PICNIC’08 - A meeting of creative minds.

“From 24 to 26 September 2008, thousands of creative minds from all over the world will come together in Amsterdam for the third PICNIC. …”

So how does one particular creative mind get to this kind of event on a budget? It looks huge, expensive dripping with free bars and full colour laser projection backdrops.

Yes, I am talking about me… I am just putting my feelers out there at the moment but it looks like a fantastic event that I could get so much out of as well as (I hope) add something too.

Not Just PICNIC, I also plan to get over and talk at Podcamp Hawaii. This could all be pie in the sky as quite obviously all these events cost money. If I got to go to all of the worldwide social media events I have my eye on, I would never be home. More to the point I probably wouldn’t have a home as I’d have to sell it to fund all these social media miles.

It was the day after I got back from the New Media Expo in Las Vegas that I spotted Picnic08 online.. It talked about the worlds top creatives, networking, melding ideas and pushing the boundaries in all forms of media.

This was for me.. in fact, how could this go ahead without me?

Ahh.. then i saw the costs involved.. (£1013 for a full conference ticket), Hmm it appears it is not just for creative minds.. It’s for rich creative minds. “OK..’ I thought. “Don’t let that dissuade you from going..”

It may not be the kind of event I am used to.. Free like a podcamp or a max of $400 for NME, but surely this event is not just limited to those who have already made their name in the business world, the established minds of the corporate elite who would not think twice at bunging 1000+ euros at a networking event in Amsterdam. What if i forked out the money and then, as with many other events, found the value in the corridors and hidden spaces. The places where the unconventional unconferences dwell?

Shortly after deciding to lay off the photography and venture into the social media mayhem, I manage to go to SXSW, Podcamp NYC and then recently the NME Las Vegas.. All with relative ease.  In most cases I was asked to go and my costs covered by either sponsors, or clients. I would like to think some apps were well tested, some profiles raised and decent content made in the process. There were definately connections and contacts made.

But here we are, the most local of all the bigger, massivly funded events.. specialising in my main passion (creativity), just a mere hop across the water and it may as well be a million miles away.

I’d Love to get sponsored to attend Picnic08, there is little chance I could raise the funds in time otherwise.

Like many of my social media friends, I am a hand-to-mouth blogger, vlogger and multi media mongrel. Things continue improving the more projects I get my teeth into, but it’s looking like I would need in excess of 2000 euros to attend this event and I just don’t have the ready cash lying around. *checks the mattress*.

All these ideas and inspiration to share.. Just no piles of hard cash.

If this were an advertisement attempting to sell my services in exchange for passage over the water to Holland, I would  ask anybody who does have the spare cash to contact me and find out what I can do for you in exchange for sponsorship. I would talk about the seemingly endless provision of creative content, coverage and exposure..

I would say get in touch through Twitter or through this website (top right envelope).

But this is just another blogger talking about being on the edge and in the middle of this strange warping world of social media..

If you have just arrived at this site and are not sure what I have been up to recently.. check out:

my blogging on http://www.Creative-Choices.co.uk

Some of my video content in other places..

I use Qik A podcast I did for the United Nations in Jordan.

..And here is a channel on Phreadz I contributed to for the New Media Expo.

In many ways you have to be a creative mind yourself to see the value of content creators working within social media networks. It is still a new field and the role is evolving all the time.

It would be bloody great to go to PICNIC’08 and I will keep my bag packed just in case I need to make a last minute hop across the water.

Still, I have a back up plan..

Another meeting of creative minds, an imagination collaberation in Birmingham on the 26th. Far closer to home and as cheap as a drive up the motorway,

Birmingham Social Media Cafe comes from the same gene pool as the Tuttle Club in London and the Creative Coffee Club in Leicester.

These are the new generation of networking meets.. No stareing bleary eyed into a cold egg as a cushion cover embroider trys to sell to you over the dawn chorus. No costly subscriptions and suits are most certainly optional. This is truly a meeting of minds where creativity and inovation is quenched in coffee as the future of media is forged from white hot ideas.

These are exciting times. Lasers and robots, holograms and segways. Even with the big social media events grabbing the attention of the corporate world.. a pot of coffee is all you really need to attract a meeting of creative minds.

Less is more: The 12 second blog killer

I am finding it easier and easier to just click record and speak my thoughts into some form or video blogging application.

It all began with Seesmic and now in addition (especially when wanting to cross post and use multimedia) I also use Phreadz. For live streaming (in my opinion), there is still only Qik.

The more I used these places the more I noticed a dip in my frequency to blog and podcast. It’s just too easy. If I have a question, thought, idea or master plan I would like to bounce off someone, I just press a button, speak my mind and before I have time to log out, I have an inbox full of answers replies and comments.

Coupled with the bind it can sometimes be to actually write a blog post and I am amazed these pages ever change.

Don’t get me wrong.. I love this Wordpress template. It has enabled me to cram all kinds of content onto the front page of my blog. It’s well laid out and easy to use.

Many of the settings lie dormant beneath the surface as I don’t feel the need to use all the whistles and bells at my disposal.

I love the integration of the images to highlight the articles on the front page but if I originally thought I would take my time to grow into this blog template, I am now finding that I’m taking too much time to do each blog. As a result I write less as I can’t just ‘bang out’ an idea and make it live. Not like I can when posting a video.

Just as I have massively reduced the production time on my podcasts by keeping it simple, maybe I can do the same here? Instead of having to upload two new and unique graphics every time I do a new blog, I think if I already have a selection of stock avatar-type images to link to on my server I am more likely to want to drop little ditties, thoughts and ideas onto a web page.

Sometimes I feel you have to worry less about how it looks in order to get the content out there. I guess I realized this a while ago. Maybe I just didn’t want to let go of my initial way of doing things.

Our Man Inside on 12seconds.tv
Now with the emergence if 12 seconds all hell has broken loose in my video blogging world. I’m not sure what it is that I find compelling.. Perhaps it’s fitting stuff within the time constraints.. Maybe it’s the distillation of peoples humour and the visual snippets of their lives? It’s all so easy to digest in small bitesize chunks without feeling that you should be doing something else.

No one rambles. There is no feeling of time-suck, your life ebbing away as you wait for someone to make their point. I guess this sounds selfish but when you surround yourself with creative minds, absorbing their media all day, everyday, be it blogs, podcasts or videos, you sometimes just want a mini media snack, not a full blown mind meal. If you do not limit the time you put aside to take all of this media in.. before you know it, the day has gone and you are wishing you turned off hours ago.

I don’t get that with 12 seconds, at least not at the moment.. Who knows where it will go. I guess I kind of like it being a different beast to the other places I frequent. If I want threaded conversation (..and i do.. often) I have those places. If I want a 12 second stand alone snippit.. it’s perfect.

Maybe we will soon see replies and threading, perhaps it will become more of a video-Plurk rather than a video-Twitter.

Part of me hopes not. Comments are enough for me right now and I think I would like to see 12seconds evolve along it’s own pedigree, not cross breed into another social media mongrel.

Only time will tell.

Protect Your Content - Stream It Live!

After the UK Home Secretary’s recent statement green-lighting the harassment of photographers in public places, could it already be too late for us to reverse the attitudes of certain members of the law enforcement agencies and the general public?

At the bottom of this post are a few links to tales of photographic woe and more cases of people’s civil liberties being ignored as more often we are told “No Photos!”.

Should we continue to raise awareness with blogging, protesting and flash mobs?
Maybe we can do what this guy is doing..

Personally I think all of the above but also.. Prepare yourself for the worst. If the situation does start getting more and more difficult for photographers and video makers in public places, then at the very least I want to protect my media.

It used to be that I carried a crappy 16 meg memory card in my back pocket, just in case some over jealous policeman in a far off land tried to confiscate my data.

Now with some of the new technologies at our disposal we can safely stream our content either back to our laptops or straight to the web as we continue shooting.

I am not talking about the Pro range of Wifi kit available to sports photographers using top of the range Nikon and Canon cameras. I am talking about off the shelf consumer software and hardware like Qik.com for mobile streaming and the Eye-Fi card for rapid transmission of stills from almost any compact camera.

If these two methods of shifting data from your camera to the web are just the beginning, we are in for some exciting times.

I for one will continue to put both systems through their paces and do so while actively shooting footage and taking stills in any public place i find myself in.

If we don’t exercise our civil liberties, they will atrophy.

http://photorights.org/blog/42-days-and-hand-over-your-flash-card

http://maximumsorrow.com/writing/whyineverprintmyphotos.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/nyregion/29camera.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

http://trinyprada.wordpress.com

Big thanks to Photo Mart for lending me the Eye Fi to test.

..and something a little different.. Strictly no photography.

A moment with Tony Benn

Today whilst passing through London and before descending into the tube, I just happened to pop outside Euston train station  and spotted Tony Benn sat on a bench lighting his pipe.

I was on the way down to Southampton to pick up a car and although I have no idea what made me pop outside the station after getting off the train, I am glad i did.

I was not going pass up the opportunity to chat with a lifelong hero of mine so I wondered over and introduced myself.

We had a brief discussion about the National Union of Journalists before I suddenly remembered I had in my bag a pro stills camera, a web enabled mobile phone and a mini video camera.

Although Tony Benn only had about five minutes to catch his train to Preston he was kind enough to humour me as I conducted a short interview on video.. I then took a few stills and showed him how easy it was using Qik to stream from a mobile phone.

 
Tony is no stranger to being interviewed or filmed as he spends much of his life on the lecture circuit in the public eye. It was the quick demo of the technology around live streaming from a mobile device straight to the web that seemed to interest him the most.

In about three minutes we were done and a slightly amazed Tony Benn took my card and invited me to get in touch so I could introduce him to more of this technology.

It was a really great start to the day for me. Totally unexpected and I was glad I had my ‘geek’ bag at the ready.

I have been a fan of Tony Benn and his work for a while now and am so glad to have finally met him. Not only that, but as a great bonus I now have his home number and hope to do a more in depth interview in the future.

  

Here is the same video on YouTube

..and my thoughts on Qik straight afterwards.

Dogwalking

I do it every day. Come rain or shine. It is at the moment my only form of exercise.

My dog is a Coltriever and needs three good walks a day. She has a wee and a pooh on all occasions and I sometimes wish my metabolism was that fast.

I am lucky where I live to have loads of intersecting paths through the Northamptonshire countryside crisscrossing all around so there is always a choice of direction and area. Not to mention a forest only a ball throw away.

Occasionally I tweet while I walk and throw the ball, sometimes I stream it live. Well almost live. Vodafone has not yet seen the benefit of equipping my part of the Northamptonshire sky with 3G.

Here is a Qik clip from today…

 

Jeffrey Descovic at Podcamp NYC 2.0

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

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

Electric Empathy.

Attempting to stay offline.

I say attempt as as yet I am not able to succeed in any major fashion.

I have come away on holiday with family to Canada and really want to do my best for those who do not understand (or care much for) social networking and it’s incessant need to be monitored like a newborn baby.

With all the apps out there that assist me in maintaining my international links there is nothing I can (as yet) plug into my subconscious so I can monitor it without it eating into my ‘real life’ time.

The closest thing in the UK is my mobile phone but with international roaming as expensive as it is I pretty much have my phone turned off nearly all the time here in Canada. That is unheard of for me in the UK.

Wherever there is wifi.. if I am not going to be stared at like a freak by anyone who knows me, I am sure to be on Qik as soon as i can press the button.. Seesmic gets the final file after it has streamed but I have to wait till I have a decent enough window of time to get my proper Seesmic fix. I don’t like just popping on and popping off. I like to partake in a conversation. Exactly what Seesmic was intended for.

So.. in fits an spurts I close my seesmic browser, dam the twitter stream and then head out un-encumbered by any technology.. Not even my mobile phone.

Then what happens?.. I bump into and have a chat with Gene Simmons!.. Typical. Standing there talking to a rock legend without any of my documenting tools.

My social media world and my real life world exist on two very different dimensions at the moment. It’s very difficult for me to be in the two places simultaneously without causing a brief rupture in my space time continuum..

If i try to bring my real life into my social media world I feel i’m cutting away a life raft and heading into choppy uncertain seas. If i attempt to bring social media into my ‘normal’ old school, lo-fi life.. I quickly ostracize myself from those that have no intention of embracing the technological advances I have come to know and love.

It’s almost like I’ve found a TV that has over a thousand channels but all those around me would like to stick with the ones they are familiar with.

I guess this is the life of the early adopter and in many ways I do enjoy the exclusivity of it all. We all like to be part of a ’special club’ at some pont.. Even if only for a sense of validation.

When, if ever I experience some kind of convergence, I think a little part of me will have to be trimmed away as I assimilate the two lives I lead.

I definitely feel a little schizophrenic right now. Perhaps this schizomedia is making me sociophrenic..? With the million and one possibilities out there for connections, contacts and opportunities there are moments when I am really thankful of even a couple of hours of downtime. Some headspace in a low tech sanctuary where nothing beeps to tell me something I may or may not be interested in knowing…

But soon enough.. somewhere in a dark room a browser opens and I am instantly connected to a thousand other people, all perhaps feeling the same way.. Perhaps not. An electric empathy, no more or less real than this other world I am a part of. 

If I switch one off.. it takes messages till I get back.. a kind of suspended animation.. If i dial the other out.. that’s when life can really get a little complicated.

I am switching off now.. I will be in New York next week at Podcamp NYC 2.0 Plenty of time to saturate the social media half of my mind..

Talk later?

www.twitter.com/Documentally

 

Photoshoot with the band ~ Talc

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..