Collaborative Creativity at the X Media Lab in Melbourne
I am very excited to be attending the X Media Lab in Melbourne, Australia on August 1 – 3. I’ve been invited to give one of the keynote speeches during the opening session.
My talk will address the subject of Collaborative Creativity, especially as it pertains to user-generated content in the context of major media brands. This is a more challenging proposition than it may seem. Most media companies are unfamiliar with user-generated content, and many of them are not especially skilled at dealing with customer feedback. It’s a steep learning curve.
Lately the concept of user-generated content has come under attack in the mainstream media, which is not especially surprising since it’s a direct challenge. But I think these major news stories tend to gloss over the fact that the bulk of content created in two-way networks (mobile and the web) is predominantly generated by end users conversing amongst themselves.
During my career, I’ve had many occasions to solicit and include creative content from the audience right into a show on TV, at live events, and more recently on the web. Lots of lessons. Some difficult ones. Yikes. During my speech, I’ll describe what I’ve learned from attempting to engage the audience as a participant in a variety of media formats, some more successfully than others. Hopefully this will serve as both an inspiration and an object lesson to attendees in the workshop who are focused on user-generated content.
I’ll be offline for the next few days as I travel but I’ll post an update when I get to Melbourne later this week.
July 31st, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Fantastic presentation Robert. Not only visually gripping, but truly insightful.
Now what font is that you used….
August 1st, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Robert – that was a great presentation – many thanks.
August 1st, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Robert, your presentation was wonderful. Yes, you may have increased your carbon footprint.. but I’m prepared to plant a tree as a thank you.
August 2nd, 2008 at 3:53 am
Hi, I was surprised at how little time (if any) was taken to talk about actual content. Of course “users generate content” the same way cows generate methane, but what about the little details as The Joker would say? For example, what is special about Marina and HotForWords on youtube? She is a very interesting phenomenon. Pity, no-one at the conference said anything about effects of this sort. Though the word “monetize” seemed to have a vibratory effect on many members of the audience, did you notice ? 😉
August 2nd, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Rob,
Your X-media lab preso was the “un-cola” of keynotes! It was very insightful and your curatorial skills with words and images would make Al Gore envious… I normally limit myself to one exclamation point per post but what the hell. Well done!
August 3rd, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Yep, that one still rumbling around. Thanks for the thoughts.
August 7th, 2008 at 12:52 am
Hey, thanks, everybody, for the encouraging and positive comments. Wow, I am so glad to know that you found it worthwhile.
I will try to get a FlowGram of the speech posted on this site soon so other people can see it, too.