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 ; add a commentBefore 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 ; 2 commentsThe 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 ; add a commentYes, 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 ; add a commentI 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 ; add a commentI 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.
I’m playing mini-golf, for art’s sake! May 5, 2009
Posted by Ryan in : Local, Arts, Events ; add a comment
Brian Feldman's Miniature, this Saturday, May 9th
I’m playing the very first game, which is midnight Friday. Come check it out:
In honor of National Miniature Golf Day (Yes, it’s real!), performance artist Brian Feldman (Leap Year Day, sleepwalk, txt) will attempt to play an unprecedented 72 games of miniature golf in a single day (24 consecutive hours).
The public is invited to challenge Brian, for free, during lightning fast 20 minute games of miniature golf, by calling (407) 792-9421, emailing projects@brianfeldman.com or @BrianFeldman to reserve one of 72 tee times. http://tr.im/miniteetimes Any open times will be available day of event on a space available basis.
When: Saturday 9 May 2009 from 12:00 AM – 11:59 PM (24 hours)
Where: Hawaiian Rumble Adventure Golf @ 8969 International Drive Orlando FL 32819 (Next to WonderWorks) http://tr.im/minimap
Cost: Free (Reservations Requested Please)
Websites:
http://brianfeldman.com (Brian Feldman)
http://tr.im/minifb (Miniature : Facebook Event)
http://tr.im/minirelease (Miniature : Google Docs)
When referencing on Twitter, please use hashtag: #miniature
Training: Zero To Drupal, Orlando – May 15, 2009 April 24, 2009
Posted by Ryan in : HowTo, Local, Tech, Drupal, Events, Orlando, training ; 1 comment so farMy company, DrupalEasy, is holding our second monthly training course in Orlando. Our March event gave us some great feedback, and we’re excited to bring some Drupal love to Orlando.
Friday, May 15, 2009 9:00am – 5:00pm
Training Course(s): Zero To Drupal
Leu Gardens
1920 North Forest Avenue
Orlando, FL, 32803
See map: Google Maps
Join us for a full day beginner workshop at scenic Leu Gardens in Orlando to learn all you need to know about Drupal as an economical content management platform. If you manage, need, develop or design sites that require information posting and collection including blogs, forums, videos, photos, or other data, sign up now at our hometown rate of $175. Seats are limited.
Drupal offers time and cost savings without sacrificing amazing functionality because it allows for quick development turn-around, easy internal updates and virtually no limit to the number of users. Zero to Drupal includes an information-rich, no-frills session perfect for designers, website developers/administrators, and even marketing professionals looking into Drupal to keep quality while cutting costs.
We’ll provide coffee and carbs to start the venture into the who, what, why, and hows of Drupal, including how you can access the plethora of free resources available through this open-source software and its devoted developer community. You’ll learn about the building blocks, installation, updates and security, modules and themes, as well as get some hands on editing exercises to get you comfortable.
The workshop runs from 9 to 5, with a break midday so you can grab a quick bite at one of several nearby lunch spots, or take in the scenic grounds of Leu Gardens. Registration is limited, so sign up now.
BarCamp Tampa and BarCamp Chaos 08 October 14, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, BarCamp, Events, floridacreatives, Orlando, OrlandoScene, Social Media Events, Tampa ; comments closedthe first BarCamp Tampa was lots of fun – there are some posts and freshly edited wiki pages over at the Tampa group on Florida Creatives.
We had a great event last night. Some fun talks and some serendipitous moments. We even had one guy from Orlando, never heard of BarCamp, came up and started talking to us and then did his own talk.
Presentations
- Welcome/Meet & Greet
- What is BarCamp?
- Job Market in a Down Economy – James Hawley
- Portable Image Editing (GIMP) – Chris Jones
- Life Hackery: Getting Things Done with Room for More – Eric Marden
- Digigen, Abstract Code Generated Art – Jeremy Carrus
- Facebook App Development / Running Expo – Seth Cardoza
- Useful iPhone Apps – Bensan George
- Anatomy of a Drupal Theme – Mike Anello
- Building a Portfolio with Drupal – Ryan Price
- The Technology of Sound (Podcasting) – Gregg Pollack
- Firefox Extensions – Tim Rosenblatt
- Keeping up with the Joneses – HYDRA
- Making Money on the Internet – Dan Kinchen
Mike Anello has a recap of all the sessions on his blog.
I am hoping to have some slides from my Drupal Portfolio talk, but that should come later. It will likely show up over at Drupal Easy.
BarCamp Chaos 08: Monday October 7, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, BarCamp, Events, Orlando, OrlandoScene, Programming, Social Media Events, Teaching ; comments closed8701 World Center Dr, Grand Ballroom 7B
Orlando, FL, 32821
See map: Google Maps
The best conversations happen in the hallway
On Oct 13, 2008 members of the BarCampOrlando community will be organizing an ad-hoc BarCamp session as a part of the Create Chaos conference. Create Chaos 2008 is a five-day creative industry destination event produced to inform, inspire, educate, and connect creative professionals across industries through an all-inclusive event. This ad-hoc session invites participants to control the programming by preparing a 20 minute talk on any creative topic and presenting it to other conference attendees (so, bring your laptop). The fun starts at 6pm.
BarCamp Chaos is free to attend, of course, and all registered Campers will receive free access to the Create Chaos Expo Hall on Oct 13, 2008. You can use the discount code: BARCAMP to get $200 off your tickets, if you’re interested in attending the whole conference.
More about Create Chaos
Create Chaos features several unique industry conferences under one roof, at one time, and takes place Oct 13-17, 2008 at the Orlando World Center Marriott Resort in Orlando, FL. Create Chaos serves as a spark to ignite a new renaissance by bringing together creative professionals across industry boundaries including: graphic design, advertising, film and video production, animation, photography, printing, Web, and publishing professionals. Produced by Brahn Awards & Events and partners, the Create Chaos experience features the following conferences and events: The Creative Suite Conference, Printing+Paper+Packaging Design Conference, The Vector Conference, Stash Theatre, CreativeHeads Job Fair, The Web Design Conference, MGFest, The Pixel Conference, and more.
Grab and print (or link to) a BarCamp Chaos 08 Flyer
Blog Badge:
Orlando Theatre Pot-Luck July 14, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Local, Blogging, Events, floridacreatives, Fringe, OrlandoScene, Theatre ; comments closedBack in April, a bunch of local theatre folks got together to have dinner and meet up. Tonight was the second installment in what seems to be a 3-or-4-times-a-year event, held in local theatre spaces. The April 6th pot-luck was hosted by Mad Cow Theatre downtown, and today’s was held in the lobby of the Orlando REP.
From the Wikipedia page on Potluck:
Folk etymology has derived the term “potluck” from the Native American custom of potlatch; the word “potluck”, however, is actually of English origin. It is a portmanteau word formed from (cooking) pot and lucke. The earliest written citation is from 1592: “That that pure sanguine complexion of yours may never be famisht with pot lucke,” Thomas Nashe. As this shows, the original meaning was “food given away to guests”, probably derived from “whatever food one is lucky enough to find in the pot”, i.e. whatever food happens to be available, especially when offered to a guest. By extension, a more general meaning is “whatever is available in a particular circumstance or at a particular time.”
Potlatch is actually a good custom from which to derive this kind of dinner – the potlatch is often celebrated at special events, like births, celebrations of the harvest, and weddings. It is a show of wealth and prosperity, where the person holding the potlatch holds a feast, and trades some prized commodity for things they might need.
The tech community’s BarCamp and the PR and Media community’s BlogOrlando could be seen as a kind of potlatch – we’re trading ideas and experience.
The idea for the Theatre Pot-Luck was originally spawned by local actor John Baker via Elizabeth Maupin’s Orlando Sentinel theatre blog, which is also the best place see announcements for other upcoming events. The Orlando Arts Blog is another good place to check. Apparently, the Orlando Shakes has volunteered to hold the next one in a few months. Right now there is no organizer, it just sort of happens as someone steps up to offer space – which is, in my opinion, as it should be.
With Florida Creatives and BarCamp, the geeks are really fixated on a single person having all the ideas, and I think this is stifling the creativity and experimentation that could be happening if the organizations were more headless. One way we can do that with Florida Creatives is having chapters in other cities, which we are getting going in Melbourne/Brevard now, and hopefully more successfully in Jacksonville some day – the only stopping other cities is an initial organizer.
Yes, someone does have to take the reins, but only until it gains critical mass. Even when I tried to move the Happy Hour to the Fringe Beer tent some of the downtown folks still went to Crooked Bayou looking for their regular 3rd Monday beer-and-tots… funny.
I really meant to take some pictures, but when I was there, I just didn’t see an opportunity.
What goes on at a theatre potluck? Well I talked to Arwen Lowbridge from Fractured Atlas in New York – she’s down here visiting so she could check out Beth Marshall and Tod Kimbro’s My Illustrious Wasteland – they were both also there, along with Betsy Maupin, of course – I ate dinner with them and (for a few minutes) John DiDonna, but he had to run.
Arwen and I waxed delicious about non-GMO, CSA farms, picking your own fruit, and having fresh food delivered to your house. I also had my first face-to-face meeting with Maupin, who said something to the effect of “You look bigger than on the Internet”.
I later moved over to a table with David Almeida , Marcie and Stephen J Miller from Here Be Dragons. There were some interesting threads there too, like one about experimenting with different roles while you’re in school, because once you’re out, you get cast as yourself for the rest of your life. The other hot topic was nudity, since David had done a play at Fringe with an extended nude scene.
I also got to hear about the history of this event, which is really important to me. The more I get into this, I see myself leaning more towards the role of documentarian and historian. I’m actually thinking about shooting a 20-25 minute documentary in a few weeks if I get the logistics figured out – I also hope that I will be able to get the help with editing that I’m hoping for… more on this later.
Looking forward expectantly to the next Pot-Luck – next time I promise to bring something. Betsy’s chicken and David’s brownies were great, and I heard good things about some lo mein and Stephen’s apple pie too.
