I början av 2008 noterade jag kreativitören Stefan Engeseths video om SpagettiOperan Regina. Proffsigt filmad, redigerad och parkerad på YouTube. I filmen pekade Stefan med hjälp av en video på problemet att Regina fanns 10 meter från 100 000-tals passerande flanörer (betalande åskådare) på Drottninggatan i Stockholm. Men ingen hade en aning om operan, bara några steg (och en biljettkassa) bort.

Jag har ofta tänkt på den där videon när jag knallat förbi Regina. Och undrat om dom tagit tag i idén. Idag var det annorlunde. För mycket riktigt, i entrén ut mot gatan hörde vi opera sjungas live. Så jag ryckte fram mobilen och bambusade lite. Hör och njut, även om ljudet suger – men du får väl ha liiite fantasi ;)

I all korthet så lanserar superentreprenören Ted Valentin idag den nya sajten Blogipedia.com. Där finns en tjänst som

”samlar fakta och åsikter från bloggar.
Om en bloggare skriver att någonting ÄR någonting, till exempel ”Blondinbella är smart”, så kommer texten upp på Blogipedia inom ett par dagar”

Jag gör som alla andra (nästan) och egokollar direkt på ”Richard Gatarski”. Självklart kan jag inte låta bli att gilla en maskin som nästan omedelbart spottar fram sådant som: ”ekonomie doktor, en av länkarna, inte någon glad resenär, trendsättande talare av rang som alltid vill testa det senaste och leva digitalt fullt u,t en av få som verkligen manar till mobilaktiva möten”.

Med undantag för det där om resor så känns det som en himla bra beskrivning.

Fast, å andra sidan ger motsvarande sök på ”weconverse” en något mer konstig bild. Nåja, det tarvar mer lek med maskineriet för att se vad som visar sig. Men fett intressant är Blogipedia i alla fall.

Recently I noticed that there was something called #grid09. Don´t know what it was, but the event seems to attract attention and interest (including from me). Half an hour ago @eovemar tweeted that the videos from GRID09 were available. Ten minutes earlier, in another context,  @wacka wrote:

”Media sites = quick updates for me. But the latest stuff is increasingly(?) TV/video only. I don’t have the time! I want to read!”

My immediate thought was to give Fredrik Wackå a response and say something like the following:

Listening more than reading

I want to read too, not books or other stuff, but letters off the Web. More importantly, I take in a lot of audio. Mainly from podcasts and audio books. But also by listening to the audio streams from videos,where the image part, quite frequently, does not add much value.

When videos are valuable

The problems, or perhaps rather the valuable situations, are when the videos are indeed useful to see. It may be because of the presenter’s slides, rethorics or something you name it. Furthermore, I simply do not want to sit down at the laptop and watch video. My main solution is to watch videos in my mobile.

Watching video mobile

These days I watch more and more videos on my HTC Magic (before it on my iPhone). Mostly in the subway or in bed. Either online streamed (from YouTube and TED) or video files transfered into my mobile. The latter is rather cumbersome to set up, because most video streaming services/publihers do not allow or support downloading. A challenge that I sometimes can solve by using various ripping software.

But not from GRID09

Back to GRID09 and their ”Videos on demand” (bonnier.com/en/gridmeeting). I went there, to a site that looks nice and clean. The videos are there, the speakers and the subjects look very interesting. But, I won’t see the GRID09 videos, because I cannot download them. The streaming platform they use (TV4 Play, a service from Bonnier) have disabled downloading (via my main ripper Real Player Plus). GRID09 does not even support any ”share functionality”. That is, functions that help us tell our friends through various social networking services.

Too bad.

This morning I learned from a tweet via @bjornfalkevik that Moto Boy would perform in Stockholm City in less than two hours. Since Moto Boy (Oskar Humlebo) is one of my favorite artists I changed my plans for the day, and decided to join the gig. Judging from what I later saw I got the impression that the event was both a tribute to Peter Gabriel (who passed by on his way to pick up the Polar Music Prize) and some SMR (social media relations) acts for Moto Boy himself – a stunt that I gladly support.

With no time to prep for a better streaming setup I just went off with my HTC Magic, the Bambuser app för Android and good faith. Not sure that I had auto-tweet on at my account I asked @bjornjeffery to tweet that I streamed, and appearantly the characters where spread.

After I hit the ”broadcast” button on my mobile I realized that most likely the sound was picked up by my Bluetooth headset. As you can se a couple of minutes into the first archived live stream (see below) I therefore put my headset close to Moto Boy’s PA-speaker. But a few minutes later someone chatted that he could not hear any sound. So I stopped the broadcast, turned off Bluetooth, and broadcasted again.

There seems to be a general issue with sound from the live player at Bambuser.com. Quite frequently people, including myself, who watch my stuff complain about lost sound. The simple fix is to reload the page in your browser. Unfortunately I could not chat that during the cast. As far as I know I can only see the chat in my mobile while streaming – not participate. In any case, this was great fun and gave us some valuable insights, besides a great performance.

All archived streams are available at bambuser.com/channel/weconverse as the first, second and third video (Earlier this year I did a Qik one at Media Evolution in Malmö). Oskar Humblebo’s handshake with Peter Gabriel is about one minute into the third video, embedded here. And tonite at 16.30 TV4 will broadcast the prize ceremony, where Moto Boy and others will perform. Enjoy!

This morning Ingrid, a student at the new Interactive Art course at Hyper Island called me. They wanted to interview me over Skype, and I said yes. She promised that they would return in the afternoon when they had formulated the questions.

During lunch I realised I did not have any headset with me. So I jumped into Kjell & Co and purchased a pair of Cosonic CD610-MV for SEK 119 (my daughter can have them after me ;). At 14:12 I got a text message from Cas, the interviewer, who asked if it was OK to use video. I of course said yes.

After a meeting with Stockholm Business Region (good one btw) I walked up a block to Scandic Sergel Plaza, bought a Coke and went online. As Cas promised in his message, he called me promptly at 15:30.

We spoke for around 11 minutes. Big questions about (technology) trends and their impact on the media industries. Can’t said my answers were perfectly formulated, but hope they are valuable anyway.

More important are the students. Whow! Talk about being innovative, smart, organized, living the (Hyper Island) brand, and acting in real time. I was afraid they would beat me and get this out sooner than I (had to take another call, upload the file and write this).

Anyway, Cas promised to send me the results of their assignemnt in about a week or so. Meanwhile you may listen to the unedited interview here, or download it (MP3, 11 Mb).

[dewplayer:http://www.richardgatarski.com/wp-content/uploads/cas-interviews-richard-2009-08-24.mp3]

[Update 2009-08-29: similar posts from Joakim Jardenberg and Walter Naeslund who also was interviewed]