REGISTER

How to register: click on sign-up at the top of the page, create a username, and add your email. You'll receive a confirmation email with a password and login link. Benefits of registration: registered users can write comments, create/upload content, establish friends and send personal messages to other users.

UPDATING YOUR PROFILE

How to update your profile: click on the You tab and then click Edit Profile. You can add text, a photo, and interests. Coming soon: zip code locater and a place for a phone number which won't show publicly but allow you send voice messages directly to your Vocalo blog. Benefits of updating your profile: Tell everyone what you're interested in, and where you live. Vocalo community members with more detailed profiles get featured on the home page. Photos are especially helpful.

ADDING CONTENT

How to add content: Select the You tab. Click on Share Your Content. For each post you can add one image, one video, one audio cut and some text. Adding an image: click on the image tab and browse to the image on your computer. Select upload. Images can be jpegs and gifs. The Vocalo site will resize the photo for you. You can add a mouse over title to help the visually impaired. Adding audio: same as above. Click on the audio tab and browse to your audio. Audio files should be posted in MP3 format, 44.1kHz sampling rate, between 128kbps and 192kpbs bitrate. Posting items that do not conform to these guidelines could result in unexpected playback results (material playing back too fast or at the wrong tempo/pitch, slow load times in the Vocalo audio player). We've written simple instructions for converting files to mp3's. Please only submit files 10MB and under.

Adding video: same as above. Vocalo accepts .avi (video from your digital camera), mpeg and .mov. Please only submit files 20MB and under.

Adding text: The rich text editor has a few styling functions including bold, italics, bullets, indents and linking. To create a hyperlink, highlight the text you want to link and choose the "chain" icon. You'll see a pop-up box to enter the URL for the link to site. Adding Content Using Your Phone: You can add audio using your regular old phone.First, register your phone number on your profile. Then just call 888-635-1112 and leave a message. Your message will show up automatically on your profile. For more details check out your telephone is your microphone

Adding tags: tags create a shortcut way to organize content by keyword. Enter some keywords separated by commas. Submit/Preview your content: when you're finished adding your content, click the preview button to see what it will look like and then submit your content. Then jump to the main content page: Everybody/Content to see your post. Benefits of adding content: The biggest reason? Get your stuff on-air! You make it. We play it. We're all about getting YOUR stuff on the air at 89.5 FM and on our web stream.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE LIVE WITH ON-AIR HOST

How to make additions: Making additions is just like adding content to your blog. The only difference is that this content will add to the play list in real time and live with the play list in the archive. Let's say Bibiana posts photos of strange street signs as a segment on a play list. You can add your own photos, audio, text or video to react or add to the play list post. Benefits to making additions: As you listen to the broadcast or web cast of vocalo.org, you'll see segments pop up that follow along with the shift. You can participate in the shift in real time (during a live broadcast) by making additions.

TIPS FOR GETTING ON AIR Three big things:

First, everything we broadcast is less than seven minutes long. If your stuff is longer, split it into multiple parts (or we can do it).

Second, sending us audio with music is okay, but it makes it more difficult to collaborate with you to get it ready for broadcast. The best way around this is to submit your audio without music, and if you think it should have some music, either upload the music you want us to use, or suggest a music track when you submit the content. Also, see the below note in "Other Tips" about cursing and explicit content.

Third, Be sure you understand how mature content and language may shape the way your audio is played on air by reading the Community Guidelines. We have to edit out cursing and other explicit content, so if your piece has these things, it may be harder to get on air, espeically if it has a beat under it and is hard for us to edit. Consider making two versions of a piece the online "directors cut" and a clean "radio safe" version.

Other Tips: -E-mail friends and family to let them know your stuff is up on the site. The more attention your pieces get via page views, comments, and votes, the more likely it is to get on air.

-Improve your audio skills by checking out Vocalo 200 What we're looking for: anything! Your jokes, parodies, performances, interviews, music, personal diary, shout-outs, recommendations, rants, whatever you want to add.

Making it okay to broadcast: when you add content you must select a license option. This tells us what kind of permission (if any) you're giving us to use the content. The full license allows us the most flexibility to edit for time and impact. As-is license gives us permission to broadcast but without making any edits. And finally, web-only, means you do NOT want us to broadcast your material.

A note about copyrighted material: all submissions must be original content that you have made or have permission to include.

Reporting Problems or Making Suggestions

We're still working on the site and greatly appreciate your feedback. Let us know what's working and what's Tell us features or tweaks we could make to improve usability. Also, please let us know if you want to get involved with Vocalo in other ways. We're trying to create a movement toward citizen storytelling and story collecting for our region, so if you or your organization wants to do more, just let us know. Here's a link to contact information.

Vocalo in other ways. We're trying to create a movement toward citizen storytelling and story collecting for our region, so if you or your organization wants to do more, just let us know. Here's a link to contact information.