Viewing entries in
BGI

Who's talking about the digital divide?

After doing some research on the digital divide, I’ve found that, although there are numerous blog posts and scholarly articles discussing the issue, there are relatively few blogs and websites dedicated to it. The few that exist, such as Digital Divide Institute, focus primarily on alleviating the gap between those who have access to broadband services and those who do not. The ones who have blogs largely haven’t updated them with any consistency. However, rather than focus on the dearth of online attention being paid to the digital divide, I see opportunities to increase the effects of past and ongoing efforts.

Use a combined research method and showcase results

As mentioned before, there are several blog posts, papers, discussions, videos, games, and scholarly and peer-reviewed articles that specifically address the causes, effects, and possible remedies for the digital divide. Some take an economic perspective while some see it as a social justice issue, while still others take the perspective that it’s all about infrastructure. I have not yet found anything that takes a systems approach to analyzing the problem. By compiling these articles and links and putting them in one place, one can build a Primer to the Digital Divide with varied perspectives and forms of media (Expect to see a post like this coming soon from me). Other primary research such as interviews, and secondary research such as codifying magazine references, along with other research methods can provide invaluable information upon which people can act.

Collaborate with the people already working on the issue

As activists, we often love to reinvent the wheel. It makes sense that we do so—it’s how we often approach issues. We see a problem. We ask why. We move into action. However, rather than build an all-new website, performing all the research, and writing enough content to fill a new blog, I could instead write guest blog posts for each of the organizations already working on the digital divide, or help develop a collaborative program with other organizations such as Center for Media Justice and MAG-Net (Media Action Grassroots Network).

I won’t dedicate much time providing website data for each website I found, but rather give you a few general observations.

  • The audience is primarily female
  • The audience is primarily between the ages of 24-34
  • These blogs and websites are not very well traveled
  • The use of mixed media is surprisingly lacking from many of the sites (Center for Media Justice is an exception).

​

How I chose to maintain just one blog

Overview of traffic sources to my website (Google Analytics)

I like to be fully aware of how effective my blog is. I want to know what content is popular, what isn't, where my traffic is coming from, how long they stay at the site, the path people take, where they enter, and where they leave. There's much more to look at besides the number of unique visitors there are. I make adjustments all the time (regarding both content and design) to make the experience as pleasant for my community as possible. I routinely look at Google Analytics to check out what content is popular and try to do my best to figure out why. Was it a picture that people found particularly interesting? Was it, perhaps, a certain phrase or comment? I often find that the stuff I think will be the least popular turns out to be the most popular. For example, I don’t often share much about my emotional self. I typically write about media, marketing, and business. By providing tools, analyses, and news, I hope to provide value to the people who visit my website. However, many of most popular pieces are there ones where I share a little insight into my inner workings.

Analytics is not just science

I also find it important to know what browsers people are using to access my website. Are they on mobile devices? If so, which ones? Is the content optimized for the platform my visitors are using? The list goes on, but the key here is to be intentional with your KPI's (key performance indicators). Try to figure out what you're actually trying to measure. People are people, not numbers, so try to go beyond the typical metrics that measure simple things. Instead, use these numbers to build a story. Don't think, "How can I increase time on my site by 20%?" Think, "How can I make the content more engaging, more interesting so that people are compelled to spend more time here?" Think, "Perhaps the time is short because they're reading from their cell phones and the average person switches where they focus their attention constantly. How can I optimize this portion of the experience?"

“Try to figure out what you’re actually trying to measure. People are people, not numbers, so try to go beyond the typical metrics that measure simple things. Instead, use these numbers to build a story.”

I don’t base my writing off of keywords. I’m not concerned with growing a huge "audience" based on manipulating trends. However, what is interesting about keywords and terms, is that they provide me with insight about how people find my page and helps me understand my connection with the outside world. I get a lot of traffic from people wanting to learn about socially responsible marketing, communications, and leadership. But I also get much of my traffic from people searching for the names of the people I interview, services I provide, and even me. This lets me know that I engage with a varied community. There are those who consume the content I create. And there are those who engage with the content I create, and in doing so, with me.

Recent keywords used to find my site​ from Google Analytics

Inner and Outer Circles

There are people who know me and people who know of me. The people who know me consist of friends, family, classmates, and colleagues. This inner circle, are the people who respond to my more reflective posts. When I write about how I’m feelings and what I’m doing, they’re the ones that provide congratulations, condolences, encouragement, advice, or pick up the phone and give me a call. The people who know of me are those who download the ebooks and other resources I post. They are the ones who often forward and share my posts. Recently I a spoke with a sculptor/artist/activist who emailed me from Spokane, Washington. We had a good conversation about the inspiration behind her work, how she chose that specific medium, and what her goals are with her various projects. When I asked how she found me, she said, “I don’t know, I think a friend forwarded me your Facebook link and said that you were forward thinking.”

The decision to create just one blog

This distinction between inner circles and outer circles, weak links and strong links caused me much stress when I first started blogging. How should I break up my writing? Should I have two blogs—one for my “professional” topics and one for my “personal” topics? At the end of the day, I decided to maintain just one. The way I see it, I’m am who I am. Several years ago, it might have been much easier to maintain multiple personas—multiple identities. However, with the adoption social media and digital technologies, it is becoming increasingly difficult to separate one’s various lives. For example, it’s much more difficult to have one identity at work, a completely different identity among friends, and yet another completely different identity at home without losing authenticity and credibility. Sure your behavior will change based on context, but your essence more or less remains the same. I decided that I would write, record, draw, etc., the things that are relevant at the time, whether the topic is internal or external. When I made this decision, I declared that you would be getting me. Like it or love it, love it or hate it, what you see is what you get.

This was liberating for me. No longer did I have to think, “Where does this blog post belong,” but rather, how can I put my most authentic self into this work? How can I provide the absolute most value for the time and effort the community puts into consuming and engaging with my (and our) work. For me, it’s not enough to tell you I like an application. I want you to have the information you need to make an informed decision. I don’t want to just broadcast news and events. I want you to know how you too can become involved. In a sense, it doesn’t matter to me if you know me or know of me. For whatever reason, you found your way here. And while you’re here, I want your stay to be as pleasant as possible. Thank you for your time.

Until next time…Peace.​

​

My initial impressions of Google+ on iPad

My initial impressions of Google+ on iPad

Just when I was thinking, “Man, I wish Google would either create a native iPad application or a universal iOS application for Google+” they did just that. Yesterday, Google released their highly anticipated Google+ universal iOS application which has been optimized for the iPad. It is available for free in the Apple App Store. Not only does it bring full display support, but you can now start and join Google+ Hangouts, use the Instant Upload feature, as well as other new features.

How I Made My Personal Branding Video

When I released this personal brand video explaining a little about who I am, what I’m about, and what I do several people positively reacted to it (also, several people didn't). I didn’t really expect much to happen when I put it out there, but within moments I received several messages and emails asking how I did it. So, for those of you who are interested in how I did it, this blog post is for you. The techniques I used were fairly simple and in this post, I’m going to provide the step-by-step method I used to create this video. You don't have to do exactly what I did. I'm just showing you how to get the exact same results. Feel free to modify any of these steps as you wish.

Finished Video

How-To Video

The Tools

First, here is a list of the tools I used. Not all of them are necessary, but they're the ones I used. For the pieces where I'm aware of alternatives that will accomplish the same thing, I put these in parentheses.

  1. Apple Keynote (Version 5.1.1) for Mac (Apple Keynote for iPad will accomplish a similar effect)
  2. Final Cut Pro X for Mac (iMovie for both Mac and iPad will accomplish the same thing)
  3. Typeface: Gotham Light and Gotham Medium Italic​ (Gotham is a premium font set—for a free typeface that will pretty similar, try Gill Sans and Gill Sans Bold). Also Gotham is a very, very thin typeface. When exporting it can look slightly grainy, so a heavier one may actually produce better results.
  4. Color: RGB Profile: 231, 88, 2
  5. Pen and Paper or some application where you can be free with your thoughts​ and document what comes to mind: I like distraction free text editors. My favorite is iA Writer, followed by WriteRoom, and for large documents I use Scrivener). If you're using an iPad, I use both Notability and Note Taker HD, although I do find Notability much more accessible. Notepad on Windows and TextEdit for Mac will also get the job done. For me, however, there's simply no replacement for pen and paper.
  6. Audacity: Audacity is a power audio editor. And it's free. For this presentation I didn't need to use it, but I often find it much faster for basic fades, cuts, and conversions than GarageBand, Logic, Adobe Sound Booth, etc.​

Step 1:​ Develop The Content

Before I opened any program, I seriously thought about both the community and the message. I always want to be extremely clear about what I want to communicate and with whom I need to communicate that message. I'm not a fan of one-way communication. That's why I ended the video with, "Everyone has a story. What's yours?" After I thought about that, I put the pen to paper and created an outline of how to develop the story. Once the outline was complete, I began drafting sentences. I chose to use a very approachable style because that's who I am, implemented a few pieces of humor, and employed heavy use of ellipses (…). *Hint: rather than typing three periods, the way to create a true ellipses on a Mac is "Option and Semicolon" and "ALT 0133" on Windows. That will keep them together and only use one character (very useful when laying out text or using Twitter). Once I had everything more or less written on paper, I moved on to the next step…

Step 2: Prepare the Presentation

I used Apple's Keynote for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the presentation size is already optimized for high definition and high resolution displays and a 16:9 aspect ratio. This is a good thing when the final presentation is destined for YouTube, Vimeo, Blip.tv, or will be used with newer projectors or wide screen televisions and monitors. However, this may pose a problem if you plan on presenting using older 4:3​ aspect ratios, such as older projectors and CRT monitors. If you don't change output settings, it's easy to have a good portion of your presentation extend beyond the projector screen, wall, or display. For those situations PowerPoint may be a better option for you. Also, if you don't have a Mac or have access to one, PowerPoint may be one of your only options. However, two good open source (i.e., free) alternatives are Google Docs Presentation and Impress, which is part of the Open Office Suite. Once you open Keynote, you are asked to choose a theme. I chose "Showroom" because the background is just simple enough to not be boring and provides just enough silver and contrast without being too much. Now, the steps…

  1. Open Apple Keynote
  2. Choose a theme​
  3. Save the document
  4. ​Delete the existing text boxes
  5. Click Text Box at the top to place a new text box in the center​
  6. Click Inspector, Colors, and Text at the top to open their respective windows
  7. Highlight the sample text and use your inspectors to choose the font, size, and color you want​ (For me, the font is Gotham Light for the regular text and Gotham Medium Italic where I want emphasis, the color is orange—231, 88, 2 RGB specifically, and the size is 72, because I exported the video at 1920 by 1080 resolution and didn't want the text to be too small.
  8. Once you have your text the way you want it, duplicate the slide until you have the number of slides you need​
  9. Type the content​
  10. Spell Check​
  11. Run the presentation and manually advance to check for flow. Also start thinking about which slides need to remain longer (both because of the time necessary to read them, and for emphasis on key messages and style).​
  12. ​Spell Check
  13. If you are going to add music, keep in mind that you will either need to edit the audio so that it fades out towards the end or ends with the presentation (you can either change the audio or the presentation so that they match)​
  14. ​Go back and add emphasis where you want them by either changing color, size, font, weight, or a combination
  15. Take a break and enjoy a nice glass of coffee, tea, water, or whatever you drink. Look outside and notice something new…or old…just notice something​

Open keynote and select your theme​

Highlight the text boxes and delete them.​

Create a new text box by clicking the "Text Box" button at the top.​

Open the Inspector, Font, and Color toolbars, and set your parameters.

​Duplicate the slides and insert your text.

Step 3: Add Transitions

​Believe it or not, you're finished with the difficult stuff. Now it's time to put make this presentation come to life. By adding the transitions and establishing the timing you can watch as you have effectively created a video.

  1. In the sidebar on the left, select all of your slides
  2. In the Inspector window​, select the second icon from the left which is the Slide Inspector
  3. ​Click the drop down under Effects and choose the transition you like. I chose Anagram under Text Effects
  4. Select the duration of the effect and the delay for when it should take place. I chose 2 seconds for the duration and a 1 second delay for most of the slides.​
  5. Go back and highlight the individual slides that need shorter or longer durations and/or delays and adjust them accordingly​

Step 4: Add Audio

Here I'll show you how to add an audio track and/or voiceover. I didn't create a voiceover for this presentation, but I might go back and create one to increase the ability for it to reach more people.

Follow these steps to add audio:​

  1. ​In the Inspector window, click the first icon on the left which is the Document Inspector
  2. Then click Audio​​
  3. Either drag the track you want to use into the box or click the iTunes button​
  4. ​Adjust the volume as necessary (usually better to keep almost at max)

Follow these steps to add a voiceover (hint - it is best if you can use an external microphone):​

  1. In the Inspector window, click the first icon on the left Document
  2. Then click Audio
  3. ​​Click record
  4. ​Record your audio as the presentation progresses
  5. Press the escape key to save the recording​

Step 5: Play the Presentation and Fine Tune

​Here's where you begin to see the fruits of your labor. Click the play button in the upper left of the screen to play back the presentation from the beginning. Check to make sure the music makes sense and ends when it should. If you have another person nearby, see if they'll watch the presentation and provide any feedback. Make sure you ask yourself the following questions:

  • ​Do I have enough time to read everything?
  • Does the presentation get boring because of content and/or timing?​
  • Are there any misspellings?​
  • How does the music, voiceover, etc. fit?​
  • Is there a better way to say something that I'm saying?​
  • Have I covered everything I want to say?​
  • Is the audience/community left with wanting a little more?​
  • Will this presentation truly serve its purpose?​

After everything checks out, make any final adjustments. At this point, you are almost finished.​

Step 6: Export The Movie

​Once you are satisfied with the product, the timing, etc. it's time to export the presentation as a QuickTime movie. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. ​Save all changes
  2. Click file in the menu bar, then export
  3. For Playback Uses select Manual Advance. This will make sure the video exports the video based on the timing and transitions you set earlier.
  4. For Format I always select Full Quality, Large because I can always convert it down later. You can't convert it up.​
  5. Make sure both checkboxes for audio are checked, then click ​Next.
  6. Now, select the location you want to save the files and, name your file, and click Export.​
  7. Keynote will now render your presentation and save two files as QuickTime Movies. One will be the actual video, and the other will be the soundtrack.​

​Export your video

Check your settings and make sure you export both audio and video.​

Step 7: Combine the Audio and Video

Take your two videos and open up your favorite movie editor. I use Final Cut Pro, but it's definitely not necessary for what we are about to do. In whatever program you use, simply import the two clips, lay them on top of each other, and then adjust them to make sure they fit properly.​ I'll show you how I did it in Final Cut Pro. The steps are going to be fairly identical in iMovie.

  1. Create new project​
  2. Import the video and the soundtrack into the new project
  3. ​Place both the video and the soundtrack in the timeline (I actually slid the music over to the right a little to drop it into the video when "Michael B. Maine" was introduced.
  4. Preview video​
  5. Click Share, and Export Media to export the final movie

Mix the audio and the video together, make final adjustments and export movie.​

Step 8: Upload to Your Favorite Video Hosting Service

Once I was finished with the final movie, I uploaded it to YouTube, Vimeo, and Blip.tv. If you want to compare the differences in how each service processes the final product you can see each of them at the links below.​

  • "Who Is Michael B. Maine" on YouTube
  • "Who Is Michael B. Maine" on Vimeo​
  • "Who Is Michael B. Maine" on Blip.tv​
 

Thank you!

​Thanks for hanging in there. I hope you found this useful. Let me know what you thought about this tutorial. Whether good or bad, I want to know your thoughts. How can I make this better. Also, if you would like to sign up for more tips, how-to's, invitations, and news, fill out the form below to be added to my newsletter.