Project update with EP Claudia Taranto

Just off the phone with Claudia:

• she asked how the Pool groups were going – when an image would be up there and when we might be putting material in there… I assured her it was all go, we were onto it and that things would look a bit more lively for launch. She offered to ask Jonathon to deal with the image – but I said no, that we would like to do that bit (Rose said she could do something tonight)
• She asked if anyone in the 360 broadcast group was going to write some promo scripts and record some sound bites for the RN promo campaign …  I wasn’t sure if anyone is assigned to this and said I would put it to you all to see if they wanted to do it (so if anyone wants to do it we need to get the material to ABC by the end of this week) If no one wants to do this then ABC can write their own – I think it is a good opportunity as a task – but no sweat if you are booked up and can’t do it.
• Also – script for the Online Feature (Laura) needs to be delivered in the next couple of days – Thursday. A little sooner than expected – but that’s usually what happens (everyone always wants it now – and few assume you have another life!)
• Claudia thought the design brief for the online feature was great – rich and evocative – but the online designer got a bit lost in it and needed something more specific – I’m confident the design brief would have got there if we had more time to develop it – again, never have enough time with these gigs, now or never is the nature of the beast
• other than that – I told her about some of the groups/communities you were intending to develop as your SMP tasks – and she thought they sounded great.

that’s all I have to report for now

Graphics/Imaging brief – wanting your input

ABC has asked for a graphics/imaging brief asap – Raph swiftly put together some great ideas on this blog post. Please add your thoughts and ideas.

EP Claudia Taranto commmented in email below:

This student has done a fabulous job with all those images and their ideas – I like lots of them – I think if we can perhaps capture the three ideas of
family
friendship
shared interest
that would be fabulous.  I’m not keen on a black background myself, I feel that the City Nights website http://www.abc.net.au/rn/360/features/citynights/ really suffered from this, as I feel Pool does – I personally feel it makes it difficult to read text and so people are more likely to give up reading.  But happy to be persuaded otherwise.

You’ve Built The Fire, Now Which Signals To Send?

Original image by brothergrimm and published under Creative Commons Licence.

How indeed do you communicate with the people of Pool? How does your tribe signal to another tribe for some inclusion?

I have been looking at some of the student blogs for this PP1 project, and there have been some fantastic reactions. Emotions from intrigue, confusion, and to complete cynicism describing the role, the project, and even the space that is Pool. Each position is completely OK, as great arguments have been used to back the mixed bag of emotions expressed. However I thought this is a good opportunity to offer my version of what Pool actually is, to assist as you develop My Tribe.

In its most simple form, Pool could be described as a place to meet and hang out with friends. This type of connection has brought many of the members together and seen friendships and collaborations forged. These types of community members aren’t interested in producing media, but might enjoy viewing the work of others. I liken this to an art gallery – we don’t all walk in and start painting, but more so come to enjoy the work of others (even take some ideas away with us). The strongest example of this can be seen in the forums where healthy (most times) debate occurs between the Poolers over everything from technical development through to what constitutes safe or offensive material. Another way of looking at it could be described through someone like d. who finds much joy in commenting on other’s work.

To further the idea of collaboration, Pool is also used as a meeting place to find other artists to work with. This builds on the idea driving remix culture and a good example of this comes from Renegade Penguin and their piece BlackBird. One brain can create so much, but it can potentially double with two. This is exactly what happens when collaboration works where an idea is seeded, and then executed by someone else (where geography even has no boundaries).

Another use of Pool is that is to merely be a storage space for someone’s portfolio. This works as a place to store stuff on line for free, and then doubles as a space to display stuff. With the amount of media professionals passing through, it can also be a place to receive informative critiques of your work to fine tune how others interpret your pieces. This equates to free permalinks that you can direct other external people to, and you may even receive a comment or meet another artist

Both externally and internally at the ABC, Pool is also a research and development space. Currently, we are looking for internal community managers and are incorporating the internal members to help shape this position. This provides us with great learnings on how to implement user-led innovation, and is something that is unique to a space like this. From an external point of view, we encourage users and groups to use the space as something that we haven’t thought of. A great example of this is present in last year’s Underbelly Arts Festival group. This group of artists used Pool as a place to document the processes that the artist residents went through as they created their works for the festival.

Finally, and this is where My Tribe will be a success, Pool is seen as a space to get picked up by the ABC. Having extremely close ties with Radio National, they are utilising the talent from within the Pool to experiment and produce programs that are driven by the social media producer. To quote the findings of the ACID team last year, 16% of the people on Pool are there for that very reason, so to be in a position where all of that talent and enthusiasm exists is very exciting indeed. An instant crowd that is willing to participate in projects such as My Tribe, provides an extremely solid foundation to build a program from.