Links

As you may or may not have noticed (depending on the number of times you've visited here...my guess is not that many:)) ive been adding a few banners down the side of the blog. They are various mobile WAP directories, which should help drive some traffic to the site. Well thats the idea anyway. I'm still playing around with them so have patience.

The Black Warrior River Keeper is really just a cause i would like to support even if its only posting the app for the time being. They are involved in keeping the Black River in Alabama clean from pollution and run a program of reporting any pollution into the river, especially from companies, industry, etc. A worthy cause if ever there was one.

Besides that i think the credit crunch is starting to take effect in the real world.

It would be great to see some video on how its effecting people/companies and life in general.

Lastly a credit crunch joke that i found here to help you laugh off those recession blues during these long winter evenings.


I can also predict my next post will not be untill 20th October.





Adios

Jack

Something for the weekend sir....?

This little handy app cropped up in my browser window. Spinspotter are in there own words:

"We are truth mongers. We are the destroyers of spin."

Awesome, we like this kind of attitude at NewsJack, bring it on.

Looks really interesting, even though its just text based (i think). Surely helpful to the evangelical of you out there searching for truths.

http://spinspotter.com

Anyway check it out, looks cool.


Out
Jack

Forget the Credit Crunch.........

We have a new featured channel at NewsJack, and we'd like to welcome Captain Ozone (one of lifes 'real' super heroes) to the NewsJack service.

You can view his channel and discover how Captain Ozone came into existence and why hes here warning the human race about the possible eco-disaster us humans appear to be bringing upon ourselves.here.

Heres a taster:




Also the WAP site has had some minor fixs.

Easy now
Jack

Fleetwood Pier burning down-Jacked

Fleetwood Pier burns, watch it at Newsjack.tv

Built in 1909, this morning Fleetwood Pier has been burning down. recently bought by a development company the fire is being treated as a possible criminal case. Watch the video at Newsjack.tv

On the back of the last post

An interesting article not about the NewsJack service but about a process known as NewsJacking.

Wanted......

Need some people who are willing to hammer the NewsJack service, test it out, try the process out from beginning to end, we can only test so much here and right now it works for us, does it work for you? Any feedback/help would be much appreciated.

Cheers
Jack

The ideal Citizen journalist set-up

On the back of the QIK post below i just thought id mention what i think is the ideal set-up for a Citizen journalist.

Of course these days of cross-posting, RSS feeds and social networking site means alot of different services, application and websites all linking into each other and we dont want NewsJack to be left out. Taking that into account, we cant provide everything ourselves (or at least not yet), so in the meantime this is my ideal set up for citizen journalists.


Firts thing you need, (of course im bound to say this) a NewsJack account. So go set up an account and get your channel going.

You'll need a Blogger account for the written word and RSS feeds. There are other blogger sites out there, but this is the one I use.

Get QIK so you can stream live if you need to.


Sign up and install the Locatik which is a really handy location detector, and you can also post up the locations with a link to the video which gets displayed on a Google map for others to browse. Not just useful for NewsJack either, other members post interesting things such as recommendations for eating, tourist attractions, etc.




Hopefully you will also be able to embed your video into NewsJack aswell in the near future, meaning you only have to upload video to your favoured service and then post the code to NewsJack. But thats a little way off yet.


In the meantime the services mentioned above should help you out:)


Jack

QIK | Streaming video right from your phone

Yes we love this little app, and anyone thinking of using the NewsJack service should also install this app. Of course its a seperate thing from NewsJack, but we feel it would compliment it so much we have to plug it here:). Ok so the video i have isnt very interesting, (ill try and get something a little more interesting, tricky in a backwood town:)) but the principle that you can stream live from your phone is fantastic:).

Discussion boards

I've set up a discussion board at Ning. They provide some nice features, with a discussion board, you can post videos, pics, customize the layout. It's free to use so go get an account and start letting us know what you want from the NewsJack service, Highlight your latest sequences and clips, talk to other Newsjack and Ning members.


Theres a nice short animated film thats been put to a recording secretly taken of John Lennon talking openly and answering some questions. It was on the BBC here in the UK. maybe youll find something there. Actually the details of the film the title is "I Met The Walrus" by Canadian artist Josh Raskin, nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short 2008. Go check it.

We like our culture, and we like our animation here at NewsJack:) Its not all war in the news you know.



Peace.


Jack

Fun Little Movies

Yay, we have our first featured channel Fun Little Movies. A great bunch of people who produce, co-produce and license short comedy videos for distribution on mobile phones, the Internet, and portable devices worldwide. Check 'em out:)


Jack

Newsjack Wiki

How to Use Newsjack

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Here you will find information on how to use the Newsjack service to upload and manage video clips and sequences.

Steps

1. Sign Up. You will need to enter the following information: user name, email address, password, channel and profile information.
   
2. Log in using your unique username and password
   
3. Upload videos.
   
   1. Browse video files on your PC or mobile phone. (maximum size is 20mb)
      
   2. Choose a video (wmv, mov, flv, 3gp, avi, mpg and mp4)
      
   3. Click Open.
      
   4. Select Private or Public use (do you want the clips to be seen by others or not)
      
   5. Commercial – (If you check the commercial tick box, it means the clip you upload will be available to companies and individuals who may want to use your video for commercial purposes (for example, News reports). If you set your clip to be commercial, then it will automatically be made public and viewable to other users)
      
   6. Add a title (relevant) – makes the video more interesting
      
   7. Choose a location – Country and city.
      
   8. Add a description
      
   9. Select a channel – this official channel shows the clips (not the sequences), otherwise the clips just appear in a library on your channel
      
   10. Tags – (Tags are descriptive keywords used to categorise your clip based on its content, for example if you upload a racing vid, you could tag it with 'Sport Racing Cars'. You can add as many tags as you like, but remember to include a space in between each tag).
       
   11. Allow comments? – This gives other NewsJackers the opportunity to give feedback on users clips
       
   12. Clips will appear in your lightbox once they’ve uploaded correctly
       
   
   
4. Lightbox. All uploaded clips appear in the user's lightbox. Clips can be viewed and deleted where applicable. Clip options can be changed from here.
   
   • Clips can be borrowed from other channels for use within your own sequences. (Only ones made public), this gives the user the opportunity to remix a news story from their own perspective.
     
   • If users can find a clip on another channel, they play the clip and press ‘Add to Lightbox’, the clip then appears in their own library for use.
     
   • If users wish to embed the link to the clip into their own web pages they can copy and paste the code supplied and add to their own page, eg: blog or webpage
     
   • Each clip comes with size, and duration details, also date specific to when the clip was first uploaded
     
   
   
5. Editting Deck
   
   1. Once all the clips required for a sequence are uploaded to the lightbox, the clips appear on the editing deck.
      
   2. The user places each clip required, from the library in the order of the sequence by dragging and dropping the clip onto the tv
      
   3. Use the yellow slides to start and finish a clip in the sequence, EG: If a clip starts and ends with either a coloured box or something unsuitable then the user has an opportunity to edit the clip so that the best image starts and ends the sequence and will be available for others to identify the sequence more easily
      
   4. Stings can be used in between clips for continuity – library assets courtesy of NewsJack.tv can be found under stings on the Editing Deck
      
   
   
6. Manage sequences. The completed sequence now appears on the Edit Channel
   
   1. Users can broadcast to their channel by dragging the sequence into the broadcast channel
      
   2. Replace an existing broadcasted sequence with another by dragging and droppig the news sequence over one in the panel
      
   3. Admin may also choose to broadcast a users sequence on the official channels if they are deemed suitable
      
   4. Users can change the channel colours, the channel picture an edit the channel tagline from within Edit Channel
      
   
   

Tips

• Capture your video on your phone and upload it via your computer, you won't get the data charges then.
  
• WAP service to upload your video on the fly and edit it later when back in front of a computer. This will allow you to free your phone memory up if you want to take more video.
  
• At Newsjack we refer to individual clips as just that, 'Clips'. If you join a number of clips together then we refer to that as a 'Sequence'.
  
• All clips go through an approval stage via a moderator. All videos will be viewed within a 24hour period. Please flag up any videos or comments that you feel are unsuitable, the moderator will deal with them within 24 hours.
  

Warnings

• If your video does not appear in your channel then it is either still waiting for approval from administration, has been rejected from processing, or has already been deleted due to clip being inappropriate. Please contact Newsjack team if unsure or you seek to enquire about your video.
  

Things You'll Need

• A video camera or video enabled mobile phone.
  
• Internet access
  
• Network coverage/contract from one of the many network operators.
  

Sources and Citations

• http://www.newsjack.tv
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Use Newsjack. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

NewsJack now live

Forgot to mention NewsJack is now live. Well actually I've been away for a while and the site has been live for a couple of months now.


Please feel free to sign up and upload your videos....



Good to be back.


Jack

More resources

Links to resources for UK journalists, or anyone considering undertaking journalism in the UK. Great list of Newspapers, news sources, jobs, training.

Adios

Jack

If you want to know the ins and outs of video.....

.......check the dvshow out.

Jack

Nice user generated content

The BBC have some nice user-generated content just to show you whats possible.:)


Now heres a link to a guy, a Citizen Journalist who we've been closely following the last year or so. His name is Steve Garfield. He has made some really good clips and caught some really good stories. More and more hes appears to be using just a mobile phone, and hes usually fairly clued up on new apps and services. We love Steve here at NewsJack. If more people were like Steve we wouldn't need mainstream news programmes:D.

Maybe Steve will grace NewsJack with his presence one day. Anyway his vlog is really worth checking out to see a vlogger and Citizen Journalist in full flow.




Jack

NewsJack

NewsJacks is almost at beta stage. Launch is 7 days and counting for anyone interested.


Best of the best

Jack

News resources

Ok so how do you find out what is going to make a good news story?

Journalism is a bit like being a P.I. or a police detective; you need a number of sources and from those sources you have to deduce which story or event is likely to be the one you need to be covering. You wont always get it right, but the more research you undertake the more likely you are to make the right decision.
Of course sometimes its just pure luck that you happen to be in the right place at the right time when an event unfolds.



There are of course tried and trusted methods of getting your sources of news; starting with getting in touch with press officers working with the national government and the main foreign embassies. Also get to know who the local and international NGOs (non-governmental organisations) are and what they are doing. Make contact with government ministries and ask to receive press releases so that you can anticipate events and get invited to press conferences.
Of course some of the best sources of possible news are those people you meet in your day to day life - the taxi driver, the local store owner, the bartender. I once worked at a butchers in the place i live and it was a hotbed of gossip, ok not much of it was news worthy, but you get my point i hope.. These people will be good indicators about what is going on. Keep a diary of the dates of local events, festivals and international summits hosted in your area and get involved. the more people know what you do, the more likely they are to approach you with good bits of info.



A few sites out there that can provide an idea of upcoming stories.

Digg has a bulletin board which could be handy.

Another possible resource is Shoutwire.



Of course news stories dont have to be 'breaking' in the sense that they are exclusive because they are just unfolding or happening on a day to day basis.

Investigative journalism is a great line to go down and is perhaps not so limiting as breaking news journalism. You can report on something that is of interest to you. Its an opportunity to delve deeper into a story, usually to unearth the 'real' story behind the headlines. This method can get right up peoples noses, but its also the type of journalism that can force people to look again at the way things are, it can even lead to laws being changed and people going to jail. As an investigative journalist the final presentation of a story can sometimes take up the appearance of an exposé.



Investigative journalism can sometimes involve reporting on other journalists for instance if they get the report incorrect or have not checked there facts.
Check out Stinky Journalism which advocates a more scientific approach to journalism.

For a more indepth and serious take on all things journailstic, i guess a little UK-centric but of value all the same is http://www.journalism.co.uk.

Lastly heres a good break-down of journalistic methods thats have some other suggestions not listed above.




Have a good Easter,


Jack

Quoting copyrighted material in user-generated video

A good document discussing the usage of copyrighted material can be downloaded here. Its always worth knowing about this kinda thing if your doing coverage of past events that have been televised or published elsewhere.

Jack

Something for the CJ sir?

A PDF doc for all you CJ's to read. I think it was published by Nokia some time ago. You can download it here and read it at your leisure.


Yours

Jack

A Manifesto

If only video was this easy. Still a nice way to experiment with vlogs and CJ. Click here.

Have a nice day!!

Jack

A few more sites with vlogging resources

Here you go:)
and dont forget to check out the Production Tools.
More vlogging goodies here.
Not so much a resource as an education. History of Citizen Journalism which if nothing else, goes to show you that the idea of Citizen Journalism isn't a new one, but the medium that its being distributed on is.

A nice tutorial for making vlogs with some nice illustrations here showing you the process from start to finish.


Jack

Vlogging resources

Ok, here are a list of resources useful for vlogging. I guess it will be a bit hotch-potch to begin with untill i get enough links here to warrent a reorg. Ah reorg, sounds like something theyd say in the film a clockwork orange, what they call TV? i cant remember viddy or something.

Anyway, u just keep reading down this page:)


Firstly a good video phone with preferably a flat rate data plan, or good WiFi access to keep your costs down for sending video. Im currently using the Nokia N95 which is packed with goodies, although the battery never lasts more than a day on heavy usage. Rest assured better phones are on there way. If you are using a Nokia you may be able to use the Location tagger. If your on using another make of handset you may be able to use the KoolTag application instead.

One killer app for me is being able to stream live from your cell phone. Several companies run such an operation. Some are still in beta and are by invitation only:
In no particular order:
http://www.flixwagon.com/
http://www.comvu.com/
http://www.kyte.tv
http://fireeagle.research.yahoo.com/
www.qik.com



Location is an ever more pressing requirement for video tagging. You can either use Google Maps or Locatik which are both free. There are some companies who will do this at a a small cost such as SeekWireless
And then there is WiFi based such as Skyhookwireless. I also believe Yahoo now have a mobile geotagging app.



A good vlogging tutorial resides here and also here aswell.


If you want footage to include in your article, footage that is royalty free i would suggest The News market.
For citizen journalism resources try The Latest


Good informative articles about online journalism at onlinejournalismblog


Ah yes veotagging can be done here, really good way to tag up your video, plus they have an embedable player, very handy. I would recommend anyone doing vlogging or similair to use this tool to tag up their video.

Well not so much about vlogging, but a possible interesting use of the vlog and collaboration and the value of campaigning, the value of changing things through collaboration is here.


A good video about copyright issues and a good site about copyright.


Want the news before it happens? try:

news biscuit

humour feed

voxfux

Journo case study requests

Getting ink requests


Just a word on phones. There are a whole bunch of video enabled phones out there. Some can capture video, some you can only watch video on. Ill just concentrate on the high end phones for now, as they are the most useful for something like NewsJack
I use a Nokia N95, which has a great camera, but the battery life sucks. I would recommend that if your to use this phone model for video, carry with you your power adapter and a spare charged battery. Still upto 8GB memory on the new ones and i was lead to believe that the new N95 Blacks battery life is much better. There are plenty of Symbian apps out there for these phones as well, meaning your never sat bored for very long at all.
I used to have a Motorola V3x, damn good phones although not the most technologically driven. They usually have better functionality and video camera if you Flash and Flex the OS. Great forum for this is here. People there will help you out if you ask nicely enough:).
Now here at work I use a Sony Walkman phone for some testing. I haven't used it too much, the camera is ok. I believe there is a better Sony phone out now with a 5.2+ mega-pixel camera. I dont really like the Sony brand as a phone, i dont really like the phones as i find the screens just too small. Im sure they take great video, but theyre just not for me.
Ive seen and used the iPhone and untill it gets a better video camera im going to reserve judgment. I use Macs all day, everyday and i think they are great but i think Apple have some work to do on the iPhone for me to start to even consider buying one. Especially at £250's a pop, its not that good value. My Nokia was worth that and the rest when it came out, and i got that for free (after some threats to my network provider that i would move to someone else if they didnt give me it for free). Id expect to be able to get the iPhone for free with an 18 month contract on £35 a month price plan.






More resources to come.

Jack