Sarah Hartley

I was recently invited to talk to regional editors at a Society of Editors conference held in the Midlands. It covers a couple of the major projects we’ve been working on at Talk About Local which are all about using mobile technologies to explore useful community information.

The first example is an Augmented Reality prototype we’ve been developing which means publishers of any size – from solo bloggers to news organisations – can easily move geo-tagged content into an AR environment.

The second is the ongoing evolution of the geo-tagged, mobile first suite of publishing tools n0tice and the launch of its whitelabelling service.

It’s a mark of the fast-changing pace of these sort of technologies that this slideshow was already outdated within a day of me presenting it. In terms of publishers using AR, The Independent last week launched its innovative use of the technology. Talk About Local’s William Perrin reviews that here: http://talkaboutlocal.org.uk/tag/the-independent and in the video at the end of the page.

When it comes to the n0tice development, the day after the presentation saw a major launch for the technology when Guardian Witness went live. Obviously I couldn’t mention this to the editors at the time for risk of spoiling the announcement from Joanna the GW team, but the full details of how publishers can now use these powerful geo-tagged tools for their own products are here: http://vip.n0tice.org.

Soon to be a new entry into the crowded Manchester online entertainments scene comes Love Grub. Part of the fledgling Love Manchester site, this food news and reviews site has one major difference – it’s based around video.

Heading firmly into Manchester Confidential’s backyard, the site is looking to provide honest reviews of the city’s restaurant scene by aggregating existing food blogs, and also encouraging reviews from customers.

One half of the couple behind the move, Gary Greenwood tells me that advertisers will be offered listings information together with a short video package to show off their premises. The reviews will be kept independent from these commercial video elements.

In addition there’s to be magazine style feature video content around food in the north west produced by Gary and his partner.

Early days yes, but one to watch.

I wonder whether it will prompt a three-way advertising price war between ManConf (as it struggles to persuade the market that paywalls are the answer), and the under-populated CityLife offering from the MEN?

At various locations in recent months I’ve been stalking online experts with my trusty Flip and asking them one question: How has social media impacted on The Media?

And here, in this short video, is what they said. Many thanks to Mercedes Bunz, Christian Payne, John Popham, Laura Oliver and Paul Bradshaw.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7F0GtgYsEQ]

• Social Journalism: Curate the Real-Time Web » Publish2 Blog
  What’s Social Journalism? It’s what you do when you gather information in social media channels and then report it to your readers. Watching a Twitter #hashtag for posts related to a critical local issue or big event, then publishing them in a roundup or sidebar on your news site? That’s Social Journalism. Scanning YouTube for the latest video from a protest, county fair, or city council meeting? That’s Social Journalism.
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• How 31 Year Olds Consume Media : Dan Wilson’s Blog
  We remember when having a telephone meant that mum used her special phone voice and said our own telephone number when she picked up the receiver. Calling after 6pm was cheaper and calling abroad was prohibitively expensive. We used to phone up other people’s houses and just hope they were in. Yes, really.
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• BBC strikes web video-sharing deal | Media | guardian.co.uk
  The BBC is providing a limited range of video news content to Mail Online, guardian.co.uk, Telegraph.co.uk and Independent.co.uk, which will supplement the newspaper websites’ own material, in four areas – UK politics, business, health and science and technology.
  (tags: guardian media bbc video)
• Template Twitter strategy for Government Departments
  You might think a 20-page strategy a bit over the top for a tool like Twitter.

  After all, microblogging is a low-barrier to entry, low-risk and low-resource channel relative to other corporate communications overheads like a blog or printed newsletter. And the pioneers in corporate use of Twitter by central government (see No 10, CLG and FCO) all started as low-profile experiments and grew organically into what they are today.

  (tags: twitter tools government)

Chances are, you won’t have heard of R&D TV. As the name suggests, this is an experimental new programming format from the BBC where footage is supplied with the intention that you and I won’t just consume, but we will take the opportunity to create too.

As it says on the site: “The clips are raw straight from our cameras and although this may be too much for most people, it makes great footage for those who want to remix and mashup our footage with there (sic) own or others.”

Trouble is, only one such mashup has so far taken place despite worldwide access and awareness of the initiative is very limited.

Is this just early days for something ahead of the curve , or is the mighty institution smothering its fledgling participatory offering before it can get out of the nursery?

The crowd at last night’s Social Media Cafe in Manchester were in no doubt it was the latter, provoking a lively debate with the BBC’s Ian Forrester (AKA @cubicgarden).

Why couldn’t the BBC promote the new programmes through established programmes such as Click? Why wasn’t it available in iPlayer? Will it ever be shown on BBC2 – or even 3?

(As a personal aside – just look at the URL http://ftp.kw.bbc.co.uk/backstage/index.whtml, hard to think of anything less user friendly).

Ian was able to explain many of the issues around licensing which make it difficult for R&D TV – soundtracks with music under copyright to artists for example, couldn’t be just handed out for further publication and distribution.

Fair enough points but, as several members of the audience pointed out, surely there’s content which is wholly BBC produced which could be offered up – or even specifically commissioned – if a true collaboration is going to take place?

I was left thinking that probably the highest hurdle this  brave project faces is an organisational mindset one – let’s hope that doesn’t take too long or become too distracting and good luck to Ian in pushing this on.

There’s no doubt that, while those internal bickerings take place, creative mashups will continue without any regard to licensing issues, hurt egos or approval from Aunty Beeb.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxi6QDwQyLU]

* There’s an audioBoo of reaction to the talk here.

* A FriendFeed commentary I did during the session with Ian can be seen here.

Is the future for journalists that of data master for video games? That was the idea put forward in a session on news and gaming by the BBC’s Philip Trippenbach.

Addressing the Futuresonic conference in Manchester today, just weeks after the controversial video game based on the real Battle of Fallujah was cancelled, Philip proposed that journalists were ideally skilled to take on the tasks of selecting and curating content for a new audience.

A journalist himself, he said: “The big question for people like me is that social media is everything turning upside down. This is a big problem for journalists.

“Games like these are pointing the way, to manage all these multiple data streams, journalists as data master.

“These are the only things that journalists have left – we can look at information coming in and judge whether it’s good.”

While accepting that many people may still see the whole genre of gaming as a potentially trivialising the news agenda, he argued that the experience of gaming is essentially an educational one, giving the user pleasure in problem solving.

He showed the audience some examples of games which had proved to be both successful and tackle serious issues – Insurgency (which involved input of veteran Marines), Budget Hero – get to control the US budget and a game  in the Sim City series which has sold an amazing 46m copies.

“Is it journalism? – I don’t know but you can argue it reflects the experience of people on the ground.”

I managed to grab Philip for a very quick audio interview before he flies off to Poland which you can hear here.

A Manchester man has become half of the sofa surfing, problem solving duo for WKDs new interactive feature Kev ‘n’ Dave.
25-year-old ‘Kev’, Chris Wright , from Carrbrook is online to answer all those burning questions you might have of two blokes at home.
A spokeswoman for the company said: “We know that 118 is no help when it comes to those crucial conundrums that mates debate in pubs all over the country. Like, who is the fittest page 3 girl? Or, how do you do the running man and manage to retain an ounce of credibility?
“The lads will respond to your every whim, but be warned, if you want to know what Kev’s thoughts are on economic recovery he might recommend you go for a fry up, turn your phone off and go back to bed. ”
WKD is hoping this feature will set a new benchmark for interactive content. Having played around with it for five minutes, I’d say four would be sufficient to see all it has to offer but let me know what you think, after all I’m unlikely to be its target audience.
Made me think back to the old subservientchicken.
Have a good weekend!

• MunkeyWeb: | Twitter – Top Tools for Tweeting
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• Facebook usage statistics by country – March 2009
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• Local news, but not as we know it – reviewing media histrionics about local news « Ultra Local Voice: communities, communicating
  The recent angst by the print media has obscured continuing distress about ‘local’ TV news. Video is a helpful adjunct to local news and campaigning but mixed media web environment allows you to see that for the majority of stuff video is too time consuming – text and photos rule. But watching the telly people on the local news front is a bit like disco dad on the dancefloor.
  (tags: journalism blog hyperlocal video ultralocal)
• 09. For What and For Whom? | Vague Terrain
  Language is living and the meaning of words and expressions evolve over time and with use. There is no doubt that there is value to opening up and demystifying the editing and selection processes most typically known to be domain of the art curator.
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• Facebook is My Newspaper
  Will Facebook replace the newspaper for everyone? No, but the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is adults over 35. Facebook may or may not have legs, but if Facebook fails, something new, and probably even more comprehensive, will undoubtedly take its place. The trick is keeping up and utilizing these tools to reach your audiences (and potential audiences) more effectively, where they already look for information, and in a way that builds relevance in their lives.
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• Museum 2.0: A Simple Argument for Why Museums and Cultural Institutions Should Care about Social Media
  For people who are deeply immersed in social media, social networks are already a much heavier influence on personal choices–where to visit, what concert to attend–than traditional advertising. Which means that your organization’s website–a brochure out in the wilderness of the Web–is only going to remain relevant and useful as a marketing piece if it is being referenced in the social context of your users’ lives. The time is coming when atomized search will take a back seat to socially networked information sources, and that is going to change what it means to have a presence on the Web.
  (tags: socialmedia socialnetworking museum web2.0)

I recently did a tot up of viewings of some video clips I’ve produced over the past few months to see whether there was anything to be gleaned on the success of three different distribution channels.

Typically the clips have been published across three platforms 1.youTube with links and embeds via one of my blogs; Qik with links to my Manchester blog twitter stream @Sarah_Hartley or Brightcove via the website www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk.

It’s only a small sample and the results perhaps aren’t that surprising – youTube does best overall in terms of views while major, immediate events (such as the decision on Manchester’s transport bid Tif) suit live streaming better.

One thing’s for sure though – putting material into a variety of networks significantly increases overall views.

Title    YouTube (blog)    Qik (Twitter)    Brightcove (site)
Mcr flashmob    303    429    31
Community reporters    85    7    16
Twestival    N.A.    147    N.A
Obama democrats    228    N.A    154
Chester zoo audit    11    15    189
Tram journey    670    N.A    19
Tif decision    N.A    325    21
TOTALS    1297    923    430

I’d be interested to hear from anyone else who has tracked clips across different networks to see if this is common experience.
These statistics are publicly available on Google docs here Video spreadsheet. If you wish to add some data, please, be my guest.

I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on the new (to the UK) Flip for a trial this week. Here’s what I found.

First up it looks, and feels, lovely. Very ergonomic, no instructions provided (or necessary) on how to get started – it’s as intuitive as an iPod, light, easy to drop into a handbag.

So how does it perform?

The first job I put it to was a series of close-up interviews with a group of local students preparing their own film for BBC News’ School Report. I was able to stand close to the interviewees but there was a lot of background noise with excited children talking loudly all around us.

I was surprised to find that most of the background noise disappeared, leaving the interviewee clearly audible – you can hear and see the results for yourself below. I was particularly impressed with the depth of field the HD element provides.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jkgNhlIBHM]

The second assignment was more tricky. A  formal event with participants at either end of a fairly large room. I had no option but to sit in the middle and point the camera in either direction. I had no idea whether this would work and used the zoom to hone in on the subjects.

The audio did pick up – but was very quiet due to me being more than 10ft away from the subjects. However, when the videos compressed, it seems the audio was automatically balanced to a more acceptable level. Amazing!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_0WRGlXvkw]

On the editing side. As someone more used to the full editing software of Premier Pro, it was immediately obvious that the Flipshare environment which automatically loads when you plug the USB into the computer is a totally different kettle of fish.

It doesn’t appear possible to separate the audio and visual tracks, making all the GVs I filmed during the first job surplus to requirements. But once ypu know that, you film things differently – in short self-contained clips. The interface makes trimming individual clips at either end easy by the use of a slide tool and then each individual clips is added into a sequence.This means there could be a certain amount of twiddling about required if you had multiple bits of a clip to extract out – short is best for this camera.

There is also the option of adding a caption at the start and credits which is a nice touch as is the one-click upload to youTube.

My Verdict; Flip makes it easy to do something simple – film a subject, join clips together and publish. If you want to do something more complicated, then a more comprehensive editing package would be better suited but at least you’d still be benefiting from the HD quality of the footage. Apart from ease of use (I referred to the “help” menu just three times), the built in microphone is remarkable . Not only does it bring in crisp audio but also its ability to filter out a great deal of general background noise and no channel inputs and outputs to worry about or lugging round the choice of microphone for the right situation. Plus the whole thing is less heavy than your average mobile phone.

I loved it! Will certainly be on my Christmas wish list.