Here we go… two new toys from the 4iP cupboard. And congratulations to both.
For if lap-top and mobile are, indeed, our sickle and scythe, then – come this revolution, brothers and sisters – look at what we can now do off our Apple iPhones….
http://www.4ip.org.uk/blog/4ip_invests_in_audioboo/
… we can be a hyper-local radio station; we can podcast an interview with the local headmaster, the parish council clerk, etc, etc… all at two flicks of Mark’s touch-screen button.
Brilliant.
And for those of you who want to learn how to be a radio station off your mobile phone, courtesy of the Mayor of King’s Cross – Will Perrin – we’ve now found ourselves a ‘tutorial college’…
… a mechanism by which hyper-local community news groups can – potentially – now discover how to be a radio station off audio-boo, how to publish snippets of instant, breaking community news off ‘backchat’ – and then be able to engage in a conversation with said community thereafter; be part of this unfolding ‘Age Of Participation’…
And the list, can continue. And evolve and develop; all the time, refining what was once our ‘reporter’s notebook’ into a device that actually befits the 21st Century. The distribution platform we’ve cracked.
And if the Government is serious about trying to re-start a f*cked economy with the kind of massive public works undertaking that a free high-speed broadband pledge within a ‘Digital Britain’ would entail, then our chosen method of distribution will continue to give the paper boy and the bicycle a run for his money.
So, for example, I’ve always liked Tim Hood’s Yoosk proposition – another ‘tool’ that enables communities to bring a single question to the fore; what is the pressing concern in TS10, in NR14… let’s vote on it, folks, and let’s get our local writer to ask the question…
And then, of course, there’s Addiply.
Because Will’s wrong, in one regard. Or if not wrong, then he should be empowered to reach higher…
‘Talk About Local will be sustainable as it aims to train people who already volunteer their time to use free platforms.
‘Talk About Local will be a not for profit organisation, possibly a charity in the medium term…
The volunteers that are manning – and wo-manning – these new, flowering community news portals deserve a reward. Hopefully, they don’t have to be a charity.
For whilst www.addiply.com – or, indeed, something of a similar ilk – might not ever grant them a full-time living, just as in the good old days when the village correspondents on the Beccles & Bungay Journal could look forward to one meal out a month at Archant’s expense courtesy of their 18-pars a week, why can’t we empower our 21st Century equivalents with a tool that enables them to be a community noticeboard?
That enables them to charge, say, £5 a week to the local AmDram Society for show ticket news; that enables the local football club to post a ‘Players wanted!’ sign in the ‘window’ of their local community news portal…
… and all the while enabling central, regional and local Government the chance to drop their own, highly-targetted messaging/advertising onto the laps of said communities?
For anyone still wondering how easy that is to do; how easy it could be for a mums and toddlers group to advertise their presence to a community in N10 or wherever… there’s three ‘free’ slots at the top of this page.
It’s a tenner into a PayPal meter; the same PayPal account number you use for selling your high chair on eBay… that’s, what, 20,000 views at 50p per 1,000.
Or, if you prefer the old £5 a week for a postcard in the Post Office window, we can do that.
And you can do it all off your Apple iPhone, to boot. Publisher and advertiser alike.
I’m now empowered to decide my own advertising fate and (small) fortune… just as I’m now empowered to be a two-touch community radio station by audioboo.
It’s ease; it’s functionality; it’s working off a kitchen table and a lap-top and not off a ‘multi-media hub’ and a printing press. And all after fighting your way to Fort Dunlop at 8am every morning.
That’s why Mark, Matt and I thought about making next week’s first ‘VIP Club’ meeting a bring ‘a tool’ party… what can we bolt on where? How does this work? Do I really need nothing else but a lap-top, a mobile and a kitchen table?
For me – and, ideally, thousand upon thousands of others – the answer needs to be ‘Yes…’
We can do this. We just need an elegant platform, a spot of Shirkey-esque organisation and a few new tools.
Slap a JobCentre ad into that mix and a community ‘noticeboard’ and we’re getting somewhere.
We’ve still got a few invites left for next week’s VIP Club gig where, hopefully, we can all admire eachothers’ tools and start thinking as to how we might bolt them altogether. What fits where…
http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=207
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