Monday 28 May 2012

Video-uploading to blogger: problem and solution

Being by no means an experienced blogger before embarking on this project, I played around with blogger before starting this blog, and managed to upload pictures, slideshows, collages and a short test video from the word go. However, when trying to upload the longer video of the interview with Elmi Bester, I was unable to upload it. I tried several times, trying to upload the same clip directly from my camera; when that failed to work I tried uploading it from a folder on my hard drive. Nothing worked. The blogger wheel indicating that the upload was in progress, just kept turning and turning.....taking more than 30 minutes for a 2-minute clip. Surely this could not be the correct procedure? But why was it failing to upload......the shorter test video a few days earlier had not given any problems whatsoever?!

I then turned to google and was amazed (but pleased) to find that video-uploading troubles to blogger was a very common problem. A variety of suggestions were given: try a different browser; Google chrome was supposedly a better option (tried and it did not work; it was however an improvement in that it immediately informed me that my upload was not successful); use the updated blogger interface (no success), try at a less busy time of day (tried on a Sunday 8.30am, no success), the problem might be with the country you are posting from (nothing I could do about that), turning off the pop-up blocker, clearing the cache and disabling plugins as suggested also had no effect: the video clip was still not uploading to blogger.

Finally, 48 hours after first attempting to upload the clip, I stumbled upon a posting in a blog where the author claimed that he was able to upload clips smaller than 60MB to blogger; clips bigger than that had to be uploaded to youtube first and then embedded to blogger. This youtube procedure was also suggested by other troubled bloggers; this was however the first posting addressing clip size and giving me a logical explanation of why my shorter clip was uploading and not the longer clip. A-HA!!

The clip was then uploaded to my youtube account, and then embedded via html-code to blogger. Easy as pie! It worked! I found the physical dimensions of the clip to be just a bit too big for the blog and was able to trim it to a preferred size.

“Problems are Only Opportunities in Work Clothes.” Henry J. Kaiser

Sunday 27 May 2012

Reflections on training: the video interview

An activity enjoyed by many social reporters but quite difficult to capture in presentable format, is the short video interview. During training day, I decided to do a short interview (2 minutes, 5 questions maximum) interview with our convenor, Elmi.
This turned out to be much harder than anticipated. Finding a quiet corner with minimal noise/visual distractions was easy enough......and this might not be the case at the conference. Our first take was nearly three minutes long, so we decided to do a shorter second take using only three questions instead of five. The second take was ruined by the interviewer when an %$#*&!! was uttered during an unexpected break. The third take was presentable, but needed tweaking. The fourth take was just right: lengthwise, contentwise and also visually up to standard. The use of a tripod-held camera instead on being handheld by the interviewer, would have resulted in an even better clip. Further difficulties experienced resulted in the following hints:
*Have questions ready in large print easily readable by interviewer
*If possible, do a practice run
*Try to mount camera on tripod or gorrila pod, or have a third party operate it
*Interview is much easier if interviewer's hands are camera free
*Interviewer to be ready with next question at all times! An answer might be much shorter than anticipated

Friday 25 May 2012

Reflections on training: tweeting

As mentioned earlier, the training day tweeting session while viewing a video-presentation presented its main challenge in the difficulty experienced in trying to keep up with the presenter's talking and slideshow speed.


I also experienced some additional problems:
  • twitter.com turned out to be an underperforming platform. I was not able to find the retweet button and not all tweets pertaining to the twitter session showed up on my feed.
  • It was suggested that tweetdeck and hootsuite might be applications providing more flexibility and insight.
  • I have to confess that I had only ever tweeted on my phone before training day; getting used to tweeting on qwerty was not as easy as expected.
  • A very useful suggestion has to be the practise of having an electronic version of the presentation at hand. This would make c+p of key phrases easier, faster and also assist when one has missed out on a section.
  • Twitter prep is essential before every session, and would include things like saving the intended hashtags, having a quick look at the abstract or full paper, plus tweeting the intended paper/presenter to follow.
An aspect of specific concern to me would be letting go of my personal tweeting style, which is lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek, opinionated or commentary on a current issue. When it comes to private tweeting, I am prone to tweeting/retweeting arbitrary information such as : "have you seen Novak's new tennis outfit: pajamas!! #aussieopen", or "hee ha another six by tendulkar. #littlemaster" to "respect has to be earned. it does not come with the position. #spear". Attending the conference as a social reporter, and expected to be a professional representative of my employer as well as the profession, would require a definite mindshift in tweeting habits! Serious, respectful, objective, informative, true!

Google images: social reporter

Whoah how about this? Have made the first page of 216 million image hits for "social reporter"

Remarkably, this achievement was attained through no effort on my side, or social reporting per se! I took photos during a presentation of Nancy White in 2010, and as her blog is globally read, and my pic tagged as 'social reporter".....here I am!

I regard this as a good omen for the upcoming conference.

Thursday 24 May 2012

Training day pics

Training day!

The big day finally arrived and most of the volunteers were able to attend. The morning commenced with obligatory coffee and introductions, and Elmi started off by giving some background to the social reporting concept. After that, aspects such as ethics, use of big screens, twitter questions, twitter hashtags, wifi usage, plus some social reporting do's and dont's were covered. The highlight of the morning was a mock-live tweeting session of a video presentation of Michael Stephens titled Hyperlinked libraries. It seemed to be enjoyed by all and when looking at the tweets afterwards, one could clearly notice the different styles of tweeting present in the room! Most were a bit flustered at first by the speed at which Michael was going, and the brevity of his screenshots, but the end-results was a decent conveying of the gist of Michael's presentation. Another significant moment was the unexpected twitter response of Michael to Siphethile, asking what the hashtag #socrt meant and if we were in Africa!


After lunch, the training turned its focus to the use of video in social reporting. The application of meta-analytics and statistics were also investigated. Videos were made by all.....using  a variety of gadgets: phones, ipads and cameras. Video interviews turned out to be harder than anticipated, as I discovered when trying to do a 2-minute 4-question interview with Elmi. We finally got a presentable take on our fourth attempt!


After the training had finished, most people left but I was still struggling to download 111 Flickr pics until way after 5pm. I had actually used a different camera than the one I normally use when doing walkabout photography while travelling, using the Canon 50D instead of the 5D as the former has a built-in flash. The pictures of the day had turned out better than I had expected, especially considering that the 50D is marginally inferior to the 5D.

Elmi had done a great job in exposing us to the expectations, practicalities as well as demands of social reporting during the day's training. With 13 days left before the conference, I felt more confident than I had felt before the training, yet ready and motivated to practice new skills and hone those which I already possess.


Tuesday 22 May 2012

Social reporters training, 22 May 2012, CSIR Knowledge Commons

Big camera....checked. Tiny camera....checked. Laptop and all its paraphernalia....checked. Memory cards, card readers, chargers, batteries.....checked!

All ready and excited about the SAOUG social reporters' training taking place tomorrow at the CSIR Knowledge Commons, Pretoria (read more about the CSIR's flagship knowledge facility here). The event will be lead by Elmi Bester (more about Elmi) and looking at today's planned activities it is going to be a steep learning curve indeed!