CitizenSpin

Volvo blog revs-up for success

Back to blogging, with news of a really effective corporate blog. My dissertation is done and the MSc complete – more of that in future weeks.

In the meantime, what sparked my interest was the new Volvo C30 – a sleek three door hatch which reminds me of the Volvo P1800 (driven by the Saint and also owned by a friend’s dad when I was a youngster).

What’s fascinating is that during a search for more information about the new C30, I stumbled across a blog by the designer - Simon Lamarre. His C30 Designer Blog describes the inspiration for the car, talks about the excitement of seeing ‘his’ car launched, and the recent press trips to test the new car.

As a prospective customer, this was great. I gained an insight into the life of the designer – not just the inspiration behind the vehicle, but also the politics and the bureaucratic hurdles that need to be negotiated. The blog contains sketches as well as a record of his feelings and experiences. Lamarre also talks about the reaction inside the company (which is part of Ford) to the blog.

The blog is powerful for a number of reasons:

¡ It’s written by an individual who is obviously passionate about the project – the enthusiasm shines through in the writing

¡ The blog provides added depth to the consumer experience – the opportunity to enter into a dialogue with the man who designed the vehicle

¡ The blog is also one step removed from Volvo – Lamarre is doing it as an individual, not on the corporate web site but through blogspot.com

In short the blog maintains a feeling of independence and impartiality, so that the motivation appears to be sharing the unique experience of launching a new car, rather than a cynical marketing exercise to attract early adopters. Of course it works as a promotional tool exactly because of this.

Matt

Blogwatch: Why is the BBC getting involved in blogging?

Why is the BBC getting involved in blogging? It's a question that was raised in a session I was running the other day. Followed by the comment: 'Blogging is for amateurs, and provides an easy way for them to put their opinions, however flaky, online.'

It's interesting that the comment came on the day that the Baghdad Burning blog was nominated for an award a measure of how some blogs can be credible and offer a new perspective, not often portrayed by 'big media'.
But it's not just individuals getting into blogging. Big business is there too ­ with GM, IBM, Microsoft etc. using the Internet to connect with consumers. Connecting in a way that allows consumers to enter into a dialogue.

The BBC too has just started to expand it's blogging operations. The first was political editor Nick Robinson, Paul Mason of Newsnight and the World Have Your Say programme from the World Service have recently joined him.

When the BBC already operates chat forums, message boards and community sites, and lets people add comments to some news stories ­ - so what's the point of adding blogs to the mix?

It's early days and hard to tell how blogs at the beeb may develop, but some of the ideas delegates suggested were inspiring. Blogs needn't be just personality based, but could also be built around events, or the genre of programme. They'd be more interactive ordinary web pages, provide more insight to the production process and journalistic process and more depth to programming.

It's similar to the way that big business is using blogs to get closer to consumers, big media can use blogs to engage with the audience in a more one-to-one way.

Matt

Testing times - web survey pilot

How much credibility do consumers lend to information from different sources online? I’ve already written about the ethical considerations in blogging – and the fact that bloggers seem to see no need for a code of ethics. So are consumers savvy enough to work out what’s credible comment, and when someone is biased?

As regular readers will know, one of the points of setting up this blog was to help with my exploration of trust and sources of information online. It’s now come to the time when I can’t delay the research for my dissertation any longer … and so I’m piloting my questionnaire here.

I’m planning to deploy the questionnaire sometime towards the end of the month. The link will be put on a web site which is run for people who are searching for bargains and products and services online – www.moneysavingexpert.com. So the sample will be self selecting, and already pretty web savvy.

The main focus is to try and find out if consumers view different information on line, with differing credibility, depending on its source. Some of the questions are based around work that I’ve done to produce semantic differentials form journalistic values here.

Please feel free to complete the pilot version of the survey and send me your comments. It would be really helpful in developing the research. If you think there are issues that I’m missing, or better ways of finding information then please make suggestions.

That link to the questionnaire again: http://www.thesistools.com/?qid=11255&ln=eng

Thanks
Matt

Broadcasters give citizen journalists tools to report

The BBC is expanding the number of reports available for UK viewers to download online. Over 80 online news reports covering iconic events from the past 50 years have been made available this week by the BBC.
It follows a move reported here last year in which ITN and Channel 4 in the UK provided online news editing tools for viewers - see the website at www.channel4.com/breakingthenews. The Channel 4 site will also offer master classes with ITN journalists as well as a course in broadcast news.
The BBC bulletins cover a range of events including the fall of the Berlin Wall, crowds ejecting soldiers from Beijing’s Tianamen Square and behind-the-scenes footage of the England team prior to their victory in the 1966 World Cup.
The reports are being offered as part of the The Open News Archive www.bbc.co.uk/opennewsarchive, a new pilot service being offered by the BBC which allows the UK public to use it to create content of their own.
The clips are being made available under the terms of the Creative Archive Licence, which was launched last year by the BBC, bfi, Channel 4 and the Open University. People will be able to download the content, and edit into their own creations.
Helen Boaden, Director of BBC News, says: “This trial is an important step in allowing us to share with our audiences the extraordinary news archive which the BBC has recorded over the years. We look forward to getting their reaction.“

Matt

Citizen Journalists make your own TV news

Channel 4 and ITN have joined together to offer viewers the chance to develop their own ‘citizen journalism’. Breaking the News – developed by indie producer Illumina Digital - enables viewers to produce their own news stories through an online initiative designed to improve media literacy.
ITN will provide images that users can then edit to compile their own packages. The new website can be found at www.channel4.com/breakingthenews and will also offer master classes with ITN journalists as well as a course in broadcast news.

Matt

Do bloggers have any power?

As part of the Today Programme Christmas poll about who runs the country they broadcast a short discussion on bloggers, and what kind of power they wield.
Judy of adloyda and Tim Ireland of bloggerheads took part in the discussion and raised some interesting points:

> Britain leads the way in constructive use of weblogs – MP’s and councillors are engaging in public meetings which take place in cyberspace.
> This compares to the US where blogging is predominantly a tool for people to shout from outside of the system – making noise but not necessarily engaging in debate.
> Blogging also provides a forum for people to stand-up to the establishment and tell the real story – Iran and Iraq were quoted with bloggers playing a role in countering the news stories and the government line.

You can listen again to the discussion here.

Matt

Citizen-journalism, watch out happy snapper!

Emily Bell, editor-in-chief of Guardian Unlimited, writes in the Media Guardian today about the dangers of encouraging reader-reporters. It’s an issue which has been causing friction between big-media who are trying to encourage new contributors and some of the press unions here in the UK.
There was a rearguard action against citizen-journalism by some in the industry following the London bombings. The Chartered Instituted of Journalists warned against the dangers of ordinary citizens being sent to take pictures or footage of disasters as they unfold. In a report on the subject I produced for BBC Radio Sally Feldman, Head of the School of Media, Arts and Design at the University of Westminster argued that the media had always used eyewitness reports, just that they're not more immediate, and the equipment is more ubiquitous.
In the column in today’s Media Guardian, Emily Bell, again raises the concerns of the CIoJ – this time about terms and conditions for anyone submitting pictures to the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
One clause has the sender of the photograph agree “to indemnify Telegraph Group Ltd, against all legal fees, damages and other expenses that may be incurred … as a result of a breach of the above warranties.”
So it appears the Telegraph is trying to protect itself against breach of privacy, libel, or copyright. She goes on to warn:

“More menacing for both media owners and those with images they wish to share - whether via a newspaper website, a sharing site such as flickr.com or even their own blog - is how taking casual snaps can, even in seemingly innocuous circumstances, land you in trouble. Image rights owners, particularly of large and valuable events, are becoming ever more aggressive in pursuing their value.
Fifa, for instance, has decreed that during the World Cup in 2006 no website can run images of the games until an hour after final whistle - an absurd rule for what amounts to a major news as well as sporting event. … The rules of "no one would bother" seem to have also gone by the board when it comes to hunting down copyright infringements. A colleague visited a gallery in the US and took a photo of a sculpture, posted it to his blog, and was pursued by the estate of the sculptor for euros 30 for image rights infringements.”

Where would that leave the citizen-journalist who submitted contributions? It seems big media is trying to protect itself against any litigation.

Matt

Portable Media Expo - final thoughts

Its 5am here in California and I’m awake. It’s either the excitement around the Portable Media Expo or the fact that my body still hasn’t adjusted to the time difference. It’s a good job I’ve been waking early because there was  lot to see and do, and the pace has been relentless at what’s been dubbed the Woodstock of Podcasting.

What was striking about the expo is the level of enthusiasm and energy around podcasting. There are lots of people out there who are excited about the prospect of making podcasts. There are also a hell of a lot of people who are keen to make money out of podcasts – I can’t remember the number of times I heard ‘monetization’. The message back from the speakers was – just make great content. I hope the creativity isn’t lost in the dash for cash, and that podcasting doesn’t mirror the way that broadcast radio seems to have gone here in the USA.
The challenge to existing big-media is to raise it’s game – it was great to hear “podcasting will make radio better” from a delegate in one session. I hope it does. What would be great from my perspective is if established media manages to harness the energy enthusiasm and passion expressed here. 
Some other thoughts:

■ It’s not all about iPods – more people listen to podcasts on PCs and mobile phones are more ubiquitous, have the capability and will provide mass-market access
■ People don’t know what podcasting is – the majority of people in USA never heard of podcasting or don’t understand what it means
■ Finally, it’s a great way to connect with audiences

Oh and a final thought, this was billed as the first podcasting conference, but I’m sure I remember attending the Britcaster PodCastCon in the UK in September – surely us Brits weren’t there first?
But hey, the Yanks were bigger.

I found a selection of photos here, and there were a whole bunch of podcasts from the Expo: PodcastPickle.com, Podcasting Underground,  New Media Musings,  Radio Leo (KFI Radio podcast),  Accident Hash,  Podcrawl,  TechPodcasts.com,  Learn Out Loud,  Dr. Floyd

Matt

Keep podcasting simple - KPSS

Keynote address 7 – Don Katz CEO Audible Inc

The main message to the Portable Media Expo from Don Datz, was that for podcasting to take off, it needs to be easy, really easy. Here are the key points:

1) Don’t underestimate how easy podcasting needs to become. It has to be easy to fit into the non-early adopters’ lifestyle – people are intolerant of technological complexity. Future optimisation will come forward and make it simpler – the experience and content needs to become more important than the technology.
2) Make your costs as variable as you can make them – podcasting could be very expensive non-profit making effort. Plenty of big media have made mistakes sinking a lot of money into technology where there is not enough uptake.
3) Move your efforts by some degree into the direction of a sustainable business model. It will change and emerge and evolve, but have some kind of model to start with. 
4) There will be new environments and markets for content – there has to be an economy that matches the creativity that will emerge.
5) Be tenacious, tough and protect your ego – take pleasure in doing what you do and saying what you’re going to say. Just stick to it and believe in yourself.
6) Make great audio! The barriers to creating audio and being in this game are lower than they have ever been.

Podcasting will soar because of the quality of the creativity – and the content which is available.

Matt

If there is a spark there, you can fan it into flames

Session 6 The human touch – using podcasts for interaction and to create new relationships

Dave Slusher – Evil Genius Chronicles Podcast

This session focused on the relationship it is possible to build with an audience on a small scale, which is difficult in other forms of broadcasting. Slusher argued that the smaller, and tighter the audience size, the stronger that relationship can be.
He suggested that in terms of podcasting a smaller audience can actually be desirable, because the model is actually different to that of broadcast media. Whereas broadcasters have fixed costs, which fall per-listener as more people tune in, podcasters use more bandwidth as more people download and therefore costs rise.
The ideal is an engaged audience, who are interested in what you’re doing, and no larger than that. 
Slusher argued that radio (in the US) has squandered its relationship with the audience. Radio was once the intimate medium, the friend who was always there; now its big business, no personality, and formats. The spoken word has great power for emotional engagement with the audience – TV is a sit back media where everything is presented to you on a plate, where as audio connects more directly and uses the listeners’ imagination. You are whispering in their ear.
He quoted the example of a Bruce Springsteen podcast. Where Springsteen talked directly to his fans, talks about concerns over his recording contract, and his new album. Because of the podcast Slusher now listens to that album differently, and has an insight into what was in Springsteen's mind when he produced it.
A very powerful way of connecting with the audience.

Matt