Regardless if youre a blogger, entrepreneur, marketer, or small business owner, you understand the importance of not only creating awesome content, but also making sure it reaches your target audience. Youre probably also aware there is a lot of competition out there, which means its incredibly easy to get lost in the crowd.

So, how can you stand out from everyone else sharing their content around the web?

For starters, you have to make content that is relevant to your audiences wants and needs. That content should also provide some value, whether its informative or entertaining. After that, its time to share that piece of content to the appropriate channels. And, thats where things can get a bit tricky.

Instead of posting a link of your latest blog post on Facebook, try one of the following ways to share your content, which in turn will boost your traffic.

Traffic = Good for Online, Bad for Offline (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1. Submit Your Content Everywhere

You need to share your content in as many places as possible like on social media outlets. But, thats only skimming the surface. You should also be submitting your blog posts on sites like Reddit, StumbleUpon, Chime.in and Newsvine. Everyday people browse those news sites looking for exciting content to discover and share.

Another option is to submit your content to a blog directory. Submitting a blog onto a blog directory is an easy way to reach a new audience, build your online reputation and increase brand awareness. Search Engine Journal has put together a list of 23 essential blog directories you should submit your posts to. I even do this with my personal John Rampton site to help it get a few more people seeing it and reading my content.

2. Become a Part of a Super-Niche Community

Niche communities arent exactly a new trend. For years people have been joining message boards, forums, or following blogs with a community of like-minded individuals. Even Facebook catered to a niche community college students, if you forgot before it became a social network that everyone and their mother were on, literally.

Excerpt from:

5 Creative Ways to Share Content and Boost Your Traffic

Periscope. Asthma inhaler. PVC pipe. These are just a few items that came to mind the first time I saw HTC's first standalone camera, which the company is simply -- and oddly -- calling the RE. Even though nothing about this device is normal, it's catered to the interests of the average Joe. "If you're going whitewater rafting down rapids, use a GoPro," an HTC marketing executive said, pointing out that the RE isn't supposed to compete with the popular action cam. No, HTC's brand-new imaging device, which should retail for around $200 when it hits US retail outlets like Best Buy later this month, is in a completely different category. But the biggest challenge HTC faces is in convincing buyers that this is better, faster and easier than simply pulling your phone out of your pocket when you need a quick shot.

Gallery | 47 Photos

The RE is a small and light device, at 96.7 x 26.5mm and 65.5 grams (2.31 ounces). This makes it easy to securely handle it one-handed, and that's exactly the point: It's supposed to be petite enough for you to quickly draw it out of your pocket or purse and start taking pictures or video footage of anything at a moment's notice. HTC continually mentioned family scenarios, such as anytime the kids or pets are doing something cute; I'd love to use it at Disneyland, both when wandering around the park and when going on rides. In theory, the camera will be perfectly ideal for such situations -- it takes 16MP images, 1080p/30fps video, 4x slow-motion 720p video and time-lapse recording, and features a 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor and 146-degree wide-angle lens.

There are only two buttons on the device: A shutter button on the outside, which you press once to take a picture and long-press for a couple seconds to take video, and a slow-motion capture toggle that you have to hold down to activate before starting the video. Notice that I didn't mention a power button, because HTC wants the device to be always-on, and thus, always ready and waiting for you to use it. Sensors embedded within the RE can tell when you grab it, so in theory it shouldn't take pictures when it's buried deep within your pants. You'll also find a mic on top, as well as an LED indicator and speaker just below the slow-mo button. A microSD slot sits on the bottom underneath a watertight tab; the RE comes with an 8GB card preinstalled, but you can switch it out for any card up to 128GB. There's also a micro-USB charging/data port and a quarter-inch tripod mount for a wide variety of accessories.

Although it's built using glossy plastic, rather than a matte finish, I didn't seem to mind very much. It certainly is a fingerprint magnet, depending on the color -- white, dark blue, teal and orange are available at launch -- but since my hand is already wrapped around it, those prints typically only show up in one place where my fingers routinely sit. And while glossy materials are often too slippery, I never felt like I was going to drop it.

With the RE, HTC wants to extend its reach to consumers who may not actually use an HTC phone; it's compatible with both Android 4.3 (or better) and iOS 7 (or better). Here's how it works: After downloading the app and using it to connect the RE with your phone, you can then use it to back up your pics and vids, change settings (like wide-angle versus standard angle, device updates, backup settings and more) and use the app's remote viewfinder and shutter. The RE app is also the only way you can take video in time-lapse mode; here, you can dictate how often it takes shots and the duration of the footage. Additionally, HTC says that developers will be able to access an API to open the RE up to third-party options -- Tencent and Instagram were specifically mentioned.

One of the most intriguing features on the RE is live broadcasting. That won't be ready at launch, but should be coming out shortly afterward. This is a fantastic use case for any aspiring (or already successful) YouTubers who want to record and upload events as they happen -- conventions, concerts, sporting events, perhaps even city hall meetings. I didn't get the opportunity to test out this feature, so I'm curious to see how reliable it'll be when it comes out; will there be significant latency issues, or is it capable of maintaining a consistent connection?

Fortunately, you can switch between a standard photo and wide-angle. The latter setting definitely captures a wide panorama as advertised, but the resulting images look like they were taken by a fisheye lens. Unless I needed to capture a breathtaking skyline or other majestic scenery, I preferred to stick with the normal angle; the wide-angle shots look too distorted to use for regular shots, but it's good to have the option to switch back and forth whenever necessary.

See more here:

HTC's RE camera is a GoPro for NoPros

Vincent Nguyen

Of all the things you'd think could save HTC's fortunes, an action camera which looks like a tiny submarine periscope probably isn't the first thing to jump to mind, but the company's hopes are high for the HTC RE. The stubby WiFi-enabled camera borrows ideas both from smartphone photography and more specialist shooters like GoPro, with a 16-megapixel sensor, Full HD video recording, and automatic clip curation using HTC Zoe. Most curious of all, it's not just for HTC's own phones: the RE will work with Android devices and iPhones in general. Read on for some first impressions.

It's certainly distinctive. A curved tube 96.7 mm tall and 26.5 mm in diameter, it's a pocket-friendly 65.5 grams and made of tough plastic. Water and dust proof, too, to IP57, as well as meeting IPx7 for the body and IPx8 if you put on the cap.

The twisted shape fits the hand neatly, with a grip sensor automatically powering the RE on. Controls are limited to a big silver button that falls under your thumb: tap it to snap a photo; hold it down to start recording video.

You don't get any integrated way to accurately frame the shot, since there's no screen or even a viewfinder, but the 146-degree f/2.8 lens means you're more likely than not to capture what you were interested in. A g-sensor automatically figures out which way up you're holding it, and flips the final footage accordingly.

Along with regular stills and 1080/30p video, there's support for 720p 4x slow-motion footage capture, and time-lapse video. Audio capture gets a single HD microphone, and there's a speaker built-in too.

If you want to actually review any of the footage, you'll need to turn to your smartphone or tablet though. There's WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 to send it across to the companion RE app (which can also be used to remotely control the camera, acting as a wireless viewfinder), along with microUSB and a microSD card slot to add up to 128GB of storage (HTC will preload an 8GB card).

Read more from the original source:

HTC RE hands-on: WiFi action camera or pointless oddity?

Technology is getting better every day. Computers use to be huge machines that filled a room, now that same computing power is ten times better and faster in the palm of your hand with smartphones. That blows my mind! Now we are headed to a digital cloud and cloud based computing. Soon, the computers that we use today will only be access points that house nothing as all of our pictures, info, documents, and memories will all be sitting in a white fluffy cloud. Even as I write this article I've used a computer, my smartphone, and my tablet to put it together. By using one program that saves the document to the cloud I've given myself the opportunity to work from almost anywhere, from any device. In my line of work I've done almost anything you can think of with a computer and media. From typing up this article, making a presentation, preparing a spreadsheet, to touching up a photo, I have yet to miss a beat even away from my desk. The only thing I do that has eluded quickness and cloud access has been video editing. That is where the monster size files and computer crunching power of over clocked CPUs battle on a daily basis. Fortunately, that is changing as well.

As my most loyal readers know, I've adopted a purely Apple Computer-based life style. I've done this, not out of misguided fanboy love of Apple, but out of necessity. I like to see my family once in a blue moon and having the same equipment I have at work makes sense. This way I have the ability to work from home if given the chance. But, like I said before, video editing is not as portable as everything else and, for some reason, that is what most of you are asking me about. The question of the week is, "Can you edit purely off the web (cloud)?" I have to say that after doing a little research, I can say, "Surprising, yes you can!"

One of my favorite sites that boast about video editing is WeVideo. For a monthly subscription you can have access to 20GBs of cloud storage, a small music library, and the freedom to upload and edit from anywhere. For someone getting their feet wet in video editing this is the most advanced, cloud based, beginners program. In fact, I'm thinking about getting my own account and seeing what I can do with it as well.

Loopster is another good product that does cloud based editing. Just like WeVideo you can do a monthly subscription only this one is five bucks cheaper. This product is not as polished, in my opinion, as WeVideo as they don't do 1080p and limit you to 2GBs per upload. That might be a deal breaker for some of you file hogs. Other then those downfalls Loopster seems to be a close second in editing video online.

The last online editor that I want to talk about is magisto. This takes a different approach to editing. All you have to do is choose your videos, select a theme, pick a song, and the program does the rest. Magisto will pick and choose video for you and it will spit out a finished (edited) "masterpiece." To me this program will either be your best editing partner or your worst nightmare.

These online editors are pioneers headed for a brave new world in editing. They are ahead of their time and I hope to see them grow and develop. That said I have two things to add. One. Even though these programs are great in their own right, they have a long road ahead before taking on industry leads like Final Cut Pro X or Avid. Two. As long as you apply yourself in shooting the video correctly off the camera, the better off you are going to be in the editing. No amount of editing can fix badly shot video. That does it for this edition of Tech Talk and as always, we would love your feedback/suggestions for this or our next edition, so feel free to send your comments to our resident Tech Guy Lonnie Valencia.

View post:

Tech Talk Tuesday: Cloud Editing

Adobe might not be the first name that springs to mind when you think smartphone and tablet apps, despite a gradual encroachment into mobile over the last few years. On Monday, the revered software publisher solidified that commitment with the launch of nine new and updated apps and connected services.

The timing coincides with the companys annual Adobe MAX creativity conference, which kicked off at the Los Angeles Convention Center over the weekend. During a livestreamed keynote, executives laid out Adobes sweeping plans for a new mobile canvas that better unites iOS devices with the existing universe of Creative Cloud desktop applications.

Kicking off the lineup is a pair of existing apps, which have been reinvented for artists who dabble in vectors. Branded after the revered desktop software, Illustrator Line (previously Adobe Line) offers a modern approach to shapes and curves, while Illustrator Draw (formerly Adobe Ideas) provides a mobile canvas with rich tools for bringing creations to life.

The Photoshop Mix app supports Adobe Ink, the comany's Creative Cloud-connected smart pen.

On the mobile imaging front, Photoshop Mix is now a universal app that works on either iPad or iPhone, with the ability to capture images using the built-in camera, and full support for Ink, the hardware pen Adobe released earlier this year. Lightroom Mobile has also been updated to import GPS information from iPhone photos, while comments made on web images now sync back to the app as well.

Featuring six new tools such as watercolor, charcoal, and custom brushes, the latest family member Photoshop Sketch (formerly Adobe Sketch) has now become a dual-purpose app capable of creating fully editable vector-based files for use in Illustrator, or traditional bitmapped images intended for Photoshop.

Adobe also launched a third lineage of mobile apps aimed at the video crowd. Essentially a simplified version of the industry-leading Premiere Pro, Premiere Clip has been optimized for quickly creating projects on the go, automatically syncing content in the background to Creative Cloud without consuming your existing storage space.

Premiere Clip will let you quickly whip up a video that you can then refine further in Premiere Pro.

Like Apples iMovie, Premiere Clip offers a streamlined way to leverage new or existing videos and photos shot with an iPhone. You can rearrange and trim clips in just a few taps, and the app includes 10 royalty-free soundtracks to mix into your project, alongside existing tracks from iTunes. Smart Volume and Auto Mix options add another layer of polish to your audio, with minimal effort.

On the video front, Premiere Clip features several finishing touches like titles, speed control, creative looks intended to produce amazing results quickly, and fade in/out or crossfade between clips. After roughing out a project on iPhone, you can pick up right where your left off on the more expansive iPad display.

More:

Adobe's latest Creative Cloud updates bridge desktop and mobile

Thats certainly true, but it doesnt mean climbing cant benefit from a little modern technology. Thats what two Finnish researchers had in mind when they came up with the concept for a climbing wall boosted by augmented reality. By combining a projector, a motion-tracking camera, and 3D game-building software, they were able to illuminate a climbing wall to illustrate the ideal route or provide hints to help climbers choose the best option for their next move.

Bouldering, as you might guess, can be done outdoors on actual boulders, but its commonly practiced in climbing gyms where climbers scramble from hold to hold above a padded landing area without a safety rope. The sport is heavily social, as people work together to solve a particular problem and climb a route successfully.

Encouraging such collaboration was one goal of the augmented wall project, said Dr. Raine Kajastila, a post-doctoral researcher at Aalto Universitys Department of Media Technology in Finland, an avid climber for for nearly 15 years.

Anyone can make a route and share it with others who can easily try them even on a different day, Kajastila said. The social contact is not restricted to the same time and place.

Kajastila and Perttu Hmlinen, a professor of computer games at Aalto, built a 13-foot by 8-foot climbing wall in their lab to test their idea. One concept used projectors to show routes up the wall, which appeared as a series of lines with circles around preferred holds. In another prototype, the program captured the climbers movement with an instant replay capability. There was even a built-in game that required climbers to avoid an animated chainsaw chasing them around the wall.

Whether used for fun or training, Hmlinen said the extra information provided by the computer has been shown in several studies to accelerate learning a new skill.

Computer-generated feedback can be faster and more accurate than training with a video camera or even receiving feedback from an instructor, he said. It allows a student to do more repetitions and evaluations of a skill in a shorter time.

The Finnish team isnt the first to come up with an interactive climbing wall; there are commercial models available today with holds that light up to guide climbers. But Kajastila said their system, which would work with any existing wall, focuses on tracking a climbers entire body to illustrate where a climb went well and where someone might have gotten into trouble before a fall.

There are others working on high-tech training aids. Climbax is a pair of wristbands that collect data on your movements as you climb and upload it to an online portal. The company has gone through a Kickstarter campaign and is seeking additional funding. BouldAR is an augmented reality concept from a set of German researchers that would incorporate a smartphone as a way of sharing routes and challenging friends to competitions.

See the original post here:

An Augmented-Reality Climbing Wall That Guides Your Ascent

The New Dynamics

Thursday, July 20, 2006 11:16 AM

A MUSICIAN is hoping for a 1.5 million record deal. Singer-songwriter Alex Harris, 28, from Royston, is taking part in a competition called the Rock Star Lottery with his band The New Dynamics. It s a worldwide competition for talent which is said to hav

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A MUSICIAN is hoping for a 1.5 million record deal.

Singer-songwriter Alex Harris, 28, from Royston, is taking part in a competition called the Rock Star Lottery with his band The New Dynamics.

It's a worldwide competition for talent which is said to have been ignored by the traditional music industry.

Musicians upload their music on to a website and people can log on and vote.

The New Dynamics are one of 600 bands that have already signed up.

Alex said: "It would be great to win the lottery. It's being run by people who have been in and around music and have got the attention of the world's media."

See the rest here:

Alexs 1.5m dream

The battle of the minds.

By Jenni Ryall2014-10-05 09:47:45 UTC

HONG KONG The group that wins this battle is the one of stronger mind.

The government is fighting for control with manipulation; the people are fighting for democracy with peace.

Using non-violent resistance, popularized by Indian leader Ghandi to secure independence from Britain in 1947, the students and protest groups of Hong Kong have attempted to use love and solidarity to overcome what they consider the control of the Beijing government and secure a democratic election of their leader in 2017.

Chanting, prayer, sit-ins, art, education and information warfare are all common tactics used by activists at the protest sites of Admiralty, Mong Kok and Causeway Bay.

The government, on the other hand, has used tactics as mild as letting the protesters wear themselves out and as strong as reportedly paying thugs to instigate violence on the streets.

One of the many works of art in Admiralty.

The method of non-violence, initiated by the three main groups that front the movement the Federation of Students, Scholarism and Occupy Central is a smarter tactic than it first appears. The protesters are well aware that one step out of line will give the authorities reason to use force.

Excerpt from:

The Government Tries to Win the Hong Kong Battle With Mind Games

And So It Is By George Sison |Philippine Daily Inquirer

Your mantra for the week:

My faith gives me power and I use it for good.

Faith is probably one of the most used words to describe ones belief in a deity. However, what is amazing is that a lot of people who claim they have faith do not live lives that are happy, content and harmonious.

They are usually chaotic and problematic, and only when they are in deep trouble do they call on their faith, which many times do not bring the results they desire.

Why does this happen?

To my mind, faith works when you realize it is also power; and that power is best tapped when one understands and accepts that the God I speak of is within each one.

This should be easy to accept, but this is not so, even if the Bible itself says the Kingdom of Heaven can be found within. It is only logical to assume that God is in His kingdom within. However, majority of people try to relate to a God up there, thus separating themselves from a God who is with us, which to me means a separation from our good.

Faith as power can be felt only through a personal relationship with that God, and what can be more personal than that which is within ourselves?

Seven reasons

Link:

Glamorous Baby Arenas asks me who Im going to take a swipe at next

Have you ever wondered what triggers leaves to change color in the fall? The most important regulator of fall color change is the lengthening of night. Longer, cooler nights and less intense sunlight during the day trigger leaves to prepare to fall from the tree. Chlorophyll production slows and eventually stops, and the veins that carry fluids into the leaf close off, trapping sugars in the leaf and promoting production of anthocyanin, a pigment that produces red colors. The green chlorophyll in the leaves is eventually destroyed, leaving behind the yellows, oranges and reds that signal fall.

Weather and climate conditions also impact when leaves begin to change color, how intense color is, and how long color lasts. A warm wet spring followed by typical summer weather and a fall with warm, sunny days and cool (but not freezing!) nights generally produce the best color. A late spring or severe summer drought can delay the onset of color, while a warm period during the fall season may dampen fall colors. Wind and rain storms can bring leaves down early, shortening the fall foliage season. Other environmental factors, like damage from insects or wildfire, can also impact tree foliage.

Enjoy what fall has to offer. Take a walk in your neighborhood, visit a local park, or hit the road on one of Americas National Scenic Byways, many of which were planned with fall color in mind. Use this illustration to identify some common trees and their fall foliage where you live and dont forget to upload your fall foliage photos to the Eyes on Central PA Mission!

Want to go a step further? Fall into Phenology with Project Budburst by observing plants in your community during September and October and sharing your observations to help scientists study trends in how plants change in the fall. Dont know much about plants or need help with identification? No problem. Project Budburst has tips for beginners and experts alike. Learn more.

(Sources: U.S. Forest Service Science of Fall Colors. http://www.fs.fed.us/fallcolors/2012/science.shtml; William Deedler, National Weather Service. Faster Fall Foliage? http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dtx/foliage.php Project BudBurst, http://www.budburst.org)

Link:

What Causes Our Bright Colors of Fall?

It's truly stunning to think about how many cloud storage and sharing services are out there. And on the free tier, they're all pretty much the same, offering free accounts with 2GB to 7GB of storage and apps for all the various mobile and desktop platforms.

But there's one relatively new service that makes it ridiculously easy to share files with others: Jumpshare.

At first glance, Jumpshare appears to be nothing special. The service doesn't even have mobile apps yet, and is on the lower end of free storage, offering just 2GB to non-paying users. Jumpshare also limits individual file uploads to 250MB.

What makes Jumpshare worth paying attention to, however, is its sharing chops. (Hence its name, I guess.)Here's how Jumpshare works on Windows.

The first thing you'll need to do is sign-up for a new account and then install Jumpshare's Windows desktop app.

Jumpshare sits in your taskbar.

Once that's done, you'll see the Jumpshare icon appear in your taskbar. That means it's time to start sharing.

All you have to do is grab a file and drop it onto the Jumpshare icon in your taskbar to upload your file to Jumpshare's servers. The best part is the app will then automatically create a public sharing link and copy it to your clipboard.

Jumpshare automatically copies a public sharing link that you can use right away.

That means you can start sharing your file while it is uploading, without explicitly creating and copying a sharing link. You can then paste your Jumpshare link into an e-mail, instant messenger or whatever else you're using to communicate with others.

Excerpt from:

Share files quickly and easily with Jumpshare

By Mae Ross | Posted Oct. 3, 2014, 3 p.m.

In the 90s, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were the perfect picture of actors who wanted to make their own careers happen. After quite the dry spell and no big break, they took it upon themselves to write and produce the best screenplay of 1998, Good Will Hunting. And for the last decade, the age of new media has been beckoning actors to create their own films, television, and Web series. Actors such as Andy Samberg or Colleen Ballinger (YouTube sensation Miranda Sings) and singers including Christine Perry or Pentatonix have all taken great advantage of producing their own content and gathering large fan bases to promote their work. So its not so much whether or not actors should create their own content, its when and how well!

1. Stick with your strengths. Whether youre an actor, poet, musician, or dancer, impress people with your best work. You want to show the world your greatest talents! While youre filming, if you know you can do better than your first take, do anotherand another until you really nail your performance. This goes without saying, but until you feel great about your material, it might be better to keep it on your hard drive instead of posting it on the Internet.

2. Keep the production quality strong. Truth be told, theres a ton of competition on the Internet. Youre not just looking at the acting pool in Hollywood, youre looking at people gathering around the globe. What will make you stand out is the quality of your production. Is your content strong? Have others given you positive feedback on the script? Are you working with a high-definition camera? Do you have a great makeup artist? What about an editor? Good lighting? Lighting is essentialyou have to make sure you can be seen and you look good!

Nowadays, high-quality videos do not require a ton of money so long as you collaborate with your artistic community. People know people! And if youre new to networking and production, branch out to college students who are looking to build their credits and careers. Chances are, they can rent equipment through their university for free and will probably film you for free, too. Again, just make sure the students production quality is strong before you upload the video to your channel.

3. Find the best website to distribute your content. YouTube paved the way for millions to post their own content, but there are also other options. If youre planning on posting an original comedic piece, look at Funny or Die or consider posting to CollegeHumor, Blip.tv, Vimeo or Web Series Channel are also a great spaces for your original Web series. These sites have less overall traffic than YouTube, however, they offer users more features to help showcase their work. You may need to do more to promote your content so viewers find you on these sites. And no matter where you upload your video, add rich text words to the description or tagging options to increase your viewership!

4. Find your groove in Internet promotion. Most artists will normally start promoting to their friends and family first in order to gain a followingencourage them to share your great video(s)! Also consider creating social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.) for you or your latest projects. Thousands of lesser known actors have started Facebook fan pages. Fan pages are most effective if you update your content on a regular basis. Those who have achieved the greatest Internet fame all have a familiar patterna consistent schedule for releasing videos. This is where your producers hat comes into play. Figure out how much content you can regularly produce (write, film, edit, post), and aim for that to be your weekly or monthly release goal. It can range from up to three videos per week (easy for v-loggers) to one video a month (for higher production quality sketches or Web series). Your viewers crave this consistencythey want to know when they can tune into your next thing!

When you post to Facebook, make sure you tweet your material out too to connect with another pool of online users. Tag people, use hashtags, however you can get more viewership, do it. You can also consider advertising, but its important to have a marketing budget in place and evaluate the best options for your projectdo you just want people to see it exists, or do you want people to click on your ad? It will be different for everyone.

And make sure you monetize your Youtube videos. If anything goes viral, you can use your monetization feature to advertise on Google as well!

Through strong performances, quality, and promotion, your talents have the potential to gain a huge following! Dont keep your talents a secretinstead, produce your own content!

Read more from the original source:

4 Things to Keep in Mind When Creating Your Own Content

Chicago, IL (PRWEB) October 03, 2014

The Prime 8 Art League is excited to announce a special contest to select two Chicago-based artists to create original artwork for the new Brooklyn Boulders Chicago (BKB Chicago bkbchicago.com) West Loop facility. Each winning artist will be commissioned to produce an on-site mural, or other agreed upon artwork, within the facilitys rock climbing space, which will be seen by an estimated 80,000 people a year.

To select the winners, the Prime 8 Art League is holding a submission contest open to Chicago-based artists age 18 and over. The open submission period for the contest runs from Friday, October 3rd to Friday, October 24th. Artists should visit prime8artleague.com and upload a representative sample of their work, along with their contact information and link to their online portfolio. All qualified submissions will be judged by the Prime 8 Art League and BKB Chicago. Winners will be announced on Friday November 14th.

Each winning artist will receive:

As this is a competition celebrating Chicagos one-of-a-kind arts scene, winning artists must reside within 10 miles of the city limits. (Sorry Rockford-area artists.) All Chicago artists are eligible, but Chicago street artists and muralists will be given preference and are strongly encouraged to submit their work.

BKB Chicago is a unique concept that reimagines the form and function of what a collaborative co-working space can be. The facility features 23,000 sq. ft. of climbing terrain, complete fitness machine selection, a wide ranging assortment of fitness classes, and special events, as well as untraditional and unexpected amenities that blend art, culture, music and entrepreneurship.

About Brooklyn Boulders Chicago: Brooklyn Boulders (BKB) builds and operates hybrid rock climbing facilities anchored by the premise that physicality stimulates innovation and creativity. Our new 25,000 square foot facility is slated to open fall 2014 in Chicagos West Loop. BKB Chicago will offer progressive climbing and fitness experiences while providing an unconventional platform to bring the arts, music, and entrepreneurial communities together. Join us as we experiment in building a new generation of community spaces that stimulate the body as much as the mind.

About Prime 8 Art League: The Prime 8 Art League exists to support emerging and practicing artists. The Prime 8 Art League is made possible through the generous support of Gorilla Group and our amazing sponsors and partners across the Chicagoland area.

Read the original post:

The Prime 8 Art League Announces Brooklyn Boulders Chicago Art Contest

When we founded our first product, EasyBib, in high school, my friend and I wanted to introduce the service as soon as possible. We understood firsthand as students that doing a bibliography was a total pain, and that we can automate citation generation with a website. Our friends and teachers said that they would use the service, too.

So we worked every day after school and over the weekend building EasyBib. I have fond memories of working out of my friend and business partner Darshans childhood room, brainstorming how the site would work, and actually building it out.

After two months, we had a version of EasyBib that did just enough. It could cite a few sources and compile a bibliography. We showed it to our teachers and friends, and as we had hoped, they loved it and used it. Moreover, they found EasyBib valuable enough where they started to tell others about the service.

In retrospect, much of what we did followed lean startup principles. We tackled a problem we acutely faced. We received qualitative feedback from our peers and teachers to make sure that this was indeed a problem, and that EasyBib was a solution that people would use. And we a built a product just good enough, in lean startup terms a minimum viable product (MVP), that people could use and found valuable enough to tell their friends.

Our next product

That was in 2001. Fast forward to today, and EasyBib has over 40 million users, and we have acquired two similar properties with another 30 million users.

Our dream, though, has always been to build a larger company under our legal name, Imagine Easy Solutions, that can launch successful products from conception to implementation. So in March 2013, we decided to build a new product called GetCourse.

Through our experience in education technology, we witnessed the power of massive open online courses (MOOCs). We thought, lets build a solution that makes it insanely easy to create such online courses that we could use ourselves for internal and customer training.

Trying to get lean the second time around

In the spirit of being lean, we discussed the idea with friends and showed them very basic wireframes. Some told us they could use a product like that, and others told us they saw a good product market fit for intuitive and simple online course creation.

Originally posted here:

5 Steps To Test Your Product Idea And Get Clear Results

Jessica*, aged 17, tells me: My 11 year old cousin has Instagram and her parents phoned in a panic recently. A random person tried to contact her and became a follower. Her parents were clueless about privacy settings and they didnt know what to do.

The 11-year-old accessed Instagram using a mobile phone. And this is the paradox: the safety benefits of being able to contact your child at all times are countered by the potential pitfalls of their having access to the internet.

And if a parent is unfamiliar with a platform such as Instagram, or Snapchat, they are just as likely to be unaware of its hazards.

As Managing Director of Private Clients at Digitalis, an an online reputation management company, I have worked on cases with harrowing consequences.

One that sticks in my mind is an incident where a female teenager was filmed as a boy performed a sex act on her. The video clip and still images, which captured a graphic and invasive close-up view, were then posted online. They quickly became the first search results for her name.

Many would be quick to criticise the actions of the teens involved. But when you answer the phone to a mother who can barely speak for weeping; there is no room for this sort of judgement.

She was so humiliated that it had taken several failed calls before she could bring herself to explain the situation to me. Her daughter was undergoing counselling and her family, friends and the local community were in turmoil as the news spread.

I would like to say this was an unusual case but it is more common than most would believe.

Social networking has enabled rapid sharing of information and we dont always have control over what is posted online by others. The information trail can prove very difficult to erase.

Claire*, 16, explains that her classmates are constantly uploading photos without consent.

Read more:

Of course children are revenge porn victims. They value popularity over privacy

The purpose of iOS 8's third-party keyboard capabilities have now been realized now that PopKey, the GIF keyboard is finally available. You can get it here.

Download and install the keyboard as an app as you do with other iOS 8 keyboards, and then enable it in settings. When you open the app, you'll be prompted to create an account so that you can upload your own GIFs and personalize the keyboard. But you don't have to.

Actually, using the keyboard is easy enough. Choose an emotion, select one of the available GIFs. It'll copy to your clipboard, and then you paste it into a text box. It's not the first GIF keyboard. But it's the best.

This is what it's like to use it:

At first, I'm like hi!!

This is exciting!

Mind blown!

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What It's Like Using iOS 8 GIF Keyboard, in iOS 8 GIF Keyboard GIFs

PHILADELPHIA -

The Eagles are trying to straighten out the mistakes that cost them the game last week at San Francisco.

They're a seven-point favorite Sunday against the St. Louis Rams at Lincoln Financial Field. And a win is needed to stop the panic by the fans, FOX 29's Howard Eskin says.

The Birds also need to find the running game. They hope to do that with the return of their right tackle.

Lane Johnson returned to practice Tuesday after missing the first four games due to suspension. The Eagles hope his return will help in some way with the running game.

Johnson was not permitted to be at the Eagles' facility for that time, not permitted to have any contact with the coaches. But he will start on Sunday. Nice to have him back.

Eskin says it still amazes him that the Eagles did not score a point on offense on Sunday. It was also a big surprise to the Eagles players, who after Sunday said they were embarrassed.

Running back LeSean McCoy was one of those players, running for all of 17 yards on 10 carries on Sunday.

"There is no way a Chip Kelly offense should be shutout. It's hard to imagine," Eskin said.

Quarterback Nick Foles knows he has to get better after the offense scored zero points last week against the 49ers.

Read more:

Eskin: Eagles Need Win Over Rams To Stop Fans' Panic

New Suite Includes Easy to Use Video Tools for Capturing, Creating, Recording, Uploading, Editing, Annotating, Segmenting and Adding Calls to Action to Video Content, All Available Within Kaltura's Full Range of Education Video Products

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - September 30, 2014) - EDUCAUSE Conference 2014- Kaltura, provider of the leading video technology platform and most widely used institutional video management solution in education today, announced its new Video Creativity Suite.

The new suite includes tools for capturing, creating, recording, uploading, editing, annotating, segmenting and adding calls to action to videos. The suite includes Kaltura CaptureSpace, which is the company's simple to use personal capture tool, presented for the first time at Kaltura Connect 2014 - The Video Experience Conference, in New York City this past June. CaptureSpace allows faculty, students, and instructional designers to easily create multi-source video recordings in-class, at home or on the go, and automatically upload the videos to the Kaltura Platform, making them available for publishing in all leading Learning Management Systems and in the Kaltura MediaSpace social video portal.

In a recent survey of educational technology leaders and faculty by Kaltura, close to 50% of faculty responded there are no sufficient tools available to support easy incorporation of video into their class workflow.Based on that feedback Kaltura has designed its Video Creativity Suite with an intense focus on ease of use, accessible design and single click capabilities. Kaltura CaptureSpace, for example, allows users to capture a variety of recording situations, from formal in classroom lecture capture scenarios to ad hoc on the go capture of learning experiences, all with just a few clicks of the mouse. Additional tools in the suite include video recording, uploading, clipping and trimming, annotating, cue-point insertion, segmenting, adding calls to action and more.

"The power of video is mind-blowing, especially in the context of teaching and learning where video engages and educates more effectively than any other method, by far," said Ron Yekutiel, Kaltura Co-founder, Chairman and CEO. "But video is also quite complex, and our new Video Creativity Suite takes that complexity away. The Suite allows professors and students to focus their creativity on the content, rather than on the technology. Video Literacy is a critical aspect of digital literacy now days, and we hope to further simplify the use of video with these new tools."

Kaltura's Video Creativity Suite fully complements the company's video management solution for cross-campus media deployment, and opens new and exciting ways for institutions to leverage video for live events, alumni outreach, course material for teaching and learning, media based student assignments, training videos, video demonstrations, and the management and playback of licensed content.

Kaltura's market leading video player now supports multi-device publishing of synchronized videos and slides that are captured by CaptureSpace or by other third party lecture capture products. Kaltura's automated metadata extraction, editing and chaptering tools also facilitate deep search and effective utilization of the captured content which, when combined with in-player quizzing, enable immediate assessment of learning outcomes.

"Simplicity and ease of use for maximum creative expression are our goals in expanding our video management solution to include these new engagement tools," shared Justin Beck, VP Education at Kaltura."The new suite of tools is now available in all our products, allowing institutions to unleash personal creativity education at a highly affordable institutional investment point."

About KalturaKaltura's mission is to power any video experience. Provider of the world's first Open Source Online Video Platform, Kaltura simplifies the creation of video experiences, and provides tools that facilitate innovative and engaging experiences that create value. The Kaltura platform engages hundreds of millions of viewers by providing media companies with advanced video management, publishing, and monetization tools that increase their reach and monetization and simplify their video operations. Kaltura improves productivity and interaction among millions of employees by providing enterprises with powerful online video tools for boosting internal knowledge sharing, training, and collaboration, and for more effective marketing. Kaltura offers next generation learning for millions of students and teachers by providing educational institutions with disruptive online video solutions for improved teaching, learning, and increased engagement across campuses and beyond.For more information: http://www.kaltura.com, to join Kaltura's community visit: http://www.kaltura.org and http://www.html5video.org.

Embedded Video Available: http://site.kaltura.com/Kaltura-Overview.html

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Kaltura, the Leader in Campus Video, Announces Its Video Creativity Suite

Indie Fridays #24 - Ends October 3, 2014
Available to Arcade Pixels Network and all Freedom! partners. Apply to this Indie Friday here - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/13Wslg2Jq3AEbmz_hfjbrdOeZ8LEp...

By: ArcadePixels IndiePromo

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Indie Fridays #24 - Ends October 3, 2014 - Video

'Now I'm the 'JetBlue selfie guy': Scott Welch's selfie went viral on YouTube. Photo: YouTube

JetBlue Flight 1416 was just minutes into its trip from Long Beach, California, to Austin, Texas, on September 18 when Scott Welch, a passenger in Seat 5A, heard a suspicious pop. Moments later, smoke began to fill the cabin, clogging the air to the point that he could see only a few rows in front of him, he said. The starboard engine of the Airbus A320, he soon learned, had blown.

As other passengers began to cry and pray, Welch strapped on his oxygen mask and pondered his fate.

"I understood that I might be going to meet God," Welch, 34, recalled. He thought, "If this is my time, this is my time."

When his plane cabin filled with smoke, Scott Welch quickly pulled out his phone. Photo: YouTube

Faced with his own mortality, he could have closed his eyes in quiet reflection. Instead, Welch, a sports photographer, responded in a distinctly 2014 manner: He reached for his Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone, thrust it into the murky air and pressed the "record" button. He even found the presence of mind to record a smiling selfie.

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Never mind that the plane landed safely soon after, making the mechanical failure a relative nonevent. The pulse-quickening, you-are-there footage captured by Welch and other passengers helped propel the story to national news. Welch's two brief videos, meanwhile, went viral; one attracted more than 1 million views.

It is no longer enough to record seemingly every last moment of life with your smartphone, it seems. Near-death is fair game, too.

Thanks to the Personal Video Industrial Complex - tens of millions of video-enabled smartphones, feeding countless hours daily to video-sharing behemoths - rock concerts, presidential inaugurations, fourth-grade school plays and even midair near-disasters can all be considered "content" now, inspiring us all to tap our inner Edward R. Murrow and record the event for posterity.

Excerpt from:

Fearing death in the iPhone Age