Will's Wonderful World of Gigital Music Video, draft for 2011

I have done some slides for a 20112 version of a talk during Animated Exeter

The main weekend has Saturday 19th. I want to go to the talk about large scale projectors in the afternoon so my talk is now 11-1 in the Imaginary Lounge, Media foyer, Phoenix. Free but you need to book. Ten tickets only.

More later on details and issues arising

An English Sputnik Moment

Delayed response to the Sunday papers. Everyone is a Critic Now ,  the cover story for the Observer, turned out to be fair and balanced, even quite ok about the web. But then I noticed a bit at the end.

We live, then, in a new age of cultural populism – an age in which everyone is not only entitled to his opinion but is encouraged to share it. Nothing could be more American.

Except that some of us are not American. This is an English newspaper I think and I live in the UK. Guardian Media Group is buying this sort of thing in and it may already have appeared somewhere else. Previously there was a piece on internet novels written by Laura Miller. Actually she thought that novels were not enough about the internet. Apart from a blindspot around science fiction I thought her views were sound enough but most of the references were to novels from the USA. 

The Guardian and Observer don't print much explanation. "Here is some copy we found in a USA publication, originally some time ago" or something like that. My guess is that it could  be hard to find similar content written in London. There is still quite enough on web dangers, how social media rot the brain etc.

Could there be some kind of UK / English take on the web that mixed writing, technology and business model? I use the word English as it seems to me the web has taken the centre outside the UK. Maybe this is just one of those things. Maybe there will be some adjustments.

Neil Stockley describes Obama's speech about a "sputnik moment" as a "springboard story".

(What’s a springboard story? Storytelling guru Stephen Denning defines it as:

a story that enables a leap in understanding by the audience so as to grasp how an organization or community or complex system may change.

http://www.stevedenning.com/Business-Narrative/springboard-story.aspx

The Obama version
Half a century ago, when the Soviets beat us into space with the launch of a satellite called Sputnik, we had no idea how we'd beat them to the moon. The science wasn't there yet. NASA didn't even exist. But after investing in better research and education, we didn't just surpass the Soviets; we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs. This is our generation's Sputnik moment.

It seems to me that UK publishing is some time behind on all things digital. I did some searching to find that the Guardian did report Amazon numbers last Friday online. ( Kindle version outsells paperbacks, and hardbacks by factor of three) Still can't find this in Saturday print.

The comments seems to doubt the source for evidence of growth in ebook sales. I think there has been significant change in the USA for some time. Kindle is now available in the UK.

The main story is that the judges of the Man Booker prize will have an option to read the long list in electronic format, saving on weight and delays in advance copy.  Lead comment from Benedicte Page

The ebook revolution has swept past two more milestones in its ferocious advance upon the bastions of literary culture. 

So this could be the start of something. Then again, maybe not.


 

The Chat Show Format Slowed Down For YouTube

I am finding that YouTube clips work ok in the context of blogs. But it is very slow. Direct questions are not easy to put and answers can take ages, not always arriving from where you expect. The clips have to be short and people choose how to combine them with others.

The blog posts I start with offer some sort of structure. I am going to try less fixed opinion to start with. The aim is to combine various links or sources. Look for conversations over time. I have a lot of background photos of seats in public places. Avatars could be pasted in as time allows. And subtitles added based on some sort of sources.

Adobe at Learning Technologies #LT11UK the return of Macromedia

This week at the Learning Technologies show I expect Adobe will mostly show Flash. It was a Macromedia stand originally so this is maybe not surprising. But it may seem more coherent with the rest of the event. Maybe it is just me expecting more on flat pages and book culture. But the other stands seem to be about big screens, HTML5, video conferencing etc. 

This may be why there is limited interest from academics and formal education. I noticed on the Networked Learning Conference website last year that text was assumed. It was not easy to embed video or even graphics. The Learning and Development scene in organisation seems to find it easier to use a range of media. This could be why they find a clearer case for saving money. The universiites are still undecided on how much resource to committ. 

I will try to keep an open mind about Adobe and take in the stand as is. Last year the InDesign training was from another source on the floor below where it seemed like another world.

real-time, location-based marketing #likeminds 9 Feb Sidmouth folksonomy tags?

 real-time, location-based marketing #likeminds London 9th Feb meanwhile Sidmouth folksonomy tags?

#likeminds is off to Dubai to consider luxury, Helsinki again with Nokia and Paris for some art. No wonder I still have a disconnect when they return to Exeter.

Next month four free events in London.

Feb 9th is about "real-time, location-based marketing". I still find it hard to imagine how this sort of thing works. Within a city, is there agreed meaning about what each space signifies? Why is one group in one location and how can this relate to another group? 

I thought about this again during Sidmouth Folk Week. In different pubs, say Dukes Anchor Bedford, there is different music but how to describe it? There could be words or #tags as well as #folk. Could this work in other towns or campsites? Visiting Exeter soon the Unthanks and Fairport Convention. What words to use? And Jackie Oates but not a visiter. 

Towards Maturity at Learning Technology #LT11UK links start here

Towards Maturity again have research findings for the Learning Technology event at Olympia.

Since BECTA was cancelled there was not that much at BETT on how to develop organisations or whatever you would like to call it. L&D, HR, hope QA could be in there somewhere, see previous posts.

Last year the survey results for Towards Maturity seemed to show that senior management had not fully realised the benefits of elearning, at least as guessed at by people working on projects. This may be changing.

Certainly the Learning Technology conversationt is more upfront about costs that some of the university findings on technology enhanced learning. 

I hope to get some video of the space that could overlap with BETT. I am sure holding both events together would make sense.

Today's Media Guardian blames teenagers for the collapse of print magazines. Why not ask them where the training budget should go? 

UK media not keen on Hunt ideas about local TV

Today's media Guardian confirms the impression that UK media are not that interested in Hunt's proposals last week for local TV based on cities as in the USA. There is some information now, but mixed with a lot of rerasons why nothing much should happen.

Google blog search finds the Guardian through Newsbucket. Steve Hewlett states that the promise is "near impossible to deliver". Not enough resource and not enough reason for existing players to support another national choice that local could drop into.

Other things could be possible in future but that would depend on the availability of fast broadband to provide low-cost distribution. 

This seems to be the view in the briefing as well. So online will follow maybe in 2015 or sometime later. It is probably true that UK bandwidth is not uniform throughout the UK at reasonable speed. But if the new channels will start in the main cities anyway then fibre is possible. I think the little bits of video that turn up on YouTube could develop further over the next three years or so. Rougemont Global Broadcasting could become some sort of demo if I can load up more stuff. It is actually global as some viewers are outside the UK. If Hunt is assuming UK broadband is not urgent, then this could be moreso.

I think the BBC should stay in the mix. On BBC News 24 Hunt seemed to be suggesting the BBC should just get out of the way and then the market would solve all the issues. But if the BBC is expected to provide the resources then this could take the form of support for local video efforts. Some training perhaps and a sound track from major events. The Web is not based on monopolies such as the only evening newspaper in Manchester. There is a lot of space for the BBC and stuff online. I remember the Guardian very opposed to the BBC providing materials for schools. Then the BBC backed out of BETT. But the Guardian stand just got smaller.

On the Web, the BBC is the only UK brand on any sort of scale. Knocking the BBC is not going to help much for other media.

Anyway, back to some other links from Google blogsearch

Based on the economic models that Mr Hunt seems to be adopting, each hour of local news will have to be provided for somewhere around £2,000. That is a fraction of what ITV and the BBC spend on their regional news operations. And all the cheap new technology in the world can’t replace some of the things that the traditional TV channels spend that money on: properly trained journalists and editors with seasoned judgment.
It has been suggested that students or volunteers could man these new local services. What happens, I wonder, when one of those volunteers commits a contempt of court live on air by saying too much about someone who has been accused of a crime in the local area? What happens when one of those students inadvertently libels someone? What happens when an overenthusiastic – and unpaid – presenter jeopardises a local service’s impartiality by being too tough in an interview with a city councillor?

Should the venture launch in 2015 as planned,  newspapers will taunt the government with early viewing figures registering “zero” on Barb and the lack of original programming – only two hours of regional “opt-outs” are expected a day with the channel running on repeats donated, it is hoped, by terrestrial broadcasters.
You can imagine headlines asking why the BBC is wasting millions of pounds on “channel zero” – it happened when BBC Three and Four launched and even those channels still only have around 90 minutes of first-run, originated programming a night.

At a later panel session there were a number of sceptical responses to the idea, balanced by enthusiasm from local television companies such as Channel Six. Tim Brooks, managing director of Guardian News & Media said the idea that the network could be commercially viable was "sheer fantasy". 

He said: "Let's be real. The largest television company in Europe [RTL] couldn't make enough money out of Channel Five, the third network to make a go of it.

"I think the idea that there's room in this market for a fourth network whose peaktime would be occupied by the kind of low grade programming that the panel discussed is sheer fantasy.

"That's why you won't see Jeremy Hunt bowled over in the rush of people with money wanting to get involved in his project."

It seems to me that if there is so much instant rejection there may be a basis of something that might take some advertising revenue. So worth investigating.

Greg Dyke is mentioned as interested. i wonder what happened to the BBC Archive ideas, as in content that would be free for reuse? This is the sort of thing the BBC should be doing. The "big society" could be not just about chaos and handing over public money to companies. Especially for projects in which they are not very interested.

Haymarket finances revealed but who checks out the Guardian?

Today the Media Guardian features an interview with and some tough questions about debt, losses, and adjusting to a digital future. The information is certainly interesting and is background for assessing the views in Printweek about the ebook and tablets. 

But what could be said about the Guardian? Is the situation very different? They may be further into a web approach but the print may still have some issues.

Content is the thing. But is there a viable model to continually create content without a different attitude to the punters?

More about me. I started a couple of topics on Guardian Talk, about PDF and OhmyNews. No contributions from Guardian staff on either. OhmyNews was only ever a tech story for a Thursday so that has vanished. Fair enough, no longer published through an English language site but the model continues and the theory is still relevant, imho.

Jo's Helpline recently included a guide to the Kindle, reluctantly accepting that ebooks have some sort of role. I added a comment requesting further help on what software to use for creating an ebook. Once the Printweek audience have been told that the Kindle has arrived they might as well offer a service along with the rest of the pre media, whatever that means. No comment on this yet from Jo but she has responded previously so something may turn up  

My conclusion at the moment is that print journalism is not as secure as it appears. There may be a shift in the future. Peter Preston may say something polite about bloggers. Time will tell.