Independent Journalists, New Media Gurus, Bloggers, Alternative Media Outlets...
Are  you looking for a place to work during the Republican National Convention?

Space is limited and will fill up quickly.

Where: 3 locations around the Xcel Center in Saint Paul.

Credentials allow access to all three locations during the convention. The UpTake New Media Space is only $50.00 for the week of August 31 - September 5

Location 1:  The UpTake New Media Space
 
Just outside the convention center, The UpTake New Media Space is the closest space with internet access – only 300 yards outside the convention center!  It’s as close as you can get to the RNC without security clearance!

Who: The UpTake is an online news organization reporting political news through citizen journalists.

What: The UpTake New Media Space will provide a safe, comfortable place for journalists to work, meet and relax during the convention.

The New Media Space features:

300 Yards from the front door of the Convention Center
Dedicated T-1 Upload and Download
Open 8:00 am to late
More fun than you can Twitter about!

Space is limited and will fill up quickly. 
http://theuptake.org/

Location 2: Golden’s Deli

Where: Just blocks from the Xcel Center, Golden's Deli will provide access to events both inside and outside of the convention hall. A locally-owned shop with tasty chow made with local ingredients, it's a great place to get away from all that conservative rhetoric. For more info visit www.goldensdeli.us  We will have WiFi access and screens to watch the RNC action at night and during the day there will be media events you can cover.

Who: Alliance for a Better Minnesota www.allianceminnesota.org is a Minnesota-based online progressive advocacy and communications organization working to provide cutting edge online tools for working families and give a voice to progressives statewide.

What: ABM will be providing a versatile space that will be part blogging green room and part event center. Expert panels will be held on key issues with added commentary and availability of progressive Minnesotans and working people to be integrated into traditional coverage of the convention through streaming web feeds, live satellite feeds, and other media methods.

When: The space will be available starting on the afternoon of Sunday, August 31st through the afternoon of Friday, September 5th until midnight each night.

Location 3: "Liberal Lounge."

"Liberal Lounge – Sponsored by the SEIU" will be set up as an evening venue in which progressive bloggers, activists, new media and alternative media to relax, socialize, network, perform and write.  Located within walking distance of both the Xcel Energy Center and the offices and workspace of The Uptake Citizen Media, "Liberal Lounge – Sponsored by the SEIU" will provide a convenient gathering space for media and bloggers to move on to once the major coverage from the day is complete and the official workspace are closed.

The "Liberal Lounge – Sponsored by the SEIU" space is a converted pool-house that currently serves as an events space.  "Liberal Lounge – Sponsored by the SEIU" will be open from 5 pm to 12am. Monday, September 1st through Thursday, September 4th, and will have complementary beer, wine, soda, water, coffee and snacks available.  Entertainment will include not only convention coverage but live music, comedy and film.

I had a feeling of Deja Vu watching KARE-11, the Minneapolis NBC affiliate try using the Mogulus live streaming service today.  The live camera was coming from Eric Perkins, their reporter who is in Bejing covering the Olympics and their anchor in the Twin Cities.

I watched as even with the assistance of seasoned broadcast professional technicians, KARE had many of the same "learning curve" problems that The UpTake had when we started using Mogulus about 8 months ago.  There's getting used to the time lag of switching from one camera to another.  There's audio problems because you can't always hear the other person.  There's feedback as the audio gets routed wrong.

But then there's the things that TV people should know better than to do.  Eric was complaining about something and his microphone was open for all 43 people watching to hear.  (Rule one in broadcasting.... always assume EVERY microphone is LIVE....ask Jesse Jackson about that one).  Then Perkins started making faces to the camera while he was waiting to start... balancing a pencil between his upper lip and his nose...apparently oblivious that he was live for the entire world to see.

(Update: KARE-11 News Director tells me Eric was at the end of a 19+ hour workday and is a "incredibly creative and gracious force".  Having been in the same situation, I know that long hours can cause us all to do things we might not normally do.  My point here is not that Eric is a bad reporter... but that Moguls and live streaming is a new medium not just for us new media types, but for legacy media as well and knowing that the camera is "always on", is something we need to get used to)

On the Minneapolis side of this live webcast, the anchor was more professional.  I think it was Julie Nelson, but it was hard to tell since the lighting was so horrible.  The anchor was Kim Insley. Why they decided to have her sit in a dimly lit control room with no lights is beyond me.  I can understand not having proper lighting at a remote location, but not at a multi-million dollar TV facility?  Then there was the clowning around of what I assumed are station employees behind her.... waving to the camera and acting like they've never been on TV before.   

I think this was like this because TV people are conditioned that what they do before and after the "live shot" will not appear for the rest of the world to see.   When I worked at CONUS Communications I saw this a lot as TV reporters would do and say some pretty outrageous stuff before or after they went on the air via satellite.  CONUS was the nation's first company to enable TV stations to do live satellite reports... commonplace now, but back in the early 90s this was pretty cutting edge stuff.

Back then the only audience for those types of antics were the producers and editors at the other end of the feed... and perhaps a few people who had satellite dishes pointed in the right direction.

It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that not all media people are as professional as they really seem on air.  It's good to pull back the curtain and offer transparency. I believe there's an old saying that we see the true person when they think nobody is looking.

Why are you a Democrat? Why are you a Republican? The two parties have launched dueling You Tube contests encouraging their party faithful to explain why they support the party. Click on the party logos to go to the respective You Tube contest sites.

	http://youtube.com/demconvention
	http://www.youtube.com/gopconvention2008

We're not sure if the timing of these contests is coincidence or reaction... but one of the more viral videos on You Tube these days is a satirical video called "I'm voting Republican". I can guarantee it will NOT be shown at the RNC.

Also... if you're into this kind of video propaganda from either party or their surrogates, check out our new page "Party Propaganda". It includes fact check information from factcheck.org as well as our own analysis.

This post written by The UpTake's Senior Political Correspondent Noah Kunin

2008-07-11 10:53AM
McCain's intro to the townhall took longer then usual.  Finally into questions. McCain answers a question on how he expects to convince more citizens to allow for additional nuclear power plants (Answer: Americans are smart and will see the wisdom of carbon-free power).  A voter asks two questions: one on Vice President Cheney spiking testimony on climate change and a question on 1/5 of Guantanmo prisoners going free.  McCain uses the first question to try and convince some in the audience that climate change is real (to some infrequent boos).  He feins ignorance on the Cheney issue but says that he has been concerned about climate change testimony for several years.

2008-07-11 10:06AM
Reviewing McCain's record on women's issue there seems to be a degree of "tone deafness" in his responses even on relatively non controversial issues.  McCain was asked why he missed the vote for the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.  Here is what he said:

APRIL 23

“They need the education and training, particularly since more and more women are heads of their households, as much or more than anybody else,” McCain said. “And it’s hard for them to leave their families when they don’t have somebody to take care of them.

MAY 7

McCain singled out a 14-year old woman who questioned why he opposes eliminating the statute of limitations on lawsuits over workplace discrimination, arguing it amounted to opposing “equal rights for women.”

“If you eliminate the statutes of limitations, and you make it unending, you may be violating the rights of the individuals who are being sued, whether they’re a man or a woman,” the senator responded. “I don’t think you’re doing anything to help the rights of women, except maybe help trial lawyers and others in that profession.”

Leaving McCain's argument regarding the statute of limitations aside (see a good rebuttal of that point here at WaPo) McCain's response on April 23rd was the right answer to the wrong question. Pay disparity is not the same as the education gap. The problem is that two individuals are working the same job, the same hours at the same quality of work and are being paid different amounts as a result of gender.  According the Census Bureau women were being paid 77 cents on the dollar as compared to men in 2007!  Women need to know that in the 21st century an investment in "education and training" will pay the same benefits to them as an identically qualified man.

2008-07-11 10:01AM
I'm here in Hudson, WI with our Executive Correspondent Chuck Olsen covering a McCain town hall event.  This town hall will focus on jobs and women's issues.  Usually The UpTake would do a live stream and coverage of this type event using some combination of Mogulus and CoverItLive (two fantastic tools for citizen journalists).  We've decided to forego the bleeding edge technology, if for only one day, in order to listen more closely to what Sen. McCain says to this crowd.  Watch this space for a slow live-blog of the event.  We wlil post some edited video later on.

The press wants a three-way Senate race in Minnesota so badly they are starting to see messages in tea leaves, chicken entrails and smoky crystal balls. The prognostication on whether former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura would enter the race reached fever pitch this morning when NPR ran a story with this exchange: (emphasis added)

"He [Ventura] still insists he won't announce whether he's running until next Tuesday, the deadline in Minnesota, but when I tell him his rivals think he's simply trying to promote his latest book, Ventura seems to reveal his true intentions. He angrily says he is running, primarily because of Coleman's votes on the Iraq War, which Ventura vehemently opposes. "That's the reason I run, not to sell books. I run because it angers me." And here's Ventura again sounding as if he's already made up his mind. "And all you Minnesotans, take a good hard look at all three of us, and you decide if you were in a dark alley, which one of the three of us would you want with you?"

Notably, NPR did not run the story with the headline "Ventura confirms Senate run" they went with the slightly less internet breaking but more confusing "GOP Senator in Minnesota Faces Colorful Challengers". Is Senator Coleman facing more than one (credible) challenger or not? At 9:20am ABC Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper decided he would make NPR's mind up for them with the headline: "Jesse Ventura to Run for Senate"

At which point the foot shooting began in earnest! Both indepedent and legacy media were caught up in the misfire (see the full list below).

The UpTake, while citizen run, maintains a vigourous editorial review process and actually listened to the entire NPR audio story in full. We commented thusly:

Hedged to the brink to be certain but accurate as we could make it based on the facts. At 9:58am Ventura spoke with the AP to explain that reports of his untimely campaign confirmation had been greatly exaggerated. ABC changed their headline in response:

Subtle but key difference. That's why all I learned about journalism comes from The X-Files. Trust no one.

More media that wrote the story apparently before listening to the interview
Minnesota Independent & TC Daily Planet

Minneapolis Met Blogs

Comedy Central

Washington Post

This post written by The UpTake's Senior Political Correspondent Noah Kunin

There are a several dates we can point to for the birth of The UpTake. We first met to discuss doing this in early 2007. July 2007 is the month that we launched this website with our first video post and it also happens to be the birth month of our nation. The UpTake also has its roots in the Declaration of Independence. So July is a fitting month to celebrate our birthday as well.

In a year's time we've accomplished a lot. We've covered nearly every Presidential caucus and primary from coast-to-coast, often doing so with LIVE streaming video. We're regularly featured on You Tube's political page. We've racked up a total of about two million video views on Blip and You Tube. We've been profiled in many legacy media stories.including being named "Best Citizen Media Outlet" by City Pages. We're constantly training more volunteer video citizen jounalists.

Most importantly, we've established that average folks can work together to cover the news with video-the most believable medium around- and do so with an editorial review process that is accurate, fair and truthful. Sort of a mix of the best of new media abilities and old journalism standards and ethics.

But we wouldn't have done so without your help. Whether you're a volunteer, a donor, or a viewer/reader of our work, what we do would not happen without your constant support. Thank you for mothering us through our first year.

Big things are in store for our next year. Live coverage of the national political conventions in Denver and St. Paul using some really cool technology that's never been done before will be one of the highlights. We're working on ways that video coverage from citizens can be picked up by the legacy media. Stay tuned for more on that!

Mike McIntee
Executive Producer

The UpTake (http://theuptake.org ) is looking for an individual who is committed to helping an emerging citizen-fueled news gathering organization focus on providing coverage on the 2008 political campaign and beyond.

Fed up with "reporting by press release" by the mainstream media?  Want to be part of the solution? 

We're looking for a passionate volunteer recruiter and manager looking to work in a low-overhead, light supervision environment.  The UpTake is a movement and we need a committed staff to grow and strengthen our organization.

POSITION DESCRIPTION:

Recruit, manage and inspire a volunteer army of citizen journalists. 

The UpTake is a collaborative organization with highly skilled core team of hard-working and fun individuals.  You will work with 4-5 members of our core team.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
-Develop and implement volunteer recruitment plan
-Assist in training volunteers
-Oversee and coordinate volunteers, build and support leaders in volunteer base
-Maintain communications between core UpTake staff and volunteer base
-Give constructive feedback to both UpTake staff and volunteers

REQUIREMENTS:
-proficient and comfortable with basic tech: email, instant messaging, video conferencing, social networking tools etc.
-we almost exclusively run Mac OS X.  If you are not familiar please be a fast learner.
-passion, belief in our movement of reclaiming the media for the health of our democracy
-some journalistic training a definite plus

QUALIFICATIONS:
-Self-starter, work independent of "top down" direction
-Detail oriented, ability to meet deadlines
-Excellent oral and written communication skills
-Self effacing sense of humor

Previous experience with grassroots organizations and online organizing desired.  Experience with, video editing software and other computer graphic tools a huge plus


Contact:
Jason Barnett - Executive Director
jason.barnett (at) theuptake.org
Phone: (651) 224-2479

Over the next few days I'm focusing on ways we can make this whole video coverage thing easier to do. The biggest barrier facing anyone wanting to do video citizen journalism is usually a technical one. How do I capture the video with my camera and then get it on to the internet? Any article about doing this can easily de-evolve into tech speak.

Luckily the Knight Citizen News Network has put together a tutorial that covers this without going deep into geek speak. If you understand what a video camera and a computer are, but don't know what firewire and video codecs are.... this is the tutorial for you. It's part of a series of learning modules KCCN has done for citizen journalists. Even if you're an experienced reporter, there's some tips you can pick up here.

Cross posted from the TimeScape Media Forums

Automatic video cameras are great. But they're not as smart as they should be. Otherwise they'd yell at you if you were shooting someone with a background twice as bright as the light on the person's face.

Until they make 'em that smart, you'll just need to remember to do a few simple things.

1) Zoom in on your subject and lock your focus. When you've got a set shot the camera doesn't always know what you want to focus on. So the auto focus sometimes will bounce between you subject and something in the background. You may not notice when looking into a small viewfinder, but when the video is big enough for all to see it looks like your video is wacky.

2)While you're close up on a face locking your focus, lock your exposure too. There's nothing worse than trying to pick out someone's face when it looks like a black blob against a very bright background.

3) Use a microphone. Yes, camera mics are getting better... but they still pick up a lot of extra noise you don't want and not enough of the noise you do want. Audio is more than half of the video experience (try watching a video with the sound turned off and you'll see what I mean).

City Pages is recognizing what you've known for some time. In its annual best of the Twin Cities issue, City Pages named The UpTake as the Best Citizen Based Media Outlet.

Read more about it here.

We're flattered and want to share the credit.
Several names get mentioned in the article, but The UpTake is much more than the few people mentioned. We're a growing community of citizen journalists and supporters of citizen journalism. Everyone who has contributed video, text, time, comments or just moral support helped us win this. So this is an award, not for an organization as much as it is for a community and a movement.

Thank you City Pages... and Minnesota Monitor which wrote:

"Best citizen-based media outlet: Duh. The UpTake."

As one of the relatively new kids on the block it's nice to know you really like us.