Author Archive
Pics from Bay Area Digg Meet-Up 1-15-10
I never thought I would actually have the chance to meet the great digger Tal Siach. He’s Israeli, and since he’s on the other side of the Earth, that means I’m never going to get to meet him right? Not so. He visited the States over the last week for the Consumer Electronics show in Vegas. Then he went to Southern California to visit another friend Jason Lankow briefly. After that, he came up to San Francisco, where he and several other diggers hung out for an impromptu social media meet-up.
We met at Medjool’s, a club in San Francisco’s Mission District. We socialized, shot the shit and hung out on their roof. It was good meeting Tal, who turns out to be one of the nicest guys around. I also hear that his web site Walyou is having a lot of success. I am very happy for him! Much thanks to Sharon, a.k.a. SunGoddess808, for the group picture she took!
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Boitnott Talks VVM New Year Goals on Larry Chiang Crunchup Video
I have learned so much about my FICO score from Larry Chiang. But more than that, he is one of the nicest people I have met in the Bay Area tech community so far. When I went the latest Crunchup in San Francisco, a mutual friend kinda “handed me off” to Larry and next thing I know I was being introduced to people, talking all about what I do, and generally being made to feel like I matter. It’s always nice when someone does that for you.
He apparently doesn’t just do that for a few people. This video is a perfect example of how how he includes all sorts of folks and interviews them on camera. Chiang made this video at the Crunchup. In it, he interviews a bunch of people, including myself. Towards the end, I talk about Village Voice’s new marijuana blog “Toke of the Town” and my company’s goals for the new year.
Chiang is an interesting guy and has a lot to say about being a mentor, getting mentored, how to work a room, and what you aren’t taught in business school. He gives advice to people looking for better credit at this site. Check him out on Twitter here.
John Boitnott KEYT Resume Tape from 2005
In the spirit of self-promotion that I sometimes engage in, let’s take a trip down memory lane with some of my on-air TV reporting work that I use to do for KEYT Channel 3 in Santa Barbara.
For years I worked as a part-time reporter at the small-market TV station and ended up working on hundreds of stories. By the time I began searching for other TV jobs, I had quite a few TV stories to choose from as I edited together my resume tape. Because all of the material on the tape combined to be longer than six minutes, I thought it best to divide the footage up into two segments.
I worked at KEYT in Santa Barbara for 10 years in total. For 5 of those years, I did part-time reporting work. I began to work more regularly the last two of those years. This tape, in addition to being a nostalgia piece for me personally, represents some of the best TV journalism I did while I was in Santa Barbara.
New Meme: The “Dick Chicken”
It’s rare these days that you come upon a new meme in its infancy — or to be honest just another bizarre oddity that makes you laugh a little while consuming alcoholic beverages at the local watering hole.
I was carousing at Murio’s on Haight Street in San Francisco a little while back with my buddies Kevin and David when some dude with a PBR 24 ounce made all friendly with us. In addition to telling us why he had moved out to San Francisco from the Valley of the Sun in Arizona, he made mention of the dick chicken. “The what?” you say. Why the picture in this post of course.
The guy was a little unsure of where it all began, and quite frankly because of my Pabst-induced silliness I’m not all that sure what the heck he even said. But he had a button on his sweatshirt to prove that the meme exists and i captured it on my Blackberry for you to see. Read more…
San Francisco Pic of the Day
There is something about the crisp fall evenings in San Francisco that can just hit you the right way. The design director for SF Weekly was leaving so we all headed to the Hotel Utah on 4th and Bryant Streets for a goodbye party. Right as I was about to enter the bar there, I noticed that the eastern sky was turning the most lovely shade of pink. The 3.2 megapixel camera on my Blackberry doesn’t quite capture how cool it felt, with the noise of the traffic and the city, but I knew I wanted to document that moment. What a beautiful town I am lucky to work in! Please also click on my Flickr stream for a close look at all the photos I’ve been taking lately from my Blackberry. For the full size version of the photo click here.
How to Use Pictures with Tweets to Report on News
I have spoken recently about using pictures in your tweets to engage people and build followers. Including pics with your tweets keeps people up to date on your life, and actually adds value. It’s fine to say that - but why is it true? Over a long period of time, if people know they have pictures of your life to go with your words, they will be more likely to follow you and listen to what you have to say, because they have visual pictures in their head that are associated with your life. They may feel a little more like they know you as opposed to someone whose life they have not seen before in pictures.
If you are attending, or have been assigned by a news organization to cover, an event that people may care to know about, then consider live tweeting it. On many occasions I have learned from people that they appreciate the periodic or rapid updates that tweets provide. Many people say that they enjoy watching an event unfold through the lens of tweets. I feel that focusing the lens further by adding pictures to the scenario is a great way to further add value and interest to followers. As I have learned throughout my years as a journalist, added benefits like this add value that people do not soon forget.
Case Study: Exotic Erotic Expo 2009
I’m not really into the sexual bondage scene, but thousands of people who attend the Exotic Erotic Ball at San Francisco’s Cow Palace each year certainly are. The event is essentially a chance for exhibitionists, gawkers and the curious, to come together a week before Halloween to have fun. Tila Tequila and Coolio graced the stage this year. In year’s past Snoop Dog showed up and pleased all the half-dressed fans. Read more…
Using Pics with Tweets to Engage People and Attract Followers
I’m starting here what I would like to think would be an ongoing case study in how to build fans and followers on Twitter, through the use of pictures in one’s tweets.
It’s good enough to tweet compelling articles and other content from third-party sites through your tweetstream. It’s good to allow people to see pieces of your conversations. It’s great to speak with everyone you can. However, I am of the opinion that you need a little something more in order to truly give people that icing on the cake. Tweeting pictures from your smart phone is an excellent way to go.
Tweet Your Life
That thing on the right of this post is at least 75 years old. My grandmother, who is 88, said it was already a large tree when she moved into her Sonoma County house 40 years ago. Now, the tree is protruding into her house slightly, and none of us care. It is beautiful, and all I think of when I stand next to it is that I need to respect it by taking several pictures of it.
Top 3 Reasons Why Janine Kahn Kicks Butt
There has been a lot of talk all over the internet about the wonderful development at SF Weekly, the San Francisco alternative weekly newspaper, where Alexia Tsotsis is arriving Monday after her sojourn at LA Weekly to become a web editor in the City by the Bay. I am super excited to get to work with her regularly.
Numerous blogs have written about Tsotsis and just how much they would miss her in the LA Tech community and at the LA Weekly offices in Venice. Alexia brings a special presence and connectivity to her work. I have met few people who are truly there with you in almost every way during a conversation the way Alexia is. She has a natural talent for bridging differences and connecting people like few I have known.
Important Lessons from William Safire
As I was reading about the life of Nixon speech writer William Safire yesterday, I came across this little piece written by Ted Pease with “Today’s Word” that I knew I had to show here.
In my time as a journalist there are things I learned that I MUST pay attention to, like spelling and grammar. Lord knows, the younger crop of journalists who are coming up today, don’t always even realize that such things exist. So youngins, here’s some advice, from one of the best in the business, William Safire.
Safire offered this useful writing advice.
1. No sentence fragments.
2. It behooves us to avoid archaisms.
They Call it Baby Man Yellow.
Sometimes things just work out perfectly. That’s what I thought as I sat down with my buddies Alexia and Janine for a cookie on Friday. Once I was done it was smoke time. And the pack of cigs had the exact same color tone as Alexia’s finger nail polish. And the same color as Babby Man’s avatar on digg. Me being a silly person, I had to take the thing and tweet it.
