I have been doing a lot of research and writing reports for European clients to advise them on social media and mobile media strategies and am starting to turn some of that intel into action for my other full-time volunteer gig - running the Visual Editors charity.

Visual Editors is a non-profit foundation founded in 2004 to promote visual journalism literacy and has used an array of social networking tools to organize fundraising, meetups and training events around the world. It has been a sandbox for me and our members to get our hands dirty with emerging technologies and behaviors.
Our members have been, at times, years ahead of many other groups of journalists in adopting and adapting to the digital media landscape. VizEds members have been active for a long time in social media spaces like Facebook and Twitter.

But things mutate and change rapidly in this environment and it has been awhile since the non-profit had really examined its Facebook presence.

VizEds created a Facebook Group in 2007 (and attracted several hundred members) but this Mashable article made me realize the group might be better served with a Facebook Page that collects fans vs. members. We already have thousands of members on the Ning site where people critique portfolios, message each other and self-organize and self-manage groups.

Facebook is a different space and offers a different type of engagement.

We established a Facebook page a couple of years ago but did not know then how it might be used. The Facebook group seems to make more sense at that moment. What I am learning is that this page may be a better tool to complement what the charity already provides for members on Ning site, at the dot-org site, the Camp Versatile Journalism training site, our jobs feed (@Media_Pros) and on Twitter.

What has been your experience in managing your social media presence? What adjustments are you making as the patterns mature and the options and benefits start to emerge in a stronger profile?

Robb Montgomery will present a workshop on mobile strategies at APME Newstrain Chicago on Friday March 26, 2010.

80 percent of the world’s population has available mobile phone coverage, and smartphone use is growing faster than any other kind of phone.

Do you have a long-term mobile strategy? Is your staff MoJo savvy? What are mobile users looking for?

This session will examine the rapidly-evolving mobile media landscape and generate a discussion of steps your newsroom can take to begin or enhance mobile gathering and distribution of content.

Focus: Think beyond just developing “apps” for mobile and to what kind of news or entertainment coverage you should also plan to produce with mobile tools.

(Lecture/discussion plus a small group exercise to design a new mobile product or strategy)

Improve your reporting and audience engagement with social media tools and techniques. Learn how to write for the Web, use RSS to save you time, clear your bookmarks bar to gather better research and use online tools to run surveys and conduct interviews.

Private workshop for staff of 24Sata.

This workshop has recently been give for the staff of France24, KircherBurkhardt, Al Ahram and other top digital content companies.

UPDATE: Rob Curley of the Las Vegas Sun tells me that he is worried about his news app being banned. (full quote further down)

Update No. 2. The Guardian reports that “The International Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP) is considering making a complaint to Apple over the computer firm’s request that German publisher Axel Springer censor the naked girls on one of its iPhone apps.”

The Web is sparking with news that Apple has banned, without advance notice, many thousands of apps that contain nudity or suggest sexual themes. If you are a newspaper or magazine publisher, this action by Apple might make you rethink your mobile media strategy;
Even for publishers who’s most racy content is the odd photo of people wearing swimsuits.

The New York Times’s David Pogue dismisses this new content ban by Apple.
But think about it for a second: Hasn’t The New York Times been known to publish photos of people in swimwear, too? Hmmm. Yeah - where is that line exactly, Apple?

Would fashion swimwear or fitness instructor photos be enough to get an app banned from the iTunes store or will there be different rules in place for legacy media publishers making the leap?

And who could really argue against Apple banning against x-Rated apps? As a dad I am glad to have smut filtered within the friendly confines of a family friendly iTunes store.

Will traditional publishers who publish sexy content in their apps be tossed out of the App store as well? An app developer may choose to focus ONLY only on bikinis in their App whereas a news publisher could argue that it can’t justly cover society by ignoring topics like this in theirs.

Apple may soon find serious trouble telling some developers that they can have skin in their app content and certain others that they cannot.

A publishing kiosk is a complex world with different rules regarding public decency standards. Steve Job’s recent courting of major newspaper and magazine publishers to go the iPad developer path is going to bring into play all kinds of content filtering issues for Apple. They will have a tough time reconciling publisher’s apps with their new “sexy swimsuit” policy.

Music and films are far easier to separate into “NC-17″ classes than the widely varied output from publishing houses.

BILD means “Picture” in German.

In case law, lawyers like to cite precedent and look for existing practices that establish the quo of status.

Looking for a newspaper publisher whose brand is tied closely with news, sport and sex?
That’s easy. Look no further than the best-selling newspaper from Europe’s most populous nation.

Bild is Germany’s best-selling newspaper. And, yes, they publish nude photos.

Is Bild at risk of having their popular paid iPhone app pulled from Apple’s digital shelf?

Watch the video embedded here. At about 25 seconds in it should be clear that a popular selling point of the 0.79 Euro Bild iPhone App is the “Bild girl.”

The Bild girl by another name is the U.K. “Page Three girl.”
But Bild publishes mostly news and sporting content in their app as well.

However nudity is a strong brand extension for this Axel-Springer title. It is easy to see why,
In print, the Bild girl runs on Page One every day.

In the iPhone app a user can “shake” the mobile phone to see the Bild girl’s clothes disappear. This is the very kind of interactive behavior that other developers claim Apple is suddenly banning them for.

At present the bild.de app is not available in the U.S. iTunes store - but it is still offered in the German iTunes Store.

You will find this link to the app on the Bilde.de Web site.

This either proves that Apple does or doesn’t understand the German market or that they may apply different rules for the traditional publishers that they are now actively inviting into Apple’s swimming pool.
Or maybe Apple will just let Europeans operate under their own App store to different community standards? Maybe that is a smart approach after all.

At any rate, Apple seems to have entered the “content filtering” game with a history of volatile decisions that is going to give more than one publisher second thoughts about investing resources into developing new “native apps.”

TechCruch blog:

Apple hasn’t spelled out its new policies anywhere (our request for more details has gone unanswered). Keep in mind that these rules may not be set in stone — Apple is purposely vague about its policies, and they’re probably still changing.

Rob Curley (Via Facebook comment on my profile page):
I have a feeling we’ll find out with our upcoming Las Vegas Weekly club guide iPhone app, which will likely include integration of our club waitress galleries. You can see these on lasvegasweekly.com in the Beautiful People section.

This new sexy curve ball from Apple gives added weight to my feeling that savvy publishers should be developing a fuller roster of alternative mobile strategies.

They will be facing an uncertain mobile media market period for at least the next 24 months. Apple is war with Adobe Flash; Google is coming on strong with Android, Add in Notion, inc. Adam and Indian outsourcing companies already lining up to make mobile versions of existing titles and you have a handful.

My advice: “If you first develop “Web apps” for mobile users as opposed to native apps, as a publisher you become immune to the whims of the Apple store Apps policy regarding revenue share and content approval.”

Alas, ‘Web apps vs. Native apps’ is a topic for another blog and more visits this month.

Full disclosure: Axel-Springer (Bild’s owner) is a new media training and consulting client of mine - but I don’t work with the Bild teams.

Join us May 17-19, 2010 at The Toronto Star for three days of hands-on instruction on Web reporting, video reporting and visual multimedia techniques.

What will I learn?
VISUAL REPORTING - Monday, May 17
Low-cost visual multimedia tools and techniques. Learn how to shoot, edit and create engaging slideshows. How to create sequences and edit audio and create rich-media reports for Web audiences.

MOBILE AND SOCIAL MEDIA REPORTING - Tuesday, May 18
Techniques for producing field reports using mobile devices and using social media tools. Practice with mobile apps and Web sites that let reporters file richer reports from the field.

WEB REPORTING - Wednesday, May 19
Improve digital reporting techniques and audience engagement with social media tools and methods. Learn how to write for the Web, use RSS to save you time, clear your bookmarks bar to gather better research and use online tools to run surveys and conduct interviews.

Pay only for the training you need
Attend any one-day class for $99 or buy the multi-day pass for $250 to reserve your seat in the classroom.

This event sold out when it was offered before at the Toronto Star.
Register early to hold your spot.

TORONTO: Robb Montgomery will be presenting a global trends lecture and sharing scenes from his new documentary film “Breaking The News” at the Canadian Newspaper Association “Ink and Beyond” workshop on Friday May 14, 2010.

Video journalism: Reporting and editing workshop.

A multi-day private training for a client in Portugal.

Digital content reporting and editing workshop series.

A multi-day private training for a client in Denmark.

CAIRO - Feb. 14 to March 4, 2010:

I am heading back to Egypt to work for three weeks with the Egypt Media Development Program and the schedule they have prepared is jam-packed with training and consulting visits with journalists from Egypt’s top media houses.

I have been working with the program since their launch and it is amazing that in three years I am able to contribute on so many levels - with reporting, design and multimedia. We have now built many training centers and things are moving well on many levels with regards to visual and digital journalism literacy. We still have a long way to go but the foundations at the base of this new pyramid are looking strong.

I will be filming interviews for the “Breaking the News” documentary (The film project that chronicles this challenging time in journalism) and preparing to be amazed by the efforts of my students.

Converged newsrooms in Egypt from Robb Montgomery on Vimeo.

CAIRO: A documentary film reported and filmed by students taking the Video Journalism course offered by the USAID-funded Media Development Program in Egypt. Chicago journalist, Robb Montgomery led the training and directed the making of film.

CAIRO - Feb. 14 to March 4, 2010:

I am heading back to Egypt to work for three weeks with the Egypt Media Development Program and the schedule they have prepared is jam-packed with training and consulting visits with journalists from Egypt’s top media houses.

I have been working with the program since their launch and it is amazing that in three years I am able to contribute on so many levels - with reporting, design and multimedia. We have now built many training centers and things are moving well on many levels with regards to visual and digital journalism literacy. We still have a long way to go but the foundations at the base of this new pyramid are looking strong.

I will be filming interviews for the “Breaking the News” documentary (The film project that chronicles this challenging time in journalism) and preparing to be amazed by the efforts of my students.

Converged newsrooms in Egypt from Robb Montgomery on Vimeo.

CAIRO: A documentary film reported and filmed by students taking the Video Journalism course offered by the USAID-funded Media Development Program in Egypt. Chicago journalist, Robb Montgomery led the training and directed the making of film.

Five things you need to know about™. . . Video Reporting

A quick tutorial to guide beginners in making better video reports.

1. Beg, borrow or rent a better microphone.
Sound quality separates watchable videos from the unwatchable. If you haven’t budgeted for pro sound then you will never have a pro film.

2. Lock your camera down.
Gain the discipline of letting the action and characters enter and leave your frame. Avoid camera pans and zooms. Tripod discipline is a must-have skill for new film students.

3. Maintain eye contact with interview subjects.
Stand just to the side of the camera and don’t let your subjects speak directly to the lens.

4. Film for sequences.
The basic grammar of scenes is made up of sequences - a wide shot, a medium shot and a close-up shot. As a filmmaker, you use these components like Lego blocks to build sequences and visual stories.

5. Study the classic arc of storytelling.
Organize your film into three acts. Of course this is not a new idea but it works every time and can bring order and focus to a video story that has no structure.

1. Introduce characters
2. Introduce conflict
3. Resolve conflict

Robb Montgomery produces documentary films for the Egypt Media Development Program, the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association and the World Association of Newspapers. He also produces video reporting techniques workshops for Visual Editors and for private clients working in media houses around the world.

(Click to enlarge)

BERLIN: How to travel with an iPad will be a real nightmare unless you have clothes with bigger pockets.

At first I laughed when I saw the photo ad for the 22-pocket travel vest with the silly iPad photo pasted in . . . but I have come around now.

I only had to watch the film below from the manufacturer to realize what a godsend having 22 pockets will mean to my airline travel days.

The way I travel around with my passport, Apple gadgets and other technical gear actually has me wondering just how comfortable this $100 McGyver-esque vest really is.

(Click to enlarge)

BERLIN: Check out this poster designed by the promoters of my workshop this week.

I am producing a one-day “Writing for the Web” course at KircherBurkhardt Akademie on 28 January and a couple of weeks ago they asked me to imagine the title of the talk as a movie name.

I didn’t think much of this request at the moment, but obviously someone at KB was very clever with my Web slinging suggestion!

Nice to be able to share some smiles ahead of a very full day with German-language print journalists getting hands dirty with Web tools and digital reporting techniques.

UPDATE: Google is also using their mapmaker tool to coordinate info on a master map of Haiti.

Google Earth and mapmaker used to help relief workers

Google clearly knows the power of the image and ordered post-earthquake imagery from GeoEye to give a highly-detailed 3D image of the disaster scenes. On their Web site, Google says that the data and images will be updated continuously.

Knowing where to place AID effort is half of the battle in responding well. This tool gives rescue workers new eyes to see with.

Note: You will need Google Earth plug-in to see this 3D image in your browser. Or you can download the KML file here and open it in Google Earth.

Robb’s workshop is an essential step for anyone making the move from print to video journalism - and, let’s face it, that’s everyone in media today.

Miki Lion, beamups.com

Robb is not only a very professional trainer in multimedia subjects he is also a visionary that translates his ideas into money-spinning strategy.
On top he is much liked by his students and colleagues for putting things across to them in a patient, yet convincing way.
In Egypt he is helping change mind-sets on print-online-mobile migration and the monitization thereof.

Joe Raffelberg
Chief of Party
USAID Media Development Program (MDP)
Cairo, Egypt
MSI/IREX

Robb is an excellent trainer. He meets participants exactly where they are, with the skills they possess, and with the equipment they have. He can work with a roomful of people who are all in different stages of development, and somehow make it all come out very well.

Top Qualities: Great Results, Expert, Creative

Janet McNally

Displaying really big photos in really small places (Like a blog or a mobile phone screen) is a powerful story tool in today’s data-driven environment.

The counterpunch is to then marry this kind of eye in the sky report with some real time images of what this event looks like at ground level.

Visual Editors UK blogger, Alan Formby Jackson tweeted some photos from his back yard.

Here is a happy snap taken out my back door this morning.

I would have preferred to a see a UK media house produce a timespace story telling experience with this story. The Washington Post did this for President Obama’s inauguration and that a timespace would have been an even stronger interactive story form that could have been upgraded to include a lot of user submissions. It is not like editors did not see the big snow coming.
Did anyone attempt a user-generated reporting co-op/Pro-Am approach?

Indeed, it snowed when I was in filming scenes for a documentary in Scotland last month (And there has been snow cover on the ground most of the time here in Chicago since I returned) but I am just glad that I am not driving on the wrong side of the road around the top of Loch Lomond tonight. I did that in a wee snow storm and am confident that nobody is going anywhere on that road tonight.

I am back in Chicago now organizing thousands of still-frame images and hours of documentary video footage and I kept pausing over the unplanned images that were never part of my “official reporting.” Hmm. I kept being drawn to them and decided to see if they could still be useful.

The multimedia below is made almost entirely from poor quality mobile phone images.

This ‘accidental gallery’ reveals glimpses from backstage and backs of cars as I traveled from the U.S. to Canada, Europe, and the Middle East several times on a 80 day trip training journalists and filming scenes for the “Breaking the News” documentary film.

My takeaway. You know you probably are a documentarian if you take pictures of everything and are willing to admit that sometimes the unplanned image can serve a story dimension better than a carefully-crafted one.

I went to bonnie Scotland to film scenes for the documentary film “Breaking the News” and to unwind and unplug from my multimedia world tour to newsrooms and classrooms in many countries.

I started editing the Palmer interview on the plane ride from Frankfurt to Chicago and will post a VizEds exclusive excerpt soon.

Breaking the News

The documentary film project “Breaking the News” examines the dramatic and global challenges facing journalism’s difficult transition into the information age.

“BTN” is a project that started a couple of years ago when I began traveling to the houses of journalism around the world.

On this latest tour I made new as well as followup interviews with some of the journalists we are following in Canada, Egypt, U.K., Europe and the U.S.

“Breaking the News” is a huge project for the Visual Editors charity to produce and now that I am home I will be responding to letters of interest from journalism and education foundations that are interested in funding the Visual Editors 501(c)(3) non-profit to bring both the film project and the multimedia classroom lesson packs into the market.

Visual Editors has written a focused and richly detailed program description and funding request. If you would like to assist with this project, please contact me via this blog or any of the officers at Visual Editors to learn more.

New funding will allow Visual Editors to also include film of the journalism changes in Latin America and Asia in this seminal report.

Where in the world did Robb go?

A visual update on some of the experiences of my 10-week world tour teaching multimedia journalism.

The tour map is interactive and includes more details and comments.
Enlarge this map.

Seeing journalism’s future in Berlin

One of the things that may surprise struggling journalists and some media pundits is that some media groups are counter-investing in their future, despite the recession and unrelenting changes to print journalism.

Axel Springer trains 40 journalism students every year in intensive classroom and internships and they have been able to employ them all after they graduate. Pretty incredible, no?

Here’s a quick-turnaround multi-media story element I produced as part of my training workshop recently with one group of these students.

Dates TBA

News Innovation: Journalism, Technology and Design 2010.
In association with the Society for News Design

Source: SOCRATA: 2009 Report to Congress
This is an example of the kind of reporter-driven visualizations that I was teaching France24 journalists in my Web reporting seminars.

“If print is a dead business, then this kind of death feels pretty comfortable for me.”

No kidding. Springer is riding in the opposite direction of almost every other western media house. Yes, Arianna Huffington is also on stage but is clearly outclassed in this discussion.

VIDEO

What was so interesting was that these two were even pitched as equals in the program.

1. Axel-Springer CEO shows a profit with old media when so many others are posting massive losses. And, Mathias has real numbers to back it up saying to Huffingtonpost.com in a sense that ‘We make more money in a week with professional journalism than you make in a year.’ (I’m paraphrasing - but he illustrated this several times with concrete numbers.)
2. Arianna’s ignorance of the EU copyright protection discussions that Döpfner was alluding to damages her credibility fatally.
   Europe is not the U.S. and it does not look good to have the David lecture the Goliath when this particular Goliath is clearly immune to the the types of rocks used so far to destroy it.

Full disclosure I did recently deliver a Video journalism and Web reporting workshop at the Axel-Springer Akademie in Berlin.

I was hired as a consultant to New York City-based Mignon-Media and have been working closely with Jeff Mignon for months in preparation to make this the best possible training event possible.

The studios are first-class, state-of-the art. Uber-impressive.
The editor-in-chief, Karine Broyer, gave me a tour while they were broadcasting and then she came to attend the class. I can tell you right now that impresses me the most. When the editor comes to class.
I have, without fail, witnessed over the years that when the editor goes to class with staff that the training takes hold.

Below are some quick visual reports I made as part of some of the live/demo seminars I taught in this afternoon’s session.

A slideshow of where I went for lunch (the Eiffel Tower) and some animated and reported maps that can be built quickly and go up without bothering the photo department or the graphics department.

The first thing I had to manage was learning the train line and finding the platform to take me from Issy-les-Val de Seine station to Champ de Mars (the name of the park where the tower lives).

View Larger Map

When I stepped out of the train station, I walked up the street and found myself next to the iconic tower.

View Robb’s lunch excursion in a larger map

I found a sandwich, chips and a tea at small kiosk on a side street and parked myself on a bench next the tower and people-watched. I do like that my French hosts grant me a two-hour window to take lunch each day. Very reasonable people, they are!

Mr. Eiffel’s masterpiece was, naturally, a star of the last movie I made here in Paris in the summer of 2008.

Paris: Web video is not TV from Robb Montgomery on Vimeo.