the BROADer issue

'Lights, Camera, Action...Network!' course review

Last week, I spent an enjoyable four days running a course at FDMX (the Film & Digital Media Exchange), part of The University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield (pictured).

'Lights, Camera, Action...Network!' is a practical introduction to social media marketing aimed at filmmakers, producers & distributors:

Day 1: an introduction to the tools, services, language and culture of 'the social web' and how to strategically manage your own online marketing and publicity campaigns.

Day 2: design & build a live online publishing environment, with RSS feeds, embedded Twitter and third-party content, monitoring & measurement etc.

Day 3: begin generating content and populate the site

Day 4: begin publicising the site and attracting visitors

We concentrated on building one site, to help film distributor John Letham of Park Circus publicise his Back In Cinemas campaign to get us of our sofas and watching classic movies on the big screen.

Follow this link to view the Back In Cinemas site, which was built from scratch - with tuition - by three complete newcomers to the world of social media, social networks and 'the social web'. The site will remain active for about another week, before being taken down and re-modelled.

I've been invited back to run the course again in October (dates TBC). If you're interested in knowing more, drop me a line - colin@informedsauce.com

Is this the best Christmas stocking-filler ever?

The Register is upping the Christmas gift idea stakes with yet another news item telling us that pico projectors for - and indeed built into - mobile phones will be commonly available by the end of the year. The image above is of a Texas Instruments-powered Samsung i7410 pico projector phone, gadget freaks!

I was talking to a Soho post house CTO last week, who has already bought a tiny pico projector to accompany his disk-based camcorder, and was raving about it.

Is this set to be a lad's mag fad, or is there genuine interest in being able to watch something using your mobile device without relying on its inadequate screen real estate?

'That DAM Show', a new weekly podcast for DAM pros

My friend Dan McGraw and I have just launched a new weekly, magazine-style podcast. 'That DAM Show' is all about the business of managing, preserving, archiving and exploiting digital media assets and publishing content.

We're going for a light touch, with sections such as 'What's Your DAM Problem?' (interviews about business, workflow & technology challenges),

'Where Are All The DAM Jobs' (where companies can tell listeners about current vacancies), and 'Just Give Us Your DAM Elevator Pitch' (where tech vendors and service providers briefly explain what they're selling right now).

We hope you enjoy it. Get in touch - feedback@thatdamshow.com - and tell all your friends!