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“Blizzard Entertainment and Xfire have just announced the largest ever machinima contest with over $10,000 in prizes from AMD, Hypernia, Creative Labs, XFX, D-Link, Corsair, ZBoard and Time Games. The contest involves entrants producing movies using the Blizzard Entertainment MMORPG World of Warcraft game engine to create imaginative movies in the three main categories of Dance, Comedy and Drama. Six prizes will be awarded for each category. An additional Twenty prizes will be awarded in special categories including Best Music, Best Dialog, Best Action Scene, Best Pun or Line, and Best Editing and Special Effects. A special prize from Hypernia will also be awarded to a selected movie. Entries must be submitted by January, 21st 2006.” Good luck to folks who decide to enter. If you aren’t already familiar with it, the Curse Guild’s Blackwing Lair: The Movie may give you an idea of what is possible with WoW Machinima.
World of Warcraft Machinima contest
Pulitzer and Online Content
From the Article :The board that awards the Pulitzer Prizes said Wednesday that newspapers can now enter material published online in each category of the prestigious competition, an acknowledgment of the growing influence of Internet journalism.
The board, however, said it would continue to limit the competition to newspapers that publish a print edition, rather than allow entries by online-only publications such as Slate, Salon, MSNBC.com or the many blogs that proliferate on the Web. Some online journalists argued the board needs to further expand the scope of the Pulitzers, the most revered awards in American print journalism.
Since 1999, newspapers have been able to include online material as part of submissions in the public-service category, regarded as the most prestigious of the 14 Pulitzer categories. Now, newspapers will be able to submit online content in all categories, though only two — breaking news and breaking news photography — will allow material solely published on the Web. In the other categories, Web content must be paired with something published in print.
(Read the rest here)
Does this sound snooty/pathetic to anyone else? Personally I really don’t care about the Pulitzer prize, because it is not something that I’m going to get or even be considered for. In my mind it has always been a mark on the horizon to reach for, or a level of comparison to judge by; but I don’t believe such coarse distinctions regarding what is true news and what is not based on the whether the story is on a webpage or at the bottom of a bird cage in the morning, is worthy of its nature. To me this smacks of tails wagging dogs. It just cries out that the members of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism are more concerned with the lobby attentions of ol’boy newsman, than the merits of an article or news story.
If we spent more time in the areas of news integrity and less time trying to keep good ol boy industry from sinking into mires of their own creation, we would have better news, and less need of Pulitzer prizes. Of course I also believe that it is a bit hypocritical to want to take video games off the shelves because of violence, while leaving the shotguns in WalMart, so my thoughts may be way off base here.
SWING DocPublisher
The new release of SWING DocPublisher – agile content management software for IBM Lotus Domino – helps organizations publish and maintain internal documentation, such as policies and procedures, product specifications and knowledge bases.
(PRWEB) December 7, 2005 — SWING Software today announced the availability of SWING DocPublisher 2 – agile content management software for IBM Lotus Domino. The new release improves the way companies organize, distribute and maintain their documentation online.
SWING DocPublisher targets companies that are standardized on Microsoft Office and Lotus Domino. Unlike traditional document libraries, DocPublisher automatically converts Word documents into web content, so no additional skills are required to publish to corporate intranets and websites. Original Word documents are retained for future updates.
(Read the rest of the article here)
If they really have created a viable Documentation creator, this could be a wonderful thing for internal company documentation. The website is http://www.swingsoftware.com
It has been my experience in the past that many such Universal answers to the growing documentation problems of large companies, are not easily come by. Of course it is nearly 2006 and we’ve been trying to get a real answer for this problem since 1995 … ten years I would guess is not “easily come by”.
TR Cutler Inc. Launches Manufacturing Web Content Service
(OPENPRESS) December 6, 2005 — Thomas R. Cutler is the #1 Manufacturing Journalist in North America. The staff of TR Cutler, Inc. along with the 2000 plus members of the Manufacturing Media Consortium announced the launch of a new service, Web Content for Manufacturing Websites.
Writing dynamic, interesting, topical, fresh, informative, valuable, meaningful, and readable web copy is a unique service. From brief articles to extensive white papers; from product reviews to competitive analyses; from monthly newsletters to company personnel profiles, Thomas R. Cutler and members of the manufacturing media consortium work closely to provide timely, vital, innovative, and creative Web Content for Manufacturing Websites.
(Read the rest of the Article here)
Need a content writer? Your Website sure does…
Writing content for the web is a specialized form of professional writing – much different than writing brochures, reports and other company literature.
That’s what a Dallas interior decorator found out recently after she paid a prominent web designer more than $7,000 to create her Internet presence. Her dazzling website was complete with flash graphics and images of the sensational homes she decorated. But for all the trouble and expense, her website didn’t generate traffic. “It was like giving a party and nobody came,” she said.
“Nobody came” because what little copy her website did have, was embedded in fancy graphics – making it unreadable to search engines. High search engine ranking absolutely depends on the quality copy a web site copywriter can produce.
What happened to the Dallas decorator is not unusual. Many business owners pay big-bucks for a snazzy website, then leave the skills of a web site copywriter out of the equation – risking their entire investment .
The “right words” are those strategic keywords and keyword phrases embedded in content. These words and phrases is the language web surfers type into Google and other search engines.
Why is website content so important? Because that’s what search engine spiders “see” as they crawl the web. Cyber-spiders don’t see pictures, drawings or clever flash elements. While such design elements can be important to a website’s appeal, they aren’t necessary to achieve high ranking on search engines.
Keywords that Internet shoppers type into search engines inevitably determine what page they’ll land on. So, when you’re writing content you’ve got to make sure the “right words” show up.
A good web site copywriter knows:
• How to keep copy short, simple, clear and easy to scan.
• How to write naturally, so readers won’t detect the adroit, behind-the-scenes use of keywords.
• How to use keywords in headlines and sub-headlines.
• That search engines are smart. Google notices when keywords are crammed into website content.
• How ridiculous it sounds when keywords are substituted for generic terms. For example, replacing every instance of the generic word “aspirin” with the keyphrase “Sav-More Pharmacy Aspirin”.
“Sav-More Pharmacy Premium Aspirin works for colds and fever. When flu or headaches get you down, take two Sav-More Pharmacy Premium Aspirin and go to bed. For more relief, take three Sav-More Pharmacy Premium Aspirin four times a day.”
An experienced web site copywriter is a highly-trained wordsmith who creates website content that attracts serious shoppers – then converts them from prospects to customers.
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