In case anyone was curious...

I finished second.

And yes, I know the Hutterites were not part of ancient Babylon.

bloggers in report on business

interesting article on the front page of Report on Business of the Globe and mail today. Bloggers writing about companies for $$$ every month.

jc

Important presentation notice

New media presentations

Part of your assignment in New Media is to do a presentation of your project for the class.
Here are some notes you may find helpful for your preparations.

1. How long should the presentation be?
About 10 to 15 minutes. Roughly.

2. What is it about?
The presentation should focus on your project. You should provide information about:
-the origins of your story idea
-the development of the idea
-the research and interviewing
-the organization of stories
-the ideas and thinking behind your site and story structure
-the challenges and problems faced
-your solutions to those problems

3. What else?
The presentation should NOT be an oral version of your project. Please do not retell your stories to the class. Classmates can read the content. What is important is the process and the issues and thinking around WHY and HOW you did what you did. HOW you decided on the focus. HOW you organized the story. WHY you used the format and style you did. Why you linked. Why you didn’t link, and so on.This is the key material for the presentation.

4. What is the format?
You can choose whatever format you like. Generally, people break up the presentation so team members can all participate, each addressing a topic or two. Putting the site up on screen is helpful to illustrate your points.

5. What is the style of the presentation?
Again, that is up to you, but I would emphasize that it should be well-prepared and interesting. You should view this as an opportunity to do the kind of professional presentation that is very common in the business world. In journalism, business, marketing, communications and many other fields, the “pitch” meeting or the team presentation are common. Often, the quality of that presentation means the difference between getting the contract or not, or getting your point across or not.
Clarity, enthusiasm, and organization are important.

Hope that helps. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.
Thanks,
Paul

comments and notes

Hey Class:
Great to hear that people are writing and publishing stories and getting clips.
Terrific.

This week there are no assigned readings, but I'd like you to check out some of the sites that Jonathan Dube had on his list last week. You can learn a lot about what works and what does not work by checking out other work.

This week we'll be looking at Spin Doctors II so if you want to check that out, you can go to:
http://www.canoe.ca/PedChiro/home.html

As well, as you are working on your projects think about how you are going to tell your stories. That will help you decided if you need audio or video, or many photos for a gallery. Thinking ahead will help later.

You may also want to check out some award-winning work by the CBC online at :

LOS ANGELES - CBC.ca won two international awards on the weekend for its coverage of the federal election coverage and for its adverse drug reaction database.
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/11/15/oja-winners-041115.html
Thanks.
Paul

people in the paper and other stuff

premièrement, Trevor and Bonnie have reviews in scene this week, check it out!

deuxièmement, I've been covering the negociations at the London Free press. They might go on strike on the 17 of November. They are holding negociations on the 15 and 16.

More info at http://www.lfexpress.net/

cheers

jicé

Project Note

Project Notes 2004

Class:
Hi. I thought I’d provide a few notes regarding your projects.
Like all online projects, this one will have a Homepage. From that page, the user will be able to get to each of the eight class projects.

NOTE: (If you have a knack for html or page design and would like to work on the overall homepage for the class, please let me know.)

I would recommend that you create a “homepage” for your project area. How you want your user to access your stories is up to you.
You can have a short introductory story and then links to the other stories. You can have series of headline links to the stories, or pictures and blurbs and links for each story… how you do that is up to your group, but as you have seen in class there are many possibilities.
Then each story will be housed on a page as well, of course. How you link those stories together is also up to the group. Creating links in the content management system is quite easy.
It’s best to keep all this as simple as possible, while allowing the user a fair amount of freedom to explore your stories.

Now, some organizational notes.
The folder that John Fracasso set up for you should house all the materials for your project: notes, photos, any graphic files and any sound or video files. Keep all this in your project folder so that your group can find what you need and so that nothing goes missing. If you have files all over the place, it could get very messy, very fast.
I also recommend that you carefully name your files. You will be surprised how many files you assemble and you will begin to create versions and iterations of them. Without a system, you can become very confused about what’s what.
Below you’ll see a suggestion for file naming.
You can use this or adapt it as you like. What counts is consistency. Make sure your group agrees on a file naming protocol and sticks to it. It will save you a lot of headaches later.



FILE NAMING

Here is an example of a file-naming convention:

Team name_studentname_mmdd_version.htm

The version will help you (and us) keep track of the file progression.

Draft = d
Edited = e
Proofed = p

Example: Driving_Dandrea_n18_d.htm

Or you can use: groupname_initials_story slug_date.
Example:

Driving_AD_deathstats_n12.htm

If you update the story, MAKE SURE you change the date to show it is a new version of the same story.



Pictures, sound, and video files should be named in a similar manner. Make sure your files have the proper ending (eg. htm, jpg,tif, gif, etc. etc.) Even if you don’t have versions of photos, you should still name them using the convention – student name, project name

It’s very important for your group to follow a file naming convention and properly organizing your files. In a ‘real-life’ new media environment, sticking to the accepted convention is crucial and this project should be no different.

Hope that helps. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Paul

Readings

Hi class.

This week, please take a look at Wayne's blog at http://wmacphail.typepad.com/breadcrumbs/
Read in and you'll get a feel for what a blog can do and what kinds of things interest our speaker.

I'd also like to say I think it's great that people in the class are getting bylines. Terrific. I saw Armando's piece in the Western News, but I too miss things and would love to hear who has what in what publication. The blog is a good way to keep the class up to speed.

Finally, about fonts. No problem. Which ones work best is a good question.
Yes, there are many, many fonts and more are being designed each day. Online, you can use whatever font you want, but certain ones are better than others for reader ease. Usually, sans serif fonts look cleaner, but most people prefer to read serif fonts (like Times Roman). Classic fonts are good and generally serif fonts (the ones with the little curls) promoted faster reading that sans serif fonts. ( Oddly, though, people prefer the clean look of sans serif fonts).
For all readers, 14 point fonts were preferable to smaller fonts online.
There's a whole world of stuff to know here, but the general rules are the ones to follow. Using an odd or difficult to read font would be very counterproductive to the usability of your online work.
Hope that helps a bit.
Paul

braggin' rights

hello all,

I have seen over the last few weeks that some of us had articles in various publications in London. Good job!

The only way to find out who is doing what at the moment is to read every byline everywhere. How about using the Blog to let everyone know what you are up too? It would be great not to miss any of your gems!

And, if you don't brag about your work, no one else is going to do it for you!

Keep up the good work!
jicé