In late May I attended a great conference on Copyright Future – Copyright Freedom held at Old Parliament House in Canberra which featured a keynote talk by Stanford University Professor Lawrence who is pictured above. One session of the conference was run in the old House of Representatives chamber and many of the speakers were overcome with the gravity of the setting and the honour of speaking there. The standard of the presentations was in keeping with the historic surroundings, the next step that is needed is for some of the ideas to transition to legislation in the new Parliament House.
Copyright can be a fairly dry subject at the best of times but, judging by the energy in the room, you got a powerful sense from this conference that there is an urgent need for reform. The proceedings were opened by Attorney General Robert McClelland and speakers included Former Justice of the High Court Michael Kirby and eminent lawyers from all sides of the copyright debate. The fact that there was general agreement of the need for reform provides some reassurance that the entrenched positions of the past may soon begin to break down.
In the film and television industry my experience is that if you mention the subject of copyright reform the conversation turns fairly quickly to condemnation of ‘pirates’ and ‘thieves’. But one thing I learned from the Copyright Future conference was that reform of copyright laws is not unprecedented. There have been major reforms and ammendments to copyright legislation throughout its history in response to evolving creative practices and technologies. Radio, television, photocopying and videotape are among the technologies that have prompted changes in the past including a total redraft of the Copyright act by Nigel Bowen in 1968. So, it is not inconceivable that change to copyright legislation is warranted with the advent of the internet despite the strength of feeling on the issue.
There is no doubt that current copyright legislation is out of step with internet technologies and practices of sharing content online. A punitive approach to online sharing is difficult to enforce although the recording industry persists in mounting legal action in this area. But what is the cost of this approach and is it viable in the long term? Lawrence Lessig, in a powerful keynote presentation appealed for reform of a system which is “criminalising a whole generation”. Using the analogy of the prohibition of alcohol in 1920’s America, Lessig questioned the effectiveness of ‘waging a war’ on alcohol consumption, terrorism or internet sharing. He gave a polished presentation (one that he’s obviously given many times before) which made an impassioned, clearly argued case for reform.
Lessig started by building a picture of the “read-write culture” that we all associate with the internet but pointed to strong antecedents in culture prior to broadcasting. There is a long tradition of artistic work which builds on prior work in painting and literature. Quotation is used widely in academic writing and there are established systems of citation that make this OK. Yet there are no well agreed systems of citation when it comes to digital audio or video. Do writers need to ask permission of the copyright owner to quote someone else asks Lessig? Of course not, and as video and audio become the new lingua franca for global communication these questions become more pertinent. Lessig showed some of the best examples of mash-up culture such as The Obama Hope poster, DJ Dangermouse’s Grey Album, Girltalk, Will.i.am’s Yes We Can mashup, and of course Johan Soderberg’s mashup of Bush and Blair and for a whole lot more pointed us to Greg Rutter’s Definitive List of The 99 Things You Should Have Already Experienced On The Internet Unless You’re a Loser or Old or Something.
These are some of the most inspiring examples of global mashup culture, but Lessig also made mention of some of the less inspiring content that populates the internet by making a wider appeal to embrace amateur content. Reform of copyright law needs to incorporate a clear distinction between amateur and professional content so that they are treated differently under the law. But perhaps Lessig’s most powerful argument for change was that laws that criminalise a whole generation function to generally erode respect for the rule of law. He pointed to the rise of a copyright abolition movement which, he maintains, is fueled but the disfunctionality of the current law.
Perhaps one of the most powerful moments of the conference was when Professor Adrian Sterling publically agred with Lessig’s appeal for copyright reform. By way of explanation, Sterling is a British barrister and legal academic well known for his representation of the recording industry since the 1970’s and his voice is a powerful addition to the chorus. But to call for reform is all well and good, what are the solutions? Sterling maintains that any reform to the Berne convention (the 1886 international agreement for the Protection of Artistic and Literary Works) is doomed to failure. He maintains that a streamlined system of international licencing needs to be established to reflect the global reach of the internet – an approach that favours changes to the administration of rights rather than fundamentally changing them.
Certainly the decriminalisation of media reuse for amateur purposes is on top of the list for reform. Two approaches seem to be emerging including blanket licencing that frees up amateur reuse of work while encouraging respect for moral rights. The second approach, that Lessig referred to briefly, is the German Green Party’s ‘cultural flat rate’ where legalised sharing of peer to peer material is funded through licence fees collected by internet service providers. More can be read about this here.
All credit to Brian Fitzgerald and the team at QUT Law Faculty/CCI for organising the conference. More documentation can be found here. Although I’m not aware that there was a recording made of Lessig’s presentation at the Conference there is a great one here recorded in New York for Fora.tv which bears a striking resemblance to the talk in Canberra. On the final day of the conference there was a session held to discuss a more open approach to releasing archives and publically owned materials on the internet. If public institutions lead by example on this front it can help to encourage more widespread reform of the system.
Categories: Creative Commons, Emerging Media, Innovation, copyright, new media business models
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Zillion TV, as you read in my last post, are about to serve up free on demand TV services to homes in the US using a business model based on personalised advertising. An interesting innovation at GDC this year is covered in a story on the BBC technology pages about a new on demand video games service called OnLive. The article is entitled ‘The End of the Games Console?’ and includes commentators who speculate that the PS3 and XBox360 may be the last games consoles produced because of the vast potential of serving up on demand games. But wait a minute, these services aren’t something that are going to launch in five years time, they are launching now or very soon.
Now, let’s look for a minute at the recently announced Australian government plan to build a fibre to the home broadband network in Australia. My main criticism of the plan is that it’s going to take 8 years to build the thing. What is harder to believe is the skepticism coming from some entrenched industry players (and opposition parties) about the long term financial viability of this network. Who is going to pay for it they ask? Will consumers increase their monthly broadband subscription fee from $50 to $200 per month is the question on everyone’s lips today (including Malcolm Turnbull). CEO of AAPT, Paul Broad, took this approach when interviewed on Lateline Business tonight and I’ve got to say I think this attitude is small minded in the extreme. Come on guys, lose the plumbing and superhighway metaphors and start thinking of some more imaginative business models. Making money from high speed broadband is not all about metering the pipe you provide into the home and if that’s the best you can do when you think 8 years into the future then you deserve to go broke.
Zillion TV, for example, is a service I would like delivered to my home and it seems advertisers are prepared to pay for the privilege of reaching me. Example number 2: rather than going down to the mall and picking through the bargain bins at EB Games I would like access to a much larger online catalogue of games which I can instantly download and play - OnLive? The margin that I usually pay to the retailer instead pays for a proportion of the broadband service. It isn’t rocket science to work out that this broadband pipe is going to enable a wide range of services that are not currently available and my consumer spend is going to change, business models are going to change. Hopefully clunky old ISP’s and Telco’s will be left behind in the dust.
Categories: Online video, broadband network, digital Distribution, games, new media business models
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I’ve been flicking through the MIPTV news after our very own home grown Scorched.tv picked up a Digital Emmy® award yesterday. MIPTV is a glitzy event and the Scorched.tv team certainly had their moment in the sun but I couldn’t help notice the glare of ZillionTV splashed across blog posts and twitter feeds and of course it turns out they’re the Gold Sponsor of this year’s Digital Emmy® Awards.
So who are ZillionTV and what do they want? If you go to their web site they describe their impressive array of partners like this:
Charlie had his Angels. We’ve got our own team to make it all happen, and that includes content providers, television commerce gurus, and yes, even advertisers.
It certainly seems they do and content partners include Disney, Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures, NBC Universal, 20th Century Fox and, as they announced at MIPTV, the Weinstein Company. Not a bad collection of partners all keen to beam their product via high speed internet to a TV near you. And what’s more the service is going to be free, supported by personalised advertising, tailored to your very own psychographic tastes. Sounds like the Hollywood distribution monopoly is going to morph into another form, if the g’zillions of investment dollars behind it continue to hold.
Categories: Online video, Television 2.0, digital Distribution
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I’m working on a new suite of courses at AFTRS at the moment and talking to lots of people in the industry and also potential students about the kinds of programs they think we should run.
Heard something interesting on Future Tense (ABC Radio National) about the School of Everything which got me thinking differently about education. Basically the School of everything facilitates links between potential teachers and learners in a variety of niche and not-so-niche content areas. Their co -founder Paul Miller spoke well about their Ebay-like model but more importantly about the long tail of education. With education arguably becoming more homogenised in mainstream institutions School of Everything is able to highlight all those niche areas that only very few people may be interested in. Funnily enough, most of the School’s programs are face to face for small numbers of people and many are run for free. A bit like other long tail content it’s obviously a mix of professional and amateur content listed side by side but it also points to a trend of peer to peer education taking place outside bricks and mortar instititions. If it takes off it’s also potentially a threat to all those online educators who offer walled garden subscription education services. It’s worth signing up to check out School of Everything. Unfortunately there’s not a lot of Australian offerings listed so if there’s something you can teach this might be one way you can find a class.
Categories: Emerging Media, Innovation, education, online communities, teaching
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Currently the public service is grappling with policy for how it should deal with employee’s use of social media. What are fair guidelines for online behaviour? Am I allowed to blog at work, what about if I talk about my work while I’m blogging at home? Tricky territory indeed unless agencies are generous with their staff in terms of self expression but provide clear codes of conduct. It’s certainly not going to work to blanket ban people using social media because, as a recent Nielsen study reminds us, social networking is now the most popular online activity rather than email.
Grappling with social media policy is a noble sentiment indeed - at least we’re talking about it and not pretending it doesn’t exist. If some progressive policies are nutted out it may lead to more e-government initiatives which put people in touch with their leaders, and maybe more importantly, with each other.
It’s been very amusing this week to watch the outing of the Fake Stephen Conroy who turns out to be Telstra employee Leslie Nassar. His twitter feed has proved hilarious reading to his almost 2000 followers, many opposed to the dreaded internet filter. He is now blogging under Department of Internets and will no doubt continue his social commentary in a new guise. The big question has been what are Telstra going to do about this wayward employee and what is their policy with employees using social media. Their social media expert Mike Hickinbotham has posted an explanatory blog post on their nowwearetalking.com.au which explains all.
Telstra is learning the best way to engage in social media - notice our response has come in the form of a blog versus a media release.
We believe transparency promotes credibility. This post is about getting the facts into the open.
Whew, glad we got that one straight guys, as long as the company responds via a blog post everything’s hunky dory. But I tip my hat to Telstra for admitting publicly that they are still learning about this stuff and that’s a far more productive take on social media than denial or trying to stamp it out.
Categories: Emerging Media, Policy, social networking
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I saw a great presentation today by Ben Self from Blue State Digital who was one of the driving forces behind Obama’s online campaign. Self worked with Obama in the lead up to securing the democratic nomination and then throughout the campaign itself.
What was immediately evident was that this was a well executed but relatively straightforward campaign. The grass roots strategy reminded me a bit of direct sales film distribution stories like how the documentary Outfoxed built an audience that eventually propelled it to cinema release. The Obama campaign built a community and a war chest by asking for small contributions of $5 or $10 from ordinary people - over 3.2 million people donated all up. The campaign rewarded the people who were most active in that community and gave them incentives to go out and field more members and contributions.
A lot of the organising was done via email to a database that reached 6 million people (apparently this has doubled in size since again since the election). Over $500 million dollars was raised online - total donations exceeded $700 million. The relationship management was crucial in growing the community, ensuring that the campaign was inclusive. The main web site featured a number of different touch points and ensured the barrier to entry was as low as possible. The community was addressed through a dynamic and interesting email campaign and the mode of address was as personal as possible.
Obama built loyalty by sending emails and videos to the community before they were made available to the mainstream media channels. In this way he brought donors into his confidence and made sure they remained informed. The campaign itself was characterised by a very high level of face to face advocacy - apparently over 230 million people were talked to directly in this process. The community loyalty was such that people would take on the role of campaign advocates with calls to action via email and the web site. Ben Self showed a google maps mash up tool which was fed to community members showing houses in their surrounding streets marked out for them to doorknock. Membership of the community was grown through direct marketing techniques reminiscent of Amway except on a much bigger scale. And why not, these techniques are very effective, especially when leveraged by such huge numbers of people signed up. This is the wikipedia model applied directly to politics.
One of the most interesting things revealed in the presentation was that the most active online users in the campaign were women in their 50’s. There was a conscious effort to design an online campaign which didn’t just appeal to Gen C’s. Clarity of presentation, ease of use and multiple touch points meant that the online tools worked for a wide demographic. Although Obama’s huge number of Facebook friends and Twitter followers was mentioned in the presentation, the social networking tools were played down a little. Certainly the MyBarackObama social networking tool played an important role with over 200 000 people signed up and blogging on this platform throughout the campaign. But I got the distinct feeling that secret weapon was the call to action which actually got people to go and talk to their neighbours. It was this local aspect of the campaign which dealt such a killer blow to the ‘command and control’ approach of the republicans. And apparently Sarah Palin’s derogatory comments about ‘community organiser’s was one of the best calls to action to all those grass roots community organisers working for Obama. There was a huge spike in activity after her comments.
So the movement was built through regular and personalised contact with the community creating a relationship of trust which inspired and activated people to act locally. Ultimately it was also about connecting people to each other and building strength through local alliances that snowballed on a national scale. There’s no doubt that the ability of the internet to not only connect people globally but on a local level is key to the success of such a mass campaign. Certainly a few customer relationship tips there for the asking which can be equally applied to a range of businesses. You can hear Ben Self speaking on Radio National Breakfast here.
Categories: Innovation, online communities, social networking
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Another great speech by Sir Ken Robinson is now up on the RSA site and can be found here. Sir Ken has a very enlightened view of education that goes beyond many of the commonly accepted divides - vocational vs academic, back to basics vs. liberal free-for-all - and urges that we embrace complexity to best nuture talent, encourage innovation and a life long love of learning. It’s a thought provoking talk that, like all the best educational experiences, is engaging to listen to. But the message is very important: that rigid systems of education are not necessarily the way forward. The metaphor of education as an organic process rather than a linear route from A to B is something that is way too rarely heard. Encouraging the development of skills that are matched to the talents and passions of the students is key to good education. Whew, it’s not all brussel sprouts after all.
Categories: Innovation, education, teaching
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It’s worth checking out the Studio GameOn site which runs between Jan 5th and Feb 13th following the trials and tribulations of a team who are making a playable game during this six week period. The studio runs alongside the GameOn exhibition which is now in Brisbane fresh from its season at ACMI last year. The Brisbane IGDA team are behind this effort and it’s great to see so much activity in the independent games arena taking place up north. You can follow the progress of the teams on Flickr, Twitter or YouTube. There is even a live webcam link to the studio so you can see what’s happening minute to minute. Well worth checking out in person (if you’re in Brisbane) or online.
Categories: casual games, games, rapid prototyping
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MIT has put students to work creating mobile applications for the iphone and android platforms among others. The results look impressive after a 13 week development period. They’re predicting that creating this kind of application is only going to get easier over time. Read the article and see a selection of the applications featured here.
All of the applications listed look fairly intuitive and that’s the catch with a successful mobile ap - it has to work there and then without any fiddling about. I have my doubts about restaurant bill-splitting and cinema ticket purchase aps as I’m someone who doesn’t always keep my contacts list up to date. For my money I think the locative applications offer the most potential because they are primarily intended for a mobile platform are they not? Another one of those moments where you question, why aren’t we doing this? Let’s hope that MIT are right about the potential of this to spread to educational programs everywhere.
Categories: Innovation, mobile applications, rapid prototyping
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 Gamejam 08 is coming up very soon. A group of us are running a game pitching event this coming Saturday from 10am - 4pm at AFTRS in the Entertainment Quarter in Sydney. Come along and demo a game, pitch an idea for a game or virtual world or attend our rapid ideas development workshop. Among the glitterati attending are Australia’s primo Virtual World Presence creator Gary Hayes, Game Designer and Writer Joe Velikovsky and Dr D Studio’s Dan Graf. As days go by more people are signing up so please hurry before all the available slots are eaten up. Register at http://www.gamejam.org.au before it’s too late. It’s a great atmosphere at the Entertainment Quarter on Saturdays with the market in full swing, so get prepared to pitch or at least cheer from the sidelines.
Categories: Emotion in Games, Innovation, games, games/film hybrids, writing
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