January 2009

I have four brothers.
Each has a passion.
Here, three of us discuss the nature of the Web as it might apply to musicians.
(note: the video starts mid conversation – thinking about how a tech-literate band could connect with their fans on a whole new level using existing technology)

Let me tell you a bit about the participants:

Tom (the dude with the smart looking hat is on the left joined the conference from his home in Windsor, Ontario): Tom owns a bar in Windsor Ontario, Phog Lounge and his patrons are arts-oriented and he strives to help them understand how to use the Web. Tom has sick moves on the basketball court. Tonight, I’m skyping in to the bar to give a little presentation on screen. Tough job being the youngest of five brothers, but he leads us all doing a number of innovative things in his community including with Phog Lounge as his base:

Big Table - Got an idea? Folks in Windsor don’t keep it to themselves, they bring it to Phog Lounge to talk about it. Tease out the details with other dreamers and them make action plans to bring big ideas to fruition. This man is a futurist. Here are a couple of recent projects:

• The Big Walk – intrepid locals take to the streets for a 17 hour walk about town to discover hitherto undiscovered treasures in the community. Stories are told, Webs woven.
• Broken City Brilliance – capturing and sharing video, photos and stories of the downtown and posting them on a community Google Map back at the bar
• Catch Tom’s Twitter stream @phogtom to learn when Canada’s best independent acts are hitting the stage at Canada’s premier live music venue (despite seating less than 60!)

Rodd (my identical twin bother lives in Komoka, Ontario – near London, Ontario): Rodd is an educator who strives to expose teachers to the world of technology and dreams of schools that use technology to inspire the youth of this world to make their dreams become a reality. He’s currently a go-to guy working with the Ministry of Education, helping Ontario teachers understand and embrace technology. He deserves to have more time to imagine the future of education. After all, who else is doing that?

If you know an educator who want to know what promise technology has in the classroom have them follow this @CleverSheep. Listen to his podcast or read his blog at TheCleverSheep.com

Me, Well, I hope you know me by now, I’m Todd and I start off this conversation (which we started recording after about ten minutes of dialogue).

The Creative Class and the new Web

I start by describing how an independent band could make use of current technology to connect with their fans. From there, we chat about all sorts of issues including how to establish a regular bar camp to help the Arts community embrace technology.

How’d they do that?

Many people are familiar with Skype or Google Video Chat for holding video conferences. Only iChat – a Mac application enables the simultaneous sharing of three cameras and microphones. Using standard laptops and wireless Internet access we came together and let the software link us.

I recorded and edited the screen and computer audio and my camera and microphone using ScreenFlow, really neat software that is designed for use in creating on-screen demos of software applications. In post production, I mixed my camera and mic with the screen capture creating the transitions to create the final product. I took about two hours to edit the screen transitions into the final product and this was my first ever use of the software – so I think it’s pretty intuitive and powerful stuff.

To share it, I uploaded it to Blip.tv and embedded it here.

I think the current evolution we’re seeing in the Web is creating unique opportunities to have important discussion and dialogue over great distances.

If you could pull two people together that you share an affinity with and just talk about issue that matter to all of you, what kind of magic could you produce?

{ 0 comments }