Over the weekend I visited Beer, fantastic sunshine. Sundown in Budleigh was a week or two too early. I noticed that the Mccreadys will soon be playing so this is a good reason to promote the video from Sidmouth again.






Perhaps another seven people will see the video and one or two will be somewhere near Beer. Not yet a mass medium but gradually a method is emerging. Also met the Old Porch Band at the Well in Exeter. They seem ok about being on YouTube.

Still looking for an editor or trying to learn a bit more about it. the tapes from Beer At The Castle will appear on YouTube in time to be ahead of next year. Meanwhile this one is easier as there is only one camera anyway. Forgot to load the other tape. They will be at the Well House Tavern next Sunday 27 September from 8pm and also at Phoenix Cafe Bar Sunday Social 11 October 1.30-2.00pm.

Video around visual art is getting easier but it may be easier still for a blog to include bits of visual content for the purpose of discussion. I have done some blank photos and versions with cable or string to show a network around the Exeter Castle, BT building, library Phoenix and museum. Each is on Flickr with Creative Commons copyright. So feel free to do some better lines and/or more photos.

The chat show during the beerfest was ok but could have had more people visiting from nearby. The connections can be at any time and comms could be by phone but the images show the possibility of connecting buildings. Assume a network exists inside each one. Line of sight could be cable, could be wifi.

Obvious connection with Fieldworks by Juliet Robson in the Phoenix till 2nd Sept. This is about fields of vision and ways we perceive our environment. But why stop inside the gallery?

The next event at the Castle is on July 17th. I will be in Lancaster then so hope other people will do some video. Rougemont Global Broadcasting has a policy to link to other sources most of the time.

Charity Folk Fest Poster

My blog on New Exeter has links about reporting technology. Having seen video and sound loaded through an iPhone. Have a look here. I may turn up on Phonic sometime soon so the basis for this will be in the New Exeter blog. It may seem as a bit messy but will become clearer during the broadcast. Actual live radio works quite well.

The music from Beer At The Castle will take a while to sort out so meanwhile here are some links-

Barnfield Music Club

Alex Cross

Kerry Brux

Adelia

Cole Stacey

Mel Rout

The Old Porch Band

Isambarde

Exmouth Shantymen

Can't find Dave Wood so it fits in that he did not want to be recorded.

Cole Stacey will be at Dukes during Sidmouth.

Can't find Grandmas's Living Room. they will be at the Castle in July with Spin2 and The Pyrates. Any clues welcome if they would like a link.

YouTube updated with some talk from the Beer At The Castle event. It is getting closer to being a chat show. Probably it will have to be recreated over time. There is a lot of music to come later but it will take time to edit. There is a tape from the sound mixing desk but not sure where the sound is that different or what to do with it. Need to find some help on this. Best tradition of chat shows, the music comes at the end of the post.



Guy Wadsworth explains what the Castle is about and mentions another event in July when the music will include Spin 2, previously seen in the Castle through the wonders of Photoshop.



Carl Munson talks about a radio show on Phonic FM. He would allow a video camera to attend one Thursday morning. This could be a chance to follow up the discussion below with Simon Egan on music and visual art. Is there a viable way to offer some of it free online? Why is it more likely with music than visual art?

Towards the end Simon also talks about the beer.



The music loaded so far is only a sound check. More later.

Today is day two of Beer At The Castle and already I have loaded a video from yesterday. This is about as fast as news can happen I think. then there is the time for the audience to find it. Possibly by next year YouTube will be contributing to publicity for this event.



This video came from an AVI from a stills camera. There is video on tape but this takes a while to edit. Maybe months. But a lot of the music could be on there.

Previously I did some photo merging with backgrounds from the castle and Spin2 who were busking in the High Street the same day. They are not part of the official beer fest but on their MySpace page it says they will be at the FireHouse this evening. Not far away.

The NME has found the video but a bit late to help publicity much.

This year is just a test for next year really, it is never too soon to try to work out where it went wrong.

The House of commons debate on Digital Britain had some interest in the idea of a pilot for local news. There seemed to be a lot of support for Granadaland as a suitable location. Maybe we should benchmark on this. If Ben Bradshaw suggested Exeter was the ideal spot it might lead to comment. So some research in Granadaland could fit in somewhere. The Pyrates have a booking at a festival in Kendal and I am planning a trip to Lancaster. So something will turn up in this blog later.

Shakespeare's Monkey is photographing his coffee cup. Image covered by Creative Commons so could be printed out.

Thinking about a beer festival as a section of unusual time. One of the papers I do not yet understand is by Michel Foucault about Heterotopias or alternative spaces. He also mentions "heterochronies" slices of time they may be linked to. somehow this connects with learning theory and web design, unless I am just adding in my own take on an academic scene.

The actual event could be more like a fairground. The museum aspect may take over with the video edit.

Tuesday night was interesting. More reasons why news online can be slow. The mix of editing and/or getting permission for images takes a while. And events are not that clear when and if they happen. At The Shed in Princesshay there was the official launch of the art exhibit but it has been announced and postponed a couple of times previously so almost nobody was there till the end. I did take some photos but not sure yet whether to use them. The idea is for a talk about art with images in the shot. The stills could be used with people or avatars from somewhere else but maybe something else will happen tomorrow. Meanwhile here is a photo of a beer glass. Lager fans who find the lager has run out at Beer At The Castle may venture towards Princesshay. I think the galleries at the castle will be closed.



Later I went to an open mic at the Tiggas Bar. Hum has left Exeter at the moment so I will have to ask him later about image rights. I think it will be ok to use his work from MySpace. Sound seems ok on the video but not sure if people want this public. I will check next week or when they turn up next. Photo of David Gedrych meanwhile, video could be later.

I have loaded some updated notes to Scribd

Notes for Chatshow during beer At The Castle

Thing is I am not sure how much of this will actually be discussed by Saturday. Not enough preparation or notice. So I am now thinking about it as a test and some of the discussion will continue. The music video could suffer from poor sound for example. But the performers will turn up somewhere else later so there could be a link. Sidmouth Folk Week is another sort of timeframe. Interviews could be in Exeter during the morning. Buses to Sidmouth early afternoon are in time for much of the music. So another question is the times for buses to return. Will there be any late night buses as arranged a couple of years ago? Anyway this is off topic for the moment.

Scribd is more urgent as a topic. The reputation in UK media is as a pirate refuge. Too easy to load stuff up, too well connected for comments and links. But USA publishers have strated to use it for freebies and promotions. Also there is now an option to charge for stuff. Only in the USA however. Swizz or what?

Scribd intends to support EPUB and PDF. Pre-media and publishing could be projects for Exeter. The council may be right to ignore Flash given the 2meg target for the UK as announced by Carter. This is more on topic for this week.

Thinking more about text and books, it may be more difficult to cover. In Exeter there are two branches of Waterstones in the High Street, both with stock of Sony Reader. Also a Blackwell branch at the university campus but there are no plans for an ondemand book printing device as the site will close soon for redevelopment. Earliest date a couple of years as part of a relaunch. Also I have a cardboard replica of a Kindle. Not available in the UK so why all the fuss?

There has been a slight change with the Apple shop. It seems video is ok if no staff are included. Public statements are best coming from head office. But Princesshay is now to be treated more or less as public space. So you can photograph in the street equivalent.

Maybe we could find some video from somewhere else.

Opinion on what is a text and what should it cost could come from anyone.

Another search later it turns out that BBC content has been reworked for YouTube, with video and subtitles. What is wrong with this? Slicing up the BBC budget to keep keep existing models going is only one option. "Sharing" could mean more of a network that went a bit wider.

Other topics are more or less covered so the scope ccould include more on text, journalism and publishing. Books include images also but it seems to be words that are the basis. The talk around "Digital Britain2 so far has been mostly about how to preserve exisiting structures. Bigger fines for piracy, that sort of thing, today Peter Preston in the Observer suggests that BBC funds should be paid to newspapers for local news and other good work. No mention for bloggers, citizen reporters, funding some slightly better lighting for the average web video or indeed anything at all on the positive aspects of what web technology makes possible. Preston seems rather pleased that the MySpace business model might be losing market share and jobs. Why not look at the business model for OhmyNews? I have been sensing in text stories for a while now but how a similar approach could work with video is still an open question. I am not suggesting that all the stuff on YouTube is great. But a discussion would be useful that included the potential for all citizens to contribute. Most of the coverage and policy seems a bit limited. The idea that closing down BBC free news online would result in a rush of subscriptions for UK newspaper sites only makes sense for people who do not experience the news online from other sources. The UK is quite a small place, not as grand as seen by London media.

Also, whatever happened to the BBC archive? Some time ago there was an idea to make old clips available for a mashup etc. This seems much more sensible than anything recent.

A couple of searches later, it turns out the BBC Creative Archive stopped in 2006 but the Open University still has something.

There is now a post on animX about Breakpoint and John Whitney, both with Youtube clips to explain a bit. So this is a good start for a conversation.

Also I have borrowed a graphic from Ban The Wheel on MySpace. Should be ok as i have tried this before and Hum starts off from music as I understand it. His attitude to copyright is very clear. Hope to meet him during the week.

Trying out embed code from Acrobat.com



If you have some black ink in stock, should print ok. During Beer At The Castle the studios will be closed for health and safety reasons so there will not be as much artwork as there could have been. Maybe more graphics will turn up that could be printed out. Originals could be a problem if beer got to spill on them.

This post is about content but I am going to concentrate on animation in animX. this is about video, could be animation but mostly not really. "Compositing" : what is meant by this? Should this blog get confusing best to ask me to clarify during the Beer Festival next Friday and Saturday. Earlier the more sensible, conversation easier to hear before Isambarde go electric.

Breakfast today was free at Spacex, coffee and cakes. No news yet on the size of a new carving. But there are leaflets for EASTvideo, to reach Exeter in August. Video is a bit closer to music on the copyright scale. Closer than still images that is. Permission to photograph an oil painting is not very likely. Better stored away somewhere. But some video is online or a sample could be. Topics to cover include why this is so and is it changing?

Some links so far.

Two Quicktime web pages

Elizabeth McAlpine LIGHT READING Cinematic Explosions

Grace Schwindt The Chair

Some Youtube links, best fit

Patricia Esquivias, Folklore No. 1, 2006

Green Elephants

v kunst review 1

Appendix 2: Chce wyjsc ! Chce wrocic do domu + Warsaw View By Day

Teletaxi

Por Convencion Ferrer - A Film by David Jacques (Chapter 1)

Also

Kate Corder

Ursula Mayer Interiors

Laure Prouvost

Other link suggestions welcome.

It seems obvious to me that all this video will be better on a big screen than on however you find YouTube. So the consequence of some of it being public online will be to promote the event at Spacex. That is theory A. Discussion to be continued, possibly on camera but possibly not and not either soon or near.

I have done a very quick video on the new iPhone, available in Exeter. It is an inspiring idea about getting stuff on YouTube quite quickly. things have changed a bit too. It is not forbidden to photograph near Princesshay as was widely believed when it opened. So this has not got any staff opinions in it and should be ok. Links follow as the official explanation of video arrives on YouTube. I have seen a brief demo and it works well. You can select the part of the image to focus on. Editing is just clipping the beginning and end. No titles. But send to YouTube looks fast enough.

How many will be in Exeter for next weekend? Cameras already exist and a few days to edit and load makes not a lot of difference. That is my impression at the moment but things may change.



Also an interview with Jo Gedrych about Exeter TV and several about the Beer Festival.

I think this is the same {dweeb] appearing at the Cathedral as have a Youtube channel. The NightChurch project certainly is putting on music. The Jazz last week was excellent. Mostly standards so there was nothing too experimental. I did some extracts on YouTube, search on Cathdral Jaxzz or start here, The Way You Look Tonight.

A poster for the NightChurch event on 26th June is available for download.

Many things can happen over the same weekend. Maybe enough will be recorded to catch what you missed later on.

An actual meeting did happen at the Well House, part of a planning meeting for the Beer Festival. Some progress as I managed to get agreement for something to be quoted. "Exeter is the biggest village I have ever lived in" said Captain Gallows while handing out sample CDs of the Pyrates who still have a few unbooked dates over the summer. Exeter may be a regional capital but it is also a county town and actually the central part is not that big. It is possible to walk across most of it in a fairly short time. The loop between castle and cathedral is quite short and is a suitable set for photos or video. Taking in the Phoenix and the Apple shop suggests some tech for doing this. The Beer Festival 26/27 Junewill be just from the Castle though the Well House has a cider festival at the same time.

Discussion also covered the technology available in Bristol and a "non-conference" coming up in July called OpenMIC - a mobile innovation camp on 2nd July. This blog is about Wifi Exeter but we tend not to get too technical. Maybe we will just concentrate on content for a while and return to wifi around the time of openMIC. Proabaly there will be several blog updates on the same day, even a Twitter experiment. But things move more slowly once you get west of Bristol. Maybe some people visiting will have mobile phones with cameras etc but the plan is to work out a text guide over a month and then end up with a few three minute video clips.

The Pyrates will be part of Kendal Calling at the end of July. They would like to find some bookings near Lancaster on the way there and back, say Sat 1st August and/or 31 July. Kendal Calling have their own Youtube channel. Not updated so far for this year but it could be useful benchmark to compare hoe Exeter events are promoted. The Pyrates will be asked later for a full report on actual Kendal.

Rougemont Global Broadcasting -
draft notes for chat show during Beer @TheCastle 26/27 June

(this blog is mostly about bandwidth but content is in there somewhere)

RGB is a longterm project to develop video from Exeter. So far there is some text and some clips on YouTube. Mostly the standards are not of broadcast quality. Exeter TV is also on YouTube but with some sort of standard and resources for DVD production. The summer light is a chance to record some interviews and Exeter Castle is a suitable setting. so far the organisers of the Beer Festival have no objections to photography though some of the musicians prefer not to be recorded. We have previously done video from Sidmouth Folk Week where most people accept photography.

Topics will be developed during June and even late May.

Why is music an area where artists are fairly relaxed about copyright? Or put another way, why is print publishing so worried at the moment? Exeter has two Waterstones with the Sony Reader. Also Blackwell at the University where there may bean Espresso instant book machine. Will book culture have to change? The Analogue to Digital Music Expo showed that many people in music have already adjusted.

The RGB loop is between Castle, Phoenix Arts, Cathedral, Apple Store and back again. Photography near the Apple Store not welcome but Second Life is an alternative. The dynamic is to explore technology and content. At the Cathedral there has been recent video of Simon Pope on show at Spacex and also jazz concert. Apologies for the low production standards in both cases. The wind wrecks the sound for most of the talk about Carved From Memory and the lighting collapses soon after the concert started at 8pm. However there could be studio interviews with people who were on the walk and Cathedral Jazz will perform again some day. The approach around YouTube is to load what is available. An edit can come later.

Editing is a major topic. OhmyNews is a citizen journalism site in Korea. They concentrate on editing resource for stories sent in by readers. I have done a report about the Exeter Korean Film Week. How will the approach to text change as more news comes through video? On YouTube the audience can choose a sequence. Is there much use of worldtv?

See http://worldtv.com/rgb-loop/

There is much discussion on how local newspapers can survive current difficulties. Working with bloggers and other websites could be an option if there was a shared idea of network news. some finance needed for video. the costs are dropping but editing still takes time.

Visual Images are probably still more closely protected than text. Galleries rarely allow video of interviews near to artwork. However, sound is part of the art mix and also video can be seen as an exhibit. What sort of thing turns up on YouTube? Conversation can be around both the value of what is on YouTube and whether recognised work of value should remain in a gallery.

Other topics may crop up. Or all issues may have been resolved already through text. If the musicians welcome it the concentration may be on recording performances. But some of these questions are worth repeating.

Simon Egan has claimed on camera that he will be loading the soundtrack of "Fraud" to the Internet Archive. Can't be found at the moment but perhaps this statement was a deliberate deception. Expect a follow up question if he can be found during June.

contact Will Pollard will.pollard at gmail.com

links

http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/eedcamra/fest/summer/index.htm

advance tickets

* The Old Firehouse, Exeter
* Great Western, Exeter
* The Bridge Inn, Topsham


Isambarde The Kesh & Old England on YouTube

The Archbishop of Canterbury will visit Exeter during the same weekend

test from New Horizons

on Longbrook street so could be updated on where i am near the centre of Exeter. Twitter only works one in three so far.

This may seem a strange choice for this topic but I think the solution could be better access to photos from CCTV through some sort of network. The starting point is the possibility that trees are in danger in the Cathedral Yard not just because of Health and Safety issues but because of the need for clear lines of sight from CCTV cameras. I thought this was a wierd idea at first but then I did some Google searching and found the minutes of a recent meeting for Devon County Council.

Appendix II

To ECC/09/28/HQ

Key Issues identified at presentation on 12 December

--------------------------------------------(i) - (iii) missing here

(iv) Proposed tree planting: the positioning of trees was questioned because of concerns that CCTV views would be obstructed: the proposed trees around the relocated Memorial would also obstruct the view of the west front.

So it is least a possibility that CCTV concerns may have contributed to earlier discussions. As reported on the "This Is Plymouth" website, the reasons given for axing the trees were to do with the danger of branches falling off.

Cathedral authorities said consultants called in to examine the seven trees found they were all suffering from a “common structural fault” and had to be felled.

The cathedral took the advice after an incident the previous year when a branch snapped and took a lower branch with it.

Just in case CCTV may become an issue for the surviving trees, why not surround them with cameras? The scaffolding could be done with taste and the video stream made available to the public. Sound should be possible as well. Nowadays people share all sorts of information through Twitter. We have nothing to worry about if not breaking any laws so why not have more cameras as long as the results can be shared?

Raving on about the Guardian I realised I should explain more about local news and video. Sometime soon there could be a local resource with some sort of business model. not sure how this would work. But there is a discussion about local news that so far seems just to be about finding subsidies for a model that is under so much pressure it may not survive anyway. The Web can work with networks so new models could be relevant. YouTube is one example. To be continued.

This blog is mostly about bandwidth but this post is about content except the last bit so please keep reading. I think it will more or less hang together.

OhmyNews have published my story about the Analogue to Digital Music Expo. Usually there are about 4,000 readers for each story but I am not sure where they are. I am promoting this story as a connection of something local and something global. OhmyNews has a Korean base but a very wide audience,

I linked the Exeter event to Adventures in Technology in Bristol and the Sundown demoparty in Budleigh Salterton. The editors have picked out my comment about the Mac emphasis. What about the rest of us? Very nice but could it all be done a bit cheaper? etc etc these questions will turn up again. Also they choose a picture from Bristol for the front page. Google News finds Kat Marsh as the first picture in the story. It was pointed out that her performance shows the move from analogue to digital very clearly.





The Express and Echo is the other relevant result on Google News. I claim that citizen journalism has added something. But then again it takes me several weeks to do one story. Still if every citizen did an online story a month it would add to the rich mix of local media.

In Korea the OhmyNews site often gets several stories about the same event. Then some corrections and comments from readers. The English language site so far has rarely reached this level. But similar forms of communication do develop. Events like Sundown and Adventures in Technology are reported through online networks. My stories for OhmyNews are intended to show some connections. There is enough happening round the year for a news event to be claimed every few months.

The mentions for "South West England" in the sub headline and chip design towards the end may get some official attention. Why worry about the future when the retro interest is so strong. The main current concern is the difficulty of getting reliable equipment for the chip tune.

Another recent story in OhmyNews by Jean K. Min suggests that in Seoul people expect about 100meg broadband at home and will soon get 50 while mobile. When I started to write for OhmyNews about four years ago i thought they were about four years ahead with Web resources and working out what to do about it. They still are. Jean's blog is called "Planet Sized Brain".

Brother Pollard has returned to Exeter. He visited Southwark Cathedral last summer and then stayed on the south bank. Apparently Vibraphonic could be the explanation.

Not sure if this should be in wifiExeter, mostly about bandwidth, or in animX, mostly about content. soon there will have to be a way to match the blogs together.

While in London he visited the parks around the rivers and canals near the site for the Olympics. There are not yet enough wooden exercise resources in Exeter but there is still plenty of time.

I have joined New Exeter and posted some photos from the High Street


Find more photos like this on newexeter


Could do a video but this is supposed to be a site where people are sparing with resources. Also I am moving backwards towards the Sony Reader so greyscale photos are interesting, as is text. Script or outline to be sorted first.

Invite has arrived to join a New Exeter Group based on Ning. It looks interesting and includes links to Phonic FM. I have started a profile and explained an interest in a YouTube group for Exeter. Exeter TV may eventually appear much like old Exeter but there is not much sign of this at the moment. So "New Exeter" is to be welcomed.

Meanwhile Facebook are still categorising people from Exeter as if we lived in Plymouth. How many protest groups need to exist before they check their email? Nothing wrong with people from Plymouth of course, just that something clearly based in Exeter is suitable for some purposes.

As far as I know there is still no support for Flash on Exeter City Council websites. Will this policy change any time soon? My guess is that YouTube will soon be better regarded and it will clearly be a problem that Exeter has not got more of an online presence. The animX blog has pointed out some animation connections.

It seems possible that mobile devices could be sold and supported online. Will there be a need for so many shops? The Express and Echo has closed the office on Sidwell Street and suggest using the website as one way to contact them.

Perhaps the local papers will have more to say about Flash and YouTube?

More photos on Flickr

Thinking a bit more about it maybe there should just be acceptance for the fact that bandwidth in the UK is quite a lot slower than is often supposed or could be assumed by comparison with many other places. Perhaps Exeter City Council is right not to support Flash. At least they can support a lot of text. Recently I have been thinking about the ePUB format for the Sony Reader. This is mostly XHTML but there should soon be ways to move in text from most sources. The Sony Reader can import text files as well but then there is no contents page.

So rather than just raving on about how different things could be I think i will just concentrate on the text file (400k max as I remember from dial up days, not a bad target) as a project for the UK in general and Exeter in particular.

Lord Mandelson has started to blog and has an avatar in Second Life. Whatever next?

I have left a comment-

When you consider the creative industries there appears to be an expectation that Digital Britain has a chance to explore the potential of the internet. i think you should have a realistic view of UK bandwidth compared to other places in Europe and in Asia. The relative decline is now quite rapid. I write as a citizen journalist for OhmyNews based in Korea. My impression is that the UK is about 4 or five years behind. This is based on a conference they invited me to a while ago. The UK is now discussing the same sort of media topics they covered then. So I welcome your interest in bandwidth and creative industries but hope you start from some accurate info.

I doubt if he reads all the comments but you never know. Just having a comments facility is a step closer to the spirit of blogging. Who knows where this text ends up? Maybe nowhere except a Google server in a secret location.

The Western Morning News has launched a new blog feature, linking to other blogs in the region. So earlier views on a lack of connection between print and online will need to be reconsidered. Bloggers can only gain from the promotion in print. However I cannot find a comments feature so far. My plan is to continue blogging here and send an email.

The Saturday hard copy version of the Western Morning News revealed that a YouTube video about creatives in the South West had in fact been planted by the Regional Development Agency. So in recent days there has been developments in both blogs for print journalists and YouTube for local government.



What strikes me is that there is mention of Swindon, and Bristol and Plymouth as well as Cornwall but nothing on Exeter, where the RDA office is located. Maybe they think that YouTube and Exeter do not connect. I discovered last year when trying to get some interest in digital animation that Exeter City Council have no way to view YouTube as it depends on Flash. Currently there is no Flash content on the Exeter City Council website and there is no support for people who may want to view flash content in the Exeter City Council offices.

Meanwhile Adobe claim that Flash is available on most browsers. Quoted numbers seem to start at 95% and tend towards 98%. This must be a mistake surely. Could the entire 2% of not Flash browsing be somewhere in South West England? Unlikely to say the least.

During Animated Exeter or at any time of year there could be some links with blogs and online animation. I have put some suggestions on the animX blog. Ahead of next month, that is during Jan, it would be good to have some more discussion around the topics of Flash, YouTube, blogging and animation. I will send a link to this post to the RDA and Exeter City Council. Any comments are welcome, including link suggestions.