Digital is either Global or Hyperlocal

(This is an excerpt from an essay for the Community Media Expert Meeting's whitelabel)

Filtering is not a new phenomenon as news agencies have done this since the beginning of media. The difference is that now “we all can be small news agencies” and curate the most intersting content we find. Content is global and there is infinite amount of it, enabling easy cross-referencing and such.

This development requires media to look at their operations as global. National level is diminishing and readers are increasingly gaining influences from the global community through the networked societies. This will obviously be a long transition, but when national borders used to regulate the flow of cultural phenomenoms, today’s flow of information has no borders. Therefore cultures are most likely going to go global, and media will as well as an important mediator of it.

However, as the media will go global beyond national borders, it is fragmenting into niches. As the post modern society tends to categories everything in order to be functional, so will the cultural interests be categoriest. For example teenagers will listen a certain kind of music of their niche, not just from the national level, but from the certain niche on the global level. The media that will be able to focus on these niches will gain most viewerships from the fans. More than from the general focused media, because of the stronger community ties, feeling of belonging and enjoyment through sharing of similar ideas.

Beside cultural, this feeling of belonging on communities can be seen in the idea of hyperlocal. Media that focuses on cities, on the neighbourhoods or on the certain streets, will most likely gain interest of the locals regardles of their cultural interest. Locals are a part a community that is not bound by culture, but by physical location. News of what happens on your street is always interesting.

So, media organisations will face options to choose global niches, where viewers are bound by cultural interests, or hyperlocal communities, where viewers are bound by interest of their physical location. Communities, cultural or physical, are the most important aspect as no viewer will be interested of information on which they cannot relate to.

Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

View more presentations from Carmine Gallo.

Great slides about Social Media

[slideshare id=2005829&doc=wtfissocialmediapgedition-090916075838-phpapp01]

Mårten Mickos on effective teams

Academic

I am reposting a great summary of team building, expecially for executives. By Mårten Mickos of MySQL.

1. The team members ask each other "How can I support you?"
2. The team members hold each other accountable while also allowing each one to show vulnerability.
3. The team practices open and authentic communication.
4. The team arrives at key decisions together through discussion, debate, and synthesis.
5. The team has fun.
6. The team members see success of the whole team as the best form of success.
7. The team operates at a strategic level and empowers the organization around them to make and execute operational decisions.
8. Each team member builds his/her own teams following these principles.

And there is an implicit characteristic number zero (which should be self-evident): 0. Each team member individually follows Drucker's eight practices for effective executives.

Some observations and further comments on the team practices:

Item 1: In a great executive team, all executives help each other, and they engage in the broad management of the business and not just in their own area of responsibility. This cannot happen if there is a team member with a supersized ego. So by defining this practice, we are also saying no thanks to people with egos too big to fit inside an effective team.

Item 2: There is a virtuous circle in all of this (and a vicious one in the opposite scenario): When each team member does his/her job, trust emerges between team members. When there is trust, you can admit and show your vulnerabilities and weaknesses. When you can admit your weaknesses, you are also bound to improve. When you improve, you do your job better. When you do your job better, more trust ensues.

Item 3: It could be added that this practice is both about communication inside the team and outside.

Item 4: How a team arrives at decisions is a very important issue. Note that it says "key decisions" -- non-key decisions can be made individually or at a lower level in the organization. Arriving at a decision "together" means that everyone will be heard, dissent will be encouraged, pros will be weighed against cons, and so on. But it does not mean that it is a democratic decision or a decision by consensus. At the end of any decision-making process in a corporation, there will be a single responsible decision-maker (many times, but not always, the CEO) who will have to make the final call. But during the process, he/she will engage the whole team and build up better insights, common understanding, and broad commitment, no matter what the ultimate decision will be. Many times in such an open decision-making process, new ideas emerge that shape the ultimate decision.

Item 5: Fun means genuine fun, not superficial fun. Fun doesn't require money, great surroundings, great food, or great wine. We have nothing against those things, but at the end of the day they are not vital for having fun. They only add luster to something that it is fun by itself. Fun happens when human beings interact on a plane deeper than what they are used to or what they expected.

Item 6: It takes a lot to get a team in a condition where overall success is more rewarding than success of any given individual. But when it happens, it is an amazing feeling for all involved (and for all who are observing from around), and it produces better results.

Item 7: Teams need to not micromanage the world around them, but to build layers of managers and teams that can run the show.

Item 8: Building a team is very difficult, but also incredibly rewarding.

My hope is that these practices can be useful to those who build executive teams. I have seen, participated in and built a number of executive teams in my career and I know firsthand the turbo boost a company gets from having an effective executive team. The one we built at MySQL was unique in this regard, if I may say so myself. I am very eager to hear comments and suggestions for improvements on this text. Please send them to

Media Conversations | Future Talks

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.2342299&w=425&h=350&fv=]

more about "Media Conversations | Future Talks"

8 key trends and some foresights for the next 5 years

Academic

I'm becoming a bit of a fan of Gerd Leonhard. Gerd’s work focuses on the Future of Media, Content, Technology, Business, Communications and Culture, and he is considered a leading expert on topics such as Web/Media 2.0, social networking and social media, cultural changes due to disruption by new technologies, copyright vs. technology issues, online content commerce models, media convergence, mobile entertainment, entrepreneurship, the future of advertising and branding, future planning, digital content strategies and next-generation business models.

In his latest post on MediaFuturist he gives an amazing rundown of future development within media. Here are the key points, please read the complete post.

1. We will soon see the emergence of many different kinds of iPhone-influenced Netbook-like devices
2. Very cheap or free wireless broadband - at fairly high speeds, i.e. at least 2MB / sec
3. Collective blanket licenses that legalize and unlock legitimate access to basic content services via any digital network
4. Fuel-cells and other next-generation mobile energy sources are a certainty
5. Completely targeted and personalized advertising
6. the core economic business models - of newspapers, magazines, CDs, DVDs and books will be completely re-written
7. Today we pay to go online and connect; in the future we may end up paying for the luxury to go offline
8. Travel 2.0: alternatives to 'actually going there'

The Future Of Music And Media

Academic

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.2289851&w=425&h=350&fv=clip_id%3D3596445%26server%3Dvimeo.com%26autoplay%3D0%26fullscreen%3D1%26md5%3D0%26show_portrait%3D0%26show_title%3D0%26show_byline%3D0%26context%3Duser%3A1409904%26context_id%3D%26force_embed%3D0%26multimoog%3D%26color%3D00ADEF%26force_info%3Dundefined]

more about "The Future Of Music And Media on Vimeo", posted with vodpod

Home in 2040

Academic

There was an interesting article in Tekniikka & Talous webzine in Finland about a design vision of a home in 2040. Below is the English translation.



”I wake up in my multiroom box and go from the bedroom to the bathroom. When I return through the same door, bedroom has turned itself into a kitchen, as my home will guess that it will the step in my morning routines.

The breakfast is already made. I spread the table wider with my hands and look around. I'm in a Parisian cafe. With a gesture of my arm the view changes in a safari scene. I pick up a banana, peel it up and throw the rubbish on the table, which instantly drops it into the waste disposal system.

I go to work at a wikibar, which is at the street level of my condominium. At the wikibar, I go to the brainfloor, which stimulates my senses and wakes me up for thinking. At the workconsole I will save the intuitive created thoughts and continue to the team working space. My colleagues are gathering there as well.

Our ideas are displaced on the walls, the space will listen to us and saves all the new thoughts from the brainstorming.

We have a break at the bar, where I get a new idea. I go the information display, which does offer me more info about the subject. After the break, our team goes to simulationroom to have a look at the plan, product or project would look like when completed.

After work I go to the condominiums meeting space. I will meet my family and friends, pick up an apple and sit by the river under a blue sky. In reality the meeting space is part of the series of rooms, but with display systems and mirrors, it looks very realistic outdoor space. In our room its spring, though elsewhere it could winter wonderland or a tropical sunset."

This is a vision of architecture engineering student Juuso Kangas about living in 2040. He is a member of the group which won a Finnish award for future visions.

The core idea around the vision is "metamaterial", in which the material will mold into the needs of the user guided by AI. Bedroom will become living room and the bed becomes a couch. The design sculpture becomes a table.

Metamaterial creates a wealth of opportunities. In the future, shops are not selling pieces of furniture anymore, but codes for materials that creates certain shapes.

Basshunter Diary pt. 4

Feature + Academic

After five days on the road and about 10 photoshoots and TV interviews later someting opened my eyes. All these directors who are working on the projects...hmmm...for maybe because they have to pay their rents, but not because their heart is at it. They tell the artist to be normal, but do not really understand what is needed. Me instead am working slowly to gain the trust of Basshunter and thus getting more realistic side of him on the road. This all leads back to why Anton Corbjin is so good: he is one with the artists, not above or below.

In addition, Basshunter project has confirmed something. Pop culture embraces all the layers of the package. Brian Eno says it well:

You sometimes hear something being dismissed because it’s all image and no substance, as though these are completely separate, the first ephemeral and lightweight, the second profound and permanent. But one of the messages of pop culture is that you can’t usually separate them: ‘image’ is constantly turning into ‘substance’, and vice versa. The package is part of the contents.

This represents a decision about where the edge of the work really is. What is being seen as the permissable site for creative work by the artist, and what is just ‘the rest of the world’? What is ‘inside’ and what is ‘outside’?

This problem - if you think it one - is particularly acute in pop music. When Madonna appeared, she was attacked for her concentration on everything other than the music - on the things that people call the package. Even if this had been true, would it have been so awful? Who said that pop music was ever just to do with melodies and lyrics and whatever else the word ‘music’ historically meant? For forty years, pop music and its culture have been at the center of the everyday conversation that our culture has with itself, and the talk is mostly about style: how you choose to look at things, how you value what you are and what you have and what you do. Lifestyle, I suppose is the word.

Is short: for Madonna, designing the package has become her work.

Most directors' and photographers' problem is that they try to loose themselves in situations where it is impossible. How about trying to loose yourself in a real situation where the artist really can feel normal and does not have to pretend the camera is not there. Just let camera be there!

In a wider aspect this gets down to the fact that one has to know the subject being directed. Whether a film director, music producer, academic or company director.

Behind The Bass on Hard2Beat. Tour documentary about Basshunter.

[caption id="attachment_356" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Behind the Bass"][/caption]

Why Music Market Is Going Down?

Academic

Continuing the yesterday's post about EMI cutting costs and becoming profitable again. As noted I am glad that EMI is being restructured, but I would not hail for the current success of the label becoming profitable again. Unless there is deeper reasons for this fortune turnaround....by the way, this is the reason I turned away from music into films.

Following text from my academic study in 2006:
Significance Of Album Cover Art As A Branding Tool

Musicologist and philosopher Theodor Adorno (1941), who is possibly the most significant theorist in discussions about popular music, argued that popular music is nothing but entertainment and far from music’s true aesthetics. However Longhurst (1995) analysed Adorno’s extremely critical approach to popular music as being not a criticism of musical content, but a concern between music that is market orientated and music that is not. In other words, Adorno raises the question if marketing and branding requirements limit the quality of music from musicological point of view. In relation to this, Brown & Patterson (2000) argue that marketing can be harmful for the artist. ‘Pop-culture and pop-art could be related to the ‘silent-disdain’ heritage sites, as being entertaining rather than educating; displace decontextualised art; being all the same despite minor surface variations.’ They especially point out that all art is in the hands of multi-national capital and mendacious marketers with logos, branding and promo stunts. In short, business orientation is trivialising and twisting the truth. ‘Worst of all they pursue lucre and profit maximation’. However, the Director of Barbican Art Centre in London, John Tusa (1999) says that even though art and marketing are distinct concepts, both have a similar goal of having an audience, which generates income to survive. So they have to live together in contemporary society.

In short, to turn around a music label one should not become market orientated, but combine the understanding of business orientated product/package and art orientated substance. Not just pursue the profit maximation. That is the way for a sustainable future.

Other arts pursue profits as well but still have opportunities for analytical and emotional study of the world. Therefore, and I repeat, I would like to see a report on the creative output as well.

Album Cover Art as A Branding Tool

Academic

This is a little blast from the past. I think I have never uploaded my academic research work to this blog, so lets correct that mistake right now. And to be honest, currently is it downloaded about 200 times per month from another site, which means that there is interest towards it.

In a nutshell, this work covers areas of album cover and its significance on the branding of music using the band HIM as a case study. I believe music is a product that is mainly sold through visual representation. Although the core product is the music, there is increasing need of cover art, logos, photos, live visuals etc. All this constitutes to the branding of the music.

Download Significance of the Album Cover Art as A Branding Tool!

The main finding of this research indicate a need for thoughtful use of visual aspect in music and also showcase certain characteristics of branding that are useful while producing album covers. In a Post-Modern society people buy the message, rather than the music, communicated through different methods of music, promotion, marketing and branding. Well signified album cover, operating like an advertising, reflects a focused message that is easy for consumers to understand.

The History of Visual Communication

Academic + Philosophy

An amazing study and insight on the history of visual communication gives a good look on the development of this human endeavor. Please read it when you have some time.

Below is Wikipedia's definition for visual communication. The translation of ideas, stories and concepts that are largely textual and/or word based into a visual format, i.e. visual communication.

"Visual communication is the communication of ideas through the visual display of information. Primarily associated with two dimensional images, it includes: art, signs, photography, typography, drawing fundamentals, colour and electronic resources. Recent research in the field has focused on web design and graphically oriented usability. It is part of what a graphic designer does to communicate visually with the audience".

The primary tool by which man has visualised ideas is through the usage of writing and, by extension, type: Writing/type is the visual manifestation of the spoken word. And words are what we communicate with. Thus it is no overstatement when we say that type is the essence of visual communication and by extension of visual communication design. Type, where it is present, is simply the single most important element that you put on a page, since it inherently carries the essence of communication and communication is what our subject of study as graphic/multimedia designers is all about. Thus, the history of visual communication, i.e. the history of the visualisation of the spoken word, will largely follow the development of typographic systems, with a special focus on the Latin typographic system, given that this is the one that we are operating under. Although the primary focus will be on typographic elements and methodologies, the course will, of course, also cover pictorial aspects of visual communication, such as illustration, illumination, photography, shapes, colour etc as and where they pertain to the essence of the subject.

By reading the study, I developed some ideas on the visualisaton of music as parallel form of communication. If word on paper are communication, I think music can be seen as communication as well. However, maybe a bit more abstract and targeting emotions, rather than practical words. In addition, music often uses words in poem form, further emphasising the abstract aspect of communication.

PhD study for "The History of Visualisation of Music" anyone?

Creativity 2.0

Academic + Business

Michael Krigsman writes in his blog about failures of enterprise 2.0 concept. However he most prominently points to the fact about the successfull ideas of user generated contents power and, for small business, the power of inexpensive long distant and instant communication. One can only marvel at the level of innovation, creativity, and commerce that has been engendered as a result.

I totally agree with Mr. Krigsman and actually use networked working methods, projects reaching distant places. Collective creativity, can bring unusual outcomes, and when kept under a certain theme, I believe the results are better. Good example is our Global Cool project where me and a photographer, Emmi Kaarna, have created photos around the Europe to be used for live visuals. This collective mind and ability to reach larger content is just beneficial. However, the "Creativity 2.0" is not possible without the tools to enable the communication. All respect to Skype.

The New Seven Wonders Of The World

On 07/07/07 the below wonders from the past times were officially noted as the new seven wonders of the world. It is a contemporary attempt to create an alternative to historical lists of the Seven Wonders of the World.

GREAT WALL, CHINA


PETRA, JORDAN


CHRIST THE REEDEMER, RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL


MACHU PICCHU, CUZCO, PERÚ


CHICHEN ITZA, YUCATÁN, MÉXICO


COLOSSEUM, ROME, ITALY



TAJ MAHAL, AGRA, INDIA


PRYRAMIDS OF GIZA, EGYPT (Honorary member as the only remaining one of the original list)

On Emerging VJ Markets

Business + Visuals + Academic


VJing is fast emerging to be one of the most innovative creative movement of the 21st century's first decade. Consequently market forces will became interested about the art form, and this post intends to discuss this emerging relationship a bit.

Back in the days, I have witnessed real business ideas been stolen by better positioned and more resourceful people, or taken them and then presenting them as their own. And that happens a lot. Often the success (in which ever way you define it) does come with a good self-promotion and networking. I think this is one of the things that is holding culture back. Looking from my point of view, you can be the greatest visual storyteller in the world, but professionally, you're no competition for somebody who above else "wants to direct". So better give some attention on that entrepreneurial will to push through the wall.

Well...nice. But what if I argue that coming up with your own ideas is a more fun way to go through life, than huge amounts of money earned?

It gets back to the idea that there's no limit to what you can accomplish as long as you don't mind who gets the credit. It's legal to steal ideas in this society, but it is not legal to steal money. This means that where art and finance mix, there isn't a level playing field, and the person who controls the money can steal the ideas. It's basically rule by force - not physical force, but economic brutishness, with Adam Smith's Invisible Hand of the marketplace acting as a fist. As a result, a lot of nice people in their ivory towers of industry are somewhat sad figures because they're isolated from the things that they love, from the very things that would inspire them. Sad even more because they are forced to be up in their towers by the Invisible Hand's imposed pressure.

VJs have a huge advantage in this area, as they are by necessity always in the "cultural mix" and are interacting with audiences, getting direct feedback. Creative communities allocate resources by merit rather than force. So it's not the kid with the rich parents who can get to mix the visuals on "Crossover of Senses", it's the kid who can mix visuals best.

This is very similar to open-source softwares taking over within IT world. This kinda relationship with the markets is relevant to VJing because historically, every time the medium takes creative leaps forward, the scene has enjoyed a collaborative atmosphere. Whereas when the VJ scene has been tighter and more competitive, the creativity stalls and even loses ground. This is evidence if you study the development of VJing, or actually development of other movements. The competition forces the innovators to secure their loose ends to stay competitive, though keeping the innovation robust would be the exact antidote for the competition.

This is well signified with music videos, which ultimately are recorded VJ performances without the improvations aspect. The videos were very innovative at late 70s and early 80s. Music channels' rule over the preferred form forced the music video directors to stick in the format of portraying the artists. Consequently videos became mere marketing tools, and lost their music visualisation aspect. I personally realised this in the "Broken Promised Land" project, where our client was very concerned on how the public would react on the content. Our directing had a lot VJ ideas in it, and consequently created the main problems of the project.

So being in this situation of seeing my area of business rocketing to the mainstream, I wish I can keep my integrity. I really want to keep my faiths, but we will see how strong my will is. It isn't an easy road to combine innovation and revenue. My personal definition of success is accomplishing what you've set out to do with your priorities still intact. To quote Citizen Kane, making a lot of money is easy to do if that's all you want to accomplish in life.

The thoughts on this post were influenced by:

Spinrad. Paul (2005) The VJ Book, Feral House: Los Angeles

Faulkner, Michael (2006) VJ: Audio-Visual Art + VJ Culture, Laurence King: London

Research Publication

Academic

Got my university thesis published! Well, sort of... A music webzine in Finland, Noise.fi asked me to translate the theory part of my work into finnish and edit it into a form of an article. You can find it here.

For you who do not speak finnish, you can donwload the complete work here.

Brand Innovation

Academic

I recently received a book "Brand Innovation" by the author John Grant. He did gave it to me personally and I am grateful for this gift as it has a lot to do with my year long research on to visual aspect of branding.

Grant believes brands are constructed from clusters of cultural ideas, literally everything that goes into a brand; all its symbols, history, artifacts and codes. He goes on to identify 32 types of cultural ideas and creates a periodic table for brand ideas. They are organized according to the cultural space they inhabit; from the personal to the official.

In relation to the arts though, branding has to be for a certain credible reasons. Do not be attach it, if it does not fit the cultural idea around the art. AS my central point goes: "people freely choose signs that signify the self". Therefore, in branding, what is needed is an insight into what is missing from your markets.