Category: Creative Practice & Strategy

 

 

In this second part of my series of posts (part one) about my recent cross-media tour of five countries, I cover my trip to Sweden to deliver a keynote at the First International Conference on Cross Media Interaction Design. Very exciting it was (she says with Yoda grammar). It was held in at a ski resort (see the pic which is the view from my room) in Hemavan. The general chair was Charlotte Wiberg and program chair Mikael Wiberg, of Umea University. Here is the intro description of the event:

During the conference we have the opportunity to address the modern media landscape as a mixture o fapplications, platforms and media belnded with advanced navigational structures in spport of various kinds of acticvities including marketing, gaming, collabroation, blogging, and much more. As we can see, the web as a media platform is becoming more and more focal, and more and more often, web sites employ the cross-media concept which include a wide range of media, such as television, chat, or mobile SMS and MMS. […]

The aim of this conference is therefore set to improve our understanding of interaction design as a cross-media activity without boundaries. An understanding that takes into account interaction intense user experiences and novel interaction and media technologies.

Day One

The first day of the conference was on Thursday 22nd March. The general chair of the conference, Charlotte Wiberg, opened the day with an overview of all the people at the conference from different parts of the globe. I, being from Australia, came the furthest. Charlotte outlined some of the items that are relevant in considering cross-media and interaction design, for instance: “context of use” and “user experiences” and “how to handle relations between media inheritages”.

The first talk was an industry one delivered by Claes Nilsson, the Channel Sales Manager of AVID, Sweden and Denmark. Nilsson spoke about the impact of cross-media on AVID, a first he said for him and AVID as his talks are always about the product only. Nilsson outlined the phases of AVID’s history:

• * Phase One (1989-1999): single user, replicate analog equipment
• * Phase Two (2000-2006): shared workgroups
• * Phase Three (2007+): editing is the same, where it comes from and where it goes is different

For AVID, the Internet has changed the how (collaboration between facilities), where (new distribution methods) and what (new content types). “It’s all about,” Nilsson says, ” serving the creation through the consumption cycle”.  After that we went off and socialised during our opening dinner.

Further links: Jak Bouman provides his experience of the first day

Conference site: www.cmid07.org

As I’ve mentioned before, Australian company Hoodlum Entertainment, created the online extension to the popular UK soap Emmerdale. A quote from my previous post outlines the format:

According to Hoodlum, the Emmerdale Channel is fully integrated with the TV show. At the end of each episode, the show will encourage viewers to visit the channel where, every night, new content will be uploaded. The channel will attempt to involve them in the whodunnit’s various storylines through gameplay and a competition to gather points: among other things, they will be able to listen to online “voicemails,” receive whodunnit-related emails, access secret broadband video content, play games and follow clue trails. They will also be able to become virtual “Emmerdalians,” moving to town and setting up their own cottage, Hoodlum says.

Since Christmas Day Emmerdalians have been pacing the virtual streets to discover Tom Kings murderer. The finale is about to happen and in an interesting approach to content rollout itv have justed announced (through email) that:

In a few weeks, in an exclusive online revelation, those on the Emmerdale Online Channel will find out BEFORE the national TV audience exactly who killed Tom King!

I really like this approach: rewarding active audiences with unique content before TV audiences (they’re doing that with the Heroes 360 Experience too).

Check out: http://emmerdalemurder.itv.com/

A couple of months ago I was called up by researchers from a company called Sense Worldwide… 

Sense Worldwide provides contextual research and concept development services to Blue Chip and Fortune 500 clients across many different sectors and categories.

Founded in 1999 we were one of the first companies to utilise human networks to gain insights into social, cultural, economic and technological trends. Working globally with our 1500+ network of ‘Sensers’, we provide our clients with the grassroots information required to identify, anticipate and capitalise on change. From this privileged viewpoint we look at anything that is transforming people’s lives, both now and in the future.

During the last five years we have proven our approach to deliver on some highly strategic challenges from the BBC, British Telecom, Hewlett Packard, SC Johnson, Nokia, MTV, IDEO, Herman Miller and Reuters.

They contacted me because they were conducting a report on 21st Century Storytelling and wanted to interview me for my insights. We had a jolly ol’ chat and at the end they asked me to join their network. So, now I’m a Sensor! Wohoo! I look forward to sharing my insights and nutting out issues with other enlightened folk.

Check out: http://www.senseworldwide.com/