mypipeline

More fires are burning over here about whether TV is dead (or dying).

There is never going to be a ‘post-TV’ world, in my view. There is simply a multi-screen world that broadcasters and advertisers are coming to terms with. Maybe we should stop talking about the devices as being central to the issue. Content is content, and people will consume it where they like. ‘TV’ studios will need to become ‘content’ studios — slightly less glamourous to the tongue but no less valid. They will need to be adept at furthering conversation alongside their content - as Cory Doctorow says, “Conversation is king. Content is just what we talk about.” And half the time what we talk about when we talk about content now is not the content but the conversation — make of that what you will.

There is still a craving for well-produced, meaningful content on any media, precisely because people want to talk about meaningful things. Admittedly it doesn’t help that to dig into this meaningful fare we must first break through the crust of celebrity-obsessed tripe and self-promotional YouTube rubbish. But slowly and surely, content studios are cottoning on to what makes digital output special.

Plasma TVs may be the best-selling electronic items, but they’re all coming with IP connections now, and with FreeSat et al gaining spotlight, it simply makes sense to create content that facillitates conversation and contribution.

For me, it’s all about the meta data creation at the point of production: get ‘content studios’ to tag product info into their output so that when I watch an episode of Gok’s Fashion Fix I can go and buy his glasses through my device (telly, mobile, whatever); geolocate the discoveries on that episode of Timeteam so that I can discover more about my local area when I am driving in my car; add supporting information about the contributors of Dispatches so that I can can make contact with them, participate in the conversation….

That’s where we should be heading as our media converges. Not splitting hairs about the longevity of a given device.

No Comments | In: Digital Life, Future Telly, Social Media | | #

Touchscreen displays have been to good effect for advertisers. Why not explore the 'outdoor' options?

I had a few ideas about 4IP again today, and there’s one I’d like to share here to see if anyone had any feedback:

If you want public-service new media to serve the public, put it where the public can see it and engage with it: outdoors.

What could this mean? How about an ambient network of public touch-screen interfaces that:

1. Showcase 4iP projects
2. Allow the foot-fall to interact with the concepts and data inside those projects and
3. Take feedback from the public as to what’s working and what’s not.

There are several reasons why this would work well for 4IP:

1. we have a pedigree in public art and displays, and people associate the brand with this activity
2. we are being encouraged to think of a future in which broadcasting is not limited to the front-room, even though that is where our strength lies (linear TV output)
3. The data that could be collected from these public media centres is HUGE: and could be used in so many ways that would not be immediately obvious to the commissioners of the 4iP projects.

An example of what I mean..

Suppose Channel4 commissions a project that employs the publicly available data here at TheyWorkForYou.org and also through ideas such as the Met Police Crime Map. It’s not so hard to imagine a scenario where a large screen interface is displayed in some of the city’s hot spots that aims to solicit both ideas on crime prevention, and also allow members of the local area who wouldn’t normally go to one of these sites online to see relevant data about their area broadcast on the streetcorner. You could make a short clip of yourself (maybe using an API from a video service such as 12seconds) campaigning for a specific action in the area, and other passersby could have the chance to react to what you’d said. It’d be a living document of their area with the ability to showcase the stuff they’re proud of in the area as well as a chance to give direct feedback to their government officials.

How about another initiative that uses the public displays for expanding cultural awareness? Maybe using the terminals to broadcast historical televisual content about an area? I would love to be able to pour through some local footage of interesting events whilst waiting for a bus in Berkhamsted; I would also like the opportunity to feedback on what kind of local media content would interest me more…

How about using the terminals to display where to buy the lowest cost goods available in the area, with directions to find them?

Yes, I realise that this kind of project is a) expensive and b) not about to happen overnight. But it’s not beyond the realms of possibility given the right partnerships: a hardware company keen to get its brand out there and convince people of their touchscreen’s functionality, a software company keen to flex its muscles in the burgeoning gestural programming market, some production companies keen to get into new media in the right ways…you get the picture.

I wrote a little while back about how 4iP might employ the thinking that allows open-source models to succeed. I think this may be another way to actually harness the public to create value in public service digital media.

What do you think?

1 Comment | In: Data Visualization, Digital Life, Future Telly, Ideas | tags: 4ip channel4. | #

I never thought this would happen, but I was duped by the Richard Dawkins-but-not-really-Richard Dawkins caper of recent Twitterfame. Well, I’m not that surprised, actually. It was a classic case of wish fulfilment: I wanted the great man to be ‘down with the kids’ so badly, I was too willing to ignore my suspicions that Dawkins wouldn’t a) have the time to document his thoughts and activities via Twitter, b) actually bother responding to replies to his updates and c) submit to Twitter’s 140-character constraints on his thinking. I signed up to follow him, then within a few messages, realised he was a fraud. So I had to block him, the only form of retaliation I had in my arsenal

But I was duped, and little stung when I realised. Fake Richard Dawkins has since been chastised and his followers dwindled to a few clueless sheep; however, I’m sure it won’t be long before a few more fake celebs begin to send status updates from their fake lives. Luke Hardiman has already kindly posted a few well known parodies. Hell, there’s even a blog purporting to be Twitter, updating us as to its (unstable) status.

I won’t go into the details of Twitterquette here as I had intended to at first, because Scoble already has and inspired a lively debate in his original thread. I also found this video contribution from a particularly articulate youngster (who knew there were such people around) which I thought deserved a mention. I have a great admiration for people such as this who can open up their thoughts via webcam for the world to see and hear - after all, it’s much easier to write your thoughts than to rap off the top of your head about these things.

For me the first and only true commandment of Twitter, and any form of self-publishing for that matter, is to be honest about the self that’s publishing. Parodies are fine, even on Twitter (I used to love the Stephen Colbert updates) - but impersonation for the sake of furthering your own ideas is the Selfish Meme embodied.

No Comments | In: Digital Life, Social Media | tags: richard dawkins, twitter. | #

Time to rant

From now on, I’m jotting down more of the things that bug me.

Starting with my Nokia phone’s tiny clockface. Granted, it’s cheap - I am on my fourth this year, the other three suffering watery toilet and bath demises (a long story, which I do not have time to scribble at the moment). But it is, after making phone calls, the next most important thing on anyone’s phone feature list, but Nokia almost always has a default setting of around 3pt Font, stuck in the right corner, with no ability to raise the font size or move the time to the centre of the display, as would be my preferred location. Nokia, get with the program: people need the time in BIG BOLD LETTERS. And of course, all of the sales packaging doesn’t have the time-face printed on the display so you assume that with this new phone, Nokia will have fixed this glaring idiocy. Not this time…

Humax-ed out

Gripe two for the day: the interaction design on my new Humax PVR. Now, I bought this wonder-toy on the recommendations of my fellow shoppers at Amazon. And yes, it’s fast, has plenty of space for content, a zippy loading interface, and one of the most pain-free set-ups that I’ve ever experienced with an ‘AV device’. But though the software is clearly well-coded, the interface design has been clearly hacked together by the programmers, most of which clearly didn’t excel at their ESL courses. When I want to record a programme, I want to press the nice red record button and have it record. Nope. I need to go into the Guide, then press OK instead (obviously). This I discovered after a thumb-numbing marathon with my remote, trying every colour-coded button first and only then stumbling on the least obvious, and most correct option.

Then, when I have recorded a programme, what do you reckon I need to do to watch it? Well, in a blue-skies sort of world, the one button that a PVR should have (next to a working Record button) is one that says ‘My Recorded Programmes’. Nope. Here’s the interaction I have to use (which I still have trouble remembering): press Menu > Record (yes, you read it right) > Recorded Programmes, then select a Programme with OK. But that’s the easy bit. Then, instead of simply exiting the menu area and treating you to your recorded programme, your selection begins playing in the tiny 1/16th screen in the menu area! It took me another three minutes to realise that I had to press Menu again to play the selection full-screen.

Dear Christ Humax, get thee to a IxD firm immediately…

2 Comments | In: Digital Life, The Bug List | tags: phones, pvr, settop boxes. | #

Just returned (well, last week) from the big holiday of the year. Florida, family, far too long. Now, I’m not saying that I didn’t love spending time with them - the parents, seeing my 1 year old take his first steps - but there’s an odd paradox about extended vacations, as I’ve charted obscurely below. After a certain critical point (around 13 days into a holiday) the balance of relaxation and edginess of not being connected to your worklife and other ‘pressing’ matters starts to level out.

I’m pretty sure that’s why the average vacation’s around 2 weeks. The first week’s enjoyment steadily increases as the relaxation starts to set in and the pressure of work subsides. By the middle of the second week, unless you are the type of person that organises a different stimulating pastime to occupy yourself with each day, you have started to get into ‘the holiday routine’ - which comes with similar hang-ups as the work routine. If you’re somewhere sunny like Florida, the routine may be the morning application of SPF-5000 cream on vacationers followed by the beach-versus-bike-ride-versus-golf-or-tennis decision. (By the second week, all of these potential amusements will have lost their novelty). Into the second week, the routine has become entrenched, so that even the decision of where to go becomes a scheduled event, and can take some time to thresh out. This can even happen in the most stimulating of environments - anyone attempting to survive two solid weeks adventuring around The Magic Kingdom has my utmost sympathy.

Around the end of the second week the inevitable creep of vocational guilt sets in, along with some irrational thoughts. What is going on back at work, you think? What will my colleagues think of me taking more than a ‘mainstream’ allocation of holiday? How many political manoeuvres have taken place in my absence? Will I return to meet a new boss, come to impose their new order? Soon, the negative feedback loop that keeps 2 weeks holiday as standard has worked its magic. The balance has almost been redressed - the holiday now has almost as many parts anxiety as it does joy.

Three weeks into the hols and the cache of relaxation is close to depletion - you’re almost back to work levels of tension. What keeps you going is the thought that you’ll soon be free of the need for the daily application of protective lotion and the now-endless arguments over the day’s activities…

Wow - a good break can do wonders for the system! I haven’t managed to be this cynical in years.

No Comments | In: Digital Life | tags: holidays. | #