Story-telling in a world of context, connectivity and choice.

There's a very interesting discussion going on about the socialisation of TV over at Only Dead Fish.  Well worth sparing a click and 5 minutes to read the comments too. Lots of interesting points of view.

It made me think about the enduring power of good content to attract audiences and create conversations, but also the challenges facing the TV industry in terms of funding content creation. Maybe a hangover from being out with some of my TV broadcast / production mates last week. Coincidentally last night I found this interesting presentation (via one of my Twitter buddies) about how storytelling is evolving in our fast changing world.

Spare a few moments, well worth it.

GH Digital Daze: Digital Storytelling

View more presentations from christine huang.

Engagement is child's play

I'm reading a very interesting book called Grown Up Digital at the minute. It talks a lot about the evolution of information and learning preferences, but particularly the huge differences between those of us that are digital immigrants and have adapted to the new digital world v the huge numbers of individuals who've never known anything different.  They speak different languages. They think differently. This has huge implications for organisations where there is frequently a huge void between the senior management and their new and upcoming talent; it has huge implications for marketers in how they engage with a broad spectrum of consumers; and most importantly of all it has huge implications for how we approach teaching in the future.

So with that in mind, here's a far better explanation of the elements and the periodic table than I ever got in chemistry at school. Credible band (They might be giants) + music + animation / moving images. So much easier to remember when material is presented in this fashion than having to learn by heart that Lithium was LI and had a valence of 1.  Can't belive I can still remember that, I didn't even have to resort to WolframAlpha, my favourite scientific knowledge engine.



Finding that video, then reminded me of another one that always makes me laugh, but probably more because of the amusement over the learning value of James Blunt crooning "a triangle, a triangle" to the tune of "You're beautiful".  Enjoy.



But now you are amused, relaxed and refreshed, step back and think. Are you still applying analogue marketing thinking to a digital world?

Cross platform content creation & delivery

Among the many things I have done in my career, working in TV & Film for a production company was one of the particularly interesting adventures. I left, 3 years ago, full of great stories of travel far and wide, but frustrated by many things, in particularly, by the lack of people in the industry that could grasp the potential of the web and the opportunities as well as the challenges it offered.

This cartoon that I tripped over recently on one of my favourite blogs, Gaping Void, summed it up for me. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.So it was nice to see that the BBC are working on an interesting cross-platform collaborative project to celebrate 20 years since Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the web. Even the project name "Digital revolution" is a beta title. Worth spending some time watching this video interviewing Sir Tim as part of the project kick off if you have 20 minutes one lunchtime. If you only have 10 minutes skip to halfway and watch the second half!