PCM creative in action

BassBuds - The Sound of Fashion.

I need a new set of headphones. A set came with my iPhone but they never stay in my ears. They alway feel as if they will fall out at any moment. There are 2 reasons I use headphones. One, is to privately listen to music and the other is to isolate sound while listening to playback audio during recording or for later when editing video or audio podcasts. Oh and a third, I have a 'pillow speaker' this lays beneath my pillow with my ear placed over it I can listen to late night Radio 4 and World Service without disturbing my partner who is an astonishingly light sleeper.

In the post came my BassBuds and a request to write a review. First impressions… Oooo pretty. Sapphire blue and silver with cut crystals in the backs of the ear buds. Integrated mic for hands-free but in reality I always feel a bit silly using hands free and I never seem to be able to hear the caller. Anti-tangle cable, now that has an appeal. 

I must confess I'm not a follower of fashion trends I prefer my own style. Carefully selected accessories and colour accent appeals to me though. Purple resonates with me so too do blues and teals.

Classic Collection BassBuds - "Your colour, your style"

Mine are blue (left) and I've grown quite fond of them. The embedded crystals are a stylish touch, the question is however as ear phones what are they like?

How does music sound using them?

I have worked with professional audio engineers and I have been instructed to listen to sound through pro standard closed can headphones and the reproduction is markedly superior to a domestic end products. 

These are in-ear and as I mentioned at the start they never stay in. The only sets I have came with devises they were intended for. The first ones for personal stereos could only sound as good as the devise was capable of producing. With a devise producing good audio I can distinguish between base and treble accents. Clear sound, rich sound, muted, dull, tinny and balanced are terms I understand.

Swoping between headphones I can identify depth of sound and reproduction quality depending of course on the quality of the output source.

Advanced Crystaltronics Sound Technology? As technical specifications go BassBuds sadly seems to follow a 'now for the science bit' advertisement.

But... I have to reiterate the products tagline,

BaseBuds - "Your colour, your style"

these are a fashion accessory a personal statement. In this approaching age of the quantified-self every element can be customised, every one can be an individual. Brand identity and affiliation are important in our tribal social society. BassBuds are part of you, reflecting your chromatic resonance.

 

I mentioned that in-ear head phones never stay in my ears. Included in the box are 3 sets of earbuds in 3 sizes; small, medium and large in black memory some, clear and black silicone buds. Small clear silicone are just the trick.

Are you going to check them out? - www.bassbuds.co.uk

Are you looking for a new set of in-ear phones?

Use this code BB38466 for £5 off

Disclosure: I received a set of BassBuds in exchange for publishing this post

PS! a pet hate of mine, the misuse of QR opportunity. Never send a QR code scan to a standard home page especially if it's not mobile friendly. Engagement, up sell, Facebook like, twitter follow, instruction manual or best of all a secret special offer. The options are numerous. 

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Connecting to your stars - audience engagement

What is the modern equivalent of the famous visiting-star photo wall in the theatrical local drinking establishment?

It has struck me that audience development dialogue rarely mentions the personalities who visit their venues and a continuing interest of what becomes of them. Is this not the gift of social connection inherent to social media, maintaining connections. Do you think of making social connections to follow visiting companies and the company members? Actors now have a community connection opportunity with each other after companies part ways like never before.

I envy the current touring community with in the entertainment industry for this digital connectivity. Sadly I'm not sure how much they are able to make use of it to it full potential. The reality is that inside the performance world of the industry there is not a strong IT savvy community. Generally if you are successful your IT skills are weak. Unless you have a technology leaning computers are a bit of a mystery. Smart phones have opened a new world of communication. That a large proportion are excellent at, communication and reflected self expression. A world of potential. The fragmented duel personality segmentation of private and public, personal and professional, the digital world demand we negotiate is familiar ground and executed with exquisite ease by the best actors working in theatre.

This is especially true of actors who work in independant theatre. By Independant I mean organisations using the Independant Theatre Council contract or should be if they of a certain size. It includes theatre-in-education companies, rural, small and mid scale touring.

What is this opportunity for art centres with performance spaces?
What promotional opportunities does this present to the theatre companies?
What opportunities does this provide actors?

Celebrity is so remote. It is distant admiration with little possibility of reciprocation. The companies booked to fill a schedule bring with them talented performers, each has a story each is on a journey perusing their chosen career as a working actor. They have a personal and professional outlook. It may not be well defined online so be respectful. Social media is about people not marketing strategy. You need a strategy to layout objectives and establish achievements but for social media content you need stories and the development of stories to maintain engagement.

While I toured, especially to art centres and village halls the organiser often welcomed back actors who had visited on previous occasions with other theatre companies. They are your celebrities. It's not only about being on 'telly', actors emerging on broadcast media have begun a career either in theatre or low budget films. A theatre company returning to a venue with a new production may contain established cast members but many actors will move on and explore artistic avenues.

Whether you develop a rappor with returning actors or follow others as they climb their career ladders it's an opportunity that can sustain a social media community, the (your) audience. You are their connection to the stars.

Indirectly you will benefit working actors you connect with connecting them to the people they perform for. It's a link I think is lacking at present from my observation with audience development professionals.

They are your venues' flesh and blood attraction.

A microsite solution for your events - Twoppy

When is an app not an app? When its a mobile optimised dedicated miro-site. Twoppy sits perfectly on most web enabled mobile devises. No multi-platform designing necessary just a few more steps to install than the one click 'install' command app store users are familiar with.

twoppy^® was founded in 2009 and is based in Leusden en Leiden, The Netherlands. With every event you organise the possibility to offer an easy to use and affordable mobile event guide is a reality. twoppy® can be used for festivals, exhibitions, conferences, amusement parks, zoos, sporting events and more... check out the Twoppy "Dream Team"

The New Technologies for New Audiences has a Twoppy event guide. The Audience or attending delegates use the event guides for free, to modify the branding as CultuurNet Flanders has done requires a basic upgrade at a cost of £152.27 for a year. The intention of this post is to get the New Technologies for New Audiences event guide on to your devise for you to get great added value when you attend next week's events. The method my vary from devise to devise. These screenshots are from an iPhone.

This is the event guide once installed.

Program: Lists the programmed sessions scheduled with date and times. When multiple sessions are taking place at one time the event guide enabled you to indicate 'wanna go' and builds a personal itinerary for you. Brilliant!

Speakers: Tells you who is speaking, what session they are presenting and the 'wanna go' button adds the session to your personal itinerary.

Map: Plots on a local map of the event area the venue, hotels and near by establishment the organiser wants to hi-light.

Wanna Go: This is where your personal session schedule is created and stored for a quick glace showing only the sessions you selected to attend.

Information: Everything you need to know about the event itself.

Visitors: Who is attending which sessions and doubles as a checkin service to indicate who was there.

Tweets: All the hash-tagged tweets without having to go to twitter or even have a twitter account.

Partners: Who has made the event possible? Who has supported the project? Local organisation or businesses with special offers to delegates. This is an acknowledgements board.

Here is how.

Open your mobile devise's browser and enter the URL m.twoppy.com but don't follow the instructions immediately.

Scroll down the list without cancelling the pop up box and tap the New Technologies for New Audiences event icon before carrying out the instructions starting by tapping the button indicated and 'Add to Home Screen'

Next you add the text to appear beneath the icon when it appears as the app on your devise. Tap return!

Locate the icon on your devise. Explore the Event Guide enjoy the New Technologies for Audience event. If you are in Ghent find me, tweet. If you are unable to attend join me on the live-stream, there is direct chat on the livestream viewer and there will be a chat room running on the Audiences Europe Network.

QR Code Art Exhibition in Vannes

via 2d-code.co.uk

Quick Response... don't you get the urge to to pick up your phone and look for that QR scanning app you have never used?

Even more awesome watch this video through your scanning app, I recommend RedLaser with the multiple scan option turned on you can pick up some, not all, of the QR codes in the exhibition through the video. How cool is that! With a little considered filming a more reliable scanning experience could be achieved. 

I will be running QR code masterclasses throughout November. Make and Create you own is the objective of the class.

Twitter Automation Lessons

Meet @contentasaurus...brain child of Andrew Hanelly (@hanelly on Twitter). I am engaged in a battle of the bots. Not because I'm infested and plagued by then but because social media should be, or should have, a social element. It is why this social web environment has emerged. As human beings it is in our nature to reach out and connect with the world around us. Andrew Hanely's experiment and resulting blog post "Lessons Learnt from a Twitter Bott" asks the question, Can it be automated?, details the experiment and measures the results. The opening line "A robot didn’t write this post" illustrating right away that some things need a human touch.

Looking for work-arounds and time saving methodology is essential online and offline. Wouldn't it be cool if you didn't have to look after Twitter? What if it could look after its self? If you could set it up and let it run would you? Would you automate a customer facing aspect of your business? Banks offer us automated services, the "Hole in the Wall" but still we choose to visit the counter. Why is that?

A Twitter account can successfully be assigned an element of autonomy using automation with a reasonable quantifiable success but it has no soul and it has no intellegence.

Some statistics from the 43-day life of @contentasaurus:

• The account posted more than 2,500 Tweets (about 60 Tweets per day)

• Which generated 443 clicks

• Which resulted in about 80 @mentions and 19 Retweets

• And a Klout score of 43 (for whatever that’s worth)

Taken from Andrew Hanelly's post these stats demonstrate that is a short time and with well selected content it is possible to generate twitter activity. For him the down side and an touch of futility was not being able to add the human element and resond when comments and good wishes came in.

I do recommend you go and read his post "Lessons Learnt from a Twitter Bott" as the consequent comments are an interesting read also. What interested me was the foundation. I think there is room for scheduling informative content but I am hearted by the increased emphasis I see around the social web for the curation of content. It's important to understand the web around you in terms for your audience and twitter is a good resource for doing this but must be done appropriately. With automation you can get a result but with any success there has to be the satisfation of a job well done or an idea reached for. There are no quick wins or we'd all be rich! After all being social is about conversation and engagement.

 

The way I see it - part 2

Industry blogging, as a practitoner of social media it all gets a bit kalidascopic, inward looking.

I read about products, tools, services, platforms, people talking about those products, tools etc. Its the people talking about people I'm missing. I am not getting enough people stories, I'm interesting in personal practice. How do you used technology. When did technology stop being a tool to mastered but an entity to be absorbed? 'I know kunfoo' We know this brain dump matrix programimg of the brain is film fiction territory, But when did technology or items designated tech ie computers, games, phones enter your conscience and how did you assimilate that in to your world?

I found a photo recently of a time when 'tech' was not in my consciousness. I had an electric typewriter with floppy disc storage, the plastic square kind any how. Even then 'floppy 'disc' was a legacy word for a media type. There was Viynl, tape cassette, CD compact disc, dat tapes, minidisc and in the early 90's I still operated reel to reel tape! One thing in common, they are all storage mediums.

My working life was since graduation in 1994 with a degree in Theatre, Design & Technology, full off Technology it wasn't realy thought off as tech'nology' it was technical equipment. When did that spark ignite, when was the alchemical moment when the technical equipment became tech 'nology'? Is it connected with awe?

Was it when everything became computerised? Was when switches stopped being flicked, perhaps? Button pressing, fade sliders, the triggering of a direct mechanical response or verbal actions. Noting has changed cues are stil being acted upon.

Now a computer button is so removed from the action ultimately executed metaphysically is wide, yet the digital process is tiny, so fast but for some reason that matters to me, to my brain. As a multi-tasker I think I have processing power envy!

The way I see it - part 1

l find blogging a frustrating experience.

It's a transfer mechanisms, a cross posting method. Getting the content out of my thought buffer / memory cache on to / in to a blog post in text form hurts my head.

I like my notebooks. I like writing.

Here is why.

When I type I have to think of the keys I hit, the letters, line forms, the symbols that placed together form words, those words are the code that when interpreted by you the reader will decode, translate in your brain as a representation of the content, my idea that I encoded in to the text based storage media.

The stored media becomes a collective archive. We can all reference the same meterial. How do we translate / decode the data and store / remember stuff? That cross reference with previous archived material dictates the knowledge and recall quality.

Now that was a revelation to me and fingers crossed, it is a pivotal moment for my social media practice. I don't want to struggle to express myself. It's a frustration experienced by many dyslexics.

I use Livescribe. This post was written in a digitally enabled notebook using a computerised pen. The written text was uploaded to my Mac and passed through a convert to text programme providing me with the editable text that formed the foundation of this blog post.

Livescribe is stationary when did technology depart from being stationary and office supplies in the sense of work tools?

The way my mind works the awareness of the barrier between thought and expression has to be encoded by me. Pen to paper is a form of hand coding, freeform lines and swirls revealing as the pen passes across the page like a printer head. Thoughts to expression at the tip and flip of a pen. It doesn't exhaust me.

 

Mist, Rain, Zebra Print, Sharp Light,

Unfiltered reality?

How do your notate your world for recall?

How do you share it with others?

Punctuating my workload - Tom's Barn - Parwich

In recent years I have tried to take a small reflective break round about this time of year. After the intensity and disruption of Christmas followed by my birthday 2 weeks after new year the year tends to unfold and unfurl more controlled with a punctuation point just before spring. I tend not to go far so the Derbyshire Peak District is a favourite retreat. So meeting Marion and John Fuller-Sessions when they approached me to ask questions and express their interest in making sense of social media for their holiday cottages business at an eBusiness talk I delivered in Chesterfield turned out to be quite fortuitous.

I don't do stuff for free anymore though on occasion the time I put in means I practically do. I like to help out friends and organisations I'm involved with out side of my business work. I'm not averse to skill exchanges but I'd never taken a part payment as time in a holiday cottage. It sounded worth considering.

Marion and John own Tom's Barn and Douglas's Barn, luxury converted barns each sleeping 2. I'd been talking to BAFA (British Arts Festival Association) about social media for festivals so I was curious to explore the potential of social media for the tourism industry and how the industry is embracing or rejecting it. Marion and John came on to the PCM 7 Roads consultation programme and the payment for phase one was partly paid for with a weekend in one of their cottages and it is from Douglas's Barn that I am writing this post.

In the 6 month I have worked with Tom's Barn www.tomsbarn.co.uk which is their website for both cottages a combination of a reworked and redeveloped website with Jeremy Brough and the social media profiling and guidence from PCM took the Tom's Barn site from this to this. Digital footprint profiling with the PCM 7 Roads analysis focused the content, social media platforms, tool and services that Marion and John use to and polish, shine and purpose to their already stunning business offering.

The guest's experience is a fundemental drive for Tom's Barn and staying here I can certainly confirm its a 5 star experience. On arrival we discovered freshly baked ginger and walnut cake, 6 fresh eggs, a pint of milk, butter, a loaf of bread and home made marmalade. We had fresh flowers, the fire was glowing, there were tea bags, ground coffee and a cupbaord of staples making us practicly self sustaining for the weekend. The page on the website "Little Extras at Tom's Barn" is a superb example of how selling your strengths in one place is essential.

Aplifying your strengths is what social media does best. Marion has been blogging, John is a keen photographer, his photos feature in a gallery on the website's homepage. Thier curiosity, passion and persiut of offering digital technology integrating into thier vistors experience is where thier jouney has bought them to. Both Tom's and Douglas's Barn has WiFi and the nice touch of a sony notebook PC. Subtle touches that make the retreat here for Dan and I complete. Oh yes their is a Jacuzzi bath too.

So what's next? A guest activity hub. The website sells the experience the vistors digital hub will provide a one stop shop for all the information, Torist Information, cottage handbook, local connections, local history, walks and much more. QR codes on Tourist brochures that have online PDF versions are going to be hunted down, Geo-location adventures and loyalty too. I have had ideas since being here for other social media connections.

I'm going to be giving a social media introduction presentation to the local Premier Cottages members and various Peak District and Derbyshire tourism associates. A case study is always valuable. One I can deliver and develop is very tangible for those attending. Social Media is about conversation, advocacy and amplification. What do you do best?

Resource:

Marion Fuller-Sessions tweets as @Tomsbarn

Brouchure in ISSUU

Who are you?

Online this is a question of no considered consequence and an arena for contrasting hysteria.

Identity

Signing up to a new network, registering on a site or subscribing to a service we freely give away our email address. It's a currency of sorts and we often don't see it in that way. The most common example is parting with your email address to download a white paper or access a PDF promising knowledge and insight. This transaction is an arrangement where you have given permission to receive updates from the producer of the knowledge or insight. Newsletter rules and regulations exist to prevent exploitation of email address connection.

Who are you?

An email address do not identify you. A street address does not define you. It locates you. Other forms of ID often accepted include utility bills. These do not define you they assert your commitment to make and maintain a payment schedule. What constitutes provable qualified identity?

Avatar is a word that have emerged with the digital age a symbol, image, picture or photo representing you in an online space. Is this also true of the offline world too? In the UK the major accepted forms of ID are a passport and a drivers license. But what if you have never traveled or learnt to drive a car? With a drivers license the introduction of the photo license is relatively new. "Until July 1998 driving licenses outside Northern Ireland did not have photographs. Anyone who holds a license issued before this date may retain their photo-less license until expiry (normally one's seventieth birthday) or until they change address, whichever comes sooner." wikipedia What about the 'old' birth certificate? No photo, no validity?

It's only when your life journey is halted because your face doesn't appear on apiece of plastic that you realise just how limited proving offline identity is. Sadly it ends a dream. In a few weeks my partner (a traditional media and oil painter) and I are due to make a pilgrimage to his childhood summer holiday retreat. For years he has wanted to take this holiday but the cottage is very popular. Its going to be this year and recently the announcement of iPhone 4's HD video, improved camera and combined connectivity... the all in one media capture and productivity devise for a artist to create media with out a pack full of kit.

Is there a solution or is identity in the commercial world destined to dissolve. Captured reflection the only real you?

Who are you?

Doing business on social networks

via www.yourbusinesschannel.com

On your marks

I help businesses and organisations understand and implement social media bringing valuable new channels of communication and ways of operating a business by demystifying the world we call social media. Consulting a social media practitioner gets you started in a controlled and manageable manner building a foundation for growth.  Your Business Channel host of the video above have a web strategy channel. Part of a social media strategy is personal development. Web TV channel like these prepare the ground in many cases for you to peruse engaging a social media practitioner. You want to do that too. The question will then be how do they do that and how much would it cost. Explore the web, nurture curiosity in your competitors social media activity. Digital curtain twitching!

Get set

While helping others I also have to continue developing my own understanding and keep up with developments. This is where I envy businesses and I think businesses miss a trick when it comes to social media and technologies. A social media practitioner who you trust is a continuing asset. On a retainer they can guide you, advise you, inform you and help you maintain a sustainable social technologies infrastructure. Engaged for a project or strategy period they can open your eyes to a world of cost effective services, tools and platforms helping you embrace and integrate the advantages and steer from the pitfall. The key factor is you the business being proactive and learn all you can. If you finish your consultancy and no retainer is in place read their blogs, follow their twitter observe and engage. I love nothing more after a consultation period than to see tweets and updates its much like seeing a child take its first steps. Ask questions but don't be disappointed if you don't get personal responses after all you don't have a retainer. What you can do is influence the blog content.

GO!

I've been reflecting on a mantra from my business mentor Stuart Ross @topactioncoach on Twitter and the continued quest for knowledge and understanding and its application to my clients businesses diverts me from my own businesses infrastructure. To paraphrase - Are you working  ON your business or IN your business? A woods from the trees kind of rhetoric. Also..The definition of a successful business is one that doesn't need you to be their to function.

I'm continually trying to balance the ON and IN equation. Where are you at?