Time for a change

As nice and simple Blogger has been to me since I started on it a few years ago, I feel it is time for a change, so I am going to stop blogging on this account and do everything on my new one at...

http://madisonmccord.tumblr.com/

Check it out!

How about a code

Just scan this code with your phone's bar code scanner to be driven to this site!

Good times

I've been so busy with these first few weeks of school and work, that I almost forgot about my blog.

But I can safely say that everything is going great right now. Approval has been granted for the launch of the new Argonaut and Blot websites, which will go live sometime next month.

I've also developed a little niche for myself in the college technology area, which I have been writing columns about all year. Some of them are even getting picked up and re-tweeted by other news agencies. Everything from the iPad to Twitter is being covered.

As for what will come next, who knows? But right now, everything is going pretty smooth.

- M

Starting Fresh

After the three best years of my professional life, it is time to move forward and start again.

I love every minute I spent inside the newsroom of The Communicator, but I can already tell that my time here at The Argonaut will prove to be as, if not more successful and beneficial for me.

I can already feel the pressure being put on me and my new colleagues, but we are all up to the task, and ready to prove that our organization is one of the best in the nation.

I will post updates on how my new life at a "real college" is going, as well as how the development of the new uiargonaut.com is progressing.

- M

Happiness leads to creativity

Have you ever had that feeling of extreme happiness?

I've always considered myself a pretty upbeat guy, but lately my smile has been going through the roof. By creating a positive environment thought, I have found myself to be much more productive and creative. I guess you could say it helps me release a different side of me.

Today I will start the largest and longest project i have yet to work on at SFCC, one a students guide to the upcoming Sasquatch! Music festival, which will be an interactive Flash project, and secondly continue to work on and finish my part of the Converge interactive magazine.

I am in the middle of what would be a very hectic time for me, but because of everything and everyone great surrounding me, I am more excited than nervous.

They also say that money doesn't buy happiness, but it does buy an iPad... And iPads make you happy. Just saying.

Playing with flash

Flash is dead.

But it is still something that I am going to take advantage of learning while I can. In the past couple of months I have taken my knowledge of producing quality multimedia pieces into a full interactive experience.

Here are the links to the two projects.

http://faculty.spokanefalls.edu/Communicator/sections/multimedia/multimedia/earth_day/earth_day.html

http://faculty.spokanefalls.edu/Communicator/sections/multimedia/multimedia/madison_jones/everyday_jones.html

Creating a Google newsroom

Google runs the world.

That statement is no longer shocking or surprising for the masses, especially journalists. But knowing that, why is our industry still relying on desktop word processing programs, ancient form of email with outdated features or even the traditional 2 p.m. meetings in the conference room?

Google over the last few years has pumped (and bought) out some of the web's most innovative and interesting tools, all of which can be pieced together to make a perfectly networked Google newsroom.

By simply integrating four Google programs into the newsroom, you can guarantee that every writer, photographer and editor is on the same page, making the stressing over deadlines a thing of the past.

1. Set up a GMail account.

This is not only the portal in which all of the other programs will be accessed through, but the web's best email client.

Offering a huge amount of storage (about 7,500 mb), both text and video chat capabilities and the ability to label messages by category, GMail has taken the needs of every email user and put it to use on one platform.

2. Let your files live online with Google Documents.

This is by far the most useful and powerful tool that Google has ever built, and just by playing with it for a few minutes, you may think they built it just for journalists.

Documents or Docs for short, lets you upload any file to Google's cloud server and store it online. It doesn't matter if it is a .docx or .swf, any file is accepted. The truly amazing part comes in though when you upload an editable document such as a word processing file, you can share the file with your editor and have him edit the copy live online. Eliminating the confusion of mailing edited copy back and forth.

Docs is also a powerful document creation tool. Users can create word files, powerpoints or spreadsheets on Google Docs and have the same editing and creation tools as on any desktop program.

3. Meeting just went surfing on Google Wave.

Note: Wave is still in beta, but a request can be made to get an invitation to start using the tool.

No more meetings... in person. You don't need them anymore with the launch of Google's newest web tool, Wave. Like Docs, Wave is a real-time online calibration tool which allows users to create new conversations in one place.

When you start a new Wave and invite friends to it, everyone is able to post text, pictures, files, video and more, and then converse about them when they want.

Imagine it as a Facebook conversation on a wall, but with the ability to add files to the conversation, make it exclusive to specific people and go back to comment and re-hash an old conversation that may have gotten lost in the mix.

Wave has the power to bring every aspect of a newsroom together into one project even if they are separated by three floors.

And did I mention that all of these tools are free, and you only need the one log-in? That's pretty important too.

Make sure to follow me on Twitter @madison_mccord