New Media Orlando Meetup May 12, 2010
Posted by Ryan in : Local, Podcast, Events, floridacreatives, News, OrlandoScene, photos, Podcasts ; add a commentHad a great meetup last night. I’ve left some audio notes here.
Download New Media Producers Meetup
Length: 3:13
The original meetup post and facebook event are around, but I took some great notes during the New Media Producers meetup using iEtherPad.
Also, I planned to show a YouTube video I recorded with a public media veteran and documentary filmmaker from St. Paul, MN, Barry Madore. However, it was way too noisy in Stardust. I like the idea of priming people’s brains with a short talk or story, but you’ll just have to check it out here:
Barry on the Tube
October 24, 2009: A Day of Climate Action (350) October 23, 2009
Posted by Ryan in : Local, Podcast, Press, Beer, Earth, Events, Friends ; comments closed
Download Eco Footprint Special: 350.org
Length: 3:04
Gabe LeBlanc of EcoFactory left me this message about the event being held on 10/24/09 to raise awareness about the level of Carbon in the air. More info can be found at http://350.org and http://ecofactory.com
Gabe is offering free beer to the first 350 people to arrive at Orlando Brewing at 3:50 PM on October 24th. Gabe is doing awesome stuff in our community, and I recommend everyone go and support him, or find a similar event in your area.
Think and Drink is Tomorrow Night! 9/16/09 October 15, 2009
Posted by Ryan in : Local, community, Digital Media, Events, floridacreatives, Orlando, Social Media Events, Trends ; comments closedJust a friendly reminder that tomorrow night, Friday, Sept 16th, at 7PM, we will be opening the doors of the historic Cameo Theatre to an event to have everyone get together, share ideas, talk about community building, and hear from a few people who have experienced success in their own communities.
Please bring $5 cash per person – each paid admission also gets a free drink coupon for a drink at the bar (non-alcoholic options are also available). If you don’t want to pay cash, we can hook you up on the internet, but the EventBrite service slaps us with an extra $1 service charge.
http://thinkanddrink.eventbrite.com/
We will be keeping the venue open as late as everyone wants to stay, so call the babysitter, put out the cat, and tell the wife (or husband) not to wait up for you! The conversation can continue until the wee hours of the morning! The Cameo will keep the bar open as long as we need it.
Who will be there?
Gwendolyn Anello is a co-owner of Anello Consulting out of Merritt Island. She consults several organizations in the areas of communications, market development, community and public affairs, and fundraising.
Chris Blanc is the Marketing Director for the Enzian Theatre and the Florida Film Festival. As if that wasn’t enough, he’s involved in several other local communities, and had a hand in creating the Dandelion Cafe.
Darren McDaniel is the creator of a feature film (The Essence of Irwin), the founder of a local internet startup (Petentials), former programming director at the Downtown Media Arts Center, and has done PhD-level research Sociology at Vanderbilt.
Julie Norris is the owner of Dandelion CommuniTEA Cafe and the host of Front Porch Radio on WPRK 91.5FM every Wednesday. She’s also a new mommy! Congrats!
John Rife was a media missionary in S. Pacific / Asia, a founding member of Interactive Expeditions (IntXinc.com), is an independent documentary filmmaker, a video blogger and is currently pursuing an MFA in Digital Media at UCF.Lance Turner is the founder of the Ourlando movement and the owner of AEonBlue in Winter Park. You’ll see Lance at tons of local events snapping pictures or signing up small businesses to bring the local color.
The Cameo Theatre
1013 E Colonial Dr (corner of Mills & Colonial)
Orlando, FL, 32803
Map Link: http://bit.ly/2gK2BC
About Florida Creatives
Ryan Price and John Rife hatched the idea for Florida Creatives Happy Hours in Ryan’s kitchen 3 years ago, and the event is now a fixture in the Orlando community. FLCreatives has expanded to Jacksonville, Brevard County and South Florida. The first New Media Think and Drink was held in January 2008 at Redlight Redlight in Winter Park. John and Ryan are planning to hold Think and Drink several times a year. Get more info at www.FLCreatives.com or follow @flcreatives on Twitter.
Media + Communitty -or- FLCreatives Discussion Series October 1, 2009
Posted by Ryan in : Local, BlogOrlando, Events, floridacreatives, Social Media Events ; comments closedIn preparing to plan for a local event in October, namely Bringing Arts and Technology Together (BATT), I went through the process to reserve a space and get a few people involved with the organizational parts.
Long story short, we didn’t have enough time to pull off BATT. Time to take baby steps. At the same time, we still have a venue reserved, so it’s time to pull other ideas from my back pocket.
In the last 3 years, Florida Creatives has had an important role to play in helping the community grow, but we can take it farther. Our network (and network of networks) is capable of reaching all kinds of people around so many subjects.
I started a wiki page on the FLCreatives site to outline and suggest a format and possible topics for FLCreatives discussions. My main concern right now is the discussion we will hold on October 16th in the evening. Here’s my first draft:
The Role of Media in a Community
A collected panel of community leaders with a successful track record will be given the stage and a chance to share their thoughts and stories using media to communicate with:
* Their community members
* Traditional media
* Other organizations
* Their volunteers and employeesNew forms of media seem to appear every day, and what used to work in a print, TV and radio world may not fly in the world of social networking and YouTube. Some more established community leaders will have had to adapt, and those with newer missions will have had to make it up as they go along. We can hear from both sides in a panel like this.
EDIT: New Media Think and Drink Event RSVP
We have already confirmed 2 panelists:
- EDIT: New discussion leaders!
- John Rife
- Darren McDaniel
- Julie Norris, Dandelion CommuniTEA
- Chris Blanc, Enzian/FL Film Festival
- Lance Turner, OurLando
- Gwendolyn Anello, PR & Marketing Consultant
Why do this event?
BarCamps and large events are great, but they only happen once a year in a given city – it would be hard to organize them too often. Happy Hours and Likemind are fun, but we try to keep the agenda out of those events. Ignite is great as a showcase of local talent, but there is no real theme to the event. The idea here is to pick one subject and pick it apart from several view points.
I always like following up a great discussion with some brainstorming, time to make plans and get things done, so my ideal would be to follow a great discussion with a “think tank” the following day – this is what the unconference format is great for – have an empty schedule and fill it with all of the things in your head after you get energized and inspired, then have a room full of people who are willing to talk about anything.
The discussion series should be followed by a BarCamp-like event to let people workshop on the discussion’s topic from the previous evening. It’s great to have time to “sleep on it”, go and reflect, then get back together and get stuff done.
We’ve got the venue for Saturday the 17th as well, and they’ll be happy to leave the chairs and equipment set up for us to hold a ‘Camp style event on day 2 if we want.
Photowalking, Anyone? September 15, 2009
Posted by Ryan in : Local, Events, floridacreatives, Orlando, photos ; comments closedThe last photowalk (at least that I know of) was back on April 10th. Anyone up for another? Perhaps through College Park? Perhaps October 1st? October 6th? Just asking…
EDIT: I went ahead and picked a time and place:
How to Kick Ass at Your Job – Slides from Ignite Orlando #2 June 24, 2009
Posted by Ryan in : HowTo, Local, Events, floridacreatives, Ignite, Markteting, Pecha Kucha, presentations ; comments closedBefore you get too far into your creative endeavor, stop and think about why you got into this in the first place. Creating a Mission statement can tell you why, but should not tell you how, when or how much, but a Vision statement can. Arnold, Cyrano and Kermit can help too.
Presented at IgniteOrlando just moments ago.
BlogOrlando >>> WordCampOrlando, more events = more specialization = more awesome June 12, 2009
Posted by Ryan in : Local, Tech, Events, PodCamp, Social Media Events ; comments closedThe spring has kept me busy, so I haven’t been able to read every blog post on my RSS reader. However, the recent announcements around WordCampOrlando made me wonder what Josh had to say about it.
BlogOrlando 2009 from Josh Hallet’s blog:
After a great deal of consideration I have decided not to host a big, public BlogOrlando this year.
…
It is the complete end? No. I may still hold a small private event this year, or may think about hosting an event in 2010. We’ll see.
2 years ago, I talked about doing PodCampOrlando, but the farthest we got was a happy hour and photowalk (lately I’ve been using the site to teach people how to do stuff in Drupal). Honestly, the social media wave tends to hit Orlando a year or two after the West Coast, so while a small and intimate PodCamp would have been fun, it was hard to get the podcasters, videobloggers, and especially the news media to sign on for something like that.
BlogOrlando was serving many of those folks very well, but now there may be some room in the Orlando calendar to explode what was BlogOrlando into a WordCamp, PodCamp, PR-unconference, SocialMediaClub, etc.
There are a lot more podcasts being produced in Central Florida than there were in 2006, and the ones that are still around from those days aren’t going anywhere.
Would you come to a PodCamp? What presentation would you give, or what discussion would you like to have? Do you understand what a PodCamp is?
Fringe Fringe Fringe Fringe Fringe Fringe Fringe May 18, 2009
Posted by Ryan in : Local, bloggingfringe, Events, Fringe, marketing, Orlando, whuffie ; comments closedYes, it’s true. I can never shut up about the Orlando Fringe. Fringe is what BarCamp will be in 50 years, becuase they have the same humble beginnings. Actually, if you take Internet Years into account, we are more like 3 or 5 years away from having unconferences that last 2 weeks and appeal to a wide audience. (I know because I want to create one)
photo from orlandosentinel.com
Of the 67 shows at this year’s Orlando festival, a majority are from out-of-town (USA or International), OR have never appeared at the Fringe before. The festival is spread across 8 venues in Loch Haven Park, so everything is within walking distance. The proximity of the venues, along with the staggering quality of all the shows, makes this one of the premier unjuried theatre festivals in the world.
Half of Orlando has no idea this is happening. It’s even worse for tourists.
Fringe has been going on for 18 years, longer than any other US fringe, longer than the crappy Music Festival, and just as long as the Film Fest.
On top of all these things, 100% of ticket sales go directly in the artists’ pockets. No exeptions, substitutions or refunds. The only things the festival makes money on is the Button (everyone must buy one, $8), merchandise, Beer and Wine, and Donations. A huge part of their budget comes from Grants and Donations. They have several full-time and part-time staff. (donate something, yo)
Happy Hour Monday
If you’ve EVER read this blog before you’ll know I wrangle the herd of cats known as Florida Creatives. Well, once a year I try to inspire this group (you can’t tell these kids what to do, just suggest) to make the pilgrimage to Loch Haven Park with me and drink beer 3 miles from their normal gathering place. Last year, we enjoyed some marginal success, and one guy actually came to see a show with me! I know a few other folks came out on the weekends, brought their kids. Good thing too. Fringe has a great family atmosphere if you’re looking for it.
Blogging Fringe
I love this festival so much, I go there every day for 2 weeks, and I started an entire project (I don’t think of it as just a website any more) where I blog about Fringe, take photos, make videos, and try to inspire people to do the same.
The big change this year is I’m not really trying to aggregate anything, just evangelize. The most I’ve really done to that end is to try and filter twitter posts about Orlando Fringe, which grows in complexity (and annoyingness) all the time. The coolest thing about the recipe I’ve built is that it works with the global twitter community, which is still fairly easy to navigate. I can’t say the same of the blogosphere, especially since so many people are posting to private Facebook and MySpace accounts. The openness of twitter (which almost sounds like a joke) is a strength I am exploiting, and I’m trying to wield in a meaningful and usable way. Not everyone uses Twitter Search or TweetDeck, so I made one for them.
Herding theatre patrons
This year marks the 4th festival since I started doing Blogging Fringe, and I don’t feel as though I’ve gotten very far in getting other people to blog on my site. So this year I wanted to let them create content where they are most comfortable, and have them act as advocates for something bigger than Blogging Fringe or even a single instance of the Orlando festival.
We’re talking about the community.
Just as with my love for Drupal, your reasons for staying at Fringe are not always the same ones that made you come in the first place.
Normally, a friend will drag you to some show or other, or perhaps you know someone in a show, or a second- or third-degree friend is in that situation. At Fringe, the Kevin Bacon game is too easy. The circle is much smaller and the bonds are often stronger. There are plenty of people I only know during Fringe, because they live in Seattle, Canada, or the UK. I have actually taken one of these Fringe Friendships to the next level, by visiting some actor friends up in New York a few years ago.
Just like making friends online, sometimes Fringe Friends can become your friends in Real Life. This is sometimes true of locals, but not often.
Another crazy thing is that this village only comes together for two weeks. I’ve heard similar things about Burning Man. Another characteristic they share is a Gift Economy.
Whuffie at the Fringe
Orlando Fringe has an invention they call “Fringe Bucks”, which is a social currency you can touch. When you volunteer for Fringe, you get 1 Fringe Buck per hour. 4 Fringe Bucks gets you into a show, for free. Your used Fringe Bucks then go to artists, who in turn use their Fringe Bucks to get into other shows. Artists also often “comp” their friends and other artists. Up to 10% of any show is filled with people who didn’t pay money to be there.
Fringe Bucks
Volunteers also get a free Button, so if you are willing to spend time at Fringe (which is natural for many people), you can get into all the shows you want, for free, within reason.
I was reminded of Fringe Bucks when I read Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Printing Money, Whuffie Style
Other than volunteering, several other ways exist to earn social capitol at Fringe. “Hug a volunteer”, is a mantra that’s heard and acted on often. Billeting artists (giving them a place to sleep) actually earns you a SuperPass, which gets you in to any show for free. Buying someone a beverage at the Beer Tent is often proffered as a reward for a favor, a free ticket to a show, or just as an excuse to get some face-time with your favorite artist.
My mission this year was to try and capture some of that implicit social capitol and have everyone make the festival better by participating in a game. I often describe it as a scavenger hunt, but it’s not really correct to call it that.
I was inspired by Akoha, which is a game where you are given a physical card with a unique “Mission ID” or a deck of missions, and the whole thing is tracked online. The idea is to “play it forward”. One card will pass from person to person, as you perform small kindnesses to other people, making the world a better place.
Akoha at TED
The Game Itself
Each participant gets a small booklet containing a piece of paper with several “challenges”. Some of these are easier than others, but initially they were designed to be things you could do for free, and especially to generate a story you could then tell to others. The best one so far was a bizarre hula-hooping mishap… involving a girl wearing a skirt.
The Game, Manifested
Each mission is worth 10 points, with modifiers for fun reasons.
- Drink a beer with a Canadian (drink a beer with a Floridian, -5 points)
- Donate to the Fringe (1 point per $1 donated)
… and so on.
In order to get players engaged right away, I invented the idea of your first mission being something you’d have to carry out right away, with two added bonuses:
- The First Mission always involves a 3rd party, who has not yet started playing the game.
- You must convince said 3rd party to complete your mission without speaking to them.
This makes the first challenge, well, challenging, and gets you from zero to one as a player right away. Now, you also have to explain to your friend what the heck you just did when the mission is over, thereby spreading the game virally.
Choose Your Own Adventure
I had originally wanted to do this game more like Akoha, with an online registration for missions, players and points. Anyone could create a mission, assign a mission to someone, or gift points in recognition of “going above and beyond”. It would turn everyone into a facilitator of the game, and in a perfect world, it would have been great.
In the end, I chose to use paper and online photos as the medium, because it’s more accessible and there’s a lot less overhead (this is a free time project).
Any player is still invited to invent their own challenges, either by having me write them down, or by printing out their own sheets. You just need a 4 1/4″ square piece of paper, and you can write anything on it.
Artists often use printed fliers to promote their shows, so I thought this would be a good chance to make the fliers useful beyond just saying the show times. Now every flier you hand out is interactive and viral, and it inspires your patrons to share something related to your show.
We have designed a platform.
Measuring Success
As players are encouraged to use whatever platform is most comfortable for them (Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, etc.), measuring will be just as difficult as with most social media campaigns. My Blogging Fringe twitter bot helps a bit, and Google Alerts help a bit more, but the only (simple) way to be able to see all these posts will be to have all these people add me as a friend on the relevant network and look at their Activity Streams.
This is where open standards would really help. They could make aggregating this content easy, but Facebook and MySpace are inherently closed to the average Joe, and that’s me.
Luckily I know most of these people, or I’m getting to be Fringe Friends with them. In the future, scaling this game will be hard without a centralized web site to collect all the data, but for this year’s experiment, what we’ve got isn’t bad for the amount of time and money I put in to it.
The Goal
In coming up with my presentation for BarCamp, I stumbled across the mission for Blogging Fringe. Even though I had done it for 3 years prior, I couldn’t verbalize fully and succinctly why I was doing it. I came up with the following:
To inspire entertaining and unexpected interaction between patrons of the arts, artists and arts organizations.
Everything I generate now for this project and future iterations of Blogging Fringe will take this statement into account, and give me the razor-edged accuracy I need to make this free time project greater than the sum of its parts.
There’s a lot I haven’t covered here, but that’s the way with this project, it really is quite deep and nebulous. It took me more than 3 years to understand it, and I feel like I’m learning and re-learning new things all the time.
I’d love your feedback, or stories about similar campaigns. This will definitely come up in a future podcast, BlogOrlando, BarCamp or other session. I’d love to know what others can learn from my experimentation, and how I can make this project even better.
Blunder Bungle Photos May 8, 2009
Posted by Ryan in : Local, Press, art, Events, photos, Puppets ; comments closedI had a great time doing a real art show last night… some great people came by, and even one real puppeteer got a chance to try out with my creation!
There were several photographers there, some from Metromix, and 2 representatives of The Daily City.
Daily City Photoset of Blunder Bungle by Mark Baratelli
Daily City Photoset of Blunder Bungle by Tisse Mallon
Metromix Photoset of Blunder Bungle by Miriam Lorenzi
photo my Miriam Lorenzi
el Presidente
Blunder Bungle (today) an art show inspired by mistakes May 6, 2009
Posted by Ryan in : Local, Arts, Events, Graphics, processing, Puppets ; comments closedI will be doing an (as of yet untitled) digital puppetry / collaborative performance piece tonight as a part of a backyard art showcase. The blunder for me, is that it’s 18 hours until the event and I don’t have a playable demo! Built with Processing and a Nintendo WiiMote. Come and see what the fuss is all about.
In light of a recent missed deadline, we are creating an art show to prove that royally messing up, is not in fact the end of the world.
Artists participating include:
Doreen Barber | James Caruso | Patricia Coyle
Jessica Earley | Trevor Garrett | Jennifer Foust
Greg Leibowitz | Molly Livingston | Hannah Miller
Sergio Mora | Eric Jedraszczak | Rachael Page
Brian Phillips | Doug Rhodehamel | Maria Heidi Sanchez
Matthew Simantov | Blair Sligar | Beau Thomas
Jessalyn Wakefield | Katie Windish
With Performances by:
Omar Delarosa | Brian Feldman | Jack Fields | Ryan Price | Erika Wilhite
Organized by Jessica Earley, incarnated by you.
When: Wednesday May 6th, 2009 from 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Where: Museum of My Neighbor’s Backyard (MoMNB) – 940 Bradshaw Terrace Orlando, FL 32806 (S. of Gore St. / E. of Delaney Ave.) http://tr.im/MoMNBmap
Admission: Free
Websites:
http://tr.im/blunderBungle (Blunder Bungle : Facebook Event)
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=d2w5n2p_4cv873dfc (Blunder Bungle : Google Docs)
When referencing on Twitter, please use hashtags:
#thisthejam #BlunderBungle #MoMNB
Public Transportation / Parking:
LYNX: Take Link 7 or Link 11 on Orange Ave. The bus stop is in front of Lucerne Medical Center. Walk one block south to Gore St. Turn Left at Gore St. and right onto Bradshaw Terrace. / Street Parking is available along Bradshaw Terrace and in the empty lot across the street.
