SalsaNet - South Central Texas Chapter of the Internet Society

San Antonio 48 Hour Film Experience is back!

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 09:52:25 -0500

Mark your calendar for the first weekend in December - for the San Antonio 48 Hour Experience! Founding sponsor Salsa.Net's front man Dean McCall says "We love this event, it shows the creativity of our film community, and how new technology has made the art and craft of filmmaking much more accessible."

Salsa.Net Public Studio Project

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:36:07 -0500

Welcome To The Public Studio Collaboratory

The experience of digital convergence is exciting and baffling. The development of the World Wide Web and the vision of an interconnected globe is a splendid , constantly shifting evolution of technologies that feels like magic to most of us. But learning how to use it effectively can be a nightmare for people born before 1980. An interconnected global community is coming together. How does our region fit in?

For the next two years or so the Media Lab of SalsaNet, (San Antonio’s oldest internet organization and the South Central Chapter of the Internet Society) will incubate a laboratory in community radio, television and world wide broadband production. A facility we are calling Public Studio.

Public Studio will become an independent non profit multimedia production group, serving the Alamo Area through Broadband Internet and Public Radio and Public Television. Public Studio will provide space, mentoring and equipment to young people and encourage and enable the exploration of community media and interactive world wide collaboration. Public Studio will explore ways non-profit organizations and creative people can integrate this new media into their lives and missions.

Public Studio will assemble a community pool of equipment and crews that will test out new technology and demonstrate its uses.

Public Studio will work to more closely integrate public radio and television with the regional community using local professional grade local production gear and local crews.

In collaboration with Public Radio and Public Television and the Internet Society, we will locate a place near the center of San Antonio and fill it with professional audio and video equipment and bright young people. From here we will go to locations around the Alamo Area to produce demonstration audio and video for broadcast and web delivery. Through the Internet Society we will establish collaborations with people all over the world.

Non profits will learn how to use digital media by helping to select the demonstration projects and participating in the production. At the end of the project (two years or so) we will choose the first employees of Public Studio from among the project participants and have a party and press conference.

The Public Studio collaboratory will enable the next generation of community media professionals to help us share the sights, sounds and challenges of our home region with each other and to link South Central Texas with the global community.

More Information

Pleas McNeel - pleas@salsa.net

Great way to build out forms for your website...just in case you need to!

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 21:07:29 -0600

Has to be one of the coolest way to build out web forms I have seen in quite some time. There is even a free version of it for peeps who don't want to waste money. You know the whole " pay for something" model that people use to eat;)

Might also want to take a look at the article Chris, one of the founders wrote, about starting your own company. best part for me was:

"To launch our web development magazine, Treehouse, we gave out the
first issue for free in order to generate a little buzz. Even though
thirty thousand people downloaded the free issue in its first week,
only about 300 of them felt it was worth paying for. According to Ryan
Carson, cofounder of Dropsend, that’s a lot closer to the norm than we previously believed."

San Antonio 48 hour Film Festival returns...

Mon, 9 Oct 2006 10:47:45 -0500

What's It All About
The San Antonio 48 Hour Film Experience

The SA48HR Film Experience is a local, filmmaking challenge event in the tradition of other 48 Hour Film Events, which are two-day intensive filmmaking experiences.

Teams preregister to participate, and can consist of as many team members as desired, and the event is limited to 10 teams total. Each team is given specific criteria to incorporate into a film, and then have 48 hours to write, produce, edit, score and master the final film. Films are limited to 8 minutes in running time, and may be shot on any format, but must be delivered on mini-DV.

The rules of this challenge are similar to most other film challenges, and are outlined below.

- Each team must preregister, and pay the $35.00 registration fee (payable to SALSA.NET)

Google Earth pushing great new featured content

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 19:35:01 -0500

As reported on LifeHacker and Arstechnica Google Earth has a new treasure trove of featured content online now to play with. One of the standouts is the real-time reporting and monitoring of earthquakes around the globe. The ability to zoom in on quakes around the globe is great. It's amazing to see how many quakes take place in a given week...more than I probably care to know about.

The CBS Seismic project shows the effects of the 6.0 quake that hit 260 miles of the coast of Florida a few weeks back (read about it here and here) even allowing for overlays of the shake maps.

Great report on using online technology for Social Change

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 11:17:36 -0500

Thanks to my buddy Jon Lebkowsky for passing this along. This report brings up some great point about the obvious pitfalls and rewards of using online technology in non-profit work etc. It speaks at a level where most users should be able to appreciate what is being discussed. Worth the read;)

Manhattan Short Film Festival Returns to San Antonio

Wed, 6 Sep 2006 10:58:55 -0500

For the third year, the URBAN-15 Group has united with The Manhattan Short Film Festival and over 80 other venues across Europe, Canada and the US, to create the world’s largest short film festival to be held throughout two continents this September.

Over the span of a week, venues from Russia to Ireland in Europe, four provinces in Canada along with 35 states will screen a selection of twelve short films that have made the cut into this prestigious event. In the past, the Festival’s finalists, who have gone on to win Oscars and move into the Hollywood mainstream, were judged by a celebrity panel which featured Susan Sarandon, Laura Linney, Eric Stoltz, Tim Robbins and a host of studio reps. This year, the Festival has thrown the judging out to audiences, who will be handed a voting card upon entry to each venue and asked to vote for their favorite film. Votes will be tallied and the winner announced in New York City’s Union Square Park on Sunday, September 23rd.

Where do San Antonio Technical people look for jobs?

Thu, 3 Aug 2006 22:30:11 -0500

Austin, San Jose, Seattle, and even Colorado Springs, CO have dedicated technical job sites for their cities. San Antonio doesn't (at least not that I can find).

Do we need one? I think we do, if we are serious about building our image as a tech city.

Anyone interested in helping me build one? I am willing to help with site design, business aspects of the site, finding a suitable domain, spec'ing the project, finding hosting, etc - but I don't have the time to actually build (read CODE) the site. If you are interested in helping, email me at rob{at}lagesse{dot}org.

There's probably no money in this - just a service I think we need, and maybe something fun to do outside your day job. I envision a very social community job site, not just a bunch of listings. Think "MySpace" meets "LinkedIn" meets a friendly community.

This looks like an amazing product... and it will be free!

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 17:36:27 -0500

Microsoft Live Labs - Announcing Microsoft Live Labs Photosynth Technology Preview

After watching the video on the Photosynth blog site, and reading everything else I could find on the product I am simply amazed by the potential of this tool, and I can't wait to get my hands on it. I have over 12,800 digital photos, and I would love to see what Photosynth does with them.

Some of the things that impress me is that a) Microsoft bought a startup for what appears to be their "zooming technology", b) they put together a team, and developed this product in a few short months, c) they will offer it FREE, and d) the potential for the application after it becomes more "web aware".

Texas surpasses California as largest Wind energy producer

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 11:59:56 -0500

"Texas capacity stands at 2,370 megawatts, enough to power 600,000
average-sized homes a year, according to a midyear report released
Tuesday by the American Wind Energy Association. That puts Texas
slightly ahead of California, the nation's leader since 1981.
California has 2,323 megawatts of capacity.

The total U.S. capacity is 9,971 megawatts. So far this year, Texas
has added 375 megawatts, or 46 percent of the total 822 megawatts
brought online nationwide.

Last year, wind energy generation grew 35 percent nationwide, adding
2,431 megawatts, but that fell short of the projected 2,500. The wind
association believes it can add 3,000 megawatts nationwide this year,
even if that means another 2,178 megawatts by year's end."

Read the full article at the source:
Wired News: Wind Energy: Texas Blows Hot Air

50 People who matter, and YOU is number one

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 14:52:52 -0500

Business 2.0: 50 People who matter

I love it that business, and the Main Stream Media (MSM) are finally figuring out that YOU are importnant. Follow the link, and click on YOU - it's a short but interesting read.

Personally, I don't think Bill Gates should be as far down the list as he is (at #21) - not because he's still the head of Microsoft, but I think him taking more time to spend on his foundation, and putting all of those billions to use around the world make him pretty much a guy that could matter more now then he ever did working for a little software company.

Journalist sues YouTube

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 15:22:38 -0500

Suit claims Web site encouraged users to copy his protected materials
I don't understand this - I've tried several times to save a YouTube video to my hard drive. It can be done, but it certainly isn't easy, and YouTube certainly doesn't provide me with any information on accomplishing it.

J ournalist sues YouTube over digital rights - Tech News & Reviews - MSNBC.com

Looking for something to do in San Antonio Friday evening?

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 10:36:21 -0500

This sounds like fun for all:

An Evening in the Park featuring a showing of the movie, "E.T." Entertainment from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Extended swimming hours at the pool until 8 p.m. Movie begins at sunset. Free face painting, balloon art and snowcones for the kids. Bring your blankets and chairs to this free family event. Lady Bird Johnson Park, 10700 Nacogdoches Road. Presented by Time Warner Cable San Antonio. 207-3000.

It's time to conserve some power!

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 14:57:25 -0500

PUC warns of possible power outages due to sweltering heat - San Antonio Business Journal:

Some ways to save:

If you have an electric stove or oven, cook outside instead. Nothing like a little beef on the BBQ!
Turn the thermostat up a bit - if everyone turns things up just two degrees it will make a huge difference.
Minimize how many times you open the icebox, and try to cut back a bit on hot water (especially if you have an electric water heater).
If you normally put your computer in standby or just leave it on, shut it off instead for the next week or so.
Replace all-night outdoor lighting with motion-activated lighting. It's cheap, easy to do, saves you money, and is more effective at scaring people away then an "always on" light.

Open Source Fest in San Antonio

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 21:13:04 -0500

So the local linux groups in town, among others, are doing their open source Fest this week at Kelly USA. If you get the chance go by and take and look and support Tech in San Antonio.

Here is the information I got:

Hey all,

Tomorrow night the 4 day Open Source Fest begins at the Advanced Technology
Center on Kelly USA:
http://tinyurl.com/jyevo

This event by SATLUG.org, XCSSA.org and ACCD.edu is a three night one full day
(Sat) celebration of Open Source Technologies. The event will include give
aways but will mainly focus on Open Source presentations covering business,
scientific and recreational uses of Linux, BSD Unix, Apache, and similar
O.S./FLOSS software [sic].

The open to the public, somewhat technical sessions will be on the following
topics:
o Linux Newbies Workshop*