Steve Sarvi won endorsement at the DFL CD2 convention in style. Steve gave an excellent speech and demonstrated a great organization. A volunteer even asked me to sign up for volunteering during one of my few breaks. Everywhere there were people working in blue Steve Sarvi shirts. Steve is still working a real life job now, however in a few weeks, he will work full time on the campaign. This is a very good very serious candidate, that we should advocate for serious funding and extra support from those of us who volunteer.

The other incredible story of the convention is the number and the incredibly high quality of the candidates for delegates going to the national convention. Just like the fourth convention, I heard people speaking. just for being a delegate, that could have been running for any political office. This bodes well for good politics and good government.

Locked in my role of webcasting for Uptake CD2 Live Coverage, I did not participate in the story about a video person being refused admittance. However, I am not surprised because basically he did not come early and did not register. And if it is the person that normally does this, he knows that. Basically, a really heavy news coverage can get in the way of the people doing the event, so basically the planners have been setting aside the spaces for coverage, usually on one side or in front and then leaving all walkways open. To use the in line sound system and set up electrical cords, one has to come really early, with carpet tape to stop tripping. Really everyone who works a convention, also participates in the convention, so no set up happens after the convention starts. I think the Republican video person knew this and was deliberately setting up a "We were kicked out of the convention" story.

Uptake CD2 Live Coverage: I spent a day apprenticing to Mike McIntee, doing who really knows webcasting, who has the attention and patience of a saint! (Hint: anyone can be an Uptake volunteer). Just laying down lines, checking sound, setting up equipment and doing the software setup for webcasting takes an intensive hour. Then webcasting requires attention to several things all at once, while still following the story of the convention. Using two people is really best, one person would be very hard. Here are some of the things that I learned:

• Sound is actually very tricky. Mike had a special extra hookup to filter the sound from the inline system and also add the voice over commentary that we did. Since we were in the middle of the audience, mostly we had to be very quiet, especially during voice voting. Directional mikes are great for filtering out background, yet hard to always remember to use correctly.

• I think I have a talent for recruiting people to interview and interviewing. I really enjoy that.

• Every feature of a better camera and a better tripod is worth it. The tripod I used yesterday, did not have the slowly sinking effect of my setup.

• Pans are tricky, I think I made my audience dizzy. So you need a good 30 seconds to do slow audience shot. The slow correction, the slow every camera move with anticipation is actually very hard.

• We also doing an online chat at the same time which was really great. Barb Miller from home stepped in to do a very excellent narrative on chat just from the webcast. This was great because then I could do commentary on the convention audience - really the true players at convention. Most news coverage misses that part. Since we had to be very quiet, this allowed me to describe important things not happening on stage, the support demonstrations. Breaks and upcoming interviews could be noted.

• My ideal setup for this page would have been a full screen coverage with an agenda posted. Then I could have highlighted on the agenda, where we were. I also would posted pictures, links and bios of major political characters for reference. Even just having a list of correctly spelled names would have helped on the bannering that we were doing on the webcast. Bannering - words at the bottom of the screen - is especially useful, during technical difficulties.

• Technical difficulties apparently are the name of this game. Any problem can bring down the whole line system, where the only fix is a complete login restart after fixing the physical problem. Apparently we did very well, by not having a technical problem for 6 hours. While bumping can cause problems, problems can also happen from something heating up over time, or the controlling computer have too much happening or the Ethernet line being overloaded from someone else.

• Framing a picture of a person behind a podium is actually hard. First, the very white sign wanted to grab focus and provide glare, which had to be fixed. Then the very black background wanted to disappear all of the dark skinned candidates in a dark suits. So I learned how to adjust for both situations. For some reasons, some speakers love to move side to side, so those speakers were had to be framed in less of a close up shot.

• A second camera set up could have doing constant interviewing and background information, which could have been looped ready during the lunch break or voting breaks. So the planning for these conventions would be interesting, since the great important speakers are at the beginning and the important decision making is at the end.

• The school video system was feeding the convention into the cafeteria which was important for people needing a break. However, if we put up a useful screen with agenda, names, chat, issues, etc. That might be more useful for people in the room. The chat online audience had a better list of names than the people in the room did.

• Providing context is always important. The convention had basically every convention seat filled and some alternates even stayed in the back to watch the whole convention. However, since the auditorium was not filled, a pan shot would give the impression that the convention was not well attended.

• Totally only 30 people tuned into the webcast. I think the 3rd convention would have been well watched. This webcast idea has great potential for opening public access to conventions.

Basically, if you are still reading this, you are a candidate for being a citizen journalist, reporting the real news instead of the fake scripted news that we are usually being fed. The Update covers the basics of being a video journalist on the its' blog.