Ocker Zeal | Australian Independent Online Media

Last week The Webby Awards winners for 2008 were announced and, correct me if I’m wrong, there was only one Australian website nominated, which was dance music site Resident Advisor. Congratulations to RA for picking up the ‘People’s Voice Award’ for best music site!

RA began in Sydney around 2000 and quickly outgrew its local focus expanding into an international dance music mag, with contributors reporting in from London, Barcelona, Sydney, Melbourne, New York, Miami, Chicago, Ibiza, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

I wonder why Australia is so particularly talented when it comes to dance music websites? I would also rate our other dance music publication inthemix as one of Australia’s best sites.

Clue: It’s white, shiny and sitting cold and lonely in a Next Byte repairs store. Yesterday my Macbook went kaput, which means blogging may be sporadic over the coming week. My biggest apologies but I will try my best to keep up the posts.

The above is a pic from last night’s largely disappointing Independent Publishing Seminar, held at Sydney’s SquareOne on Harris Street. From left to right we have Penny Modra (Right Angle Publishing and Is Not Magazine), Nadia Saccardo (Right Angle Publishing) and Monica Kade (Mink Potential Publications), plus the facilitator Mary Nguyen, SquareOne’s Outreach and Program Coordinator. Keep reading →

If there’s anything I’ve learned about blogging is that you shouldn’t say anything you wouldn’t say to someone’s face. In fact, as someone (I can’t remember who) once qualified – you shouldn’t say anything you wouldn’t say to someone’s face with a loud voice in a crowded room.

Obviously there’s exceptions to this rule, like gossip or snarky toned blogs. But they’ve made it their business to talk trash about people. And it’s not an easy game. There’s a certain finesse you have to have that’s crafted over the course of the blog, so unless you do it regularly I highly advise against giving it a go. It’s the reason why I regretted the post before this retraction.

Recently a bitchy blog battle played out between Dipping Into The Blogpond, a blog that charts the Top 100 Australian blogs, and Better Communications Results, a blog about online communication strategy. Both blogs are currently sitting in the chart. Keep reading →

[Image: BryanBoy]

A couple of bloggers have been getting some press lately. Manila based fashion blogger Bryanboy (his blog tagline: “I’m so gay I sweat glitter!”) popped up in the Sun-Herald’s S section and in this article - which I must admit still treated blogging as a bit of a novelty.

Total big ups to IMG Fashion for flying “elite” bloggers out to Fashion Week, as well as inviting Sydney’s shoe blogger Matthew Jordan. Simon Lock, the founder of Fashion Week explained his move in the Sun-Herald article:

“When you’ve got bloggers that provide immediate commentary within hours, even minutes, of a show finishing, and they are communicating to hundreds of thousands of people, why wouldn’t you get them here?”

Some may say Simon is just buying into a blogging fad (fashion people do love their trends), but I say it’s a great thing to do until the day comes when bloggers can afford to fly themselves out and invites are standard practise. Keep reading →

By now you’ve probably already listened to Corey Worthington’s first single, a cover of the Beastie Boys’ ‘Fight For Your Right (To Party)’, leaked to inthemix. If you haven’t, don’t bother. It is as awful as you suspect it might be.

Now for anyone who thinks that Corey is an unusual Australian specimen who flared up into national and international consciousness for a brief time but is (at some point) destined to the history books, think again. Australian web television is rife with Corey doppelgangers. Keep reading →

Sydney youth arts space sQuareOne have a few digital media workshops and seminars you might be interested in. Rachel Hills (who features on this blog regularly) will be taking the freelance writing and blogging course - and I can assure you she’s accomplished at both. And if you can’t make it to the independent publishing seminar (featuring Nadia Saccardo of Two Thousand) never fear, I’m bringing my trusty video camera to that one.

More details about these events after the jump. Keep reading →

I first heard about the Australian Music In Tune video via this SMH article titled ‘Please don’t rip off our music’, which leads with a big pic of The Veronicas and the caption “The Veronicas are among a number of local acts appearing in a video that seeks to curb illegal file sharing.”

According to the article the 10-minute doco, funded by major Australia music industry bodies and being pushed by the industry’s anti-piracy arm Music Industry Piracy Investigations, “seeks to discourage people from obtaining music illegally and change the public’s perception that they live a high life of riches and glamour”.

My initial reaction was one of disgust: it sounded like a pretty pathetic, and desperate attempt to salvage a system that had, for the most part, neither benefited artists nor the consumers, and instead made fat record labels richer and richer. While I understand that the digital revolution has yet to provide a business model that can generate the same revenue for the music industry as it has taken away we are still in a period of transition.

And to think that distributing a video of successful, charting recording artists like Silverchair, Evermore, Operator Please and The Veronicas crying poor is going to prevent kids from downloading songs illegally is naive and frankly, a waste of their resources and everyone’s time. Aren’t we better off concentrating on coming up with creative ideas that utilise the amazing opportunities the internet is providing? Keep reading →

As this is a blog about the creation and success of Australian independent online media, I thought it might be interesting and educational, albeit potentially embarrassing, to reveal and analyse my traffic numbers each month. See my figures after the jump. Keep reading →

Rachel Hills has an excellent summary of day one of the Future of Journalism Summit, in Sydney yesterday. Philip Myer decided all print newspapers will have carked it by 2043, the NYT and The Guardian will go international, new media journalists are “community builders and facilitators as much as they are reporters” and convergence will be key with television, print and online coming together to sell ad packages. Head to Rachel’s post for more.

UPDATED: Rachel also adds that Rosanne Bersten’s post on the conference is worth checking out - and after reading it I’m in agreement. According to her report, “Australian online sites don’t care about being flooded with links from Boing Boing or Drudge because Nielsen only measures Australian clicks and that’s what the advertisers want,” and her most hated word of the day? ‘Monetise’.