Still looking for an IPP idea? Here's one that you might like...

I have already decided what I want to do for my IPP, but I'm not short on other ideas...

KICK FM's internet stream is dead. I'm not sure of the details, but you can't listen to KICK online anymore. I know that the station does not have budget to acquire a new streaming solution at present time. The stream was previously being donated by a local company, but in my opinion, it was shifty at best even when it was up.

Since I have a reasonable amount of experience designing and selling streaming solutions to radio stations, I have a great solution, but it's going to cost some money.

Here is where the IPP idea comes in... KICK supports local musicians and bands like no other. I've seen the day-to-day play-lists, and can say that almost 1 song in 10 is a local artist. As such, it would be easy to get bands to volunteer their time for a fund raiser gig that would serve to raise money to pay for a new streaming solution for KICK.

Here are the details...

The technology part... There's a company in Edmonton, called Streamon that offers a very attractive streaming solution. They supply an appliance that encodes an audio stream, which is then sent to their servers for hosting. The company provides HTML source code for a pop-up player, which makes integrating the stream with a website, or social media sites a breeze.

The music geek part... The stream is delivered using a standard high speed internet connection. The codec that is used to compress and deliver the steam is called OggVorbis, which is a great sounding codec at reduced bit rates (which is important for keeping bandwidth usage at a minimum). The operating system on the streaming appliance uses Linux, which is the Fort Knox of operating systems both in terms of virus and hack security, and up-time, making it perfect for the college's top notch I.T. folks (even they will like it).

The business... The player costs $695 (Canadian funds) and the basic monthly hosting package is $140 (not withstanding a potential educational discount). The appliance is a lifetime lease, so if it breaks, you just send it back and they will replace it at no charge. There is a one time setup charge of $300, which is nice, cause they'll get you up and running without a hassle, or over dependence on college staff.

Not only is the system a good solution for hosting the stream, but it also offers potential revenue opportunity. The pop-up player has a banner spot which can be fed a jpg of an advertisement. And because the station uses the iMediaTouch radio software, it can be integrated with this neat feature in StreamOn. So the station could sell ads that would appear in the pop-up player. And, the player also has a spot for the album artwork, which makes it look really cool.

So, the total cost to get the stream up and running for one year is $2675. That's totally doable. That dollar amount represents roughly 500 tickets sold, at a cost of $5. And once you get people in the door, there's other fund raising opportunities (such as a raffle for a couple dozen local band's CD's). It might not happen in one show, but it could happen in two shows; and if I know the local music scene, Winnipeg bands would love an opportunity to help out. I'm sure some would even sell tickets to the event.

The politics... Aside from the obvious need to get KICK management on board (I'm sure they'd love the idea of getting their stream up and running again at no cost to them), you'd have to get approval from the college's I.T. department, because the streaming appliance would be pushing a stream from their local network (glaven!), to StreamOn's hosting server.

Revive the stream fundraiser.... This part of the IPP is organizing the gig(s). If you love to promote good causes, and organize parties, or events, this part of the IPP will be so fun!!! And organizing fund raisers is easier than commercial endeavors because you can be so shameless about promoting, because it's for a good cause.

So there you have it. You will be known as the student that REVIVED THE STREAM.

RRCSA Video

I mentioned a few blog posts ago that I was involved in a marketing campaign with the Red River College Students' Association, to try and get better nominee and voter turnout for this year's election. I posted a radio spot that I wrote and produced (around a week ago), which is now in rotation on KICK FM. I also mentioned that I was producing a video for the campaign, and that I would post it here.

Now, I'm not very proud of this video, mainly because I find it to be boring and drab (even though those things might be the same thing, it's worth mentioning twice).

I'm glad I did the video, because it was good writing and on-air experience, even though I have no delusions about being an on-air personality. My friend Doug from Tripwire Media Group thinks that I hate the video because I don't like seeing myself on video. He's right, but I also can't stand the sound of my own voice (at least when I can't put it in Pro Tools and work it with my magic). Also, it was the first time I’ve used Final Cut Pro, which is much more different from Adobe Premiere Pro than I was lead on to believe.

Thanks to Tripwire for donating their time to shoot the video, which took all of 20 minutes to capture. Thanks to their intern from ABC who was much nicer to work with than Doug or Dave (JK, I love you two so very much).

Here's the video, in all of it's not-so-glorious state. Please let me know what you think, even if you hate it (especially if you hate it):

RRCSA Nominations Video from Chris Gaudry on Vimeo.

Have you Googled yourself lately?

From time to time, I like to Google myself just to see what kind of cyber-trail I have created.

The good news is, for me at least, that I can't find myself on Facebook. I am one of the thousands of people that have fake names on Facebook. Why? For the same reason that I wouldn't buy a house in Linden Woods with a back yard that practically encroaches on three other backyards: I really enjoy my sense of privacy.

There is a bit more to it. When I joined Facebook, it was probably within the first 3 weeks that it came about. I really had no idea what I was getting myself into when I joined. As it turned out, after a while, Facebook turned in to this crazy information sharing site, one where people that you barely know can now get intimate information about you.

There is a bit of a misconception, I think, about the amount of control you actually have over your Facebook existence. Consider this: You go out one night and you have a tremendously good time. Throughout the evening, somebody has unintentionally taken a picture of you telling a joke. You know, the joke where the punch line involves you making some sort of questionable face. In context, the face is harmless, it's actually a very funny joke, but taken out of context (someone creeping on your Facebook page) it might seem like you're misbehaving.

After the party, said camera person went home and decided to post all of their photos to a new Facebook group they just created, called "Tammy's Crazy Sexy Going Away Party". And there you are, in picture number two, in the background, doing the punch line to that hilarious joke, with a beverage in your hand. How stoopid did you look? You didn't do anything wrong. You were in an adult environment, enjoying adult conversation and you told a joke to a selective group of people... I use the word selective very loosely of course, because in this case, selective isn't what you thought it was.

So the picture is up on Facebook, for everyone to see. And I am convinced that their are some people that spend WAY too much time on Facebook. People that probably look at every picture that has ever been posted, anywhere on Facebook. CREEPY!

Even if you ask the person to take the photo down, or you complain to Facebook, the picture has already been out in "interland" for a while. Long enough, possibly, for someone to take the photo out of context and, ultimately, it changes your relationship, whether you know it or not, with that person forever.

So the moral of the rant is that you should never go out and have fun, or let yourself get a little crazy from time to time. Or no, wait, the moral is that if anybody takes pictures at a party, they should either be paying tremendous amounts for your photos, or they should be beaten to within an inch of their lives. Ok, so these solutions are terrible.

How is it safe to have a profile on Facebook if you can't LITERALLY control every piece of media that goes out there?

It sucks too, cause Facebook is a fun way to stay in touch with people. And it's fun to look at party pictures too. But I can certainly think of a few ways that it would be easy for me to get photos that could tarnish people's reputations. So how hard would it be for a stranger to get that info? We've all seen the police use Facebook photos to link criminals together; and there they are, on the six o'clock news.

Twitter isn't really like that. There's no medium, really, for people to post stoopid drunk pictures of you. I mean, if somebody is trying to sabotage your reputation, the internet would be a pretty easy place to start. But Twitter wouldn't be the first place to look.

There's just as many ways to get caught being stoopid on Twitter, but most of them involve defamation.The police can't really use Twitter to make links between actual friends, that may be involved in some criminal activity.

Twitter also seems, at least so far, to be a better source for getting news. And I find that there's less shameless self promotion on Twitter. With Facebook, every banal cause, or company has a Facebook page. So much so, that like billboards and TV commercials, you could make the argument that they are nearly ineffective. But that is certainly up for debate.

My Twitter account comes up third when I Google my name, Manitoba Music directory is first, and LinkedIn profile is second. I really should up date that profile, along with a half dozen other profiles from various sites that I've joined over the years.

Why is Conan coming out on top?

Thought I'd weigh in on the whole late night saga that's been unfolding over the past couple months.

I think Conan O'Brien will definitely come out on top through this whole ordeal. Why? Because he grew a beard during the writer's strike.

As stupid as that sounds, I'm actually serious. The beard he grew was a symbol of protest for the writers. Conan has always been "for the people".

Conan bows to talented guests that he introduces in his monologue. A gesture that puts these guests on a pedestal, sort of above him.

His trademark self deprecating humor is another good example of the point I'm trying to make.

Conan is a nice guy. And as we all know, nice guys finish last. Last or not, he's still got his pride and about 35 million bucks.

Nobody is going to remember Leno as a nice guy. Maybe a rich, greedy, self serving guy, but not a nice guy.

My hat goes off to Conan. I'm excited to see where he lands... hoping it's not on Fox :-(

Cheers to the nice guys!

The Election Campaign

It was a fluke, actually...



About a month ago I attended a meeting, organized by Jeff Long of the RRCSA, which was essentially a brainstorming/motivational session on how we can improve nominee and voter turnout for this year's election.



I didn't actually know about the meeting, because the email was sent to class reps last semester and I wasn't on the email list at the time. Ashton (from my class) told me about it, and she and I (and Jason Booth from 2nd year) attended the meeting. I figured what the heck; there was free pizza too.



Jeff and Carla from the SA were trying to leverage (word of the week) the resources of the students from various Creative Arts departments, in order to help improve the nominee and voter turn-out for this year's election. Part of that initiative meant producing a video, a radio spot (and getting it played), some posters, some literature etc, to increase awareness about the jobs and the election.



When I heard that two elected and paid positions went uncontested in last year's election, it sort of bothered me. I mean, the jobs pay over $16/hour, you have a flexible schedule where you're required to work 20 hours a week (for the VP posts) and 30 hours a week (for the pres. post), and the jobs are located right at the college. It occurred to me that more people ought to run.



Here's where things get dicey... The vast majority of the students at the Princess campus are enrolled in full time programs that require roughly 27 hours of class time, per week. The guidelines for the VP and Pres jobs require that the hours are served from Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 4:30pm, which provides a window of exactly 40 hours. So technically, it's impossible for a full time student to work those jobs; seven hours impossible to be exact.



I propose that the work window be extended. If it was from 8am to 6pm, that would provide an additional 10 hours per week for the time to be served. That solves the problem of the vice president positions, but not the 30 hour requirement for the President's job.



I think CreComm students could really benefit from working a job with the SA, but I doubt very many would do an extra year of the program just to be able take the job.



Poor nominee turn-out might not be a result of students not knowing about it (so not a messaging issue), but that so few people can actually fulfill the requirements under the current guidelines.



I decided to help with the campaign anyway, because it's a noble cause, and I thought it would be good experience for me to help with the media production side of it. So, I produced a radio spot, which I will post to my blog right after I post this message, and I plan to post the video next week.

Adam, the news director from KICK, and I have been talking about doing a live on-air debate, but that would obviously require more than one person to run...

RRCSA Elections Campaign

In addition to being crazy busy with school work this past two weeks, I've also been working on a marketing initiative with the RRCSA.



The SA needed some people to help produce some media that will get the message out about the upcoming nomination period for the RRC elections in April. The need to inform students about how to nominate, or run for an elected post is very big, considering two of the VP positions were awarded uncontested last year.



The first part that I was able to help with was writing and producing a radio spot. I have to say, Rick @ KICK was a huge part of making this aspect of the initiative work. I didn't have to sell him on the idea of running the spot, he was willing to help out with the cause, I didn't even have to take out my groveling hat.

The biggest challenge in producing this spot was getting an angle on "the sell", while ensuring that there is a ton of information, all packed into a 30 second spot. I ended up cutting out an entire phrase in order to get it to 30 seconds. I was hoping to put a greater emphasis on the idea that two paid, part times jobs were awarded to the only two people that applied for them.



So here's the spot that is running in heavy rotation on KICK:





Next week I will post the video that I produced for the campaign (but I have to finish editing it first).