So.  The BETT show is over.  Online CC spent a great deal of time at the event, which for the second year in a row struck me as an unholy marriage of a livestock pen and a telesales call.  I only spent a day at Olympia, but the experience sapped my strength so much that it felt like a week.

I don’t have much of a problem admitting that I didn’t like BETT – it seems to be pretty much unanimously agreed by everyone I spoke to there that time at a show like BETT takes its toll; which isn’t to say that the whole thing is pointless or uninteresting of course.  It’s a very good thing for people in the industry to get together like this, and every year some real gems come up, which  make the over-priced refreshments and crawling through Learning Management Software stands worth it.

Take Rafi.ki, for example. Rafi.ki is an online learning community which builds partnerships between schools all over the world.  Pupils exchange information with one another, embark on projects together, and make friends.  Simple?  Yes.  Worthwhile?  Undoubtedly.  Successful?  It seems so.  The gent on the stand (one John Macnutt, lovely guy) pointed out that on facebook, most children simply collect people who are already their friends and remain in those groups.  Here was something that allowed children to make new friends, and work together on projects that can be extremely valuable.

Or Roar Educate’s  “Us Online“, an ‘online learning module’ which allows children to learn about what exactly you can do on the internet, via the experience of a set of fictional characters.  I saw a demonstrator show how a learner can help a girl set up a myspace page, from choosing her screen name and picture to making friends; and it’s only once you’ve set up a profile picture of the character in her underwear and befriendied a suspicious individual called fluffybunny73 who says he ‘likes to play’ that the program takes you step by step through what you’ve done that might have gotten you into such a situation.  This kind of digital literacy is working its way up the agenda as people accept that things like Myspace are now a fact of life, and learning through experience and simulation is a great way to get across the idea that your actions in the digital realm are not without consequences.

Or Pixton, a really fun site that allows people to (fairly) easily create and share their own webcomics.  I don’t know a great deal about ‘Pixton for Schools‘, but there’s been a lot of talk about video games’ ability to present content to children.  Comics, as another staple of my youth, show real potential to do the same.

Rambling around the upper levels I stumbled across some charming gents from Rolling Sound, who run multimedia courses for schools, community groups and young people ‘at risk’.  Roll 7 is a recent expansion of Rolling Sound, and are a company making socially responsible video games, actively recruiting from the young people that complete courses at Rolling Sound.  Their flagship piece is a game called ‘Dead Ends‘, which managed to make it onto Channel 4 News in its treatment of knife crime.  It’s even got Jon Snow in it.   I also almost tripped over Serious Games Interactive’s very small stall; these guys make a series of games called ‘Global Conflicts’, which aim to inform on the (extremely complex) issues behind some of the most intractable and damaging conflicts in the world.  As ever, I’m a sucker for video games and so must admit to taking a disproportionate amount of interest in stalls like this…

Finally, I did a double take at the back of Olympia Grand Hall when I walked a stand where grown men and women seemed to be playing Dance Dance Revolution on the kind of wet-pour rubber surface that you get on playground floors.  It turned out to be Smartus by Lappset, an intriguing hybrid of digital game based learning and physical exercise – whether it’s stepping on marked tiles in the right order, or running round posts as quickly as you can, Smartus has developed installations for playgrounds or indoor halls which have children taking orders from weather friendly consoles.  Though I didn’t partake myself, I imagine it to be like performing mental arithmetic whilst playing ‘tag’.

I’m not sure I like the sound of that.

BETT, marketing, Publishing

On the internet, keeping up with the times is paramount. The web is practically synonymous with the cutting edge and it wouldn’t do to be caught out lagging. But the problem for those trying to navigate its evolution is that novelty and potential brush shoulders with the shallowness of fashion. When Facebook first grew in popularity in the UK it seemed little more than a sleeve on which superficial teenagers could wear their popularity. But now the site reveals a surprisingly subversive depth, a place for championing causes little and large and organising events both political and playful.

Charities soon pricked their ears up to this, attempting to galvanise supporters in this online hiding place of “youth”. It is not hard to find groups for every major charity, and a few (notably Save the Children and the NSPCC) have even invested in developing their own web applications for activism and fundraising. The NSPCC’s application allows users to sign up to specific fundraising events and to group together to raise the money required. The active connection that these embody is much more inspiring than simply signing up as one member among hundreds in a generic facebook group.

Following its meteoric rise, Facebook overtook Myspace in the Alexa rankings this summer. This had much to do with the Myspace’s failure to sufficiently embrace the use of internal applications on its pages, to synthesise itself adequately with the rest of Web 2.0 technology.

But the embrace of the social network is not without reservations for the charitable sector. At Online, we already commented on Number 10’s fear of the network. Networks are simply antithetical to the privileged centre that dominates in any hierarchical organisation. This is not simply jealous directors clinging on tooth and nail to the control of their brand. What is at stake for the NGO sector is the responsibility a charity feels toward those who give their money and time. If an unofficial group organised by supporters of a charity raises funds by appealing to causes to which the official charity does not actually give, donors have every right to feel duped.

The internet is not simply one channel that charities must be cautious of. It can reach into the heart of how they do business. Kiva is a site where donors can lend capital to people in poor countries who would otherwise find it hard to get a reasonable loan. Many donors feel uneasy about giving to large charities because they use some fraction of donated money to support full time staff. While Kiva does sustain its own bureaucratic framework, it challenges the traditional charity model by producing the feeling of an unmediated social relationship with the recipient.

While social networks usurp central control, and Kiva usurps bureaucratic middle-men, ARGs (Alternate Reality Games) may prove far more successful for activist awareness-raising than traditional pamphleteering methods. Indeed, next to the rise of ARGs, social networking sites seem a little dated in their contemporary online potential.

While some charities are still scrambling to optimise their facebook presence, after months of waiting, Cancer Research UK has finally launched its very own ARG, Operation: Sleeper Cell. Several big names in the ARG business are involved but the main authorship was the outcome of a competition open to all. This follows the success of World Without Oil in proving the ARG a powerful medium for activism. The new Superstruct game looks to fill a similar function in coming months, part of an emerging genre of “ethical” ARGs.

The authors of Akoha, another new project, dub their brainchild “the world’s first social reality game”, seemingly a combination of chain letter logic, social networking and competitive altruism. Whether or not this is a cure to the modern malaise of isolated individualism, these creative collective web-based projects are revealing themselves as powerful means for opening people’s minds (not just their wallets).

It is a tenet of ARGs that it is not necessary to restrict oneself to computer-based media for playing. Phones, live events, television and music are often crucial. Growing portability of web technology, prompted by the iPhone and the scramble of its exasperated competitors, is producing a massively expanded field of possibilities for activism. Being confined to the desk is no longer necessary for using social networks, and the ARG medium is pioneering the furthering of this extension, exploring the consequences of if one had to leave the desk to play.

In ethical ARGs we see an appropriation of the social network for the use of a controlling centre. The puppetmasters who control an ARG are in a position of sophisticated dialogue with the most cutting edge of web technologies, and manipulate these new media toward engaging ends. There is always some degree of interactivity in an ARG, but the story is always held together by the organisers. Akoha is made up of people free to choose their missions, but ultimately all the missions are written by the company.

Here lies massive potential for charities looking to distribute a message, promote their brand, but all the while remaining in control of their own messages. Competing with the big players in social networking is hardly an option, but with the delineation of these new puppetry technologies, piggy-backing certainly is.

Charities, marketing, web_2.0

In an interesting development last week, video sharing site Veoh left court relieved having successfully fought off copyright-related allegations. The victory could be good news for Youtube who are in the midst of a similar copyright battle themselves.

In response to Veoh’s victory, Youtube commented that they too ‘go above and beyond the law to protect content owners whilst empowering people to communicate and share their experiences online’. Whilst this immediately sounds like philosophical spin, I think it is important to look a little deeper at the ‘power’ and impact of Youtube.

Browsing the blogs I stumbled across Anthropologist bigwig Dr Michael Wesch who has been singing Youtube’s praises from the rooftops, or the digital soapbox, studying in depth the value of the virtual community. Most can appreciate Youtube on an everyday basis but what I found interesting about this guy was his determination to investigate the ethics and implications of the website. Who’d have thought there was more to it than Star Wars kid?!

Wesch’s research stems from his ‘participant observation’ methodology by which he submerges himself in social, cultural or occupational practises so as to gain a fully fledged understanding of them. It is this kind of strategy that journalist Louis Theroux is famed for, most recently entangling himself in the cosmetic surgery industry.

Louis Theroux goes ‘Under the Knife’

I enjoyed watching Wesch as he quirkily attempted to become a ‘youtuber’ in the same way that Louis Theroux gives you an access all areas pass on his ‘weird weekends’. I didn’t even have to leave my desk (not that I would have had to, ironically!).

Wesch serves up some great food for thought about the influence of Web 2.0, it made me think about the impact it has had on so many lives worldwide. Essentially:

Change in media and technology = change in human relations = change to lifestyle

My favourite illustration of Wesch’s was his likening of Youtube to the fall of the corner grocery store at the hands of the supermarket juggernauts. This honest observation illuminates man’s need for community, relationships and authenticity whilst we strive in the modern world for individualism, independence and commercialisation – a sad and complex tension. I think Wesch is strangely right when he says that Youtube bridges this gap because it is a community of individuals.

This community means that the vlog can potentially be viewed by millions of people. The strange thing is that in reality a vlogger is actually alone addressing a single camera, exposing their thoughts and feelings to an unknown mass of other users. There is certainly something disconcertingly Orwellian about this invisible audience. Despite this, the vlog has liberated people worldwide; ‘Hi Youtube’, a common opening to entries, has become our modern day ‘dear diary’.

Wesch’s discussion of hyper self-awareness praises the ‘diary-room’ setup for providing self-examination as well as the freedom (because of physical distance) to openly engage in dialogues with other users. Debate ranges from grappling with the finer details of Britney Spears’ breakdown to political rants! From the weird and the wonderful to the sober and the serious, 9232 hours of video is broadcasted on Youtube every day. In the last six months, Youtube has produced more than the 1.5 million hours of programming cobbled together over 60 years by the three major US television networks. What is incredible is that 88% of it all is new and original material. The world of vlogging has had an enormous impact upon this.

‘Leave Britney Alone!’ cries vlogger Chris Crocker

Evidently pressure mounts on Youtube and friends to tighten their leash on the user-upload/copyright chimera. The threat posed to this innovative environment by a $3 Billion lawsuit could be catastrophic, but with Veoh off the hook users are now optimistic about the website’s future.

Do, if you have time, check out Dr Wesch’s video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU

Culture, marketing, web_2.0