Alex Gamela - Digital Media & Journalism » Conference | Conferência

2011 – Achievements and Standpoint | Feitos e Ponto de Situação

Alex Gamela — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:00:06 +0000

The year is almost over and I have the need to put things into some perspective. So, despite considering it as one of the worst years I had in my life, I’m going to look at the things I did, and try to prove myself it wasn’t really that bad.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Professionally, the first half was good, I was teaching in a training program created by Porto University, instructing journalists from Cofina, one of the biggest portuguese media groups. I worked with over 200 journalists and editors and it was a really rewarding experience. I think I changed some minds and helped many improve their skills. The rest is not up to me.

I also worked as an instructor with the team of P3, a new youth oriented news website, which was a different challenge because they were online only, thus with a whole another approach to content production. And my teaching days were then over.

I had to go back to be a student and finish my overdue MA final project. It wasn’t that good, and I could make all the excuses in the world because I really have a few good ones for not doing better and they would all be true, but the fact is I could have done better. Still, I had a commendation over it and I got an upgrade in my degree. So far it hasn’t impressed anyone.

I wanted to develop a few projects but with all the problems I had this year some were postponed and I had to give up on others. I wanted to open my own business as a multimedia journalism producer/ consultant, but there’s a crisis going on, and people around here weren’t very impressed with my credentials. I have far better recognition abroad than in my own country, which kinda pisses me off. The fact is, I didn’t create my own job, nor I have one to complain about.

Meanwhile, I invested in video content, using a HDSLR, all my efforts can be seen here (only those uploaded in the last 3 months count). I did a short doc about a cultural association I work with, and most of the stuff I made is based on the events we have there, like concerts and exhibitions. It’s a good testing ground and I’m planning to use what I’ve learned to create more journalistic stuff.

O ano está quase a acabar e tenho a necessidade de pôr as coisas em perspectiva. Apesar de achar que este foi um dos piores anos da minha vida, vou olhar para o que fiz e tentar provar que afinal não foi assim tão mau.

FEITOS

Profissionalmente, os primeiros meses foram bons, fui formador num programa criado pela Universidade do Porto para a Cofina, onde trabalhei com mais de 200 jornalistas e editores das várias publicações do grupo e foi uma experiência fantástica. Acho que mudei algumas mentalidades e ajudei muitos a melhorar as suas capacidades. O resto não é comigo.

Também dei formação à equipa do P3, o que foi um desafio especial porque eles estão exclusivamente online, logo com uma aproximação completamente diferente na criação de conteúdos. E a seguir acabaram-se os dias como professor.

Tive que voltar a ser estudante e acabar o meu projecto final de mestrado. Não correu lá muito bem e podia dar todas as desculpas – e até tenho algumas muito boas e que são verdade – para isso, mas sei que podia ter feito melhor. Mesmo assim, passei com louvor e tenho agora um grau académico melhor. Até agora ninguém ficou lá muito impressionado com isso.

Quis desenvolver alguns projectos mas com todos os problemas que tive este ano alguns foram adiados outros esquecidos. Queria abrir o meu próprio negócio como jornalista multimédia / formador /consultor, mas há uma crise lá fora e as pessoas não parecem muito impressionadas com as minhas credenciais. Tenho melhor reconhecimento noutros países do que aqui, o que me deixa um bocado lixado. A verdade é que falhei em criar o meu emprego ou a arranjar um de que me possa queixar.

Entretanto investi na produção de vídeo com uma HDSLR, podem ver aqui alguns dos resultados (só os dos últimos 3 meses contam). Fiz um pequeno trabalho sobre a associação de que faço parte, e muitos dos videos são sobre coisas que por lá vão passando como concertos e exposições. É um bom tubo de ensaio (!), e estou a planear usar o que aprendi para fazer conteúdos mais jornalísticos.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I also wrote some interesting posts for the blog (check list below) and started a monthly column in a computer magazine, and did some articles for P3 (people there like me, what can I do?). I wrote an article about documentaries in this non-linear world, and a post at Innovative Interactivity about what features a news product should have.

Escrevi ainda uns posts interessantes aqui no blog (ver lista abaixo) e comecei uma coluna mensal na PCGuia, e fiz ainda alguns artigos para o P3 (o pessoal lá gosta de mim, que é que posso fazer?). Escrevi ainda um artigo sobre documentários neste mundo não linear, e um post convidado sobre as características que um produto jornalístico online deve ter.

Standpoint

This was one of the longest, strenuous years I have ever experienced. Even though I was able to accomplish some goals, they look meaningless in the overall outcome. I’m broke, unemployed, I have no perspectives. It has always been one step forward and three behind. I had to give up on a lot of things, and basically I feel like it’s 2001 for me (another bad year) but with a heavier burden. I wasn’t expecting this.

My projects are moving slowly, there is no money or time to devote myself fully to them. I’m starting 2012 on basic survival mode, but that’s the outlook for millions of Portuguese people this year. Going abroad is a possibility, I understand Nando’s is always hiring. There’s a lot to decide in the upcoming weeks.

Still, I’m on the market, I’m trying to sell training and consultancy programs for local and regional newspapers, I’m available as a freelancer both for national or international media, and I’ll be presenting a few more ideas if things don’t get any worse.

2011 won’t be missed, too many bad things have happened, but such is life. I’m finishing way worse than I started, and I’m considering other options for my future, because life is unstoppable in its motion and either you roll with or get crushed. I’m a roller.

Death to 2011, I’ll look back on it with a bitter taste in my mouth.

Ponto de situação

Este foi um dos anos mais longos e extenuantes que vivi. Apesar de ter atingido alguns objectivos, tudo parece inútil no balanço geral. Estou basicamente falido, desempregado, sem grandes perspectivas. Foi sempre um passo para a frente e três para trás. Tive que desistir de muita coisa, e sinto-me de volta a 2001 (outro ano péssimo) mas apenas com um fardo ainda mais pesado. Não estava mesmo à espera disto.

Os meus projectos pessoais estão a andar devagar ou parados, não há dinheiro ou tempo para me dedicar a eles. Vou começar 2012 em modo de sobrevivência, mas sou e mais uns milhões de concidadãos. Ir para fora é uma possibilidade, também se lavam pratos lá fora. Há muito para decidir nas próximas semanas.

Por enquanto, estou no mercado, a tentar vender programas de formação e consultadoria para media locais e regionais. Estou disponível como freelancer para publicações nacionais ou internacionais, e tenho mais algumas ideias na manga se isto não piorar.

Não vou ter saudades de 2011, aconteceram demasiadas coisas más, mas é a vida. Termino o ano bem pior do que quando comecei e estou a ponderar outras opções para o meu futuro, porque a vida não pára, ou a acompanhamos ou somos esmagados pelo movimento.

Morte a 2011, vou-me lembrar deste ano com amargos de boca.

Cidadania 2.0 em Lisboa – 13 de Outubro

Alex Gamela — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 09:07:51 +0000

Mais um evento para se perceber que o cidadão comum também é parte do processo, com participantes vindos de Inglaterra, Brasil, País Basco, Suíça e Portugal. O melhor de tudo é que é grátis. Vejam o que se vai passar e como se podem inscrever abaixo.

Download (PDF, 292.28KB)

news:rewired live twitter stream #newsrw

Alex Gamela — Fri, 27 May 2011 15:50:42 +0000

Check out what has been twitted over #newsrw

#Jeecamp unconference

Alex Gamela — Fri, 21 May 2010 06:41:45 +0000

Today i’m at #JEECamp, the unconference about journalism organized by Paul Bradshaw. So far we had Simon Waldman, from the Guardian Media Group, and four breakout discussion groups that debated from business models to newsgathering and production. To have a better idea of what is going on here at The Bond, just follow the #jeecamp tag on Twitter or go to OJB for liveblogging or at JEECamp Tumblr. Soon i’ll share with you more links covering the event.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Call for papers

Alex Gamela — Tue, 04 May 2010 11:37:08 +0000

The ObCiber – Observatório do Ciberjornalismo (Observatory of Cyberjournalism) invites submissions for its II International Congress on Cyberjournalism – December 09-10, 2010 – in the University of Porto, Portugal, under the general themes of “Business models to journalism on the Internet” and “Social networks and cyberjournalism”.

Paper proposal – either in Portuguese, Spanish or English – should be sent to obciber@gmail.com. The 500 words abstract should include the topic and its relevance, the hypothesis or main argument, conceptual and methodological framework, expected results and up to 5 keywords. There are to be no biographical notes or references within the abstract which must be accompanied by a separate cover letter, for blind review purposes, only with the author(s) name(s), institutional affiliation(s) and postal and e-mail address(es).

Logistics
Deadlines

The deadline for the submission of abstracts is July 15, 2010.
You will be informed whether or not your abstract is accepted by September 15, 2010.
The deadline for full papers is October 31, 2010. The most outstanding papers delivered at the Congress will be considered for publication in the journal Prisma.com – http://prisma.cetac.up.pt/

Early registration deadline:

Registration Fees:
• Early Registration (September 30): General 30€; Papers authors 25€; students 10€; UPorto students 5€
• Late Registration (November 30): General 40€; Papers authors 35€; students 20€; UPorto students 5€

A organização do II Congresso Internacional de Ciberjornalismo,marcado para 09 e 10 de Dezembro de 2010 na Universidade do Porto, convida os investigadores interessados a remeter, até 15 de Julho, propostas de comunicações a apresentar no Congresso.

As comunicações deverão versar sobre Ciberjornalismo, com especial preferência pelos tópicos deste II Congresso:
- Modelos de negócio para o jornalismo na Internet
- Redes sociais e ciberjornalismo

As propostas devem ser enviadas para obciber@gmail.com, em Português, Espanhol ou Inglês. Cada proposta deve contemplar uma descrição de 400 a 500 palavras, que inclua, designadamente, o tópico e relevância do mesmo, hipótese ou argumento, moldura conceptual e metodológica, resultados previstos e até 5 palavras-chave. Cada proposta deve ser acompanhada de uma folha de rosto separada, para blind-review, apenas com nome(s), filiação institucional e endereços postal e electrónico do(s) autor(es).

As propostas serão avaliadas pelos membros da Comissão Científica do Congresso, devendo o resultado ser comunicado a todos os autores até 15 de Setembro.

Os autores das propostas aprovadas comprometem-se a enviar as comunicações completas até 31 de Outubro. As melhores comunicações serão publicadas na revista Prisma.com – http://prisma.cetac.up.pt/.

As taxas de inscrição são iguais às praticadas no I Congresso – http://cobciber.wordpress.com/inscricao/.

O Congresso é organizado pelo Observatório do Ciberjornalismo (ObCiber) e pelo Centro para as Ciências da Comunicação (C2COM) da Universidade do Porto.

O programa do Congresso, em preparação, incluirá intervenções, já confirmadas, dos Profs. Marcos Palacios (Universidade Federal da Bahía), Elvira García de Torres (Universidad Cardenal Herrera), João Canavilhas (Universidade da Beira Interior) e Helder Bastos (Universidade do Porto).

Switch Conference – 15th and 16th of May, 2010 at University of Coimbra, Portugal

Alex Gamela — Mon, 03 May 2010 14:32:54 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s in Portugal and it’s worth spreading: the second Switch Conference is just in a couple of days and there are still some tickets available . If you don’t know what it is, here’s what it’s all about:

SWITCH is a 2-day conference to be held in the University of Coimbra, Portugal , on the 15th and 16th of May, 2010. We do want, however, to make SWITCH way more than a conference. We want to make it an authentic 2-day discovering experience. Attendees will get in touch with scientists, entrepreneurs, thinkers, do-er and everyone in between to share their knowledge, their experience and their ideias aiming to create awareness on scientific and technological matters, preparing us to a better defined future and a helthier society. We want and promote earth-shaking ideas, impossible breakthroughts and incredible life stories.

The conference will take place on a weekend to let those who are unable to leave work for the whole week to attend the conference sharing their experience and vision.

SWITCH will have a main room where presentations will fully run from day 1 to day 2, a second room where the startup competition and deep discussions will take place and, finally, outside areas when all sort of fun activities will take place and where partners and sponsors stands will be located.

SWITCH main theme will be “Web & Development” but our bet is on diversity. Diversity of cultures, ideas, discussions, persons and, of course, themes. You can find the full list of topics for this year’s conference here.

In the 2nd Room will take place the startup competition hosted by Webreakstuff. We want to act as a plattaform for networking, but also as as a way for you to meet with investors and to make your business project known by the crowd. The startup competition will sort out the best startups around and promote them with investors and media.

Grab your tickets while you can.

Yesterday’s presentation at Porto’s University | Apresentação de ontem na U.Porto

Alex Gamela — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 11:17:04 +0000

Novos percursos e características dos conteúdos informativos & os jornalistas do futuro

View more presentations from Alexandre Gamela.

So i was invited this week to give a talk to the Cyberjournalism seminar students at Porto University, and it wasn’t that bad.

I took the opportunity to present two ideas that i have and that are still under development: “The Upward Spiral- an information flow model” and “New properties of news contents”. I’ll develop these concepts sometime soon here in the blog.

I must thank the students who beared with and Helder Bastos, their teacher, for inviting me.

Ontem fui dar uma pequena palestra aos alunos de Ciberjornalismo na Universidade do Porto e não correu assim tão mal.

Aproveitei a oportunidade para apresentar duas ideias que tenho e que ainda estão em desenvolvimento: “A espiral ascendente- um modelo de fluxo informativo” e “Novas propriedades de conteúdos noticiosos”. Eu irei desenvolver estes conceitos em breve aqui no blog.

Queria agradecer aos alunos que me aturaram e ao Hélder Bastos por me ter convidado.

news:rewired – nudges and conclusions

Alex Gamela — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:23:52 +0000

the view of @drawnalism over #newsrw

I must confess i hate conferences. Well, i’ve been hating them, since i’ve never been to so many of them in such a short period of time, and because i’m not making the most of attending to these things. Conferences are not only places of discussion and learning with some of the best minds in a specific field, but mostly a place to interact with them, network with like minded people, make new friends, get into someone else’s list of professional contacts. Lately i’ve been feeling like a teenager avoiding all the cool kids. I’m starting to think i’m losing people’s skills, or my charm doesn’t work around here. I come from a different culture, and you brits sometimes don’t make it easy. But some do, actually, as i found out after the end of the conference, over a few beers.

I was approached by John Thompson, publisher and owner of Journalism.co.uk, so, the man in charge of the operations. He kindly put up with my ranting about what i thought Journalism.co.uk could do when covering the Journiverse, while i thanked him for my (nowadays undeserved) presence in their list of the best journalism blogs. John and his team do some of the best work i see related to the industry, and i’m constantly recommending their work. Another huge mistake i keep doing is not having a camera available to interview people, my Samsung Omnia has terrible video and sound quality, so i didn’t even tried, but my conversation with John could have been registered and posted here, instead of having to describe it using just words. Not much multimedia of me…

Other people that i managed to talk to IRL (in real life) for the first time we’re Laura Oliver, from journalism.co.uk, but i failed to meet Judith Townend. I got to “e-talk” with them a bit in the last two years, so it’s easy to have the “i kinda know you” feeling. Another great moment was when I intercepted Andy Dickinson, whom i must convince to taste some Portuguese wines, I owe him a bottle anyway. But if you’ve ever been to these events, you know it’s all three minute conversations, then change counterparts. After three beers in a nearly empty stomach i was feeling like a pinball (so unprofessional of me…) but i got to talk to Dave Lee, Adam Westbrook, Josh Halliday, and Phillip John that i already knew from Birmingham. But it was nice to get to talk to these guys in person, they are what i thought of them: smart and to be followed in their online presences, there is a lot to be learned from them.

It was a great day anyway, and the bullet points were the following:

- journalists can’t do everything, they need to find what they need to know;

- journalists need to be entrepreneurial;

-journalism is changing faster than we can be aware of that;

-journalism is still the same thing as it was before, but there is a plethora of new ways to do it, monetize it, distribute it, work on it;

You should check these websites to get a better picture of what happened during the conference: news:rewired, of course, with all the profiles of the speakers and some accounts on the sessions; Andy Dickinson talks about one of the sessions he attended; Adam Tinworth also reports on the sessions he attended.

Now i’m working on my assignments for the MA and looking for a place to work for the Labs phase next semester. This was a useful event for me, nonetheless, and i might profit from it in the near future. At least that’s what i hope. And if you see me at one of these things, please approach me, i might not recognize you, be offline, or just too shy that day.

Here are some images of the conference.

[UPDATE: Check this list of links for a broader coverage on the event]

news:rewired – how to make money

Alex Gamela — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:00:48 +0000

James Fryer, from SoGlos.com

This is post number four on the news:rewired conference. You can read the posts one, two and three too.

The final session of news:rewired was dedicated to the ugly side of the future of journalism: how to make money, why journalists are not making money, law and copyright, audiences and advertising. This was stuff journos never had to think about, but that they should consider in their everyday practice, so they can make it financially sustainable. But the trick to be successful is the same as before: be one of the best.

The first speaker of the panel was James Fryer, one of the founding editors of SoGlos.com, the hyperlocal online magazine for Gloucestershire. I had already met James and his associate Michelle Byrne when they sat next to me during the morning sessions, and we got to talk about we should be networking more during the breaks. They we’re really nice, and as someone who developed an experimental hyperlocal website, i was interested in what they had to say.

Fryer gave us the top do’s and don’ts for a hyperlocal venture, and i’d like to highlight a few of his ideas. He was one of the people who pointed out the obvious characteristic for any successful endeavor: be great. Without being great you’ll never stand out, and gain trust and respect from your audience and your advertisers. Besides that basic principle, you must know where you stand commercially, what is your market and it’s needs, and who could be your allies. But don’t forget to remain true to your starting idea, keep your editorial integrity. I’d like to see some of the major news outlets following some of these principles…

SoGlos was victim of some plagiarism, and the next speaker talked about just that. Caroline Kean is a lawyer, and she adressed some of the problems that affect online journalism, like copyright and privacy. She debunked the myth that if it’s on the web it’s free, and that companies should be careful about the misuse of costumers data. These are relevant questions that would suffice to organize a conference on it’s own. She was followed by Ben Heald, “CEO of Sift Media, a leading business-to-business publisher specialising in online, interactive professional communities.” What i got from Heald’s speech was that pay walls will fail, and that money will come from niche communities that will pay for specific contents. I remember i liked his presentation, but i don’t have many notes about it. Probably it’s because he was stating something that was obvious for me, but that still hasn’t reached some minds.

Maybe me forgetting about Ben Heald’s presentation was Greg Hadfield‘s fault. The man has an incredible life story, and recent events in his professional course still put him in the game changers group. He delivered this simple yet powerful idea: journalists must act as entrepreneurs. This involves passion and vision, and one activity can’t be separated from the other. He said that when he was a journalist he never thought about advertising, it was “the stuff that made your article shorter”. Now it’s time to be entrepreneurial, since the face of the industry has changed forever. Adam Tinworth sums up some of Hadfield’s ideas here.

I must confess i was awfully tired by then, and a bit frustrated because i was looking around and recognizing some people from my twitter timeline and hadn’t networked with them live. Besides, wifi didn’t work for me and i had to sit offline the whole day, which put me in a state of deprivation close to a certified addict. But after this we had the End of Conference Drinks! More about that in the next post.

news:rewired – the afternoon sessions

Alex Gamela — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:00:21 +0000

This is the third post about the news:rewired conference. You can read the first and the second posts too.

News Rewired Data Mash

Tony Hirst’s presentation at #newsrw. View more presentations from Tony Hirst.

In the afternoon i was signed in for the Data Mashing session. I kinda expected it to be a bit technical, and i wasn’t wrong. You can’t learn how to create data visualizations and mashups in one hour, but you can get the logic and purpose of some applications to decide in the future if you’re going for this or that type of graph, or just to know that you can do this or that type of correlation between data sets. Data mashing is still a playground for those with a coder’s state of mind, and a nightmare for most of us mere wordsmiths.

So when Tony Hirst started his presentation the room was a bit caught off guard with the complexity of his work. Hirst started to explain that data tells stories, by using data visualizations reporters can look for anomalies, and find if that odd data means a story waiting to be told. He showed us some of the tools he uses in his projects with the Guardian’s Open Platform, like ManyEyes and YahooPipes, and how he geocodes that data with GeoCommons. It wasn’t a lecture for the faint of heart when it comes to coding and data geekery, but i can tell you i found it quite useful. Data mashing is one of the most important ways of getting those boring stories with loads of incomprehensible stats and figures into compelling, eye-catching visualizations. And they can also be a great tool in the research phase, when reporters are trying to look for the exception in the rule.

The next speaker showed us just that with his work with MySociety.org. Francis Irving uses data to make the powerful accountable and in the users reach. He proved that presenting the TheyWorkForYou website and the new WhatDoTheyKnow. Both these enterprises use open data to hold local and national goverment representatives responsible for their actions during their mandates. It was the “why” to the “how” that Tony Hirst showed us before.

David Dunkley Gyimah talks about video

Another speaker that i was looking forward to hear was David Dunkley Gyimah. I‘ve been following his blog since i started my own almost three years ago. He got me looking into multimedia, video journalism and online video narrative in a different way. The fact he is a fan of experimentation and he supports the creation of a unique voice for each professional instead following the exhausted television news model makes his views more interesting to follow. It is always more appealing to me hear about video using terms like cinema verité and documentary, and his style is more related to a more cinematic narrative that i feel more interesting to be used online than the 90 second pieces for night news.

He compared online video to blogs, saying it was a disruptive way to present the news, and that the online video journalist could work between the cracks of broadcast journalism. Either way, with all the visual culture that most internet users have, online video is a good place to experiment, and since it needs to be done fast and effectively, we can use the error in our favor. The weapons of choice are becoming more numerous than before, and go from a pro hd camera to a cell phone. It’s always the story and the skills of the videographer that make the final result good or bad. You can see a hectic David doing his presentation in the video below.

Click here to view the embedded video.