Homework for the European market

Viviane Reding (European commissioner of IST and Media) has recently published the proposal for the new directive following television without frontiers. If you are working in European Territory this is obligatory reading.

Download the directive at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/avpolicy/regul/com2005-646-final-en.pdf

Cluetrain manifesto

I am ringing along with Jacqueline Fackeldey who wrote a comment on the cluetrain manifesto. In the manifesto one of the main points is that markets are conversations and you have to listen to them. That got my attention right away, because it covers 2 of my main principles when working with crossmedia. There are three:

1. Co-creation or User Generated Content (either in co-creation or singular)
2. Conversation
3. Listening

http://www.frankwatching.com/archive/2005/12/20/markets_are_conversations_so_a


Find the whole book (for free) at http://www.cluetrain.org/book/index.html

Dutch Creative Industry and figures about the bizz

The Dutch government has pinpointed the creative industry to be of importance for the Netherlands economy. At the crossmedia cafe Paul Rutten of HvU, presented some of his work on analysing the industry in the North Wing of the Netherlands. Most creative industry is concentrated around the cities (no surprise here) Amsterdam has largest creative industry (again no surprise) Utrecht is developing as a game nod (interesting). Hilversum and Amsterdam are mainly focussed on content production, while Amersfoort and Utrecht are focussed on services.

The other speakers, industry, where setting the marks for the business as they see it coming the next 3 to 4 years. De Telegraaf faces 1 million Euro's loss a year in the printed personal ads section a year, due to the digital trading places like 'marktplaats' and ''E-bay", which is one company. Therefore they started "speurders" on the internet as a counter 'attack'. The offer is interesting to the customer if you get a print ad AND an internet ad for the price of one and a half. I do not know if this is the model, but it is the only advantage they have over the other competitors they still have presence in print. Translate that to an offer to the public and you may have a chance. Dick van de Graaf (Endemol) was openhearted on the Endemol strategy. In the next 3 to 4 years Endemol plans to service 50% off its current customers (broadcasters), 40% directly to advertisers and 10 % directly to the consumer. I do not know if this is the worldwide strategy or just the Dutch strategy. But it gives an indication that Endemol is very hard working on entering new markets. They have to get out of the incenstueus relation of broadcaster-producer. Their arrogance towards the 'outside'market during the past years has not helped the company very much, at least this was the situation in the Netherlands. In case of UK or South America the company has had a very different approach. The succesfull entering of new markets is to be expected in these parts of the company. Peter op de Beek of RTL Interactive confessed to be still a little player in the RTL company but by now not to be ignored for RTL Interactive is presenting a 40% return on sales to RTL this year. Idols is off course one of the main forces here. As for Talpa (not present as speaker) the other speakers wondered why they did not try pay per view on the highly popular Big Brother on the internet (500.000 unique visitors each day) I do not agree on that. First behaviour of looking on the internet has to be established. At least in the Netherlands. And what a wonderfull case Big Brother is again to signify the importance of a crossmedia approach for Talpa. Comparable is the UK model of pay per view on the internet for BB. It grew very gradually in line with the behaviour and acceptance of the public of such services.

To conclude, broadcasters, publishers and producers are aware of the changes ahead and are actively anticipating. Compared to a year ago when people seem to glaze when I was telling i did something with crossmedia, because of the changing media landscape?? Large players are aware. The aggressive entering of the market by Talpa and the advocacy of de Mol for converging media has awakened the market a little more. Still if you compare to other countries like UK, France, Spain, Sweden and Finland the Netherlands is just only getting out of their comfort zones. As I have been very critical of Talpa at the start; they are doing a wonderfull job at establishing a strong broadcast channel in a short period of time. The channel sentiment is getting more clear by the day and loyal viewing habits are emerging. I am still not very enthusiastic about their 'crossmedia approach'. There is however one very important thing they are doing right now and that is establishing viewing behaviour on the internet for Talpa. What I see now is Talpa making television and establishing second and third windows for the same product. That is a smart multichannel approach. But it is not crossmedia yet. I am thankfull for Talpa generating new viewing habbits on the internet, that is good for the whole market to gain from.

Crossmedia about the pearls and the pigs..

In the Netherlands more and more people are opting for being crossmedia specialists. Allas this is devaluating the term, because some are rightfully claiming, but a lot are not.
In the Netherlands there are only a handfull of people really knowledgeable in this converging field because they have been working on it for many years. It does not mean if you are making nice websites to a television programm you are a crossmedia specialist as many seem to think so. But that is just my opinion.

Just a short list of jewels you should look at:
http://www.low-fi.org.uk/vanishingpoint
http://www.interactivenarratives.org
http://www.projectemergencia.net
http://www.persuasivegames.com

Fare crossmedia. Max Giovagnolli

Max Giovagnoli has published his book on crossmedia communication and was so very kind as to send it to me, as he has quoted me a couple of times in his book. I am very honoured by that and it is quite fun to see your own words in italian. A language unfortunately I don't understand. I am very much looking forward for the english version, because it looks so very interesting from what I can understand about it. If you are able to read italian, don't wait any longer and get this book: "Fare crossmedia: Dal Grande Fratello (Big Brother) a Star Wars Teoria e technice della communicazione integrata e distribuita nei media"; Dino Audione Editore; via di Monte Brianzo, 91; 00186 Roma; http://www.audinoeditore.it Max is a professor at la Link Campus-University of Malta di Roma. He has a blog on his crossmedia work: proiettiliperscrittori, the italian # 1 blog on crossmedia. Max has also used a lot of the work of Christy Dena, our bright australian crossmedia researcher: http://www.crossmediastorytelling.com.

Now experiencing the camera's in front...

My role in broadcast and video production has always been on the backside of the production. There are two kinds of people in television production, the ones wanting to be in front of a camera and the ones from the "back". I am definitely a 'backsider'. But on 1 december I was invited to try it from the other side. Studio A asked me to moderate there debate on crossmedia that was streamed live on the internet and.. here's the fun part you can still see it at their website on http://www.studioa.nl. Because of the subject.. crossmedia I felt confident to do that. Offcourse the discussion is in Dutch. It's nice to look at if you want to have an introduction to webcasting and are able to understand the Dutch language offcourse. Studio A has built a webcast studio in their office in the Hague. You just walk in, and make and simultateously stream your statement on the internet live. This makes using webcast very easy. A very sound idea

Public broadcasting under fire

Yesterday the parliament debated on the new plans for public broadcasting in het Netherlands (2008) A lot of the parties favoured a commercial free public broadcasting system. The responsible state secretary Medy van der Laan however is not in favour of a commercial free public broadcasting system. Now the revenues from commercials for Public Broadcasters are valued at 150 million Euros per year. However there is a decline already set in, caused by newcomer Talpa, generating a larger choice for the market for advertising on the commercial side. Talpa is aiming at a broad audience and already has achieved a market share of 8,5 % (last month). The policy will be set in from 2008. Concern is there about uncertainty the Public Broadcasters are facing now their budgets are declining AND it is not for clear if they will keep commercial revenues. At the other side internal inbalance is evolving as the board of directors wants to integrate programms on the channels, one aimed at young people, one at cultural content and one broad channel to compete with commercial ones, while the broadcasting societies aim at getting there profile more sharpened. Public Broadcasting needs to get out of their inertia and speed up to market developments. Focus should be on generating more value through high quality products in stead of on policy and structure.

Utrecht students show crossmedia talent!

This afternoon Jorgen van der Sloot and I functioned as a jury to new media students in Utrecht. Nine weeks of hard work had to be pitched in 10 minutes:

http://crossmediaforum.web-log.nl/log/4060642

In every project there where pearls, like the personal assistant with an attitude in "get dressed", the promo of E-force and mixing of real life environments with virtual worlds, which was very strong and appealing. The love for film in Vertigo, the strong co-creation theme of shot! the creative use of sound in jazzture, the expirimental approach to theatre of Romeo and Julia, taking the user as starting point at Koken is cool and the fun in chicks and chicken!
Klein Dictee won the competition because it had a good worked out "story arch" in the concept, it made a clear start, there was attention to getting awareness to the concept. It had a concious aim at the user group (10-14yrs) and this was supported in the design of the concept en the choice for characters, like Ali B, who is very popular amongst 10-14 year old. It made creative use of IPTV and typing IN the contest and there was a strong build up of tension towards a final on television. (although the TV format needed to be worked out more) . The other winner; 'localiser' had a very clear-cut concept. It was clear right away what the concept was about and what was in it for the user!

I would like to conclude: Good work from all of you guys and girls. I am sure we will be seeing more of you in the near future. And very good work from Indira!!

Sell your virtual villa and make a real buckl!!

A gamer who spent £13,700 on an island that exists only in a computer game has recouped his investment, according to the game developers.

He made money by selling land to build virtual homes as well as taxing other gamers to hunt or mine on the island.
Project Entropia offers gamers the chance to buy and sell virtual items using real cash, a trend which is gaining popularity as the boundaries between the virtual and real worlds continue to blur.

Last month, another of Entropia's virtual properties - a virtual space station - sold at auction for £57,000. While the real housing market may be somewhat static, the one in the virtual world is booming, said the space station auction winner, gamer Jon Jacobs, AKA Neverdie.
He said the virtual real estate market was "on fire" as gamers increasingly realised that virtual worlds could start to compete with real worlds at an economic level.
Neverdie plans to use his space station to establish an in-game "night club" through which the entertainment industry can sell music and videos to gamers.
The Entropia economy works by allowing gamers to exchange real currency for PED (Project Entropia Dollars) and back again into real money.
Ten PEDs are the equivalent to one US dollar and gamers can earn cash by accumulating PEDs via the acquisition of goods, buildings and land.
Project Entropia was launched in 2003 and now has 300,000 registered accounts.

Digital Think

The mediacenter has come up with a new bundle of work from 'digital thinkers'. Here's what they say about it:

'This is the dawn of the connected epoch in human civilization. We are living, you and I, in the first seconds of a society reshaped by empowered individuals connected by digital networks, of lives shaped by unprecedented volumes of information and shifting notions of knowledge and trust. Institutions like media and governments are bending under the weight of change, of social and economic disruptions to the way people acquire and apply knowledge. New institutions and conventions are taking shape.
Storytellers are everywhere.

But we are a decade into the visual Web. Digital storytelling is NOT new, is NOT unexplored terrain in the new communications frontier.
Perhaps we are in the Morse Code stage or the silent film era (one camera, no lights); pioneers have already experimented with Flash, with different combinations and permutations of interactivity, with components that hint at a richer, more satisfactory digital future. Forms and storytelling techniques have historically taken time to evolve from the first experiments to stylistic and production conventions, and great artists have long sought to challenge such conventions. Even now, Hollywood production conventions are crumbling as digital editing and rendering create new processes and artistic possibilities for video-based media. Meanwhile, digital games have eclipsed movies as the bellwether of youth culture and experience.
What will news look like in this connected, digital society? Will it occupy its own space, or share personal bandwidth with gaming, blogging and the personal video remix?

DigitalThink is about the art of the possible, and a nod to thinkers around the globe who see in those possibilities a variety of pathways to more enriching forms of communication."


I could not agree more!

http://www.mediacenter.org/digitalthink

Inscript goes back to its roots

´Foodfight´ an upcoming animation of Threshold Animation Studios and Lions Gate Family Entertainment are making supermarktproducts into regular TV Stars. Inscript sponsoring goes back to its roots.

Charlie Sheen, Eva Longoria, Wayne Brady, Chris Kattan, Christopher Lloyd, and Hilary and Haylie Duff have all signed up for the film, which takes viewers inside a supermarket after the lights go out and the staff have gone home. It shows real products, ranging from food to cleaning items, and their respective character traits and relationships.

Imagine your soapbar falling hopelessly in love with your detergent? An intriguing way to give story to your products!!

http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=79&article=27210

SBS's Sloan pops up at MGM

Veteran media exec Harry Evans Sloan, who last week completed the sale of SBS Broadcasting for about $2.6bn to private equity firms Permira and KKR, has popped up at MGM.Sloan has been named chairman and chief executive of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Sloan has served on MGM's board since June.Providence Equity Partners, one of MGM's biggest equity investors along with Texas Pacific Group and media companies Sony Corp and Comcast, have had a long-standing relationship with Sloan and approached him about assuming the MGM chairmanship shortly after the SBS sale was announced in August.Sloan, who is making a "substantial investment" in MGM, could, through potential stock option earnings, end up with as much as a 5% interest in the company.Last year, MGM was purchased for nearly $5bn and, although technically an independent company, operates as a label of Sony Pictures, which now releases MGM's movies in theatres and on DVD. MGM executives, however, oversee the licensing of the company's library of 4,000 films and 10,000 TV episodes.Over the past two decades, Sloan invested in and helped build three publicly traded media companies: Lions Gate Entertainment; New World Entertainment, which he bought from director Roger Corman in 1983 and sold six years later to investor Ronald Perelman; and European media company SBS Broadcasting, which he founded in 1990.In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Sloan said he planned to return MGM to its former status as one of Hollywood's major movie suppliers by tapping his expertise in independent film financing and enlisting the kind of low- to moderate-budget movie strategy that he applied at Lions Gate and New World."MGM is the best movie brand in the world," he said. "In five years, there will be 400m new digital homes in the world, and given my experience internationally, I think MGM is the perfect asset to develop to that end."

Kris Sofley 27 Oct 2005 © C21 Media 2005

Sloan has been a very successfull and powerfull man in media, with a very sharp insight in where to go to next. His move away from the Broadcast Channels in favour of the pure content industry may very well signify an upcoming devaluation of Broadcast Channels in general.

Shakira's Oral Fixation Large Scale Crossmedia Campaign

In a bid to offer multi-platform support to new releases and to provide music fans with exclusive content, MTV is teaming with Sony BMG and Epic Records to launch MTV 5 Star.The project, which kicks off by supporting Latin singer Shakira's upcoming release Oral Fixation Vol. 2, is MTV's first-ever new music initiative that taps into its television, internet and mobile platforms in Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and Russia.MTV 5 Star will see MTV International's channels air four exclusive 30-minute shows, offer fans a once-in-a-lifetime Shakira competition later this year, provide online users with full-length streams of songs from Oral Fixation one week prior to release and debut a series of exclusive 'mobisodes' over the next few months.The initiative will also include additional local marketing activities in which MTV, Sony, BMG and Epic will team with local print, radio and retail partners.Specifically, the initial 5 Star foray will be comprised of a two-hour programming block airing on MTV channels from the end of November.This block will include a 30-minute MTV Live performance show; All Eyes on Shakira, in which other artists ask her questions; Making of the Video, for her first English single Don't Bother; and Diary of Shakira, charting the performer's MTV appearances, including the MTV Music Awards in Portugal next week.On the interactive side, MTV will produce a series of mobisodes featuring interviews and performances related to the new album, which will be distributed via existing MTV mobile and on-demand partnerships. MTV will also create a dedicated Shakira WAP site enabling users to enter the competition, and access graphics and on-air promos. In addition, the site will include an exclusive, full-length stream of songs from Oral Fixation Vol. 2 as part of the First Listen series one week prior to the album's street date.

Jo Anne Kenny 27 Oct 2005 © C21 Media 2005

http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=1&article=27234

Viviane's 'light touch' to Europe's IST and Media industry

Viviane Reding is the European commissioner on Information Society Technology and Media. She is the first commissioner with a combined post for IST and media. Because the EC is convinced that information society and media fields are converging. Offcourse they are right. In this difficult field Reding has to set up a new regulatory framework to update the Television without Frontiers Directive of 1995. The new 'Audio Visual Content without Border Directive' already in its', this title already shows the new approach, no longer is television the main field, but it is defined in a broader sense. Reding says:Convergence is closely coupled with cultural, economic and network issues which form an integral part of the Information Society:

• From a cultural perspective, it challenges the traditional relationship between content creation, the media and the consumer.
• From an economic perspective, we are confronted by a high pace of development of new actors in the value chain, the "creative destruction" of established positions and changing consumption modes.
• From a networking perspective, the emergence of the Internet as one of the major vehicles of converged services has the capacity to challenge the sustainability of traditional business models in the sector.

It is the Commission's task to ensure that the right framework for the digital convergence and for investment in ICT is in place. This is Europe's best bet for delivering sustained growth and skilled jobs.

Reding approaches this with a 'light touch' Light but Europe wide rules offering one single basic framework instead of 25 different legal regimes. With the 'light touch' a lot is left to strong user control, but with a task for protection of minors and fight against the incitement of racial hatred. This needs to cross national regulatory borders an fill in a regulatory 'gap'. At the same time there needs to be minimal harmonization so that the country-of-origin of content stays identifiable, this is imperative for a legal framework to develop new audiovisual content services. Not to build 'chinese walls' but to identify the content work in the legal framework it has to oblige to the regulation of its' country's origin.

The light touch is also ment not to strangle new nascent audiovisual content services giving them maximum freedom to develop.

SAGAS.. exhausting and very very rewarding

My munich week at the SAGAS future TV workshop was very intens and extremely rewarding. I feel an overflow of creative and inspired ideas. I need to do this more ande more.
Reimo Lang, who gave the workshop has the ability to bring working structure to my crossmedia ideas, which evidently helps them grow stronger.

I will tell smoe more about the workshop later. Our final group had a concept that we are going to work out more, beause it is a strong basic idea that needs a lot of hard work to become something interesting, but it may very well be...

Keep you informed

Inspiring crossmedia students at HvA

Today I had a very inspiring afternoon with students of the Hogeschool van Amsterdam talking about crossmedia. These guys and girls already get it, but they are just not so aware of that. They ARE the new generation of crossmedia project makers and here is where you will find the new talents of the future. Talking about crossmedia they may not be summing up definitions or theory, they can clearly imagine how they will use media in the future and understand the implications of that immediately. We discussed the concept of Google TV, will this be the next model. Well yes and no, it will be a mix of googeling for the information you want AND letting yourself be entertained. Hope I will get the chance to discuss some more aspects, because I like to see this new emerging talent come to bloom!

we media Gaining momentum...

Gloria Pan the famous director of the mediacenter in Reston is excited for the mediacenters next upcoming event. And she is probably right, there is a momentum coming for crossmedia, participatpory journalism and wemedia as the mediacenter tags developments. If you cannot be there, you can tune in at.. http://mediacenter.blogs.com/morph/tmc_event_we_media_05_ap/index.html
to get the feed live..AND react. Now if that isn't crossmedia!

I will be in Munich this week attending a SAGAS workshop and I am extremely looking forward to letting all that creativity flow..

I will keep you posted as much as possible!

Get some inspiration in 2006

Celebrating collaborative cultures and independence movements - from independent labels to peer-to-peer culture, from free parties to free networks, from locative media to local food

Futuresonic 2006 will explore the state of independence today, and showcase independent music, arts and technologies that are open, emergent, collaborative and ad-hoc.

http://10.futuresonic.com/

Plan pervasive and locative arts network

A new international and interdisciplinary research network in pervasive media and locative media has been funded as part of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Culture & Creativity programme. The network will bring together practicing artists, technology developers and ethnographers with the aim of advancing interdisciplinary understanding and building consortia for future collaborative projects. It will be of relevance to people working in the arts, games, education, tourism, heritage, science and engineering.

http://www.open-plan.org/

Interesting man in crossmedia (really a man!!)

Gary looks interesting (tipped by Christy Dena)

http://www.personalizemedia.com/index.php/about-gary/

fat kids inspire new formats

Fat kids are becoming an issue worldwide. How to get them moving and not sit for telly all day? Well, make a televisionprogram about this and for them. Maybe not such a bad idea..

http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=79&article=26653

Warner and MTV close mobile TV deal

MTV has struck a global licensing deal with Warner Music Group that will allow it to create original short-form video content for mobile phones, based on Warner's catalogue.Under the terms of the agreement, MTV will be able to create made-for-mobile content based on artists including Sean Paul, Twista, Green Day, Big & Rich and Maná and distribute it around the world.

According to the two parties, the deal represents the first of its kind between a media company and music label covering programming on mobile networks on a global basis.

This is a great leap forward in the evolution of our mobile video strategy, and we look forward to developing more exciting initiatives in this space over the year to come," said MTV Networks chairman and chief executive, Judy McGrath. Read more at..

http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=1&article=26621

Economics of crossmedia

What are the economic advantages of using crossmedia instead of a one medium approach?
The Wall Street Journal finds this in composing multiskilled teams around one subject or newsstory. The story gets input from the regular newspaper journalist but likewise from the internet journalists and off course bloggers will let their light shine on it. The economic advantage is that it all happens simultaneous and tasks can be shared instead of done twice (with twice the cost). Crossmedia is always about composing differential teams. Kim Dingler, former media manager at Heineken and recently started with her own company Thys thinks there are enough monochaistic approaches in the market, you don't all have to be of the same bloodgroup to make excellent team work. Indeed, you'd better not be.
So different approaches affecting one another makes more excellent crossmedia work, better value is always better economics.
But for now there is a cost involved, because to get such a team working you need openmindedness, respect as well as the ability to harshly criticise one anothers boundaries of the medium you are coming from. In short, it will hurt.
How to use channels wisely, that is cost-effective and with the highest rate of return is another question to be answered. Approaches will have to differ from the current ones. Instead of coming from a mass approach and accounting number of individuals, maybe now you have to start with individuals and account when is your critical mass?
I am currently working on a model to get this better accounted for, so that when you move to crossmedia communication you may also know why you should!

De Mol's vision on Dutch journalism

In this interview de Mol gives his vision on the journalistic landscape in the Netherlands. With Talpa he has become a player on the formation of public opinion in the Netherlands as is any broadcaster. The interview is in Dutch, I will translate a few remarks: Traditional newspapers are not going to survive. Talpa will consider partnering with a newspaper, but not owning one because it is not in the experience of De Mol to direct a newspaper. He wants to be able to direct all his content!...And he dislikes being compared to Berlusconi. (But being able to direct all of your content is not really a democratic attitude, now is it!!). If he will cooperate with a newspaper means he will bring in his expertise in making television. On the long term.. De Mol does not have a 20 yrs plan but is convinced convergence of media is inevitable (I agree) He again tells he wants to develop the ideal convergence model and has the right team to do this (If he says so ;-)He tells us he will judge people when he sees them; what is their attitude, do they fit the team.. Saillant to tell, that a couple of months ago I too visited Talpa and very briefly met him, so he probably judged and found I did not fit the team (I agree). For me (an excellent working) crossmedia aspect of projects is most important to achieve. A different approach all together, because Talpa is not designing new crossmedia projects, the team is just copying some international formats and adjusting them to the local market.


http://www.villamedia.nl/journalist/n/17.2005.johndemol.shtm

20lives and Blackbeard crossmedia game

The dutch company zground developed a crossmedia game that reminds of the nokia game that is also about to start Nokia's 20 lives.
The blackbeard connection will use mobile and the internet as well as spits a free newspaper for travellers. Costs to develop the game are estimated at 700.000 Euro (which I personally find quit a sum) Players will spend 49,50 Euro as a maximum and they need 25.000 players to get the cost out. The development of the game was initiated by Zground which found sponsor onto it. As nokia's game offcourse is very much an initiative of the sponsor themselves. Did like the autocue joke on 20lives as a former autocue operator ;-)

http://theblackbeardconnection.com/

http://www.nokia.com/20Lives/

buzzcut.com - Video Game Theory and Criticism

we love to learn about games..

buzzcut.com - Video Game Theory and Criticism

Grand Text Auto

Check out these riders..

Grand Text Auto

Want to write a paper on media convergence?

And maybe go to Nottingham, just like Robin ;-)

IPerG; designing crossmedia pervasive games

Information on making pervasive crossmedia games

http://www.pervasive-gaming.org/index_swf.html

Crossmedia is a woman's world

Sorry you guys, but everytime I find something compelling on crossmedia it's a woman!

http://www.avantgame.com/

eBay takes over Skype

eBay has acquired Skype for approx. $ 2.6 billion upfront cash and eBay Stock. Niklas Zennstrom has finally cashed in major after first also setting up Kazaa. Wonder what he is up to next. Keep a track on that man!!
eBay - Events & Presentations

Come and play with me

If you could play all day, what would you be playing? Would you engage in sports and be competitive (you're a male.. right) Or would you like to be engaged in strategic participation with others to conquer more land (woman.. definitely!). What would you like to play, please be interactive and tell me.. I am looking to write a piece about work and play (a research subject for the EC)
Can you come and play with me...because..

Bright spirits enlight one another

(got this one from one of those wisdom in lines books and really liked it)

Endemol to Amsterdam stock exchange

Endemol will go to the Amsterdam stock exchange before the end of this year according to the words of César Alierta, head of Telefónica.
Endemol is in the sales window at Telefónica for quite a while now. This looks like the pressure is hightened for current negotiations with buyers or there may not be an attractive enough buyer for the format and television production company at this moment. Telefónica at the beginning of this year announced it was looking for a buyer (not going to the stock exhange but a sale of the whole company) Telefónica five years ago bought Endemol for 5,5 Billion Euro's. It is not expected they will get this amount from the market. By the end of this year though the media market is looking much better and therefore timing will be right for Telefónica to sell the company. Shareholder value will be driving the company then, even more then now (some initiatives may be not so attractive in revenue but of strategeic importance to Telefónica).. It is a question if this will be a good driver for a creative company?

Practicum nieuwe media: Crossmedia formats - web-log.nl

Indira Reijnaart is on to work with her students in Utrecht. You can follow the activities of the students at:

I met Indira last week and energy was streaming right away. She is a very likeable lady and we had a very inspiring afternoon and discussed crossmedia for four hours.. so that's what happens when you meet kindred spirits.

Looking at the neighbours..Big Brother

As it happens to be, my house and office are located only meters from the Big Brother house in Aalsmeer. Big Brother off course is the excellent example of a crossmedia project (as I have stated many times before) The first BB ever, I did see on a regular bases as did almost every Dutch at the time (1999). After that the genre quickly lost my interest and today I am not a big fan of the genre personally, professionally off course I am very much an admirer. The fun thing is ..What I started doing every now and then is take a peak at the neighbours through the live stream (good quality by the way!!) I still don’t feel bonded, because I have not invested time in looking at the series and getting to know the inhabitants of the house. I did visit the house only 1 day before it would be visible on the net and the people got in, resulting in a very nervous guard asking how the …. We’ve got into the house...:-) (Which is by means of an employers’ pass because my partner regularly works there, in fact also at the Big Brother program.)
This proximity makes me curious to mirror what is happening only a few meters away, every now and then during work. All they do is lay in the sun.. Would I also do this if I would not be situated so near?
I have considered making a streaming blog with webcams called “In the mean time outside the BB house”.. And letting my neighbours comment on it all ;-) Because it is so easy and right outside my door. Would only cause just a little problem with IPR..


http://www.talpa.tv/big-brother/

media policy explosive political material

Medy van der Laan who has announced a radical change of policy for the Public Broadcasters is overwhelmed by the comments to her policy. Next week the 'house of commons" would debate the plans. But because of the large amount of protests the debate is postponed. Some journalists even wonder if the plans will be evaluated during this government period. This may also be wishfull thinking of them. Most surprising I found that the the WRR (Scientific council to the Dutch Government) who has issued a study on the changing media landscape upon which Van der Laan claims to base her new policy is OPPOSED to the plans! they claim they never ment the report to be a base for new media policy. I just feel a lot of lobbying pressure here. It is the task of the WRR to generate bases for new policy for the government. how can they not mean it to be used like that then. Medy van der Laan has landed in heavy weather. But I support her plans on the changes. Not all of it, but I hope she perseveres, because changes are already set in and the Public Broadcasters need to realise they are not living in an isolated world. Definitely not now that the internet is going to be the bases for television activities. As we all know the internet has no borders!

Van Massamerk naar Mensmerk - Merken in een Veranderende Mediacontext

Yesterday I met Erwin van Lun, a very friendly and enthusiastic man. My attention was immediately triggered by his book called "From massbranding to personal brands". When I started reading parts I got even more enthusiastic. Erwin has an origin as an artificial intelligence expert, after that he has studied and worked in the world of brands. It gives him this rare and very valuable view on the changing media context. He based his book on a lot of interviews with experts from the field (in fact the book is his thesis for obtaining a master in brand management at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam) Erwin also has the ability to write in a very understandable and a nice-to-read way about his findings. The book is in Dutch (sorry english readers) hopefully Erwin will translate it later on. Because it is a must read for anybody working on crossmedia communication. You can find information on Erwin and his book on his blog..

http://mensmerk.blogspot.com/

Storytelling Animals

Involving children in nature and science by letting them interact with storytelling animals
The Interactive Institute - Home

Hart van Nederland: Changing the Dutch news landscape forever

This is a personal story (about a Dutch news adventure):
10 Years ago I just finished my study communication sciences at the University of Amsterdam. It was a time of recession and not easy to find a job, so I hopped from one temp job to the other. In the summer of 1995 in Amsterdam there was also a small group of people busy with the start up of a new television channel. At the time it was regarded an absurd idea, because there already was public television and two large commercial channels, RTL 4 and 5. There will not be room for more then 6 channels…! Fons van Westerloo, leading this small group had made another calculation for SBS6. News is an important anchor in your schedule. And as a former journalist Fons van Westerloo very much wanted to have a news programme but he knew he never had the budget to make that in the next coming years. He talked about his wishes with producer Marck Feller and senior editor Jean Mentens and an ingenious idea was born. If you do not have the budget to sent your reporters all over the world, why not focus on national news, the small news items everybody is ignoring, but that is very much at the heart of the lives and homes of everybody. And so..the initial idea for Hart van Nederland was born. Soon they were setting up an initial team to produce the programme. Profile: young and cheap people with enormous drives to create something new. I just happened to walk into the building in July 1995 to become one of them. It was one of the luckiest things happening in my life and it was to become one of the most intens periods too. Now Hart van Nederland is an institute in Dutch television, changing the way we look at news at the very core. A month ago someone of the old group noticed it was almost ten years ago that we started on this adventure and soon everybody was e-mailing we needed to meet. In Eik en Linde off course, centre of our lives at that time. And it was a heart warming meeting last Friday; some of us had become regular stars by themselves. Some of us had chosen or rolled into quit different paths (me for instance) and also a lot of us where still there working at the program.
Now, ten years later there is also someone who makes a different calculation about there being enough channels in the market. And as you need news for an anchor, another news programme, NSE is born. It looks like the same adventure.. But there is a big difference. Hart was not only bringing a new form of news, like NSE, the big change was in the point of view AT MAKING THIS NEWS. NSE is adopting new forms at bringing the SAME news, which is its Achilles’ heel. People want to see something they cannot see anywhere else. This is the also the same reason why Boulevard is a great success, the content of the programme is different, not only the form. How is NSE going to renew the content of its news? That’s really the question they should ask themselves. It’s a great adventure, let me tell you that!

anmi meeting on crossmedia with kpn and talpa

Yesterday I visited a meeting on the future of crossmedia by Anmi Summerschool in Amsterdam. Michiel Buitelaar, KPN and Edwin Tromp, Talpa cross media where giving their views on future developments. Unfortunately I missed the first part of Edwin's presentation, but got right on time to learn where Talpa is expecting to make money: traditional spot, sponsored content, stream spots, subscription fee, pay-per-view, shared business and market places. He has also talked about putting the concept central at Talpa and then thinking channels (I got this second hand). I think it is the right idea, but with the 'wrong' people, because Talpa's team is dominated by television people. They are not able to think crossmedia, as is becoming ever more clearly visible by now. Not an easy job for Tromp I think. Then Buitelaar, KPN talked freely of his ideas on the future. I happen to know Michiel from many years ago, where he was only thinking telecom. And was very eager to learn about the other media I was coming from at the time (television and internet) He has made a further step in his thinking from then and had a very clear presentation. Unfortunately he also turned out to have become quite blase as director of the KPN consumer division, I noticed when I walked up to him. Not all legs can carry the weight elegantly. Michiel talked about co-creation in the form of a 'pigeon channel'; A channel where one pigeonkeeper can upload his films of the pigeons he is keeping and where other pigeonlovers can watch the birds as they fly away. Not your everyday mass television offering, but it will be there eventually, a particular niche producing and viewing each others' content. He is definitely right that it will be going this way. It already is. KPN wanted to ENABLE this, which I think is a smart position to take. But how?

Let's work with kids!

I wondered what sonja kangas was doing in Finland, so I decided to ask. This is one of the interesting projects she is involved in. It's about crossmedia for kids and it is this week. So you have to hurry to attend the workshop! (I am afraid I will not be able to be there, but comments on the workshop of attendees are very welcome! )

http://www.studio12-21.se/crossmedia/

After the first week..Talpa

If I am kicking at forehand at Talpa (de Mol not spending..) let me also make up the balance after Talpa on air in the Netherlands for one week. First of all, an amazing prestige to have it running so well in the first week. This marks the truly professional television people working at Talpa (as I have said before). As it is I have some experience with starting up a new channel (about ten years ago I was part of it all at SBS) and so I know how difficult this is. Another compliment goes to Beau van Erven Dorens and all of his team working at NSE. They truly have amazed me! NSE has a huge potential and already has a good ritm and beat to it. Definitely very much NOW. But..then "Thuis" the programme preceding NSE really isn't NOW anymore. It feels terribly outdated. And off course it is not about crossmedia at all (which it is pretending to be...). If they think putting somebody with a laptop in the public to read aloud the e-mails during the show is crossmedia..Oh dear. 'Thuis' is an excellent example of NOT understanding what crossmedia is about. Forcing other channels in the programme in such an unnatural way. It makes me sad, it really does to see this happening!

Italian crossmedia modelling: proiettiliperscrittori

This is very interesting. An italian scolar that is trying to model crossmedia. His latest notions are of a supportive/proactive model and competitive/defense model (don't know exactly what he means and planning to ask him later today) Another notion is to use the latest theories on the shaper of the universe. Don't really get it yet, but it is definitely triggering insights. Take a look.
proiettiliperscrittori

Crossmediaforum

If you would like, you can discuss crossmedia subjects on this forum. It can be an interesting means, a forum and it is definitely very democratic, but I think it gets messy very easily.
Anyway, it is a good initiative, see what you can find of your liking here (It is in Dutch only by the way).

Crossmediaforum

PaidContent.org

Usefull: PaidContent.org

Narrowcasting in NL: hip tv: The Entertainment Group

All Talpa has to do, is buy this later, which will definitely happen,
if you look at the artists and the board, from the Entertainment Group one of
the initiators of this project: both familiar liaisons of De Mol.
(how to keep your friends rich)
And it will all be more crossmedia after all.
Looks really nice.

http://www.hiptv.nl
The Entertainment Group

John de Mol; All that money and nothing to spend..

John de Mol promissed to build the ideal convergence model in the Netherlands...Sounds exciting.. doesn't it. I thought so too, but how ignorant. He is entering the market with a more then traditional channel, all of it dominated by traditional television programmes. Working only with well established companies, you know.. safety first. Bringing really nothing new actually. From a business perspective, I can understand the strategy of entering a competitive market and you are not going to do it all different on top of that. It would be asking for trouble. That's healthy economic thinking. But Talpa is boringly old fashioned television thinking. This is not about me, not selling a project, I have not even offered anything to Talpa yet (and do not see any fit for my crossmedia setups in the schedule as it is right now, besides I need the advertisers before all that). But there have been lots of little companies trying to do new things. If you tell the market you are (going to be) about crossmedia, well show (at least one thing). All that money and nothing to spend.

United Productions.co.uk: Exploiting the Future

The UK’s Film Council recent event, Exploiting the Future - Digital Opportunities for diversity and difference was not just timely but illustrative of the digital ghost in the machine peering into tomorrow. The PD150 a must-have in any digital film making armoury is about to be toppled by High Definition Cam-corders costing about the same. Films with interstitial multiple arcs (think hypertext) in which cinema-goers can influence the film's narrative with SMS/ MMS is an interesting development. It could mean a studio and directors cut run simultaneously with the audience choosing what's on screen. United Productions.co.uk: Exploiting the Future http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/

Sites honored for interactive storytelling, rethinking journalism - CyberJournalist.net - Sites honored for interactive storytelling, rethinking journalism

Five finalists have been named for the 2005 Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism, which gives cash prizes up to $10,000 for "setting new standards for interactive journalism, advancing creativity in digital storytelling and recalibrating the role that news organizations play in their communities." Take a look..

Sites honored for interactive storytelling, rethinking journalism - CyberJournalist.net - Sites honored for interactive storytelling, rethinking journalism

Mobile marketing by SMS DEBAT Partner Jigal Schrijver

Often Jigal and I agree on how to approach things (not always ;-). We work together on SMS DEBAT. He wrote this inspiring article on mobile marketing. IN which I like the crossmedia thinking he displays. Take a look ...
LaComunidad Nieuwsbrief | 2e jaargang | 4e editie | � 2005 LaComunidad

WRT: Writer Response Theory � Blog Archive � Interactive Entertainment Practice Software

Good work by Christy Dena:

WRT: Writer Response Theory � Blog Archive � Interactive Entertainment Practice Software

A Storied Career:

Another jewel found by Christy Dena's work. Christy has landed in a turmoil by now (see http://www.crossmediastorytelling.com) which means the academic world is beginning to see the light. Now let's hope there's commerce coming after this.

A Storied Career: Storytelling for College Students: Stealth or No Stealth?

apophenia

ONe very interesting lady with a very interesting assignment: Dana Boyd

apophenia

CBBC multichannel strategy for children

Alison Sharman, the recently installed controller of CBBC, sees CBBC as the "vanguard" of the digital revolution:"The phenomenal success of the iPod demonstrates to me some important general themes about the way media consumption is evolving.
It is going personal, mobile and, most important, on-demand," she said. Sharman added that we are in an age where viewers increasingly take what they want, when they want it.
"And this genuinely revolutionary change in the consumption of content means that we must take a long, hard look at how we currently go about providing that content; how we schedule; and how we distribute it. It is not enough just to upgrade what we currently do, we need a whole new operating system, a new way of thinking about and executing content creation and delivery. We need - in many ways - to redefine what we mean by broadcasting," she said.


C21Media:

interview TVM (in Dutch only)

NPS "leaving" may also open doors to new crossmedia initiatives..

After first being startled by the decision of Van der Laan to ban the NPS from a budget I have to reconsider. At first I feared real investigative journalism to disappear. But that need not be true, because when this may disappear there will inevitably be people picking up the glove. As I propagated myself so many times, we are moving toward an environment where people will be in greater control over the information they want to consume. They will be more active in looking for that even up to really (co-)creating content. The best investigative journalism already these days, originates from the amateur reporters on blogs, just happening to be right on top of the subject. So drawing that line a little further, say three years from now when the plans of Van der Laan are to be effective, the landscape will probably have changed so much already that the minor voice will have found there new homes in the niche channels by then.

swarming

Talking about community and conversations I looked at swarming again and realised now that this application is working at the stage just before that, community and contact. In the right context the swarming application may be very effective. Take a look at www.eyebees.com

Dutch mediamarket: Talpa coming, NPS leaving the stage? And KPN has 1 mld EU to spent on Telfort?

Yesterday was quite a day for the Dutch Broadcast market. While Talpa where presenting their new channel in a glossy entourage on one side of the mediapark in Studio 21 (see de Mol's ideas on crossmedia on http://www.talpa.tv.. PS. I like the story, but I didn't not see it in the programming yet) ... on the other side of the mediapark in Hilversum, Medy van der Laan situated in a packed basic room was in fierce discussion with employees of the NPS, the public broadcast channel that is put out of play by this state secretary of media. An odd choice to say the least, because she wants public broadcasting to be more about opinion and debate and less about amusemen and it is just the NPS that is taking care of the minor voice in the public debate. I have agreed with van der Laan on the necesarry changes for Public Broadcasting, where a lot of money is going to the management of the broadcasters and NOT to programmemakers. But I do not understand the choice to ban the NPS, which offers typical content for the public domain. It is just this minority voice that needs be protected.

KPN, in huge debts because of the high paid UMTS rights, still had 1 miljard Euro hidden somewhere to buy Telfort. I do not understand money flows in telecommunications! I really do not!

Community as building blocks for communication

Ah live as a communication manager isn't what it used to be, hey! Neatly dividing your target groups in the 20-49 yrs groups does not seem to work effectively anymore. New channels like the internet and telephone are interfering in the picture and what to do with them? And what about these new means like digital channels or iptv? Can I reach my audience through these means? How to target then? Will they still see/hear/notice me?

There are two important keywords to remember:
1. community
2. conversations
It is all going to be about having conversations with the right community to build:
a. interest
b. believability
c. trust
And finally ..connect with your target group. Ever wondered, which communities you are part of? If your really think about that I am sure you will conclude that through the use of the internet you have become part of many more communities then before. All little villages in the global network society. Besides the family, regional and working community that you are already a part of before. These new participations in communities will have probably come naturally to you. Logical because there where mutual interests being served by joining the community so obviously you joined! And you decide how much time and effort to invest in them. This all depends on relevance, timeliness and functionality of the communities to you. People are all members of a mass and many niche communities. The art is to use this knowledge to your advantage and let the communities work with you. Listen, look and see what is happening with your customers. Instead of dictate, tell and sell to them.

Crossmedia is the buzz, but where is the money?

The buzz is about crossmedia and that should be good news, right? But, what do I hear.. advertisers are looking hard for new ways to communicate with target groups that change media consumption behaviour dramatically. But they don't know where to turn!
Well, not to your usual advertising agency, that's for sure.
Not to your broadcaster to arrange for a sponsored programme. They just want you to pay for your spots and let them do the buying of cheap re-runs in a package deal. That is their business model (for just a very little while more)
Not to a big producer to ask for a programme. Because they only know how television works and haven't got a clue about your business or marketing communication issues.

Advertisers know because they have tried this again and again. And now they don't know anymore, because there is no "well-established" company to help them solve this problem. You need to see that you cannot find new ideas with people dependable of you paying them for their old ideas. I am not going to eat my own shoe, right! First, you are not going to find an established company in this field, because it is pioneers' ground. And secondly it is huge impact pioneering ground. Simply because the public is ready for it, now all you have to do is get up to their speed. So, you need to get out there and look for the pretty little jewels laying around

(by the way I do consider my company to be one of those precious gems)

Just do it and you will find it is going to work out just really wonderfull!

Communities Dominate Brands

Found this through an article in Emerce on "open source marketing". An interesting article which also mentions co-creation. The journalist however takes a more technical approach to the subject, and sees co-creation as a product of opensource software. Unfortunately, thereby they take it out of the very important cultural context. Why do people WANT to co-create should be the first step at looking at the subject and that is NOT a technical question at all. People are NOT motivated by technique. On this blog you may find some very well informed articles and comments on the movement of communities (co-creation and crossmedia .. related in my opinion)

Communities Dominate Brands

BBC Training & Development > Free Online Broadcast & New Media Courses

Found this through the website of Christy Dena, my australian crossmedia colleague (she is in my favorite links: crossmediastorytelling). It is really nice of the BBC to teach us how to make television, since a lot more of us are going to do this in the near future when co-creating crossmedia stories! I was in Brussels (again) at the EC last monday. The IST directive is going to include a lot more media then before, because of the reality of convergence taking place. Focus will be more individual centric policies instead of industry centric policies. The goal is to empower the EU individual. For tommorow polls are that the Dutch will vote against the EU constitution. Still the politicians that I have spoken (for SMS DEBAT), in favour or against the EU constitution, are happy anyway because the subject of the EU is evidently beginning to be important to the people and that is perceived as a gain come what may..

BBC Training & Development > Free Online Broadcast & New Media Courses

NEW dutch station TEN goes for (golden) OLDies

The profile of TIEN (ten) the new Dutch television station that John de Mol is launching the next season in the Netherlands is slowly becoming clear. What strikes most is the use of old (proven) Endemol formats like Big Brother, The Soundmix Show and Deal or No Deal and not Endemol but with a long history Robinson Island. With the announcement of his enterprise in september 2004 de Mol was generating publicity with his idea of giving the Netherlands a real convergence model not seen before... Well- off course we must wait and see.. but I don't see it yet. I see what I have seen so many times before. A focus on old-thinking television with some quick and dirty add-ons like SMS-TV and talks about programms at the Talpa owned radiostation 538 and sister station Noordzee FM. Sure it will work, but it could have been so much prettier. How can you start up a media "imperium" now and take it from a yesterday starting point?

New formats for news

Here is an excellent report from the mediacenter about the future of newsmedia. I really could not agree more then with their description of the changes. Which are upon is in Europe just as well. But the pace is slacking in EU. Why isn't there a mediacenter like institute for the even more diverse European media market? News is of serious influence on how people perceive the world and make decisions in line with that. It is of imminent social cultural importance.

http://www.mediacenter.org/mediacenter/synapse/synapse_psp_0405.pdf

Blogs and the news: BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis

Here is a valuable tip for journalists that are up to speed with the changing news media landscape: Here's what they do in the states with the influence of bloggers. So the basic idea is, be smart and look at it fresh and get those voices in your format!

BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis: "CNN has the chicks reading the geeks. MSNBC started by having bloggers actually on the air and I thought that was good (being one of them). Last week, they switched format, it seems, to have producer and nice guy Tony Maciulis do the reports: He's good at it. Everybody's reading text off a screen and, yes, it does make for a straight line.
So what's the point? Well, sure, TV wants to get the geek-cool ruboff of this blog thing. But I think it's good that they're also promoting these new voices: The more the better. Have they found the right way to do it? Not yet.
MSNBC has talked about having a blog reporter and then having bloggers on to have actual opinions. I think may end up being a good way to go.
This week, MSNBC's Connected had me on not do the blog report -- I'll miss that question: 'What's happening in the blogosphere, BlogDaddy?' -- but instead to have actual opinions about the news media and the internet.
I think we'll end up with a hybrid: Blog reports do give a fresh breeze of vox pop on the air. Bloggers as guests get to bring new perspectives and voices to TV (and radio and print). And what I still want to see is citizens creating their own reports and commentary -- vlogs, podcasts, whatever -- and getting those on the air.
: Ed Cone comments here... without the cam."

By the way: We can also confirm the take-over of '538' by Talpa as mentioned in the previous article about a Dutch mediatycoon and the question will he be modest? He's not!

Peter R. de Vries joins SMS DEBAT

National Celebrity and crimefighter Peter R. de Vries has recently decided to go into politics. It looks like he has the trust of a relevant group of civilians. Different polls have currently given him around from 5 to 9 seats in parliament and up to 22% of the votes (De Telegraaf). He wants to have a large piece of the cake or else he does not feel to have an impact and will withdraw. In the mean time we want to learn more about his ideas and so we can, because he has joined SMS DEBAT. Scholars can pose to him questions on where he wants to take his political party PRDV. And off course Peter can pose questions to them. Another reason to join this debate!

SMS DEBAT

Powerplay for position of most influential mediatycoon of Europe has started

This is really beginning to look like one of their drama scenario's; A small circle of influential European mediatycoons are fighting to gain the most influence in the (European) TV World. Berlusconi's company Mediaset is eying Endemol; is the news according to Southern European journalists. While John de Mol is currently busy building his media company from the Netherlands. And Joop van den Ende has announced to enter the market as of january 2006, when his non-competition agreement with Telefonica is ended, meanwhile their former company Endemol (van den Ende & De Mol) is sought after by Berlusconi. While the Dutch just started to build their imperium, Berlusconi already gained large influence in his home territory; "Mediaset (Berlusconi owned) dominates Italy's media landscape with private channels Canale 5, Italia 1 and Retequattro, production outfits, digital channels, internet portals and the biggest publishing house, Publitalia. (C21media)" Despite denials the Italian press is holding on to negotiations between Mediaset and Telefonica taking place currently. The spanish have put Endemol in their shoppingwindow as of the beginning this year. "Big Brother company Endemol is the biggest format producer worldwide, with revenues for 2004 at €1.03bn, and an EBITDA of €181m. But Telefonica has already stated that it's preparing for Endemol’s flotation on the stock market towards the end of 2005 or early 2006. (C21media)" Powerplay with real influence for 'he who owns the media, owns the minds of people' (who's quote was that again?).

C21Media:

Press activity SMS DEBAT results in good internet coverage

To get more applicants and interest in the project, last week we send out a press release on SMS DEBAT. We got a lot of interest, that's good. We wanted some national news coverage, but the journalists needed larger numbers to bring this as news. Editie NL made the choice to make an item om goose instead...talking about relevance hey ;-) I know how journalism works, that is a nice item, as a closure to serious news. I was closely involved in building the success of Hart van Nederland. A format that changed the national news permanently. For now this may not be the case with SMS DEBAT, but I am having this feeling that is growing stronger all the time that I am working on this. That is that with the right effort and energy put into this, it may very well become seriously relevant. Hart van Nederland did not work out to be a success overnight, not at all. It is the users' respons that is most relevant. And that's just why I believe with SMS DEBAT we are on to something, this respons is here IF politicians join the debate in a timely manner and if questions are relevant. No jokes or funny meant statements here. It is a downright serious debate that scores highest among the young users. What shows that you should not have a preconceived opinion of young people NOT being interested in politics. From the little time I have spent on this project now I can already assure you, they ARE INTERESTED!!

Interesting Day at the European Commission to talk about games and collaborative working environments

Yesterday, I spent a day at the office of the Directorate Generale of the Information Society and Media of the EC (sounds pretty awesome hey ;) Specialist from different backgrounds; games, organisation management, interactive storytelling and crossmedia where invited to discuss the use of game structures for achieving collaborative working environments. Making work more like play seems to me as beneficial for most humans. The main conclusion was that for the Long Term the EC needs to invest in the development and research of applications and environments that enable: To empower people with building components to design and author their own collaborative working environments What can we learn from games, what makes them so engaging that we can learn from and use in collaborative working environments? A lot is the conclusion, although be aware not to copy paste games on working environments and to look at a game success does not mean it will be a success in a working environments. The co-creation element that is getting ever more important in games and crossmedia communication plays an even larger role when you look at working environments I think. People need authoring tools that are richer then e-mail, weblogs and chat. But just the success of these lies in the ability to co-create with these means in an easy way. Rich authoring tools that are extremely easy to use, intelligence that is unobtrusively helping you to design and author your own collaborative working environment. The characteristics of crossmedia communication may even apply more direct to the collaborative working environment then games. In a crossmedia environment as in the real world you need to interact in virtual environments, media channels and in the real world, the same applies to collaborative working environments being a mixture of real and virtual environments.

Dissimulations

Sometimes you stumble upon a piece that is old, 1995 and yet so very insightfull that it even gives you reflection on what is happenig today. Dissimulations is such a piece. It hunts my presumption that story is the DNA of meaning and therefore I like it.

Dissimulations

Correction: POSSIBLE take over '538' Station

I have to correct myself. The take over of radio station '538' is still not confirmed by Talpa and therefore my conclusion of Talpa buying '538' are to preliminary. The sources I have used are other blogs, and not a confirmation by Talpa (as if they are going to send me one ;-) However I think it very presumable the take-over will be confirmed later this week.

What to do about keeping measure if you can buy it all?

In Holland John de Mol has bought another radio station; '538'. This is a very popular commercial station, meaning that aside from commercial radio station no1;Sky Radio, which is also somewhat older skewed, de Mol has a very direct line to the younger radio listener in the Netherlands. Besides '538' he already owned Noordzee FM and Radio10 Gold (older audience) The 538 station, 90 % owned by investers was for sale for a while now. At this moment in the Dutch market de Mol is getting more and more inevitable. In England, the US and Italy people are already used to this, a very powerfull mediatycoon dominating media. But in Holland we did not have this situation untill now. De Mol, although very powerfull with Endemol, still had to face the programming board before he could air his products. He is very relieved not to have to face this, with his own channel. But I am beginning to feel a little bit uncomfortable by this inevitability of the man. What to do about keeping measure if you can buy it all? There is no democratic voice here about what the content should be. In the end it is only one man pulling all the strings. And what if that man is wrong about some things? After all it is very human to be wrong about things. I do not see any well paid employee telling him he is wrong. Everybody wants a nice car and a good pension? Luckily the final verdict is in the hands of the public. The further influence of the audience on the final product seems even more necessary for "the other voice", now. The public broadcasters are in a cramp now after a very long time of impasse. First there must be some kind of revolutionary change, else the already falling behind position is getting hopeless even more. Anyway, this will take too long. I think it is time to give the people more means to influence the stories that are told, and not just one very rich man. Something like Current may very well be a necessity in this market. Now.. where did I leave my red paint ?

unmediated; tools for YOU to create

Free tools for decentralised media
unmediated

Current TV

As mentioned before, this is an interesting project, where Al Gore is involved. It is an IPTV Station for people by people. The payment for delivered work (yeah they actually tell they will pay) is however unclear. Prices differ and it is not clear what you will be paid for your work or on what measures. You have to submit a quit claim do, before you enter your work, whereby you grant Current all crossmedia rights and future rights to any spin-off of your work. It seems irrelevant for "amateurs' but it is certainly relevant for the (semi) professional. You keep copyright, but IF you may have a potential success at your hands, you need to negotiate with the guys and girls from Current. Be quick they will surely give you good conditions, this is the PR they are looking for. Anyway it looks really good and.. American.

Current TV

John de Mol paints his face red

He is definitely on a path to war and the first strikes are hard for the opponents. John de Mol has a strong attraction on many established presenter in the Netherlands, or does it come down to plain old deep pockets?
He is definitely shooting the schemes of competitors to pieces, taking away anchors (people and programs) that have taken years to build. For all I can say, he may not be to interested in new projects/people himself, I am very happy with what is happening. Where there are holes they must be filled. I understand the need for establishment, especially John de Mol's, but establishment always means no room for new initiatives. Now, the Dutch broadcasters must move out of their comfort zones.

Al Gore in favour of co-creation

Former US vice president Al Gore has pledged to "transform television" with his new channel venture, which will launch in August aimed at the internet generation and feature a tie-up with über search firm Google. Gore said the channel, called Current, would be the country's first national network created by, for and with an 18-34 year-old audience.

Programming will be short-form, 15-second to five-minute segments, covering everything from fashion to music, videogames, politics and the environment. It will be produced by Current as well as its viewers, who'll be able to submit their own content via a website. 30 seconds to three minutes in length, these segments are intended to "buck conventional news practices by reporting not on what media editors decide is 'news,' but on the topics people are actual searching for right now. So news isn't what the network thinks you should know, but what the world is searching to learn."

He may have my vote

C21Media:

IPO fever in Broadcast industry

Is it a new hype forming or is it sound market movement? After the announced flow to the market ..again.. of production house Endemol, more indies are following in search of growing capital. The upcoming developments in the broadcast market are showing the powers are shifting. Maybe now the time has come that content will be king? It is definitely true the value of regular broadcastchannels is decreasing. Still they have a direct path to the viewer that newcomers need to build. And that is all depending on the content or more precise the anchors. In the Netherlands John de Mol is currently securing many a deal with high potential presenters to secure the success of his new channel. After first acquiring the loyalty if his very successfull sister he has now secured a deal with Beau van Erven Dorens (for whom I hold a weak spot after discovering in him an inspiring colleague, a long time ago). Apart from this, I think he has grown into a very valuable presenter and a skilled progam maker, that still has many talents to show. With these characters John de Mol is getting hold of the scarse creativity that will be key to success in the fast changing medialandscape.


C21Media:

Lost not a hit in NL..yet?

LOST has received good ratings in other countries. It does not seem to be picked up by the Dutch though.

Icebox.com

Conceived by its founders as a writers' haven, where the storyteller uniformly prevails, Icebox allows original works to be produced in quick fashion and in an atmosphere of unprecedented creative liberty. Along with the work of established talent, Icebox presents the best work from emerging writers.

Icebox.com

!!!SMS DEBAT!!!

Here is a personal project I have worked on the last months and that is now semi-live !!! Meaning you can see what it is all about on the website (sorry only in Dutch). SMS Debat is a daily actual debate between members of the house of representatives in the Netherlands and Dutch scholars. Currently I am busy getting the representatives to join in. As far as I know it is a first off in the world where representatives are actually using SMS to generate debate with people. eDemocracy in practice.

http://smsdebat.kennisnet.nl/

the making of Eccky Weblog

This is the making of blog of eccky, a virtual character under development by media republic. Eccky works like a tamagotchi, a virtual Character on MSN that you have to take care off. Eccky Weblog

From one of the makers of The Blair Witch, The Strand::Venice CA

From the maker of the Blair Witch, mixing real people with actors.
Take a look:

The Strand::Venice CA

share ideas..before they are claimed!!

I would like to share a couple of my crossmedia ideas, before somebody else is going to claim they where theirs. A skimming around the market is likely to be made at the moment. Trust is not my middle name, okay ;-) Been too long in this business, to know better. And if I tell, which I did, then to everyone. So here they are.
- Spindoctors; an intriguing show with reality, misbelief and cheating
- Find music talent show; low budget, high impact
- crossmedia detective, one step further then 24.
- the spiritual challenge, can you face it?

I know I cannot claim, with these short quotations. But I really hate this poor action of skimming the market, if that is the case, but like I told, trust is not my middle name. These first impressions do not tell half of the marvellous groundbreaking format that is behind at least two of these ideas mentioned. If you would like to know the whole story, contact me: info@dondersteen.nl (under NDA)

IPTV to reach 25m by 2008

IPTV to reach 25m by 2008

The world of internet television (IPTV) is set to grow from 1.9m users last year to 25.3m in 2008, according to new research, by then enjoying more than 10 times today's revenues.

A study from California's Multimedia Research forecasts IPTV subscriber revenue growth from $635m in 2004 to $7.2bn in 2008. These conclusions are reached due to several emerging factors in the US, Europe and Asia.


The report points to plans by US cablers SBC and BellSouth to deploy large IPTV networks in the US, as well as plans by Verizon to use IPTV technology for video-on-demand services to supplement its RF-based broadband video service over its fibre-to-the premise (FTTP) access network.

The study also talks up the planned introduction of video-on-demand IPTV services by China Telecom, and in many countries in Europe, where IPTV subs grew by 450k last year. Continued growth of subscribers by the major established IPTV service providers, Free in France, PCCW in Hong Kong and FastWeb in Italy, is also expected.

The forecast also identifies the top 10 regional service providers in each of four regions of Asia, Europe, North America and RoW, broken down by seven product segments for 2004-2008. "This granular approach enables system and content suppliers a quick understanding of the service providers that dominate 60% or more of the regional sectors," states Bob Larribeau, MRG's senior analyst.

The bullish growth predictions chime in with recent research from Strategy Analysts and Jupiter Research that said by 2008, 41% of European homes will subscribe to broadband, with Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium leading the way with penetration rates of between 55% and 60%.

Furthermore, the expansion of IPTV in Europe is expected to drive the growth of digital TV across Europe, lifting it to 25.7% by the end of 2004 and 111.6m by 2009. By 2010, said Jupiter, there will be 11.3m IPTV subscribers in Europe, plus 42.2m digicable homes.


C21Media:

Monique van Dusseldorp; Participation TV News | Home

Monique van Dusseldorp has been active in new media for a long time. Organizing many events on convergence like TV meets the web and TV - SMS aligning international parties. She publices this blog on participation TV.
Participation TV News | Home

SBS anounces digital strategy: 50% of all income subscriptions and non-traditional

"Announcing a 16.6% rise in SBS revenues for 2004, ceo Markus Tellenbach indicated that as much as 50% of the group's business will come from "subscriptions and non-traditional areas" within five years, outlining a significant shift in strategy, away from airtime sales, to facilitate growth in the digital environment.

Three new digital pay channels are set to launch in Holland by the end of the year, under plans unveiled today by SBS Broadcasting's chairman of the management board Patrick Tillieux.Each with programme budgets of between €3m and €6m, looping programming 24/7, the three channels are called Do It Yourself, I Love and Veronica Vibes. The first will be all about home improvement, the second a retro net airing hits from the 1970s and 1980s, and the third is a youth-skewed information service about nightlife and leisure in Holland.

With a September debut penciled in, Tillieux said he's currently in talks with platforms like cable operator UPC and others. "These channels will be platform neutral," he said, "and all of Holland's platforms are gearing up for digital services in the second half of the year." "

Today it is already clear that September will be one of the hottest months of the year in the Netherlands. Tellenbach foresees revolutionary changes in media consumption in the next five years, announcing these figures. However these are also realistic expectations considering the regions where SBS is active. It is clear SBS is positioning for digital leadership in the Nordic/Benelux and Eastern European (probably later) regions.

C21Media:
http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=5&article=23844
http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=5&article=23848
http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=1&article=23854

MediaStorm: A Multimedia Production Studio

Coming from photography and the web background this group is setting up a free to entry production of "multimedia storytelling" project, called Voices. You can submit your story until March 31.
MediaStorm: A Multimedia Production Studio

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 - LOST - The secret shall be revealed

LOST. In the Netherlands this series is about to be aired. It has a crossmedia component that I was not aware of. It has not been "marketed" that way, at least not so in the Netherlands. It almost looks like co-creation of fans. A smart way of letting people find this themselves. It seems to have something to do with the use of the number 4 in the series. This crossmedia set-up uses television as the lead and the internet used to keep attachment to the story. (a bit like the internet led people to see the movie in the blair witch approach).

In the Netherlands the format "Who is the mole" is becoming increasingly popular. With a slow start a few years ago, the broadcaster kept his belief in the format and now it has developed to become a high score program. You have to find out who is the saboteur in an ongoing team gameplay. You can join other viewers on the internet to discuss who is the mole. And the mole him/herself has a diary on the website where he/she reports on the mole's work. The public seems to become more ready for crossmedia gameplaying stories (oh joy!)

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 - LOST - The secret shall be revealed

Performance Paradigm Journal

High brow approach to changing media technology and the influence of on performance arts. If you like a filosofical approach to connotation and denotation and everything that lies in in between these fields, this may be nice;

" For the last decade or more media technologies and live performance have become increasingly interrelated and interdependent. Debates about this critical nexus have resulted in a diversity of views. While there is broad acknowledgement that this interpenetration has resulted in widespread innovation, there is also evidence of a certain anxiety about the status of live performance. Questions have often focused on the resultant status of the live body, the changing nature of the performance experience and of technology itself. The experience of the ‘live’ based on notions of presence is often promised and reinforced by the effect of a mass audience, but it is increasingly susceptible to digital subversion by the temporal disintegration and restructuring of audio and visual data"

Performance Paradigm Journal

The Dutch international position in television business

In Broadcast Magazine (a Dutch professional magazine on the television industry) Medy van der Laan, state secretary responsible for media policy in Holland, has commented on the WRR report (see my earlier report on WRR in this log). She finds it refreshing and in sink with future media developments. That is hopefull news, because the WRR report clearly sees things changing and does not want to obstruct developments in the Dutch market by the political play of public broadcast officials. Traditionally these officials of Dutch Public Broadcasting Channels have had a large say in developments and traditionally this had only been used to support their own expensively paid positions. Coming from a small country the Dutch have had a disproportional large influence on the international television market. Mainly due to innovative producers operating in the free market. In order to keep this position the market conditions must not be obstructive. Van der Laan does not want to comment elaborately on her plans, she wants to work on them in relative "silence". But it is clear from this interview that the effects of crossmedia communication and new possibilities emerging does have her attention and she seems much more aware of the fast changing media landscape, then Public Broadcast Officials.

Games and Storytelling

Mjammie .. Sonja Kangas is a board member: Take a look
Games and Storytelling

m-cult.net

A finnish view on media and culture
m-cult.net

morph-blog

Again, found by Christy and very interesting indeed, the opinions of lead players in the media market on new media usage etcetera, take a look!
morph

MediaGuardian.co.uk | Advertising | Nissan steers 24-minute ad towards younger market

'24' is good material for crossmedia communication. Nissan is taking part in the script. The new commercial communication. (you need a free registration for media guardian, but it is worth the effort)
MediaGuardian.co.uk Advertising Nissan steers 24-minute ad towards younger market

Dutch market WRR report focus on fast changing media landscape

It is to be expected, Dutch public broadcasters are not very happy with the latest report of the Scientific Counsel for the Dutch Government (WRR). You will find the report on this link,
http://www.wrr.nl/pdfdocumenten/r71.pdf
it is in Dutch and probably most relevant if you are interested in the (small) Dutch market. This report takes into account future developments of the medialandscape in an Undutch good informed manner. Changes are occuring very fast around us and I many times feel on an island when I talk to Dutch programmakers about crossmedia. They do not have a informed view on developments, at least that is what I encounter a lot. When I ask them what they think of things happening in other markets, such as the UK they don't have a good informed answer on that.
They definitely do not have an open minded attitude about talking on these changes, I think that is a sign of being scared because you know things are going to change and you will have to leave your safe spot, but you have no IDEA as to what you can expect. This WRR report however very clearly takes into account the fargoing transformation of the media landscape in the very near future. It may be clear as to where I stand here.

Sub-plots on your mobile

Holly Oaks is a UK Teens soap, that is going to offer a mobile sideline related to the main story for 1,50 (pounds) a month. Today I also mentioned 24 going mobile. 24 is excellent material for crossmedia endeavours. (I mentioned that before too, I believe)
C21Media:

Lloyd Braun, new head of Yahoo, former chairman of ABC

Portals, the next mass medium? With 350 million people visiting Yahoo every month, you might think so, claims Lloyd Braun: "Content is a key piece of our strategy, along with search, community and personalization," Lloyd Braun is Yahoo's new head of media and entertainment, and the former chairman of ABC Television. "We learn what the audience wants, and then we can suggest other content options to them before they ask," said Braun. "It is a really amazing thing when you think through what that could do to your business."

C21Media:

The Death Stories Project - front page

a request of Lisbeth Klastrup, the interesting lady from the previous post to the gaming community to help her on her research. She asks us to "tell our story about the character death experience in MMOG (Massive Multiplayer Online Games) that affected of annoyed us the most The Death Stories Project - front page

Another interesting Lady: Lisbeth Klastrup's homepage

I found Lisbeth at the website of Christy Dena, and this lady does some interesting work in the field of crossmedia, for a long time has done also. That is quite unique for this new field. You can download her thesis only before 14 February. After that you may still request it. Make use of this interesting offer at:
Towards a Poetics of Virtual Worlds: Multi-User Textuality and the Emergence of Story.
Her personal page that links to more of her work you may find at
http://www.itu.dk/people/klastrup/

There is something about women and crossmedia.. It's a girl thing

Vblogs present TV newsrooms with distribution avenue, potential competitor

Some handy (probably sponsored) information on setting up videoblogging services.
Vblogs present TV newsrooms with distribution avenue, potential competitor

Keep this blog posted because soon I will launch a format that I want your help with. It is going to be HUGE FUN.

Get started today at me-tv.

Here's where you get started today.. I want a camera....!NOW
me-tv: a free vogbrowser or video blog browser.

Momentshowing: VIDEO: How to make a collaborative video

Co-creation for video blogs
Momentshowing: VIDEO: How to make a collaborative video

d r e w d a v i d s o n

Another crossmedia thinker found. We are really growing an interesting community here! Would it not be fantastic to gather all these people into a project. I think we can do that!
d r e w d a v i d s o n

True insight: three future scenario's for crossmedia

Finally.. it is released, my paper with three scenario's for the future of crossmedia communication in the dynamic knowledge society.
On my website, just click the image of the report on the right lower corner and you will find the pdf. This is shared knowledge, if you use it I expect you to refer to me. Find inspiration on:
http://www.dondersteen.nl

tsunami shows further influence civilians on newsdelivery

The first images we received of the tsunami came from 'amateurs'. Because of the digitalisation of amateur devices, material can stream all over the world in an instance. Many people have been touched and moved by this gigantic disaster and it may very well be because of the nature of the images we have first seen. An innocent holiday movie, kids playing in the sand, don't we all recognize this from our private collections, followed by the devastating amazement of this enormous wall of water coming towards the shores. People where just filming this without really realising what was happening. It is like a thriller or horror. When we watch there innocent images we know what disaster is about to happen and the innocent view of the filmer is what strikes us most. Don't film...run..run..take your kids and run. Because there are camera's everywhere now we can see in detail how horrible this disaster really was. We see children washed away in an instance, seconds before they gasp at the wall of water, curious as they are of what is happening before there eyes. Personally this is what grieves me the most, the loss of innocent children who never had the strengths to hold this kind of force of nature. Nature is stunningly beautiful and cruel at the same time, that is what we see with these paradises lost.
I hope we still remember when the time comes for these people to recover and build up their homes again.