Extending the Concept of Online Communities

From The Creative COW Magazine

Article Focus:

In this Creative COW Magazine article, Kathlyn Lindeboom discusses some of the new additions to Creative COW in 2007 and how they will help enhance your user experience.

We try very hard to keep a high signal-to-noise ratio here at The COW. But now we want to help you make noise.

BLOGS:

Forum threads are essentially linear and, most often, limited to a single topic. They work well for user support but we want to offer you space to go as nonlinear and off-topic as you want, with a blog site for media professionals.

That doesn't mean that you're limited to discussing the industry, its tools and your work. We can just as easily imagine you talking about TV, music, politics, gadgets - the sky's the limit - well, almost. :o)

We consider this COW Blogs 1.0, with many more features coming soon. But we're already open for business (and non-business). Head to blogs.creativecow.net to read what we've got so far, and to get started making some noise of your own.

PRESS RELEASES:

This is another way we're extending our community. Let us help you tell your story to the world. Just as we've always posted the latest announcements from manufacturers, industry leaders and PR companies, we want to do the same for you

Walter Biscardi has posted an article at CreativeCOW.net with tips for writing a press release. If you still have questions after that, no problem - just let us know and we'll help. Visit the COW's Press Release forum for a link to Walter's article.

PODCASTS:

Here's something you might not know: with only a couple of exceptions, all of our podcast series have been created by members of The COW community who stepped forward with an idea. So if you have an idea, let us know! Even if it's just a single tutorial, we'll help.

We also interview COW members on our audio podcasts. We're always looking for COWs with great stories. If you have questions, please ask. We're here to help you make noise.

SPEAKING OF PODCASTS...

As you can see in the podcast spread earlier in this issue, the last couple of months in COW podcasting have been overwhelming.

We have to thank you, our members. We can only launch podcasts but it's your subscribing to them that generates the ratings - even as we step outside our traditional Software How-to category.

By the time you read this, we'll have started our pre-NAB coverage on the COW's Red Hot Round-up news podcast, now hosted by Tim and Ron. We'll have news and interviews that you won't hear anywhere else - at least not before you hear it moo'd from the COW.

DVD NEWS:

2006 was a great year for the Creative COW Master Series DVDs. We have more titles in the pipeline for 2007, including some that will be released at NAB.

One volume collects an entire year's worth of Aharon Rabinowitz's After Effects tutorials on two disks. This has been one of our most frequent requests, and we're as excited about this as you are. Rather than the 320x240 size on your iPod, these are high-resolution 800x600 movies, and they look fantastic. And as we mentioned at the end of his article in this issue, Aharon is at work on another title, covering everything from making your small-format video look fantastic, to posting it at the iTunes music store.

We're also very excited about our first Final Cut Pro DVDs. First up is Shane Ross's "Getting Organized in Final Cut Pro." With his experience in feature films, TV series and documentaries, you won't want to miss his tips on project set-up and media management. There are more FCP titles coming, too.

If you have an idea for a DVD, let us know! We'd love to help.

YOUR WORK:

I'm going to end my column the same way I began, by talking about community. We know that not all of you are tutorial masters. But you are some of the most talented producers in the business.

Visiting your websites, we've noticed that many of you sell DVDs of your own projects or content. We're currently working to add to The COW's DVD store to make room for you. No matter what your DVD is about - well, almost :o) - we'll help you sell it.

Yes, we're again expanding the nature of online communities by giving our members access to the incredible traffic in the COW, to help you make money.

The store is still under renovation as you read this. But we'll soon be ready to carry your DVD titles alongside our own. Like I said, we want to help you make some noise and raise your profile among your peers.

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