Blog: February 2006

Drinking the Podcast Koolaid

February 4, 2006

Truthdig LogoI’ve been interested in podcasting for a while (with followup here).  But until this week, we at Hop Studios were simply occasional consumers of podcasts, not producers.

Podcasts, by the way, are series of audio (or some say video) files, that are delivered automatically to subscribers by means of an RSS feed, and usually listened to on an MP3 device such as, oh, say, an iPod.

One of our most popular clients, Truthdig, has launched a podcast of their own.  If you’re going to try out a podcast, you could do worse than this one: It’s got such great authors as Gore Vidal and Larry Gross reading their works, and an interview with Dennis Kucinich.

If you’re using iTunes, you can also check out the excellent graphic for the podcast.  We can’t take credit for it, but it does look fairly cool, and ties in with the excellent branding of Truthdig.

Posted by Travis Smith at 3:15 AM | Comments (0)

CBC’s Election Forums: Success!

February 4, 2006

As you know, Hop Studios helped tend the CBC election ridings forum, to keep spammers and ranters and off-topic posts to a minimum.

Over the course of about seven weeks of the Canadian election campaigns, we moderated about 15,000 posts—well, we split moderation duties with some folks in Toronto so we could better cover the waking hours, but it was still a huge job.

And, as it turns out, a really rewarding one.  I don’t mean financially, I mean that I really enjoyed learning what issues were troubling people in places as diverse as Peace River, St. John’s East and Trinity-Spadina.  I think the forums help a few people make up their minds, and a few others change theirs.  So even though moderating can be a bit of a slog, this one was really worthwhile.

Posted by Travis Smith at 3:05 AM | Comments (0)

Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics Launches

February 4, 2006

This one was a lot of fun: The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics wanted an independent, powerful Web site that could handle the needs of three different constituents, all in one design.

Tiny history lesson: The Commission was formed in response to the highly visible scandals in college sports. The Commission’s goal: to recommend a reform agenda that emphasized academic values, and counteracted commercialization.  Their site needed to reach out to students, answer questions for the media, and be a resource for educators.

Hop Studios came up with a site that had some darn good forum software, instant graphical polls that can be set up by any staff member, a registration system that allows students to enter all sorts of profile information, and a front page that’s customized based on what sort of registered user you are.

We also did our first ever (and I dare say, really cool) integration with Flickr: the staff uses Flickr to display almost all the photos on the site, and students can submit photos directly for consideration to be used in the site.  The photos are all managed via Flickr’s tagging and editing system.  It’s more powerful than most commercial photo gallery software, and the bandwidth cost to Knight is drastically reduced, even in the face of the many expected visitors the site will get.  We got the idea from Moveon, and were able to adapt some of their functionality, though what they’re doing is an order of magnitude even better.

In any case, I really like the single orange line design that Knight picked, and I think that the site’s users will be enthusiastic about their new central destination for news and discussion about the issues facing student athletes.

Posted by Travis Smith at 2:57 AM | Comments (0)

Leading a Panel at SXSW

February 4, 2006

At the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival, Hop Studios partner Susannah Gardner will lead the “How to Make $$$ With Your Blog Design Skills” panel. The program has it with only two $$, but Susannah says she’s going to pull out all the stops and teach people how to make $$$.

It’s rumored the panelists will include Lisa Sabin of EWebscapes, Joelle Reeder of Moxie and Peter Flaschner of The Blog Studio but to be very honest, I got that from someone else’s blog because she’s asleep right now and I learned long ago that waking one’s partner to ask about a blog entry is considered bad form.

SXSW is a huge music and web festival in Austin; if you’re planning on attending, please let us know and we’ll be sure to meet up.

Posted by Travis Smith at 2:47 AM | Comments (0)

Invited to Speak in Banff

February 4, 2006

Susannah’s been invited to be an instructor for the second time at the Banff Centre.  This time, she’ll be helping to lead the 2006 Canadian Women in Communications / Corus New Media Career Accelerator.

The CWC Career Accelerator format offers a six-day intensive training program focused on management and industry issues that most affect businesses today. The program blends the fundamentals of new media – the terms, the technology, the content, the complexity with practical ways to integrate them into your job. Designed by some of Canada’s best industry educators and professionals, it also provides invaluable insights, strategies and connections for career advancement. The top 20 applicants will be accepted on a full scholarship basis, including tuition, travel, meals and accommodation in scenic Banff, Alberta.

Hop Studios first trip to Banff was more than slightly chilly, so this time we’re going to splurge. Purchasing long underwear for a business seminar—that’s something you don’t have to do in Texas.  Speaking of which ... (see our next post).

Posted by Travis Smith at 2:38 AM | Comments (0)