Comments on: Social reporting kitbag

By: David Wilcox

David Wilcox — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 10:55:51 +0000

Dave - great list of kit, and thanks for the mention. It feels as if social reporting is going mainstream. Maybe we can get a bunch of social reporters together to collaborate on further developing the DIY kit from your own advice, plus the guide Bev Trayner and I put together @tony - there's more there on planning. Minor additions - One piece of software I've found invaluable for editing video on the day is the free cross-platform MPEG Streamclip. You can very quickly trim start and finish if necessary, and then quickly export an MPEG4 that is well compressed and consequently uploads faster. Hat tip to my son Daniel J, who recommended some settings I'm happy to share. I still occasionally use Qik.com, but there's an underlying anxiety that the streaming upload won't work if the wifi or 3G connection is flaky. In the past I've managed to get videos off the phone - where they should save. But it can be a bit tedious, and the other day when reporting at the World Entrepreneur Summit with Paul Henderson I couldn't find the files after a streaming failure. You mention Videoboo in your previous post and it really works for me. The great advantage is people feel they are in control, they add their names and descriptions, and instant uploads work. If not, there's a .mov on the hard drive. But of course you need a Mac laptop. The other camera I use for capturing - for example - speakers from the front row, is a Sanyo Xacti with an external mic on a bracket, and a monopod. @Steph - as you indicate, the real challenge is capturing the buzz. As Dave and Tony imply planning and collaboration is really important. If you just turn up alone on the day you can spend a lot of time trying to establish a base, miss lots of stuff, and end up with a load of rather unrelated content. I think social reporting (rather than just reporting) has to be integrated into an event, with the commitment of the organiser, a good base, the right kit, and a team. Maybe one person concentrates on the formal stuff (great if you have streaming video to create an archive too), someone elsewhere interviews key participants (with intros from an organiser to speed things up), and ideally others are just looking around for conversations, happenings. Then someone needs to be twittering, blogging, editing video, uploading etc, Some roles combine, some don't so easily. And, of course, the best thing is for event participants to be part of that mix. A couple of years ago no-one had heard of social reporting (outside reporting society events). In a few more years I hope people will be say ... "social reporting? But don't we all do that?" The real added-value of the dedicated social reporter will, in my view, increasing revolve around helping organisers and others in an event think through and realise what extra benefits blending online and offline can achieve. I think we now know pretty much how to do it. We also need to keep asking why. What makes it worth the effort ... for the different interests involved? Social reporter evaluation kit anyone?

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 14:05:19 +0000

Thanks guys.

Conrad – there are definitely some good, cheaper options out there for audio recording. I went for the Microtrack because of Neville’s recommendation and because it had lots of exciting buttons and sockets on it.

Steph – I think there are some clear steps emerging, at least around the ‘easy’ technology stuff. In terms of the actual doing the social reporting – as you say, there are a lot of roles to be filled – you need bodies. One person can’t do it alone, unless you manage to recruit reporters from the delegates, which happened for me in Sweden in December with Cisco. Even then, though, I was taking photos, recording on a Flip *and* blogging all at the same time at one point.

Tony – thanks for all those tips and links, I’ll be following them up.

By: Tony Molloy

Tony Molloy — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 11:01:53 +0000

An excellent list Dave. I think the only bit of hardware I’d add might be a portable mixer if you’re running a number of input streams/devices at any location. On the audio recording side, I’ve used the Zoom H4’s little brother, the H2 and it performs really well and appears as a USB drive when connected to your PC, so taking the recorded audio off for editing, etc is very easy. There’s lots of audio editing software to choose from and Audacity is a good choice, Wavepad is another one that gets mentioned quite a lot. Another very useful tool is Levelator http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator which evens out the sound levels across the whole recording very effectively.

Just to move away from the ‘kit’ slightly, I think another important aspect of any reporting that you intend to do is to have a plan of what you want from it before you do it, rather than do it and then wonder what you can do with it. I don’t think this planning needs to be burdensome, but it should help you check you’ve got everything you need and are organised when an opportunity arises. For example, if you’re intending to produce podcasts of the content then a resource like ‘How to do Everything with Podcasting’ from the FIR team of Shel Holtz @shel and Neville Hobson @jangles which I bought is excellent and gives you a comprehensive view of all the aspects that need to be considered, along with information about hardware and software, etc. If you’re more interested in doing something for broadcast media then ItrainOnline http://www.itrainonline.org/itrainonline/english/index.shtml has a lot of excellent training content and resources in the Multimedia section, covering audio, video and community radio.

By: Steph Gray

Steph Gray — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 10:29:02 +0000

This is fantastic, Dave. Sounds like there’s a real emerging methodology coming together here. Looking forward to your social reporting at our event next week!

What about a post describing some of the tips and tricks for capturing the vibe of the event? Seems to me that getting to speak to interesting people, juggling audio, video, images and words – as well as monitoring the online discussion and trying to upload some of that in more or less real time, is quite a tall order. What’s your secret?

By: Conrad Taylor

Conrad Taylor — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 10:02:15 +0000

Thanks, Dave; this is a good list. On audio recorders: I currently have two. The Olympus DS-40 is very handy, in a dictaphone format, but the quality is surprisingly good, and if you have the extension cable/remote you can wear the stereo mic on your lapel. For heavier-duty purposes I did look at the Microtrack, but opted for the Zoom H4 instead, which works well with professional microphones with an XLR cable. I have to say that the Zoom’s tiny interface and fiddly controls are annoying, though.

My favourite batteries are the red and green NiHM rechargeables from Uniross, which can be bought at Maplins in the UK. Unlike most NiMH cells, they lose charge very, very slowly in storage, and in fact you buy them ready-charged.