Making the web work for you

Collaboration & Sharing

goHI Festival in Inverness7th September 2006

David Bausola

Project Manager for Strategic New Media Projects

Channel 4 New MediaLondon

What I do

Develop software briefs with the producersIdentify the technical pitfalls

Design solutionsManage the development of softwareDeliever the software to the platformMake the Commissioners look good!

What I don’t do..

Make the ‘content’Design the websiteManage the websiteMarket the website

What I’ve seen

• Projects that try to control users do fail– Projects that help users grow

• The audience love to give their feedback– It makes better products

• People love to participate with brands– The sense of belonging

• Small mistakes make you learn..– Big mistakes cost you an audience

Web Vs. Web

Web 1.0• Branding• Customers• Selling• dot.com madness

Web 2.0• Dialogue• Social Networks• Co-production• Web service freeness

Web 1.0 was “Editorially Controlled Media”

Web 2.0 is “User Generated Media”

No More “User Generated Content!”

Artists don’t make ‘Content’.

Please, lets call it “Authentic Media”

http://www.powazek.com/2006/04/000576.html

Web Vs. Web

Web 1.0• Branding• Customers• Selling• dot.com madness

Web 2.0• Dialogue• Social Networks• Co-production• Web service freeness

Freeness?

But not as in Free BeerFree as in free to participateNo restrictions to participate

It’s about sharing your ideasAnd ideas can be your creations.

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

What is Web2.0?(No one is sure, but here’s a few clues..)

There lots and lots and lotsof services that can help you

collaborate

Go and Experiment!

www.programmableweb.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=77494864&size=lhttp://webosphere.wordpress.com/

Software types do breed!

• Main software functions– Bookmarks– Mapping– Repositries

• And there are Mashups– Mixing different types of

functionality

Why share your media?

• Sharing is like a conversations • Conversations are like markets• No one has all the skills • Share what you can do • You cant share what you dont own• Let people show your work to others.

Sharing creates collaboration

How to collaborate

• Offer what you enjoy doing– If it feels like work, it is work– Open projects are fun!

• Be open to suggestions– No one is as wise as a community

• Do reviews– Participate whenever you can – you’ll be

surprised how welcome you are

How to give

• Understand what licences are for– Enables you to share– Makes it clear you want to be attributed

How to give

• Understand what licences are not for– Collecting royalties

How to give

• Creative Commons BY-SA– Ignore all other versions– Allow people to use your work commercially

www.creativecommons.org

Being Open

• Does not mean giving all your rights away• Does not mean losing control of identity• It means, be willing:-

– To discuss– To exchange– To participate

Substainable projects

• Look for scaffolding– What help do you really need?

• Read The Small Print– Billy Bragg & Myspace

• The result of the collaboration must feed back into the project

• The result of the collaboration must be free to move elsewhere too

Substainable projects

Some examples..

Blogging

• It’s easy• It’s free• It helps you develop your ideas

– Like a greenhouse

• Shows others what you are going through• Show others what you can do• Blogs are your ‘voice’ – if you dont resist

Free Blog tools

• Blogger • Wordpress• Typepad

How to write a good blog

• Of interest to you..– Then it will be constructed well– Be attentive to the subject matter

• If tended to, daily..– Then it will find popularity– You will find your like-minded audience

• You are not alone!– But you are unique

Social Networking

• It’s a way to connect to people• You’re connections can be telling• Create a context for yourself• It’s marketing at a human level

Where to Network

• MySpace – teens, music and comedy• Bebo – teens• Friendster – broad range• Linkedin.com – media/corporate• PeopleAggregator – is new..

Social Networking

www.linked.com

Peer 2 Peer

• Peer 2 Peer Networks is about:-– Sharing files– Sharing data– Reccommending something– Starting a conversation

• Peer 2 Peer Networks is not about:-– Piracy– Getting stuff for free

Peer 2 Peer examples

Web 1.0• Napster• Limewire• SoulSeek

Desktop software

Web 2.0• YouTube• Bit Torrent• Flickr

Web services

YouTube

• Is Great!• It’s Free!• It’s fun to use!

• Poor quality video

www.youtube.com

Wiki

• Wikis are websites that anyone can read and write the pages

• Wikis are simple to use• All the presentation/design is done for you• You just add your ideas• Don’t be afraid that someone will edit your

text.– They will!

So, how do these tools help artists?

• Use these systems to build your own projects from scratch– All the free tools work with each other

• Communicate through a blog– Get your views out there

• Share assets through peer 2 peer– Enrich your resources

• Collaborate on a Wiki

Non Substainable Projects

• Purely Community content• No professional intervention• No ability to export your contribution

Collaborative Movie

Collaborative Movie

• Elephants Dream [Link][Video]– Community designed everything– Everything is available for reuse– 98% perfect (not enough professional help)

Collaborative Thinking

Collaborative Thinking

• Wikipedia [Link]– Core admin team and ‘cleaners’– Bulk of content comes from Community– Impossible to extract your contributions

Collaborative Art

Collaborative Art

• We Feel Like [Link]– Blogs act as the source to the project– You can use the system to build your own– Constantly evolving because of Open media

Showing Docs

Almost cool Docs

• FourDocs [Link]– Licencing is set for showing not sharing– Community left to it’s own support– You need professionals to assist on projects

• This is real value• More important than exposure• Artists need to develop• Quality will shine more than marketing

Cool Scottish Stuff

I needed an image for my blog...

• I went to Creative Commons• Search for Inverness Tags on Flickr

– That had Creative Commons licence

• Chose the nicest picture I could see• Edited it and uploaded to my Blog• Emailed the owner to say thanks

– ‘cos I’m a nice guy!

The image belonged to Calum!

• He reblogged the fact that I used his image• He sent me traffic• His image is now seen by my audience • And my blog has been seen by his• No commercial arrangement• We both benefit through attention

It’s a small world......but I wouldn’t want to paint it (Steven Wright)

The web lets you work together

• Software companies want you to collaborate• They not so interested in owning your work• They are interested in Metadata• Metadata is tags, reviews and traffic stats

http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2006/08/6_months_and_20.html

Diagram by David Armano

Work together and been seen

• Build communities• Use the right licences• Make creative use of these tools• Learn to craft your online voice• Share your experiences• Learn from each other• More detail the better!

Thank you, for sharing your time.

David Bausoladbausola@channel4.co.ukdavidbausola@gmail.com

Copy of this presentation is available from my blog:www.zeroinfluence.wordpress.com