I’m pretty happy about this new file-sharing service I stumbled upon today called Castle.

It looks great, it doesn’t have overbearing ads or scam-y payment options, and it’s about as easy to use as a URL shortening service.

You just drag files into your browser and it generates a download URL and social media sharing options. Plus it gives you download metrics, kind of like Bit.ly. Check out Castle.so to test it out.

I think MediaStyle readers will dig it, and I’ll certainly be using it around the office.

I think I can speak for all of us at MediaStyle when I say we’re Apple nerds.

While some people might be sad about Steve Jobs’ recent resignation from chief executive at Apple his, I think communicators can learn some important ideas from Steve Jobs. Like thinking of user experience, audience and customers first when creating. Or knowing when to start from scratch if a project isn’t working. Or even knowing when to start from scratch when a project is successful to avoid stagnating.

To read more about some of these lessons, I’ve compiled some of the more enlightening coverage of the Steve Jobs announcement that I’ve read this week.

Why Apple doesn’t need Steve Jobs [Business Insider]

What makes Steve Jobs so great? [Co.Design]

Steve Jobs attention to detail in 313 patents [New York Times]

Apple has thrived under Tim Cook, but who is he? [Globe and Mail]

Banner image courtesy Håkan Dahlström

The interface is a lot cleaner, and the integration with other Google products is convenient without being creepy like Google Buzz. While it’s still a little early to share our full impressions, I thought I’d highlight the nicest feature I’ve come across in the new social network.

“Data liberation”. It’s clearly labeled in your account settings, it exports all of your data in a handy .zip file, and it comes across as a bit of a knock against Facebook’s obscure privacy and data settings.

We’ll have more on Google+ soon. Let us know your first impressions in the comments.

When uploading media in WordPress, fill your alt text with searchable terms related to your image. This is where search engines pull data from when scouring your website.

Remember this! It’s an easy way to increase your visibility on the web.

1. Have a free WiFi network available to bloggers and citizen journalists. Even if you can’t offer free WiFi to everyone in the room, your campaign should be adding WiFi to election night HQ check lists. Interested bloggers and citizen journalists have been following the campaign, cultivating relationships with candidates and developing audiences; it would be a shame to lose those voices just as candidates cross the finish line.

2. Engage with us online. Some candidates put a lot of effort into their online campaigning and succeeded in cultivating great  dialogues with citizens. There were Twitter debates, question and answer sessions, Facebook pages, and attempts at viral videos. But on election night many campaigns’ online warriors went silent. Keep talking to online supporters and the social media community. Tell them what you’re up to. Win or lose, many citizen journalists are interested in the human side of a candidate, not the same old talking points the regular media gets. By letting folks in a little more, you may have more people engaged in political discourse.

3. Interact with us for real – we’re the ones with the cameras, gadgets and laptops in the corner. Unlike the “mainstream media” gathered in the centre of the room with all those intimidating lights and cables and cameras (oh my!), I’ve observed and heard anecdotally that many bloggers and citizen journalists prefer to congregate together on the sidelines (usually prowling for power outlets). As I said earlier – you’ve spent an entire campaign Twittering or Facebooking with many of these folks, don’t lose an opportunity to meet us in the real world. Some citizen journalists and bloggers might be the powerful allies for positive change in the community.

4. Meet citizen journalists half way. Campaigns can also provide backgrounds for digital reporters. For a minimal investment one or two standard campaign backdrops lit with portable video lights will drastically improve the live streaming, video interviews and recorded web videos. Take a page from Hollywood and help make memorable moments for volunteers, campaign staff and party attendees by implementing a step-and-repeat for people to pose in front of.

5. Keep the conversation going. Now that the campaigning is over, the more important and challenging task of governing is at hand. To develop sound policies that move Ottawa forward, elected officials need to keep their online social channels open and tuned in to what citizens are saying. Thoughtful and honest discussions online through the same social networks that contributed to some of 2010′s electoral successes should be encouraged over the next four years.

As Walter Robinson suggests here, a good way to help keep the online discussions going about important Ottawa issues is to transition the #OttVote hashtag to #OttCity. MediaStyle likes the idea and hopes we can all contribute meaningfully to discussions that will help City Hall develop and intensify our city wisely, without all the torqued emotion that too often poisons debate in the other arena our city is known for (and no, I’m not talking hockey).

This post was authored by MediaStyle co-owner Shawn Dearn.

Image courtesy Louis Abate.

One of the many iPhone photos Shawn took from behind the major media outlets during his #OttVote coverage.

I’ve reported on a number of municipal or provincial election campaigns in my previous life doing radio news, so it was a pleasure to be reporting again for #OttVote – albeit in much different way. In the olden days I’d show up at McGuinty or Charest HQ on election night lugging two XLR-hacked Sony mini-disc recorders; two shotgun condenser mics, an extendable boom; extra mini-discs; pads & pens to take notes or time-mark good clips; and batteries of all sizes and persuasions…in addition to my laptop; charger and an odd box that let me use my cell for wireless (a true ’90s innovation).

However, last night’s plan was to cover the #OttVote Watson victory with nothing more than a laptop and a mobile device. In this case, I was armed with a 16GB iPhone 4 and wanted to see what I could do with the bare minimum. Over the course of my coverage I posted about 40 tweets; one Flickr set with 30 (meh) pictures; 7 AudioBoos; a failed Vimeo post and a private Facebook update to friends.

Here’s what I used to do it:

MediaStyle Top five On-Location Citizen Reporting Apps

• Twitter – Allows for fast, “breaking news” style updates with possibility to include pictures and geolocation. Be sure to #hashtag your tweets properly so they’re picked up by CoverItLive or other live blogging solutions.
• AudioBoo – Great for quick audio recordings, pre-planned interviews, atmosphere, etc. A generous five-minute recording buffer in the free version; geolocation; tags; pictures; and quick online publishing make this application a must-have in the field. The 3-2-1 countdown timer is useful when recording streeters, as it lets everyone involved know when they can start talking.
• Camera – Just the standard, Apple-issued camera app. I find its onboard video trimming feature very useful if I need to make a change before being able to get it back into my laptop. However, there are a tonne of great camera apps out there. Experiment until you find the one with features that suit your needs.
• Messages – Again, just the standard Apple-issued instant message App (wireless provider charges apply), but it made it very easy to keep near-instant and private communication with folks in-studio, or on the ground when I was not attached to my laptop.
• Dropbox – Self-proclaimed to be “the easiest way to synch and share your files online and across computers,” I have to agree. We make extensive use of Dropbox at MediaStyle to help share content and projects across offices and in the field. If Watson HQ had had WiFi I would have been creating more and waiting less for 3G uploads, which would have led to greater use of Dropbox to share video file coverage with the Rogers 22 studio.

While I was on the ground chatting with the Watson faithful, sharing information online and then watching reactions, it became clear that quick and unique snapshots, videos, quotes or funny tweets were going over well. I also realized quickly that some citizen journalism is just like real journalism… minus the support.

Here are some things I thought I’d share about covering my first citizen journalist event along the herd of regular, or “traditional” (shudder) media.

Top five Tips for Citizen Journalists Covering Election Night

• Just like online, be social! Introduce yourself. Make friends. Feel lost? Ask someone with a big camera or headset in the media area who they’ve been dealing with. That’ll usually get you in touch with organizers pretty quickly.
• Bring an extension cord or arrive early. Those TV guys suck a lot of power and saving outlets for bloggers and other riff-raff is not a priority. An extension cord eliminates 15% battery life panics while still uploading Flickr pics via iPhoto and a lame video to Vimeo.
• 3G tethering or a mobile Internet stick is a must. You’re never guaranteed to find WiFi on location, so unless you’re gathering content to pull together at home later be prepared to keep yourself connected and able to post your content.
• Provide lots of colour. Try to convey what you’re seeing and hearing, as well as atmosphere. Use your words, your voice, your camera/pictures, your video and most importantly, your observations and opinions about what you see. Use humour and let common-sense guide you. If someone sounds like they’re bullshitting you, they probably are. Call them on it.
• Capture. Upload. Share. Repeat. If you’re on your own at an event, you’ve gotta be quick and efficient at obtaining and turning around your digital content to get it online. WiFi will make your life a breeze, but if you’re doing things via 3G you’ve gotta keep audio interviews to about 90 seconds; photos curated to highlights-only and build time into your process to allow for uploads. FYI, that short video I shot was roughly 25MB and took about 12-minutes to upload to Vimeo on 3G. If the event is hopping, that’s a lot of downtime.

That’s it for now and I hope you enjoyed the wrap-up. If you were out covering the election for online audiences and have some tips of your own or would like to make suggestions, please comment below.

Enough is enough! Stop sending me Facebook invites to events that are not in my city. Stop asking me to be part of your local group unless you are in my town and the group is local to me, too!

Illustration courtesy Oversocialized.

Organizations are rightly concerned about investing too many dollars in technology that might not be around tomorrow.

I know of at least one “early mover” in the social media agency world who nearly lost the farm betting on Second Life as a platform. And another invested heavily in MySpace only to find their work slowly becoming less relevant as other channels emerged.

So, if the big guys can’t predict, how can you? It’s simple: don’t try so hard.

Use smart overarching communications principals in a medium-agnostic way. That is to say, your message, story, and brand stay consistent across all mediums. Adding a new medium/channel becomes a question of adapting your message so it’s most easily understood in this “new space”–not trying to adapt the new channel to your message.

That may seem a bit like I’m channeling Marshall McLuhan, so here are a few less theoretical points and some real life key questions I ask before jumping into a new social channel, or advising my clients to jump:

1. Overall investment: How much money does the social channel have on hand? Recent rounds of venture capital investment?
2. Integration with other mediums: Does it talk to other social-channels, or is it a walled garden?
3. Replication: Does it do the exact same thing as another channel I use? What is the cost-benefit-analysis of using the new channel?

Now, here is where I contradict myself a bit.

Because, no matter how many smart questions you ask–the only way you can truly judge if a technology, application, or service is going to work for your purposes is to really use it. Experiment. Know how it works. Jump into new social channels with both feet, get wet and dry off if you hate it.

Graphic courtesy webtreats.mysitemyway.com

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to the preview of the decor and food for the fast approaching Black and White Opera Soiree at the National Arts Centre. The Black & White night at the NAC has become a political must-be-seen-at-affair of the fundraising season, and it now rivals to the Venetian Ball in total dollars raised.

Official Ottawa is in for a treat this year. As we reported here some months ago, Chef Michael Blackie has moved from his previous four-star kitchen at the Brookstreet Hotels Perspectives Restaurant and is now comfortably ensconced at the fifth artisitic director at the NAC–Culinary Arts. The video recaps the meal created for the February 27th event and the stunning decor created by Avant-Garde Designs.

Food & Decor preview for the NAC Black & White Opera Soiree from Ian Capstick on Vimeo.

From the interview here are some ways you can bring the Black & White experience into your next client dinner, birthday party, or romantic evening:

Advice for chef-style food at home:

• Warm plates make for warm meals–wrap them in a damp towel and put them in a warm oven (not too hot!)
• Chef Blackie suggests that your next stove have a lower warming drawer if you are planning to entertain regularly
• Get your guests helping with serving or stirring; no chef works without a little help

Advice for professional level decor

• Symmetry: line everything up, match all the elements and
• Levels: use mirrors (get them at Ikea), glass blocks, ice slabs, or even inverted glasses to provide pillars, heights, and depth to your table
• Simple colour palette: this year’s Black & White Opera Soiree is based on the purple, black, and white invite. Ottawa’s Avant Guard Designs created the purple table scape for the fundraiser based on the invite produced at the NAC

A USB media kit is a fun, and sometimes cheap, way to connect.

A provincial-level, non-governmental organization recently asked me to weigh in on using media kits as a method of introducing an organization to the media. I couldn’t attend the session in person, but I thought it was an amazing topic and offered to contribute via the blog.

A couple of points to help set up the organization’s five questions:

• The program and the over fifty partner agencies feel they do not get the credit they deserve; they work in all communities across Ontario.
• It’s their organization’s goal to make a “strong push to do more community engaging events and involve new partnerships.”
• As with most NGO’s, they need this product to “double.” In addition to being a traditional media kit, they also need it to act as a way to introduce these vital agencies  and their work to interested businesses, citizens, and potential community partners.

Media Kit Questions What tools are available for making your media kit–efficiently and effectively?

• Great writing; short, simple, and to the point: Information is great. But, concise and relevant information is priceless. Too many media kits feature too many pages about programs/events and ephemera best left in annual reports and newsletters.
• Good design: invest in templates; don’t let your designers provide only un-editable files. Make good design a prerequisite to products leaving the organization. Has it been time for a new overall look for years? Get on it. In the mean time, simplify pages, strip out clip art, and embrace white space. Keep the fonts to two, maximum. You don’t need Photoshop and InDesign to make great looking products. You need common sense and an inspiration (head to the local magazine store and try replicating simple, modern layouts).
• Amazing photos: what do people see first? A great big photo. The best one you have. Draw in the audience. Don’t have great photos? Get some. Many photographers love working with NGOs and would be happy to help.
• Information journalists can use: I always giggle a little when I get big press packages with umpteen clippings from other papers. Select quotes should do it. Include relevant stats, a bullet point history (less than 150 words) and stories, anecdotes, and other information that can be used.

2) Can a media kit involve a simple cut and paste from your website? What tools should be included for media kits at events?

Journalists know how to visit your website. Don’t copy and paste.

Sections for a great event-based media kit:

Organizational bio (~200-300 words): have someone who works in your local coffee shop read it (Really!) and then ask them a few questions about your organization.

Event description: a short run down of the event narrative; what the journalist is going to see at the event and why; answer all the questions (who, what, when, where, why, and how).

Event scenario: a minute-by-minute breakdown of all things that will happen in the night.

Advance speeches: fork it over, it’s really nothing too secret–give journalists (and translators) copies of the speech in advance. They will like it, I swear.

Photo contact sheet: not required, but helpful. A one page colour print out of the 6 -10 photos available for download on your website. Photos of the prep and run-up to the event and of principal speakers/performers. Think, “photos that would look great on a blog or in the paper; unique shots no one else could have access to.”

3) What are some common mistakes in media kits and their delivery?

• Too little information, too much padding.
• Too much information, too little colour.
• Way too much information with no design/navigation elements.
• Old materials, dated logos and fonts.
• Inattention to detail. Not everything needs to be custom printed, but it should look like you cared about the way it was put together.
• Forcing the kit on unwilling journalists.

4) What are some unique ideas to stand out? USB data keys or sticks are still popular and can be custom printed with your logo for less than printed/custom dye cut folders. Opt for the largest size you can afford.

I’ve seen kits delivered in paint buckets, pizza boxes, with “kidnapping” style notes attached, stuffed with sparkles and streamers, and delivered by sining telegram. Funny thing: I can’t recall what any of those zany pitches was selling. Stay fun, clever, and charming. Kooky and zany get in the way.

I’ll point you to my thoughts on Social Media Releases as well. I think they can be used to great effect, provided you don’t pay too much and have a strategy to get them into the hands of journalists.

5) Can media accept gifts?

Yes and no. They will certainly snap up swag (t-shirts, bumper stickers, coffee mugs) directly related to the pitch or event, but real gifts (over $10-15)? That places journalists in an awkward situation. The same holds true for lunches, drinks, and dinners: if it’s work-related and the point is to get ink, it’s best to let the journalist pay for themselves.