We have some very cool things planned... for example, the first 250 people will each get a free swag bag chock full of unforgettable items. I'll be showing demos of some interesting new technology. And George Michael will, undoubtedly, make an appearance in some form or another.

I'm hoping to open the session with a snapshot of tech zeitgeist: what journalists and bloggers think are important trends vs. how consumers are actually responding to new products and tools. To that end, I'm inviting all of you to come up with your own 10 Tech Trend list. Whoever comes closest to the list I use will win a pair of 1.3 Megapixel Spy Glasses (capable of recording video and shooting photos -- they play mp3s, too!). The second closest list wins an "Emergency Exit" T-shirt in Japanese.

Contest Rules

1. You have to post 10 trends to your blog (can be personal or company). Specific keywords will suffice, unless you want to write a description for each trend. Good examples: augmented reality, mobile social..... Bad examples: mobile, social networks...

2. Email the link to info@webbmediagroup.com and please include your name. If you're a winner, we'll need to get in contact with you again for your mailing address.

3. Deadline is September 25th at 5pm Eastern. No exceptions.

Announcing Winners

We're going to announce the winners at the beginning of the 10 Tech Trends session at ONA and will post here immediately after that. Winners will be mailed the goods, as well as one of the swag bags from our session at the conference, the first week of October.

Prize Specs

1st Place - Super Spy Sunglasses

• 1GB of storage (can hold thousands of photos)
• Plays MP3s and takes 1.3 Megapixel digital photos
• Embedded ear buds for MP3 playback
• Remote control for taking photos
• RF remote frequency: 2.4GHz
• Li-ion rechargeable battery (3.7V, 240mAh)
• USB 2.0 connection for transferring files and re-charging the battery
• Control buttons for Vol +/-, Fwd, Rwd, Play, Pause, Capture
• Includes: sunglasses, remote w/ strap, USB cable, storage case, cleaning cloth, extra clear lenses

2nd Place - Emergency Exit T-shirt

In Japan, a green emergency exit sign hangs above doors. Wear it under your business suit and, just like Superman, reveal it to get out of meetings quickly. Show up to a gamer convention and instantly find yourself in the "in" crowd. Don it on a first date in case the conversation goes stale. Whatever your reason, this shirt will get you noticed!

• T-shirt will come in your size (we'll ask in a follow-up email)
• White lettering on 100% cotton heavyweight green shirt

From @om The Battle of the Apps: Google vs. Apple http://om.bit.ly/rxdH9

From @webbmedia: Now available: DDoS Attacks Explained, a 4-page report in plain English. Email me if you'd like a copy. We're making it free to everyone. (Email is info at webbmediagroup dot com.)

From @MacDivaONA Facebook buys FriendFeed http://bit.ly/1ayz7s - FriendFeed employees abandon office http://bit.ly/19RznA

Related: @TechCrunch First Interview After Acquisition With FriendFeed And Facebook http://tcrn.ch/4arS

Related: @mashable FriendFeed Users Outraged by Facebook Acquisition - http://bit.ly/dE7ix

Related: @TimOBrienNYT FriendFeed deal: 'Google will eventually hit its outer limits — and when that happens, Facebook wants to step in' http://bit.ly/xsST2

From @jayrosen_nyu Christian Science Monitor: Storm ahead? Death of tr.im raises concerns about the cloud http://bit.ly/61ywS Good report.

From @10000Words Can you tell the difference between search results for Google, Bing and Yahoo? Take the blind test to be sure http://bit.ly/6j51Q

The idea began with a dinner I shared with the CEO of a fairly large company and a mutual friend who works for the federal government. Both were explaining relatively new problems. The CEO was sitting in a meeting with his staff when their discussion turned to Twitter. Everyone agreed that the company needed to set up a corporate account to both claim their digital identity and to serve their consumers. The problem? My friend, the CEO, didn't really understand what Twitter was. He'd been on the site and read through the About page. He'd even created a personal account. But he didn't understand Twitter culture - the lexicon, the whole retweeting thing, what the hashtag really was - and didn't feel comfortable asking his staff. Worse, he tried searching on Google, but where to begin? Several attempts returned all kinds of marketing mishmash and pontifications...but no concrete way to learn how to use the system or a guide to learning social media in general.

Just as we finished that conversation, our mutual friend who works for the federal government explained that she'd been given the ability to purchase training materials for her staff. But she wasn't sure what, exactly, they needed to be trained on. She said that her biggest problem wasn't resources or budget, but instead that she didn't know how to provide resources for the people who needed it most.

That's when it hit me. It's fine to provide access to training, but lots of people need help understanding what they really need to learn.

We created Knowledgewebb as a comfortable place to learn practical skills...as well as they how, why and when. So far, we've been really successful. Our membership continues to grow, and we're taking calls almost daily from various corporations, newsrooms and universities about supplying their organizations with memberships.

It's great if you know what you don't, well, know...but what if you're like my friend the CEO? Or that manager working for the government?

So, we launched CustomCurriculum. We’ve taken the guesswork away and now provide you with a clear path to learning. Are you starting a new website? Do your employees suddenly want you to use social media? Maybe you’re just trying to stay ahead of your students, who all expect copies of your lessons via podcast?

You can think of it as having a personal trainer right there with you, prescribing the best learning tools based on your personality, career goals and work style. First, we send you a short email questionnaire, which will help our learning consultants assess your current skills set, what you need to work on and what technology you have. Then, our learning consultants outline which Knowledgewebb.net lessons and experts we think will help with your immediate needs. We'll also suggest social media (Twitter users, Facebook groups) as well as blogs, podcasts and other websites that we think will best suit your interests.

One thing that's always irritated me about learning sites is that they'll give you basic access for a set membership fee and then charge a la carte for all the good stuff. That's not the way we operate at Knowledgewebb. Like all of our lessons, live chats and webinars, CustomCurriculum is a feature that's free for everyone in our Knowledgewebb.net community.

Everyone may want to learn the same material, but no two people learn in the same way. At the end of the day, our aim is to help people thrive in a digital environment, even when the world seems to be capsizing around them.

As we like to tell folks, "don't sweat the tech." CustomCurriculum is just another way we're helping them to embrace, rather than fear, the web.

Knowledgewebb members can look here for details on how to get started. Meantime, you can download the press release here along with a sample CustomCurriculum report.

Full disclosure: I'm firmly grounded in the you-oughta-pay-for-content camp. But two recent experiences provide excellent anecdotes as to why I think that way.

Case #1: Discovery on Pandora Equals Paying Conversions on Music Store Sites.
I'll admit it - I'm on Pandora nearly every single day. I don't know what I'd do without it. I listen at work, I listen when I'm out walking around, I listen when I'm flying on a wifi-enabled airline.

You see, I'm starting to feel my age. I can't stomach the latest pop disasters... the Britneys and the GaGas and whoever American Idol is endorsing this week. For me, the day the music died was when Pearl Jam told Ticketmaster to stick it and Dave Matthews went inexorably commercial. But after more than 20 years with my old CDs and mix tapes, I'm ready for something new. Something similar enough to suit my tastes, but different than what I'm used to.

Searching through the iTunes store (yes, even with Genius turned on) or Amazon is too overwhelming. Ditto for Google. I need a curated experience. Someone to make recommendations, and to have those recommendations actually work.

Enter Pandora, which does just that. I search for a song I like, and over the course of a few hours I'm introduced to lots of new artists and songs I've never heard of before. Usually, I like five or six of them so much that I'm compelled to seek out an mp3 download. And because it's too cumbersome to trudge through all the P2P networks looking for one particular obscure artist's song (and illegal, yes, but who hasn't file-shared at least once in their digital lifetime?), I head over to iTunes and make a purchase.

If tomorrow Pandora decided to charge me, the user, a $5 subscription fee per month, I'd be inclined to pay. Can I find all that music elsewhere? Sure. But I'm paying for regulated, personalized content discovery.

Taking this a step further, if I was a musician - someone unsigned, looking to make a name for myself - I don't think I'd be knocking on MySpace's door just yet. Pandora has a growing audience here in the U.S. and is becoming available on a variety of devices. I might just be willing to pay Pandora a $500 placement fee, just as a publicist pays the same amount to place a story on the various wire services. The song gets distributed and, if it's good, in a matter of time folks start buying it. They might even want to see the act live - buy concert tickets. That's how I became a Nickel Creek fan and bought tickets for some of their final concerts.

What I think we can learn from Pandora is that if the distribution system is unique, dependable and fits a real consumer need, both consumers and content providers might be willing -- should be willing -- to pay.

Cast #2: Why We'll Pay to Tweet
Twitter's Fail Whale may not have showed it's scary water spout over the weekend, but plenty of us got kicked off the system during a massive attack. Mine was one of many accounts in good standing that got suspended. While there's no clarification yet on what, exactly, went wrong, there appears to be an algorithm malfunction over at Camp Twitter. Read more about it here.

I know that when I saw the red suspension notice, my heart sunk. I was in the middle of a conversation as well as the start to our launch campaign for Knowledgewebb. (Also see press release below this entry.) There was no real information about how to contact Twitter other than to use their form - I got a response saying that someone would look into the situation and get back to me within 30 days.

THIRTY days?!?

It's as if someone stole the transmission out of my car and said that it may or may not be returned in the next month. How was I going to drive around the Twitterverse?

I started using Twitter a few years ago primarily because my friends stopped using instant message. If I wanted to stay in touch with them during the day, I'd have to Tweet. Since then, I've come to rely on Twitter as a news aggregator, instant messenger, marketing tool, investigative resource and shopping guide. What the hell was I going to do?

My account was restored within 12 hours, but the experience got me thinking. Twitter hasn't been clear about it's plans for monetizaton, but I can tell you this. I'd pay for a Twitter Pro account, if it meant that I'd verified and immune from accidental suspensions, outages and Fail Whales in general. If I was guaranteed 100% uptime... and maybe a higher API limit (200, 300, 500 per hour?)... I'd pay $5, maybe even $10 per month.

I know what you're thinking. PAY to use Twitter? Sheesh! Someone will just come along with another free network and we'll all hop on that.

That's easy to say if you're a causal user. For the rest of us, I'd argue that a paid option wouldn't be so bad.

Conclusion
Or think about it this way: What would you do if Google suddenly charged you a monthly fee? Would you hop on over to Yahoo? Maybe you'd do that if you were only using Google to search. But what about your Gmail account? All those beautiful Google maps? Google Docs?

And now consider this: What if Google charged us each $2 every month, or $24 a year, for full privileges? Google had somewhere in the range of 145 million unique visitors this past May. So that'd be 145 x $2.00 = $290,000,000 million.

$290 million per month.

You're telling me that you'd really throw your arms up in protest and give Google the Pearl Jam Ticketmaster treatment?

What makes Google, Twitter and Pandora different from your average newspaper or magazine? Consumers find that those websites/ services meet the following criteria:

1. they are indispensable
2. personally or professionally valuable
3. easy to use
4. compelling to reuse again and again
5. interesting enough to talk about with friends and coworkers

Given the same set of criteria, would your organization pass the monetization test?

BALTIMORE, MD--(Marketwire - July 7, 2009) - With a commitment to digital empowerment, Webbmedia Group today announced the launch of Knowledgewebb, the first all-in-one resource to help turn digital media and social networking novices into more marketable digital mavens.

With just a click of a mouse, Knowledgewebb provides all the technology training, tips, tools, expert help and community support to help even the most techno-phobic reinvent, reinvigorate or save their careers.

"In today's difficult economy, no one can afford to sit on the sidelines because of a lack of digital know-how," said Amy Webb, founder and principal consultant with Webbmedia Group. "I started Knowledgewebb to ensure that content creators -- which today is just about everyone -- know how to use the latest online tools, techniques and systems to become more marketable in a web 2.0 world. It's the easiest way to get rewired to be rehired or reinvented."

Knowledgewebb, whose tagline is "Don't sweat the tech," is designed with the digital newbie -- or even the technophobe -- in mind. All its content is jargon-free, and everything on the site is tagged to make navigation and search simple and fast. Members have regular access to experts in areas like website design and web applications, search engine optimization and social media tools who can provide digital hand-holding. To learn more about Knowledgewebb, click here.

"I knew I wanted to start a business but had no idea how to create a blog or website. I felt like I was in a black hole; it was all kind of scary," said Knowledgewebb beta tester Karen Butterfield, a 64-year-old Fairfield, CT, resident, who is launching a women's coaching business. "Knowledgewebb has given me a tremendous boost and motivation by providing me with the tools I need to launch my business. It's taken the scary factor out."

Knowledgewebb experts have years of experience in traditional and new media at major outlets such as National Public Radio, the Washington Post, ABC News and CNN. Their depth and breadth of practical, actionable media industry insights and grasp of next-generation information tools gives Knowledgewebb members a significant advantage in today's talent marketplace. To learn about the Knowledgewebb experts, click here.

Knowledgewebb is the brainchild of Webb, who has 15 years' experience as a journalist, publisher and consultant to major media organizations, including Time Inc. Style & Entertainment Group (People, InStyle, etc), ABC and NPR and many others. An expert working the intersection of media and technology, Webb said she created the site to address the critical learning and skill needs of people who have been displaced by the economic tsunami.

"The traditional media world is being turned upside down, driven by sweeping economic changes and the reality that millions now look to emerging outlets for real-time news and information," said Jim Brady, former executive editor & vice president at Washington Post-Newsweek Interactive. "Knowledgewebb can help people from all types of backgrounds open up new and exciting career and business opportunities."

Knowledgewebb members can access its many resources to create a number of initiatives, including designing and launching a new website; sourcing, recording and distributing a podcast; or creating a highly visible, traffic-generating blog or audio-photo slideshow. The site also explains, in very plain English, how to use mobile devices for content, how to use Twitter, how to exploit Facebook, and more. Membership fees are priced to make it as widely available as possible.

Site features include:

-- A special section on entrepreneurship for those looking to set up a Web or new media business.
-- Learning resources such as worksheets and Tech Talk Q&As.
-- A continually refreshed "Did You Know" section pointing members toward new content and resources as they become available.
-- A database of more than 150 interactive lessons on new media and technology topics, including "Twitter for Publishing & Marketing," "Personal Blogging 101" and "How to Buy a Digital Camera." Members can suggest new topics for inclusion.
-- Weekly live chat sessions with noted experts that cover subject areas ranging from search engine marketing to audio editing and Internet security along with ongoing email access to experts.
-- Informative webinars each week on topics like "Reinventing Yourself for an Online World."

There are also forums and communities so members can interact and share ideas and insights. Those who want to take their professional development a step further can have one-on-one personal training sessions in the home or office, led by Webbmedia Group consultants; the sessions are available at a discount for Knowledgewebb members.

About Webbmedia Group Webbmedia Group helps clients apply digital tools for use in online news media. Its team of consultants helps companies adapt new technologies and integrate digital tools to increase traffic, monetize content, launch new products, train newsrooms and develop long-term strategies. WMG uses a customized, research-driven approach with every client to ensure that each project utilizes the very best technology available to achieve a company's goals. Its extensive client list includes ABC News, Hearst, People.com and Columbia University, Knight Foundation and more. For more information, visit www.webbmediagroup.com and www.knowledgewebb.net.

Knowledgewebb Design/Architecture Knowledgewebb was designed and built by Amy Webb. It was programmed by Achieve Internet. Achieve Internet is a leading open source software development firm specializing in the development of Web 2.0 Social Networking websites for the most demanding environments. We combine the flexibility, scalability and robust functionality of the Drupal framework with an agile development process to deliver next generation websites for our enterprise clients. Achieve ranked 239th on the Inc. 500 fastest growing companies in 2008. In our 10-year history, Achieve has developed websites for Fast Company, LifetimeTV, NBC Universal, ABC/Disney, Viacom, The World Bank, and Experian. www.achieveinternet.com

Media contact: Wendy Marx, Marx Communications 203-445-2850 and Michael O'Brien, Marx Communications 203-377-4047

Knowledgewebb is a site offering hands-on training, self-directed courses, ongoing webinars and more for everyone working in media and communications. Members receive unlimited hands-on training in a very easy-to-use setting, interactive live webinars and chat sessions and access to experts in a dozen different subject areas. We even have a database of 125+ hands-on lessons to help you learn more. (And we're adding new lessons every week!) Want to start your own website from scratch? We have a lesson for that. (Six, actually - showing you how to pick a domain, how to choose a platform, how to get your content online, etc.) Want to use Twitter to market yourself? Yes, we have a lesson for that, too. Flash for beginners? Check. Buying a digital camera? Yep. Facebook Connect? Of course! Take a look at our current offerings here.

And if you wanted to know about getting content to mobile phones, or selecting a content management system, starting a website from scratch or even how to protect your identity while researching online, you can ask one of our Experts directly for help. I wanted to give you the same kind of access I have to the leading movers and shakers in digital media. Need to learn more about visual storytelling? Ask our Expert, Emmy-award winning journalist Tom Kennedy. Just getting started? Amy Eisman, nationally-known writing and teaching coach and American University Professor, is here to help. Want some feedback on your Flash project? Mark Luckie, author of the popular 10000 Words blog and award-winning multimedia designer, will critique your work. Longtime NPR personality and trainer Doug Mitchell is ready to help with all your audio questions... Our Expert list goes on and on.

What is Knowledgewebb?
Knowledgewebb offers hands-on training, self-directed courses, ongoing webinars and more for everyone working in media and communications. Want to learn Wordpress to start your first blog? Ready to try your first audio-photo slideshow? Need a refresher on CSS? Or are you just a beginner who doesn't really know where to start? We created Knowledgewebb for people working in all ares of media who are trying to reinvent themselves and either reinvigorate - or save, as the case has become - their careers.

Membership has its benefits! Unlimited hands-on training in a very easy-to-use setting. Interactive live webinars and chat sessions. Access to experts in 20 different subject areas. And much more:

• More than 120 self-directed lessons so far, with 3-5 new lessons added each week. Topics range from “How to hire a developer” to “Semantic Web basics,” and “How to launch your first blog” to “Building an iPhone app from scratch.”

• More than a dozen recognized experts in a variety of topic areas, including Mobile, Flash, Location Aware Services, Semantic Web and even Beginner. You'll get direct access to each and every one of them!

• Interviews with the creators of popular Web applications and tools, with explanations of how they can be adopted for use in journalism, PR and communications.

• Several expert-peer Smart Rooms, where our members can ask targeted questions about a wide range of topics and get immediate answers from our experts and knowledge community.

• Worksheets and step-by-step primers for those starting a new communications business, publication, blog and more.

• Dozens of how-to guides and tipsheets.

• Archives with transcripts of past live webinars and live chats.

• A schedule of upcoming live chats with experts and webinars, which are free for all members to attend.

What people are saying...
"You tell folks the WHY, which is perhaps the most important piece that we miss in multimedia training. We show them shiny objects, scare them to death and tell them if they don't use them they'll loose their job. Knowledgewebb shows you the truth by showing your the tools byt then giving you the context about when to use them and why it can be useful." - Cory Haik, Director of Content at The Seattle Times, Seattle, Washington.

"Busy executives don't have time to follow all of the trends in media, and hardly any have the expertise to identify the trends worth watching. Knowledgewebb helps you know not only what's worth watching, but how to implement technology in your business. -Ken Sands, Executive Editor, Congressional Quarterly, Washington, D.C.

"As someone who's trying to start a website, I've found Knowledgewebb to be invaluable. After just a few weeks taking self-directed lessons and sitting in on some of the Live Chats, I feel like I have the basic information I need to start my business. I haven't found anywhere else online with this much information!" - Edgar Lewis, Entrepreneur, Greensboro, North Carolina.

I'd love to hear from you, too! Please email me and let me know what you think... feedback, ideas, etc. welcome!

Knowledgewebb is a site offering hands-on training, self-directed courses, ongoing webinars and more for everyone working in media and communications. It gives direct access to the creators of popular Web applications and tools, mobile applications/ handsets and other tech gadgets via targeted live chat sessions and discussion forums, which we're calling "Smart Rooms." Knowledgewebb also publishes regular short interviews with leading developers about tech trends and how they apply to journalism, public relations and beyond.

Members receive unlimited hands-on training in a very easy-to-use setting, interactive live webinars and chat sessions and access to experts in a dozen different subject areas...so far. If you wanted to about getting content to mobile phones, or selecting a content management system, starting a website from scratch or even how to protect your identity while researching online, you can ask one of our Experts directly for help. We have a database of 100+ hands-on lessons to help you learn more. Everything has been written and programmed specifically for content producers, be they journalists, mommy bloggers, university public relations or even the head of a major broadcast network.

Let me know what you think!

Here's what I know you don't want to hear: Many of you probably won't land back on your feet as a working journalist at an American newspaper.

So we're going to reprise our free training, that we offered to laid-off Gannett folks in December and January, and open it up to all the journalists who lost their jobs in Colorado, in Seattle and elsewhere. About half of what my company (Webbmedia Group) does is training. We train reporters, editors, producers, developers, teachers...hell, we even train lots of trainers...on how to adapt technology for journalism. (The other half is strategic planning and innovation. Like, which content management system should you use and how can you best implement it to accommodate mobile, the geospatial web, etc?)

So, to the recently laid-off journalists, here's something to help: We're going to offer an updated version of our free training session on what to do next. It will focus on emerging technology and post-mainstream journalism careers. We'll show you some new tech trends, explain how you can combine them with what you already know, and then show you how to apply your skillset to either land a new gig or even start your own site. As before, this won't be an hour of learning code - it'll be instruction on how to think and understand differently.

Again, these sessions are free. You'll also get access to tipsheets and other information. Criteria are below:

WHO: We'd prefer that you're a newspaper refugee, but we won't turn away working journalists or anyone working in communications. Sorry - this time, we will not take technologists, consultants, academics or students. We're going to check, so don't try to pull a fast one on us.

WHEN: Wednesday, March 25th at 3pm Eastern Time. The training session will last 75 minutes.

HOW/ WHERE: We'll give registrants a call-in number and passcode ahead of the session. You'll need a computer (one that's online, of course) and a phone line to call into. After the session, we'll give you access to tipsheets and other information to help you continue learning on your own.

HOW TO REGISTER: Send an email message with your full name, your email address and where you're currently (or were recently) employed. Also tell us what kind of job you had (multimedia producer, city hall reporter for the paper, etc). For those of you who have previously participated in one of our training sessions, you'll already know that we never do the same thing twice and that all of our sessions are completely personalized. To the extent we can, we're going to try and do the same thing this time around - so share whatever information you'd like. The more we get, the more meaningful we can make the information for you. DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION IS MARCH 20th. NO EXCEPTIONS.

I'd like to cap the session at 200 people total, so this will be first-come, first-served. While I'd prefer that you didn't participate in one of the previous sessions, this one will be different, so it's okay for you to register again.

There are no strings attached, folks. We're just trying to help out. Please help spread the word!

]]> http://mydigimedia.com/2009/03/06/more_free_training.html http://mydigimedia.com/2009/03/06/more_free_training.html Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:57:01 -0500 Get our 8-page glossary of tech terms translated into Spanish here. On that page, you'll also find a tipsheet all about Twitter (translated into Spanish).

And for a limited time, you can also download our glossary translated into Russian here.

More to come! Meantime, we're hard at work on a stealthy project launching this April... stay tuned!]]> http://mydigimedia.com/2009/02/24/free_spanish_and_russian_resou.html http://mydigimedia.com/2009/02/24/free_spanish_and_russian_resou.html Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:06:41 -0500 UPDATED

You can make a neat, automatically updated mosaic of the folks following your on Twitter. Take a look at Sxoop to get your own mosaic and to order pretty cool Twitter swag.

I've since taken mine down - the more followers you have, the longer it takes to load...

]]> http://mydigimedia.com/2009/02/22/my_tweeps_3.html http://mydigimedia.com/2009/02/22/my_tweeps_3.html Sun, 22 Feb 2009 16:08:15 -0500