Another day for Jersey Live

The Jersey Live music festival is set to go to two days for the first time this year. The festival enters its third year in 2006 and has grown from having five headline acts and a 4500 capacity in 2004 to 11 headline acts, a capacity of 7500 for the main event and an extra day in 2006.

The second day isn’t quite a full extra day yet given that it starts at 5.30pm and finishes at 10:30pm but it’s a great launchpad for a full weekend festival (which is sure to be on the way soon).

Not only does the festival feature 11 brilliant ’signed’ acts but also plays host to four fantastic Jersey bands including The Merge, The Valentines, Kudu and deNova Blues - all of which are easily up to the job of sharing the Positiv stage with the likes of Snow Patrol and The Zutons.

The full line-up for the festival’s main stage includes Sandi Thom, Nick Harper and Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly on the Friday and Snow Patrol, The Zutons, The Editors, Hope of the States, Milburn, Forward Russia, The On Offs, The Paddingtons, Kudu, The Valentines, The Merge, deNova Blues, Filthy Dukes and is hosted by Zane Lowe.

There is also the THEORY dance arena that will feature James Lavelle Ivan Smagghe, Erol Alkan, Riton, C2C.

The most shocking thing though is that tickets are just £35 for the main show on Saturday and £18.50 for the Friday night show.

That probably explains why all the tickets sold out (for the Saturday) in no time at all.

The first batch of 1000 tickets sold out online within 12 hours, the second batch of 2000 did the same and the final batch of 2500 caused over 1000 people to queue outside Jersey Telecom (they sold within 2 hours).

As I’ve already blogged about 750 tickets where held back to be given away to anyone renewing a mobile contract and the rest are avaialbe through a UK Travel Partner like Condor or Sundecker (complete with ferry and camping).

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The Time When

The BBC have launched a new web 2.0 concept site (designed to help them work out how they could convert bbc.co.uk into a full on community service) called The Time When.

The concept of the site is to pull together a collection of personal stories from people on a specific day.

You visit the site, type in a date and you get things who was the Prime Minister, key events in history, Monach of Great Britian and the US Prime Minister - plus links through to Wikipedia and BBCs own On This Day site.

But the interesting part is that it gives you stories written by site users for that specific day as well - the headline item is My First World Cup Memory right now.

The site isn’t overly attractive, it’s a very simple, slightly old fashioned looking site without much in the way of bells and whistles but as a proof of concept and in terms of pure usability its brilliant.

What I like about this concept the most is that it plays on the concept “there is a story behind every door” and gives the average user the tools to tell that story.

I was working on a similar idea a while ago for the bbc.co.uk/jersey site but without the flexibility of a web 2.0d site like this one - I had to work within the strict perl based structure of the current bbc.co.uk site.

http://www.thetimewhen.co.uk/

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Live the moment

A photographer from Brighton is trying to get people to put their cameras down for a day and live in the moment instead of documenting it.

I love this idea - as someone who carries around not just a mobile phone complete with camera but my Fuji s9500 and a Nagra audio recorder everywhere I go, I know all to well the desire to document every moment.

What I love about the concept of a camera free day is the fantastic idea of being able to be part of a moment, part of the environment instead of seeing it through a lense.

I’ve been to a huge number of gigs, events and incidents where I’ve been taking photos - I rarely remember anything that happened at the event as I was too busy working out my next shot or taking a photo.

The Drop your camera day is on 17 July and there will be posters up in cities around the world - however I’m not sure (however much I love the idea) I’ll be able to resist the urge to photograph someone ‘enjoying the moment’.

More Info

Full story from BBC News Online
Non-Photography Day Website
read more | digg story

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Newsnight Video Podcast

I was enjoying the overly brilliant sarcastic warblings of Jeremey Paxman while washing up this evening thanks to the brilliant Newsnight podcast that cuts all the drivel and gives me the basic facts.

It was a random, throwaway comment by Jeremey Paxman somewhere in the podcast that saw him suggest there would be a Newsnight video podcast from the BBC in the next few weeks.

I’ve also heard it mentioned on the BBC Grapevine that a number of video podcasts will be lining up for attention over the next few months - I’ll look into it more at a sensible hour - unless anyone else has more info on it?

The thing with video podcasts is, and it’s only a small thing, the average, usual, not overly relevant thing with video podcasts is this - I don’t have a video iPod.

Yes I know I can watch the video on my PC but that just becomes yet another piece of media fighting for my already limited time - audio podcasts allow me to listen on the move (while walking to work etc).

So until I get myself a Video iPod, which may be some time as I’ve only just got a nano and don’t want to get a video iPod until the next gen (full screen) comes out, until I get that full screen video iPod a video podcast is of little use.

Yes I’ll subscribe, yes I’ll watch when I’ve got time but it won’t be obsessivly like I do a decent audio podcast (that I can listen to while washing up, going round shops, walking to work or even in a dull meeting.

On a related but side note - Newsnight seems to be a real testbed for the BBC trying out various new things - it was one of the first to go on demand through the BBC News site, it was the first TV show to become a BBC Podcast, will be one of the first Video Podcasts for the BBC and apparently has started linking to Digg for discussion of their stories (the writer says in the Digg comments it’s because of the lack of a BBC Tech forum).

Personally I think it’s better the BBC links out to other sources for discussion than tries to foster a new community itself - you get much more intelligent (apparently) debate when you have an establish community passionate about that subject.

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Wanna be a carny?

You feeling lucky punk? No? Then head to Lucky Oliver - it’s a sure thing!

OK so first things first - sorry for harping on about Lucky Oliver but after playing with it for a couple of days - uploading photos, downloading photos - that kind of thing, I’m gradually getting more and more impressed.

Alright so they need a fair few more photos to be added before it becomes as ‘useful’ as iStockPhoto or sXc BUT it’s interface is much more intuitive than iStocks AND it’s easily as user friendly (if not more so) than Flickr so well worth a visit.

In fact - if you’re into snapping about with the little flashy thing and have a few great shots that would otherwise be gathering dust in your pics folder - why not register.

The worst that can happen is nobody buys a picture the best is you make a few quid out of what would otherwise have sat there doing sod all - can’t say fairer than that.
Head over to LuckyOliver.com to register, takes about 10 minutes and you’ll need three photos - tell them Up Your Ego sent you so they know where traffic is coming from.

Oh and before you ask - NO I’m not on commission

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4theweb

Here’s me going on about the wonder that is BBC TWO when Channel 4 are racing ahead and launching the first fully open live simulcast of a UK TV Channel (that isn’t a shopping or porn channel).

OK so the BBC did get there first with the Multicast trial but it’s VERY limited and requires a fair amount of technie knowledge to get it going.

Yes BBC THREE and BBC TWO got there first with full shows online and even more yes BBC News got there first with on demand shows linked to extra information and clips - and simulcasting of sport.

However the Channel 4 Live service IS the first, fully launched, relatively easy to use live simulcast of a UK TV Channel.

It looks pretty an requires no more effort than visiting channel4.com, logging in and clicking launch player - unfortunatly I haven’t been able to test it properly yet as it crashed my browser (IE6) when I tried just now.

I’ll give it a go in Firefox and IE7 this evening and let you know what I think - if it has the same flare (although it could do with some updated content) as the Radio Service or the same usability as the 4Docs service then this could be another triumph from 4.

Channel 4 (other organisations ARE starting to catch up) was one of the first major media organisations in the UK to bite the bullet and start to transform themselves from a television broadcaster to a media publisher - creating and commissioning content that can be distributed on any platform.

The BBC is starting to get there in a big way and will do so even more over the next year or two - ITV knows it needs to and has made a few nods in that direction but with ITV who knows.

Update

When I eventually got it to load up and start the simulcast it wasn’t actually a stream of Channel 4, it seemed to be little more than a series of promos for shows coming up on the various 4 channels (Channel 4, more4 and e4).

I watched for a good 10 minutes and in that time it didn’t actually get into a show, just a series of (yes very clever, but still…) promos for their shows.

Then a screen came up with the following words “Next programme follows shortly”.

So this isn’t actually a simulcast of what’s on Channel 4, it’s a stripped down version of the channel only showing the programming C4 have been able to negotiate web rights to - interesting.

To be honest what I really want is more4 - I can’t currently get the channel through my Cable provider, can’t get Sky where I live and really like the look of most of the shows on the channel.

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Flickr meets iStockPhoto

I recieved an e-mail today from the people at Lucky Oliver - a new stock photo website that is somewhere between Flickr and iStockPhoto - Flickr for the community and web2.0 layout and functionality and iStockPhoto for the way it’s been monetised.

Basically you buy tokens and use those tokens to buy photos that have been submitted - but equally you upload photos and get tokens everytime one is sold that you can convert to cash after you’ve made $100 or use to buy other photos (an approach I would take for pics for the blog and other projects).

I don’t like openly promoting services based on an e-mail and as it stands I haven’t actually submitted or purchased a photo from the site - but on first impressions alone I’m very impressed.

It seems very simple to use, it has a very web 2.0 interface with tag clouds and a blog to keep you up to date with the latest ‘behind the scenes’ development.

It also has some really nice advantages over iStockPhoto (my current source of choice for stock images), it gives you decent sized previews with a watermark in the corner, out the way and not slap bang across the middle of the picture.

It also has bloggers in mind with Blog as one of the size options.

For one token you can get a blog image at 400 x 300

For 2 tokens you can get a small image at 600 x 450

Three tokens gets you a medium image at 1200 x 900

A large image at 1920 x 1440 will cost you four tokens

You can also offer a take it off the site licence with your photos where you charge more for the pic but nobody else can download it after that which is an interesting concept for both designers and photographers.

Full Review in next few weeks

I’ll do a more detailed review of the site when I’ve had a chance to use it in anger - when I actually need a specific photo for a project or when I get round to uploading pics (I’ll review the application process, the portfolio screens etc).

The process of getting more tokens couldn’t be easier either - click buy tokens, choose whether you want to pay through paypal, credit card or use your earnings and go!

Buying a photo is simple too, you see the preview, select the size, see a box with the number of tokens you’ve got, click buy, see the token numbers go down by however many for the size you’ve purchased and download the photo.

Now might be a good time to sign up as well - at the moment they’re giving photographers 60% royalty until they reach 30,000 images - but they are close, so get there quick.

Oh and if you’re buying images and are in the UK - 10 tokens will cost you £5.63 instead of $10 which is (for a blog image) just over 50p a photo.

It’s almost exactly what I was thinking for PodShare with one minor difference - photos instead of audio files.

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Cost of the Web

There are complaints from users at digg.com that the tech news site has to many ads - with most saying they just block them.

This is actually pretty sad - I’m not a fan of advertising in any way shape or form - but I do realise it’s an essential part of the ‘free web’.

If I’ve paid to access a site I don’t expect to see advertising - but if I’m visiting a site and it doesn’t cost anything to use/read then I fully understand that site running advertising.

The problem with a certain group of people using the web (the computerphiles) is that they expect everything for nothing.

There browser is free, the websites they visit are free, the tv shows and software they download from a torrent site are free, the podcasts they listen to are free (and they really kick up a fuss when it isn’t).

Unfortunatly in the real world you get what you pay for - either that payment comes indirectly through putting up with advertising OR you pay a subscription to use the service.

I pay directly for a few podcasts because I enjoy them and fully understand that the producer deserves some revenue for their product

Others I put up and listen to the advertising (and often hear things that I later check out) because again they deserve the revenue for their product.

Ad Blockers are a great idea but to be honest not very realistic - I think if you want our favourite sites to survive then you need to sit back and think just why they carry those adverts.

Interesting comment on the Digg story about ad revenue:

… with a dozen employees, server costs, office space (which ain’t cheap), I see something like 200k/month disappearing pretty damn quick.

 

People always make the mistake of looking at the money a business takes in, and trying to think about it in terms of what one individual would do with that money. Revenue is not the same as profits, and profits are not the same as one person’s take home pay.

This explains it perfectly really - yes you can run a small site (like this blog) without having to worry about making an income, my server costs are just part of my usual monthly expenses, the only manpower cost is me and I do it for the love and my office space is in the corner of my living room (which I pay rent for anyway).

The larger a site gets the more money it costs - if you get heavy traffic bandwidth goes up so you need to find a way to cover the cost (advertising or subscription), then as the site grows more, users expect more - manpower costs go up and eventually office space is needed - more expense.

Fixing the problem

I do like the user friendly model that gives users the choice - you can put up with the adverts or you can pay a monthly subscription and not be shown them.

The real problem with banner ads is the fact that web users get annoyed by them, often because they’re not relevant to the content or because they’re to garish, bright or interactive.

In my opinion two solutions are needed - give users the choice to pay instead of put up with ads and just use text banners, even if it means more of them - drop anything flash or interactive, lose the garish colours and stop things moving about.

Oh and I’m loving what they’ve done with Digg v3 and can’t wait to play with the new tools and API coming out in July.

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Seen it? Send it!

Another cool new concept from the BBC TWO website - Seen it? Send it! basically takes the idea of ’send this link to a friend’ to the next level in a way that works well with video.

You can either choose to send the whole clip where you get a form to fill in and it works in much the same way as any other e-mail link or, and this is the ‘cool’ bit - you can select part of what you’re watching to send.

This is a lot more exciting than it sounds - say your watching Top Gear and Jeremy Clarkson makes reference to a car your mate has just brought - instead of sending him an e-mail saying “watch Top Gear online and skip to about 14 minutes in” you just click ’start’ at the begining of the clip you want and, this is really clever stuff here ‘end’ at the end of the clip you want.

Select Send and your friend has the bit about Jeremy Clarkson ripping into his brand spanking new pile of dog turd - wonderful stuff from BBC TWO.

Unfortunatly it does have a couple of downsides at the moment:

1) It only works in IE (does work in IE7 so you should get it if you haven’t already)
2) Requires Pop-Ups to be ‘allowed’ for bbc.co.uk

The Pop-Up issue is a big problem as well because there isn’t a link on the page it sends you to that says something like ‘Watch the Clip Now’ - instead it relies on a bit of user savy in that it expects you to know how to click the little yellow bar to say ‘yes I want to allow popups’ and trust me - I know a lot of people that don’t get that yellow bar thingy.

That aside this is a brilliant concept and when fully rolled out to the ever growing library of video content on bbc.co.uk/bbctwo it will make a great addition.

I’m really excited by the way BBC TWO has embraced the web and the way they’re putting content online - instead of taking the stream alongside broadcast approach that some US networks take, or the straight put the show up for a week that others take - they’ve given a mix of full shows (rights permitting) and clips - often both - so you can pick and choose your content depending on your time and need.

The way BBC TWO has done it allows for both main types of web video user - the one that wants to watch everything online and on demand (me) and the type that just wants something extra online but would still prefer to watch it linear on their TV.

My guess is that as BBC TWO gets ready to start broadcasting their linear signal online and the BBC iPlayer launches we will start to see more or less a page for EVERY show on BBC TWO with links to iPlayer downloads or streaming windows to watch them there and then AND message board discussions, blogs that refer to the show and shorted clips/previews.

The one thing the BBC iMP lacked more than any other was a decent preview system - a way to see what a show was like before committing to a download - it might get messy having this integrated into iPlayer but it is something the linear channel sites could handle easily.

Then as we see linear programming dissapear the content type category (comedy, drama, light entertainment, music) could carry the trailer on its index.

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