This week has been marked by two almost under the wire speculative thoughts in new/social media Is the internet dead asks the Economist? “A virtual counter-revolution: The internet has been a great unifier of people, companies and online networks”.

The Economist argues that the Internet is under threat and that commercial forces are threatening to balkanise the internet.  I suspect they are right.

The other question ‘is blogging dead?’ Or as Steve Rubel puts it ‘crawling to a halt’ The death of blogging is something RCJ at BBC wrote about 2 years ago (in a blog which is still going strong).  He was right then ‘ … what I think we’re seeing is the development of a mixed economy, where blogging has many forms, professional, amateur, micro and mega.’ and is right still.

Then there is the continuing old media v. new media conversations. ‘Science journalism: Supplanting the old media?’ And conversely; ‘The FaceBook for science is dead: What’s next?’ The truth – or one element in a multifaceted truth is it’s all evolving – it always did and it always will.

How this broad new/emerging media is evolving is the interesting story.  One aspect is how traditional media businesses are working with new media.  Locally with UTV and PropertyPal ‘UTV seals property website deal’  (congratulations guys) and internationally Hogging the remote Old-media firms are firmly in control of internet video

But increasingly important is the growing importance of ‘local’ and ‘mobile’. ‘Local’ used to be a pejorative word. Local = parochial, narrow, unsophisticated even cheap.  Local was not ‘Metropolitan’.  The League of Gentlemen reflected what metropolitans thought about local – “This is a local shop for local people.  There’s nothing for you here.” [Video]

Local Radio – not as good as National Radio (yeah? Often – prehaps always -  more popular, though.) The global internet is reviving local. Google’s New Mobile Ads Take Users From Search To Store ABI: Location-Based Marketing To Reach $1.8B In 2015 Mobile devices need custom maps The next billion geeks: How the mobile internet will transform the BRICI countries Are You Stuck in The Mobile Divide? The new site Groupon a ‘deal of the day’ web site localised (only available in the US and Canada – come on NI entrepreneurs – here a great idea to adapt to local needs)

To say nothing of the location ‘games’ Gowalla and Foursquare which Kevin Anderson has been thinking about

So the internet isn’t dead.  Blogging isn’t dead.  They are both evolving and evolving fast.  Local is the new metropolitan.  Local is potentially the new global too as it becomes easier to reach the rest of the world while staying at home.

The new Digital Circle Steering Group has been announced: Ryan Adams, BBC; Mary McKenna, Learning Pool; Martin Gilchrist, Referalot; Ian Sayers, Giant Associates; Alan Anderson, Bluetubedesign. Well done and congratulations to all the newly elected members of the DC Steering Group. This, of all times, is a challenging for business and in particular new and young businesses in the digital content sector. But this is a great group of people with wide experience in public and private enterprises with a strong focus on both the home and international markets. The great strength of Digital Circle is how it can bring together people committed to working together for everyone’s benefit. I had to step down in March as Chair of DCSG because of business commitments and an impending General Election which I was working through. At that point the then SG were expecting elections within a few weeks, they were postponed until a few months ago. So, my thanks to Aidan McGrath who took over the chair and the other guys in the group. And to the new group – let me know if I can help.

With the release of Facebook Places, talking to a journalist from ‘old media’ today, and lunch with a pair of bloggers, I remembered this video. The original version made in 2004 and updated in 2005.  It is set in 2015 and traces the changes in media from 1989 to 2015.  Remember, this was made before Twitter, Facebook was only available to students in Harvard, broadband penetration was nothing like it is now and smart phones were not as ubiquitous as they are now.  It was also two years before the launch of iPhone. Futurology is not something you want to rely on for specifics, but it’s useful to predict trends.  Half way between 2005 and 2015, it’s remarkable how on the button some of the predictions in this video are.  But the point is not so much to predict the future. No one expects Amazon and Goolge to merge - although in 2004 it was not out of the question.  The point is the challenge that traditional media faces from new media, changing consumer needs and tastes, what Clay Shirky describes as ‘cognative surplus’ and the availability of tools and platforms to create our own media.

Well, I have cast my 5 votes at the Digital Circle Ning site, and if you are a registered member of DC I encourage you to do the same. And an excellent selection of people are standing. I’m heartened there is a good geographic, gender, skills and experience spread, too.

If you don’t already know the candidates (there’s only one I don’t know personally) you can see their profiles here.

Even though I haven’t been able to be active in DC for the last few months, I still think it is an important organisation for the future of the creative and technology industries in Northern Ireland. The group of candidates would indicate a potentially positive new direction for DC. It has another year to have a more significant impact.

Good luck to you all - especially the ones I voted for.

Well, I have cast my 5 votes at the Digital Circle Ning site, and if you are a registered member of DC I encourage you to do the same.  And an excellent selection of people are standing.  I’m heartened there is a good geographic, gender, skills and experience spread, too. If you don’t already know the candidates (there’s only one I don’t know personally) you can see their profiles here. Even though I haven’t been able to be active in DC for the last few months, I still think it is an important organisation for the future of the creative and technology industries in Northern Ireland.  The group of candidates would indicate a potentially positive new direction for DC.  It has another year to have a more significant impact. Good luck to you all - especially the ones I voted for.

I don’t listen much to Radio 5 Live - and consequently have missed previous editions of this programme with in a programme ‘Outriders’ which is broadcast at 3.00 am. This morning’s programme was a 26 minute conversation with Clay Shirky. Below is the link to the blog and you can follow that to the podcast. BBC - Outriders “This week on Outriders a longer discussion as Clay Shirky chats about his new book Cognitive Surplus and how he switched from theater and the arts to new media observation.”

The Digital Circle has opened nominations for the election of the Steering Group.  Anyone who reads this blog (if anyone does …) will probably not need any explanation of Digital Circle.

New readers can start here: Digital Circle sprang from the Invest Northern Ireland Digital Content Strategy .  The idea was to represent the Digital Content Industry in Northern Ireland.  It is a perilously small and fragmented industry comprising largely individuals or small companies of fewer the 5 people.  There are some big beasts; BBC, Belfast Telegraph, UTV who have not been much involved in DC – they really should be. (I strongly believe they have a lot to learn from the smaller businesses here as do the smaller businesses from them. It’s less about the technology more about the ideas and attitudes.)  Part of the role of Digital Circle was to help bring together those smaller businesses to give them a voice and strength working together, build relationships and to foster development in the content community.

DC has gone a long way to achieving those objectives.  But there is a long way yet to go and the current DC team are aware of that. There are those who say “What has Digital Circle done for me?” to which the answer is “Have you actually become actively involved in DC?”  For the success of everyone, participation by everyone is crucial.  It’s not what DC will do for the industry, it’s what the industry will do for itself.  DC will support.  DC if you like is the platform, what the businesses do is the content. And it I well connected. To quote from the DC Ninig site

The Steering Group represents the industry when working with our colleagues in other sectoral groups and organisations such as Momentum, NIScreen, NISP CONNECT, HALO, The Arts Council, IntertradeIreland and Invest Northern Ireland.

So where do I think DC should be going in the next phase?  I gave that a lot of thought when I was the Chair (business commitments meant that I had to stand down).  I expect that I will be writing about that over the next few weeks. I don’t think long blog posts are good practice.

Tracey Lee of Steria visited Belfast recently to present at the Mobile Solutuions for the Public Sector conference sponsored by Steria and organised by Momentum and Socitm. Afterwards I spoke to Tracey about Steria and Mobile Working. Listen to the Podcast Watch the Video:

This is the full version of my final Belfast Telegraph Twitter column. An email from Biz Stone arrives in my inbox as I sit wondering what to write in my final Word on Tweet column. By chance Biz (one of the owners of Twitter) is announcing the next phase for what has become a byword for social media. This time four years ago very few people had heard of Twitter. The first “Tweet” had not even been sent. Work on the project started on March 21, 2006, when founder Jack Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 9:50 PM Pacific Standard Time: “just setting up my twttr”. Twttr was the original name and was only intended for people working in Odeo.com but a full-scale public version was launched a few months later. The SMS of the internet grew quickly. Soon it filled with news, conversation, spam, and pointless babble. It – like most social media – reflects the world it occupies and the people who use it. It has been central to some political campaigns, charitable appeals, live reporting of disasters, near disasters and earthquakes, political demonstrations, pleas for help, boasts of triumph and rather good recipes. Search Amazon and you will find pages and pages of books about Twitter. In his email Biz Stone announced their 140th employee (significant as140 characters is the maximum length of a Twitter message). “In the course of a year, registered Twitter accounts have grown more than 1,500%.” says Stone. One of the reasons for Twitter’s growth and popularity is the army of what Stone describes as “dedicated platform developers who have now created more than 70,000 registered Twitter applications creating variety and utility for all of us.” But Twitter is growing up. That informal group of developers working into the night fuelled by pizza and a brand new idea may become a little more formal as Twitter announce their first developer conference. It will be called Chirp. Once, it might have been called a Tweet-up. Now, that is a sign of growing up. When the first telephone engineers sent the first text (SMS) messages, no one would have predicted the impact of that simple messaging system. That was almost 30 years ago. Texting is stronger than ever. Twitter still dominates short messaging but there are others such as identi.ca. What will be the impact of these in 25 years time? 140 – it appears – is the magic number.

This is not much more than a Sunday afternoon doodle locating the creative and digital industries (and related offices) around approximately a square mile in Belfast. The idea came from the Silicon Roundabout map in Wired (UK) 2.10 (Feb 2009) More about that here. It's not exhaustive. It's open to add as you see fit.

View Media Square Mile (and a bit) in a larger map

This from today's Your Place and Mine on Radio Ulster.  Norman Kerr showing me around his private museum near Laurencetown.

]]> Sat, 20 Feb 2010 11:20:08 +0000 http://www.davysims.co.uk/items/view/1550/mourne-view-museum http://www.davysims.co.uk/items/view/1460/ten-rules-for-success-in-the-creative-economy

About a year ago I was at a discussion in Ofcom in Belfast where we were talking about Creative Industries and Digital Media. One session was led by Professor Paul Moore from University of Ulster Magee. He passed round a few pages from the book The Creative Economy by John Howkins

In the chapter Managing Creativity the author sets out Ten Rules for Success. Recently I found the pages at the bottom of a pile of papers as I was clearing up my desk and though that with due reference to the book I’d post a shortened version of the rules.

I've posted them over on the blog

About a year ago I was at a discussion in Ofcom in Belfast where we were talking about Creative Industries and Digital Media.  One session was led by Professor Paul Moore from University of Ulster Magee.   He passed round a few pages from the book The Creative Economy by John Howkins. In the chapter Managing Creativity the author sets out Ten Rules for Success.  Recently I found the pages at the bottom of a pile of papers as I was clearing up my desk and though that with due reference to the book I’d post a shortened version of the rules: 1 – Invent Yourself Create a unique cluster of personal talents. Own you image. Manage it. Build momentum. Dance as if no o ne is looking. Be clear about your assets and talents. 2 – Put the priority on ideas, not on data Create and grow your own creative imagination. Build a personal balance sheet of intellectual capital. Unerstand patents, copyright, trademarks and other intellectual property … Entrepreneurs in the creative economy are more worried if they lise their ability to think than if their company loses money. 3 – Be nomadic Nomads are at home in every country. You can choose your own path and means of travel, and choose how long you stay … most nomads travel in groups , especially at night.  Charles Handy says leaders must “combine a love of people” and a “capacity for aloofness” … creatives need both solitude and the crows, thinking alone and working together. 4  - Define yourself by your own (thinking) activities, not by the (job) title somebody else has given you.  If you are working for company X on project Y, say you are working on project Y for company X.  People who are brave call themselves ‘thinkers’. Computer companies concoct and sell ‘business solutions’ to their clients solutions; in the creative economy, we can think and exchange creative solutions with each other. 5 – Learn endlessly.  Borrow. Innovative … Creative artists scavenge for new ideas … Use networks, if you can’t find the right one, start it.  Take risks and do unnecessary things. 6 – Exploit fame and celebrity.  The production costs are small and relatively fixed.  fame is what economists call a ‘sumk cost’, which cannot be recovered but which can be freely exploited at no further expense, and both fame and celebrity bring virtually unlimited rewards in terms of the ability to charge more for one’s services and to revitalize a life or career that is momentarily stuck.  Being well known …. is as important in the creative economy of the twenty-first century as good typing speeds were in the clerical economy of the twentieth.  The essence of being a star, as shrewdly revealed by David Bowie is ‘the ability to make yourself as fascinating to others as you are to yourself’ This is … about being famous … for being creative … 7 - Treat the virtual as real and vice-versa.  Cyberspace id merely another dimension to everyday life … Bandwidth is useless without a message, without communication.  At all times use RIDER; review, incubation, dreams, excitement and reality checks. 8 - Be kind.  Kindness is a mark of success.  Data never say ‘please’ Humans can and should say ‘please’, and mean it. 9 – Admire success openly. Equalluy don’t be fixated on success; be curious about failure … You will never win if you cannot lose. 10 – Be very ambitious. Boldly go. 11 – Have Fun. Posted via email from Davy Sims Posterous Site

This is not much more than a Sunday afternoon doodle locating the creative and digital industries (and related offices) around approximately a square mile in Belfast. The ideas came from the Silicon Roundabout map in Wired (UK) 2.10 (Feb 2009) More about that here.  It’s not exhaustive. It’s open to add as you see fit. View Media Square Mile (and a bit) in a larger map

“There was a time a few months ago I dismissed Twitter as being a total waste of time, a place where sad geeks tweeted about anything and everything they did. Now I realise that people from all walks of life are connecting via Twitter in meaningful ways. I thought why not see if writers and poets and those with an interest in writing can connect on Twitter too?” Poet and blogger David Todd < http://www.google.com/profiles/davetodd7&gt; puts his finger on it. Social Media is useful if you have a reason to use it. Some who first look at Twitter see a long list of often short, unconnected and inconsequential messages amounting to no more than:

The cat just sneezed The cat just sneezed again The cat hasn’t sneezed for 10 minutes, now.

Others see an apparent lack of structure which puts them off, particularly when on their first few visits they don’t know any or many of the people who are posting. David started a group for writers through Tweetworks < http://www.tweetworks.com > a system which can help put a structure in place by arranging the posts. “With the creation of the group Writers’ Shebeen < http://www.tweetworks.com/groups/view/WritersShebeen > it means there’s a place where writers on Twitter can connect and they don’t waste valuable writing time.” He told me. “Also, there are so many talented writers and poets in Northern Ireland that don’t have the time or desire to join established creative writing groups and could join or just read tweets at Writers’ Shebeen group and hopefully read a tweet that might encourage or inspire them to write.” Northern Irish authors and publishers have realised that the Internet is a very important marketing tool; this group can be one of the tools used to help sell books. “I’ve seen tweets by authors read by thousands of people re-tweeted and the message they’ve sent reaches millions of people in a few minutes.” Writers’ Shebeen started with a few people but is growing. David is hoping real life connections will be made between writers. “Maybe these connections could result in workshops, poetry slams, readings and book launches being arranged or people just meeting [a tweet up] over a coffee or a pint for a chat about writing.”  

This morning was spent chairing a discussion on Creative Industries at ISEA.  First we were in a large acoustically dreadful room in BT Tower and thanks (and I do mean “thanks”) to a fire alarm, we were moved to a small and perfectly functional room in the Hilton next door. The panel and the “audience” melded well.  There were probably about 35 people in total, enough for everyone (at Clive van Heerden’s  suggestion) not just the panel to introduce themselves. Having to move (and forcible move) to another venue after less than 30 minutes meant that there was a strong likelihood we’d lose some of the audience who’d think the event wasn’t much cop and could hang back.  We not only retained all the audience, but added a few to our crocodile as we moved from the two buildings. The panel were: Clive van Heerden Clive  is Senior Director of Design-Led Innovation at Philips Design. One of his main responsibilities is leading the Probes program, to track trends and developments that may ultimately evolve into mainstream issues that have a significant impact on business. The Probes generate insights from research in five main areas; politics, economic, culture, environments and technology futures.  Moritz Waldemeyer Widely recognised as one of the most innovative and exciting designers of his generation was born in East Germany. He moved to London thirteen years ago where he trained as an engineer at Kings College and completed his Masters degree in 2001. Since then, he has collaborated with many of the world’s top architects and fashion designers Mika ‘Lumi’ Tuomola Mika is concept designer, writer, dramaturge (A dramaturge or dramaturg is a position within a theatre that deals mainly with research and development) and director - and occasional performer - for procedural, participatory New Media. His productions include the web drama ‘Daisy’s Amazing Discoveries’, avatar/game world designs for ‘WorldsAway’, and the dark musical comedy series ‘Accidental Lovers’ for television and mobile devices. Tim Brundle Tim is Director of Innovation at the University of Ulster. He is responsible for the University’s commercial output including consultancy, knowledge transfer, intellectual property licensing, technology commercialisation and spin outs. Matt Johnston Facilitator for Digital Circle. I hope someone captured some of the ideas in the discussion; and there we a lot.  But I’ll focus on one idea.  And it was Mika’s idea, shared by a professor from Canada (sorry - missed your name)  that although there is a lot of value in NI focusing on business/mentoring/ideas sharing with our friends in the States that there is much to be gained from a European focus. And I know that there is a view towards Europe, but is there a European (or joint European/US) focus.  Historically we do look west to the tech/digital industries and markets of the US, but what have we to gain from getting to know Europe better?  SXSW and Cupertino have their very obvious attractions.  Where should we be looking for the equivilent places/events and natural business allies in Europe? I don’t know.  I have a few ideas.  Anyone else share that idea? Where should we start?

This is a discussion that began on the Digital Circle’s Ning site when I started a discussion “What is the Digital Content Industry? Let’s Find Out” (membership required - but go ahead, join up). That has sort of morphed into a wider discussion about Digital Content and what it is.  One of my colleagues on the Digital Circle Steering Group Marty Neill asked the question:  ”Also I can conceive of how content and platform got divided in the first place? Anyone shed any light on why this division was / is necessary? Maybe I’m missing something but most digital content is created through building on top of existing platforms. There’s a clear mix of codey type development and creative endeavour involved. “ So I started to write what is a slightly rambling reply that I thought I should bring out of the Walled Garden of Ning. It’s not an arguement, but an exploration of ideas. Marty, let me take that question head on. It’s an important one and I expect we will debate on the Steering Group and among the membership over the coming weeks and months. It is also helps to inform the discussion you have opened about an unfragmented Digital Industry. I’ll give a couple of examples. I make audio. To make the simplest production – say a two way interview – I capture on a digital recorder, edit on a digital editor and mix digitally. When it is complete, it exists as a piece of digital content; it might be an MP3 or a WAV file or on a proprietary file such as DALET MP3 (which for some reason is not compatible with regular MP3 players). But there it is, it’s done and is digital content. It can be distributed on a wide range of platforms. Really, as a Digital Producer I don’t care what platforms it is distributed on – the more the better. It can be distributed on analogue radio, DAB radio, SKY satellite, Web as MP3 (or WAV or Flash or any other suitable file type), on a CD, a DVD, on iPlayer (and that can be broken down into half a dozen flavours of iPlayer), on a mobile phone – or I can play it very loud out of my window. If it’s music it’s done essentially the same way, it can be incorporated into a game, a video and so on. But that doesn’t change the fact that it is a complete self contained piece of Digital Content. To be distributed on other platforms it will possibly need to be transcoded. But as a producer of a piece of Digital Content, I don’t have to be all that concerned about the technicalities or how that is done. I can take an interest in it, but I don’t have to – I can just pass it on to people who can do it. There is one example of the separation of Production and Distribution. A video is probably more complex. But it will follow the same production route; captured, edited, mixed digitally and finished as a piece of digital content. (Then there is the whole other discussion about where a band producing music and recording their own videos etc etc fit in a fragmented Digital Industry and how we deal with fragmentation – but that’s for the other discussion for you to lead.) I don’t know enough about games development – but I’ve commissioned a few and as a commissioner I expect a game to work on the platforms I specify. I guess a game will be developed for one platform (one flavour of Nintendo, say) but will have to be re- or transcoded for another platform (Sony, say). But when the original version is complete, it will have existed as a piece of Digital Content. When a developer makes an iPhone App – yes it is built on top of an existing platform – but it is a proprietary platform. Wouldn’t that App be even more useful or successful if it was built with a strong agnosticism to platform? The strength of Digital Content is that it can be platform agnostic. Yes – of course there are examples (and an increasing number of examples) of content and platform being co-dependent. And I don’t discount the value of that for a moment to both the designer/developer and the consumer. My argument is not “either/or”. And yes there will be examples of software being content (I’m sure someone will provide those examples). But the development of content is not necessarily co-dependent on specific platform. And when it is, to what extent is that co-dependency driven by a walled garden of DRM and Business centric rather than User centric investment? I don’t know. So let’s explore that too. Let me go back to the broadcasting example again – and why I think your question might be central to your own Digital Industry idea. Is the radio producer more or less a broadcaster than the person driving the desk, or the guy strapped to a Mast 200 feet above ground in a howling wind, or even the person who clears the copyright? To me they are all Broadcasters. One makes the content but is at times (but not always) co-dependent on the others for what they add to the production, the distribution and the rights management. But their roles can be identified as separate activities. It is an interesting discussion – I really look forward to hearing lots of input.

Download here or listen on Odeo

Last Saturday I spent the morning at Queens Students Union.  I haven’t been there for years (even though I’m a Life Member).  I had been invited to teach a session on Podcast production.  It was really a session on producing an audio interview. We started with an introduction to what podcasting is (and more importantly what it’s not).  Then into a couple of hours recording interviews.  There was a perfect number of people so everyone got a crack at being Producer, Interviewer and Interviewee. Finally all too short a session on editing audio.  Everything you need for an introduction to Audio Podcasting in three hours.  Ideally a couple of days would be great for this sort of thing. But everyone went away having accomplished enough to take themselves to the next stage.