Lannie Byrd » Content

Communicator’s hate change

Lannie — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:28:04 +0000

A few months ago I talked about how users hate change, but let’s not forget that a lot of communicators hate change, too. I’ve been in several situations where I had to train reporters, editors and writers in the newsroom or writers in a PR and marketing group how to create web content and work with social media and quite often they are highly resistant to changing how they write, what they write for online. Most of the time their thought process is that the web is just another place to publish their writing so they just copy and paste their news releases, brochures, etc into the content management system and they think their done when they are actually just getting started.

When I talk to college students about working in communications the only thing that I say that I can guarantee them about a career in communications is that people always love to read, see, hear well told stories and that how will tell will continue to change.

Is the Kindle Fire for content or purchases?

Lannie — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:08:06 +0000

I bought my wife a Kindle Fire for Christmas. I’m impressed and she loves it (and the price isn’t bad either).

I’ve read a lot of hype that says that Amazon is pushing the device to make more sales, but I really believe that is a pure content device. It’s a great reader, beautiful HD player and runs all the Android apps once you get out of the Amazon App store.

In contrast to most critics I actually prefer the size of the Fire to the iPad and I don’t really have any issues with the Silk web browser. My wife carries it with her everywhere- It’s the perfect purse device. She has a Nook e-reader before and we’ve installed the Nook App so she has her previously purchased Barnes and Noble’s e-books on her Amazon Kindle Fire.

You really have to have an Amazon prime membership to get the most out of the Fire. With the a Prime membership you can stream videos to it and participate in the Kindle lending library.

What’s the most important part of a CMS?

Lannie — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:31:50 +0000

Most web sites today are ran by a content management system (CMS). A CMS separates content from design and makes it easy to post content to the site without the knowledge of HTML. A CMS can be cheap (open source – free) or expensive ($100,000) plus a year, but what feature of a CMS is the most important?

Reliability – Your web site has to be up to accomplish your goal.
Ease of use – If it’s not easy for your users to post content forget it.
Speed – Your web sites must be fast for someone to enjoy it.
SEO – The mother’s milk of web sites.
Social – Does it play well with Facebook and Twitter.
Administrative costs – It may be free, but how many server administrators does it take to run it?

I confess, I’ve paid for online content

Lannie — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 13:53:16 +0000

It makes me sad to admit this, but I must confess I have paid for online content. You probably have too if you you are among the 65 percent of Internet users who admitted to paying for online content in a new study from the Pew Internet & the American Life Project.

For this survey Pew defined online content as “intangible digital products such as software, articles, and music that need not have a physical form.” Some of my highlights of what we’ve paid for include.

33% of internet users have paid for digital music online

19% have paid for digital games

18% have paid for digital newspaper, magazine, or journal articles or reports

16% have paid for videos, movies, or TV shows

11% have paid for members-only premium content from a website that has other free material on it

10% have paid for e-books

7% have paid for podcasts

5% have paid for tools or materials to use in video or computer games

5% have paid for “cheats or codes” to help them in video games

Although I am a proponent of all information wants to be free philosophy, I must admit I’ve paid for ebooks, music, apps and even web site access (for my kids, not for me). So what kind of online content have you paid for?

Predictions for 2011 and beyond

Lannie — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 16:25:15 +0000

As my first post of the new year, here’s my web, technology and communications predictions for 2011 and beyond. Don’t let me forget to check up next year and see how many I’ve gotten right.

Social Media
Twitter will stagnate and be recognized as a niche product. Twitter’s web traffic has plateued and can’t seem to grow. It’s management will start grasping for straws and reduce access for outside applications to their API. Facebook’s growth will slow, too (it has, too there aren’t that many people with Internet access left).

Apps
The mobile web growth will increase while app growth slows. Companies will realize it is much cheaper to customize their web site designs for mobile devices rather than code 3 or 4 seperate apps.

Online Content
We’ll see more and more niche sites pop-up and make it. The sites will have to be run on a shoe string, but they can survive that way (A few of those may even be paid content that work).

Tablets
Tablets will continue to be huge for online content. Not for their apps, but their easy portability to access the web. iPads will continue to grow, but there will be a surge in cheaper linux based tablets.

What you need to know to flash

Lannie — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:17:46 +0000

Flash content is an important part of the overall mix of web content and has a steeper learning curve than most other kinds of web content creation. Unfortunately, Macromedia and now Adobe have changed the flash creation process/interface so often that if you once learned flash it’s like you’re starting all over again if you pick up a newer version of Adobe Flash. I first learned flash in 1999-2000 creating some audio slideshows and calculators, but I had to learn it again 2003 for a couple of prjects and after that I just gave up because I didn’t want to go through the process of teaching myself flash again.

Mindy McAdams author of admittedly outdated textbook, Flash Journalism: How to Create Multimedia News Packages, now recommends learning flash using Adobe Flash CS4 Professional Classroom in a Book. In fact she has even created a nice little guide to everything you should know to create great flash content outlining the six things she thinks you need to know (and the chapter’s they’re covered in the Adobe book) and two common misconceptions about flash.

Her six items you need to know are

Buttons
Loading external content
Optimizing images
Loading and controlling audio
Loading and controlling video
Actionscript 3 and XML
Bandwidth profiling

Now, I have to decide if I really want to tackle Flash again.

Will broadband and media innovation sustain democracy?

Lannie — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:56:22 +0000

The free flow of information “is as vital to the healthy functioning of communities as clean air, safe streets, good schools and public health.” That’s what the Knight Commission on Information Needs of a Democracy concluded in their report on Sustaining Democracy in a Digital Age. The 145 page report urges the nation to making sure all Americans have broadband access just as the emphasized ground transportation in building an interstate highway system a half-century ago.

The commission also examined issued the media is facing recommending:

Direct media policy toward innovation, competition, and support for business models that provide marketplace incentives for quality journalism.
Increase the role of higher education,community and nonprofit institutions as hubs of journalistic activity and other information-sharing for local communities.

Passing on culture – Lunch Lady Land

Lannie — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:08:06 +0000

If you’ve ever studied Mass Communications or Journalism you always discuss the purpose of Mass Communications in your introductory course. One of those purposes is to pass on cultural ideals/norms/values.

We just had sloppy joes for dinner. I had to pass on Adam Sandler‘s Lunch Lady Land to my kids. So, here’s me inculcating you.

Maybe your video can be a little longer

Lannie — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:34:57 +0000

When it comes to web video length , I’ve always said the shorter the better with a sweet spot being around 60 to 90 seconds. Video 2 Zero has taken an interesting look at how long people will watch web video analyzing audience attention span coming to the conclusion that ideal run-time for web video 2.5 – 4 minutes. I know that will be a relief to any video producers out there, because it is rare to find a producer (and I used to be one pre-web) who can say anything in less than 90 seconds.

For their analysis six top video sites (excluding YouTube) let Video 2 Zero have access to their statistics for two weeks giving them 188,055 videos, totaling 22,724,606 streams to break down.

Copyright like it should work

Lannie — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 16:10:11 +0000

Today, January 1, 2009, Popeye the Sailor falls into public domain in Britian 70 years after it’s creators death because of an EU law that restricts the rights of authors to 70 years after their death. Falling into the public domain means anyone can print and sell posters, T-shirts and even create new comic strips, without the need for permission or to make royalty payments.

In the US Congress keeps extending copyright law primarily under the influence of Disney to keep Mickey Mouse out of the public domain by extending copyright protection eleven times in the last forty-five years. Lawrence Lessig, Internet law guru argues that the expiration of copyright (and the start of public domain) creates a culture where people could take and build upon what went before, but our current copyright law prevents innovation throught the restriction of derivative works.