Shared Creation Magazine

Take a look at killerstartups.com. Often at Shared Creation we talk about new websites that may be of use or interest to the creative. Killerstartups lists and then peer reviews new websites with the aim of finding that next Digg or Flickr or Youtube. In doing so it gives you another of source of new and interesting resources / material, and of course if you’re running a web project - a new place to promote your work.

Just looking at the site right now I can see websites of interest to writers, artists and film makers. That’s a good start. I’ve also taken a look at the categories into which the Killerstartups organises the startups it lists. I think they are of interest to Shared Creation readers.

So go take a look. I’m sure someone will complain about Killerstartups being a bit of a Digg lookalike, but content is king and by having a firm focus on one thing we all need - the marketing and discovery of cool new online resources I think Killerstartups is getting off to a good start.

Technorati Tags: Killerstartups, Internet, Web

I was recently contacted via the Consumed blogs to upload some of my video content into motiono.com. I started to take a look at motion, it was after all new to me.

First of all the name. Motiono is described by its tag line as being “the motion of everything in the universe”. Big name - big aspirations.

Here’s my experience. Motiono is a Web 2.0 video sharing site. It’s a YouTube Clone - Really - it has a very similar look and feel. I think at this point we don’t need a repetition of an established formula. That said another distribution point isn’t a bad thing.

Errr - finding it hard to sort this one out. In other words a mixed message from your reviewer.

This is how it panned out. I wasn’t able to get a video loaded up, every time I tried Motiono crashed. That said other people obviously had so there is hope for the good looking system that motiono uses (it’s called video egg - and it really does look useful - it’s just that it has failed for me). Its just that Motiono at this point feels too much like YouTube. The comparisons are too obvious this doesn’t feel that exceptional.

Though it has got me wondering - does the rise in various user driven sites dilute the ease of which we can singularly get a message out. Or does it just mean that we have to pick, choose and work our chosen formats.

Motiono has made me think about distribution. So its not all bad.

I hope Motiono fixes its problems. Its in beta and has time to become something great.

In the meantime we all have to keep on working our favorite websites to find that magic audience for our work.

Technorati Tags: film, film making, Internet, motiono, Video, Web, YouTube

I was checking out Eyespot after my last video release for Consumed when I noticed a link for Blip.TV. It looked like something worth investigating. So I did and this is what I found.

Blip.TV is a video sharing site, please don’t groan at that. It’s accent is on allowing users to easily create ongoing shows. Simply put if you have a series of videos - such as a blog or a podcast then this could be a tool for you. To find out how this worked I created a series called Making Movies - which will be my ongoing video blogs about making films without a budget (a la Consumed). To see how it came out take a look at http://makingmovies.blip.tv and yes you do get a subdomain for free.

The first thing I noticed was the ability to integrate Blip.TV output into iTunes, Democracy and Media Centre subscriptions. This is a standard for all shows, so if a reader likes what they see - they can subscribe in using the current choice of media players. You can also integrate an existing blog into your Blip.TV output. I’ve listed Shared Creation Projects here - simply because that is the best RSS feed for the Consumed Project. At least until Consumed gets its own site beyond Shared Creation and Myspace - but that’s another story. The point that I am driving at is that this site allows to both easily distribute your output and pull in supplementary material - increasing the overall value for the viewer.

I have to say Blip made me open up my eyes and take a good look. I was surprised by its quality, and by going down the TV station route it has opened up a simple paradigm. Blip is your station and distributor, you are either a viewer or a content creator. It’s not jumped on the Web 2.0 uber community bandwagon. Instead its taking on Internet TV in a more measured manner - making good use of the current state of technology to create a service useful to both viewers and creators alike.

Take a look at Blip.TV, I have a hunch you may like it. If nothing else you could find some video podcasts to add to your subscription lists.

Technorati Tags: blip, Blog, Consumed, film, film making, Internet, networking, Podcast, blip.tv, Television, TV, Video, Video Blog, Web

MITV - Make Internet TV is a web site from the makers of the Democracy video player.

To put it simply it this is a one stop resource dedicated to helping the beginner produce video to be shown on the web. In other words - how to produce the content for Internet TV stations. Given that Democracy is all about creating and publishing TV content online this is a pretty shrewd move. YouTube and other user content generated sites has proved that people like shooting video and being watched. More importantly - there is an audience. Indeed a good many Net literate members of the younger generation don’t really differentiate between online video and TV.

MITV seems to trying to take this to the next level by helping those getting started make the best decisions when starting out.

However there is a catch. Right now the site is fairly immature - so it only has limited content. There is hope though MITV is actively looking for more instructional content and also supplemental videos. So there is a good chance that it will grow into an invaluable resource. They’ve also made the shrewd move of launching a Wiki in parallel. You can find this at http://www.mitvwiki.org/. Its a new Wiki and is in need of content. Wiki’s do tend to grow. So lets hope some good contributors get involved.

Basically its a good idea, and has potential to turn into a very useful resource - so check it out. If you can … help it out and send in some content.

Technorati Tags: digital, Help, networking, Television, TV, Video, Video Blog, Web

On the 26th of January this little gem of a image manipulation program reached version 3.0. I’ve been using the release candidate version for production web graphics since it appeared, and the beta for a little while longer and can report that this is an upgrade worth getting. For the record - I ran the upgrade today.

So what’s in this version - an improved user interface, easier editing of multiple images, improved effects and tools. Click on the screenshot to take a look at Paint.Net in action.

What’s important is that this has been added whilst retaining what for me is the core of paint.Net - extreme ease of use. Somehow paint.Net has always had the usual suspects of tools in the usual tool bar - whilst somehow being really easy to use. I nod my head to the designers for getting things so right.

If this has wetted your appetite go to http://www.getpaint.net/ and take a look. It’s a free download, easy to use and covers the functions most people needed. Well recommended

Technorati Tags: Art, Links, Photography, Web