A fun little music video made from behind-the-scenes footage of Robb Montgomery filming scenes in Moscow for the documentary film “Breaking The News.”

Visits to the Kremlin, city streets, Metro stations, Moscow State University and an outdoor museum featuring iconic symbols of the former CCCP.

It is summer holiday season and I am sharing a series of mini travelogues.

These little side projects were filmed as I travelled to Sweden, Germany, Russia, Egypt, Canada and Scotland producing the documentary film, “Breaking The News.”

More travel films

I’ll be in Germany meeting with clients, editing films and and developing training programs.

Contact me if you are interested in making an appointment.

Robb Montgomery returns to Egypt to work again with the Egypt Media Development Program, a USAID-funded training program operated by IREX and MSI, Inc.

Over two weeks he will be training and consulting with cross-media journalists and senior executives at Egypt’s top media houses.

Montgomery’s specialty is to lead senior managers in goal-oriented workshops where they learn his system for developing new products and ideas for serving new audiences.

He has been working with the media development program since their launch in 2006. The Media Development effort is geared towards improving reporting, publication design and grow expertise in multimedia literacy, management practices, and revenue generation.

MDP have built many training centers and the journalist and their editors are moving forward on many levels with regards to visual and digital journalism literacy.

Montgomery also leads workshops in video journalism, multimedia reporting, computer-assisted reporting and writing for the Web techniques.

Robb Montgomery will lead a training seminar about multmedia video skills for journalists attending a lecture series “10 en Comunicació”, on digital journalism which will take place this autumm in Barcelona.

ESCACC is producing the series and works with the objective of contributing to the development of the Catalan cultural and media industry. They sponsor activities in the field of innovation, strategy and training among the companies and agents in the sector.

ESCACC also argues for a strong, modern, creative and independent media system.

I have been working with WAN at these events since 2005 where I presented on tabloid design to editors-in-chief and then joined their live blogging desk to file updates from other speakers.

This 2010 version in Hamburg is a must-attend. WAN-IFRA has a fascinating program which focuses on “why mobile distribution will change the news business.”

Find out more about out the speakers and topics at: www.wefhamburg2010.com

Self-filmed with my trusty Lumix LX-2 digi cam and Zoom H4 recorder.

It is summer holiday season and I am sharing a series of mini travelogues.

These little side projects were filmed as I travelled to Sweden, Germany, Russia, Egypt, Canada and Scotland producing the documentary film, “Breaking The News.”

More travel films

Features a demo version of Robb’s song “Tumble, Rumble Fumble.”

“Tumble (Reprise)”, is an instrumental variation featuring acoustic guitars.

It is summer holiday season and I am sharing a series of mini travelogues.

These little side projects were filmed as I travelled to Sweden, Germany, Russia, Egypt, Canada and Scotland producing the documentary film, “Breaking The News.”

More travel films

Scenes of pristine nature across Scotland: The Trossachs, Glencoe, Inverness, Loch Lomond, Mallaig and the Island of Skye.

It is summer holiday season and I am sharing a series of mini travelogues to reflect the season.

These little side projects were filmed as I travelled to Sweden, Germany, Russia, Egypt, Canada and Scotland producing the documentary film, “Breaking The News.”

More travel films

It is summer holiday season and I am sharing a series of mini travelogues.

These little side projects were filmed as I travelled to Sweden, Germany, Russia, Egypt, Canada and Scotland producing the documentary film, “Breaking The News.”

More travel films

Prerow, DE: I went camping recently at the Baltic Sea. The campgrounds in this region are typically only a minute’s walk to the strand (beach). And, unless you made your reservation back in January, don’t bother driving.

This string of little beach villages is packed with local tourists and many of the locals I met here grew up in East Germany. Hard to imagine standing here in a tranquil seascape that these vast natural resources were used by GDR frontier guards to keep East Germans from escaping to the West. Before the fall of the wall in 1989, these same shores and camping places were patrolled by troops in high-speed boats and armed soldiers with high-power search lights.

That recent past is hard to reconcile with how pristine, uncommercial and tourist-friendly this delightful place has become in the 21 years hence. The best views of the sea and forest are along the bike paths. They are everywhere and in the national forest, the paths branch out into a wonderful labyrinth.

I took a train out of Berlin with everything I needed for five days packed aboard my bike: sleeping bag, mattress, tent, and clothes. The only tricky part is getting the bike up and down the elevators at the train station platforms. It can take several minutes to negotiate with the tight spaces and I barely made it to the other platform to make my train connection. But it all worked out and then I cycled 40 kilometers along the coastal resort towns of Northern Germany.

That’s roughly the path I took into Prerow. I changed up at the end and decided to go cycling through the forest to reach town. I got lost many times and asked for directions from other equally lost tourists. It was actually quite pleasant and not a bad way to socialize. How could you complain? The weather was great and people here know how to relax.

In five days here I never saw anyone using a laptop, never saw kids playing video games or listening to iPods. Kids at the shore played the same simple games we did when my brothers and sisters went camping 35 years ago. Badminton, volleyball, table tennis, sand castles and playing cards. Nice to see actually.
As a result there were no temper tantrums, raised voices or other “ugly family” moments. The only glares that I saw were directed at people who were talking away on their mobiles while at the beach. (It really is selfish and obnoxious when you see this behavior in the context of the natural habitat)

A normal custom at a campingplatz in Germany is to allow those arriving by Fahrrader (bicycle) in the afternoon to stay at least one night. I did that and the next morning I politely asked the operators if I could remain. The problem they said is cars. There is no room for them.

I told them I haven’t driven my car for three months and they laughed. No problem, “You can stay,” they said.

No computers, no cameras. No auto.
Low tech and low-cost. Perfect holiday

In these ancient streets the passages are full of mosques, vendors, deliveries, tourists and shoppers all mixing at the same time. The sounds emerging through all this are of the Friday prayers. I prefer to make my way through the labyrinth during the quiet morning time.

It is summer holiday season and I am sharing a series of mini travelogues to reflect the season.

These little side projects were filmed as I travelled to Sweden, Germany, Russia, Egypt, Canada and Scotland producing the documentary film, “Breaking The News.”

More travel films

It is summer holiday season and I am sharing a series of mini travelogues to reflect the season.

These little side projects were filmed as I travelled to Sweden, Germany, Russia, Egypt, Canada and Scotland producing the documentary film, “Breaking The News.”

More travel films

Shazly, an Egyptian SCUBA dive master gives the briefing before my tour of Ras Mohamed National Park.
The site where two bodies of water meet is an undersea paradise off the Sinai coast.

It is summer holiday season and I am sharing a series of mini travelogues to reflect the season.

These little side projects were filmed as I travelled to Sweden, Germany, Russia, Egypt, Canada and Scotland producing the documentary film, “Breaking The News.”

More travel films

These photos were taken in the lobby of Axel Springer in Berlin - the publisher of Bild, Die Welt and the Berliner Morgenpost. I was cycling all over Berlin yesterday and this was the only place where I found copies of all the local papers. Naturlich!

The Dream is Over

The death blow

Kopf hoch, Deutschland!
Translates to “Cheer up, Germany!”

Die Welt

This headline needs no translation. The numbers are the years that Germany won the World Cup and the last one is the hope for the next chance - in four years time.

Bild inside page

Die Welt inside page

And a full page for brackets, though most Germans I talk with in the streets are no longer interested in the cup. So maybe they could have saved this newsprint for a photo poster to remember the dream that almost was? Or better to recap their wonderful ride to this moment?

They were an exciting team to watch.

I watched all the matches in the company of Germans. For the first matches in Egypt, I was joined by German colleagues who even brought the German ambassador to the public viewing over the Nile. Then in Cologne, colleagues dragged me to a public viewing at a place that normally serves live punk bands. Interessant!

Then in Berlin I saw the last two matches with friends and the fireworks and champagne flowed easily until it was clear that Spain was dominating the Germans.

It seemed that without Thomas Müller on the field, this German was not as dreamy.

But still, what a fun team the Germans were to watch and root for.

The Challenge:
Send a 4 GB DVD disc image halfway around the world.

The Solution:
This video tutorial that shows how to send a disc image of a DVD using free tools and free file sharing services. (For Mac OSX.)

The links to the free software shown in the video.

1. YemuZip
2. Split & Concat
3. Sendspace

Cologne: Germany defeats England 4-1 in the World Cup and the next morning the front page sales display of the Bild, Germany’s top-selling newspaper screams the news. Most German papers had boring fronts. Interesting, I thought, to judge this cover design in the proper context - a point of sale box.

Se below for a close-up and the full broadsheet view.

Contrast this with the tepid cover of Allegemeine Zeitung von Frankfurt.

Here, the focus is clear. Don’t hurt yourself in telling the news. Just plug any old photo and headline you please into the pre-designed template.

Follow the conference:

C ‘n’ B Festival & Convention | 23 - 28 June 2010 | Cologne
www.cnb-convention.com

www.twitter.com/copopfestival
www.twitter.com/CnBConvention

www.facebook.com/copopfestival
www.facebook.com/CnbConvention

See a trailer scene from the film recently filmed in Moscow.

My colleague, Ahmed Montasser, is providing simultaneous Arabic to
English translation to me in this moment. He is literally whispering
into my ear as I query an editor at the steps of Al Ahram. Egypt's
largest newspaper

Over the past three weeks I have filmed more than eight key interviews in Toronto, Moscow, Cairo and Alexandria for the journalism documentary, "Breaking The News."

Interviews with editors-in-in chief in Moscow and Alexandria, entrepreneurial journalists at a week-old-online startup in Toronto, and today, the chairman of the board of a 15,000 employee media house in the most populated Arabic country in the world.

The film is getting slightly ahead of me as the reporting is outpacing the editing. But that is to be expected. I am enjoying filming and reporting the living history of this story. “Breaking The News”is already five years in the making.

Soon, I will have to send in my Sony HDV camera to the shop to see that the video heads get some tender loving care. World travel this rough and relentless is very hard on delicate electronic systems. I am always surprised at how tough the gear I carry is made. Just incredible.

See a sneak peek prototype scene from the film I recently edited from fresh footage made in Moscow.
Breaking The News

Last month I screened a sampling rough cut interviews in Toronto at a meeting of newspaper publishers. That experience was recorded quite accurately here.

The global digital transformation of newspapers

I have other edited scenes on my iPad that I show colleagues and everyone asks “Is the film done yet?” Of course not. It will take a lot of finishing funds to make it a feature-length film ready for the big screen . . . but more importantly, the story is not done yet.

Stay tuned.

“Breaking the News” examines the big problems and new solutions that publishers and journalists are facing during this transition to digital media. Problems with revenue loss, changing newsroom culture, training of journalists to support multiple platforms and unlimited competition for attention.

Today my students completed a USAID-funded workshop designed to teach journalists how to use market-focused techniques and apply a systematic, segmented approach to developing actionable ideas and quality prototypes designed to reach a new or existing audience.

Egypt’s media houses are using training efforts like this to modernize their news operations and develop independent revenue sources.

Wish me luck that he will reply.

My question is simply this:
Can Apple reconcile Steve Jobs’ support for press freedoms with the fact that they censor news content for apps?

Dear Steve,

I am curious about your statement yesterday: “any democracy depends on a free, healthy press.”

My question: Why are Germany’s top-selling newspapers and magazines less free when it comes to serving their paying customers via iPhone or iPad? In other words: The publishers I have met with claim their news content is censored, apparently at Apple’s request.

Thanks for reconciling the gap in what you say about press freedoms and what Apple actually does in approving the content delivered via news apps.

Robb Montgomery
CEO, Visual Editors

P.S. I love my iPad.

Jailbreaking the iPad in the name of journalism

Deja vu.
Just did a jailbreak on my iPad.
Three years ago I did a jailbreak on my iPhone before conducting a live lecture/demo for Medill freshman using independent apps to do live field reporting. Link to that blog entry.

I’ve already logged thousands of air miles and a couple of stamps in the passport with my iPad in tow and am gathering a lot of good field experience using it in ways to report I never thought I would. I have passed it around to journalists in newsrooms in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Richmond and gleaned some good feedback. Can’t wait to see the editors in Toronto react when they see that she is properly housebroken, er, jailbroken that is. I’ll be there next week delivering two sessions to editors-in-chief at the Canadian Newspaper Association.

Caveat, disclaimer and warning: Please don’t do as I do unless you are prepared for the risks.

Just to be clear, it is not illegal to peek inside of your own property and I can do a factory restore at any point I choose now that I have saved my SSH blobs. (Yes, it is geeky and that’s OK. I have been hacking electronics since the early 1970s.)

I am off to explore the back channels of indie apps and system tweaks that just might help a field reporter/producer out in a pinch.

Remember, three years ago the only app store was the one built by indie developers. So, I guess I am going back to the future to see what’s new.

On April 21, 2010 Facebook dramatically changed their approach to sharing your personal data to their business partners and, disturbingly, they automatically enroll all users into adopting or opting in to the new scheme.

If you have not visited your privacy settings, go take a look at what you, by default, have opted into.

At the very least, hiding your friends list is a good first step.

Locking down or even learning what data is being shared now requires users to click through every privacy option to learn what is what.
Sometimes you will need to choose ‘Customize’ and show “Only Me” for any piece of profile data you want to control.

How to lock down your Facebook privacy controls

Click on “Account” and “Privacy Settings” to access the panels.

Hint: Choose the “Only me” for the details of your profile that you want to keep private.

Sometimes this “only me” option is hard to find and you will need it to secure some highly-prized privacy selections.

Tip: Choose “Custom edit” option for items you want to convert from public sharing to “only me.”

You are automatically ‘Opted into” private data sharing
Here is how to opt out of the new Instant Personalization feature.
Facebook probably knew users wouldn’t choose to opt-in and has made opting-out a multi-step process.

Click and uncheck the box at the bottom of this page. This will prevent Facebook’s business partners to collect data and customize content based on your Facebook details.

You will see a confirm box with a lot of warnings.

Obviously Facebook does not want opting out to be that easy and the steps required to get their hooks out of your personal data proves just how much has changed and what the company has promised it’s funders and business partners.

Read this closely. You are not done yet.
Block those data mining applications: If you don’t want any your personal data to be shared with other apps. you will also have to block each app one at a time. There are three main partners now - but watch for that list to grow.
You also have to block your friends from sharing your data as well.

Sigh, that’s the big picture concern here.
As far as consumer protections go, this new change in terms involves too many steps, is based on negative-option adoption of privacy controls, and is confusing for end users.

Know this.
You are being gamed and enticed to provide valuable market research data for free to people you don’t know. I am not talking about your ‘friends,’ but rather the people you don’t see in your friend list.
The invisible developers who have their code collecting personal data and building a consumer profile of you and your network.

The clever part is that these companies do this with your permission, unless you take action to control what you want to share.

With a number of prepared modules in his web arsenal, Robb can adjust the content and pacing to suit the audience. This ability worked well for us due to the wide variation of skill levels at our newspaper groups. During a recent trip to Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, Robb was an engaging and effective presenter.

Susan Brophy Down
Managing Director, Dailies
Canadian Newspaper Association

Thanks for a fantastic session with Black Press Digital.

Your presentation was engaging and informative, and its form and nature were fluid and quickly reacted to adapt to the ability and interests of our audience.

Of particular value was your session on video function and form. Your helped our small-staff reporters realize they can create quality video productions without big-budget gear, and do it on deadline.
This was most helpful to us.

Thanks again, and I look forward to talking with you in future.

Rob DeMone
Content manager, Black Press Digital (B.C.)

What is not to ‘like’ about the new Facebook?
This is the ‘Like button” that you will now see on all of your fave Web sites.

Go ahead and click on it and then go to Facebook and check your profile.
Facebook tells developers that the ‘Like’ button will add their Web site to people’s profiles.

This is the new button you will see everywhere on the Web.
What was revealed today was that Facebook wants to be everywhere you go and collect rich data about your preferences. This cute little button unlocks a new Pandora’s box of privacy concerns.

Become less visible to Facebook marketers.
Look at my Facebook profile interests.

Wonder, Discovery, Passion, Belief, Balance, Delight, Diversity, Surprise, Story, Truth, Grace, Redemption, Beauty, Innovation, Insight, Perspective

They are my favorite things and I have used this list for along time.
One important side-effect is that I think I may have unintentionally learned how to keep the Facebook data scrapers at arm’s length.

Why? I observed that I have never clicked on a Facebook ad in all these years because they never show ads that are relevant to me.

I am sure the Facebook customer data algorithm would prefer to know much more specific likes from my profile. Data they can sell, like preferences for my favorite sports, travel spots, music, foods, clothes, etc.

By listing ideals instead of consumer details, Facebook has no idea what kind of ad to serve up to a person like me. Instead of branded ads I get generic ads that I seem to ignore and never click on.

The system designers are counting on the basic human impulse that most people will take and that is to peacock their vanity. Knowing this, they probably don’t get too many people who list “wonder” and “perspective” as interests. The odds are on their side, unfortunately.

Know this.
You are being gamed and enticed to provide valuable market research data for free to people you don’t know. I am not talking about your ‘friends,’ but rather the people you don’t see in your friend list.
The invisible developers who have their code collecting personal data and building a consumer profile of you and your network. These guys do this with your permission, of course.

How to lock down your Facebook privacy controls
If you have not visited your privacy settings, go take a look at what you, by default, have opted into.

At the very least, hiding your friends list is a good first step. Click through every privacy option you have and always choose ‘Customize’ and show “Only Me” for any piece of profile data you want to lock down.

Privacy controls

Choose the “Only me” for the details of your profile that you want to keep private.

Sometimes this “only me” option is hard to find.
You will need it to secure some highly-prized privacy selections.

Tip: Choose “Custom edit” option for items you want to convert from public sharing to “only me.”

You are automatically ‘Opted into” private data sharing
Here is how to opt out of the new Instant Personalization feature.
Facebook probably knew users wouldn’t choose to opt-in and has made opting-out a multi-step process.

Click and uncheck the box at the bottom of this page. This will prevent Facebook’s business partners to collect data and customize content based on your Facebook details.

You will see a confirm box with a lot of warnings.

Obviously they don’t want this to be that easy and the steps required to get their hooks out of your personal data proves just how much has changed and what the company has promised it’s funders and business partners.

Read this closely. You are not done yet.
Block those data mining applications: If you don’t want any your personal data to be shared with other apps. you will also have to block each app one at a time. There are three main partners now - but watch for that list to grow.
You also have to block your friends from sharing your data as well.

Sigh, that’s the big picture concern here.
As far as consumer protections go, this new change in terms involves too many steps, is based on negative-option adoption of privacy controls, and is confusing for end users.

With the adoption of their new Social Graph technology, I have reason to think that Facebook will indeed be able to tell partners things be as specific as that.
So, I am opting out of sharing any and all profile interests, branding preferences or “likes.”

Personally I consider this kind of data mining little more than a nuanced form of identity theft because of the way the data is collected. Most people blindly fill out registration forms and adopt default privacy settings.

I suspect that people are duped into revealing their identity data at signup because either:

• 1) They believe they have to fill out all the profile fields on Facebook at registration.

or

• 2) They think that their Facebook experience will improve by listing personal data.

1) It is NOT required to tell Facebook a list of your fave TV shows, snack foods, etc.

And, 2) you will learn more about your friends when they invite you to a “mafia war” or share a new song with you.

Facebook would prefer I list “band and brand” detail.
For example. If I put “mountain trekking, golf, city bikes, Gibson guitars, adventure travel, single-malt whisky, whole foods,” in my profile I should expect Facebook to pocket that information and sell the details of my consumer profile to the highest bidder.

Up until know I could be reasonably sure that they are not selling “me” as in “Me: Robb Montgomery” to advertisers but rather “Me: A desirable demographic with these specific interests.”

How do I stop the crazy?
The choice to have your data sold and traded by people who are not paying you for it is up to you. If you want to lower your Facebook “book value” - your advertising revenue profile - then simply take a look at your profile details from a marketer’s viewpoint and remove specific types of information that identify your branding preferences.

Follow the guide above to find your own privacy controls and take charge to lock out the personal details from the data profiteers.

But, I still like my friends!
I find that I still share a lot of rich information about my interests but these are revealed in nuances and the non-machine-readable photos I post, the videos I produce, and some of the links I share. In other words, I reveal a rich canvas of interests that a friend can easily detect but a bot never will.

I am not against seeing ads that actually appeal to me, I just don’t think a random ad bot will ever do as well as a human-designed environment where the mix of editorial and advert information has actionable value. The changes Facebook rolled out today lay a ground work that go far beyond showing related advertising content in your profile. That much is clear.

The Egypt Media Development offices in Cairo are run by IREX and MSI with a grant from USAID.

Robb Montgomery trains Egyptian journalists in Cairo. Media Development is a USAID funded project.

The Egypt Media Development offices in Cairo are run by IREX and MSI with a grant from USAID.

Robb Montgomery trains Egyptian journalists in Cairo. Media Development is a USAID funded project.

iMockups will allow designers to create quick wireframes and mockups for your web, iPhone and iPad projects, using an iPad.

This preview video heralds a wave of new productivity and design-focused apps.

If nothing else, we now have a business reason to expense an iPad.

If you can’t wait for an iPad or want to skip the expense you can use Mockflow today, for free, but it is not as sexy as using an iPad to design an iPad app.

Seesmic is super fast and easily customizable.

Five things you need to know about™. . . Twitter

A quick tutorial of my favorite power tips to help you find and mine the good stuff.

Twitter for a versatile journalists is as much of a tool for honing a super-charged antenna that collects valuable data as it is for promoting or buzzing good content posted elsewhere.

The key to capturing the value lies in your ability to sharpen your skills and, at will, tune into any frequency you desire and pick up a good signal.

This concept works on a couple of different levels.

All it takes is a little work in tweaking your setup to make the human and machine filtering work in your favor and begin to time-manage your Twittercapades.

Step 1.
Only follow interesting people.

Step 2.
Never actually use Twitter.com

Use Readtwit, Tweetie, Seesmic and Tweetchat and the RSS feed from your Twitter favorites instead.

1. Readtwit to pull in just the links from people you follow.
2. Tweetie or any great mobile app that quickly lets you “favorite” tweets that you want to save, read later or curate.
3. Seesmic for following search topics.
4. Tweetchat for live chats and event coverage.
5. Subscribe to your Readtwit and your “favorites” RSS feed to have your great, pre-filtered content arrive in your Google reader. One place to read it all, and an archive, to boot.

Step 3.
Only curate the really, really good stuff in Delicious.
Tag it up, annotate it and move along.

One last thing

How many of you visited Facebook today?

I taught Twitter techniques to this class of Medill Freshman in 2007. All of whom were on Facebook and none of whom were on Twitter at that time.
They are seniors now.
I wonder how many of them use Twitter today.

Robb Montgomery is the CEO of visualeditors.org and a new media journalist who teaches cross media workshops in more than 20 countries. He consults for several top publishing houses in Europe, North America and the Middle East on emerging media projects.

He previously worked as an editor for the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune where he was involved with new product launches.