Boston Media Makers meetings are held the first Sunday of every month at Sweet Finnish in Jamaica Plain. Check out the site at http://bostonmediamakers.wordpress.com/ Meeting notes include Len Edgerly's video of Friday's iPod frenzy, Christopher Penn's demo

of his new camera stabilization device, and many interesting updates.

Here are some of David Tames' notes which he so kindly lent for Beanywood to check out.

You can check out the more detailed notes with links to all things relevant at http://kino-eye.com/2007/07/01/bmm/ While you are there spend some time exploring the vast resources that David provides for media makers.

Steve Garfield has been webcasting the meetings using Ustream.tv, but today we're using another tool, blog.tv which offers the additional capability of having participants link in their webcams and you can switch between the main stream and other streams. It has really livened up the meeing to have participants out on the net and offering their sending in their questions and comments during the meeting. An archive of the live stream is available.

On Friday, Len Edgerly (VideoPodChronicles.com) went to the Apple store at Cambridgeside Galleria at 3am to be first in line for an iPhone, at first security guards gave him a hard time for shooting video, but once the euphoria of people walking into the store took over, the security guards could not stop him from shooting a wonderful video of being first in line walking into the Apple store:

(blip URL: blip.tv/file/285290)

Len's first reaction to the iPhone is that it is "unbelievably cool," and he said, "I went to sleep that night holding it in my hand, Steve Jobs is right." He points out that some stuff does not work quite right yet and it's not quite perfect, for example, notes do not sync, it does not shoot video, the headphone jack does not take his Bose headphones, and it will not play Flash video embedded in web pages. But he added, "if you were crazy enough to be there [on the first day of sales], none of this detracts."

David Tames just completed a short film, The Smile Boston Project, that will premiere at the 16th Woods Hole Film Festival on August 4th. He has been organizing three panels and a seminar that will take place at the festival, visit the festival's Panels & Workshops page : http://woodsholefilmfestival.org/pages/2007EventWorkshops.php for more information.

Christopher Penn (Financial Aid Podcast) demonstrated how he created a reasonable equivalent to the $300 Fig Rig using some PVC pipe he purchased from Loews, which he describes in his Stabilization Equipment for Handheld Video blog post: http://www.christopherspenn.com/2007/06/30/stabilization-equipment-for-handheld-video/. . Here's a movie of Christopher demonstrating the rig with his Sanyo CG65 Camera which can record 76 minutes of 640 x 480 H.264 video on a 1G storage card.

(blip URL: blip.tv/file/286956/) to watch video

After the "going around the table" portion of the meeting participants discussed Andrew Keen's book, The Cult of the Amateur. In our discussion we raised several interesting issues in terms of the reliability of "the wisdom of the crowds," especially in terms of Wikipedia; how are we going to find "hard-hitting journalism" in the age of citizen journalism; and the validity of the professional vs. amateur duality. During the discussion, Christopher Penn suggested the book, The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto and I suggested The Wealth of Networks by Yochai Benkler. I also think Henry Jenkins' Convergence Culture provides an excellent and thoughtful counter-point to Keen's argument.

It was another wonderful meeting, a delightful mix of coffee, pastries, conversation, sharing, and learning around a table.

And thanks again to David Tames for his thorough capture of information during the event! Check out his Flickr photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kino-eye/sets/72157600591613397/

You can also check out additional photos on my Flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/7937077@N03/sets/72157600606562105/

[READ MORE]

This past Saturday a few of us from Beanywood along with a few hundred other media makers made the trek to New Britain Connecticut for the "2nd annual Media Mixer"organized by Neal Thomassen.  We had no idea what to expect. Being accustomed to  pretty conventional venues for most events of this nature I was taken aback upon first entering.  The Monster Lab Recording Studios are one part warehouse, one part gallery and one part opium den.  There were four main rooms and then maze like halls which kept people wandering and gathering randomly throughout.  They had performances and interviews with local media makers and organizations taping in one of the rooms with live switching cameras.  These recordings were simultaneously broadcasting live through other flatscreens and projection screens throughout the other rooms so people could check them out while mingling in the other rooms.

It was quite an interesting event.  I think it was so effective because this was not a conventional layout, and people had to find new ways to interact. 

I am sure that they will put on another event next year considering that this was only year two and they had hundreds attend.We are hoping to get some of these interviews up on the Beanywood site soon so you can get a better sense of the event if you didn't hear about it, or check out what you missed if you did attend.     

You can check out the organizer Neal Thomassen's Myspace page @ www.myspace.com/producer3  and the party website   @ http://www.nealthomassen.com/Party.htm

@N03/625457749/" title="Photo Sharing">

[READ MORE]

I would guess that I am in good company when I say that I am still recovering from the sleep deprivation that Friday night left me with.  On Friday, the Boston Underground Film Festival team threw a party at Dave Lewis' house to raise funds to keep the fest going.

 You can imagine the crowd attending an event with interest in:  underground film, sultry lounge music, belly dancing and an abundance of liquid party favors.  If you weren't having a  good time there, you should just end it all now.

That said, enjoy the photos and we will let you know about the next event worth checking out.