Where’s the Fringe discussion? May 20, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Blogging, Reviews, Newspaper, OrlandoSentinel, bloggingfringe , 3 commentsAs it is every year, we post dozens of articles on this site, and everyone reads the Sentinel blog… I love what they’re doing over there, I just wish we had a little of their budget, standing in the community, or the built-in reputation that you get from being a year-round player in this game. If I could pay five seven bloggers, this would be a different world indeed.
As long as you’re comfortable with using your real name (and everyone should be by now), you can go participate in some of the conversation over in Maupin-Land, a magical place where they’ve never heard of video or photos.
The best conversations every year take place at the Attention Must Be Paid blog, and there are invariably a few posts with dozens of comments, like this one entitled “From the Fringe: What’s Good?” (24 comments). Then there’s one that’s pretty much the same idea called “What’s Fab about the Fringe?” (15 comments) — I fail to see the difference between the two posts.
Other posts have garnered between 4 and 6 comments, like the reviews of When Pigs Fly, The UnNaturals, Tod Kimbro, Blues: A Handbook for the Future Homeless, and of course Galapagos, which appears to be this year’s “best kept secret”.
Actually, I’m surprised we don’t have an 80-comment war happening - maybe they’ve lost their edge. We never had it to begin with, it seems.
Sure, the Sentinel claims to have a “Complete Fringe Festival Coverage” page, but all they did here was repurpose the same content they created somewhere else (and often not for Fringe), and they don’t even fit all the reviews on one page.
I know they are working with archaic technology, but if you’ve got the budget to hire 8 people to write about it, can’t you get Danny to post a list of all the reviews on one page?
I had some big plans for this year’s Blogging Fringe, but they had to be put on hold while I figure out how to have a full-time job and be “that guy” at the festival. Also, helping out with the actual Fringe website took a few of my ideas and gave them back to the festival, which is as it should be. With any luck you’ll notice Blogging Fringe coming out of the beta-testing period next year with a critical extra feature that I guarantee the Sentinel and the Weekly wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole: publicly editable pages for all the shows so we can have all the videos, links to reviews editable by anyone so we can have a for-real community site.
Actually, next year, there may be a completely different concept out there, but that depends on several factors and some collaborations I have in the works with Katie Ball. Look for some fun stuff on the horizon.
I’m in Axis Magazine talking about Internet Video April 9, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Career, Video, Trends, Newspaper, floridacreatives, Magazine , 3 comments
No, that’s not me in the white suit and glasses.
I was interviewed this month by John Theisen, who runs the Enzian FilmSLAM, the FMF Indie Film Jam, and works for United Arts.
Go pick up the magazine, on Newstands all over Orlando, but here’s a teaser:
Yes, that’s a picture of a network cable next to a planet. I think I was supposed to get John some pics or logos… sorry!
“Ryan Price, producer of OrlandoScene.TV and FloridaCreatives.com has been making his mark in Central Florida’s web forums and has tried to add his own quality content to its ever-shifting environment.”
Tampa Film Fan Immaortalized as a Comic February 26, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Blogging, Links, Film, Newspaper, floridacreatives, Tampa , 1 comment so farTampa Film Fan is written by Lisa Ciurro. It’s a local blog I read has been featured in the Tampa Tribune. My only question is this:
Your paper acknowledges bloggers?
Ours has plenty of bloggers that work for the paper or blog on behalf of the paper, but what’s all this business about recognizing a job well done? I won’t stand for it! (actually, I’ll give a standing ovation for it.
I’ve been called a cartoon character before. Now, according to the Tampa Tribune’s BlogJam section, I actually am one!
Visit www.myspace.com/wikiworld to see more of Williams’ talent and creativity on display.
OLPC and other Sub-Notebooks as a Weapon for African Cyber-Crime? Nope. February 8, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Trends, Newspaper, London, Security, Africa , add a comment
As I was sitting in a café here in London yesterday, I picked up the Guardian’s Thursday Technology Section and saw this rather large story a few pages in - there is a picture of some cute African kids with XO laptops, but the headline read Crime fears as cheap PCs head for Africa
Initiatives such as the OLPC and the Classmate are intended to help bridge the digital divide. But security experts warn that there could be an unforeseen negative effect.
“There is the possibility of creating the largest botnet in the world,” says Yuval Ben-Ithak of Finjan, a computer security company. This view is borne out by a recent report by F-Secure identifying Africa as one of the emerging cybercrime threats.
Sidebar: The tinyurl link was printed in the paper, but the original URL was way too long and difficult - these British kids understand how to use the tools. Hopefully, the service is letting them track how many people actually type in the URL so they can understand conversion rates? PLZ?
As to the connection with OLPC, that was completely the reporter’s doing. I skimmed through the report, and there was no mention of cheap laptops. Example:
Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, believes malware creation hotspots are defined by a number of socio-economic causes – particularly in terms of job opportunities.
“Within the last few years, Internet take-up in emerging markets has been phenomenal. For example, Brazil now has over two million Internet users,” says Hypponen. “And coincidentally, since 2003, computer crime has really taken off in Brazil, China and the former Soviet countries.”
“The trend is expected to continue and spread into areas such as Africa, India and Central America,” predicts Hypponen. “This is partly due to the limited IT job prospects in these markets. People are developing sophisticated computer skills, but have limited opportunities to profit from them legally.”
But the OLPC security guy they talked to, Ivan Krstic, easily squashed the possibility of OLPC’s default software having any possibility of easily becoming a botnet. The reporter then counters that OLPC’s are supposed to be able to run Windows XP, and that’s not secure - BUT XP is like 7 years old now, and I think the number of vulnerabilities and possible back doors has been addressed so many times that new exploits will be fewer and farther between.
The problem is interesting, but in my opinion not believable. I’d like to get Erik Hersman on the phone to talk about it, but he appears to be out of the country right now as well, so I guess it has to wait.
Good pizza, poor art, no underground November 7, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Orlando, Links, Trends, Newspaper, floridacreatives, OrlandoScene, OrlandoSentinel , 2 commentsMy friend Bill Couch pointed me to this story by Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell. Bill also works at said newspaper, so if he points to an article, I tend to pay attention
No style, no brains, but oh, our pizza . . . — OrlandoSentinel.com
No. 1 for family vacations and top 10 for our weather, pizza and barbecue.
But after that, things got ugly.
O-Town was either near the bottom — sometimes even dead-last — when it came to everything from our museums and art galleries to our classical music and “underground arts scene.”
But forget underground. They don’t like what’s above-ground either. Visitors panned our architecture, historical sites — even our skyline. And Buddy Dyer has spent a lot of money on that skyline. Other people’s money, but money nonetheless.
They don’t like our farmer’s markets, our jewelry shops or our antiques offerings.
In every one of those above-mentioned categories, Orlando ranked 21st-25th.
Here’s my comment:
Oh Scott, they don’t know us so well. Underground art? We’ve got loads. Pizza? Where did they get that notion? Thanks for saying “Buddy spent a lot of money” and working for the Sentinel in the same breath. That takes guts.
One reason why people don’t think we have good art and music is because they seldom get out and support it. We have enough population to support several art scenes, but no motivation. There are some efforts, like those Creative Village Wierdoes, Apartment E, Assembly Art Party, the Florida Creatives and other gatherings of geeks and freaks like Pandora’s Box and the like all over the city, but it feels like a very small echo chamber. We promote our own stuff to the same people over and over again, and when they don’t show up because they’ve been hit over the head with it, I’m not surprised.
Ryan Price vs. the Media: Orlando Weekly June 22, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, News, Site News, Podcasts, Orlando, Music, Reviews, Trends, Newspaper, Orlando Weekly , 3 comments
A podcast about how I turned around on the Orlando Weekly. Recorded on my phone by calling my Skype number. I’ll have a player for the mp3 here soon.
Download Ryan Price vs. the Media: Orlando Weekly
Time: 5:28
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Orlando Sentinel is Missing the Biggest Story May 7, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Orlando, Music, Reviews, Trends, Newspaper, Web Sites , 1 comment so farI just finished thumbing through this week’s edition of the Orlando Sentinel, and I’ve noticed a glaring omission: the Digg.com HD-DVD story. The New York Times didn’t miss it, not by a longshot. The content is easily enough syndicated from them or the AP. Hell, this week’s TWiT has “The Code” as the title of their show!
This is an internationally significant story involving one of the most trafficked sites on the Internet. Orlando deserves to know. You don’t have to include the code, but the NYT article at least linked to it, especially the song on YouTube. This thing will never go away. Ever. I can’t believe my local paper is ignoring it.
The Sentinel does plenty of OK things, like compiling a CD of the year’s best local bands and holding a concert for the release, so they’re not all bad. But some other things, like CityBeat, I can’t stand. I gotta say, when my Sunday subscription runs out, I doubt I’ll be renewing.
Orlando Weekly Interview - Thanks Omar May 4, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, News, Site News, Career, Markteting, Blogging, Podcasts, Orlando, Music, Video, TV, Trends, Fringe, Liberatr, Radio, Newspaper, Web Sites, floridacreatives, Entrepreneurship, Likemind.orl, Orlando Weekly , 1 comment so farHere’s the transcript from my interview with Omar de la Rosa for the Orlando Weekly. It went to print this week on page 30 - the cover story is “Spellbound”.
> 1. When did you decide to start this and the other related local-based web
> projects? (like FloridaCreatives)In late 2005 I was listening to lots of podcasts and reading lots of blogs, so I started talking to my friend Emily about doing a talkshow. (pfalliance.blogspot.com) On the show we had two musical guests - marc with a c, whose band I later played in, and Mumpsy. Marc and I experiemented with doing a live music show (live.liberatr.net), and I did some coverage of the Florida Film Festival (short.liberatr.net) and the Orlando Fringe Festival (bloggingfringe.com). I also started a channel to highlight creatives and entrepreneurs, but the concept was never complete in my head (meta.liberatr.net). The film, art::meta and music channels are going to be dissolved soon, but they’re important to the history (if you’re going to mention web addresses in the paper, don’t mention those 3).
I realized I was hitting on some particular themes, but I saw the opportunity to do more than just a podcast, so I scheduled the first Florida Creatives Happy Hour in December. Now I am focusing on Florida Creatives, Blogging Fringe and getting more independent talent involved with Liberatr - bloggers, personalities, and most recently television-style hosts - we’ve produced some pilot episodes for a show called OrlandoScene.TV. The show is comprised of short 1-10 minute videos, each highlighting something in or about Orlando that is less obvious than the theme parks.
Why? I grew up and went to college in Central Florida, and I still didn’t feel like I knew the area as well as I should. I started exploring and discovering things around the same time I got into podcasting, so I decided to share it with others. I’ve also got some friends of mine involved as well - Kyle (thestudentofthegame.com), Marc and Nicole (zanzibar.liberatr.net), Aleshia (bingoinsmoking.com), and Katharine (robotofleisure.livejournal.com).
> 2. I noticed that you’ve done some podcasts for local musicians and
> presented Mumpsy’s performance at the grandma party, are you planning more
> collaborations with local musicians and other artists? What other future
> plans do you have for Liberatr (or even “ryanpricemedia.com”)?See above, but as for Ryan Price Media, that is my personal blog. There I can set up my identity as a web developer and consultant, an individual as opposed to an organization like Liberatr.net - your identity on the internet is becoming very important, and I want people who type “Ryan Price” into Google to see that site.
> 3. How has the internet’s potential for community building changed in the
> recent years? (both online communities and offline, local communities)Internationally, the potential for community is infinite. Podcasts and blogs are bringing together likeminded people from every country speaking every language, a true exercise of the First Amendment. Sites like Meetup.com (Orlando has about 200 meetup groups), Likemind.us, FloridaCreatives.com, even several of the aforementioned blogs and podcasts are leveraging the online community to bring people together physically - here in Orlando, check out BlogOrlando.com, or even the Orlando Fringe Festival’s online efforts this year, who are creating the community online with the sole purpose of attending a convention or festival. I’m hoping these connections I’m making in town will lead to gigs like the one Mark Baratelli has with the Fringe - online community manager. I have one project like this coming up that I’ll talk about in more detail when they’re ready to.
> 4. How do you think podcasts differ from radio? How do you think blogging
> differs from … whatever came before… newspapers?If you look at the birth of the printing press or the radio, you’ll notice an explosion of creativity, self-publishing and community building. The difference was that printing presses and radio towers had a rather large cost associated with them - the internet has thousands of free options available to bloggers, podcasters, video producers, community-builders, anyone looking to broadcast a message. The internet model of pull (subscribe) as opposed to push (tune in) is what maintains the choice.
> 5. Who are your heroes? (Feel free to include fictional ones)
My ultimate role model is Jim Henson - he took nothing, added a TV camera, a little fabric and tons of love, honesty and a message, and by doing so he created an empire. More recently, it’s been those people who have laid the groundwork for something similar with podcasting or internet media - Leo Laporte, Kevin Rose, Jason Calacanis, Evan Williams. These are all people who have had their 15 minutes of fame and said to themselves “what’s next?”, could have easily taken their winnings and left the poker table, but decided to play another hand - or several.
Welcome home, you’re in print! May 2, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Site News, Blogging, Orlando, Links, Newspaper, floridacreatives, Orlando Weekly , add a commentI’m in the Orlando Weekly under “Culture to Go” - page 30 - Ryan Price Media. Big thanks to Omar de la Rosa for seeking me out at Grandma Party. I’ll link to it when it’s available http://orlandoweekly.com
After the article comes out online, I’m going to post the full transcript of what I was asked and how I answered, a la Calacanis. I haven’t done it yet so you’ll go pick up an actual copy of the paper - it’s available in hundreds of locations around Central Florida and online later in the week. I got mine walking past the little restaurant on Lake Eola - Eric’s, I think.
This week is also the annual dining guide, so even if you don’t read my interview, you can still find cool places to eat.
Daylife: This is how you do a ‘zine January 5, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, News, Markteting, Blogging, Links, Quotes, Reviews, Trends, Design, Newspaper, Web Sites, Magazine , 1 comment so farDaylife has finally hit the web, and it is pretty cool so far.
This is how you do a ‘zine Hosted on Zooomr
From what I can see, this is the most usable news site I have seen. Like a magazine, they have a cover with big, pretty images and headlines, and like a good interactive experience, you can jump straight to that story. Also, once you get there, you are showed lots of good related content, also with photos!! Then, they provide… location-based stories! Magic!
The location page is packed with goodies, like stories from the past week, a month or so ago, and beyond. There are also the ever-present images from Getty along with captions slideshowing past, quotes, and testimonials relating to that geographic area. To the left is Florida.
There are bound to be a few things about a brand new site that the critics will not like, and I can’t say I disagree with Mike Arrington (who invested in this project some time ago). Apparently lots of A-listers have some money/ consulting sunk in this site, but Mike doesn’t mind coming out and stating some shortcomings.
From Techcrunch Jan 04, 2007:
What makes Daylife stand out is not so much what it does well, but what�s been left out. There are no RSS feeds, even for your bookmarked stuff. Even worse, there�s no ability for users to leave comments on articles, a feature that has been wildly successful at NewsVine and Topix. And the fact that the front page news is gathered by humans, instead of the algorithmically determined news at Digg, means the company will always have a higher cost of doing business.
This quote also serves the added duty of comparing Daylife to the other top news sites on the web. Mike says Google News is still the king of aggregated news stories, and I must say I agree with him. Actually, I think Techmeme (see their tracking of Daylife posts) qualifies as a competitor, though the “tech” in the title suggests a different audience, I suppose.
I really hope these guys get a clue and start including audio and video services, along with the related stories and etc. If someone could start semantically linking podcasts, audio and video through speech-recognition, it would be quite a bit easier to steer people (or spam them). Maybe that’s a mashup idea in the works… anybody game?
