Vlogging News - Electronic Resources
Story courtesy of http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/13674860.htm
Seeing the sites
Mon, Jan. 23, 2006 - BY JULIO OJEDA-ZAPATA - Pioneer Press
The latest electronic resources make it easier than ever to keep track of what's going on in your neighborhood or across town. We checked out three of them.
SOTANLIFE.COM
What it is: An arts and entertainment guide.
Founded by two University of St. Thomas grads, Minneapolis-based sotanLIFE (http://www.sotanlife.com/) is muscling into a crowded field alongside the likes of the Twin Cities daily newspapers, the City Pages weekly and others who offer extensive arts and entertainment listings. It aims to compete with an online-only approach that harnesses slick Web features. The firm's slang-y moniker is short for "Minnesotan life."
problem it aims to solve: Online arts-and-entertainment guides with little more than text and photos are arguably insufficient to get a good "look, sense and feel" of a restaurant or nightspot. The solution: A feature-rich online A&E guide that turbocharges its ample listings and reviews with all manner of multimedia goodies for more-satisfying virtual visits.
How it works: The sotanLIFE site has more than 3,000 listings in key categories, such as restaurants, bar/clubs, theater, music, cinema and diversions. Click an entry for a savvy-sounding overview with often-clever writing. Staff editorials give the site a personality.
Bells and whistles: Many listings are enhanced with video sequences, panoramic photos, slide shows, Google mapping, restaurant menus in downloadable PDF format, even interactive QuickTimeVR environments that let site visitors essentially rotate in place to scope out a locale in all directions (even upward).
Caveats: Not all listings have all the above features (many have few or none). And to use those features, users may need to download such software as Apple Computer's QuickTime or the Adobe Reader.
East-metro highlight: In a diary-like essay titled "Eat at Joe's? No way!" Jake Kulju gives his take on Mickey's Diner in downtown St. Paul: It's "a place where glim and glam take a back seat to real human nature - sometimes the good, sometimes the bad, and quite often, the ugly."
TWIN CITIES DAILY PLANET
What it is: A news "aggregator" with content from community newspapers and other sources.
The Twin Cities Daily Planet (http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/) is a nonprofit, still-experimental effort that is initially being funded by the J-Lab, the University of Maryland's Institute for Interactive Journalism. Its long-term goal is to foster "citizen journalism" by getting average Twin Cities residents to contribute their own news and views.
For now, it is inking deals with everyone from the Hmong Today, Lazos Hispanos and Minnesota Women's Press newspapers to the Minnesota Stories and Mnspeak.com Web sites in order to beef up its content offerings.
The problem it aims to solve: It's tough to keep track of the Twin Cities' dizzying range of ethnic and community newspapers, as well as hometown-flavored Web logs, audio podcasts and vlogs (or video-specific blogs).
The solution: A single site that collects all of this media goodness and organizes it by topic so it's a breeze to peruse - no more searching for free-newspaper racks around the metro area.
How it works: The site offers a lengthy list of subject areas, ranging from "St. Paul" and "Minneapolis" to "arts," "government," "housing" and "transportation." Click one, and you'll pull up relevant content from one or more of the Daily Planet's partners. Offerings include audio and video from the likes of the "Inside Minnesota Politics" podcast and the "Minnesota Stories" vlog.
Bells and whistles: You don't have to manually visit the Daily Planet again and again if you're hip to the ways of RSS - short for Really Simple Syndication. This is a time-saving system for keeping track of updates on multiple Web sites without needing to actually pull up the sites every day.
To do this, you'll need an RSS "newsreader" for keeping track of RSS "feeds." Try a Web-based reader, such as NewsGator (http://www.newsgator.com/) or Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com/). Once you've set up a free account, begin adding feeds.
Go back to Daily Planet, click on your favorite topic, and look for an orange "XML" icon near the bottom of the page. Click that, and you'll be taken to another page. Copy that page's address and paste it into your newsreader. Then, pull up your newsreader every so often to see if your Daily Planet feed has been updated with new stuff.
Caveats: The Daily Planet hasn't formally launched, so expect a few rough edges. Links on one RSS-feed page last week led to a barebones site that read, "spiritoftexastours.com. Please visit this site later. It is currently under construction." Huh?
East-metro highlight: A Longfellow/Nokomis Messenger article about St. Paul's Ford Motor Co. plant discussing the impact of a possible closure.
EARTHCOMBER MINNEAPOLIS
What it is: A handheld electronic city guide.
Earthcomber (http://www.earthcomber.com/), a Chicago-area Internet firm, has teamed with the Greater Minneapolis Convention and Visitors Association to adapt that agency's consumer listings (along with other local information) for use on Palm-based handheld devices.
The result, Earthcomber Minneapolis, is a "free city spot guide to neighborhoods, activities, attractions, shopping, history, dining and hotels" in Minneapolis and surrounding cities. The guide taps into Earthcomber's expertise in Web maps (such as those of Hennepin and Ramsey counties), which it offers for free to all comers.
The problem it aims to solve: It can be hard to get hip to all kinds of Twin Cities attractions, such as dining and shopping while on the move.
The solution: A portable city guide, conveniently accessible on your Palm-based organizer or smartphone, with slick digital-mapping capabilities for homing in on what you want with just a few stylus taps.
How it works: Getting the digital guide onto your Palm device is relatively straightforward. First, download and install Earthcomber Updater software - Windows, Macintosh and Linux versions are available. It will prompt you to download local maps and other data you'll need. Finally, connect your Palm to your computer and do a HotSync to transfer the Earthcomber resources to the portable device.
Bells and whistles: You can personalize Earthcomber so it will look for specific things ("architecture," "ATM," "kid-friendly," "mall" and so on) and plot the results on a metro-area map. Alternately, tap a spot on a map (or enter an address) to find out what is nearby. Zoom in and out. Harness Global Positioning Satellite features if you use a GPS-enabled Palm device. See search results in a categorized "hit list" with distances to the various spots.
Caveats: Earthcomber Minneapolis isn't available for Windows-based Pocket PCs (this problem may be remedied within weeks). It requires reasonably up-to-date Palm hardware; when we tried it on an old Palm m125, an on-screen warning said, "Unfortunately, limitations in your device make it highly unlikely that Earthcomber will perform satisfactorily." The Earthcomber features can be tricky to master, and Earthcomber Minneapolis is hardly a definitive local guide.
East-metro highlight: A "kid-friendly" entry about downtown St. Paul's Minnesota Children's Museum says it "is where kids ages six months to 10 years can touch, climb, splash and explore their way through seven galleries packed with extraordinary hands-on adventures."
Julio Ojeda-Zapata can be reached at jojeda@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5467. For more personal technology on the Web or via RSS, go to TwinCities.com and click "Business," then "Personal Tech."
-----
Lots more articles and reviews like this are at http://www.ipods-and-onlinevideo-reviews.com.
Chip Tarver
Seeing the sites
Mon, Jan. 23, 2006 - BY JULIO OJEDA-ZAPATA - Pioneer Press
The latest electronic resources make it easier than ever to keep track of what's going on in your neighborhood or across town. We checked out three of them.
SOTANLIFE.COM
What it is: An arts and entertainment guide.
Founded by two University of St. Thomas grads, Minneapolis-based sotanLIFE (http://www.sotanlife.com/) is muscling into a crowded field alongside the likes of the Twin Cities daily newspapers, the City Pages weekly and others who offer extensive arts and entertainment listings. It aims to compete with an online-only approach that harnesses slick Web features. The firm's slang-y moniker is short for "Minnesotan life."
problem it aims to solve: Online arts-and-entertainment guides with little more than text and photos are arguably insufficient to get a good "look, sense and feel" of a restaurant or nightspot. The solution: A feature-rich online A&E guide that turbocharges its ample listings and reviews with all manner of multimedia goodies for more-satisfying virtual visits.
How it works: The sotanLIFE site has more than 3,000 listings in key categories, such as restaurants, bar/clubs, theater, music, cinema and diversions. Click an entry for a savvy-sounding overview with often-clever writing. Staff editorials give the site a personality.
Bells and whistles: Many listings are enhanced with video sequences, panoramic photos, slide shows, Google mapping, restaurant menus in downloadable PDF format, even interactive QuickTimeVR environments that let site visitors essentially rotate in place to scope out a locale in all directions (even upward).
Caveats: Not all listings have all the above features (many have few or none). And to use those features, users may need to download such software as Apple Computer's QuickTime or the Adobe Reader.
East-metro highlight: In a diary-like essay titled "Eat at Joe's? No way!" Jake Kulju gives his take on Mickey's Diner in downtown St. Paul: It's "a place where glim and glam take a back seat to real human nature - sometimes the good, sometimes the bad, and quite often, the ugly."
TWIN CITIES DAILY PLANET
What it is: A news "aggregator" with content from community newspapers and other sources.
The Twin Cities Daily Planet (http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/) is a nonprofit, still-experimental effort that is initially being funded by the J-Lab, the University of Maryland's Institute for Interactive Journalism. Its long-term goal is to foster "citizen journalism" by getting average Twin Cities residents to contribute their own news and views.
For now, it is inking deals with everyone from the Hmong Today, Lazos Hispanos and Minnesota Women's Press newspapers to the Minnesota Stories and Mnspeak.com Web sites in order to beef up its content offerings.
The problem it aims to solve: It's tough to keep track of the Twin Cities' dizzying range of ethnic and community newspapers, as well as hometown-flavored Web logs, audio podcasts and vlogs (or video-specific blogs).
The solution: A single site that collects all of this media goodness and organizes it by topic so it's a breeze to peruse - no more searching for free-newspaper racks around the metro area.
How it works: The site offers a lengthy list of subject areas, ranging from "St. Paul" and "Minneapolis" to "arts," "government," "housing" and "transportation." Click one, and you'll pull up relevant content from one or more of the Daily Planet's partners. Offerings include audio and video from the likes of the "Inside Minnesota Politics" podcast and the "Minnesota Stories" vlog.
Bells and whistles: You don't have to manually visit the Daily Planet again and again if you're hip to the ways of RSS - short for Really Simple Syndication. This is a time-saving system for keeping track of updates on multiple Web sites without needing to actually pull up the sites every day.
To do this, you'll need an RSS "newsreader" for keeping track of RSS "feeds." Try a Web-based reader, such as NewsGator (http://www.newsgator.com/) or Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com/). Once you've set up a free account, begin adding feeds.
Go back to Daily Planet, click on your favorite topic, and look for an orange "XML" icon near the bottom of the page. Click that, and you'll be taken to another page. Copy that page's address and paste it into your newsreader. Then, pull up your newsreader every so often to see if your Daily Planet feed has been updated with new stuff.
Caveats: The Daily Planet hasn't formally launched, so expect a few rough edges. Links on one RSS-feed page last week led to a barebones site that read, "spiritoftexastours.com. Please visit this site later. It is currently under construction." Huh?
East-metro highlight: A Longfellow/Nokomis Messenger article about St. Paul's Ford Motor Co. plant discussing the impact of a possible closure.
EARTHCOMBER MINNEAPOLIS
What it is: A handheld electronic city guide.
Earthcomber (http://www.earthcomber.com/), a Chicago-area Internet firm, has teamed with the Greater Minneapolis Convention and Visitors Association to adapt that agency's consumer listings (along with other local information) for use on Palm-based handheld devices.
The result, Earthcomber Minneapolis, is a "free city spot guide to neighborhoods, activities, attractions, shopping, history, dining and hotels" in Minneapolis and surrounding cities. The guide taps into Earthcomber's expertise in Web maps (such as those of Hennepin and Ramsey counties), which it offers for free to all comers.
The problem it aims to solve: It can be hard to get hip to all kinds of Twin Cities attractions, such as dining and shopping while on the move.
The solution: A portable city guide, conveniently accessible on your Palm-based organizer or smartphone, with slick digital-mapping capabilities for homing in on what you want with just a few stylus taps.
How it works: Getting the digital guide onto your Palm device is relatively straightforward. First, download and install Earthcomber Updater software - Windows, Macintosh and Linux versions are available. It will prompt you to download local maps and other data you'll need. Finally, connect your Palm to your computer and do a HotSync to transfer the Earthcomber resources to the portable device.
Bells and whistles: You can personalize Earthcomber so it will look for specific things ("architecture," "ATM," "kid-friendly," "mall" and so on) and plot the results on a metro-area map. Alternately, tap a spot on a map (or enter an address) to find out what is nearby. Zoom in and out. Harness Global Positioning Satellite features if you use a GPS-enabled Palm device. See search results in a categorized "hit list" with distances to the various spots.
Caveats: Earthcomber Minneapolis isn't available for Windows-based Pocket PCs (this problem may be remedied within weeks). It requires reasonably up-to-date Palm hardware; when we tried it on an old Palm m125, an on-screen warning said, "Unfortunately, limitations in your device make it highly unlikely that Earthcomber will perform satisfactorily." The Earthcomber features can be tricky to master, and Earthcomber Minneapolis is hardly a definitive local guide.
East-metro highlight: A "kid-friendly" entry about downtown St. Paul's Minnesota Children's Museum says it "is where kids ages six months to 10 years can touch, climb, splash and explore their way through seven galleries packed with extraordinary hands-on adventures."
Julio Ojeda-Zapata can be reached at jojeda@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5467. For more personal technology on the Web or via RSS, go to TwinCities.com and click "Business," then "Personal Tech."
-----
Lots more articles and reviews like this are at http://www.ipods-and-onlinevideo-reviews.com.
Chip Tarver
posted by Chip Tarver at
7:28 PM
