#sometimes i should not have access to art and video editing tools | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

spnfanficpond · 5 years ago

Text

October 2019 Pond LiveChat Recap

We had a great time chatting with @evansrogerskitten tonight! Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your wisdom!

Today, we got together and talked about writing smut! We discussed the legalities around sharing smut on the internet, vocabulary choices, created a spreadsheet of terms we can all share and use, and encouraged each other to not be afraid to just write. A rundown of the chat, as well as general Pond news, is below the cut. Due to the nature of the chat, there may be some parts of this recap that might be considered NSFW.

To start us off, @mrswhozeewhatsiswrites shared some research into the legalities of posting erotica on the internet as it relates to minors. (We are not legal experts. This information was obtained through Google searches. If anyone can provide links to sources that contradict these, we will add them to this post to ensure the most correct information is provided here.)

Michelle: To try and keep it short and sweet, from everything I read, if a minor reads smut online, it's not the writer's, poster's, or web site's responsibility to keep it from them. It is the parent's, or the school's/library's responsibility. (Basically, whoever is providing the internet connection to the minor is responsible for filtering out content that might be harmful to that minor, not the parties creating or disseminating that content online.) Schools and libraries and other institutions that get government funds are usually required to have some sort of filter in place to prevent minors from accessing porn and erotica.

What makes this so difficult to research is that written erotica is not mentioned very often in obscenity laws. Most laws focus on images or videos, not the written word.

No matter what it is, though, to be prosecuted under obscenity laws, the material must first be ruled to be obscene. Legally, there is a difference between obscenity and erotica. Obscenity is generally illegal, and erotica is protected speech. There are many different sets of rules and guidelines that have been used to determine if something is considered obscene or not. The most widely used current set of guidelines is the Miller test. From my research, most (if not all) erotic fan fiction would not be considered obscene because of its ‘literary, artistic, political, or scientific value’.

Some interesting links in relation to this subject that go into detail:

Wikipedia - US Obscenity Law - About halfway down, there is a section on non image-based obscenity cases in the US. The first part of this section, which deals with the written word, is very enlightening about the differences between obscenity and erotica. Further down is a section about criticism of the laws which shows some of the gaps in the law where free speech lives. Continuing on, the section about censorship in schools and libraries explains the part CIPA (Children’s Internet Protection Act) plays in protecting minors from material that could be considered harmful to them.

Online Art Rights - Sexual Content - This site details the many attempts at limiting indecent material on the internet through the years. (Scroll down and click on the plus signs in the black bars to expand each section.) In each case cited, the court ruled that to ban all objectionable material would interfere with free speech because it would reduce all content to a level appropriate for children. They also concluded that since less restrictive means exist, such as user-controlled filters and the like, those tools can be used without reducing all discourse on the internet. The section on Child Pornography at the bottom might be of interest to anyone who writes Weecest smut, though.

The only possible exception that I think would affect the SPN fandom would be those who write Weecest smut. Child pornography seems to be the exception to every rule that protects free speech. Where every other depiction of a sex act might have a ‘but’ that makes it erotica (and therefore legal) instead of obscenity, child pornography in any medium is considered obscenity. Anything that even just looks like child porn is considered child porn, even if no children were a part of the making of it. This includes cartoons and CGI and adults made up to look like kids. If it’s advertised as children in a sexual situation, it’s child porn. So, I imagine it could extend to written erotica IF someone were to decide to push it.

Now, that’s a huge if. Someone would have to read it, object to it, and insist on prosecution for it. I think if that were going to happen, given 15 years of SPN fan fiction, it would have happened by now. But I would still keep my Weecest smut-free, or implied, or at least over the age of consent (which varies, so 18 is just easiest to use).

Also, AO3 complies with the laws regarding filtering for minors. If you do not have an account, you are required to click through a step that tells you that you are about to view something explicit. That's really all that sites and such are required to do. Hence, Tumblr making you click through and view on dash blogs they mark as explicit.

@emilyshurley I think there might also be a sorta solution just to play it safe. I saw that people who make mods for games like Sims 4 and stuff have a page for terms of download. What that is is that if you click their masterlist it will take you to a post where they list their conditions and have the words "I agree" and link the actual masterlist to that. Now this might take a little effort but we could add something similar before our masterlists.

This is all legal stuff, not site-specific rules. Each site can implement their own decency rules and enforce them how they see fit. For example, Tumblr, as a company, can decide to delete your blog. (They’ve stopped doing this since The Purge, now just marking each blog explicit and making you click on a couple things to get to those blogs they deem explicit.) Should they choose to do this, it does not mean that you’re in trouble with the law.

Now, onto the fun stuff!

Q: What is the first thing you think of when someone asks you for advice about writing smut?

Ash: Word choice- don't make the reader cringe. It's easy to fall into that because smut can be graceful and tasteful if it's done right. And that starts with thinking through word choice and how the scene is flowing. It's not easy to write smut! I think a lot of non-writer readers do not realize that.

Note: During the chat, we created a Google Sheets spreadsheet, with two sheets in it, with lists of words to use to refer to different things when you’re writing smut. The first sheet is Good Words, and the second sheet is Bad Words. Everyone can enter words they like and don’t like on both sheets, and we’ll crowd-source this problem! Check it out and add your favorites!

Michelle: A smut scene takes ten times as long for me to write as anything else. Just keeping track of limbs is difficult! And clothing....sometimes, I just make them dry hump so I don't have to deal with removing all the clothing! Other times, it's just, "Somehow, you suddenly found yourself naked." Like, there's a million great ways to get characters naked, but if I'm tired, angels snap.

@fictionalabyss (Mel): I've read stuff where a position makes no sense and it ruins the whole thing for me. Michelle: I actually bought a couple of those posable dolls from IKEA. (IKEA - GESTALTA, Artist’s figure) @babypieandwhiskey (Cam): I’ll have to use my daughter’s old Barbie dolls! I can keep track of both limbs and clothing!

Q: Ash, what are a few of the words that turn you off when you're reading smut?

Ash: It's usually words that sound so "romance novel"-ish to me. So "turgid member" is a good example. Please no one ever write that. Mel: Sometimes, keeping it simple is the safest and best bet. Ash: Absolutely, Mel! Sometimes we don't need all the extra words if we're showing the heat that's already there between them.

[What followed was a long discussion of various terms you definitely should not use in serious smut. They’ve all been added to the spreadsheet linked above, so fee free to check it out.]

Michelle: EVERYONE has those words that squick them, and it's damn near impossible to write a smut scene that doesn't include a word that will squick someone out there. So, don't stress about what words you do or don't use, cuz there's always gonna be someone out there who doesn't like something. Just make sure YOU think what you're writing is hot. If you don't get warm under the collar from it, no one else will, either. Ash: I highly recommend everyone is reading their fics out loud to see how it all flows. You'll catch errors and weird words there too.

Q: Ash, how do you get in the frame of mind to write something you personally have never experienced? For example, certain kinks.

Ash: Whiskey? LOL No, I do a lot of research- google, porn, erotica. Trying something out in person helps too! But we're writing fiction. You can make a kink work for your scenario too.I mean, I've written a reader squirting after 5 minutes to move things along but we all know it takes longer usually. And that's the fun! I've never actually been with 2 dudes but I f-ing love writing it. @atc74 (Angelina): I've always said I don't need to kill someone to write a murder scene. Ash: Smut is all about having an open mind. It lets us and the readers be someone else.

Question submitted earlier by @erins-culinary-service: I've wanted to try writing smut but never known exactly how to start and what words to use to describe everything. I've had sex so I know the sensations, positions, etc I'm just not sure how to write it all down any advice?

Ash: So sometimes I can't just start from "they kissed..." I start wherever I can see it best. So is it oral sex, or already doing it, I just jump in. And then I come back and fill it in. And I just write, no stopping once I get going. So the "cock into her hole" can be fixed later on my next edit. I just gotta get the idea out and then go back and make it hot. My smut is never hot in my first draft. Michelle: I think that's what stops a lot of writers, is thinking they have to publish their first draft. Editing is totally a thing. Just get the ideas on paper, and then make them hot later. Ash: Oh yeah, I go through at least 3 drafts per fic. Plus my beta version. Yeah, no one is ever going to see your drafts so don't worry about starting somewhere, anywhere. Michelle: And remember, practice practice practice - As with any writing, the more you write it, the easier it becomes. I wrote Third Wheel as a way to challenge myself with writing smut. Do a kink bingo or alphabet challenge. Just remember, you’re gonna write crap at the start, but crap makes good compost. Ash: Taking some time between edits is important too. It'll help you see different ways, AND you'll start having breakthroughs during the time away. Bingos are a great challenge that will help a writer grow. Cam: Writing smut is like sex, you're first time is going to be awkward and things won't be perfect, but with practice it gets better. Mel: I have a series that shows even the millionth time having sex isn't perfect and can be all laughs 🤣. But yeah.

Question submitted earlier by @focusonspn: i wanted to know about ways and words to describe orgasms and how to approach the moment after it without being awkward or forced. some people say those are the easiest things to write, but somehow i always have a hard moment trying to write them.

Ash: Hmmmm, as for the moments after- that's understandable, it is hard because its a transition. I think it's doesn't have to be an extended part of it- unless they're about to have a talk or aftercare needs a scene, it can be as simple as "we drifted off to sleep." Michelle: As always, my advice is to read smut that other people write that you like, and take note of what they do. Mel: Someone can get up and get dressed and leave. They can play in the fluids. They can lay there catching their breaths for a moment. It can be simple. Sometimes it doesn't need a flourish and that flourish can make it seem forced. Michelle: I think it depends on what type of smut fic you're writing. Is it fluffy smut where they're all in LOVE and kissy and stuff? Or is it Soulless Sam and Demon Dean just getting down and dirty and claiming you for themselves? Or, Soulless Sam or Demon Dean just getting their rocks off and they don't give a shit? @emilyshurley (Emily): Also this might be my f*cked up brain but I think if someone is not comfortable with a lot of fluffy buildup to smut trying soulless!Sam or Demon!Dean could be a great start. You also have a little room to do a little out of character. Michelle: We are blessed with a world that includes all types of characters and all types of situations, from curses (sex pollen, love potions, etc) to supernatural beings, to inspire and give us chances to write all kinds of smut. There are no limits to what you can do in Supernatural, so there are no limits to what we can write. Ash: Yeah we can really make most kinks work in some way in the SPN worlds. Emily: Also again with going out of character I read a captain America fic where it could have been a little out of character how he jumped straight to sex (someone commented that) but sex pollen made it work. So basically these tropes/kinks can also be good devices for writing NSFW fics to if you struggle to get the characters write in the beginning.

Other links mentioned:

Emily: I saw this advice list on Tumblr, so thought I should share it: List of Smut Writing Guides

Ash: This one, too: @smut-101′s Smut Tips Masterlist

And last, but definitely not least...

Ash: Always, always, always write for you. Readers come and go but you have to be satisfied and proud of what you've written. And everyone should get so much credit for trying to write smut. It's difficult but its does get easier and more fun with practice!

General Pond Updates and Reminders

What we’ve got cooking up next: Not much, at the moment, since everyone is busy, so we’re just trying to keep up with the day-to-day at the moment! Our to do list is still long, though, and will not be neglected forever!

Reminders:

Angel Fish Award nominations are accepted all month long! No need to wait to tell us how much you liked a fellow Fish’s work! IF YOU HAVE SENT IN A NOMINATION, BUT HAVE NOT RECEIVED A PRIVATE MESSAGE CONFIRMING WE RECEIVED IT, WE DIDN’T GET IT. Be sure to use Submit instead of Ask!

Don’t forget to submit your stories to be posted to the blog! When your stories are on the blog, then they are easier to nominate for Angel Fish Awards!

Say hi to September’s New Members!

Check the Pond CALENDAR to see when Big Fish will be in the Skype chat room/discord general channel and other Pond and SPN events are happening! Know of something that’s not on the calendar, send us an ask or submission with the deets info details! The calendar offers a lot of features, such as showing you when things are in your own timezone! Since we’re an international group, that’s a definite plus!!

We don’t have a topic or speaker set up for November’s event, yet, so if there’s something you want to talk about, or someone you want to talk to, LET US KNOW!

#spnfanficpond live chat #chat room #let's chat #pond chat #THE CHAT ROOM #chat recap #smut #vocabulary

17 notes · View notes

lindakortig3449-blog · 6 years ago

Text

How Do I Merge Duplicate Data?

If you would like to merge a bunch of audio tracks into one file, AVS Audio Editor is all the time prepared to assist, merge mp3s even when your input information are of different formats. The Merge Clips dialog box launches. Although the audio quality can be a bit staggering for the consultants as you can notice a slight bounce on the merge point, it does a good job for the novice. The truth that Merge MP3 is a portable instrument and requires no set up makes it sought after. So, you possibly can simply download the program, export it to your thumb drive and it is possible for you to to hitch MP3 recordsdata in conjunction on any LAPTOP with Home windows OS. Repeat the method until the entire audio tracks are merged. Click the Merge" possibility. In some packages, the option will read Group," Join" or Combine." Generally you will see the choice immediately in your primary window, and generally you will have to sift via the options on your menu bar. For instance, in Logic Express and Logic Pro, it's essential to click on Region" on the menu bar and select Merge" from the list. In Cubase, it's essential to choose MIDI" on the menu bar and choose Merge MIDI in Loop" from the record. In GarageBand, you need to click on Edit" on the menu bar and choose Be a part of" from the checklist. Free Merge MP3 is a good audio conversion tool. It is light-weight and simple-to-use, and it will undoubtedly come in handy on multiple occasion. Should you dont wish to re-encode the MP3s, you possibly can probably just append them. I know this labored for MPEG films, sources so I suppose it might work for MP3s too. Another choice would be to add the audo files to a Zip Archive with no compression and then rename the extension tomp3. Run a report from the SmartMerge page. The emailed spreadsheet report will even display records with names that sound similar to each other.

As an all-round media cutting tool, TunesKit MP3 Cutter can't solely trim MP3 audio recordsdata into small sections with lossless high quality, but also merge and edit the parts of the MP3 files in addition to videos flexibly. Once trimmed, you can save the cuts to any popular format and mobile device such as MP4, AVI, MPG, MPEG, 3GP, MKV, WMV, ASF, VRO, MP3, AAC, AC3, OGG, APE, Apple iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, recreation consoles, smart TELEVISION, and so forth. By the best way, you may as well use the CAT command to merge different forms of information. The obvious can be text recordsdata, but you can too merge QuickTime MOV files (though I've by no means tested this). As for added options, the instrument provides pace control so you possibly can slow down or pace up your movies. As well as, you too can play your video in reverse. Since this is a video editing software program, it helps all normal video enhancing options. This implies you possibly can easily trim or crop your videos, change the hue, saturation or brightness. If wanted, it's also possible to merge videos with ease. The appliance additionally presents various audio editing options so you possibly can easily trim, split or change the quantity of audio information. Utilizing this software you'll be able to easily record your display and there is even a video stabilization function accessible. Click on the Join button to merge the selected tracks collectively. Be aware that it does take some time for the app to merge the recordsdata together. Getting into metadata You may enter metadata to a part clip or for your entire merged clip. Simple tools in Salesforce will help you retain your contact database in line and updated. Strive as you may, sometimes you come throughout duplicate contact records within the system. As a substitute of deleting one or a number of of the duplicate data and doubtlessly losing valuable info in these records, you can use Salesforce to merge contact data simply.

And then there's the budget taxidermy. Ballance is amused, baffled and proud about a bit of office décor that an employee has just ordered off of eBay: an absurd yet hypnotic stuffed coyote head, teeth and tongue bared in menace. It looks like a ridiculous use of label resources — until Ballance shares that she seemed up the eBay itemizing and "it mentioned it was like $three.54." Probably the most prominent art elsewhere within the building is a large series of Merge-impressed work by prolific Brooklyn artist Steve Keene, known for his cowl for Pavement's 1995 album Wowee Zowee, but additionally to younger house-dwellers everywhere because the guy who expenses $30 on-line for five random paintings.When you will have efficiently uploaded the recordsdata to be merged, simply drag them now from the Person's Album" to the Timeline situated at the bottom. Be sure that you drag them one by one and in addition do not put one file over the other since you would risk splitting them. The dragged information can be arranged depending on the play order. By dragging them to the place of your selection on the Timeline, you'd have the ability to organize them in your order. Use the instrument I instructed above, MP3 to iPod Audio Ebook Converter, to merge the brand new MP3 tracks and create an audiobook.LB: Definitely. TheyвЂve been on the label longer than virtually another band. I feel part of what makes Lambchop a quintessential Merge band is their weirdness, or the accidentalness of all of it. Merge is unintended; we began a report label, and it really labored out, which is type of surprising. Lambchop was an outlet for Kurt WagnerвЂ"he was a carpenter, he labored putting in flooring, and in the night to blow of steam heвЂd go to this bar along with his pals and play with whoever wished to get on stage. It somehow turned a successful band that has sold numerous data over its lifetime, and has been critically acclaimed and brought very severely.The solution can then depend your duplicates and merge all duplicated data. The merge software merges all duplicate records into one, and allows the consumer to choose in the event that they'd like to hold the older document, the newer record, or the primary one in the list because the guardian report. When merging data, fields which might be already stuffed out on the father or mother report are usually not overwritten. Solely clean fields are populated with the duplicated record data. As soon as the answer is done merging your records, the duplicates are disabled.

1 note · View note

mixdoyoung · 7 years ago

Text

Cross Jurisdictions

It’s amazing what can be caught on film. From criminals caught on CCTV emptying banks and jewellers, to drug deals busted by brave teens and their addictions to their phones, a strategically placed camera can blow a case wide open if used wisely, and with such advanced technology available now at the tip of our fingers, more and more is being immortalised in film every second.

Still, photography itself as an art is highly respected. The availability of technology doesn’t accommodate for raw talent and passion, and it’s for this reason that a dark mobile phone image of a drug dealer handing over a parcel in exchange for a thick wad of cash is bought by the SPD for a couple hundred thousand won, yet a beautifully crafted photograph provoking the deepest of emotions can go for millions— sometimes more. Hell, even reporters will pay a hefty sum for sole access to photographic evidence of anything from celebrity love affairs to violent crimes such as the ongoing investigation sweeping the city.

It all begs the question, really, when you discover a covered figure in the background of an image you had taken recently, an old newspaper headlined by the killings of the year before clutched between their fingers, what do you do with it?

Life in the big city with a stable, legal job can be a monotonous drag. Even with flexible working hours, the general basic routine is still there. And routine, no matter how variable, is still routine. Wake, Eat, Play, Work, Eat, Sleep. Rinse and repeat.

Sometimes Doyoung wonders if he should pursued a more exciting career path. Like perhaps the army or police force. Or maybe a mortician. But he doubts he would’ve enjoyed either paths. The former is too rigid in structure (and not to mention, his conflicting morals) while he probably wasn’t smart enough to pursue a career in the latter industry.

Regardless of whatever path he might’ve pursued though, he reckons he would’ve ended up the same. Because excitement and adventure can only ever be sought after, and never obtained. Do something enough, and it becomes ordinary. Routine.

Watchman-work, too, would’ve gotten stale eventually if it weren’t for the continuous influx of objectives, challenges and secrets his little hobby offered. And this little hobby of his, or really just life in general, had a way of throwing him curve balls when he least expects it. Or sometimes, when he least desires it.

For example? Right now, the photograph of a somewhat aged male entering an ‘questionable’ establishment arm in arm with a dolled up young woman.

It’s nothing particularly exciting really, but evidence of affairs and the like on executives and whatnot are always useful tools when it comes to bargaining favours or payments when the situation calls for it. He’d planed to do what he always did with photographs such as those – clean, edit, tag, file.

That dark figure of an individual in the background? He was going to edit him out, because blackmail material or not, photography was art. And he didn’t need some random passerby detracting from his subject matter.

At least, that was what he was planning.

That was before he spied the newspaper article said mystery individual was clutching onto. The paper itself isn’t of much note, but the headline and date of issue certainly was. Everyone who had half a brain has heard of, and knew of the copy cat Valentine Killings going on as of late. And the fact that this man here, was holding onto a paper – an old, old paper – headlining last year’s killings was very suspicious indeed.

THIS was fucking juicy stuff; THIS was the kind of thing the Watchman chased after.

Or what he would chase after, if he had nothing else better to do. Because in the end, Watchman-ing was a hobby, albeit an extreme one. And he had other hobbies too – like video gaming. And what can he say? He’s kind of busy since it’s Seollal and all, with all the Lunar New Year festivities and events the games are churning out.

He has lootboxes to grind, online currency to farm and community challenges to complete before the season’s over. And whether one might believe it or not, he’s torn between chasing after that exclusive in-game skin, and diving into the secrets and intrigue behind what seems like a budding series of serial murders.

Tapping a fingernail on his mouse, he ponders a thought with furrowed eyebrows before deciding to further blow up the photograph. This time, with the mystery figure being the focal point. It easy enough – having done countless of times – for him to de-noise and sharpen the photograph, lightening the shadows where needed to get him a decent close up of said individual in almost no time at all.

Leaning back, he lolls his head and relishing in the crackling sounds that the motion makes, sighing as he feels the muscles around his neck loosen up.

“What do you think Felix?”

He cocks his head to the side, directing the question to the feline lazing by his desktop.

“I shouldn’t bother right? It’s my holiday. And Feng Min’s skin is waiting for me,” he muses to himself. Eyes wandering over to this other (gaming) monitor which had a streamer’s steam open. “The event is waiting for me…”

Next to Felix, his phone buzzes, signalling the arrival of a new message from the ‘KIM CLAN🤘🤘🤘’ – titled by his younger sister, obviously; these damned youngins – group chat.

Somebody(s) was spamming all the photos from their family reunion.

God, that had been an awkward affair.

How does one act around family they’re partially estranged from? They’re estranged enough that meet-ups feel awkward, but not estranged enough that snubbing them wouldn’t feel awkward. He has no desire to embarrass his family in front of the rest of their relatives. Their issues can stay theirs. And private.

However, it’s one thing pretending things are okay in front of just your parents, your immediate family. But it’s a whole other ball game pretending in front of extended family too. It’s tiring.

He blames his brother.

Rolling his eyes, he scrolls through the spam of photographs, mildly annoyed by the lack of symmetry in some of the snapshots. He stops at one – the family photo where everyone looks swell, and where Doyoung looks like he’s dead on the inside. There’s one extra individual in this year’s photo.

Hyung-nim had decided it had been high time he introduced his 'secret’ girlfriend to the family. Doyoung had already found out a long time ago (though not because he had been told), but it was news to the rest of the family. He had no idea why they were so surprised though. Kim Dohwan had everything there was to be had in an attractive male specimen. It was inevitable he’d have found a match in his league.

And he’d definitely found a partner of his league. A pretty woman. Smart too, he’d reckon just going off her master’s degree. And Doyoung had yet to find any dirt on her so, she’s nice enough it seems.

He thinks that Dohwan is thinking of marriage; He’s too much of a gentlemen. And also much too easy to read. Marriage must be on the table, or at least at the back of his mind, if he’d decided to introduce her to the family.

God, he hates that he knows him so well.

But he still can’t help but wonder if he’d be invited to the wedding, if there were one. It’s an errant thought, but he also wonders if his brother and his girlfriend would be the Valentine copycat’s ’type’.

“As if,” he scoffs, and yet, he still pulls up a window to look up the details.

“They fit his type… age wise, at least. Twenties? What do you think Felix?” He directs the rhetorical question towards his cat, absent-mindedly scratching its head while his eyes were still glued to the screen.

“Copycat only seems to be following the whole 'couples’ shtick. His first ones were in their thirties.”

But you never know.

He doesn’t like not knowing.

Drumming his fingers on his mobile phone, he ponders a thought. As he arrives upon a decision, he straightens up, pulling out a new window for the image. Sharpened and zoomed in on the mysterious individual.

He crops out the newspaper from the final image.

Digging through his drawer, he pulls out one of the many burn phones stacked haphazardly in the container and dials a number.

“Sweet Nightingale, mind doing me a favour?” He practically purrs into the receiver, his voice taking on that fiendish tone typical to that of his Watchman persona. “I need some help in looking into a person. I’ll send you the photo. Don’t worry, I’ll pay you back. Oh! And happy new year ~”

He doesn’t bother waiting for a response. Cutting the call as soon as he’s done. He knows the message has been delivered, and they both know that it wasn’t so much of a request as it was a demand. Nightingale also knows, that it’s always better to never ask questions.

It’s not as bad as he makes it sound. A mutually beneficial relationship, he’d say.

He sends over the photo.

The Watchman is returning early from his holiday, it seems.

There’s no point going to the SPD. From his experience, the law was always one step behind regardless because of their useless red tape and what not. With their luck, they’d just screw over what little tips that were handed over. And he wasn’t going to the gangs with what amounted to scraps. At least, not yet. He, as the annoying know-it-all, had a reputation to keep.

Besides, where was the fun in that?

His gaze falls on the family photograph still open in his mobile phone’s gallery.

“Don’t say I’ve never done anything for you, shithead.”

#mi:valentine18 #kdy; solo #sp; cross jurisdictions #mi:event #[ as usual idk what i'm writing ]#[ mostly ramblings ]#[ and DY is a secret softie for all things family ]#[ a bitter aggressive soft tho ]#[ blegh ]#submission

10 notes · View notes

collaborativedocumenteditingsoft · 5 years ago

Text

The Published Secret to Post Production Workflow Discovered

Come see us at the #Televisual Corporate Video Production Workshop at the #Jigsaw24 office in Soho on March 27, 2019. Make your asset management and collaboration more efficient than ever before. To register: https://t.co/vUMVm7aZVJ pic.twitter.com/c2X113mqqO

— Projective Technology (@ProjectiveTech) March 14, 2019

Adobe I/O Runtime

I've had a few cases where I've had to recreate an issue under different circumstances for them but they've been helpful and patient through those processes too. Sanfusion works only in NFS and it would also work well but it has some stability problems in recent times. But with this qnap and with the qtier system I noticed that with avid you can not work well, sometimes randomly there are dropframe or the volumes in nfs are unmounted.

Remote editing, whilst using high-quality Proxies and decent editing Software

Yossy is the founder of filmmaking academic program - "The Art of Independent Filmmaking", which is focused on the complex integration of cinematography, editing, color grading, sound design and music composition. A timeline can even feature dozens of layers of sound effects and music (the green clips in this screenshot), so make sure you invest in audio. Watch all your clips (again) and â€œdrag and dropâ€ them into the timeline to start creating your rough cut.

What are the stages of production?

The Importance of Post-Production. Post-production is as essential to film production as turning the camera on and hitting record. Editing, sound mixing, colour grading, special effects and the list goes on and on are as essential as production stage.

Derek had the pleasure to be on Larry Jordan's @DPBuZZ again to talk about the @ProjectiveTech new branding, the lastest product development and #knocktheirsocksoff Strawberry foot wear. Listen to his interview: https://t.co/9wHNobCj0F pic.twitter.com/MkwBkYShTx

— Projective Technology (@ProjectiveTech) April 16, 2019

DNxIO is compatible with Avid Artist Suite solutions and many third-party tools, including Blackmagic Resolve, Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects and others. It includes hardware by Blackmagic, which is a new I/O Connectivity Partner for the MediaCentral Platform. â€œBandito uses Pro Tools for mixing, which also makes the ISIS

VM involves investing in a stack of servers at your facility and running VMs, or virtual machines, on these stacks of servers.

Can 7zip open BIN files?

Click the "Tools" button on the menu, and then select the "Convert Image File Format" option. The "convert" dialogue will be pop-up. Press the â€œBrowseâ€ then choose a BIN/CUE file you wish to convert and choose the â€œISO files(*. iso)â€ option.

But if the audio isnâ€™t up to snuff, the whole project can be negatively affected. Therefore, itâ€™s very important to pass the video file along to an audio professional after youâ€™ve approved the final cut.

The answer is https://www.toodledo.com â€œpotentially yes, dependingâ€¦â€ Your colorist will have good advice on the best way to do this, as well as the best way to set the timeline. In the list that appears, twirl down â€œPremiere Pro Project Dataâ€. No camera, none, includes alpha channels as it is recording video.

What is the post production process?

Post Production Workflow Model. The Post-Production Workflow Model is designed to assist/inform you of the editing process, necessary after recording a video footage. This model will provide you with information relating to Best Practice, once your project reaches the post-production portion of Video Production.

8K UHD has four times the horizontal and vertical resolution of the 1080p HDTV format, with sixteen times as many pixels overall. Whatever your production environment, whatever resolution youâ€™re working in, thereâ€™s an Avid Artist interface for you.

In this project, you will build your own collaborative editor. This is a challenging application, since it involves handling concurrency (so that simultaneous actions interleave in a reasonable way), dealing with network connections, and building a graphical user interface.

A great way to keep your timeline tidy and efficient, you can place your scenes on the main timeline as single timeline clip events, but you can still go back into the scene to change things if needed. Thanks to the increased affordability of editing software and a wide array of online tutorials, digital editing is more accessible than ever before. 9.The third cut or the fine cut where you work with both audio and video at this point and trim out finer edit points. You will also be multi tasking at this point when you are working with graphics

Can BIN files contain viruses?

Pro Tools 12.4 Track Freeze. Finally introducing to Pro Tools the most requested feature by users, Track Freeze allows users the ability to "lock-in" the processing on a track so as to free up resources. Furthermore, it also allows users to "UnFreeze" a track if edits are needed down the road.

Export a Reference Video

Avid features in ProMAX enables various editors to operate on various ProMAX Platformâ€™s Shared storage devices. â€œTo meet the trend, we now offer â€˜Baselight everywhere,â€™ with the appropriate tools â€“ and the same uncompromised color precision â€“ on devices from on-set ingest to the final deliverables. They have incorporated Forbidden Technologies FORscene, a cloud video platform, into its regular workflow to make the post-production process more flexible and efficient, especially for large-scale projects. Boston â€” EditShare is now offering Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) compatibility for all its shared storage, Flow media asset management and Ark archiving and back-up products.

What affects video production costs?

What are post production activities?

post-production. This includes tasks such as the editing of raw footage to cut scenes, insert transition effects, working with voice and sound actors, and dubbing, to name a few of the many pre-production tasks. Post-production is the third and final step in film creation.

While you can access the computer running the Teradici software with a macOS or Windows equipped computer â€“ or even via a hardware zero client â€“ the environment you create in will always be a Windows OS. They can increase the CPU density by a factor of 2 or 4 times. It allows the video file playback of 4 channels from all kinds of media in 12G-SDI. mediaCARD is a software application that automates and improves the camera card ingest and transcode operations. Providing ingest / outgest automation allows users to save time and resources on manual tasks, automating the whole workflow and getting full control of the complete solution.

If youâ€™re interested in this kind of thing, check out this post on editing keyboards, controllers, mice and more. This is instead of using the supplied â€˜Editorâ€™s Mixâ€™ from the location sound recordist, which are intended for dailies. Organization of your edit begins at the project level with your Bin structure. Eddie shared some of his workflow tips in this fantastic interview with PVC writer Steve Hullfish, which provides some of the detail in this post, as well as other interviews with Eddie that Iâ€™ve read or heard over the years. Eddieâ€™s essential philosophy is that everything should be so clearly labelled and logically laid out that any other editor could sit down in his chair and quickly find anything they needed.

0 notes

airstool8-blog · 5 years ago

Text

5 Essential Social Media Marketing Skills - NapoleonCat

Link clicks are pretty much a representation of the quality of your content-whether it is the title or image you used. Your fans are only going to click on links that interest them. And that’s a great sign! Likes. The more likes your posts are generating, the higher the possibility that your branding is reaching larger audiences. Fans typically are attracted to content they find valuable or eye-catching. Shares. Or even Retweets. It’s always good to know that your fans are sharing your work. In short, shares are a reliable indicator of the quality you’ve put into your content. It shows that your content was valued by them! This is a key social media metric because it shows that your brand is driving awareness and creating conversations amongst your audience. Brand Mentions. If your social handle is mentioned or tagged, it shows that people are talking about your brand. How far does your content really go in terms of viewership? This is a question all social media marketers must ask themselves, which is why ‘reach’ is an important metric to track.

Find an industry leader’s Twitter handle and make the first move! Who doesn’t love free stuff! Whether it be ebooks, white papers, or other downloadable content, your audience will appreciate the free resources. Put together a content bundle, or a downloadable infographic so your audience can use it for reference. Psst! You can get all of our bundles for FREE here! Sometimes reading content can be time-consuming, so give your audience’s eyes a break and share a podcast episode. We recently started our own podcast and have had great success with it! Or even better, start your own! If 5 Tips to Keep Your Business Thriving During COVID-19 Shutdown decide to start your own podcast, check out this post to help get you started. Is your team expanding? Let your audience know! We cover topics and challenges our audience faces. Who better to work for your company than a dedicated fan who’s watched your company grow? Or maybe they have a friend who would be interested in working for you. After posting your job listing, you’re likely going to find the right candidate.

This isn’t a social media goal any other social media manager or social media coach would recommend, but I know how in our heads we can get with social media. It can be scary to put ourselves out there with something as public as a photo or video-everyone can see how many likes you got or the comments that were made and that’s scary. I should have posted more last week. I need to post this NOW. I could have looked better in that photo. Should I delete this? That’s why I’m offering you this mindset goal option. It didn’t get very many likes… Consider where you’re feeling stressed, worried, anxious or not confident and set a monthly mindset mantra and a solution. Instead, I will post just 3 times each week. My mantra is: Every day, in every way, I’m doing enough. Play with this goal, see what feels natural for you. I feel anxious about posting every day. Get your social media goals on track-or written out for the first time-now! To remember your mantra, put it somewhere: on a sticky note, your desktop background-or grab one of my inspirational phone backgrounds! If you need help organizing them, download my free goal-setting template below and let me know how it goes!

Social media marketing is an effective method of advertising in this Internet era. This is prevalent on popular platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Since many people engage in social media, there is a big possibility that the number of your customers will grow, and, in turn, increase your business revenue. You can make your business stand out more through effective social media marketing. Therefore, you will surely miss out much as a business owner if you do not utilize social media marketing. Many people do not completely trust the Internet since anybody can post anything they want. Therefore, you must let your potential customers trust your business by having a good reputation in terms of conducting payment transactions online and not divulging personal information. You have to show that your business is legitimate and authentic. It is advisable that you do this before you venture into any marketing campaign on social media.

Master Social Media Marketing! The Social Media Marketing Workbook 2020 edition is your step-by-step guide to social media marketing. “attending a party.” It deep dives into the concepts of eWOM (electronic word of mouth), the customer continuum, social (and viral) spread, and trust indicators. The book explains how social media marketing is like “throwing a party” vs. Whether you want to market on Facebook or Twitter, YouTube or Yelp, Pinterest or LinkedIn, the Social Media Marketing Workbook will help you master the art (and science) of social media marketing. LEARN: Learn more about the book. Welcome to the Social Media Marketing Workbook, 2020 edition! Social Media Marketing plan. Fully revised and updated for 2020, this workbook not only explains how to market on social media (from Facebook to LinkedIn, YouTube to Pinterest, Twitter to Yelp and back again) but also provides access to free social media marketing tools. It provides overviews, step-by-step instructions, tips and secrets, resource tips for social media marketing, and (wait, there’s more!) access to worksheets that will help you build a systematic social media marketing plan.

True North Social

youtube

#tns

0 notes

recentanimenews · 5 years ago

Text

Dive Head First Into People's Dreams In AI: The Somnium Files

Dreams are a strange aspect of living. Your brain just throws together bits of what you’ve experienced, some weird things from your subconscious, maybe parts of a movie you saw recently, and blends that all together to create something to pass the time while you sleep. Sometimes they can be fun, while other times they can be terrifying. Of course, dreams are kept to yourself unless you talk about them, but what would happen if someone could access your dreams and use that as information?

Jumping into people’s dreams is one of the big mechanics in AI: The Somnium Files, the latest game from Zero Escape series creator Kotaro Uchikoshi. As this is a crime drama adventure game, diving into people’s dreams is one of your investigative tools in order to try and solve a gruesome murder that was put on display. Are dreams enough to set this game apart from other crime stories that have come out this year? Will you get the same twists and turns you’d expect from an Uchikoshi game?

If you’re coming into this game with knowledge of the Zero Escape series, you’ll probably expect there to be two things here: puzzles and a wild story with multiple endings that funnel into a true ending. Both would be correct, however, the puzzles are not in the same ballpark. When you enter Somnium, which are the dream sections of the game, that is where the puzzles are housed. Surprisingly, they aren’t the kind of puzzles that you need to break out a notebook to keep track of information and to piece out a solution to. Instead, it’s more about you interacting with the dream world in order to take down mental locks that the subject you’re in has placed.

The caveat to this is that you only have six minutes to be in a person’s Somnium. That might seem pretty simple at first, but every action you do costs you time. For example, if you wanted to look at a picture, you’ll have a few options. If you picked to pick it up, that might cost you 20 seconds to do that action. That would be deducted from your six minutes. There are items you will be given for completing certain tasks or actions that will help reduce the time taken, but there are also items that will increase the time to make things more difficult. It becomes a tense filled race against the clock to break all of these locks before your time is up. You can stand still and cause time to move very slowly in order to try and think through a solution, but that still will cost you precious seconds in the long run.

The Somnium puzzles ramp up in difficulty as the game progresses, so while the initial ones might seem pretty simple to get through, your fight against time will become more challenging later on. These sections are also a change in gameplay as you control a character when you are in Somnium compared to when you are outside of it, you are moving an on-screen cursor in a more traditional point-and-click style. This allows for a nice switch in terms of gameplay by allowing you do something different instead of having the same style throughout the entire game.

Perhaps the biggest strength the game has is its writing. Uchikoshi is known for being a strong writer from his work on Zero Escape, PUNCH LINE, and the Infinity series. This might be some of the tightest writing he’s done since Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. One reason is that the game does not go overboard with having branches in its story or having you repeat sequences you have already done over and over. Anytime you have to hear something you might have already heard, it’s quick and not labored on. The tight writing also allows for the story to just continuously keep you on your heels by not having too much fluff or filler to try and pad out length.

Where the writing truly shines is with its characters. Protagonist Kaname Date and his AI partner Aiba have amazing chemistry with one another. Even before the game tells you how long the two have been together, you immediately get the impression that they are longtime partners with how much they bicker with each other, poke fun at one another, and are essentially on the same wavelength. It’s that kind of trust and companionship you get when you truly know someone and even though Aiba is an artificial intelligence, it still works extremely well as Aiba and Date’s relationship is one of the best written parts.

Other characters as well get this same type of treatment. Mizuki feels like a young girl going through a rebellious phase of her life and trying to figure out what her relationship with Date is throughout the game. It’s the kind of writing you can look at and think, “oh, I was like that when I was a kid” or “I can absolutely buy that a twelve year old would think or react in that type of way”. Even going past the characters, the writing also tackles some serious subject matter and handles it with the right amount of weight and gravitas that it should be given.

It could be one thing if the game had well written characters, but the story left something to be desired. That’s not the case here as the overall story gets the same kind of treatment that the game gives its characters. With the overall mystery of trying to solve a murder where someone you know is left on display with their eye removed, the game is able to dispense new information in small chunks to leave you wanting more and more, while at the same time trying to piece together who was the true culprit and why. With all the twists and turns that you’ll encounter along the way, by the time you think you’ve got the answer, the game switches up the question.

The game also has a great look to it and a good cinematic feel for when it transitions in and out of cutscenes regularly. The Somnium areas all have a distinct feel from one another and gives you the impression that these are dreams with how disjointed from reality they can look. It’s not going to blow you away as a realistic graphical showcase, but in how it adapts to its artstyle, it absolutely works.

While there are many things that are of high quality with AI: The Somnium Files, there is one part that does fall short at times and that’s with performance. I played through the game on the Switch and haven’t seen the PS4 version, so I can’t say whether the same problems I had are there as well. Loading between days will often see some hitching during the animation when you see what day you’re on, the framerate can drop when trying to load and sometimes when loading images or video of other locations, they will take a few seconds too long, and I had the game crash on me twice failing to load. This was all on the 1.0 edition of the game, which means these are issues that could be patched later down the road, but for the time being, the Switch version is a bit of a mess performance wise.

Despite those issues, this is still a game you should definitely play this year. Considering it’s already been a good year for crime drama games with the release of Judgment, AI: The Somnium Files adds to that and continues the trend. The Somnium puzzles won’t beat you over the head by being tough, the writing is incredibly well done with a well-paced story that will keep you on the edge of your seat, and the characters are excellent. Having someone look into your dreams can be a scary proposition, but these dreams are ones you’ll want to dive right into.

REVIEW ROUNDUP

+ Somnium puzzles are fun and won't make you tear your hair out

+ Writing all across the board is great

+ A good mix of different kinds of gameplay to not make anything too stale

+ Art style works with the cinematic nature of the game

+ Mystery keeps building and building throughout at a good pace that keeps you guessing and wanting more

- Switch version has a number of performance issues

What kind of twists and turns are you expecting from this game? Would you want to go into someone else's dreams or allow someone to see your dreams? Let us know down in the comments below?

---

Jared Clemons is a writer and podcaster for Seasonal Anime Checkup where he can be found always wanting to talk about Love Live! Sunshine!! or whatever else he's into at the moment. He can be found on Twitter @ragbag.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

0 notes

zipgrowth · 6 years ago

Text

Teaching Coding to Kids: What Programming Language Should We Use?

One of the most common questions I get from teachers and parents is: What programming language should we use to teach kids to code? Is it important to always start with block-based languages like Scratch? At what age should they transition to text-based languages? And how do I choose between Python, Java or JavaScript?

Having taught coding for almost 10 years to hundreds of students, I often present at conferences or run workshops for teachers new to computer science. Many teachers are trying to build a CS program in their schools for the first time, and it’s understandable why they worry about which programming language to choose. In addition to trying to figure out what’s best for their students, teachers have to strike a balance between what they’re comfortable teaching, and what administrators, parents and students feel they should be learning.

So, is there one “right” coding language to start with?

The coding language is not important. The concepts of programming are!

As you can guess, the answer is: No! What is important is not the language, but how to teach students how to solve a problem with code. Understanding how to create an algorithm (step-by-step instructions) to tackle an assignment, and coming up with the best way to write this in code, is probably the hardest part.

Programming languages come and go—and you will adapt.

Learning the fairly small number of keywords and simple syntax of a specific programming language is easy—a lot easier than learning an actual, spoken human language! By contrast, in order to program independently, one must understand the underlying concepts in programming—variables, lists, conditionals, loops and functions, for example—and then know when, where and how to use them to convert your algorithm into code.

Once a student grasps these concepts and has programmed successfully in one language for some time, it is not that difficult to code in another language. Switching languages is not immediately easy, but it can be done.

However, does that first language change the way you think and code in the future? Is it important to learn the most popular language in industry today?

Programming languages come and go—and you will adapt.

The popularity of programming languages change, and there is no guarantee that what we teach our kids today will be used by the time they enter the job market. My first programming language was Pascal. (Yes, you probably have to look that up now.)

Over the years, I have learned to use different languages on different machines—some too obscure to be mentioned. Over the last 10 years as an educator, I have learned just enough Logo, Scratch, Processing, JavaScript, Arduino and Python to be able to use it as a teaching language in my classes.

Six years ago, I suggested that kids start with Logo, the earliest CS education language, and I still believe it remains a strong option available today. Here’s the most important part: If you can teach kids the basic concepts in programming, and they have spent enough time coding in one language, then they should have developed the fundamentals to switch languages later as needed.

There is another question that often comes up: Do we need to start all kids with block-based languages instead of text-based languages?

Block or text?

I started to use Scratch, perhaps the most popular and kid-friendly block-based language, in a digital design class for sixth graders almost 10 years ago, and I continue to love using it at all grade levels. I am excited to use the new features in Scratch 3.0 just released—especially the extensions to support text-to-speech, and language translation.

Block-based programming takes away so much of the frustration for young and early coders, such as missing a comma or forgetting to close a parenthesis, and leaves more time to focus on understanding concepts. In addition, Scratch’s focus on creativity and easy access to creating graphics, editing sound, sharing and remixing projects makes it a perfect first coding language for all ages. It is positioned as a tool to create art, animations, stories and games and not as a ��coding” language, a branding that makes Scratch much more welcoming and less intimidating.

What is important is not the language, but how to teach students how to solve a problem with code.

I have found that after a few years of using Scratch, students want to try text-based coding because they associate it with “grown ups” and the “real” coding that is done in industry. I have also seen that sometimes just a change in language is needed to review concepts like variables and loops.

My middle-school students are willing to put in the extra effort it takes to learn text-based coding; often they slow down in order to be careful with their spelling and syntax as they tackle the challenge of programming in Python, JavaScript, Arduino and Processing. But once students can get past the initial “I have to really watch what I type” part, they often appreciate the flexibility and power of text-based coding, especially when they find how much easier it is to copy, paste, modify and collaborate on text code to create projects.

At the Foothill College KCI Computer Science Crash crash course that I teach each summer, I offer teachers both Scratch and Python and show the same project in both languages. They love seeing the parallels between the two types of languages, and even more if we first start with “pseudocode” or a flowchart—a way to write down the algorithm before writing any code. Here’s what a small project that involves checking a password looks like as a flowchart, in Scratch, and in Python.

Password checker flowchart diagramThe same password checker, in ScratchThe same password checker, in Python

Both teachers and students who had no exposure to block-based programming are easily able to learn Python in my classes, showing that with the right projects, starting with text-based language also works.

What makes any programming language a good language for teaching kids to code? Are there any criteria to help pick a language?

While it may be good to know that teaching coding is more about concepts, and that you do not need to stress about picking the perfect first language, the question remains: What should a language have that will make it a good choice for teaching kids to code? While programming languages are often evaluated in numbers of ways—on speed, applications, libraries available, industry support—here are some important criteria I consider.

Does it have a strong community of educators?

One of the reasons I always point to Scratch and Python is their access to a network of educators using these languages in their classrooms. They have such large communities behind them because they have always been free, open and welcome to a wide range of users from across the world. Having a large community means you can find more resources, such as projects, lesson plans, tutorials, videos and books dedicated to teaching the language in the classroom. It’s also likely that you can walk into an education conference and find a session giving you tips.

...teaching good programming habits trumps teaching a popular language.

Is it easy to pick up?

There are many text-based languages to choose from—some more popular today in the tech industry than others, some with specific features that make them good for creating a particular project. While many high-school students may have to ultimately learn Java for an AP Computer Science course, it is not necessarily the easiest language to start with. Python is by far easier and has been gaining popularity in education because it is so simple. After three years of using Python for a computer science elective class, I am constantly surprised at how little it takes to get something done, and how quickly my middle-school students learn to code in Python. Inspired by how well Python works in teaching coding to kids, I spent time writing a book about it.

What is the design philosophy behind it? Was it designed for this age group?

It is important to offer tools that are age-appropriate, and programming languages can hide or showcase features based on the target age group. Scratch, rooted in the philosophy of using code for creative expression, deliberately simplifies some constructs one may expect to see in a coding language. Scratch Jr. is designed for kids who are still learning to read, and has no variables or conditionals, which may be too confusing at their age. Python offers extensions to support many types of projects, but these are available as modules that have to be explicitly added, so you do not need to see them until they are needed. Languages for older students working on complex programs must have support for debugging, a fundamental skill. If teaching “object-oriented” programming is critical, then using Java is not a bad choice.

How easy is it to install, and does it run across platforms?

These are things to keep in mind, especially if it is important that students continue to code at home. Some only work in specific environments, like Apple’s Swift coding language. If students are working on Chromebooks, then having a stable, browser-based tool is critical. Another thing to consider: Is the language really available for free so every student can use it at home, or are there hidden extensions only available for a fee?

How easy is it to share projects with the community?

One of the fundamental ideas behind Scratch has been the community, and letting kids share and learn from each other. That community is also useful for teachers as well. However, sharing also requires planning: when and how much you want students to share, comment, reuse and repurpose others’ projects. While JavaScript may be frowned upon as a first text-based language to learn and is not as easy as Python, it does have the advantage that it just runs on the web. Showcasing projects is as simple as posting them on a school web server.

There are many other considerations when choosing a language. What kind of projects are possible? Different languages have supports and extensions for different types of projects; for example, Processing and P5.js make it easier to do media projects and create art and animations. Python makes writing complex data analysis and even machine-learning projects possible. Teachers may also want strong classroom tools to manage assignments and grading, especially for group projects.

One of the most common questions is: “Is this language popular today?” Popularity can certainly shape the choice of programming language to encourage students to sign up for a class. It’s understandable that parents want educators to teach what is marketable for jobs. However, teaching good programming habits trumps teaching a popular language.

While we can stress about finding the “perfect” programming language to start, let us not forget that the ultimate goal is to let students explore fundamental programming concepts. They may never choose to program after your class, and the language you teach may become obsolete as they get older. What is important is that teaching coding will help students understand how computers solve problems, acquire critical thinking skills—and hopefully learn just how much fun it is to make stuff with code.

Teaching Coding to Kids: What Programming Language Should We Use? published first on https://medium.com/@GetNewDLBusiness

0 notes

siliconwebx · 6 years ago

Text

YouTube Marketing: How to Grow Your Business Using YouTube

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. Second only to Google, which technically owns YouTube. So if you’re optimizing your content for Google and not specifically for YouTube, you’re missing out on an incredibly important and lucrative audience. You should take advantage of this even if your primary content isn’t video (or even audio). These tools can help you open your business up to the wide world of YouTube marketing.

Phase 1: Creating Your Channel

The most basic thing that you need to begin growing your business using YouTube is simple: a YouTube account. Well, technically a Google account. So if you have a Gmail account already, just log into it and head over to YouTube. If not, you can sign up for an account here.

You have to verify that you’re a person. In doing so, you will be required to enter a phone number. It is optional as a contact method for the overall account, but Google will require a one-time SMS verification that you are a real human being.

When you’re through all that and Google recognizes that you are a person who wants a YouTube account for real reasons and not spammy reasons, you will be taken to your home screen.

At this point, you can either watch some videos (which we all would do at this point, honestly. Oh, look 10 athletes who were caught cheating on live TV…) or you can click the circle icon of a person in the top-right corner of the screen to expand the menu. Find the YouTube Studio entry, and click on it. (I know it’s tempting to click on My Channel first, but don’t yet. We’ll get there in due time.) Here’s why:

That’s right, you don’t even have a channel yet. You just have an account. This is the point at which you will name your channel. The messaging on YouTube’s end is not very clear, but by Use YouTube As… they actually mean Your Channel Name Will Be…

If you don’t want that channel to be named after you as a person, click on the Use a business or other name link underneath all the fine print to create a YouTube brand account. (Note that you can still do this even if you are signed in on your personal Gmail account.)

You have to re-verify your phone number with them. Also a one-time thing.

Once you’re done, you’re taken once again to your new channel page. Which is empty. So now you get to click on Customize Channel.

Phase 2: Setting Up Your Channel

The first thing you will see should be a familiar site. A blank channel template. As with most things that are new, make sure you hit the settings first. Click on the gear icon to the right.

A modal will pop up, and you will have 4 options. The first three are entirely up to your own preferences. You can hide or share your subscriptions, likes, and saved playlists. It’s the bottom option we care about. Enable the toggle to Customize the layout of your channel.

When you press save, your screen will refresh, and you will have many more options on your channel. Because you can now customize its layout. Makes sense, right? Next, you have three tasks that are imperative to the success of your YouTube marketing. You need a logo, YouTube channel art, and links.

Channel Links and Art

Editing links is the easy part. You click Edit Links and type the URLs in. But getting the channel art and profile image right is a slightly different monster because the image will show up slightly differently based on what client your viewers are using. What may look good on a tablet, may look absolutely terrible on a television. (Yes, many folks use TV to watch YouTube now, so that’s very important.)

When you press the Add Channel Art button, you will see a standard upload modal. If you’re not sure exactly what YouTube channel art should be, click on the How to create channel art link at the bottom of the window. From there, you can browse the help section on the topic, which includes a graphic and dimension list.

In summary, the YouTube channel art dimensions are:

Maximum size: 2560 x 1440 px (6MB or smaller file size)

Minimum safe area for logo and graphics: 1546 x 1423 px

TV: 2560 x 1440 px

Desktop: 2560 x 423 px

Tablet: 1855 x 423 px

Mobile: 1546 x 423 px

If you have difficulty keeping to these image dimensions, I highly suggest using their downloadable YouTube Channel Art templates. Or if you like, Canva has a great selection of templates you can customize for free. They’re great for folks without a lot of graphic design experience who want to put together a professional YouTube channel banner on the cheap.

Just choose your art, verify it looks right, and add it to the channel.

YouTube Channel Icon

When you click the edit pencil for the square channel avatar (or as they call it, the channel icon), a modal will pop up if you’ve set up a brand account. (Which since you’re looking at YouTube marketing for your business, I will assume you did.)

When you press Edit, the screen will change and take you to the brand management page. You upload an image from your computer here.

You will crop them to fit the square box. Remember, though, many of the YouTube icons show up as circles now, so the center of the square is most important. Additionally, you have the option of setting a cover banner here, too. This is not the YouTube Channel Art. It will only show up on your brand account page when people seek that out. It’s not imperative that you set this, but it can’t really hurt, either. It makes you look professional and prepared, so it’s best to do it. Feel free to double-up on your channel art here.

Additionally, you can add in contact info, sites, and a story for your business by pressing the red + at the bottom of the screen. But that won’t show up on your YouTube channel, either. Just this page. Again, it’s a good idea to fill out, but don’t stress over it not being here. This page gets some traffic, but not a lot.

After all that, you can close that window and go back to your channel customization.

Featured Channels

Back at your channel, you will see even more options to add customization. First, you can choose to add Featured Channels to your own page. This section is great if you want to highlight a sister page or a different department of your brand. Or even just something you think would be a benefit to your own viewers and customers. Click the Add Channels button.

Then it’s just a quick URL drop and a press of the Add button, you have a featured channel (or channels) on your channel. If you don’t want that box on the page, you also have an option to remove it.

Adding Sections to Your YouTube Channel

When you finish featuring other channels, the real building-out of your own channel is adding sections to the page itself. So press the Add a Section button.

At this point, you will get two dropdowns with each option that you have to include on your channel’s main page. You can have any number of these on your page, but it’s a good idea to limit them to a reasonable number. Otherwise, you risk overwhelming visitors. Once you get to over a dozen sections (because sometimes you have a lot of playlists and videos), it becomes a bit much.

Your options for YouTube Channel sections include:

Popular uploads

Uploads

Liked videos

Posted videos

Live now

Upcoming live streams

Past live streams

Single playlist

Saved playlists

Multiple playlists

Posted playlists

Channel Subscriptions

Custom channel groups

Recent activities

Recent posts

Any of these items may be displayed in either a horizontal row or vertical column on your site. You may need to try a few different alignments before landing on the one that converts the best for you and your business.

Adding Video

In terms of setting everything up, the last (and maybe most crucial) piece of the puzzle is actually uploading your videos. And once you have at least one video uploaded, you can then add a channel trailer.

While there are approximately one gazillion places where you can upload a video through your dashboard (they are seriously everywhere), the simplest at this point is under the Uploads section of your channel. Click the link labeled Upload a Video.

After you do this once, the link goes away, and you will find the easiest upload button in your YouTube Studio‘s menu bar.

After you select the file from your computer, you choose what its visibility is public, private, unlisted, and scheduled.

Public videos are self-explanatory. They’re open to the public and anyone can watch them. Private videos are only visible to you (and your team members if you have added any on a brand account). Unlisted videos are accessible only via direct link. Anyone with the link can view it, but it will not show up in searches or your videos. Scheduled is where you, well, schedule your video for later release.

Once that’s done, you fill in all of your video information.

Instead of going too much into how utterly and completely important this information is to the success of the video, we are going to wait to cover that in all of the section on YouTube marketing and SEO. Just know it’s important.

You can choose to publish it immediately or schedule a premiere so that your audience is alerted and can all join in and watch it together. Premieres are different than normally scheduled videos in that premiering a video is an event where all your subscribers are notified and given a special direct link to watch the video at the same time, almost like a livestream.

Either way, it will now show up on your channel and in your Studio dashboard.

Adding a Channel Trailer

Now that you have a video uploaded, you have the option to set it as the channel trailer. That means that whenever a new or unsubscribed visitor comes to your channel, they get a video introduction of what your channel is about. Or a video you want to highlight.

Once again, you’re going to want to click on the Customize Channel button, and when you do, navigate to the Home tab. You should now see two tabs: For Returning Visitors and For New Visitors. You want to select For New Visitors, under which you see an empty section, directing you to add a channel trailer.

Click on the +Channel Trailer button to get the selection modal. You can either add a video by selecting it or add it by URL.

Press Save. You are now the proud owner of a YouTube channel with a trailer! Feel’s good, right?

Setting Your YouTube Channel URL

At this point, you’re almost ready to dig into the primary part of YouTube marketing. However, one thing that may be on your mind is how you can direct people there. How can you get the cool URL like https://www.youtube.com/elegantthemes instead of https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFhQQikiX8fCDdSD5X2BX-Q? It’s actually pretty easy. But you can’t do it right now.

You can request a custom URL once your channel has reached 100 subscribers, is 30 days old, and has an icon and channel art. Also, note that you can get 1 custom URL ever. You cannot change your YouTube custom URL later.

However, once you meet those requirements, you can choose your URL by going into your YouTube Studio dashboard and hovering over Other Features and clicking More.

You will be in a new dashboard here. Navigate to Channel and its submenu item: Status and Features. You will see a huge grid of boxes, some enabled, some not. One of these is for setting up your custom URL, and it will light up once you meet the requirements.

At that point, you can follow the steps to fill out your custom URL. Again, remember it can’t be changed, so choose wisely.

Inviting Your Team

And finally, it’s time to make sure your business is ready to leap into YouTube marketing face first. As with children, it takes a village to successfully raise a YouTube channel. Inviting folks to help manage the YouTube channel is a cinch, and you can always adjust permissions on the fly.

All you need to do is click on your profile icon in the upper-right corner of the screen. A drop-down menu will appear, and you will click the gear icon to go into YouTube settings. From there, make sure you’re in the Account tab and find the Add or Remove Managers link near the bottom.

Click the link. On this page, you need to press the Manage Permissions button.

A modal will appear that lists all of your current managers. In that modal, you need to find the icon of a person with a + symbol in the upper-right corner. Pressing that button gives you the chance to choose your channel managers, as well as assign them roles. It will be these roles that define their permissions on the YouTube channel.

YouTube channels can have three types of users: Owner, Manager, and Communications Manager. Every account has to have at least one Owner (makes sense, right?), and anyone with this permission can do anything with the account. Managers can post and edit videos on YouTube, go live, and see analytics. They get some of the same options as Owners, but not down to the Brand Account level. Most likely, you’ll just add a lot of Managers as you grow.

And finally, you probably don’t want a Communications Manager on your YouTube marketing team because they can’t use YouTube. Kind of defeats the purpose.

You can always come back here and add folks to the team whenever you want. As they get added as a Manager, they have the option of using the channel to log in and add the channel to services such as Restream.io and others. The channel will also show in their Switch Accounts tab under their profile.

And finally — finally! — you have reached the point where you are truly ready to dive into the nuts-and-bolts of YouTube marketing. So stand up, get a drink, make a sandwich, and come back refreshed so that we can work on your SEO strategy and so much more.

Phase 3: Planning and Creating Content

Step 1: Choosing a Video Format

Optimizing your YouTube channel marketing is central to one element alone: creating the right content. Every business will need a slightly different set of content to take advantage of the benefits YouTube can bring them. Some will need to do more live videos and audience interactions than others. Your business might thrive on informative videos, while another may do best with vlog-style content that highlights employees as individuals. We just need to figure out what kind of content you need to plan for.

Vlog

The first thing most people think of when they think of YouTube are the floating-head videos of people talking at a camera. For good reason, too: they can generate massively high engagement with your customer base. The appeal here is showing your staff as real people. These kinds of videos are generally informal, maybe with slightly lower production standards, but high on energy and fun and interaction. If part of your business ethos is storytelling, you should consider vlog content on your YouTube channel.

Pros: Inexpensive to produce, quick to film and edit, very personal, high engagement

Cons: Can appear unprofessional, hard to stand out, potentially short lifespan and relevance

Information/Educational

Some YouTube channels take the pure opposite approach to their content. Instead of making content based around them as a person (or maybe persona is the better term), these videos are centered on the topic itself. Maybe you want your viewers to learn about mantis shrimp so they will be interested in your exotic aquarium business, or you work for a non-profit and your mission is to create awareness about human trafficking and what is being done to stop it. Some may include a presenter who serves almost a teacher-like role, while other videos are documentary-style with a voiceover on top of your footage. Educational videos are oftentimes a high-level look at a topic, but not typically problem-solving.

Pros: Generally long-lasting, able to perform well over a long time period, invites sharing, can be edited into segments for marketing and advertising

Cons: Relatively expensive to produce, time-consuming to both record and edit, much research must be done, production quality matters a lot so you need good equipment

Tutorial/How-To

How-to videos are different from informational ones, actually. Instead of trying to educate an audience on a topic, you are trying to solve a specific problem. The Elegant Themes YouTube channel is generally a how-to channel. Instead of presenting information about WordPress and web design on a high level, we dig in on the steps you need to take to solve a single problem or to create a specific design, etc. When creating tutorial videos, you’re not looking for broad appeal or going viral, but you’re setting yourself up as an expert in a specific field, which then sets you above your competitors. Plus, how do I… and how can I… are some of the highest searched queries around. And since you are able to record a tutorial, you probably already have the resources you need to show the process. That lowers your cost significantly.

Pros: Incredibly high SEO potential, can be quick and easy to film and edit, generally inexpensive, easy to capitalize on trends and fads and new ideas, can be average production quality as long as the process is visible and understandable

Cons: Can become outdated as the products being featured are refined and updated, must be or find an expert in your subject area, must be able to break complex ideas down into their simplest form (this is very hard for some people) and explain them adequately

Review

Review videos are pretty straightforward. You find something that people want to know about (as a business, this should be something within your industry or niche), and you give a straightforward overview of its features and whether it works and is worth the money (or time or resources) versus the competition. It can be difficult to be impartial on these sometimes. For instance, if Elegant Themes did a review video of Elementor or Beaver Builder, it may be hard to stay neutral despite those products being very good options for users. So you should probably avoid those where you have an obvious bias. Regardless, these videos can be great sources of income depending on your business model. You can get sponsored posts, free items, as well as lucrative affiliate commissions from companies. Just remember to be honest in the reviews. Viewers can tell a sham review easily.

Pros: Can be a vlog-style video, lower cost (depending on product), quicker production time, simple to find products to review (just think of what you use and like)

Cons: Easy to be biased, people may claim your review is not legitimate when it is

Sneak Peeks/Trailers

If you regularly keep a schedule for releasing updates or new products, creating a sneak peek video may garner a lot more interest in it and engagement. Letting your customers and clients know what’s coming in the near future can generate tons of engagement, as well as gain much-needed feedback on the direction your business is headed. Many brands who regularly put out long-form content such as documentary videos or podcasts may get good results from producing a trailer for the upcoming videos. Marc Maron does this for all of his WTF podcast episodes.

Pros: Simple to compile with resources you already have, high engagement, generates excitement, viral possibilities, can gain important feedback from users and customers,

Cons: May be looked down on as redundant content, consumes resources and time that could be used on primary video content

Livestreaming

Everyone is livestreaming these days. The true benefit of livestreaming is being able to interact with your audience in real time. The content is important, too, but interaction is the real game changer. While you can livestream vlog content or even any of the other kinds of videos we’ve discussed at random, it’s always a good idea to have a general topic for your streams. Your brand might host different streams with different content on each one at different times during the week or month. For instance, on Mondays, you might do a lunchtime troubleshooting stream, while on Tuesdays and Fridays, you have product tutorials and walkthroughs. The single most important thing to remember about livestreaming, however, is that no matter what platform you choose to broadcast from (Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, Periscope, Instagram, Snapchat…whew…or something else entirely), you must keep a set schedule to build an audience.

Pros: easy and simple to get started (press “Go Live” in most apps), popular with many viewers, can be off-the-cuff or prepared and either will be acceptable, can give customers an inside look at your brand to see you as real people, most platforms let subscribers get notified the moment you go live which increases viewership

Cons: regular schedules can be hard to keep, takes time to actually build up an audience, not everyone is able to successfully field comments and questions off-the-cuff, streaming technology can be somewhat unreliable, stable and fast internet is absolutely required for quality content

Interviews

One of the most popular video formats on YouTube, interviews can be a double whammy. Your audience gets the content, and the interviewee will (hopefully) share with theirs as well. You and your channel get exposed to more potential customers, and you did nothing extra to gain it. This can be especially beneficial when you interview someone with a larger audience than you have. The biggest issues with interviews are that, well, not everyone is a great interviewer (I am not, personally) and finding/scheduling guests that work can be a hassle. When done right, interview videos are one of the best forms of YouTube marketing because they’re beneficial to pretty much everyone.

Pros: Potential for huge audience engagement with guest’s following, can go viral easily, easy to snip down into bite-sized elements for social sharing, constantly changing content so channel doesn’t get stale and redundant, networking opportunities abound

Cons: Scheduling, finding a constant stream of guests, scheduling working with awkward or hard-to-interview guests, being a good interviewer, scheduling, going with the flow and following a conversation instead of sticking to a pre-defined question list, and did we mention scheduling?

Critiques

And worth a quick mention are critique videos. They’re similar to review videos, but they’re taking user-submitted content (or popular content within your niche or industry) and offering a rundown of what works and what doesn’t. Website critiques are a popular category within this particular genre, and the videos tend to offer advice and commentary based on the creator’s expertise. Sometimes these go over well, and sometimes they don’t pick up traction. You have to walk a fine line with critique videos your audience members send in of their own stuff because most of us have paper-thin skin and even though we think we can take criticism, we can’t. You don’t want to lose customers, so tread carefully. That said, you can make a lot of fans by offering “free advice” that can turn into revenue in the long run for your business.

Pros: “Free” marketing of your skills, user-submitted content, little to no prep work involved, great livestreaming content,

Cons: Drama

Step 2: Planning Your Video

Now that you know what kinds of videos you will be making, you need to figure out what all you need to actually create it. What exactly you have to do will depend on a lot of factors that are specific to you and your circumstances, but let’s go through some broad generalizations about video production.

Script or Outline Your Video

It really doesn’t matter if your video is a vlog or an interview or a docuseries on the joys of remote work, you need to have a plan. For some videos, that means writing out a whole script. You will need to include scene transitions, voiceover, dialogue, and what footage to use where. If you do interviews, have a basic question list (but don’t feel bad about going away from them to keep the conversation organic). Even vlogs and livestreams go better if you’ve jotted down a quick outline of what points you absolutely need to hit on during the recording.

Choose Where and What You’ll Be Filming for B-Roll Footage

You will most likely be shooting the primarily in one spot. Since you’re looking at YouTube marketing for a business, you probably won’t be traveling a great deal to scout locations that need to change every episode. However, you will need B-roll footage (those scenes of landscapes, people walking, a walkthrough of an office, etc.) to complement your primary video. And you need to figure out where you’ll get that stuff. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it should be something that’s not distracting that you can intersperse between main points in your video. If you talk about software, you may be able to demo that software as a screencast or show someone using it while the host speaks over it, for instance.

Secure Media Assets

You’re going to need music, sound effects, and potentially graphic art for your videos. You may need a catchy intro or a jingle that plays as an outro. Whatever it is that your video needs, this is the point at which you figure that out. There’s nothing worse than getting caught in Final Cut and realize that you don’t have a score for the video and have to spend time finding something that should have already been taken care of. Remember to license or create whatever assets you use in your videos because YouTube is _strict_ about copyright. You can lose everything you worked for if you get flagged for a violation, and if it turns out you didn’t have rights to something…you’re banned.

Step 3: Recording Your Video

Actually recording your video is probably the most important part of the whole process. After all, without a video, you’re not going to be doing much YouTube marketing, right? So let me point you in the direction of Wistia. Wistia is a video hosting and production company that has some of the best tutorials and guides about video production on the internet.

That said, you will need to know a few things in terms of recording your video, and if you’re just getting started, you really can’t go wrong by following the Wistia guides. So instead of rehashing the information here, check out these guides and then come back to move into Phase 4.

Use good, professional recording equipment. Sure, an iPhone can work to begin with, but you’ll eventually want to upgrade.

Know how to use the equipment you’re using to record.

You will need proper lighting for your video, and that doesn’t mean an open window or a floor lamp. (More lighting resources here.)

Choose a background that’s appropriate. This can change the whole tone of your video.

Properly account for the sound in your video. It is just as important an element as the visual side.

How you act on camera matters.

So does how you look. And how you dress.

Know how to edit the raw footage into your final video.

Once you’ve perfected all that (no problem, right?), just go through the steps above and post your video. Now, finally, you can dig into the big money topic you’ve been waiting for: YouTube SEO.

Phase 4: Optimizing YouTube SEO and Other Ranking Factors

YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world. That makes sense because it’s owned by Google, and they share all the searchy goodness between brands. Because of that, however, you can take some of the tactics that you apply to traditional SEO and get results on YouTube. There are also some specific YouTube tactics that you can apply to your videos that will cause your videos to skyrocket in their position in searches.

1. Titles Matter

This should come as no surprise. The title of your video may be the most important aspect of getting people to watch it. The hard part with titling a video is balancing keyword optimization, coherence, relevance, and grabbing the viewer’s attention in the first place.

Some folks do this with click-baity titles such as You’ll never believe how much money I’ve made with Divi’s new dynamic content feature! Obviously these work, but they’re also frowned upon by most people. You probably won’t make many lasting fans this way.

Titles such as the one above are what you should aim for. How to Create Beautiful & Engaging Dynamic Blog Post Hero Sections with Divi succeeds on a number of levels:

it tells the viewer what topic the video covers

views immediately know what problem the video solves (remember what I said earlier about tutorial videos)

the video title consists of both short-tail and long-tail keywords: hero sections, blog post hero sections, dynamic blog post, hero sections with Divi, how to create hero sections with Divi (and so on)

contains attention-grabbing descriptors like beautiful and engaging

By incorporating these elements into your title, you will not only do well with the algorithms but with viewers as well. It can take some practice to get them right (Mak is a genius when it comes to them, so that’s why I used his video as an example), but when you do, it pays off.

2. Write a Detailed Description

You don’t want your video description to be a blog post, but you do want it to fully encapsulate what the video itself is about. Write it in a style that mimics how you worked with the title, including keywords, what the video’s purpose is, as well as making sure to include any relevant links to resources your viewers may want. Companion blog posts, mentioned software, even your social handles and website links so that folks can easily find their way to you elsewhere.

3. Make the Most of YouTube Video Tags

Just like a blog post, keeping your tags short, succinct, and relevant are imperative to your content’s success. You don’t want to overdo it. Don’t cram as many tags as you can, but the YouTube search algorithms take your tags into consideration as keywords when categorizing your videos and including them in results and recommendations for users.

It is absolutely in your best interest to include tags, even a couple, on every video you make. Just be sure to keep them relevant to the content of the video itself (not so much the channel, but this particular video) and try to re-use as many as you can across your videos to get some cross-pollination and search dominance.

4. Playlists

Did you know that playlists come up in searches, too? If not, you do now. By including your videos in well-titled playlists, you can get extra eyes on them. People may be looking for a related topic, but instead, come across an entire series you’ve done of interrelated videos.

In the example above, Mak has included this one in the Divi Resources playlist. That way, anyone who searches for that term (or a video that is also on the playlist) may see this video as well.

The best part about playlists is that you can set up an auto-add rule so that you don’t ever have to worry about it again. And they’re really easy to set up. First, from your Creator Studio, go into Videos – Playlists in the left toolbar. Find the playlist you want to create the rule for and click on the Edit button.

Inside the edit screen, you will see your channel name and another Edit button. Click that one, too.

This screen will present you with a list of all the videos currently in this playlist. It may be empty. That’s okay. Click on the Playlist Settings button. A modal will appear, and you will click the Auto Add tab. Inside this tab, you can choose if you want to add a rule to automatically add videos that have certain words in the title, certain words in the description, or have been tagged something specific. I personally suggest and use the title because my livestream has the same title every week, and it is automatically added without me having to edit the video to add a tag. Same goes for the description. Regardless of your method, just fill in the info and click Save. Then you’re good to go.

5. End Screen, Cards, and Thumbnails

These three elements are as much about ranking and getting views as keywords, and while they do get counted into the YouTube algorithms, much of their utility is with viewers themselves. YouTube end screens, cards, and thumbnails are about clickthrough more than anything else. You’re putting stuff in your video to grab the viewer’s attention and make them want to click on it.

The Thumbnail

The thumbnail is the most important. Every single video on YouTube has a thumbnail. It is the single frame that shows up in search results. YouTube itself automatically generates 3 thumbnails from the video, but you don’t want to use those. You want to add a custom one that you put together in Photoshop (or an alternative). You can see the difference in appeal in the image below between auto-generated and custom thumbnails.

If your YouTube account is still running the creator studio, then you will click the box under the 3 automatically generated ones to upload your custom. If you are using the newer YouTube Studio, then you will see a gigantic box for you to upload your custom thumbnail under the thumbnail tab inside every video.

End Screen

Whenever a video approaches its closing, you’ve probably seen various things pop up on your screen. Subscribe buttons, links, thumbnails for other videos…stuff like that. Those are all customizable within your dashboard and are incredibly easy to set up.

Go into the video you want to edit and head to the End Screen & Annotations tab and click on the big, blue Add Element button. You can then choose which kind of element you want to show for the final 20 seconds of your video. You can add a video or playlist, a subscribe button, a link to a different channel, or a link to a website.

Whatever you select (in this, we’ll use Subscribe), the element will show up in the blue box on top of the video preview. You can then drag it around to position it wherever you like. When satisfied, you can save it, and the end screen element will begin showing immediately.

Also keep in mind that you can use the sliders under the video preview to adjust how long each element stays on-screen, as well as the overall duration of the end screen itself. That is limited to 20 seconds maximum. So forget about keeping these as a full-video overlay the entire time.

Cards

YouTube has phased out the old feature called Annotations in favor of a much more versatile system of Cards. You can find these under the Cards tab inside the video editor. Cards are like temporary alerts that pop up over the video at specific timestamps that you choose. Just like the end screen, you can press the Add Card button to see the types of cards you can display to your viewers.

Let’s say that you want to promote another video you’ve created. It’s related to this one, and your viewers will gain a lot from seeing it, too. You can click the Create button next to Video or Playlist. Next, choose a video or playlist from the modal that pops up. Remember to customize the text on the card if you want.

When you click Create Card, a round icon appears in the upper-right corner of the video preview. Under the video, you can drag the card to any position along the timeline you want. Each card is 5 seconds long.

Your viewers will be able to click it to expand into the full card. This works on mobile and desktop.

It will take some time to find out what works for you and your audience. As you get more used to the platform, going through and adding end screens and cards, optimizing tags and keywords, and everything else this section has covered will come as second nature to you. I won’t lie to you — it can be intimidating at first. It feels like a lot. And it kind of is. But if you get the process down and learn where things are and how YouTube is set up, it becomes just another workflow like creating a blog or writing a Facebook post.

Phase 5: Some Simple YouTube Marketing Strategies

When starting out (or even continuing with) YouTube marketing, you have a lot of options outside of on-platform SEO and in-video cards. In many ways, promoting your videos and YouTube channel to an existing audience can be worked into your daily habits. When I say that, I don’t even mean your daily workflow, but your daily personal habits. If you’re a consumer of YouTube content or on social media a lot, you don’t even have to go far out of your way to integrate promotion and marketing.

Comment as Your Channel, Not Yourself

Even if you’re setting up a brand channel to start your YouTube marketing strategy, you likely have a personal YouTube account, too. You know, the one where you subscribe to a dozen cute cat and dog channels, some pimple popping videos, and whatever else you spend your free time watching. You probably also have this one under your own name.

But whenever you decide to comment on a video, do so with your brand account instead of your personal one. Unless you’re being that YouTuber, the comment will be civil and on-topic. So having your brand account linked to it will garner clickthroughs and reputation gain that may not transfer from your personal account.

Just keep these comments as professional as possible, and if you’re going to troll someone, then do it under your personal account. (Or your troll account if you have one. But please don’t have one.)

Share on Social Media

You share stuff on Twitter. Your followers love what you share on Facebook. Self-promotion is okay and expected — if you do it right. Social media for brands should provide value to your followers, so as you work toward presenting them ideas and content from reputable sources in your industry, share your own videos. Make requests for followers and subscriptions. Do livestreams and promote the scheduled time for a while beforehand.

Just don’t inundate them with it. As I said, self-promotion is expected. It happens. But it shouldn’t be all you do. Of course your stuff provides value to your followers, but it also can lose that value if that’s all they ever see from you. Asking for subscriptions every day is annoying. It becomes noise they tune out. Sharing the same videos over and over again gets them scrolled past. Fast. But if you keep the content fresh and relevant as you’re sharing whatever else you share (on branded or personal social media), you’ll get a lot more interaction and engagement because it’s fresh, relevant, and personal.

Email (and Blog Posts)

You have an email list. Because of course you do. But when you’re sending that email, make the video more than just a simple link. Make it an image link that has a play button over it, and you will get many, many more clicks.

It will look like an embedded video in the email (and most email clients don’t allow for that, still), so with an image link, you get the same action, but a redirection to the channel itself.

And it’s easy to make an image like this. All you have to do is take a screenshot of the video itself and superimpose the play button it using pretty much any screen capture program. I used Snagit to do the example above, and it took less than a minute to do. With the stamp tool and the fill tool (to make the button red instead of black).

Additionally, you can use this same technique to promote the video on your website, too, by writing a blog post about its release. But here’s the thing: you don’t want to embed it on your blog, either. Why not? Because people can’t subscribe and click the notification bell on embedded videos. If you follow the same thumbnail strategy, you can garner more subs and views over the long term.

Work with Other YouTubers (or Podcasters)

Another great way of marketing these YouTube videos is working with other folks on the platform. Cross-pollination is a fantastic way of gaining more viewers, and working with other YouTubers is pretty much like interview videos that we talked about earlier. You can do team-up videos, reference videos, trade video space on each other’s channels, whatever comes to mind. You could do a part 1 on your channel and a part 2 on theirs. Heck, you could even trade advertisements or pre/post-roll stingers. Whatever works.

The reason this is different from interview content is that you’re not interviewing someone and they’re not interviewing you. There’s not a dialogue or someone “in control.” You’re partners, making content to better serve both of your audiences in some way.

Personally, I have found a ton of YouTubåçe channels that I love this way. When one of my favorites has an I stole this idea from BJ’s Awesome Channel video (or something like that), I pretty much always go check themåç out. Because it’s just a simple click, and often the intro includes a clip of their channel and the idea. It really is a win-win, but the downside can come in that its extra work to coordinate a real collaboration.

Phase 6: Understanding Analytics and Metrics

Finally, we need to talk about data. YouTube gives you a lot of analytics and metrics for your channel, and you need to be able to read them and understand them to gauge whether or not your channel is a success. Or more specifically, if your YouTube marketing has been a success. On the left-hand sidebar of your YouTube Studio, you have an Analytics tab.

Inside the menu item, you will see three boxes for data: Top Videos, Latest Activity, and a large one with Overview, Reach Viewers, Interest Viewers, and Build an Audience. And under each of those tabs, you get even more metrics. Enough to shake a stick at, as they say. These are the data points from which you can extrapolate in different ways to gauge if your promotions are working.

The Three Major Stats

The thing is, though, you may not need all those. The primary trio is made up of views, subscribers, and watch time. All three of these are major ranking factors in terms of being discovered on YouTube. So they definitely need to be a priority.

Views

Views indicate the number of times someone has watched your video. The system can be gamed, but there are methods in place to discount fraudulent views. The analytics dashboard can give you a general idea of how many eyes have landed on your video for at least a few seconds.

Watch Time

But having a high view count isn’t necessarily a great thing. Why not? Well, what if people only watch :02 of the video before bouncing away? Those aren’t real views. So Watch Time was introduced as a ranking factor. By tracking the amount of time people actually spend watching your channel and your individual videos, you can gauge the most effective content you produce. After all, you do not want to be creating 9-minute videos if people only watch the first 1:30 of it. And if people consistently skip the first two minutes of your video, maybe consider trimming down the intros.

Subscribers

Not just a vanity metric, the Subscribers count on your YouTube channel gives you an estimate of how many folks think your content is worth returning to on a regular basis. These are the people who want to get notifications when you put something else out. There are two types of subscribers, too. The first are those who just hit the subscribe button and have your videos show up in their feed. And then there are the folks who press that button and ring the notification bell so they get push notifications and emails about when you publish a new video or go live.

These people are your true fans. These are your champions. If you keep your subscriber count climbing, you will have an army of people passionate about you and your brand. While organic search traffic is important (vital, really) to any YouTube channel’s success, having a strong subscriber base means that you have people who will talk about your content, share your content, interact with your content, and bring more people into the fold.

These are the people that Kevin Kelly based his 1000 True Fans theory on.

To be a successful creator you don’t need millions. You don’t need millions of dollars or millions of customers, millions of clients or millions of fans. To make a living as a craftsperson, photographer, musician, designer, author, animator, app maker, entrepreneur, or inventor you need only thousands of true fans.

A true fan is defined as a fan that will buy anything you produce. […] If you have roughly a thousand of true fans like this (also known as super fans), you can make a living — if you are content to make a living but not a fortune.

If you can generate your 1000 true fans (the number may differ) through YouTube, your business can sustain itself. Think about how successful people are with Patreon and crowdfunding campaigns. They have true fans. They have large subscriber counts. So while it can boost your ego to have a large count, it can also boost your profits, too.

Other Important Data

Other than views, subscribers, and watch time, you also want to know who is watching your video and where they came from.

Traffic

Under the Reach Viewers tab, you can track traffic sources to each of your videos. The boxes will show you traffic source types (Google, referral, etc.), and you will see which external sites sent folks to your channel, as well as how you were found in YouTube search. The most important graph, however, is Impressions and How They Led to Watch Time. YouTube takes the guesswork out of managing your data with this inverted pyramid, showing you the funnel from impressions to watch time. Pay attention to this, if nothing else.

Audience

The Build an Audience tab also has some important information: who your audience really is. You can see the total number of unique viewers, as well as how many subscribers actually watch your videos, and how much they watch on average. And those are great stats to have. But the boxes below that are where their money’s at: literally.

By knowing your Top Countries, Gender, and Age of your viewers, you can absolutely tell if your YouTube marketing strategies are taking hold. If you’re creating content for American men 30-35 and you’re being watched mostly by 45-year-old men from the UK, it would stand to reason that while your content is connecting with people, you can do even better by focusing on the people actually watching it. You can better target your content, sure, but also your marketing and advertising, too. Think of how much more revenue your business could bring in if you actually got the word out to the people who watch your videos instead of relying on them finding you organically.

Conclusion

That’s a lot of information. I know. And you can’t take it all in and implement these strategies all at once. But you can bookmark this page and come back to it any time you want. That way you can spend as much time on each of these phases as you need to. From setting up the YouTube channel initially to drilling down into your metrics and analytics, you should be able to write out and enact a pretty successful YouTube marketing strategy for your business.

Just remember that success on YouTube is a longterm process, and you have to put in the work. Every overnight success has years of work behind them that led up to that breakout. With that in mind, it’s in your best interest to approach YouTube marketing with a plan instead of randomly posting cat videos and hoping people click the link back to your site. But who knows, that may work, too. It is YouTube after all.

What have been the most successful YouTube marketing strategies you’ve found for your channels?

Article featured image by Iconic Bestiary / shutterstock.com

The post YouTube Marketing: How to Grow Your Business Using YouTube appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

😉SiliconWebX | 🌐ElegantThemes

#Silicon Web Design #Ahmedabad #India #Web Development #WPBeginner #Silicon URL #Web Site #Cloud Host

0 notes

jamiekturner · 6 years ago

Text

Gifts for graphic designers – or what to offer your friends on Christmas

For those of who work with, or even live with, graphic designers, finding the right gift can be a tricky process.

Gifts for graphic designers are so difficult to pick out because we are such picky people. Part of this is because they have learned to value precise placements of the elements around them and have found that everything needs to have a particular purpose.

After years of thinking this way, it bleeds over into all aspects of their lives. Everything in a graphic designer’s life is carefully curated to their tastes and sensibilities (if they can help it).

If you’re searching for a gift for a graphic designer, you’re probably finding it quite a challenge. We’ve assembled a list of some cool gifts for graphic designers to help you out! Taste can be unique to every individual person, but most graphic designers have common interests. These gifts will appeal to their sense of visual balance, usefulness, and be pretty cool on top of all that.

Moleskine Smart Notebook

The Moleskine Smart Notebook is one of the best gift ideas for graphic designers. It allows the user to create SVG files from their sketches.

By using special markings on the pages as well as its special app designed to optimize the process, it makes the time between sketching out a design idea and its full realization much shorter. This great gift idea helps reduce the effort it takes for the graphic designer to get to the truly fun and profitable parts of their job.

Blue LED Wooden Alarm Clock

This alarm clock is both functional and beautiful! It is both touch and voice activated. It has a simple design and a lovely wooden finish. Along with the blue LED lights, it is one of the most stylish digital clocks out there.

Plus, it is very budget friendly, coming in at $21 or less from most retailers. It will also tell the temperature, making it good for any busy professional who needs to know if they should grab a jacket.

POP Desk Smartphone Handset

This is a great gift idea for a graphic designer who enjoys the retro look. This phone handset has some great old school style and a professional feel. It is compatible with most smartphones, provided they have a headphone jack (Bluetooth only users are out of luck).

It will work in standard phone mode and also works for voice calls being made using Skype. It’s a great and fun gift that works for most budgets, typically coming in at $47 from most retailers. If you’ve got a graphic designer in your life who likes the retro look, this is one of those great graphic designer gifts!

Travel Tag Prints

This is a great design gift for anyone who travels. It comes from Neil Stevens, who has assembled a really amazing range of beautiful A3 poster that were inspired by travel tags.

They feature destinations from all over the world depicted in a beautiful vintage style that looks really great just about anywhere. It is both retro and modern, perfect for anyone who wants a touch of their travel on their home walls.

Groovemade iPhone Cases and More

Groovemade has made a really great line of lovely wooden cases and other accessories for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

They have been “built the hard way” and you can tell from their excellent quality and look. If you find it hard to pick the right one as a gift for a graphic designer, Groovemade offers gift cards so you don’t have to worry about selecting just the right case.

Wacom Intuous

If you don’t practice design as a hobby or a job, you might not know that designing with a computer mouse can be tedious and limiting. Fortunately, there are other options that work much better, like the Wacom Intuous.

It works really well and is great for a designer who is looking to make great looking digital doodles, illustrations, and lettering.

Creative Market Gift Card

Graphic designers are always looking for resources to add to their designs. Creative Market is a huge marketplace where many different designers showcase and sell what they’ve made for the use of others. They feature textures, patterns, fonts, templates, and more. There are more than 110,000 wonderful design resources on Creative Market.

Getting a gift card for Creative Market is a great gift idea for designers. You can purchase gift cards that range from $20 to $100. They also work well as gifts for those “oops, I forgot” moments, since Creative Market gift cards can be emailed in mere moments.

Affinity Designer

The Affinity Designer software is looking to be the smoothest, fastest, and most precise vector graphic design software you can find. It works for just about every aspect of design, from UI design to Icon Design to even allowing for the creation of full works of art.

The team behind affinity Designer is trying to get rid of the need for multiple design apps and the tedious process of creating, exporting, and re-opening it edit in another app. This process is a pain for any designer. Removing it makes Affinity Designer a great gift for graphic designers. It’s also not going to break your budget, coming in at $39, making it an incredibly accessible gift (and tool) for a designer.

4-Port Aluminum USB Hub

We all have a lot of gadgets. Sometimes finding enough USB ports is a real problem. Fortunately, if you’re looking for great gifts for graphic designers, there is this 4-port aluminum USB hub.

It not only gives you extra slots that will work great with most Apple computers, it also looks really great. This makes it a great gift for designers who might not enjoy the clunky, ugly look of many USB port hubs on the market.

Crop It Like It’s Hot

This is a fun and playful t-shirt that’s a great gift idea for a designer with a sense of humor. It’s even better if the designer you have in mind likes Snoop Dog and Pharrell Williams.

The simplicity and humor can mean a lot to a designer who spends their time surrounded by software and gadgets. This t-shirt is 90% cotton and only costs $24, making it a good budget choice for office Christmas parties or even forgotten birthdays.

Browser Sketch Pad

If you know a web designer, they will be grateful when you give them this Browser Sketch Pad. It comes with the grid already on it, as well as the browser.

This makes it much easier for a web designer to sketch out new ideas and get a clear vision of what the final product will work out. It will save time and effort since it is so much easier to design on a wireframe. It’s only $16 for a 50 sheet pad and a whole lot of gratitude from the web designer you give it to.

Chalk Board Mug

Everyone needs caffeine, especially in the busy and frantic world of design. This chalkboard coffee mug is cute and clever, not only offering a way for a designer to get their caffeine fix but also express their creativity.

It can be redone to reflect whatever the mood of the day is or even become a useful design tool in a pinch. It is sure to catch the eyes of everyone at the office, especially if they are other designers. It’s also very budget friendly, coming in at around $ or less.

Philips Wake-Up Light

Waking up is hard for just about everyone, especially if you have to put in long hours the night before. This wake-up light makes it much easier. It is designed to imitate sunlight to gently wake you up in a natural way. It also provides an FM radio or your choice of wake-up sounds.

This is all backed by science, of course, and is going to help you or anyone you give it to have a better, calmer morning. It’s a great gift for a graphic designer, who tend to work long hours or be natural night owls.

3Doodler

This is an amazing little tool that is one of the great gifts for graphic designers out there. It allows people to draw in 3D! You can quickly sketch out ideas with his pen, allowing for even better visualization.

Or you can just create fun little models because you can! It’s actually much cheaper than it might seem, coming in at only $99. Check out its videos and some of the amazing things designers have made with this fantastic little tool! It’s a great gift for anyone interested in design, professionally or otherwise!

Letterpress Cookie Cutters

For anyone who wants to have some fun with type, there are these letterpress cookie cutters. Aren’t they cute? They’re also pretty handy when baking. They make type so good you can eat it!

These cookie cutters come with two sides, one for cutting cookies, another for pressing, so they’re useful for many other baking projects as well. You can use them to make fun cookie messages. Kids really enjoy them for this. If you know a designer who also likes baking, these make for a great gift that a whole family can enjoy together.

Sensu Artist Brush and Stylus

This great tool works on many different devices. It will make paintings made on a tablet or other mobile devices feel much more authentic than any other tool on the market. It offers you realistic, lifelike brush control hat you can’t find anywhere else.

It also comes with a secondary stylus nib that can be used when you don’t need the brush. It’s basically two devices in one, great for those who enjoy both painting and drawing. This is a very good gift for a designer from anyone on a budget since it runs just $40.

Clearcal Anti-Glare Film

If you or your designer friend are tired of seeing your own reflection on the screen, this anti-glare film has got your problem solved. Reflections can cause problems in truly seeing a design or even disrupt presentations during meetings with others working on a project.

This film will blur out and soften reflections while still keeping the screen crisp and clear. It retails at a budget-friendly $20. Get one for yourself and one as a gift for a graphic designer you know. Everyone will appreciate the effect this anti-glare film will have on their computer screen.

Smashing Books

This set of books comes from Smashing Magazine. They have been a very well-received collection of design-related books. They touch on just about every aspect of design, from mobile design to coding to freelancing to…well, everything.

It really is an amazing set of references that can be used now and in the future, allowing designers to brush up on the basics as well as develop new skills. You’ll find a great gift for a designer in this collection. They are available as either hardcover physical books or eBooks for iOS, Kindle, or Nook.

Sketch App

From the great team at Bohemian Coding, Sketch 3 is the new and improved version of the powerful Sketch app. It has only been recently released. It looks to be largely aimed at UI designers, though it does have a wide and varied range of capabilities that will work for just about every designer.

This design app is only growing in popularity. It is a really solid alternative to Adobe for the web, desktop, mobile, and icon design. Any designer will be more than happy to receive Sketch App as a gift!

LaMetric Dashboard and Speaker

This is a pretty cool device. It works in two ways. It will display fun live pixel notifications around anything you want, including emails, tasks, business metrics, news, alerts, and much more. It also functions as a speaker.

You can customize it however you want, having it display whatever you like from either your desktop computer or your mobile device. It’s a fun and playful gift for a designer that also can be very useful. It’s on the more expensive side, at $199, so be sure to give it to someone special. It is a great Christmas or birthday gift.

Tile: Never Lose Anything Again

This nifty little device can be attached to any item you don’t want to lose. It can be something important like your wallet or phone or just something that you keep losing. If the item the Tile is attached to goes missing, use the tile app to track it down.

It will even have the Tile play a sound to help you find it. If the item goes missing farther away or is really stolen, Tile uses a network of apps to help you locate it. It is a great gift idea for designers or anyone, especially if they have a habit of losing their keys.

NomadKey

This device allows you to always have a charging cable on hand but makes sure you don’t have to carry the entire wire. It fits easily in your pocket and can be kept on a keyring.

With NomadKey, you’ll never have to worry about whether or not you have your charger on you again. It’s so small and portable that you’ll probably forget you do have it when you need it! It makes for a great gift idea for graphic designers and just about anyone you know.

Olloclip

This is a wonderful clip-on lens for your iPhone camera. It gives the iPhone a 4-in-1 lens option without having to carry around a ton of different devices. It can capture up close macro images, wide-angle images, and even a fish-eye image.

This is a great tool for photographers on the go who want to be able to capture any photo that catches their fancy without having to carry around a large camera. Just clip it onto your iPhone and you can take the picture however you want. The possibilities are limitless.

Blackwing Pencils

These pencils have been voted as the best pencil out there officially by Design Island. Their slogan is “Half the pressure, twice the speed” and they live up to it. It’s easy to go through them very quickly, so even if you know someone who already uses them, a replacement box is a much-appreciated gift.

Give them with a nice, cool Moleskine notebook to make this gift something extra special. If you are looking for one of the best gift ideas for graphic designers, the Blackwing pencils are definitely one of them.

Desk Shelf System by Grovemade

Every workspace needs to be organized to be truly useful. For creative people, who work in frantic environments, it’s doubly important. These beautiful and useful shelves, stands, and accessories will fit the bill very nicely.

As Grovemade states on their website: “Our Desk Shelf System brings clarity and intention to your workspace. It gives you global control of clutter, and a place for everything you need to work.” This gift is sure to go over well with any designer you give it to, whether for their home office or their office at work.

Rainbow Chopsticks

For those late night sessions or just an order of Chinese for a busy day to the office, these rainbow chopsticks will make an impression. They’re fun and cool. Creative people will enjoy doing something different. It also means that the office won’t have to worry if the take-out place didn’t include utensils again!

Ending thoughts on gifts for graphic designers

There are many great gifts for graphic designers out there, ranging from tools they can use for work to helpful fun accessories. Take a look at this list and see if one of the gift ideas is the right one for your graphic design friends!

If you enjoyed reading this article about Gifts for graphic designers, you should read these as well:

Cool Office Gadgets For Your Desk (84 Examples)

Best iPhone Accessories: 32 Gadgets To Check Out

Gadgets For Men: The Best Men Accessories That You Can Buy

The post Gifts for graphic designers – or what to offer your friends on Christmas appeared first on Design your way.

from Web Development & Designing https://www.designyourway.net/blog/tech/gifts-for-graphic-designers/

0 notes

sheminecrafts · 6 years ago

Text

Wikimedia warns EU copyright reform threatens the ‘vibrant free web’

The Wikimedia Foundation has sounded a stark warning against a copyright reform proposal in Europe that’s due to be voted on by the European Parliament next week. (With the mild irony that it’s done so with a blog post on the commercial Medium platform.)

In the post, also emailed to TechCrunch, María Sefidari Huici, chair of the Wikimedia Foundation, writes: “Next week, the European Parliament will decide how information online is shared in a vote that will significantly affect how we interact in our increasingly connected, digital world. We are in the last few moments of what could be our last opportunity to define what the Internet looks like in the future.

“The next wave of proposed rules under consideration by the European Parliament will either permit more innovation and growth, or stifle the vibrant free web that has allowed creativity, innovation, and collaboration to thrive. This is significant because copyright does not only affect books and music, it profoundly shapes how people communicate and create on the internet for years to come.”

Backers of the reform proposals argue they will help European creatives be fairly recompensed for their work. But critics argue the proposals are not balanced and will chill the creative freedoms of web users to share and comment on content online.

The two articles attracting the most controversy in the reforms are:

Article 11; which proposes a neighboring copyright for snippets of journalistic content — requiring news aggregators such as Google News to gain a license from the publisher to use this type of content (branded a ‘link tax’ by critics);

Article 13; which seeks to shift liability for platform users’ copyright infringements onto the platforms themselves — and which critics contend will therefore push them towards creating upload filters to monitor all content before it’s posted, having a chilling effect on Internet expression. Critics sometimes dub this component ‘censorship machines’.

In July MEPs issued a smackdown to the Commission by refusing to back the reforms — and voting to reopen debate. Another vote is due next week, with amendments in the process of being tabled now, hence Wikimedia’s intervention.

In her blog post, Sefidari Huici urges MEPs to remember the original objective for the update: “To make copyright rules that work for better access to a quickly-evolving, diverse, and open internet.”

“The very context in which copyright operates has changed completely. Consider Wikipedia, a platform which like much of the internet today, is made possible by people who act as consumers and creators. People read Wikipedia, but they also write and edit articles, take photos for Wikimedia Commons, or contribute to other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Content on Wikipedia is available under a free license for anyone to use, copy, or remix,” she writes.

“Every month, hundreds of thousands of volunteers make decisions about what content to include on Wikipedia, what constitutes a copyright violation, and when those decisions need to be revised. We like it this way — it allows people, not algorithms, to make decisions about what knowledge should be presented back to the rest of the world.”

She also warns that changes to EU copyright could have serious implications for Wikipedia and other collaborative non-profit websites, urging MEPs to “institute policies that promote the free exchange of information online for everyone”.

“We urge EU representatives to support reform that adds critical protections for public domain works of art, history, and culture, and to limit new exclusive rights to existing works that are already free of copyright,” she writes.

On Article 13 specifically she warns this would push platforms towards creating “costly, often biased systems to automatically review and filter out potential copyright violations on their sites”, warning: “We already know that these systems are historically faulty and often lead to false positives. For example, consider the experience of a German professor who repeatedly received copyright violation notices when using public domain music from Beethoven, Bartók, and Schubert in videos on YouTube.”

“The internet has already created alternative ways to manage these issues,” she adds. “For instance, Wikipedia contributors already work hard to catch and remove infringing content if it does appear. This system, which is largely driven by human efforts, is very effective at preventing copyright infringement.”

She also argues that the copyright reform debate has been dominated by market relationships between large rights holders and for-profit internet platforms — saying this too narrow slice “does not reflect the breadth of websites and users on the internet today”.

“Wikipedians are motivated by a passion for information and a sense of community. We are entirely nonprofit, independent, and volunteer-driven. We urge MEPs to consider the needs of this silent majority online when designing copyright policies that work for the entire internet,” she adds, calling for MEPs to create a copyright framework that reflects “the evolution of how people use the internet today”.

“We must remember the original problem policymakers set out to solve: to bring copyright rules in line with a dramatically larger, more complex digital world and to remove cross-border barriers. We should remain true to the original vision for the internet — to remain an open, accessible space for all.”

Asked for a response to Wikimedia’s criticisms, a spokeswoman for the European Commission pointed us to an FAQ where it discusses what will happen to online encyclopaedias based on content uploaded by users — and claims these sites will not fall under the scope of the reform (because “the vast majority of the content on Wikipedia is uploaded with the consent of their rights holders” — something critics of the reform dispute).

She also sent us a general comment from Commission spokesperson, Nathalie Vandystadt, in which she states:

The new copyright rules are necessary in order to allow creators and the press to get a better deal when their works are made available online. At the same time, our proposal safeguards free speech and ensures that online platforms – including 7,000 European online platforms – can develop new and innovative offers and business models. It will not ban memes or hyperlinks, as has often been claimed in the public debate.

The Commission presented its balanced proposal two years ago, in September 2016. We have discussed the proposal with all relevant actors. We now expect the European Parliament to reach a position and stand ready to start negotiations on this important reform with the Parliament and the Council of the EU as soon as possible. The process has been long enough. Any further delay at this stage would put at risk adoption before the next European elections.

It’s not the first time Wikimedia has made a high profile intervention in the reform debate; Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales added his name to an open letter in June warning that it “takes an unprecedented step towards the transformation of the Internet from an open platform for sharing and innovation, into a tool for the automated surveillance and control of its users”.

While, in July, several local language versions of the Wikipedia encyclopaedia voted to temporarily black out their content to protest the copyright proposals.

It remains to be seen whether MEPs will be swayed by all this public pressure — not least given all the counterlobbying they are getting behind the scenes.

Commenting on the state of play for the copyright reform ahead of the vote later this month, Marietje Schaake, a Dutch Member of the European Parliament, told us it’s too close to call right now.

“Right now it is impossible to say how the copyright vote will play out next week. I have been working hard on a sensible compromise that respects our fundamental rights, but we don’t know until tomorrow which amendments will be voted on,” she told TechCrunch. “MEPs and political groups are still making up their minds, and the margins are very tight. The votes could swing either way.”

Schaake said it’s likely more clarity will emerge tomorrow, once it’s clear who has tabled what (in terms of amendments) that will then get voted on by the whole parliament next week.

On the controversial article 13 portion of the reform, which would make platforms directly liable for copyright infringements by users, options likely to be on the table include some previous texts (such as the text produced the Commission, or the original Legal Affairs Committee (Juri) text), which are therefore unlikely to gain a majority.

The new proposal by @AxelVossMdEP still makes platforms liable for all their users’ copyright infringements, with no safeguards to prevent filtering. Platforms can either filter everything or get a license for every work in the world. https://t.co/VBLzy3FC2v #SaveYourInternet

— Julia Reda (@Senficon) August 31, 2018

An amendment suggesting full deletion of the article is also likely to be tabled — but also probably wouldn’t get majority backing given the level of backing the reform has behind it.

There may also be a version of the text produced by the Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee, which had joint competency on Article 13 of the proposal with the Juri committee but at the vote in July argued that its position had not been taken into account by the Juri text (which it criticized as not achieving “the needed balance”.

On top of that additional new compromise versions — which “aim to remove the worst parts of Article 13”, as Schaake puts it — are also likely to be tabled. But with votes predicted to be tight it’s hard to say which way MEPs will jump.

In July, the parliament voted by 318 votes to 278, with 31 abstentions, to reject the negotiating mandate that had been proposed by the Juri committee the month before.

As a result, the parliament’s position was reopened for debate, amendment and a vote — which will be held during an afternoon plenary session on September 12.

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://ift.tt/2Cp3tEC via IFTTT

#IFTTT #iraidajzsmmwtv

0 notes

fmservers · 6 years ago

Text

Wikimedia warns EU copyright reform threatens the ‘vibrant free web’

The two articles attracting the most controversy in the reforms are:

She also sent us a general comment from Commission spokesperson, Nathalie Vandystadt, in which she states: “The new copyright rules are necessary in order to allow creators and the press to get a better deal when their works are made available online. At the same time, our proposal safeguards free speech and ensures that online platforms – including 7,000 European online platforms – can develop new and innovative offers and business models. It will not ban memes or hyperlinks, as has often been claimed in the public debate.

“The Commission presented its balanced proposal two years ago, in September 2016. We have discussed the proposal with all relevant actors. We now expect the European Parliament to reach a position and stand ready to start negotiations on this important reform with the Parliament and the Council of the EU as soon as possible. The process has been long enough. Any further delay at this stage would put at risk adoption before the next European elections.”

It’s not the first time Wikimedia has made an intervention in the debate; Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales added his name to an open letter in June warning that it “takes an unprecedented step towards the transformation of the Internet from an open platform for sharing and innovation, into a tool for the automated surveillance and control of its users”.

And, in July, several local language versions of the Wikipedia encyclopaedia temporarily blacked out content to protest the copyright proposals.

It remains to be seen whether MEPs will be swayed by all this pressure — not least given all the counterlobbying they are getting behind the scenes.

Commenting on the state of play for the copyright reform ahead of the vote later this month, Marietje Schaake, a Dutch Member of the European Parliament, told us it’s too close to call right now.

Schaake said it’s likely more clarity will emerge tomorrow, once it’s clear who has tabled what (in terms of amendments) that will then get voted on by the whole parliament next week.

— Julia Reda (@Senficon) August 31, 2018

An amendment suggesting full deletion of the article is also likely to be tabled — but also probably wouldn’t get majority backing given the level of backing the reform has behind it.

In July, the parliament voted by 318 votes to 278, with 31 abstentions, to reject the negotiating mandate that had been proposed by the Juri committee the month before.

As a result, the parliament’s position was reopened for debate, amendment and a vote — which will be held during an afternoon plenary session on September 12.

Via Natasha Lomas https://techcrunch.com

#TechCrunch

0 notes

asylum-ireland-blog · 7 years ago

Text

Why men's voices are vital in Ireland's abortion referendum

New Post has been published on http://asylumireland.ml/why-mens-voices-are-vital-in-irelands-abortion-referendum/

Why men's voices are vital in Ireland's abortion referendum

Male allies in politics, the creative scene, and all walks of Irish life are stepping up alongside women to fight the system that oppresses them

‘Ireland Unfree’ is a Dazed mini-series telling the stories of Ireland’s bold fight for abortion rights, in the run up to the monumental referendum on the eighth amendment. Stirring protest, creativity, personal politics, and vital conversation, these Irish people push for autonomy. Here, we share their journey on Dazed.

The death of Savita Halappanavar in 2012 had an earth-swallowing feel to it. Denied of the basic healthcare required to ensure her survival, a constitutional amendment deemed her life – 31 years of complex human love, colour, and learning – of the same value as a 17-week-old fetus. She died in Ireland’s University Hospital Galway in Ireland due to the complications of a septic miscarriage. Her husband, Praveen, was dutifully left to channel her lost voice and carry her legacy on his already burdened shoulders.

On Friday May 25, Irish citizens will go to the polls to determine if the controversial Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution, which equates the right to life of the mother to the unborn, should be removed and repealed. The amendment, which criminalised abortion in almost all cases, was brought about as a result of a 1983 referendum, a time when the Catholic Church in Ireland was still very much an arm of government. Divorce was still illegal. Contraception was a taboo. Homosexuality remained outlawed.

The Irish man, of course, has no such lack of bodily freedom. Yet, about 70 per cent of Irish women who receive abortion care in the U.K. are married or with a partner. That is, conservatively speaking, thousands of fathers and partners that the Eighth Amendment has, too, bound to secrecy and shame.

Actor and author Emmet Kirwan – who last year created the beautiful spoken-word short film Heartbreak – views the redressing of Ireland’s wrongs broadly and disputes any sense of moral responsibility on individual men. “It’s not just a binary issue of males versus females: It’s an institutional issue,” he tells me. “Whether they be governmental, health, Church – all various arms of the state. There has been an institutionalised gender bias.”

youtube

On Irish streets, in local bars, on shop corners, through headlines painted across newspapers and hashtags proliferating via social media posts – there is a bitter political divisiveness that this debate has wrought, a clearly-defined chasm that calls other political ruptures of late to mind. No wonder there have been questions of sinister outside interference akin to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. In response, micro-campaigns have popped up all over social media – necessary conversation-sparking tools.

Ger Murphy, a 35-year-old events manager from South-Dublin, decided that Irish men needed to contribute to the dialogue around abortion rights. A conversation that, without question, needed their support. In late February, he founded the Men For Repeal Facebook page – ‘balls to the 8th’ is its light-hearted but defiant URL – after some troubling conversations about male engagement. Murphy sought to, at minimum, challenge the many outspoken men on the other side of the debate.

A large subset of the Irish male population, Murphy tells me over the phone, feel this is not their vote, that this a women’s issue that has no true bearing on their existence. Outside of the reality of crisis pregnancies which routinely affect women everyday, the idea that it’s a women-only issue is misguided, disingenuous, and, frankly, outdated. In truth, indifference largely translates as pro-choice.

“Whether they be governmental, health, Church – all various arms of the state. There has been an institutionalised gender bias” – Emmet Kirwan

“There is no problem in coming out and saying there is a male aspect to this issue. The vast amount of women would agree that the men in their lives are being affected as well,” Murphy says of the messaging. “The left trips over itself sometimes trying to be too PC about these things.”

Complacency is participating in neither debate nor democratic process, and it’s something to be concerned about. Kirwan, one of the most vocal Irish artists, explains there are no excuses for liberal-minded men eschewing their right to vote in the referendum: “The kind of passive, non-participation is essentially giving the vote over to the other side. This kind of idea that you can affect change by doing nothing; it’s a logical fallacy.”

Gordon Grehan of the Transgender Equality Network also tells me that repeal is “imperative to ensuring the rights of all people who can become pregnant, including trans men and non-binary people”. He adds: “As a trans organisation, we know the importance of ensuring self-determination, bodily integrity and physical autonomy.” As previously detailed in Brian O’Flynn’s report on the pro-choice campaign’s push for inclusivity, marginalised people like trans men who can get pregnant must be included in the conversation.

I’ve listened to women’s stories they deserve better. A No vote won’t stop abortions but continues the hypocrisy, shame and stigma. A Yes vote moves us to fairer, safer, more compassionate healthcare in Ireland. It’s our responsibility to put the hand out to our women. #men4yes

— Eamon Mc Gee (@EamonMcGee) April 24, 2018

So glad to see #men4yes emerge. I’m voting yes because, as a man, there is no medical procedure unavailable to me to protect my life or my health. I want the same for women.#TáDoMhná

— Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (@AodhanORiordain) April 24, 2018

Men For Repeal, along with Lads For Choice, have thrust the conversation of male engagement directly into the national discussion with Together For Yes, the campaign in favour of repeal. Through the #menforyes hashtag, men online have told their uniquely positioned and shared stories of loss, shame, and state-sanctioned oppression. One such story, which was posted by Men For Repeal’s Facebook page earlier this month, attributed to a man named Enda, illustrates the culture of shame embedded in Irish society.

Enda’s mother – empowered by his coming-out as gay – confided in him that she had an abortion pre-marriage, but for fear of judgement, had told just Enda and one of her sisters. “She’d felt sure that my grandfather would disown her for having sex outside of marriage and he died never knowing,” Enda writes. “I remember her saying she felt as if she was damaged goods with my own father, and had been terrified of telling him in case he no longer wanted to marry her.”

Elsewhere, Murphy alludes to meme culture (check the Ireland Simpsons Fans page for some of the best) and the use of internet spaces as a shareable access point for men, more so for those that are tentative or unsure about their place in a large, fast-moving campaign. Murphy’s resourcefulness also helped him develop a video series where male musicians cover female artists.

via Ireland Simpsons Fans

Creativity in the arts has propelled much of Ireland’s political movements, and the Repeal Project is a major example. The monochromatic sweatshirt – simple, inclusive, and unisex – is boldly inscribed with ‘Repeal’, now iconic in Irish millennial culture as a statement of aesthetic defiance. Repeal founder Anna Cosgrave recently guest edited local music and culture magazine District with the ‘Men’s Issue’ of its Dublin City Guide. The issue profiles male Irish allies across sport, music, film, and politics. Dance music magazine and online community Four Four has been passionately supportive of repealing the 8th on its pages.

Dublin’s vibrant young music scene sees lyrics that continue to reflect Ireland’s bewildering reality, from DIY punk to burgeoning R&B. Rising Dublin hip-hop act, KOJAQUE, recently rapped: “Sovereign state; they’d rather see my mother bleed out than build a clinic.” Elsewhere in the fashion world, designer Richard Malone has been an outspoken supporter for repeal, taking over Selfridges’ window display to write messages of support. In a powerful open letter for Vogue, Malone describes the “infuriating and unjust treatment of women” he has witnessed at home, the misinformed, Catholic-based education about sex and abortion he and his generation received, and the social and class structures that hinder women’s right to choose. “We have to use our vote to speak for ourselves and for the generation of young people coming directly behind us,” he writes, “who remain voiceless in the votes on their future.”

Toxic masculinity is seriously affecting Irish young men’s mental health, sexuality, and attitudes towards sex, the latter manifesting itself in one of the most widely reported and divisive public trials in Irish history: the rape case involving Ulster Rugby stars Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding.

The voice of brusque social sensibility in Ireland today, Blindboy Boatclub of Irish comedy duo Rubberbandits is in equal parts an absurdist and a realist. He’s become an unofficial spokesperson for these disenfranchised young men, men who accounted for 80 per cent of Irish suicides last year. With one of the highest percentages of teen suicide in Europe, a silent epidemic pulses through Irish society.

youtube

During a revealing 2016 interview on Ireland’s The Late Late Show, Blindboy asserted that feminism is, in fact, a remedy for male-centric mental health issues and toxic masculinity, something that rings through with this referendum and long afterwards. “I have nothing to offer a woman, I have nothing,” he says of young men’s attitudes in Limerick, his native city. “How am I supposed to provide for a woman? The fact of the matter, is that that is a patriarchal attitude that is no longer relevant to us in the 21st century.” Blindboy has become a pivotal voice in the movement; utilising social media and his increasingly popular podcast to speak to men directly. His recent book, The Gospel According to Blindboy, delves deeply into such issues – he’s a leader, and a cultural reckoning force behind the pro-choice movement.

In a more recent filmed conversation with Cillian Murphy, Blindboy and the actor rallied for men to excercise their right to vote. “Men and women are both custodians of this society…we need to go out and support women,” Cillian Murphy said.

For too long, Irish women have been defined by their struggle. Those single mothers, those women who claim asylum under Ireland’s dehumanizing Direct Provision system, women of disparate colours and backgrounds, those with varying sexual identities and disabilities: it’s a vote for all women, and now isn’t a time that men can be complacent or indifferent. May 25 gifts Irish citizens – men equally – the opportunity to right one of our nation’s great wrongs. Though cis men will never know what it is like to carry a pregnancy, men are inextricably linked to this upcoming referendum. Men have a duty to engage with, support, and amplify female voices and stories so that an experience like Savita and Praveen’s is never relived again.

, http://www.dazeddigital.com/politics/article/40058/1/why-mens-voices-are-vital-in-irelands-abortion-referendum

#abortion rights #asylum ireland

0 notes