I still have a sense of disconnect from the last one. I live in Exeter and could not find the continuity in energy levels that would convince this is not an energy system moving on somewhere else. Maybe preparation will help. Or else thinking online outside of time and space.
There are evenings intended around film and music. I hope they look at still images also, maybe next time. So far it seems accepted by music performers that tracks can appear online. Video clips also possible. This is usually promotional, complete albums for free are much less frequent. But fine art stays in the gallery as a general rule. Will this change for video? I think this is the kind of thing well worth a discussion.
My plan is to continue briefing the Wheely Saying Something show and the New Exeter Radio Show on Phonic FM. Things may change slightly but they will probably still be broadcast on the Thursday and Friday mornings. so there could be guests or pre-recorded interviews, sample soundscapes etc. Both shows are working on their Facebook etc. I have done some short clips for YouTube and some forms of interview with JD. Fortunateley I also meet him in the Phoenix bar for a coffee. We might still be there if #likeminds chooses the Phoenix for a lunchtime meet.
UK publishers have accepted that digital publishing is happening. There is an Apple shop in Covent Garden and the attention seems to be on apps and multi media. But sites such as Scribd have had less reporting in the UK although they distribute large volumes of flat pages.
I still use Scribd for short documents but I would like to edit them together as collections and make a charge. If I was based in the USA this would be possible. It hardly seems fair that outside the USA we are expected to continue loading everything for free.. Meanwhile Amazon is launching the Kindle in the UK from September. So gradually things get easier form a UK base.
Scribd would be a good option if it was possible. Has anyone in the UK worked out some way of working this out? They may be open to a package or maybe there is a UK publisher with an office in the USA.
I contribute some ideas to the Wheely Saying Something Show and the New Exeter Radio Show on Phonic FM in Exeter. Recently I discussed with JD the possibility of using Skype for conversations with listeners. I started a YouTube clip. he has yet to reply with a comment for this but sent a link to another clip where things are already moving. For some reason I can only add short comments on YouTube at the moment and not a link. So here is a try on Posterous.
Amazon is launching the Kindle in the UK. It has been available from the USA website but there will be a UK store in September. It is interesting that both Printweek and the Guardian have commented on the news that Amazon sold more ebooks than hardbacks in a recent quarter. Jo Francis on the Printweek blog claims that the news is not really that surprising.
When e-books sales outstrip paperback sales it really will be a momentous day. But for hardbacks I think it's no surprise whatsoever - personally I actively avoid buying hardback fiction as I far prefer paperbacks, and a quick straw poll among chums reveals similar attitudes.
I think this is more of a shift than has been clear on the printed pages of Printweek. There has not been much about how people in prepress could work on e-books. There was no deep coverage of the Digital Zone at the London Book Fair. There seems to be more Haymarket activity online and it will be interesting to see how Printweek develops.
A Guardian editorial is partly about Penguin books and the paperback, described as a "disruptive technology" with a link on the web version to this site. The ebook is regarded as a similar disruption with a consequence for price levels and the expansion of the audience for reading.
A revolution for readers, then – but one that the giants of the publishing industry, just like their counterparts in music and, yes, newspapers have been slow to recognise. Mr Makinson is right to acknowledge the new and exciting possibilities for the book provided by digital publishing – hyperlinks, pictures, music – but his remarks reflect how late-developing all this thinking is.
There could be more to come about newspapers. So far the Sony Reader and other devices available in the UK have used memory cards rather than wifi or phone connections. The Kindle is part of the Cloud approach so this could be noticed in the months ahead.
The Guardian has reported the iPad and Apple promotions for music and video. So far the devices for text have had less attention. Sales of the Kindle in the USA have not been widely reported in UK media.Steve Jobs from Apple is at the top of the Guardian list for 2010 influence in media. Jeff Bezos is not on the list though I think this could change in 2011.
Loop 1 is from Bedford to Dukes to Anchor to Bedford past the bus stop.
Loop 2 is from Anchor through the Black Horse to the Newt, the Swan and Volunteer via the Byes then back again via the Radford. The Newt is a bit off the obvious route and you must turn back if crossing the river before you find the Swan.
I have found I can tweet from Text ok but location networking is a bit not really happening. I may try again on Wednesday or later. If I tweet I am in fairly open mode and likely to have a camera. So try talking to people with cameras, they should explain something even if not me.
Video loaded so far, Spin 2 just outside the Anchor. I think this is more or less folk music as we know it in Exeter. Will they get more of a stage by the end of the week? Not trying to upset anyone but the Anchor seems ever closer to a fairly traditional view of what folk music sounds like.
The Volunteer has a very wide scope. Most music is folk music somewhere. Quite a walk but there is a bus stop. Same band next Saturday afternoon.
These are the first two clips from the Experimentality conference. More later.
I am interested in Bron's remarks about the "dark side" of mode two knowledge. I can't find much online text about this point of view but I think it sometimes blocks discussion about quality, seen as coming form outside an academic context.
The Knowledge Lab will be documented later. I think critique ideas should be available to a wider public.
The London publishers have got wind of digital. Last week the topic was that agents can now deal direct with Amazon. On friday i went to the Exeter central library and had a look in the Bookseller. I get the daily email headline summary but there is something extra in the print version. The leader (23/07/10) is headed "The Year Of Digital" and lists some current issues. Maybe it would be wrong for a blogger to just copy all of this. you should find your own local library and a print Bookseller. You may need to visit a bookshop and talk to the staff. But there is one sentence that helps make my point that this is a meaningful moment in time. "These are live questions, with the clock ticking on meaningful reponses."
On Sunday Robert McCrum was interested in the novel as app.
I still think Apple gets too much attention. There is a lot more going on. But McCrum mentions Google and Amazon so is ahead of the Guardian Media 100. He also offers some background-
Ever since the 1990s the world of books has adopted various attitudes towards a changing marketplace that can be summarised as basically: there but for the grace of God go I. With a very few exceptions, everyone – publishers, authors, agents, editors, and booksellers – has prayed that they won't be forced to accommodate to the biggest paradigm shift in 500 years.
The photos are "all rights reserved" . Would Creative Commons make it clear they can be mashed up? Maybe this is not expected?
I ask this in general though Nexus is an example.
Is it ok to take video? Ask questions? Often not allowed inside a gallery. Exmouth beach was a good location in my view. Marginal behaviour is ok at the seaside.
A few weeks after IPEX 2010 and it seems to me to mark more of a shift than appears from some reports. I have done three stories for OhmyNews but there seems to be some problem with the editing at the moment. It is not just my stories, by the way. The entire front page is slow to change. http://www.igas-tokyo.jp/ There is now a sequence of four shows. As well as Print in Chicago and drupa in Duesseldorf there is IGAS in Tokyo, next one Sept. My guess is that the trends at IPEX will be much more clear by then. So this draft is a way to speculate on how this could look. It is a form of journalism that can be checked withn other sources and also will be revised. Of the video I put on YouTube most views are for the clip about run lengths and the FujiFilm Jet Press 720. Colour inkjet could challenge litho on runs up to 2000 sheets. There was no detail at IPEX about costs but there will probably be more information at IGAS and also about other similar machines. Heidelberg continue to make claims about short runs but the challenge from inkjet will be interesting as runs around the 2000 level are discussed. The second most viewed clip is about the Heidelberg iPhone app, remote access to Prinect so you know if the machines are running. Heidelberg are expected to announce something about digital by the end of 2010. Probably an arrangement with another supplier. I stand by my story that the Xerox stand was very close to the Heidelberg stand at IPEX. In a demonstration of workflow software it turned out that Xerox had current info on each and every Heidelberg device. Xerox Tips IPEX Digital Solutions Past Heidelberghttp://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_sangview.asp?menu=c10400&no=386092&rel_no=1 Video was much stronger at IPEX than reported so far in Printweek or Digital Printer. There was video form the Printweek stand but I am not sure how this continues. Andy Tribute has almost stopped text blogging but joins the video crew for What They Think. My story about video at IPEX has had most views on OhmyNews so far. Some of the brands had their own channel, direct to YouTube without any budget for print magazines. Kodak and Oce both had studios or at least a large space for an audience. HP are active and Canon has a policy on social media. This will move further before IGAS with Canon / Oce integration. http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_sangview.asp?menu=c10400&no=386094&rel_no=1IPEX Print Show Zooms Social VideoThe effect of the move to digital and the presence of video is to make print appear much more part of a communication system based on the web. In the UK this comes over through changes such as the London College of Printing changing to LC Communication. I still don't follow how print and publishing map to design and media but there will be more about this over the coming months and comparison with other places. Design and media are not limited to print. Composition and page makeup are as much intended for online and other digital forms. There was no presence at IPEX from Apple or Quark. Adobe made a limited appearance on the FujiFilm stand for one presentation a day. The show is mostly about producing hard copy. The content may just as well appear from somewhere else. It would not be surprising if Adobe did not turn up at all at IGAS. At IPEX the announcement was about variable data for the PDF print engine. this could be the final Adobe message for the printing industry. There are implications for direct marketing and book publishing but Adobe is unlikely to explain this in detail. There is more interest in video for mobile devices. Adobe Classic purchased Macromedia to become Adobe (FLSH). The Chief Technology Officer is Kevin Lynch. http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_sangview.asp?menu=c10400&no=386098&rel_no=1Adobe Classic Completes Messaging To IPEXIt will be interesting to see what happens to prices on Adobe Classic products. Both Postscript and PDF are open standards. Companies such as Global Graphics and Founder offer alternatives for PDF creation and page design. It was unclear at IPEX what was meant by "pre-media". The video on YouTube did not have a lot of production or at least it was not on display. "Pre-press" describes more of what was shown. Despite the smaller scale I think there was more emphasis on composition at the digital zone for the London Book Fair. As attention turns to digital publishing the "front end" will be independent of hard copy. I am just basing this on trends at IPEX and drupa. My guess is that IGAS will be mostly about digital printing with "pre-media" in the background.Although FujiFilm hosted the Adobe presentation on variable data their approach to inkjet colour is not to offer duplex. Variable data is more appropriate if both sides of the paper are printed at the same time. Screen did demonstrate this with the Truepress JetSX at IPEX. There will be speculation as to which features will be on offer as this type of equipment develops. IPEX will launch IPEX World towards the end of September 2010. Looks like a Twitter feed and associated links. The idea of a local event once every four years is changing towards a constantly revised set of web links. https://www.ipex.org/page.cfm/Action=Form/FormID=61/t=m
I am moving some comment into this blog and linking back to other blogs http://readg.blogspot.com/ This could result in more integration. Also I am repeating myself quite a lot at the moment so previous material can usefully be linked in. The Guardian is well into all things Apple at the moment. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/mediaguardian-100-2010 They seem to think that the iPad will allow publishers to offer packages for sale in a controlled sort of way. Free content and simple text formats will just not get into the Apple world. So no mention for Jeff Bezos although Google and Microsoft are represented. Can't find Sony either. Howard Stringer was recently interviewed about 3D. He is also interested in the Sony Reader and EPUB. Maybe it is too easy for people to copy content from the web. For whatever reason, not on the list. My guess is that Flash will survive even outside of Apple. Kevin Lynch is the Adobe Chief Technology Officer. There are Readers for PDF and EPUB for web browsers and mobile devices. But the closed world of Apple has an attraction for the Guardian such that Kevin Lynch is not on the list. Most surprising is that Jeff Jarvis is nowhere at all. I still think there has been a budget cutback and we get less of him in print on a Monday than in previous years. I have tried to confirm this with the Guardian but not had a reply. However the Buzzmachine blog is widely read in the UK. Will Steve Jobs still be number one next year? Probably yes, in the strange world of the Guardian.
This was after the Experimentality conference. I think I established that Plan Do check/Study Act was on topic as experimentality but there was some content left over so I put it into the walk format. Previous clips show the exterior from InfoLab 21 past the George Fox Building and the Management School towards the Learning Zone. e-learning and/or mobile devices / social media seems to be moving along anyway. But the structure of the sequence works ok and can be repeated. Cloud computing is current for critique as of the Experimental Society conference. Later there may be more about the route and also a walk from the City Lab to NICE, the Northern Institute for Contemporary Eating, location for the conference dinner. This route includes several shops for phones etc. There is only one on the campus.
CAMRA will host a summer beer festival at Exeter footballclub this Friday and Saturday. I am still in Lancaster but should get there on Saturday. Last year was the start of a chat show some of which turns upon YouTube. It seems now that YouTube audience can cope with clips to be edited into a sequence. So someof the clips from last year will be loaded up without much of an edit. Apologies that this is so late. More next week. Apologies especially Isambarde Electric. Plan A was to post enough stuff from last year to promote events this year but there is other stuff on YouTube already.
There is video but will take a while to edit so on Youtube in a couple of weeks or so. Most web media is shifted in time. Still, the txt to Twitter did work so someone who knew we did the walk today might have found us. Next time more warning and maybe different gadgets.
Visiting Grange I wonder about the sort of beach beast that could get across the sands. There is a flat surface that would be ok for the Ventosa Siamesis. But the beasts should evolve for the environment. Sheep can get across the grass ok but not best suited to the sand. More research needed, maybe during Experimentality. Meawhile YouTube is starting to include a record of the Ventosa Siamesis in Exeter
