Friday, May 13, 2011

Typewriting Around the World?

Quick, before Blogger melts down again!

A few years ago, I got all ambitious over on Clickthing and declared an elaborate celebration of Typewriter Day, known to mortals as June 23. This is the anniversary of the date when Christopher Sholes received the U.S. patent for his device that in time grew to become the one we know and love.

Inspired by shordzi's excellent videos, I wondered... do you think we could get everyone to shoot a little video of themselves typing on June 23rd? Perhaps write up a little bit about where you were, what you were typing, etc.. Post on your favorite video-sharing site, and we can make a gallery here after the fact.

What say you all?

20 comments:

Rob Bowker said...

Bloody brilliant idea! We could invite the press!

deek said...

I'm in!

Ted said...

SO SAY WE ALL!

Sheena said...

Sounds great! As long as no one minds my poor photography and the use of a webcam!

Strikethru said...

Ahw crap, I heard about this post second hand today at the snohomish type-in, and thought it was just about a video of yourself typing, anytime. So I took several at the type in. Which was not on the right day, of course.

Ryan said...

I was going to leave a similar comment to Strikethru's.

satchmotypes said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
satchmotypes said...

I am definitely there!

Also: that is the day of my birthday, so hopefully I will get some video downtown celebrating w/the typewriter and other friends! :D

Hooray!

mpclemens said...

Of course we'll gladly accept any video before the magic date, too. No need to shelve good footage, especially of the type-in variety.

Duffy Moon said...

Mmmmkay.
Let's just say there's a typospherian or two (using that word as much as possible today, trying it on for size) who's not a techie.

Yes, there are a few of us.
Let's say that person has access to a low-tech digital video device, and knows how to create a clip, but has *zero* in the way of tech know-how about how to share that clip with other typospherians (that's two).

When I started typecasting, back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth, Monda (Fresh Ribbon) gave a step-by step tutorial on how to do it. That's the only way I was able to figure it out.

Is there some typospherian (trifecta!) that would be willing to post something similar for the digito-videographically challenged?

mpclemens said...

@Duffy, that is a fine, and probably very deep, question. At home, we've used the built-in iMovie to upload my son's handiwork to the Tube of You, which is very, very easy to do. On my Linux boxes I have used Kino, which is very low on the ease-of-use scale, and not terribly polished, but it does make it easy for me to pull in video taken from my digital camera, slice and splice it, and convert it into an acceptable format.

I would take baby steps. I know either you or the gracious Mrs. Moon has a fancy-cam, and I would suppose that it has some sort of video-capture ability. See if you can grab something short -- even just a few seconds of a typer frolicking in the wild -- and see if you can upload it. Chances are the wizards at the video upload sites can handle whatever format your camera shoves out.

kanae said...

Dear Mr. Mike Clemens,
My name is Kanae.
I am from FM radio station in Tokyo called J-WAVE.
We read about Typosphere in the New York Times, and was thrilled.
We wish to know if you could kindly appear on our show via telephone interview this Thursday May 19th.
I would greatly appreciate your reply.
Kanae

MTCoalhopper said...

Ooh, a deadline. A new typewriter desk has been absorbing my time. I'm in, whether I get it done in time, or not.

Duffy Moon said...

Thanks, Mr. Mike Clemens, for taking time out of your busy international radio schedule to answer my query.

The Moon Family Nikon is a digital SLR, and therefore does not offer video (although, I understand some digital SLR's DO, somehow, allow this. Not sure how that's an SLR, then...). But Gretchen has a couple of low-tech toyish video something-or-others I could steal for a day. I'll give it a try.

Queen of Ruckus said...

That is a great idea! Count me in!

Robert Messenger said...

I'm dead keen for this. But I've never made a video, let alone posted one. Any tips? You say, "Post on your favorite video-sharing site". Any suggestions? I'm a Luddite, remember. Also, I'd like to get all five Australian mainland states involved: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. Would that be OK? It would be great to find someone in New Zealand, too?

mpclemens said...

@Robert, the main sites I know of are YouTube and Vimeo. I have posted on the former, and it was a mostly-painless process, but I also work with computers for a living. At its simplest, I think the steps are:

1) Find a camera capable of shooting a digital video*
2) Transfer the resulting file to your computer
3) Join an online video service such as above, and upload the video to their site. In theory, it is the same as uploading photos, though it will take longer

Any and all typists are welcome to celebrate the day: if you can find willing participants in Australia and New Zealand and other points, we'd be happy to have you. I'll be likely baking in our early summer heat at that point, and some soothing winter typing may be just the solution. :-)

mpclemens said...

Omitted my footnote, which is:

* Take care when shooting with the camera. Unless you have software to correct it, turning the camera sideways will result in your video coming out sideways.

Also, many smartphones are capable of video as well, and may have a simpler upload process, being a connected device already.

Robert Messenger said...

Thanks for all that. I'm sure I'll manage now ... as will my fellow countrymen! RM

Art said...

Smartphone'd be the way I roll, if I decide to participate--I don't like appearing on camera, as I'm sure you've all noticed.

That said, I think it is a brilliant idea. I will see what I can do.

wordverif: untedlum. Just thought it was funny and I don't even know why. Might be the rain.

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