Posted by Connie Reece on March 25, 2008 at 12:55 am
If you followed the story of the Frozen Pea Fund from the beginning, you know that just before Susan Reynolds was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, David Neff of the American Cancer Society had asked me to do some pro bono work for the Society on a new project. SharingHope.tv has now launched, and I’m very happy I was able to be part of the effort to let people know about this new Web community created to help connect cancer survivors, their friends and family members.
David, who is director of Web and interactive strategy for ACS, was kind enough to sit down with me recently and talk about the origins of the idea for SharingHope.tv, and why they decided to build it with Ruby on Rails and enable OpenID. (My video skills obviously need a lot of work. Note to self: buy a tripod for the Flipcam.)
* upload videos, photos, music or artwork
* add free background music from independent artists
* view content, make comments, and share it with others
* embed videos on their own blogs or MySpace and Facebook pages
* store twice as much video content as YouTube
* log in with an existing OpenID
* create an OpenID using ACS Passport
For more information, read the news release. Susan Reynolds has started posting videos on SharingHope.tv, sharing information she wishes she’d had access to before her surgery, such as this one where she talks about the process of making treatment decisions.
Posted by Connie Reece on March 10, 2008 at 6:00 am
She sparkles. Even without the stage lights or her signature sequins and fringe. Wearing a plain pair of jeans and a cotton shirt, Wanda Jackson walks onto the tiny stage at the Continental Club for a sound check. I can’t help noticing that she’s a tiny woman. But when she picks up the microphone, the band strikes a chord, and she growls, “Some people like to rock, some people like to roll,” there is no doubt that the larger-than-life Queen of Rockabilly is still making a statement at age 70: “Let’s Have a Party.”
The Smithsonian Channel invited me to sit down with Wanda while she was in Austin for a screening of the documentary of her life, The Sweet Lady with the Nasty Voice. A second SXSW screening will take place on March 14, and the worldwide broadcast premiere will be Sunday, May 18.
In the 1950’s Wanda Jackson toured with the men who would become the legends of Rock ‘n Roll: Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly, and the King himself, Elvis Presley, whom she dated briefly. Although she was the first woman to record a rock ‘n roll song, Wanda Jackson has yet to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
That leaves Elvis Costello, who recorded “Crying Time” with Wanda on her 2003 CD, Heart Trouble, incensed. In an open letter to propose Wanda’s induction into the Hall of Fame, Costello wrote, “Look around today and you can hear lots of rocking girl singers who owe an unconscious debt to the mere idea of a woman like Wanda. She was standing up on stage with a guitar in the hand and making a sound that was as wild and raw as any rocker, man or woman, while other gals were still asking, ‘How much is that doggy in the window?’”
My Podversation with Wanda Jackson is split into two parts; we got interrupted for a sound check with the band. Both parts are included below, along with a snippet I recorded during the sound check. It’s a duet with Wanda and Rosie Flores. I could barely hold my little Flip cam still; I wanted to tap my feet, swing my hips and sing along to “Woman, Walk out the Door.”
Special thanks to my Twitter pal, Paull Young, for having a hunch that I was a Wanda Jackson fan. Check out the work he’s doing for the Smithsonian Channel Community.
Posted by Connie Reece on February 12, 2008 at 3:06 am
That’s right. I am officially a Par-tay girl–or I will be on Wednesday night, when I join host Jonny Goldstein for a video conversation on Jonny’s Par-tay. I’ll be appearing with Susan Reynolds to talk about the Frozen Pea Fund and how online connections can become a vibrant community.
Check out the show info and find out how you can be part of the conversation.
Mark your calendar: Wednesday, February 13, 9:00 pm EST
Posted by Connie Reece on February 7, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Susan Reynolds and I have been invited by the folks at crayon and their client, ooVoo, to be part of the upcoming My ooVoo Day With … series of video chats. To launch their beta version with a demonstration of the new service, which allows up to six people to video chat, ooVoo recruited about 20 bloggers/authors/speakers to host informal chat sessions, on a topic of their choosing. In lieu of paying each of the participating hosts, ooVoo will donate $1,500 to charity; most of the hosts have chosen to designate their funds for a cause dear to my heart, the Frozen Pea Fund.
This is a win-win-win-win situation. ooVoo will have several hundred people test-driving their service, readers get to connect with some of their favorite bloggers, who get increased exposure in the marketplace, and a worthy cause gets its first corporate donation.
Susan and I will be hosting several video chat sessions on Sunday, February 10, on the topic From Connections to Community: How Online Relationships Enrich Our Lives.
Each chat session can accommodate four people, and 18 slots were filled the first day. To register, go to My ooVoo Day, download the software (available for Mac users too–only at this link), and then sign up for an open seat.
Here’s a rundown of the times and topics we will be available to talk about:
Session 1 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. EST — Building Connections and Networking Online
(four 15-minute time slots available)
Topics: Finding and Friending; Your Profile Is Your Personal Brand; Cultivating Relationships
Session 2 4:00 to 4:30 p.m. EST — Taking it Face to Face: stories of meetups and tweetups(three 10-minute time slots)
Session 3 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. EST — When Connections Become a Community
(four 15-minute time slots)
Topics: How Online Communities Celebrate, Grieve; How to Talk to Someone About Cancer or Crisis; Give the Present of Your Presence
There’s no set agenda, just some topics to suggest the direction of the conversation. I hope you’ll join us for at least one of our 15-minute sessions.
And don’t stop with just one session or one host. Look at the incredible lineup of guests ooVoo has put together — these are the kind of speakers you would travel to a conference to hear. Now you can get some face-to-face time with them from the convenience of your laptop. All you need is a webcam and a broadband connection.
Posted by Connie Reece on November 3, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Connie Reece talks about personal branding and her new hair color.
Note:RSS readers may need to click through to the web site to view.
My much-neglected humor blog is Blogabillies. I haven’t posted lately, but browse through the archives and you’ll find some fun stuff from Belle (me) and T-Bone (Terry Taylor).
She sparkles. Even without the stage lights or her signature sequins and fringe. Wearing a plain pair of jeans and a cotton shirt, 
