Morgan State University joins Global MoJo Project
Press Release
For Immediate Release
April 12, 2011
See Global Mojo at Booth B305 at the BEA Conference
April 11-12, 2011 at the Las Vegas Hilton Ballroom
Baltimore, MD, USA
Morgan State University joins Global MoJo Project
Students and faculty at Morgan State University are helping shape the future of digital news.
Morgan State has agreed to help VeriCorder Technology Inc. launch a worldwide media network. Called the Global MoJo Project, VeriCorder’s initiative is a massive, global experiment in mobile journalism, digital media, and hyper local network systems.
Students will be recording and editing video news stories using just an iPhone, and the 1st Video editing app from VeriCorder. The stories will then be automatically posted into the Global Mojo website, which is based on VeriCorder’s new VeriLocal technology.
“Mobile journalism really has arrived. I am happy my students are part of such an innovative initiative,” says The Morgan MOJO Lab Founder and Director, Allissa Richardson, who is an assistant professor of journalism at the institution. In May 2010, Richardson won a two-year, $25,000 grant from the J-Lab: Institute for Interactive Journalism to launch the community newsroom. “When I began searching for mobile editing apps for the iPhone and iPod devices we acquired, I found VeriCorder. I never imagined that nearly one year later, I would be engaged in a global news experiment.”
The Global Mojo Project is the brainchild of VeriCorder CEO Gary Symons. A former broadcast journalist with Canada’s CBC News, Symons founded VeriCorder specifically to create mobile journalism applications, and hyper local media networks that monetize themselves.
“We started this company to give media companies and reporters a way to combat the fragmentation of their advertising markets,” Symons explains. “The idea is that, if we can massively reduce the cost of production for both news and advertising, then media networks can remain viable in the modern digital age.”
Symons says the Global MoJo network is a living example of how a media company can reduce costs, improve efficiency, and still maintain quality.
“We launched the Global MoJo Network in three weeks, using nothing but our online tech, some iPhones, and the great volunteers at the BEA and some of the best journalism schools in the world. What we hope to show is that, with the right technology, media companies can create quality content with much smaller budgets, and thus compete with the growing multitude of online bloggers.”
Global MoJo is being co-sponsored by the Broadcast Educators Association, and Phoenix-based ALM Live, which is donating their MoJo (Mobile Journalism) hardware kits. ALM Live produces the amazing Bubo camera mount, which allows reporters to attach professional lenses, mics, and other accessories to the iPhone and iPod Touch.
“The Bubo is already very popular with video bloggers and extreme sports athletes,” says ALM Live CEO Mike Kenney. “What we want to do now is prove that, properly equipped, iPhones can be used as a professional tool for journalists as well.”
The Global MoJo Network will have separate channels or pages for each participating organization. Students and reporters will submit video and stories primarily through the 1st Video iPhone app, which will post automatically into the company’s VeriLocal media system. It will start operating this week, run throughout the BEA conference and NAB Show in mid-April, and continue until early May.
Several schools and organizations have joined the Global MoJo Project already. It is now operating in ten countries and four continents, with 16 participating newsrooms around the world.
For more information on the Global MoJo Project, see www.vericorder.com, or contact:
Gary Symons, CEO of VeriCorder Technology Inc. c/o Heather Eichinger, (contact info)
Background:
About VeriCorder Technology VeriCorder is a technology company based in Kelowna, BC, Canada, at the Accelerate Okanagan high tech center. The company was founded by former mobile journalist Gary Symons to develop solutions for mobile journalism, and for hyper local media networks. This year VeriCorder has unveiled ‘VeriLocal’, the first comprehensive system to build, manage and monetize a successful hyper local network system. VeriLocal allows companies to deploy and manage reporters using its 1st Video mobile editing applications, integrated into its online media playout system, and with a unique monetization program that will be released in Q3 this year, called Ad ShowCase. The system includes the FindStringers.com service, which allows media companies to find, hire, and integrate any freelance reporter into their newsroom system, within seconds.
Vericorder can be found at Booth B305 at the BEA conference in the Hilton, and will be running its newsroom from B112. The company will also be at the NAB Career Fair on April 13, an event it is co-sponsoring.
About the 2011 NAB Show The NAB Show, held annually in Las Vegas, is the world’s largest electronic media show covering filmed entertainment and the development, management and delivery of content across all mediums. With nearly 90,000 attendees from 151 countries and more than 1,500 exhibitors, the NAB Show is the ultimate marketplace for digital media and entertainment. From creation to consumption, across multiple platforms and countless nationalities, the NAB Show is home to the solutions that transcend traditional broadcasting and embrace content delivery to new screens in new ways. Complete details are available atwww.nabshow.com.
About BEA2011
The Broadcast Education Association’s annual convention - BEA2011 – is the NAB Show’s largest conference partner. Although BEA has been a part of the NAB Show since 1964, BEA2011 will be held simultaneously at the Las Vegas Hilton for the first time this year – April 10-13, 2011.
BEA2011 has over 1,000 attendees (mostly educators and students) and 200+ sessions, awards competitions, demos and workshops covering all aspects of electronic media education – from management to documentary production and content creation to social media and research to broadcast journalism. Convention information can be found atwww.beaweb.org/bea2011.html.
BEA currently has a membership of over 1,600 professors, students, media professionals, colleges and universities. BEA exists to support faculty in teaching, research, and creative endeavors; to assist faculty and students in reaching professional growth by creating opportunities; and to connect the electronic media industry to the classroom.
For more information on BEA visit their website www.beaweb.org or contactBEAMemberServices@nab.org.
About Action Life Media
Action Life Media (ALM) is a company of Dreamers, Athletes, Professionals and Creative Minds. ALM is dedicated to giving everyone the tools to share their lives and their view of the world in video, with less stress, less mess, and better quality. ALM products are used and endorsed by some of the top athletes, media outlets and companies in the world. This year, in partnership with VeriCorder Technology, ALM is producing a full mobile journalism hardware kit that is already in use with the military, marketing companies, and top media companies around the world.
For more information on ALM Live and the amazing Bubo camera mount for iPhone, go to www.almlive.com
