Phreadz and the New Media Expo
August 7, 2008
I was having a quiet night in on the net, flitting from one platform to another, posting a video here and a tweet there.
The chatter in the networks was all about the upcoming New Media Expo in Las Vegas. Having missed out on the Boston Podcamp while on a photo assignment I felt a pang of longing and posted this video..
Apparently I was not clutching at straws.. an hour later I was looking at an email from an anonymous donor pledging me the ticket money to the Vegas NME, providing I did what I said I was going to do, that is, utilise Phreadz in the perfect environment and demonstrate it’s potential.
Apparently there are some serious lurkers out there that really want Phreadz to be pushed more on the international tech circuit..
For me it’s a no-brainer. I have been a Phreadz Phanboy since February 08 It is the only thing on the web that does what it does.
Since I lost my Video blogging cherry to Seesmic I have dabbled in all kinds of online video platforms. Each have their own niches. If i want a large unknown mystery audience I post to seesmic. You never know what you may get back. If i am feeling spontaneous and creative i may blurt out a few 12 second video ditties on 12Seconds.tv
The thing that attracts me to Phreadz right now is its seemingly unlimited ability to show off any content I throw at it. If I want to post video, audio, photos, text links or even a slideshow presentation it will happily suck it all up in just about any format I can chuck at it. It can either be uploaded into the main time line or into one of the many custom channels that have been made.
Recently my very own Geeknbury festival had its own channel. I was really chuffed with this and the channel allowed this small geek festival to exist outside of the field it was born in and be enjoyed internationally. It even had its own musical continuation in the shape of a gig by Steve Lawson and Lobelia played and streamed from their very own living room right into the Geeknbury channel.
I don’t even need to sit here on my minimal countryside bandwidth waiting for files to upload as I can cross post with URLs from countless other video platforms including two of my favorites, Qik and Blip.
Where I feel most at home though is within the virtually instantaneous video conversations occurring across all channels, from either mobile or off my laptop.
Although still in a closed beta (soon to open wider, I hear), Phreadz founder Kosso, has not only concentrated on content but he has ensured community still plays a major part in Phreadz. Occasionally new channels appear out of the blue and, as users, we all quickly embrace another place we can express ourselves. After all, it is still the user who makes the content in Phreadz and because of this the conversations are always rich. Channels have allowed any exasperated rant or heartfelt tale to live side by side without content clashing, or meaning and context getting lost in the ever increasing flow of new and interesting dialogue.
One place on Phreadz I’ll be sure to spend some time next week will be the New Media Expo Channel, created as an experiment to cover The New Media Expo hosted in Las Vegas by brothers Tim and Emile Bouquin.
So although I will be in the channel, thanks to my mysterious ‘Angel’, I will also actually be in Las Vegas, creating content, networking and showing anyone that loves new media an innovative tool that has not only indirectly given me this opportunity but that also inspires, homes and houses so much of my online existence.
The New Media Expo Channel is at http://newmediaexpo.phreadz.com and is open for all to see.
If you want to know more about Phreadz and want to join in with the beta testers, why not drop the site an email HERE
If you are an investor, contact the site as it is ripe and ready to take the net by storm, Kosso just needs smart folk with money.
And if you really want to help out right now.. make a donation to the chip-in on the front page here.. It’s worth it.
I am off to pack and charge geek stuff.. If you are going to the NME in Vegas let’s connect on Twitter
UPDATE: Anyone in Vegas sending New Media Expo content to nme@phreadz.com automatically gets an account!!
Tweet Generation
July 28, 2008
Tweet generation is a book being put together by Butterbeep, (Dave Goodchild) about the power of social media and the people who use it as a enabling tool and a way to create wide-reaching and potent connections. The book, which touches on a number of social networks and prominent posters, geeks and visionaries, is different from many books about tech in the desire to capture the intersection of art and science, the heart and the mind that is so prevalent in these emerging communities.
Can these tools, in the right hands, be a force capable of reclaiming the human heart and placing it smack bang in the middle of the technosphere. Who knows.. but it’s going to be a lot of fun finding out.
If you haven’t already.. anyone can contribute to the book by going to http://butterbeep.com/tweetgeneration and sending in their quotes, experiences and thoughts. Not every upload will make it - think of them as frenzied spermatazoe on their way to the ovum. Make them fertile and fast, and you are in with a chance.
Dave plans to have the book finished by August 28 2008 and final submissions will be accepted up until August 15.
He has put in loads of work so far and peoples comments, feelings, favorite tweets will all go to glaze the cherry on top.
I have dropped in a line or two but may have another go as everyday my networks amaze me.. It’s all moving so fast. So much of what we do passes our eyes in the flicker of a monitor, I will be surly ordering my own copy of the finished book and if that solar flare does come to erase all our data.. At least I can thumb through the pages of Tweet Generation and remember.
Happy posting!
That link again.. http://butterbeep.com/tweetgeneration
Note: this blog post was hacked together with slolen words from Daves own site. It’s late.. i am tired.. and it looked better than just posting a link.. 
Happy Birthday WordPress!
May 27, 2008
WordPress is five years old today! ..and although i haven’t even been using it five months I feel it only right to say not only congratulations, but also Thank You.
I was always a ‘Blogger‘ user and before that i just made my own random pages and stuck them out into the ‘tubes’ not knowing if anyone actually read anything until i upset them.
I do believe though that I am now hooked and unless something pretty drastic and/or amazing happens.. I will be here for a good time to come.
So why do i like WordPress so much?
I guess mainly it’s because there are so many people I have met through social media that use and understand the importance of such a powerful tool and enabler. Seeing others using this blog software as effectively as they were (and still are) drew me into having at first a peek.. and then jumping headlong into this bandwagon. A bandwagon (assuming this once was a reference to a vehicle of some kind) that at the click of a button can be a small pizza delivery boy on a bike.. or the next moment, a thundering juggernaught.
It is this flexibility and customisation that has hid from me the fact that, without knowing it, I seem to have always been drawn to sites using WordPress. Far more than sites incorporating other blogging platforms.
I love the flexibility to have a site in almost any shape or form, compatible with no end of open source plugins, costing as little as nothing, up to a nominal fee for something a little more in depth. All of this is easily accessible to people not at all versed in code and programing.
I threw myself in at the deep end with this ‘Revolution‘ theme and decided to splash out £40 even though I had never even tried to play with the free themes. Before i knew it, WordPress was installed and with the help of some online friends showing me the ropes and pushing a few buttons.. I had a site up and running that I had never dreamed of having just a week before.
We tend to bang on and on about how important content is but let’s not forget that it’s delivery is equally important. Thanks a lot WordPress and Happy Birthday!
Many thanks to Derek Mantle, Annie Boccio, Steve Purkiss and Phil Sorrell for their superior WordPress and CSS knowledge.
A moment ago I threw out a question onto Twitter asking who was using WordPress and got these links back..
Click on every one.. Go on.. I dare ya..
http://www.ethosmarketing.co.uk
http://jestercreative.com/wordpress/
http://geekgrls.wordpress.com/
http://thegirlinthez.wordpress.com/
http://heavensgame.wordpress.com/
http://www.thebillblog.com/billblog/
http://amedievalhand.wordpress.com
http://www.kittenfluff.wordpress.com/
http://www.bigtalkproductions.com/blog/
http://www.thealbumchartshow.com
http://www.claritypartnership.co.uk
http://www.blog.edgarwrighthere.com
http://www.normanscoachsoho.com
I see a theme forming..
OK guys.. I have linked you.. now link me back! 
Episode 43 - There And Back Again
April 29, 2008
The first half of this podcast was recorded in the company of Philip Campbell in March 2008 on a flight to Newark airport before going on to SXSW in Austin Texas.
The second half was recorded on the flight back to London.
We talk about hacking, podcamp uk, Seesmic, Qik, Blip TV, Pulver TV, social media and how to make Sloe Gin.
I edited it one month later in April, on another flight to Newark this time on my own and heading to PodcampNYC 2.0.
The song entitled HTML in the middle was emailed to me by Erin of the band ‘The Hot Toddies‘. I highly reccommend checking them out HERE.
If you have not subscribed to the podcast (free) in Itunes already, you can listen to the mp3 here
Time Travelling
February 1, 2002
This blog on www.OurManInside.com is a bringing together web content published and created mainly by myself over the last few years.
The name Our Man Inside was initially associated with a friend I was helping to blog way back when he was finding his feet in the wide world of journalism. I had registered the name with the intention of setting up a private investigation company but since found a much better use for it.
Although i am writing this particular post ‘today’.. I am dating it in the dim and distant past, as after this is posted, I will retrieve a few other blog posts collected from other sites I have hosted over the years and re-post them here.
My first proper blog, hit the net on the 1st of February 2002. it was a part of a local documentary project I was working on in the town of Rugby. Due to not knowing much about the importance of backing up way back then, I lost a lot of content and blog posts. So here out of respect and remembrance is my first blog post (that i actually called a blog). As you may well imagine. It is not really that interesting. Just the first step out into a world I was mainly an observer of and now I wanted to participate.
“So this Is Blogging…
I have rarely read them and THIS is only the seventh word i have ever written in a blog. Yup, this is my first blogged paragraph.
Never-the-less i know they are everywhere and everyone seems to think they have something interesting to say.
Me… Well i haven’t anything at all to say… Not this minute anyway.”
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