Wednesday, June 21, 2006

The rise of the broadbandcaster

Day two at the Broadcast Live show and I'm looking forward to enjoying this.

The previous day I overloaded the presentation - amateur! But this time I'm adressing simple premises. What is videojournalism? Why it's day has come and how does it work.

Figuring this out means I can slow down abd enjoy the company of those present. Byron (Apple supremo) has lent me his PDA to record audio for a pod. Hopefully I'll get that soon to post.

But in essence the whole presentation revolves around the idea that anyone can be, and will be a broadbandcaster, vlogger or videocaster.

The obvious examples are rocketboom, currenttv, heavy.com and for social sharing: you tube and metacafe. Yep I'm aware there are lots more e.g. blinx, but I'm limited by time.

As far as my very limited knowledge goes, barring the networks, there appears to be no real beast of a videocast dealing with news. That's not withstanding the likes of Geek TV (tech news). But I mean news of the network TV stuff, so videojournalism, plus broadcasting on broadband is ripe for the picking.

The previous day I bumped into the managing director of Channel One - the first videojournalism outfit in the UK; it was modelled on New York One. The UK wasn't ready back then in 1994, so C1 suffered a slow atrophy, but judging from what Julian hinted, the next year could be interesting.

Got the chance at this years conf to talk to a number of people; sometimes these conf can max you out. www.bluloop.com are interesting: ads in a moving image way. And then I had quite a superb 10 minute cranium massage. The practitioner, a slight attractive woman with the grip of a gladiator said I had lots of knots in me.

Quite!

And with that time to head home and prepare dinner, influenced by watching the tale end of a day time television programme Richard and Judy. And now its time to hit the sack. Early rise tomorrow 5 ish tp catch a two hour journey train to preston.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

An apple a day

Being asked by Apple UK to present my views on creativity and videojournalism has its downside.
there are many ups as well. But presenting to an audience who are fluid: walking in and oout of your talk, can be daunting. That didn't worry me that much, but had i guaged the length and substance of my talk properly. Perhaps not, Byron, Apple's uber creative and the person responsible for pulling me in, seems to think I did a good job. Perhaps he was being nice. I rambled and on various ocassions lamented at the lack of time available.
So I thought I'd streamline the talk for the next day. Fat chance. I cricked my neck on my way home carrying all my gear, so even writing this has become a bind. And then, at 10 my son has an accident. The toilet lid.. yes.. and he's in pain, so off to casualty I go. THree hours of non-event I emerge. The doctor says we should monitor his progress. I'm reminded that whilst I believe doctors and nurses are exceptional, the flow of information is like waading in treacle. You've got to pull it out begrudgingly.. so I guess I never got to change the site after all. Wish me well for tomorrow. I may very well need it