Hi Everyone,

As we do more outreach, sometimes I get the chance to travel to some really cool events and meet cool people I might never have had the chance to meet otherwise.  Last Saturday was on of those days when I went to the "Local Media for Social Change".

The take away messages from the conference were that the local media all relies on local newspapers and that there is no way that a local paper can be all things to all people.  While this conference was targeted towards people on the political left, there were lessons for everyone no matter where you stand politically or socially or on any other metric we use to to divvy ourselves up into us and them.

Joe Biden recently made a joke that newspapers were still relevant because "[Y]ou can't housebreak a puppy on the Internet."  Compare that to Dominique DiPrima who hosts a radio talk show on KJLH in Los Angeles who said at the conference:

I work in radio, I've worked in production and in TV.  When we needed to know what was going on, what was the first thing we did?  We checked the paper.

As strong as the love was for our local papers, lots of communities feel underserved by them.  They feel like ADA issues or on indigenous people's issues or bike riding aren't covered the way they could be.  This is the gap that Printcasting bridges. 

If you or you and 3 friends really enjoy fly fishing or are interested in green construction for farms or local food sourcing or issues facing heath care workers or teaching,  you can put together a magazine and email or *gasp* print it and send it to friends, families, or a whole subscriber base.

People who came to this conference were a special breed.  They were content creators or looking for ways to get a bigger megaphone for the work they were doing.  They saw Printcasting and they got it.  They were quickly working through how Printcasting could work, how it could link micro-communities or be used for large organizations with local and regional chapters.

If you haven't tried Printcasting yet or know of an event where we should be, drop a comment below or email me at tom@printcasting.com. 

If you've tried it and are having any issues, let me know and I'll walk through it with you.

Wow.  Another week gone and printcasting is rolling.  I've met with public officials and the public library, bloggers, vloggers, and even a jogger.  We're definitely off the ground and flying.  If you haven't jumped in yet and would like to get together to walk through it, I'll be at Dagny's from noon to 2 on Sunday for a demo or two.  There will be schwag aplenty as well so come down to hang out with your fellow bloggers and pick up a pen.

There's a lot of news to relay as well.  Dan Pacheco, the founder of Printcasting, maintains a few blogs about printcasting on the PBS MediaShift Idea Lab site and on the Ning community dedicated to Printcasting.  One of our big announcements for this week is blogger ID badges.  This is a link from your blog that has a super-spiffy personalized image and a link to your Printcast.  More than that, b.com bloggers can add them to their blog.  If you've got a Printcast, let me know and we'll do a bunch of really intricate, super, um, codey-wodey stuff to make your badge appear on your blog.

If you tried Printcasting before and had any issues, this is the place to post them.  We've solved a lot of technical issues that were brought to our attention at the beginning of the open beta so if the water was too cold before, it may be just right now.

As always, the floor is open so feel free to ask questions and give feedback on your experiences.

--Tom Webster

www.printcasting.com

Hi Everyone,

First of all, let me just say "THANK YOU!" to those of you who saw the post last week and decided to jump in with both feet and an armful of great ideas.   The team is working around the clock to get your ideas into the system and work out any issues you've helped us discover.  The difference between practice and theory is a lot greater in practice than it is in theory and your dedication to the success of this project is helping us to bridge that gap.

We've had a huge week of new software rollout and upgrades based on your feedback and you can read about many of them here: printcasting.ning.com

We've also made a big splash in the news this week.  BusinessWeek did a wonderful write up of the project and the project is buzzing on Twitter.  You can join our growing Facebook fan page and connect with other printcasters as well.

For those of you who were waiting, now is the time to jump in.  Register your blog from the Californian to get started and then create a Printcast to publish it.  We are still in beta and we're building the plane while we're flying it, but your input now will help set the direction for the technology and help create a finished product that is tailored directly to your needs.

Thanks again and the floor is open for comments and questions, rants and raves.

-Tom Webster, Printcasting Team

Join now: http://beta.printcasting.co...

Hi everyone and welcome to the first in a series of blogs about Printcasting.  In the coming weeks and months, I'll be posting here with news, tutorials and answers to frequently asked questions about Printcasting.  In the meantime, here's a primer for you and some links to the site and sample pages.

Last year, The Californian was honored with a grant from the Knight News Challenge to build Printcasting, a new idea for local news that allows anyone to quickly and easily create professional-looking printable magazines.  Now Printcasting is up and running in "beta" test mode, and we're hoping you'll take a few minutes to try it out and let us know what you think.

Just go to beta.printcasting.com and click on Create Your Magazine to get started.  From there, you just choose a topic for your magazine, pick and design and select from available articles (we've seeded Printcasting with Californian content, with more to come from community bloggers and groups).

Then, just wait for a minute or so and Printcasting will create a magazine for you.  For an example, see beta.printcasting.com/publisher/micro/12

Any feedback you have -- positive or otherwise -- would be much appreciated.  In fact, telling us about things that are confusing or otherwise don't work is what we need most right now to improve Printcasting, so don't be shy! Send your comments to printcasting@printcasting.com.  There might even be a free mousepad or notebook in it for you!

Congratulations to Dan Pacheco and Ron Robinson of our New Products team for bringing Printcasting to life!  There's still lots of work to do to fulfill the complete vision for Printcasting, but we are off to a good start and grateful to everyone in the company for supporting this new idea.