Coming soon.... An all-new Buzz on a Budget!

Stay tuned...

Rocking Horse Studio is Best in NH

Have you heard? The Seacoast's hottest recording studio... Well, isn't exactly in the Seacoast. It's in Pittsfield, NH, which is actually only 38 miles from downtown Portsmouth. It's also where the Seacoast's hottest band Tan Vampires chose to cut their new record For Physical Fitness. 

NH Magazine named Rocking House the "Best" in its annual Best of NH awards:

Rocking Horse Studio is a first-class recording studio that offers the best in recording and audio production. The finest equipment, rooms designed by renowned acoustician Michael Blackmer, a skilled house band and a crop of up-and-coming performers all point to big city bells and whistles, but this studio is set on a farm with open pastures and apple trees in rural Pittsfield. This is truly a New Hampshire recording studio.

Sweet set-up, eh?

Watch the WMUR Ch. 9 Chronicle episode filmed on location at the Rocking Horse Studios! The segment features another hot NH act, The Dusty Gray Band, who laid down their tracks there. So if you're a musician looking to take your game up a notch, contact Rocking Horse Studios, ask for Brian, and tell him I sent you!

(With Tan Vampires and Dusty Gray, is the start of a NH-based music explosion? Or will we be doing another documentary about how our local scene just missed becoming a national music scene?)

MozCation Coming to Portmsouth. Natch.

[Yawn]  This surprises me not at all.  This is just what Portsmouth and the eCoast do.  We pull together like nobody's business -- without rivalry or worry about credit or reimbursement of time -- and we make shit happen for the betterment of the community at large.  In fact, I'd be more surprised if Moz didn't pick Portsmouth!

OK, enough playing it cool.  This is pretty damn big deal... it's OK to get excited about it.  Hell, Moz is excited about it!  

My Buddy Colin

I've known Colin since we worked together at Flywire (nee VisuaLink Technologies) back in those heady frothy early days of the Interwebs.  This was round-bout 1999, if you can believe it.  Colin is legend for his 3-D rendering of the FleetCenter seating charts -- as I recall, he slept on the floor in the office to make sure the 2 G4 Macs kept rendering all night.  He also created the Flywire mascot, a 3-D figure we affectionately called Noodleman. But he's not just good at creating things in virtual 3-D, he does it IRL, too.  Check it out!  And if you've got some cake, consider kickstarting him! 



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACTS:  Colin James colin@omgigho.com  (603) 617-4921
Marc Heberley marc@omgigho.com  (603) 498-0206
www.omgigho.com

World’s first convertible rocking chair released by OMGIGHO Inc

DOVER NH, July 31, 2012

Today, New Hampshire-based start-up OMGIGHO Inc. (prounounced ohm-GEE-go) officially launched its first product campaign on the popular crowd sourcing website Kickstarter.com.  With Kickstarter, OMGIGHO hopes to secure project funding by offering the public the ability to support the production of their new product, a multi-function rocking chair, by being a Kickstarter backer  http://kck.st/MgWAW5. 

Kickstarter is the world's largest funding platform for creative projects, offering a unique platform where donors are offered rewards like limited editions and one-of-a-kinds based on their donation level.

The product is named the GO-GO Multi-Function Rocking Chair or "GO-GO." The chair is the first of its kind and is expected to receive significant attention from representatives of both the video game and furniture industries. OMGIGHO secured a provisional patent on the GO-GO earlier this year.

At first glance, OMGIGHO's GO-GO looks like a sleek, modern rocking chair with a birchwood base and black rubber trim. But the trained eye will note one of its most unique aspects almost immediately: The GO-GO's chair is an actual autoseat. That's your clue to the GO-GO's finest feature: The rocker converts into a simulated racing cockpit for video games or a laptop workstation.

"The use of a real auto seat allows for a full range of adjustment," Colin James, OMGIGHO co-founder and creator of the GO-GO, explains. "It's unlike any other rocking chair on the market," the avid gamer affirms.

When the user wants to convert the rocking chair for either gaming or working, they simply tilt back the auto seat to reveal the hidden compartment located within the base of the chair.
This compartment  contains a hidden foot rest and controller platform that easily rotates out in a motion similar to that of a Swiss Army knife. Lock the hidden parts into place and the rocking chair has taken on a new form—a home office or racing cockpit.

"The GO-GO was designed to allow racing video game fans to keep their controls at the ready, plus experience play with the ergonomics of a real race car," says OMGIGHO co-founder and CFO, Marc Heberley, also a big gamer. "And as a fold-away workstation, the GO-GO has just as much potential. It's also a really comfortable rocking chair," he noted.

OMGIGHO hopes to leverage the Kickstarter campaign not only to raise funds, but also to solicit feedback from what Heberley praises as their "fantastic online community" and gauge interest in the chair's other possible uses.

ABOUT OMGIGHO – OMGIGHO was founded in February 2012 in Dover, NH by four seasoned veterans of Silicon Valley and Boston-area technology industries. 

OMGIGHO is a cooperative of inventors and DIY enthusiasts who collaborate on ideas and use their collective skills to launch new and innovative products.

For more information, contact: Colin James colin@omgigho.com (603) 617-4921 or Marc Heberley marc@omgigho.com (603) 498-0206

I nominate Portsmouth, NH for an @SEOmoz #MozCation! #03801Moz

I nominate Portsmouth, NH for an @SEOmoz #MozCation! #03801Moz

Seacoast's Creative Class Cooking with Crisco

Gotta say, I'm really digging what's going on lately here in Portsmouth. While the eCoast's eBrews will be on break for July and August, our "Creative Class" is cranking from low-key gatherings like Crystal Paradis' burgeoning breakfast club to Digital Portsmouth's formal presentations on tech topics at the Music Hall Loft. It's all organic and locally-grown business networking goodness!

And now comes this from the splendid brain of Mr. Joshua Cyr: 

Alpha Loft is pleased to announce Hoopla: A gathering of creative and developer masterminds from around the Seacoast.

Lets be honest -- you work way too hard. You need a vacation. But you are way too busy for a vacation. How about going out for the night? Yes! That's the ticket. If only there was some sort of event where you could go and hang out with creative, interesting, occasionally OCD people like yourself. A place to share the crazy stories of projects, clients, Internet Explorer, etc.

Introducing Hoopla. A gathering just for you and 100 or so of your favorite peoples. Enjoy a cool beverage and relax. No presentations. No fuss. Just a lot of hoopla.
RSVP here.

But wait there is more! This is also a fundraiser for 3S Artspace. Donations ($5 minimum) at the door. The more you donate the better you will feel on the inside.  Corporate donations happily accepted.

Remember, this event is for creative and tech people only. We love all of the rest of you, we just need a break for one night.

This event is a product of Alpha Loft and sponsored by Dyn Inc.

In fact, there's so many cool events going on lately, frankly, it's tough to keep up with them.  Josh is striving to make the Alpha Loft calendar the one-stop shop for this sort of thing, so if you're planning something cool -- or planning to attend something cool -- let him know.

For more social-media-driven stuffs on the aforementioned:
@MusicHall, @NHTweetUp, @alphaloft #DigitalPorts #portsbkfstclub

Melanie Puts a Pin In It at Alpha Loft

After the Social Media Club of NH event last week at Alpha Loft, a mutual acquaintance approached me and gushed: "I always knew you were great, but your wife is amazing!"

(It's nice to know I married up.)

The seminar my wife, renown social media expert Melanie Burger, had just led for 3 dozen professionals was on Pinterest -- the latest social media sensation which lets you "pin" interesting things to a virtual wall.  I liken it to the collages we used to display on our college dorm room doors under clear contact paper.  Remember?  We posted pictures of cars, athletes, models, rock bands, artists... basically, all the things we liked.

If you recall, more girls doors had more stuff displayed on their doors than boys -- well, the same is true of Pinterest users: Over 2/3rds are women. The attendance at the SMCNH event was also 2/3rds women, but men and businesses (especially those targeting women) are quickly closing the gap.

So how exactly are businesses using Pinterest?  What can Pinterest do to extend your brand?  If you're an entrepreneur, you need to be on Facebook, tweeting, and pinning?  These are the kinds of questions Melanie was answering.  If you're like me and couldn't make the event itself (although I caught the after-party!), the Social Media Club of NH site reviewed the event here. 

Want more?  Below are Melanie's slides.

Want even more of Melanie?  Sorry, she's taken.  :-)

Pinterest

View more PowerPoint from Melanie Burger

Dateline--PORTSMOUTH (NH)---Specifically about 50 yards behind my house.

It's not every day that your home town makes national news.  It's even more rare when it's your neighborhood.  But a tiny flower garden a stone's throw from my back yard is making national news.  Yes, I said flower garden. 

We walk our dogs down Albacore Way all the time, but I never noticed anything out of the ordinary. When I heard the news reports of the dispute, I went to specifically look for the offending garden... and I still didn't see anything.  I had to ask a neighbor which house it was.  I looked.  I still didn't see anything worthy of any sort of scandal.

Before social media made going viral a buzzword, the same thing would happen with news stories, and it still does.  Local stories can make headlines in their own cities and towns, then the next day it's literally yesterday's news and is replaced with a new headline.  But if a story catches the eye of a wire services editor, it can quickly make news anywhere and everywhere, building buzz and attracting ongoing attention of the public.  This is a story that is said to "have legs."  Once this garden scandal took off, it hit he Huffington Post, MSN, the Boston Herald, Boston.com, Yahoo, America Online, Newser, the Portland Press Herald, New England Cable News, and various other news outlets. Here are a few more examples of stories this garden has garnered:

Flowers Prompt $13000 Condo Lawsuit: ABC News

Please Don't Plant the Daisies - or We'll Sue: Reuters

New Hampshire woman faces legal action, fines for planting flowers at condominium: Fox News

Amazing, isn't it? 

I noticed that when I went by one day, the condo association's hired hands were landscaping around all the buildings.  Every spot was being watered, mulched, planted, and weeded... except one little spot.  Guess which one!  I asked one of the landscapers and they admitted their instructions, when it comes to this particular flower patch, are to just "work around it."

Moran Tugs Save Miss Stacy

My lovely and talented wife @melsieburger proved herself to be Melanie-on-the-spot when she caught this drama unfolding in the Piscataqua River.  The Miss Stacy was foundering and the Moran tugboats proved themselves more than just photogenic Portsmouth icons as they saved the ship and the day.  Watch this! Crazy stuff! 

RIP Memorial Bridge: And We All Float On

The big news in Portsmouth these days is all about our old decrepit rusty bridge.  Personally I always thought it was pretty fuggly, but everybody is waxing poetic about the thing, so I won't kill the buzz. In fact, I find the entire process fascinating, not only from a civil engineering standpoint but from a psycho-social angle. This "float-out" simply captured the imagination of an entire city... and to be fair, it does only happen every 100 years or so. 

DirecTV and Sunbeam Work it Out!

Multiple sources are reporting that the dispute has been resolved.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-26/directv-signs-accord-ending-super-bowl-blackout-threat-for-boston-viewers.html

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/479683-Sunbeam_and_DirecTV_Reach_Retrans_Agreement.php

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hYNz3_sMS-2gdusTmkaT15R2nQvQ?docId=09986412256e466098291e239bf701d2

I'd post the video announcement from WHDH, but I don't want to give them any clicks, nor do I wish to sully my blog with it.

Still not happy about it.  Don't appreciate being used as a pawn.  Don't appreciate my access to news and information being usurped by greedy corporations.  Nope, don't like it at all.  

Patriots Super Bowl Game Blacked Out for DirecTV Viewers?

This is what I see when I turn the channel to 7 WHDH-Boston, our designated local NBC affiliate.

At midnight on January 14, 2012, Sunbeam Communications shut down its link to DirecTV for the stations WSVN (Channel 7 Fox Miami), WHDH (NBC Channel 7 Boston), and WLVI (The CW Channel 56 Boston).  The result is what you see above.  We first noticed it when we tried to tune in "Saturday Night Live."


Of course, SNL is one thing.  "The Office" and the Thursday night NBC shows are another thing. But there's this little sporting event coming up called THE SUPER BOWL, and that's an entirely different matter!  Not to mention the tiny fact that the New England Patriots are in it! 

So what's the issue?  Sunbeam reportedly wants the transmission fees paid to them by DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) increased by 300%. This is a private negotiation but Sunbeam has not denied that number, saying only that they are looking for "market value." 

Thousands of customers are affected in their homes, plus the numerous sports bars that rely on sporting events to draw customers. 

Here's what appears to be DirecTV's official original press release.  

It's strongly worded! As it should be! As this is one of the major broadcast networks, I consider this nothing less than an infringement on my rights as a consumer, and my rights as an American, in that the freedom of press, and my freedom of expression, are inhibited by a private dispute denying me access to a major news source.

We have complained to DirecTV on Facebook and Twitter, but clearly their customer relations staff have been instructed to follow a script: "We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you, and we will continue to work towards a swift resolution."

Sunbeam, for its side, is not a public-facing company and are clearly overmatched in this PR battle.  They have no Twitter, no Facebook, not even a web site! Worse, they have pulled the Ch. 7 news clip announcing the failed negotiations from the WHDH site. And they've deleted comments on the previous story. Near as I can tell from my research, the owner -- 73-year-old Ed Ansin -- is a crotchety "maverick" along the John McCain lines.  Frankly, they come off as extortionist thugs, holding the signal feed for ransom. 

Sunbeam did, to its credit, allow a temporary reprieve to let the signal go through for the Giants-49ers game yesterday. This gave us hope.  HOWEVER, according to a post on the protest Facebook page "WHDH Boston - DirecTV Negotiations," FOX Miami pulled the channel with 3 minutes left in overtime! Talk about a tease!

Because the situation has not yet been resolved, and because I believe the FCC will have to intervene, I have called Senator Jeanne Shaheen's (D-NH) office.  They were aware of the problem and took down my information. Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) and Senator John Kerry (D-MA) have already written letters urging the two to play nice and come to an agreement.

For my part, I'm turning up the heat as a disgruntled customer, blogging and Facebooking and Tweeting about it to anybody who will listen, and contacting local media outlets.  Yes, I know I can switch to Comcast, but we just upgraded to DirecTV HD over Christmas.  Yes, I know we can buy an antenna and get the signal that way.  But there is a principle here.  A customer paying over $100/month for television signals beamed directly from satellites should not have to buy a set of rabbit ears!  

Oh, and... GO PATS!  

e-Coast Birthday Weirdness

OK, so a wicked head/sinus cold kept me from attending the 13th eBrew Birthday Bash. 

My dutiful and beautiful wife brought me some (Lemon Zinger) tea with (local) honey. 

The mug she chose for the job, totally at random mind you, was this one.

You can't make this stuff up!

Happy 13th Birthday e-Coast!  You're a teenager now.  Ugh!

Portsmouth Public Media Storytellers Open House a Success Story

The Board of Directors of Portsmouth Public Media pose for posterity at the end of the PPMTV Storytellers Open House on Sunday, November 20, 2011.  

Aided (or hindered?) by temperatures that soared into the upper 60s, we had a terrific turnout. Upward of 150 people visited, toured the South Meetinghouse facility, and fired their imaginations. What would they do with air time on local TV?  The possibilities are dizzying, and they wrote dozens of ideas on the board: A cooking show for bachelors...  High school sports... A reality show about band-geeks... A Portsmouth based variety show featuring local musicians... Restaurant reviews... Wine tastings...  So many great ideas!  

Dozens of membership applications went home with the highly intrigued-- and many wrote checks to sign up on the spot.

Talented volunteers with experience in video production came forward to offer their expertise. 


City officials and a veritable who's who of locals came to see the old Children's Museum, meet the PPMTV founders, and see how they could get involved. 

In short, it was a rousing success! 

Board member Dan Freund filed this report for his Monday Morning Show on ShortStream.tv:
 

So, what's next? As they say in TV land, "Stay tuned..."

Introducing PPMTV

I'm pleased to be helping get the word out about Portsmouth Public Media (PPMTV).  What is it?  Since it's a video medium, I'll let PPMTV Board President Dave Underhill explain:

Your chance to see PPMTV up close and personal is coming up this Sunday afternoon at the long-awaited Open House.  Here's the deets:

What:  PPMTV STORYTELLERS OPEN HOUSE 

When: Sunday, November 20, 2PM-5PM

Where: PPMTV's new studio facility at 280 Marcy Street, Portsmouth, at the South Meetinghouse, former home of the Children's Museum.

Who: Meet your South End neighbors, community leaders, PPMTV founders, board members, and volunteers (yours truly included).

Why: Because you've got an unique story to tell and voice to be heard... Because you're curious about the inner workings of how television gets made... Because you represent a business, group, or non-profit that needs to get the word out... Or because the Patriots play on Monday night so you're looking for something interesting to do. Whatever your motivation, we'll be glad to see you! 

Cost: Free. (But bring your checkbook, because you'll want to sign up for a membership!)

Parking: We have permission to park at Strawbery Banke's visitors' center lot, or just walk from one of the downtown lots.

See you there!  

Portsmouth Rallies to Save RiverRun Bookstore

The story of Portsmouth these days isn't being sold at RiverRun Bookstore.  It is RiverRun Bookstore.  This is a "The Shop Around the Corner"/"You've Got Mail" story that hopes to have an "It's a Wonderful Life" ending.

Bookseller, community activist, and protagonist Tom Holbrook set the scene in a mournful e-mail missive to his mailing list:

After a lot of hard thinking, I've decided not to renew the lease at 20 Congress St., which ends on December 31st.  When we moved into this space five years ago business was booming, the economy was good, and the Kindle didn't exist yet.

Fast forward to 2011 and we simply cannot afford the most expensive real estate in the most expensive city in New Hampshire.  The world of books is a beautiful one, but a shrinking one.  We just can't stay here.

The hue and cry was instant.  It was a front-page news story here, and the plight of the David indie bookstore against the Goliath Amazon-et-al was picked up by the likes of Salon and the L.A. Times.  But its our fabulous local rag, The Wire, who in this blogger's opinion best captured the story.   

People came out of the woodwork and wanted to know what they could do to help save the store.  Holbrook called a meeting--and 150 people crammed into the store. 

This certainly was an unexpected plot twist.  A shop owner openly admitting he got in over his head and asking for help?  A store accepting cash donations?  People willingly giving a store money without exchange for goods?  What store holds a special community meeting to solicit investors?  Who ever heard of such a thing?  As a public relations case study, this is definitely one for the books. 

Fact is, Holbrook might've taken on too much debt, but he has done everything right to date when it comes to public relations. All this tiny store has done is lead Portsmouth's highly successful Buy Local campaign, bring hundreds of big-name authors to our little town, discover a Pulitzer Prize winner, and basically make itself indispensable to the local community. 

Moreover, RiverRun leverages his customer base with Constant Contact and makes excellent use of social media.  Check out the Twitter feed with its own hash tag: #saveRRbooks. 

(Photo credit: New Hampshire Gazette.)

The goodwill Holbrook's built up over the years has come back to help him in a big way.  Now people are donating used books for them to sell, and investors are lining up, checkbooks in hand.  He blogged a recap of the public meeting, and there's plenty of cause for optimism. 

Will this story have a happy ending?  Or will this be another sad chapter in this era of big business squashing the little guy?  We'll just have to wait and see... We can't skip to the end of this book.

"Digital Ports" Embodies Original e-Coast Mission

I was pleased to attend this event last week at the new Music Hall Loft.  Note: It's on street-level in the old Stuart Shaines space. Disappointingly, there is no loft. But it is a neat space, and the bartender (Scott, not hard for me to remember his name) is top-notch.

If you watch Dan's video above, you'll see my off-the-cuff answer to the question of why I showed up for the event.  My longer answer ended up on the cutting room floor, but it went something like this: "This is the sort of thing we had in mind when we created the eCoast 12 years ago."  There were comments all night about how much talent is here in the Greater Portsmouth area, but how few people really realize it.  That's what the Seacoast --> eCoast initiative was all about: A bunch of coders and creatives taking a second to prairie-dog out of their cubicles and see all the other cool work that's going on all around them. Maybe they'll cross-pollinate and partner to win a big client. Maybe they'll find a new job, or just meet a new friend. It's all good when these people get together. 

I liked how there were 3 levels of web design represented on Thursday:

1.  Leah Creates.  Leah produces appealing entry-level web presences for artists and other low-budget clients with a healthy dose of funk and whimsy.

2.  VitalDesign, which although they serve smaller and larger clients, occupies the middle ground of web development in the area.  They also offer a one-stop shop for SEO, PR, blogging, and other web-marketing-related initiatives. 

3.  Raka Creative represented the high-end, brand-centric development that has its roots in eyeon interactive/Wunderkind.

Interesting takeaways include Duncan's pronouncement that "Steve Jobs put the kibosh on Flash,"  Leah's confirmation that WordPress has in fact become the de facto standard web template for small business (and that it's a lot better than Geocities!), and that this group of professional techies is taking decidedly New England Yankee approach to Google+.  One mentioned that the demo for Google-plus is currently something like "90% males 25-35 yrs old," so draw your own conclusions there.

The format of the evening was basically the booze and schmooze, followed by short Powerpointy samples of recent work from each company, followed by a short Q&A, followed by more booze and schmooze.  Can't argue with the genius of more booze, but I did find myself wanting more substantive discussion of the current state of web design, especially vis-a-vis the local area. Early indications are that there will be more Digital Ports events, so I expect the format may be tweaked going forward. I'll certainly be there!

My Kid Rocks, Retro-Style

I am contractually obligated to post this, onaccounta the facts that it's:

1. Local (Took place at New Heights in Portsmouth)

2. Techno-geeky (Making 8-bit music with old Game Boys? Are you kidding me?)

3. It's got my kid in it! (Her tune is great! Yes, I spent years feeding her Tangerine Dream.)

Check it out:  DoverNH.tv.

Yet Another Reason Portsmouth Rules

An OUTDOOR summer movie festival at Prescott Park?  Yep!  http://www.prescottpark.org/movie.cfm

BTW, saw A Midsummer Night's Dream last weekend and it was excellent.

Have NOT seen the Wizard of Oz production yet, but by all reports, it's outstanding, so try to catch that, too. 

The Ahts at Prescott Pahk, just another reason Portsmouth rules. 

Cruisin'... on a summer day...

Summer in Portsmouth means a lot of things, from the ceremonial opening of the decks (Poco's grande margaritas are the best on the planet) to tall ship visits (although this past one was a dud by all reports I've heard) to cruising on the MV Thomas Laighton for a variety of themed "booze cruises."  Pull up the Isle of Shoals Steamship Company schedule here and you'll see that there are plenty of opportunities for boozin' and cruisin' -- we call it the "Tipsy Thomas" for a couple reasons.  ;-) 

We've already done cruise so far this year: A fun night was had by all with Granite State sensation The Super Secret Project last month.

The next one is later this month: The NH Tweet-Up's CruiseUp.  This will be the 2nd annual.  I missed last year's as I was on the Cape that weekend, but I heard it was a great time and a great networking opportunity.   

Then in July will be the much-anticipated return of the eCruise.  They took a year off last summer to concentrate on TechWorld conference and trade show, but now eCruise is back! 

The eCoast board committee, on which I serve in an advisory ex-officio type manner, released the notice to the press yesterday, which our local daily dutifully reprinted. More details on the EventBrite page (link below). 


Here's my recap of the last eCruise in July 2009.  (Scandalous pictures from the infamous after-party have been omitted to protect the innocent.)  

So mark your calendars and reserve your spot on the boat! 

• Thursday, June 23: Get your tix for the NH Tweet-Up on EventBrite.  (In a tweet, I dubbed the CruiseUp 2 the "pre-Cruise."  Because it comes before the e-Cruise.  Heh-heh.)  
• Thursday, July 14: Get your tix for eCoast Mobile Tech Summit & eCruise on EventBrite.