Charlie Melichar, Colgate University VP for Communications, appeared on Beet.TV yesterday talking about student-generated media. See Dan Forbush’s comments on the new ProfNet Post blog. Charlie is a former ProfNet employee and is also volunteering on the ProfNet 3.0 launch team, which, by the way, is inviting new members.

Morgan Davis at the erelevant blog finally reveals the broad strokes of his latest book deal, and I, for one, think it’s going to be a hit in higher ed marketing circles. How about you? Congrats, Morgan!

Today Rocketboom mentions that Thomson (Peterson’s former parent) is using computers to write news stories. Reportedly they’ve been at it since March. I wonder if any of the readers noticed.

It’s hard to believe it’s conference season again. (Does it ever end?) In late October I’ll be heading down to Orlando to help facilitate a series of case studies for an Academic Impressions conference on Interactive Technologies. Joe Hice, Paul Baker, Matthew Winkel, Dennis Miller, and Charlie Melichar are participating, among others. We’ll be looking at cases of all shapes and sizes, but mainly centering on the use of RSS, podcasts, and web video as communications tools. Effective implementation and measurement will be key themes. It’s great to see many of the big conference producers getting interested in new media. It’s also interesting to note that they’re scanning the blogosphere for potential speakers. Academic Impressions learned of me through this blog.

Andrew Careaga is organizing an upcoming CASE event on new media, scheduled for Philly in early mid-September. Karine Joly, who you know as Collegewebeditor, is a featured speaker. (Way to go, Karine!!!!) I won’t be able to make her session, but how about we all meet for dinner in Philly on the evening of September 14? Drop a comment or email me at dan.karleen@petersons.com. I can recommend some great restaurants!

Click on the image below to play video (Quicktime, 18MB, 2:04).

Matthew Winkel from The College of New Jersey wore a number of different hats at this year’s EduWeb conference. He was making podcasts, filling in for presenters, and hosting his own sessions. I was lucky to get a few minutes with him. I asked him what’s going with RSS at TCNJ, and how the College is planning to roll out podcasting. They’re toying with the idea of doing a podcast interview series with professors and others on campus.

Matthew was a participant in this year’s HigherEd BlogCon, where he presented on Student To-Do List RSS feeds.

Note: I tried to present this video to you through YouTube, but the audio wasn’t properly sync’d in the Flash movie. If anyone knows why this happens, please let me know!

Get the Quicktime file interview with Nina Sossen (35MB; 2:37)

I had the good pleasure of meeting Nina Sossen earlier this week at EduWeb in Baltimore. Nina is the Web Communications Director at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and she blogged the admissions blogging session Rob Pongsajapan and I led.

So, naturally, I asked her to talk about blogs. It turns out that her institution has quite a bit going with blogs, and she has some nicely refined ideas about the best fit. In this clip, she talks about how they’ve used blogs for specific situations where they want to generate or preserve momentum surrounding a particular event (e.g. commencement) and as a way of “bringing a different voice into news and events that we’re talking about on our website.” Hope you learn as much from her as I did!

Programming note: This is the first in a series of segments from the EduWeb conference. There will be more with Nina, and also one or two segments with Rob Pongsajapan and Matthew Winkel from The College of New Jersey.

Get the Quicktime file interview with Nina Sossen (35MB; 2:37)

Time to share an update.

Yes, Peterson’s is now a Nelnet company, no longer Thomson Peterson’s.

Yes, I’ll still be blogging here on SHE. Same voice, perhaps with a new wrapper.

You bet, video is on my mind. It’s kinda like I’m speaking through video these days. As I mentioned to EducationPR blogger Paul Baker recently, I haven’t had any video to share, thus light blogging. But the good news is that I caught up with some attendees at EduWeb earlier this week and I’ll be sharing that video here over the coming days. In fact, after a Quicktime finishes burning on machine B, I’m going to get started on editing that footage.

There was a lot of talk about video at EduWeb; indeed, the entire Higher Ed community seems to be buzzing about the possibilities of video on the web. The days of routine campus tour videos are coming rapidly to an end as the tools of high quality production come within reach, and web video sharing platforms mature.

To this point, I agree with Charlie Melichar: You should be watching Beet.TV. Charlie introduced me to its producer, Andy Plesser, and we fast became buds during some exciting times at SF’s recent Vloggercon, where Andy broke the story about Robert Scoble leaving Microsoft for Bay Area startup PodTech. It was a treat to share in Andy’s excitement at seeing Beet.TV zoom up like a jet.

You may not be surprised to learn that Andy’s also got a stake in academe. He’s the guy behind the incredibly innovative LawClinic.TV, which features interviews with participants in Fordham University’s clinical legal education program.

More on the week of EduWeb and admissions blogging….

I was very pleased with the response to the EduWeb discussion on admissions blogging Rob Pongsajapan and I led. It was exciting to share 2 months’ worth of accumulated research and get feedback, and the small group/lunch format was a perfect place not only for that, but also to make some great new acquiantainces, among them Nina Sossen, who was kind enough to blog our session for Collegewebeditor.com. Nina politely took issue with my use of the term “admissions blogging program,” and I’m committed to explaning what I mean by that more fully, if not for Nina only, then for the rest of you as well.

I was reminded that many are still very new to blogging, and the questions abound. In fact, this week the Uwebd list is alight again with questions about blogging. And much of the advice there validates our findings–for example the importance of selecting the right student bloggers and the idea of selecting student bloggers from among students who already have a relationship with the admissions department. (Think student ambassadors.)

Of course, the session would not have been a success were it not for the generosity of the institutions participating in the study; they’re listed on this page along with the items we covered in our discussion on Monday in Baltimore.

Been visiting Collegewebeditor.com lately? You’ll find a treasure trove of blog coverage from the EduWeb conference there. Karine did a smashing job in recruiting attendees to blog “almost live” for Collegewebeditor. Kudos to Karine; a resourceful and audience-aware blogger she.

Well, that’s all for now. I bid you a wonderful weekend. Next time you visit, an interview with Nina Sossen from UMass Amherst, talking about blogging efforts there, will greet you.