Online Insights on FIVEaa Sunday July 03 2011
This month we prepare for an indoors winter with tips for making better home movies, things to do with your store of pumpkins, ways to find public toilets when the cold conditions prompt an unplanned call of nature, and one of the most obvious cases of political messaging captured on film. Meanwhile, on the Web 2.0 front, it has been a busy time with Google rolling out their newest attack on the Social Networking market with Google+ and Facebook poised to strike back this coming week with an announcement of integrated video chat within Facebook using the Skype service. But for now, on with the sites.
How to make a movie at home
Unlock your inner Kubrick (Blue Seduction Movie Set by Redvette via Flickr)
With winter upon us it is likely that you will be needing to entertain families at home and inside. With a video camera, a computer and some creativity, you could work as a team and create a celluloid masterpiece.
Here are some wise tips that will lead you through the process.
- Think about the genre or style of movie you wish to make first
- Go and rent some movies in that genre/style
- Decide on a narrative movie (story-telling), documentary style, or a compilation (editing together bits of footage you already have) Continue reading
Online Insights on FIVEaa Sunday June 05 2011
This month on Online Insights we help out a neighbour or hire them, we try to help save a parent support service, cook a delicious breakfast treat and investigate smoking that is not smoking.
Parent Helpline
Top picture, great slogan at the Save Parent Helpline rally, bottom picture, my little girl doing her bit
When governments carve up the pie for spending OUR money, they face innumerable demands from many sectors. For example, having cut leave loading for public servants in this year’s budget, the government has now backtracked due to pressure (they will find it hard to reform this area because public servants are so used to dwelling in an alternate universe of cushy conditions and clock watching that any reforms will be met with intense bursts of pain).
But one decision that at best makes no sense and at worst suggest hyper hypocrasy, is the axing of funding for the Parent Helpline’s overnight operation.
If you have never raised children, you will not understand this issue because until you are alone, in the small hours of the night, solely responsible for the welfare of a child who is screaming or feverish or acutely distressed in some other way, you will not feel how existentially disturbing the experience can be. It is in these moments, when all other services other than emergency services are closed and friends and family sound asleep, that the Parent Helpline has been a godsend.
Anxious parents can ask “silly” questions and get guidance and reassurance from a calm voice on the other end of the line.
Our governments (state and federal) have wanted more people to become parents and yet just throwing a few bucks in baby bonuses around is disingenuous. I know there are other invaluable services offered to parents so I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. However, I believe that cutting the small blip in the budget that was the Parent Helpline 24 hour service was a heartless move. If we really want to support the nurturing of new generations then we must provide support at those critical, harrowing moments when fallible humans can snap in despair and take action with long lasting consequences.
Many generations before us existed without such help but in different times there were differing social structures in place to provide similar support. Today is a different reality. Continue reading
Online Insights on FIVEaa Sunday May 01 2011
This month in Online Insights we see what locals think about the alcohol issues in Alice Springs that are making headlines around the country, rethink how humans are living right now, spare a thought for mum, and finish off with a dash of light relief.
Tell ‘Em That’s Enough
The Children - Tell 'Em That's Enough campaign
I spend a lot of each year up in the Northern Territory running marketing workshops for small business, particularly focussed on how to exploit the various social networking and social media tools available today, and as such it is easy to see the Territory as a place full of go-getters.
However, to be fair, it is also easy to see evidence of alcohol-related problems too, especially involving aborigines because the drinking and resultant anti-social behaviour often takes place in public view (not like alcohol-related issues involving higher socio-economic Australians, which takes place behind closed doors). Continue reading
Online Insights on FIVEaa Sunday March 06 2011
This month on Online Insights we take a kite’s eye perspective on hobbies with international appeal,
Let’s go fly a kite. Up to the highest height!
Kevin Saunders' soft, inflatable kites loosely based on road signs
I had two very interesting South Australians take part in my Online Marketing workshops last year and their “hobby” of kite flying blew me away (is that the best term to use?).
Kevin and Linda Saunders know everything there is to know about making a flying kites and this passion has helped open up the world to them.
Who would have thought that designing and making kites would lead to invitations to appear at international festivals all over the world, or that international kite festivals even existed? I didn’t. They have been flying the flag for South Australia at:
- “Jakarta International Kite Festival”
- “Toronto International Kite Festival”
- “Weifang International Kite festival” – China
- “Smithsonian Kite Festival” – USA
- “Cape Town International Kite Festival” – South Africa
- “Colour The Sky” – Thailand Continue reading
Online Insights on FIVEaa Sunday January 09 2011
This month on Online Insights we look at a different approach for New Year’s resolutions, fun activities for kids and seriously fun activities for kids for the holidays, and indulge in the parmi reviews (I hope my exercise physiologist does not read this month’s post).
Creative Goal Setting
The creative goal setting blog has a timely post for this New Year season called, The Damage “Intellectualising” Can Do.
What I loved most about stumbling onto this post in this period of resolutions, is that I am halfway through the first fortnight of holidays in at least five years. And this is the very first time that I have actually disconnected emails from my mobile phone and completely shut myself away from “work”. As an “always on” kinda guy I expected this to be harder than it has been. But as the first week has passed, I noticed this morning that my sinuses are clearer than ever – something I am not that used to.
Lo and behold, the blog entry I found has argued strongly that this symptom of clearer sinuses, along with less headaches and stress, is a direct result of not “being on” by thinking things to death. I quote, “The first and most obvious clue to when we are intellectualising is the higher stress levels felt in the body and mind. Our immune system struggles and the first signs of this is any of the following: the runny nose, raised temperature, swollen glands each side of our neck and/or sore throat … and our thoughts are continually returning to the imagined problems associated with our goal.” Continue reading
Online Insights on FIVEaa Sunday December 05 2010
This month we bid bon voyage to a new, Adelaide-based, Web2.0 startup, find a plan incubator, look at a new identity sniffer, and get some inspiration for a life-or-death fitness workout.
Trace My Trip
Steve Davis in San Francisco
A new Web2.0 site was launched this week in Adelaide, and has dubbed itself the “Facebook for travellers”. It is still in its early days after launch and I have had some trouble accessing some of the features. However, this could be a site to watch because it couples specifically-designed tools for sharing holiday planning and publishing with tight security options for privacy.
Founder, Ryan Adams, said the difference between his site and Facebook is that TraceMyTrip is specifically designed in a way that travellers can plot their journey and then share it with the select few friends and family they want to choose.
There are other travel-sharing sites out there but one thing this site promises is that you can upload your photos and videos along the way, in high resolution. This means serious photographers won’t have to lug hard drives around with them: they can just upload when they need to and know their memories are safe.
It is only open for Australians at the moment with the rest of the world invited in come 2011. Continue reading
Online Insights on FIVEaa Sunday November 07 2010
This month we give one last hurrah to the local government elections closing soon in South Australia, listen to the voice of the River Murray, give our dogs a dementia test and ogle over some Adelaide sunsets.
Local government elections
Campbelltown Mayor, Simon Brewer, at the Black Hill Challenge
A few weeks ago I was asked by my father-in-law who is also president of the local Lions club if I would volunteer as a timekeeper for the Black Hill Challenge – a footrace attracting a few hundred competitors to Black Hill Reserve and the nearby Thorndon Park Reserve.
As fate would have it, a fellow volunteer was the current Mayor of Campbelltown, Simon Brewer. Having been asked to give advice and/or support a number of candidates in the Adelaide City Council and Burnside Council elections, I was keen to ask Simon about his campaign and whether or not he was using social networking sites as part of his push. Continue reading
Online Insights on FIVEaa Sunday October 03 2010
This month on Online Insights we encounter a homegrown charity, a homegrown food writer, a homegrown fatalist, and a job that seems potentially fatal. Hope you enjoy the ride.
Lamb’s Ears and Honey
I have spent the weekend at a public tasting of beer, wine and coffee (my Baristador Coffee actually) at Homestyle Solutions, a boutique furniture and glassware boutique in Malvern, and one of the visitors was a local food blogger, Amanda McInerney.
She was in heaven at our little tasting and told us a little about her blog, Lamb’s Ears and Honey, in which she writes about good food, where it comes from, and how it gets to us.
Her style is to showcase small, South Australian food producers and celebrate what they do while illuminating the back story for those of us who care about what we consume!
To give you an example of her work, there is a very interesting and alarming article on apples in which Amanda takes us into the details of dangers facing our apple and pear industry AND our health as our markets open to Chinese imports. Continue reading
Online Insights on FIVEaa Sunday September 05 2010
This month on Online Insights, we will celebrate fathers day, look at parking in a whole new light, view incredible video tricks, and think about a calendar that falls to pieces.
First though, Google unveiled a new tool in Gmail accounts since we last spoke. If you have a Gmail email account you can turn on priority sorting. This means that Google applies some clever thinking in your inbox, based on your usual email habits to help sort your more important email from less important stuff. For example, if you always open emails from certain people, they will sit at the top of your inbox and vice versa for emails you usually leave unopened or delete. Another clever tool from Google – sometimes I wonder how I’d navigate the world without them!
Fathers Day
It’s Fathers Day today and that brings us to Australian Camp Connect. I’d never heard of this group but it exists to help dads connect or reconnect with kids. It says it is all about grabbing your kids, a sleeping bag and a torch, and heading off on a journey to deeper relationships. Continue reading
Online Insights on FIVEaa Sunday August 01 2010
This month in Online Insights I combine one part election with one part masterchef and two parts history, unveil a tool to help you maintain a secret journal, give you a political voice, and give you front row seats to as many local jazz concerts as you wish right from your computer.
History Chef
Hardtacks - staple and enemy of civil war soldiers
Recently, our Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition held a contrived, plastic debate on live, Sunday night television. It marked the beginning of another federal election period with all the smear, puffery, deceit and staging one sadly has come to expect. What drew most coverage before the event was the fact that this excruciatingly tedious program was scheduled at the same time as the grand finale of yet another stale reality show, MasterChef. It was feared the masses would rather watch formulaic reality programming with cooking-show flavour than formulaic political debate with, well, no flavour.
It irks me that both television and our political landscape have descended from nutritious staples to artificially-flavoured poison. But that is for another article. What I have stumbled across is a website that ties politics and the culinary arts together in a much more appetising way – History Chef.
This delightful, albeit American, site is worth a meandering visit. Suzy Evans, who got her Ph.D in History, has woven a whimsical collection of food-based anecdotes involving US presidents and historical figures and their dietary preferences. Probably doesn’t sound that interesting at first, but I urge you to take a look. What I loved about this site was the way its stories gave is easily digestible tid bits of daily life. As you read and picture the people and the food they were consuming you really do feel like you have been transported back in time and given a truly authentic taste of life in another era. Some of my favourites include: Continue reading
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Listen to Steve
- stevedavis: The #socadl Daily is out! http://t.co/vLwzsWJH ▸ Top stories today via @scottmccarten @hayleybw @hellobenteoh May 18, 2012
- stevedavis: @JoshuaWhiteSM must be a good feeling! Wordpress workshop walks biz people through basics of running wp site with lots of marketing input May 18, 2012
- stevedavis: @JoshuaWhiteSM how was yours? May 18, 2012