The Big Debate – More Power or More Powerless?

Yesterday I attended The Big Debate at the ICC. As one of the bloggers for the NGA Festival, this came within my remit so I was there, laptop at the ready. I’ve also been helping to flesh out the Birmingham Post’s coverage of this particular event (out of the goodness of my heart).

I’ve already posted up my notes I took at the event itself but here’s a bit of personal reaction. Please bear in mind that I’ve compiled a round-up of what many more cleverer people than I have said so I’ll be addressing the points they haven’t made.

First, I have two main criticisms of the debate:

• The topic was far too wide, so discussion ended up being spread thinly over too many topics
• The panel managed to be narrow yet too diverse. Everyone was pro-digital but everyone came from different industries with little crossover. Where were the privacy campaigners? The ID theft victims? At least a nay-saying dinosaur/music industry rep would’ve added some flavour.

Other than that it was fine. I’ve not always been a fan of the debate format. Talking shops often wind me up, not helped when any debate is between people in entrenched positions. I prefer the ebb and flow of persuasive discourse to two people banging their heads together. At the end of a discussion I like to having the impression that things have progressed a little but maybe that’s my corporate side showing.

Anyway, I didn’t come out feeling like any problems had been solved because I thought so much had gone undiscussed. On the other hand it was good to hear from some people doing some interesting things in their fields (even if I’m still not exactly sure what it is Doug Williams does).

There was some complaint that those watching online weren’t being addressed. Well, there are many reasons why that would be the case. The live feed and blogging was only set up at the last minute by the enterprising (and not to mention supposedly on annual leave) panelist Joanna Geary – essentially it was a (hopefully useful) afterthought. Secondly, and following on, Rory Cellan-Jones was unaware and unprepared for this when he arrived. Thirdly, the people in the hall had taken time out of their (working) day to attend and, to my mind, should be afforded attention as a courtesy. I could go on. In an ideal world more online chat might have been incorporated, but this is no ideal world.

That said, it was a question from the live blog that caused some head-scratching on the panel. ‘Can each panelist give one example of ‘digital’ that has made us powerless?’. Of course there are plenty of examples (privacy concerns, identity theft, those being left out of the digital uptake and those on the end of ‘cyber-bullying’ spring to my mind) but debating this sort of thing would’ve been interesting.

Finally, there was only one downright stupid comment (that I can recall) and that came from an audience member who started off making an interesting point but insisted on carrying on talking. Essentially he argued that there’s more value in bands performing live than putting their music on MySpace. What the smoking ban had to do with it, I’m not sure. Anyway, he developed his point by saying that many bands came from scenes – punk in the 70s, Madchester in the early 90s, etc.

Of course there are many scenes that have flourished online and this point was made by the panel. As an example, I used to contribute to the mash-up/bootleg/bastard pop scene (the subject of an inevitable later post) which thrives online because it’s supported by an international community who struggle to find a critical mass of support for their music locally.

Oh, and I met D’Log, which was a pleasure. Unfortunately I’d cycled over in a hurry in blazing sunshine and had to excuse myself while I went and stuck my head under a tap.

The Big Debate – live transcript

Please bear in mind that the following was typed as the event was happening. I’ve expanded any abbvs and even added the occasional bit of punctuation but otherwise it’s in a pretty raw state. To take or leave but I need to put this somewhere.

Read the rest of this entry »

NGA blog and Birmingham coworking

This is the story of two items on today’s to-do list.

New Generation Arts Festival blog

BCU have hired several bloggers to cover different aspects of this year’s New Generation Arts Festival. As a fairly direct result of my work with My Fierce Festival I’ve been asked to cover the ‘online interactive’ side of things which should be very interesting. My first job was to get my ‘welcome post’ up. I’d have knocked that off a little quicker if I wasn’t enjoying chatting to people via Bambuser while I was doing it. Still, it’s done now and here it is – nothing to shout about really but comments are welcome.

Birmingham coworking wiki

In case you’ve not come across coworking the idea is that some types of workers – especially freelancers who are often homeworkers – would benefit from working around others of their ilk. There’s a lot of value in bouncing ideas off others, making connections, etc and so on. In some cities there are dedicated spaces for this sort of thing.

I had a conversation with Joanna Geary about this last night. In fact several people have been discussing this recently and the idea seems to be gathering momentum – apparently there’s a chance of something being set up in Birmingham which would be excellent. In the meantime, there are plenty of places around the city which would be suitable for people to drop into from time to time, it’s just a case of organising something.

I stumbled on Microcoworking.com the other day and thought that it was a workable enough model. They don’t have a single space to work in, they have many and they use a wiki to flag up where people will be and when. So…

I’ve set up the CoworkBrum wiki for the potential coworkers of Birmingham to organise themselves, coordinate sessions and generally do with as they will. I’ve put up a bare-bones layout, it’s now for the community to adopt it, nurture it or let it fade away.

Thanks to Sixball, Kev, Bluemilkshake and Joanna who visited my ramblings on Bambuser while I was doing this.

End of week head-clearance

And breathe out… I’m taking a bit of time to reflect while I munch on some pasta. This past week has been hectic and brilliant for several reasons:

• I’ve been invited to a recruitment day for MediaSnackers.
• I’ve been hired by BCU to blog on their New Generation Arts Festival, covering the ‘online interactive’ aspects of the work being presented.
• The Fierce Festival stuff I’m working is amazing
• I picked up my new bike
• I fixed my broadband connection, which had gone a little wonky

Music-wise I was less hectic than the previous week, only seeing Duffy and Foals.  Duffy was ok – very talented but a little bland.  Foals were fantastic though, despite being fashionista magnets the atmosphere at the gig was great.  I’m off to see Infadels tonight and then that’ll be it for a week and a half.  I’ll be posting up the reviews from the past couple of weeks soonish, so you’ve been warned.

Tomorrow I’m off to the Punch Records music marketing course. We’ll be covering radio promotion in the morning and partners &  sponsorship in the afternoon. It’s the last one I’ll be able to make it to because unfortunately it’s going to clash with some frenetic Fierce-related activity – the website goes live on Thursday.

On Tuesday I’m off to Alton Towers for a conference called ‘Using Digital Media in Marketing and Communications’ which is being organised by the folks at ideasforlife.tv.  Speakers include Dr Adam Rutherford (science journalist), Anthony Lilley (from Magic Lantern) and Dr Jon Salkeld (from QinetiQ).  There seems to be quite a strong corporate slant to the programme so it’ll be interesting to see where they take things.  Plus they’ve left time for rollercoasters afterwards.  If it’s worth blogging my notes I’ll do so.

At some point I need to fit in some presentation planning, content writing for my new website and my birthday.  One thing at a time though – I’ve got a gig to get to.