21st Century Creativity in a Copyright World: How Can the Potential Be Realised?

On Tuesday 26th April, World Intellectual Property day, UK podcaster Dean Whitbread contributed to a seminar organised by QUT Law Faculty's Intellectual Property: Knowledge, Culture, and Economy Program, in conjunction with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation. This groundbreaking event took place in Second Life, the online multiplayer virtual world created by Linden Labs and was entitled:

21st Century Creativity in a Copyright World: How Can the Potential Be Realised?

The participants were able to interact using Second Life's self-designed avatars and TeamSpeex, an audio conferencing application which enabled most of the assembled participants to speak to and hear each other in real time.

Listen to the audio from the event here (60 minutes - 50 MB)

"The rapid pace of technological change that we are experiencing requires us to always be aware of the balances inherent in copyright law; we must attempt to provide adequate protection to copyright owners, while at the same time allow for a rich culture of experimentation and innovation. Particularly, we must be careful not to close off new avenues for expression and creativity before they have a chance to develop. Join us for a discussion of the current context, covering fair use/fair dealing, blogs, mash-ups, parody, and much more.

"Virtual worlds are becoming increasingly popular and diverse. As more and more people are becoming involved in these virtual spaces, we are changing the way we think about place, social relationships, economics, property, and many other aspects of social life. The immersive nature of these worlds challenges us to consider questions of space . .the experience of presence (or being there) and copresence (being there together). (Ralph Schroeder, Being There Together). These worlds provide an excellent opportunity for interaction, learning, and research, as well as raising some very interesting questions about culture, regulation, property, and society." - Nic Suzor.

Speakers included:

Richard Neville
Toby Miller (UC Riverside, QUT Vice Chancellor Distinquished Visitor)
Professor Brian Fitzgerald (QUT)
Professor Mark Perry (UWO)
Peter Coroneos (Internet Industry Association)
Mia Garlick (Creative Commons)
Dean Whitbread (funk.co.uk)
Dr Axel Bruns (QUT)
Anne Matthew (QUT)
Nicolas Suzor (QUT)
Dilan Thampapillai

UK Podcast Advertising Experiment

UK podcaster "Podcast"Paul Nicholls is running podcast advertising for his Birmingham law firm, Smith Jones Solicitors. "I don't think it will work," he said, "but that's one of the reasons I am trying it," he observed wryly this afternoon.

His pioneering venture to introduce podcast advertising for his law practise involves ten well-downloaded UK podcasts including 20 second soundbites, which he is producing and providing.

"Podcasters get £200 per placement, plus £50 per referral to incentivise them. I am almost 100% certain that we won't get any of those, but I am interested in seeing the impact this has on podcasting, and on podcast advertising. Obviously, it raises the profile of the firm by virtue of being so unusual."

You read it first at Podcast Nation

UK Media Magazines Feature Podcasting

This week saw feature articles on podcasting from two major UK media magazines, Campaign and Broadcast. Both broadly favourable, they deal with podcasting from their different perspectives in similar ways.

Marketing Week looks to be moving even closer to the UK podcast pulse, as they plan to publish a UK podcast top ten in their new interactive section, launching next month.

UK Podcast Advertising

UK company Cheeze Media are building BLAD "the web's biggest directory of blog and Podvertising opportunities." They have already signed up Comedy 365 and are looking for commercial-minded blog and podcasts.

The Cheeze.com website does not specify the kind of advertising to be placed nor the expected revenue to be derived.

Not a blad idea.

8 Million Britons Seek Podcasts

Research has found that nearly eight million Britons "will go in search of a podcast in the next six months" according to the BBC, a far greater number proportionately than US podcast users. "The huge discrepancy between the figures for the US and the UK could point to relative differences in listening habits, online dexterity or even national character" says the article.

"The survey of 5,000 US consumers by Forrester found that 3% had tried listening to a podcast. Of them, 2% had experimented with audio downloads but did not listen on a regular basis. Fewer women download and listen to podcasts.
There will be just 700,000 diehard downloaders in the US this year; a tiny audience compared to the 25 million people who tune into stations run by traditional broadcaster National Public Radio (NPR) every week. The report says that it will take a long time for people to ditch their transistors and join this small group of breakaways because downloading programmes is complicated and content is sparse. However, the good news for broadcasters is that the people who persevere gravitate towards audio from established radio stations rather than relative newbies.

The Forrester survey backs up some of the findings in a report from another research firm, BMRB. Its survey looked at digital consumption in the UK. It also found that podcasts are the preserve of young males. But it predicts a much quicker uptake of podcasts in UK households, with around eight million adults logging on and walking away with their favourite radio programmes in their pocket by September this year."

UK Podcasters Meet BBC

Conrad Slater (left) and "Podcast" Paul (right) observing BBC Television Centre in April sunlight

A group of UK podcasters spent two hours in deep in the bowels of BBC Television Centre yesterday discussing UK podcasting. Chris Vallance of Radio Five Live's Pods and Blogs invited British podcasters to discuss podcasting, broadcasting and where the two might meet up. We were joined by Rhod Sharp, host of "Up All Night", BBC radio producer Dominic Laurie, and Rebecca Myatt from World Service Outlook who expressed her interest in finding podcasts for their audience of 140 million.

Present at this historic event were a mixture of podcast producers from businesses deriving income to passionate enthusiasts, all reporting rapidly quickening growth in the podcast phenomenon, which was attributed partly to the BBC's recent promotion of podcasting. There are well over 250 active UK podcasters right now and it was acknowledged that it is beginning to emerge as a source of talent with new ideas and voices emerging.

Inital talk was about the freedom and independence enjoyed by the podcasters as opposed to the relatively tight restrictions which apply to BBC podcasters. Rhod Sharp described podcasting as being "six feet under the totem pole" as far as the BBC were concerned. Paul Pinfield made the point that the BBC set globally acknowledged standards. Chris Vallance played some podcasts from Germany and Pakistan, making the point that these were genuine voices, untouched by editorial considerations or censorship, and speaking in a natural way that non-broadcasters use.

There was discussion about how the BBC is set up to respond to and deal with citizen-submitted media from mobile phones, etc, with the example given of images coming in from July 7th London bombings. The BBC podcast "experiment" was debated, and issue of MCPS-PRS podcast license was raised, the BBC not yet aware that such a license exists. Rhod Sharp commended the Creative Commons concept as a flexible and easy to understand licensing system for UK citizens which could be easily adopted.

What made podcasting different was it's genuineness and intimacy, said Janet Parkinson from Flashing 12, a self-confessed hobbyist. Responding to emails and having interaction with your audience was crucial, she said. UK podcasting output is distinctive, has good production values, and does well internationally, observed Neil Dixon. The Britcaster forum which he runs was was intelligent and remarkably "troll free"; he acknowledged that he had to deal with spurious entries to his British listing from people who wanted to be in the "British only" listing and noted one new addition per day. Paul Pinfield who spoke of his interest in the business side of podcasting and offered his view that podcasting would soon replace local radio, which was "total crap". There was strong group of music podcasters present.

Dean Whitbread talked about the empowerment of podcasting, where the writer producer and editor has the advantage of being able to vary formats and combine media in original ways, adding different kinds of material to the same RRS feed. I asked whether an independent podcast used by the BBC would automatically be covered by existing BBC agreements regarding music licensing - the consensus was yes, it would be. Mark Crook pointed out that as podcasting was now on school curriculums, we could expect to see more young people becoming podcasters as they learn to use the tools.

As the discussion ended, the quietly smiling 23 year old Phil "Bitjobs" from Birmingham was spirited away into the bowels of BBC "looking for somewhere domestic" to shoot for a TV interview.

After the meeting we were joined by filmmaker Conrad Slater, and Adrian Pegg, as the debate re-convened in local Shepherds Bush pub the Defector's Weld for a Britcasters get-together. The jolly-up centred around the benign figure of Neil Dixon who set up the Britcaster forum one year ago.

In this recording, Chris Vallance interviews the assembled podcasters, as with multiple recording devices, they record him interviewing them. At one point Podcast Paul's microphone is clipped to a pint of beer, and my Sony Minidisc recorder is balanced on a sauce bottle.

There is widespread praise for Roger Smalls, Neil Dixon describes himself as the Daddy and confesses to many moods, Podcast Paul admits that UK Podcasters are Radio Caroline, Paul Pinfield talks business and praises Vobes, Deek Deekster gives bandwidth and expresses his pleasure in finding folk music in urban Isington, Janet describes her fascination for podcasts from other countries for learning about other cultures, as global podcast culture emerges - her magazine Podcast User has been going three months and is now being downloaded in 80 countries. In the longer version, Conrad Slater talks about and demonstrates the creative use of a small stereo condenser microphone.

Edited interview - 14:49

Unedited interview - 19:24

David Bowie Podcasts

David Bowie, Brixton-born art rocker and well-known supporter of internet music, has started a podcast channel and his first offering is an interview with his favourite band, Secret Machines.

"Regular visitors to these pages will know all about David Bowie's and Secret Machines' respect for each other. David has been praising the band since a journal entry in October 2004 and Brandon Curtis of Secret Machines had some lovely things to say about DB as recently as last week. (03.16.2006 NEWS: BOWIE BIGGEST INFLUENCE ON SECRET MACHINES)

To celebrate the release of the latest Secret Machines album, Ten Silver Drops, David has interviewed the band for an exclusive BowieNet podcast." - from DavidBowie.Com