Digital Cookbook

Are you looking for a Christmas present for that person who is hard to buy for? Do you like to cook and have run out of new recipes to try? Well no worries, I have the perfect solution to both of these problems with one simple solution - a digital cookbook. You read right, a digital cookbook. The Bismarck State College United Way committee has been collecting recipes from the staff at BSC and will be putting together a cookbook on a cd. They are selling the cd for the low price of just $10, with all the proceeds benefiting the Missouri Slope Area United Way. They didn’t really have a marketing plan, so I volunteered my services to help spread the word.

I put together a video for this cookbook as part of my social media project. You can find the video here. I decided to use YouTube to host the video, because it’s free and it allows you to upload high definition videos that look really good. I have also been promoting my video through all the other social media channels, Facebook, Twitter and Blogs. Actually I don’t have a Twitter account but I asked the president of Bismarck State College to help spread the message and he gladly helped. Here is the post from his blog, it’s at the bottom of the post. It wasn’t the longest post, but everything helps, he also posted it on his Twitter account and his Facebook page.

The BSC United Way committee’s goal is to raise $10,000 this year and they are well on their way. For their cookbook they are looking to collect at least 200 recipes and to sell at least 100 discs. Hopefully with the help of all the publicity we can get at et least 250 recipes and sell 150 discs. All the recipes submitted must be a employee of Bismarck State College, but the disc is for sale to anyone. Each recipe on the disc will be a pdf and some of the recipe’s will have pictures along with them.

Feel free to pre-order your cd by emailing Kayla Seifert at kaylaseifert@bismarckstate.edu.

Day of the Deployed

If you haven't heard by now, October 26 is now the National Day of the Deployed. This is actually the sixth year that North Dakota has celebrated this day and was the first to do so. Forty other states soon followed and now in 2011 it has become a National day of recognition to honor those who have been deployed, are about to deployed and who are serving all over the world.

At Bismarck State College this past Wednesday, the 26th of October, we held a ceremony to honor these brave men and women and to give thanks to the people that made this day happen. Senator John Hoeven, who sponsored the bill along with several other senators, including Kent Conrad was there for the celebration.

I had the opportunity to stream the event live on the military page on Bismarck State College's website. We streamed it so that people all over the country could view it and feel part of it. That is what makes streaming video so cool, it is usually free and if its done right, its like you are there. We were hoping for better streaming numbers, but did end up with 104 viewers from six different states.

One of the many things the ceremony included, was a Skype conversation between a deployed soldier and his family. His six-year-old son was there and surprised his dad with a poster he had made. I wasn't in the room at the time, as I was in a room across the hall directing the show. I could imagine that when the little boy told his dad that he loved him and that he was proud of him, that some people got a bit teary eyed. I got pretty choked up and had a hard time telling the camera operator what kind of shot I needed.

I think social media can play an extremely important role in keeping friends and family contacted as they go through tough times like being deployed and serving our country. Whether it is a simple status update on Facebook, a Tweet or maybe even a Skype conversation, I think any of them make life easier for both the soldier and the loved ones. This is definitely a benefit of Social Media and the World Wide Web.

9/11 Symposium

For those of you who read my blog two weeks ago you will recall that I am involved with a upcoming symposium on the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Its called September 11th: Ten Years Later, Impact on the Heartland.    

New new media will play a large roll in this event. If you visit our homepage on our website, you will find that we have a Twitter feed. One can also like any articles that they read on their Facebook page. Another way of new media is streaming live video. You can watch the live stream here. The symposium is set to begin Friday, September 9 at 8:30 am. We are going to be streaming all day until about 6pm. We will also be streaming Peter Bergen to a private audience. Peter Bergen was one of only a few who ever interviewed Osama Bin Laden. Then Saturday, September, 10 we again start at 8am and will go until 6pm.

Some of the other new media we are using is Skype. We have purchased to iPad 2's and have sent them one of them to Washington D.C., New York City, and Pennsylvania. We have a reporter who will be live at each location and will let us know whats happening at the sites of the crashes. The iPad 2's have both a front and rear camera so the reporter will be able to switch between the two cameras to get the appropriate shots. We have 3G running on all the iPads so as long as we have a strong cellphone service we should be ok. However, we are dealing with technology and we never know what can happen.

During the live streaming video, you will see graphics on screen, along with Powerpoint presentations, videos and a lot more. It will be a couple of long days, but it will be interesting listening to all the wonderful speakers we have coming.

Remember to check out the stream if you have sometime this Friday and Saturday.

100 Stories Project

As the Video Production Specialist at Bismarck State College, I was assigned a project for our upcoming symposium that we are hosting on our campus. September 11: Ten Years Later - The Impact on the Heartland. The project is called the 100 Stories Project.

September 11 of this year will mark the 10th anniversary of the horrible terrorist attacks on our country. The purpose of the 100 Stories Project is to collect 100 stories on video about how these acts of terror impacted the lives of people in the Heartland. Where were they when they heard about the attacks? How did it impact their life?

When I first started this project I never thought about or realized how much this project would impact me. I remember where I was when I heard about the attacks, as does everyone I have asked. Its one of those things you will never forget.

I have recorded 94 stories so far and have heard some real interesting stories. I have talked to parents who were concerned about their children who were living in New York. I talked to people who were out of the country and had hard times getting back in. I talked to one gentleman who ended up losing his brother in the War on Terrorism. I also interviewed the mother of the only North Dakotan lost in the attacks. I have seen many people tear up when talking about these horrific events.

I don't think I will ever think about 9-11 the same. After completion of the project it will be archived on our website, on our iTunes U site, it will be broadcast on our local community tv station, and may even end up on YouTube.

I am truly grateful to be part of this project and look forward sharing it with future generations, so they can understand the impact it had on our nation and to the people on the heartland.