Episode 44 - Kiss Privacy Goodbye
August 10, 2008
Back on June the 25th, for the second year running myself and Dr John Perivolaris, visited George Orwell’s grave for his birthday.
This year we were accompanied by Phil Campbell and Brian Jones and as we picnicked in honour of Eric Arthur Blair, we also discussed our ever diminishing civil liberties, asking what is public and wondering If George Orwell could ever have known that it would not be the tyranny of socialism but the triumph of capitalism which is making us kiss our privacy goodbye?
If you have not subscribed to the podcast (free) in Itunes already, you can listen to the mp3 here
And if you would like a visual referance to the day, check out these great little films of the day made by Phil Campbell .. This one in HD and this one shot on the Flip Ultra
Thanks for stopping by.
Phreadz and the New Media Expo
August 7, 2008
I was having a quiet night in on the net, flitting from one platform to another, posting a video here and a tweet there.
The chatter in the networks was all about the upcoming New Media Expo in Las Vegas. Having missed out on the Boston Podcamp while on a photo assignment I felt a pang of longing and posted this video..
Apparently I was not clutching at straws.. an hour later I was looking at an email from an anonymous donor pledging me the ticket money to the Vegas NME, providing I did what I said I was going to do, that is, utilise Phreadz in the perfect environment and demonstrate it’s potential.
Apparently there are some serious lurkers out there that really want Phreadz to be pushed more on the international tech circuit..
For me it’s a no-brainer. I have been a Phreadz Phanboy since February 08 It is the only thing on the web that does what it does.
Since I lost my Video blogging cherry to Seesmic I have dabbled in all kinds of online video platforms. Each have their own niches. If i want a large unknown mystery audience I post to seesmic. You never know what you may get back. If i am feeling spontaneous and creative i may blurt out a few 12 second video ditties on 12Seconds.tv
The thing that attracts me to Phreadz right now is its seemingly unlimited ability to show off any content I throw at it. If I want to post video, audio, photos, text links or even a slideshow presentation it will happily suck it all up in just about any format I can chuck at it. It can either be uploaded into the main time line or into one of the many custom channels that have been made.
Recently my very own Geeknbury festival had its own channel. I was really chuffed with this and the channel allowed this small geek festival to exist outside of the field it was born in and be enjoyed internationally. It even had its own musical continuation in the shape of a gig by Steve Lawson and Lobelia played and streamed from their very own living room right into the Geeknbury channel.
I don’t even need to sit here on my minimal countryside bandwidth waiting for files to upload as I can cross post with URLs from countless other video platforms including two of my favorites, Qik and Blip.
Where I feel most at home though is within the virtually instantaneous video conversations occurring across all channels, from either mobile or off my laptop.
Although still in a closed beta (soon to open wider, I hear), Phreadz founder Kosso, has not only concentrated on content but he has ensured community still plays a major part in Phreadz. Occasionally new channels appear out of the blue and, as users, we all quickly embrace another place we can express ourselves. After all, it is still the user who makes the content in Phreadz and because of this the conversations are always rich. Channels have allowed any exasperated rant or heartfelt tale to live side by side without content clashing, or meaning and context getting lost in the ever increasing flow of new and interesting dialogue.
One place on Phreadz I’ll be sure to spend some time next week will be the New Media Expo Channel, created as an experiment to cover The New Media Expo hosted in Las Vegas by brothers Tim and Emile Bouquin.
So although I will be in the channel, thanks to my mysterious ‘Angel’, I will also actually be in Las Vegas, creating content, networking and showing anyone that loves new media an innovative tool that has not only indirectly given me this opportunity but that also inspires, homes and houses so much of my online existence.
The New Media Expo Channel is at http://newmediaexpo.phreadz.com and is open for all to see.
If you want to know more about Phreadz and want to join in with the beta testers, why not drop the site an email HERE
If you are an investor, contact the site as it is ripe and ready to take the net by storm, Kosso just needs smart folk with money.
And if you really want to help out right now.. make a donation to the chip-in on the front page here.. It’s worth it.
I am off to pack and charge geek stuff.. If you are going to the NME in Vegas let’s connect on Twitter
UPDATE: Anyone in Vegas sending New Media Expo content to nme@phreadz.com automatically gets an account!!
Tweet Generation
July 28, 2008
Tweet generation is a book being put together by Butterbeep, (Dave Goodchild) about the power of social media and the people who use it as a enabling tool and a way to create wide-reaching and potent connections. The book, which touches on a number of social networks and prominent posters, geeks and visionaries, is different from many books about tech in the desire to capture the intersection of art and science, the heart and the mind that is so prevalent in these emerging communities.
Can these tools, in the right hands, be a force capable of reclaiming the human heart and placing it smack bang in the middle of the technosphere. Who knows.. but it’s going to be a lot of fun finding out.
If you haven’t already.. anyone can contribute to the book by going to http://butterbeep.com/tweetgeneration and sending in their quotes, experiences and thoughts. Not every upload will make it - think of them as frenzied spermatazoe on their way to the ovum. Make them fertile and fast, and you are in with a chance.
Dave plans to have the book finished by August 28 2008 and final submissions will be accepted up until August 15.
He has put in loads of work so far and peoples comments, feelings, favorite tweets will all go to glaze the cherry on top.
I have dropped in a line or two but may have another go as everyday my networks amaze me.. It’s all moving so fast. So much of what we do passes our eyes in the flicker of a monitor, I will be surly ordering my own copy of the finished book and if that solar flare does come to erase all our data.. At least I can thumb through the pages of Tweet Generation and remember.
Happy posting!
That link again.. http://butterbeep.com/tweetgeneration
Note: this blog post was hacked together with slolen words from Daves own site. It’s late.. i am tired.. and it looked better than just posting a link.. 
Portable Solar Power
July 3, 2008
Yesterday I picked up a little solar panel and charge regulator contained in a handy little flight case. I love it so far.
I have been testing it with the Mac Book Air and it all works splendidly. I am looking forward to testing it further at the Larmer Tree Festival and of course my own festival Geeknbury.
This is what technology should be doing, liberating us. Check out the Qik posts below embedded in the Phreadz widget to keep them together.
And here is a recent Seesmic conversation..
Do I look like a terrorist?
June 4, 2008
On more than one occasion, while out and about taking photographs, (mainly in London) I’ve been stopped for having a camera round my neck and looking like I might be about to take a picture.
Yup, that’s all it seems to take now-a-days to raise the suspicions of some underpaid private security guard. Just be out and about minding your own photographic business, perhaps dangerously close to the threshold of some crappy shopping centre and as quick as it takes for a CCTV camera to rotate.. There they are, trying to enforce some imaginary law.
Normally I flash my press pass and tell them I know my rights. Sometimes I am feeling a little more confrontational and ask exactly what law it is they think they are enforcing? On one occasion a confused security guard told me it was one of the prevention of terrorism laws. The conversation then swung round to me asking.. “Do I look like a terrorist??
(Don’t answer that.)
I am not sure when all this started.. Perhaps it was just after 9/11 when everyones hightened level of paranoia needed to be justified by inventing some extra imaginary threats.
Most of the time, the least that happens is I’m looked at in a “I am watching you” kind of way. This is with a Mediterranean complexion, who knows what would happen if i wanted to go out with a camera and I was slightly darker skinned!
You may well have seen them yourselves, but once in a while I pass by a shop window and catch sight of those scarily Orwellian anti-terrorism posters asking YOU to be vigilant and to keep an eye out for people who use more than one mobile phone, or people who travel alot.. or who take photographs in a public place.
This kind of fear-mongering really pisses me off and in the past I have gone into the shop and asked if I could have the poster. Part of me could not believe the ridiculousness of it all and seemed to be wanting to gather these posters as evidence of crimes against common sense. Are the general public really so small minded as to report one another for doing normal everyday things?
Probably.
Anyway it seems like I needn’t have bothered collecting these posters as most seem to be available
I was slightly comforted today to read this article in the Guardian Newspaper. Bruce Schneier states that the Police’s ‘War On Photography’ is daft as.. in his words.. “..real terrorists, and even wannabe terrorists, don’t seem to photograph anything.”
With that reassurance in mind, read the article to learn that perhaps ‘movie plot‘ threats are being concocted to have some kind of psychological grip on our already fear laden minds. We really must make a point of fighting for our photographic rights..
If you are out and about with your camera, be it video or stills, stick a printout of your rights in your bag and make a stand, just in case.
This topic and others relating to our rights and what denotes a public space in todays day and age will be discussed at the social media picnic on the 25th of June.
Happy Birthday WordPress!
May 27, 2008
WordPress is five years old today! ..and although i haven’t even been using it five months I feel it only right to say not only congratulations, but also Thank You.
I was always a ‘Blogger‘ user and before that i just made my own random pages and stuck them out into the ‘tubes’ not knowing if anyone actually read anything until i upset them.
I do believe though that I am now hooked and unless something pretty drastic and/or amazing happens.. I will be here for a good time to come.
So why do i like WordPress so much?
I guess mainly it’s because there are so many people I have met through social media that use and understand the importance of such a powerful tool and enabler. Seeing others using this blog software as effectively as they were (and still are) drew me into having at first a peek.. and then jumping headlong into this bandwagon. A bandwagon (assuming this once was a reference to a vehicle of some kind) that at the click of a button can be a small pizza delivery boy on a bike.. or the next moment, a thundering juggernaught.
It is this flexibility and customisation that has hid from me the fact that, without knowing it, I seem to have always been drawn to sites using WordPress. Far more than sites incorporating other blogging platforms.
I love the flexibility to have a site in almost any shape or form, compatible with no end of open source plugins, costing as little as nothing, up to a nominal fee for something a little more in depth. All of this is easily accessible to people not at all versed in code and programing.
I threw myself in at the deep end with this ‘Revolution‘ theme and decided to splash out £40 even though I had never even tried to play with the free themes. Before i knew it, WordPress was installed and with the help of some online friends showing me the ropes and pushing a few buttons.. I had a site up and running that I had never dreamed of having just a week before.
We tend to bang on and on about how important content is but let’s not forget that it’s delivery is equally important. Thanks a lot WordPress and Happy Birthday!
Many thanks to Derek Mantle, Annie Boccio, Steve Purkiss and Phil Sorrell for their superior WordPress and CSS knowledge.
A moment ago I threw out a question onto Twitter asking who was using WordPress and got these links back..
Click on every one.. Go on.. I dare ya..
http://www.ethosmarketing.co.uk
http://jestercreative.com/wordpress/
http://geekgrls.wordpress.com/
http://thegirlinthez.wordpress.com/
http://heavensgame.wordpress.com/
http://www.thebillblog.com/billblog/
http://amedievalhand.wordpress.com
http://www.kittenfluff.wordpress.com/
http://www.bigtalkproductions.com/blog/
http://www.thealbumchartshow.com
http://www.claritypartnership.co.uk
http://www.blog.edgarwrighthere.com
http://www.normanscoachsoho.com
I see a theme forming..
OK guys.. I have linked you.. now link me back! 
Jeffrey Descovic at Podcamp NYC 2.0
May 6, 2008
Of all the memorable moments of Podcamp NYC 2.0 an impromptu meeting with Jeffrey Descovic touched me the most.
Jeffrey has an amazing story well documented HERE on his website and here on InnocenceProject.org In addition Jeffrey’s myspace page is HERE.
I was introduced to he by Rox from BeachWalks.tv and a few minutes later i was doing an interview using Seesmic.
At the same time as we Seesmic’ed and Qik’ed.. Phil Campbell recorded on HD.
The Innocence of Jeffrey Deskovic from Phil Campbell - England on Vimeo.
View the full interview on Seesmic with the thread here.. http://seesmic.com/v/OGHBz3SDbT
..and just as a footnote.. here is a photo of me and Phil on Chris Brogan’s blog and some more podcamp action from the podcast Push My Follow..
Episode 43 - There And Back Again
April 29, 2008
The first half of this podcast was recorded in the company of Philip Campbell in March 2008 on a flight to Newark airport before going on to SXSW in Austin Texas.
The second half was recorded on the flight back to London.
We talk about hacking, podcamp uk, Seesmic, Qik, Blip TV, Pulver TV, social media and how to make Sloe Gin.
I edited it one month later in April, on another flight to Newark this time on my own and heading to PodcampNYC 2.0.
The song entitled HTML in the middle was emailed to me by Erin of the band ‘The Hot Toddies‘. I highly reccommend checking them out HERE.
If you have not subscribed to the podcast (free) in Itunes already, you can listen to the mp3 here
Episode 42 - Life In The Shadows
April 7, 2008
Sorry for the delay in getting this into my podcast feed. I had some strange issues with the way i had encoded it and it took a little bit of time to get the file just right so as it would show up in my feed.
I am guessing many of you have already seen this. To you guys I say once again, thank you for your support and also for passing this on to others..
To those that haven’t, and I know there are many who download the podcast that never visit any of my sites, here is a brief outline..
The fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War has just passed, and there is speculation that the engagement may continue yet another five years, if not more. To date, approximately 4,000 American soldiers have been killed in combat.
While the loss of combat troops is certainly tragic, even more stunning is a recent World Health Organization report based on Iraqi Health Ministry figures which estimates that 151,000 Iraqi civilians were killed between March 2003, the start of the invasion, and June 2006.
Many of the reports of civilian deaths are disputed. What cannot be argued, however, is another grave consequence of the Iraq War: the displacement crisis as a mass exodus of Iraqis flee the instabilities and ever-increasing sectarian violence at home, tearing their families apart.
In mid-January 2008, with the support of the United Nations High Commission For Refugees (UNHCR), I traveled to Amman, Jordan to photograph and record a few of these families trapped in a no-man’s land; asylum seekers looking for refuge, too afraid to return to their blood-soaked country.
Here are a few of their stories:
The film can also be viewed as a .wmv file here.. http://www.unhcr.org/video/iraqi-refugees-in-jordan.wmv
…and downloaded as a real media file here.. http://www.unhcr.org/video/iraqi-refugees-in-jordan.rm
For more information please check out.. The UNHCR Multimedia pages
To download this film to your ipod or mobile device please subscribe to the podcast at The Documentally Podcast Feed
Photoshoot with the band ~ Talc
April 6, 2008
I have just finished uploading a few of the photos of the band Talc to my Flickr stream.
For most of Friday afternoon I had the pleasure of hanging out with the two awesome funksters Dr. Fun and The Gift.
They had imaginatively arranged for us to visit their local beer making establishment so as we could take some photos for their up and coming concept album and at the same time not be too far away from tens of thousands of pints of beer. (Probably more).
I have photographed these guys before and every time we meet we have a great laugh, always managing to bag a few decent shots in the limited time we have.
The Fullers Brewery (London’s last remaining traditional family brewer) was an amazing place of historical pipes and brass, leading us into a sci-fi setting of ceramic and chrome. They are obviously proud of their history and bent over backwards to see we had the freedom to take our photos unhindered. We worked our way through the factory, stopping to snap when we thought the setting inspired.
Our shoot wound up underground in a little private bar where, given a sleeping bag and a few pies, I could quite easily have spent a good few weeks sheltering from the outside world and saturating my body and mind with the various ales made on site and piped into this curious bar with no till and no way to take your money.
Paradise?
Even when my camera was back in the bag and we headed to the local (attached) pub for a debrief, our friendly guide saw that the round was free and we were to order what we wanted.
It’s just a shame i was riding the bike and had to maintain some form of sobriety as otherwise I would have had to stay and help the guys with their debrief lubrication.
Besides.. I had had more than enough motoring action earlier in the day to risk any more altercations with angsty London road users.
Thanks Talc for a great days photography and thanks to Fullers for not only letting us take photos but for going all out to make us feel as welcome as we possibly could.
Talc’s new album ‘Licensed Premises Lifestyle’ is due for release in July and will be touring Japan in September.
..for more information on the band check out www.TalcOnline.com (soon to be updated).
And here is the band talking and moving..
Recent Comments