visionOntv is people2people TV: April 2010

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Look and feel for visionOntv

Main pages

We need two basic templates creating – with some different color options. Our new site will be based on liferay 6 and its new HTML5 theme.

Main visionOntv template

http://visionon.tv

We have a cartoonist http://hoonyoon.com, and would like to use her line-drawn images/icons throughout the site.

- Keep the design minimal and clean with Black/white/grey with flashes of color. VOTV uses some deep purple and orange. The current idea for the logo will be a rabbit with attitude. Possible ideas to use – grass, carrots and rabbits with attitude – organic feel?

In addition to the front page, there are currently 5 main channels (Grassroots, Globalviews, Friendlyfire, Plugandplay and Headmix) which will follow the same template as the front page.

User page

Eg: http://visionon.tv/web/hamish

– Simple with different color options, space for own logo rather than the visionOntv logo. Different color - default subtle VOTV color? The idea is that the users will be able to create their own look and feel and use this space to build their own website.

Sub-pages

Then there are sub-pages that might need tweaked templates.

News aggregator page

Eg: http://visionon.tv/web/news

We aggregate a lot of txt news for visonOntv so we will also need a sub-site to display this news, same as VOTV theme?

Channel pages

Eg: http://visionon.tv/savetheinternet

Channel pages are a subset of the user pages or of visionOntv template for core channel pages?

Need two options here:

1. Space for own logo/image and customizable color options – so that each channel can look individual if users/groups want it to.

2. Same template as visionOntv main channel pages.

Show pages

Eg: http://visionon.tv/yarlswood

Again, show pages need to make available to users the two options of either following the template of the customizable channel pages or that of the visionOntv main channels.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

A look into/back at activist social media

Alternative media projects always have to fight off a strong inclination to anonymise and centralize, a tendency which really cuts against how web 2.0 social media actually works to build active communities.

It’s encouraging to see the change in the social media strategy in climatecamp. The first instinct was to centralise and anonymise – to have a unified, “single voice” of “climate camp”. Within climate camp this has now shifted organically to a position of accepting a diversity of voices, each with their own character - the “voices of climate camp”. I am constantly fighting against this initial centralising tendency, though it is really hard to beat as it is always unspoken, and to speak it out loud is somehow to be seen as bringing it into being. Obviously this isn’t true, but it is a hard dynamic to shift.

Good to see the dynamic shifting in climatecamp, towards a more clearly labeled diversity of projects.

This is happening too with Indymedia UK. It’s finally opening up to become what it was originally setup to be - a network of groups of alternative media rather than the opaque monolithic structure that it had become. The links to alternative media groups on the side bar and the Schnews articles in the central column make me hopeful of alt-media growing into a genuine network of linked/syndicated projects, where each supports the other to become a much greater force than just the sum of its parts. The first thing to do is to declare what the parts are, and then have each link to the others.

So it’s good to see this shift in IMC too. Possibility of happy days for independent media!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement

For Sushila & Clare (:

Trailer for the documentary film "Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement," a true love story about two New York women whose relationship spans over four decades. By Bless Bless Productions, original music by Karl Henry.

Join the facebook group http://bit.ly/byJhEm

For more films http://visionon.tv/headmix