Welcome to the new home for MicroExplosion Media. Nice, new look. Same ole me.

I have been meaning to comment on this since the weekend…

In Sunday’s paper, Tennessean editor Mark Silverman stated: “Fact is, newspapers aren’t dying. Indeed, many newspapers are succeeding at keeping up with the changing needs of their audiences. Consider The Tennessean.”

I’m withholding some of my thoughts on this for next week’s episode of The New Mediology, but I’m curious if the editorial strikes anyone as a bit desperate sounding? The rationale seems shaky despite the “quantified” research he cites. I’ll update this post when the podcast goes live and may elaborate a bit more.

One more thing…irony of ironies, I actually saw this article in a copy of the Sunday paper I purchased. I think it’s the second or third Tennessean I’ve bought in five years.

UPDATE: Discussion on this topic on the The New Mediology is available.

This weekend I discovered Kongregate.com. It’s a free online game website that has some really fun stuff. My personal favorite was Filler, a fun (and addictive) puzzle game. Once you get the hang of it you’ll be hooked for a while. I got to level 15 but couldn’t get beyond that.

Kongregate looks like it’s incorporated the web 2.0 mentality to games by letting users submit their own Flash based games and form communities around them. There are communities that have emerged around the games as well.

It would take quite a while to try all the games on this site…but it sure would be fun trying.

Check out the latest episode of The New Mediology. This week Nathan and I discussed our top 5 web applications and what we love about them. As always, we welcome feedback.

I’ve been chewing on something for quite a while and it’s starting to come together a bit. I know mobile devices and mobile web access are a huge opportunity with steady growth for new media. The thing I haven’t been able to really put a finger on was just how it’s all going to converge. Today I got a bit more clarity…kind of like when you see one of those Magic Eye posters for the first time and it finally comes into focus. Paull Young’s post (via a tweet from Lee Hopkins) helped it come into focus.

My friend Nathan and I have been talking about launching a podcast together for a long time and we finally did it. You can check it out at TheNewMediology.com or subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

The New Mediology is a podcast for new media marketers and web designers. We’d love to hear your feedback. In 2008 we’ll have a new one every other week. Here is a rundown of our first podcast:

0:00 - 8:09 — Thoughts on a few minutes with an Amazon Kindle.

8:10 - 11:15 — Oprah’s recent discovery of YouTube.

11:16 - 16:58 — Review of Utterz.com.

16:59 - 27:54 — Discussion of the iPod Nano’s video feature and the opportunity for marketers in 2008.

This time of year we’re reminded that we need to focus less on ourselves and more on others. I recently learned of a great site called ChristianVolunteering.org. It’s a free directory with over 2,000 volunteer opportunities. The site’s partners include the Salvation Army, GospelCom, World Vision, the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions and over 1,000 ministries serving under-resourced communities. In addition to volunteer opportunities for individuals, you can find needs that might be appropriate for church groups and short-term missions trips. I found about 30 opportunities just in the Nashville area with positions ranging from website designers and computer teachers to mentors and job skills teachers. Check out ChristianVolunteering.org for volunteer needs in your area.

My friend Chris finds himself in a potentially precarious position and is needing some help. Here’s the gist of the situation:

We have a boy on the way, due December 19. It dawned us during the lunchtime conversation that none of us have had to deal with the naming of the boy part yet, due in large part to my uncanny “shielding” ability. Here’s the deal though: With this boy on the way and a curious big sister sure to be lurking over every diaper change, we are going to face the question of “What is that?” sooner rather then later. How are we to answer? Do we teach her the proper scientific term now? Do we assign a nickname like “Winky” or “Doodle” or “Wee-Wee?”

Any of you moms or dads have a little help for him? If so, leave a comment on his blog.

Two things here…

Last week my friend Denver Bierman and his band Denver and The Mile High Orchestra (D&MHO) made it through to the top 12 bands in the new FOX show, The Next Great American Band. The show is on Friday nights so this is my official get out the vote post for Denver and the guys. Tomorrow night is your first opportunity to vote. If you know of Denver and band or like what you see/hear join the D&MHO Facebook group too.

Second thing…this just in from Greg Atkinson of Church Video Ideas :

If you’re interested in exploring how ministry videos can enhance your worship services or happen to be a pro at integrating film into your services and would like to expand your existing media library, Highway Video is offering an amazing sale. From now until October 31st, Highway is offering all their DVD’s for 50% off.

Also, as a “Thank You” from the Church Video Ideas blog and Highway Video, you can pick one free download of your choice. Visit HighwayVideo.com, select a film, and then enter the coupon code: AFF1A9 at check-out to take advantage of this offer.

I’m always on the hunt for new helpful tools and I discovered two great ones yesterday…

TokBox (pronounced “talk box”) is a free video conferencing service that would be a great alternative to Skype should you want a browser based video system. I’ve used services like this in the past and they’re handy alternatives. In addition to the live conferencing feature you can also record a video and email it to someone from within the TokBox system. That feature alone would be great for personal messages for fundraisers or any organization that wants to take personalization to a new level. If my alma mater’s alumni association decided to send me a personal video from the president rather than a postcard, I would certainly be impressed and would be much more likely to consider giving.

I was very excited to discover Zamzar, a free file conversion tool. If you’ve ever wanted to convert a file from one format to another but weren’t sure how to do it, this is the site for you. If you’ve ever received a document in a format that won’t work with Microsoft Word, just upload and convert it here. The conversion also works with audio, image, and video files. I was most excited to discover Zamzar’s online video conversion. It’s as easy as typing in a link from a YouTube page or any number of other online video sites and loading them into Zamzar and selecting the format you want. I tested it last night with this YouTube video to see if it would work with my new (thanks Fosters!) iPod Nano and it worked perfect.