Critical Distance Weblog

Cuts in Public Service Broadcasting in Hilversum

2012-01-24T11:49:00.000+01:00

Wandered in for a while to the Netherlands Public Broadcasting New Years Reception. I thought it rather bizarre that the table at the entrance had cuts of meat on it and someone chopping and slicing things at the back, but apparently I was the only one who saw the ironic connection. It looks to me as though the NPO has not updated its mailing list in a while because few of the current influential politicians turned up to meet and greet.

NPO Director Henk Hagoort lashed out at the politicians in the Hague of all political parties warning them that public broadcasting is for the public and decisions on programming are made in Hilversum, not the Hague. The problem is that many public broadcasters have become very distant from their audiences. Unlike the UK, the NPO has no NPO Trust where the public can at least have some input and influence on what they think of the programmes. There is no licence fee system anyone. It all comes out of general taxation. I describe it to foreign broadcasters as a classic case of government pay-TV.

Some of the Dutch public broadcasters run a loyalty scheme based on the ancient idea that people want to become a member of a broadcasting organisation in order to get hold of programme details - mainly for TV. The problem is that these broadcasters do not represent all sections of society. And the NPS, NOS, FunX and NPO seem to be answerable to no-one.

In his speech, Henk quoted a figure of 200 million streams being delivered in 2011 by the website "Missed the Transmission". Actually, that's not a lot of streams, since it only represents attempted streams that were started - not whether someone watched the programme all the way through. Only now has the audience research organisation started to issue the Internet stats on a daily basis - and the figures drop off dramatically after the top three shows. Listening to radio transmissions after broadcast is not given the same prominence. I see they have revamped the site radiocast.nl. at the same time removing the stats. Was it because they were embarrassingly low? They could take a leaf out of the BBC in this respect, who publish the monthly figures.

Hyperlocal isn't useful in the Netherlands

2012-01-24T11:32:00.004+01:00

Been analysing the attempts to get hyperlocal sites going in the Netherlands. The results are mixed. I think they contribute something to local news gathering in the East of the country (well away from Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht) but in the media city area of "het Gooi" the news is rather useless. This morning there came the news that a jeweller in Bussum had been robbed. But no details of what had been taken, or if there was anyone injured in the robbery were available. So what's the point? Has the street been closed so traffic cant get into Bussum? We're not told. In previous weeks they have posted video on Dichtbij.nl ( which means Nearby) but these are just raw pictures of police clearing up after traffic accidents (no commentary) and I don't see what it adds to the news story, except an element of voyerism. I cannot believe that local businesses really want to be involved. Compare that with the Kings Cross Blog in London which is run by the community, for the community, and attracts up to 500 readers a day. I'm sure they read it.

Dutch equally at risk of Internet censorship

2012-01-18T12:37:00.001+01:00

I find it strange that the Dutch wikipedia has not organized a similar protest at the court decision in the Hague against the Internet access providers XS4ALL (pronounced access for all) and Ziggo. The action, brought about the copyright Foundation Brein, means that these providers have 10 days in which to block access to the Swedish Pirate Bay site plus a number of other domains and subdomains supplied by Brein.

What concerns me the most is that the judge gave Brein the right to add to this list without having to go back to court again. XS4ALL says they will appeal.

I'm not advocating piracy of content. But I do believe that the Brein Foundation has imposed an unacceptable level of control over what I can and cannot see. This is the same complaint that has closed Wikipedia in English today. This sets a major precedent.

If Brein can do it, may the the rights organisations BUMA/STEMRA as well? In my eyes, BUMA lost all credibility following a corruption scandal last month. At least in that case the public broadcaster Powned did a piece of original investigative journalism and recorded a conversation between BUMA board member Jochem Gerrits and the lawyer of composer Melchior Rietveldt who claims BUMA owes him at least €1m in lost copyright fees. In the course of interview, Gerrits offered to raise the matter in return for keeping a third of the money to be paid out.

It seems incredible that the Dutch government is able to grab some of the headlines with an international debate on Internet freedom held together with Google last year. Yet when a judge in the "city of justice" as The Hague likes to promote itself, passes this ludicrous finding there is no comment from the government at all. Nor press or media attention on anything like the scale we're seeing about SOPA. It negates most of what was in Rosenthal's speech speech last May. The silence is doing a lot to destroy the guarantees that Holland has been dishing out of Internet freedom if you host your content on servers in the Netherlands.

Bizarre in the extreme. I'm furious!

Rediscovering CC Crane at CES 2012

2012-01-16T23:06:00.000+01:00

I love connecting the past with the present, especially as everything is often new again. In the days when I hosted a wireless show for Radio Netherlands, we often featured medium-wave listening from the powerhouses like Radio Luxembourg to the rare stations which were only logged under very quiet solar conditions or during DXpeditions to the Arctic. If you click on either of those two links you can listen to or download those programmes right now. But I digress.

While travelling in the States I picked up the great General Electric SuperRadio II (photo above) which had a superb set of speakers on it and a great receiver inside. And all for under US$50. I paid 39 bucks for it at a discount store in Virginia.

If you have one, hang on to it. If you want to know more, check out this excellent link to David Moison's site. It was produced from the late 1980's until 1994 when it was replaced by the (less good) Superradio III. They were all made in China to a US spec, but I never saw them in Europe. Perhaps because the sets never did longwave or that the mains power was integrated into the set and was only 120 volts. But that didn't matter to me because the other thing about it was that the batteries lasted for ever. My set lasted for 15 years until the dial cord snapped out of sheer wear and tear and I didn't have access to David's site to know how to fix it properly. I hope Joe's Radio Page will forgive me for lifting their photo.

When the Superradio disappeared, the only serious contender that came anywhere close was produced by a northern Californian firm called C.Crane. They modified radios made by Sangean and came up with a series of very sensitive AM sets, which also perform well on the 2 metre ham band. I have one of the early versions. The price has come down to 150 US Dollars and they say they have tweaked the CCRadio-2 for better AM performance.

I lost touch with the company but remembered the name when they were popped up at CES 2012. Seems they are still around, operating out of an unassuming warehouse in Fortuna, in the wilds of Humboldt County, California. Leo Laporte interviewed them on his tour of one of halls and it was then I discovered their fascination with long-distance wifi.

I travel a lot and often find the WiFi in the hotel to be less than satisfactory. C Crane make a USB WiFi antenna which plugs into a Mac or PC laptop and vastly improves the reception (and therefore the throughput) of the WiFi. It hang over a curtain rail with a lanyard or you can use suction cups to fix it to a window. The antenna costs just under 110 dollars and comes with a split USB cable, so if you have two USB ports on the computer you can get even better reception by using both.

There are also circumstances where it would be useful to connect two buildings with wifi. C Crane also sell a kit which can connect buildings up to 5 km away - the range really depends on the local terrain. If the antenna's can't see each other, then forget it. Their preconfigured set up costs around 300 US dollars including the directional antennas shown above.

WiFi Mystery at the Hilversum Starbucks

2012-01-16T11:35:00.002+01:00

I remember reading last year about the roll out of free Wifi at Starbucks in the UK, following a trend in the US and Canada. Yes the coffee is outrageously expensive, but you can get out the iPad or the MacBook Air and catch up with e-mails or check the website of the next destination. The idea of free WiFi is still alien to most Dutch hotels, even though Amsterdam and the surroundings is bidding for more and more business from the creative industries and hosts major media related exhibitions like ISE and IBC.

Starbucks came late to the Netherlands. The first store opened in 2007 inside Schiphol Airport, expanding to 5 premises in the airport premises. The next step was to expand to locations at train stations. Three popped up in Amsterdam, one each in Leiden, Den Haag, Utrecht, and Groningen. Late last year Starbucks arrived at Hilversum station, billed as Holland's Media city although we're still waiting to find out the long-term ambitions of the city council.

Time to try out a Chai Tea Latte. And a muffin. And the WiFi. Ah, no. "You can't have a WiFi code because we don't have WiFi! " says the Starbucks server with a smile. Why not? Because the building is owned by Dutch railways (NS) and they have done an exclusive deal with KPN Hotspots who charge ordinary customers 1.15 Euros for 15 minutes of connection time.

What most people don't know is that if you have an Internet account with providers like XS4ALL or KPN, access to 1000 of these WiFi hotspots in the Netherlands is actually free. I know because I found the text buried on the third page of the KPN Hotspots website. That would apply to me. Except that there's no WiFi signal in the Hilversum Starbucks that my iPad can detect. It's WiFi- free rather than free WiFi. Oh, well. When will it change? The store manager says he hopes the contract will be changed by the end of 2012. Until then, the KPN Hotspot seems to be at the snack bar round the corner in the station foyer. Believe me, you don't want to get out an iPad anywhere there.

How will SOPA impact foreigners?

2012-01-15T15:18:00.002+01:00

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, several techblogs highlighted legislation being discussed in the US Senate and the House. There are three pieces of legislation in fact, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the Digital ENforcement Act (OPEN) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). If passed, they give the US government and corporations the ability to censor the net, all in the name of protecting "creativity", they just have to convince a judge that the site is "dedicated to copyright infringement".

The US government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything they believe is copyrighted in it, or what sites like YouTube, Vimeo and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behaviour. Because of the sheer volume of video being uploaded by the public, some providers like YouTube are already struggling with take-down notices from entertainment companies. They take down a video first, and then there's a long and complicated procedure before the video is restored...uploaders are guilty first until proved innocent. There have been cases where clips used as part of a fair-use policy in shows like TechNews Today have resulted in entire episodes being taken down.

Other websites like Americancensorship.org have been set up to explain what's going on and gather support to oppose this legislation.

The sad fact is that the fix being proposed won't stop downloading, but it does set a precedent for dangerous government and industry meddling in the way the Internet works. It stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices at a point where other forms of legitimate downloading are starting to prove their worth.

Apparently, some in Washington DC are beginning to realise what this means. On Saturday Jan 14th, Obama administration officials signaled that the White House would not support parts of the two bills.

While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet. Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small. Across the globe, the openness of the Internet is increasingly central to innovation in business, government, and society and it must be protected.

Our analysis of the DNS filtering provisions in some proposed legislation suggests that they pose a real risk to cybersecurity and yet leave contraband goods and services accessible online. We must avoid legislation that drives users to dangerous, unreliable DNS servers and puts next-generation security policies, such as the deployment of DNSSEC, at risk.Let us be clear—online piracy is a real problem that harms the American economy, and threatens jobs for significant numbers of middle class workers and hurts some of our nation's most creative and innovative companies and entrepreneurs. It harms everyone from struggling artists to production crews, and from startup social media companies to large movie studios.

The Whitehouse goes on to indicate it will host an online event to get more input. I wonder if that will include discussion of the recent case in the UK of Richard O'Dwyer, a student at the University of Sheffield who faces extradition for providing a site that linked through to US TV shows. So far the UK government has not commented. Whilst the Whitehouse statement has clear arguments against the proposed legislation, I am very concerned at the new legal tools being drawn up and described below.

While we are strongly committed to the vigorous enforcement of intellectual property rights, existing tools are not strong enough to root out the worst online pirates beyond our borders. That is why the Administration calls on all sides to work together to pass sound legislation this year that provides prosecutors and rights holders new legal tools to combat online piracy originating beyond U.S. borders while staying true to the principles outlined above in this response.

To minimize this risk, new legislation must be narrowly targeted only at sites beyond the reach of current U.S. law, cover activity clearly prohibited under existing U.S. laws, and be effectively tailored, with strong due process and focused on criminal activity. Any provision covering Internet intermediaries such as online advertising networks, payment processors, or search engines must be transparent and designed to prevent overly broad private rights of action that could encourage unjustified litigation that could discourage startup businesses and innovative firms from growing.

Victoria Espinel, Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator at Office of Management and Budget, Aneesh Chopra, the U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Assistant to the President and Associate Director for Technology at the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Howard Schmidt is Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator for National Security Staff.

The devil will certainly be in the details. If the BBC World Service or BBC World News is looking for subject matter to debate, then this is surely a great example where an global perspective is needed to resolve the problem.

VC4Africa reflects on first year - and into 2012

2012-01-14T07:46:00.000+01:00

VC4Africa is one year old in its present form, though the idea has been around with co-founders Ben White and Bill Zimmerman for a lot longer. After experimenting with the ning platform, they (like me) were disappointed in the spam problem and decided to build their own platform. At a meeting last Friday they showed me all kinds of new features they are building for the coming quarter so they can tailor the functionality of the site to match the needs of both African entrepreneurs and investors. As bandwidth opens up on the continent, especially later in 2012, I'm helping the team with some experimental video projects. We're actually working from the premise that video isn't needed at all, unless it can add something to the story. Ben White recently gave a presentation which explained very clearly the thinking behind VC4Africa, why it's needed, how it's working with collaborative teams across the continent, and what's been achieved in such a short time so far. I confess to being very impressed by their ability to work WITH entrepreneurs rather than FOR them. This is turning sharing of expertise into a sustainable business model. Enjoy.

Solar Progress at CES 2012 Las Vegas

2012-01-13T21:41:00.000+01:00

Been looking at the US Consumer Electronics Show currently taking place in Las Vegas from the viewpoint of the traveller working in areas with poor mains power. Frankly, I am not so much interested in the OLED displays, even though they look spectacular. We don't know the price of these beasts and (TV’s are getting thinner to a point where they are too thin to connect quality cables!). But I am really fascinated about at how solar power chargers have matured.

This Week in Tech carried and excellent interview with Joe Atkin from Goalzero.com. They are making very efficient 7 watt/hr solar panels about the size of an iPad which cost 99 dollars and will charge 4 AA batteries in 3-4 hours. That’s significantly better than the chargers I have played with recently at IBC in Amsterdam. The company is now 50 people and was originally set up to build relevant technology for a solar lighting start up in Kinshasa.

These solar kits are interesting for the individual traveller. But I was also impressed by larger chargers that GoalZero are making, especially as they could be used by reporters working at radio/TV stations affected by natural disasters. Frankly, many of the solar battery chargers I picked up on a duty trip to Tanzania turned out to be pretty useless. They were too small and took the best part of the day in the blazing sun in Dar Es Salaam to charge some penlights - and then I wasn't confident that they'd done the job. However, I'm a bit more confident with the new Sherpa 50 portable re-charger, which weighs in at 408 grams and will easily fit into a back-pack. Whereas the 7 watt units mentioned above will recharge a phone, they are not large enough to power a laptop. That's where the 50 watt charger comes in handy.

The Sherpa features a “Power Port” so you can charge laptops directly from the re-charger, rather than using a rather inefficient AC inverter which outputs at 110/220 V and then using the original laptop charger. The Sherpa includes various connector cables that fit laptops and in addition to the “Power Port,” the Sherpa 50 offers DC and AC (with inverter) outputs if you do need mains electricity. They have upgraded USB power ports so they now produce 1A of power – enough to provide two extra hours of entertainment on an iPad or tablet device.

The manufacturer says the Sherpa 50 charges fully via a solar panel in 5-10 hours (depending on the location) or within 2-3 hours via a AC wall outlet and can, in turn, power a smart phone for 10 hours; deliver 25 hours of usage on an iPod; and gives users a valuable, extra hour of life on a dying laptop when a traditional wall outlet is nowhere in sight. I'm thinking of using such a unit in East Africa, so I'm not worried about the lack of sun even if a monsoon hits. It is going to cost US$250 (without the solar panels) and will available as from June 2012.

The final product in the range is considerably more expensive, but then it's designed to power a small production office for long enough to bridge most power cuts. At 47 kg it's not something you want to lug around in a suitcase. But it's a useful replacement for a small diesel generator and it's better because it is silent and it doesn't produce any more power than is needed (diesel generators waste power if they are not fully loaded). It's going to take around 22 hrs of sunlight to fully charge this beast, or just under a day if there is mains electricity. The Yeti is coming out in May 2012, either as a single unit for US$1500 dollars or with a set of solar panels and a carrying cart for US$ 2000.

I helped review and enhance an excellent publication on energy sources for radio stations which came out last year. Written by Michael Bycroft, it is still available (the PDF version is free) in English and French from the CAMECO website, although I think it's rather tucked away unless you know what you're looking for. Tells you all you need to know about alternative energy sources that are relevant for African radio stations (and small businesses).

Fire Alarm at BBC Radio 5 today

2012-01-11T22:23:00.000+01:00

Dramatic? Memorable? Nail-biting finish? Er no....shows they are not really prepared.

Mixed Commercial Messaging

2012-01-08T21:56:00.005+01:00

I confess I don't understand the outburst on recent edition of the BBC Radio 4 programme "World at One" by John Tusa. He seems to think that a tiny piece of advertising on the Berlin relay on BBC World Service (where currently promos for programmes are slotted in) is somehow a threat to the editorial independence of the World Service.

Former BBC WS MD John Tusa may be correct in that the Berlin relay won’t raise much of the 3 million pounds that BBC World Servce radio is trying to raise this year to partly offset the drastic budget reductions announced nearly a year ago. But for years, ads alongside BBC World Service radio output have been heard on many stations that partner with the external broadcaster. Some stations insert their own commercials at 29 and 59 minutes past the hour when London carries programme promos. That's common in Africa where the local stations need to generate revenue because they are not subsidized by the government. Infact these countries will probably never be able to finance the public service broadcast model that survives in parts of Europe, like the UK, Belgium and Germany.

But what's wrong here? Are the radio presenters and editors in London aware that this is happening? Even if they are, do the adverts have any bearing on the editorial decisions being made in Bush House - and later this year in Broadcasting House? No.

BBC World Service has always been looking for ways to supplement its income by charging some stations that can afford it. Stations in the US pay a fee to Public Radio International to rebroadcast programmes from BBC World Service. Companies can also sponsor these relays as PRI is happy to explain on it's website. Again, these activities don't have any bearing on the editorial content coming out of London.

Mind you, none of this is new at all. I recall a clip from the very same John Tusa broadcast by Media Network on January 22nd 1988 (yes almost 24 years ago) in which there were definite plans to make money out of content - he even quotes a figure of how much money they thought they could earn. The clip is only a few minutes by the way. Also note that this was the point at which cable systems in the Netherlands switched off their relays of BBC 648 kHz in favour of a satellite feed.

There are some interesting variations in order to squeeze in commercials into the output from Bush House. There has been a MW relay in Auckland, New Zealand of BBC World Service since the late 1990's. It is run by a local group of enthusiastic fans who have developed a clever system to raise money to cover their running costs. The automated system puts the feed on BBC WS into a buffer. They carry 2 minutes of ads at the top of every hour and then play back a slightly sped up version of that hour of programming from London squeezed into 58 minutes. Sounds fine to me. Lou Josephs in Washington DC reports that many small stations in the US use the same trick of time compression on satellite syndicated shows so that they can squeeze in local commercials. They call it a "cashbox".

I am far more concerned about the 15 breaches last year by their TV channel BBC World News of the BBC's editorial guidelines. This was reported by the BBC Trust back in November. BBC World News buy in programmes made by production companies who are making disguised PR rather than independent investigative journalism. Nobody seems to be checking that thoroughly enough.

I will be curious to see the coverage of the Consumer Electronics Fair in Las Vegas this coming week by BBC World News programme "Click". This is one of the feature programmes that is happy to accept what the BBC terms as sponsorship. I watch it regularly and can't say I haven't seen evidence of advertorials. So far, Click is much better than the Channel 5 Gadget Show because I feel it explores my interests as someone actively working in technology.

In contrast, The Gadget show is a festival of sponsored pieces designed as a marketplace for manufacturers and retail outlets such as Curry's and PC World. It's well crafted, but I don't find it useful. It has such a narrow focus on "fashionable stuff" which culminates in ludicrous competitions, showering one winner with 170 sponsored products after they have called an expensive number to be part of the contest.

My trust in Click and other BBC World News features would evaporate if there was any commercial editorial bias. I would be worried that the show is also shown on public channels like BBC One and BBC News. I'm sure other viewers would interpret that as breach of trust and that will spill over into their trust of BBC current affairs programmes and investigative documentaries in general.

Don't forget you have a situation where BBC World Service radio also has a show called Click (formerly Digital Planet) which is not sponsored and which in-fact it is a completely different programme to its TV namesake.

I personally see more potential with ads on their websites, especially if they make cross-medial websites that mix general BBC entertainment content with the news output. They could be far more creative with their embedded player than resorting to the tedious pre-roll ads before every clip. There have been far too many cases recently where bank ads for HSBC have preceded another doom and gloom report by Robert Peston about banker salaries or the Euro crisis. Now that really is mixed messaging. And I guess that editors in London never watch the outside-UK version of their site.

Pr Is Seventh Most Stressful Job - supposedly

2012-01-07T09:27:00.001+01:00

Must confess I do not have any sympathy at all for the "fact" that PR people supposedly have a stressful job. In my experience, the "stress" is vastly overcompensated. So what was the purpose of the article? I strongly disagree with the stress rating, especially if we are really talking about investigative journalists ( and not translate-adapt-and publish webposters).

CorpComms - News - 2046 Pr Is Seventh Most Stressful Job:

Recreating AM Radio Sounds

2012-01-02T14:27:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Mike Barraclough who tipped me off about a curious app in the iTunes Store. It's called Retro-Fi and it transforms any audio source playing on your iPad into an AM radio station. So if you're listening to a podcast in the Safari browser or listening to music via iTunes or Spotify, activating the app puts the sound through a filter, adds a bit of fading, static and just a smattering of co-channel interference. The result sounds pretty authentic. You can adjust the levels of interference until it sounds just right. Why would you want this 99 cent app? Well I need it for a video I am making on the change from analogue to digital radio. It is brilliant! It's also pretty good at demonstrating to others what AM radio used to sound like - for those who no longer own a long-, medium- or shortwave radio. If you're a hi-fi enthusiast, you won't understand this app at all.

Humbling Pictures from Hubble

2012-01-01T00:21:00.002+01:00

Source: Hubblesite.org

Just got another fix of the fantastic pictures covering the rest of the Universe taken with the Hubble telescope. I head off for the site every time I need to put an earthly crisis into perspective.

So who says this is our last spin around the sun this year? Many people point to the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar on Dec. 21, 2012 as evidence of the coming apocalypse, but astronomers have been quick to stress that there is nothing to be concerned about.

According to the ancient Mayan calendar, next year’s winter solstice marks the end of a 144,000-day cycle. This cycle, which begins at the mythical Maya creation date, has already been repeated 12 times. The 13th will end later this year, capping a full 5,200-year Mayan cycle of creation.

I do think the scientists need to do more to debunk the pseudo-science I keep seeing on my TV screens and in Facebook.

Source: Hubblesite.org

Starting the Year in Reykjavik

2011-12-31T14:55:00.001+01:00

In previous centuries, I have been known to mess around with the radio on New Years Eve, listening to stations in other countries herald in the New Year. But I note an increasing number of stations have stopped doing this, preferring to let pre-recorded greetings play out from their computer systems while they party themselves (presumably). Time to try something different.

So this year, while digitizing another batch of Media Network shows from the last century (which can be found here), I've been looking at various webcams with live pictures. So far, this is one of my favourite. Live pictures from Iceland, including a feed from the capital city.

Wherever you are, I wish you a Happy New Year for all of 2012. May the great ideas blossom.

Jonathan Marks
Critical Distance BV

Not often Apple is half price

2011-12-31T14:28:00.000+01:00

I guess most people who were interested in the bio of Steve Jobs now have their copy. I see that newbie twitterer Rupert Murdoch (for it is he - although no-one is sure if he is tweeting himself) was clearly disappointed in the biog.

Where in the world?

2011-12-28T15:03:00.000+01:00

Just love the stuff in this shop window in Norwich, Eastern England. Wouldn't find it anywhere else in the world. Especially the spending money sign.....I know what she means!

Happy New Spelling Checker

2011-12-22T17:30:00.001+01:00

Got four Christmas cards through the regular mail this year and hundreds of email greetings. I love the home made ones, even when they didn't make it through the spelling checker. I am convinced that the thoughts were genuine.

If you're celebrating, Season's Greetings. Whatever your belief, I think we can all do with a Happier New Year, especially in Euroland!

Clever way of recreating the magic of the Twin Towers

2011-12-17T22:04:00.000+01:00

Great idea and plan for the Twin Towers memorial, from a artist who lives in Middelburg, Zeeland, in the South-Eastern part of the Netherlands.

Tele2: Not sheep at all

2011-12-16T23:47:00.000+01:00

Tele-2 promotes itself as being "cheap" or the black "cheap of the family" with its commercials in the Netherlands. Have never had to deal with them until then took over what was the one of the best hosting services in the Netherlands - Vuurwerk (Fireworks). Now, all they have done is send me a bill for an .org domain name for 50 Euro a year.

Having spotted this ridiculous figure when going through some admin, I then discovered that I can't cancel until October 12th next year. As with a modern teleco, you can only cancel in writing by sending a letter in the post or scanning a PDF. It's taken them a month to get back with a straight answer, so my conclusion is these guys are crap not cheap. I'd better not link to them in case others fall into the admin trap. There is some light - I hope that a new Dutch law effective December 1st makes this kind of silent extension of contracts illegal.

PICNIC 2012 veers off in totally the wrong direction

2011-12-15T12:11:00.003+01:00

Picnic used to be this kinda funky emerging-media festival, where geeks, advocacy groups, technology companies and other people from the creative sector got together to discuss the state of the world and what they were going to do to change it. The attraction for me was the variety - the fact that I got to meet people outside my own comfort zone and was stimulated to think differently.

But times changed and the atmosphere of fun and creativity escaped as fast as the government subsidy evaporated. This past year was a very mixed bag. A new, experimental, location in Amsterdam North docklands turned out to be a fresh approach to original location in the converted gasworks. It was about time it moved. But the new concept was extremely vulnerable to the weather. And this year the weather was rubbish for two of the three days. The event seems to favour volunteer bloggers who write about the event not about the issues. Event journalism isn't working, especially if you don't bother to research the topic before the speech. For most people, if you weren't there, you don't care. Compare the Picnic video of BMW talking about the electric car with the way Renault presented the same subject of mobility at LeWeb2011.

No contest. I lugged a camera around for a while, then gave up when I saw there wasn't a quiet location on site where I could capture anything worthwhile. The wind outside was horrendous.

There were also strange partner events like the Green Challenge (who give away an obscene 500,000 Euro) and the Picnic Transmission Event Number 4 organised by Amsterdam Partners, AIM/Creative Amsterdam, City of Amsterdam, Chamber of Commerce Amsterdam and KennisKring Amsterdam. This bizarre event, which couldn't make up its mind which language to operate in, simply sent the message that if you wanted to be successful, forget Amsterdam, find cheap labour in Eastern Europe and then cuddle up to the US traditional media and techblogs. I was left dumbfounded at the end.

So what's new?

Just got the Picnic newsletter for Christmas and New Year 2012. Seems to me their now heading off into the completely wrong direction, i.e. organising events for start-ups, an area in which they have absolutely no experience. The majority of the pitches I saw at Picnic 2011 were well below the international average. Those taking part weren't interested in preparing for the event...they had an idea, a Prezzi - Powerpoint, and no clue about how to turn this into a business. Those from the private sector had a point in saying that because of the lack of selection criteria, sections of Picnic have become a waste of public money.

So now there will be a Picnic Marketplace in Amsterdam April 12th and 13th 2012. It will be the place where "promising start ups and SMEs from the Netherlands, Europe and abroad will showcase their products and services and, along with event attendees, participate in matchmaking, business development and co-creation activities. Because it’s PICNIC, expect loads of fun, unexpected twists and surprising contributions from our partners".

Then on 25, 26, 27th April there is the Next Web Conference in Amsterdam which usually attracts around 1800 people to do exactly the same thing. And, if past experience is anything to go by, it will do it much better.

In the meantime we're seeing a mini explosion in organisations that believe they can coach start-ups and match them with investors - a couple are world-class, the majority are rubbish money-making machines. There is no middle ground.

So will the Picnic Marketplace manage to carve its own niche and shout above the masses? My bet is that it won't - in fact it hasn't got a hope in hell. They need to seriously examine the core successes of Picnic in the era around 2006/2007. But it may well be that with the collapse of the European financial markets, a different, smaller and more effective approach is needed. And that needs a content strategy that lasts longer than a couple of days in the spring. Picnic was fun when it had flair...like below in 2007.

Gaydon resigns, but former PACE CEO leaves a clear vision

2011-12-14T15:11:00.001+01:00

It hasn't been an easy year for PACE, the makers of set-top boxes. As Broadband TV News reported on December 14th, Pace has ended a torrid 12 months by replacing CEO Neil Gaydon with Mike Pulli, until now CEO of Pace Americas.

Pace has issued three profit warnings in 2011. In March it emerged that a US provider had delayed an order by 12 months into 2012, effectively skipping a generation of technology. Two months later the Japanese Tsunami led to problems within the supply chain. Most recently, floods at hard drive supplier Western Digital’s Bang Pa-In facility in Bangkok impacted supplies of personal video recorders. Plans were recently announced to merge the Pace Europe and Pace Networks businesses into a single unit.

Gaydon joined Pace in 1995 and established the company’s Americas operations in 1999, which have become an increasing part of the company’s revenues, and now represent US $1.7 billion of annual revenues.

I made an interview with Neil Gaydon at IBC 2011 in September 2011 when he was still Chief Executive Officer. I have no insight into the management style that Gaydon displayed inside the company. But having wandered all over several "consumer electronics" shows recently, I have a lot of respect for the way Gaydon explains the PACE vision for the connected home, what needs to happen next in the media Industry and how Pace plans to be one of the major players. He was also candid about what's the industry has not yet perfected but will need to do so in the coming 12 months. Gaydon may be gone, but the vision still seems to be sound, even if it is going to be a little delayed.

Panasonic AG-HPX250 P2 camcorder joins BBC approved shortlist for HD production | AV Interactive | Pro AV news, analysis and comment from Europe’s leading Audio Visual title | AV Magazine

2011-12-14T14:39:00.001+01:00

Anyone with experience using this camera? Looking to ditch HDV, but haven't been happy with the replacements so far. I like the size (makes informal documentary making so much easier). But I am concerned about the longevity of the P2 platform.

Panasonic AG-HPX250 P2 camcorder joins BBC approved shortlist for HD production | AV Interactive | Pro AV news, analysis and comment from Europe’s leading Audio Visual title | AV Magazine:

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Peculiar Radio Websites: Part 57

2011-12-13T20:20:00.002+01:00

This website full of old English language radio recordings of Radio Pyongyang taken off shortwave must win the prize for one the most obscure collection of thoughts on the web. It's also ironic that there's advertising under the great leader ( surprised it's not for teeth whitener) and that the owner of the URL has decided to hide his or her identity. Should we be worried it's going to lead to the downfall of the Euro? No, we're doing a great job of doing that ourselves without any help from North Korea. Would love to know the web statistics. 4 a month? Three of those would have been mine checking to see if the site is still there. And the URL. Shouldn't it be a .gov rather than a .com?

Cleese on Creativity

2011-12-13T20:20:00.000+01:00

Enjoyed revisiting this presentation about creativity from John Cleese. I seem to recall a similar point about creating creative workspaces, and isolating yourself for a set period of time, was part of the excellent videos the Monty Python team did in the 1980's for management training.

Although I know John Cleese tweets, I bet he doesn't when he's being creative to a deadline. I know it certainly doesn't work for me.

Talking with African Start-up Investors

2011-12-12T09:14:00.000+01:00

There seem to be an explosion in the number of organisations setting up to kick-start new business ventures or nurture business leadership. Those in London, Berlin and Silicon valley seem to get a lot of press. Having looked at various attempts in Amsterdam like Rockstart, Thnk, Founder Institute, the most interesting to date seems to be the Start-Up Bus. I am curious to see what media strategy they will develop. I see a lot of coverage of events, but most of this is simply logging what happened where and when. The aim seems to be to create a trailer for future events, rather than a report about lessons learned. I think the number of views on Vimeo and YouTube show that most people who didn't attend an event are interested in these "atmosphere" pieces, especially when it's all over.

Which is why I am currently working on a series of briefings for African entrepreneurs based on several workshops held by the VC4Africa organisation. They have been travelling to Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt, organising bootcamp workshops but also listening to the needs of locals. We've now started to compile the material into a series of briefings that can be used to trigger discussions in other tech hubs around the continent as well as in business schools.

Cracked Nutter iPod

2011-12-04T22:36:00.001+01:00

All those old radios with horn speakers on the covers of the Radio Times reminded me that some are trying to revive the old designs for this century. I like the music - It's by Bob Bradley & Noel Dennis and it is called Cracked Nutter.

Globalisation in the Loo

2011-12-02T01:30:00.001+01:00

My room on the 10th floor of the George Hotel, Langham Place, London certainly reflects the radio heritage of the BBC building next door. There are framed copies of Radio Times covers in the bedroom and the schedule for World Radio 1928 is in the bathroom!.

Blue Hue Around BH

2011-12-01T06:52:00.000+01:00

Staying in a hotel across the road from the Langham with a commanding view of the BBC and its spanking brand new extension with the blue hue after dark. You can find out more about the progress of the building from this link.

CNN Relaunch Focusses on Presenters

2011-11-30T05:47:00.000+01:00

New campaign in Europe and Africa to remind viewers that CNN has intelligent presenters. Interesting to see where their posters are being put up.

Family Guy Listens to BBC World Service

2011-11-29T21:36:00.000+01:00

This clip has been up on YouTube for a while, but perhaps because of the tagging I didn't find it immediately. Are they having a go at BBC World Service as relayed through some NPR stations?

TEDxAmsterdam is World Class this Year

2011-11-25T23:12:00.000+01:00

I've been critical of recent TEDx events in the Netherlands - there are too many that are simply disguised business pitches or the content is just poorly produced and prepared.

But there are exceptions, and TEDxAmsterdam today has been really world class. It was also noticeable that the best presentations actually came from locals or people who have lived here for some time. They were able to connect culturally with the audience. They really took a risk by having a really long TEDx - more than 13 hours in total and over 20 speakers. Having helped to coach the TEDXAward winner Metfarm in telling a clearer story, I was curious whether the audience would stay for the last session after such a mentally intensive day. I shouldn't have worried. The theatre was packed and gave the Metfarm founder John Apesos not only a standing ovation, but practical offers offers of support in the coming 12 months. Complete coverage on the site.

Apple's Black Friday

2011-11-25T10:49:00.001+01:00

Rather surprised that Apple hasn't got its act together in time to open its new Apple store in Amsterdam by the day after Thanksgiving. The black hoarding just opposite Leidseplein has been up there for months. The bargains this time were only on-line.

Media Network vintage shows - new season

2011-11-21T20:40:00.000+01:00

Found another box of reel to reel tapes in the attic, this one dating from December 1992 when colleague Eric Beauchemin was just back from a visit to Zagreb in Croatia. The radio in that part of the Balkans played a crucial role in the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. And CNN takes night-sensitive cameras to Somalia to watch the landings of US troops for an operation in the Horn Of Africa. How little has changed. Radio Czechoslovakia International was to be dissolved with the split of the country into Czech Republic and Slovakia and Radio Norway International ponders the future of its foreign service. Enjoy. More coming later in the week.

VOA Mug still going strong

2011-11-19T20:56:00.005+01:00

It would seem that President Obama has asked US government departments to cut down on the swag that they dish out to promote themselves (t-shirts, baseball caps, and the like). I see that Politico has been hunting for items like the one above, which I found in a cupboard in my kitchen. Has done pretty well bearing in mind its 15 years old. Other mugs in my collection have lasted longer than the company they were promoting...Netscape, ORF Austria, BBC 648 kHz. So what are we supposed to miss while worrying about over promotion of coffee mugs?

Now this is the way to teach.....

2011-11-15T22:41:00.002+01:00

Amazed at the great video that Red Giant commissioned. What better way to show the effects that to string them all into a great short film. Great effects on a tiny budget.

Virtual and Artificial, but 58,000 Want Course - NYTimes.com

2011-11-15T20:24:00.000+01:00

Virtual and Artificial, but 58,000 Want Course - NYTimes.com:

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Dutch Creative Media Tour visits Salford but will they listen?

2011-11-15T00:11:00.004+01:00

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is heading a two-day trade delegation to the UK at the moment. On Monday he dismissed recent comments in the Dutch press that the Netherlands is becoming very focussed on itself. The NRC Newspaper recently carried comments from several ambassadors in the Hague who drew similar conclusions.

"I think you are far too busy with yourselves," Germany’s ambassador Heinz-Peter Behr said, but adding that Dutch eurosceptism could lead to an improvement in the way Europe functions.

"The Dutch may go abroad on holiday but the country itself is increasingly becoming closed to the rest of the world,’ said British ambassador to the Netherlands, Paul Arkwright. ‘And that can hurt its international reputation".

At a speech in Birmingham on Monday, Rutte pointed out that 70% of the Netherlands' wealth is earned from export services. The Dutch embassy in London chimed in with the statement that economic ties between the two countries are strong; annual Dutch exports to the UK amounts to €30bn, while the Dutch invest €94bn in the UK every year. The UK itself invests €60bn in the Netherlands annually. As such, the Netherlands and the UK are each other's second largest investors. Big numbers, although they can't have much to do with trade between the two countries in the creative sectors.

Comparison Complete

I've been watching the revitalisation and growth of the creative industries in London and Manchester, comparing it with Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Hilversum. The results compiled for clients of the Critical Distance Knowledge network make for fascinating reading. Both countries are banging gongs about their successes in an sector which is actually poorly defined and varies widely per country.

In the case of the Netherlands, the successes are mainly in architectural design and fashion, for the Netherlands TV business is going through very tough times. Dutch TV company Endemol, for instance, currently has debts of EUR 2.8 billion and is trying to secure a debt-for-equity swap with a buyer that would reduce the debt to around EUR500 million.

At the moment, Hilversum as a city seems to be going through a kind of creative collapse, as a result of a combination of draconian cuts to public service broadcasting combined with demands to consolidate the vast over complicated infrastructure. Part of the challenge is that the city itself hasn't set very high ambitions for itself. Many commercial production companies have already seen the writing on the wall and headed off for Amsterdam or further afield.

On Tuesday, Rutte will pay a brief visit to a joint Dutch-UK symposium taking place at the Lowry centre in Salford (above), just opposite the new BBC production complex. It's also home to several tech start-up groups that I have been tracking as well as commercial production in studios next door to the BBC.

I am very curious to know what the Dutch PM, and members of the delegation will take back with them. The Dutch are good at hosting media related conferences (IBC is the largest broadcast exhibition on the continent) but whereas the facilities are top-notch, the UK is 2-3 years ahead in thinking up and creating cross-media productions. The Dutch seem to be good in designing entertainment shows, but the UK scores much better in world class documentaries, transmedia and factual storytelling.

The embassies in both countries seem to put a lot of faith into the so called Apeldoorn dialogue, a closed meeting of young business leaders from both countries which alternates between the UK and the Netherlands. The next British-Dutch Dialogue Conference will be in Manchester next March. It will focus on the untapped potential of higher education institutions as incubators for future innovation and economic growth.

I personally trust both countries will publicize the outcome of these public-financed discussions, because just making a YouTube video about the event does very little to explain the significance of the dialogue to the rest of us. The video had 196 views when I last checked, which makes it a rather expensive way of sharing an idea.

I also hope that Rutte and his delegation will take away ideas about how public broadcasting can become more accountable to the public, along the lines of the BBC Trust. For, judging by the Dutch government's actions to, in effect, reduce the number of Dutch public TV channels from 4 to 3 and muffling all foreign broadcasting efforts to a whisper, the UK can probably share more business ideas with the Netherlands, than the other way round.

As others have said, The Netherlands rapidly needs to open out to the world again. The news this morning that the 3rd quarter figures for the Dutch economy performed much worse than expected, shrinking by 0.3 %, should remove any shadow of a doubt that things need to be rethought. If not, the economy won't just be even worse next year, it could move into terminal decline. As a colleague in India said last month. The Media industry is like the sun. It's rising in the East and setting in the West.

Business News Radio

2011-11-13T23:58:00.002+01:00

Been looking at the future of business news channels like BNR, since their programme shake up a few months back. Think they make great radio, but only so-so website.

RTV North Holland

2011-11-13T23:52:00.001+01:00

Old slogan, but still works. RTV Holland, world famous in North Holland. For anyone who is curious....

Thanks for saying hello

2011-11-12T22:32:00.001+01:00

Still amazed that nostalgia around radio programmes made in the 60', 70'. and 80's can still bring over 300 people to a hotel in Amsterdam each year to reminisce. It's the annual RadioDay. Today, Andy Sennitt and I had to honour to kick off the proceedings by sharing some thoughts about the Radio Netherlands Media Network programme and what we thought it had contributed to broadcasting history for the 20 years that it was on the "wireless". We concluded that the reasons for its success was that the programme understood and involved the audience in era when there was no Skype, no (fast) Internet, and a phonecall to another country cost Euros 3.50 a minute. Great to see many friends of the show in Amsterdam, including Mike Barraclough, Ad Roland, Hans Hogendoorn, Dick Clees, Herbert Visser and Risto Vähäkainu.

BBC World Service Auctioned Off

2011-11-07T19:44:00.001+01:00

Could that be a Coles 4038 ribbon microphone I see before me? It's one of hundreds of bits of stuff up for sale as the BBC World Services auctions off its old studio equipment before it moves into Broadcasting House on Regent Street in March of next year. Not sure how old it is...I don't think wartime broadcasters used it. But maybe Dave Lee Travis or Noel Edmonds with a Jolly Good Show. Or perhaps Paddy Feeny, Colin Hamilton or John Tidmarsh?

Delft Creating History - This is the official site of the city of Delft for residents, tourists and business.

2011-11-06T08:00:00.000+01:00

Delft gets a 6 out of 10 from me for the way it promotes itself abroad. Rather bland promo film could fit just about any European medium sized town. Reminds me of the factory videos that people made in the 1980's. Smooth disinterested voice and God-awful music. YouTube stats say everything.

Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street - Video

2011-11-02T22:40:00.000+01:00

Misleading title for what is really a cool video...but hey, it gets the traffic. These still cameras are making terrific video. Still think Canon needs to work on the sound.

Productivity Future Vision (2011) - YouTube

2011-11-02T22:26:00.000+01:00

Productivity Future Vision (2011) - YouTube: ""
some interesting ideas here but the stereotypical people make me wonder about the agency that made this. Black guys are always porters, the rich are always white. The Asians are non-descript smartly dressed.
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Big Innovation Centre | Events | Growing the Future: Universities Leading, Changing and Creating the Regional Economy

2011-11-02T15:54:00.000+01:00

Big Innovation Centre | Events | Growing the Future: Universities Leading, Changing and Creating the Regional Economy:

Get the impression the UK Universities are light years ahead of their Dutch counterparts in promoting what they do abroad - and contributing to the educational industry. Big changes needed in the Netherlands if they want to become the Cultural Capital of Europe by 2020.

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Midnight Sun, Iceland - storyful

2011-11-02T12:44:00.000+01:00

More examples of brilliance with relatively cheap equipment

MediaCorp : Digital Audio Broadcasting service to stop transmission

2011-11-02T11:48:00.000+01:00

MediaCorp : Digital Audio Broadcasting service to stop transmission:

Singapore never had a content strategy for DAB - simply a distribution plan. And with FM coverage on the island being excellent, average listeners didn't hear the difference. I wonder why they pull it now though. Timing is either too early (for new hybrid services) or much too late.

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Great colours today

2011-11-01T21:14:00.000+01:00

don't have to go far to see some spectacular colours at the moment. Just open the window and look outside. Enjoying it while I can

Lytro

2011-10-28T22:18:00.001+02:00

Not sure that the great guys at Lytro have captured the essence of what's brilliant about this technology. They talk about "living pictures". What they have really done is make a stills camera where you can shoot now and focus later in post production. If you have ever tried photographing during a conference, then this will be a very useful device to try. Cheapest model is US$399 in early 2012. Not ready for video just yet...too much processing power would be needed at the moment.

Robert Scoble covered it at a rather noisy press launch.

Reasons to add your information to Culture24 | Culture24

2011-10-27T22:22:00.000+02:00

Reasons to add your information to Culture24 | Culture24:

looking at how others are celebrating their culture on line.

Smashing Pumpkins in slow motion

2011-10-27T20:57:00.001+02:00

"

Smashing. There's no other word for this great high-speed capture of smashing pumpkins just in time for Halloween.

Safely home from Istanbul

2011-10-23T15:42:00.002+02:00

Bit weird to be wandering around the Hagia Sophia yesterday lunchtime. This is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. It's been around since 360 and until 1453, it served as the Greek Patriarchal cathedral of Constantinople. It was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years, until Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520. The current building was originally constructed as a church between 532 and 537 on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian and was the third Church of the Holy Wisdom to occupy the site, the previous two having both been destroyed by rioters.

I asked the guide how it had managed to survive the frequent earthquakes Turkey experiences. She said it was indeed a miracle. Get back home to read that an earthquake hit Eastern Turkey this Sunday morning. Even though it was a long way away from Istanbul, it was a relief to be back North. I feel for those who have lost loved ones and property.

Sourcefabric Symposium in Prague

2011-10-21T08:27:00.000+02:00

Wonder who got to go to Prague today for the Sourcefabric symposium? Wish I could be there.

Augmented Reality Needs a Reality Check

2011-10-18T18:40:00.000+02:00

I wish the augmented reality developers would develop more things of practical use during disasters (like being able to see what a building looked like before an earthquake to help firemen decide where to try and enter a collapsed building). Instead, we get virtual traffic lights on one of the Dutch islands! It may be art, but is it an example of a technology offering leadership? This part of the mobile industry needs much more compelling stories to break through into mainstream.

Fotopedia 2.0

2011-10-18T02:52:00.000+02:00

Just blown away by the amazing image quality of Fotopedia, which mashes up professional photos with data from wikipedia. The latest version is just stunning.

Censorship Worsening

2011-10-17T22:45:00.001+02:00

Was at a recent conference in Prague, Forum 2000, which underlined that electronic press freedom, especially in Central Asia is going from bad to worse. There seems to be some easing of restrictions in Burma, though no-one is really sure why.

More Vintage Media Network

2011-10-17T19:21:00.001+02:00

Been posting again on the vintage site after finding some more programmes in the loft.

This one for instance

Of Ducks and Lice in Rotterdam

2011-10-17T18:16:00.001+02:00

Kees Moeliker is a biologist and museum curator in Rotterdam. He's also a past winner of the Ig-nobel prize, research which at first makes you laugh and then makes you think. Amusing talk, though I didn't get the link with future leadership which was the theme of the TEDxRotterdam conference.

Film Fading to Black - Creative COW

2011-10-17T09:25:00.000+02:00

Film Fading to Black - Creative COW: "Article Focus:
ARRI, Panavision and Aaton have all quietly ceased production of their film cameras to focus exclusively on the design and manufacture of digital cameras. Film? Fade to black"

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Morgan Practices What He Preaches

2011-10-17T09:24:00.000+02:00

Interesting video about how to make a film using product placement from the Super Size Me producer. Getting mixed reviews I understand. But hell, it cost him nothing to produce.

These Radio Guys Get It

2011-10-16T19:15:00.000+02:00

The radio conferences I've been to recently haven't really worked. Many of the stations are just building shops on the wireless - there is none of the discussion about creative production that there used to be at the Radio Academy's Radio at the Edge. The suits just don't understand sound design - they want to show us charts rather than listen to great productions.

But all is not lost. Apparently I missed a treat in London in the middle of last month. I think the team behind Nextradio in London have found the tipping point for radio meetings. Charge a maximum of 99 pounds, and most people think it's worthwhile to fork that fee out themselves. Impressive line-up and a logicial briefing. I think it turned out to be better than a "TED for radio practitioners". Seems the Magic Circle is a great location for about 120 people if you're looking for a venue.

Giel Confused on the Future of Radio

2011-10-16T18:14:00.000+02:00

I'm afraid, although Giel Beelen is a popular DJ in the Netherlands, and has done some great work fundraising for worthy causes, I didn't get the point of his talk at last Thursday's TedxRotterdam at all. He started by explaining that a lot of music stations play many of the same songs - and then the talk sort of collapsed into a list of record requests he's received for a special Internet radio station (read a MacBookPro connected to the web) that had been set up in the foyer of the theatre.

Global broadcasters need strategies to combat Internet censorship | News

2011-10-16T16:03:00.000+02:00

Global broadcasters need strategies to combat Internet censorship | News: "“Casting a Wider Net shows that bypassing Internet censorship to deliver news content in restrictive communications environments involves far more than just supplying circumvention tools,” said Ron Deibert, director of the centre and the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, a group that has designed effective circumvention tools. “Broadcasters need to devise a strategy for distributing content over the Internet with an understanding of the different challenges they will face in each of the target countries they are trying to reach.”

This conclusion is the result of work done by Karl Kathuria, the centre’s Visiting Fellow in Global Media, and a research team which analysed Internet news traffic in China and Iran. They reviewed two years’ worth of traffic data from the BBC’s web content services, examined in-field testing data from an OpenNet Initiative study of Iranian and Chinese Internet censorship and Psiphon Inc.’s circumvention service delivery."

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Museum of Obsolete Objects - Radio

2011-10-16T14:11:00.000+02:00

Apparently radio has been banished to the museum of obsolete objects when I wasn't looking. Of course, it hasn't but the radio industry does need to do more to understand how to integrate social media. Mind you I am glad some experiments were confined to the museum before they started - like the strange circular antenna used by Capital Radio.

TEDxRotterdam 2011

2011-10-15T20:03:00.001+02:00

TEDx events are mushrooming around the world, with more than 9000 videos having been posted at the TEDx corner on the website. That "x" means that someone else has been licensed by TED.com in the US to use the format and logo, but the interpretation of the event is very much up to the organisers. With 9000 videos up there, the overall quality is not what it used to be. I'm guessing that TED just uses it as a talent spotting shop.

This year's event in Rotterdam managed to pack 1500 final year students from the local (business) universities into the new Luxor theatre right next to the Erasmus bridge. I guess they did it in English because many of the students from abroad don't speak Dutch well enough to follow presentations in that language. But that meant that some of the local speakers had enormous difficulty formulating a clear TED-style message in English and only few really followed the theme of future leadership. We had stories of endurance, entrepreneurship, fun, and endeavour, but it wasn't clear what the students were supposed to take away. Money dominated many of the talks, the more you have the more successful you're seen to be in Rotterdam, at least. There was an attempt to make some of the students CEO for a day with local branches of international accounting firms. But the live interviews with them "on the job" didn't yield much more than they were enjoying the experience.

That said, the presentation at TEDxRotterdam by Finnish security expert Mikko Hypponen was excellent, being a clear wake-up call that we need a sort of Interpol for the web if on-line isn't going to collapse under the wait of cyber-crime. Although Mikko has a vested interest to say that, the recent hacking incidents into cloud services we thought we could trust to be safe is very disconcerting. In some areas where I work, cyber security has got very bad of late.

Music to my Ears

2011-10-14T19:00:00.001+02:00

Great tribute video to something which is so important but often neglected. Having my roots in radio, I really appreciate what Soundcloud is doing for great sound on demand. The player is brilliant.

Dinglish Conclusions to Dutch Gaming Sector

2011-10-12T22:07:00.003+02:00

STT is a think tank within the Royal Dutch Institution for Engineers. There's a small team of post-doc students who manage studies into various topical technical subjects, backed by relevant sectors of Dutch Industry. In the past they have published some excellent studies, like the one last year on the future of technology in Africa (opens as a PDF). That one is a truly excellent overview of various technologies developing across Africa.

I discovered rather late in the day that they have been doing a two year study into the future of serious games, and went along to the final presentation on Friday October 7th at the PWC building on the South side of Amsterdam. I came away confused and less optimistic that the local industry here will ever coordinate its activities well enough to reach world-class levels. In Dutch government circles the gaming sector is held aloft as having a world-class reputation. But the presentations from the companies themselves was very low key. I got the impression that although they definitely have creative skills to get dreaming up ideas, most of the coding happens in Eastern Europe or in China these days. And since there is no risk capital in Europe at the moment - those with ambition head off for the US in search of venture capital. This was the same message I heard at Picnic 2011 in Amsterdam and at other recent technology conferences. The Netherlands spends a tiny proportion of its GNP on research and that is showing in its ability to innovate, especially in the creative sector.

I wish the conference this past Friday on the future of serious games could have been a bit more playful in its execution. Although the report and overview is very thorough, it seems to be a strange mix of languages. I note that the presentations on the website are in English, though the rest of the report is in Dutch. Not sure why they mixed them up. May be a confusion as to who the report is meant to influence? Certainly not foreign investors.

The challenge now is that STT does not have a history of continuity. Having studied this sector, they move on to something else entirely. You get great snapshots. But in this sector, the snapshots very quickly get out of date.

Steve Jobs on Journalism

2011-10-06T23:19:00.000+02:00

Revisited Steve Jobs' comments about paid content and journalism in this excellent indepth interview at the All Things D conference in mid 2010.

Farewell Steve Jobs | Tom Munnecke's Eclectica

2011-10-06T03:04:00.005+02:00

Farewell Steve Jobs | Tom Munnecke's Eclectica:

Very sad to read of the passing of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple. These thoughts from Tom about the early days are a different, thoughtful take on other stories I've read today. The comments on BoingBoing were also a fitting reflection on a brief, intense and rich life. I learned a lot from Steve about how to tell a powerful story, how to inspire. I'm grateful to his company for creating tools which help me help others in their brilliant storytelling. But most of all, I am grateful for the way he made it so much easier for us to think and do differently. Because you can't change the world without the creative tools to do the job.

Wonder if Apple will remake this ad using video montages in Steve's own words?

DNews.de

2011-10-03T14:54:00.000+02:00

DNews.de now defunct.

Well, well. Sanoma has shutted its German version of www.nu.nl after it failed to make an impact on that market. Some good ideas, but the German publishing market is waking up and has much deeper pockets.

Amsterdam, 30 September 2011. Mehr als zwei Jahre nach dem Start von Dnews.de stoppt Sanoma Media Netherlands mit der Website, der iPhone und iPhone-App.

Eric Ariëns, Content-Publishing-Direktor von Sanoma Media Niederlande: "Trotz des unermüdlichen Einsatzes der Redaktion müssen wir feststellen, dass die Marke Dnews.de nicht unseren kommerziellen Erwartungen entspricht, und dass in kurzer Zeit auch keine Trendwende erwarten."

Die Website ist ab heute offline.

Wir danken Ihnen für Ihr Vertrauen.

Datenschutz und Kontakt"

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Innovation IS the key - so why can't we get on with it?

2011-10-03T14:43:00.000+02:00

Interested to read an interview with the CEO of Philips, Frans van Houten, billed as as exclusive in the free Metro newspaper I read on the train. Philips is changing its focus to concentrate on products that improve our well-being, energy-efficiency and health-care. The interview contains a stark warning that many in the Netherlands have not yet realised that, without innovation, this part of the world is not going to begin to keep up with the rapid developments in Asia.

I must agree. Wandering around some innovation fairs in Amsterdam recently, I was truly astonished by the variable quality. There were some world-class ideas, it's true. But the majority were poor copies of ideas I have seen launched in the US, UK or Scandinavia, confirming the complaint that this part of Europe is good at copying ideas quickly in the hope they will be acquired when the other company wants to move into this part of the world. Sorry, but the Benelux is not big enough to ever make the idea profitable. When challenged with the name of the competing company, I either got a denial, sneered at or (worse-still) realised that they hadn't done a simple Google search or competitive analysis.

My biggest worry at the moment is how inward looking this part of Europe has become. Last month's Budget speech made no reference to the rest of Europe. Yet, without foreign trade, the Netherlands isn't going to retain any sphere of influence in the world. I realise we all have to tighten our belts. But shutting our eyes as well is simply plain crazy.

False Promises at my local Bus Shelter

2011-10-01T14:48:00.001+02:00

My nearest bus-stop is giving the impression that Dubai is cheaper than it really is. The weekend rate at the Burj Al Arab hotel depicted in the poster is around 1.100 Euro a night, so when you fly by Dubai you're not going to be anywhere near this hotel or the water park next door. I agree that at 321 metres high it does dominate the Dubai coastline. And the evening choreographed light-show reminds me of Las Vegas. But you won't be getting much of all of this for 399 per person for 5 days. Arke does offer 3 nights in this famous hotel for 3520 Euro a person (including the flight).

Smart Cities

2011-10-01T11:29:00.000+02:00

Been following the discussions around smart cities for a client and the idea that sensors in buildings will help make cities of the future more efficient. The reality check came to me while walkig through the Amstel metro station yesterday and seeing an operator rebooting a ticket machine. It's using Microsoft Windows 2000 as an operating system. If the city infrsatructure is using software that's from the last century, it's going to be light years before the infrastructure in Amsterdam can catch up with what's being discussed now, especially with what I think is the worst economic recession since the great depression.

Nostalic Radio Panel

2011-10-01T11:13:00.000+02:00

I thought the "radio" panels in hotels had almost disappeared. But not (yet) at this hotel in Bonn. The bedside AV system looked like Mission Control. In fact it had been disconnected, so I guess they have just left it until the next round of refurbishment. All this has been replaced by the TV remote control. I noted some radio channels available on the hotel TV. Can't imagine anyone listening to radio in this way in this context.

New Media in Bonn

2011-10-01T11:03:00.000+02:00

Stayed at a delightful hotel in the centre of Bonn a few days ago. Amazed at how the choice of channels has changed on the cable system in the hotel. There were dozens of German channels, followed by a complete bouquet of Arabic language channels, Al Jazeera English, BBC World News, RAI Italy - and that was it. No Dutch or Belgian channels at all any more, even though the border is not that far away.

Interesting to contrast this with new legislation being prepared in the Hague to force cable companies to increase the number of channels that HAVE to be put in the basic package of TV programmes on offer to subscribers. The Netherlands seems to be unique in requiring that the two Flemish public service channels are already part of the basic offering. Can't find examples of that elsewhere in the world (channels from a neighbouring country have guaranteed universal access in another). The two Belgian channels make up a a basic package of 15 channels at the moment. The minister will introduced a bill next month to make that 30 channels instead, including commercial channels from KPN, Canal Digital en Tele2.

Out Standing in the Field

2011-09-30T10:33:00.000+02:00

This is a log periodic shortwave broadcast antenna just opposite what used to be a major transmitting centre in Juelich. It would have rotated to beam signals to listeners in distant target areas. It's one of the few remaining pieces of evidence that radio signals put this town in North Rhine-Westphalia on the map. I can't imagine it will remain there for much longer.

Disappearing Transmitter Sites

2011-09-29T23:34:00.000+02:00

Evidence of the era of shortwave broadcsting disappears fast. These two sets were taken in 2007 and in 2011 from roughly the same spot just north of Juelich, Germany not far from the Dutch border. At the time the towers were dismantled last year the new owner said that two would remain as a symbol of its radio past. I guess they had second thoughts. Only a few road signs, plus an abandoned log periodic antenna remain as evidence of one of the first transmitter sites used by Deutsche Welle, whose studios in those days were in Cologne. Wikipedia has photos too

Geoff Mulgan: A short intro to the Studio School | Video on TED.com

2011-09-27T22:14:00.000+02:00

Geoff Mulgan: A short intro to the Studio School | Video on TED.com

Al Jazeera's change of guard - Listening Post - Al Jazeera English

2011-09-26T19:25:00.001+02:00

Al Jazeera's change of guard - Listening Post - Al Jazeera English

DirecTV CEO Says $30 Price for Premium Films Is ‘Too High’ - Bloomberg

2011-09-26T18:54:00.000+02:00

DirecTV CEO Says $30 Price for Premium Films Is ‘Too High’ - Bloomberg:

'via Blog this'

He's not kidding!

TEDxAmsterdam Challenge 2011

2011-09-25T08:56:00.006+02:00

Helped with the call to find ideas worth doing for this year's TEDx in Amsterdam on November 25th. I find TED is a brilliant collection of inspiring performances. The follow-up, though, is always more difficult. Curious to see what happens.

Maurice_Mikkers-1832.jpg, a photo by TEDxAmsterdam on Flickr.

Things Apple is Worth More Than

2011-09-24T22:28:00.000+02:00

Things Apple is Worth More Than:

'via Blog this'

Fry on Language

2011-09-24T22:01:00.000+02:00

John Lewis Brilliance

2011-09-24T17:53:00.000+02:00

Just love the way John Lewis in the UK use music to tell the story of electronics since the 1960's. I can watch them over and over again. If only libraries and museums were able to be this clever in their storytelling. I also like the way they release the directors cut and backstory on the making of.This was the original

Al Jazeera's Wadah Khanfar on why he stepped down - YouTube

2011-09-21T17:32:00.000+02:00

Spoke to Wadah several times at conferences. Found him to be a very inspiring journalist whose heart lies in investigative journalism of the highest order.

Very interesting to compare the two farewell interviews on Al Jazeera English and the Arabic channels. They are almost identical (Arabic was broadcast first) but in English we get the question “your replacement is a member of the Qatari ruling family..do you think this is going to change something in Al Jazeera editorial policy?"

In the Arabic interview there is no reference to Khanfar`s successor and his ties with the ruling family, and no mention of the Royal family at all. Instead, the presenter in Arabic formulates another statement which is absent from the English version:

”Some people think that this is the start of an era where there will be more open discussion of different political point of views”. Is this a reference to the alleged ideological proximity of Khanfar and some others at AJ to the Muslim Brotherhood?

I am guessing his replacement Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani is interim. Although he has the managerial skills, he doesn't have journalism at his heart the same way Khanfar does. Whatever the case, it's good that Al Jazeera is out there and I am personally very curious as to the role they are about to play in East Africa and the Balkans. These are both areas where dialogue is desperately needed.

Al Jazeera's Wadah Khanfar on why he stepped down - YouTube: ""

'via Blog this'

‫ the resignation of the director Wadah Khanfar Jazeera network ‬ - YouTube:

'via Blog this'

Radio’s Passion Gap « Edison Research

2011-09-19T21:23:00.001+02:00

Radio’s Passion Gap « Edison Research:

Great article that highlights the problem with a lot of music radio (that I have stopped listening to).

In short, it’s investment in innovation – either in technology or content – that is driving passion. Radio makes some of those investments, but not nearly enough. Instead, radio’s precious capital continues to be spent copying Pandora and Groupon. No one loves copycats. Yes, radio must make up the technology gap with its digital competition. And it can’t allow the “Daily Deal” to damage their local sales advantages. But the real gap – the most sinister gap of all – is the passion gap. Jukeboxes, simulcasts, automation, failure to invest in talent, 16-minutes of spots per hour and half-price races to the bottom will never make people love radio.

Dollars to Projects Tracker

2011-09-19T21:08:00.000+02:00

Charity Water still gets my vote as the NGO that best understands how to use to social media for social good. They have raised $43 million dollars to date for clean water projects around the world. They have now launched Dollars to Projects, a mycharity:water feature that tracks online where every dollar raised is being used in the world. The new initiative allows donors to track their donations to specific projects and receive reports of where that money goes and how it has been used. The reports, which include Google Maps and photo galleries, detail exactly how the money was used, who the project affects and who else donated. The reports can be shared out to friends via social media channels. The organization has helped 2.06 million people in 19 countries via more than 250,000 donations in the past five years, according to founder and CEO Scott Harrison. However, said Harrison, that only accounts for around 1/500th of the global problem.

BBC World Service's Newshour Guest Presenter

2011-09-19T18:49:00.003+02:00

Controversial choice of a guest presenter on BBC World Service next week. Line-up in the publicity blurb doesn't mention her rather disastrous time at the head of France 24. IMHO, Not in the same league as the other presenters.

BBC - Press Office - BBC World Service's Newshour: "Christine Ockrent, one of France's most respected journalists, the first woman to anchor the evening news on French TV, former editor of the weekly news magazine l'Express and of the flagship TV political programme France-Europe Express, will be in the presenter seat on Tuesday 27 September"

Harris Ships to Turkmenistan - of all places

2011-09-19T18:03:00.000+02:00

Harris Corporation, the US international communications and information technology company, has secured significant orders from Turkmenistan TV, the state broadcaster in Turkmenistan for a very large end-to-end integrated Harris broadcast solution. The Harris products are shipping to meet the tight delivery and installation deadlines — as the station is due to go on air on 1st October 2011.

The PR release from Harris issued at IBC 2011 claims this order represents the largest project of its kind awarded to a single manufacturer in the broadcast arena in recent years. The orders, which were awarded earlier this year by Turkmenistan TV, comprises products that will furnish the company's all new TV-Tower facility in Ashgabat including the master control rooms, production studios, Outside Broadcast vehicles, as well as the playout and news centres. Harris products will also be used to launch Turkmenistan TV's first IPTV offering.

The TV-Tower project is a massive television complex that combines broadcasting, production, acquisition, post production and a variety of links facilities needed for transmitting a range of HD TV programmes. When complete, this will be one of the best examples of modern broadcast technology in a state-of-the-art television facility," said Emre Dagdeviren, general manager at Policom.

Community stations not reporting local stories - Disappointing Report

2011-09-19T17:33:00.000+02:00

Community stations not reporting local stories - Journalism.co.za:

If community radio represented a deliberate attempt to extend the public sphere, then one has to say that the results of this survey by Wits Radio Academy have been very very disappointing in the area of news reporting. These local public spheres hold the promise of offering people in disadvantaged communities some news of events in their areas, events that do not easily feature on the agenda of larger mainstream, “outside” media. More, they could provide a source of information to the wider public, often cut off from the concerns of large sectors of the society."

Most look to be nothing but jukeboxes. I was really surprised that the campus stations made no effort at all to include local news. Too much trouble or no clear mandate?

BAFTA Brits to Watch

2011-09-19T17:06:00.000+02:00

BAFTA Brits to Watch: "Nurturing talent is an essential part of BAFTA’s role in the creative industry"

I really wish there was more of this approach in the Netherlands. Part of the challenge is that the definition of creative industries is different. It means advertising, app design, games, architecture, TV entertainment and fashion in the Netherlands. It doesn't seem to mean creative factual content (anymore).

Mobile phone bonanza 'over'

2011-09-19T16:38:00.000+02:00

Mobile phone bonanza 'over', despite demand in developing markets :

. Good article in the UK Guardian. Worrying if you're trying to put radio over a mobile phone network as some content providers believe is the future. er, not at this rate.

US Media Consumption 2011

2011-09-18T22:20:00.000+02:00

Created by: MBA Online

Interesting to compare these US figures with something I'm working on.

Is Netflix doomed? - Portfolio Insights by Brett Arends - MarketWatch

2011-09-18T20:07:00.000+02:00

Is Netflix doomed? - Portfolio Insights by Brett Arends - MarketWatch:

Streaming is clearly the future in areas where broadband is fast enough for DVD quality. Realise I haven't bought a DVD in over a year. The "Free Record Shop" as one Dutch chain calls itself is heading the direction of Tower Records.

Berlin’s Tech Scene Offers Hope to Economy - NYTimes.com

2011-09-17T19:44:00.000+02:00

Berlin’s Tech Scene Offers Hope to Economy - NYTimes.com:

Really impressed by the some of the recent start-ups in Berlin which are not copies of Silicon Valley. Berlin seems to be doing more than Amsterdam in putting their start-ups into an international context.

2011-09-14T20:18:00.000+02:00

The sun gave some spectacular skies on the way back from Picnic festival on the north side of Amsterdam today.

IBC-2011 Now dark for another year

2011-09-13T20:38:00.000+02:00

Had an amazing 5 days recording some 5 hours of interviews at IBC 2011. I'm currently editing the material into interviews explaining the major changes coming to the connected home of the near future. I feel that IBC now stands for Integrated Back Channel, or Inspiring Broadband Content rather than International Broadcasting Convention. Broadcast is now only part of a much wider media environment. Whilst it remains important (and leading) for news, sports, current affairs and live events, we've now reached a point where on-demand for other types of factual content (e.g. documentaries) has become equally important. I was amazed at how many stands had dismissed 3D as a flash in the pan for broadcast/broadband, with most companies talking about their second screen offering instead.

I am increasing disappointed with the printed trade press that cover IBC. It's almost all advertorial and rehashed press releases. IBC Daily News was shoved in your hands each morning. I used to keep it because there was some useful analysis. But now it's all PR spin which has already been sent to me. IBCTVNews is much of the same - it's TV to keep the stand-holders happy and it's classic example of an archived broadcast on the web with no metadata to help you find it again. And why would you want to embed it on another site? That would be stealing wouldn't it? So, after 5 days of frantic scrambling to get stuff on the cable system in Amsterdam hotels and on screens in the RAI, they pull the switch until 7 September 2012.

Ben Hammersley's Message in Hilversum

2011-09-08T10:16:00.000+02:00

I've been to several NPOX festivals in Hilversum, but this year, the fifth, was one of the best. It may also be the last. NPO is the Dutch Public Broadcasting organisation and is currently going through a crisis as it tries to downsize its budget in accordance with new government legislation. Of course, the first thing to collapse are most forms of creativity as apparent from the new public broadcasting autumn schedules. The number of cheap talk shows is frightening. Discussions are all about jobs and money, rather than how can the public broadcasters get closer to the people that pay for it all. The public.

I've noted in this blog before that the new media law, drawn up by the NPO and the Dutch government clearly defines the relationships between the broadcasters and the government, but it makes programme makers in Hilversum even less responsible to the public. Whereas in the UK, there is a BBC Trust which conducts open consultations with the public (such as reviewing networks or programming), in the Netherlands it is assumed that the public is represented through the broadcasting societies, which are now, in effect, production companies with a political or religious colour/bias. The problem is that most of the Dutch population is not a member of these broadcasting societies and there is never any public discussion about the role public broadcasting should play. The current right of centre government clearly wants to reduce the influence of the public broadcasters in Dutch society, which it perceives as a being inherently biased towards the left.

Which brings me back to NPOX. Held in a newly built theatre in Hilversum, it was more of a reality check rather than a festival. The thousands of freelancers in Hilversum are only beginning to realise that they are going to bear the brunt of the cutbacks. Effectively there is an exodus of talent leaving town for Amsterdam or further afield.

The keynote came from British tech journalist and war correspondent Ben Hammersley. He points out that a lot of confusion in broadcast and related industries is because those in power now were educated before 1989. Not only was that year a pivotal point when the Iron Curtain broke down, it was also the year that the Internet really went public. In 1989, CERN was the largest Internet node in Europe, and Tim Berners-Lee saw an opportunity to join hypertext with the Internet. After that date, there was a fundamental change in the way people collaborate. They think as a network rather than in the heirachy of their predecessors. It explains why many of those managers in their 50's and 60's don't understand social media or how they are going to integrate these new platforms of expression into traditional radio and TV. Ben highlights a recent survey in the US which finds that 95% of under 25 year olds are using another device while consuming traditional radio and/or TV.

I like Ben's talk because towards the end he highlights what's needed - a new form of storytelling but also a different way of organising productions - more along the lines of the way Hollywood develops films. He explains that as editor at large of Wired they made a map of the dot.com area of London. It turned out that in Shoreditch there were more companies than people, simply because people were working on a project basis, bringing together the best talent for the job and then moving on when it was over. This approach is completely alien to the broadcast companies in Hilversum where the survival of the company and its heirachy through the subsidy model seems to be more important than the programmes that are produced. There are some exceptions, it's true, but I don't think it's going to be enough to fulfil Hilversum's ambition of being one of the creative capitals of Europe by the year 2020. Holland's commercial production industry certainly understands how to build cross-media services and integrate these into game shows. But when it comes to factual production - making content with a high public value, you can count the creative talent on the fingers of one hand.

I asked Ben about this after his talk. You can find his response at around 44 minutes in.

Als het niet mogelijk is Flash te installeren kunt u de video bekijken via deze link.

Rethinking Detroit compared to Amsterdam

2011-09-04T13:31:00.001+02:00

Been looking at the future of niche publishing (where niche can still mean millions of people). I think it is better defined as media that is not afraid to focus and drill down beyond the PR hype and spin. It is also media that follow-ups. We're not there yet. I note that magazines like Forbes don't integrate their video stories into articles. But I do like the way they compile collections of material into dossiers. I was particularly intrigued with the dossier they made on Detroit, because the city is about the size of Amsterdam now and facing similar challenges with innovation. Sounds like Detroit has a plan rather than just ambition.

Critical Distance Weblog

Cuts in Public Service Broadcasting in Hilversum

Hyperlocal isn't useful in the Netherlands

Dutch equally at risk of Internet censorship

Rediscovering CC Crane at CES 2012

WiFi Mystery at the Hilversum Starbucks

How will SOPA impact foreigners?

VC4Africa reflects on first year - and into 2012

Solar Progress at CES 2012 Las Vegas

Fire Alarm at BBC Radio 5 today

Mixed Commercial Messaging

Pr Is Seventh Most Stressful Job - supposedly

Recreating AM Radio Sounds

Humbling Pictures from Hubble

Starting the Year in Reykjavik

Not often Apple is half price

Where in the world?

Happy New Spelling Checker

Clever way of recreating the magic of the Twin Towers

Tele2: Not sheep at all

PICNIC 2012 veers off in totally the wrong direction

Gaydon resigns, but former PACE CEO leaves a clear vision

Panasonic AG-HPX250 P2 camcorder joins BBC approved shortlist for HD production | AV Interactive | Pro AV news, analysis and comment from Europe’s leading Audio Visual title | AV Magazine

More Questions than Answers after Dutch Freedom for the Internet conference

Peculiar Radio Websites: Part 57

Cleese on Creativity

Talking with African Start-up Investors

Cracked Nutter iPod

Globalisation in the Loo

Blue Hue Around BH

CNN Relaunch Focusses on Presenters

Family Guy Listens to BBC World Service

TEDxAmsterdam is World Class this Year

Apple's Black Friday

Media Network vintage shows - new season

VOA Mug still going strong

Now this is the way to teach.....

Virtual and Artificial, but 58,000 Want Course - NYTimes.com

Dutch Creative Media Tour visits Salford but will they listen?

Business News Radio

RTV North Holland

Thanks for saying hello

BBC World Service Auctioned Off

Delft Creating History - This is the official site of the city of Delft for residents, tourists and business.

Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street - Video

Productivity Future Vision (2011) - YouTube

Big Innovation Centre | Events | Growing the Future: Universities Leading, Changing and Creating the Regional Economy

Midnight Sun, Iceland - storyful

MediaCorp : Digital Audio Broadcasting service to stop transmission

Great colours today

Lytro

Reasons to add your information to Culture24 | Culture24

Smashing Pumpkins in slow motion

Safely home from Istanbul

Sourcefabric Symposium in Prague

Augmented Reality Needs a Reality Check

Fotopedia 2.0

Censorship Worsening

More Vintage Media Network

Of Ducks and Lice in Rotterdam

Film Fading to Black - Creative COW

Morgan Practices What He Preaches

These Radio Guys Get It

Giel Confused on the Future of Radio

Global broadcasters need strategies to combat Internet censorship | News

Museum of Obsolete Objects - Radio

TEDxRotterdam 2011

Music to my Ears

Dinglish Conclusions to Dutch Gaming Sector

Steve Jobs on Journalism

Farewell Steve Jobs | Tom Munnecke's Eclectica

DNews.de

Innovation IS the key - so why can't we get on with it?

False Promises at my local Bus Shelter

Smart Cities

Nostalic Radio Panel

New Media in Bonn

Out Standing in the Field

Disappearing Transmitter Sites

Geoff Mulgan: A short intro to the Studio School | Video on TED.com