Sarah Hill Nominated for Four Emmy Awards 2012 Two for Interactivity with Google Hangouts: Live Cyber Shave and Norway Reacts to Oslo Bombings

Mid-America Emmy have just announced the 2012 Nominations.

The Emma Gala will be held on September 22, 2012 at the Midland Theater in Kancas City.

Sarah Hill, along with five other KOMU contributors are nominated in two categories:

What I learned from Start Up 101: Lessons from behind the Stream

Start Up 101 with Sarah Hill has now ended. In this post, I'm sharing what I do as a Hangout Producer and what I learned. In this process, I used Google Plus, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, Chrome and Google Picasa.

Here's a Timeline Narration. I'm sat at my laptop.. constantly refreshing the g+ stream. 

I spotted the LIVE Feed for the show (at this stage I had no access to any privileged info, just the stream).

Google+: Sarah Hill's Broadcast News Hangouts with full Audio Transcript

Google released a video today featuring Sarah Hill and many more people who I've come to call my friends since my involvement with the News in Missouri. 

It's no secret to reader's of my stream at g+ (and this blog) that Google Hangouts have changed my life forever.

Little did I know in July 2011, when I sat on a sofa forcing myself to learn what Google Plus really was and how to use it, it would lead to this. I've seen things and gone places that I could never have dreamed of.

For many who have not experienced it before, it seems odd that a webcam, a headset and a microphone can do that. We are a year on now and my passion for Google Plus and what Hangouts can achieve is only just starting. I know Sarah feels the same.

Here is the audio transcript edited for you to read. By reproducing it here, makes it Google Searchable. That's a lesson for another day. 

0:07 Sarah Hill: My wheels are constantly turning about what might we be able to do in our news broadcast.
0:12 Sarah Hill: It all has to do with providing an accurate record, and being a resource for
0:19 people who reach out to us.
0:21 Sarah Hill: In our business, sometimes we think that we need to give you information, information,
0:27 information - and we’ve kind of forgotten the fact that that we need to listen.

0:32 Chad LaFarge: What Sarah’s doing is she’s gone from traditional news reporting format,
0:36 where there’s a person standing on the screen and they throw news at you - to a format where
0:40 people can come in and join the conversation. from your home you can log in...
0:44 Chad LaFarge: ...Sarah gives the news and says, “Chad what do you think about that”
0:47 Sarah Hill: It’s essentially a hybrid newscast that combines social media with TV.

0:52 Kim Beasley: Sarah does something that’s really unique. She has a earbud in each ear.
0:56 In one ear she’s listening to her producer.
0:58 Jen McMillen: You’re about a minute from headline.
1:00 Kim Beasley: In the other ear she’s listening to us.
1:02 Kim Beasley: Sarah what are you talking about today.

1:04 Kim Beasley: As she’s reporting the news, she’s hearing our feedback. Sometimes she
1:08 incorporates that into the newscast.
1:10 Jen McMillen: Standby. Headline.
1:10 Sarah Hill: If you guys could help me with the mute button.
1:18 Floor Director: Three, Two, One.
1:21 Jen McMillen: Go.

1:22 Sarah Hill: Hey Gang, I’m Sarah Hill welcome to U_News. Chad Lafarge you have an announcement
1:25 regarding your muckraking here in town.
1:26 Chad LaFarge Yeah, the muck ruckus that we talked about last Monday has moved.
1:29 Producer: Sarah top story on the website. E Coli strain.
1:31 (Guest: ...its in honor of.. .)
1:33 Sarah Hill: Okay. Guys.
1:34 Michele Spry: Yeah?

1:35 Sarah Hill: Two more reports of the same strain...
1:38 Kent Collins: The host or anchor for a show using social media...
1:41 Kent Collins: ...Is like the only air traffic controller on duty in New York or Chicago....
1:46 Kent Collins: ...It’s Mind Boggling.
1:47 Kim Beasley: No longer will news stations have to have someone on the scene of breaking news.
1:51 Kent Collins: People who are unhappy about the condition of a street in their neighborhood.
1:55They now are significant contributors to a story.

1:57 Sarah Hill: As news organizations we are realizing that we need to come down from that mountain
2:02 that we’ve placed ourselves on, and listen to people.
2:05 Chad LaFarge: I don’t want for my kids to be sitting there in front of the TV, having
2:09 the news thrown at them and not have a say. I want them to have the feeling that they
2:13 can contribute to that conversation.
2:14 Sarah Hill: There’s beauty in giving people a forum, and allowing people to share their stories.

 

Cameraman App leads the way for Channel Hopping with Hangous On Air

How do you Host Your Own Hangout On Air? Do you even think about it? Here are just a few ideas. I'm compiling a list and you can add your own.

Cameraman is a new App that lets you Channel Hop between users in a Hangout On Air. The slide shows some ways it can be used. Pro Studio is another App that can help produce seamless hangouts.

I've left out The Panel Discussion and The TV News Show, so the more adventurous we get, the more we create and have fun along the way.

For something so simple, the Cameraman App in Hangouts On Air could be the best think ever invented. It's a Channel Hopper ..

Remember when there was no TV Remote Control, to change a channel, it was the long walk from the sofa to the plastic button on the TV set and giving it a hard push.

Well, Cameraman is like that .. Sarah Hill could still say, Who do we have on our Cyber Couch today? and this time we will never know unless she hits that Channel Hopper ..

G-10 Summit with Sarah Hill: How to Host a Hangout On Air

This post published at Sarah Hill Stories following a LIVE Hangout On Air. I include it here as it's essential (look out for my inclusion).

A Hangout On Air is a group video chat room within Google Plus that also streams live on You Tube.  In this HOA, France 24, KOMU-TV, KRNV-TV, WSPA-TV, Developers and Independent Journalists share tips, tricks and tools on how to host your own Hangout On Air.        

This 10 person video chat room is fueling a Journalism Renaissance as it's a collaborative space bringing together developers with traditional and independent journalists.  For more examples of how Journalists are using Hangouts On Air, please see 10 Ways Reporters are Using Hangouts On Air.

Video Rundown:

02:00 Panel Introductions: Chad LaFarge (Pro Studio), Dan McDermott (Google Plus Week), Eric Olander (France 24), Kemton Lam (Indie Journo), Mike Downes (Indie Journo), MoritzTolxdorff (Hangout Lower Third), Melissa Carlson (KRNV News), Sarah Hill (KOMU News)
06:00 Dan, Melissa on Story ideas
08:40 Eric on the French Perspective on using Hangouts
10:00 Diversity, Vetting Guests
13:50 Developing Apps: Moritz and Hangout Lower Third
16:28 Chad LaFarge and Pro Studio
19:20 Mike's Screenshare Demonstration
22:00 Questions from the stream
23:00 Comment Tracker App Demonstration 
24:15 Questions
26:00 AmyWood (WSPA) South Carolina
29:00 Guest Etiquette
32:15 Advertising a HOA, how far in advance?
36:00 Hangouts in Business
39:00 More Questions
44:00 World Time:  www.worldtimebuddy.com 
45:00 End 

Apps/Extensions referenced in this video:
Pro Studio by Chad LaFarge
Hangout Lower Third by Moritz Tolxdorff  
Comment Tracker by Gerwin Strum:
Google Shared Calendar Events by Charles Hogge 
Google Events Announcement:  

To follow my updates on Google Plus or to join my Hangouts On Air, please see www.plusya.com/Sarah

Sarah Hill Guest Post: Ten Ways Reporters Can Use Hangouts On Air to Enhance News Coverage

This was first posted at Sarah's Blog: Sarah Hill Stories


Equipment Needed:

• Laptop or PC with a webcam       
• Internet connection
• Google Plus/YouTube account  
• Guts to talk to strangers

Click "start broadcast" and your Google Plus "Hangout On Air" streams live on You Tube.  The recording is then automatically saved to your You Tube channel. 

1. Open a Hangout On Air during a news conference and allow people to watch the Q and A live.  Invite guests to suggest questions for the Police Chief, politician or superintendent holding the news conference.  Or if you're like the Toronto Police Service, use a Hangout stream the news conference yourself.  Reporters can join a Hangout On-Air and ask questions without leaving the newsroom. 

2. Open a Hangout behind the scenes of a newscast on a laptop/computer near the news set.  Point the webcam at your news set and talk to your audience during the soundbites and commercials.  Before, during and after the newscast, have Hangout guests share links to news items they find interesting.  Find out what they think is news.  Recently, Chad LaFarge, a Hangout viewer, helped KOMU-TV gather information to cover a breaking bank robbery.  A Hangout gives a station 9 extra pairs of hands during breaking news. 

3.  Wear a second IFB (ear piece) so you can hear the Hangout viewers' commentary about your news stories in real time. Anchors are already skilled at being able to talk and listen to their producer at the same time.  Why not listen to your audience? Work some of their comments into your newscast. 

4.  Use Hangouts as a free satellite truck. Hangouts operate in the middle of an international crowd sourcing tool so with public queries, you have the ability to find individuals who have experienced news events. Bring in experts virtually for live Hangout interviews and allow the other guests to ask questions.  

5.  Look at the most commented story on your social streams. Invite people to join a recorded or live Hangout and talk about that issue on TV face to face.  This was a recent Hangout on TV discussion about whether candidates should reimburse towns for police protection during campaign stops.

  

6.  Open a hangout during a breaking news event and show the world what you're seeing. Think of "live hanging" like live tweeting but with a face to face group conversation.  Invite others to ask questions about what they're seeing. Jean Francois Desmarais opened several Hangouts On Air during the 2012 Montreal Demonstrations and invited Canadians to ask questions.

During the 2012 NATO Riots in Chicago, Dan Soto also opened up a laptop for a live hang.

Photo Courtesy of Dan Soto

7. After an in studio interview, continue the conversation by bringing that guest into a Hangout to talk with virtual viewers.  Here's MyFox LA's Maria Quiban hosting a viewer chat behind the scenes with Mike Tyson.  When "time spent with content" is important, this extends the life of a TV interview beyond the studio.

Melissa Carlson of KRNV in Reno, Nevada uses Hangouts on her web show to get the public's opinion on talkable topics.

 

8.  During a snow storm, go beyond a weather map.  Ask the guests in your Hangout to turn their  webcams out their windows and show how much snow they received.

 

9. Invite politicians into a Hangout to have a virtual debate where candidates answer constituent questions. You can embed the live streaming Hangout on your website.

10. Join viewer hosted Hangouts to better learn the technology and interact with your audience on another level beyond the news host---news viewer relationship. There are Hangout shows on cooking, concerts, trivia games and much more. Cliff Roth compares Hangouts to "virtual trade shows" where you find people who share your passions. Group these passions into Google Plus circles and you have a Rolodex of experts at your virtual fingertips to talk about a variety of subjects. 

11. Open a Hangout during a story meeting and ask people what they think the newsroom should cover. 

Ok I lied. Make that 10 reasons.......... +1.

Our Adventures with Spreecast: Test number 5

Here's what happened on the Spreecast Test No 5. I created a channel a four months, when I tried a few times to join a few broadcasts. All that happened then, was a browser crash.

After seeing a blog post announcing some updates and improved features a few days ago, I delighted to say it's a lot better and there are some great features.

Thyroid Surgery comes LIVE to the Hangout courtesy of Hermine Ngnomire which paves the way for many more events from the OR

Photo from g+ post shared over 220 times

On Wednesday 16 May 2012, Hangouts with the help of +Hermine Ngnomire took a step forward in the Operating Room. What you will see circled is a Logitech C910 Webcam mounted on a medical stand and two laptops streaming to the hangout a Thyroidectomy procedure.

Dr +Gary Levin was in the hangout to share his medical expertise from San Antonia, Texas also pictured are +Dan McDermott +M Monica and +Mike Downes. 

As Gary Levin writes, This show seems to have attracted a lot of interest, there will be more soon. Some of the surgeries will include open heart surgery, a brain surgery, ocular surgery, a lung transplant. The upcoming schedule will be on +Digital Health Space. The goal of these broadcasts is to educate and give patients more exposure to hospital environments. The patient asked me to tell you to have your thyroid checked regularly.

Here is the 81 minute video. Watch out for the Thyroid removal at 1 hour 9 minutes with a handshake between the Surgeons. There is a slideshow of twenty two photos that were snapped during the live show.

Newborn Baby says Hi to the Sarah Hill Show

There has been a phenomenal amount written about this event as it takes a once unseen area of our lives into the public or private eye. Holding a Hangout from the delivery room would be wonderful for any family to see the latest newborn addition. It was fantastic to see this last night on the Sarah Hill Show where a proud father showed his baby to the world.

Sarah writes, Coolest Hangout Moment Ever .. Minutes before today's Noon newscast, +Thomas Deliduka joined my Hangout to report he had "breaking news". Thomas was in a hospital room... he panned the camera down to reveal his newborn daughter! Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Deliduka. Thanks for letting us share in your joy of child #8!

HELPING TO BRING ATTENTION TO THYROID CONDITIONS: Recommending to Check Your Thyroid Levels Yearly During Annual Exam or Every Mid-May!!! Terive Duperior, M.D., F.A.C.S with Anesthesiologist and amazing surgical team at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital in San Antonio, TX complete a full thyroidectomy utilizing the world's most innovative technology: A Google+ Hangout. Surgeon Gary Levin provides medical perspective while while hosts Dan McDermott, Mike Downes and participants M Monica and Jason Salas offer background. News anchors from various affiliates world-wide stop by to lend support, insight and guidance. renetwork.tv/tbl

The Plusketeers Challenge by Sarah Hill

Photo Courtesy: Alex Rozier
Jose trying to cross a room in San Bernardino, Guatemala

This article was originally posted posted by Sarah Hill a few days ago. The Kenilworth Centre is lined up to benefit from the Plusketeer Challenge. Find out more at: plusketeers.org

As many of you know, Sarah Hill is an Emmy award winning news anchor in Columbia, Missouri. Sarah writes ..

How much is your Hangout worth?   

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me how I was going to “monetize” my Hangout, I’d be a rich woman.

With emerging technologies, the pressure to figure out a way to make money on this new platform is intense.

For some businesses, if something doesn't hit a financial grand slam immediately, it’s benched.

I hear routinely, “Sarah, that’s great you’re able to talk with your audience live during a newscast but how are Hangouts going to benefit your station’s bottom line?” Well folks… I think I've figured out a way to monetize my Hangouts….in a way that would make even Robin Hood blush.



A few years ago in Guatemala, I watched the 8 year old boy pictured above crawl through vomit on the floor because his family couldn’t afford a wheelchair. In 2007, I met a mother in Vietnam who’d been carrying her son in her arms for 31 years because he had no other form of mobility.

These are just two of the millions worldwide who are part of “The Culture that Crawls.” They are victims of landmines, poor nutrition, crocodile bites and agent orange. They are spat upon, looked down upon and all but forgotten.

What do these people who crawl have to do with monetizing Hangouts?

Antonia Lopez Crawls Toward a P.E.T. Cart in Central America

Fifteen years ago out of a one stall garage in Columbia, Missouri, a gentleman by the name of Mel West built a mobility device to navigate places where wheelchairs can’t go for instance in the mountains or the jungle. 

All it took were three wheels, a few pieces of wood, a hand crank, and a chair. Today, it’s a called a P.E.T. cart or Personal Energy Transportation device. Initially, this device was intended to mobilize one man in Zaire, Africa. 

Fifteen years later, with the help of volunteers, he's mobilized more than 30,000 people in 93 countries worldwide. Even though it was a tiny one-car garage, Mel used his platform for good.

Courtesy Firoze Shakir
Mumbai, India

When I first created my Google Plus account back in July, I was drawn to photos taken by +Firoze Shakir. I couldn't take my eyes off of his stream because his images reminded me of others I've met who live on the ground in poor countries. It was as if his pictures were speaking to me. A photographer in Mumbai, Firoze routinely photographs street people, many of whom had lost arms and legs and lacked adequate mobility.

Firoze’s images of people crawling shared alongside Google Plus posts about the new iPhone, stood in great contrast to me.  

It made me question the true value of what I was sharing. Whether it's one G+ follower or one million, if you have the ability to respond, then you have responsibility.

Use your platform.  Join the Plusketeers.

The Plusketeers are a group of individuals from around the world who met in Google Plus Hangouts. You can join us by using your platform to share stories about people on the bottom of the world's pile of human misery and ways we can help them.

Today, along with the leadership of a group of G+ Merrymen, we're launching a million dollar Plusketeers Challenge….a way for all of us to realize the true value of the G+ space.

We’re monetizing our Hangouts alright…..but instead of turning over everything to the Sheriff of Nottingham, we’re giving it all away....100 % to charity.

You can contribute to the cause here or choose your own cause under the “G+ Plusketeers Challenge", help us crowd source a logo, and share this blog post through G+ and other social networks.

Here are some ways you can be part of the G+ Plusketeers Challenge:

•  Monetize my G+ Hangout by sponsoring the On-Air Text Announcement for $250, the price of a P.E.T. cart.  Hangout Text appears in stream of my G+ Followers.    
• Donate to my cause on our Crowd Rise Page. There, you can also donate to other Plusketeers Challenge causes like Camp No Limits & Honor Flight.  Donor names are added to our donation scroll.
• Reshare and +1 posts about the $1M Plusketeers Challenge 
• Seek out corporate sponsors who smell like rich mahogany and many leather bound books.
• Suggest other charities we might support 

What’s your Hangout worth?

I hope mine is worth a million dollars, enough to buy PET carts for 4,000 people but it's not just my cause. 

Whatever your passion…whatever your Nottingham, we’re asking you to take up arms with us in the Sherwood Forest. All for One and Plus One for All.  We may take a few arrows but using Hangouts for anything less….would be an error.

News Buoys and Social-casting: How the Google Hangouts On-Air feature is transforming traditional TV Broadcasting by Sarah Hill

A Buoy and Anchor

As you may already know, G+ has rolled out to a limited number of users what's called an On-air Hangout. It is essentially a broadcast tower embedded within Google Plus, the world's first face to face social network. 

The On-Air feature allows a Hangout to easily be broadcast (viewed) by the public anywhere in the world without having to join the Hangout. We TV News Buoys and Missouri Journalism School nerds who are using this new technology on TV on +KOMU 8 News & with the +Reynolds Journalism Institute are pretty geeked out about it. Here's why. 

Sarah Hill

In the future, content providers could be able to use different circles as essentially different broadcast stations. Using livestream technology, we already have the ability to select who sees our Hangout through circles but this feature eliminates the need for livestreaming. Anyone could easily broadcast one Hangout just to the Australia circle, another to the England circle and yet another to the KOMU-Missouri circle. Catch my drift? It's where TV meets GP. On this platform, people are already calling KOMU-TV.... KOMU-GP. h/t +Mike Downes GP is now a public broadcasting platform.

Just think about that for a moment...........anyone in the world, not just us TV stations with big sticks in the ground, with the ability to broadcast WITHIN a social network that oh by the way is a major crowd sourcing tool. Combine Hangouts, audience engagement on steroids, and you have something that could totally transform the way newscasters interact with their audience and the way TV stations do business. I wear two earpieces. One to hear my producer and another to hear the Hangout. For the first time in history thanks to Hangouts, newscasters can SEE their audience and even talk with them during a soundbite in a live newscast. When you're spending an entire hour a day or more with a viewer during a live 

newscast, that's a deeper level of engagement than you get with any non face to face tweet or Facebook interaction. When I read a story about a child who's been murdered, I hear the Hangout sigh in my ear. +Kim Beasley

News Hangouts are like a kitchen table for a family. A family that eats together stays together. Some of our U_News co-hosts +Robert Redl call it the news campfire and we are all consuming the news together via Hangouts. Daily, our Hangout co-hosts break news to us. Since feeding the news beast now requires us to share content and interact on multiple platforms, our co-hosts routinely arrive more well informed about the day’s news than us. Yep. I said that. Out loud. More of us newsies need to own the fact that our viewers often know more than we do. But as +Joseph Puglisi points out, "citizen journalism" could increase the value of professional journalism in the future because people will still want “Facts at 11”. I don't like the term "citizen journalist". Those were finger quotes. Essentially, we are all journalists. http://jpuglisillc.blogspot.com/2011/11/i-wrote-news-today-oh-boy.html

+KOMU 8 News is the broadcast lab for the Missouri School of Journalism. We're building a hybrid news model called "U_News" that explores the future of news. +KOMU 8 News was the first news organization to co-host a newscast with a live #cybercouch via Hangout. In +Terry Heaton 's book "Reinventing Local Media", we are essentially driving the car while trying to fix it. At MU, we are also teaching others how to drive the news vehicle of the future. h/t +Jen Reeves +Stacey Woelfel +Reynolds Journalism Institute What will "broadcasting" in the G+ stream look like in 20 years? What is the longevity of that big stick in the ground called a TV tower when everyone has the ability to broadcast? I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

News Anchor or News Buoy?

With this new kind of "broadcasting" in Hangouts, our students are asking what to call this new kind of "broadcasting" in the G+ stream? Social-casting? Perhaps... incorrectly....I've been calling our G+ on-air Hangouts a "visual #backchannel" where for the first time, newscasters can see their audience. One Plusketeer correctly pointed out, "Sarah, the word "back" makes it appear as it's hidden some place out of view." Isn't it time to move our audience away from the BACK of the room? h/t +Michael Tucker

Roger that skipper and speaking of names, I think this platform has the ability to sink News “Anchors” who refuse to do anything more than just read. Our content needs to bubble up to the surface. “News Buoys” as I call them need to float on multiple platforms and share their content.

Sure, we’re still anchored to the seabed of our TV station but much like a buoy, we are letting passing ships know where to find us. And if you think I’m making the analogy that TV stations are sinking ships, I'm not. You should know there’s a lot of buried treasure on the sea floor. And with Hangouts, we're trying to help people rediscover us.

What should we call G+casting in the stream? Comment below or chew the news fat with me in one of U_News' regular on-air Hangouts at 11:00 am CST or 3:30 pm CST M-F. Or, chime in on one of our impromptu recorded discussions about the day's news.www.gplus.to/komusarah

To view this post at g+ see: News Buoys and Social-casting

Sarah Hill from KOMU on Journalism Education at MediaTwits#28 Media Shift

This interview from Sarah Hill tells us much about the changing world of Journalism in the Digital Age. Listen and see which parts apply to Kenilworth and Warwickshire. No prizes for saying, all of it.

Local is now Global and everything is on our digital doorstep. Larger SoundCloud Player. Note: the player below is built in html5.

U_News @ 4 with Sarah Hill Watch Again - Week One from 12 September 2011

Here are the Sarah Hill show to watch again. This is a test post to see how the code performs and embeds. looking good so far. Expand this post for the player...