Creative Futures Blog

NM-X - the New Media eXchange has become Creative Futures!

3 years after launching, the nm-x.com site has been given a brand new name, and a great lick of paint by the wonderful Matt from madeupdesign.com.

With a new group of partners and supporters (see below), we will soon bring out an new series of events, training and networking opportunities and knowledge-sharing sessions for businesses and creative practices. More on that very soon!

This is just a quick update to let those of you who met us as nm-x know that we have re-branded the nm-x site as Creative Futures, but we will be continuing to promote your events, projects and broker your eXchanges.

Take a look around - things look a bit different, but all the content and much of the functionality of the site is the same. We were very pleased to discover that we really benefited from 'eating our own dogfood' and using Drupal Open Source content management system for our site. Not only were we able to re-skin it at minimal cost and hassle, but we could take advantage of lots of development that had gone on in the background while we were busy organising events and supporting businesses. It was an interesting process anyway, and maybe something to blog about later.

Thanks to Matt for his excellent work on the new site, and to the original design team Liz, Mori, and Peter for making something worth building on!

from the Creative Futures web team.

• Times/Dates: 25th October, 1st and 7th November
• Locations: Central St Martins Innovation Centre (briefings) and The Young Foundation (workshops)
• Price: Free!

more info

• http://nm-x.com/event/2007/10/drupal-web2-0-briefing
• http://nm-x.com/event/2007/11/drupal-web2-0-workshops
• http://nm-x.com/project/open-business

The Drupal for Web2.0 briefing was hosted by Peter Brownell and Mori Sugimoto of Code Positive - a London-based Drupal consultancy and the London Drupal user group. They started out with a broad overview presentation of the technology and underlying ideas behind Drupal, and a cautionary recommendation: 'most things are possible with drupal'.

First he related the history of Drupal - stared by Rees, a university student in the Netherlands, and how its name came from a misspelling of the name for 'town' in Dutch: 'Dorp', which was misspelt 'Drop.org' when they tried to register the domain. Eventually they settled on 'Drupal' when choosing an international name for their modular content management system.

Peter presented how using this system, it is possible to pull together modules from a large open source community of developers, and create new ones that are specific to the job in hand - which can then be thrown open to the community again for improvement, adaptation and maintenance.

He explained a bit more about the community: that the people are as important as the system: if you want to be involved in Drupal - you have to be involved in the communit. He also explained the development status: where the project is in terms of development cycles.

His warning was that Drupal is a powerful tool - and that apart from a sales pitch, he was also keen to warn people about what the tool is and is not useful for. If you want to do a basic blog, he recommended Wordpress - the tool we're using for this blog! For more powerful engines and development, he recommended Drupal - which we're using for nm-x.com.

Drupal moves fast - he said, so 'Free' as in speech does not necessarily mean 'Free' as in beer. There will have to be a long term investment in using Drupal - keeping up with development cycles and releases, updates and developments by the community.

Peter then began a demonstration of how Drupal actually works - by installing and customising a site live. The audience fired questions at him as he and Mori went through various installation and configuration processes.

Mori took over when it came to installing the TinyMCE the javascript text editor that allows editing of Drupal posts, blog posts or other content for your Drupal site as if you were using a normal word processor like - inserting images, bolding or italicising text - all the operations you might be familiar with from Microsoft Word (or better.. Open Office). Mori did this bit because Peter apparently hates TinyMCE - perfering (as many techies do) to keep text in a text-only environment, not worrying about special formatting and design issues.

Finally, a Drupal site was fully installed, set up and customised - despite many interjections and questions from the audience. You can watch a video of the start of this briefing below - or check out related images and aggregated links and content on this briefing's nm-x page.

• Time/Date: 18th October, 18:30 - 20:30
• Location: Central St Martins Innovation Centre; Procter Street
• Opposite Red Lion Square (closest tube - Holborn Station), London.
• Price: Free!

- more info: http://nm-x.com/event/2007/10/peer-education-briefing

The Peer Education briefing began with a presentation from Andy Gibson handing around a tatty-looking piece of paper with lots of multi-coloured post-it notes stuck to it. This was his first version of the 'Free School' he started at the London School for Social Entrepreneurs.

The idea and the technology is simple: a notice board (the piece of paper) onto which participants stick post-it notes saying what they are interested in learning, and what they are willing to teach. This system, apart from the technical limitation that it lived in his bag - was the basis for all his later research.

His presentation looked at early experiments with peer educational systems in Stanford and Berkley in the 60's - the hot-beds of Silicon Valley's information revolution, then moved on to his own experiments with improving on the post-it system, which he also demonstrated with us the audience forming our own 'nm-x' free school, and witnessing the dizzying array of skills and educational requests were present in the room.

He culminated by talking to us about his latest project - the School of Everything, which is an attempt to take the Free School 'out of his bag' and make it work on the Internet, as a kind of global social entreprise to challenge and improve mehtods and contexts for teaching, learning for the better.

Mary Harrintgon took up where Andy Gibson had left off - also one of the entrepreneurs behind the School of Everything - her presentation on 'offline social software', focused on her Alice-in-wonderland-like journey from being an 'Internet User' to participating in a series of highly specialised and transformative knowledge-production processes and learning environments.

From communicating with obscurantist individuals and niche knowlege troves - like the Psychogeographical Markup Language of socialfiction.org - to the uncharted educational territory of the University of Openess. Her account was a kind of history of alternative educational structures on the early Web 2.0 - and was also a tour of the development of that genre of 'collaboration tools'.

She then talked more about the School of Everything, focusing on the tools they explored and used to learn and work together over the Internet. Photo and media sharing sites, wikis, twitter, Google Docs and other social-software/web2.0 tools were reviewed, but the 'killer app' of all the collaborative tools she talked about turned out to be 'The Office' - physical proximity and group working.

This didn't detract from her enthusiasm and excitement about the School of Everything, but in looking at 'offline social software', and recognising its benefits and uniqeuness, Mary Harrington's talk really focused on what the useful bits of online social software really are.

Ben Vershbow from the Institute for the Future of the Book began with an introduction to his ground-breaking organisation, which is specifically focused on looking foward to the future of publishing and knowledge production beyond the dreaded 'e-book'. Ben's rant about the e-book, and how it is a poorly adapted tool, primarily devised for retaining publishing rights rather than actually using the digital medium was almost a manifesto for what the 'networked book' could and should be.

He talked about the experimental methodology of the Institue - working with authors who want to do something different with their work online, and helping them to devise new technologies and strategies for doing so. He talked about Mitch Stevens - one of their first authors, a journalism professor at NYU who wanted to write a book on Atheism - but knew that it was somewhat outside his immediate area of expertise. Working with Stevens, the Institute managed to help him harness the 'wisdom' of a crowd of experts, who helped guide the development of his project.

He then talked about his work with Mckenzie Wark, theorist and writer from The New School in NYC on 'Gam3r Theory' - a book already very much in production, that Wark wanted to develop into an experimental format. Because Wark had worked with a highly stylized format: the paragraph-book, in the style of Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle, they were able to use this text to develop a new technology that could break up the text into commentable chunks - then allowing online contributors to post comments, and have conversations based on each paragraph - a kind of shared 'marginalia', adding up to a shared critical reading of the text in question.

This was developed into a new piece of software 'Commentpress' that is now available to download as Free and Open Source Software - and was also instrumental in the later publication of Gam3r Theory, in which an edited selection of comments and marginalia was published as a part of the index. Although this eventaully turned into paper and ink - the 'networked book' was still in effect, and 'Gam3r Theory' continued to grow after publication.

Vershbow then talked about how Commentpress was being used in education to help classes produce critical readings of texts, also accompanied by video and other resources. We rounded off the evening by uploading live transcriptions, taken by Saul, of the entire event to a new commentpress blog: The Free School - where you can read (and comment on) the entire evenings proceedings and their ongoing annotations!

[tags]NMX418, NMX417[/tags]

Open for Business is a programme of introductary briefings and in-depth workshops run by the New Media eXchange exploring the economic and social potential of Open Source technology and associated methodologies for business, innovation and cultural creativity.

Open Source Software is the most exciting and fastest growing market for new media products and services, where innovation, evaluation, distribution are driven by the needs and abilities of an active, highly skilled and community of software craftspeople.

Over the next two months, nm-x will be offering briefings and workshops
on:

• Peer Education: the application of Open Source practices and technologies to peer-led education and knowledge-transfer.
• Drupal: an introduction, and in-depth workshops to get you started with this fast, flexible open source Content Management system.
• Open Source publishing: an introduction and then two workshops to help designers and publishers free themselves and their ideas from established proprietary workflows.

The Open for Business briefings introduce creative initiatives that are pioneering in this opportunity space, challenging the status-quo of how business is done. They are evening events followed by networking and socializing.

The Open for Business workshops are two-day in-depth training sessions during which participants will gain a high level of proficciency with an Open Source system that will enable them to apply it to their own work.

Watch this space for updates as the workshops and briefings unfold!

At the ICA again, the final Future Film masterclass in the Future Film series was on the subject of 'Live Cinema, streaming to the silver screen', hosted by Adam Hyde and Kelli Dipple.

Adam began with a fascinating overview of how the perception of audio and video were transformed by IP networks and the emergence of streaming technology in the 90's. He showed us a disclaimer claiming that he didn't know much about cinema, but the overlap of technologies and infrastructures between radio, television and streaming - and questioning notions of 'live' in terms of physics and data were very compelling and inspiring when thinking about film.

You can see a video podcast of Adam's presentation here.
Kelli Dipple talked first about her experiences and gave examples from her work at the Tate as the webcasting curator. She focused on how streaming is a part of hybrid models of representing events using streaming, discussion archives, photos, audio recordings to create network-centric archives. She showed the Tate site and talked through the new technical features developing there. She then gave a fascinating tour of her artistic work and her research into site-specific use of multi-modal communications technologies.

There is a video podcast of Kelli's presentation here.
More excellent ICA sandwiches later, the workshops began. Kelli ran a surgery for participants who wanted to make a streaming channel to help them define audiences and plan their production. Adam talked through the technical issues and concepts involved in radio and video streaming. There are notes from these two workshops with further links and information on the learning resources wiki.
There is a short summary video of the Live Cinema workshops here.

The final Talkaoke session once again took over the ICA bar for debate and conversation between the wonderful Future Film participants - the Talkaoke video podcast is available here.

Many thanks again to Irem and Sion and the ICA for hosting the event, and to London Westside and the London Development Agency for organising and funding it!

• More information (via NM-X.com)
• More photos
• More video
• Workshop learning resources wiki

Based at the ICA, the third masterclass in the Future Film series was on the subject of 'Peercasters, podcasting and P2P' and was hosted by Penny Nagle and Adnan Hadzi.

Penny Nagle began with a breakdown of the issues of distribution and marketing of film online - but also via more traditional routes to give a sense of perspective. It was surprising how well Internet marketing and distribution compared to more established markets, and it seemed - encouragingly - that there were more and more possibilities for film makers to get their work shown to large audiences.
You can download a high quality archive of Penny Nagle's presentation here.

Adnan Hadzi then talked about the possibilities and potentials of collaboratively editing film, deriving his ideas from his first experience of learning to do 'paper edits' of celluloid film. By adopting new technologies of collaboration, his presentation pointed towards collaborative film editing online - sharing edit decision lists - as in some ways being a return to that simple, accessible paper medium.

You can download a high quality podcast of Adnan Hadzi's presentation here.

This time we had the ICA's excellent caterers to thank for the classy sandwiches and drinks, and after a quick re-fueling, the workshops began.
Penny's workshop was a film promotion surgery, where participants were invited to bring up their current ideas and projects, and develop niche marketing strategies for them. It was fascinating to see how breaking down a film into which niche audiences need to be addressed transformed how it should be presented and marketed in unexpected (and sometimes hilarious) ways.

Adnan's workshop was very hands-on. Laptop-wielding participants paired up and learned the nitty-gritty of podcasting using Broadcast Machine and some other simple tools to edit, compile and upload video documentation of the first Future Film workshop into a new narrative. Technical problems abounded (of course) but everyone got there eventually.
There is a short summary video of the Peercasters workshops here.

Pressed for time by the overrunning workshops, the Talkaoke table did it's best to make itself heard in the crowded bar, as you can see from the Peercasters talkaoke video podcast.
Many thanks to Irem and Sion and the ICA for hosting the event, and to London Westside and the London Development Agency for organising and funding it!

• More information (via NM-X.com)
• More photos
• More video
• Workshop learning resources wiki

The wonderful London Print Studio played host to the second Future Film workshop on the busy and bustling Harrow Road.The subject for the day was 'Cinecities - Interactive Architecture and the City' - which our presenters Usman Haque and Wojciech Kosma both took in very different directions.

After a brief introduction by John Phillips, one of the founders of the studio (you can read more about the space and it's fascinating history here) and a quick recap on the previous workshop, Usman Haque began the evening with his presentation that really examined the terms 'interactive', 'architecture' and 'city'. He concluded a rich historical tour of experimental and utopian 'interactive' approaches to the city with a fascinating introduction to his own work.

You can download a high quality archive of Usman Haque's talk here.

Wojciech Kosma followed with a presentation of one of his recent performances that really challenged what 'interactive' means in the context of public art. One particularly intense piece is of him standing on an underground train platform in Belarus, with his laptop illicitly plugged into the station's video system, broadcasting a simple live video of his face from the laptop he's holding to the passengers and people rushing past him. His presentation developed the idea that 'interactive' might mean very different things in different political and public contexts. There is a video podcast of Wojciech's presentation here.
This time there were excellent sandwiches and cake (thanks to Susan O'Reilly and London Westside!) which kept everyone going into the workshops.
Usman Haque's workshop invited participants to create their utopian city out of baloons, string, tape and black marker pens. The balloons were assigned functions then after discussion amongst the participants, they wre taped into clusters of shared use and activity. The clusters then grouped to become a balloon city: you can read more about this workshop, and repeat it yourself following Usman's notes on the learning resources wiki.
Wojciech's workshop focused on how frustrating so-called 'interactive' technologies could be, and how easy to misuse. He challenged participants to come up with an interactive artwork during the hour long workshop, and offered himself and his software design abilities to help make it happen in that limited time. More notes and links for Wojciech's workshop on the wiki.

There is a short summary video of the Cinecities workshops here.
Once again the Talkaoke table talked the evening out, which looked spectacular from the street and drew many passers by to the large windows of the print studio to see what was going on. There are video podcasts of the first and the second Talkaoke sessions.
Many thanks to John Phillips and the London Print Studio for hosting the event, and to London Westside and the London Development Agency for organising and funding it!

• More information (via NM-X.com)
• More photos
• More video
• Workshop learning resources wiki

The first of the Future Film events kicked off on a cold evening at the City of Westminster College, Paddington Green.

The subject for the day was 'On Location - Citizen Journalism and Mobile Media' - and after introductions by Lyndon Sly from the college, and Susan O'Reilly from London Westside, Christian Nold kicked the evening off, to an interesting crowd with a half hour presentation of his work and the theme.

You can download a high quality archive of Christian Nold's talk here.

Jo Walsh then did a rousing half hour presentation on the way media tools shape what we make by framing how we make it, and talked about some of her work with 'social media', the Semantic Web and data mining and sharing algorithms.

You can download a high quality archive of Jo Walsh's talk here.

After a break for delicious biscuits (thank you City of Westminster College!) and coffee, the group reconvened for the first part of the workshops - on Paddington green, where we were meant to let of a massive firework while the workshop participants gathered around taking video on their mobile phone cameras.

Of course Paddington Green being the highest security police station where the UK's terrorist suspects are held, the local undercover constabulary did come and ask us what we were up to. They seemed quite surprised when they radioed back to HQ and were told that we had phoned and arranged this event beforehand and that they could let us get on with it. Which they did.
The firework - a 'Red Heart Rocket', exploded with a beautiful heart-shaped bang, and the workshops began.

Christian's workshop (documented - if you'd like to repeat it, on his workshop materials page) focused on the use of social video sharing and editing website 'eyespot.com' to make a video composed of all the different representations gathered of a single moment in time - when the firework was let off.

Jo's paper-only workshop consisted of documenting the various experiences in a text form, then simulating how those representations are shared, described and re-described in a network. Her workshop materials are available here.
A short video summary of the workshops is available to download.

The evening ended with a short, but enjoyable Talkaoke session during which all the participants and the presenters got around the table of chat and talked through the various issues and ideas that came up during the day.

Many thanks to Lyndon Sly and City of Westminster College for hosting the event, and to London Westside and the London Development Agency for organising and funding it!

• More information (via NM-X.com)
• More photos
• More video
• Workshop learning resources wiki

• Four events on the future of film, organised by London Westside.
• February 15th & 22nd, March 5th & 26th 2007.
• More info/registration: http://londonwestside.com/futurefilm/
• Please register asap to guarantee one of only 30 workshop places!

The film and television industry is changing, but not fast enough.

While studios take fewer risks, fall back on old formulas and find their
traditional markets drying up, new, vibrant cultures and markets for
film are exploding all over the Internet: from video podcasting and
peer-to-peer networks to mobile media, live streaming and interactive
environments. For those with the imagination, curiosity, and passion for
film, there are more opportunities and niches for film-making than ever.

This four day programme will introduce film producers to emerging
techniques and technologies for creating, distributing and promoting
film on the Net. Mixing hands-on training with master-class
presentations, open discussions and public screenings, the focus will
shift from technological developments to creative potentials, and
crucially, to the economic realities: how to actually survive and make
money with all this stuff.

By taking these discussions and learning resources on-line through the
workshop website (launching soon!), the programme will create an ongoing
forum for information sharing and networking, and a showcase for the
work of participants.

Programme

1. 15th February: On Location: Citizen Journalism and Mobile Media, led by Jo Walsh and Christian Nold
2. 22nd February: CineCities: interactive architecture and the city, led by Wojciech Kosma and Usman Haque
3. 5th March: Peercasters: Podcasting and p2p, led by Penny Nagle and Adnan Hadzi
4. 26th March 2007: Live Cinema: streaming to the silver screen, led by Adam Hyde and Kelli Dipple