Outside the Mainstream: Vlogging in the Midwest
Leaders:
Kevin Sladek
Richard Hall
Other Panelists
Jennifer Proctor
Susan Kirkpatrick
This panel will focus on United States Vloggers from the middle of the U.S., outside of the large vlogging communities on the east and west coast. The panelists will address issues unique to midwestern vlogging, relying on illustrations from their own vlogs and vlogging experience such as: how midwestern culture affects the blogging content and process; strategies for interacting and collaborating with the larger vlogging community; and using vlogs to broaden the traditional media focus on the U.S. east and west coasts. Within this context, broader questions will be addressed that are relevant to the entire vlogging community such as: a) Why is vlogging a good/worthwhile activity (and is it?); and b) How can we increase vlogging as a mainstream activity (and should we)?
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Richard Hall has been creating and hosting the videoblog, The Richard Show, since May 2005. His show has since became popular in the vlogging world, including a feature on Rocketboom in December 2005. Richard is also a Professor of Information Science and Technology, and director of the Laboratory for Information Technology Evaluation at the University of Missouri – Rolla ( http://www.umr.edu/~rhall), where his teaching and research focus on Human-Computer Interaction, and new-media, particularly video blogs.
Kevin Sladek, a native of San Marcos, TX, Co-Founded VideoEgg in November 2004 with Yale University classmates Matt Sanchez and Dave Lerman. Despite the persistent distraction of an intense interest in digital filmmaking, Sladek received a B.A. in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University in 2003.
Jennifer Proctor (http://jenniferproctor.com, http://icmicrocinema.com) is a filmmaker, film programmer, and videoblogger currently based in Iowa City, Iowa. Originally from San Rafael, California, she studied philosophy and film at the University of Texas at Austin before heading into radio broadcasting at Austin’s NPR station. She holds an MA in Film Studies and is currently pursuing her MFA in Film and Video Production while teaching film and video courses at the University of Iowa. This fall, she will be teaching the UI’s first-ever course on videoblogging to undergraduates in the Cinema program.
Susan Kirkpatrick (http://vlog.kitykity.com) is a Unix System Administrator from Plano, TX. She is also married and has two young children. Her videoblog, created on a PC with Roxio software, outlines their collective life antics. She has given videoblogging presentations at the Apple store in her hometown and at Node 101 in San Antonio.