American Craft Beer Week and we're celebrating at Orlando Brewing. Check out our May newsletter to read more about it.

Come visit the Taproom. Take a free tour of the brewery and drink the beer made right here on the premises. And even take some home. Orlando Brewing is located at 1301 Atlanta Avenue, near Downtown Orlando. For more information and directions, check out www.orlandobrewing.com. (407) 872-1117.

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If I could Joost get the damn thing to run!

Mon, 05/14/2007 - 11:14 -- rprice

I've had my Joost invite since the days before there was a Mac version, but I've only just got the damn thing running on my MacBook Pro just now... and it crashed!

I understand it's 'beta' and all. Really, I do.
Joost™ the best of tv and the internet

But come on guys! I just tried to watch cartoons and the thing crashes, after all the waiting and the trouble and the MTV-ization of the thing, I don't know if I care any more. If you get Battlestar Galactica and stuff from Showtime on there, then we'll talk. Until then, I'm not sure if I want to beta-test any longer.

If you want invites, ask me - you need Windows or Intel Mac.

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