Unexpected Media

Innovation Labs 2008

March 14, 2008 – 8:27 am
It's pitch day at the first of this year's BBC Innovation Labs and we're back at Forest Hills Hotel near Aberfoyle. The Scottish Labs always seem to engage the most technically proficient, not to say geeky, teams of all the labs. Last year we had one group both whose members had PhDs in string theory. There are also a surprisingly high number of people here whom I've worked with before including Fearghas McKay, who more or less introduced Artec to the internet more than 15 years ago and Richard Harris, who was CTO at the Digital Village. There's been some blogging here, here and here.

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Meet the Players

March 6, 2008 – 3:33 pm
Meet the Players was part of the European Media Event, held in Brussels between 3th of and 8th of March. The aim of the week is to turn a spotlight on the independent documentary sector and it's relation to the public broadcasters, but also to try to draw attention to new ways of developing, financing, producing and distributing documentaries. Several directors and producers were invited to participate in a two day workshop, developed by Franz Grabner of ORF. This preceded the Meet the Players speed dating session where the participants to met important players of the world of traditional and "new" media and platforms.

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iPod: the bubble of control

February 28, 2008 – 7:51 pm
I wrote last week about the presentation by someone from ITV Imagine at a Digital Horizons seminar; disappointment at the channels failure of imagination was offset by an unexpectedly insightful talk given by a researcher from the University of Sussex, Michael Bull. Michael focuses on people’s use of media products as a kind of litmus paper to study the changing social world, particularly personal music devices. In 2000 he undertook a study of the Walkman, although Sony refused to let him use the name in the resulting book and has recently completed a survey of 1000 iPod users across the world. The results of that research are published in Sound Moves: IPod Culture and Urban Experience. What interests Michael is how people use media devices to modulate and fine tune their environment. The iPod allows people to adjust their cognition, giving them a degree of control over the world they travel ...

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InSync 19/03/08: Keeping up with the kids

February 20, 2008 – 2:40 pm
Children have always loved TV, but the days when passive viewing was their only option are well and truly over. Kids are finding other forms of entertainment and seeking out new platforms to access it.  They’re media literate and demanding more sophisticated, interactive content which is fragmenting the market. So what does this mean for content creators? A decline in traditional TV commissioning? Falling budgets? Or an opportunity for innovation and collaboration? This Insync event is supported by the Showcomotion Children’s Media Conference and staged in conjunction with Crossover UK, who will be running an innovative creative lab ‘Crossover Kids’  to feed into the Showcomotion Conference in July. The lab will be for talented and experienced creators of children’s content to develop innovative, interactive projects for cross-platform delivery. By ‘crossing over’ and meshing Medias - TV, games, online, interactive toys -  new types of entertainment can be created and different market opportunities emerge. The ...

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ITV Imagine: are they serious?

February 18, 2008 – 10:39 am
At a seminar that I chaired for Digital Horizons last week, a presenter from a department at ITV called Imagine presented their vision of the future. I hadn't heard of Imagine before but it now employs 15 people and exists to inform internal and external producers, commissioners and execs at ITV about the future of media, to create prototypes and inspire. It sounds a bit like the BBC's Imagineering unit, set up in 1999 and disbanded a couple of years ago to become Creative Research and Development. One of the prototypes shown was intended to demonstrate what Coronation Street might look like 50 years from now. Ignoring the production values, which were on a par with film student essays, the ideas proposed are all things which are feasible now and, in some cases, have been trialled and rejected. They included options to click on and purchase products featured in the show, ...

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In Memoriam: Andy Palacio

February 15, 2008 – 7:20 pm
Andy Palacio a musician and artist, who worked with me at the community media organisation Cultural Partnerships in the 1980s, died last month aged 47. A member of the Garifuna people in Belize, Andy was a talented musician and passionate about preserving and promoting Garifuna language and culture. Andy, whose musical career had taken off and stalled a couple of times, seemed finally to be on the brink of becoming very well known. He recorded and toured extensively; he was awarded BBC3's World Music Award following the release his last album Watina. Reviewing it in the Guardian last year, Charlie Gillett wrote: "whatever people mean by music being universal, surely this is the perfect demonstration of their argument".

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Paid Training Opportunity at 01Zero-One

February 15, 2008 – 7:07 pm
Do you work in Broadcast? In: • Multi purpose/format editing • Interactive producer/production • IT/Media Integration • Web meets Audio Visual • HD Engineering/Science • Live Events/Music Directing (Vision Mixing) • Broadcast Media Graphics • Presenting for Live Events • HD (5.1) Sound • Mutliplatform Writer/Project Creator 01Zero-One is building a pool of Industry trainers for 2012 – would you like to take up this unique opportunity to pass on your skills to the next generation of industry professionals. They will pay you £2000 incl. VAT to attend a 5 day “Train the Trainer Course” in Soho over 2 weeks in late April. If you would like to be considered for this project please send your cv or a short biog to pollyanna.lindley@westking.ac.uk or for more information call Polly on 020 7025 1987.

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InSync: Rise of the Post-Network Brandcasters 28/02/08

February 4, 2008 – 4:27 pm
Consumers ARE connected. The market IS a conversation Convergence HAS happened. Broadband is MASS market. Mobile finally works. …and everywhere we look we see rich content…. But where does all the content come from? The last two years has seen an explosion in user generated content and new channels but research is showing that as audiences mature so their expectations change and they want more and more professional quality content. One sector that is starting to move into filling this space is advertising and marketing. Brands and agencies are beginning to actively exploit all the new channels to reach consumers in highly targeted campaigns full of interactive, rich, quality content supported by user communities. But how far will they go? Will brands become the new Channel 4? Will ITV end up supplying brands with content for delivery away from their networks? Or will brands help create new models? Speakers include Joanna Lyall, Managing Partner, Mindshare Interaction Robin Jaffray, Director of ...

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Creative Industries - £10m Call for Collaborative Research

January 25, 2008 – 6:23 am
On 30th January details about the £10m call for collaborative research projects, targeted specifically at the creative industries, will be announced and the competition formally launched. Full details about the call and how to apply will be posted on the technology programme website. Objectives In recognition of the importance of technology to the sector, as both an enabler and potential disrupter, the aim of the call is to stimulate technology based or inspired innovation. The call is looking for projects that will lead to the development of new products, processes, capabilities and services or improve the competitive advantages of existing ones. Target Audience The call is open to collaborative projects between UK based companies; and companies and universities/ other research organisations.  The overall theme will centre on the exploitation of digital technologies and has been designed to appeal broadly across the creative industry sub sectors, and includes specific mechanisms to encourage participation of small ...

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Content 360: designing a lab for MipTV

January 11, 2008 – 10:54 am
We've been asked to run a 2 day 'innovation lab'  as part of the Content 360 pitching competition at this year's Mip TV in Cannes. It's an interesting development from last year when we worked with the BBC on their categories in the competition. This time we're working with Ogilvy (part of the WPP advertising empire) to run an intensive creative workshop developing ideas for 'cause-related marketing'.  It's quite a brave move by the Ogilvy team who, like the BBC, are realising that they need to find ways of working with external artists and creative professionals in order to innovate. As with all these projects, success will ultimately depend on the quality of the participants. So, if you're interested get an application in before the deadline. More about the competition here.

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