DERTy Link #4: Touch me, touch me

Larry Larsen at on10 has filmed a demo of Microsoft’s most up-to-date Surface Computer

It’s nothing new – we’ve seen a few surface mechanics in before, including some older ones like MS’ PlayAnywhere, but this is the slickest version we’ve seen yet. The object recognition capapbility is very cool and the wi-fi camera connectivity is brilliant.

Apparently they’re gearing up for commercial deployment within the next 6-12 months;  we just can’t get over the fact they’ll be bitch to clean – don’t know about you, but there’s something very unsvoury about wiping down your TV screen every couple of days…

 Larry embeds all of his videos so we can’t post here. You’ll have to watch after the jump 

Seeing as it’s traditional to post a video of some sort here, we thought we’d throw in our favourite object recognition and interaction screen, Sony’s Revolution. Ancient, clunky and certainly surpassed by something a lot cooler, we still think this rules….

Which Witch Hunt!!!?

 

Interesting debate raging over at Scobelizer at the moment. It seems his initial review of new ‘n’ improved Technorati received a bit of a hammering in the blogosphere as readers jumped all over his observations and tore them apart.

“I want you all to notice what happened last night while I was sleeping: my readers fact checked my ass. See, I got excited about Technorati based on the searches I was doing and the results that I was looking for. But then you all tried your own searches and brought other evidence to bear,” says Scoble

The Blogging Beheomoth found that his army of readers turned like rabid dogs while he snoozed, awaking to find…

“Why not just STOP with the knee jerk, poorly researched posts instead of relying on your audience to do the fact checking for you. Otherwise, what reason is there to visit your blog? comment by skc“

Blimey! Calm down Skc, he’s commented on a web application upgrade, not butchered your first borne.

Certain (perceived) factual inaccuracies, posted following a reasonably short period of reivew (1 hour), have been hauled out and dragged through the blogosphere by his readers. Some of Scobles first thoughts and opinions have been taken and held up as evidence of his unreliability, as evidence of his poor analysis and even evidence of the weakness of blogs in general:

“Perhaps what this incident should teach us is that blogging really shouldn’t be taken very seriously, and is a lesser tool in the journalism toolkit…Anything posted on a blog is eclipsed by the amount of effort that goes into a printed or televised story. The reason for that is not only fact checking, but taking the time to review the whole picture and make sure that people really understand it, with a well conveyed story. comment by Chris”

Chris, You’re right. Blogging is nothing like print or broadcast journalism. Well done. terrific observations. Now go and sit down!

What the hell is the point of viewing a blog as an alternative to traditional media? Do bloggers like Scoble have the huge resources, timescales or fact-checking capabilities afforded by traditional media? No. What’s written is not always factually accurate, but it is certainly far more honest, and this is where the influence lies.

Bloggers write what they think, what they know,  and what they believe. The unedited nature of blogs allows ultimate freedom to say what you want. And when factual inaccuracies arise, they can be questioned, when an opinion is voiced, it can be debated and ultimately the truth will out. It’s not an alternative to the Sunday Times, it’s an arena to investigate it! 

What’s clear here is the misconception some readers have with the nature of blogging. As Scoble points out, I’m not a testing lab. If you’re expecting me to run 1,000 searches and be as thorough as Consumer Reports you’ll be sorely disappointed…this is my personal opinion. I didn’t represent my first opinions about Technorati as in-depth science.In fact, I still stand by my opinions. I like the new Technorati better than Google’s Blog Search.

By their very nature, blogs encourage the debate. Chris, John C. Welch, LayZ et al - by simply posting your comment on here you’re discrediting yourself – a blog post generates the debate, it encourages people to take the information they’ve got and actually THINK about it. Question it, argue it, scream blue-bloody-murder at it, it’s made you think about it and provided the opportunity to comment on it, post a response and indulge your pedantry by putting Scoble right there at the end of your keyboard, ready to respond to your argument. Take a step back and have a better look.

It’s a bloody conversation! Regardless of your newspaper corrections pages, your on-air discussions or your ’strongly worded letter to the editor’, blogs are letting you voice your opinion in an unfettered tirade. Would any traditional media you know print/broadcast for 27 responses to the same story? Doubtful!

“Citizen Big Brother?”

Robin Hamman at cybersoc.com has joined the beta test of Plazes, a new social networking site that “adds physical presence to the web. The Plazes website automatically detects your location and connects you to people and places nearby. See people in your area, discover other locations and follow the whereabouts of your friends.“

So far, so ‘police state’.  Robin describes it as… “a service that tracks your mobile phone and/or the points where you connect to the internet and plots them on a map. You can then add descriptions and images to the new plazes you create so that other users can find them. Another nice bit of functionality is that you can search for Plazes and other users, including your contacts and others who have chosen to make their location visible, within a user determinable distance of 2 or 5 km.“

It’s an interesting concept, merging offline with online worlds, but one that I’m still not wholly comfortable with. The UK isthe most scrutinised nation on earth; with 4 million cameras filming everyone – on average – 300 times a day, is there a need to amplify our Orwellian society with rampant web 2.0 narcissism?

I’m all for the expansion of social networks, but I find a system that uses mobile tracking to pin-point your location (albeit with the users’ consent) a little intrusive.

Robin’s going to continue with the beta test and write a fuller report sometime soon. I’ll keep you posted…

DERTY Link #3: OneStopPopShop

“I’m a self-facilitating media node, yeah… it’s well mexico!!!

  

Popurls is the dashboard for the latest web-buzz, a single page that encapsulates up-to-the-minute headlines from the most popular sites on the internet. Launched in March, it gives “a quick glance on what’s happening on the web while keeping the common newsreader clean from short-term headlines…a gate to an editorial selection of the most popular sites on the internet, presented in a usable way“

PopURLS gives you a snapshot of all the most popular links from the most widely used aggregators. That’s A LOT of headlines, people. 

In all honesty there’s just too much to take in at once, but to get a good indication of web-mentality, the key discussions and news agenda online, popurls can’t really be beaten. It takes a moment to get your head round it but when it comes in to focus, it’s pretty amazing.

The list as it stands at the moment:

Digg, del.icio.us, reddit, flickr, newsvine, metafilter, tailrank, youtube, news.google, news.yahoo, netscape, ifilm, wire, slashdot, boingboing, odeo, fark, nowpublic, shoutwire, metacafe, clipmarks, dzone, videoshift and video.aol.

I could link to all of these sites individually, but I honestly cannot be bothered. Similarly, I could not be ar$ed copying out the ludicrously comprehensive list of contributing blogs – just go and look for yourself, it’s what it’s there for. 

As Barley would say, “Keep it foolish!”

Magellan hits the social interweb…

Like some Tolkein-esque scrawl at the front of a dusty tome, XKCD has found a map of online communities.

Odd (clicky for larger)

Citizen jouranlists?

 

Suw Charman (ORG and Strange Attractor) has published a brilliant examination of citizen journlism at the Freedom of Expression project.

Read the whole article, or download the pdf. after the jump

The Changing Role of Journalists in a World Where Everyone Can Publish

by Suw Charman
Social media expert, writer and journalist

(Download a pdf version at the end of the paper)

Citizen journalism – when the general public investigate, fact-check and publish news stories – is changing the face of news. The historic role of gatekeeper, played until now by professional journalists, is obsolete. But new technology and increased civic participation are creating new opportunities for the mainstream media, and three key roles are emerging:

1. Investigation – traditional in-depth investigative journalism made more transparent by publishing research and references.
2. Curation – collecting trustworthy links and synthesising an informed and succinct overview of a story.
3. Facilitation – working with the community to help people publish stories important to them.

What is ‘Citizen Journalism’?

Ask a dozen people to define ‘citizen journalism’, and you will undoubtedly get twelve different answers. This is not because agreement can’t be reached, but because many different activities have been lumped together under the same umbrella term. One definition might be:

“Citizen journalism: The execution of journalistic behaviours, such as investigation, fact-checking, and news publication, by the general public, usually on the internet.”

It doesn’t matter where these behaviours are exhibited, whether on a blog, a wiki, an independent website purpose-built to collect citizen journalism stories, or in a newspaper. Nor does it matter who is doing it – some journalists are also citizen journalists. What is important is that the general public now have the ability to investigate, report and fact-check news of every type and on every level, from international to hyperlocal.

However, some dislike the term ‘citizen journalism’, because:

1. It sets up a false dichotomy between the professional journalist and the citizen journalist.
2. The term ascribes the citizen journalist with a motivation – to become a professional journalist – that in the majority of cases does not exist.
3. The term encourages people to make a value judgement, as if there is ‘real’ journalism and ‘citizen’ journalism, and that the former has more value than the latter.

There are many alternative phrases in use to describe mainstream media, including ‘participatory media’ and ‘distributed journalism’. But despite its flaws, the term ‘citizen journalism’ has gained currency and thus is the one this paper shall use.

…

Conclusion

The empowerment of the public has undoubtedly resulted in increased civic engagement³⁰. Political apathy occurs when citizens feel disengaged from the political process, so it is essential to democracy that people are able to take part in public discourse: the ability to speak out, to be heard, and to make a difference is of vital importance in modern society. Citizen journalism plays a key part in this process, but with massive proliferation of information sources, we risk overwhelming ourselves, thus stifling instead of nurturing the conversation. The historical information bottleneck no longer exists, and the media are no longer in a position to act as gatekeepers who control the flow of information. Instead, they must now fulfil one of three core roles:

1. Investigation – there will always be a real need for journalists who have the skill, time and resources to engage in investigation. The importance of this role in a functioning democracy should not be overlooked, particularly in the current climate of damaging cuts in the mainstream media’s newsgathering operations. However, journalists should publish their research and references wherever possible to provide more depth to their work.
2. Curation – the more information is available, the more help we need to make sense of it, and the journalist who becomes expert at assessing other people’s content, creating a collection of trustworthy links and synthesising an informed and succinct overview of the story is performing a valuable service to a time- and attention-poor audience.
3. Facilitation – there is a significant opportunity for journalists to work with the community as facilitators, helping people publish stories important to them, whether international or hyperlocal. These roles lie at the core of a healthy democracy, and we must consider their increasing importance in this connected, information-rich age.

Pandora gets back in its box

It seems that Pandora, the internet radio station has finally lost it’s valiant battle against international licensing constraints. They’ve had  who had to cut off listeners of its internet radio service due to them not being US residents. The company is now pushing for effective, established and centralised licensing bodies worldwide.

 Jordi Ballera, the Deputy GM of Edelman’s Madria office received the following notification today. The UK manages to squeeze through the draconian US laws; unfortunately, the rest of Europe is not so lucky… 

Dear Pandora listener, 

Today we have some extremely disappointing news to share with you. Due to international licensing constraints, we are deeply, deeply sorry to say that we must begin proactively preventing access to Pandora’s streaming service for most countries outside of the U.S. It is difficult to convey just how disappointing this is for us. Our vision remains to eventually make Pandora a truly global service, but for the time being, we can no longer continue as we have been. As a small company, the best chance we have of realizing our dream of Pandora all around the world is to grow as the licensing landscape allows. We show your IP address is ‘85.62.33.130′, which indicates you are listening from Spain. If you believe you are seeing this by mistake, we offer our sincere apologies and ask that you please reply to this email.    

Delivery of Pandora is based on proper licensing from the people who created the music – we have always believed in honoring the guidelines as determined by legislators and regulators, artists and songwriters, and the labels and publishers they work with. In the U.S. there is a federal statute that provides this license for all the music streamed on Pandora. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent license outside the U.S. and there is no global licensing organization to enable us to legitimately offer Pandora around the world.

Other than in the U.K., we have not yet been able to make significant progress in our efforts to obtain a sufficient number of international licenses at terms that would enable us to run a viable business. The volume of listening on Pandora makes it a very expensive service to run. Streaming costs are very high, and since our inception, we have been making publishing and performance royalty payments for every song we play. Until now, we have not been able to tell where a listener is based, relying only on zip code information provided upon registration. We are now able to recognize a listener’s country of origin based on the IP address from which they are accessing the service. Consequently, on May 3rd, we will begin blocking access to Pandora to listeners from your country. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

We will be posting updates on our blog regarding our ongoing effort to launch in other countries, so please stay in touch. We will keep a record of your existing stations and bookmarked artists and songs, so that when we are able to launch in your country, they will be waiting for you. We deeply share your sense of disappointment and greatly appreciate your understanding.

 
-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)

We do the DERTy work (pt1)

 

It’s been a particularly busy week a DERTy Towers UK. Contrary to popular belief, there are occasions when we feel compelled to stop lurking on the interweb and actually do some work – this has been one such occasion.

When the BBC announced it’s VoD service a couple of weeks ago, we mentioned that we had a bit of inside information. At the beginning of this year, one of our biggest clients, Motorola’s Connected Home Solutions (CHS) division, conducted a pan-European research project looking at the IPTV market. We released the first stage of results this week.

The project involved surveying 2,500 broadband users from the UK, France, Germany, Spain & Italy. Participants were questioned on their current TV services and usage, their understanding of the technology, demand for experiences offered by IPTV (video on demand, own-scheduling, etc) and predicted use of technology in the future.

We got some incredible results which paint a comprehensive picture of current TV use, consumer opinion of services in Europe today, the demand for personal control and predicted use of future technologies. The key point – surprising everyone here and at Motorola - was that 45 per cent of European viewers are watching TV online.

The point of interest was not the specific mechanic or method of delivery but on the viewing experience being embraced by end-users. Respondents may not have been able to differentiate between live streaming, video on demand or download (for these purposes we did not differentiate) but the message that camethrough conclusively was that people are taking far more control in their viewing habits, making the decision on their own time and not allowing themselves to be dictated to by broadcaster schedules.

It’s simply evidence that illustrates the changing face of viewing habits – something that’s enabled by high-bandwidth internet connections and IPTV technologies whilst being embraced by broadcasters (like the BBC and ITV in the UK this week), new stakeholders (Joost, Babelnetworks, Jalipo) and traditional providers (Telia Sonera, France Telecom).

Overall, the research gave compelling evidence for the importance of broadband in the home – everyone’s aware of the demand for a reliable internet but the fact that these burgeoning entertainment and communications services are solely reliant on a powerful internet connection means that broadband really is becoming the ‘fourth utility’.   

We had a great response from the media, and in the blogosphere, though there was a bit of a requirement to clarify the purpose of the research and implications for the market. It’s always gratifying to see such a positive outcome following a lot of hard work. It was an incredible team effort and we’ve all invested a lot getting this as far as it is at the moment. As we’ve been saying, there’s a huge amount of data so we’ll be making further announcements in the near future.

We’ll keep you posted…

A London Dinner, A Paris Launch, Research and Media Coverage: All in a week’s work

The last week of April 2007 was a busy one for Edelman’s European Digital Entertainment, Rights and Technology team. The London and Paris offices hosted Gail Becker, global head of the practice, who was visiting for a series of meetings, media interviews and events.

The impetus for the visit: the first anniversary of the formalization of the practice in London and the launch of the practice, “Divertissement Numérique”, in Paris.

The substance behind the visit: new research was commissioned by the DERT practice to dig into issues surrounding low levels of trust in the entertainment industry first identified in Edelman’s seventh annual Trust Barometer.

 

The RESEARCH

Commissioned specifically in France and in the United Kingdom among 18-34 year olds, the field work was conducted by Edelman’s own Strategy One just last month (completed in April). In short, the research revealed that distrust in the entertainment industry makes younger consumers less inclined to buy and one in four more likely to download illegally. The story uncovered was not a simple one; a complexity of opinion held amongst consumers was uncovered about the evolving world of digital entertainment.

There was clear indication that the industry has succeeded in moving the debate away from the availability of content online. 69% of Brits and 59% of French surveyed trust entertainment companies to make content widely and legally available online! Certainly two years ago this was not the message we were hearing from consumers. In fact, while researching the What’s the Download campaign that Edelman developed for the Recording Academy (The GRAMMY’s) one of consumers’ main reasons for turning to pirate sources was a lack of legal materials.

Significant proportions of consumers remain concerned about their rights over the content they have bought online. 35% of young Brits and 46% of the French surveyed did not trust the industry to respect the rights of people who pay for entertainment through legal channels.

Finally it was revealed that there is a significant gap between the availability of legal entertainment and the value being provided. 41% of Brits and 54% of French do not trust the industry to provide online propositions that represent good value-for-money.

Finally we looked at the implications of such trust and distrust because while it is valuable to know these issues exist; it is more valuable to begin to understand the implications: Distrust of entertainment companies has other consequences. It makes younger consumers more likely to:

• criticize an entertainment company to friends (49% in UK, 46% in France)

• refuse to buy their products (43% in UK, 54% in France)

• share their negative opinions online (37% in UK; 51% in France)

Interestingly whether individuals trusted or distrusted the entertainment industry did not appear to affect the likelihood of people engaging in illegal activities – it was other factors, perhaps such as value for money, that created consistent numbers of people engaging in illegal online activities:

• 20% of Brits and 18% of French sampled self-declared that they are inclined to share files illegally online, or have already done so. (We believe these numbers to be even higher in reality because people often will not admit to illegal activities while taking a survey)

• 27% of Brits and 26% of French would download content illegally, or have already done so

• 24% of Brits and 26% of French would rip copies without paying, or have already done so

Here is the UK Release and here is the France release. If you have interest in seeing the full research, please contact matthew.grossman@edelman.com

The MEDIA

To take advantage of Gail Becker’s deep understanding of the issues uncovered in the research, we did a bit of PR for ourselves. And we were not alone in finding the information compelling. Gail conducted interviews in France and in the UK resulting in substantive coverage of our research in both markets. Keep checking back because we expect more coverage to come in and I will keep the blog updated…

The International Herald Tribune

Le Monde

echosdunet.net

le journal du net (jdnet)

Mass-Media.fr

PointBlog

http://www.netimperative.com/2007/04/23/trust_downloads/view?searchterm=trus

http://bosacks.blogspot.com/2007/04/end-user-in-media-we-distrust.html

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070427-distrust-and-piracy-go-together-like-pbj.html

 

The DINNERS

On Wednesday the 25th, thirty executives from around the Digital Entertainment space (including BBC, Cool Room, The Digital Content Forum, 20th Century Fox, Habbo Hotel, The IFPI, Jalipo, Motorola, MTV, MySpace, NBC Universal, Sony BMG) convened at London’s One Aldwych for a no holds barred debate and conversation about the future of this landscape.

The dinner was governed by Chatam House Rules effectively meaning that the entire dinner was off the record. So I can not share who said what, and will not share exactly what was discussed, but what I can say is that we were joined by speakers from Forrester Research and the BPI each of whom provided interesting overviews on industry trends and some forward looking perspectives on digital entertainment. The research prompted an in depth conversation about where trust emanates from and why some companies/industries are trusted and others are not. We spoke at length about the impact of digital distribution and piracy on the traditional entertainment industry and its impact on revenues and staffing, new channels of distribution and whether they serve as replacements for, or compliments to, traditional channels. It was a fitting conversation for a 1-year anniversary since our last dinner.

In Paris, on Thursday the 26th, another broad sample of entertainment and technology industry executives arrived ready to engage and discuss the issues at hand. The dinner was held at the Sofitel Le Parc on a beautiful spring Paris evening. The speakers, intervenants, joined us from the Motion Picture Association, Glowria and Microsoft.

The research again prompted a great deal of interest but the conversation was free ranging and broad. Attendees came from the corporate and government sector including the CSA (Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel), the DDM (Direction de développement des médias) Discovery Channel France, Disneyland Resort Paris, EMI Music, Forrester Research, Orange, MIDEM, Motorola, 13ème Rue / NBC Universal, Netgem, Redshift, Sony BMG, Thomson, Trace TV, Virgin Mega and VPOD TV. Additionally we were joined by a number of associations such as SACD, SACEM, SNEP, SCPP and Prodiss to name a few.

 

---

Edelman’s Digital Entertainment Rights and Technology team will continue to discuss, communicate and focus on the issues raised at these dinners and we expect to have several more throughout the year. If you are interested in being a part of one of these Edelman events, or learning more about our research – don’t hesitate to contact me at matthew.grossman@edelman.com

Death to the CD… digital freedom is here at last(?)

I tend to disagree with the notion that MP3 will seal the fate of CDs.  MP3 serves the convenience-culture, it offers the quick-fix answer but lacks the tactile, physical ownership that comes with a CD purchase. SSuperior audio quality (and the ability to rip to MP3 (un-DRM’d anyway) makes it versatile, while the album art is something that an MP3 player can never truly replicate. Casper at OMM has a slightly different take on it…

Caspar Llewellyn Smithm in the Observer Sunday April 29, 2007 The Observer Chances are that Arctic Monkeys will break a new record today, with every track from their Favourite Worst Nightmare – an album that bracingly offers the sound of yesterday, today! – poised to smash into the Top 75 singles chart. For a group that deals in a primitive sort of rock’n'roll, that’s pretty evolved behaviour, even if this is thanks to the relaxation of the chart rules at the start of this year, allowing downloads to count towards final chart placings. First MySpace poster-boys – although the Sheffield tyros scoffed at that notion themselves – and now this. Article continues

It looks like another notch on the bedpost for the digital Casanovas – those who’d seduce you into believing that a wired-up world is where it’s at – with more good news to follow. If the rumours are true, the antiquarian bookseller Amazon (est. 1995) will finally launch its own music download service within weeks. Hold tight, because this is going to be like Godzilla versus King Kong, although it’s not quite clear whether Amazon founder Jeff Bezos or Apple and iTunes chief exec Steve Jobs will get to wear the gorilla outfit.

Events have changed swiftly since EMI announced in January that it would service digital stores like iTunes with digital-rights management (DRM)-free tracks. For those who haven’t been paying attention, the nub of it is that, at the moment, tracks bought from iTunes can only be played on an iPod when you’re out and about – which is why that other fancy-dan MP3 player you were once given immediately joined your own private museum of obsolescent electronic devices.

Steve Jobs at Apple has blamed this state of affairs on the record companies, citing their zealous insistence on DRM systems in order to prevent piracy. But from next month Apple will sell music from artists signed to the ailing EMI without any kind of protection, albeit at a 30 per cent higher price. (If that makes the whole business sound a little sleazy, you wouldn’t be far wrong.) Reports suggest that Amazon is in talks with the other labels so that, when they launch, every track on offer will be DRM-free. What might happen next is far from clear, but for most interested parties it sounds like good news. As a staff blogger on the Wired News website argued this week: ‘Consumers will have a lot more choice in where they buy and where they can play their music, the [other] online stores get to sell content on to iPods, and the record companies might start making enough money to stop them suing everyone.’ Phew.

Finally we can all stop fretting about the fate of the industry. Even better, we can start celebrating the imminent demise of the CD. Right now, that might sound silly. However many downloads Arctic Monkeys end up selling, 85,000 CDs flew out of the shops on Monday. Globally, downloads still account for only 10 per cent of the market. But for aesthetic reasons if nothing else, the day that the last CD gets melted into an ashtray will be a day to savour.

It’s funny to hear Paul McCartney – one of our most forward-thinking artists – say he really wanted to make his new CD ‘a desirable object’. However nice the artwork for Memory Almost Full, which is released in early June, it’s hard to imagine anyone making a fetish of a plastic jewel case. The point is presumably that Macca’s 21st solo album is also his first since leaving EMI to sign a deal with the Starbucks-backed label Hear Music – another sign of how the business is changing. On the day of its release, every one of the coffee chain’s 45 million customers will hear the former Beatle’s record playing in-store and be tempted to pick up a copy. (Plus you can bet there have been discussions about creating a special Macca-ccino.)

Of course, many people won’t be interested in the intricacies of such deals, but rather in whether Macca dishes the dirt on Mucca. The Sun has revealed that the record contains lines such as: ‘Nobody here to spoil the view/ Interfere with my plans’. Having actually heard the thing myself, I can add: ‘I’ve got too much on my plate/ Don’t have the time to be a decent lover’. But then the next song takes a different tack: ‘She makes me feel glad/ I want her so bad/ My heart is beating madly for her’. So go figure. Yet others will simply take pleasure from the fact that it’s a cracking record with some nifty tunes.

So death to the CD. But its replacement – the digital download – is far from perfect. One problem for real music fans lies in the changing face of charity shops. ‘It’s the big chains,’ Andy Jupp, the self-styled Charity Shop DJ, told me earlier this week. It is his bugbear that in trying to update their image, leading charities like Oxfam and Save the Children won’t stock just any old vinyl any more. ‘People bring in their old records, thinking they’ll find a home, but they just get carted straight out the back and end up as landfill. Really, it’s a scandal.’ So where should one look for that rare James Last disc they’ve been coveting for years? ‘Try the Cats Protection league,’ is his advice.

Sunday April 29, 2007 The Observer