IPTV - From local news to local democracy

Describe your project:

This is a 3-year project which uses IPTV to grow local democracy via news.

We already have foundation funding to create an IPTV news station (VisionOnTV), and are bidding to build a multi-faceted but really simple-to-use content management system for this station, so that it can become comprehensively interactive and realize its potential for social change. It is essential that the CMS development be rooted in a local community, so that it can be tested and refined. We are therefore also seeking funding to facilitate Hackney TV, a VisionOnTV local channel in a London borough undergoing rapid change under the shadow of the 2012 Olympics, which will be this testing ground. If the CMS is successful in Hackney, it can be replicated globally.

Hackney TV will be a mix of local news and views, including rapid-turnaround, “live-edit” studio shows, as well as news reportage.

We will fully exploit the “micro-broadcasting” that IPTV enables. Our cms is based on the award-winning Liferay system, which is open source. It will encourage physical connections between people that traditional media has no power to do, beginning with neighbours recognising each other, through simultaneous chat while playing a film, to the creation of forums and physical groups around important community issues. Personalised adverts and info-verts will make TV into a community noticeboard.

The cms will also draw in data from other existing national and global social networks, blogs, corporate news etc, so that it is constantly up-dated with new info. News becomes interactive through “E-decision” plebiscites by text, web voting and interactive IPTV booths in public venues, community cafes etc. Local business sponsorship by automated advertising makes it sustainable.

How will your project improve the way news and information are delivered to geographic communities?

The focusing of the CMS group on a borough-sized community is the key to grassroots news. However, citizen journalist video production generally lacks the key skills and focus to substitute fully the role that top-down media currently plays. Quality control and fact-checking are absent, while disruptive posts are tolerated. Our cms will include these controls and thus feed relevant and accessible news from the grassroots back to the grassroots.

The 2012 Olympics will bring rapid change for the communities of Hackney in East London, over which they need to have control. A local interactive news service dedicated to their needs will give them a voice and enable them to shout louder.

How is your idea innovative? (new or different from what already exists)

Our project works both as “lean-back” TV and as interactive video on the web. The huge problem with other CMS's is that they are “out of the box” and designed by techies for techies, whereas we are outreaching beyond this.We are broadcasting video content to drive interaction rather than relying on people simply to interact in an empty space.We aim to create real-world communities by virtual tools. Live chat while watching a film will turn into forum posts, relationship links and involvement in outside groups, outside of a walled garden. Physical meet-ups will be pushed, via screenings, action groups or socializing. Local info-verts will be personalised to you. Currently, no other video site has a sense of community like this.

What experience do you or your organization have to successfully develop this project?

Undercurrents is an award-winning media charity of 15 years' standing, which coined the term “video activism”. We pre-empted the media revolution of the 21^st century by putting camcorders in the hands of environmental activists during the 1990s. Popular London magazine Time Out tagged our work as ‘The News you don’t see on the News’. We put views from the grassroots in front of both the wider public and decision makers.

As part of the visionOntv project, we recently ran a studio at the Camp for Climate Action in Kent, England, making 20 shows in the space of a week, syndicated to over 40 streaming sites and our own video player application (a customised version of Miro).

Hamish Campbell, Richard Hering and Paul O'Connor have 45 years of video trainer and producer experience between them.

Hamish is the CEO of visionOntv, which was his idea. He is designing the parameters of the CMS and all other software, and envisioning the trajectory of the project as a whole.

Richard is also an award-winning investigative reporter for British TV, winning the Bill Travers Award for Environmental Investigation '97, the Amnesty International Press Award '98, and the Rory Peck Features Award '99, on subjects such as the illegal mahogany trade from Brazil and the effects of the nuclear test program in China.

Paul is co-founder of Undercurrents, and De Murphy is our financial manager.

Rooftop Protest at Bristol Bomb Maker

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They're there because Raytheon produce some of the most hideous military hardware imaginable (they claim to be world leaders in "smart" hidware). Bunker busters and cluster bombs being just two examples of their lethal hardware. Their hardware wasn't smart enough to avoid 62 civilians in Iraq: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-proof-marketplace-deaths-were-caused-by-a-us-missile-593074.html As CAAT reports, "Raytheon is the prime contractor for the Tomahawk cruise missile and the JSOW AGM-154, both of which deliver BLU/97B submunitions." (that's cluster bombs to you and me). They've got a regular stall at DSEi: http://www.caat.org.uk/publications/armsfairs/dsei-2003-report/clusterbombs.php And do you remember Israel's little bombing frenzy in the summer of 2006? When they blasted Lebanon to smithereens? Well Raytheon's hardware played its part: http://bristol.indymedia.org.uk/newswire.php?story_id=25266 All that seems reason enough to protest Raytheon's presence in Bristol. In fact plenty of people have been protesting against Raytheon. Nine fine folk from Northern Ireland were recently (June 2008) "acquitted in Belfast for their action in decommissioning the Raytheon offices in Derry in August 2006. The prosecution could produce not a shred of evidence to counter our case that we had acted to prevent the commission of war crimes during the Lebanon war by the Israeli armed forces using weapons supplied by Raytheon." http://www.raytheon9.org/ The rooftop protesters want Raytheon, and the rest of the world to know, that there'll be protests every Thursday at Raytheon's offices in Bristol. Let's give 'em hell! Bristol IndyMedia has regular updates on their front page: http://bristol.indymedia.org.uk/index.php

Flashmob RBS and E-On Recruitment Stalls - Remix!

Over 50 Manchester students staged a flash mob demonstration at the RBS and E.On Recruitments stalls on Thursday 23rd October 2008. The group were protesting against the banks funding of climate chaos and against E.On’s plans to build a new coal power station at Kingsnorth.

At precisely 1pm, loose coal was dumped on the Royal Bank of Scotland and E-On recruitment stalls. Meanwhile, around 50 demonstrators stripped off their jackets to reveal bright yellow t-shirts with the words, “LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND” emblazoned across their chests.

A list of RBS’ environmental crimes was then read out to prospective employees attending the recruitment fair at Manchester Central (GMEX) convention centre. [4]

Some of the group were then forcibly ejected by security guards whilst others moved on to pay a visit to the E-On recruitment stall. E-On were questioned as to how their plans for a new coal fired power station squared with our commitment to reduce CO2 levels.

Toby Brett, 19, physics student at the University of Manchester says, “RBS, formerly priding itself on being “the oil and gas bank”, vastly outstrips all other UK banks in terms of funding climate change. In fact RBS investments emit more carbon dioxide per year than the whole of Scotland.”[6]

“Whilst I commend them for investing in renewable forms of energy as well as fossil fuels the two simply do not cancel out.”

“We are calling for an immediate halt to highly destructive investment such as in tar sands extraction and a swift switch to renewables. Quite frankly the world cannot wait.”

Marina Gerner, 20, Politics, Philosophy and Economics student and campaigns secretary at the University of Manchester’s Students Union says, “Coal is the dirtiest, most emissions intensive of fossil fuels and it is outrageous to see how our banks invest in it.”

This action is part of a series of actions by students from the campaigning groups People and Planet and Campaigns Collective against RBS and E-On. [5]

It formed part of Climate Action Week at the University of Manchester Students’ Union.

The TAKE ACTION alerts

The TAKE ACTION alerts are stricky templated and made up of VO and still images only – no video. The video is ONLY there to motivate people to click on the web link which takes them to the NGO/activist page were they can do something practical.

Template 1
This is 20 seconds with 7-12 images

TXT - Argent Action Alert

VO: This is happening now – to do something about it click on the link bellow.

TXT – Take action!

With a montage of images of what’s happening.

Template 2
This is 30 seconds with 10-15 images

TXT - Argent Action Alert

VO: this village is being burned down in Uganda, 200K people are being made homeless. To do something about it click on the link bellow

TXT – Take action!

With a montage of images of what’s happening.

So You Think You Can Be President

A new hyper-reality television show where candidates compete in front of a live studio audience for American votes!"

The pressure is on as contestants present their positions on a range of social and political issues then face the hard-hitting scrutiny of our panel of judges. The audience at home will delight as contestants are challenged in ways never seen before on the airwaves.

The mainstream media's spectacle of American democracy reaches new heights but this time with a twist. Contestants on our program are in for a surprise: our panel of experts doesn't exactly play by the prescribed rules of television. Unlike the corporate news media of today, which often coddles leading politicians, our judges grill each candidate on their policies with hilarious and unexpected results.

In this week's episode only two weeks before the election, Senator Obama and Senator McCain have their feet held to the fire over shockingly similar positions on both energy and foreign policy.

Who will be this season's champion and take home the grand prize? You'll have to watch and decide that for yourself, then participate by casting your vote* for your favorite performer on November 4th!

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*Some restrictions may apply. In certain areas these include, but are not limited to, faulty electronic voting systems, racist voter laws and/or voter roll purges. See your local polling place for details.

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PRODUCTION INFO:

This video is a satirical transformative work and constitutes a 'fair use' of any copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. It is an example of a Political Remix Video and was created by re-cutting and re-framing fragments of pop culture media to construct a new re-imagined narrative.

Remixed by Jonathan McIntosh
For a wide-screen version see:
www.rebelliouspixels.com

dan le sac VS scroobius pip

Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip
"Thou Shalt always Kill"
video directed by Nick Frew
Available now as a digital download
http://www.lexrecords.com/Lesacvspip.htm

Playing with skype

visionontv hosted by hamishcampbell.

Join now

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Testing public chat?


Have just bought a PC card skype phone http://us.kensington.com/html/12632.html it seams a bit flaky wouldn't recommend it so far - but £9.99 is cheap.

Embed for our new Anti-War channel

This is the RSS feed to text code (please mail us as we can customize it for your sight)

(to be added soon)

The RSS feed for this channel is:
http://feeds.visionontv.net/anti-war

4 Aces Club

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For over thirty years Dalston resident Newton Dunbar ran The Four Aces Club. The Club started its life in 1966 at 12 Dalston Lane in the entrance halls of the original 1886 Dalston circus and theatre buildings. It became north London's home of international black music and a second home to black musicians. With increasing success in the 1980s Newton expanded the business, as the Labrynth, which regularly packed out the whole of Dalston Theatre. At weekends Dalston Lane was heaving until the early hours. Filmmaker Winstan Whitter grew up in Dalston and his brilliant documentary film, containing historic footage, about The Four Aces is now out. You can visit http://thefouracesclub.com to watch the film's trailer and learn more about the history of the club and its relationship with the police and the Council.

Web 2.0 Expo NY: Clay Shirky (shirky.com) It's Not Information Overload. It's Filter Failure.

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