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Archive for Not a Number
How do you catch up on blogs when you’ve been away?
As it’s Friday Free for All here on the ever-growing Wardman Wire I thought I would ask a question instead of an opinion, based on something that somebody asked me in a pub recently:
“I was just starting to get into these blogs, but then I went away for two weeks and I haven’t been able to get back into it since. I just can’t figure out what’s happened because there is so much content to trawl through.”
It’s a fair question. With the ever-growing blog-o-sphere in a variety of topic areas and more people turning to Google Reader and other feed aggregation services it’s easy to end up with something that looks more like your mailbox upon your return from absence - hundreds of unread messages.
How do you sort the good stuff from the rambling nonsense? How do you catch up on the blogs?
Mobile Phone Browsing in 2008
Matt is traversing the UK rail network on business today and so I have been drafted in once again to keep you company. It’s been a while, dear Wardman Wire reader, but you could say that I have been otherwise engaged. So, before the end of 2007 I wanted to chat about the prospects for the growth of mobile internet browsing over the next 12 months, which was a topic that came up in a Facebook note by Phil Donohoue recently.
The problems have always been over screen size. Apple were the first major player to answer this issue with the iPhone and the intuitive way Safari renders pages and allows you to zoom into specific areas. However, if you think Microsoft will sit back and do nothing about this, think again. They’ve had mobile devices on the market for years and will want to get into the race for hearts and minds of handheld owners around the world.
Microsoft’s latest development is “Deepfish” and while it’s name leaves a lot to be desired it does seem to have some tricks up it’s sleave. But, hang on, haven’t we seen their feature list somewhere before?
Deepfish provides:
- A familiar look and feel of web pages on mobile as seen on desktop.
- Bandwidth optimized rendering for faster content delivery.
- Address bar web navigation.
- Intuitive zooming, panning and cue map for quick navigation and browsing.
- Support for simple link navigation and form submission.
Yes, that’s right. Just like the iPhone, you’ll be able to navigate around web pages that look a lot like they should on your desktop machine. Hooray for Microsoft for finally catching up.
That only leaves Symbian, the other major phone software developer. It’s their stuff you see on your Nokia phone, for example. They have quite a large market share and as yet don’t have a browser that matches Safari for the iPhone or the upcoming Deepfish. Despite this, however, mobile browsing looks set to rise in 2008, as it has in recent years. Why?
Applications, Dear Boy
The development of Facebook and other social networking platforms has shown us one thing - that the market is ready for application-led internet delivery. By that I mean we can now do so much more with the internet - gone are the days of static information-led websites and in are the crazy applications that will light up our lives. All of this is brought to you by faster internet connections around the world, even in the UK. You see, website development always has to cater for the lowest common denominator - previously the nightmarish IE6 on Windows with average speeds of less than 512kbps. Nowadays the average speeds are up, there is growing diversity in the browser market, and even IE is starting to adopt common standards. All of this makes the market ripe for application development.
Now, back to the point of mobile browsing. Yes, we’re going to see a more desktop-like experience on our phones, even with small screens and that is totally wicked dude, but what we’re going to see more of is mobile applications. These will not only be browser based, like Facebook’s mobile version, but they will be Java-based too, like Faceparty’s mobile application. The fact that application developers can also tie in revenue models to the mobile platform makes this an increasingly attractive market to operate in.
Politics
Finally, let’s see if we can tie this back to some sort of political meaning. Well, it’s clear that a campaigner in a target seat would love to be able to get themselves onto the mobile phone of every voter. Traditionally, this has come in the form of SMS marketing attempts by major parties, led from the top. But, what we might see in 2008 is the development of mobile-based applications that, whilst nationally-developed, provide localisation and interaction through the phone’s menu systems, rather than a browser. Heck, I might even have a bash at developing something myself.
Will Technology Influence the Lib Dem Leadership Race?
The editor [Ed: me not necessarily you] yesterday bowed out of the blog coverage of the Lib Dem leadership election , but I wanted to get one last post in about it from my perspective as a tech-head. It’s yet another leadership contest and yet another opportunity for people to go on and on about the use of technology in influencing the outcome.
At a time when it is estimated that 69% of the adult population have access to the internet at home, work or school it is a very tempting place to reach out to as part of a campaign. Then there’s lazy journalists that you can feed with your website or Facebook group. In all, the internet is an attractive place to an aspiring leader right now and it’s been a while since we’ve had a leadership election so I thought I would take a look at what’s available now.
Lights, Camera, Action!
There’s no doubt in my mind that the last year has seen an explosion of so-called ‘internet TV’ and this is proven by research released by Continental Research that shows a rise of viewers of internet TV from 3million in 2006 to 4.3million this year. The longer-term prediction is that around 5.7 million people will watch internet TV over the course of the next year. Who wouldn’t want a slice of that pie?
The Liberal Democrats have, to their credit, always been very good at online video. They adopted Google Video and YouTube before LabourVision and WebCameron. You can find a shed load of videos featuring Ming Campbell on YouTube alone and they range from speeches to discussions to diary pieces to camera. There’s no doubt that Cowley Street has put some effort into online video.
However, turning attention to the runners and riders in this year’s leadership election and Chris Huhne has not bothered to put videos on his website. Then again, neither has Nick Clegg. Perhaps Ming Campbell, who was so often mocked for his age, was actually a rather modern chap afterall.
Article Series - Column - Tech Talk - Mike Rouse
- Will Technology Influence the Lib Dem Leadership Race?
How to Run Your own TV Channel
Mike Rouse’s column “Not a Number” this weekend looks at using the Mogulus service to launch your own TV-Channel or network of web-cams to create your own “studio” and reporting network. You can even pull in videos from Youtube:
This week I want to introduce Wardman Wire readers to the current wealth of technology available to budding media moguls. Things have moved at a great pace since 18 Doughty Street was launched. CampaignTV.org has come along and serves as the latest example in this small UK political internet TV market.
But, how easy is it to get going? Well, thanks to Mogulus you can have your own TV station up and running in less than an hour. And, what is more, you don’t need your own studio. You can even start up without having a camera!
His article is here.
Tags: mike rouse, mogulus, media mogul, youtube, campaign tv, 18ds, private tv station, iptv[tags]mike rouse, mogulus, media mogul, youtube, campaign tv, 18ds, private tv station, iptv[/tags]
Be a Media Mogul on the Cheap
This week I want to introduce Wardman Wire readers to the current wealth of technology available to budding media moguls. Things have moved at a great pace since 18 Doughty Street was launched. CampaignTV.org has come along and serves as the latest example in this small UK political internet TV market.
But, how easy is it to get going? Well, thanks to Mogulus you can have your own TV station up and running in less than an hour. And, what is more, you don’t need your own studio. You can even start up without having a camera!
YouTube Built In
One of the beautiful things about Mogulus is how it taps into YouTube to offer producers millions of videos to drop into their mix. All you do is enter your search terms and then drag a video from YouTube into your storyboard. The Mogulus system then converts the clip, which takes a little while, and then makes it available either for you to mix manually or for your auto-pilot to take care of.
Auto-Pilot
You don’t even have to sit there and operate your TV channel. You can let the auto-pilot do all that for you. Just tell it what storyboards to make use of and it’ll sit there all day scrolling through the content. In my example TV channel I have set up Thatcher Weekend, which is just back-to-back Margaret Thatcher videos being left alone to run until Monday. The only downside is that I have to manually instruct the auto-pilot to go to John Bolton Monday. Mogulus is still in beta, so some small features are still missing.
Uploading Your Own or Going Live
So you can just trot out a load of old YouTube content, but what if you’ve got your own stack of videos lying around or want to do live commentary on a current news event. Mogulus does that too. And here’s the greatest feature: multiple webcams supported.
With this feature you can build a network of reporters all around the country each with their own login details to your studio. When they’re signed in and their webcam switched on they appear in your list of available cameras. You can then switch between John in Hull, Peter in Portsmouth and Joanna in Wales seemlessly. That means you could build your own nationwide news channel, complete with local content and news. Do a bit of pre-planning and you can have some videos to go with the content, all thanks to YouTube.
But, what if you’ve edited your own videos? Well, Mogulus supports uploading too. Give it some time to process your collection of greatest speeches, but sure enough you can have your own library all ready to rock into your own TV show. Maybe you can use it to do a special debate show with your guests all hooked up to webcams around the country.
Starbucks
Because Mogulus can work with a standard webcam as well as a more fully-featured studio you can pop down to Starbucks and hook on to the WiFi there and get yourself ready for an outside broadcast. Wannabe political journalists could just invite MPs and Peers to the Starbucks nearest to College Green for their exclusive interview. Indeed, with increasing speeds available with mobile broadband you might even be able to do a live interview or report from right outside the Houses of Parliament. Neat, eh?
Cost
It’s up to you. You can splash out on good cameras, mobile broadband and a decent laptop and get up and running for less than £3,000. Or you can start with naff all and just run YouTube videos or upload your own. Mogulus is free at the moment, but that’s because they drop an advert into your broadcast every 13 minutes or so, but you’ll soon be able to pay for a pro account to get rid of that or even control your own advertising.
Go Get It
Mogulus is in closed beta right now, so not everybody will be allowed to get access to the system. But, if you’ve got a good idea for a channel you should hop along to mogulus.com and apply today. Tell them that Mike Rouse sent you, too!
Article Series - Column - Tech Talk - Mike Rouse
Show the Blogging Love at Party Conferences
I recently returned from a few days in Blackpool at the Conservative Party Conference, which, if you’ve never been, is a very interesting place. The Winter Gardens, however, failed to come up to scratch from a blogging and internet point of view.
If not for Iain Dale, we bloggers and techies would not have had a hope in hell of finding internet access. He arranged with the Party Chairman’s office for internet access and they gave us 4 ethernet connections in a small dressing room tucked away somewhere secret. It was adequate for blogging, but not much else.
On the final day, after Cameron spoke, I went down to the media area and sat with Guido Fawkes while he tried to blog from there. The connection didn’t even seem to want to work and I heard about how the journalists had been moaning all week about the poor service.
So, what can be done?
I can only speak from the point of view of the Conservative Party conference as I’ve never been to a Labour or Lib Dem one, but there is a lot that could be done.
For starters, wherever future conferences are held a good, strong, and far-reaching WiFi connection is a must for the entire conference area. I should be able to sit anywhere and access the internet at any time and for a reasonable cost too. One option might be for the Party to manage the financial side of the connections and take a slice off the top of any access fee - that might help the coffers a tiny bit.
As well as blanket WiFi I want to see a few drop-in areas, much like the “Time to Surf” booth at Blackpool. There shouldn’t just be internet terminals, but a full offering of printers, scanners, and webcams. That would enable delegates to post to YouTube from within the conference, scan in bits of leaflets they’ve been given and print out information about the local restaurant. Essentially, it needs to be a fully featured web-cafe-in-a-booth, but a few of them scattered around.
Message
The problem with providing very good facilities for bloggers and any old delegate is the loss of control over publicity that leaves the conference. By making it so easy for bloggers to blog who knows what they might put up quickly. Does that scare Central Office?
Going Nuts
What might be worth a shot is the Party investing in some cameras and streaming equipment and just broadcast the whole conference and all fringe events over the internet. That way we get to sit at home with a cup of coccoa whilst listening to John Bolton’s views on North Korea. No more leaflet-dodging, over-priced drinks, or late nights at the Imperial Hotel.
Nearly a Year at 18 Doughty Street
Dear Wardman Wire Readers,
We’re in the midst of conference season, so I thought it might be worth a peek behind the scenes at Britain’s first internet-based political TV station; 18 Doughty Street - just so you can digest something a little bit different.
During the last conference season we were just gearing up towards our launch and focussed on handing out flyers to promote ourselves. In the early days people really didn’t get what we were about at all. We even had a local councillor from a few boroughs away pop in one morning thinking that we were a traditional radio station set up just for Tories. I pointed her to Tory Radio initially, but then learned that she didn’t have access to the internet, or even a telephone for that matter, so perhaps the new media revolution was not quite for her.
Back in those days we were definitely branded with the Tory brush. It was our own fault I guess, but as time went on we realised there was much more to be had by occupying the centre-ground of politics and giving all areas a voice. We increased the number of programmes presented by left-wing presenters: Talking with Tatchell, Wolmar’s World and Claire Fox News (although Claire is a tough one to define on the left-right axis - her programme is very good.)
As we approach a year of broadcasting I look back at the technology behind our operation and wonder if we got it right first time.
We’re actively looking at throwing out the Windows Media Format and bringing in the Flash video for starters. You see, Windows Media Format doesn’t play nicely with Macs, or Linux, or any other system that is not Windows for that matter. But, on the other hand, the set-top-boxes that will offer internet TV only support Windows Media Format at the moment.
So, the question I am asking myself is: Do we go after the browser-based market with Flash or focus on the set-top-box market with Windows Media Format? I’ve not yet found an answer; and the main reason for that is because it is so hard to see where the set-top-box market is going at the moment. BT Vision have taken an early lead, but models are starting to pop up that do actually support Flash and even tune you into YouTube. The appeal of these might well outweigh the offering from BT Vision in a few months.
Of course, the other option is to just do both formats. There is equipment that will allow us to do that, but before we spend the thousands of pounds needed to procure it we have to be sure that we’re going to benefit from it. My directors don’t want equipment sat around not being utilised properly, and I can quite understand this.
Another area that I’ve been reflecting on is the website itself. We’ve had a number of attempts to get this right and I don’t think we’re there yet. I think it’s time for a slimmer offering - perhaps taking the approach of other video websites out there. Those sites have videos on the front page and you can jump around to other videos on the site. There’s categories, keywords, tagclouds, and other innovative features, including very good search engines.
There are two issues with moving to that style of delivery. First, the Flash issue as mentioned above - we’d almost definitely have to put everything into Flash, which means expensive equipment needs to be acquired. Second, is the consideration for live streaming.
When I look at websites I try to follow the activities of the end-user and imagine them sat there using the site. If they’re landing on the site during live broadcast hours and hit the player on the front page what happens if they then decide they want to click away into something on the sidebar, for example? That means the page reloads and the video is lost. A potential solution to this is to use some JavaScript to load the player in a new window whenever a link is clicked. And so the process goes on - thinking about every possible action the user might take on the site and coming up with an answer - it’s not easy, particularly with such a diverse range of shows.
Alas, another year, another project. The journey goes on. We get our cameras ready to make the journey to Blackpool and wonder if we’ll ever be able to capture all the footage we collect in time - another bit of kit needed there, perhaps.
Indeed, we might need to get new bits of kit here and there, but on the whole we’re holding together quite nicely. Even I have to admit to having my doubts at various points, but like the time I quit smoking, I tell myself that if we’ve made it this far we can go further.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s guest post. Please do leave a comment if you can.
Article Series - Column - Tech Talk - Mike Rouse
Start Your Own TV Show
The first myth I am going to dispell is the one that says you need a lot of money to make a success of video on the internet. Look at Obama Girl for example; for the cost of a choreographer and a hot model the people behind the series have become major successes in the United States with the videos receiving a combined total of views that stretches into the millions.
But what if you don’t want to become the next big internet producer? What if your audience is voters and political activists? Could you still reach the same dizzy heights?
The Content Problem
The thing with the Obama Girl video is simply that it is sexy, short and catchy. On the flip-side there are political videos that are quite drab by comparrison yet still manage to make an impact in their target areas. The key is the message and how you’re conveying it. If your message is too complicated and the video too cumbersome people won’t take to it and they won’t send it on to friends, but if it’s a concise message that can be expressed well through a visual medium people will probably respond well to it.
Got the Message, Got the Video, Now What?
Let me introduce a new friend of mine. It’s name is Blip.TV and the thing that seems to encompass what it does is a saying that I first saw on Jag Singh’s blog, which has a lot of meaning to me:
“Content may be king, but distribution pays the king’s mortgage.”
Blip seems to recognise this and gives you spades of options to spread your message far and wide. There’s cross-posting to MySpace and blogs, for example. For a full set of features check out their website.
One of the best features is the ability to transcode your videos to multiple formats. You can offer your video as a download in the source format, let people watch it online in the cross-platform Flash format, or even transcode it to an iPod format - that’s right - with Blip.TV you can hit multiple distributions with one file. I’m so impressed with it that I’ve put a load of 18 Doughty Street content on it - the Boris Johnson interview for example.
The thing that Blip.TV offers is video delivery in a way that both you and your auidence want. With it’s API you can pull the video and data over to your own website and show it in the way you like - people don’t have to watch it on the Blip.TV destination site.
YouTube or DIY-Tube?
Then there’s the big question - What’s it like next to YouTube? Wouldn’t a political video get more exposure on YouTube?
The answer is that you should put it on YouTube anyway. Blip isn’t necessarily a replacement, but something that is complimentary to your campaign. Sure, you can embed a YouTube video, but with Blip you can customise things, offer the source file for download and even offer a “send to your ipod” button.
Jargon Buster
Thanks for reading my guest column here at the fast-growing, always interesting Wardman Wire. I thought it might be useful to provide some definitions to the more technical terms mentioned here.
Cross-Posting
- This is when you submit something to one site, like Blip, and it automatically posts it to your own blog or MySpace account for you.
Cross-Platform
- When something works on a PC, Mac, Linux or any other computer platform.
Transcode
- The process of converting a digital video format from one form to another.
API
- Stands for “Application Programming Interface”, which basically gives programmers and designers access to the source code of a given application so they can use it for their own purposes.
