Power Calendaring with iCal, Google Calendar, and Sync
My calendar grows increasingly crazy as the various ventures I work with continue to gain popularity, from the Student Loan Network and the Financial Aid Podcast to Marketing Over Coffee and PodCamp. Recently, I found myself having to sync two iPods, a phone, Google Calendar, and iCal, and in the process, a whole bunch of things got badly messed up.
Here’s how I fixed it.
First, I took Google Calendar – since that’s where I do most of my data entry – and exported the calendars there as iCal ics files. Those I saved to my desktop.
I deleted my entire Google Calendar, top to bottom.
I also reset sync on all my devices, effectively telling those devices to start from scratch the next time they started up.
After all the external points were deleted and reset, I disconnected everything and started up iCal. I imported all the different ics files and found I had a calendar about 10 times as large as I expected. Literally had half a dozen entries for every single event, which was unmanageable to say the least.
I found this terrific script called iCal Dupe Deleter (donationware). Ran it against iCal overnight (it took that long!) and when I woke up this morning, I had a clean calendar, free of duplicate events, ready for the world.
I connected all the mobile devices, synced them, then connected back to Google Calendar using Spanning Sync. Now iCal was serving as the master record, and everything else got copies of iCal. Going forward, Google Calendar will remain the data import point for new events, but iCal will still be the “golden master” if I need to do this manual re-sync process again to de-dupe and clean up.
Disclosures: Spanning Sync, by the way, is $65, just so you know. I get zilch from recommending it.
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Watch this Justin.tv video from PodCamp NYC
The background: individual sponsor tables were set up by PodCamp NYC organizers so that sponsors could share what they had to offer with the community.
This particular lifecasting crew decided that they’d set up shop on a sponsor’s table (having not sponsored themselves) and when asked to leave so that the sponsor could set up, reacted… well, watch the video.
The result, of course, is what you saw above.
Whitney did a superb job managing PodCamp NYC and meeting the expectations of the sponsors – without whom there would have been no PodCamp NYC, period. For this particular group of folks from Justin.tv to behave as they did was inappropriate at best.
Food for thought:
We were pleased and happy to have Michael Geoghagan and Tim Bourquin from Podcast Academy and New Media Expo, respectively, at PodCamp NYC. In the world of new media, reputation is everything, and in this case, a lifecasting crew from Justin.tv has demonstrated why “pro” events like NME might not want folks like this at their events.
Food for thought:
It’s very easy to behave irresponsibly when you have absolutely no investment in an event or in the community which you ostensibly belong to. After watching this video, I’m tempted to INCREASE the price of ticketing for events like PodCamp Boston to ensure that participants, if they lack an understanding of the social contract of a free event (for participants, not sponsors) like PodCamp NYC, at least understand the financial contract of paying to attend, and the financial consequences of being asked to leave.
New media community: prove me wrong. Prove that this crowd is the exception rather than the norm, that the community is wholly capable of self-policing and self-sanctioning itself, so that organizers can focus on bringing great experiences to you and not having to play parenting to the minority that chooses to willfully act badly. Prove that the new media community is capable of actively managing itself so that ticket prices for events like PodCamp don’t have to be financially onerous just so it’s clear what the value being provided is.
Please leave your comments here and on your own blogs and podcasts.
Why Old Media Matters More Than Ever
Why Old Media Matters More Than Ever
There’s a persistent dangerous meme in new media, the idea that old media (television, radio, and newspapers) is irrelevant and dying. It’s not. In fact, if anything, old media is more relevant than ever.
Why?
In the old days – and by that I mean pre-1996 – old media was the only game in town if you wanted to reach a large audience. Newspapers and magazines covered print, television and movies brought the moving image to large audiences, and radio gave us music.
The Internet changed a lot of things, including effectively limitless channels of distribution, where every web page was a newspaper and every audio stream was a radio station. People – including myself – predicted the death of old media. As the barriers to content creation and distribution got lower, everyone could be a media producer.
Therein lies the problem.
When everyone can be a media producer, when a certain percentage of the population is producing media, it gets really hard to find media worth consuming.
A popular new media meme is that 99% of people just consume media and only 1% create it. With an estimated 1 billion people online, that’s 10 million media producers. Anyone who owns a cable television knows that it can take the better part of half an hour just to go through 900 channels, much less 10 million.
So what does this mean for old media? Instead of bouncers keeping out the masses, old media is evolving to become a content filter, finding decent stuff in new media and using its distribution networks to take the best stuff and bring it mainstream. The reason this model works is that advertisers provide an automatic filtering mechanism – if an old media outlet shows enough crap, people will stop tuning in to that show, to that channel, and advertising dollars will follow.
To keep advertisers – who pay the bills – happy, old media outlets have to find good stuff and present it. I’ve had this experience many times over the past year, as old media outlets have found the Financial Aid Podcast and featured it in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, BusinessWeek, and US News & World Report. Find good stuff and present it, and the advertisers are happy.
Those old media outlets who insist on the bouncer model are indeed headed for the pages of history. Those old media outlets who are adapting and changing will become more relevant than ever, as advertisers trust their editorial judgement – something a lot of new media producers lack, for good or ill.
Does this matter to new media producers? Absolutely. I speak from personal experience that while Google juice is great, and position #1 for a popular search result is wonderful, the traffic from the New York Times is equally great. The smartest new media producers are the ones figuring out how to successfully marry old and new media distribution outlets together to create the best of both worlds.
What’s your old media strategy?
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The Dual Mandate of PodCamp
The Dual Mandate of PodCamp
PodCamp NYC was yet another fantastic success in the ever growing lineups of PodCamps around the world, and I’m very pleased to have been a part of it. I wanted to take a moment as co-founder and Executive Director of the PodCamp Foundation to very clearly lay out what the vision and mission of PodCamp is:
1. PodCamp has a mission to welcome new people into the new media space. There are a TON of great conferences for new media people in the new media space, such as Podcasters Across Borders, New Media Expo, Podcast Academy, and many more. These conferences are powerful, informative, and very much support the new media community. While PodCamp fulfills a great community role, it is more important to bring in new people, to welcome folks curious about new media into the community with open arms.
I like to think of PodCamp as a real-life welcome wagon for anyone who wants to get started in new media.
PodCamp accomplishes this by putting veterans and new people in the same room and letting the magic happen.
2. PodCamp has a mission to connect new media professionals with resources. Very often, I have found at PodCamps over the last year that there are LOTS of individuals and organizations who have access to tremendous resources and want to participate in new media, but would prefer to work with someone already established in the new media space, rather than reinvent the wheel. The second mission is to help folks who have resources but lack knowledge connect with new media pros who have knowledge but might lack resources.
PodCamp in this fulfills almost a role of matchmaker, and accomplishes this by putting smart and resourceful people in the same room and letting the magic happen.
Are there other aspects of PodCamp that are important? Absolutely. A community focal point, a way to focus on local community building, a social outlet, a chance to reconnect with friends – all are important, all are vital to the overall fabric of the new media community, but these two mandates to me are what distinguish PodCamp, what keeps PodCamp going and growing, what makes PodCamp worth YOUR time and energy as a participant, volunteer, or organizer.
What’s your take on the mission of PodCamp?
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What I'll Be Sharing at PodCamp NYC
What I’ll Be Sharing at PodCamp NYC
A few people have wondered what I’ll be sharing at PodCamp NYC. I’ve got two sessions blocked out, plus possibly a panel – we’ll see about the last part.
Session 1:
Intro to Podcasting: The Podcasting 101 session. 10 AM Friday, Hall of Fame Wunsch Center. How to listen, participate, and create. A high level overview of the world of podcasting and why it’s important to you – or should be. Suitable for beginners new to new media. Veterans may not derive much value from this session.
Session 2:
Power Your Personal Network with LinkedIn. 10 AM Saturday, Room 203. I’ll be presenting how to use LinkedIn to power your networking skills. I’ll be sharing a few of my tips about using the service, what it’s good for, and how to help you build your personal brand with it, including simple but effective techniques you can start using immediately for better results. Suitable for everyone.
Session 3:
Affordable PR for Non-Profits Using New Media. 11 AM Saturday, Room 202. I’ll be co-presenting with Maria Thurrell, founder of Media Awaken, on how new media is changing the way non-profits do business. I’m also going to give away a secret – THE secret – for non-profits to be able to raise literally millions of dollars from the right corporate donors. If you work for a non-profit, this is a session you cannot afford to miss – literally. Suitable for everyone, but targeted to non-profits.
Session 4:
New Media and Politics in an Election Year. 2 PM Saturday, Auditorium. This is a panel hosted by Dan Patterson from Talk Radio News. I’ll be one of the panelists talking about use of new media so far, and where politicians might take things next. Suitable for everyone.
Session 5:
New Media Marketing: How New Media Powers Business. 3 PM Saturday, Auditorium. I’ve been working on refining this ever-evolving presentation which now includes aspects of sales, internet marketing, search engine optimization, and just about everything else, all linked to a framework that you can take home and apply to any product, service, or organization.
If you’re thinking about using blogging, podcasting, social networks, or other new media tools to promote the ideas you care about, this session is for you. Suitable for intermediate to advanced practitioners of new media. Beginners are welcome but may get lost quickly.
I’m unsure whether or not uStream or other services will be available for the distance aspect, as I don’t know what the venue’s Internet access will be like, so if you can make it in person, great
If you plan on attending any of the sessions at PodCamp NYC that I’ll be participating in, please feel free to ask questions in advance of the event itself – just leave comments here!
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