I’ve become rather bored with journalism industry news and blogs lately. There’s really nothing new out there, just more paywall this, mobile that, blah blah blah. It’s led me to take a brief hiatus from this blog to work on some other projects.

My biggest undertaking was Recordnet.com’s interactive snowglobe, which launched two weeks ago and can be found at www.recordnet.com/snowglobe. The project allowed me to utilize the Flint Particle System snow example in a fun, user-friendly way. I also learned more about Tweens, masks and the addChild function in Actionscript 3.0. Recordnet users can drag and drop decorative items from the stage into the globe, click shake and see their snowglobe come to life. A few other newspapers in the Dow Jones Local Media Group chain have shown an interest in the snowglobe and may be featuring it on their Web sites in the near future. You can read a longer post on what went into the project here on Recordnet’s multimedia reporting blog.

In recent weeks I’ve also written several other posts for Recordnet’s multimedia and LENS (features) blog, including a weekly post on upcoming local concerts and nightlife events. Lately, you’ve been more likely to find me posting on one of those sites than on ianhillmedia.

Another of my Recordnet projects – the Giving Spirit landing page – launched today. The Giving Spirit is a series of Record stories that highlights local nonprofit groups during the holidays. In the series the newspaper describes what each charity needs in donations in hopes of empowering area residents to do more to help their community.

The landing page collects the stories while offering links to a few other Recordnet online features, including the interactive snow globe and videos that feature nonprofit organizations. Like all landing pages, it was a simple undertaking that I still enjoyed because it game me a good excuse to brush up on my HTML, CSS and Photoshop skills. You can find it at www.recordnet.com/spiritofgiving.

I wasn’t able to shoot much video for Recordnet in late November as my car broke down, leaving me stranded in the office to work in Flash. My lone video contribution in recent weeks was this footage of a Stockton family renovating a house in a weekend. I’m apparently getting rusty on my video interviews; note the sloppy look of the microphone pinned to the woman’s collar. It would have been cleaner to interview her without the mic.

You’ll be seeing more video from me this week; I shot footage yesterday that should be posted on Recordnet.com this weekend. I’m also planning to shoot another video tomorrow. You’ll be able to find both videos on Recordnet’s multimedia page.

When it comes to ianhillmedia, meanwhile, I’m still looking for ideas on improvements and a redesign. I’m often inspired but what I see on design blogs like Smashing Magazine but I’m not sure where to begin. Perhaps the holidays will offer some perspective.

I’ll leave you with a recap of something that was oddly popular: my live Twitter coverage of The Record’s newsroom tree decoration on Dec. 3. Read from the bottom up.

• Have a great day! 3:50 PM Dec 3rd from TweetDeck
• Coverage brought to you by Alcoa, the letter M, and the number 9. 3:49 PM Dec 3rd from TweetDeck
• That concludes our LIVE Twitter coverage of Record newsroom tree lighting ’09. 3:49 PM Dec 3rd from TweetDeck
• That means @thigpenrecord, seen in back, is roughly the size of Mothra. 3:48 PM Dec 3rd from TweetDeck
• The finished tree, which, again, is 7,600 feet tall. http://tweetphoto.com/5777319 3:47 PM Dec 3rd from TweetDeck
• Tree may be complete! Lone ornament at top gives it a “Charlie Brown Christmas” sort of feel. 3:41 PM Dec 3rd from web
• Let’s toss it to our Ohio bureau. @dskolnick, your thoughts? Does @vindicator newsroom still have a tree, or was it burned in strike barrel? 3:37 PM Dec 3rd from web
• @thigpenrecord told he’s not pulling his weight in live Christmas Tree lighting coverage. By me. 3:31 PM Dec 3rd from web
• To offer some perspective, the Rockefeller Center tree is 76 feet tall. The Record newsroom tree is 100 times huger. 3:30 PM Dec 3rd from web
• Star was not placed on top of the tree yet, much to the surprise of this observer! Work continues. 3:28 PM Dec 3rd from web
• *considering setting up a live chat for coverage of #NewsroomTreeLighting09. 3:21 PM Dec 3rd from web
• Newsroom assistant Pat Meyers looking at top of tree; could it be time for the star? We’ll take your thoughts! 3:17 PM Dec 3rd from web
• You’re following ianhillmedia’s live coverage of newsroom Xmas tree lighting ’09. 3:15 PM Dec 3rd from web
• Kirk Barron has left his desk in online to talk to @thigpenrecord. Doubt it’s about business; Kirk just wants to be closer to tree. 3:12 PM Dec 3rd from web
• Newsroom tree appears to block the managing ed’s view of a certain Lodi reporter. Expecting @thigpenrecord ‘s productivity to decline. 3:08 PM Dec 3rd from web
• News assistant Pat Meyers now taking over Christmas tree work. #RecordXmasTree 3:04 PM Dec 3rd from web
• In the last photo I posted, the Lifecom helicopter seen on the right side of the frame is life-sized. Just to provide some perspective. 3:00 PM Dec 3rd from web
• Tree as seen from my desk. Not in photo, @thigpenrecord http://tweetphoto.com/5775062 2:56 PM Dec 3rd from TweetDeck
• @thigpenrecord Let’s live Tweet it! Alex Breitler recently looked at the tree, walked into the managing editor’s office.

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