Now Available in 720p

Posted at 1pm on 4/17/09 | 1 comment

Good news for people who are interested in downloading the show in high definition. Thanks to Blubrry’s custom feed option in their PowerPress Podcasting Plugin we are able to deliver the shows for display on monitors capable of displaying 720p content.

Those people who subscribed to the show using iTunes will notice smaller file sizes when downloading the shows. The default show feed is now iPhone/iPod Touch compatible and the HD versions of the shows have a feed of their own. We will continue to post the show to Blip.tv, Viddler and YouTube, but the highest quality videos will be on the new HD feed with a close second being the YouTube HD videos.

If there are requests for other formats please let us know. I’m not sure that we can accommodate new feeds right now, but we might be able to in the future. The address for the HD feed is http://whatsitallabout.tv/feed/hd/ or you can click the “What’s It All About HD” image to subscribe to the 720p version of the show in iTunes.

SXSW recap

Posted at 2pm on 3/20/09 | 1 comment

So SXSW interactive has come to an end. Now comes the task of following up with all the new contacts you made and uploading, editing, and tagging all the digital content that you created.

We here at What’s it all about have quite a bit of work ahead of us after SXSW but we wanted to share some photos with you from all the great interviews that we shot at SXSW.

We interviewed Mark Schmulen from Nutshell Mail

Mandi Leman from Blellow

Jake Marsh from Tile Stack

Blurb’s founder and CEO, Eileen Gittins

and Geoff Pittfield from Massify

We will be bringing these interviews and more to you soon, so keep an eye out.

The Challenge is…

Posted at 7pm on 3/6/09 | no comments;

When creating a show the challenge is to somehow be able to quiet all the creative voices in your head and focus on just one thing for a while. Earlier today I read a post by Chris Brogan about Platform thinking in Personal Branding. He wrote:

“The first secret trick about personal branding is that first, you have to be known for something. One thing. First.”

When I started What’s it all about, I wanted it to be a show that anyone could watch “web 2.0 for your mom”. That was the original premise. To create a show that was so approachable that anyone could watch, understand, and hopefully learn something.

The problem with that concept is that “your mom” is not watching online video shows. I mean, my mom is, but that’s only because her daughter produces one.

When we re-launched the show we had to adapt the premise of the show. I wanted to assume a certain user lever of my viewers while still keeping the approach simple. The hard part was explaining the show to people.

I was talking to my mom yesterday about this. We were trying to decide what was the best way to describe what the show is about, in the simplest number of words.

My mom told even thought most people are online, they need to understand that the web isn’t just web pages anymore. There are online services, tools and communities that can add value to whatever it is you want to do online. I realized that is isn’t just my mom that doesn’t understand this world of  “web 2.0″ it’s also my friends. People my own age who always ask me “what’s twitter?”, “what’s a podcast?”, “should I start a blog?”

These are the questions of a generation who’s educational system has not prepared them for the changing world that they are about to enter into. Journalism students have never written a blog, communications students don’t know what twitter is. These technologies are invading your industry, so you should be ready for them. And when your boss asks you about “new media” you better have an answer.

My goal with this show is to bring those answers to you. Not just what it is, but how to use it better, faster and smarter. You might consider yourself a “social media guru”, you might still be in school, or you might be changing industries for the first time in 20 years. My goal is that this show would have would be able to help all of you accomplish what you want to online. I know that is a tall order, but I am going to try.

So here is the shortest explanation we could come up with for the show:

“What’s it all about is a show that will help you use the Internet better, faster and smarter. The show features online sites, services, tools and communities that you may be interested to learn about to make the time you spend online more efficient and more rewarding.”

So send in your questions and suggestions because I want to build a great show together, one thing at a time.

Re-Launching What’s it all About

Posted at 11pm on 3/4/09 | no comments;

I have been blogging and creating video content since 2007. I started writing on randomsarah.com because I wanted to about web 2.0 and in the world of social media. After blogging for a while some of my friends and family started to become more curious about social media and web 2.0, but admitted that they had no idea where to start. They would always tell me that they were hearing about sites like twitter and digg, but did not see why they should use these sites. So I decided to start a show that would be an approachable, fresh way to learn about the the new tools of the web.

The show premiered back in September during Web 2.0 week in NYC. The first episode we did was explaining twitter, and it got quite a bit of attention. I was surprised at how people responded to a show that I put together in my bedroom with my iMac, but the response was good. At one point the show was featured in iTunes “New and Notable” category.

It was very exciting. However I soon came to realize that I wanted to do more with the show and I did what I never should have done and that’s doubt myself. I realized that I couldn’t put out the kind of quality show all by myself, without funding, from my bedroom. (I probably could have if I really tried, but I doubted myself and I didn’t try) I only made two episodes of the show before I got discouraged with technical difficulties and no one to help me fix them.

So I started to look for a way to make the kind of show I wanted. Ambush TV came to my rescue! My friend Tim Kress-Spatz was starting Ambush TV with his friend Mark and I thought it was the perfect solution. In late December I partnered with Ambush TV, the company that is producing Gary Vaynerchuk’s new show Obsessed, with Samantha Ettus, and we started the process of re-launching a show.

Ambush.tv creates original video content based on the passions of fresh faces from across the internet. We transform great ideas into high value, high definition productions of broadcast television quality.

Ambush TV has a studio space not to far from where I live, and they had the equipment to help give me great production quality for the show. I still needed some help with the techinical side of things. I wrote the show and hosted the show, but my editing skills were never that great (I was using iMovie) and I had a vision for the website for the show that I could not exicute on my own. So I brought in my friend Rob Blatt. He is an award winning producer and has been a podcast guy for years. Rob is now co-producing the show with me, he edits the show, and he did all the design on the blog. He took what I had in my head and helped make it real and for that I am very thankful!

The show is still in the development stages but we want to develop it with all of you. We want to hear from you about what you would like us to cover on the show. We want your feedback, and anything you could do to tell people about the show would be greatly appreciated.

The other day I was watching that first episode and I realized that in September when originally launched the show I had less than 300 followers on twitter. (These days it’s close to 1,400) it made me realize how far I have already come and I have this great community to thank.

So we look forward to your feedback and we how you enjoy watching the show as much as we enjoy making it.

Our Music: Second Dan’s “Forget to Remember”

Posted at 10pm on 2/28/09 | no comments;

We’d like to take a moment and thank Second Dan for our theme music, which is the song “Forget to Remember” off the album Bringing Down Goliath. It’s available in the iTunes Store and at the band’s shows. Second Dan’s music is licensed in a way that allows us to use their music in our show and we appreciate that. We’d also like to thank Ariel Publicity for showing us Second Dan.

Here’s the song (and music video) for your enjoyment.

Launching What It’s All About.tv

Posted at 2pm on 9/12/08 | no comments;

So today I am finally launching my new podcast called: What’s it all about: Web 2.0. This is a show idea that I have had for a while and I am so excited to have finished the pilot episode but we are going to need TONS of your feedback!

I created this show because so many of my friends have been asking me about “all this new internet stuff” which I would simply define as Web 2.0. I wanted to create a show that would give people step by step instructions on how to use these services and give them a central place to come, ask questions, and discuss Web 2.0 in general.

I decided to do the first episode about Twitter because I think that Twitter is one of those services that everyone should be using! This will probably not be the only Twitter episode because there is so much to cover, but I think its a good start!

I hope you all find this podcast helpful and can pass it on to your other friends who are curious about where to get started with web 2.0.