The Original Sims

To the Green Room at BBC’s Blackstaff studios yesterday evening for the formal launch of the Digital Circle.  I’ve been on the steering group for close to two years – the other members longer.  We have spent time developing the ideas set out in the The Northern Ireland Digital Content Strategy http://www.digitalcircle.org/2008/11/25/the-northern-ireland-digital-content-strategy/ and bringing the idea of the Digital Circle to a point where we ask the industry to take over.

The idea is simple; everyone who works in the digital content industry in Northern Ireland is the Digital Circle.  For the next 12 months, “signed up” membership (rather than “notional” membership) will be free and during that time elections to the steering group will be held.
There will be five members who will elect a Chair.  Each of the other members will lead one of the four activities set out in the Strategy;

• Investment;
• Skills and Training;
• Research & Development & Innovation; and
• Internationalisation.

This will not be a Top/Down organisation.  The steering group will be accountable to the membership.  The steering group will develop the project and agree the rules.

I particularly liked Stephen Mullen’s comment in his speech “If you don’t play the game, you can’t make the rules.”  So, this is the time for everyone in the content industry in Northern Ireland to help to make those rules.
The evening is available in three podcasts.

(Subscribe to the Podcast (RSS), Subscribe through iTunes, Download Directly (MP3)) Following Adrian, Stephen Mullen from Invest Northern Ireland - one of the guiding lights behind the Content Strategy spoke (Subscribe to the Podcast (RSS), Subscribe through iTunes, Download Directly (MP3)) The evening ended with a Q&A Session with the audience led by Matt Johnston (Subscribe to the Podcast (RSS), Subscribe through iTunes, Download Directly (MP3))

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The Digital Circle holds its official launch on Wednesday 26 November.  The event is open to all businesses in the content industry in Northern Ireland.  It will take place in BBC Blackstaff Studios on Belfast’s Great Victoria Street :
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&saddr=Great+Victoria+St,+Belfast+BT2,+UK&daddr=54.59376,-5.934181&hl=en&geocode=CZ3d1q5ftRJeFcoDQQMdg3Ol_w%3B&mra=mi&mrsp=1&sz=20&sll=54.593756,-5.934194&sspn=0.000441,0.0011&ie=UTF8&ll=54.593756,-5.934194&spn=0.000441,0.0011&t=h&z=20

The event will be hosted by Adrian Lennon the chair of Digital Circle.  Davy Sims spoke to Adrian and to Matt Johnston the DC Facilitator about the launch, plans  for an election and why the whole industry should get involved .

I think Robert Andrews got it right in the Comment in Paid Content.

The timing has been unfortunate.  While comments fly about Brand/Ross which public and decision makers alike seem unusually well briefed and have opinions, the BBC Trust announced their findings on  that on the same day they published their provisional conclusions on tghe BBC’s proposal Local Video.

The Newspaper Society have been among the loudest opponents of Local Video. While the Local Video service  would in the short term  reach around  half the population of the UK, in the slightly longer term as broadband up take improves, it would reach almost all the UK’s population.

 “Ultra Local” video was being bandied about as a phrase of opposition. But while that sounds awfully like a BBC reporter on every street corner, that image is very far from the truth.  I had some input into the earlier drafts of the proposal before I left the BBC this summer.  The idea was most definitely not “Ultra Local”.  Northern Ireland for example would have been divided in to two parts; essentially east and west of the Bann (Derry to the west and Belfast to the east).  There would have been I expect no more than two or three stories a day from each part.  The audience would have had broadband access to News (hardly Ultra Local), Sport, Traffic and Weather.

We all pay a licence fee – we don’t like it but we are required to do it.  So it is the job of the BBC to provide a service to everyone – using whatever platform they can.

Newspapers don’t do video.  OK they sometimes host video content, but I’ve not seen anything that comes close to broadcast television.  And the video I’ve seen often misses the point of non-linear programme content; the inclination is to produce a three minute bulletin once or twice a day. In the age of 24-hour rolling news this is positively 1950’s broadcasting.

Yes, sales of newspapers are decreasing and that is not good for anyone.  Yes many newspapers established a web presence before the BBC.  But then the web was a new home for text (and some images too). Some newspapers were and are visionaries (first the Daily Telegraph who got to the web ahead of the pack and now the Guardian who lead with the digital strategy). 

There more sources of news we have, the better.  The greater the variety of opinion, the better.  It’s not good that the BBC become so dominant in providing news that other sources are drowned out.   But look how ITV ran from news when Ofcom reduced the requirement.  The BBC and ITV news are required to provide a impartial coverage in their broadcasting.  That extends into the web news provision.  Newspapers are not required to be imaprtial.  This extends into their web provision.  Just read the coverage of this debate on newspaper web sites — if you can find it.  If you can’t there will be a juicy anti-BBC comment on Brand/Ross.

I don’t want the BBC to be the only provider of local news on the web.  But I believe it should be there along with newspapers and everyone else who wants to provide their own local news.
The BBC Trust’s job is to represent us the audience.  In their announcement on 21 November they say:

“The BBC Trust has refused permission for local video because it would not improve services for the public enough to justify either the investment of licence fee funds or the negative impact on commercial media.”

Yes there would be a significant cost in the short term and in that they are right.  But in the longer term, the wider distribution of BBC content to a greater number of license fee payers would have (cost per head: a favored BBC measurement) been reduced and there would have been a better investment in future audiences for the BBC.

I don’t watch Strictly Come Dancing.  I’ve nothing against it; it’s just not my sort of programme.  Usually I don’t approve of people commenting on TV, films, radio, books they have not watched, heard or read.  But on this occasion, I think I can comment even with limited information.

This is what I know about Strictly Come Dancing;

• the only two participants I know about are Christine Blakely and John Sergeant,
• it’s in BBC 1 on Saturday evenings with related programmes on BBC 2 sometime during the week,
• there is a panel of experts who act as Judges,
• the audience vote for their favourite and the audiences text votes are the final word on who wins.

If any of those points are inaccurate, please use the Comments to correct me.

The final point is the most important.  This is a programme where the Audience decides the outcome.  If this is a programme about “best dancer” then the Audience should not have the final word.  Frankly what do they know?  My vote is equal to an expert’s vote – I know nothing about ballroom dancing.

So the audience vote for the dancer they favour.  They will not vote for the Best Dancer – because they will not know who the best dancer is.  The general public comprises millions of experts, but as a group they are not experts in anything apart from being expert in what they like.

Voting for John Sergeant makes a mockery of Strictly? Then choosing John Sergeant as a contestant makes a mockery of Strictly – the audience did not chose the contestants, the BBC did and the contestants accepted.  That’s their choosing job done – now leave it to the experts – the Audience, experts in what they like.  "He was put in the most awkward position, looking at the other dancers and knowing they were better than him," Forsyth said. "He must have felt guilty in a way."  Well, Brucie, he shouldn’t have been invited in the first place.  And unless he was prepared to see it through, he shouldn’t have accepted.  Following that logic, both the invitation and the acceptance was "awkward".

The BBC is reported to have plans to refund the cost of voting for Sergeant to the Audience.  Yes, they should, but that totally misses the point of an audience participation programme.  The Audience’s investment is not just the cost of the texts.  They pay the licence fee which pays for the programme including the Contestants’ fees.  They talk about the programme, and for all I know Tweet, blog and certainly club up in Facebook to write about it – thereby promoting the programme at no expense to the BBC.

Sure, this isn’t even close to the phone-in scandals last year. 
Sure, no-one is hurt and no ambulances have been called. 
Sure, John Sergeant has provided entertainment for millions.

But the point is that the producers, the BBC and John Sergeant have failed to see that this is a programme where the audience have at the very least a share equal to the total share of the BBC, the producers and the contestants. 

They are the one – to use the old movie term – who call the shots.

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Whether it is Internet Protocol, Intellectual Property, Innovation for the Public, it’s the 4 in 4IP which is important.
 
Ewan McIntosh of Channel 4’s 4IP Fund was in Belfast on Thursday (11 November 2008).   Ewan is Digital Commissioner for Northern Ireland Scotland and north east England and is planning to make regular visits here for open meetings.

I met him in one of Belfast’s posher venues, hence the opera in the background.

For more information and to contact Ewan go to http://www.4ip.org.uk/  and http://www.38minutes.co.uk/

And a note about Digital Circle.  The official launch will be soon.  You can sign up for free membership now through the blog – http://www.digitalcircle.org

Members will be voting for the steering group. 

There’ll be a podcast about all that soon and you can follow it all on the Blog.

Now the "it’s the internet wot won it" stories have started. (For younger readers: the reference is to a Sun headline "It’s the Sun wot won it").

How Obama’s Internet Campaign Changed Politics (use the HuffPo -

“Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be president. Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not have been the nominee,” said Arianna Huffington, editor in chief of The Huffington Post. ),

and "Ten marketing lessons from the Barack Obama Presidential campaign" (use Twitter -

I found out on Twitter that Joe Biden was to be Obama’s running mate. Amazing. Obama told his fans first BEFORE mainstream media. (Of course, smart reporters were following his Twitter feed).)

Yes and — not completely.  Any politicial operative (politician or professional) is going to use every tool.  Aren’t they?  Even in hokey old Norn Irn?

I have a very old friend - known him for about 30 years.  He’s a very leading light in the politics of "our wee country".  The sort of person who came through the ranks - knows what it is to be a young activist.  He has a Facebook profile.  So far so good. A mutual friend introduced us on Facebook and I sent a message: "If you want a hand with any of this Web 2.0 Social Media stuff, let me know."

That was months ago - I’m still waiting.  There is another politician, this time in Stormont rather than Westminster who used Bebo to target young people in his constituancy during the last election.  All very well, but it was not universally welcomed.  Why?  Because he was using social networking like a mail shot.

The point of social networking is to build a network of social relationships as the name would suggest.

So here is mt free advice of the day to politicians who have seen the success of the Web in the US Presidential campaign: 1) build your network before you need to use it, and 2) optimise "opt in" rather than "mail shot".

But if you want to know "how" rather than "what", then I am available at a large fee (including my old friend who I offered a free service to - sorry mate.)

My former colleague Ashley Highfield, the former BBC director of future media and technology, is leaving Project Kangaroo after just four months to take the role of managing director for Microsoft UK’s online operation, MediaGuardian.co.uk revealed today.

So, it’s not complete stop in Stormont.  According to yesterday’s Media Guardian,

The leaders of all the main political parties in Northern Ireland have signed a joint petition urging Belfast-based media group UTV to halt proposed jobs cuts.

First minister and DUP leader Peter Robinson, deputy first minister Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and Ulster Unionist party leader, Sir Reg Empey, are among six signatories to the petition urging UTV not to go ahead with the cuts.

The broadcasting union BECTU announced on their website a few days ago that

The campaign to save UTV’s local programmes will go to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont on 20 November 2008.

BECTU and the NUJ will make a presentation to the Assembly’s Culture Arts and Leisure Committee about Ofcom’s PSB Review and its impact on Northern Ireland.

Very nice new design for the Financial Times - preview here.

The Digital Circle has been building up to its official launch and first elections for the Steering Group.  I’ve been part of this group for almost two years and I really welcome the move to be as open and as democratic as possible.  I truely believe that DC has an important role to play in Northern Ireland’s business and in particularly helping to develop the digital content industry here.

I know this blog reaches people who are involved in content creation both who might not be across the DC developments.  Have a look at the site and if you think you qualify for (free) membership, then register here:

http://www.digitalcircle.org/2008/11/05/digital-circle-membership-online-forms/

Way back in February this year, I wrote about the remarkable similarity between the fictional West Wing character Matt Santos who becomes the first US hispanic President and then Democratic nominee Barak Obama.

Well it just got weirder.  The WW character Josh Lyman who ran the Santos campaign and becomes Chief of Staff is in part based on — well, Google it yourself:  http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft%3A*%3AIE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7DKUK&q=rahm+emanuel+josh+lyman

Invited to the EGSA (Educational Guidance Service for Adults) bi-annual staff meeting today I was asked to give a talk on the importance of Media Literacy.  This is a term that has not been in common usage for very long and has become popular with the rise of Web/Internet and the expansion of professional, amateur, citizen media production.

I think it’s important for two main reasons; first we need to know the agendas of those professional organisations that bring us News and Information every day, and we need to know how we can use the media (especially Web) to distribute our own information and news.

One of the points that was raised by someone of my generation was that all the words and terminology is difficult to follow sometimes.  Words like Blog, Wiki, Podcast are new and everything moves so fast, it’s hard to keep up.  I agree, but you need to take hold and learn about these things.

There was some discussion about Digital Natives (young people who have grown up with digital technology) and Digital Immigrants (older people who need to learn about it now).  But I argue that there needs to be a third in that terminology; something like “Digital Conquistadors” people who invade the language and ideas behind digital technology and use it for their own needs.

We older users of digital media need to be even more aggressive and not just as consumers but as utilisers and for others who cannot do it for themselves, as enablers.