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

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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