Mike Thornton

Paywalls are medieval while social media is gunpowder

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 08:32:00 +0000

That's the view of Heidi Nordby Lunde, a columnist with the Norwegian media website Kampanje.com as published in The Guardian today by Roy Greenslade. Heidi writes, according to the translation courtesy of FollowTheMedia:

"Paywalls are reminiscent of the classic city walls, which were common from ancient times and into the Middle Ages. They are also about as innovative.

City walls were erected to protect the population against attacks from outside. Although the wall was effective against enemies for a while, it also proved to be an effective end to growth.

"In the end, there was a lack of opportunity for growth within the walls, combined with the military innovation that tore at them. When gunpowder came, high walls did not help.

"Today, one can see in many medieval towns the remnants of the old city gates or parts of walls, the old defences, overgrown by urban structures. New military strategies, opportunities for growth and alternative organisational forms won out."

It is an interesting premise and so I commented on the story...

However paywall or not, there needs to be a sustainable business model. The Guardian has no walls but your online business model isn't sustainable yet and you have fantastic content and are completely committed to the platform. Pay Walls do generate income, however I accept they may not always be sustainable too. In my opinion we are still developing business models like the Freemium model to produce a viable business model for the online world where people have come to expect everything for free or at least free at the point of use. I do find it interesting that folk will sign away all kinds of rights to get a free service.

What do you think?

Dad's Last Tape

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:15:00 +0000

Following on from The House That Fall Into The Sea, I worked with Clare Jenkins from Pennine Productions again, this time on a BBC Radio 4 documentary entitled Dad's Last Tape.

Clare Jenkins explores why people record their life stories and what impact those stories have on other people when the interviewee is no longer themselves, or no longer alive. Twenty-five years ago, Clare recorded her father talking about his life: growing up in a Scottish tenement, being 'sold' as a farmer's boy at a hiring fair, a wartime stint in the RAF, working as a gardener to the wealthy, amateur poet. Jack Jenkins died 18 years ago, and Clare never listened back to the tapes - until making this programme. Broadcaster Rony Robinson never listened back to recordings he had done with his mother until Clare asked him to. Nor had singer-songwriter Sally Goldsmith listened to her mother, who died two years ago, singing May Day songs recalled from childhood. This programme explores the different circumstances in which people's life stories are recorded, and the memories and emotions that come flooding back when the tapes are eventually heard. We hear from the wife of a man suffering from dementia about her bitter-sweet feelings when listening to tapes of his voice. "They really calmed him and made him smile. And it was amazing for me, because I'd forgotten how funny he was." Another woman, terminally ill with cancer, has made a series of recordings for her newborn granddaughter as part of a hospice project in Sheffield. "I want her to hear about my life - and to know that I don't have a Yorkshire accent!" she says. We also hear from Mary Stewart of the British Library, who has been studying the way recorded interviews are used by and for those most intimately involved. Along the way, we discover the power of the beloved voice.

I needed to restore some of the recording but by and large they well remarkably good. Radio Times have chosen Dad's Last Tape as one of their recommendations for the week. This is what their reviewer Jane Anderson had to say...

There is nothing so effective in recalling the very essence of a dead loved one than hearing a recording of their voice. This gently edited programme mixes old recordings of elderly mothers and fathers with deeply moving stories of people facing death in the near future and their reasons for wanting to leave part of themselves behind for their families. Hankies at the ready.

"Gently edited", I'll settle for that. Once again it was a pleasure to work with Clare on what was for her a very personal programme. So if you can get to a radio at Monday 2d July you can enjoy it then otherwise take advantage of the BBC iPlayer for 7 days after that.

The Houses That Fall Into The Sea

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 07:42:00 +0000

One of the core parts of my work is helping radio producers make and realise their radio programmes. A recent example of this was for a programme called The Houses That Fall Into The Sea for BBC Radio 3. This is in the Between The Ears strand and is a documentary series, but as the strand name suggests requires a significant amount of sound design in the development and completion of the programme.

Here is some background information on the programme…

Lyz Turner’s house, in the East Yorkshire town of Withernsea, is falling into the sea. “My house has started talking to me,” she says. “It produces haunting sounds like far-off women wailing.” This programme, combining interviews with music and the sounds of the sea, the wind, the land, the dying houses, explores how people cope with natural calamity: with anger, stoicism, distress, and art. One winter, Ron and Judith Backhouse watched as first their fence, then their shed, and finally three trees slipped over the cliff at the bottom of their garden on a private estate above Scarborough. “The crack is running up towards our next door neighbour’s house,” says Ron. “It’s maybe five or ten metres away from his bungalow now and we’re connected to him. So if he goes, we go, too.”? Artist Kane Cunningham bought a condemned bungalow on the same estate so that he could live in it, use it as an artistic installation and document its demise. Since he moved in, the neighbouring three houses have been demolished for safety reasons, and he reckons his is next. “You can’t fight Nature,” he says, “so you may as well celebrate its destructive force. Houses aren’t immortal, and neither are we, despite what we may want to believe.” “As I listen to the soft wailing through the wall,” says Lyz Turner, whose family have lived here for three generations, “I feel the house knows what’s coming. Since Domesday there’s been a dwelling where I live, and it seems all the voices of the past, whoever lived here, all the people from the lost villages under the sea, are crying for us now.”

I had great fun working form my collection of 40,000 plus sound effects weaving sounds of wind and the sea from the appropriate perspectives into the interviews. For example, when we meet the artist Kane Cunningham who bought the condemned house on his credit card, and uses the house as a studio and as an art installation too. He explains that as part of an art project people can write letters to the house. From those that the writers agreed could be opened we had some children read out quotes from the letters which I matched with Kane’s reading.

At one point we had a reference to a message in the bottle so out came my TL Space convolution reverb and selected a suitable ‘small space’ and put the reader in the bottle. I also had fun creating sounds as the contributors talked about the houses groaning and moving and wind singing and whistling through gaps and cracks.

There were a number of times where I wanted element of the programme not to be in the foreground, especially when we wanted hints of sounds, like the use of an excerpt from My Favourite Things from The Sound of Music. So I created a dedicated track with a suitable reverb effect from Reverb One and then automated both the Wet/Dry and Decay times as well as the volume, all in real time, to blend in the sounds into the soundscape of the programme.

You can listen to the programme very easily via the BBC iPlayer for the next 7 days.

Action On Hearing Loss - Your Ears Are Your Life - Look After Them

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 08:13:00 +0000

Action On Hearing Loss is the new name fro the RNID (The Royal National Institute for Deaf People). They have an online hearing check which I have just taken, and I am pleased and relieved, to report that all is well.

You can also read about how to look after your hearing, remember our ears are not user replacement devices. We only have 2 ears and once they have been trashed, thats it you have had it and without good hearing we are unemployable in the audio and music business. So take care of your most important assets.

There are also some very interesting pages that relate to our industry including their current Loud Music Campaign.

The value of Media Studies Degrees

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:40:00 +0000

Dr Bex Lewis posted an extract from A Times Educational Supplement article about Media Degrees and I have posted the following as a comment...

Don't get me started on Media degrees. well you have, I do't have a problem with a Media Studies degree "as an object of academic study" as long as graduates don't consider, or get sold the idea, this will prepare them for a career in the media industry because it won't.

The industry is fed up of people leaving uni with a media degree and expecting to enter the industry at a higher level or even at an entry level, at which point you have to ask what was the point of a 3 year degree course especially from next year! My experience as an industry practitioner and sometime involved in training at both apprenticeship and degree levels, as well as talking to key staff involved in finding new talent, is that very few media degrees actually prepare students to work in the industry without significant additional training.

The industry has got so fed up, it has put its money where its mouth is and set up a range of apprenticeship schemes so it can train and prepare students with the skills needed.

You talk about transferable skills and the skills you list are transferable IF they were delivered and developed properly in university, but experience leads me to believe they rarely are.

We find these practical skills are rarely delivered in a real world and current way, rather they are dealt with in a generalised unrealistic way and students believe they are being prepared for a career in the media industry and I am afraid a lot of universities are letting their students down badly.

For example, I delivered a Media Induction Course for a dozen cohorts and the first 8 or 9 cohorts were largely graduates with a variety of media degrees and I have lost count of the number of times they would tell me that they learnt more in that 9 day course about working in the media industry than they did throughout their 3 year degree course.

A Media Degree shouldn't be a soft option. To prepare students for the relatively small number of opportunities in the media industry, it should be a tough course learning a range of practical skills in the first and second years and specialising into a specific area in the 3rd year. Media is a very practical and hands on industry. This needs universities to employ a broad range of associate lecturers who remain active practitioners in the industry so they can deliver current and future practice. The industry is changing so fast that someone who has left the industry even 3 years ago will be out of date.

An Infographic showing small business financial fitness

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:16:00 +0000

Now I should declare that this graphic comes from Intuit UK who make Quickbooks accounts software etc but it is an interesting set of figures that also show that there are areas that small businesses need to so their homework on.

Cow Dust Time for BBC Radio 3

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:31:00 +0000

Cow Dust Time was an "Between The Ears" programme for BBC Radio 3 that I worked on with producer Clare Jenkins just before Christmas and was transmitted on 14th January 2012.

Dust rises from the hooves of cattle returning to a village at sunset. Smoke from open fires wreathes in ribbons across the fields. As the evening shadows begin to lengthen, people, animals and birds all return to their homes to rest. This time of day is known in India as "godhuli bela", or "cowdust time". It is the sacred time when Lord Krishna brought his own cattle safely home. In paintings, he is often seen meeting his beloved Radha in the evening, as peacocks call, bright green parakeets chatter loudly in the neem trees, temple bells and muezzins call people of different faiths to prayer. There are many devotional songs and poems devoted to this twilight hour. It is seen throughout India as an auspicious time for engagements, weddings, even business ventures. But it's also the time when mothers call their children home, to avoid evil spirits. And when those same children are told not to whistle, for fear of inviting evil in. In this hypnotic sound tapestry - recorded in Gujarat, the Kumaon hills and Madhya Pradesh - we hear cows and other animals being brought back to their village, the loud clamour of birds, the eerie noise of crickets. "It is that fantastic time of day," says writer and academic Rajendrasingh Jadeja, "when the cowdust raised transforms the scene from stark, sharp light to a fantasy world." That fantasy world has been captured in art, music and literature. Painter and art critic Amit Ambalal, poets Jayant Parmar and Mahek Tankarvi, and musician Sugna Shah, are among those who talk about the religious and cultural significance of twilight. We also hear the poetry, prayers, lullabies and ragas depicting this magical time "when the earth does yoga".

We were able to interweave the atmospheric sounds of the cows coming back home with conversations and descriptions of this special time of the day as well as poetry & music written for cow dust time. It was an really enjoyable programme to work on. Clare wrote.....

“Some years ago, we bought a reproduction of a painting of Krishna, Radha (his beloved) and the cows from the Prince of Wales Museum in Bombay. It’s called Cowdust Time, and on the back it tells the story of this time, when cowherds bring their cattle back home and the dust they raise blends with the smoke of the cooking fires to create a smoky effect in the villages. It’s a particularly lovely time of day. It’s also seen as a particularly auspicious time, good for engagements, marriages and business deals. And a good time for reflection, prayer and meditation. Various people talked about how – at the same time that people are going to the temple or mosque to pray – birds like parakeets all flock back to their trees, and their loud chattering is like another form of prayer of thanksgiving to God,” she adds. “And one writer and academic, Dr Rajendrasinh Jadeja, likened it to a time when the earth does yoga.”

The programme has been well received and here are some comments that have come in...

What a lovely programme! We were both entranced by it. Thank you so much.

Seductive and richly other. It drew me in. Lovely. Beautifully put together

Really lovely programme. We listened to it in the dark, sitting on an Indian rug, and it was like a meditation.

It was wonderful. I do not overstate when I say there were tears in our eyes, I can't remember when I saw my husband so visibly moved.

I've just listened to it and found it both beautiful and enlightening, and a wonderful counterbalance to the way I was feeling today. I've made some notes from it towards what might become a poem - not difficult, of course, because the programme is pretty much a poem in itself

I'm writing to let you know that I thoroughly enjoyed the Between the Ears feature 'Cowdust Time'. I always make a point of tuning in to Between The Ears because of the eclectic content. While I'm listening, I'm usually doing something else - tonight I was preparing tomorrow's dinner - but, I stopped chopping carrots and just listened. A really beautiful programme - congratulations!

The Bishop and The Prisoner for BBC Radio 4

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:27:00 +0000

I have enjoyed working on this series of three half-hour programmes with Rosie Dawson for BBC Radio 4. It was an excellent series that really got behind the issues and talked to real people both victims and criminals on how the system fails so many people.

In the three-part series, he talks to prison staff, politicians and inmates, who share their ideas about effective punishment both within prison and in Community Payback schemes. In an article in the Liverpool Echo he wrote...

“In The Forgiveness Project (piloted in High Down prison) a woman who was repeatedly raped, and who was only saved from death because her attacker’s knife broke, said forgiveness is fluid, which I thought was a fascinating phrase.
“She said ‘Sometimes I can forgive, sometimes I can’t forgive, sometimes I have to will myself to forgive’.

and we hear from some inmates about how sex offenders are probably the only group of offenders that cannot be re-habilitated and forgiven.

Bishop James put himself in the shoes of a prisoner being admitted to Liverpool Prison:

“This included the clanging of the gates, the shutting of the cell door, measuring out the cell (12 paces by nine) and listening to the noise of the prison. Although I’ve been going into prisons for years it gave me a deeper experience of what it was like. And it is punishment.”

In this second programme, the Bishop visits training schemes which offer inmates a chance to gain new skills and may even guarantee them a job. The shoe manufacturer Timpsons has training workshops in Liverpool and Forest Bank; High Down is home to the infamous Clink restaurant where prisoners cook and serve Michelin-style food to members of the public.

In the final programme, James Jones meets ex-offenders taking part in a variety of probation initiatives in Merseyside designed to cut re-offending and "pay back" the community for crimes committed. Three men on the Persistent Priority Offender scheme commend the programme for providing the supervision they found lacking on earlier probation orders. In a moving interview a mentor with the service, Lynsey, says probation saved her from prison, crime and alcoholism and her children from life in care. There are some incredibly moving stories across the three programmes in this seriesand I can thoroughly recommend listening to the series. Bishop James proved to be an excellent and caring interviewer too.

Listen to programme 1 on iPlayer

Listen to programme 2 on iPlayer

Listen to programme 3 on iPlayer

"I am done with the Freemium Model" says Tyler Nichols

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:16:00 +0000

Tyler goes onto say....

"I am done with “free”. I have come to the realization that most people who want something for free will never, ever think of paying you, no matter how valuable they find your service. I found this cold hard fact out over this Christmas holiday with my free Letter From Santa site. The site uses a freemium model allowing people to create personalized printable santa letters for their children for free. In addition to the free version, I also offered a paid version that includes a higher resolution letter, a personalized envelope and door hanger for a nominal cost."

He goes on to explain that free customers where higher maintenance than the paying customers with free customers not reading the FAQ and then going on to mark his thank you letter as spam.

So let me get this straight, you just used my service to make something for your kid for free and then you nail me with a spam complaint?

Even though they had agreed in the privacy policy to the occasional email. Where as the paying customers didn't spam his letter and only 20 of them asked for help.

You can read his full post here and all the comments people have made.

My only comment is that the whole point of the fermium model is that there has to be enough income from the paying customers to pay for the free service and still make a profit. So the business model has to meet this criteria or it isn't a viable business. Maybe he shouldn't have offered support to the free customers? Would that have made the difference?

Olympus announce new multi-track handheld recorder LS-100

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 23:53:00 +0000

Just a couple of days ago Olympus announced the latest addition to the Olympus PCM handheld recorder range. I have been supplying their LS 5 to many of my broadcast clients for a while now and it has proved very reliable out in the field. This new LS-100 looks as if it will become my replacement handheld recorder of choice. Lets see what Olympus have to say about it...

Size it up
The LS-100 is the first and currently only model in the Olympus LS range to boast dual XLR/Phone combo jacks (with 48/24V Phantom Power Supply). These enable instruments and professional external microphones to be plugged directly into the unit. The interface is equipped with an independent instrumentation amplifier, ensuring that low noise, high signal/noise (S/N) ratio recordings can confidently be made – even when using long leads. Levels for the left and right channels can be independently adjusted according to the requirements of the attached instruments thanks to the integrated recording level dial.

On cue for multi-track recording
Whether wanting to record in just one take or wishing to take advantage of the versatility multi-track recording offers, the LS-100 provides the power and flexibility to meet all demands. Up to eight tracks are at users’ disposal. Each can be separately volume adjusted and panned, then mixed down to create the complete composition.

More intelligent functions to bring music to your ears
Overdubs are also in the repertoire of the LS-100, allowing sound recording to take place over the original sound while simultaneously monitoring it. Meanwhile, the Playback Synchro Recording feature enables recording of an additional track while listening to another.

The first vital sounds of a recording will never be missed either thanks to the innovative Pre-Recording function, which lets the two seconds prior to hitting the record button to be captured. Additionally, with Voice Sync, users can set the LS-100 to automatically commence recording to file once sound hits a certain level. Index marks can also be placed at specific points on a track letting particular sections to be located more easily later on. And various repeat modes, including A-B Repeat, allow users to listen to precise track sequences at will.

Digital metronome and tuner features ensure that the timing of tracks is nothing less than perfect and instruments are always in tune. Users can also invoke the Lissajous function, which detects and displays the phase difference between the left and right external microphones from the sound source on the 5.1cm (2.0”) backlight LCD. Files are saved to the internal 4GB memory or on SD (up to 2GB) / SDHC (up to 32GB) / SDXC (up to 64GB) cards.

The durable and compact Olympus LS-100 Multi-Track Linear PCM recorder bestows musicians and broadcasters a high performance, mobile multi-track recording studio to fulfil all their needs – from a single track to a complete composition – boasting highest possible audio qualities. Jam-packed with cutting-edge technology and ready-to-use hands-on features, this metal-bodied masterpiece will hit stores at a recommended price of €449 in February 2012.

LS-100 Multi-Track Linear PCM Recorder – Main Features:• Linear PCM (up to 96kHz/24bit) and MP3 file formats
• Multi-track recording (8 tracks)
• Overdubbing capabilities
• Playback Synchro
• Voice Sync recording
• Dual XLR/Phone combo jacks with Phantom Power Supply (48V/24V)
• Directional stereo microphones with 90° layout
• High quality, low noise amplifier circuitry with separate circuit boards for audio and system – each with independent power supply
• Up to 140dBspl sound pressure
• 20-20,000Hz frequency characteristics with built-in microphones
• High signal/noise (S/N) ratio
• Low-cut filter (300/100Hz)
• Pre-Record buffer
• Metronome, tuner and lissajous functions
• Indexing function
• File editing
• File transfer and copying
• MP3 convert
• CD Writing function to burn composition to external CD drive
• 4GB internal memory and SD/SDHC/SDXC card slot
• 159 x 70 x 33.5mm, 280g (incl. battery)
• Includes: USB cable, USB/mini USB converter connector, strap, AC adapter, LI-50B rechargeable battery, case

Its just a shame we will have to wait until February 2012 to get our hands on one.

Response from BVE North freelancer seminar

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 08:45:00 +0000

The seminar was full! Photo: Alex Beaton

The response was amazing, the seating area was full with folks standing round the edge to pick up some tips. At the end some people waiting over 20 minutes to talk to me as well as folk coming up to me throughout the two days to continue the discussion.

Apparently there were over 2400 visitors across the two days and the event organisers are already planning for BVE North 2012. Event director Charlotte Wheeler said: “Exhibitors have already begun taking options on stands for next year, and we will be revealing plans for BVE North 2012 very shortly.”

The union BECTU who hosted the seminar on How to be a successful Freelancer have also reported on the success of the event....

The Panel - Photo: Alex Beaton

John Crumpton, BAFTA-awarding winning freelance and union official, delivered the session with excellent contributions from Christine Pyke, an experienced programme-maker who now runs her own company, Puma Training; Mike Thornton, Pro-Tools genius and award winning audiomeister (our words not his!) with a string of credits across genres, formats and platforms; and Faisal A Qureshi, established writer and editor, associate producer of the award-winning feature Four Lions, producer of Khalil the Great for FACT Liverpool and a visiting lecturer at the Northern Film School in Leeds.
Reviewing the seminar, John said: “These days being a freelance means considering oneself an ‘owner/manager’ who effectively is running their own small business. As such I felt that after the audience had learnt what the panelist did and why they worked freelance, they’d want to know about the practicalities of freelancing.

Key questions
"How frequently did they do their accounts to keep an eye on cash flow? How did they decide their rates for work? What did they feel were the benefits of social media and how much time did they spend on ‘cultivating’ their online presence?

John & Mike Photo: Alex Beaton

"Mike Thornton told how in the space of two years and through training opportunities provided by the union, he’d learnt how to blog, and later delivered training to FEU members on uploading audio-podcasts. In the process he developed the skills to launch two successful blogs, one of which has just secured commercial sponsorship.
"These types of success stories were contrasted with accounts from all the panelists of having their fingers financially ‘burned’ by bad and non-paying clients early in their careers.
"Such tales of woe certainly hit a chord with the crowd. A number of new entrants told me later that when they’d been on the receiving end of similar bad treatment they’d felt foolish, humiliated and alone. They felt a bit better that it had also happened to others who’d learnt the lesson the hard way but gone on to create thriving careers."

I certainly felt we struck a chord with our honesty and openness and the genuine advise we gave.

5 Live Children In Need special well received

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:19:00 +0000

The 5 Live special I blogged about last week has been well received in The Guardian by Elisabeth Mahoney.

Pudsey was everywhere on Friday. Away from the fundraising japes and fun, 5 Live once again ran a documentary (as part of Shelagh Fogarty's show) about a project helped by the charity and the work it did. Last year, it was work to prevent young women being lured into sex trafficking and abuse in Derby; this year, an organisation called Positive Futures (posfutures.org.uk) in Liverpool. If you need any further convincing to donate to Children in Need, do listen to the programme.
Even if you think you know about the sort of lives that lead children into gang culture, there were some gobsmacking details in Helen Skelton's report. Children as young as eight spoke casually about endemic violence in their areas. "I've actually seen someone getting battered," said one girl. "I was 10 or 11."
Ben, who left a gang with the charity's help, said: "You hear about stabbings and shootings every day". A youth worker recalled talking to a boy dealing drugs on the street to feed his younger siblings, when a man came up and begged. "That was my dad," the boy said, as the man walked away. The staff didn't gloss over the challenges or odds against them. But, as one said, in the next 20 years, if he changes just one child's life, "it'll be worth it".

As I said it is well worth a listen as it explores the youth culture in Liverpool and how two organisations are helping young people break the gang culture cycle. It includes some very powerful interviews with young people of Liverpool and the youth workers who are helping them change their way of life.

5 Live Children In Need Special I worked on

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:30:00 +0000

With Angela Robson at Pearlworks I edited and mixed a documentary feature presented by Blue Peter's Helen Skelton for BBC 5 Live's Children in Need coverage. It is in the lunchtime show tomorrow....

Tony Livesey sits in for Shelagh Fogarty as Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton joins him live in the studio to present a special report on Children in Need day.
Helen has been in North Liverpool, spending time with 2 projects funded by money raised by Children in Need. The projects reach out to teenagers who may otherwise get caught up in the area's drugs and gang culture problems.

It is well worth a listen as it explores the youth culture in Liverpool and how two organisations are helping young people break the gang culture cycle. It includes some very powerful interviews with young people of Liverpool and the youth workers who are heling them change their way of life.

A personal view of Socialnomics by Erik Qualman

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 10:46:00 +0000

Following on from by previous post about a social media and connectedness case study from the Socialnomics web site, here are my thoughts having read this book...

Listen or connect? - Following blogs is likely to form connections, it is largely a "listen" form of communication closer on Marshall McCullan's 'broadcast' culture that the 'digital' culture that we are moving into now, especially with social media. Social network platforms like Twitter, Facebook or Linked In are much more likely to create conversations and connections. From a business perspective these are much more likely to generate interest and new leads.

Its all very well for Qualman to show how large companies like Starbucks can tweet about a free coffee and afford to give loads of small value items away, but smaller companies and charities have finite resources, especially time which is expensive to give away.

Qualman says on page 133 "Middlemen are becoming less important than they have been in the past, and the rise in power is shifting rapidly to the social graph". With peer review and recommendation together with the trust of people in your network there will be less need of middlemen. Or to putting it subtly, not, bypass the middleman and go to the horses mouth?

On page 130 he says "Often our customers will market the product better than we can". In a social media world this can be really powerful". We have always had personal recommendation but it has always been a one to one word of mouth. How we have what Qualman describes as a 'world of mouth', or a 'many to many' digital culture to use McCullan speak, our clients can tell the world how good we are and it will have much more respect than saying it ourselves. So we need to encourage our clients to share their experiences of our services. But we have to make sure that we maintain the correct balance in our conversations so that the marketing doesn't stand out as 'selling'.

Qualman dedicates chapter 6 "Death of Social Schizophrenia" to the need for everyone to have one persona or identity in this connected world. Where as before we could have a work, social, and family peronas and maintain them because we could keep each segment of our lives separate. Now in a connected world we can't get away with it. Our work colleagues see what we are doing at home, our friends see what we do at work and so on.

Play to your strengths, on page 135 Qualman says "Being well rounded as a company, or an individual is less beneficial. Its more productive to play to your core strength. This differentiates you from the competition. You need to stand out in order to be outstanding" He then goes onto to refer to a book called Strengths Finder which I have read and been through the programme to identify my strengths a while a go. If you haven't done it, I can strongly recommend this programme above other similar ones. A number of times I have considered some possible diversification routes, like becoming a video editor and rejected them. I am an audio editor and producer, sound is what I do, so I am much better to play to my strengths than invest a lot of time and money trying to improve weak spots, only to end up making them less weak.

Embed the sponspor - Qualman does an in depth study of an American series called Football Fantasy and how the presenters decided to set up a podcast in their own time. One of the reasons they did this is there were TV presenters one day a week as it was a weekly show, where as they have made the podcast a daily show and so are able to react to changing stories and audience responses so much quicker. Also because it was a podcast they didn't stick to a standard programme slot. They made the podcast as long as it needed to be to cover the content that day, rather than make the content fit the slot. They also developed techniques for embedding the sponsor and the sponsors content into the programme. They didn't use standard ad format straps and spots. Rather they worked the sponsors message into the programme content which provided variety so they weren't using the same spot every time. Qualman says on page 142 "Consumers today in particular Millennial's and Generation Zer's don't want adverts to shout; they'd rather have conversations and ongoing relationships with companies". If the ads top and tail a podcast they can easily be stripped off when the content is spread virally. However if the sponsorship references are embedded in the programme and become an integral part of it, then they travel virally too!

On page 148, Qualman talks about CNN anchor Rick Sanchez who started tweeting and realised that it was more important to talk less about himself and more about the interviewees. I need to balance my posts and tweets about my work with other material so I don't just end up shouting about myself.

On page 175 Qualman outlines how social media gives you so much more data about your audience and their habits. We need to use that data to determine our marketing decisions, 'The audience has spoken'. Remember if we create conversations, that will lead to a trusting relationship which is so much more valuable. So shouldn't PR folk be asking what we can do to create these conversations.

With our experience surely we can help clients develop these conversations, also look at the complete web presence. On page 221 Qualman outlines the Skittles experiment with their web site in 2009.

They turned their static web site into a simple landing page with some links took you off their site to social media.

"Connect = Skittles Facebook page

Video = Skittles YouTube channel

Photos = Skittles Flickr account

Info = Skittles Wikipedia entry

News = Skittles blog.

Skittles were acting as an integration point or hub to great authentic content that existed elsewhere about them".

This shows that we need to be prepared to experiment and that will mean we fail sometimes but Qualman has a phrase he repeats through the book about failing - Fail forward, fail fast, fail better.

Business to Business – a case study of how to use social media

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:03:00 +0000

This example of what using social media in a B2B content has been posted on the Socialnomics blog...

Some B2B marketers are slow to invest in social media because they believe that the ROI should be based on an increase in sales. Wrong. The focus should be on engaging conversation with influencers who matter. It’s the first step toward social business.

A year ago at Cisco, we launched the The Connected Life Exchange blog and invited industry experts to be the authors, along with only a few company employees. We do not blog about our company or products, but discuss the industry issues that are relevant to our customers: the telecom service provider. It has proven to be a powerful approach in engaging analysts, bloggers and customers in a welcomed way — through storytelling.

We just finished production of a web documentary series, “The Network Effect,” again with no mention of our company, but focusing on entertaining stories about the inventors who built the network and the impact it has on economic growth, particularly in developing counties. Here’s the first episode of six:

If you haven't heard of Socialnomics I would throughly recommend reading the book.

Following blogs is likely to form connections, it is largely a "listen" form of communication closer on Marshall McCullan's 'broadcast' culture that the 'digital' culture that we are moving into now, especially with social media. Social network platforms like Twitter, Facebook or Linked In are much more likely to create conversations and connections. From a business perspective these are much more likely to generate interest and new leads.

I will be posting a more detailed view having read the book, look out for it.

Mike on the panel at BVE North on 16th Nov

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 09:50:00 +0000

BECTU are kicking off the seminar programme at BVE North on 16th Nov and I will be on the panel. The session is entitled "How to be a Successful Freelance".

If you work in the North and you have registered for BVE North (16-17 November at Manchester Central) don't miss BECTU's seminar How to be a Successful Freelance.
Our learning organiser John Crumpton has devised the session with the great help of panellists Christine Pyke, Mike Thornton and Faisal A Quereshi.
The seminar helps to kick off the first ever BVE North; join the discussion at 10.00 am on Wednesday 16 November. If you have yet to take advantage of free registration, here's the link.

For more info on this seminar go to the BECTU web site.

'One Stop Digital' kick start new 'Radio Wizards' partnership

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:53:00 +0000

Seven radio producers – all based in the north of England – have joined forces to launch a new co-operative venture – ‘Radio Wizards’. It’s equally remarkable that their aim now is to work together on every kind of sound production… except radio! “It’s taken over a year to get to this point,” says ‘wizard’ Mike Thornton, “but now we’ve got a viable business plan, we’ve launched our website and we’re already starting to attract commissions. As a facilities provider we decided to facilitate this partnership and set them up with a web site to help kickstart this venture while our new partners worked out their pitches for every kind of business from visitor attraction guided-tours to management ‘webinars’ delivering audio-guides and podcasts to the highest production standards."

Says wizard Peter Everett, a veteran Radio 4 producer (and former editor) “We have been competitors until now, but we have a lot of respect for each other and between us we have an unbeatable range of skills, contacts and experience. The spoken word is the most important medium of communication, but it has to be used to maximum effect, and we know how to do that.”

One of the Wizards’ first customers is Sir Richard FitzHerbert of Tissington Hall in Derbyshire, who will feature a ‘favourite objects’ guide to this Jacobean mansion on his website.

The team is keen to design tours using a range of state-of-the-art technology. ‘For every visitor attraction, coach trip or travelling holiday there’s a perfect way to deliver an audio-tour,’ says Peter Everett. ‘For example in Australia, car hire companies are now offering a system where each point on the journey triggers a GPS signal and plays the appropriate audio on your stereo. Another way to do it is through QR coding, which will link the visitor’s own phone to an Internet audio source. A third approach might be to use an individual MP3-player that is so cheap to supply that it can be branded with a logo and sold as a ‘buy-it, use-it, take-it-home’ souvenir.’

What brought the Wizards together was an initiative by Vision and Media North-West, who had spotted that there’s a much bigger market for audio production skills than just radio broadcasting. V+M hosted a series of seminars with successful entrepreneurs in the advertising, games, digital and PR industries. After a dozen sessions it was clear that the commercial sector currently finds it hard to achieve top-class audio production, so the Wizards agreed it was time to sell their radio skills in a whole new marketplace.

Janet Graves of Pennine Productions adds: “We’ve all done bits and pieces in the commercial sector – for example, I’ve made oral history projects, Peter has produced coach-tour commentaries, and Mike has done infotainment podcasts for the drug company Pfizer. Combining our efforts will let us offer a one-stop shop for any kind of commercial audio production.”

Review of What Has Religion Done For Women in The Guardian

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:35:00 +0000

This was a one hour documentary fro BBC Radio 2, I fine edited and mixed for the producer Mark O'Brien recently. It is an interesting and revealing insight into women and religion and goes beyond the stereotypical viewpoints and voices. The Guardian picked it up as one of its featured programmes in its Rewind Radio series. This is what they had to say...

I was brought up short by the use of music in What Has Religion Done for Women?. Presented by the very great Shelagh Fogarty, as part of Radio 2's Faith in the World Week, this was an intelligent, open-minded investigation into how women of different faiths integrate some of their religion's trickier aspects into their lives. Fogarty spoke to Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Christians, and there were some lovely moments: a Sikh woman talking about how she managed to overcome her embarrassment at having hairy legs (Sikh women aren't meant to cut their hair); Fogarty herself donning a niqab and entering, then leaving, a shop packed with women and children, because, she said: "We're alarming people."
But. This being Radio 2, the producer clearly thought that we couldn't absorb Fogarty's points without relevant music to help. Though it's debatable whether helpful is the right word for the Scissor Sisters' "Mary"; that is, when it's dropped immediately after a discussion on the artistic representations of Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary. "Mary!" warbled Jake Shears, meaningfully, "You shouldn't let 'em make you mad." There was a debate about Muslim women's modesty of dress. Followed by Dolly Parton singing: "I can see you're disappointed, by the way you look at me". Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" popped up after the Sikh lady's "hurray for hairy" section; Aretha singing "Respect" after a subtle point about the niqab ensuring that men have to deal with women as an intellect, rather than a body. The cumulative effect was the same as if Shelagh had been followed around by Dave Lee Travis, with his trigger finger twitching on the "Quack Quack Oops" button. I'm not sure that was what was intended.

I have to say as someone who helped the producer place the music, I have disagree with some of the reviewer's points. The music for me added another layer to the story, yes a little tongue in cheek at times, and some of the choices weren't the stereotypical choices for that point in the documentary, but I stand by them.

BBC cuts, local radio and World Service

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:27:00 +0000

Today's stories about MPs asking the BBC Trust to reconsider proposals that will see local radio programmes during off peak times broadcast on a regional, rather than local, basis. Headcount in some instances is expected to be reduced by a disproportionately large number, with some stations facing job cuts of 20% of current staff.

With the cuts already announced for the World Service it seems to me that the BBC is choosing to cut the soft targets, the ones that are less likely to answer back. The cuts in the World Service will undoubtably affect our standing and the BBCs respect across the world for providing impartial news to areas of the world that wouldn't otherwise get any reliable news.

The cuts in local radio will go along way to taking the BBC out of the community at a local level with a combination of regional link up and the possible rebroadcasting of 5 Live.

I appreciate that saving need to be made, that isn't at issue here but for my money I would do something with BBC3 and/or BBC4 to make the savings and like local radio and the World Service to do what only a public service broadcaster can do.

At the local level there was a time in the 80s when commercial radio was deeply routed in the community, I spent nearly 10 years at Piccadilly Radio and Key 103 so I have first hand experience of this and the way commercial radio has migrated to a jukebox radio format over the last decade or s to remain economically viable.

So the only way of having viable local radio is to provide it through the public service remit. Equally no one else is going to provide a world wide impartial news service that the BBC World Service supplies so again this should be protected. Surely the areas that commercial services can't offer should be protected like they have done with Radio 4.

What Religion Has Done For Women on Radio 2

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:38:00 +0000

I fine edited and mixed this one hour documentary for the producer Mark O'Brien last Wednesday. It is an interesting and revealing insight into women and religion and goes beyond the stereotypical viewpoints and voices.

As women find themselves increasingly at the centre of religious news around the world - from Tahrir Square in Cairo, to the ban on wearing headscarves in France and Belgium, and the arguments over women bishops in the Church of England - Shelagh Fogarty speaks to women of different faiths to find out what their religious culture and beliefs mean to them.
Religion is seen by many as universally controlling women in all aspects of their lives, from how they see their bodies, their careers and roles in the family and society. Meeting female religious leaders and ordinary, everyday women of different faiths, Shelagh challenges many of the popular myths and stereotypes.
She meets theologian Tina Beattie at the National Gallery who explains the historical images of famous religious women - Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, Eve in the Garden of Eden, Salome and even depictions of pagan goddesses from mythology. Tina Beattie points out that, throughout the ages, the quintessential woman has been either the virgin or mother or the whore and temptress - but little else in between.
Even though many of these iconic women are depicted naked, or at least reveal an abundance of flesh, why has the woman's body become the object to cover-up in modesty and not men's? Shelagh talks to Muslim women who are happy to cover themselves in a particular way. To experience people's attitudes and challenge her own perceptions, Shelagh puts on a niqab and joins them on a shopping trip. She also travels to a London Synagogue to hear why women choose to cover their own hair with wigs, wear ultra conservative regulation clothes, and remove themselves from their husbands once a month when they are deemed 'ritually impure'. Is Shelagh's perception of what she considers to be female oppression correct, or do these customs and religious discipline actually empower them as women?
Shelagh also explores the extent to which women are able to participate in their own acts of worship. Contributors include Canon Lucy Winkett, a young woman priest at St James Piccadilly. She talks about the Church's attitude towards women and how she dealt with a certain amount of abuse when she was appointed as the first woman precentor at St Paul's Cathedral.
Whilst much of Shelagh's encounters and discoveries challenge some of her own views, this documentary also acknowledges that there are cases of women oppressed and abused by religious tradition. Shelagh draws together all her experiences and considers whether women are beginning to enjoy their religious identity, distinct from that of men, and whether they are served by religion and valued as spiritual people.

Mark has found some different voices and his music choices are very good with a few that you might expect and some you wouldn't. Well worth a lisetn either live or via iPlayer.

Fast Train freelancer project to focus on radio

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 19:55:00 +0000

Radio Fast Train will be hosted by the BBC Academy in partnership with Skillset, and will be produced in association with The Radio Academy, Radio Independents Group, RadioCentre, and Community Media Association.

It will take place on 7 February 2012 and comprise a day of free training sessions for freelances and independents in the radio sector.

Acting head of the college of production Donna Taberer said: “Radio, like other parts of the media industry, is facing huge change.

“Radio Fast Train is a fantastic opportunity to discuss and learn new technology, new ways of working, inspire creativity and a chance to collaborate and share ideas for the radio of the future. It’s key for the Academy to engage with freelancers, indies and radio organisations.”

Radio Fast Train will centre on four themes: Ideas; Technology; Skills; and Business.

Sessions and masterclasses will include Visualising Radio, Audience and Social Media, Writing for Radio, and Managing the Talent.

The event will be project-managed by Debbie Kilbride, who won Sony Gold & Silver Awards for her work on BBC Radio 4 and Saturday Live, has worked in local, community & network radio for BBC Radios 1, 2 & 4 and in both production & interactive teams.

There will be opportunities for networking and the chance to meet the key players at BBC Radio.

More details, including how to register, will be announced over the coming months,

The event follows Fast Train for television in May 2011 - a training and networking event hosted by the Academy and sponsored by Skillset which attracted around 350 TV freelances to taster sessions and masterclasses - for free.

Monetising Digital Platforms & Rights

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 09:54:00 +0000

I went to an excellent 1/2 day session on Monetising Digital Platforms & Rights on Wednesday at Vision & Media. The day was led by two top flight guys in this sector, Justin Judd - director of i-Rights Ltd and formerly ran Granada TV's digital division and Peter Cowley from Spirit Digital Media, who I heard at the Nations & Regions Media conference earlier this year.

These are some notes of things discussed that appealed to me. But it is by no means an accurate record of everything that was discussed!

I Pay, You Pay, Some else Pays
We looked at these 3 business models.
The I Pay obviously isn't a viable long term business model as putting your own money into a business for ever will end up in certain failure, but it may be necessary to get a business going.
You Pay - is where the consumer pays you for a product or service, in this context subscription models are a good example.
Someone else Pays - this is usually some form of sponsorship or advertising funded model which usually means the product or servie is free at the point of use.

The best model is probably the I Pay turning into You Pay. The problem with the Someone else Pays is that to get advertising funding you need proven scale before advertisers will support your product and as a new start up proven scale is hard to come by!

Scarcity is important
You can't make money from anything that is easily available. The music industry has learnt this the hard way and now puts the product out but makes money from the live experience where they can control the scarcity factor. The news industry is in the process of learning this. A number of newspapers have put most of their content behind a pay wall. The FT may be able to make it stick because they have a niche market in financial related news, but The Times is going to find it harder. The Guardian is producing excellent free content but it still isn't clear how they will make money. The Daily Mail is making a go of the Someone else Pays model by producing news people want, like celebrity news and gossip, which drives traffic to their site and they get a income form the advertising they can sell on their site because they have 'proven scale'. So simply put don't try and monetise a product which isn't scarce.

You need to understand the digital world.
This includes the scarcity issue because it is largely the digital world that has made things like music and news freely available but also the digital world has produced new routes to the market place. We were given the example of John Locke who was able to publish his book direct to the market without a conventional publisher by producing a digital version of his book using Amazon's Kindle platform and Amazon's site. He sold 1 million copies in 5 months priced at 99 cents, even based on the Amazon business model he still cleared just over 1/3 million dollars, he now has many more titles and has even written a book on how he did it, but remember no publisher, no marketing, but he will have got a major free publicity push from being an early adopter which is another thing you need to understand about the digital world. Being an early adopter brings you scarcity.

So if you can bypass the big guys and get your product or service direct to market and avoid the middle men you can make a good return. Now harness some key middle guys like Amazon or Apple and you can really make some money but you still need a good product!

Strictly Sexual was another example. It was a movie made for $100,000 and distributed through Hulu in the US, so no DVD or broadcast release, direct on line and then have cleared $200,000 already. But again it had to be a good product, with a good story, clever plot and title angle etc and despite the title isn't a porn movie. I haven't seen it because unfortunately Hulu is only available in the US . It is geo-blocked elsewhere just as our iPlayer service is blocked outside the UK.

Facebook Games
Games on Facebook is another example of making money in the digital world and often use the Freemium model. The game is free to download and use, but the free version runs slowly. So you can buy add ons that make the game run faster and also buy add ons that help you play it. A typical example was one of the more popular games which has been downloaded 7.5 million time. If only 1% buy anything, a typical pickup ratio fror the freemium model, then then 750,000 people pay $5 brings you in a lot of money, to carry on supporting that 99% of your market doesn't pay for. Again it is much easier for the early adopters to make money.

Apps
We were shown some examples of the iTunes App chart and it was interesting to note that there were a number of audio related Apps doing very well in the chart, like Keith Lemon's Mouthboard and also an app called Fonejacker which is an app based on the radio spoof prank phone call model, but people are paying good money to listen to prank phone calls.

The ABCD of media revenue options
A for Advertising - a 'some else pays' model
B for Broadcasting revenues - the traditional broadcaster conmmisions and pays for you to produce a product but you probably won't retain all the rights to. Again 'some one else pays' either through the license fee or advertising revenue.
C for Consumer - this is the 'you pay' model, and includes services that are funded using the subscription model like Sky. One interesting fact is that in the TV world the value of Subscription TV worldwide far out values the value of advert funded TV. So the 'you pay' model is the way to go.
D for Data - this is becoming a fourth business model where you can provide a product free at the point of use but the data you collect has value which you can monetise. The new buzz phrase is 'Data is the new Oil'. This can include data like email addresses, Facebook likes and Twitter followers.

It was interesting that in the discussion of projects people were looking at, Justin & Peter were strongly recommending that a Mountain Sports Film Festival didn't set up and expensive web site to promote and sell the films that were presented at the festival. They were suggesting they use the data to make money.

Thoughts after attending Media & Digital Futures workshop at Salford University

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:15:00 +0000

I have just taken part in a very interesting, simulating and thought provoking workshop where as industry representatives we were asked to work through and comment on two scenarios as to how the Manchester city region might look in 2017. One had a positive slant and the other a more negative one. I was in one of two groups looking at the more negative scenario which was called the 'noise' scenario.

In a nutshell this scenario says that the UK will still be in recession, technology has advanced but businesses are struggling to make good use of it. The lack of variety of industries and decline of manufacturing has made the region unsustainable with the emphasis being on service and knowledge based. It is difficult to generate revenue on line as consumers expect it to be free and although there are a large number of digital startups the business models are generally unsustainable. There is a skills gap with the education system not geared up to produce students with the skills needed and so young people are not making the transition from education to employment. Digital technologies have disrupted rather than helped our everyday lives and people have become overwhelmed by the amount of information, communication and 'noise' coming at them. On top of that the city's digital infrastructure cannot handle the demand with rural areas only having limited access. Finally the region is over regulated, public transport is unreliable and expensive and although everyone is talking about the problems there are no radical strategies being put forward.

I have to say this scenario is not to far from where I feel we are now.

So to start with we were asked as a group to come up with 5 key points from the scenario to start the discussion. I came up with 4 which were..

There is no space for the little guy.
Education is not delivering equipped young people.
'Free' is stifling innovation as it hard to produce a return on investment. Which is why we no longer make anything.
Both the transport and digital infrastructure are failing.

Others thoughts included a negative impact on families and society. We discussed how the use of computers smart phones and other devices has continued the impact on family cohesion, that eating in front of the TV, had started. Family members occupying the same space but back to back looking at screens rather than face to face round the dinner table. Another point was the lack of a 'ladder' structure where larger companies support and provide small businesses with work and then we started to explore more sustainable business models. The current funding cuts are already causing the social businesses to revisit their mix of commissions to social work proving free or subsidised services, with the need to make a profit to replace the grant funding to support the social work.

Next we looked at placing these issues, as well as a number from a previous group, onto a matrix made up of more or less likely to happen against being harder or easier to resolve. These other issues generated some debate including one about people not able to understand the technology they were using which got us into 'digital natives' versus 'analogue grans'.

Then we looked at how some of the 'easier' & 'likely' issues might be resolved with the suggestion that the tech one would get resolved without too much intervention because more and more of the population will be digital natives. I made the point that although more and more people have access to the technology they don't necessarily have the skills to use them creatively. However it was interesting to note that most of the points we placed in the 'likely' and 'hard' quadrant of the matrix and we didn't really have an opportunity to discuss how some of those could be resolved other than a consensus that education is key. One comment was our education system is still based on victorian principles and when you consider Carole Vorderman's report on Maths recently and the need for two different maths qualifications, if you extend that out to all the other subjects we have a major issue with not preparing our young people for a life in a 'post modern' society, our education system at best is still turning out 'moderns'. With my apprenticeship assessors hat on I am only too aware that most of the graduates from the mountain of 'medja' degrees aren't ready to work in our industry, their degrees haven't given them the skills to work as new entrants but has generated the expectation that they can come straight in as directors or producers. So the industry has set up an apprenticeship scheme to take on 16 to 22 year old and give the training and experience to become valuable team players in the industry.

I then brought up the whole collaboration issue and coined the phrase 'collaborate or die". One of the repeating threads in all my research into how our industry is changing is the mantra of 'you must collaborate'. Unfortunately although we encourage our children to collaborate at an early age, once they hit primary school the concept of collaboration is pushed out and so we now have several generations that just aren't interested in collaborating on creative or business projects which is a real shame.

Then we were given the opportunity to identify 5 issues for our own business, again I came up with 4...

'Free' on the internet makes developing viable business models more challenging!
How do I get above the 'noise'?
I need to create links with other businesses and collaborate.
The challenge is to persuade potential clients to buy my skills, as they feel more and more that they can do it themselves or they just don't value them. Just look at most corporate videos, the sound is rubbish!

Finally we all came back together and we shared the findings of all 4 groups and although we had been looking at two different scenarios the findings were remarkably similar. One comment that struck me was we live in a 'greed economy' where the aim is to make as much money as possible so I can have the latest this that or the other, instead of the motivation being, doing what is best for the community whilst making enough money to be OK with my lot, going from a 'me based culture to an 'us' based one. In the light of the recent riots etc this really hit home with me.

I found the whole morning a very enlightening experience and I look forward to the outcomes of this research and hope that Salford University can take it further.

The Shallows by Nicholas Carr

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 09:35:00 +0000

This book is also sub-titled "How the Internet is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember".

This was one of a couple of books I read on holiday this year and it has really opened my mind to how our technology is literally changing the way we think.

Carr's book shows how our brains have changed as each new technology has come along, not just the internet. All the way through this book he backs up his arguments by referencing appropriate scientific evidence. He works through the different technologies from the printed word to the latest digital media affirming Marshall McLuhan's theories along the way. He debunks each contrary theory including that our brains become rigid in adulthood and then start loosing brain cells at an alarming rate.

He shows that if we come to depend on the internet for our information we will loose our abilities to reason etc. Indeed he almost goes as far as to say we will loose our humanity. However he doesn't suggest we should stop using technology, just not depend on it, so all in moderation is the name of the game.

He also outlines that one of the core principles of the internet - that 'free & open access to information encourages innovation' is not working, that the use of search engines is actually reducing the number of citations in academic documents as the search engines will present the most popular answers at the top and people tend not to read as broadly and deeply as they once did and so the most popular wins and it produces an ever decreasing circle as only the most popular are referenced, so the link pool gets smaller & smaller. So rather than opening out and making access to a brad range of ideas and information the search engines and the internet are doing the exact reverse.

He presented evidence as to how we now read, especially on line, that we only read around 18% of the text on a web site and that we read like a letter F. So we read the top line for a bit, then jump down read in a little before jumping down to the bottom. Scary or useful information for web designers.

He also makes a compelling case for the internet and our use of search engines reducing our time to think, review, and come to our own conclusions.

This has a real effect on creativity, where is the space for creativity in this ever faster "want it now" and "what's happening now" world? Surely creativity often comes from those seemingly unproductive moments of peace and space. If we remove those deeper reading moments and time for contemplation and review, because they aren't immediately productive, then the world will become populated by machines irrespective as to whether they are carbon or silicon based and the world will be much the poorer for it.

So I do recommend this book, and if you use the links to buy it then I will get a small commission from Amazon.

Also please do comment and discuss these issues, I would be very interested in your thoughts on these issues.

Our own kind of digital disconnect

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Thornton) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 20:22:00 +0000

I have posted about other people's experiences of having a digital detox including an excellent book The Winter of Our Disconnect by Susan Maushart that took the concept of a digital detox to the extreme with a 6 month disconnect. But until now it has all been other people's experiences, not any more! Almost by accident we experienced our own disconnect experiment in quite an unexpected way.
Now our annual 2 week sumer holiday has been technology free for many years so no laptop, no email, phones turned off except for me checking the answer machine once a day for messages. However this year was different. We rented a villa just outside Alcudia in Marjorca and we found ourselves even more disconnected than usual.

Our villa in Marjorca

This was the first time we had rented a villa. In the past we had holidayed in hotels and had access to some UK TV so we kept in touch with world affairs and also there was an internet cafe in case of emergencies. Our villa provided us with our own retreat. Also our iPhones reverted to being just phones, all the usual clever things they do to keep us connected wherever we are, didn't work here. The TV in the villa was digital terrestrial and all the channels were in Spanish except for the Disney Channel during the day. So no news unless you could follow Spanish, which we couldn't. After just 2 days we were feeling very disconnected, even isolated, we had no idea what was going on in the world . It was almost like withdrawal symptoms. On the 3rd day we went out for newspapers. We managed to get The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail and we just devoured them from beginning to end. But it still felt quite 3rd party, no going on the internet to look at BBC News or being able to use Google Maps to help us navigate the maze of streets that made up the estate our villa was on.
However not all was bad, we talked, we played games, we reconnected as a family. At home we all use the internet and our various computers and smart phones as an integral part of our individual lives. That said we do eat together round the table at least once a day and we aim to have a 'sabbath' from Friday tea time to Saturday teatime with as little technology used as possible. But on holiday, especially this year in our retreat we really connected, all 4 of us chatting, playing volleyball in the pool, especially nice, as usually one of us absents themselves from family activities but on this holiday we were all together all of the time and it was brilliant.
So what was different? well no TV at all for starters, and no internet at all either. We may have been disconnected from the world but we were so much more connected to each other. Another factor for me was that my watch stopped on the plane on the way out and so I for one had no track of time and I became aware that I wanted to know what time it was to decide whether it was time to eat or go to bed. So instead I started to listen to my body and eat and sleep when it wanted to rather than follow some pre-determined schedule.
So will it last? well no not really, we all have come to depend on the internet and the digital world too much to disconnect ourselves permanently but it will definitely encourage us to keep our sabbath as clear as possible.