PCC Multimedia Club 2008-2009

Another challenging and exciting year is about to begin and I want to welcome you to the Multimedia program at PCC. Our Multimedia Club’s officers have stayed in touch this summer and we plan to make this our best year yet. But before I tell you about our big plans, I want to give you some advice.

I can sum up my advice to students in the Multimedia program in two words; GET INVOLVED. I can’t stress enough how important it is to be involved in something besides your studies. The field of multimedia requires equal parts study, networking, collaboration and volunteering. Luckily, PCC’s Multimedia Club has got you covered.

Beginning October 6^th, 2008 we will be holding “Multimedia Mondays”. During these gatherings there will be presentations (social media, technology, what’s hot, etc.), networking opportunities, brainstorming sessions and just plain fun. But wait, there’s more! Each one of our club’s officers has made a commitment to help fellow students all year long, through our (unofficial) mentoring program. Some of us “old salts” will be available to mentor new and returning students throughout the year. We not only have experience with the courses, but insight into what’s happening in the real world.

Other plans this year include various fundraising projects (we like to help charities), joint meetings with other PCC clubs, event hosting and much more. Feel free to give us your ideas. Show up to a meeting, contact us with your ideas, or simply stop me in the hall or lab. PCC Multimedia Club wants you!

Doug Coleman

PCC Multimedia Club President

iPhone DevCamp 2 PDX Wrap Up (NDA Compliant Post)

Note*** To establish proper context for this post, please read my original editor’s note. To be fair, I should point out that Apple’s NDA clearly did not stop collaboration between iPhone developers, as witnessed by thousands of attendees of iPhone DevCamp 2 from all over the world.

Portland iPhone DevCampers

DAY ONE:

It was a great first day at the iPhone DevCamp 2 satellite event being held in Portland.  Despite being under construction, Jive Software is a first-rate venue.  The setup at Jive includes a spacious main area, where a live satellite feed from the San Francisco main event could be viewed on a giant screen.  There were tables to work at, electricity and wi-fi internet access for camper’s laptops, comfortable seating and access to a well-stocked kitchen.  Separate meeting rooms provided a quiet place to work or chat.  The whole place has an energetic, hip urban vibe about it. Jim Goings and Jive Software are wonderful hosts.  Employees of this local software company should really appreciate these diggs.  When construction is complete on Jive’s downtown Portland headquarters, the renovated old Federal Reserve Building will be something to behold. I can’t wait to see it.

Ten first day attendees arrived shortly after 9:00 am, set up their laptops and introduced themselves.  Developers and coders are not known for being morning people, so fresh coffee and things to eat for breakfast were quite welcome. After some discussions went around the room about what people wanted to gain from this event, it was time for the opening keynote forum from San Francisco via Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro.  Merlin Mann led the forum, alongside Mike Lee and  Brian Fling.  I’m sure it was a fine keynote forum, but it was really hard to follow from a satellite feed with seven other cities and I lost track of what was going on.  That was alright because the Portland team was itching to get started on their entry in the Hackathon contest.  A basic team of four people began discussing how to build procedural wallpapers for the iPhone. Work went on into the late night and other than lunch, the rest of the day was uneventful.

DAY TWO:

A crack team of Portland iPhone geeks decended upon Jive Software, bright-eyed and ready to go for day two of iPhone Devcamp 2. From the night before, much of the XXXXXXXXXXXXX for the Hackathon entry had been built using XXXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXXX.  The team, led by Andrew Pouloit, assessed what had been done and what was still left to do.  XXXX XXXXXX had XXXXXXXX the XXXXXXXX by XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.  This was especially difficult because XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.  A simple fix was to XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. As you may know, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.  This a common problem and XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX is a real time saver.

So, with the XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, there was still much work to do.  XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX need to be adressed when dealing with any XXXXXXXXXXXXXX.  In order to XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, you should always XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.

So much was learned by XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.  A XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX should be in every coder’s vocabulary.  XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX and XXXXXX are reliable fixes for a problem that is shared by many when trying to XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.

By now, the XXXXXXXX and XXXXXXX were XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.  A basic work flow for  XXXXXXXXXXXX is XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, according to this group’s experience.  So much was learned by XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.

HACKATHON:

Portland wins the Hackathon for best app among the cities attending the event via satellite!!! Details are still being discussed about what I can say about it.  Stay tuned.

SPECIAL THANKS:

When our original event venue became unavailable  shortly after we announced our event to the world, Rick Turoczy of Silicon Florist put the word out for us and the very next day, we had three offers.  Jive Software stepped in right away and said we could use their offices.  They not only offered their space, but made sure we felt welcome, even making event posters for us. We should feel fortunate to live where there is such support for the tech scene and give these people some love whenever we can.  Thanks to all of the attendees for making this a successful event.  Next year’s event should be even bigger and better.

Editors Note on Tomorrow’s iPhone DevCamp Post

**EDITOR’S NOTE**  I am very excited to be covering an event like this year’s iPhone DevCamp for my new blog.  But due to Apple’s iPhone SDK Non-Disclosure Agreement, not much can be said about what is (or is not) going on with applications being developed for the iPhone.

Developers and programmers who rely on a free exchange of information in order to learn to build new applications, are being asked to remain silent about the company’s iPhone Software Developers Kit.  That’s the word on the street and I’m sure they have their reasons.[Note to self;another post on those reasons]

I have been warned that the mandatory minimum sentence for violating Apple’s NDA is a thourough ass-beating from a couple of Steve Jobs’ thugs and if I live through that, they would excommunicate me from the Apple cult community and banish me from the internet. The rebel in me sees this as a challenge.  After all, I can take (or give) a good ass-beating.  Even the threat of getting the bejesus sued out of me doesn’t really scare me because, as Jim Goings (who is not my lawyer) pointed out; “you don’t need no stinking NDA”.  He’s right.  I haven’t yet signed up for the iPhone SDK, so I am under no obligation to abide by its non-disclosure agreement.  The fact is, any attention I might get from Apple, especially negative attention, could gain me lots of readers for my blog.

If I want to write for a living, I need that attention.  And while any gonzo journalist worth his notebook should jump at this perfect chance to stick it to the man, I have reasons for playing this one straight.  My main reason is that I do not want to jeopardize any person’s chance to make money on their applications.  These people work hard, often in obscurity, to get a chance to make some real money for themselves and their teams.  The other reasons also have to do with respect.  Respect for Jive Software, who provided the venue for this event.  Respect for those who organized and attended this event.  And above all, respect for a community that has nurtured and been very kind to me in my new career. For these reasons, I purposely choose to puss out and provide tomorrow’s content censored according to the iPhone SDK’s NDA .  DC**

Portland iPhone Developers Unite!

Thanks to the efforts of iPhone visionary Dean Martindale and Portland tech community supporter Jive Software, iPhone DevCamp 2 is holding a satellite event in Portland.  This event is open to the public and is free.

For those of you who are not familiar with iPhone DevCamp, here is a brief explanation from iPhone DevCamp.org:

iPhoneDevCamp 2 is an upcoming not-for-profit gathering to develop applications for iPhone and iPod touch using both the native SDK and web standards. This is a follow-on event to the first iPhoneDevCamp, held in early July 2007.

iPhone DevCamp Portland will take place August 2nd and August 3rd at Jive Software Map Link.  Here is what will be available at our satellite feed event:

• 2 projectors (more if we really need it) – each connected to a MacMini (or your own computer)
• Wi-Fi with fast, redundant Internet feeds
• Seating for 40 (but probably less once tables, etc are setup)
• Beverage cooler  with drinks
• Coffee
• Food is still being planned and people will not go hungry
  

Additionally, there will be a meet and greet on Friday evening August 1st, from 6pm to 8pm at the Living Room Theaters across the street from Jive and Powell’s Bookstore.

Participants will be able to participate in this year’s Hackathon!! Track up-to-the-minute updates from San Francisco at iphonedevcamp.org.

An agenda and further information can be found at: iPhoneDevCampPDX.pbwiki.org anyone interested in providing food sponsorship for this event please contact dougcoleman1@gmail.com or Dean Martindale.

IPhone DevCamp2 PDX: Being Held at JIVE

I am excited to announce that iPhone DevCamp 2 PDX has an new venue! Thanks to Jim Goings and the wonderful people at Jive Software, iPhone DevCamp 2 PDX will be held August 2nd and 3rd at Jive’s Stark St. offices in Downtown Portland.  Here is what the space has to offer:

• 2 projectors (more if we really need it) – each connected to a MacMini (or your own computer)
• Wi-Fi with fast, redundant Internet feeds
• Seating for 40 (but probably less once tables, etc are setup)
• Beverage cooler  with drinks
• Coffee
• Food is still being planned and people will not go hungry
  

Additionally, there will be a meet and greet on Friday evening August 1st, from 6pm to 8pm at the Living Room Theaters across the street from Jive and Powell’s Bookstore.

I would like to thank those people who responded quickly with venues and ideas for help when we were in crisis.  I would personally like to thank Rick Turoczy of Silicon Florist for spreading the word on his site and on Twitter when I lost all of my followers suddenly. Rick is a rockstar in this town, and a great supporter of the tech scene here.  You should follow him: @turoczy.

For more information, go to: iphonedevcamppdx.pbwiki.org.  Be sure to register early on Upcoming and look for updates on this site.

Portland Techies On TV

I know.  A link to a video in a blog post instead of an actual embeded video is cheesy.  But if you are a regular reader of the Multimedia Misfit, you know that sometimes that’s how I roll, dog.

This week the Open Source convention OSCON 2008 is in town and together with the recent release of the iPhone 3G, mainstream media is taking notice of technology and business.  In a report titled “Your Money, Your Business: Old iPhones Selling For New Prices Online”, KGW Newschannel 8 reporter Joe Smith interviews @ravenzachary, @jabancroft, and @turoczy about iPhones old and new.

Link to Video

iPhone DevCamp 2 PDX: UPDATE

Enthusiasm is high about an iPhone DevCamp 2 satellite event being held in Portland.  However, PCC Cascade informed us today that we will not be able to use their facilities to host DevCamp 2 PDX without paying almost $1000 in security and overtime fees.  Disappointing news, because plans have been in the works for weeks now and we have already announced it to the world.  This leaves us without a venue to host this event that is only a week and a half away.

If Portland iPhone developers show enough interest in this event and if we can find a suitable venue, iPhone DevCamp 2 PDX can still happen.  Keep in mind that we want to keep this a free event and we have almost no budget, so we need help!

A suitable venue would be large enough to host possibly 20+ people, have Wi-Fi access, a projector or other means of viewing a live satellite feed and an area for people to mingle and eat.

iPhone DevCamp 2 is Friday August 1st through Sunday August 3rd.  Friday evening would be for meet & greets and would not have to take place at the event venue.

If anyone is interested in going forward with this event or would like to help, contact me at: dougcoleman1@gmail.com or Dean Martindale

iPhone DevCamp 2 Comes to Portland

The largest gathering of iPhone owners at the iPhoneDevCamp in San Francisco. Can Portland beat this?

Good news!  iPhone developer geeks do not have to travel all the way to San Francisco for DevCamp 2.  There will be a live satellite event at Portland Community College’s Cascade Campus that is open to the public and is free.  For those of you who are not familiar with iPhone DevCamp, here is a brief explanation from iPhone DevCamp.org:

iPhoneDevCamp 2 is an upcoming not-for-profit gathering to develop applications for iPhone and iPod touch using both the native SDK and web standards. This is a follow-on event to the first iPhoneDevCamp, held in early July 2007.

iPhone DevCamp Portland will take place August 1st through August 3rd on the Cascade Campus of Portland Community College Map Link.

This will be a satellite event, linked via streaming video with the main event in San Francisco.  The event will be held in three rooms of PCC’s state-of-the-art Multimedia Lab.  The venue offers free Wi-Fi and access to 40 Mac Pro terminals running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

An agenda and further information can be found at: iPhoneDevCampPDX.pbwiki.org

Food, meet and greets, and other considerations are being planned and anyone interested in providing sponsorship for this event should contact myself dougcoleman1@gmail.com or Dean Martindale. Look for more information and breaking news about this event right here on the Multimedia Misfit.

Special Thanks to Dean Martindale for putting this together, visit his blog: webguypdx.com

Upgrades to MM Lab at PCC Cascade

You do not have to go to an expensive state or private school to get a great education in multimedia.  Portland Community College’s Multimedia Program offers accessible and affordable training in multimedia design and development.  After all, your education is what you make of it, regardless of where you go to school.  In fact, I have seen other more expensive options that offered far less.

A couple of weeks ago, myself and several members of the PCC Multimedia Club tore down the old Mac lab and installed brand new Apple computers and software.

From an email by PCC Multimedia Coordinator Greg Walters :

“The PCC Multimedia Center recently upgraded it’s computers and software to the latest and greatest that our industry has to offer. Brand new Apple G5 Towers, 20” flat screen monitors, 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors, Final Cut Studio 2, Adobe CS3 Design Premium, and much much more. We also recently got state approval of our Video Production Certificate this past month, which we will begin offering to students along with our current Multimedia Certificate and Associates of Applied Science degree in Multimedia. What better time to be a multimedia student, eh?

If you have any questions about classes, events, degrees, and/or advising here in the Multimedia program, please don’t hesitate to contact us. All of our current information is available online at: www.pccmm.com ”

However you choose to pursue a multimedia education, be sure to network with fellow students and become involved in your community’s multimedia network, or “scene”.  One great way to do this is join the PCC Multimedia Club.  We are still sorting through administrative issues on our website, but you can contact meand I will get you set up.  Look for more posts about the exciting things we are doing in our community coming soon.

Demolicious, Baby!

If you are a relative newbie to the whole multimedia/tech scene like myself, Portland is a great place to be.  If you look hard enough, you can find a geek gathering almost every night.  I found such a gathering this evening, put on by PDX Web Innovators.  Demolicious showcases…”the great stuff your fellow Portlanders have been working on.  Several ten minute demos of new products and side projects”.  Tonight there were five demonstrations:

Kevin Chen (MetroSeeq):

Any product that grew from a college student’s free food association is alright in my book.  MetroSeeq uses Google maps to provide users with targeted, local information about businesses in your neighborhood offering coupons, discounts and deals.  Both business owners and users can aggregate coupons and deals.  Having trouble deciding what to have for dinner?  Spin MetroSeeq’s “Wheel of Meals” for several cheap options.

Don Park (Do It Yourself FriendFeed):

Those of you whores with thousands of friends need a way to find those friends on other networks.  I am still new to social networking, so I will let Dawn Foster explain…”You can manage your own friend lists with rel=”contact” in a regular html page, and you can also use rel=”me” to connect pages that describe you. XFN Spider can look at those me links, spider to the friends listed on those pages, create an OPML file and get all of this information in an rss reader”. (Fast Wonder)

Matt King (Interface Content Management Framework):

Coming soon from Instrument, a “CMS (content management system) that builds CMS’s” or a CMS framework.  For someone like myself that is interested in building content managed sites, this is cool.  It should make my life easier.  I will look for it when it is released.

Mounir Shita (GoLife Mobile):

GoLife Mobile is open source technology that “…lets software developers easily create useful, useable, personalized mobile software that run(s) on any of our user’s phones”. (GoLifeMobile.com)  Their built-in advertising generator automatically generates revenue for your applications and objects and shares it with you.

Lev Tsypin (Green Renter):

Once again, Portlanders are leading the way in the whole “green” movement.  Green Renter provides information about green residential and commercial rentals in the Portland metro area.  They also allow building and property owners to promote their properties and provide detailed information about what makes their properties green.  Green Renter hopes to be the resource for sustainable living in Portland and plans to expand to other cities.

There are so many exciting things happening in Portland.  I am happy to be part of such a thriving, creative and nurturing scene.  I am looking forward to the next event put on by  PDX Web Innovators.

Web Pages the Misfit Way

Why would any self-proclaimed website designer like myself use a WordPress blog template? The answer is easy. Because they do a pretty darn good job of designing their blog sites and that frees me up to concentrate on content. Besides, the type of website “design” I do is not really pure. By that I mean that I don’t usually start with a blank page, lay it all out, write the code and attach a CSS file, etc. I usually start with a template in Adobe Dreamweaver , choose a color scheme (COLURlovers monitors and influences color trends), choose an appropriate font and start plugging in content. Choosing fonts for web use is easy. There are only about seven fonts that really work in all browsers, so I use one of them (Arial, Comic Sans MS, Georgia, Courier New, Tahoma, Times New Roman and Verdana). This is hotly debated among font nerds but trust me, these are best if you want everybody to be able to view your pages in all browsers. Remember, computers can only display the fonts that are installed on that computer. The average internet user does not have all of your fancy fonts installed on their computer.

Once I find appropriate places to put content, I go to town. Making graphics, finding and linking pages, writing, taking and optimizing photos, making animations, video editing and music are the fun things I like to do. It is usually pretty easy to insert these things into an html page.

When I run into any trouble with the inner workings of a page (often), I call upon my trusty sidekick, Robin (after all, I am Batman). She tidys up my mess and makes it all work. If my design isn’t working then it is easy to plug the content into a new design. This is also what having a WordPress blog site does for me. I can concentrate on content and leave the real design to the pros. I have designed a couple of pretty cool looking websites by slicing up a Photoshop document and importing it into Dreamweaver. There are many perils accociated with this method, so I warn against it. I will write about that in a future post.

Until I can get my hands on a copy of Adobe Thermo, or until someone throws a big pile of money my way, that’s how I roll, dog.

Multimedia Review, Test and Delivery- part 1

I am taking a course right now at Portland Community College that is called Multimedia Review, Test and Delivery.  It is a two day, 1 credit course that I need for my MM degree.  I must admit, I was not looking forward to it.  My weekends are precious to me and this is on a Friday and Saturday.  However, I have changed my mind after attending the first day.  The instructor, Mark Dustan, works for Jupiter Systems, who supply…”visualization solutions that help customers respond to the complex operational demands of security, defense, transportation, public utilities, education, and business communications”.  They are “The Display Wall Company”.  Without filling this post with Mr. Dustan’s entire history, I will say that he has worked for Sarif, Smart Technologies, Planar, and other multimedia companies and is a very informed expert on all things multimedia.

In the course we are going to test and deliver our Adobe Director projects from an earlier course.  One of the main ideas about this course is that you can re-purpose content for other applications.  To show us a little example of this, Beth Fitzgerald demonstrated how we can make our .dir files and convert them into .dcr (Shockwave) files that can be used on the internet.  I was familiar with how to do this, but the point about re-purposing content was well taken.  A good example of this is that more and more content is being used and produced for mobile phones and devices.  It makes sense for me to learn to make some of my web related projects useful on these devices also.

In this evening’s class, we learned who is using multimedia.  The list of multimedia applications and the spaces they occupy is staggering and continues to grow every day.  Airports, banks, news channels, casinos, briefing rooms, corporations, visitor experience centers, lobbies, conventions, grocery stores and gas stations are only a few of the places we are likely to see multimedia.

We were also reminded of a couple of important tips for anyone in a creative field like multimedia.  I will write more about these tips in later posts because they deserve their own attention.

It is important to note that multimedia and technology is always changing and we need to keep up those changes.  Mr. Dustan turned us on to the IEEE Video Blog, a video blog especially for the multimedia community.  I urge everyone to check out these videos made by experts who are on the bleeding edge of multimedia and technology.

I will be sure to write a full post about what I learned when the course is complete.  Stay tuned