Mid summer walk in Exeter, sometime this week

The weather is a bit strange. It feels like winter but there may be a heatwave followed quickly by a thunderstorm. 

So I'm not sure when to go out. Possibly on Friday but maybe sooner. Definitely this week. 

Yoko Ono is in the UK so I am doing some searching. The Peace Tower is not lit at the moment, probably too much light. I think there is video somewhere from official winter. I will visit the cathedral where Imagine was played on the bells. 

Stoehenge in a blow up version was in Belmont Park last year. With some more photos it could be collaged again. Definitely an image for some sort of meeting.

The Antipodes continues at Spacex. There must be some sort of connection. 

But the first aim is to check out wi-fi . This probably means Queen Street. 

Wild Show next week, the MOOC continued

Yesterday on the Wild Show our guest Clive Chilvers was unable to be there. I think he will be in the Phonic studio next Thursday around quarter to 11. But it was interesting how JD and I filled the space. We went through the topics that might have been discussed. Belmont Pleasure Ground, Stonehenge, citizen journalism, copyright etc. Then I found that the term MOOC needed to be explained. JD is great for telling me where I am rambling. Online learning is still a closed sort of discussion in some ways. When I got into TED and digital policy for universities he was mentioning news about empty student accommodation  in Exeter. They are still building more. And libraries.    

We thought we were getting into an area that Clive might not want to comment on. But we will see what happens next week. He can possibly suggest others we could talk to. We did work out that there is a cafe at the Innovation Centre so we are prepared to travel. 

On the Today prog this morning there was a report from TED in Edinburgh. We thought the MOOC comes from California but the example on Today seemed to be based at MIT. So our facts are a bit vague. Our question is still reasonable though, even if there is sometimes a week of delay till a guest answers. When Futurelearn launches in the UK with some support from a university such as Exeter, will anything local change so you would notice?

Konica Minolta at IPEX, space for a Book Machine?

It turns out that Konica Minolta will occupy the largest space at IPEX 2014.  Ricoh has now decided not to attend. 

As memory serves the 2010 IPEX included an announcement from HP that they would be doing a new version of the Book Machine. The one at Blackwells on Charing Cross Road in London was quite often closed for repairs and waiting on parts.  I don't think a replacement has actually turned up.

I realise the finishing part of the machine is the most complicated for a bespoke requirement ( they really did do single copies at Blackwells ) but could Konica Minolta have another look at this? Or something similar? 

Meanwhile in Exeter there is till no long term site for a university bookshop. Blackwells has a "pop-up" at the start of the academic year and then a desk in the supermarket to support the website. but there is an empty shop on the St Lukes campus. (Full disclosure, quite close to where I live) so why not have a bookshop there and maybe include a book machine? There has been recent comment in the student paper that St Lukes lacks any major reason to leave the other site.  

Apparently there is a demand for runs of about 150 of collections of texts adapted for particular courses. So maybe this is a better model than instant one copy at a time. At IPEX there could be a range of choices but I think the original Konica Minolta setup would be somewhere to start. 

OhmyNews , Mark Coles, newspapers, social capital

Through an Asia-Pacific Creative Landing Pad email I find a post on Asian Creative Transformations titled "A Korean Perspective". Steve Fox writes about social capital and the investment in Korean broadband. I used to write for OhmyNews when there was an English language version. So I will be interested in his reports from a trip to Incheon later this year. I think he is right to look at  social capital as media develops.

Meanwhile Mark Coles has started a four part series on the BBC World Service. The Strand has ended, World of Music has become a podcast from his shed at the bottom of his garden, but he remains calm and balanced. However the first one on newspapers had almost nothing on citizen journalism or the OhmyNews business model to invest in editing and support for contributions. Maybe this will be in part four.

The Guardian was included as an example of how a newspaper can expand into training and education for a defined audience. However I think the model of quite expensive day courses in a lecture space is not best adjusted for online. The reason they mostly publish negative comment on MOOCs may be that they think about King's Cross as a campus.  

There may be some real events soon. At least some news from Korea will feed back to Knowledge Unlatched, see previous post. 

Prince and YouTube, controversy or what?

A strange thing has happened that may eventually offer this blog some coherence. I have been writing about print as if there was a settled view on how music is promoted through YouTube etc. then yesterday following a request from Controversy one of my videos was removed by YouTube. I was warned my channel might be cancelled also. Something must be changing because this video has been there since last summer. The Mama Stone House Band perform i wanna be your lover. Obviously Prince wrote the song but why object now? 

I have been doing some searching and it appears he is trying to relaunch as part of 3rdeyegirl . This group has a VEVO policy so can be found on YouTube. Maybe he thinks his previous name is not going to do much more for him. The Wikipedia shows that for the UK chart a reappearance by Purple Rain was the most recent event, some years ago.

Blog search finds a report that he caused YouTube video from a performance at SXSW to be removed. The odd thing is that the show was sponsored by Samsung to promote a phone with camera. This is not making a lot of sense. Could it be that in future phone companies will choose to sponsor performance with a more relaxed policy on social media?

Billboard seems to be getting away with a performance clip. Maybe because it is similar in content to 3rdeyegirl on VEVO. Not sure about this. 

I have had to do a training course and answer questions on YouTube before being able to get to my admin pages. I would welcome any guidance on what is going on. I sometimes put bits of the Wild Show on YouTube. Often the music is recognised and the advertising claimed by the appropriate company. So I get a copyright notice I acknowledge and then it continues. I sort of assume this is normal. Many local bands do cover versions that appear online. I think most artists don't mind this. So custom and practice may be a bit different to the YouTube course. 

Any comment welcome. Is Prince unique in his view of his exclusive value? Is there a new trend in copyright policy from music management. 

I can't think of any of the artists other than Prince who were recorded at Paisley Park and developed any kind of long term recognition. I guess that 3rdeyefirl will not be very different. Let's hope I'm wrong. But the Prince backlist might be worth promoting as well. Allowing cover versions on YouTube would not harm this. 

Video below from Mama Stones as it starts with introducing the band. As far as I know covering Luther Vandross is still ok.