New Media is Dead

What was New Media?
New media is a term that describes media which
•
can only be viewed or used with the aid of comput-
er processing power. Is is often said to be a form of
media that includes some aspect of interactivity for
its audience, to a greater or lesser degree. It is
usually in digital form; which is what enables com-
puters to store it, operate on it, and make it inter-
active.
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_media
•

Web 2.0
Web 2.0, a phrase coined by O'Reilly Media in
•
2004, refers to a perceived or proposed second
generation of Web-based services such as social
networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and
folksonomies that emphasize online collaboration
and sharing among users.
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
•

Web 2.0, The Machine is Us/ing Us
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE
•

What changed?
Participation
•
Collaboration
•
Social
•
Collective intelligence
•
Web as a platform
•
The Long tail
•

Power Law of Participation

Collaboration
Blogs, wikis, tagging, etc are powering collabora-
•
tion like never seen before

Social
The art of connecting people on-line and off-line
•

Collective intelligence
Everyone contributes to something greater that the
•
sum of its parts

Web as a platform
The web is a platform or canvas for your creativity
•

The Long tail

So how does the BBC fit in here?

Turning around the good ship BBC
BBC Backstage
•
Innovation Labs
•
BBC 2.0
•
BBC Blogs Trial
•
BBC Feed Factory
•
BBC Creative/Open Archive
•
BBC Podcasts Trial
•
3rd party content deals
•
BBC YouTube deal -
•
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/20

What is Backstage?
“There's two views on the BBC. One is the traditional view
of centralised websites. The other is more open, de-
centralised and a mess. That is Backstage and in there
somewhere, is the future of the BBC”
A developer/designer network from the BBC
An opportunity for the BBC to offer some of the con-
•
tent and services
A way to share with 3rd party, non-commercial devel-
•
opers
Our way of stimulating creativity and innovation in
•
the market

Why is the BBC doing this?
The Governors response to the Review of the BBC’s On-
•
line services by Philip Graf committed the BBC to using
open standards to allow users to find and repurpose BBC
content in more flexible ways
Trust is the foundation of the BBC
–
We take pride in delivering Quality
–
Creativity is the lifeblood of our organisation
–
Audiences are at the heart of everything we do
–
We Respect each other and celebrate our diversity
–
Great things happen when we Work together
–

Common Questions
Cost of giving a way data and content?
•
Undermining commercial services?
•
What license is applied?
•
Were Poaching talent and ideas?
•
Is it all about prototypes?
•

So what's hot on our radar?

Transparency
Our audience require a deeper connection with the
•
core of the BBC. They no longer consume or should
be labeled users.
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/epic
Participation *
•
Collaboration *
•
Social
•
Collective intelligence *
•
Web as a platform *
•
The Long tail
•

Transparency
How in touch is the BBC with its audience? -
•
http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/prototypes/archives/2006/10/h

Transparency
“News Sniffer aims to monitor corporate news or-
•
ganisations to uncover bias” -
http://newssniffer.newworldodour.co.uk/pages/about
•
'Watch Your Mouth' monitors the BBC's 'Have Your
•
Say' website and detects when comments get cen-
sored
Revisionista monitors news websites and detects
•
when articles change. The versions are viewable
and the changes are highlighted.

Instant messenger bots
Instant messenger applications have existed on
•
peoples desks for quite a while but building services
which use them has been slow to come
Participation *
•
Collaboration *
•
Social *
•
Collective intelligence
•
Web as a platform *
•
The Long tail *
•

Instant messenger bots
http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/prototypes/archives/2006/10/b
•
http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/prototypes/archives/2006/02/h
•

Twitter
Although, not really instant messenger. Twitter is
•
predicated around what your doing right now
Participation
•
Collaboration
•
Social *
•
Collective intelligence
•
Web as a platform *
•
The Long tail *
•

Twitter mash-ups
http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/prototypes/archives/2007/02/t
•
http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/prototypes/archives/2007/01/b
•
Twitter Fan wiki - http://twitter.pbwiki.com/
•

Beyond the Browser

Widgets/Gadgets
A widget engine is host software system for physi-
•
cally inspired applets or web data on the desktop
Participation
•
Collaboration
•
Social
•
Collective intelligence *
•
Web as a platform *
•
The Long tail
•

Widgets/Gadgets
Yahoo Widgets
•
Apple Dashboard
•
Google Gadgets
•
Vista Gadgets
•
Opera Widgets
•
Netvibes - Universal Widget API (UWA)
•
W3C's Widget specification -
•
http://www.w3.org/TR/widgets/

Desktop Widgets example

Start page Widgets example

Rich Internet Applications
Rich Internet Applications which are built like Web
•
sites but share the space of desktop applications
are on the horizon
Participation
•
Collaboration
•
Social
•
Collective intelligence
•
Web as a platform *
•
The Long tail *
•

Rich Internet Applications
Microsoft Avalon/WPF/XAML
•
AOL Boxely
•
Mozilla XULrunner
•
Adobe Flex/Apollo
•
Formsplayer Sidewinder
•
Firefox 3.0
•
Morfik
•
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Application_Marku
•

Adobe Apollo

Mozilla XUL
http://www.xulplanet.com/tutorials/whyxul.html
•

Firefox 3.0
Off-line enabled applications will be possible with-
•
out another framework

Getting real with devices
Taking pools of data off the web and into real de-
•
vices, makes the web much more tangible and
manageable
Participation *
•
Collaboration
•
Social *
•
Collective intelligence
•
Web as a platform *
•
The Long tail
•

Nabaztag (techno love bunny)
http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/prototypes/archives/2007/01/n
•
http://www.nabaztag.com/
•

Chumby
Chumby Industries was formed by hackers who
•
wanted to create something interesting, useful and
different. The starting point was the humble clock
radio - http://www.chumby.com

Mobile phones

Second Life
Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and
•
owned by its residents. Since opening to the public
in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is in-
habited by a total of 4,199,243 people from around
the globe.
Participation *
•
Collaboration *
•
Social *
•
Collective intelligence
•
Web as a platform *
•
The Long tail
•

Second Life
http://kosso.wordpress.com/2006/10/06/bbc-news-rss-ne
•

Large Screens in Second Life
Virtual and Real -
•
http://www.blugg.com/bbc/LCD1/WSHTON7.html
Secondlife -
•
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Nooribeom/242/179/23/?img=http%3A
SL Video -
•
http://kosso.wordpress.com/2006/10/06/bbc-news-rss-newsreade

Maps and Geo-spacial information
Mapping where you are and where your going is
•
completely in your control, like no other time be-
fore.
Participation
•
Collaboration *
•
Social *
•
Collective intelligence *
•
Web as a platform *
•
The Long tail *
•

Maps, Weather and Traffic
Weather map -
•
http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/prototypes/archives/2007/01/world_we
Travel map -
•
http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/prototypes/archives/2006/10/live_trave

Creative Commons
Creative Commons provides free tools that let au-
•
thors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark
their creative work with the freedoms they want it
to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright
terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights
Reserved."
Participation *
•
Collaboration *
•
Social *
•
Collective intelligence *
•
Web as a platform *
•
The Long tail *
•

Creative Commons

Creative Commons
Attribution License
•
Attribution-NoDerivs License
•
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License
•
Attribution-NonCommercial License
•
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
•
Attribution-ShareAlike License
•

Pools of Data
The experimental catalogue database holds over
•
900,000 entries. It is a sub-set of the data from the
internal BBC database created and maintained by
the BBC’s Information and Archives department
Participation
•
Collaboration *
•
Social
•
Collective intelligence *
•
Web as a platform *
•
The Long tail *
•

Pools of Data
Infax is so full of data just waiting to be unleashed
•
http://open.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infax/
•

Visualization
The visualization of data, content and information is
•
becoming the difference between people under-
standing and not understanding
Participation
•
Collaboration *
•
Social *
•
Collective intelligence *
•
Web as a platform *
•
The Long tail *
•

Visualization
A comprehensive archive of all the Homepages
•
from July 14th 2005 onwards -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/homearchive/

Visualization
Information aesthetics - http://infosthetics.com/
•
Data mining -
•
http://datamining.typepad.com/data_mining/
Twingly screensaver - http://www.twingly.se
•
Packet Garden -
•
http://www.selectparks.net/~julian/pg/pmwiki.php?n=Ma

Internet Television
Joost previously the Venice Project
•
Participation
•
Collaboration
•
Social *
•
Collective intelligence
•
Web as a platform *
•
The Long tail *
•

Internet Television

Internet Television
Tape it off the internet (friendly bit torrent)
•

Internet Television

Things which are bubbling up...

BarCamp
The BarCamp rules are very clear and create an
•
environment where there are no spectators, only
participants: everyone who attends is expected to
present, give a demo, lead a session or support the
event in some way. This helps to get everyone in-
volved, but also creates more of a community at-
mosphere - http://barcamp.org/BarCampLondon2

BarCamp

Web standards
The Web Standards Project is a grassroots coalition
•
fighting for standards which ensure simple, afford-
able access to web technologies for all
http://webstandards.org
•
Use XHTML 1.0 transitional/strict
•
Separate the content from the style
•
Use Cascading Style Sheets with limited hacks
•
Use unobtrusive DOM scripting and JavaScript
•
Use Semantic markup, avoid Tables for layout
•
Do not build for a single browser
•

Semantic markup
Semantic markup is markup that is descriptive
•
enough to allow people and machines to recognize
it and make decisions about it.
In other words, markup means something when we
can identify it and do useful things with it. In this
way, semantic markup becomes more than merely
descriptive. It becomes a brilliant mechanism that
allows both humans and machines to “understand”
the same information

Semantic markup

Microformats
Designed for humans first and machines second,
•
microformats are a set of simple, open data for-
mats built upon existing and widely adopted stan-
dards. Instead of throwing away what works today,
microformats intend to solve simpler problems first
by adapting to current behaviors and usage pat-
terns (e.g. XHTML, blogging).
http://www.microformats.org
•

Microformats
People and Organizations
•
hCard
•
Calendars and Events
•
hCalendar
•
Opinions, Ratings and Reviews
•
VoteLinks, hReview
•
Social Networks
•
XFN
•
Licenses:
•
rel-license
•
Tags, Keywords
•
rel-tag
•
Lists and Outlines
•
XOXO
•

HTML 5
Apple Inc., The Mozilla Foundation, and Opera
•
Software ASA came together to define what they
class as the next version of the web. HTML 5 as its
being called includes some interesting parts includ-
ing the Canvas element
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/HTML:Canvas
•

HTML 5: Canvas
<canvas> is a new HTML5 element which can be
•
used to draw graphics using scripting (usually
JavaScript). It can for instance be used to draw
graphs, make photo compositions or do simple (and
not so simple) animations.
Its supported by Safari, Mozilla and Opera.
•
Examples -
•
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Category:Canvas_examples

HTML 5: Canvas

Pipelines
Mashup? The Web is the API
•
I want to talk about the implications for that marvelous as-
•
pect of the fundamental UNIX design: the pipe, and its abil-
ity to connect small independent programs so that they
could collectively perform functions beyond the capability
of any of them alone. What is the equivalent of the pipe in
the age of the web? ...This is one of the REALLY BIG
IDEAS that is going to shape the next five or ten years of
computing. - Jon Udell (microsoft)
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/02/pipes_and_filte.
•

Pipeline examples
Unix Pipelines
•
XML Pipelines
•
AppleScript
•
Touchstone
•
Yahoo! Pipes
•
Xproc (XML Pipeline definition language)
•

Yahoo! Pipes
http://pipes.yahoo.com
•

Yahoo! Pipes
Pipes opens up mashup programming to the non-
•
programmer, it's not entirely for the faint of heart.
At minimum, you need to be able to look at a URL
line and parse out the parameters (so, for example,
you can use Pipes' "URL builder" module to con-
struct input to a site's query function), understand
variables and loops, and so on. But you don't really
need to know these things to get started
– Tim O'Reilly

Touchstone
Touchstone takes Widgets, Pipelines and Attention
•
to the next level
http://www.touchstonelive.com
•

Touchstone
Adapters -
•
http://touchstone.stikipad.com/adapters/show/Adapter+Id

Attention and your Identity

The Attention Economy
Attention economics is an approach to the man-
•
agement of information that treats human attention
as a scarce commodity, and applies economic theo-
ry to solve various information management prob-
lems. – wikipedia

The Attention Economy
"Attention economics" today is primarily concerned
•
with the problem of getting consumers to consume
advertising. Traditional media advertisers followed
a model that suggested consumers went through a
linear process they called,
AIDA - Attention, Interest, Desire and Action

Attention 2.0
Your Attention data/profiles has real value and
•
needs to be protected.
Attention 2.0 puts the user in control of their Atten-
tion data/profiles.
Attention Trust - http://www.attentiontrust.org/
•
Attention Profiling Mark-up Language -
•
http://www.touchstonelive.com/apml/

Identity 2.0
Dick Hardt Founder & CEO, Sxip Identity, delivers a
•
compelling and dynamic introduction on Identity
2.0 and how the concept of digital identity is evolv-
ing. - http://identity20.com/media/OSCON2005/
Open ID - http://openid.net/
•
SXIP - http://www.sxip.com/
•

Open ID
When you post on a blog using OpenID, the blog-
•
ger's site asks your OpenID provider to log you in;
when your provider verifies you, you are guaran-
teed a unique identity without maintaining an ac-
count for that blog.
Simon Willison explains how it all works in a short
•
screencast -
http://simonwillison.net/2006/openid-screencast/

Digital Rights or Restrictions
Digital Rights Management is a controversial topic.
•
Advocates argue DRM is necessary for copyright
holders to prevent unauthorized duplication of their
work to ensure continued revenue streams.

Digital Rights or Restrictions
Some critics of the technology, including the Free
•
Software Foundation, suggest that the use of the
word "Rights" is misleading and suggest that peo-
ple instead use the term Digital Restrictions Man-
agement. Their position is essentially that copyright
holders are attempting to restrict use of copyright-
ed material in ways not included in the law.
Others, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation
•
consider some DRM schemes to also be anti-com-
petitive practices, citing the iTunes Store as an ex-
ample

Digital Rights or Restrictions
We invited some of the most vocal backstagers in
•
the long running debate over DRM, to come and
join us at the BBC to discuss face to face what they
felt about DRM and the BBC. The hour long discus-
sion caused quite a stir...
http://blip.tv/file/get/Matthewcashmore-backstagebbccouk
Your welcome to download and remix the MPeg3
•
file or the Ogg Vorbis file. Both are licensed under
creative commons attribution v2.5

Final thoughts,
Ajax, ruby on rails, etc are not that interesting...
•
Set up a blog or have some online profile
•
Contribute to a open source project
•
Remember Bit Torrent isn't evil
•
Social networks for the sake of social networking
•
are tiresome
Get out there and get social
•
Use a RSS reader or aggregator
•
Listen to ITConversations.com
•
Keep an eye on the BBC and join the Backstage list
•

Thank you
Ian Forrester | backstage.bbc.co.uk | cubicgarden.com | geekdinner.co.uk
•
| ian.forrester@bbc.co.uk
Matthew Cashmore | backstage.bbc.co.uk | thelondonbiker.com | journey-
•
torussia.com | matthew.cashmore@bbc.co.uk
Credits
•
The power of participation – http://farm1.static.flickr.com/49/171420476_7346bf964c_t.jpg
•
Freedom fighters - http://www.flickr.com/photos/beija-flor/194900377/
•
Joost screenshots - http://www.flickr.com/photos/svonog/408587861 and
•
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zemote/408945390/ and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/d88315v/408002501
Time - http://www.flickr.com/photos/zelciia/327120047/
•
The machine is us/ing us - http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/?p=78
•
Open ID screencast - http://simonwillison.net/
•
Great that the sum of its parts - http://www.plasticbag.org/files/greater/
•
Apollo shots - http://readwriteweb.com/
•
Bubble room - http://www.flickr.com/photos/modahome/332137979/
•