I am starting over at dltq.org - once again.
[Image source]
Richard Bluestein, who is a friend of mine who I met at VlogEurope 2005 in Amsterdam and who is also coming at VlogEurope 2006 next month in Milan, has a videoblog called "Insane Films". Today, he published a Channel 4 documentary on the videoblog that talks about the failure of the media of the West when it comes to covering the war in Iraq.
I have earlier written about "Alive in Baghdad" on this blog, and I will return to this site often. In fact, the role of videoblogs is discussed in this documentary as well, and they use some of the footage from the Alive In Baghdad videoblog in the documentary.
I recommend anyone to see this documentary.
I have been a big fan of Grameen Bank and the microcredit system since I first heard about it some years ago. I am very happy that the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Muhammad Yunus. In this youtube video, you see the announcement of this prize.
In an article on the Norwegian online newspaper "Nettavisen", Yunus is quoted as saying that donor countries like Norway needs to move away from donating funds directly to the (often corrupt) governments in the developing world, and rather work more with organizations or help through microcredit initiatives.
In an article on the Norwegian online newspaper "Nettavisen", Yunus is quoted as saying that donor countries like Norway needs to move away from donating funds directly to the (often corrupt) governments in the developing world, and rather work more with organizations or help through microcredit initiatives.
Today I will attend BlogForum here in Copenhagen, which is a free blogging event with over 80 participants. Looking forward to meeting them all and participating in discussions. I will shoot some footage and take some pictures. I won't bring a laptop so I doubt that I will live-blog anything.
This is the first day where I Really feel fit after my accidents with the dentist this week. Heh, don't ask.
This is the first day where I Really feel fit after my accidents with the dentist this week. Heh, don't ask.
Terrorism will be in our lives for a long time. When and if it ends, it will end because the terrorists grow tired of it, not because we somehow find a permanent way to protect ourselves. Why would terrorists grow tired of terrorism? Who knows? Perhaps, embarassed by the naivety of today's terrorists, who thought they could destroy their way to an Islamist utopia, tired after decades of fruitless effort, a new generation of Islamist fanatics will decide that pragmaticism is a smarter road after all. They wouldn't be the first movement of violent radicals to do this.
[source]
Bjørn Stærk was one of the most prominent Norwegian "warbloggers" that started blogging after the horrors of 9/11. This latest entry is one of many reasons to check him out.
[source]
Bjørn Stærk was one of the most prominent Norwegian "warbloggers" that started blogging after the horrors of 9/11. This latest entry is one of many reasons to check him out.
One of my best friends, Peter, has been travelling the last weeks. He spent some time in Thailand and then decided to go to Manila (Philipines) for ten days. While he was away from Bangkok, he missed the military coup, but he didnt miss the typhoon that hit Philipines this week.
I am worried about him, but I am not yet in a state of panic.
ok, I am. i haven't heard at all from him. neither has his wife. so yeah, i am panicked. slightly.
it sucks to not know, you know.
Meanwhile, here is something I made last year:
Watch
Damn, I am getting more worried the more I think about it. I better go read more news about the situation in Manila. It might just be the lack of electricity there leading to no connection.
I am worried about him, but I am not yet in a state of panic.
ok, I am. i haven't heard at all from him. neither has his wife. so yeah, i am panicked. slightly.
it sucks to not know, you know.
Meanwhile, here is something I made last year:
Watch
Damn, I am getting more worried the more I think about it. I better go read more news about the situation in Manila. It might just be the lack of electricity there leading to no connection.
Yesterday, Brian Conley, whose videoblog project "Alive in Baghdad" I can recommend to everyone, wrote a message to the main videoblogging mailinglist:
"It's with a pretty heavy heart that I am forced to inform everyone out there
of the death of Alaa Adel, assistant to Isam Rasheed, one of our main
"videobloggers" or "correspondents" based in Baghdad. Alaa seems to have been an
integral, if mostly invisible piece of Alive in Baghdad through his work
supporting Isam in gathering video and information about the situation around
Baghdad.
He was killed on September 15th when he was apparently shot in the head by a
US soldier, on his way to work at Isam's home. I'm not really sure exactly why
I'm emailing all of you about this. When I sent an email around regarding the
kidnapping of another correspondent, I was seeking help, suggestions, and
support.
Today, I just don't know what I am doing on this front. I learned about the
incident yesterday afternoon, and really didn't know what I should do next. I
emailed the Committee to Protect Journalists and cracked open a beer at 1:30 in
the afternoon-don't worry, it was just one."
It is such a tragedy that journalists are being shot, by accident, by people who are supposed to be in the country to protect them. As we know, it is more dangerous to be a journalist now than ever, especially if you are not 'embedded', but it is different to see this fact up close, like this.
On the Alive in Baghdad website, the latest entry is a piece about neighbourhoor watch.
Watch the video | permalink
Life in Baghdad is extremely dangerous, and to be honest, I am not so sure about having neighbourhood guards like this on the streets. But then again, if I was there, living under those circumstances, I would have wanted the same thing. If the U.S. forces accidentally kill an innocent journalist - would you trust those forces to protect your neighbourhood?
My condolences go out to the Alive in Baghdad team. May Alaa Adel rest in peace.
"It's with a pretty heavy heart that I am forced to inform everyone out there
of the death of Alaa Adel, assistant to Isam Rasheed, one of our main
"videobloggers" or "correspondents" based in Baghdad. Alaa seems to have been an
integral, if mostly invisible piece of Alive in Baghdad through his work
supporting Isam in gathering video and information about the situation around
Baghdad.
He was killed on September 15th when he was apparently shot in the head by a
US soldier, on his way to work at Isam's home. I'm not really sure exactly why
I'm emailing all of you about this. When I sent an email around regarding the
kidnapping of another correspondent, I was seeking help, suggestions, and
support.
Today, I just don't know what I am doing on this front. I learned about the
incident yesterday afternoon, and really didn't know what I should do next. I
emailed the Committee to Protect Journalists and cracked open a beer at 1:30 in
the afternoon-don't worry, it was just one."
It is such a tragedy that journalists are being shot, by accident, by people who are supposed to be in the country to protect them. As we know, it is more dangerous to be a journalist now than ever, especially if you are not 'embedded', but it is different to see this fact up close, like this.
On the Alive in Baghdad website, the latest entry is a piece about neighbourhoor watch.
Watch the video | permalink
Life in Baghdad is extremely dangerous, and to be honest, I am not so sure about having neighbourhood guards like this on the streets. But then again, if I was there, living under those circumstances, I would have wanted the same thing. If the U.S. forces accidentally kill an innocent journalist - would you trust those forces to protect your neighbourhood?
My condolences go out to the Alive in Baghdad team. May Alaa Adel rest in peace.
UNESCO, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, is launching a call for submissions of video podcast proposals for a series of production grants.
This is Really exciting, and it fits with one of my longtime goals: Vlogging organizations like the U.N., Amnesty International, Red Cross &etc.
Speaking of which: I am currently working with Lars-Henrik Michelsen, the president of the Norwegian Liberal Youth Party, to create a videoblog in connection with the U.N. General Assembly that is going on these days in New York. Lars-Henrik is one of Norway's two youth delegates, and it will be interesting to see the GA through his eyes. I will post the url here when things are ready, which will be in a couple of days.
The organization wishes to produce and distribute a series of video podcasts for all audiences, but especially young adults (20-35), aimed at increasing understanding of the development and societal issues identified as priority fields by UNESCO, namely:
- Human Rights;
- Peace;
- Tolerance;
- Fight against discrimination, based on race, gender or other issues (e.g. HIV status);
- Millennium Development Goals, particularly poverty-alleviation and gender equality and women empowerment;
- Freedom of Expression;
- Intercultural communication.
This is Really exciting, and it fits with one of my longtime goals: Vlogging organizations like the U.N., Amnesty International, Red Cross &etc.
Speaking of which: I am currently working with Lars-Henrik Michelsen, the president of the Norwegian Liberal Youth Party, to create a videoblog in connection with the U.N. General Assembly that is going on these days in New York. Lars-Henrik is one of Norway's two youth delegates, and it will be interesting to see the GA through his eyes. I will post the url here when things are ready, which will be in a couple of days.
There are videoblogging concepts popping up all over now, and sometimes I really feel that I need to get updated on what is happening out there.
Today I figured out that there is a german videoblog called messevlog.de where they are at the Apple Expo in Paris and interviewing people and giving reports. The Apple Expo lasts only untill the 16th, but videoblogs like this will grow in numbers, and I wonder where the development will be in only two years.
Oh, and I learned about Messevlog.de because Alexx, one of the vlogers behind messevlog.de, will be attending VlogEurope this November
Today I figured out that there is a german videoblog called messevlog.de where they are at the Apple Expo in Paris and interviewing people and giving reports. The Apple Expo lasts only untill the 16th, but videoblogs like this will grow in numbers, and I wonder where the development will be in only two years.
Oh, and I learned about Messevlog.de because Alexx, one of the vlogers behind messevlog.de, will be attending VlogEurope this November
I haven't blogged in Scandinavian since this spring when I decided to pull the plug on my raymond.blogg.no blog. Today I finally start a new blog, and this time it is in Danish. On the blog "Nye Nordiske Medier" I will be writing mostly about the use of social software in the Nordic countries. Unfortunately, I do not know much about what is happening in the blogosphere in Finland or Iceland, but my goal will nevertheless be to explore what is going on in all the nordic countries. My company, BlogSoft, is so far active in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and my blog will also be talking about some of our experiences in the different markets.
Unfortunately, I will only be using Danish on my new blog, so I guess this message is targetted only to those of you who understand Scandinavian. Hej :)
Unfortunately, I will only be using Danish on my new blog, so I guess this message is targetted only to those of you who understand Scandinavian. Hej :)
Yesterday I received an e-mail from someone representing USAA, the American car insurance company. Apparently, one of my earlier test blogs had been heavily attacked by spam bots, and some of those spam comments claimed to have been written by "USAA" and talked about cheap car insurance.
I was quite surprised by this letter and the following correspondance. Are you breaking the law if you neglect to remove spam comments that might violate someone's intellectual property? Neglect is a key word here, and I do admit to not having removed the spam comments about USAA prior to their e-mail to me.
I find this episode at large a bit funny. There must be a zillion spam comments out there. Do companies like USAA go about dealing with every pesky comment that mentions "USAA"? Is this part of a larger strategy where they feel they need to protect their brand - and sending such individual emails to bloggers is part of their way of doing this?
I don't know where this will go from here, but I created a sub-blog for the issue. I deleted the spam comments, but might I potentially receive similar emails from the brand owners of viagra, phentermine and the such? If so, do I have to deal with every single such email? Perhaps I am legally responsible, according to some US law - and the server for this site is in fact in the USA. Would it be different if my server is in The Netherlands or Denmark?
Lots of questions, but I guess I will figure it out with time.
Aside from that, I am Really getting tired of all the spam comments I receive on my blogs. I might actually disable comments altogether, like several others do, but then again, that wouldn't be too constructive either.
I was quite surprised by this letter and the following correspondance. Are you breaking the law if you neglect to remove spam comments that might violate someone's intellectual property? Neglect is a key word here, and I do admit to not having removed the spam comments about USAA prior to their e-mail to me.
I find this episode at large a bit funny. There must be a zillion spam comments out there. Do companies like USAA go about dealing with every pesky comment that mentions "USAA"? Is this part of a larger strategy where they feel they need to protect their brand - and sending such individual emails to bloggers is part of their way of doing this?
I don't know where this will go from here, but I created a sub-blog for the issue. I deleted the spam comments, but might I potentially receive similar emails from the brand owners of viagra, phentermine and the such? If so, do I have to deal with every single such email? Perhaps I am legally responsible, according to some US law - and the server for this site is in fact in the USA. Would it be different if my server is in The Netherlands or Denmark?
Lots of questions, but I guess I will figure it out with time.
Aside from that, I am Really getting tired of all the spam comments I receive on my blogs. I might actually disable comments altogether, like several others do, but then again, that wouldn't be too constructive either.
Some of you might know the work by Duncan Speakman from the UK. He is an amazing videoblogger, and his pieces on 29fragiledays.blogspot.com has stayed some of my all-time favourites.
I have not spoken with Duncan for some time, and when we hooked up on AIM this afternoon he mentioned that he has a new videoblog somewhere, but he would not tell me what the URL is.
Here is the transcript of our discussion about it:
duncanfragile: there is a new secret vlog though ;-)
admnory: great that you are coming to Milan! wouldn't be the same without you - and oh, can you tell me the secret vlog url? i wont spread the url unless you Want me to
duncanfragile: but it will be more interesting if you find them yourself ;-)
duncanfragile: you'll probably recognise them as mine when you seen them
duncanfragile: i want to see if a vlog can bubble up without self promotion
duncanfragile: the sea is soooo much deeper and wider than when i started a year and half ago
duncanfragile: i feel that it was easy for fragiledays to be discovered in those days
admnory: ahh, yes, it is, the sea is very deep
admnory: yeah, there is so much video out there now
duncanfragile: i want to see what happens these days
admnory: if your video is on youtube though it will be hard to be noticed :P
duncanfragile: yes :-)
Can you find Duncan's new videoblog?
During a chat session with Duncan and Andreas later this afternoon, we also discussed archives, and Duncan pointed to a post from a few months back on bitlab malmö. In the post, Kristian talks about different ways we can represent our work on the blogs:
In some video blogs, which cover life on a daily basis, the posts are characterised as older or newer, but the posts in "artistic" videoblogs are often located outside chronological and relational time. In these cases the videos become forced into chronological classifications by the blogging application.
I have always considered my videos to be a mixture of a chronological and 'artistic' material. As such, life is lived within the limits of time, but once a moment is passed, we can relate to it in all kinds of ways.
Today I started taking a serious look at the Mefeedia collections, where I now have a collection called "DLTQ Recommends". Let's see how we can use Collections along with del.icio.us to create new maps through the videos out there.
I have not spoken with Duncan for some time, and when we hooked up on AIM this afternoon he mentioned that he has a new videoblog somewhere, but he would not tell me what the URL is.
Here is the transcript of our discussion about it:
duncanfragile: there is a new secret vlog though ;-)
admnory: great that you are coming to Milan! wouldn't be the same without you - and oh, can you tell me the secret vlog url? i wont spread the url unless you Want me to
duncanfragile: but it will be more interesting if you find them yourself ;-)
duncanfragile: you'll probably recognise them as mine when you seen them
duncanfragile: i want to see if a vlog can bubble up without self promotion
duncanfragile: the sea is soooo much deeper and wider than when i started a year and half ago
duncanfragile: i feel that it was easy for fragiledays to be discovered in those days
admnory: ahh, yes, it is, the sea is very deep
admnory: yeah, there is so much video out there now
duncanfragile: i want to see what happens these days
admnory: if your video is on youtube though it will be hard to be noticed :P
duncanfragile: yes :-)
Can you find Duncan's new videoblog?
During a chat session with Duncan and Andreas later this afternoon, we also discussed archives, and Duncan pointed to a post from a few months back on bitlab malmö. In the post, Kristian talks about different ways we can represent our work on the blogs:
In some video blogs, which cover life on a daily basis, the posts are characterised as older or newer, but the posts in "artistic" videoblogs are often located outside chronological and relational time. In these cases the videos become forced into chronological classifications by the blogging application.
I have always considered my videos to be a mixture of a chronological and 'artistic' material. As such, life is lived within the limits of time, but once a moment is passed, we can relate to it in all kinds of ways.
Today I started taking a serious look at the Mefeedia collections, where I now have a collection called "DLTQ Recommends". Let's see how we can use Collections along with del.icio.us to create new maps through the videos out there.
Last night, during Lyngby-natten, I noticed about 7 PM that the Danish TV2 had a news piece about Youtube. I saw it outside an electronics store and I could not hear the audio, but it seemed like a pretty usual story of how regular people can use youtube to promote themselves to a global audience. They interviewed one guy from NYC who wants to be a professional filmmaker. To him, youtube is a perfect playing ground. TV2 also showed footage from Brookers, the Numa dancer, and some other regular youtube-stuff.
What I would like to see from Danish TV2 and other mainstream reports about videoblogging/youtubing is a report about how this also can be used for other things. I have displaced the url in my brain, but there is one american homeless person who uses youtube to broadcast his point of view in life. There are others who use youtube for politics, as has been reported by Washington Post some time back.
I am past the period where I just dismissed youtube as an inferior circle of teenagers who post videos of themselves puking to each other. When I get my computer working properly again, I will explore the worlds of youtube further, and will also try to see how we can connect some of the good discussions going on in that sphere with discussions going on elsewhere. There is really no point in having more walled gardens than necessary.
I suppose that you by now have heard about the mentos & coke experiments. I guess you have also heard how Mentos were wildly enthusiastic about these movies popping up around the net, while Coca-Cola / Pepsi were far from happy. Apparently, Mentos is themselves making a contest out of it all.
Quote from an article at promomagazine.com:
"People are already embracing the brand through the craze," said Tom Baer, promotion strategy expert for Launch. "Turning it into a contest will just add to their desire to interact with the brand that much more. In today's market, where 'content is king' has turned into 'consumer-created content is king,' you have to take advantage of these opportunities when they come along."
Hah! I don't think I will be submitting any videos, but it is very interesting how the product makers react to creative work by consumers. Now, I just wish cable companies and others will smarten up too. We have seen, over and over, how simple videos created by a few individuals have had widespread influence regarding a brand - the Kryptonite / Bic pen video and this Mentos experiment being two of them - and I am sure that this development will continue.
The question is: How will the brands react? And how will all this play out in the political field? This article from The Washington Post is in that respect quite interesting.
Quote from an article at promomagazine.com:
"People are already embracing the brand through the craze," said Tom Baer, promotion strategy expert for Launch. "Turning it into a contest will just add to their desire to interact with the brand that much more. In today's market, where 'content is king' has turned into 'consumer-created content is king,' you have to take advantage of these opportunities when they come along."
Hah! I don't think I will be submitting any videos, but it is very interesting how the product makers react to creative work by consumers. Now, I just wish cable companies and others will smarten up too. We have seen, over and over, how simple videos created by a few individuals have had widespread influence regarding a brand - the Kryptonite / Bic pen video and this Mentos experiment being two of them - and I am sure that this development will continue.
The question is: How will the brands react? And how will all this play out in the political field? This article from The Washington Post is in that respect quite interesting.
Following up on the Josh Wolf case, I noticed that Time.com has a pretty well-researched article about the case. A few quotes:
But the feds are demanding to see everything that wasn't made public. They allege that the unused portion of Wolf's video may show the patrol car being set afire - part of a federal crime, the government asserts. Wolf denies there is an attempted arson on his videotape. The feds say they have jurisdiction over the case because the police car is partly U.S. government property since the S.F.P.D. receives federal anti-terrorism money.
"The courts have sent a clear message to journalists, bloggers, vloggers, and all citizens that the U.S. government will and can with the help of the federal courts make every person in the US an investigative arm of the government," according to Jose Luis Fuentes, Wolf's attorney.
Mainstream civic and media interests like the Society for Professional Journalists, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Lawyer's Guild, the San Francisco Chronicle's editorial board, and San Francisco's Board of Supervisors have all voiced support for Wolf. The blogoshpere, by contrast, hasn't yet elicited a rousing cheer for Wolf with a few exceptions like the Huffington Post and Silicon Valley Watcher. Neither the popular political blog, The Daily Kos, nor ourmedia.org, a site for the participatory media movement, covered Wolf's jailing.
*
There are many issues here, and I am not quite sure how to react to it. But I do know that the way they made the case federal because that local/state police-car was in part funded by federal money, is rather interesting. The state of California has a shield law, there is no such shield law for journalists on a national level in the US, so, bam, they make it a federal case. If a partially federally funded police-car in San Francisco can lead to a federal case, then what cannot? I don't know - I guess I just don't know the U.S. legal system enough.
There are over a hundred comments on the blog post written a few days ago on Wolf's blog. Some of these comments are rather illuminating, and a little bit sad.
But the feds are demanding to see everything that wasn't made public. They allege that the unused portion of Wolf's video may show the patrol car being set afire - part of a federal crime, the government asserts. Wolf denies there is an attempted arson on his videotape. The feds say they have jurisdiction over the case because the police car is partly U.S. government property since the S.F.P.D. receives federal anti-terrorism money.
"The courts have sent a clear message to journalists, bloggers, vloggers, and all citizens that the U.S. government will and can with the help of the federal courts make every person in the US an investigative arm of the government," according to Jose Luis Fuentes, Wolf's attorney.
Mainstream civic and media interests like the Society for Professional Journalists, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Lawyer's Guild, the San Francisco Chronicle's editorial board, and San Francisco's Board of Supervisors have all voiced support for Wolf. The blogoshpere, by contrast, hasn't yet elicited a rousing cheer for Wolf with a few exceptions like the Huffington Post and Silicon Valley Watcher. Neither the popular political blog, The Daily Kos, nor ourmedia.org, a site for the participatory media movement, covered Wolf's jailing.
*
There are many issues here, and I am not quite sure how to react to it. But I do know that the way they made the case federal because that local/state police-car was in part funded by federal money, is rather interesting. The state of California has a shield law, there is no such shield law for journalists on a national level in the US, so, bam, they make it a federal case. If a partially federally funded police-car in San Francisco can lead to a federal case, then what cannot? I don't know - I guess I just don't know the U.S. legal system enough.
There are over a hundred comments on the blog post written a few days ago on Wolf's blog. Some of these comments are rather illuminating, and a little bit sad.
Josh Wolf is a friend of mine from California who has been having problems with the legal system for quite some time now. Here is his page with all the information regarding the case.
Josh was a member of the panel on "Political Vlogging and Social Change" that we had during VloggerCon 2006, and he told about his case there.
Yesterday, Josh Wolf was jailed. [San Francisco Chronicle article]
U.S. District Judge William Alsup found Josh Wolf in contempt of court for failing to comply with a subpoena that the grand jury issued in February for tapes Wolf made of the July 2005 demonstration in the Mission District. Wolf posted some of the videos on his Web site -- thisrevolution.blogspot.com/2006/07/1-year-ago.html -- and sold that footage to local television stations. Federal prosecutors demanded the rest of the tapes, saying they might contain evidence of attempted arson.
This is a mess, and I really do not know what I can do to help Josh. I urge you all to read up on the case and, if you can, give a donation to his legal defence fund. You can donate via his website.
Hang in there, Josh. And to the rest of us: What if this was you next time?
Update: Here are a few other blog posts about Josh Wolf: [Technorati]
Mike Warot: Slippery slopes - the 1st Amendment: "The critical matter in this case isn't the tape, it's the federal attempt to override the states rights. The people of California have made a law to protect journalists from fishing expeditions, a shield law. The federal government is using a very flimsy argument about tax money to try to bypass the States right to self-govern."
Robert Scoble: Videoblogger jailed - interesting comments..
Kevin Smokler: One of Our Own in Jail
RyanIsHungry also has a good post from a few days ago: Josh Wolf: Federal Grand Jury Appearance
Josh was a member of the panel on "Political Vlogging and Social Change" that we had during VloggerCon 2006, and he told about his case there.
Yesterday, Josh Wolf was jailed. [San Francisco Chronicle article]
U.S. District Judge William Alsup found Josh Wolf in contempt of court for failing to comply with a subpoena that the grand jury issued in February for tapes Wolf made of the July 2005 demonstration in the Mission District. Wolf posted some of the videos on his Web site -- thisrevolution.blogspot.com/2006/07/1-year-ago.html -- and sold that footage to local television stations. Federal prosecutors demanded the rest of the tapes, saying they might contain evidence of attempted arson.
This is a mess, and I really do not know what I can do to help Josh. I urge you all to read up on the case and, if you can, give a donation to his legal defence fund. You can donate via his website.
Hang in there, Josh. And to the rest of us: What if this was you next time?
Update: Here are a few other blog posts about Josh Wolf: [Technorati]
Mike Warot: Slippery slopes - the 1st Amendment: "The critical matter in this case isn't the tape, it's the federal attempt to override the states rights. The people of California have made a law to protect journalists from fishing expeditions, a shield law. The federal government is using a very flimsy argument about tax money to try to bypass the States right to self-govern."
Robert Scoble: Videoblogger jailed - interesting comments..
Kevin Smokler: One of Our Own in Jail
RyanIsHungry also has a good post from a few days ago: Josh Wolf: Federal Grand Jury Appearance
Yahoo! recently started their corporate blog, and they include video in their first post already. I like it, and it will be interesting to see what they do with it. Will they cover some of those controversial issues, like Yahoo! in China, or will it all be fine and dandy neoPRspeak a la
"We'll cover emerging trends, provide some behind-the-scenes commentary, profile interesting Yahoos, spotlight our beloved users, reveal some of our quirks, tap into guest bloggers, sprinkle in some videos and photo essays, and generally think out loud (lucky you… you get to listen)." [source]
In either case, this is a good start, and it is interesting to see who is involved with this, and some of the how/why. Also, the way they launched it is interesting. TechCrunch also referred to the email from Havi Hoffmann where Havi wrote ""The blog is the brainchild of Nicki Dugan, Senior Director of Corporate Communications. ("Naked Conversations" has been on her bookshelf from the beginning.) ". Yahoo! really wants to be a part of the blogosphere, I guess. :)
I am quite excited about the multimedia part of their blog. Will there be frequent video/audio elements?
Last Monday Trine-Maria Kristensen from the excellent blog hovedetpaabloggen.dk (in Danish only) was on the news on television, answering some of the standard questions regarding blogging. Esben Fjord Nielsen took the .wmv-file from DR.dk and put it on youtube (which is in itself interesting - how does DR view this republishing? Personally I like it, the wmv-file took forever to even start on my PC)
If you do not know Trine-Maria, I can inform you that she is a partner of the corporate blogging consultancy Social Square together with Thomas Madsen Mygdal, who you might recognize as the main organizer of Reboot. Copenhagen and Denmark is lucky to have them around, and together they have done a lot to help danish corporations understand the importance of weblogs, without falling back to the lure of overhyping.
This week, BusinessWeek also had a story on blogging [techmeme], in this case a piece written by Nicholas Carr, who himself also has an important blog. The story, which deals with Dell's new blog, the famed story of how Robert Scoble left Microsoft to join PodTech, and also gives some general pointers on how to do this.
Btw, have you checked out any of the three + new books on videoblogging that are out there? Here are three of them, all written by members of the community around the videoblogging yahoogroups: 1, 2, 3
Confused about which one to get? Peter van Dijck offers a first glimpse here.
If you do not know Trine-Maria, I can inform you that she is a partner of the corporate blogging consultancy Social Square together with Thomas Madsen Mygdal, who you might recognize as the main organizer of Reboot. Copenhagen and Denmark is lucky to have them around, and together they have done a lot to help danish corporations understand the importance of weblogs, without falling back to the lure of overhyping.
This week, BusinessWeek also had a story on blogging [techmeme], in this case a piece written by Nicholas Carr, who himself also has an important blog. The story, which deals with Dell's new blog, the famed story of how Robert Scoble left Microsoft to join PodTech, and also gives some general pointers on how to do this.
Btw, have you checked out any of the three + new books on videoblogging that are out there? Here are three of them, all written by members of the community around the videoblogging yahoogroups: 1, 2, 3
Confused about which one to get? Peter van Dijck offers a first glimpse here.
Last friday Jon Udell published a podcast interview with Mike Hudack from blip.tv. [yahoogroups discussion]
It was a very interesting talk, and in particular I liked their discussion about the Video Vertigo work and the "mirrorplay" initiative that blip.tv are working on.
I wanted to extract some quotes of essence from the talk and add my own comments, but in the process I found that I need much better methods than the ones I am using now, so I ended up writing this message to the videoblogging yahoogroups instead.
It was a very interesting talk, and in particular I liked their discussion about the Video Vertigo work and the "mirrorplay" initiative that blip.tv are working on.
I wanted to extract some quotes of essence from the talk and add my own comments, but in the process I found that I need much better methods than the ones I am using now, so I ended up writing this message to the videoblogging yahoogroups instead.
Writing this from the public library in Lyngby. The new apartment is great, just a few minutes from Lyngby train/bus station and located in a quiet area. We won't get internet at home before next week, which is far too long. Why is private companies in Denmark behaving like they are some bureaucracy from the Soviet era? (OK, things are not much better in Norway.)
Loads of papers to fill out. Arr, it all takes time. Videos will come soon.
Loads of papers to fill out. Arr, it all takes time. Videos will come soon.
Watch the Video
Today I move to Copenhagen, Denmark. I will be arriving there tomorrow morning, with my stuff, and I will thus end my 8 years of living in Norway, my home country.
I have been nervous about this move for weeks, and the last week has been as if I am in a coma. I have in some ways functioned, but I have been filled with a neurotic mix of aggression and introverted thinking over some of the things that are happening in my life. Where do I want to go? What do I want to do with my energy and time? Where can I help others in a sustainable manner?
The last couple of years has been a lot about testing the waters, observing and experimenting. This has particularly been the case in my involvement with videoblogging. Even though I did not follow the scene from the beginning - I only learned about it in december 2004 - I have the last 1 1/2 years been immersed in this growing internet culture. I have always felt that 'this is the future', and now we are beginning to see the gold rush in this field, whether they refer to it as video podcasting, vodcasting, videoblogging or vidcasting.
I am moving to Denmark for several reasons. The personal motivation is that I miss Denmark. I lived there 1991-97, and I miss the feel of the country and the atmosphere there. The second important reason is that I want to be involved in a more continental setting. Surely, Copenhagen is no Paris, Berlin or Rome, but it is bigger than Oslo and definitely bigger than Bergen. (Norway bores me terribly!) And finally, the third reason is that I will be working with blogging in Denmark, representing BlogSoft in this our third country. I am excited about all three things. I will be sharing an apartment with a good friend of mine, Lori, who is an American who will be studying in Denmark. Our apartment is centrally located in Lyngby, which is just north of Copenhagen.
Despite of the activities I have undertaken in different fields during these 8 years in Bergen/Oslo, I really feel that the whole period was a sort of interstitial. A really long-winded pause.
Time to shift gears. Keywords: Blogging, videoblogging, The PAN, Intermediated, Node 101 Copenhagen and a Vloggercon Europe-ish event in the fall somewhere on this continent.
Moving is a very special feeling.
Trine Berry has a new blog, and her first entry/video on her new blog looks promising. I have had Trine on my radar for quite some time, but I have not watched her videos that often. Just like there are so many other great people in the vlogosphere whose videos I watch in bursts now and then, take a few of the last ones in one go, maybe comment, and then move on.
On one of the last entries on her old blog, Trine wrote:
Being the guy who don't use FireAnt or iTunes to watch videos, I don't have local copies of all those videos I did not watch. It is like having a friend invite you over for tea, and then talking, and showing you things, and suddenly you realize you were not even listening, paying attention, and it is gone. Your friend cannot tell you the stories in the same way again.
Trine hasn't left us, stopped vlogging altogether, but has given her site a facelift, so to speak. I am glad to see Trine back, and I am inspired by her to do some spring/summer cleaning of my own. I put away WordPress some time ago, but I still have all those files stuck in the folders, both on-line and filling my iPod and hard-drives. Time to do some cleaning.
Unline Trine, though, I will not just delete it all. But I will delete quite a lot. Then I will reformat my hard-drives and empty the iPod. Then I will continue preparing for my move to Denmark. Moving to Denmark at the end of June - so much to do before then.
I will not disappear while I do this cleaning, though. I will be right here.
On one of the last entries on her old blog, Trine wrote:
But it's time for a change. This blog is getting back-heavy. A Doll's House (and before that, Trine's corner, twee I know) is almost 2 years old with almost a year's worth of videoposts, and I can't carry the baggage much longer. It feels like a closet full of old clothes that don't fit properly anymore. Or like my gmail account, where nothing gets deleted and - despite the incredible search function - I can't find anything any more.
Being the guy who don't use FireAnt or iTunes to watch videos, I don't have local copies of all those videos I did not watch. It is like having a friend invite you over for tea, and then talking, and showing you things, and suddenly you realize you were not even listening, paying attention, and it is gone. Your friend cannot tell you the stories in the same way again.
Trine hasn't left us, stopped vlogging altogether, but has given her site a facelift, so to speak. I am glad to see Trine back, and I am inspired by her to do some spring/summer cleaning of my own. I put away WordPress some time ago, but I still have all those files stuck in the folders, both on-line and filling my iPod and hard-drives. Time to do some cleaning.
Unline Trine, though, I will not just delete it all. But I will delete quite a lot. Then I will reformat my hard-drives and empty the iPod. Then I will continue preparing for my move to Denmark. Moving to Denmark at the end of June - so much to do before then.
I will not disappear while I do this cleaning, though. I will be right here.
At VloggerCon day two there was a panel called "Character Building" and I was eagerly awaiting The Big Showdown between French Maid TV, Ask A Ninja and the friendly gang from The PAN. Ask A Ninja, as we know, is wildly popular and they told us during the panel that they are in fact set up to be distributed through MTV network. Hooray! Meanwhile, French Maid TV, after publishing two video podcasts, are now ready for sponsorships and their next episode will have a nice sponsor.
I noticed quite early how Chris Weagel shifted his weight, looking nervously at times while the gentlemen from French Maid TV and AskaNinja told about their stuff. At the end, he could not let it go on further and he asked French Maid TV why they did not include nudity in their videos. It all went down-hill from there. During the fireworks, Michael Verdi made the following statement
Following this, the team from askaninja offered free t-shirts to all of us.
I noticed quite early how Chris Weagel shifted his weight, looking nervously at times while the gentlemen from French Maid TV and AskaNinja told about their stuff. At the end, he could not let it go on further and he asked French Maid TV why they did not include nudity in their videos. It all went down-hill from there. During the fireworks, Michael Verdi made the following statement
Following this, the team from askaninja offered free t-shirts to all of us.
Raymond M. Kristiansen works for Blogsoft, a Scandinavian blogging company. He pioneered the use of videoblogging in politics in his home country of Norway and vlogs regularly at DTLQ.org.
Besides working in BlogSoft, Raymond is a partner of The PAN and spends his time making videos and arranging videoblogger conferences and meet-ups, most notably VlogEurope.
VloggerCon day one was yesterday, and I didn't get much online time because I was busy listening to presentations, talking with people, and overall having fun.
VloggerCon is a great collection of businesspeople, lurkers, vloggers, bloggers and other creatures that are here for all kinds of reasons. I have met quite a few people whose vlog I have been following over the months, and who I did not meet at VloggerCon I, and I have got to know some new people.
Right now I am here with Chris Weagel who is staying in Jay and Ryannes closet. He came in last night after working yesterday morning, and he is here to stay. Michael Verdi is taking pictures of the black man sitting on Weagels shoulder. Randy Mann stands in the background. Andreas Haugstrup is interviewing the Human Dog, and Schlomo is talking with someone on the phone. Ryanne Hodson is on her computer, of course, and Erik Nelson is sitting on the sex chair. Juan Carlos is getting the coffee, and Lukas Blakk is looking at the fridge where Schlomo has lots of stickers. What else is going on? I will now show Michael V. our blogging software thingie, and I hope our servers are not acting up again.
VloggerCon is a great collection of businesspeople, lurkers, vloggers, bloggers and other creatures that are here for all kinds of reasons. I have met quite a few people whose vlog I have been following over the months, and who I did not meet at VloggerCon I, and I have got to know some new people.
Right now I am here with Chris Weagel who is staying in Jay and Ryannes closet. He came in last night after working yesterday morning, and he is here to stay. Michael Verdi is taking pictures of the black man sitting on Weagels shoulder. Randy Mann stands in the background. Andreas Haugstrup is interviewing the Human Dog, and Schlomo is talking with someone on the phone. Ryanne Hodson is on her computer, of course, and Erik Nelson is sitting on the sex chair. Juan Carlos is getting the coffee, and Lukas Blakk is looking at the fridge where Schlomo has lots of stickers. What else is going on? I will now show Michael V. our blogging software thingie, and I hope our servers are not acting up again.
Reboot 8 was great. But before Reboot, which started on Thursday, there was Samtalerne
Samtalerne
I arrived Copenhagen on wednesday morning, and went straight to Samtalerne, which was a one-day conference organized by among others Trine-Maria Kristensen . The programme was very interesting, including three international speakers: Euan Semple, Lee Bryant and Doc Searls as well as some local Danes. What stood out? I had never heard Euan speak before, and I liked hearing insights from his time at BBC. Lee's presentation was hectic, just as it was at Reboot 7, and I really wish I had taken some footage from it - he had so many good points about Participation. Doc's points about Intention Economy are still haunting me - I am not quite sure if I agree, but it is nevertheless something I will return to.
I think the presentation by Katrine Thielke from the Danish Patent- og varemærkestyrelsen was what pleasantly surprised me the most. Unfortunately, I did not capture any footage from her presentation either, but she really gets blogging, and it was inspiring to hear about the implementation of blogging in their organization. Here is their blog, and I really like the way different voices from the organization (they are the Danish office dealing with patents and trademarks) are presented and write about different things of interest on the blog.
Another presentation that stood out for me was the one by Annette Larsen from Aarstiderne, a company that sells fruits and vegetables, giving deliveries to your door. Annette talked about how the conversations are a crucial part of their business. In the Q&A session after her presentation she was given quite a few challenging questions, which she handled well. One of the central points in her presentation was: By going out there and talking with the customers and letting them talk with each other on a forum or a blog's comments field, you are putting yourself in a vulnerable position. However, whatever criticism might come is still out there - you just make it visible. Your organization can learn from it, and the customers can hopefully feel that there is a feedback loop, which also will help you in the long run.
There were also other impressions from Samtalerne, but I have a hard time with processing all these impressions into text. I will try in video form one day.
A huge thank-you goes to Trine-Maria and the others who organized this! I really enjoyed Samtalerne!
Reboot
Last year, I took a lot of footage during Reboot and I basically wanted to interview people left and right. I guess I hadn't become the jaded videoblogger back then, it was still fresh. This year, I took a much more laid-back approach to it and just enjoyed listening to the presentations and talking with people.
The programme offered activities in 1-3 rooms and I followed this stream:
Day 1 :: Opening-Michael Thomsen-Making Senses-Workshop. Co-creation rules 1-Loic Le Meur-TL Taylor-JP Rangaswami-The Global Microbrand-Let's take back politics-Changing Schools and Firing Minds
Evening Lounge: Ben Hammersley-Ubermorgen
Day 2 :: Jesse James Garrett-Stowe Boyd-Diversity as engine for a European innovative culture-Jyri Engeström-Networked objects and the new ecology of things-Doc Searls-Podboot - start podcasting at Reboot-Lee Bryant-Euan Semple-Closing
How do you represent all these impulses? One systematic approach, which I really liked, was a series of mind-maps made by Lars Plougmann (blog / flickr) and I link to the different mind-maps on the list above.
Myself, I will make a series of 42-second videoblog entries.
Reboot 8 was great, and I really enjoyed my time there. Thank you to all the organizers!
Samtalerne
I arrived Copenhagen on wednesday morning, and went straight to Samtalerne, which was a one-day conference organized by among others Trine-Maria Kristensen . The programme was very interesting, including three international speakers: Euan Semple, Lee Bryant and Doc Searls as well as some local Danes. What stood out? I had never heard Euan speak before, and I liked hearing insights from his time at BBC. Lee's presentation was hectic, just as it was at Reboot 7, and I really wish I had taken some footage from it - he had so many good points about Participation. Doc's points about Intention Economy are still haunting me - I am not quite sure if I agree, but it is nevertheless something I will return to.
I think the presentation by Katrine Thielke from the Danish Patent- og varemærkestyrelsen was what pleasantly surprised me the most. Unfortunately, I did not capture any footage from her presentation either, but she really gets blogging, and it was inspiring to hear about the implementation of blogging in their organization. Here is their blog, and I really like the way different voices from the organization (they are the Danish office dealing with patents and trademarks) are presented and write about different things of interest on the blog.
Another presentation that stood out for me was the one by Annette Larsen from Aarstiderne, a company that sells fruits and vegetables, giving deliveries to your door. Annette talked about how the conversations are a crucial part of their business. In the Q&A session after her presentation she was given quite a few challenging questions, which she handled well. One of the central points in her presentation was: By going out there and talking with the customers and letting them talk with each other on a forum or a blog's comments field, you are putting yourself in a vulnerable position. However, whatever criticism might come is still out there - you just make it visible. Your organization can learn from it, and the customers can hopefully feel that there is a feedback loop, which also will help you in the long run.
There were also other impressions from Samtalerne, but I have a hard time with processing all these impressions into text. I will try in video form one day.
A huge thank-you goes to Trine-Maria and the others who organized this! I really enjoyed Samtalerne!
Reboot
Last year, I took a lot of footage during Reboot and I basically wanted to interview people left and right. I guess I hadn't become the jaded videoblogger back then, it was still fresh. This year, I took a much more laid-back approach to it and just enjoyed listening to the presentations and talking with people.
The programme offered activities in 1-3 rooms and I followed this stream:
Day 1 :: Opening-Michael Thomsen-Making Senses-Workshop. Co-creation rules 1-Loic Le Meur-TL Taylor-JP Rangaswami-The Global Microbrand-Let's take back politics-Changing Schools and Firing Minds
Evening Lounge: Ben Hammersley-Ubermorgen
Day 2 :: Jesse James Garrett-Stowe Boyd-Diversity as engine for a European innovative culture-Jyri Engeström-Networked objects and the new ecology of things-Doc Searls-Podboot - start podcasting at Reboot-Lee Bryant-Euan Semple-Closing
How do you represent all these impulses? One systematic approach, which I really liked, was a series of mind-maps made by Lars Plougmann (blog / flickr) and I link to the different mind-maps on the list above.
Myself, I will make a series of 42-second videoblog entries.
Reboot 8 was great, and I really enjoyed my time there. Thank you to all the organizers!
Reboot 7 was one of my big conference experiences last year, but unfortunately I accidentally deleted half my video from the event, which left me with just the videos I put online in this blog entry.
This year, I bring my camera and a bit of extra memory and I am very excited about it.
Tomorrow, before reboot, I will attend Samtalerne, which is a pre-conference workshop and discussion day with mostly Danish contributors. However, there is Doc Searls, Euan Semple and Lee Bryant from outside Denmark as well.
I will post text or video from Reboot as soon as possible, and once I get back to Oslo it will only be a few days before I am off to Vloggercon!
Here is the list of participants going to Reboot 8 - quite a lot of people I am really looking forward to meet!
This year, I bring my camera and a bit of extra memory and I am very excited about it.
Tomorrow, before reboot, I will attend Samtalerne, which is a pre-conference workshop and discussion day with mostly Danish contributors. However, there is Doc Searls, Euan Semple and Lee Bryant from outside Denmark as well.
I will post text or video from Reboot as soon as possible, and once I get back to Oslo it will only be a few days before I am off to Vloggercon!
Here is the list of participants going to Reboot 8 - quite a lot of people I am really looking forward to meet!
Markus, Jay, Ryanne and Michael V have launched a new project: "Have Money Will Vlog". It is basically a resource for people who want to help support videoblogging projects. If for instance 100 people donate $10 each, a videoblogging project can be done.
The first project that HMWV highlights and supports is American King, a new series from Chris Weagel from Human Dog. Here is the video preview, and on HMWV you can see Chris Weagels explanation of the project.
Have Money Will Vlog is a great resource. As it says on the HMWV about page, Have Money Will Vlog is an experiment in community capitalism, and I think it can work. With the use of systems like Fundable, those who decide to donate towards a project do not spend any money before all the money required for a project is raised. In this case Chris needs $1000 to spend the month needed to edit all that footage.
Take a look at the work at Human Dog and support his American King project on HMWV if you want.
The first project that HMWV highlights and supports is American King, a new series from Chris Weagel from Human Dog. Here is the video preview, and on HMWV you can see Chris Weagels explanation of the project.
Have Money Will Vlog is a great resource. As it says on the HMWV about page, Have Money Will Vlog is an experiment in community capitalism, and I think it can work. With the use of systems like Fundable, those who decide to donate towards a project do not spend any money before all the money required for a project is raised. In this case Chris needs $1000 to spend the month needed to edit all that footage.
Take a look at the work at Human Dog and support his American King project on HMWV if you want.
Anders Clerwall is a friend of mine from Stockholm. He is an awesome vlogger (even though he has been slacking seriously lately with creating videos), and I still smile whenever I see his "Wonderful World" video that was one of the first uses of Google Earth in the videoblogging community.
A few days ago Anders published a video which includes a tune explaining some of his feelings right now. With the video, in the blog text, he wrote:
Well, I don't want to see Anders make a begging video (those always make me feel uncomfortable, especially since I cannot help much myself), so I would much rather we each throw in a few dollars to help Anders get to San Francisco and attend vloggercon.
VloggerCon needs more Scandinavians! (Who are coming apart from Andreas and myself?)
Go to Anders' page and give him a little donation if you can. I would love to see him at Vloggercon.
Update: Seems that Brett Gaylor from Etherworks.ca is having problems coming to VloggerCon too, and his fundable page doesnt show 100$. I would just as much see Brett as Anders at VloggerCon - ahh, why do we have physical distance?)
A few days ago Anders published a video which includes a tune explaining some of his feelings right now. With the video, in the blog text, he wrote:
"So, VloggerCon'06 is coming up, and I really want to go, but I can't afford the flight without going completely broke. So if you have a buck to spare, please donate it and I will give you a present if we meet there! I will make sure to create a proper begging-video soon, because I need around $1300 US"
Well, I don't want to see Anders make a begging video (those always make me feel uncomfortable, especially since I cannot help much myself), so I would much rather we each throw in a few dollars to help Anders get to San Francisco and attend vloggercon.
VloggerCon needs more Scandinavians! (Who are coming apart from Andreas and myself?)
Go to Anders' page and give him a little donation if you can. I would love to see him at Vloggercon.
Update: Seems that Brett Gaylor from Etherworks.ca is having problems coming to VloggerCon too, and his fundable page doesnt show 100$. I would just as much see Brett as Anders at VloggerCon - ahh, why do we have physical distance?)
Welcome to DLTQ.org.
The archive of old DLTQ posts (December 2004 - May 2006) is here
Now let's get started again.
The archive of old DLTQ posts (December 2004 - May 2006) is here
Now let's get started again.