May 28 2009
Carlos Urreta and Joe Philipson are bicycling from New Jersey to Oregon. Their mission: to inspire 1,000 fellow geeks to commute to work by bicycle. They started May 20, and are scheduled to finish Aug. 2.
If they can make to from the east coast to the west, many more of us can probably get to work OK on a bike.
They’ll make a Pittsburgh stop on Friday, May 29. They’re scheduled to be at the PIttsburgh Technology Council, 2000 Technology Dr., around 2:30 pm. Fellow geeks and cyclists are invited to stop by and meet them.
Their road trip is being chronicled online on The Real Geeks Ride campaign Web site. You can follow their cross-country adventures through their entertaining blog posts, which also record how many miles they go each day, along with the running total. There’s a map where visitors can watch their progress.
Here's a video of the Phoenixville-to-Lancaster leg of the journey:
May 17 2009
Tweet your heart out, Ernest Hemingway.
Hemingway was known for his spare and economical prose style, but even he would have never envisioned anything like the Tweet Me A Story contest.
Tweet Me A Story is presented by NYC Midnight, a Web site that hosts competitions for writers and filmmakers.
This ultra-short story writing contest follows the basic rules of a Twitter post. Each entry is limited to 140 characters.
It also must include a word chosen by NYC Midnight. Let’s hope it’s not a long one.
Entries will be judged by a panel of “Twitter experts,” according to the contest rules. The finalist entries they choose will be posted online, and a winner will be chosen through online voting.
The top winners in both the judges and the voters choice competitions will get $100.
The registration deadline is May 26, 2009 and entries are due on May 27, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. For the contest rules and online registration, here's the link.
If you think it’s not challenging to tell as story in 140 characters or less, keep in mind that this post weighs in at more than 1,000 characters.
May 15 2009
Bloggers looking to extend their reach will be able to upload their blogs and sell them through the Amazon Kindle store.
Kindle Publishing for Blogs Beta gives bloggers who use standard RSS feeds a chance to expand their audience, and it gives Kindle e-book reader users a wider choice of reading material.
Amazon sells books, newspaper and magazine subscriptions and many popular blogs as downloads for its Kindle 2 e-book reader.
Blog updates are delivered wirelessly to the Kindle throughout the day.
There’s no fee to upload blogs. Bloggers will be paid for each Kindle subscription they get, although Amazon does not divulge how much they will be paid.
Bloggers can set up a Kindle upload account through this link.
May 05 2009
The virtual envelopes have been handed out and we have a fresh slate of Webby Award winners for 2009.
The Webby gods sent out a special tweet to micro-messaging network Twitter, which won the Breakout of the Year award for its rapid growth as a Web phenomenon in the tradition of YouTube and MySpace.
Internet pioneers recognized this year:
Trent Reznor is Webby artist of the year for his innovative approach to releasing music and tour videos online.
Jimmy Fallon won person of the year for effective use of the Web in launching his late-night TV show. “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” also won a Webby for best variety series in the film and video category.
Lisa Kudrow won for outstanding comedic performance. Kudrow is co-writer and co-producer of “Web Therapy,” in which she plays a therapist who treats patients in Webcam sessions.
Sarah Silverman won best actress for that viral Matt Damon video. Her get out the vote video “The Great Schlep” also won for best news and politics video.
Seth McFarlane is the 2009 Webby film and video person of the year. “The Family Guy” and “American Dad!” creator launched the Web-only “Seth McFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy” on YouTube last year.
The Webbys recognize Web sites, online film and video, interactive advertising, and mobile Web sites.
In film and video, “Children’s Hospital” won for best comedy series and “The Ten Commandments of La Vida Loca” won best drama series. NPR’s “Project Songs” took the prize for music.
In some cases, the official Webby choice and the People’s choice award winners were one and the same:
“Prop 8: The Musical” won for best comedy short, and “Bill O’Reilly’s Producer –The Unseen Footage” won for best video remix/mashup.
That world famous litter of Shiba Inu puppies and their Puppycam won the People’s Choice award for viral video.
Winners will receive their awards and deliver their five-word acceptance speeches on June 8. Viewers will be able to watch video highlights and hear the acceptance speeches on June 9 on the new Webby YouTube channel.
The full list of winners is posted on the Webbys site.