Over at LiFT Studios I’m learning the art of patience. During the course of recording and producing an interview with Chris Stone – UX designer at Nitobi and local IxDA leader – I was assaulted on all sides by angry deities of technology. From the imps that sucked the batteries dry (thanks guys, Chris’ mic died 15 minutes into the interview) to the demons that inhabit HandBrake, everything that could possibly go wrong did. It wasn’t until late Friday evening that the podcast finally came online, and it wasn’t until Monday morning that I realized no one could watch the video because of wonky permissions settings. In the end I learned a lot (mostly about what not to do) and despite the trip-ups along the way the end product is definitely watchable – Chris has amazing insight and experience in the field of UX and you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t check it out.

My brother is a creative kind of fellow, though his creativity is usually ephemeral or inaccessible – stacked rocks in the forest, writings trapped in his journal, fables stamped onto the hood of his car. As of late he’s been dabbling in the digital realm, doing a bit of Flash work and composing catchy (though not always repeatable) tunes. His most recent oeuvre took its cue from graffiti on a bathroom wall somewhere in middle America, gained levity with the news of Michael Jackson’s passing, and found design direction in the realization that Boggy Creek is, in fact, a horror movie. The gold frame is a nice touch, as is the crackling fire that can be heard in the background of the audio track.

Go ahead, give it a whirl: Michael Jackson Lives in Boggy Creek.

Over at LiFT Studios I’m learning the art of the interview and the art of video production while working on the LiFT Studios Broadcast (LSB) – a weekly podcast about all things design. A while back I sat down with Haig Armen, the founder and director of LiFT, to talk about his approach to design, the future of interaction design, and the LiFT philosophy. You can watch the video over at the LiFT site or subscribe to the weekly podcast feed. Take a moment and check it out – feedback on presentation, questions, audio levels, and anything else is very welcome.

I’ve been out of touch with the IMC since moving to Japan, though admittedly we’ve always had a rocky relationship – I know a number of women who feel the same – mostly because of the egos and alpha tech male posturing that goes on^[2]. Before leaving Japan I did a quick check-in on the Vancouver IMC and found the site had been taken offline after the Canadian Human Rights Commission took it to task. I have an interest and passion for independent and alternative media coverage, in hearing the stories that aren’t covered by the interests of the mainstream media, and while the IMC has its issues, it’s also a great way to meet like minds. So I was all kinds of chuffed to get in on the inaugural meeting.

Down at Rain City Studios^[3] the meeting got underway amid the soft chirps of Tweetdeck and glow of projectors. I won’t recap the entire evening since Raul liveblogged it and SocialSquared filmed it, but as the meeting progressed I experienced a bit of cognitive dissonance because this IMC wanted to play nice. Within the rules, adopting the lexicon, not fucking shit up. The word ‘apolitical’ was used a lot. At first I thought this was because I was in Canada, the land of maple syrup and salmon, where everyone is generally nicer and has less need for agitation, tactical media, direct action and generally sticking it to the overloads of control. But really, it’s because this isn’t an IMC at all, but an alternative media outlet for journalists, artists, and other media makers outside the mainstream.

I don’t have a problem with this at all. In fact, I think it’s great. But as progress moves forward on the project, I think it’s important for whatever-this-will-be-called to move completely away from the Independent Media Centre tag. The name should reflect the mission and purpose, but be distinct enough that there is no room for confusion, that this is not an IMC. The mission, purpose, and values that are associated with the IMC have been well established since 1999. To call this and independent media centre but not like that Independent Media Center is confusing and requires too much explanation (and may incur rubber bullets).

As I mentioned before, the focus of the meeting and the organization is currently coverage of the 2010 Olympics. We didn’t discuss the organization’s goals beyond 2010, but I assume that general idea is to become an established social/alt media center for anyone looking to make media here – DIY, art, journalism, education, et cetera. Keep an eye on Vancouver, and if you are interested be sure to get involved.

{ fin }

1. When my brother was a kid, he struggled with the pronunciation of Olympics, and it always came out sounding like, “Mmmmm-linkits” and I cannot type the word without mentally saying it with my brother’s phonetics.
2. There. I said it. Make of it what you will.
3. They have a Lego room! I didn’t see any Mindstorms though.

» Zed TV has been around the longest, I believe, and is a really well done site on top of an already well designed project. From their site:

“ZeD is a launch pad for independent creative expression that uses TV and the Web to seek out and broadcast the best new short films, videos, animation, visual art, performance and music in Canada and around the world.”

» Ourmedia, in collaboration with the Internet Archive, offers free storage and hosting for video, audio, image and text files. Currently in alpha, the site is home to 23,000 grassroots members, and is growing steadily each day. From their site:

“Ourmedia is a global community and learning center where you can gain visibility for your works of personal media. We’ll host your media forever — for free.”

» The Participatory Culture Foundation’s Broadcast Machine is a software package aimed at the curation and delivery of online video content, kind of like video feeds via RSS. Using their DTV client, a user can subscribe to video channels, have the latest videos automagically downloaded in the background, and then watch the playback via the DTV software. From their site:

“Broadcast Machine is software for your website that can publish fullscreen video files to thousands, using torrent technology to reduce or eliminate bandwidth costs. It is free, open source, and designed for easy installation. Broadcast Machine features an intuitive interface, integrated torrent creation, and flexible channel management.”

» Independent World Television is a new organization looking to utilize the power of the web and an international audience to report on what is *really* going on in the world. Not limited to the web, IWT is also looking for satelitte and digital tv delivery. The process, planning, and mission of IWT are very transparent, something I think FSTV could benefit from (doing the same, that is). I’m really looking forward to seeing how they grow and progress in the future.

What would be even better would be to add Free Speech TV to this list, and we are exploring ways of delivering video content to our audience. Not just the content we show on channel 9415, but content from around the web, content submitted to us from viewers and community members. I know the Real Media/Real Player format doesn’t please many, but we will probably always retain this set-up for streaming purposes (I do hear good things about Darwin Streaming Server though). As we look to expand video content and explore new broadcast mechanisms, we will begin to offer other formats, namely mpeg4. We are currently experimenting with the preview release of the Broadcast Machine, and I’d like to point anyone interested to a recent blog post on the PCF blog: Political Activism with Broadcast Machine.