cow

Today I spent about 8 hours reviewing videos for an upcoming event. I had previously viewed all of the videos off a hard drive to be used for projection, and made a list of originals to check. If the original looks better than the MPEG2, then I copy the original to my hard drive for future re-compression. In many cases, the original is in fact MPEG2, and with adding logos and trimming heads and tails, a recompression pass is sometimes a bad thing - especially if the original was not up to MPEG-2 quality to begin with.

Thus, during the 30 or so blocks of 5-7 minutes spent copying video from DVD to hard drive, I browsed the COW. I mean, what else could I possibly do in such short chunks of time?

But I receive updates from the Business and Marketing Forum and the Film History and Appreciation Forum on my Blackberry, so I am all caught up in those forums. Thus, I took a tour of the forums that I visit less frequently or not at all.

We use exclusively Premiere, so I never really visit the FCP forum, or forums for FCP related kit such as AJA. However whether I use the gear or not, it can be educational. For example, a newer forum is for Core Melt plugins. http://forums.creativecow.net/coremelt I have never heard of this software, so I thought I'd check it out. Turns out, this is a pretty cool suite of transitions. It's like Magic Bullet for transitions. And it is CS4 compatible, so it just goes to show that you can't judge a forum by its title. Check out these demo videos: http://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/271/5

I then browsed the Audio Professionals forum, the Lighting forum and discovered a Motion Graphics forum that I did not even know about. http://forums.creativecow.net/broadcastdesign

So you see, even someone who spends much of their free time on this website can learn new things and discover new places to go.

I also make a habit of reading new blog posts as they appear on the COW. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that fellow blogger Ken Harper http://blogs.creativecow.net/blog/977/one-head-many-hats in fact worked at Cine-Med years before I did.

And did you know that Creative COW now has free video hosting, and some really entertaining reels, demo videos and trailers. It's great to see not only seasoned pros but also folks just getting into the business posting their work for all to see.

Well, looks like that strange HD file (1844x1073) has finished copying - now to figure out what to do with it.

Thanks for reading.

Mike Cohen

Sorry, I could not come up with a clever title. It is what it is – a blog about social networking. There was a thread on the Business and Marketing Forum a while ago about using Social Networking for business - I think the jury is still out, but check out the thread.

The original social network – people in a room talking to each other – has been replaced with web-based "talking."

I recently had a chat with an old high school friend on the current popular soc-net site, we'll call it MugPamphlet(they know who they are and get plenty of press), and mentioned that I enjoyed talking to her. She replied that she never considered e-mail or chat a form of talking. LOL.

MugPamphlet had replaced MyArea (sic) as the king of social networking, that is, a web-based means of communicating with everyone you know in a more efficient manner. No doubt in a year or so a new soc-net site will emerge and the whole world will switch to that.

The cool aspect of the soc-net flavor of the month is finding old friends, not so much keeping in touch with current friends. Granted, in the world of social networking I am considered a geezer (over 30) so I have more old friends than current friends. However all of my electronic friends are people who I knew in person before "knowing them" electronically. This clearinghouse of electronic friends is more a convenience than anything meaningful. I would never sit down and send a "status update" via e-mail to everyone I "know." It is just nothing useful. Imagine if I sent a daily e-mail to everyone on my address book telling them what I am up to? Boring!

"What's that, there is such a service to send brief messages to everyone you know? Really? Who would want to use that? The President you say? Hmm, I'll look into that."

Rather, sites like MugPamphlet and its inevitable replacement, are ways to conveniently keep in touch with people you know, or in many cases, people you used to know. In my case it has not been a way to make new friends. Certainly you can see who your friends are friends with, but unlike in a room full of people eating weenies in blankets, I am reluctant to strike up a conversation with a friend of a friend without an introduction. People do it however. There is one guy on MugPamphlet who is friends with everyone working in production in New England. I've never met him but my buddy the boxing commentator says he's ok!

Posting photos for all to see is fun, and playing games is another way to pass the time. Oddly, I now e-mail immediate family on the currently popular site, rather than using traditional e-mail. In a way, this site is morphing into AOL – an all-in-one internet within the internet. Do not discount the usefulness of services like AOL – I met my wife on there! Useful indeed!!

Now let's switch to social networking that actually accomplishes something useful. I will coin a phrase: Useful Networking.

My favorite Useful Networking, or "UseNet" website, is of course this very site you are now reading, CreativeCOW.net. While the atmosphere is indeed social, and usually cordial ;) the interactions here on the COW are most often Useful.

Ring, Ring. Excuse me.

"Hello? Yes this is he. Mmm, hmm. Really? You don't say. Oh, I see. Ok, thanks for letting me know. Bu, bye."

Sorry for that interruption. I have just been informed that UseNet is an existing term, stemming from the original pre-world-wide-web function of the internet.

I shall have to revert to the more long-winded Useful Networking phrase. Is this what you kids call a MEME?

So while blogging and forum posting and article writing and tutorial reading on the COW is in fact some of the most useful time I spend online, it is remarkably social. While I have never known any of the other forum hosts, posters or bloggers "in real life," I consider these men and women my good friends. In many cases I have much more in common with my fellow COWs than with my old chums from high school and college. On social networking sites, once you get over the honeymoon phase of "Wow, Joe Smith, what rock have you been hiding under for the past 20 years" you are left with reading Joe's status updates such as "Ate hot dogs. They were great" or "Timmy used the big boy potty. Hooray!" Important, but not very useful.

On the other hand, while my COW friends I have only known for a short while, in most cases, everything they say is of utmost interest to me and to others.

In summary, Social Networking is not a new concept. Cave paintings and shamans telling stories around a campfire were certainly social gatherings, and once other tribes became involved, there was some rudimentary networking. I know I have just paraphrased the opening montage from Amazing Stories, but you get my point. Humans will always network with other humans, individuals and groups alike. Whether this happens in a room full of people or a website or some future thought-powered neural net, social networking will continue. And one day, decades from now, a bunch of like minded people will gather in a room eating weenies and wonder why nobody thought of networking in person before.

Thanks for reading.

Mike Cohen