crossmedia communication by Monique de Haas

We have moved!

2010-02-27T07:47:00.000-08:00

Hi there, I have moved this blog to http://www.dondersteen.net/blog

We love to see you there!

greetz,

Monique

Social video; Will facebook connect the dots?

2008-12-01T12:52:00.000-08:00

According to ReadWriteWeb facebook connect is adding the social layer to video on the web. With discovery channel and hulu on board (as well as digg and geni) users are able to start 'talking about' what they see (and find on the web..digg) to their facebook connections. Not only profile data of facebook but as well friends connections can be added to the sites of hulu and discovery channel. RWW is mostly interested in the DIGG connection, but to be honest I find it much more interesting what is going to happen to the experience of hulu and discovery channel. Will the facebook connect enforce a more mutualy shared 'watching' experience of video on the web? Basically this was one of the strategic goals of building an embeddable videoplayer with social features for the Dutch Public Broadcasting in the project I was leading last year. It may not even be necessary to build this social layer, if the Dutch social networks start sharing their connections in a manner as facebook does.

And there is a good reason to belief they will, for it will only expand their user knowledge even more. Which in turn is off course very interesting information for advertisers in the long haul. Who is watching what and sharing it with whom,.. and what are the comments on the programmes content that are shared between friends.. As I have argued before, we need a whole new manner of looking at and valueing media-effects then as we do now. What facebook connect is doing, this use of the social graph, expanding it to other domains, is beginning to sketch a more clear picture of what the "search and find by friend" of social video will look like.. Eventually, when television will merge with the web even more, imagine how the new positions will be in this landscape... Social networks could very well be the new broadcasting networks of the future. I honestly think, that is not such an unlikely picture of the future of television and one to be reckoned with. It is certain powers will shift.

ICIDS08: interactive digital stories

2008-12-01T04:55:00.000-08:00

I am very pleased to have attended the ICIDS08 conference in Erfurt, Germany. The conference brings together writers of interactive stories with the computational AI (Artificial Intelligence) scientists of story engines and applications. For more then 20 years there has been research in the domain of interactive storytelling. One side of this domain is the AI; Artificial Intelligence domain. Here the goal is (and I am using a liberal explanation here) to dissect stories into abstract units that can ideally and intelligently create stories as systems. Progress has been difficult, due to the reality that stories are probably too human to be generated by computers. There is a lot of pre-conceived implicit knowledge at the level of the writer, (knowledge of the world, knowledge of people, creative human exploration) which is hard to dissect into abstract units.

But what is very interesting in my opinion, is that we can use elements of this large body of work to generate interactive story elements and events, that for instance can scale over large audiences, simultaneously. That is making diverse interactive story levels possible on a mass media scale, playing out different story branches that can be emerging simultaneously. Main problem was, is and will be coherence in the story lines as they branche out and start “living” an (artificial) life of their own.

Recent work at the Artificial Intelligence side is into story-generating mechanisms. The issue here is to postpone the creation of story (world, events, motives, goals and elements) as much as possible until it is needed through the interactive story emergence that takes place between the system and the user; this is called ‘delayed authoring’ and it forms the Greenfield in interactive storytelling systems.

Shortly said, the aim is to have a system that can adjust on the fly as much as possible to the course of the emerging (interactive) story. What do you need in the storyworld (elements), as prop attributes to the characters (be it either NPC or players) or the input of goals (and maybe motives) to foster progress during the generation of the interactive story?
At the time you need to fill in ‘the gap’ during the emergence of the interactive story, the system generates what is required on the fly..

So what fields is interactive digital storytelling tested in? Well, for me,.. here is the good news, although the work starts out from different platforms…:
- Augmented Reality (mobile urban drama)
- Alternated Reality (Second Life as testbed)
- Gameworlds (singular or MMOPG; -mods-)
- Interactive television
- The use of new techniques for immersion in film (stereoscopic vision and 3Dsound)
- Webbased interfaces

There, fortunately, is not a lot of debate about which media platform is “the best” for interactive digital storytelling (as can be encountered in industry environments so often), because off course all of them are in some way, more or less depending on the context of the user. The focus is more on matching user/performer/player expectations with what is evolving in the interactive story.

The need for finding solutions for this is shared ACROSS platforms. Main fields of interest are:

- How to generate an intelligent, coherent, fascinating story through the use of (AI) systems (playing out to several platforms if applicable)?

- What is the need of the user entering a story world (or maybe even prior to that, in a user wanting to (co)-create a story world)?

- How to immerse the user into the experience? What can we do to create interest from the user? Using flashbacks, foreshadowing; making stories player specific; creating believable story characters (NPC’s), the use of stereoscopic vision and 3D audio, and what are first results of the tests?

The good news is that by now the two formerly divided fields of storytellers and computer scientists are trying to come together to foster more progress. Maybe the next innovative ‘thing’ (as in next big thing) will not be a game, but an interactive story? Because the game industry has become very conservative; to much money, to much risk, playing it safe, re-doing the same format over and over again.. Game companies become “moguls” and the risk aversion is setting in which, as always leaves little room for innovation.

So.. Let's see..

Why focusing on reach is harming you to get to your goal; becoming relevant!

2008-05-28T05:24:00.000-07:00

In 1997, the old days, even before the internet bubble burst (yes I was on the scene already) I once, being a serious telecommunication consultant, had to write my input for a greenpaper on telecommunication and media for the OPTA. To give a north star I just wrote down some simple statements. One of them was

“Not reach but relevance will be key”.

And now, more then ten years down the road I think it is time to restate that prediction a little bit as in “Not reach but relevance IS the key”. What I mean obviously is that “reach” as in GRP or CPM or any other measure of short attention/contact is not a sole indicator of the effect of your communication anymore. The difference between the prediction in 1997 and today is that in my point of view we already passed the stage where it is effective to build your media strategy around aiming at as much reach as possible. But still I am amazed how most of the advertising budget most of the publishers claiming to be "crossmedia publishers" and most of the media agencies are still taking as a centre piece of their strategies.. ‘to gain as much ‘reach’ for a brand/product as is possible’.

Here’s why that is a counterproductive strategy for your brand to say the least..:

Before customers got voices, and media where still about sending and calling out as loud as you can, you could not see the bottom of the iceberg. So all the time, we just said to each other, see how great we are doing. See how many people we have reached with our message….. And see what it did to the awareness of our brand. And see how sales have increased by 10 percent. The campaign is a huge success…

But that really is just the tip of the iceberg…

The piece in the water is the amount of NEGATIVE effect/affect you get when you focus on getting as much reach as you can. The top of the iceberg is where a small amount of customers, who might just be thinking about buying your kind of product or service, or maybe they where not, but got persuaded by the coolness of your campaign and the clever repetition of your media plan and gave attention to your product or brand.

But....The bottom of the iceberg represents the cost of irritating the rest of your public with irrelevant messages. And if you make up that balance, it is a negative one!

And still, how many times a day do we get advertising messages that are completely irrelevant to us. Mostly we do not get irritated anymore, we just ignore the messages completely often never even realizing there was a message at all. (Well, maybe it has some effect, if you believe in the strength of subliminal messaging...) But the costs remain the same, either be it plain waste, or irritation. Your message is completely irrelevant to the people you want to ‘reach’. It never touched any core of their existence, never resonated on any string.

So, basically you did not do well at all! It’s a painful message if you are still out there building media campaigns to get as much reach as you can (and I know most of you are still doing this….). The problem with this approach is, you are sailing under another sky then the one we live in today.

Getting relevant is a completely different act. It means
1. Adding true value through meaningful touchpoints in the lives of people.
2. Being context-aware One context isn’t the other, so something can be meaningful in one context, of no value in another and completely off-beat in another context. Be aware of being context-aware.
3. Helping out your customers, with getting their lives better organized, more meaningful, more fun, more inspiring, more true.
4. Authenticity and openness Be true. Recently I was trying to pull of a stunt in one of the big ranting blogs in the Netherlands (http://www.geenstijl.tv). And obviously the public right away saw the acting, and most of the negative comments on my ‘performance’ where about it NOT being authentic (.. I admit, it wasn’t ;-)
5. Being just in time JIT is a term used in the vending business, meaning that goods are delivered not a moment to early and not a moment too late. This very much accounts for your context-aware communication. Be prepared to communicate on different levels with different persons in your public. Someone might be just exploring your product or service. While another is on the step of actually buying it. The first needs to be able to ‘play around’ while the next one needs a lot of confirmation if he or she is making the right choice. Those are 'different messages at 'different times' in the dialogue you have with your customers.
6. Time is personal not chronological. Coming from the last remark in the previous point.. People are at different personal "time' levels in a dialogue. All taking place in parallel. Steering all of these parallel dimensions is one of the arts of getting relevant.

I can name a few others, and I will in following posts when I get back on how to get a better grasp at these key indicators. But there is one main attitude change that needs to happen:

START LISTENING (and stop shouting… because you really are looking more ridiculously unaware every day)

Snippets of what I learned at the nextweb 2008

2008-04-09T03:44:00.001-07:00

I actually noticed three trends at the Next Web. The first is the focus on smaller particles. There was a lot of business development focussing on getting a 'feature' in the cloud.Wauw! Wee makes it easy to upload pictures and text to your site and networks by using your mobile phone.
Bemba is actually a sharing button in your browser, it's del.icio.us de-geeked. Symbaloo is the search button on your mobile. Fleck a start-up of the organisers of the next web is the yellow notes on the web. Twingly metadates the trackback functionality. They announced an agreement with "De Telegraaf", one of the big Dutch publishing houses that starts using twingly to generate more traffic.Cocomment aggregates the conversations you are in, or that may be relevant to you. I can see the meaning of that, with scattered conversations in different spaces.
Wakoopa tracks what kind of software or games you use, and lets you create your own software profile. At first I thought heck who cares, but then I got the picture, it's a two sided knife.. For developers: Get your app out and see adoption rates daily. You can adjust directly, great betatesting. For users: Sharing what you use gives you tips on what like-minded users are using now. And this is off course extremely interesting for the big vendors to know our software-profiles (even be it aggregated).

The other start-ups aimed at centralising all the particles around the users through community, or netvibes-a-like thinking and from there on letting them share again- Sharing was obviously a big theme for every start-up -. Focus is on the personal dashboard.
fav.or.it makes it possible for you to centrally assemble all that you want to cast and from there again share it. . Goo-jet seduces you by being the central starting point to assemble your material and take it with you anywhere mobile. Netlog is a social network already growing rapidly and is looking at ways to build new advertising models. Beezbox (currently as I write offline) is another social network app. Like Ning, but it is B-to-B, meaning whereas Ning owns all the data on their/your networks. Beetbox is white label to publishers. Therefore, maybe not technically high end, might fullfil a here-and-now need in the market.

That's a short pick of the start-ups presenting, you may all find them here at the nextweb

Another important development is the application aggregation. Amazon already has started this and was presenting at the next web. Yesterday google announced its google app engine. Handing out the tested tools available within these companies too the public to start building from there. Including the possiblity to scale (amazon and google now a bit about that) Talk about scaling, according to scobleizer (see later) that's what they know how to do in San Francisco.

For the real next web issue, The somewhat longer term development of the web. There was a presentation of Nova Spivack, you can find a substract of this 2 posts below. The next web is where we will start mashing beyond belief.. Therefore the focus on particles is logical. The power is truly going to be in the detail ;-). Cloud computing, applications with low data-rate exchanges, and clear benefits, digg being an excellent early example, will add to the stack. Now by unlocking the data in all those stacks we can even more enrich our experience and get relevant information. That is according to Chris Saad of the Data Portability Organisation. I met Chris, a very likeable man who invited me to come and join in the debate about data portability. An invitation that is not ment only for me, but for everybody. So take a look at the Data Portability Organisation

And then off course there was Robert Scoble, who had a very inviting speech where he was not so much sending out a message, as well opening up to a conversation with the public. Meanwhile, in between the lines, he said some very usefull things like that it is wise to gather many friends and that somehow you needed to make sense out of the feed. Scobleizer just hoppes in and out of the pulse (on twitter) when he’s on, he may react. When he’s of, your reply is lost in some endless parallel space.. I had a short meet up with Robert, (great guy) and he just gave me a tantalizing idea. Very valuable. That kind of sums him up, in and out of conversations. Sometimes being highly relevant. So thanks scobleizer, got the grey cells running up a scheme again..;-)

social video and public broadcasting

2008-03-17T09:29:00.000-07:00

In the midst of the videoplayer storm (almost every day there is a new service launched) I have been working on.. indeed making another videoplayer. There is however a very decisive difference in this player with other services. Most of them are aimed at us, users becoming videochannels. That's great, a well of new unknown talent comes on board, You Tube already showed this much. But..This player is aimed at getting "regular" broadcasting material into the the social web layer. The question then is how to get a videoplayer that can stand up against all these new initiatives AND add value to the experience of using and working with it?

We focussed on adding 'watching together" functionality to it. On getting video online "social" itself. What functionality do you need so you can share your viewing experience with others, most likely your friends?
You need to be able to comment and talk about the contents of the video. You need to be able to point out what others should watch, which particular scene..and why
You need to be able to "personalize" the video you want to place in "your environment", notably your webpage, profiling page etc. All of that and more we designed into a player no larger then the You Tube player. Where You Tube is adding - a lot - of social functionality AROUND the players, in their own website, we tried to get the most significant functionality also INTO the player. Off course we want to direct people to the website of the public broadcaster as well. This will happen because of the added value you can find in the landingspages (the reward to go to the website of the pubcaster is this good, you will). With "uitzending gemist" the pubcaster was one of the first in the world to have a large scale video on demand library available to the public. The service is inmensely popular, but.. it is a closed loop. Coming from a closed environment the movement here is to "open up" to the wishes of the public. To take the content and place it in your own context and enable you to "talk about it" with others. In some upcoming posts I will go deeper into the motives behind this, the things we learned so far and a little bit more about how to get video on the web more social. The answer is in the icing on the cake..

semantic web explained

2008-03-13T02:56:00.000-07:00

Nova Spivack - Semantic Web Talk from Nicolas Cynober on Vimeo.

Finding localised video; Google Earth & You Tube

2007-10-16T02:54:00.000-07:00

I found this merger between the two functionalities of Google Earth and You Tube very exciting. Why? Because this makes it possible to tag video to place and space. And I can already imagine very exciting ARG (Alternate Reality Gaming) propositions coming from this. For Google it means, selling really localised advertising content with mobile video. Then if they go on making the connection to the social fabric, with a solution like Jaiku (again Google) you can augment relevance of a personal search by face (nearness in social fabric) and place (nearness in locality).. Google is materialising the hybrid space in fast pace.

Public, Privat, Secret Media

2007-09-25T12:52:00.000-07:00

While the debate about facebook and the high google ratings it gives is in full swing I remember a part of our discussion back at Hemavan, sweden earlier this year. We talked about public, privat and secret media. The distinction between these is not clear to all users yet. As in they are not yet ABLE to distinguish in public, privat and secret domains, they do not know HOW to do so. People are only just beginning to learn about the consequences of being in social domains.. sharing information, thoughts and personal stuff.. without knowing how to close the gate on one and open in on the other. In social media domains, we like to portray ourselves.. most of the time from our best side or most exciting side anyway.
At the same time we like to communicate with people we know, familiar people, relatives and friends. All ties that differ in closeness and trust. BUT at the same time, newbees cannot yet distinguish what part of their communication is disclosed to the open net and what part is not. The tools on how to do that are not yet fully grasped. Maybe we can help a lot if we just give people the choice between these three options: Do you want this conversation or information to be public, privat or secret. It might be a format we can get used to relatively easy..

START listening

2007-06-18T07:53:00.000-07:00

universecreation101

to some really good stories ;-)

2007-06-06T02:09:00.000-07:00

The Break Up
Uploaded by geertdesager">

sxip, identity 2.o

2007-06-04T06:46:00.000-07:00

Tribler 4.0 ... try it

2007-05-30T10:26:00.000-07:00

A bit late reporting about the introduction of Tribler 4.0 last week in Cristofori Amsterdam. A year after first introducing tribler, a peer 2 peer open source platform service for television that is being developed at the technical university in Delft a lot has happened. Leiden neighbour Joost was introduced and they have secured a lot of important deals with big networks and content suppliers. There is one important difference between Joost and other commercial p2p teams and tribler, namely that Tribler is an open source environment. Tribler 4 has been enriched with some very nice social tools as well, the interface has improved a lot as well as the technology itself. Not so much noise around Tribler, but if I learned one thing in the last 7 years then it is that having an 'open' architecture is very very important. Just take a look at it, download, try and see

http://www.tribler.org

Sagasnet; developing interactive narrative content

2007-04-30T00:09:00.000-07:00

Today we will be working on how to pitch your idea (Sibylle Kurz and Frank Boyd)
Then Lee Sheldon is going to talk about the emotional divide in movies and games.

Tommorrow
Hunting for funds.. (Inga von Staden).
Understanding your user - personas as digital tools.(Frank Boyd)
Where the mass meets (Inga von Staden)
New virtual state of world of warcraft (Teut Weideman)
Creating tools for conviviality future challenge ( florian schmidt)
Second life rocks, second life sucks ( michael rueger)

Next day:
Raimo Lang (One of my favorite coaches!!) on interactive narratives and communities ..
designing content & context
IPTV ( Ingo Wolff)
Digital rooms with VVV (max wolf & Sebastian Oschatz)
The illusion of life - revisited (Ken Perlin... I am curious to see Ken again..)
The machinima circus ( Friedrich Kirschner & Klaus Neumann)
How television viewing is changing (peter olaf looms)

Word into action adapting other media ( Lee Sheldon)
We all want emotions in games (Gilles Montseil, Ubisoft)
Intermediary bodies and virtual worlds ( philippe Queau, Unesco)

Starting in a minute, keep you posted

Dutch Platform for 3D worlds

2007-04-26T00:39:00.000-07:00

The EPN (Dutch platform for the information society) has launched a platform for 3D worlds, together with Technical University Delft, University of Twente and Free University in Amsterdam. Goal is to enhance knowledge of 3D worlds. Cooperating also are ING, ABN Amro, Philips and IBM. These parties are already active in 3 D world Second Life. But they are still in minority. From a research of BDO Camps Obers we see that 56% of companies know of Second Life, and 90% say they are not planning to do anything in this virtual world, 68% sees it as a hype and only 17% sees a real future promise in Second Life.

The plaform (Platform Virtuele Werelden; PVW) wants to accumulate international research on the subject and investigate demographics of the residents. What's on, what are there interests? Will this world reach critical mass? What applications are appreciated and which are not. Etc.

Sounds very interesting and relevant to me. I hope the platform will be open, so we may all learn some more..

http://www.epn.net/content/view/176/2/

source: http://www.emerce.nl/nieuws.jsp?id=1957272&WT.mc_id=nb (in Dutch)

nine months in second life

2007-04-23T12:45:00.000-07:00

Douglas Gayeton lived in second life for nine months to find out the where abouts of Molotov Alva, a man who disappeared from his californian home. Gayeton found material of Alva in Second Life.. you can watch the seven episodes machinima documentary here http://www.molotovalva.com.
If you want to find out backstory to Molotov Alva check this: http://www.thecircuitbooks.com/pages/molotov.html

To make his documentary Gayeton lived in complete isolation for nine months and did not want to step out of second life (where the film was shot). The documentary "my second life" was premiered yesterday in Amsterdam, Toronto and Second Life simultaneously at the 23rd Fantastic Film Festival.. still running till 25 april in City Theatre in Amsterdam.

I met some people of this festival at Mediamatic a little while ago as we were working at a machinima workshop they where hosting. Very much fun to do! Machinima is an effective way of trying complicated shots, low budget, but also you do need a different way of working. Life in the game world continues, rules of the game still apply. Although you learn how to hack your way around that, it is not working as a set of actors that do as they are told when you want them too. Which makes it all the more interesting to do. It works much more like reporting in real life.

CMID 07

2007-04-05T02:51:00.000-07:00

Finally I have some time to report on CMID07. First of all, what a wonderfull thing Charlotte did by organising this event in the lovely Hemavan Zweden. We had a very diverse bunge of people coming from all over the world and from all different disciplines.

Christy Dena made a clear start with addressing the subject of what crossmedia is. She envisioned the powers that influence the field and that are all to be counted for when developing crossmedia material. Content or the story off course, marketing, business modelling, technology and the audience. With a lively presentation on do's and dont's the head was off. We saw a couple of really nice projects, urls you can find at the bottom of this post. Liam Bannon came in the second day. As an interaction design specialist Liam posed the question what is the relation between crossmedia and interaction design? How are we to frame the field in order to
investigate and research its subjects? His general conclusion was that there were many different angles to the subject as was already visible through the wide variety of participants in this conference and a lot needs to be thought over to come to a good framing of fields. To me it is clear that there are a lot of questions to be investigated and researched. Framing the field scientifically is therefore highly important. Major issue within the framework of forcefields sketched by Christy Dena is the balance of power between audiences and "senders". Where the profound change is that audiences become senders as well, changing the classical balance of the value chain completely. Unnecessary to say that this has a large impact on our lives and therefore also needs close attention from academics and researchers.

Some interesting projects presented:
http://www.spaceacademy.tv
http://www.oclc.org (norways collective memory)
http://www.kuvakirja.fi
http://www.moo.com
http://www.sooda.com
http://www.eve-online.com
http://www.jpgmag.com
http://www.otava.fi
http://www.behavioristics.com

Co-creating games

2007-03-07T00:40:00.000-08:00

David Perry starts a new project where he will -from the start- co-create a new game. Co-creation of new levels and characters is already much usance in the game environment. What makes this project special is the co-creation act of building the game from scratch. Currently 20.000 'amateur" builders have signed up to the project. Goal is to have 100.000 co-creators involved. Perry is setting up the project with gamebuilder Acclaim. It should be a platform where 'wannabe' builders can show off their skills to headhunters that will be online to check best talents. Alike a pop idol for the games industry.. Making use of the collective intelligence, crowd sourcing and creativity of the crowds I like the set-up of the project (codenamed top secret... ) and am curious if the collective is able to eventually make a better product.

Wanna co-create in this project and become the next Game-Idol? http://phpbb.acclaim.com/acclaim/viewtopic.php?t=28

(source: Emerce)

second life for teens

2007-01-31T06:15:00.000-08:00

Nickelodeon has taken a bold step into the burgeoning virtual-worlds arena with the launch of Nicktropolis, a personalizable, avatar-dwelling playground for kids on the Web. Nicktropolis, which goes live on Nick.com and Nicktropolis.com on Jan. 30, is sort of a Second Life for tweens: Kids can create a virtual identity for themselves – a 3D video game-like character which they create, picking out what color hair it has and what kind of clothes it wears, for example. Then kids can take that avatar to visit various virtual locales within Nicktropolis, such as stores, friends’ rooms, amusement parks and even virtual versions of top Nickelodeon shows, like SpongeBob’s Bikini Bottom. Initially, Nicktropolis consists of four distinct areas: Nickname Lane, where kids maintain their own rooms with virtual possessions; Nicktoon Boulevard, an immersive area featuring the network’s characters; Downtown Nicktropolis, which houses a park and several stores; and The Pier, a gaming-focused region.Besides spending their time exploring, Nicktropolis offers a variety of multimedia options for its intended nine- to 14-year-old audience. They can listen to Nick.com radio stations, play numerous games and watch videos – either in a Rec Room located in Downtown Nicktropolis on virtual TVs they have purchased using points, which serve as the virtual world’s currency.But perhaps the primary appeal of Nicktropolis - and its potentially most controversial option - is chat. Kids can interact with other avatars either using a series of Nick-supplied phrases or their own words, as long as they fall within a Nick-safe dictionary. To stave off predatory fears, in a presentation to reporters on Jan. 29 Nickelodeon executives placed heavy emphasis on Nicktropolis’ various safety features. “We believe it is as safe as we can possibly make it for kids,” said Cyma Zarghami, president, Nickelodeon and MTVN Kids and Family Group. For example, kids are encouraged to use nicknames (not their real names) when registering for the sites.And to participate in Nicktropolis, kids have to supply their parents' email addresses, through which parents must provide their approval to allow kids to chat and pursue other activities. Plus, several persistent buttons on the Nicktropolis’ interface allow users to report any potential safety hazards, such as uncomfortable interactions with other avatars. Marketing-wise, Nicktropolis is launching without advertising, though execs said that sponsorships are coming soon. “Right now we’re having an open dialogue with marketers,” said Steve Youngwood, executive vp, digital media, Nickelodeon and MTVN Kids and Family Group. According to Nick.com vp Jason Root, the site is likely to sign on a presenting sponsor of some sort but would shy away more “immersive” ad inventory that might detract from Nicktropolis’ fantasy world.Executives said that prior to its launch, close to 300,000 kids will have tested Nicktropolis, which has been in development for over a year. While the new site isn't’ MTVN’s first foray into virtual worlds (MTV has launched Virtual Laguna Beach), it is certainly its most extensive launch to date of this kind. In the kids space, Nicktropolis will be aiming at Disney’s kids aimed virtual game Toontown, and possibly Cartoon Network’s coming Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG), due in 2008.

copied from..
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003538925&imw=Y

There are some fast uptakes in the child and teenmarkets for new (virtual) environments as logically this is the most obvious 'playground' for new initiatives.

Take a look, at first glance it reminds me of habbo hotel: http://www.nick.com/nicktropolis/

figures on interactive content and convergence in Europe

2007-01-25T02:15:00.000-08:00

A recent report on market expectations and development of interactive content and convergence:

http://europa.eu.int/information_society/eeurope/i2010/docs/studies/interactive_content_ec2006_final_report.pdf

http://europa.eu.int/information_society/eeurope/i2010/docs/studies/interactive_content_ec2006_annexes.pdf

Joost alias the venice project

2007-01-17T09:46:00.000-08:00

finally I have some news on the venice project, alias Joost. Kazaa and Skype entrepeneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis have landed in our country (holland) to develop a peer 2 peer television service, mainly motivated by tax policy (and I suspect the legal system and p2p being relatively favorible in the Netherlands). They aim at low usage of bandwith high resolution service delivery. It will take about 3 years before it can widely errupt to market because by that time most television will have an internetconnection. Untill then it is only internet based. Unlike you tube there is much less server capacity neccessary, because again of the smart use of p2p.
Everywhere the duo comes they disrupt markets (music and thelephony) and off course now television is next. I have already encountered some project proposals about this and not to forget the work of Johan Pouwelse in Delft. The market for broadcast channels is going to be disrupted, no news, but the influence of these two may speed up things a little bit.

what happens when you are gaming=

2007-01-15T10:33:00.000-08:00

Jesper Juul on the experience of gaming

http://www.half-real.net/

Take some time to listen....

2007-01-15T10:30:00.000-08:00

Thank you christy for mentioning this ...

http://cms.mit.edu/news/podcast/

Must read book

2007-01-03T03:21:00.000-08:00

http://www.nyupress.org/books/Convergence_Culture-products_id-4756.html

I waited for this a long time, did not look at it for a long time to see that it is already available. Cannot be anything else then a must read

2007... Breakthrough of new crossmedia formats?

2006-12-05T00:31:00.000-08:00

Will the new year to come finally set movement in the market to develop new crossmedia formats? Are we able to convince that the risk-benefit balance of crossmedia communication is turning positive? I plan to put much energy in there. For a long time I have not blogged regularly. Reason is the set-up of a business to measure reach on any floor, but it is especially interesting on the shopping floor. Do you want to know how much visitors reached which assortment AND what is the effect on sales? How long where they standing there? Is this time spent value made up by the margin on the sales floor? Do you want to pump up your floor productivity. I have developed the tool to let the productivity and profits in shops grow... continuously!

What is the connection of this tool with crossmedia communication?
Have you ever wondered what the effects of your above the line communication are on the below the line shopping floor? You know that place where the FINAL DECISION is made?
Compared results in other media channels to results in the final media channel, the shopping floor, on a continuous basis? Probably not, because you did not have the means to do so. Well, now that problem is solved. Yes this is a sales pitch. I rarely gave one on my weblog. There must be a reason I do now. ;-) I will tell you what is the reason, this tool will really help to clarify a lot of questions on media effects in a rapidly changing media environment. Don't we need that now, to measure the effects of crossmedia initiatives? What is the risk-benefit? Retail Treks (name of this tool) will help to answer one of the most important questions in the sequence.. what is the effect in store?

The next level

2006-11-15T05:13:00.000-08:00

Through the long tail blog of Chris Anderson (read his book).. I found this:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.10/cloudware_pr.html

Take away the battery problem and increase processing power multifold..
Your mobile device will become your life's directory.

crossmediaweek,, a late reflection

2006-10-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

A little late, but here are my impressions from the crossmedia week in Amsterdam.
I will quote some of the interesting phrases I heard:

- World creation with ecosystem of organical growth of emergent stories
- mash ups; quick presentation, comments, points of views (tools machinima and quick storyboarding)
- Atlas of codecs that guide through events
- Crossmedia development is a profound moment in the evolution of media - existential happening - it is about US and our creativity (Gary Carter Fremantle FX; excellent relevant presentation!)
- meaningful relationships, beloning connection, protection, trust, intentioned attention, from ease of use to improving quality of life; protect, filter and support (Linda Stone; the most profound speaker at the whole event.. that I got to see)
- real meaning is in the use, affiliated spending on- and offline, more dependent on the web, battle is threefold, for attention, the home and the pocket, new interactive layers to navigate unlimited choice, having control and making smart use of it, media is technology in disguise and the best disguise makes it most usable, profound change occurs after shifts in time-spending and money spending, transformative power of the brand, engagement versus interruption (John de Mol, an invitation to the advertiser to join in the movement)

start crossmediaweek in Amsterdam

2006-09-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

Today the crossmediaweek in Amsterdam started its programme. The entourage is great. The programme today was.. sufficient. No really exciting things.. yet. An interesting debate at the crossmedia cafe about the value of a crossmedia idea versus person operationalising the idea. Value is offcourse idea AND person (better still ..team). Frackers claimed ideas are not so important, it is what you make of it. I agree completely. When he invests he looks at the person and later maybe at the idea. As an ideabroker I can only say that this feeling is mutual. For I am not interested in money per se, it is only a means to get to a goal. It is who you make the journey with the team you build, the one giving you money to grow is part of the means, part of the team. If you do not know where you put your coins, stay out of the game.., this is a lesson we learned from the internetbubble. Finding intelligent money is difficult (in my opinion). What good is money if they pull the plug two months too early, or keep pumping it into idle ideas, pulling down total revenue of a portfolio?

What is MIT doing on convergence..

2006-09-14T08:07:00.000-07:00

The illumious MIT.. Find out what there doing on convergence right here:

http://convergenceculture.org/weblog/

Talpa interested in Hyves

2006-09-05T08:05:00.000-07:00

Word has it...reliable journalistic resources... that Talpa is interested in buying social network hyves. (http://www.hyves.nl) This fastgrowing community, primarily populated by 12 to 25 years old, can peak at each others lives and stay in touch. The peaking around in the others "krabbels" and pictures is the true power of attraction of the system.

Talpa would make a very strategic crossmedia move here.
Anyway price will drive up, because somebody will buy them, soon.

new market figures on convergence

2006-08-29T02:03:00.000-07:00

Accenture has made a report on the future of convergence and identifies fierce competition from Asia. I have accentuated this before.. Asia has the perfect base for convergence; a highly skilled IT workforce, large film and television industry (bollywood is as big as hollywood, in production size and turnovers) and they can make the leap for going digital all at once (many parts of the territory is not yet on analogue television..).. no heritage like we have in Europe..

http://www.accenture.com/xdoc/en/industries/communications/convergence/landing_convergence.pdf

5 lessons for marketing media content

2006-08-24T01:42:00.000-07:00

Snakes on a Plane: 5 lessons for marketers
"Snakes on a Plane" was the number-one movie this weekend, taking in $15.3 million. Some traditional media outlets that were so quick to trumpet months of unprecedented Internet buzz called the take "disappointing" and a "letdown."
Don't believe the hype. "Snakes on a Plane" was a first in many ways and if anything, proved that giving fans a stake in the outcome made the movie more successful than it would have been otherwise. (I saw it this weekend and it was pretty bad, but in a fun way, like "Rocky Horror" but without the singing.)
I think there are five key lessons to take away from what will always be remembered as the SoaP phenomenon:
1. Memes have never been more important. The simple and straightforward title was so unlike Hollywood films that fans took interest. Like a gene, a meme knows how to replicate itself. All of the instructions to copy it are inherently transmittable. "Snakes on a Plane" had all of the cultural transmitters necessary for it to easily sink into our cultural consciousness, which made it easy for DC Lugi and all of the other creative content creators to have fun with the concept. Social media means memes will spread faster than ever before. A name means everything if spreadability is the goal.
2. When fans embrace your meme, embrace your fans. Kudos to SoaP director David Ellis for acknowledging bloggers and fans. The studio didn't get medieval on them. They reached out to bloggers to thank them, invited them to promotional events, and finally invited many of them to the Hollywood premiere.
3. The culture of participation is here. Driven largely by the 20-something generation of Millennials, participation is what they expect. That's how they grew up and that's what they love. When Millennials and other meme-infected creative people are passionate about a product, idea or cause, they find the means to create and participate. Social media is their collaboration system. SoaP has proven that citizen marketers will help even the most niche-oriented product like "Snakes on a Plane" find an audience.
4. Embracing citizen marketers reduces risk. Launching a new product is betting against huge odds: Over 80 percent of all new products fail. New Line reduced its risk by listening to fans who wanted more snakes, gore and f-bombs. Making $15 million in one weekend is disappointing how? (Silly media.) If New Line hadn't listened to fans and released a PG-13 film called "Pacific Air Flight 121," chances are no one would have talked about it, and it would have been just another low-brow Hollywood movie.
5. The experience is the difference between profit and failure. SoaP was not just a film but a film-going experience. People dressed up, brought rubber snakes, shouted lines at the screen and had fun. All of the fan-created fun (and Sam Jackson's infamous, fan-created line) created an expectation of "we're in this together." (Read through these comments for first-hand reports from movie-goers.) It wasn't "Snakes on the Waterfront," but some people said it was the most fun they'd had at a movie in years. That's welcome news for an industry whose revenues keep declining. Before seeing SoaP on Friday night, I had not been to a movie in five months. The film industry's theater partners insist on ruining the experience by commercializing it to death. After sitting through 40 minutes of commercials for video games, the Army, Sprite, new TV shows and upcoming films, I won't return anytime soon.

from: http://customerevangelists.typepad.com/blog/2006/08/snakes_on_a_pla_1.html

Thanks also to Christy Dena; http://www.cross-mediaentertainment.com/

Avatar socks...

2006-08-17T05:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I read a very amusing report about the growing trend of people to turn socks into favorite friends. De Telegraaf reports this to be a worldwide trend.. With this character, designed by yourself you express yourself and have an ever caring friend with you all the time.
I started wondering which of my socks would have a chance of becoming my caring friend. My socks are actually quit boring, most of the time. But sometimes I hide Disney characters in my boots. One of my favourites is Thinkerbell, naughty emotional little bitch. Kind of fits to (the dark side..) of my otherwise "lovely" character. Furthermore I found the idea of actualising an avatar for IRL funny. Is it because we are getting more used to building avatars in virtual worlds? Is it a transcending of virtual habits back into everyday life? When Thinkerbell transforms to be my favorite avatar sock friend I will upload a lovely picture of her.. promissed ;-)

TV content on its way to the mobile platform in the US

2006-08-15T08:48:00.000-07:00

ABC is developing mobile phonegames as extensions to its succesprogrammes Desperate Housewives and Lost. Unfortunately in Europe not yet available because I am very curious how they have adapted the content to a light (mobile) game.

US cable network HBO has released one of its original documentaries for free for the first time as a video podcast available from its own website and from Apple's iTunes Music Store.

(c21 media.net)

20th century fox offers popular movies and series online

2006-08-15T03:10:00.000-07:00

Twentieth Century Fox is passing by its' coldwater fear of offering films online. Warner Bros already started film offerings online a while ago. It seems the big 5 are not waiting for a catastrophhic market make over as the music industry has experienced through Peer to Peer. Already most of the P2P traffic (which is the major part of internettraffic worldwide) is for movie content. The movie mologs are following the i-tunes model and started an online offering. When the price is right, the advantages are that users can get their movies 'clean'.
Listening to the wishes of your customers is always a wise thing to do. The obstacles for listening to these wishes are often organisation-culturally dominated. It takes courage to break through these barriers, but on the other hand, there is no other way.

Digital Media Space "share of voice"; blackberry TV, sony and channel 4 VOD

2006-08-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

Slowly but certainly the race for 'share of voice' in digital media space is heating up.

CanWest launches Blackberry TV: Global TV parent CanWest MediaWorks is launching bbTV, the first advertising-fuelled Canadian market effort designed to deliver video content to users of BlackBerry handheld devices

Sony preps new AXN channels for Europe: Sony is poised to roll out a string of new channels across Europe under its AXN action banner, with Germany, Switzerland and Austria all on the agenda and an animé network for the UK.

Channel 4's VoD plans go beyond TV : UK terrestrial Channel 4 is planning to launch on-demand services that go far beyond television in its continuing quest to gain a "disproportionate share of voice" in the digital media space.

(www.c21media.net)

The user in the director's seat; UGC is gaining impact

2006-08-10T04:53:00.000-07:00

The explosive growth of YouTube (300 % in a year), myspace and video google (no figures yet, but I am convinced it is growing extensively) is making the notion of users wanting to generate content more solid.
Now in the Netherlands@ home is adding a UGC service with Zizo to the offerings. Users can send in material, that is rated and then aired. Idols on a daily bases. And NCRV is starting up 'videotalent" http://www.videotalent.nl a video upload service for the public.

All of these, it is a rough land of new beginnings, lovely to see. Yet at the same time it needs to grow beyond the material of the poodle in the pool to generate a break through. I am awaiting for the next global news issue (allas it will probably be a catastrofic situation) where witnesses will send in their reports and google video and youtube will be the number one news deliverers because of the fastness and the "no control" over the content that is an essential part of the "format". And for now, nothing wrong with the poodle in the pool, for what is the information we like to share anyway? What do users want to show off themselves? Wonderfull sources to explore..

crossmedia lessons learned at the world championships football

2006-07-17T07:28:00.000-07:00

Very interesting event on august 25 in cologne about the experiences with integratedn crossmedia customer oriented models at the world championships Football.

http://www.inccom.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=103

Cross media week in Amsterdam not balanced for niche thinkers

2006-07-03T08:28:00.000-07:00

A good line up of speakers for the Amsterdam Cross Media week. But.. only large industry players. I miss the balance of innovative and creative thinkers from the scientific fields and arts. It looks like media republic was dominant in creating the programme.

As time goes by, I am getting reactions from accredited thinkers and (artistic) workers in the cross media field that they have not been contacted or invited to join the debate. I will certainly visit the week, but I will certainly miss these thinkers to feed a good debate. Sharing insights is one of the prerequisites of crossmedia. ..like multiple points of view... Besides if I look at the list of speakers I can certainly see a bias in favour of the organisers, that have created a nice image-boosting platform to embed their own messages in at cost of the Amsterdam community that sponsors with... 500.000 Euro. Where a big mouth will take you..

http://www.crossmediaweek.com

Another jewel from the mediacenter

2006-06-06T11:55:00.000-07:00

Get inspired at this wonderfull new blog of the mediacenter portraying visions that count!
And join in the debate!

http://www.mediacenterblog.org/we_imagine/

Talpa starts with streams and chat in MSN

2006-05-22T01:01:00.000-07:00

Finally we hear something of a crossmedia experiment coming from Talpa.
So far now all Talpa has done is follow the developments and copy the successes, like 'programma gemist' as a copy of 'uitzending gemist' a pubcasters's initiative. There is nothing wrong with copying good ideas. Better a good copy then a bad idea. But as De Mol suggested a year ago when he launched the Talpa channel, that the medialandscape will 'change more in five years then in 25 before (or something like that..)' I agreed fully and was anxious to see what would be his initiatives in this respect. So far Talpa has played it safe by following the lead of others. I found that dissapointing, because.. now we had one person with a view on the future that could make a change because he has the means to experiment and he can suffer some loss there to get some win. He could speed up initiatives, making use of the fact there is not a lot of negotiating necessary to start a project. This could give him a big advantage in the market place. He could differentiate at a high speed, with projects failing in total, some in part en some successes. Instead all we saw whas more of the same. Not strong strategically.
Now this initiative starting from june 1 I find interesting, because it will tell you more about how people will act sharing at televison program while being at another place. With MSN you can simultanuously with your buddies watch the same stream of a program and chat about the programme will doing that. This gives Talpa a very interesting insite into what the viewer is experiencing while watching their programs. Good material to rethink what the viewers are negative about and to see what is succesfull to further build on. That is listening to your public and deciding what is relevant to them. Two of the key drivers of crossmedia communication in my perception. The article is in Dutch..

http://www.emerce.nl/nieuws.jsp?id=1488594&WT.mc_id=nb

changing newsparadigm around the world

2006-05-03T06:22:00.000-07:00

Take a look at the we media conference currently held in London:

http://www.mediacenterblog.org/events/06/wemedialondon/home/

Happening now and probably it will be accessible afterwards too.

first dutch crossmedia congres

2006-04-26T12:43:00.000-07:00

Today I had the honour of co-chairing the first dutch crossmedia congres in the RAI. It was an interesting day in which we could see that from where companies might start, be it newspaper publishers (PCM), television (Endemol) or telecommunication (KPN), the convergence was noticable. PCM is starting projects on the internet AND on television. Endemol is going into distribution together with KPN and KPN is starting as a television provider. (IPTV) Everybody is getting into the competition on other fields. In comparison to a year or two ago where the general meaning was that this will come sometime somewhere, action is being undertaken today. The Dutch industry is starting to get awake. Still if you compare to the UK and the scandinavian countries sophistication in crossmedia thinking is not to big. But in Holland we do have the perfect starting situation, infrastructure is excellent as also noticed by Dick van der Graaf from Endemol. What we need is disruptive thinking. I did not here very much of that today. But then are the big institutionalised companies ever the ones to disrupt? I dare to question that. Difficulty is that you have to keep your share in the current market and at the same time attack the system you thrive on.. The Dutch advertisers (the money) in the market are still a little to anxious to try really new disruptive crossmedia projects. But this is what we need to foster catalysing growth. Look for, be open to and try new (low cost) things. Start small and then let it grow organically, by users pulling on the concept. Like a circle that starts small from the middel and gets bigger and bigger all the time.

social currency

2006-04-24T06:07:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about this concept that popped up in my mind a couple of months ago, during my work with the p2p tribler project group: "social currency" it has to do with getting the value out of the ever growing folksonomy that is being created by us all.

A good visionary blog on this is:
http://www.vanderwal.net/random/category.php?cat=153

As massmedia are deteriorating in there strength, how to grasp what is going on?
The internet is a wonderfully logged place. Logs are being tagged and connected to other people;places.. But what are the connections and more importantly what do these connections between people mean?

An opinionleader in one field creates social currency when he/she exhibites knowledge or tips. At the same time the opinionleader will be a follower in a completely different field. What is the value of his knowlegde node network. In other words what is his social currency?
And can you trade social currency? One currency for another? What is the value base?

The space is a medium, let's make that accountable!

2006-04-18T00:49:00.000-07:00

I have worked for several years now at a product that is using videotracking technology to capture movement of people in spaces, such as stores or stations or events.. etcetera.
From 2003 to 2004 I conducted a pilot in a store in Roosendaal, Netherlands to explore the possibilities of videotracking to get information on behaviour of people. This resulted in developing 2 applications to generate keyfigures to look at behaviour...
near a screen, near an assortment, in a waiting line, on an airport... You name it. I condensed the information to media key figures such as OTS and Window of Opportunity.
It is a very intelligent product that is still very easy to work with and that can generate amazing results, especially for centrally organized organizations. Imagine we lifted turnover by up to 10% in some weeks in our pilot store. If you take that centrally and work through the adjustment in say all stores. Also if effects are not that strong overall, It may still very well turn a smile on your face. Because the measurement is continuously you can learn through time what has worked well and what did not and you can adjust seasonal products as they go. Off course you can also see effects of new products more timely and make adjustments right away. After a while it may even be possible to use the information in your storage policy and personell planning. It takes time to tell the story though and it takes even more time for most companies to do really new things. Working with this instrument forces you to take what happens on the floor into account strategically. But the pressure of needing a measure for the effects of narrowcasting, digital signage accelerates the need for information on what happens in spaces where these installations are installed. After all there are sometimes large investments involved that need a return. In order to calculate this, we need a measure of the effects. Not to forget we need a measure of the effects on screen level, if we want to attach a rating to the messages on screen. RetailTreks (that is the tradename of this product) is very well able to give you information on the effects of digital signage. In a store we can even look directly at the effects on category level. Did the message of a product result in more visits to the assortment? And after that, did the assortment visits generate more sales?... This first step is an important step to make by the way, only looking at sales uplift to see if digital signage is effective, may have you ending up working at a message that was effective in the first place, not getting the conversion went wrong on assortment level, and if you do not measure that you will not see the difference, turning on the wrong screw to get it better!)
And while you are looking at the effects of digital signage and can make up a rate card for third party advertisers, you may as well look at improving your total retailformula and take alongside the percentages of improvement you can make with that. It is what we say in Holland to catch two flies in one stroke.

P-2-P Fusion; aboutP2P television

2006-03-07T02:30:00.000-08:00

On March 17 there will be a workshop on P2P television in Amsterdam
It will be held at:
Felix Meritis
Keizersgracht 324
1016 EZ Amsterdam

I have the honour of moderating the discussion with the experts. The workshop can only be attended after invitation. If you are interested you can send a motivation of your interest to:

j.a.pouwelse@EWI.TU.DELFT.nl

personal observation about blogging

2006-02-17T04:38:00.000-08:00

When you get busier and busier, you try to keep on blogging, but deadlines of projects seem to be more pressing all the time. And in the blogosphere not publishing in a week is a certain dead. So I am definitely dead by now. If anyone may read this (by coincidence) I only want to bother you with interesting stuff (not like this then) and I have a lot to tell, but need some time to reflect on it and tell you about it. But as a promo to keep in touch, here's what will be coming up:
- making measures to count audiences to CAN {Captive Audience Network} ; narrowcasting; Digital Out of Home etc (you know the screens everywhere) , so that viable business models can be built. Yes it can be done, will be done and I will tell you more about it.
- What will happen to the broadcast model when TV becomes a free asset? Yes, we are talking P-2-P television and the regression of the total value chain. Relevant? I think so. Interesting.. you decide.

See your next time, after my reanimation

Talpa and Endemol trying to make money with pull services

2006-01-25T03:08:00.000-08:00

Talpa as well as Endemol are trying to get people to pay for their content. Talpa is selling its serial Van Speijk price 1.50 Euro per episode. Endemol is selling one minute versions of the popular soap GTST. price will be around 0,50 Euro up to 1.00 Euro per minute.

X-media club, a party it was!!

2006-01-25T02:52:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure of moderating a very interesting debate on crossmedia at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam. There is a stream available, total duration is 3 hours, but every minute interesting.

We had

concept developer Theo Meereboer of Sanoma;

Krijn Schuurman as a media trendwatcher

Annelies Kaptein, one of the first interactive television programmers in the NL, who has won several international awards for the work of her company Stoneroos,

Paul Naber of Microsoft about XBox 360 Live and the mediacenter

And finally Johan Pouwelse (TU Delft) to disrupt all the earlier presentation with his work on P2P television, it may change the nature of broadcasting completely.. remember Napster and the music industry..

Obviously it is in Dutch..

Take a look

http://home.interactievemedia.hva.nl/x-mediaclub/

the guys that wrote the ' we media ' report

2006-01-19T13:12:00.000-08:00

Take a look:

http://www.hypergene.net/blog/weblog.php

50 million for Dutch crossmedia-fund

2006-01-19T07:30:00.000-08:00

Joop van den Ende, the other half of the famous Endemol enterprise is back in the mediagame. He has started up a crossmedia fund. Together with Hubert Deitmers (former board of directors Endemol) Van den Ende plans to bring his passion for media back into new companies that operate on the converging marketplace. Van den Ende has been active in the world of theater with his VandenEnde foundation after he left Endemol. His work has had a significant influence on the developments of the theater market in the Netherlands and as far as I know also in other places in Europe. He explained in an interview that he was making money in two ways, by exploiting the theater buildings and by selling tickets for the plays in these theaters. One of his last projects is building the new DeLaMar theaters in Amsterdam, by reconstructing this old theater in the center of Amsterdam for new glorious theater moments. Not all projects are highly profitable, also high culture productions are supported. Van den Ende was bound to a non-competition agreement with Telefonica untill 1 January of this year, after John de Mol and Van den Ende sold their company to the spanish 6 years ago. Both of them earned billions with the sale. The new fund (VandenEnde &Deitmers) aim at smaller but innovative enterprises. A return on investment of 20% per year is achievable in this field. That is very probably a good informed estimate and means good news for all of us operating in this field.
Another 100 million is reserved to help middlesize companies, such as Eyeworks grow (although I doubt if Eyeworks is still middlesized, they are a pretty large player by now). There has been a long term relation between VandenEnde and Oerlemans (Eyeworks) as Van den Ende was the first to recognize Oerlemans talents as more then a soappie. On the verge of the convergence in the mediamarket to seriously take up, both big mediaplayers are back in the game. And both de Mol and Van den Ende have been very succesfull in the broadcasting market, signaling a good view on the possibilities in the mediamarket. Since both are aiming at crossmedia developments, that is good news for the development of the crossmedia market in the Netherlands and Europe. The flip side may be that again the same people will be dominating the media market. In general it is good news for all crossmedia missionaries out there.

how writing will change in this century, says christy

2006-01-09T11:59:00.000-08:00

Christy Dena is a well appreciated co-thinker on crossmedia. Here's what she has to say on the future of the noble art of writing:

http://www.cross-mediaentertainment.com/index.php/2006/01/06/writing-predictions-for-the-next-decade/

reserve in your agenda 23th of January

2006-01-09T05:11:00.000-08:00

Yours truly will moderate the discussion at the X-media event on 23th of january:

http://x-mediaclub.blogspot.com

It's free and inspiring

newsvine, news by you

2006-01-09T01:14:00.000-08:00

In Korea they already have a website that is made by the readers (Ohmy).
On Frankwatching I saw this tip:

http://www.newsvine.com

It is still in beta, but looks very interesting. This can function as a "portal", sorry for using that out of date term, but that is what it is, for the news you would like to receive. You can publish articles and if you do that good, meaning you have high relevance, you will make more money on the ads that accompany your articles (you get that money). Next to your own rss feeds, that generate your personal news window, you can browse the newsvine for new points of view. Not everybody will do that, but I can imagine (as a former journalist) it is a very rewarding source for professional journalist to skim for interesting items. Big and small news..

My source; http://www.frankwatching.com/archive/2006/01/07/newsvine_iedereen_kan_nieuws_m

inscript sponsoring is to safe broadcast budgets

2006-01-05T02:42:00.000-08:00

The new European directive for the audiovisual industry will 'loosen' the rules for product placement. This will help the broadcasters to grow their budgets and keep on pace in the market of emerging on-demand services is wat the commission expects. Because this will be more effective commercial communication thereby generating higher income for broadcasters (again).
Off course this will not be enough. Broadcasters will have to get into the on-demand field as well if they plan to keep their position at least almost stable. They have a big advantage opposed to newcomers, they are known and trusted brands to the public. What is very interesting is the 'country of origin' principle. Meaning your service has to be build to the rules of the country you are established in AND may not be hindered explicitely by the law of the country it is aiming at, besides the country of origin. If I look at the UK for instance, rules for lotteries and gambling are much more liberated then in the Netherlands. Off course the Dutch can hold on to many of their rules, claiming on public policy. However if harmonisation is required, these will have to be liberated too. Working from UK territory and offering services to the other Member States, what is the freedom to offer your service in the whole of the EU? Is Luxembourg still a good country of origin to be based? If so, it will be even busier in this small country (where Viviane Reding, commissioner of IST and Media originates from). On demand services will only have to conform to very basic rules regarding protection of minors and from discrimination and hatred etcetera. Because people decide themselves to consume this content rules are very basic. The consumer has to take his/her own responsibility on what to consume. One market that is definitely going to boom under these rules is the on demand market for adult content. A category per se that will be demanded by consumers. Short reporting (news and sports) are to be offered to other countries on reasonable terms. Foreign sales of news is a source of income under fire. What will be the role of the international news agencies? Will they see their positions harmed. Owners of sports rights may have to see into their estimates on income from short reporting too. In favour is the consumer in any case because more easily they will have access to relevant information.

NSE, last attempts..

2006-01-02T12:17:00.000-08:00

NSE the news sport and entertainment show on newcomer Talpa is currently still in heavy weather. A newsprogram always needs more time to grow, the same applies here.

NSE has to question itself.., What is my true added value to the newsparadigm that is already offered? And that is not in the form of your newspresentation it is in the news itself. What is the point of view? Are you going to kick ass, well go out and kick some real ass! Are you going to tell the true story of people, well go out and paint me the portraits. I want to see interesting people that are touched or part of the news, it may take a 6 minute portrait a day.. I want to see politicians, the guys and girls in charge confronted at their spot, not with a sneering remark in the studio. Play it straight, put it in their faces and tape their reactions. Be the rebel on the court, instead of playing the role. Don't make it easy on yourselves.. Go all the way, time is almost up..

http://www.nse.tv

Homework for the European market

2005-12-27T05:41:00.000-08:00

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

2005-12-22T02:23:00.000-08:00

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

2005-12-12T02:34:00.000-08:00

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..

2005-12-12T02:21:00.000-08:00

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

2005-12-04T04:36:00.000-08:00

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...

2005-12-04T04:26:00.000-08:00

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

2005-11-22T04:34:00.000-08:00

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!

2005-11-10T11:49:00.000-08:00

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!!

2005-11-10T11:43:00.000-08:00

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

2005-11-10T01:06:00.000-08:00

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

2005-10-27T07:28:00.000-07:00

´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

2005-10-27T07:19:00.000-07:00

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

2005-10-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

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

2005-10-25T01:44:00.000-07:00

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

2005-10-12T05:38:00.000-07:00

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

2005-10-03T10:28:00.000-07:00

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...

2005-10-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

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!!)

2005-09-27T10:35:00.000-07:00

Gary looks interesting (tipped by Christy Dena)

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

fat kids inspire new formats

2005-09-27T10:23:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-27T10:17:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-23T04:52:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-15T05:09:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-14T00:47:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

we love to learn about games..

buzzcut.com - Video Game Theory and Criticism

Grand Text Auto

2005-09-12T12:11:00.000-07:00

Check out these riders..

Grand Text Auto

Want to write a paper on media convergence?

2005-09-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

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

IPerG; designing crossmedia pervasive games

2005-09-12T11:43:00.000-07:00

Information on making pervasive crossmedia games

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

Crossmedia is a woman's world

2005-09-12T11:41:00.000-07:00

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

http://www.avantgame.com/

eBay takes over Skype

2005-09-12T04:30:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-12T04:21:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-12T03:50:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-12T02:29:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-08T03:27:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-07T07:32:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-07T07:06:00.000-07:00

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

2005-08-29T02:33:00.000-07:00

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

2005-08-29T02:08:00.000-07:00

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

2005-08-25T06:12:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-08-22T00:41:00.000-07:00

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

2005-08-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

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

2005-08-15T02:31:00.000-07:00

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

2005-08-15T02:18:00.000-07:00

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