Report for UKTI: our SXSW panel event
April 20, 2010
Posted by Clare in: Events | Innovation | Technology | Gaming | Add a comment
Image: Title slide from presentation
Instead of submitting a formal report to UK Trade & Investment who supported our panel event at SXSWi this year, in the spirit of web 2.0 and open-ness, I am blogging it:
In the summer of last year I submitted a panel idea for SXSW interactive which went to community vote, the SXSW Advisory Boards and SXSW staff before making it through to the first batch of events to be programmed for 2010. On 11am on 16 March 2010 I was joined by Toby Barnes of Mudlark, Nina Steiger of Soho Theatre, Duncan Speakman and Simon Johnson of SlingShot to present as part of the Screenburn programme.
We were overwhelmed with the feedback, which was attended by about 200 people. A few of the tweets:
@SMERC_Design - #pervasivegames is turning out to be the most inspiring panel at #sxsw.
@yoomsters: Best idea ever, have the moderator on a bell to cut off the ramblers and stay within time limits. Props to #pervasivegames
@alper: Switch pays off! Tail of this panel #pervasivegames is better than most others. Quick, pointed and skips the basics. Thanks @clarered!
@katylindemann #pervasivegames are totally showing how a successful & compelling panel should be run & moderated. watch & learn
@alper Switched from the #cityasaplatform session (slow moving) to the #pervasivegames one #sxsw. Who would program these two against each other?
@grether: Finally, after ALL these sessions, some panelists actually disagree with each other! Now THAT is reality. #pervasivegames
You can read all of the tweets in this pdf summary.
The SXSW Interactive Festival celebrates the creativity and passion behind the coolest new media technologies. In addition to panel sessions that cover everything from web design to bootstrapping to social networks, attendees make new business connections at the three-day Trade Show & Exhibition. With a focus on online services, gaming and mobile, South by Southwest is an invaluable opportunity to connect with a wider international audience of delegates working in new and emerging technologies. The aim for me in attending the Festival is to research new business opportunities, view work, spot emerging digital trends and experience first hand one of the biggest international conferences in the digital sector. Having a panel in the programme enabled more networking opportunities, a higher profile and an excuse to talk to people, which was of huge value.
Our panel explored the new possibilities in game-play that mobile internet, pervasive gaming and sensor-enriched public spaces enable. We were keen to build on previous SXSW events, and get leading UK practitioners to explore the ethics, design challenges and business potential of this new form in a more textured way than I had seen at SXSW.
Some lessons learnt (which may be useful to others):
Keep the format and slides simple - I gave each of the panelists five minutes to present a project and then switched to discussion. They were allowed one image each to inspire the audience but not distract. The twitter hashtag and our twitter names were visible at all times.
Image: Duncan Speakman's slide in presentation
Prepare – we did two sessions and found potential areas of disagreement to tap into – there is nothing more dull than a panel in complete agreement
Deconstruct the things that you think work and don’t as an audience member - I was keen that this panel was reflective, offered insight and addressed the ‘why’ of the project - something missing in presentations which concentrated only on the specifications of the technology.
One of the most successful elements of our event (learnt from being frustrated audience members in the past) was banning self promotion and rambling questions from the audience. People were welcome to use the twitter stream to reference projects but anyone breaking the rules was cut off with an old fashioned bell.
The podcast of this session will be available from July 15th at http://sxsw.com/interactive/news/videos_and_podcasts
Social media and broadcast event - BBC
March 25, 2010
Posted by Clare in: Events | Innovation | Bristol | Add a commentAfter finishing up the Augmented Reality demo on BBC Big Screen (a collaboration between The Sancho Plan, Pervasive Media Studio and Arts Council - more here), I rushed up to BBC Bristol to chair one of their 'New tools, new ways of working' events, open to BBC employees and Bristol Media members.
It was a bit of a tough panel - I didn't want it to be too BBC centric and there wasn't much action on the #newtoolsbristol twitter hashtag, so here is what we tried to cover and some links:
The panel: Roo Reynolds, BBC Social Media Executive Vision, Jem Stone, BBC Social Media Executive Audio and Music and Garret Keogh, Cross Platform Director at RDF Digital.
Some of the questions covered:
To what degree do broadcasters need to own social media campaigns and to what extent should they let the conversation happen elsewhere in a more emergent way?
What are the differences between using social media as a promotion tool and using it as a way to source/develop content etc? What are the design challenges of the two approaches?
How do you define success and impact in the use of social media?
What happens when it goes wrong?
The good and bad examples:
Dell: Worldwide community has more than 3.5 million people across the social web. IdeaStorm alone, which crowd-sources ideas for new products, has received 13,749 ideas and 89,000 comments.
Nestle – demanded YouTube remove a video posted by Greenpeace against them, then answered growing dissatisfaction on their Facebook page with insulting comments. Read more.
#Cashgordon: The Conservative Party's use of a twitter hashtag displayed on their homepage that went badly wrong. Read More
The Virtual Revolution a TV series by BBC which used social media to crowd-source content
Being Human - includes fan fiction, blogs and online spin off CENSSA
Save 6 Music social media campaign
Ben Folds Chatroulette Piano Improv
BBC Question Time's back channel
Tweeture - a social media robot
and some stuff we didn't talk about but that the Twitter world pointed me to:
ChartJackers - a cross-platform project which challenged four Youtube vloggers to write, record and release a pop song in ten weeks through crowdsourcing.
Come dine with me Home Made - Host a dinner party. Take loads of snaps. Connect with Facebook and use your photos to create a Come Dine With Me slideshow of your party.
Four weddings social media campaign - Combined format with a live rating gadget, which also pulled in the twitter stream, which put viewers into the brides shoes.
There was lots of talk about where the BBC are doing things well and some discussion on some of the difficulties around commissioning social media campaigns. I am sorry there wasn't more examples and discussion of broadcasting using ARG-like mechanisms (as Heroes did) to co-produce narrative and characters with audiences. But there we go, people were worried about more pragmatic issues like where the boundaries lie between personal and professional tweeting.
Theatre Sandbox Commissions - workshops announced
March 24, 2010
Posted by Clare in: Events | Watershed | Innovation | Technology | 1 comment so farTheatre Sandbox is a new opportunity for theatre artists, companies and collectives. We are offering six £10,000 commissions to support the research and development of experimental pieces of performance which engage with Pervasive Media Technologies.
The process of application involves participation at one of five half-day workshops and a written application. Workshops will take place
in Bristol, London, Birmingham, Manchester and Cambridge. Find out more and book here.
Theatre Sandbox is produced by iShed and supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. iShed is part of Watershed, a cross art form venue in Bristol
Pervasive or Invasive?
March 6, 2010
Posted by victoria in: Events | Watershed | Innovation | pervasive | ethics | Add a commentHands up who likes using Facebook? Me, I do, I like being connected to a network of friends, sending messages and spying on their lives. But do you ever think about how the data you’re idly tapping in, is actually being used? I didn’t, well not until this week when UWE’s Digital Cultures Research Centre presented a talk by Rob van Kranenburg on The Internet of Things; followed by ‘Pervasive or Invasive?’- a seminar at the Pervasive Media Studio where the issues (good and bad) surrounding the ethics of pervasive media, we’re laid out on the table. And it seems a lot of people do think about it.
Not to paint Facebook as ‘the baddie’, logs are recorded by almost all the internet services we used regularly - Google, Yahoo, Ebay, Amazon, Twitter the list goes on - and this can generate a surprisingly clear picture of our lives. Nello Cristianini, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Bristol University showed us a list of web searches from a random IP address - and the results were scary. The list revealed the computer belonged to a couple; him bi-polar with a cocaine addiction; and her concerned with becoming pregnant and the effect his drug use could have on their ability to conceive. A private situation, and here we were reading it within a public context. It felt wrong, but it was supposed to. And in that moment I assessed what my own searches would say about me; who I am; where I live; what I do; who my friends are; and what a company such as Google or a Government could do with that data? Right now, Google would most likely make (more than a few) bucks through targeted marketing - allowing companies to try and entice me to buy things (they think) I’ll like. And what about the Government? They can’t persuade us to carry ID cards, but we all happily carry mobile phones that track our every movement. But where’s the harm? Most of us probably aren’t too concerned; the value of the transaction is worth it - so what if I get a few adverts on my Facebook page? I can just ignore them as I flick through my friend’s latest photo uploads. And what if I’m abducted? Great, the Police can use my phone’s location data to find me.
Now propel yourself 10 years into the future. As the majority of us now use email and mobile phones, telephone boxes and Royal Mail are extinct. The last 5% of us who held out have now been forced into this new digital world. Anonymity will be almost impossible. What will this mean? And what will happen when the dataset collected by Google is matched with the dataset collected by Amazon? What will this say about us? And what are the implications of Government and security in this? As we head into this new digital world (where the choice to opt out no longer exists), will the value of the transaction still be worth it? What will be the real price of free?
So that’s the scary scenario - it’s clear the digital world is upon us, expanding at an alarming rate (just think about all the changes we’ve seen in the last 20 years), so what can we do to make a positive future?
Rob van Kranenburg talks of a future (which has begun) where everything is digitally connected from yogurt pots to bus tickets via radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. This is a rapidly growing near invisible network, which Rob believes must be exposed and debated as it is implicated. A loose network of interested people formed to do this very job; they became The Council of the Internet of Things. You can check them out (and join them) here: http://www.theinternetofthings.eu/
But surely the Internet of Things and pervasive media services are corporate, expanding and out of our control? How can we as individuals, make positive change within this landscape? Well, there are many things we could do; we could join The Council; we could strengthen our physical communities by using data to enable sharing between neighbours; we could, as a majority, charge Facebook for use of our data; or we could follow Usman Haque’s lead and design companies like Pachube.
These are changing times, so it’s important that talks and seminars such as this take place - enabling free and open, ethical debate. I am however left wondering how conscientious our designers of the future need to be. As they create tools, services and experiences that utilise our data, will they lead the way in this new world?
Speakers at the symposium included Rob van Kranenburg, Innovation and Media Theorist; Nello Cristianini, Professor of Artificial Intelligence, University of Bristol; Patrick Crogan, Senior Lecturer, Film/Media/Cultural Studies, UWE; Lizbeth Goodman, Director of Research, Futurelab Education; and Andy Miah, Professor of Ethics & Emerging Technologies, University of the West of Scotland.
Rob van Kranenburg’s talk is now available to watch on dShed.net - and we’re inviting you to join the debate: On 26th March, Professor Jon Dovey from the Digital Culture’s Research Centre will chair a conversation on Twitter, so get involved and tell us your views. #DCRCUK
The Tweeture - set to destroy SXSWi next week?
March 5, 2010
Posted by Clare in: Events | Innovation | Gaming | 1 comment so far
On March 12th The Tweeture will arrive at SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas, intent upon devouring its population.
The Tweeture is a robot-monster of Godzilla proportions who tweets. He’s big, he’s angry and he is going to eat the delegates of SXSWi. What will become of him? Can you find him at the Festival and turn him into your friend?
The Tweeture will use artificial intelligence, digital technologies and social networking platforms to tear delegates away from their screens, strike up conversations and make some fun happen.
From the makers of 2009’s run away SXSW success The Hat Game, SlingShot have produced a game that will break out of the norms of the conference and challenge notions of how to behave in a technology-driven environment.
Follow him at http://twitter.com/thetweeture. And don’t forget to look out for this beast in the corridors, bars and events of SXSWi 2010.
The Tweeture is Produced by SlingShot with Hazel Grian and GreenGinger. Executive Produced by iShed and Supported by Arts Council England.
The Tweeture was commissioned as part of The Umbrella Group, an Arts Council England supported delegation of UK artists and producers attending SXSW. It is designed to promote UK innovation and creativity at one of the world’s leading technology conferences.
