Two quick notes on media:
1. Paul Gillin: “The Future of Media is: Small, Aggregated, Inclusive, Community-driven, Conversational, Fast, Flexible, Experimental.”
2. New from the PCF: Video WTF?
Ok, this seems to be the week of me blogging about things being released, so I was going to skip the Miro 2.0 release announcement – figuring it has been well reported elsewhere – but then I got this in email:
Miro 2.0 is Here, and it's really really awesome
They’re right, Miro is awesome, and it’s an open source project which you can help contribute to, whether you’re a coder or not.
Also in the email:
How can you help the most?
- Send this message to your friends! Since we can’t afford to buy our way into their hearts, we need you to tell them about Miro and why open media is important.
- Translate! Only about 40% of Miro users are in English speaking countries. We need your help to translate Miro, our website, and the Miro Guide. Details are on our Volunteer Page.
- Test and code! Got chops? Join in.
- Help new users– you can answer questions and join the community conversation here: Miro discussion forums.
And don’t forget to download Miro 2.0!
As appropriate for a conference by that name, the folks at the Center for Public Media at American University have made available a ton of content from Beyond Broadcast available online.
Jonathan Zittrain’s The Future of the Internet (and How to Stop It) is quickly rising to the top of my summer reading list (about which more to come in a later blog post). The distinctions he draws (based on his recent talks, see video here, here, and here) between sterile and generative platforms, and the concerns he raises about contingently generative or tethered platforms, seem to me right on target, and consistent with the issues Tim O’Reilly has been raising (along with, of course, many others) about how to translate the freedom behind free software and the openness behind open source into a world in which services and data live in the cloud.
One major place where the conflict between fully generative and contingently generative comes into play is on online video. YouTube‘s terms of service should give any independent video maker pause – both in terms of the license rights they claim and in terms of the susceptibility to take down on the basis of broad criteria[1].
Two things make me hopeful, though, for the future of video on the open web: Miro and Kaltura.
Read more…
I’m often amazed at how well the Cluetrain Manifesto stands up 10 years later, and constantly recommend it to new Optaros employees or others trying to understand how companies can engage with customers in new ways.
The video below is from the “There’s a New Conversation” event in NY on Feb. 13th this year, which was put on by The Conversatin Group. It’s Jake McKee, formerly Global Community Relations Specialist for Lego, talking about how Lego learned to engage with its adult fan community during his time there.
It’s a great case study of how he overcame internal resistance and convinced Lego to connect with and benefit from fan communities rather than trying to control them or shut them down. If it were up to me this would be mandatory viewing for all marketing teams and legal teams at consumer goods companies. Of course much of it applies outside consumer goods too.
If you use Miro (and you should), use this url to add The Conversation Group’s channel: http://tcg.blip.tv/rss
