Persona Non Grata

Last night saw the launch of a new Welsh-language channel called “Sianel ’62″ on UStream. The name is a reference to the launch 50 years ago of the Welsh Language Society. The channel broadcasts a mix of user generated content, as well as music videos and promos for Welsh bands. At it’s peak, there were around 300 people tuned in, with total views pushing towards 2000 (there were some initial issues with the stream, which later stablisied).

The channel launched at 20:00 on Sunday, with a combination of YouTube clips, music videos, a documentary about the history of Welsh Language Campaigning, and the campaign against the development of a 2nd nuclear power station on Angelsey. I must confess to being a little surprised by the switch in styles from clips of two kids hurting themselves with a park swing to a serious documentary, but these issues will almost certainly resolve themselves as the channel reviews and revises its editorial policy after the launch.

The documentaries featured during the launch were outstanding, and were easily as good, if not better than some of the content generated by its more professional cousins… I’m looking at you S4C… Content that’s being put together by volunteers and enthused people, rather than being churned out by an increasingly out of touch publically-funded broadcaster.

This is what the Internet age gives us, and those who argue that it costs hundreds of thousands of pounds to produce compelling content just need to look at what’s being done by these guys (and other Internet broadcasters). I believe that the channel exemplifies what Jeff Jarvis calls “the mass of niches”. It engages with a highly motivated, politically aware audience in their own language at their level, being a platform for user generated content, and making full use of social networks to enage with its audience.

Although it is unclear at this point what the long term strategy for the channel will be, I’m really looking forward to seeing what they’ve got planned, and how it’ll evolve.

For those who are able to understand Welsh, you can find Sianel ’62 at http://www.sianel62.com. They broadcast live from 8pm every Sunday and they make their conent available as a download after the fact.

Disclosure – I’ve been asked to contribute content to the channel, although I’ve not done so to date.

So I figured I’m past due telling you all about wrote a short intro to a few weeks ago. The event was a stunning success, with our biggest ever crowd joining us for a day of talking tech, the web and the world though the medium of Welsh. There were some pretty cool sessions going, including a session on kinect hacking, hyper-local news media and creating iBooks. Not to mention of course the frankly marvellous Haclediad…

I obviously couldn’t waste the opportunity to climb up on a soap-box, and did a session where I shared my thoughts on applying Jeff Jarvis‘“What would Google Do?” principles to broadcasting (in the session, I asked people to imagine what an S4C 2.0 might look like, adopting Jarvis’ principles of becoming a network, sharing content and participating in the community it lives in). The talk appeared to be well-received, with some positive comments afterwards.

I was pleasantly surprised to see members of S4C’s governing body come to see what was going on. They asked some questions about what I was suggesting, and seemed to take it all on board. I had quite a long conversation with them the night before, and was pleased that they were at least saying all the right things. I’d also exchanged a few messages on Twitter with Ian Jones (S4C’s new Chief Exec), who apologised for not being able to make it, but was keen to get more input on modernising the channel (a theme he’s discussed at length in press interviews he’s done recently). I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised by Ian Jones’ level of engagement on Twitter, and he certainly seems to have a pretty good understanding of what their challenges are, and engaging with all the stakeholders.

I did however get the sense that the guys from the Authority were giving me the hard sell over Ian Jones’ appointment, which I guess is partly their job… but as I’ve said before (and to them), it’s one thing to say it, it’s quite another to actually do it, and all eyes are on the new CEO to see if he delivers on his early promise.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what comes out as a result of Hacio’r Iaith. A lot of very clever and talented people left with a lot of ideas, which should make Hacio’r Iaith 2013 even better.

So, in little under a week in Aberystwyth will host Hacio’r Iaith 2012 (28th January 2012). This will be third annual event, and is one of the largest ‘barcamp’ style conference in Wales.

I’ve been asked to explain exactly what a barcamp is… so here goes…

A barcamp is known as an ‘unconference’, it has no set schedule, speakers or events planned… all that is set up on the day.

Yes, sounds crazy, but it works. The conference schedule is decided on the day, by those that turn up. People who come are encouraged to sign up and give talks about whatever topic they like. Whilst the broad theme of the event is technology, this can be interpreted loosely to cover pretty much any topic, and discussions can range from the effect of Government policy on Web usage, through to the history of Internet memes…

I’ve been to quite a few barcamps and they really are that broad… during the 2011 London Barcamp, several hundred people descended to listen and give talks. In one room, a woman gave a talk about Chocolate (she’d set up a website where she reviews chocolate… as her day job… – she’d brought samples…), whilst in the next, a Whisky blogger ran a session “Absinthe for beginners”, whilst in another room a talk was detailing how to build a game for the iPhone. All of this, at one conference, in the space of an hour…

So, at the start of the day, attendees will be asked to gather at the grid to sign up to give talks. As I said, the talks can be on virtually anything (like I said… chocolate and absinthe…). So the next question is, do you *have* to give a talk…

Well, you don’t have to… but you should. The attendees at a barcamp have come to listen to talks. They *want* to hear from you. Noone is there to shout you down, boo you or make fun of you. They’ve come to hear from people who have a passion for a given topic. You really don’t need a fancy Powerpoint, it doesn’t need to be technical, and you don’t have to prepare anything. You can just literally sign up for a slot and talk. It’s about sharing your passion and your knowledge.

You could do a talk about something that interests you, show off a project you’ve been working on, or host a discussion about a burning issue. Just name your session, pick a time slot and that’s it.

Want some ideas on talks? Have a look at this Lanyrd.com search page, it has a list of almost a 1000 talks delivered at hundreds of barcamps all over the world on topics, including “Fancy a Pint?” at Barcamp London (One of mine – my co-host was a woman I got chatting to at the start of the day, and by the afternoon we were discussing how great beer is with a room full of people… no slides, no anything), through to “How to Podcast for Free” at Barcamp Liverpool (not one of mine…). Like I said, *anything*.

If you’re unsure about giving a talk, you can get in touch with me before next saturday (bryn.salisbury@gmail.com, or @bryns on twitter), or come grab me on the day. I’ve had wonderful experiences giving talks at Barcamps, and you should too. It’s a great place to practice public speaking in front of a group who really want to hear from you, and want to support you.

Other than the talks, you’ll also get to see Sioned (@llef), Iestyn (@iestynx) and me do a live recording of our podcast (The Haclediad) there. It’ll be an absolute blast. This year is shaping up to have the most attendees ever, and I’m REALLY excited. If you’ve never been, there’s a tremendous buzz from gathering together with so many people enthused around a topic or area, you’ll want to rush off and start a dozen projects right away… and that, if anything, will give you plenty to talk about when you come along to the one in 2013!

See you in Aberystwyth guys…

So there’s been some interesting debates going on in Wales recently after Bethan Jenkins AM (those of you who are ex-Aberystwyth students may remember her from her time as Guild President) wrote an interesting Op-Ed piece for Wales Home, called “Time for Radical Solutions” in which she advocates that the Welsh Assembly should look to convert the Western Mail into a publicly funded company (with editorial protection similar to that of S4C), then letting the company be floated a few years later to be a private company again.

The piece has drawn a lot of attention (BBC News – Western Mail could be taken over by government, says AM, Golwg360 – Galw ar y llywodraeth i gymryd y Western Mail and on Twitter), and seems to have achieved Bethan’s aim of stirring up a debate. Opinions vary from Trinity Mirror (the owner of The Western Mail) saying “no comment” (i’m paraphrasing) though to discussions on the Government’s role in media.

I personally don’t think it’s the Government’s place to be taking over media properties (even with guarantees of editorial independence). We’ve seen in the past how the BBC has drawn fire from politicians of all sides for editorial bias (particularly from The Conservatives). The perception that it’s a ‘Government’ paper would be difficult to shift, and journalists might feel weary of biting the hand that feeds it. Also, given the seemingly incestious nature of media in Wales at the moment, would the WM have ran the story about S4C’s battles with University of Wales if members of its board were also sat on S4C’s?

If you ask me, WAG should be looking to put the boot up the Western Mail’s backside and using it’s position to encourage and foster competition. Wil Stephens suggests that WAG should be looking to set itself up with a seed fund, and investing money in starting up new ventures, rather than taking over old ones (a sentiment I share). Huw Marshall also points out that the Western Mail isn’t exactly an “all Wales” property (I tend to agree, from my experience it’s almost entirely a South Wales affair). So the notion of setting up an ‘All Wales’ news organisation is quite appealing.

The Western Mail is still a profitable (if dwindling) business. What its owners; Trinity Mirror (and S4C for that matter), needs is some competition. Starting a news organisation is expensive (staffing, legal, hardware et al), and is well beyond the means of most… But if WAG helped to introduce a new player and disrupt the market, broadcast and print media in Wales would be forced to innovate in order to maintain market share. A new player could gather journalists from local papers and bring in the best of the Web’s talent and provide a new service, and Trinity Mirror would need to do something to keep up.

So, should WAG take over the Western Mail? No… but it can help us to make it (and media in Wales) much, much better.

With Hacio’r Iaith 2012 just around the corner (3 months to today infact…), I’m starting to collect some notes on a talk I’d like to give on what a next generation S4C would look like (hence the name S4C 2.0).

Since my posts back in April, I’ve had a few more ideas. I’d like though to open it up to a much wider audience and invite you (dear readers) to join in and tell me what you all think. What would you want from the channel? More online services? iTunes/Amazon/LoveFilm access? More multi-lingual content? Greater transparency from the management? A simpler process for getting more ‘independent’ content broadcast? More services for learners?

I’ll start to put this all together around Christmas, and keep you in the loop about how it’s all going.

So arrangements are well underway now for Hacio’r Iaith 3 in Aberystwyth, and we’ve already got some sponsors have been lined up. Now all we need is more people to sign up to do talks (to that end, I’m hoping to push out a guide to barcamp talks sometime near the weekend – probably after Barcamp London).

With the announcement today of the S4C’s shotgun wedding to the BBC, I’m even keener to develop a talk on what I’ve decided to call “S4C 2.0″. The talk will probably focus on a lot of the ideas I’ve explored here before (ad nauseum), as well as a few more ideas I’ve been developing off-line.

News hit the world today that Steve Jobs lost his long fight with cancer. I thought I’d take a moment to reflect on his contributions to the industry in particular and to society at large. Whether or not you like Apple (I happen to quite like their products), there’s no denying the Jobs’ impact on our world. The initial release of the Apple I back in 1976 challenged the perception that computers were tools of business, through to the launch of their retail stores, the launch of the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010 as well as challenging the preconceptions about what a computer was and how it should look. Jobs’ influence has pervaded every aspect of the industry.

Rest in peace Mr Jobs. You’ll be missed.

Friends, I’ve ridden my hobby horse called ‘S4C rant’ to death. I’ve suggested things, had feedback both good and bad, and even got a few lines back from their press office. Sadly, I fear they’re not wanting any help. I imagine they’re all cruising along to somewhere, rudderless and taking on water, in denial that there’s anything wrong, convinced they’ll make it… somewhere (with “Nearer, My God, to Thee” playing softly in the background).

With a hat-tip to Leighton Andrews AM, I saw this article in the Western Mail about University of Wales failing to back a researcher over a critical report of S4C and I can honestly say I wasn’t the least bit surprised. Based on the Western Mail’s report, it seems that the report is pretty damning of the management, the strategy and pretty much everything going. Nothing said in the report is of any surprise to anyone who’s been watching what S4C is up to.

It goes on to say in the article that S4C now apparently wants its money back. To me, that says quite a lot about them. They commissioned the report to supposedly find out what they’re doing wrong, someone has told them and they don’t like the answer (confirming pretty much exactly what the report is supposed to have said). This type of a report should be the mother of all alarm clocks, shouting a quote I’ve cannibalised from a Risky Business blog post from a few weeks ago…

Honestly, I think I’ve coasted far past the point at which any normal person would have given up. I’m now at the point where I doubt anything can be done to save it, which is something I that find truly dispiriting.

So, I found out last night about the launch of a new educational product by an Anglesey based company called ‘Dysgu Gyda Sam‘ (Learning with Sam). This is a series of educational programs devised to help 3-6 years old learn Welsh (before we go on, let’s just set aside whether or not you think teaching Welsh to kids is a good idea – I happen to think it is). So, you might think I’d like this idea, and in principle I do. The problem has to do with the implementation.

Y’see, they’ve not launched an app, or a website… they’ve done it on CD-ROM.

Yeah, you heard me… a CD-ROM.

This in itself is bad enough, but the company proudly states on their website that they got help and support by the Welsh Assembly Government backed ‘Menter Môn’ (an Anglesey Business Development Quango) to make this. What’s more, the support came as a result of Menter’s ”Bauhaus Project” (which aims to foster innovation and new products from companies on the Island).

I’ll also pause so you can enjoy that little irony.

Seriously… what the hell? (I did have something stronger there, but it wouldn’t translate well)

How does a company get publicly funded help (and possibly grants) develop a CD-ROM product under a project aimed to foster innovation? Who the hell still considers CD-ROMs to be innovative? The character they’ve developed seems to be quite good, but their decision to lock all this up in a 3 part series of CD-ROMs (with the associated books) for £35 each will (in my view) kill the product and the character. I was part of the first generation to be exposed to ‘educational’ CD-ROMs, and I can tell you that they were utterly useless. They were shiny bits of plastic that were all too easy to lose or damage (and at that point quite expensive to replace).

In its current incarnation, the product would have been innovative 10 or 15 years ago, but in this grand and shiny post-PC, web 2.0, Appstore future we now live in, CD-ROMs just simply don’t cut it. What’s even more startling to me is that the whole system (based on what I can deduce from the tech specs on the site) works through the browser (the minimum system specs calls for a 450mhz processor as a minimum – seriously, was this developed in the 90s?), and requires Safari 3.0 (released in 2007) or Internet Explorer 6 (released in 2001) as a minimum – with no mention of Google Chrome.

I should probably add at this point that Dysgu Sam are the unfortunate victims of my simmering rage at this issue, and I appologise to them in advance if they feel that this is a direct attack against them. I’m sure they’re really lovely people, but they’ve been seriously let down. They’ve clearly gone to Menter Môn with a sound concept, but have been let down by people at multiple stages who should have asked “is a CD-ROM really the best way to go?”. To their credit, Dysgu Gyda Sam did respond via their Twitter page (@dysgusam) to one of my Haclediad co-presents Sioned (@llef) that developing a mobile app is one of the ideas they’re investigating. I fear though that they’ve missed out on an opportunity to develop something truly innovative by locking themselves into a format that has no future. Rumours continue to abound that Apple plans to drop optical drives from their range, which the rest of the industry is sure to follow if it turns out to be true.

The ideal way to launch this kind of a product would have been as an iOS/Android app, with a tie-in website. The character they’ve created would have been instantly engaging, and the kinaesthetic nature of touch-screen devices would have meant that kids would be able to interact with it all by themselves, rather than having parents supervise a 3yo trying to use a mouse (I’ve spoken to many tech-savvy parents who are still amazed by how easily their very young children are able to pick up and use touch-based devices unaided).

Menter Môn needs to seriously re-consider their definition of the term ‘innovative’. CD-ROMs have not been an innovative technology for well over 15 years now, and the person who either guided Dygsu Gyda Sam down the CD-ROM avenue, or didn’t question their use of an outmoded technology has serious questions to answer. To my mind is further evidence for my pet rant on how Governments and Institutions in Wales haven’t a clue when it comes to technology, and seemingly get led down the garden path by sharp suited sales guys. We’ve seen that WAG was using Windows NT for years (as a result it seems of a support contract stipulation), S4C’s complete inability to get going on streaming/web based TV and social media (something they’re only just starting to rectify), and Y Lolfa’s troubles in getting Amazon to release their books on the Kindle store.

Wales is falling badly behind on this type of innovation, and falling further behind on such innovations in Welsh. To my mind, the future health and the existence of the language depends on our ability to produce modern and relevant content in a way that fits with new consumption models. Anyone still developing CD-ROMs or such anachronistic media should pack it in. Google, Apple and the tech giants are leading us merrily towards the cloud, and if innovation programs like the Menter Môn’s Bauhaus project isn’t fostering *that* kind of development, then it’s failing the people of they’re trying to help, and more importantly, the future of Wales.

I’m going to lie down in a dark room now.

B

P.S.
In the event that Dysgu Sam or Menter Môn want to come back to me with a response, I’d be happy to update this article (I’ll give your responses a full airing, even if I’m completely wrong and have to retract the article — infact, I sincerely hope I’m wrong). The reason for my ire is simply that I take technology seriously, and I’m deeply frustrated when I see nice ideas like Dysgu Sam’s being let down by poor technology choices. You can reach me in the comments field, by email (see the ‘About’ page, or through my twitter page @bryns)

Once again this year, Aberystwyth played host to the Hacio’r Iaith confrence. 40 or so people interested on technology, social media and the future of the language on the web, all gathered in once place for a day of lively discussion.

There were some exceptionally interesting sessions on handling data, standardised translations, bilingual blogging and promoting the work of Gwilym Deudraeth. The Haclediad mob had a good time recording episode #5 infront of a live audience. I especially had fun presenting a session on bilingual blogging (the first time I’d done so infront of a barcamp audience). I think it went well, and I don’t have a particular memory of falling over myself. To be honest. it was really fun to lead a discussion on the merits of monolingual verus bilingual content.

I always enjoy getting together with web people, it always gives a great chance to compare notes and gather ideas for the next project, and it’s always a decent excuse for a beer or two.

I’ve got a few more pictures on Flickr (Hacio’r Iaith – In Pictures), and we’ll be compiling all the coverage on the Hacio’r Iaith website. I also ask that if you gave a talk, could you please put your slides up on the Hacio’r Iaith lanyrd page?

I also had a chance to wander around Aberystwyth with the camera, and I’m very grateful to Rory for putting up with me asking “Do you think this is okay?” endlessly, or “do you think this’ll work? Damn…”

Back to it!

Update – 1/2/11:
Forgot to post a link to the pictures I took around Aberystwyth: Aberystwyth (Flickr)