The Three Martyrs in Turkey

I spoke with Dr. Enis Sakirgil yesterday. He has a stunning documentary about Necati, Ugur, and Tilmann, the three martyrs from Turkey. The simple power of the story, especially as told from the widow's perspectives, is unforgettable. For more info, go to www.MalatyaFilm.com

What Matters Now

Here is a fun little read compiled by Seth Godin. Go for it. It is a free download. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/files/what-matters-now-1.pdf

Tracking a Site's Web Traffic

This from Seth Godin: You can find the traffic of a popular website (and compare it to another site) by entering the URL into compete.com. Or quantcast. This data is far more accurate than the charts Alexa offers, because most of the sites being measured cooperate.
You can see the referrals and traffic to an individual bitly twitter URL by copying the URL and adding + sign to it. For example, if you see something like this in a tweet: http://bit.ly/870Ry9 just copy it and paste it with the plus and you'll see http://bit.ly/870Ry9+. I think that's pretty neat. You can also track top retweets on an hourly or daily basis.

Christian Movie Data Base

Anyone interested in filling out a quick survey for some friends looking at putting together a Christian Movie data base? Send me a quick email at clyde@visualstory.org

VSN Highlights Email: Check Your Folders

We send out a weekly update to everyone in the network with featured articles, videos and visual resources. To be sure you get the email, check your spam and junk folders. You may need to change the filter to accept email from @visualstorynetwork.com.

EtherPad is available again!

Three cheers for EtherPad (AppJet) and Google! Public EtherPad's are staying open for now. Thanks guys. Way to not "be evil" Google. http://tiny.cc/HMPR6

Dissappointment! EtherPad Acquired, Google Wave a Mess

Just when I've come to love the simple, virtual collaboration tool of EtherPad, Google buys them out and shuts them down. Nice. My initial efforts to comprehend Google Wave have been a disaster. Anyone got any suggestions for an EtherPad substitute? (free, real-time, simple, easily accessed by many users). Lots of unhappy (former) EtherPad users. http://tiny.cc/FCk5j

Door Post Film Project is accepting submissions

The Doorpost Film Project is open for submissions. I was a juror last year and was very impressed with the 100 films accepted to the festival. Almost as impressive is the amount of money they aware filmmakers. The 2009 Grand Prize winner "Butterfly Circus" was my favorite short for the year. www.TheDoorpost.com

The Blind Side

I've got to see this film. I keep hearing great things. Here's a take from Christianity Today. http://tiny.cc/IrxNy

Daniel Pink on Reward Motivation

Gotta love Daniel Pink's work. Check out the TED talk. "Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think." http://bit.ly/4F39Qf

Producer / Executive Program Re-Launch

Act One is launching a newly formatted 14-month Producing & Entertainment Executive Program in June 2010. The course work includes Creative Development, The Business of Hollywood, Physical Production, and Marketing & Distribution. Good work Gary, Terence and team. http://www.actoneprogram.com/EP.htm