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The explosive growth of YouTube (300 % in a year), myspace and video google (no figures yet, but I am convinced it is growing extensively) is making the notion of users wanting to generate content more solid.
Now in the Netherlands@ home is adding a UGC service with Zizo to the offerings. Users can send in material, that is rated and then aired. Idols on a daily bases. And NCRV is starting up ‘videotalent” http://www.videotalent.nl a video upload service for the public.

All of these, it is a rough land of new beginnings, lovely to see. Yet at the same time it needs to grow beyond the material of the poodle in the pool to generate a break through. I am awaiting for the next global news issue (allas it will probably be a catastrofic situation) where witnesses will send in their reports and google video and youtube will be the number one news deliverers because of the fastness and the “no control” over the content that is an essential part of the “format”. And for now, nothing wrong with the poodle in the pool, for what is the information we like to share anyway? What do users want to show off themselves? Wonderfull sources to explore..

Very interesting event on august 25 in cologne about the experiences with integratedn crossmedia customer oriented models at the world championships Football.

http://www.inccom.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=103

A good line up of speakers for the Amsterdam Cross Media week. But.. only large industry players. I miss the balance of innovative and creative thinkers from the scientific fields and arts. It looks like media republic was dominant in creating the programme.

As time goes by, I am getting reactions from accredited thinkers and (artistic) workers in the cross media field that they have not been contacted or invited to join the debate. I will certainly visit the week, but I will certainly miss these thinkers to feed a good debate. Sharing insights is one of the prerequisites of crossmedia. ..like multiple points of view… Besides if I look at the list of speakers I can certainly see a bias in favour of the organisers, that have created a nice image-boosting platform to embed their own messages in at cost of the Amsterdam community that sponsors with… 500.000 Euro. Where a big mouth will take you..

http://www.crossmediaweek.com

Get inspired at this wonderfull new blog of the mediacenter portraying visions that count!
And join in the debate!

http://www.mediacenterblog.org/we_imagine/

Finally we hear something of a crossmedia experiment coming from Talpa.
So far now all Talpa has done is follow the developments and copy the successes, like ‘programma gemist’ as a copy of ‘uitzending gemist’ a pubcasters’s initiative. There is nothing wrong with copying good ideas. Better a good copy then a bad idea. But as De Mol suggested a year ago when he launched the Talpa channel, that the medialandscape will ‘change more in five years then in 25 before (or something like that..)’ I agreed fully and was anxious to see what would be his initiatives in this respect. So far Talpa has played it safe by following the lead of others. I found that dissapointing, because.. now we had one person with a view on the future that could make a change because he has the means to experiment and he can suffer some loss there to get some win. He could speed up initiatives, making use of the fact there is not a lot of negotiating necessary to start a project. This could give him a big advantage in the market place. He could differentiate at a high speed, with projects failing in total, some in part en some successes. Instead all we saw whas more of the same. Not strong strategically.
Now this initiative starting from june 1 I find interesting, because it will tell you more about how people will act sharing at televison program while being at another place. With MSN you can simultanuously with your buddies watch the same stream of a program and chat about the programme will doing that. This gives Talpa a very interesting insite into what the viewer is experiencing while watching their programs. Good material to rethink what the viewers are negative about and to see what is succesfull to further build on. That is listening to your public and deciding what is relevant to them. Two of the key drivers of crossmedia communication in my perception. The article is in Dutch..

http://www.emerce.nl/nieuws.jsp?id=1488594&WT.mc_id=nb

Take a look at the we media conference currently held in London:

http://www.mediacenterblog.org/events/06/wemedialondon/home/

Happening now and probably it will be accessible afterwards too.

Today I had the honour of co-chairing the first dutch crossmedia congres in the RAI. It was an interesting day in which we could see that from where companies might start, be it newspaper publishers (PCM), television (Endemol) or telecommunication (KPN), the convergence was noticable. PCM is starting projects on the internet AND on television. Endemol is going into distribution together with KPN and KPN is starting as a television provider. (IPTV) Everybody is getting into the competition on other fields. In comparison to a year or two ago where the general meaning was that this will come sometime somewhere, action is being undertaken today. The Dutch industry is starting to get awake. Still if you compare to the UK and the scandinavian countries sophistication in crossmedia thinking is not to big. But in Holland we do have the perfect starting situation, infrastructure is excellent as also noticed by Dick van der Graaf from Endemol. What we need is disruptive thinking. I did not here very much of that today. But then are the big institutionalised companies ever the ones to disrupt? I dare to question that. Difficulty is that you have to keep your share in the current market and at the same time attack the system you thrive on.. The Dutch advertisers (the money) in the market are still a little to anxious to try really new disruptive crossmedia projects. But this is what we need to foster catalysing growth. Look for, be open to and try new (low cost) things. Start small and then let it grow organically, by users pulling on the concept. Like a circle that starts small from the middel and gets bigger and bigger all the time.

I have been thinking about this concept that popped up in my mind a couple of months ago, during my work with the p2p tribler project group: “social currency” it has to do with getting the value out of the ever growing folksonomy that is being created by us all.

A good visionary blog on this is:
http://www.vanderwal.net/random/category.php?cat=153

As massmedia are deteriorating in there strength, how to grasp what is going on?
The internet is a wonderfully logged place. Logs are being tagged and connected to other people;places.. But what are the connections and more importantly what do these connections between people mean?

An opinionleader in one field creates social currency when he/she exhibites knowledge or tips. At the same time the opinionleader will be a follower in a completely different field. What is the value of his knowlegde node network. In other words what is his social currency?
And can you trade social currency? One currency for another? What is the value base?

I have worked for several years now at a product that is using videotracking technology to capture movement of people in spaces, such as stores or stations or events.. etcetera.
From 2003 to 2004 I conducted a pilot in a store in Roosendaal, Netherlands to explore the possibilities of videotracking to get information on behaviour of people. This resulted in developing 2 applications to generate keyfigures to look at behaviour…
near a screen, near an assortment, in a waiting line, on an airport… You name it. I condensed the information to media key figures such as OTS and Window of Opportunity.
It is a very intelligent product that is still very easy to work with and that can generate amazing results, especially for centrally organized organizations. Imagine we lifted turnover by up to 10% in some weeks in our pilot store. If you take that centrally and work through the adjustment in say all stores. Also if effects are not that strong overall, It may still very well turn a smile on your face. Because the measurement is continuously you can learn through time what has worked well and what did not and you can adjust seasonal products as they go. Off course you can also see effects of new products more timely and make adjustments right away. After a while it may even be possible to use the information in your storage policy and personell planning. It takes time to tell the story though and it takes even more time for most companies to do really new things. Working with this instrument forces you to take what happens on the floor into account strategically. But the pressure of needing a measure for the effects of narrowcasting, digital signage accelerates the need for information on what happens in spaces where these installations are installed. After all there are sometimes large investments involved that need a return. In order to calculate this, we need a measure of the effects. Not to forget we need a measure of the effects on screen level, if we want to attach a rating to the messages on screen. RetailTreks (that is the tradename of this product) is very well able to give you information on the effects of digital signage. In a store we can even look directly at the effects on category level. Did the message of a product result in more visits to the assortment? And after that, did the assortment visits generate more sales?… This first step is an important step to make by the way, only looking at sales uplift to see if digital signage is effective, may have you ending up working at a message that was effective in the first place, not getting the conversion went wrong on assortment level, and if you do not measure that you will not see the difference, turning on the wrong screw to get it better!)
And while you are looking at the effects of digital signage and can make up a rate card for third party advertisers, you may as well look at improving your total retailformula and take alongside the percentages of improvement you can make with that. It is what we say in Holland to catch two flies in one stroke.

On March 17 there will be a workshop on P2P television in Amsterdam
It will be held at:
Felix Meritis
Keizersgracht 324
1016 EZ Amsterdam

I have the honour of moderating the discussion with the experts. The workshop can only be attended after invitation. If you are interested you can send a motivation of your interest to:

j.a.pouwelse@EWI.TU.DELFT.nl