Been asked “where have you been?” a lot lately.  Yes, I know I have not kept up with this blog as much as I should or would like to.  However, I am pleased to show you where I have been – Pittsburgh on Video.

Pittsburgh on Video is a new community video hub built for The Pittsburgh Foundation in conjunction with Miro.  Think YouTube without all the crap like ads and such and centered only on the local community.

Miro is open source technology that can pull video submission in from any video sharing site.  Their free player will allow you to connect via RSS feed and have your favorite videos sent to your desktop for viewing.

I am the first curator of the site.  I hope you will check it out and submit your videos on, for, set in or about Pittsburgh.  If you have a passion for community journalism, I invite you to become a regular contributor to the site with news reports from our neighborhoods, the issues that face our community, the people that make this are great, or whatever topic most interests you.

Check out the site at http://www.pittsburghonvideo.org

My favorite thing about social media is probably the spreading of new ideas.  I never want to stop learning, stop trying, stop being creative, stop innovating.  Here is a great idea from a great conference (TED).

“The Art of War” was written eons ago, but Twitter would fit right into the text if it were written today.  I witnessed this first hand during last year’s G20 summit in Pittsburgh and see its use expanding around the world from Iran to the Vancouver Olympics to wherever the next global conference will be held.

During last year’s G20, many of the groups used Twitter as their communications tools.  Protest sites were broadcast and then retweeted to others to join.  It was effective in organizing ‘troops’.  Police movements were broadcast for all to know as well as event happenings as they unfolded.

Then the authority figures got wise and began monitoring.  In true fashion, they began to position their troops based on what they saw on Twitter.  The game is up, right?  Not at all.  You see the protest groups figured out the authorities were monitoring, so they used that against them.

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In the words of David Bowie, ChhChh Changes, turn and face the strange. UniversalWit is getting down to making a change.  We have changed from a social media marketing consultant to a digital media producer.  What’s the difference, you ask?

Truthly, not much.  We still use social media actively, we just don’t use it how we used to.  UniversalWit began as an online and social media marketing consultant.  However, in 2009, we began to see the changing lanscape.  We had a choice: expand into a full service agency or assist others.  We would have needed to add programmers and client services people and all sorts of people.  Frankly, that was never our goal.  So instead, UniversalWit went on hiatus and Christopher went to The Pittsburgh Foundation.  Christopher was happy, UniversalWit not so much.

So today, we officially announce our new direction.  UniversalWit is now a digital media producer.  It was not a drastic change for us.  After all, the company really got its start with the launch of an online game, 1129 Ridge, and our child friendly game Santa’s Magic Clock just wrapped up its third season.  We have also messed around with online video with our pal Greg Straub and have joined the For Real For Real storytelling series thanks to our pal Viv.

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Thanks for playing this year’s game.  We will be back in November 2010 with all new Santa’s Magic Clock adventure, the fourth in the series.

I truly believe the debate will rage on about if social media can be measured.  I also believe that new, simpler measurement tools are developed each day.  Hopefully, the scales will balance in the not so distant future.  As the below chart demonstrates from Marketing Sherpa, we are not quite there yet.

I know it is Sunday, but I just did not get this post up on Friday.  In this edition of Fun Friday, I’d like to spread the word about Voices of Youth – Art in Public.  This is an online grant competition challenging artists, organizations, and youth to define the next great public art in Pittsburgh.

Best yet – you the public get to participate.  Here is how it works:  Entrants have until May 20th to answer a few questions about their project.  Then the competition will narrow down to several finalists.  Finally, around the first week of June, the public will have the chance to vote for the finalists.  Two up to $25,000 grants are available for finalists and the public will choose the most worthy.  If you are not an artist, you can still participate by nominating someone for the grant and by discussing and commenting on entries.  All information is available at http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/artinpittsburgh
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It may sound shocking, but I find myself recommending Facebook for more B to B clients.  The simple fact of the matter is Facebook has grown up.  It is not just for kids anymore, and serious discussions are taking place around B to B topics.

I will not pretend that if you plaster up a Facebook page for your business that success is just around the corner.  However, if you ignore the social network because you think social networks other than LinkedIn and select few others are not for business, then you will miss out potential new ideas, new customers, and new communications tools.

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I confess that I still have a fondness for newspapers.  I do hold a Journalism degree with a print specialty.  As such, their demise has troubled me.  Yet, here we are again, watching them take a technology and cheapen it one step further.

We need some history.  Newspapers began spiraling out of control when they took a valuable asset – their content – and gave it away for free on the web.  Not entirely their fault.  Many tried to develop a subscription model for the web, but the web was just not ready for subscriptions.  It remains to be seen if subscription models will make it in the future.

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