NLab Social Networks Conference – Panel

 

 

 

X-posted from custardether.co.uk

The conference concluded with a panel session consisting of Roland Harwood, Chris Meade, Vijay Riyait, Andrea Saveri. Here is a brief summary of the questions raised and some of the responses…

 

o.    How do you get people to see that these tools are not just time wasting devices?

-       more conferences

-       more opportunities for people to get together and learn form each other (both small and large businesses)

 

o.    What social networks would you keep?

-       Roland = Twitter and Facebook

-       Andrea = del.icio.us and blog aggregator

-       Chris = Facebook and the blog (as a platform for everyone to have their say)

-       Vijay = Facebook and Twitter

 

o.    What is the killer reason for cash-tight, small businesses to use social networks?  What is the commercial incentive?

-       depends on the business

-       saves money

-       most businesses are already doing social networking offline, but now they can do the same thing cheaper and quicker online

-       you wouldn’t expect a return on the plumbing, but the business cannot function without it

-       expand markets and jump out of small market niche

-       getting information/feedback

-       collaboration

 

o.    Do people get fed up?  Users are more savvy and will spot the agenda

-       people still want stuff and want it sold to them in a way that is authentic and relevant

-       there is always a competition when new technological developments come along, so it will sort itself out

 

o.    We haven’t addressed the massive shift in landscape (China has more graduates than we have children).  How much do you think social media will support this shift in landscape?

-       China has the large number of bloggers, so they are participating

-       The collaborative nature of the net means that people will swarm together

-       Anyone on the internet can make a change that will affect everyone else on the internet

 

o.    Social networking enhances relationships with customers and forces traditional businesses to think about how they do business.

-       we need case studies from academia to businesses

 

So, the final thoughts for the day?

 

Lots of mystique gets built up, but Andrea recommended that businesses pick one small, low risk thing to experiment with to find out what’s right for their business.

Blogging an Event

The experience of participating in an event, whilst drafting a blog post about it, was an interesting one.  In many ways, I wish I had done it at some of the various events I have attended over the last year of studying New Media as well, but in other ways I found it a difficult thing to do whilst being actively involved.  There is also something that feels very rude about typing whilst someone is talking – no matter how discretely one can do so.

 

The recent posts detailing the events of the CWNM Creative Retreat were written live, as it were, during proceedings.  I started out on the Friday making hand written notes throughout Professor Leahy’s lecture, but ran into difficulties when writing these notes up into cohesive prose.  My scribblings never quite make sense afterwards and my memory for the details of the convoluted arguments and discussions that evolve amongst this particular group of people is not great.  Therefore constructing a blog post as a running commentary as such discussions develop seemed like an obvious way of ensuring that I can capture more detail.  Throughout the remainder of the weekend I was therefore attached to my Mac, clicking away…

 

Summarising key points of discussion into sentences instead of note points whilst people were talking involved starting the sentences, then revising them as my understanding of the point clarified.  Using a computer to do this – with the flexibility to delete and re-jig – made this easier and less destructive in a way than using a note book – where crossings out (and the doodling temptations these inevitably lead to) can be quite an obstruction when reassembling notes in a logical format at a later stage. 

 

Generally I stuck to recording turns in the discussions and any key points/quotes made by specific participants – with very little reference to my personal views or interpretations.  The only account that differed from this method was my account of Christine’s talk, where she showed us a lot of her work.  This was a far more subjective talk to start with (being geared towards viewing art), so my own take on what was going on formed the bulk of this account, as I could hardly interpret it in any other way.  One method is obviously better than the other from an impartial, journalistic point of view, but that raises the question as to whether I was blogging about events at the retreat from a purely journalistic stance to provide information to those unable to participate, or whether I was blogging with more discursive intentions. 

 

As for feeling rude?  Well, I found myself consciously typing very lightly and looking up at the speaker far more than I would normally do whilst sitting with a paper notebook.  There was no doodling to be done.  There also appears to be a culture of multi-tasking with laptops during events surrounding New Media (as was apparent at the Women, Business & Blogging conference in the summer), which seems to be accepted by speakers and other participants without question.  Maybe we all just understand each other’s need to be plugged in?  Anyway, seeing others around who were far less visually engaged with the speaking event at the front (although obviously engaged in terms of content, as they were googling and following links through that were directly related) made me feel a little better about occasionally bashing out a quick sentence, then sitting back to listen again.

 

Maybe this means I am now firmly pacing the road towards becoming a conscious blogger?  Awareness of the process when writing any thing is usually the first step to acquiring the genre’s ice-skakes…

IF Book

Chris Meade gave us a talk about his move to the Institute for the Future of the Book (IF Book) and the different psychological reactions of different groups within the industry towards the whole idea of digital fiction – readers, publishers, writers, creators.  He introduced us to the type of background of Bob Stein has been involved in, his meeting with Stein which lead to his new job within IF Book, his move from the very traditional book world and the types of project the Institute is involved in – including Sophie and Comment Press. 

 

Chris gave us a brief background of the evolution of the technologies of publishing, including the introduction of paperbacks, which we heard about last year during campus week.  He also talked about the serendipity and physical space of a library – particularly how this can be retained as libraries can be increasingly stored digitally.  He was in New York last week to discuss these issues, so his description of this event and the ideas that were involved were very interesting.

 

Chris now has the challenge of working for IF Book in the UK, including considering how to monetize digital fiction and conducting experiments in publishing.  The background of the Institute seems to be more academic, so he is bringing a more fiction-orientated approach to this, based on his own work and experience on the MA.  Monetizing our work is a major issue to us as digital writers so ideas about how to achieve produced quite a lot of discussion.  The various commercial models for doing this – with reference to the music industry and Radiohead’s recent ploy, which Janine was able to give interesting insight from her experiences in that industry.  My own dissertation idea about linking a creative piece into a real world commercial project is one example of how this could be achieved – using the online writing as a loss leader in a project that makes its profit in other ways.

 

The issue that technological developments are viewed as “the death of the book” and that there is some how an either/or result to this process is one that we agreed was simply not the case – and that the development will not be just focused on the physical device people use (such as an e-reader).  Actually there are already examples of paperbacks and the internet being used in partnership – either on a marketing or creative level. 

 

Chris showed us a visual piece created by an artist – Orson Whales – who painted on the pages of Moby Dick to create like a flick-book animation with sound, which was another way of reusing the traditional technology of the book in digital way.  This reminded me a lot of Mark Leahy’s work that he discussed yesterday.  This is the type of work that Chris is exploring as part of his work for IF Book.

Looking Back, Moving Forward

Jo and Alison kicked off the student-led element of retreat with a talk about their work and experiences of the course.  Jo took us through her various projects and explained what she is doing beyond the course, whilst Alison talked about the iwritestoriesonline.com project and her experiences with the creative non-fiction module on the course.  The iwritestoriesonline.com website has been designed to give people a platform to write stories or short snippets of life in a blog, in an environment where the blogs are linked to form a community of writers.  Toni is really the driving force behind the tech side of this, but Jo and Alison showed us the page and discussed their ideas for this collaborative project.     

 

The discussion lead on to their experiences collaboration to fill in the gaps in their own skills and how, as writers, we need to think outside the box in terms of what we want to do (or expand the envelope as Michael put it) so that our writing and story ideas can push the technology – even if the technology does not currently allow for an idea to work with the existing tools.  We also talked about Machinima, Alison’s attempts at this in The Sims and the way that Machinima is developing outside of the gaming world to produce more meaningful stories for those outside this culture.

 

Alison discussed the success of Staying Single, how she promoted it and where she wants to take the story now – including a talk she has been asked to give at a conference in New York.  She had a lot to talk about following her research project into the attitude of publishers and the responses she got from publishers when she contacted them to discuss digital fiction.  Jo made a very valid point about the push for literary fiction in the digital realms rather than the more popular fiction and how that is affecting the type of work that is being produced.  Alison’s experience with Staying Single in terms of the cross over between escapism and participation – which is obviously not what those readers come to chick lit for – shows how this cross over is a blurry kind of area.   

 

We then got a bit deep talking about truth – or Truth – and how this relates to fiction – including Alison’s decision to admit that her blog was a fictional story, how she came to that decision and what effects this had on the readership for the project.  This is a pretty central issue for all of us writing all sorts of fiction – whether new media in format or more traditional.  Ultimately we are playing with people’s beliefs and trust when we are writing fiction… asking them to suspend belief either consciously or unconsciously.

 

Interesting stuff! 

a grockle in new york

Well, I have to say, it finally got to me: the grockle tendency which inhabits all of us when we travel. I have the camera, the hat, the armful of leaflets, the suncream that smells of dulux… all one really needs to be a tourist. A grockle, as those in the West Country might say.

I should now really do the new-media-tourist thing and blog about the exciting things I have seen and done – including all recommendations and links etc. During the Women, Business & Blogging conference, Jess spoke about how blogs are often used as a kind of human filter for all the stuff that is out there. I did not really appreciate this use of blogs until moving to Word Press, which provides me with far more stats about my readers and how they get here. People are out there looking for things: blogs provide human summaries of those things through experience and opinion.

So, here are my brief experiences and opinions following my visit to New York over the last week – in true web 2.0 grockle style!

The Down Town Tour:

I am a bad person to review any tour, as I become a profession-snob as soon as someone else takes the microphone. Our open top tour of Down Town New York took far longer than planned due to UN week traffic and included two tour guides. The first really wanted everyone off the bus at the stop at which we boarded. He proceeded to sit behind us, rambling in quick-time-new-york tones about people and ball players we had never heard of, whilst pointing out random buildings which we had already passed. The second guide was better, but really only gave soundbites of information whilst repeatedly reminding us of his name, the driver’s name, safety and tips.

See? Profession-snob! No mention of the route of the tour, the sites we took in or anything! I will restrain myself.

The down town tour included Times Square, China Town (where we saw this great Macky D’s), Greenwich Village, Wall Street (where other grockles were taking pictures of each other at the bull’s behind :S), Diamond District, Garment District… basically, all the accessible areas of lower Manhatten. Diversion and traffic plagues the bus as UN diplomats moved around the city, but otherwise it was good to see so much from up high without the stress of people and cabs.

Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty/Harbour Cruise:

All of the above in one go. This trip was at the request of my youngest sister to help with her A Level courses. Unfortunately, she went round like death all morning having drugged up on travel-sickness medication. Sorry, I mean “meds” – must get with the lingo!

We decided not to get off at boat at the Statue of Liberty, as we got plenty of photos from the approach. Ellis Island was quite another matter. A free museum on the island chronicles immigration to the US through NY, particularly those experiences relating to the people who were checked into the country through the facilities at Ellis Island. I could certainly have spent a while day at the museum – it covers social history, immigration patterns across the world… all sorts! Not a place to go with any person who does not like museums though – speaketh bitter experience here

Wicked (@ The Gershwin Theatre, Broadway):

FANTASTIC show! Want to go again already! The soundtrack CD (currently playing) has been providing one of my main distractions from constructive thought ever since (as I don’t appear to be able to think and listen to lyrics at the same time). Some of the numbers were much more musically complex than one would expect in a musical, but the storyline was very clever and the light show extremely effective. I came away desparately wanting to write something with that much passion. Everyone should go see it!

Bodies:

I pretty much rail-roaded my sisters into accompanying me to this exhibition. I had to study photographs from it as prompts in a poetry class once, and despite the initial repulsion which affected me at that time (when it was still very controversial) I couldn’t help myself wanting to see it in the flash, so to speak.

The exhibition consists of models made from human bodies, using a technique involving polymers and acids. The idea was to de-construct the human body and show our inner workings – the way the public dissections did during the renaissance – making anatomy more real and tangible than mere textbook diagrams. The ones created by injecting a red polymer into the blood vessels of donated bodies, then removing the flesh to leave a cost of the circulatory system were actually extremely beautiful. I think I will blog about this separately on another occasion, as there is so much more I could say….

Night Tour:

Another open top tour, which took us around part of the down town loop and then across to Brooklyn to see the lights of the Manhatten skyline. The guide was much better and the views stunning – although I discovered that my night photography skills leave much to be desired. Coming across the Manhatten Bridge on an open top was much like riding a rollercoaster – the side of the bus was very close to the edge of the bridge, with the associated sheer drop on the other side. My hair was a little wind-frizzled by the end, but it was definitely worth it.

Uptown Tour:

As if I had not spent enough time on an open top by this stage (is it possible to spend too long on an open top?) I had to go one last tour, which took us Uptown through Harlaam, Columbia University and round Central park. This featured the best guide of the lot, who had quite a dry sense of humour and attitude towards politics (“we don’t go to war under false pretences anymore, of course”). He gave the most informative tour I have heard in a good while – including the background to Hell’s Kitchen, the details of the project to build the largest stone cathedral in the world (currently ongoing since the 1800’s) and how Ella Fitzgerald started out in the Apollo Theatre. My only criticism was that he was evidently a tape recorder: if he got distracted or interrupted, he had to go back to the beginning of his story and repeat it word-for-word, intonation and everything. You know what though? I actually didn’t mind!

Macy’s/Times Square:

Several trips were made to both Macy’s and Times Square during our stay. The highlight of Macy’s (for me) was the wooden escalators towards the top of the building. Apparently these are not permitted in the UK any more, following the Kings Cross fire in the London Underground. Using the ones in Macy’s felt like stepping into a Terry Pratchett novel – using something inherently modern, presented in a medieval way. Times Square was just a mass of lights and advertisements – fun, but crowded. As Forest Gump would say, “that’s all I have to say about that”… except that they did have a restaurant called Bubba Gump Shrimps!

So, there you have it: a potted account of our trip to the Big Apple, just in case you were interested!