‘Kentucky Afield’ episode with my deer hunt now online; eight-point buck mount now on my wall

Select the photo and my eight-point buck mount looks even bigger. Do it!

My eight-point buck’s head has returned from the taxidermist (right) and my appearance in KET’s Kentucky Afield is now on YouTube (bottom, the money shot is at 9:20).

I was thrilled with how both came out. The European-style mount, which currently resides on a wall in my kitchen but will soon be relocated to the top of our staircase, looks rustic and arty on the restored barn wood. And the TV show really captured how much fun I had hunting with Tim Farmer and Jon Gassett.

And as tempting as it is to post an update every time I defrost some venison, I promise no more blog entries on The Great Deer Hunt until my article about it is published in the February issue of Louisville Magazine. Speaking of which, I should probably stop watching my TV appearance—how brilliant was the camouflage coverall popped collar!—and get around to writing the story…

Ustream Broadcaster iPhone ap streams live video to the Internet, just not well

Ustream: "You're On." Maybe. But not in good quality.

On my trip to San Diego and Kamiah, Id. last week, I tried out Ustream, a “live interactive broadcast platform that enables anyone with an Internet connection and a camera to engage their audience in a meaningful, immediate way.” Immediate, yes. Assuming it works And if by meaningful, Ustream means via video that gets hung up, truncated, or chopped up into installments–if makes it to the Internet at all–then it lives up to its billing.

I was hoping to use Ustream to share my travel experience immediately (the technical term is in real time) by broadcasting video live from my iPhone 3GS via the Ustream Live Broadcaster ap (free) to my Ustream channel at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/zach-everson. I configured my Ustream account to send out a Tweet with a link to my show as soon as I started broadcasting. And when I finished broadcasting, the video would save to my Ustream account, a link to it would go out on Twitter, and a copy of the video would be posted to my YouTube channel and Facebook profile. Nifty, huh?

The results? Mostly poor. The executive summary: don’t use Ustream unless it’s essential for you to post live video. And it’s probably never essential for you. The suggestion: keeping using your iPhone camera to record video and posting it to YouTube, where viewers can watch it (gasp) a minute or so after you took it. Check below the jump for the details.

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Using a blog and social media to help a non-profit, in this case the Kentucky Coaltion to Abolish the Death Penalty

Recently I overhauled the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty’s (KCADP) online presence. This describes our approach and how I can help you or your organization make better use of the Internet.

Early on, KCADP’s staff and I determined that there were three objectives for its online presence (all of which should apply to similar non-profits):

• increase its membership
• keep its existing supporters engaged
• convert its opponents or disinterested people into supporters

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