The Arts, Creative Industries and Business. Very distinct attitudes to business and creativity. Do you have an audience or a client base? Are they consumers or visitors? The social media phenomenon is ideally suited to audience engagement. Venues and Events with delegates and visitors can blossom with the correct social media tool kit to enhance their activity. But the vital link is a real person and the catalyst for success is an existing interested community. I have encountered a lot of cynicism surrounding the adoption of social media within business. What's the point? On the flip side The Arts with their meager budget and creative ideals embrace social media. What can I do with it? Watching creative organisations and creatively minded businesses adaptation, inclusion and fusion of social media services, platforms and tool is a why I enjoy what I do. From just a few discussions and the imagination fired its easy to structure a plan of attack to get them going. Digital sustainability has to be worked at and looked at from many sides. On a personal level it's your ability to listen to your inner dialogue and amplify.
For my own presentation at MCL3 I took the opportunity to reflect on my time with Amb:IT:ion. As a network of social media adventurers keen to embrace and explore the potential digital can provide its also important to have practitioners walking the walk and talking the talk to fuel, to inspire and Media Camp London delegate are a perfect complement. It was my hope that some would sign up to the Amb:IT:ion UK network and join the adventure.
Several Amb:IT:ion network members came along and I'm pleased to say a couple of Media Campers joined the network.
MediaCamp is an "unconference". Once the date of an event is announced a wiki type collaboration web presence is created. Anyone wishing to attend, assist or present are free to update the collaborative space to declare their intentions.
MediaCampLondon3 was slightly different in that an event platform Eventbrite provided a payment system and event portal for delegates with the Venue details, sponsors, event info, directions and delegates signed up to attend in an Eventbrite event page. During sign up intention to present and a request for a session title was included in the form. Links included in the body of the event page aggregated relevant web content:
Here we are at part 2 of my MediaCampLondon post... after lunch
A suggested topic caught my eye when the event details first appeared online.
Social Media Ethics
Whether its codes of conduct, best practice or end user policy the accepted structural controls laid out relating to Social Technology are in their infancy. Protection or Oppression? Safe access or restricted boundaries? Who is the protected? Knowledge is power and with it comes responsibility. Following a consistent code of behavior and practice backing up open and honest engagement builds trust.
Since my first engagement with virtual worlds and then social media acceptable behavior in a space with faceless encounters and constructed reality, who are we? Has intriged me. Who are you?
Actors play their roles in a play, become the characters they portray but when the curtain goes down they are the character no longer. Playing roles, trying on different morals and behaviours is one of the underlying attraction to actors. Being someone else. The greatest actors draw from an inner reservoir of experiences but they slowly drown if they loose sight of who they really are. Identity is wrapped up with ethics.
I spent over 6 months playing one character in a play each performance was 60 minutes living as someone else. Playing a role and living your life. This is all very esoteric, how does this relate to social media?
Ethics at MediaCamp
Sylwia Presley presented Social Media Ethics. The session began with a 20min presentation and continued as a Q&A discussion.
Sylwia talks with great authority using case study examples to illustrate her key headlines. Real stories, of successes and failings throughout the public consciousness of social media. And not illustrated ad-nausium with statistics.
The only difference between online and offline content is the communication channel. I knew I was going to learn valuable insights when Sylwia expressed this sentiment.
It was about message not method. Delivering a consistent message across an organisation needs formalising but as her presentation illustrated, not solidifying. These formalised rules set out guidelines of best practice. While referencing Twitter Sylwia noted Twitter ettiquette with ethics evolving as behaviours change. How to behave, what is acceptible? what is not. These things do change. The use of auto-response tweeting to new followers was just one example.
The field of Ethics is notoriously difficult to define. Everyone's ethics differ by degrees.
So...How to capture without distraction?
I decided to Qik, live stream to my Qik account. (with Sylwia's permission) The thing a like about this method of capture is not having content hanging around waiting for action. Point and Shoot, the upload takes place in real time and with a player embedded in my blog I have instant blog content. Qik also provides a share facility enabling me to tweet the fact I am streaming live in case any one in my network should want to watch.
Sylwia presented for 20 minutes which I streamed. The following Q&A I did not stream. This was a conscious decision one take, no distractions or frustrations that I just missed a great phrase. I listened as a delegate while capturing the content.
Next up was my own session "Amb:IT:ion - helping creative organisations develop digitally", a reflection of the journey and understanding I gained working with the project.
The actual event! recap. mediaCampLondon2, #mcl2 running through twitter and mcl2 as a tag through out the social media world. On the a very wet December Saturday I headed to Social Media Mafia's second MediaCampLondon hosted by Chris Hambly at SAE London now in new premises in Hackney. I did manage to qik blog a little but my head was in the wrong space in fact I wasn't sure which head space I was in all day. I arrived in wet dog mode! I loved mediacamp but there were aspects of the venue I struggled with. Excellent securing but the card needed to pass through every single door was a little claustrophobic.
The Sessions I attended I'm going to cover and the points that impacted on me.
Pete Wailes Explosive Content:the art of creative content for digital audiences.
Zero Punctuation
Submit YouTube links to Digg
Repoman the Opera needs a UK distributor
Joanne Jacobs Case studies in deploying Social Media for public interest. How to drive change in the 3rd sector.
Who will put in the effort? Conscientious, Conscious Collaboration.
Not every project is a success.
Every project is a learning experience.
Clients don't always listen to what is best.
Social media tribes are strong in London and ever so slightly competitive!
Jo's session showed the new media process needs user participation, understanding and the want or necessity to access the web presence being created. If a simple brochure site is all that will be used why create anything more? There a case for "They don't know what they want" but this is why I am passionate about online media and free service platforms. Often a client or user group doesn't know what is possible let alone know if they will use it and won't be using it if they don't know what is possible. The art of education by stealth! Adding features to a presence and a reason to use the feature especially resource, eco or time saving features as an extension to the service requested can be trialled at very little cost.
Judith Lewis SEO 101 - Everything you wanted to know about getting found in search crammed in to this session.
There is no such thing as a magic keyword density percentage.
Think about tabbed browsing when creating page titles.
I need to understand backtracking and comment more on peoples blogs.
I have listened to a few SEO practitioners and Judith talks the talk and exudes the notion she most certainly can walk the walk with experience and humble understanding, elegance and ease. I definitely need a SEO specialist to take a look at my online presence.
Finally I was on. Caron Lyon 2D in to 3D web presence from Pilot Theatre's home hub in Second Life.
Second Life extending your web site - Guest speaker reading extracts
from his work reflecting RL and SL via Second Life Nazz Lane. Writer for the Second Life Newspaper.
I had prepared for the worse. No web access or no Second Life access. No Second Life access proved troublesome as a combination of network access permissions, hardware incompatibility and my over enthusiastic kick-ass antivirus Panda things didn't go well. Earlier in the day when I tested the connection I gained Wi-fi thanks to stefan but sadly Second Life proved elusive and because the venue was Mac infested and super set up for sudio sound I was unable to connect my laptop to run Second Life or output sound so Skype, my if Second Life failed contingenct, went out the window too. The cables just weren't right...all round pegs and square holes!
I'm going to give it another go on January 10 2009 in world. The program looks like this.
Join me, Katie Reve - Virtual Stage Manager at Pilots SL hub, Neil Neilsen - Creator, Architect and owner of MediaCity and Nazz Lane - SL Journalist and writer at 4.00pm UK time on Saturday 10 January.
What is Pilot Theatre doing in SL? The 2D and 3D web.
Yes we are going to do it. Saturday 10 Jan from 4PM uk time the rerun of MediaCampLondon2's failed Second Life live link up. This time there will be no real life audience but I am keen to have a go at doing an event that works! as I'm hoping to have many more.
The plan is to begin at Pilot's hub in the screening room 4.00pm - 4.05pm Welcome and small intro about why the event is taking place and about the MediaCamp concept. Real world and Virtual.
4.05pm - 4.25pm
Topic - Pilot's Playground
Guided tour of the Pilot Hub and how the arts are embracing and converging digital media. This session is for residents interested in SL as a 3D extensions of websites and SL potential for business and the arts.
TP to MediaCity 4.30pm - 4.50pm Topic - Advances and the future of Second Life
Neil Neilsen from MediaCity in Second Life (Neil Riley, Macanix UK) presents an update of Second Life's potential and recent digital media in world advances. The opportunities arising and how they can and are being embraced.
4.50pm - 5.15pm Topic - Reporting a Second Life
The buzz of life in virtual worlds. Nazz Lane reading excerpt from his writings with a short intro about his SL journalism.
Social Media has infused itself so subtly and covertly in to my working practices that rather than having to bring myself up to speed with this phenomenon I'm fighting to define it so I can share it with others. Its not the technology or the specific platforms I want people to identify with and use, but the benefits the services provide so they find that in turn it just happens to solve the issue they wanted to address. Usually better communication with team members or customers.
For example. On-the-road updates by embedding Twitter and using a mobile phone or offering production programs with a PDF and an issuu embed giving funky turning pages on a website. Rabbit Shadows shown below is an issuu embed.
Coming to MediaCamps gives me the opportunity to immerse myself in the buzz, dialogue and debate. Everything the Social Media mainstream arena has to offer. Its clarity, confusion, vision, delusion, potential, self doubt and ego. I meet the people wrestling with it, doing it, using it, developing and analysing it. Just as I do.
My moment of clarity - There are social content consumers and social platform exploiters. Thank you David Blumenstein
Once a Stagemanager always a control freak!
Being so used to running events and stage shows in my past life I look for participation and immersion at MediaCamp. It's important to contribute to the unconference concept and try to support the SMM team. I try to be both delegate and organiser. Being as the urge to steer and guide events is so overwhelming I don't fully enjoy myself at the event I am forcing myself to participate in!So there fore at MediaCampLondon2 I didn't interact with as many people as I would have liked. I didn't pay attention fully to the sessions I attended. I didn't support the event team either as I should have...plus I had stupid luggage. Multiple small bags because I have out grown the capacity of my pre-digi exsitance. Oh and just to kick myself one more time I failed to blog oh.. and my session, despite all my preparation was let down by my Laptop or the venue blocking Second Life leaving me detached from the gathered audience for the cross world event in Second Life at Pilot's hub and at Tranquil where Nazz Lane was to read extracts of his writings.
PCM creative in action
So I had a miserable time? On the contrary. I loved it! I was just a bit frustrated. PCM creative in action goes out to test the possibilities of the gadgets my clients have here and now or might consider stepping up to. Techs, geeks and enthusiasts have their iPhones, mini notebooks, hand-held HD cams, media enabled mobiles... the list goes on. I have a rule. I use what I have. If I discover something I want to be able to do I see if if my current equipment does it. If it can... great. If it can't or it's fiddly then its upgrade time. NOTE: When upgrading make sure the new toy not only does the new task but retains all the features you used before. My last two phone upgrades were to improve the pixel quality of the camera and then to my N95 to live stream video. I do get pangs of desire for sparkly tech gadgets but part of what I do is to share. It's important for me to understand and drool over cutting edge but also the path for attaining it, why and what for. It seems the fashion to upgrade to the latest version or model because it's newer than the one they have. As a result I encounter people with technology beyond their control and the simple functionality they actually use is swamped by the untamed beast of functions that hinder them at every attempt to perform the simplest of tasks. At a recent Web 2.0 business briefing I met someone very much frustrated with the N95 his company gave him. All he wanted was to make phone calls. He had no idea the N95 could do all the stuff it is capable of. He wants his N95 back now!
