Tech reporter Matt Marshall has left the San Jose Merc and struck out on his own with a new blog, Venture Beat. Good luck, Matt!

When I was in New York earlier this month I stopped by the nonprofit Acord insurance association's offices and sat down for an interview with CEO Gregory Maciag and fielded a phone call from London from British author Paul May. Here's the video of our conversation.

Cross-posted to Darknet.

MediaNews: Student journalists granted freedom-of-speech rights. New law prohibits before-print censorship at state universities.

College journalists in California will soon have the same free speech rights as their professional counterparts, as legislation prohibiting the censorship of student publications was signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday.

The Assembly bill, AB 2581, grants first-of-its-kind free speech protections for college journalists. A recent federal ruling put the work of college journalists at risk for prior review by college administrators. ...

This is great news, and a cause I've supported since my high school administration confiscated the East Paterson, NJ, Scarlet Quill during my tenure as editor in chief.

CNET News.com talks about polishing that home video.

Consumer electronics and visual-effects creators are getting the message: The YouTube generation is clamoring for tools that can help polish and add a touch of Hollywood to their homemade videos. They're demanding ease of use, low prices and visual effects that wow audiences.

Most of the material found at Revver, Metacafe and YouTube typically doesn't include much in the way of production values. It's usually just some guy with a camera recording his dog, baby or girlfriend. But the numbers of people trying to infuse their work with a unique look and craftsmanship are growing ...

The Online News Association has announced the finalists for its 2006 awards competition honoring digital journalism. Winners will be announced Oct. 6-7.

Here's a 4-minute video interview I conducted with Skye Kilaen at the recent BlogHer conference about how to make your website or weblog more accessible to the disabled.  (Ourmedia page | watch video)

Cross-posted to Real People Network.

New at Ourmedia's Personal Media Learning Center:

Introduction to digital storytelling

Seven blogging tools reviewed

Blog search: Keeping track of conversations in the blogosphere

Building an audience for your blog or podcast

How can I capture great travel photos?

A guide to making and distributing digital movies

How to record Internet radio

How can I discover new music by bands I might like?

How to capture a screenshot of a video

Podcasting music: what it will cost you to stay on the safe side of the law

RSS tutorial

Color light on the cheap

Build your own lightbox

Today's San Jose Mercury News: Fabrik: A YouTube for adults. San Mateo, Calif., start-up lets customers store data and share within limited group.

Newark Star-Ledger: Warfare's new theater: Graphic online video. Propagandists and media scramble to make use of perception-changing images. Excerpt:

J.D. Lasica sees it differently. He is co-founder of Ourmedia.org, a video site that allows posting of gruesome war footage. He thinks teenagers should take a look.

"I wonder if the Vietnam War would have gone 12 years if the Internet had been around," Lasica said. "It would have been a much more realistic view of what the battlefield feels like."