In this next clip, our video team literally got their hands dirty working for the Army Environmental Center. This video was part of a larger effort to communicate and assess the risks associated with finding new uses for former Army training ranges. These lands were becoming more widely available and our client needed to make sure that decision-makers and citizens were well informed about associated public safety and environmental issues.

Our team travelled to several former ranges, capturing the beauty of the lands and also learning about the technology used to remediate them. We interviewed policy makers and program managers as well as scientists and environmental experts and incorporated these viewpoints into the final award-winning video.

To learn more about the campaign, visit our portfolio page here: http://www.mindandmedia.com/aec-risk-com.html

Here’s another oldie but goodie from the Mind & Media video vault. In 1999 we created and produced a 39-part, ½ hour news magazine style series for public television called “Frontiers of Medicine.” The series focused on cutting-edge research, technologies and treatments impacting almost every area of medicine, from new synthetic skin for burn victims to innovative intrauterine (“open fetal”) surgery designed to correct deformities like Spina Bifida. The series highlighted innovative treatments performed at leading medical research institutions, hospitals and universities throughout the United States, such as: the National Institutes of Health, Sloan Kettering, Children’s Hospital, UCLA, Harvard, the Cleveland Clinic, the Mayo Clinic and John Hopkins. The series, which ran from 1999-2002, was shown via public television stations nationally, ran in the top 19 out of 20 television markets and reached over 90% of all American households.

To learn more about the campaign, visit our portfolio page here: http://www.mindandmedia.com/frontiers-of-med.html

For our inaugural “From the Video Vault” post, we went deeeeep into the vault.  This video was produced as part of a public information campaign that we were involved with from 1997-2000.

As a result of the Panama Canal Treaty of 1977, signed by President Carter and Panamanian General Omar Torrijos, responsibility for the Panama Canal and everything associated with its operation was to revert to Panamanian hands by the year 2000.  Working as a subcontractor, Mind & Media helped the Treaty Implementation and Plan Agency (TIPA) to conduct an awareness campaign aimed at educating American and Panamanian citizens about the US Army’s environmental/public safety efforts on former range lands being returned to Panama under the Treaty.

Videos (several of them in both Spanish and English) were only one type of media that were used to carry out the campaign.  Mind & Media also used its in-house production facilities to create:

• Branding language and visuals
• Easy-to-understand iconic signs and publications
• Print materials in English and Spanish
• Public service messages for Panamanian radio and television (Spanish-language)

Enjoy the video:

To learn more about the campaign, visit our portfolio page here: http://www.mindandmedia.com/panama-canal-transfer.html

Mind & Media recently completed a video for the Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine (CNRM). The video, “Meet the Researchers” was created for potential volunteers to get to know the center’s researchers. You can watch the video at CNRM’s You Tube channel:

Mind & Media’s Chris Ammon explains how you can develop e-Learning courses that keep your audience in their seats and awake.  Learn about what details  you should consider when building a course and why your old college professor may have taught you the most important lesson of all.   Watch Now.

Before the iPad launched this month, video was already an increasing component in persuasive communication. Most traditional media – like newspapers – have some on-demand video component while other new media entities eschew text all together for video monologues and dialogues. While the iPad is certainly the newest, and biggest, mobile device on which to view video content, mobile devices like smart phones and portable media players have been available for a number of years.

Both the devices and the networks that serve data to them are maturing and soon they will catch up to the superior wireless networks in Europe and Asia. Then it will be a race to corner that market for the institutions that want eyeballs on their training, awareness, and recruiting media. If you can manage that workflow now you will be in an envious position. Right now, I would say that the newspaper industry and the social media industry best understand how to serve their content simultaneously to the web and the mobile markets. More and more people will look towards their mobile devices for educational, training, and recruiting content as untethered devices become the norm.

Image Courtesy: globwon-online

If you are a government or public agency and want to know how to use Twitter the right way, look no further than AlexandriaVAGov.  This was a well-performing account prior to Snowpocalypse 2010, dishing out helpful information to the residents of the City of Alexandria, Virginia.  However during the snowmageddeon, its value eclipsed that of the last snow shovel in Home Depot.

Throughout the snowtorious snowstorm my family had many concerns: What number do we call to report a power outage? AlexanderVAGov posted those numbers.  What if power isn’t restored and the house gets too cold?  They posted the addresses of shelters and warming centers. From school closings to cancelled city services to the latest snowfall predictions, AlexandriaVAGov on Twitter was there for us, keeping us informed while everyone else lost their minds.

When the snow stopped and it was time to go back to work, they posted a link to a Google Maps mash-up that showed what roads were priorities for the plows and what the expected driving conditions were.  This was very helpful in planning a safe route.

Yes, Twitter is full of nonsense and, yes, Fake[Insert Celebrity] is a lot more entertaining than AlexandriaVaGov. However when you’re snowed in or in a similar emergency, your local government is (or should be) there for you.  AlexandraVAGov understands this.  I hope your local government does, too.

Image courtesy: http://twitter.com/alexandriavagov

Recently Comcast and Universal announced plans to merge their two houses.  Every time I hear about two large communications corporations merging I remember what my Communication 101 professor said about such things, “Nothing good can come of this.”

What’s so bad about it? Consider that the entertainment behemoth would control the content and the means to distribute that content. In other words, they control the shows and how those shows get to your television.  Think such a thing couldn’t happen? It already has.  This year if you wanted to see the show Friday Night Lights, you needed a DirectTV subscription. If you didn’t have one, well maybe you can buy the DVD in 2010.

Should this merger go through, I worry for the growing trend of on-demand over-the-internet providers like Hulu.  They answered a decades-old plea from media consumers—an a la carte cable system.  Only the pluck and grit of a start-up can do that.  However, based on recent examples of large corporate mergers, Comcast-Universal may not even get the chance to execute anything. Even if they pass regulation they have a steep hill to climb—one that is littered with the wrecks of AOL-Time Warner and Vivendi-Universal.  So watch this development with a skeptical eye.

Photo Courtesy: http://gabesguide.com/

I’ve been reading trickles of information regarding Adobe’s new lightweight application, Adobe AIR, that holds some serious promise for anyone interested in interactive storytelling.  I first heard rumors about it being installed and integrated in all multimedia devices starting next year.

In reading up on its various capabilities (of which there are many interesting ones) I came across the promotion for AVATAR.  Built with Adobe Air, the AVATAR trailer is actually an application that I install on my desktop.  Yes, the bulk of it is a three-minute movie trailer streamed via the web, but this trailer has a number of “hot spots” that over the course of the promotion were updated with ancillary content such as character back story, actor interviews, and production designs.

This got me thinking about how this non-linear approach to storytelling could be applied around the web.  As media and news becomes more of a conversation between author and audience, I could see a single, focused story grow many branches with an application like Adobe AIR, as users contribute their feedback.  Think of it like something akin to Amazon.com’s user-generated reviews, except that instead of text there are webcams and personal stories.  Additionally, you can program YouTube and Twitter feeds that populate the application on your desktop.  As AIR gets embedded in more devices in 2010 it will be interesting to see what other types of interactive applications are built.  You can download the AVATAR application here.

Image courtesy of Adobe.com.

While the entertainment corporations flop around trying to make money from social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, I’m pleased that some governments and educational institutions are using social media platforms for that mundane but important purpose of informing. Bethesda, MD schools are replacing notes that go home in student’s backpacks with tweets and blog posts about a variety of school functions. Updates on expansion plans and reminders about important events get disseminated to parents and community members. What I love about this use of social media is that it pushes necessary information to people who need it—who can review it on their own timetable. Subscribe to a Twitter feed or RSS feed and you can get and review the information you need on your time. Also, as the parent of a two-year old, I like the idea of its permanence. The research I will be doing on a school or a school system will be much more thorough if it includes tweet and blog posts.  The more information schools and governments provide, the better prepared the public can be.

Image courtesy Sean McColgan