Fromelles Fallen - An ABC News Special Presentation

I have to admit, before I started on this project I had no idea at all what a Fromelles was.

A village in France? OK, if you say so.

First combat seen by Australian forces on the Western Front in WWI? Makes sense I guess.

A complete cock up that saw the death and injury of over 5500 Aussie troops, at a time when Australia only had a population of 5 million? Oh, really? Hmm. That's not good.

So as this project went on, and the reporter, Tim Leslie, shared his obvious enthusiasm for the subject, it was hard not to become more and more intrigued by this story.

The end result is "Fromelles Fallen." A combination of video interviews, photo galleries, a timeline of the battle and extracts from the diaries of participants, this has been hard work, but a great experience.

Kudos to Tim Leslie, Ben Spraggon, Tim Madden and Jim Whimpey for their hard work, and to Aaron and Rudy Fedrick and Peter Dunstan who agreed to do interviews for us and fill us in on what it's like to have a relative who just disappeared during wartime.

I hope you enjoy it.

Fromelles Fallen - An ABC News Special Presentation

My GenCon Oz schedule

What follows is what I've signed up to at this year's GenCon Oz.

As some of my friends and compatriots have mentioned, GenCon Oz is the type of event where you need a little flexibility in your schedule, so I probably haven't gone as tightly scheduled as I might otherwise. I've also not joined up for as many LARP events as I did last year, mainly due to the costuming and time required.

Don't worry Steve, I have signed up for yours (against my better judgement and sleep requirements).

A pity there weren't more Feng Shui sessions available, and minimal Shadowrun sessions available.

Anyway, if you want to join me in a game sign up quick! Early rego ends 31st August and sessions are filling up fast.

Game ID: RPG00028
Title: SHIELD WALL
System: Feng Shui
Event Duration (hours): 3.5
Event Start Date: 18-Sep-09 9:00 AM

Game ID: RPG00044
Title: RADIANCE: Lost Contact
System: Radiance
Event Duration (hours): 4
Event Start Date: 18-Sep-09 2:00 PM

Game ID: RPG00040
Title: Valley of Diamonds
System: D&D
Event Duration (hours): 3
Event Start Date: 19-Sep-09 1:00 PM

Game ID: LRP00005
Title: Warhammer: Sunset Claws
System: Systemless LARP
Event Duration (hours): 3
Event Start Date: 19-Sep-09 7:00 PM

Game ID: CCG00006
Title: Shadowfist - Final Brawl - QLD Championship
System: Shadowfist CCG
Event Duration (hours): 5
Event Start Date: 20-Sep-09 12:00 PM

Game ID: CCG00007
Title: Shadowfist - Who Wants Some? Dueling comp
System: Shadowfist CCG
Event Duration (hours): 1
Event Start Date: All conference long

They're calling it Chasergate now? - A conspiracy theory

A whole bunch has been said about The Chaser and "that sketch".

The show has been put on hiatus for two weeks, the show's creators have publicly apologised and a number of high ranking positions at the ABC are looking increasingly shaky. The Prime Minister even weighed in when he should have been discussing Fitzgibbon.

Without wishing to belittle the issue or fail to take the whole thing seriously, let's wander into the realm of "conspiracy" for a moment (tongues planted firmly in our cheek). Please note this is entirely speculative, and more than a little fanciful. I don't know the Chaser team and have no personal insight into what may or may not have occurred.

The Chaser came back on air Wednesday 27th, with rave reviews over its ratings, if not its content. Then Spicks and Specks beat it the following night.

So the next week comes along, with the previous week's ratings winner up against a little known sports juggernaut known as the State of Origin. Without doubt, even with the two program's viewer bases being pretty well separated, there was always going to be a huge drop in ratings. So the Chaser boys figured they needed a water cooler moment and they needed it now. Hence, the sketch that launched countless complaints, became banned from view on the ABC, but became well and truly available via YouTube (as evidenced above).

If there's one thing the Chaser lads have shown they're good at it's understanding emerging media and making use of platforms other than TV to augment their shows. With a likely ratings drop ahead, and a possible international syndication deal, what better way to keep all eyes on them than with a skit that pushes the boundaries just a little too far, something everyone would be talking about the next day?

The reaction was obviously huge, and possibly a little more than anticipated, but you have to admit it would definitely be considered virally successful.

I floated this idea around the office and found it met with not a small amount of derision and dismissal. "Conspiracy theorist!" they joked. "Next you'll be saying they're secretly working with Elvis." Yeah, fair cop I figured. I mean, the whole incident was enough to push the Chaser team to unreservedly apologise to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and for the ABC to pull the Chaser off-air for a fortnight, returning the 24th of June. Despite what can only be described as creating an air of anticipation to see what they come up with upon their return, it seemed like the kind of response you couldn't, or wouldn't, script regardless of the publicity.

Then I started thinking, "hang on, isn't there some other event on the 24th?"

Of course! State of Origin 2.

[See also "Mumbrella: Why the Chasergate furore is bout the future of the ABC"]

How does Chk-Chk-Boom change News Video online?

Let's talk Clare.

By now anyone invloved with the media in Australia should be aware of Clare “chk chk BOOM” Werbeloff and the Nine News raw video that shot her meme to super Internet stardom. Here it is for those who missed it.



Classy.

I've been following the whole thing for a while now, when a colleague alerted me to the video as "best vox-pop ever". Since then we've seen claims of conspiracy, a publicity stunt, a hoax , the birth of a Facebook Fan page, even merchandise highlighting Clare's inane comments.

Jen Dudley outlined her concerns in her blog (a little tongue-in-cheek I suspect) that it seemed we just couldn't trust what we saw on YouTube anymore, that every meme needed to be viewed through a far more cynical filter looking for the hoax angle.

Now, I love a good meme as much as anyone and I love watching how these things grow and mature. I also love how the internet provides the tools for a meme to not only thrive, but also allow the means for it to be fact-checked and verified almost as easily. But let's step away from the viral nature of this video, or the absurd celebrity status of Ms Werbeloff, and instead believe that this clip was a purposefully created news story, shot and edited by one of this nation's more credible news resources. If so, it highlights some serious shortcomings in the way broadcasters can make news video available online.

The thing that bothered me from the start was the quality of the vox pops. Quite apart from the less than eloquent Clare and her fanciful retelling of the events, the entire story is related to us through the drunken rantings of apparent onlookers who want to make sure we realise that, whatever actually happened, there was "no need for it, eh" and that the gun was "awesome"! We do get a 10 second slab at the end of the clip showing police grappling someone on the road, as if to prove the validity of everything we've just been subjected to for the last minute and a half.

But where's the police statement? Where's the legitimate witness? Where's the obligatory police officer standing there spouting cop language to verify what happened? ("This evening at approximately 2am a male person of middle eastern appearance was allegedly shot by a second male person...) It beggars belief that a news organisation with the history and reputation of Channel 9 could have dropped the ball so badly on this one.

TV News is, by nature, pretty formulaic and any camera operator with some experience will know they're shooting for the nightly news. That means meeting certain expectations on what content is required to create a standard TV news story. To believe there was no official and credible evidence available to verify the story is a little concerning (What's more concerning is the notion this clip may have been made more "internet friendly" by removing its news credibility and turning it into entertainment instead).

Now, TV newsrooms have lived for years using an overnight skeleton crew of single operator camera guys and girls, either staff or stringers, just shooting footage of events while the rest of us sleep. They know there's plenty of time to get the facts together before the footage is finally seen by the public in an update or bulletin the next day. And that workflow is still valid in the environment we have in Australia where broadcast newsrooms are still cautious about "scooping" themselves, letting the footage out before the big money maker at 5/6/7pm. But if you're going to engage with the net enough to warrant a specific "9 Raw" watermark you have to think some thought has been put into this venture. If so, should we see newsrooms putting journalists on graveyard shifts to add editorial verification before this sort of content is put online? Or, and here's a crazy idea, should camera operators and editors be properly trained in editorial guidelines, just the same as journalists, so they can make informed editorial decisions on the run rather than expect they'll pick it up as they go? Camera operators are already having to ask questions in press conferences where a newsroom is unable to get a journo out in time, so why not train them properly?

Of course (stepping down from my high horse and getting back into my cynical suit), despite Occam's Razor it's difficult not to believe the whole thing was specifically created by someone to be what it is; tasteless, vulgar, and as entertaining as a car crash.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

[Edit - NineMSN's blog response to the hoax rumours]

12 Things I Love About Dr Horrible's Singalong Blog

1) The ending.

2) Remembering how good Joss Whedon is at writing tragicomic musicals.

3) Being so long from the Whedon narrative loop that I totally didn't see the twist in the final act. I should have, I really should have, but I didn't until it was too late.

4) At which point I gasped, watched through to the end, then went "[Sigh] Yeah!"

5) Neil Patrick Harris. We knew how good a comic actor he was from "How I met Your Mother", but this just takes it to a whole new level.

6) Nathan Fillion. Nice to see him play a jerk. Well, I mean a different type of jerk. The "no redeeming features" kind.

7) The guy in the pink superhero spandex, sitting on the bed, wearing pink boxing gloves.

8) Did I mention the end?

9) The fact that it began out of the Hollywood writer's strike as an opportunity to prove that the major media companies were becoming irrelevant. If anyone has a reason to tell the networks to go stuff themselves it's Whedon.

10) The fact that Felicia Day was doing her own web series about World of Warcraft. And it rocks. And that she walked up to Joss with her card and said "watch it". And particularly that he replied "I already do. And it's great. And I'm thinking fo doing something for the internet."

11) Moist. Man, that sucks as a super-villain power.

12) And what about that ending!

Dr Horrible's Singalong Blog

WhedonTube

Sing along at home.

Real Social | Rushkoff Blog

I have a tendency to automatically expect that I don't understand things. It seems to be my default position that other people really understand the underlying value of what's coming down the road at us, while I'm just picking up the pieces.

For instance, two Christmases ago my lovely wife gave me a copy of Douglas Rushkoff's "Get Back in the Box", a great book about the real value of being innovative around a business' core competencies, rather than just spending time trying to find ways to convince your market.

So I started to read Rushkoff's latest blog post. In the first sentence he invokes "Back in the Box" and my first reaction was "Oh God, I obviously didn't understand what he was saying. Not really, not thoroughly, not deep down."

"Instead of just buying banner ads or conducting new forms of computerized market research, many of these players are coming to understand that the Internet is a social phenomenon - not a content revolution - and that it offers the opportunity to connect to a real culture and its most competent members in a real way."

"Oh God," thinks I, "why is my initial reaction to that sentence 'what is the opportunity?' rather than 'well it's obvious what the answer is.' "

But then I read further and things started to make more sense. I thought about the kind of interaction and engagement Rushkoff has advocated for years; real, thorough engagement that isn't just a shop front for commodities, and I found myself falling into the article.

"Going “social” online means more than hiring a company to create a ‘white label’ version of Facebook for your organization to chat with customers, employees, shareholders, and others. It means understanding the real value of creating a “transparent” company; it means understanding why sharing and collaborating beat hiding and competing; it means learning to work with unfamiliar measures of success - like how many new unsolicited resumes from people looking to join you come over the transom, instead of just how many “unnecessary” jobs could be cut."

In the end the post turns out to basically be an announcement that he intends to start "practicing what he preaches" by joining a friend of his in a start up company advising businesses how to succeed in social media. The rest of the post however is a nice wake up call that reminds us that we're perhaps not as open as we like to think we are, or should be. It's also a nice reminder that I'm not as dim as I can sometimes think I am.

Real Social | Rushkoff Blog

CCi Digital Futures Report: The Internet in Australia

Confirming the stuff we kind of already knew.

On the Internet and Media consumption;

For users the internet is now their most important source of information. Just under seven in ten users described the internet as ‘important’ or ‘very important’ compared to a third for television and less than a half for newspapers or radio.

Internet users spend less time watching television, listening to radio and reading newspapers than nonusers.

Television watching is the media-related activity most affected by internet use. Four in ten users say they watch less television since access while less than a quarter feel they read newspapers or books less.

Around six in ten users would visit an online news service if either a large international or large local story was breaking. Overall, internet users rate the internet as reliable an information source as newspapers and more reliable than television.

However, on the Internet as entertainment;

The internet is an increasingly important source of entertainment, however it is yet to really challenge television or even radio for most users. The proportion of users who describe the internet as a very important source of entertainment is just slightly less than the proportion for television which points to the potential of the internet in this realm. We would expect that as broadband improves in both speed and coverage that entertainment uses will become increasingly important.

An interesting read to get a snapshot of the state of the Internet nation.

CCi Digital Futures Report: The Internet in Australia

A debate has broken out around the office...

Can you legitimately call the U.S. Olympic basketball team the world's best at this point?

I was looking at this report on the site and took umbrage at the first par.

"Team USA showed their strength as the world's top basketball team (my emphasis) powered past European champion Russia 89-68 before an energised crowd in Shanghai in an Olympic Games warm-up match."

So the question came up; can you legitimately call the current U.S.A. men's basketball team the world's top team when they haven't won a major international competition in six years? I don't think anyone assumes that this particular team isn't the gold medal favourite, but can you say they are the current top team in the world?

I'm of the opinion that at this point you have to call Spain the best team in the world. They are the current FIBA World Champions and until someone comes along and proves otherwise.

My colleague contends that this is not purely hyperbole, asking whether, in my opnion, I would realistically call Argentina or Spain the top basketball team in the world. As he put it, how do you determine this title? If you look at win/loss, or number of international tournaments it would be hard not to say the U.S. team is not a clear front runner.

I hold to my original position, that until (or, realistically "when") the U.S.A. team sweeps everyone in their path to regain the Olympic gold medal, then, and only then, should they earn the title of world's top team.

Thoughts?

The world could end tomorrow...

Today is a special day.

Nothing can bring me down today.

There could be the promise of global calamity and economic downturn, but today I don't care.

Mountains could rise, seas could fall, and today it all means nothing.

Today my son took his first unaided steps.

He plodded, warily and shakily, a whole two steps from the safety of the toybox...

straight into my arms.

These are the moments there are no words to properly express the way you feel.

Life is good.

Enjoy your weekend, world.

I know I'll enjoy mine.

Networks plot online video assault | SMH

Hulu and iView in the one sentence?

"The fledgling News Corp-NBC Universal online hub for television shows and movies, Hulu.com, is meeting Australian broadcasters this week to discuss an all-broadcaster video portal underwritten by in-program advertising, a move which could stymie talks about ABC's new iView technology being used for a similar venture."

I'm not sure I would have seen iView in that role, but obviously someone did.

I have to admit, the idea of Hulu basically taking over the role of TV's internet portal leaves me slightly disturbed. I keep thinking it smacks of laziness on the part of Australia's broadcasters.

That said, ABC head of TV, Kim Dalton, gets it spot on when he says "The approach we have taken is we want our content on whatever platform is available and people are accessing. We want to be there."

Networks plot online video assault | SMH

The Sky is Infinite...

I didn't break radio silence for a lot of things over the last few months.

I didn't mention my four days at GenCon Oz, which was just incredibly awesome, and I didn't stop and mention the ABC's launch of iView (although I probably should have - check it out).

But I am stopping to say something about this.

One of the problems with working flat out through the day and being responsible for an 11 month old at night is that you don't have time to really stay up to date with what's happening in the world of online video productions. That's why I was happy to find mention of a thread on Warren Ellis' Whitechapel discussion board relating to a student film production called Wormtooth Nation.

Wormtooth Nation Episode 1 from Wormtooth Nation on Vimeo.

Written as a feature and released as a web series, Wormtooth Nation is (loosely) based on the Bard's comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Set in a Steampunk world in an underground city, the inhabitants live their lives from one sleep cycle to the next, never caring much about anything beyond maintaining the city for their "boss", Baron O'Brien. The only things that really break up the monotony of existence are listening to the dulcet tones of their beloved lady Tania on the city's wireless system, and the fear that they might inhale the "Wormy gas", a substance that wipes a person's memory clean.

However, vague, collective recollections of a world outside the city, "the Surface", are sowing the seeds of a revolution, sparked by the mysterious scramblings of an unknown resident known only as the "Grafitti Artist".

The story follows the experience of three people who have lost their memories, slowly unravelling their own pasts and learning the secrets of the city and the history of its inhabitants.

I sat and watch the whole thing yesterday, episode after episode, for 90 minutes. I can see holes and issues with the production and scripting, but the fact is I've spent the whole night thinking about it, revelling in it, which is the first time I've been so engrossed in a TV or film since Serenity, another slightly flawed production that I love to pieces. And I have to say I see a lot of Whedon in Wormtooth Nation, right from the opening titles.

The producers have released the entire series as a feature, both at a cinema release and as a DVD, something I'd like to see to get a handle on how it worked being converted from a series of ten minute episodes to a seamless 90.

At the very least, go to the site and watch it from start to end. Then read the discussion thread about the notion of the "Eternal Now" and how we seem to be seeing it more and more in popular fiction.

The Sky is Free - Wormtooth Nation

Someone stole my idea, Gahdammit!!

Via C|Net

Handipoints

The Web site lets parents set a list of tasks for their children--like washing the dishes or filling the dog's bowl--and kids can rack up points for completing the list.

Sounds suspiciously like my DoLE project of a few years ago.

It actually sounds like a great project. Nice to see it put into action, particularly given that all the people I explained my idea to basically dismissed it as "Feh, good luck getting kids to do anything!"

I think the "cash [points] in for digital gear in the site's virtual world, or for tangible goods with a few dollars from mom and dad," may be the big selling point here.

*Sigh* I guess I was just a few years ahead of my time.
:-)

Best of luck to the guys running it. And if they'd like to leave a thanks, or even a job offer, comments are open!
;-P

Of Interest: My Grad Dip assignments links

Websites win right to show Games clips | Australian IT

O.K., here's the main reason I decided to resurrect this blog.

Websites win right to show Games clips | Australian IT

INTERNET sites in Australia will be allowed to show short video clips of Olympic events for the first time during the Beijing Games, following a historic agreement announced yesterday between the Seven Network and the International Olympic Committee.

Basically it's Channel 7's attempt to put some kind of control on a situation that they know they really can't stop anyway. We've seen before that media organisations are going to find ways around a blanket ban, so best to be seen to be allowing some leeway and then applying a parental spanking when they catch the major players inevitably sneaking in past curfew.

Under the agreement, which has been a long time in the making, non-official sites will be allowed to show three minutes of Olympic events a day.
But they will have to "geoblock" their websites so they cannot be seen by internet users outside Australia.

So it's basically the old TV 3x3 agreement (1 minute blocks of footage, no less than 3 hours apart, maximum of 3 times a day) moulded into the web age. I have to say, it's nice to be given at least a little something to work with. During Athens we jumped through hoops trying to give an up-to-date Olympics video news service without showing a single frame of Olympics footage.

Here's where I think there's going to be problems.

Geoblocking any content is hardly 100%, and to be perfectly honest I can see a number of players making only perfunctory attempts at blocking the content from the rest of the world. Even if it does work, separating Olympics video content from the rest of the website is just going to be a bitch. Doable, but a bitch.

But that won't make any difference, because the restrictions only apply (here comes the punchline) to "bona fide news organisations".

Yeah. Right. Because the rest of the population isn't going to record the stuff off-air and stick it all over YouTube. There's likely to be so much of this stuff it's unlikely YouTube will be able to get rid of all of it, no matter how loudly the lawyers of the IOC knock on Google's doors. Then there's all the other video service providers that are going to be having to do exactly the same thing. By the time there's any sort of meaningful response the cauldron will been extinguished, the athletes will have gone home and the doves will have died from carbon monoxide poisoning in Beijing'tos pollution.

In the end I can see this Olympics, the first Summer Games of the YouTube era, causing a few rights holders and host broadcasters to examine whether they're really getting value for money in these deals with the IOC. It's been said for years that TV's great strength in the internet era will be live events, broadcast in real time to a mass audience. The Olympics are made for this and in my estimation are worth every cent live. Where there's going to need to be real soul searching is whether there's any value left in a phantom exclusivity after the event.

Let's see how it goes.

[Edit]While we're on the subject...

NBC teaming with MSN for NBCOlympics.com | Lost Remote

...And we're back!

Greetings gentle reader!

Much has happened since my sign off late September last year.

The Broadband unit concluded its move to Sydney to become the "CNC" unit and has since received media coverage following the MD's announcement of a 24 hour continuous news service.

I moved from being an Adobe Community Expert for Premiere Pro to the newly created Video on the Web.

I'm enjoying my new role in the News Online development area looking at allowing quick and painless rich media creation for an institution that spans a continent.

After doing everything I possibly could to avoid the collectible card game fad that started over a decade ago, I have discovered Shadowfist and have become an avid player and collector. It has definitely changed my view on gaming.

My little boy is fast approaching 8 months old and fills me with joy every day.

Life is good.
:-)

There won't be a huge number of posts, but I should get back to using this blog for the reason it was originally designed for; a poor man's del.icio.us where I can spout on about what I find interesting on teh Intuhweb.

One Final Thing Before I Go...

The new GetUp! viral ad parodying the government's climate change campaign. It's being pushed to hit $250K to get it on the teev for the AFL GF this Saturday.

While I understand that television is where the people are, especially during a grand final (it's always been understood that TV's greatest strength in an on-demand media world is live sport), I'm a little disappointed that more emphasis isn't being placed in its online presence. I suppose that the main audience this ad is targeted at are traditionally television watchers, so it makes sense.

At least they've listened to previous advice and made the video player able to be embedded.

GetUp! Campaign Actions

This blog is on hiaitus

Between fatherhood and ongoing work changes there's just no time to give this blog the updating it needs. For the time being consider this a deadzone. I may resurrect it in the future, but until then feel free to check the archives.

No one visits anyway so I doubt there's going to be much of a furore, a whimper, even a peep.

Pax.

The rundown on the newest Flash player

Tinic Uro from Adobe runs through some of the new features of the newly released Flash Player Beta.

Let's put together some thought up scenarios I would imagine are important:

• You created a pod cast for iTunes and happily distribute over this channel. Now you want to add value to it and easily make it accessible over the web without special plug-ins, reaching an audience which does not have QuickTime installed. Well, this new feature will allow you to do this. You can take your existing podcast in .m4a format and present it on any web page through the Flash Player. Add more value by adding interactivity and branding if you want to. The possibilities are endless.


• Your media company has made or is about to make a significant investment into web video or video archiving. You are wondering what format you should choose. Video for Flash reaches everyone now, but the format is not an 'industry standard' so you have the fear that content you will create will become obsolete and unsupported at some point. Flash Player 9 Update 3 comes to the rescue: MPEG-4 is an extremely well documented ISO standard and completely vendor independent. And by using the Flash Player now you get instant gratification for viewers.


• You want to get best the possible quality out of your video and do not want to be tied to a particular encoding solution. You also like open source software to do all of the work you need to do to encode video. A combination of libfaad, x264 and MP4Box which are all licensed under the GPL will do exactly that, albeit with little usability and requiring lots of expertise. But it will now play just fine through the most distributed run time in the world, the Adobe Flash Player.

kaourantin.net: What just happened to video on the web?

You go away for a few weeks and crazy things happen.

It's a Boy!

It's a boy!

Alexander Ronald King, born 9lb at 20:30, 09 August. Mother, son and father all doing well.

[Pics deleted - It's a weird paternal instinct I get when I realise people are googling these pictures.]

Mission Stencil Story

I had intended to break radio silence with a long post on all the shit's that's been happening over the last few weeks, but I had to link to this for later reference.

Mission Stencil Story - a photoset on Flickr

The mission stencil story is an interactive, choose-your-own-adventure story that takes place on the sidewalks of the Mission district in San Francisco. It is told in a new medium of storytelling that uses spraypainted stencils connected to each other by arrows. The streetscape is used as sort of an illustration to accompany each piece of text.

BOOGIE NIGHTS STAR WARS EDITION

Via ReelPop.

All kinds of wrong, yet oh so right.

YouTube - BOOGIE NIGHTS- STAR WARS EDITION