Just a quick note to let prospective members know we haven't forgotten you over the last few weeks, we've just been busy upgrading and migrating our platform.  We'll begin processing the dozens of applications from the last few weeks soon.  Thanks for your patience and interest!

Our all-new downloads area is LIVE and accepting uploads!  Registered members can upload files up to 100MB in size, and the new upload form will list all files the member has uploaded.  The files from our previous download library are still accessible via our Wiki and site search, but we've created all new sections and categories to make it easier to browse the new download library and did not import the old files into those listings.  When members log-in they'll also now find the 10 newest uploads listed on the community home page.

Speaking of the community home page, we've also added comments and "likes" to our community and user activity streams!  Now, similar to other social networking sites, you can comment on member wall posts, easily share URLs, and let members know you "like" their status or wall post.  Log in today to check out these and other new features.  -LC

The first episode of DMEpod will be released in just a few weeks and we want to feature you, your story, your case, your agency, your event, or your products! As a matter of fact, we'd love to have you host an episode! DMEpod will be a monthly (maybe, sort of, kind of, best effort...) video podcast covering the people, products, processes, training, news and events relating to the forensic multimedia community. (*Whew*)

DMEpod will be available for free via the iTunes podcast library; those that don't use iTunes will be able to subscribe via RSS right through our site. Furthermore, each episode will be posted to Google Video, YouTube, blip.TV and of course the Media-Geek.com video library.

We've added another great feature for Media-Geek.com members that will further facilitate the efficient sharing of documents, images, videos, presentations, and even programs; a shared, categorized, document library. In addition to the personal files & images storage area allocated to each new member, the document library provides an organized, searchable, shared location for forensic related content. Content can be uploaded from your computer, added via a link to another server, or even imported from another server.

Additionally, you'll notice some minor changes to the Member Menu. A new "tab" has been created on the Member Menu called "Other FVA Resources", where you'll find the link to our shared DVR database, the FVA FTP server, as well as the FVA list-serv. We have more features planned and will also be working on some minor bugs that still exist with the Video Library, so be sure to check-in often for further developments.

Members can now create work groups to organize, communicate, and more efficiently work with other Media-Geek members! Groups are a great way to work with and share information with your team, committee, task force, etc... To learn more about the all new Media-Geek Group features check out the related announcement in our members forum!

Oh yeah, BTW - we also just completed upgrading our private messaging system for members, providing a few more features and significantly improving performance. Now you can use auto-complete to enter recipients (again), add a CC line, create your own contact lists for sending to multiple members and more. When you get a second, check it out.

Moments ago, I completed several updates and upgrades to the Media-Geek community. While most of them where behind the scenes type of stuff, there were some new features introduced that members might find interesting, such as:

• Photo and video support for groups - Group members can now upload photos and videos to be shared among fellow group members.
• Photo Tagging - Users can now tag their friends in any of their photos
• Community Content Sharing - Users can now easily share their videos, photos, group bulletins and discussions with all the major social bookmarking services (digg, delicious, Stumbleupon, etc) as well as social networks like Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, LinkedIn, and more!
• Friend Suggest - Users can instantly expand their network by adding friends with our 'Friend Suggest' tool
• Wall Post Notifications - Get notified when someone posts a new message or responds to an old message on your wall.

Various layout issues and minor bugs were addressed as well during the upgrade process, but as with all Web sites it will always be a work in progress. If you stumble across a problem or have a questions/recommendation, as always, simply shoot me a note or post it to the member forums. Thanks for participating!

Locating forensic DME resources just became a bit easier with the introduction of the Media-Geek Forensic DME Resources Map. Several DME related geo-tagging resources are currently being developed, to include a Media-Geek membership geo-tagging feature. Members are encouraged to log-in and update the contact information in their profile, which now includes an option for permitting inclusion in the membership maps.

Hey folks, good news...I finally got around to posting a new "Getting Started" tutorial for Media-Geek.com members! Far from my best work, but it should be helpful for new members or those still learning their way around our new layout.

You'll need to be logged in to the site to access the tutorials. Once you are, simply click the "Help" link from the main menu, then "Tutorials" from the sub-menu directly beneath the main menu. Too many clicks for 'ya? Fine, click here.

The new Media-Geek site layout is more intuitive (I hope) and accessible, and it should also load faster in your browser.  Sure there are a few little scripting bugs to hunt down and squash, but for the most part the site seems to be functioning in all modern browsers.  I hope you find the new layout an improvement.

Did you know you can make your profile public? By default profiles are private and only accessible to members who are logged in to the site, but if you want you can make yours available to the general public.  Check out your profile privacy settings more (Click on Community to go to the Community main page, then select "Privacy" from the Profile menu option.

I recently posted another brief tutorial for Media-Geek.commembers which gives a quick overview of the various options and settings related to sharing your profile and content with non-members.  Topics briefly discussed in this tutorial include your profile URL, availability settings for your profile and storage space, as well as the new profile "badge" and invitation features.

As you may know, all Media-Geek.commember tutorials are available via the Help menu once you sign in.  Additionally, I've recently added all of our tutorials to the "Training Videos" category in our Video Library.  Should you have any questions or comments, as always, please post them to the member forums, shoot me a PM, or feel free to use our contact form.  Thanks for participating, and remember to tell your peers & colleagues to Sign-Up, Sign-In, and Contribute!

The browser war rages on and new versions are being released at a break-neck pace. Unfortunately, for Web developers at least, each new version seems to introduce multiple changes that not only affect how pages are displayed, but how and if various features in a site will even function. It's madness I tell 'ya.

Anyway, since I started using Safari as my primary browser, I've been looking for another WYSIWYG editor for our members, because in Safari with TinyMCE set as your editor members couldn't use the Submit or Cancel buttons when attempting to submit articles, news, or events. Long story short I've found one, I'm using it right now, and I'm diggin' it so far.

The testing continues today with the Private Messaging (PM) feature that will be made available to all members.  Members will be able to PM each other from any page within the members area, including forum posts.  PM settings will allow each member to be notified of new PM's via email as well, if they'd like; users can be notified of all new PMs, new PMs only when they're offline, or not at all.

Additionally, PM's can be further secured by using an encryption word for each message; you simply enter the encryption word prior to sending the message...and make sure the other party has it or they won't be able to read your PM!

Well, maybe you are, but not if you're basing it on not being able to enter the proper Captcha code on our forms.  I was notified of an issue with our Google ReCAPTCHA yesterday and am working to resolve it.  I hope to have the issue resolved this weekend and will update once I do.  Thanks for your patience and understanding. ;)

Two new features introduced this week allow members to easily share their profile with non-members, should they so choose.  Members can now choose if they'd like to allow non-members to view their profile by editing their profile options; the default is set to not allow non-members to view your profile.

Additionally, members can now create their own custom URL to their profile page.  The custom URL can be set right from the member's profile page, and can be changed to whatever you like (e.g. http://www.media-geek.com/larryc will bring visitors directly to my profile, which I've set to allow public view).  Furthermore, members can now choose as to whether they want visitors to their profile to be able to view their personal files/images via the associated settings tab when editing your profile.

The site search tool will now search our member forums as well.  Of course, you need to be a registered member to view the forums and posts, but at least now members will be able to search them conveniently.

The last three or four weeks I have been absolutely swamped, and unfortunately have had little time to contribute to the Media-Geek community.  Despite my schedule others have kept things moving forward by adding articles and other content, and new members continue to join almost daily as the word spreads about our shared resource.  Although there are many things on my to-do list for Media-Geek regarding further development and maintenance, as well as several articles and blog posts I've been meaning to write, this weekend I spent some time doing a little Spring cleaning.

Initially I intended to spend a few hours addressing some maintenance tasks and reorganizing menus to simplify navigation.  Before it was all said and done I had spent nearly my entire weekend completely re-designing the site.  Go figure.  Anyway, along the way I made a few notable changes that are worth mentioning.

Less than two weeks away from the official launch, and I'm making some significant progress in what will be the new, secure member's area.  This area of Media-Geek.com will not be available to the general public, as its purpose is to provide a secure place for forensic media related professionals to share information.  Membership will be open to current or retired law enforcement forensic media related professionals and prosecutors.

The new members area will provide a number of "social networking" tools, such as secure community forums, file sharing, messaging tools, a community calendar, and more.  Members will be able to submit articles, news, event information, links, and other content to share with the group.  There will be a membership directory, and users can choose what information they'd like to provide (if any).  Members can create "Connections" or "buddy lists" and use Private Messaging (PM) to communicate with any member throughout the entire site. Want to receive an email or PM when there's a new post to a forum?  No problem.  Want an email when someone sends you a PM?  Can do.  Want to keep your email address private, yet allow members to send you an email?  We can do that too!

One of the features still in BETA for the new member's area is a video sharing service, which will allow users to upload videos or add their videos currently hosted elsewhere to the Media-Geekvideo library.  In addition to a searchable, categorized library, each member's profile will list their videos.

  Although this feature wasn't initially slated to be rolled out with our launch on the 11th, it now looks like it will be!  Get your training videos together, get registered, and come back next week to upload!

There have been a lot of updates and upgrades to the Media-Geek.com community over the last two months, but I just haven't had time to pat myself on the back after each one. :)  During some of these upgrades/updates I inevitably created a few conflicts and issues that I'll continue troubleshooting this week.  More importantly I wanted to make members aware that I'll be replacing our entire downloads area over the next week or so, which will be a lengthy process as I intend to verify each file, check versions on documents, and update links in our Wiki.  During this time, I've disabled user uploads to the Download area.  Users can still upload files to other areas of this site, to include the forums, Wiki, etc...  I'll restore the upload capability to our downloads library as soon as time permits.

For those that do not know, Websense is a Web/Email security company that now sells a multitude of products, to include software and hardware.  Many government agencies use them, as ours did initially when I was with a NY agency, and quite frankly my first-hand experience with them was more problematic than problem-solving.  I totally get error-ing on the side of caution, but at the same time find overly cautious classifications based on IP addresses is not the way to filter the Web; especially given that the vast majority of the Web is hosted on shared servers.  Anyway, since I've responded to a few of these email inquiries from our users lately, I figured I share my canned email response globally with all users....

Who would launch a website on Veteran's Day for Pete's sake? A veteran: one whose work habits sometimes leave him totally oblivious to weekends and national holidays!

Today is the official launch of DME Resources, the new home for my Independent Consulting business and the evolution of Media-Geek.com. Lots of content coming over the next few weeks, but the core functionality is finally out of BETA!