Our Man Inside

The Documentally podcast in it’s iTunes form started in 2006, i started video blogging and using twitter in 2007 but it was 2008 that felt like social media really took off for me.

Maybe because I felt like I was no longer just a photographer. My ability to take photos and document things was now just one shade on a growing multimedia palette of skills that had community in mind.

I guess things really took off with my trip into Jordan for the United Nations. This was a big job for me, the ground covered, audio interviews, photos and final editing into a podcast assembled with the assistance of people like Phil Sands and Bill Cammack. It was in Jordan I introduced an Iraqi Refugee to Seesmic. This blew his mind that he could reach out into the homes of the western world and report first hand what he was going through whilst escaping with only his life from the mess that was/is Iraq.

I felt this would be an incredibly important use for video conversation platforms. Today they seem to concentrate on conversations with celebrity and have not yet been adopted by areas of the worlds community in real need of talking about their plight. Hopefully myself and Mike Sizemore will be able to push the use of video conversational platforms in the political sphere. We have already had great success using Qik during talks with political party leaders with Thompson Reuters, thanks to people like @ilicco.

Shortly after Jordan was a meetup in Paris, then SXSW in Austin, Texas. This was made possible by more sponsorship. Jeff Pulver bought the tickets and myself and Phil Campbell’s socializing was more than covered by Seesmic. It was here that many online friendships were cemented and connections made. People who’s lives I still follow daily and think of as good friends. Some of these friendships were fortified more with my trip to New York for Podcamp NYC 2.0. Also made possible with sponsorship from Seesmic.

There are too many people to name with whom friendships were made and are still maintained. If you look at my Twitter friends and scroll back to the first 30 or so pages.. these are the people from this time. These are the people I would do most anything for. The web weaving warriors who have made sense of this digital wasteland.

After SXSW I was bridging out from mobile media making and into Consulting. Geert Van Kesteren commissioned me to fly out to Amsterdam and help him with his media mountain. Towers of hard drives containing incredible photo stories waiting to be reformatted into online portfolios, podcasts, films anything that gave them new life.

Las Vegas was another big event of the year made possible with the help of Steve Purkiss, @Kosso’s Phreadz and The Open University. In fact Phreadz and The OU have gone on to play a massive part in many more of this years adventures. Berlin Web 2.0 was made infinitely more interesting and Geeknbury really came together with the online participation from those that could not make it.

Work for me this year has been a pleasure. Which is just as well, if i’m not doing something for an assignment, I am doing more of the same for the love of it. It was great working with Carl (@FellowCreative) and the University of Creative Arts online projects. Speaking at places like the UCA and the MDDA really punctuate the year nicely and allow me to learn through talking more about what it is we do.

I finished this year by running video blogging courses. A full day of looking at kit, learning how to use it, filming editing uploading and dissemination.

If you had asked me at the beginning of 2008 what i would be doing throughout the year, I would have had no idea how fast and how far this social media wave would travel. Surf’s up and it’s 10 foot and tubing.

If you ask me now I’ll say I just want to stay on the surfboard, anything else is a bonus.

I look forward to doing more with these people in 2009. More projects with the likes of Dave @BuddhaMagnet. More experimental stuff with the OU, more teaching with the MDDA.. More with, Nick Butler, @sleepydog, Phil Campbell, Mike Sizemore.. Just more.

Of course I have the little matter of a baby arriving between March and April so my focus may alter somewhat in the first quarter of this year. If I thought 2008 was epic, 2009 it is bound to be more so.

This blog post accompanies a podcast I have rushed out in the last couple of hours of 2008. Not really a concise summery. Just a ramble whilst walking the dog on a cold December night. Trying to get my head around the year and at the same time trying not to freeze to death in the dark Northamptonshire countryside.

You can subscribe to my ever so neglected podcast in the iTunes store.

If you feel you can add to this please comment. It’s great to get feedback, thoughts and ideas.

Don’t forget you can support this blog here and a review on my podcast in Itunes may do more good than bad.

I won’t ask any more from you other than to stay in touch. Communication got us here.. Staying connected will carry us through. A journey with friends.

Video has finally arrived for the un-cracked iphone! Well.. video in the shape of a video slideshow, which as far as I am concerned is a bloody miracle judging by the way Apple seems to be restricting development of video based apps. Or is it AT&T and O2 not wanting people to stream with their ‘unlimited’ data?

I have to say I am so happy that it is 12seconds.tv that has started to build this bridge across the video void.. It’s a long time coming and for a start up with little to no cash, this is like building home made space suits and heading off to the moon.

They are top guys too..

The next thing I need to do is invite them over here to the UK so they realise although we are a little island we have big gobs and could have started spreading the word way before the US woke up.. This would have eased the world into 12Seconds and been a great way of flushing out the inevitable bugs before everybody rushed in..

The US could then have woken up with a massive 12Second alarm call..  Here in England it is now the end of the day and I have had the app sitting dormant and broken on my iPhone until only a short while ago.. All day out and about i have been checking it like it was a pacemaker and my life depended on it.. I won’t go into how frustrating that is. I initially thought the app had been launched broken.

I think my frustration stems only from my anticipation and the fact I knew it was a really important release as far as iPhone apps go.

Of course.. if i had taken a proper look at the text on the app store it would have told me I would have the app before it was going to work, but you know me.. Ever so slightly impatient when it comes to the release of new tech.

Still.. it has now sprung to life and I can actually talk about it. I dropped a tweet out yesterday mentioning it by accident but managed to delete it before I caused too much trouble. (Sorry Guys)..

So what are you waiting for?! The application cost a dollar (59p) it’s a bargain.

It is so straight forward. If you don’t have a 12Seconds account get one and then get the app.. Hell, why not get the app first! You can sign up through the app on the phone.

Once you have it.. Log in.. take three photos, add 12 seconds of audio and click to share it on the 12seconds site. It really is that easy you could do it drunk.. you no doubt will..

So if you are reading this as a noob and don’t know about 12Seconds.. get on it. Be it through the app or through the site..  I’ll see you there.

If you do download the app.. please review it and help the guys get the respect they deserve.

I have made some good friends through 12Seconds and I’m looking forward to making more. As soon as you are ready to go.. come let me know.. It may come as little surprise that I am on there as Documentally.

On the way.. down. on 12seconds.tv

Do politicians really understand how to use social media?

Those of us versed in these new ways of online communication know that any political figure who can truly and completely adopt social media methods would have a formidable secret weapon in their arsenal. A weapon that would have to be adopted across all the battling parties or they would quickly fall by the wayside.

Obama has come the closest at showing the world how to effectively use social and new media in a political campaign with great success.

With podcasts, viral videos, twitter streams and Flickr groups there seemed to be no corner of the Internet where Obama wasn’t being talked about. Who knows how much of this was actually orchestrated by Obama’s people themselves? Does it really matter? The conversations were happening and it seemed Obama’s supporters were the most clued up as to how to keep the ball rolling.

Here in the UK, David Cameron, leader of the Conservative party has been dabbling in social media too. You may have seen ‘Webcameron‘ and his Twitter feed.

He certainly has the people around him capable of pulling this off. Hell, he’s even  young enough to make it look like his idea.

Take a look at both parties current web presence though and you will see their pages filled with MySpace style jibes. Social media should be used more for engaging rather than bickering.

I’m intrigued to see whether Reuters‘ forward thinking in getting us in to exercise our social media sinew allows some of our uses of this tech to rub off on others.

After myself and Sizemore documented Gordon Brown’s visit to the Reuters head office in London. Ilicco (Head of Reuters mobile) thought we should take it a step further for a visit by David Cameron.

So, come the morning of the 15th of December (Tomorrow) at 10 am, a team of UK social media practitioners shall be in position to document Cameron and the day in more channels than are usually exercised.

This time the team has grown. Behind the scenes we will now have the technical support of two very well known social media mavens, Nik Butler (@Loudmouthman) and Phil Campbell (@PhilCampbell). As Nik uses some code he has built to trawl the twittersphere for questions and comments relating to Cameron’s talk, Phil Campbell will be at the digital helm of his invention Rezpondr at http://Newsmaker.Rezpondr.com. On the Reuters side of things will be @Chris_Parker and @MarkJones manning @Reuters_co_uk

Myself and Mike we be on the ground as last time. Taking pix, shooting film, streaming live and using our Mac’s to live blog the mornings event.

If we can get enough coffee inside us prior to Cameron’s arrival, between the four of us we should be able to extract as much as possible from the 60 minutes at our disposal.

I shall have my N95 for Qiking, my iPhone for tweeting pix, my Kodak Zi6 for HD video blogging, my Nikon D3 for raw pix and new to the arsenal a Nikon D90 equipped with an Eye-Fi SD card streaming photo’s straight into my Eye-Fi flicker account. Obviously it may be a bit of a struggle using all these devices at once and some will argue that I could consolidate some of this kit as certain items are able to multi task. That may well be so, but this is a test. We are once again undertaking an experiment in extreme social media. We are here to make mistakes and to learn from them.

It could be that I concentrate on streaming video and photos and save the rest for either side of Cameron’s visit. Who know what will happen on the day.

All I know is we have an amazing array of technology at our disposal and some hugely capable minds to tie it all in. All this so as the people excluded from the opportunity to participate can truly be a part of the conversation.

In the future this will be the norm and we will wonder why it took so long for politics and journalism to catch on to this.

Oh.. and in answer to my initial question. I think not.. but some of their aides will no doubt do it for them.