NRC Handelsblad - Binnenland: Hirsi Ali is working on the sequel of Submission

Hirshi Ali, the Dutch Parlimentariar that lives in hiding ever since Theo van Gogh was murdered for producing Submission Part I, her manifest against suppression of women in the islamic community. She is currently working on the sequel to Submission, part II then. She is also busy writing a book, titled: Shortcut enlightment. At the moment she is not attending the parliament and she seems to be unable to do her work because of the threats to her live. Instead Hirshi Ali is taking the crossmedia approach to influence the discussion! Because her film and book will definitely be referenced, as the fact that she is working on that is enough to stir up debate today.
This link refers to an article in Dutch. International newspapers will surely follow in the next coming hours or days. Since the murder has had a high profile in foreign newspapers
NRC Handelsblad - Binnenland: Hirsi Ali werkt aan vervolg op Submission

Abstracts ||Digital Arts and Culture::2003

Find out some very good stuff on several crossmedia issues here.
Abstracts ||Digital Arts and Culture::2003

Associated Press' Curley: 'The franchise is the content'

AP has committed to letting the content (the story) be at the center of everything; 'the franchise is the content itself"
By setting up a new office Curly (CEO of AP) has transgressed this notion onto his operational organisation. Central starting point is the story, no separate isles with photo, foreign countries, graphic designs etcetera again. Instead specialists can gather any moment to decide how to organise the playout of the story through several available channels.

As I have mentioned many times in the past, telling a crossmedia story requires a different organisation form than traditional one-medium companies. Ever so often forgetting about this crucial element lies at the heart of failure in crossmedia formats. Today media are most of the time, still organised as separate isles floating in ever more rumorous and insecure waves of the fast changing media landscape. As Curey mentioned so excellent of the views of the wise media philosopher Marshal McLuhan: He was halfway right when he said: the medium is the message. It is the other way around.. the message is the medium.

Curley" "Competition for "eyeballs" is fierce, and the industry has yet to understand all its implications -- "...like how to free our content from those expensive containers we've created -- the newspaper, the broadcast and the Web site -- and tagging our news for delivery in discrete places, on demand. And keeping control of our intellectual property."
ONA HOLLYWOOD: Curley: 'The franchise is the content'

Finding a blueprint for crossmedia communication

After having experienced a very inspiring networking session at the IST Event(thank you all attendants!) I am working on the paper as a result of the session. Just a few notes on the session.. The audience was definitely split in two. With one half having expected something completely different and leaving early, and the other half not knowing yet, but curious enough to stay and finally very enthusiastic about the session and the brainstorm element at the end! Ben Schouten held an inspiring presentation asking more filosofical questions on the emergence of biosensing in our everyday lives. Sonja Kangas gave a real eye opener by approaching the way in which content will be produced as maybe analog with what is happening in the field of open source for software. Can we expect an open content movement? I think that this may very well become true and even faster than we may expect. While traditional media companies are thinking and worying about how to protect their IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) in a digital environments, newcomers do not have any wory about that. They only follow the need to express themselves or to publish their ideas and thoughts. Much like the immense popularity of this means, the blog. It is a fact today that traditional media use blogs as a news source other then the means they normally had. The same will probably be true for other forms of content, produced by "amateurs" they may very well be what people are looking for!

A bit posh but good informed blog on Dutch situation

This is a blog I visit now and then, because it has nice articles, sometimes fresh news and comments on the Dutch mediamarket. Therefore the blog is in Dutch (sorry international readers). The editor tries to analyse a lot of the movements in the Dutch market. He is very much into all the stuff he thinks John de Mol is up to. It is a blog many Dutch media people read and today he was even quoted by an official advertising magazine as a source (to get jealous of.. right!) The guy who edites the blog definitely expects to address de Mol personally and that is a bit the annoying thing about it.. you can read the ..... kissing. At the same time that is also the very fun thing of it too.
He claims the term crossmedia for his work (as do more people nowadays). He has an elaborate explanation for that. Not a very clear picture yet, but a good one.
Venturo: strategy & business development

BT is changing the economics of broadcasting

BT is working on its Rich media solutions for years now and Stephen Gale of BT says they will change the economics of broadcasting. By offering cheap satellite links to stream material directly from location to a website as well as offering broadband TV.

He is right about that. Making it cheap to uplink AND the shift towards public MAKING content will drastically change the model!
The shift has already set in significantly with all population under 25 years. Crossmedia communication is the modus operandus here! It is not such a big step for some of these users to go and actually produce. I hope to show and proof to you soon that this is true.


C21Media:

Next big thing may be a virtual thing!

They do nice things.. indeed. BBC is getting into crossmedia storytelling. Early 2005 an interactive narrative is planned.. about a virtual boy band. Taking Popstars The Rivals into the next dimension? Who can tell..the next big thing may even be a virtual thing!
preloaded . : . we do nice things . : . we could do them for you too . . . . . .

BBC - Spooks - Games: Spy Academy

Did not mention this project on the blog yet, but have been following it from the start, take a look and you will know whyBBC - Spooks - Games: Spy Academy

Institute Laboratory for Mixed Realities

In preparation of my networking session on crossmedia next week I saw these people exhibiting an iTV project that looks highly interesting.
Institute Laboratory for Mixed Realities

Too vulnerable advocates of change

It is not my usance to make any political comment on this weblog if it is not about crossmedia. Today one of the most provocative advocates of free speech in the Netherlands (probably at this time the only real provocative) Theo van Gogh, has been shot in Amsterdam, after he first brought his son to school. Theo van Gogh was a cineast, writer and television program maker, with a strong opinion about various issues. Besides that he is one of the first cineasts who made creative use of the internet to give his opinion. Because he was not wary of insulting people personally, many media where afraid of working with him, due to large juridical claims. So he used the internet, his own weblog (www.degezonderoker.nl) too give his opinion on various issues. Because he also had difficulty getting his films distributed (he was first of all a cineast) he is one of the first cineasts that uses the internet to distribute his films. He just finished a first cut of ' 0605' a film about the murder on Pim Fortuyn (a murder that caused a political earthquake in this little country). Film distributors refused to publish his previous film "Cool" so he published it on the internet. This film '0605' tells about a complot against the rise of Pim Fortuyn, where the AIVD (the Dutch Intelligence Service) was informed about the assult on the life of Pim Fortuyn by Volkert van der Graaf. He had very strong opinions about the radical Islam. He recently made a political short movie called "Submisson" where veiled women with naked bodies covered by transparant material had Koran texts writen on their bodies. The women made statements about abuse and the vulnerable position of battered women in the Islamic community. The film is a pamflet of Ayan Hirshi Ali a Dutch liberal politician. She made the film together with Theo van Gogh. It was seen as very provocative by the Islamic Community in the Netherlands.

Theo van Gogh was a very intelligent man, using his provocations to let people see the borders of their own opinions. In order to let people see other possible views it is important we first understand the borders of our own opinions. We are living in a changing world, today; 2 november is a very important day for the whole world with the final episode in the race for the White House in America. Change is always marked by great resistance of people having to leave their 'safe' positions. We have not been carefull enough of people like Theo van Gogh, they are too vulnerable advocates of change.