Virtual Journalism, Finally

In the subtitle of this blog, I promised not only virtual government, but virtual journalism. I'm discovering and creating that phenomenon as I go, but I know it will involve multimedia storytelling. In that spirit, then, I offer you my very first video story. It's a little comedy about the 32-year-old federal technology show held in Washington, DC, every year. This year, I went down to the floor to search for someone who knew what the name, FOSE, a silly acronym, meant. On my quest, I happened upon some purveyors of virtual government products, as you'll see.

What I am doing here is called "backpack journalism." It's the new way many of us will perform the old craft of transmitting knowledge by telling stories. Where once we worked for vast media companies that specialized in one form of media--print, television, radio and recently Web--now we increasingly will be itinerant journalists for hire and self-publishers to the Web. We'll produce multimedia stories and information sites, mostly for the Web, and become jacks of all media--written, video, audio and, I predict, 3D/virtual. Thus my admittedly rough first foray into video.

To produce this I carried my own personal video camera around the FOSE exhibition hall for an afternoon. I had the germ of a unifying theme--the name of the show--but little more in mind as I began. I also had just begun using a Mac for the first time, purchased because it's clearly a superior vehicle for video editing and podcasting and the like, skills I'm rapidly having to acquire.

In a month's time, I became a very unskillful video editor, Mac user and videographer and shot, edited and produced this video, much as I started up this blog in January.

It's 2008. Soon, we'll all be publishers and newscasters. The question then becomes, how will we all decide which of us is reputable and worth listening to and watching. So, it's on to building a brand and winning an audience! Stay tuned!