Category: Journalism

BarCamp NewsInnovation Miami announcement: Sunday, Feb. 22 at Anokha

Yes, it’s true! BarCamp NewsInnovation Miami is happening this Sunday at Anokha in the Grove. I’ve been promoting on Twitter, via e-mail, in person, etc. but have yet to post on my blog. D’oh!

Graphic by Alex de Carvalho
Graphic by Alex de Carvalho

I blame being in Idaho for 10 days doing this and then coming back to craziness. But more on that later.

Here are the details from the wiki page I created. Please share this information with any of your news/media/journalism/blogger friends (pros and students):

BarCamp NewsInnnovation Miami is a local version of BarCamp NewsInnovation.

It’s being paired with BarCamp Miami 2009 + WordCamp for extra awesomeness and to allow for a crowd with a more diverse range of perspectives and experiences.

When: Sunday, Feb. 22 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Where: Anokha Indian restaurant, 3324 Virginia Street, Miami, Fla. (Coconut Grove)

Register (free!)

Hashtags

Live stream (if connectivity allows)

Questions?

  • greglinch [at] gmail [dot] com

Social media

Related links

Leaving to cover Special Olympics World Winter Games in Idaho

I’ll be off the usual radar for 10 days as one of about 30 University of Miami students participating in the 150-student webcasting team at the Special Olympics 2009 World Winter Games in Idaho.

The games run from Feb. 7-13, but we’ll be there from Feb. 5-15. Students will be split across newsrooms in Boise, McCall and Sun Valley.

(Somehow I have a knack for taking trips that require really early flights, as evinced by the post time.)

The Job

Rich Beckman, Knight Chair of Visual Journalism at UM, is the executive producer for Special Olympics Live, a site we will update with photos and videos daily. I’m on Rich’s team in Boise and will be documenting the team’s efforts with other a couple other Miami folks and a couple students from Universidad de los Andes in Chile.

In addition, I’m in charge of social media for the site, which isn’t really “live.”

I’ll post some updates on my @greglinch Twitter account, but I’ve created @soilive to handle our general webcasting team coverage.

You can follow the hashtag #soi and/or subscribe to the RSS feed for a Twitter search of #soi. If you’re interested, you can also join the official Special Olympics community, where fans post blogs, photos and videos.

The Tech

I’m bringing my Canon Rebel XT (15-55mm and 75-300mm lenses), in addition to one of the broadcast department’s Sony DSR-PD150 to use for the video work. Other UM students will use thePanasonic AG-DVX100, which are shared between the visual journalism and motion pictures programs.

I typically use the Panasonic, but have a good amount of experience with the Sony, so I’ll be ready to rock once we’re wheels down in Idaho.

The Sony kit is in a huge Pelican case and comes with:

  • It’s standard shotgun mic
  • Sennheiser ME-66 shotgun mic
  • Sony ECM-44B wired lavalier mic
  • Electro Voice EV-50 hand mic
  • Sennheiser headphones
  • 50-foot XLR cable
  • Spare battery
  • DC charger

As you may remember, I was also part of a volunteer team from the UM School of Communication that shot the Special Olympics torch run in Miami in January.

Full disclosure: Special Olympics is covering all of our travel and lodging expenses for the World Winter Games, but we are not being paid.

BarCamp NewsInnovation Miami planning update and dilemma

It’s been awhile since I mentioned my desire to host a local BarCamp NewsInnovation in Miami, but it’s never been far from my mind.

It’s going to happen, for sure, and I’ve considered a number of options for when and where it should take place.

After much thought and discussion with a few people (special thanks to Alex de Carvalho), I see two good possibilities. I would greatly appreciate any feedback, particularly from locals who would like to attend.

Here’s the dilemma: To link with BarCamp Miami 2009 + WordCamp (RSVP) OR to link with Communication Week 2009 at the University of Miami’s School of Communication.

Pros of Feb. 21 (Comm Week)

  • Three built-in cameras for Web streaming
  • Mics in the ceiling so everyone in audience can be heard online
  • Wireless lavs for session leaders
  • Free Wi-Fi and outlets for everyone (~100 seats in the room I’ve tentatively reserved. We could go to a bigger room, but we’d lose outlets)
  • Higher student and professor turnout likely*
  • BCNI Portland will be on Feb. 21 and Daniel Bachhuber has proposed having the two hook up via the interwebs to discuss a topic

Pros of Feb. 22 (BarCamp Miami + WordCamp)

  • People will already be there, including some news folks
  • Non-journos will be there, allowing for different perspectives
  • The Arsht Center is a bigger venue
  • There’s already a ton of South Florida buzz about this, whereas Comm Week buzz is isolated to UM

Even though fewer pros are listed for Feb. 22, it seems to be a better option for BCNIM because of the type of people who already plan to attend and the fact that it’s already a well-known event. All that would be needed now is a push to get more news people to attend.

Also, I figure we could always do a follow-up version at UM if there’s enough interest.

*If it were at UM, there would be efforts to promote it local news organization and other schools.

WEIGH IN: What should we do? BCNI Miami during Comm Week or as part of BarCamp Miami?

For more info on BarCamp NewsInnovation, check out the wiki.

Updates, plus Beyond Bootcamp ethics panel video clips on Knight Foundation blog

I’ve been going almost non-stop since Beyond Bootcamp ended Saturday night, so I haven’t had much time to reflect completely or summarize my thoughts yet.

Me riding in the back of pick-up while taping the Special Olympics torch run on Jan. 13. We were driving on the McArthur Causeway over Biscayne Bay. Photo by Andrea Ballocchi
Lauren Whiddon, a photographer and me riding in the back of pick-up while shooting video of the Special Olympics torch run on Jan. 13. Here we are driving on the McArthur Causeway over Biscayne Bay. Photo by Andrea Ballocchi.

So, what have I been up to and what’s coming up?

  • Monday: GRE
  • Tuesday: shooting the Special Olympics torch run on Miami Beach and in downtown Miami, cutting footage back at UM
  • Wednesday: conference calls about CoPress (two; one by phone and one by Skype) and ONA (phone), as well as being interviewed on Skype for a non-UM journalism professor/newspaper adviser’s master’s thesis
  • Thursday: working on getting my ideas added to a new undergraduate journalism class starting in the fall; livestreaming a panel discussion after a screening of One Water (the screening and panel are part the University of Miami’s Global Business Forum)
  • Friday: Bryan Murley and I are recording a CoPress podcast with Publish2 co-founder and CEO Scott Karp (@scottkarp)

Also, an update on the videos from my Beyond Bootcamp livestreaming: the School of Communication post them soon and, hopefully, offer them as video podcasts on iTunes. I’ll be sure to blog and tweet the link when they’re online.

In the mean time, check out the videos Kristen Taylor (@kthread), online community manager at the Knight Foundation, posted:

Beyond Bootcamp: Livestream of National Geographic’s Rob Covey

Today is the final day of Beyond Bootcamp and, therefore, we have our last lunch speaker:

  • Rob Covey, senior vice president for content/design at National Geographic digital media

The livestream will run from 12:20-2 p.m. Watch at our new location this time:

Follow all Beyond Bootcamp tweets:

Please share the livestream and other links on Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, IM, etc.