Now heres the interesting bit. They had a pretty unique user name on their account so I googled it and found lots of references to this user name in forums and social spaces. What was even more interesting was that in each forum they had posted almost word for word the same message about there needing to be totally open access to peoples stuff so that businesses can share it, and almost no other follow up messages…now this was from someone who wouldn’t share their own Flickr pics. So going further I followed the IP addresses and found that the messages were from a company who seemed to put together business training materials…now this may or may not have been totally innocent but the question arose, were they using people’s pics in their business without even crediting them? Or was I just being paranoid?
I stress here that there have been no actual legal transgressions (and i may of course be just being paranoid) but it did instill in me the notion that in open source situations there have to be enforceable rules. There is no room for the wild west scenario of landgrabs and where companies or individuals indulge in unethical behaviour then there has to be some comeback. On the question of paranoia, none of it would have arisen if their flickr account had been open to view.

I’ve known both Alex and Tim for some time. They are both hailed as digital pioneers and I invited them because their work has often been so far ahead of it’s time. Alex’s work, Dreamer, was essentially a boundary pushing project looking at Web 2.0 interactions which has evolved and morphed over the last six years, and is only now finally coming into it’s own. They have spent years exploding creative models creating creating new ones, and have managed to make decent living from the process
The following is our final attempt at an overview of what the panel will explore:

This panel brings together 3 award winning creative mavericks

Tim and Alex are no strangers to the creative opportunities offered by emerging media platforms and have built long and successful careers around bending, stretching and pushing creative boundaries. Hazel has only recently made her first foray into the wonderful world of interaction design from a background of comedy screen writing

In their projects, the line between the real and the imaginary blurs, users are integrated into, rather than skimming along the surface of, developing narratives. The panellists have fluid and playful co- creation processes that challenge and learn from audience and collaborator. Their products are not driven by technology but pick and choose from the enormous box of toys that is the media scape as an when the story needs it

Together they will well a tale of perseverance, frustration, compromise, playfulness, spontaneity and evolution. They will explain how they have satisfied their creative sparks while keeping the wolf from the door

The stage presentations are only a part of the entire journey which started way before at the panel meetings and continues after the presentations through the breakouts and one to ones

You may have read the article i wrote for the MELT mag about Open Source Business and developing direct relationships with the consumer. I blogged it a month or so ago. K and R will touch on some of the issues the article explored

Kristina and Richard will explore revolutionary open source business models that engage users from conception, using LEGO as an exemplar

Connected technologies mean that for the first time end users can be directly involved in the design and implementation of interactive products

How can small businesses harness the wisdom of the crowds and ensure that they achieve and maintain success?

An effective online community can act as co creator, train new users, do your marketing for you and even suggest new applications

Building a successful community comes with understanding community dynamics. A community is a collection of real people. What do they do? How do they act and interact? How will the new product make their lives easier, more inspired, more interesting?

As they are using LEGO’s pioneering activities as an exemplar, we have decided to have a bit of fun and do some open source experimentation of our own. Each delegate will get a little pack of LEGO and will be asked to make a model and add this model to the LEGO table. They will be free to add to others models, take bricks for others models, add bits to a developing whole. We are interested to see what will happen as this communal model evolves over the two days. We will time lapse vid the evolving masterpiece and will post the film on YouTube so if you can’t come to the party, you will be able to see the experiment unfold after the event

On further consideration, we thought this might just be too depressing, so we moved on. Now the session will be very much based on most creative pioneers reality - a hands on clinic that exploring how to get three proposals off the shelf and onto screens. Funnily enough we’ve decided to call it From Shelf to Screen

One of the proposals will be one that we developed with Littleloud for a BBC Interactive Drama and Entertainment call last year.. I’ll be interested to see what they say, because I’m convinced the project should go into production but haven’t yet found a route through

overview below:

Angel will join three other experienced industry experts in a practical session exploring how to get ideas from the page into production. Between them, the members of the panel have vast and varied experience right across the media industries. They will share their knowledge using real case studies to help you figure out how to get your ideas off the shelf

Small companies are constantly expending time and effort to develop ideas for various funding opportunities and commissioning calls. Many of them are easily good enough to go into production but their creators are often so dishearten by failed attempts to break through the walls of the big companies, and so busy chasing the next pitch, that the ideas are shelved

The panellists will discuss three real ideas to show how best to navigate the complicated media scape and to turn your ideas into cash.

Angel has called her opening keynote ” Strategic Serendipity” and the intro goes something like this:
“Creating change has been a thread that’s woven throughout my massively varied career

I launched my first webcast in 1997, while running massive environmental conferences (and between suing the US government). The webcast enabled activists and others from everywhere to engage with discussions I felt were crucial

Realizing the creative and communication potentials of the Internet, I decided that working in media and technology might be the most effective route to effect change

By chance, while playing volleyball with a bunch of rocket scientists on Capital Hill (where i was practicing law) I met some entrepreneurs. We began working together to explore how these new possibilities could be used to transform the industrial landscape

I started concentrating on electronic payment systems believing that one day, commerce would move online. After helping two of America’s largest banks create online banking services I moved over to media businesses. I worked with pioneers to create what become Europe’s’ largest online multi player gaming and ecommerce service before being headhunted by the BBC to lead their product and business development department. My task was to develop new partnerships across syndication broadband, mobile and emerging platforms. I effected similar changes at Viacom…launching mobile TV, WAP, MMS to screen, flux, etc.

Were these career shifts strategy or serendipity?

My experience has shown me that it is at the intersection between the two that powerful things happen. It is in these brief periods that we can successfully contribute to changing the world. Across career, business, technology, I think that recognizing and grasping serendipitous opportunity is the key to achieving success”

It’s been great - certainly for me and I hope for them too! The programme is so much stronger than ever before. Every speaker has so much to share. Every single discussion has sparked off a whole load of thoughts that will affect the projects we design, the way we design them and how we approach the market when trying to get ideas off the ground.

After every discussion, I had to write a short introduction for each panel based on the long and fascinating discussions. Trying to pot acres of fascinating information and ponderings has been an interesting task. Anyways, they are done now. The Forum book went to print last night and we are happy as larry with it. Dave Bailey, our designer, has done it again. He is such a pleasure to work with.. and a designer who actually notices typos! who’s ever heard of such a thing.

My intention is to post each of the speaker/ panel intros in separate posts hoping to get comments, suggestions and feedback to feedback to the presenters before and during the event

Here goes!

We met today to talk about Endemol’s digital media investment fund.  The fund was launched in June 2006, a response to a changing media scape where TV is rapidly losing footing and the big broadcasting moguls are losing their grip on audiences.

They aim to invest in Indies with good sales driven content ideas around participation programmes, aggregation, evolving platforms such as mobile, IPTV and video-on-demand services, gaming and gambling. All of the major gambling brands are desperate to find ways of using content to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Since the launch they have received around 150 ideas. They have been surprised by how few of the proposals have clear business cases built around them, and by how few of the companies they talked to are investment ready. There has been no shortage of good ideas, just a shortage of the commercial acumen to accompany them. They have just entered their first investment deal through the fund with a company that has been trading for two years though wouldn’t tell who the company is

Endemol have also just announced a creative partnership with electronic arts (EA) to develop a new entertainment concept that will bridge the gap between TV and Games. “Virtual Me” combines EA’s avatar creation technology with Endemol’s TV formats to offer audiences a way to meet and greet in a virtual space. It will be launched in the next series of ‘Big Brother’ and will allow players to participate in virtual versions of TV shows like ‘Fame Academy’ and ‘Deal Or No Deal’, and to form real relationships with other virtual avatars on the web
(www.VirtualMe.com).
Incidentally, BBC viewing figures apparently plummeted to new low last Saturday, with less than 15% of the audience tuning in to their TV offer.