BBC World has tied up a deal with six mobile service providers in India to provide video clips to phones.
BBC also plans to increase it news programming on its television channel BBC World News and generate content for video on demand and podcasts as well, reports Indiainfo.
We give developers the opportunity to tell us journalists why we should sit up and pay attention to the sites and devices they are working on. Today, it’s live video streamed over the web from mobile phones from Qik.
1) Who are you and what’s it all about?
Hi. I’m Bhaskar Roy, co-founder of Qik.
Qik’s vision is to enable anyone with a camera-phone to stream live video from anywhere in the world to the web, TV, mobile phones, and gaming consoles.
2) Why would this be useful to a journalist?
For news – immediacy of information is very important. Qik enables journalists to capture and report news live from wherever they are – without having to wait for the news truck to arrive.
It enables journalists to conduct better interviews by taking questions from anywhere in the world. It provides the ability for viewers on the web to send real-time chat messages to the person streaming the video straight to their phone enabling a high level of interactivity.
As a result journalists are able to conduct richer, better interviews. It also enables journalists to leverage anyone who may be at a particular event to capture the story for them.
3) Is this it, or is there more to come?
We are just getting started! 🙂
In our current invitation-only alpha release, users with Nokia smartphones can stream live video from their phones to anywhere on the web and playback their Qik videos from their phones.
We are working on addressing other smartphones and Java-enabled phones. We are also working on providing the ability to stream live from phone to phone.
4) Why are you doing this?
We truly believe that sharing and experiencing moments of your life with your friends, family and/or your world is invaluable.
5) What does it cost to use it?
We are currently in a free, invitation-only alpha stage.
6) How will you make it pay?
We are at a very early stage of bringing this innovation to market and focused on ensuring that we deliver high value to the billions of camera phone users globally.
We give developers the opportunity to tell us journalists why we should sit up and pay attention to the sites and devices they are working on. Today, live video streamed over the web with extra geographical information mapped in real-time from Seero.
1) Who are you and what’s it all about?
Hello, I’m Justin Cutillo, co-founder of Seero. It’s a geo-broadcasting platform that fuses live and on-demand video with GPS mapping.
Our technology is a response to the convergence and proliferation of video and GPS features in the flourishing mobile device market.
2) Why would this be useful to a journalist?
Seero was built to reflect the core needs of video bloggers and online journalist. The platform incorporates tools for live mobile broadcasting with additional real-time GPS tracking and static location marking.
We also have a geo-information/advertising server. This system allows us to geo-tag specific information to enhance any broadcasts near that location.
For example, if an online journalist was covering a fire in London, we have the ability to upload facts specific to the building and geo-tag them to the exact location. The information is served based on its proximity to the location of the broadcast.
All you need for mobile broadcasting is a laptop and a mobile broadband card. You can add on an inexpensive GPS receiver for the real-time tracking feature or use an Ultra Mobile PC is you don’t want to carry around a full laptop.
3) Is this it, or is there more to come?
We are currently working on some major build items. We should be releasing an embeddable flash player that includes the live video player and the full map functionality within a month. We are also working on a module to add course tracking to previously recorded videos.
Our largest project is to build a mobile broadcasting application for Symbian mobile phones to enable journalist to broadcast live video and GPS right from their Nokia phones.
Beyond that we have a secretive project that could really redefine how people interact with live video on the internet.
4) Why are you doing this?
When it comes down to it we are technology buffs. We came up with the idea on a vacation to San Francisco more than two years ago while thinking of ways to virtually tour a city.
Combining live video and location info opens up new, exciting uses for online video. Needless to say we are very enthusiastic about the prospects.
5) What does it cost to use it?
Besides the hardware cost, which may be very little if you already have a laptop, the service is completely free to all users.
6) How will you make it pay?
We currently envision three main channels of revenue. The first channel involves white label sites built on the Seero infrastructure for promotional as well as professional and government services.
The second channel is geo-advertising. We have a proprietary geo-advertising system that provides a simple and powerful solution for correlating advertising to site content.
Beyond those revenue streams we also see potential for our geo-advertising system as a stand-alone service.
Journalism.co.uk talks to reporters across the globe working at the collision of journalism and social media about how they see it changing their industry. This week, Matthew Buckland from Mail & Guardian, South Africa.
1) Who are you and what do you do?
I am Matthew Buckland, the GM of Mail & Guardian Online.
As head of the online division I am responsible for the overall online and mobile strategy, with an overview of editorial, production, technical and online sales.
I am also involved quite heavily in our social media strategies and sites.
2) Which web or mobile-based social media tools do you use on a daily basis and why?
I use Twitter, both web and mobile. I blog on my own blog about online media, web 2.0 and technology, thoughtleader.co.za and sometimes on Poynter’s new media titbits.
I use Mybloglog on my blog quite a bit. I use Facebook web and mobile… but less and less these days. At the end of last year I began using Slideshare to share my presentations and see others. I Digg every now and again, and use a local version, Muti.co.za.
I also keep half an eyeball on Linkedin – but don’t really do it justice. I am an occasional Del.ici.ous user. I use both Flickr and Picasa as online photo albums/photo sharing.
For video sharing I use Youtube, obviously. I’m also a wikipediaholic.
I used SecondLife for about a week, but realised it would be best for my health to shut it down and never look at it again 🙂
Generally I find these social media tools are a good way of networking, sharing ideas and content, and building relationships with people. They also waste a lot of time and create noise in my life.
3) Of the thousands of social media tools available could you single one out as having the most potential for news either as a publishing or newsgathering tool?
I think of all the hyped up social media tools we’ve seen, blogging has shown that it is more than just a fad, but here to stay.
We’ve seen how mainstream online publishers have embraced blogs both as new publishing formats and newsgathering tool with considerable success.
4) And the most overrated in your opinion?
I’m beginning to think Facebook is overrated. The novelty is wearing off and people are getting bored, very quickly.
The Associated Press (AP) is to launch a news and picture service for mobiles, as part of plans to help struggling newspapers.
The Mobile News Network, which is expected to start in the summer, will carry local news stories and images from participating newspapers and national news supplied by the AP.
Local advertising on the service will be sold by the newspapers in addition to national advertising from networks with an equal revenue share between news providers and ad sellers, a release from the AP said.
It is currently being tested by several newspaper companies including Hearst Corp. and McLatchy Co. and a similar product for video content is also being developed.
The agency also announced a reduction in fees in 2009, as part of widespread changes within the organisation’s price structure.
The AP had previously announced expected savings of £7 million if members implemented a digital tagging programme for news stories for search purposes.
The effect of a new pricing mechanism – in which breaking news content becomes the core product with extras added at a premium rate – is also likely to have an effect next year, with potential savings of $14 million for AP newspaper members.
In addition to the advertising revenue share plan on its mobile service, AP said it will also end fees for its graphics-based news service Money & Markets and provide unlimited access to archives for photo subscribers next year.
Journalism.co.uk talks to reporters across the globe working at the collision of journalism and social media about how they see it changing their industry. This week, Damon Kiesow, Nashua Telegraph.
1. Who are you and what do you do?
I am the Managing Editor/Online at The Telegraph in Nashua, NH. I am responsible for the overall news presentation and strategy for our digital publications including NashuaTelegraph.com, NHPrimary.com, FeastNH.com and EncoreBuzz.com.
We have a staff of about 50 in the newsroom and nashuatelegraph.com was a finalist in two categories in this year’s Newspaper Association of America Digital Edge Awards.
2. Which web or mobile-based social media tools do you use on a daily basis and why?
On a typical day:
I use each for a variety of reasons. Delicious is my reigning favourite due to the huge filtering and early warning effect it provides. I follow about 78 people, mostly digital media professionals.
A few times per day I review their most recent bookmarks to keep up to date on what they are thinking about and what new tools and toys they have discovered.
I know many of them do the same and some of my ‘best’ ideas we have implemented at the paper have come from those bookmarks.
Twitter serves a similar purpose – and I am following many of the same people as on Delicious. But I like Twitter for the flexibility (IM, phone, PC, Web) and both the immediacy and asynchronous nature of the service.
It is just a great way to stay in touch with people without the burden of reading or responding to email or phone calls.
I use Ning mostly every day to visit sites like wiredjournalists.com, and we have created several Ning sites for the newspaper including Encorebuzz.ning.com.
I have been on LinkedIn for 5 – 6 years and it is still the best place to accumulate business contacts. I probably do not use it every day, but a few times a week I get requests to connect.
Facebook is one I use just due to the critical mass of people they have online. I check it every day and we do have a few small applications running on the service that feed out breaking news from the newspaper. Most of my time there is spent ignoring Zombie and Pirate invitations.
3. Of the thousands of social media tools available, could you single one out as having the most potential for news either as a publishing or a news gathering tool?
If I had to choose from just the tools I use regularly – I would pick Twitter. They have really focused on a core concept and seem very open to letting people expand on it.
It is too early to say if Twitter will be a huge hit for us as a newspaper but we pick up a few followers a week and the trend seems to be increasing.
I like the fact that we can use it both simply to push content (using twitterfeed.com) and as a two-way conversation with readers. We follow anyone who follows us and try to be responsive to questions or comments that come in via our Twitter friends.
In terms of other products – I think the most likely winners this year will be services like ustream.tv or qik.com that allow live streaming video from DV cameras and cell phones respectively.
This has huge potential both as a newsgathering tool and as a social media/self publishing phenomena. We are just starting to experiment with both of these services.
4. And the most overrated in your opinion?
At the moment I consider Facebook to be the most overrated. Things are beginning to change but it is still a walled garden for the most part.
I would not be comfortable investing a lot time or effort in using Facebook as a social media platform for the newspaper without some continued opening up of their API and clarification of their terms of service.
US newspaper company Tribune is launching a second digital magazine exclusively for the Amazon Kindle ebook reader – a week after launching its first magazine of this kind.
A week after launching Opinionated, a political magazine aimed just at Kindle owners, Tribune has launched its second Kindle-specific title – a daily electronic magazine focused on pop culture – after partnering with PopMatters.com.
According to Folio, the magazine is targeting 18-to-34-year-olds and is available for a free 14-day free trial and $1.49 monthly subscription at Amazon.com.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has released a detailed report about how he sees Apple quadrupling its 2008 sales and hitting the 45m figure he had previously predicted.
These are the key elements:
– Introducing a 3G iPhone within the next 3 to 6 months
– Offering a family of 2 to 3 iPhones – including lower-priced models selling for $200 to $300 – by Jan 2009 at the latest
– Entering new countries, effectively doubling the addressable market every year for the next two years
– Adding new features, such as games and remote purchases starting in June.
1) Who are you and what’s it all about?
Fromdistance is a software company which makes products for mobile applications. Our main product is the Fromdistance MDM (Mobile Device Manager) – a tool for managing mobile devices. Based on this , we have built the Fromdistance Mobile Professional Reporter (MPR) and the Mobile Citizen Reporter (MCR).
The first is used by several media companies for their own content production; the latter is a service for publishers to get content from end users.
Both services transmit images and videos in their original quality without sacrificing resolution – making a sharp contrast with using MMS.
2) Why would this be useful to a journalist?
Using the MPR service professional journalists can create instant reports for their publishers extremely easily. We can automate the whole process to a point where only the recording button on a mobile device is used – everything else is 100 per cent automatic.
In professional reporting it’s vital to have tools that work. As the MPR is based on our mobile device management product, we can take care of the devices and of the user like never before. For instance, remote desktop access can be established to devices to help reporters in trouble.
Citizen journalists can take advantage of the reporter service, as it can be used to send images, videos and text to a publisher of their choice. The user is asked to accept the terms set by the publisher during the submission process, which eliminates rights-related questions.
3) Is this it, or is there more to come?
Live streaming is in the works.
4) Why are you doing this?
We believe that mobile devices and mobile networks facilitate new ways of content production, both in terms of processes and in terms of concepts. However, it’s important to ensure the technical quality of the material sent out – normally publishers don’t want scores of low-quality content.
We also want to help publishers in receiving material from end customers in order to get their stories heard. While traditional blogging is good, we would want to combine user generated content with professional publishing.
5) What does it cost to use it?
The MPR is a premium service – the cost depends on the number of devices, supported
video formats and level of integration needed.
Fromdistance MCR is free for end users. They only need to pay for the generated data traffic.
6) How will you make it pay?
Publishers/media companies are our customers and pay monthly fees for using either service.
Dennis Publishing is to launch a mobile TV version of its free online-only weekly men’s magazine Monkey.
Andrew Nicholls, partnerships and mobile manager at Dennis Publishing, told Brand Republic: “The huge popularity of Monkey as a digital magazine has led to the natural progression of the brand onto mobile.”
The service will be available to customers of UK mobile networks. It can be downloaded by texting the keyword Monkey to 63333.