Tampa Is…?

Just a real quick note to Sticks of Fire readers who use the Facebook:

Sticks of fire has it’s own Facebook fan page now!

If you have not yet had the chance, you might want to go cast a vote for Creative Loafing’s annual Best of the Bay 2008 issue.  They will CLOSE THE VOTING ON WEDNESDAY.

There are categories for your favorite:

• Neighborhood
• Place to Volunteer
• Art Gallery
• Overrated Thing About Tampa Bay
• TV Newsperson
• Radio Personality
• Restaurant
• Local Zero
• Troublemaker
• Piercing Parlor
• Thrift Store
• Local Politician (and Worst!)
• Local Band
• Cuban Sandwich

And, of course, your favorite Tampa Bay area Local Blog.

Make sure you vote for your Best of the Bay favorites by 5pm on Aug. 20, 2008.  Creative Loafing will publish some time next month.

BlogOrlando 2008 is set for September 25-27 at Rollins College in Winter Park.

Voce Communications, in partnership with Rollins College will host the third edition of this FREE event that was open to bloggers and non-bloggers alike from Florida and anywhere else. We bring together a good cross-section of folks to discuss blogging, podcasting, public relations, social media, citizen’s journalism and other related topics. The event was as much a social/family gathering as it is a ‘work’ gathering.

BlogOrlando is held in the “unconference” format, which is a participant-driven conference centered around a theme or purpose. A “session leader” simply begins the conversation on a given topic, and the “audience” drives the direction of the discussion.

Hyku’s Josh Hallett brings together a good cross-section of folks to discuss blogging, podcasting, public relations, social media, citizen’s journalism and other related topics. The event is as much a social/family gathering as it is a ‘work’ gathering.

For BlogOrlando’s third annual event, I have again been asked to co-lead a session, this time with Chuck Welch of Lakeland Local. Our general topic will explore the meaning of “hyperlocal,” and attempt to find out what it is, how to find it, and why it’s important. Depending on audience requests, subtopics may include working with various media people (TV, radio, newspaper, websites), mining government and media data, creating maps (crime, business, etc.), ethics, and more.

Other sessions at BlogOrlando include Business Marketing with Social Media, New Tools for Journalism, Monetizing your Website, Online Professionalism, Politics, and many, many more. Take a look at BlogOrlando 2008 Sessions for the lineup thus far.

In past years, Journalists, PR folks, website managers, and bloggers have gotten much out of the unconference. Those of you who have any interest at all in the future of internet communications may also want to check it out - after all, it is FREE.

Locals already registered to attend include Ashli Cooper, Michael VanDervort, Michael Bishop, Tribune food guy Jeff Houck, WordPress Developer (and Brandonite) Mark Jaquith, Jim Johnson, Dustin Mooney, David Risley, Derrick Daye, Cathalain Carter, Darby Critendon, Carrie Currie, Aaron Bates, Lakeland Ledger’s Barry Friedman, and more.

I hope to see an even larger contingent of Tampa Bay area bloggers, journalists, and website enthusiasts out there this year, so please go register for BlogOrlando 2008.

For the past month, Brett Favre wouldn’t get off of my computer, television set, radio, or out of my newspaper.

Yesterday, Trib sportswriter Ira Kaufman was convinced - certain - that Favre was going to end up with the Buccaneers, and so then Kaufman ended up all over my radio and TV.

Of course, we wake up this morning and find out that Favre is going to the Big Apple.

Thus ends this media circus.

I hope.

Update 4pm: Wayne Garcia hints around about TBO’s “sloppy and hyped journalism” in the matter.

Former St. Pete Police Officer Ken Kokotek retired, and unveiled his secret identity.  Picasso is the screen name Ken used on the Law Enforcement Officer Affairs (LEO Affairs) website while ripping the higher-ups on the force as well as the City of St. Pete administration and others.

Apparently, he’s pretty good with photoshop, too:

In one, Mayor Rick Baker is wearing a pink dress with a matching pink hat.

In another, police Chief Chuck Harmon’s head has been put on an obscenely overweight body, and the chief is looking intently at a two-layer cheeseburger.

Sounds attractive.  Look at the TBO article to see the altered images for yourself. 

Those higher-ups were irritated.  So much so,  there was an investigation into Picasso’s identity, and threats of firing - even after he retired!:

Had he not retired, a St. Petersburg police officer would have been fired for posting degrading computer-altered pictures of police administrators and others on a Web site…

Anyway - the artwork is average at best, but the satire is pretty good.  For more, check out Picasso’s home on the web, SPPD - An Insider’s View.

Today’s the day that meetings were held at the Tribune to explain the details of the planned reorganization announced in April.  Reading employees twitters gives an interesting look inside the newsroom.

Update 7:45pm: By the very nature of Twitter’s 140 character limit, these are all taken out of context, and should not be considered as a single conversation.

• tboemily But if they lay off the young people, who will stay late every night doing two jobs? 07:42 PM June 27, 2008 from web
• tboemily Lots of speculation in the office today. Newsroom meetings tomorrow on the upcoming layoffs and reorganization. 11:56 AM June 30, 2008 from web
• jdasilva windy march: you look serious / me: i’m reading news about layoffs about 7 hours ago from TwitterFox
• bergus Today’s gonna be interesting. about 6 hours ago
• Jokediggy Newsroom reorg announcements and layoff numbers are being delivered in several meetings today. Local bars should beef up staff and supplies. about 6 hours ago from web
• bergus Talking with @shoye before the hammer falls. about 6 hours ago from web
• jdasilva off to a meeting about layoffs… this will be fun not. (borat!) about 6 hours ago from TwitterFox
• tboemily Enough, Chicken Littles. The newsroom has a very solid plan, and we’re being smart about the reorg. Should be a TBO story today. I’ll link. about 3 hours ago from web
• TwitStew Something about crisis meetings bring out the vaguest, most nebulous language when the opposite is needed. Aaaugh! It’s raining metaphors! about 3 hours ago from web
• bergus Well, that was a learning experience. How long before it shows up on Romenesko? about 3 hours ago from web
• tboemily Tribune/WFLA layoff story from TBO: http://tinyurl.com/6dwev2 14 minutes ago from web

Tribune, WFLA To Trim News Staffing:

The Tampa Tribune said Tuesday that it will lay off 11 newsroom staffers this week with another 10 news jobs to be eliminated by early fall.

The newsroom will lose a total of 50 employees under the cost-cutting effort, with 29 either accepting a voluntary buyout offer or resigning for other reasons. The Tribune newsroom will have about 200 employees after the staff reductions.

The moves are part of a previously-announced streamlining by the Florida Communications Group, which operates the newspaper, WFLA, Channel 8 and TBO.com, among other media properties. FCG is part of Media General of Richmond, Va., which has been hard hit like other media companies by a soft advertising climate and a weak economy.

WFLA said it will have eliminated 10 news positions by the end of the year.

Tribune publisher and president Denise Palmer said newspapers’ traditional advertising base is being upended by the economic malaise and the impact of the Internet.

“You never want to have good people go away,” Palmer said. “But I also know you have to work within the revenue you bring in.”

I don’t know all of those TBO staff twitterers, and I have no idea if all the comments above even refer to the Florida Communications Group meeting.  Just thought it was an interesting perspective.

Update 8pm: Journalism Professor Mindy McAdams got a description of the meeting from someone claiming to be there, while Eric Deggans gives his take on the news.

As someone who covers current internet technology trends, especially those that have to do with social media, it was exciting to discover that right here in Tampa there is an innovative social media project underway right now: Kidz Connect. This three-week program through ZoomLab is a summer camp whose goal is to promote cultural exchange through theatrical performance.

At the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center’s Patel Conservatory, Bay Area teens in Tampa are hooking up with teens in Amsterdam (at IVKO Montessori School) via video streaming in the virtual world Teen Second Life where they are learning about each others lives, culture, and more. Together, through online collaboration, the 30 teens involved in this workshop will create a live theater and online performance based on the theme, “What is Real?” which will be performed on Saturday, June 28th (tomorrow!).

As they work together, the teens will also be learning how to craft digital art within Teen Second Life as part of the project’s goal to provide the students with an introduction to video and sound production. The students will also be participating in live theater, music, and dance presentations performed on stage at TBPAC as well as streamed to the internet and in Second Life.

To see just how the project has gone thus far, I recommend you read the camp’s blog at http://kidzconnect.org .  But to see the end result, watch the performance live on the net Saturday:

Saturday, 28 June at 2 p.m. EST / 8 p.m. Amsterdam (GMT+2)

Saturday’s show will be presented live in Tampa, Florida, at the Patel Conservatory at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. See the Patel Conservatory site for tickets to attend the Saturday show in person.

To watch the video stream:

During those times, the video stream will be broadcasting live. It will also be archived for viewing at a later date.  You must have QuickTime Player installed in order to view the webcast. Click here to watch the live video stream

To watch in Teen Second Life:

If you are a teen, you can also watch it in Teen Second Life. Go to http://teen.secondlife.com/ and click “Free Basic Account” to create your username. Then download the Second Life application, install it and log in with the username you just created. To go to the show, search for the “Kidz Connect event” group and join it, then you can click on this SLURL (Second Life URL) which will give you the option to teleport directly to Kidz Connect Island.  Click here to watch in Teen Second Life

This article was written by Sarah Perez, who writes for Microsoft’s Channel 10, ReadWriteWeb, and maintains a personal blog at sarahintampa.com

Steve Otto is a great guy.

He’s been around these parts for a mighty long time, and has covered all the ups and downs of Tampa Bay.  He gives of his time and well-recognized name to a bunch of charitable organizations, and is always somewhere doing something for someone.

But it sure is tiring hearing about how the old newspaper days were so much better.  It seems that once a month he is going on about the old Tampa Bay Times afternoon daily, and how the community is suffering since less paper ends up in a garbage dump.

His latest is another complaint about how the blogosphere is helping to kill newspapers.

The American Amateur Press Association showcased a panel discussion on the future of newspapers and the printed word, and newspaper types were typically irritated:

There was plenty more to be gloomy about, not just declining circulations but also the growing realization that it is not just that younger readers are getting their news elsewhere as it is that they aren’t getting news at all.

[Context] is what newspapers have provided: a thoughtful, organized context to the news instead of the scattered who-knows-where-it-came-from stories off the Net.

Then he provides the zinger:

I remember in 1961 when then FCC Chairman Newton Minow said TV had become a vast wasteland. We would be hard-pressed to argue it has improved in almost half a century.

I wonder what he would think of the blogosphere.

Hey Steve, check it out:

There are hundreds of TV networks.  A great majority of them are certainly a waste of time.  However, there are a significant number of them that are quite marvelous, and can keep you up to speed on those things that are important to you.  I think we can make a great argument that TV has improved since 1961.

Like TV, the blogosphere landscape includes much wasteland as well as oases of wonderful.  The beauty is that you can choose to visit those websites that you find relevant to you, and ignore the others.

As to the demise of newspapers, that is a natural progression.  A newspaper is simply a way of delivering content.  Just because over the past 40 years, the best journalism has come from newspapers, does not mean that paper is still the best way to deliver that important news.

I don’t think Steve really laments the loss of “newspapers,” but rather “journalism.”  And instead of blaming the internet, I believe his complaints should be directed toward Media companies in General.  Of course, someone at the AAPA meeting had already pointed that out to him:

“I’m saddened what’s happened to papers. They seem to have adopted a can’t-beat-them-let’s-join-them attitude with the ‘them’ being cable TV that features sensationalism and celebrities’ misery. I see it on a daily basis. I have had to take at least 10 calls this week about the son of Hulk Hogan.”

Hmmm.  Seems like an impartial observer might say that newspapers are a vast wasteland.

Diverting journalists to stories like this, media conglomerates chose to go after bigger and bigger audiences, instead of focusing on delivering important news to those who care.  And those who do care about that important news are moving on to other providers, including radio, television, and, yep, the blogosphere.

The truth is, in order to find that “context,” citizens can no longer count on the “newspaper” to provide it.  Like Steve Otto, we are now forced to spend valuable time and take several avenues to learn it on our own, from any media available.

That we are able to make an “honest attempt to tell the story of a community and the world around it” by publishing online is a good thing, not a waste.