Monday, July 11, 2005
Cell Phone Video Use in London Terror Coverage and video blogging
The following is from the July 9, 2005 Learning Trends newsletter by Elliott Masie, The MASIE Center & Learning 2005 http://www.masie.com/
As we deeply mourn the deaths, injuries and terror of recent events in London, there are also some key trends to observe. I just finished a conference call with several colleagues in journalism and in the police/intelligence community discussing the implications of the use of Video in Cell/Mobile phones that was just demonstrated in the coverage of the bombing in London.
A grainy cell phone video taken by a survivor gave viewers and law enforcement worldwide their first look at the London Underground bombing -- and shined a spotlight on a small but growing part of electronic newsgathering. That haunting image of people escaping through the smoke-filled, claustrophobic gloom was taken with a mobile phone camera by Adam Stacey and was used by many news media, often without giving him credit.
Here is a sample of these mobile videos from the BBC site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/blasts_mobilevideos.shtml
This is a parallel phenomenon to the blog world. In this case, cell and mobile phone videos have allowed people in the right place at the right
time the ability to capture key events when no TV cameras are in sight.
For the millions worldwide equipped with an appropriate phone there's the opportunity to shoot amateur video of up to about a minute, store it in memory and then send it via e-mail anywhere in the world. That's just what happened Thursday, when this new type of amateur video made its way to Sky, APTN and beyond.
NBC News has taken a strong interest in the delivery of news via cell phone in a form called NBC Mobile. The network believes in it so much that they've begun equipping reporters and other staff members with video-enabled cell phones.
While the quality of the video was not equal to professionally produced video it was highly valuable to both viewers and law enforcement. The keys were some of the same elements that we have been addressing in our Extreme Learning conversations:
* Velocity - How rapidly could the content be captured and shared.
* Scalability - How many "reporters" are created when you expand the sources of content.
* Intensity - In many ways, the video captured on the video phone was way
more intense to watch, including the physical reactions of the people holding the phones.
* Context Rich - The content had huge context implications, as it came from people in the midst of a situation. Multiple video phones provided multiple views of the same incidents.
Corporate learning groups should prepare for more and more content coming from mobile video devices. The ability of every member of a sales force to also become a "reporter" and able to capture the voice and image of the customer and share it rapidly with colleagues around the company is huge.
We have often thought of video as a tool that requires a great deal of money and time to produce. And, that is still true for longer duration content. But, there will be a key role for video produced from mobile devices.
We will need tools and systems to harvesting, annotating and providing access to this form of content. Learning Content Management and Document Management systems should play close attention. Loads of pure video will not raise performance or enhance learning. However, we can apply new models for utilizing field based video from employees and even customers as part of an expanding view of our learning enterprise. And, we need to create vehicles for applying instructional concepts to the expanding world of mobile based video capture.
Yours in Learning,
Elliott Masie, The MASIE CEnter & Learning CONSORTIUM.
To receive Learning TRENDS by Elliott Masie, go to http://www.masie.com/list/ for subscription information
As we deeply mourn the deaths, injuries and terror of recent events in London, there are also some key trends to observe. I just finished a conference call with several colleagues in journalism and in the police/intelligence community discussing the implications of the use of Video in Cell/Mobile phones that was just demonstrated in the coverage of the bombing in London.
A grainy cell phone video taken by a survivor gave viewers and law enforcement worldwide their first look at the London Underground bombing -- and shined a spotlight on a small but growing part of electronic newsgathering. That haunting image of people escaping through the smoke-filled, claustrophobic gloom was taken with a mobile phone camera by Adam Stacey and was used by many news media, often without giving him credit.
Here is a sample of these mobile videos from the BBC site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/blasts_mobilevideos.shtml
This is a parallel phenomenon to the blog world. In this case, cell and mobile phone videos have allowed people in the right place at the right
time the ability to capture key events when no TV cameras are in sight.
For the millions worldwide equipped with an appropriate phone there's the opportunity to shoot amateur video of up to about a minute, store it in memory and then send it via e-mail anywhere in the world. That's just what happened Thursday, when this new type of amateur video made its way to Sky, APTN and beyond.
NBC News has taken a strong interest in the delivery of news via cell phone in a form called NBC Mobile. The network believes in it so much that they've begun equipping reporters and other staff members with video-enabled cell phones.
While the quality of the video was not equal to professionally produced video it was highly valuable to both viewers and law enforcement. The keys were some of the same elements that we have been addressing in our Extreme Learning conversations:
* Velocity - How rapidly could the content be captured and shared.
* Scalability - How many "reporters" are created when you expand the sources of content.
* Intensity - In many ways, the video captured on the video phone was way
more intense to watch, including the physical reactions of the people holding the phones.
* Context Rich - The content had huge context implications, as it came from people in the midst of a situation. Multiple video phones provided multiple views of the same incidents.
Corporate learning groups should prepare for more and more content coming from mobile video devices. The ability of every member of a sales force to also become a "reporter" and able to capture the voice and image of the customer and share it rapidly with colleagues around the company is huge.
We have often thought of video as a tool that requires a great deal of money and time to produce. And, that is still true for longer duration content. But, there will be a key role for video produced from mobile devices.
We will need tools and systems to harvesting, annotating and providing access to this form of content. Learning Content Management and Document Management systems should play close attention. Loads of pure video will not raise performance or enhance learning. However, we can apply new models for utilizing field based video from employees and even customers as part of an expanding view of our learning enterprise. And, we need to create vehicles for applying instructional concepts to the expanding world of mobile based video capture.
Yours in Learning,
Elliott Masie, The MASIE CEnter & Learning CONSORTIUM.
To receive Learning TRENDS by Elliott Masie, go to http://www.masie.com/list/ for subscription information
