How about someting new on television, please..

I used to work exclusively on television programmes and it is still a great love of mine. So I cannot help but keep on watching what is happening in the broadcast industry. Traditionally the last two seasons of the year, autumn and winter are the moneymaking seasons because advertising rates are at their highest, due to the most public available. It is also the place where new programmes are launched, and producers hope for their programmes to be the "next big thing". A big thing is Pop Idol or Big Brother. Sadly the next initiatives are copycats of the original big thing with a little twist in it. In Holland where Big Brother started its enormous worldwide success, the program is not scheduled due to two last seasons where the people lost interest in it very fast. And lets be honest after one episode you know the concept and it is done. You don't want to waste any more time on wannabees eating theire noses. I think we had the best BB ever, because the first time those people really didn't know what was happening outside. After that the format changed forever because people knew what they where doing. Isn't it just plain terrible looking at all those fucked up wannabee icons playing their lives. But back to the current schedule. We are still in the aftermath of reality programming with shows like detoxing former stars, and common people wanting famous fases and bodies. So they build themselves as spitting images of Pamela Anderson, who else. In holland we see a lot of Pop Idol spinoffs, like finding the next big band. Or to keep with the twins, finding the most spitting examples.

What I am missing very much is a grand "old fashioned" show with whole new interactive twists. And I cannot get it, because the time is so now, so right now to do that. What are you all doing at Endemol, Granada and Eyeworks?? People want that safe comfortable kind of television. Not in looking back at it in sentiment, but in the here and now. And better then before because you may vote along. Let's bet.. anyone!!!
If you all wake up, give me a call, right because I have already figured out some of the processes, really!

The fourth dimension of retail communication

My work is currently much related to retail communication.
Retail communication is changing rapidly. This is because retail is now able to use IP based services to its own advantage. A couple of years ago the bricks were told they would get extinct because of the bytes. Meaning that the brick and mortar shop would get extinct in favour of us buying everything on the internet. It didn't happen... for now. Let there be no mistake about it. Some products and services will be mostly internet based and the brick and mortars will get rare to extinct. The Brick and mortar music store will become such a rare species, the traditional photstore is another one.
But at the same time a pure ICT company such as Apple is investing in high profile Applestores in every important town centre. What does this mean? It means that when you need to explain features of your product it is good to get in touch with your customers. But mostly if you want to play a role in peoples lives you have to be there, in their places of worship. The function of a store for a customer is not about buying products! It is about setting projections of a better life, more comfortable, more successfull, more in style, just like the store is.. and in the store now you may actually hold products of worship in your hands...wow!!Apple I Pod is a style statement, a community building vehicle and.. oh yes, it can also store your music on a hard drive. So you have a rational argument to give into your need to be stylish and belong to the creative Apple community, which is why you actually buy the Pod. Every retailer is dreaming of getting his store or products into places of worship. He/she wants to influence his image to the customer. But how to do that best? ICT applications are getting more intelligent in the store. The publicity of RFID developments is a sign of this, although I fear another overhyped development here, it is basicly an interesting one. Currently I am working on a pilot to develop a service for retailers to actually 'see' what people do in their stores. The routes they take, the time they spent, the places they attract to and the 'dark places' that are not working for the store. This information helps the retailer to better design his store, but also to plan and design his instore communication to be most effective.
Now you have the possibility to merge interactive possibilities that the internet can give in a real environment. Mixing the real with the virtual, to enhance the story you are telling.
To me it is a very exciting instrument to test crossmedia storytelling, because in a store you can offer divers mediachannels all at once (the store itself being a mediachannel as well) and invite the customer to observe, inform or interact with the information that is offered in the store(s). How will it influence the projections of a better life, more comfortable, more successfull, more in style? Will it influence buying behaviour?

Strange Attractors - An Animation Showcase

I got this one also from Christy Dena, and I think it is very inspiring stuff! Learn how the animators animate

Strange Attractors - An Animation Showcase

Why do we all watch football when half of us not really like it?

We have just had the EK Football with its surprising winner Greece. Surely a good Greek Sportsummer this year as it has only just started.
But the fenomenon I wanted to write about is the amazing habit of a whole nation watching football, wearing orange clothes, driving cars that have lions tales hanging out on the back on to the street.. at least that is common in Holland.. when only half of the people really like football. Even people disliking football will be watching..
Why do we do that? I think that media consumption is getting more and more fragmented and we liked that. To have our own communities of interest, our own very special sites. But at the same time there is an emerging need for something to bind us to our neighbours, the parents we meet at school, the colleagues from that far away other department. We want something to talk about, some common ground. Football is such common ground, the orange clothes tell us we all belong together as we support "our" team. I see this need getting stronger. The rapid changes in the recent world order. The treaths of terrorism, the growth of religion fundamentalists (and I mean christian as well as islamic) made the world a less safe place. We want to be safe, it is a very basic need (remember Maslow, the second level of needs). We want to feel bound to a save group. We look for togetherness in something that transcends the difficult religious or political discussion. And football as many other sports is able to just do that. A crossmedia approach would be to underpin this feeling, to establish more common ground. To accentuate the feeling you belong to that group, where you will be safe.
Crossmedia should not be focussed on accentuating individual differences, but group coherence and alikeness.

Henry Jenkins

Christy got me on track with someone who off course is of great importance to studying crossmedia communication. You cannot miss out on this one. I would like to meet him one day..
Henry Jenkins

Star of Dena

I just "met" Christy on the internet and I think she is doing some very interesting work. I feel there is parallel thinking going on here. Please take a look at her blog!
Star of Dena

meet sonja another crossmedia missionary

I met Sonja on the Mgain conference in March in Manchester this year
where she invited me to speak on crossmedia at the conference.

This link will tell you more of VTT in Finland and their crossmedia research

IST-2001-38846 mGain

The website of Mgain where you can find information on the
conference and speakers from the telecommunications industry,
gaming industry and the moguls as Microsoft and BT. I was
there to discuss about crossmedia and I met some interesting
people.
IST-2001-38846 mGain

Will you find me?

As I just started this crossmedia blog, one of the first things that came to my mind was, can people interested in this subject find me. So I am stepping into the subject of rss and feed burning. I will let you know how I see this influencing our ability to cross communicate with each other. So I can better make you find me if you want to know everything there is to know about crossmedia communication, which I plan to offer to you.

crossmedia communication

For starters I would like to give you all my definition of crossmedia communication:

Crossmedia communication is communication where the storyline will direct the receiver from one medium to the next. This makes it possible to transform from one-dimensional communication (sender -> receiver) to multi-dimensional communication (senders <-> receivers. Furthermore I believe that good crossmedia communication will enhance the value of communication in two ways:

1. Financial profits through equal or decreasing costs for the same communication effects with single medium communication. It is possible to shift costs for communicating from the sender to the receiver, if the story is attractive enough for the receiver to want to interact with it (at extra cost)

2. The level and depth of involvement will be more personal and therefore more relevant and powerful.