Continuous Improvement on Wild Show

This is an extract from the first Wild Show this year. I will do a post for each as a base for these topics over the next few weeks. This one is about how to improve the show, probably by repeating previous clips but making them a bit better each time.

Lessons from COMDEX

Still catching up with the background to the year. It will be starting soon. I remember it uses to start with COMDEX and now probably with the Consumer Electronics Show. Not sure though what will be new this week.

Later I will concentrate on IPEX in London England. This print show only happens every four years and this could be an interesting one. Print media are changing much more rapidly than previously. Trying to keep an open mind I am also thinking about whether trade shows will survive any better than newspapers. Trying a search on COMDEX found a post from Harry McCracken on finding his press badge from COMDEX '96.  Read in full for how Apple left the show and it then folded.

Apple have also stopped attending IPEX, drupa and BETT. They are in background though. Partly because of the Web they have no need to be there. Similar for Adobe though they attend Learning Technologies so far.

Maybe COMDEX is the future for trade shows.

 

BETT and France as in FUN

The Bruno Latour course is part of FUN, a MOOC project from the MINISTÈRE DE L'ENSEIGNEMENT SUPÉRIEUR ET DE LA RECHERCHE ( caps as copied....)

I get the impression this has full support from all French universities, or at least the national policy is with that sort of scope. In the UK there is a  level of universities who are not involved in Futurelearn. The ministry for education has not been much involved in BETT for example. Last year there was a speech by Vince Cable from the ministry for Business including universities.

So, much to come back to in future posts. For coherent policy linked to European resources it is probable that FUN will be a good reference to start with.

Of course it will be a neoliberal event, but if Google are showing how they think a Chromebook can be used, this may be worth a look. 

Critique and Mobility

Trying to start again with some issues from last year. Through one of the hotseats for the Networked Learning Conference I had tried to find a copy of a paper by Richard Hall. I had given up but now today I try again and find that Amazon has a few pages so I can get an idea of it. Not sure how much I can quote but here are a few words, there is mention of a project to " imagine alternatives that reclaim humanity from the fetishization of an Empire of things."

So the attraction of mobile devices is presented as a fetish. The USA as Empire is assumed, as it often is.

Previously I found a blog post that I guessed was similar to the article. Today I found another one that is much more general about the neoliberal university. I am beginning to wonder if the concern has much to do with technology as such. Sometimes it appears there is a method of critique that can be applied to anything. So I don't expect to discover much about mobile technology as such. and the book is about £60, hardback only. OK if you're already inside a neoliberal university I guess.

I hope that more of the content becomes available as blog posts so it can be public. Proposed papers for future conferences can coexist.

Meanwhile there is a MOOC coming up with Bruno Latour. I am going to try to follow it. He also has a site for a version of a book at Modes Of Existence . This continues something from the proposal that we were never modern. So I should get a better idea of how modernity is understood. Was there some time long ago when universities had no commercial pressure? Can we get back there?

The MOOC or something like it is now more or less normal technology. The knocking copy is not going to stop it. It can be contested, like universities and other education.

 

Prince and Content Marketing

Checking Buzzmachine I find a link through Repost to the EFF story on dance and a baby. Blog posts are often just a set of links and an excuse to rework something from earlier.

Stephanie Lenz has posted a YouTube video of a baby dancing to the Prince track "Let's Go Crazy" . The EFF has started a legal case to protect her right to include the soundtrack although there is a claim from Universal that the video should be taken down because of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

My speculation is that this may have something to do with Prince or his management and that Universal may follow a different policy in similar situations with a different artist. I am not claiming anything new as fact.

During this year a video I had loaded of the Mama Stone House Band covering I Wanna Be Your Lover was removed from YouTube following a request from Controversy Publishing. It had already been public for several months. So I think something may have changed in YouTube policy. They may be closer to official sources than when they were building an audience. I have been unable to get a reply from YouTube or Google about my bad status. I now am back to a 15 minute limit and cannot choose Creative Commons as an option. I think it is rare for artists to object to cover versions but I would like YouTube to explain this. There is a lot of uncertainty as far as I can tell. It seems to be a matter of chance whether Prince related video survives.

Meanwhile there is continuing interest in Content Marketing, using free content to reach an audience and gain interest in new product. Content Marketing is predicted to continue in 2014, see this story in Search Engine Watch. There could also be more than a few instances of Reverse Content Marketing - use search to find the fans, then make life a misery.