Standing on the shoulders of billions of dwarfs: as

information becomes a live conversation

By Michele Mezzanew media’s RAI vice chief manager

مارس 2010  رياض

“

“Hallah gave us two ears and one mouth.So listenis much more importantthan talk”

Nanos, gigantium humeris insidentes

“Nos esse quasi nanos, gigantium humeris insidentes, ut possimus plura eis et remotiora videre, non utique proprii visus acumine, aut eminentia corporis, sed quia in altum subvenimur et extollimur magnitudine gigantea..” ”

( Dicebat Bernardus Carnotensis)

Standing on the shoulders of giants

“We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size.” ”

(Bernard of Chartres, French philosopher of the twelfth century)

“Our societies are now structured on the clash between the network and the ego”

Manuel Castells

The message is not the medium but its speed (Paul Viriliò)

Speed as value

Internet’s power evolutionA film like Matrix1993 9,600 bits per second modem 45 days

1995 28,800 bits per second modem 15 days

1997 64,000 bits per second digital line Isdn 7 days

1999 640,000 bits per second digital line Adsl 16 hours

2003 2,000,000 bits per second fiber 1 hour

2010 1,000,000,000 bits per second Google experimental fiber network 40 seconds

The network and the power in the hands of the dwarves

two million video files relating to information

100 million blogs currently in regular operation

A common cell phone, dancing in our pocket, contains the same power of Apollo 1’ memory

The tiny SD memory cards can earn 2 terabytes of memory

Good quality TV movie over the last 15 years has dropped by 1800%

DYI TVInternet as engineengine

notnot as showcaseshowcase

London: December 2004 broadband 4 MegTokyo : February 2005 broadband 15 Meg

New Copernican revolution

In a world of scarcity TV the problem was: Who speaks?

In the age of abundance the problem is: Who listens?

Moses Znaimer Canada’s City Tv President

Media Consumption Timeline

Journalism is, in the words of James W. Carey

“Our day book, our collective diary, which records our common life. That which goes unrecorded goes unpreserved except in the vanishing moment of our individual lives.”

Why the Internet Weakens the Authority of the Press by Jay Rosen

Two assumptions underlying the development of web TV

Moore’s Law

Metcalfe’s Law

 The community value of a network grows as the square of the number of its users increase.

 The number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit has doubled approximately every two years.

Abbrevieted blogging Timeline

• 1999: Yahoo! buys GeoCities, host to 3.5 million individual Web sites (most abandoned!)

• 1999: the Poynter Institute starts the “MediaNews” blog

• 2002: Google buys Blogger; estimate of 500,000 blogs worldwide in total

• February 2002: Salon and Fox News add blogs • 2003: Iraq war gives rise to war blogger• 2009: 6 million blogs on Wordpress.com; >1B

monthly pageviews; Yahoo! shutters GeoCities

Real-Time Reporting

The Charlotte Observer used a blog format to report on Hurricane Bonnie in August 1998; “Dispatches from the Coast” is the first known use of blog to cover a breaking news story.

• TWITTER & NEWS in the WORLD

• Amplified voices of dissent• Facilitated misinformation (intentional and

unintentional)• Incomplete story• Emotional • Triggered MSM response

TargetTarget

We want to implement in the traditional news cycle, the ability to acquire and process more automatic as possible for large amounts, audio / video / photo / text from alternative sources (3G network, web, ...) to the traditional

Why?Why? Web, 3G network ... are the factory and not the

showcase of news Every editorial apparatus must prepare to acquire and process real-time, as automatic as possible, all new types of contributionCompetitiveness Reducing management costsManual reduction in the process of newsgathering in order to use precious human resources for activities

Now the newsgathering is currently characterized by ….….

Limited sources

Manual high costs of treatment

Reproductive processes and the multiplication of the corresponding costs

Unified and centralized newsgathering

GOOGLE NEWS RAI …… GOOGLE NEWS RAI …… updated in real time, easy to navigate, and characterized by a multitude of information

sources

…… to emphasize and privilege the Rai’s professionalism expressed mainly in the preparation of information flows and packaging the final product and not rather in the operation of

newsgathering …………

Applications of the "new" newsgathering ….….

Teleport

Contributions DTT

STORAGE

Internal Virtual

Agency

Web/Mobile

Access

SMS/MMS/VIDEO-CHIAMATE/WEB CHIAMATE/FOTO

Web

BLOG/RSS Feed 3D Libraries

Local newspapers

National newspapers

RAI’s other sources

Traditional Sources

New patterns of New patterns of “connectivity” for the “connectivity” for the

journalistjournalist

Modem UMTS/GPRS

UMTS/GPRSUMTS/GPRS

Place RAI

WIFI/ ADSLWIFI/ ADSL

Place RAI

UMTSUMTS

Place RAI

Flo

win

gF

low

ing

Liv

eL

ive

Place RAI

DSNG Fly- away SatelliteDSNG Fly- away Satellite

New production facilities for the journalist

new production facilities for the journalist

New roles for the home user

Foto/SMS/MMS/VideoClipFoto/SMS/MMS/VideoClip

Collection center RAI

Collection center RAI

NewsGathering from PEOPLE

NewsGathering from PEOPLE

What others do …(BBC)What others do …(BBC)

NewsGathering from PEOPLE

What others do …(CNN)What others do …(CNN)

So .... New sources for newsgathering… become

3G ContributionsSMS,MMS,E-MAIL, VIDEO SMS,MMS,E-MAIL, VIDEO

CALLS UMTS->PCCALLS UMTS->PC

BLOG,AUDIO,VIDEO, BLOG,AUDIO,VIDEO, PHOTOS, PHOTOS, LAST MINUTE OF EVENTS WHICH ARE

NOT YET AVAILABLE, AGENCIES

TV CHANNELS VIDEO+AUDIO TV CHANNELS VIDEO+AUDIO TRASCRIBED CATALOGS TRASCRIBED CATALOGS THROUGH INFORMATION THROUGH INFORMATION

RETRIEVED FROM THE RETRIEVED FROM THE GROUNDGROUND

3D GRAPHIC MODELS 3D GRAPHIC MODELS (es, (es, Google Earth used as coverage tool for

TV stations)

Web Contributions

Virtual Libraries

Mobile Data Usage Cuts Across Age GroupsApril 2009 “Mobile Technographics®”

More Working iPhone Owners Use Social MediaJune 2009 “Working iPhone Owners Tap The Mobile Internet”

Mobile Technographics: Understanding The Connected ConsumerApril 2009 “Mobile Technographics®”

• Blogging is part of the web’s evolutionary path• The real time web (Twitter et al) is the next

mediamorphosis• Impact on civic life will depend on media

literacy efforts

Multiple sources: Using traditional and alternative sources

Sources availability real-time: web or newmedia channels

Multiple formats

Fewer constraints

Cost reduction

Reuse resources for valuable assignments

Every child more like his time than to his father.