You're 'avin' a Larf?
YOU’RE ‘AVIN’ A LARF?
BlackpoolCIC was approached by a charitable organisation looking to make a rapid impact on a rather peculiar target market in order to highlight and raise funds for the 10th Anniversary of Iraq. Even stranger is the central feature of their requirement - the capture and claim on ownership of Saddam’s Arse.
Eh?
Link to our first Trebletap video
The Story Unfolds
A former SAS hero has failed to sell his unique souvenir from his time in Iraq; Saddam Hussein's bronze buttock. Billed as a unique war art relic, the chunk of metal was brought back to Britain from Iraq by Nigel "Spud" Ely after US Marines pulled down the statue of Saddam in April 2003.
Mr Ely, who was working with a TV crew covering the fall of Baghdad, used a hammer and a crowbar to remove the buttock and paid a £385 excess baggage charge to fly the memento back to London.
It was expected to raise thousands of pounds when auctioned off this afternoon, but despite a top bid of £21,000, Mr Ely wants to hold out for more - and has put a reserve estimate on the artefact of a quarter of a million pounds!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJbVnD1HbbQ
on-blackpool.tv channel which sits within BlackpoolCIC organisation. We’re game for anything!
THERE’S MORE TO FOLLOW……….
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ITS MORE THAN VIDEO
IT IS MORE THAN VIDEO
https://rudkin.mediacore.tv/media/police-and-crime-commissioner-elections-for-lancas
http://www.on-blackpool.tv
I thought it would be useful to share a little experimental journey with you through an example of the work of our BlackpoolCIC organisation, and the on-blackpool.tv channel which sits within the organisation. People have asked my business partner and I how we make it pay. Make it pay? That’s easy, but the return is all about people finding it useful, not profit in cash terms. Let me expand on this.
When we initially set up OBTV, as we call it, we wanted a simple vehicle that would provide a platform for Community, Educational and Business focused content (video) and audio. We had the willingness to put in some hard work and we were willing to learn. Neither of us is a media industry expert, but Steve knows the business end of things, me the Educational and Community aspects - and yes, my time with Apple was also very helpful. As an Apple Distinguished Educator today I produce a number of resources and sit with over 6.5k resources personally built up over the last few years. More on that to come (for my associates and customers).
The way to get things started is easy to do - you just get on with the task in hand.
Mediacore uploader is a dream to use
(courtesy of MediaCore web site)
I started by looking at commercial video platforms (the delivery mechanisms if you like. I started experimenting with YouTube and Vimeo, and while these are popular and quite versatile, we needed more than JUST video content to be brought to our (let me call it - “channel”) channel. I also came across Livestream and a couple of other similar products - with the promise of developments to come. What intrigued me about Livestream was embodied in its title - LIVE streaming. Image LIVE broadcasting! I think ambition got the better of me at that point, because as it happens, we have never yet seen a need for a live content broadcast. That said, we adopted Livestream as it was incredibly versatile, however it let us down on one important part - its output to mobile devices was Flash based, making it less than ideal for the most popular mobile content devices on the planet (iPhones and iPads). We waited for the platform to advance, and decided not to promote OBTV until such time as a new (promised) version appeared. It also cost us far more than we were happy to pay at that point. That said, it was rock solid and did what it claimed well. The SEO and reporting was very impressive.
Throughout this phase of our development, the YouTube channel remained in place.
Earlier this year, in part by chance, I spotted that an acquaintance of mine had taken a new role working for a media based organisation (I’d never heard of before) MediaCore. Naturally I took a look and found that MediaCore was a company new to the marketplace, with a passion for Small Businesses. It was seriously getting involved in Education. This had to be good. Naturally I got in touch with ex-colleague and coworker Alan Greenberg to discuss the options.
What was clear from day one was the commitment to Education (something we strongly wanted at the core of OBTV), but it was also the promise to listen to ideas, to discuss future plans and to cooperate with us here at on-blackpool.tv.
MediaCore Capture iOS Only (courtesy of MediaCore web site)
Why Mediacore then?
We wanted more than just video delivery. on-blackpool.tv functions as a linking hub to a number of current and possible future projects we deliver/hope to deliver, and so while it had to work well (it does), it had to be:
- easy to navigate
- . be available on any web connected platform.
- simple to upload to (it is a contributory platform you see)
- It had to allow Podcasts to be hosted
- there had to be a way of carrying supporting materials (pdfs, slideshows, documents etc)
- very importantly - it also had to have granular controls for permissions and publication.
- we had to be able to upload content from an iPhone
Mediacore’s Platform fulfils, or will soon fulfil all of these requirements perfectly. It offers a range of ways to get content in, and frankly offers the most uniquely versatile balance between simplicity and power you could want.
Better by bulk? (courtesy of MediaCore web site)
We are using the platform to pull content from YouTube at the moment, but that will change in the near future. The great advantage for schools is the fact that you can control access very easily and create a really powerful video based resource rapidly.
If you want to hear more - please feel free to contact me. There is plenty to say.
I’ll post a few comments at a later date about how the Mediacore solution delivers for us. In the meantime - Education, schools, colleges, training providers, small businesses - in fact anyone. We can now offer comprehensive introductions to this class leading product.
Contact: john@johnarudkin.net
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The Race Online has Just Started
Go On UK
I’m not sure whether Race Online 2012 really was successful or not? It certainly seemed to be most upbeat about what could be achieved by a big push on Digital Enablement. Well, its over now. Or is it?
Throughout its existence Race Online 2012 was paralleling the Digital Switchover across the UK. So was the FORCED changeover to digital really the big winner? It is a good question. If you count all this people who HAD to switch, have other initiatives actually made that much of a difference as - say the iPad?. It would certainly be interesting to find out. Different audiences? Yes……… contribution to outcome?
Anyway, I’ll have a read of DigitalUk’s annual report to 31/03/2011.
http://mediatel.co.uk/newsline/2012/04/19/bbc-to-return-300m-switchover-money-as-london-celebrates-going-digital/
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/digital-tv-switchover-30000-flood-782847
“The UK has made a good start in building a digital economy. Today, the internet contributes more to our GDP than to that of any other G20 country and is predicted to grow 11% a year to reach £221bn by 2016 (Boston Consulting Group Jan 2012).
However, thousands of SMEs and charities failing to use digital technologies to grow their organisations or help their customers and service users:
- ICT is the biggest skills gap in the charity sector and a third of small and medium sized charities say they have nobody they trust to discuss IT needs with (NCVO)
- Only 14% of SMEs sell products and services online and approximately half a million SMEs feel that the lack of digital skills is slowing the growth of their business (Lloyds Banking Group/BDRC April 2012).
- Small businesses that do go online grow twice as fast as their competitors (McKinsey, 2011)
Go ON UK will work with its partners in all sectors to raise awareness of the benefits and put in place the practical steps needed to ensuring all organisations make the best use of digital technologies and aren’t at risk of being left behind.
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Resource Bank
Resource Bank
Resource Bank is a database of (at launch) over 3000 articles, info graphics, information snippets and references from all over the web. They have been collated into one place in order to give johnarudkin.net’s followers and customers a great starting point for ideas, evidence, knowledge and research. All you have to do is sign up!To sign up go to XXXXXXXXXXXXX. You will join our mailing list (low volume) and we’ll keep you updated on more!
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