Will Adobe be at BETT 2012 this January? Apple left Olympia some time ago.

Can't find Adobe on the floor plan for BETT. Maybe if the new emphasis is on tablets then a face to face occasion is not required. They have real meetings in Calfornia and New York though.

If there is no need to educate future users of Creative Suite then maybe the prices will drop soon. Online functionality that anyone can use sounds as if it ought to be cheap. And the older technology that no longer needs to be promoted should be even cheaper.

Apple stopped attending UK shows a few years ago. There has been comment about how Final Cut Pro is now more of a consumer level product with some features missing from the previous desktop style. If everything is supposed to be an App for a few pounds then the expense of Olympia could be hard to justify.

Maybe I just missed the info. If you know where Adobe is at BETT 2012 please add a comment. 

Adobe moves into the cloud, online publishing and Flash video no longer "disruptive"

At the recent meeting for financial analysts.Adobe Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch outlined the cloud approach for media and marketing.

But first, CEO Shantanu Narayan asserted that all print publishers are facing a transition to online and that there is already momentum for video and television to be watched through the internet. The introduction of PDF as a format has already had an effect. HTML 5 will be developed for mobile devices but there is still potential for Flash on televisions or whatever the devices are to be called that have fairly large screens and stay home.

So watching the presentation, (still stored on the Adobe website for a week or so) I get the impression that Adobe is now a marketing company rather than a technology company. At least there is not a technology driver as with Postscript and PDF for early Adobe or Flash for Macromedia.

Kevin Lynch talks about PDF and AIR as disruptive innovation, incremental innovation as in regular improvement and then what appears as  innovation through acquisition. This includes newly purchased service companies that fit the vision of cloud marketing. For Adobe Macromedia was innovation through acquisition. Maybe this can go on indefinitely. There is a marketing operation that could cope with any product.

However I think the classic products such as Acrobat could drop in price a bit or at least other software be considered over time. There was nothing about any development for PDF or Acrobat as desktop software. If it is to be left behind as a "cash cow" in marketing jargon then people will wonder about price levels. Flash still has a way to go given the numbers of screens on the planet but again there may be more and cheaper ways to create Flash files. Loading and editing a video clip could get easier.

"Print and Publishing" still shown as an income stream but not much talked about. I think Shantanu Narayan is right that print publishing is moving online. In the UK the Guardian Media pages and Printweek both carry on reporting print and books as if nothing sudden will happen. But there is talk of "digital first" for newspapers and Haymarket expand online. I think this Adobe meeting could be a point in time when a stage in technology development became clear. This will be looked at again during events in the UK such as Online Information and BETT.

Video on tablets, are phone cameras "good enough"

I read that people with tablets watch video quite a lot. And they watch all the way through much more compared to people looking at a computer screen.

I wonder what sort of cameras can produce a reasonable standard? I use a Kodak Zi8 which I think is the sort of standard a phone camera will produce for the next few years. It is ok for YouTube till blown up full screen, then maybe not. But a tablet screen is not that big usually. I think quite a range of cameras will be ok.

Futures Conference live stream London College of Communication LCC

There will be a live stream of the Futures Conference at LCC

I have to be north for a wedding this year but the conference has always been interesting when I have been there.

I predict a mix of industry views, experience from recent graduates, and some academic theory not quite as pessimistic as first appears. They have to balance some of the industry views so you have to think about it later.

Winterlude 3 - #LT12uk #BETT_show #OnlineInfo_expo #cloudworks

The Winterlude for 2011/2012 is taking shape. This is the time between Online Information and Learning Technology. It also takes in some holidays for reflection. As actual trade shows extend to online communities the actual timing of events becomes vague. Also some stands (known as booths in the USA) have vanished though still in background mode.

There is a cloud for the Winterlude on Cloudworks

Towards Maturity will soon release the results of a survey on current elearning practice. From an article in eLearning Age it is likley this will show that online learning is now seen as part of business agility, not just for conformance evidence etc.

In previous years this sort of survey might have been announced at Learning Technologies in January.

The Guardian toaday reports that smartphones are still a "battleground" in UK schools. There is still no clear policy from the UK government and some schools still confiscate phones.
Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said the kind of learning that could take place on smartphones was "not all that exciting".
"It should remain with individual schools to determine their policy [on whether they ban the device]," he said.

There is no BECTA at BETT. Last year there was very little evidence of UK policy involvement. The Media Development Authority of Singapore is on stand D101 with a clear view on digital media industries. There will not be a BBC stand as they withdrew a few years ago after pressure from various publishers. Google UK on stand E70.

Online Information is in a smaller hall this year, but the conversations are no less interesting. It is evidence of success that the Online audience has less need of a face to face event. Highwire Press will not be attending. they did try out the Frankfurt Bookfair so digital books and journals are now part of a mainstream publishing event. The British Library will not be there though they are publishing more for mobile devices. By chance Apps World will also be at Olympia during the same week.

One of the free presentations at Online will be from David Penfold about structured documents and XML.

This will probably links back to print workflows as well as mobile devices. I am still puzzled as to how the London College of Communication is now organised. "Print and Publishing" I was used to but what is Design as distinct from Media? My guess is that the XML bit should be understood quite early on.

Adobe will not be at Online to explain what happened to Mars, a sometime project to rewrite PDF in XML. They will be at BETT and Learning Technologies, presumably to promote the Creative Cloud, Flash enabled tools for mobile devices. Most of UK education is still based on the book, text as hard copy. Adobe at BETT has some balance for print production but at Learning Technologies the stand started with Macromedia so is a bit more Flash. There could be some interesting conversations around this.

Meanwhile the same week at Olympia there is Learning Without Frontiers

Our design team are busy re-imagining the interior of Olympia’s National Hall to create a “pop-up university of the future” presenting an entirely new experience for our delegates and attendees

By the end of Winterlude 3 this might make more sense.

Online Information   29 Nov - 3rd Dec 2011
BETT                    11-14 Jan 2012
Learning Technologies     25-26 Jan 2012
 

WiFi Exeter now ok for video and sound to reach broadcast

This is two clips edited together from Chris Norton iPhone after the Wild Show this Thursday.

Several things are different to what I expected. The file sizes are much smaller than on the Kodak Zi8 which I am used to. Chris is using wifi as in free thanks to the Phoenix bar. So not an "unlimited contract".

So this is working ok, at least for short interviews. In practice a broadcast is not needing to be instant. There could be time for an edit. So this iis another method as well as Skype. Works for radio or social media, whatever you want to call it.

Beach as conference extension through Virtual Action Learning #Twinity

Beach1

I discover that IFAL has had a conference on Virtual Action Learning.

So I am encouraged to look at this again and suggest it for the Deming SIG at the CQI and maybe other conferences I am interested in.

There will be a day meeting about Deming early next year with a rehearsal on Dec 8th. Maybe "rehearsal" is the wrong word but a sense of theatre allows the idea of a set. Twinity have not yet reached as far north as the CQI though Fleet Street is covered.

Meanwhile I have bought a beach currently Beach for You in Norwich, Canada. I have asked for it to be called Branscombe Beach and moved to a UK timezone. It tends to get dark at the wrong times for me. If it stays in Canada that is ok, I will just have to get used to it.

Plenty of space for a keynote and different streams. there is also a hill on which to announce any conclusions.

Meanwhile if you are in Twinity please check out the beach and send a photo. For bandwidth reasons, stills continue as an interface. 

Social video and broadcast video, examples from Joss Stone and Dave Stewart #likeminds

During #likeminds I have been thinking about how social media videos can mingle with broadcast. #likeminds still continues as much not settled. Last year there was a lot on phones with video cameras. This is getting more usual though upload still an issue. Best over wifi or take a card to a desktop. Can such content be part of a tv broadcast? Could it be edited somehow or presented in a studio? Al Jazeera manage it with talk show around news.

Then today found a couple of examples

the cameras are getting better, just needs more of them and an edit

hang on, there is another camera in the back, what happened to that one?

Exeter, towards a city without a bookshop #likeminds #EX1to4

This post is intended for discussion, could be a basis for a chat show, and is forwarded to the Wild Show ahead of Thursday on Phonic FM 10-12. This week is #likeminds in Exeter, a social media conference. If every business is a media business maybe theree is no media as a distinct business. But there are still publishers attending.

Being specific about Exeter the main news item seems to me to be the plan by the university not to have a bookshop. The central campus is being rebuilt and will be completed next April. Blackwells will have a temp store at the beginning of each term for course books but the portacabin will not be replaced with a permament structure. The impetus for this seems to be coming from the university, not Blackwells. There have been examples of university bookshops closing because of poor trading but the Exeter branch is still thought to be viable. Maybe a bookshop is not seen as part of a modern retailing mix.

When Princesshay was updated it turned out that a post box was not regarded as part of the current look and feel. There is a Post Office now on an upper floor but there was confusion over where a post box would be. It is now inside a door on ground level so it can be found without disturbing the designed environment.

So this is a good topic for a chat show. Usually I support digital innovation but I also think that a university without a bookshop could be a step too far. I also worry about finding a new music CD. The HMV in Exeter has not much space for music and new releases seem to vanish quite quickly. Waterstones and WHSmith are part of UK chains, there is no independent bookshop.

Also I am not sure the bookshop decision has been widely discussed. It was not publicised when the plans to redevelop the campus were announced. Getting rid of the bookshop was not seen as the main reason to spend on the project.

There will be some new technology features-

Exploration Labs

There will be two, 60-seat Exploration Labs, supported by a six seat, IT-rich 'Technology' centre. One Exploration Lab will provide 60 tablet PCs using bespoke, fixed, raked seating arranged in 'Harvard' style to allow attendees to mix presented content with IT solutions. This room will also have full video conferencing facilities. The second lab will consist of 10, six person multi-touch 'surface tables' designed to support innovative, group-based teaching. Each table will also be linked to a series of wall-mounted screens to assist sharing of ideas and there will be writeable walls to aid collaboration of ideas. This provision is particularly innovative and will be a world leader in the Higher Education sector. Adoption of surface technology in the commercial sector continues to expand quickly, creating a potential for employability benefits to our students.

In the city centre there are many shops for mobile phones. HMV has replaced the CD space on the ground floor with technology devices. So something like this "Exploration Lab" might be connected to wider Exeter.

Meanwhile in Lancaster a "Learning Zone" with web access and support is on one side of the central square opposit the library and the bookshop. Waterstones has promoted the Sony Reader more at the centre of Lancaster near the HMV. On campus such devises are usually not well displayed.

Going a bit off the main topic it strikes me that both Exeter and Lancaster have management studies with an interest in leadership. This follows earlier emphasis at Lancaster on learning organisations. So how can a university learn about a bookshop or a library? Network Learning or Telematics have been introduced as subjects but I am not sure how this relates to design.

More later when I discover whaqt #likeminds is actually about. It seems to be also about video. Perhaps there could be a considered video about the bookshop in Exeter as well the series of YouTube clips I might find in the time up to April. When the bookshop closes it may be understood what else can happen.