Many people use bit.ly, not everyone realises it can do more than just generate shorter links. Want to customise after the forward slash? This latest PCM HowTo will walk you through just that. Continue reading

So far so good. Report number two translates... no problem. The eBook cover does not. I realise the book will most likely be is Sweedish. I then ask myself. Can I translate a PDF into English? There is probably an app for that? I discovered recently that opening a PDF in GoogleDocs convert the content into editable text. Can I translate a Book and it still be formatted as the book? Continue reading

I love a Notebook and Pen. I love stationery. I love technology. Livescribe is a nexus of gadgetry where productivity is in analogue and digital equilibrium! Here is my LIVESCRIBE amazon list If you buy from this carousel PCM will get a commission. Continue reading

You are going to create an IFTTT account, I sign in with my Google ID. You will locate a 'recipe' (the name given to instruction constructed in IFTTT) and activate it to perform the action each time you post a photo to your Instagram feed. Continue reading

Since I first discovered folksonomic tagging in Flickr making dynamic updating photo albums and in turn hashtagging on Twitter a thing, I've always been on the lookout for embeddable elements when and new platform or service emerges. RSS has a... Continue reading

I'm interested to hear how you feel about being in an audience watching a live-streamed piece of theatre rather than being in the actual audience. Did watching the live-stream feel different from seeing it? Continue reading

Online community, digital curating. YouTube subscription, Instagram Stories. Blogging and giveaways, Facebook page groups... these are few of my favourite thing! Continue reading

Open Space Hurrah! What is political power? How biased is our political system to protecting the status of a (real) ruling power? Is politics in the UK broken? Is political debate in the UK too narrow or simplistic to take... Continue reading

This time it's for TEN Equity torches. These branded torches were taken to Glastonbury to and handed out to members performing who visited the Equity 'tent'. I managed to get TEN so here we are with another giveaway. Same as before visit the Online Branch Chat Room thread set up for the giveaway and add your name in the comments. Continue reading

For the extended audience, it goes without saying that we have 'no planned outage of the Internet provision at the venue today' but the 'in the case of emergency' does need to be addressed especially if the attendees are paying. It's more a contingency case of 'What we will do if the internet goes down'. The same goes for other occasional inevitabilities with 3rd party providers beyond our control. At last year's High Growth Summit a digital attendee met with a venue attendee at the video networking desk accompanied by Summit speaker Floyd Woodrow where a future meeting was planned and a great conversation took place. Even with the limited technical provision at this proof of concept delivery, it manifested this unplanned but engaged dialogue demonstrating how the Extend The Audience wrapper can bridge the digital divide. Continue reading

Several of the London Branches have held a series of Hustings events providing an opportunity for committee election candidates to share their perspectives on why they want to stand and as an opportunity for members who are voting to meet the candidates seeking support in getting them elected. Following their lead, we are going to host the Online Branch Hustings on Crowdcast in x6 sessions as follows. Continue reading

The important thing is that if you are a member that you vote. The more members vote the stronger mandate the committees have to campaign on your behalf. Turnout is notoriously low for Equity Elections and although the result is the same, the committees get populated with the candidates with the most votes its can be demoralising as a committee member knowing that so few of your fellow members care about the direction of the union and yet all benefit from the negotiations that take place on their behalf or the campaigns carried out to improve the industry for everyone. Continue reading

cover image from ImpactHub Birmingham's promotional page for this event and venue hosts for Birmingham's Election Daze event. The first Election Daze event is taking place in Birmingham tomorrow (May 8th) just days after a round of local elections and... Continue reading

I have on occasion been referred to as Mary Poppins, one time when a friend was asked at a party I was also a guest at ‘You don’t happen to have, xxx do you? My friend replied, well I don’t but I expect CJ does! I opened my kit bag and yes I had a whistle! I was visiting friends in York at the time but a stage manager is never truly off duty! It’s deep in our psyche. Continue reading

So would you like to be entered into the draw? Here's how it works. - Drop by the online branch, visit the Chat Room thread called - The First Equity OLB Goodies Give Away and post your name in the comments. - 10 names will be drawn at random from the list of names after midnight on 19th Feb - If your name is the first selected from those who log-in and post their name, a parcel will be sent to you with the items in the photo. - Nine further Online Branch Members from the list will receive pin badges and Equity pens. Continue reading

This post appeared first in the Equity Online Branch's Chat Room - written by ME :) This time last year the online branch working party were making the final preparations for the Online Branch to enter its 6-mth open to... Continue reading

The attraction of QR (quick response) and AR (augmented reality) technology is their capacity to bring the user closer to the event they are experiencing. Technology should always add more with physical engagement and this has been the technology's nemesis. In Theatre, the concepts of 'fourth wall' and 'suspension of disbelief' are intertwined with the experience of live theatre. The art of audience participation is a fundamental to the success of a scene where the fourth wall is broken and those in attendance willing to surrender to knowledge that a piece of like theatre is actors on a stage with scenery, lights and sound are all played out to fool the senses. It's a key ingredient to stage successful stage hypnotists. Trust and belief in a valuable outcome. The dawn of QR, AR even VR is akin to convincing a 12-year-old that the magic tricks performed by a children's entertainer at a party for a 5-year-old are magic. Continue reading

... More and more of those closest to me expressed an instruction of ' just no more stuff' or requested, 'gifts you can poo'! ... Continue reading

Livescribe's dimming display. I can't deny my Livescribe pen revolutionised how I deal with and cope with text. With Livescribe, I am able to take notes and notate the audio taking place around me. This took away a lot of... Continue reading

I attended the Stage Management Association's one-day workshop for stagemanagers looking to move up to Company Manager. This was no ordinary workshop. I got my place because an attendee living in Portugal and 9 months pregnant wanted to attend too... Continue reading

In recent years the accumulation of physical items has been reduced by the collections of files, documents, photos, videos, spoken audio and music. Some sit on the Internet my AudioBoo, my Instagram accounts, my Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote and iCloud. Then there are the offline digital archives on external hard drives and old media storage, cassettes, floppy discs, CD-ROM (read only memory) and as the final bastion of the analogue legacy, paper. Continue reading

For every project or client I build a digital scrapbook. This is a page hosted on my PCM website where feeds and content embed widgets can be collected. Continue reading

I love green rooms like I enjoy railway stations. They are full of purpose and intent but provide stasis and space to prepare. Waiting for action is the purpose of the occupation. Do you feel similar about green room spaces? or train stations for that matter? Unexpectedly however social media networks like Facebook and Twitter do not make me feel this way. In fact I experience alarming levels of anxiety on occasions but its not a reflection on digital engagement but the chaos those platforms contain. Continue reading

Illustration by Kevin Cornell Anybody associated with the arena of web design even on the periphery as I am has heard about responsive design. The concept of designing a single web site that adapts (responds) to the devise it is... Continue reading

I'd been capturing, live streaming and producing media for projects for the last few years and my presenting confidence had plummeted since I hadn't done any talks for a while. I also found myself out on my own after being in a collaborative partnership where I'd taken a different direction to my original career journey. As sad as the close of that era in my life was I had to accept and embrace change to move on. Continue reading