Marlon Parker is a South Africa based social media educator. He is visiting the UK, including Birmingham, in July 2009. Ahead of his planned visit to Interactive Cultures, he was good enough to send us an overview of some of the social media activity he has been involved with in and around Cape Town.

With the world being LinkedIn, everyone sharing content over the web and embracing friends and foe alike on FaceBook and Twitter we decided to see how we can take the phenomena of Social Media to Communities in Cape Town, South Africa.

The Social Media landscape in South Africa has grown and certainly well received in the web, technology, business and academia space. This also led to the birth of many successful start-ups and large businesses, political parties and even our banks embracing Social Media. Although it is still in its infancy the level of adoption is incredible with more than 1.4 million users on FaceBook and the largest twitter user base in Africa. With South African mobile users accessing the web surpassing its desktop counterparts by almost 100% it is definitely a nation alive with possibilities. With local innovations like MXit (Mobile Instant Messenger) who boasts a user base of approximately 12 million (25% of the population) and with the rise of this social media revolution, opportunities to explore the use of Social Media to empower communities was the obvious next step.

One of the initiatives we started was the Reconstructed Project the end of 2007 where we exposed community members from a local disadvantaged community the use of social media. This is a collaboration established between Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), Impact Direct Ministries and the Bridgetown Community. The Reconstructed is a project that utilises the power of social media to overcome drug addiction, alcoholism, gangsterism, crime and other social ills. The project enables community members, reformed drug addicts and ex-gangsters, to build positive associations to their names, as well as help others through innovative localised social media solutions like the Advice Support Network.  Members are able to reconstruct their public image and their own perception about themselves, from being feared, despised and look-down upon by society, the Reconstructed members are now helping hands in the community. Through blogging, social networking, mobile instant messaging, podcasting, Reconstructed members are able to share their life experiences, lessons and stories online. Not only is this a therapeutic process, but a source of education, warning, advice and inspiration for those that find themselves in similar situations and environments. The Reconstructed blog have more than 1000 blog posts and many of the team members have launched their own personal blogs even though most of the members never completed their schooling and have no formal education. They’ve also won best runner-up in the SA Best Group Blog 2009 competition.

Due to the increased need in the local communities on the Cape Flats for advice from parents related to single moms, family issues, divorce, abuse the Mom 2.0 initiative was started where the Reconstructed team who previously disempowered the women from the community, are now empowering them by teaching them how to use Social Media to share their stories for social good. This includes many women who previously were computer and web illiterate but are now using the technologies such as blogging, FaceBook, Instant messaging, micro-blogging taught by the reconstructed team to express themselves.

Other social uses of social media are Drug Advice Support, Career Advices Support, Positive Advice Support (HIV/AIDS), Debt Breaker offering debt counselling to an over-indebted society and the Seniors Management Sessions (SMS) where hundreds of elderly are engaged using social media and mobile devices.

For communities, such as these on the Cape Flats, South Africa, there are many factors and social ills causing tension, however social media opens up doors and opportunities to ordinary citizens who before could not have imagined engaging with experts, peers and others all over the world.

You can read more about these projects and other uses of social media for community empowerment on my blog (http://marlonparker.co.za).

Music, research and pies

Well, a meeting in Manchester wouldn’t be a meeting without a fine selection of pies on offer and for that reason we met in the lovely CUP, owned by team Mr. Scruff. We were meeting to discuss an idea for a research project I had back in October. Inspired by Andrew Dubber’s blog post about a panel at Gigbeth where a bunch of 6 young girls had been grilled by the industry about their music downloading habits, I felt that there hadn’t been enough research done speaking to people about how they consume music. I thought it would be interesting to explore this area – finding out how changes to technology have affected how music is produced, consumed and sustained.

So, I got on a train and went to see Andrew. He felt these ideas were particularly relevant to the Interactive Cultures team at Birmingham City University and I was quickly introduced to them. The team were interested in developing a bid, working closely with industry to carry out a research project over 3 years, looking into music consumption.

A few meetings later and we find ourselves in CUP with a selection of people from the independent music industry. Along with the Interactive Cultures team, those present from the industry included: Jayne Compton (Switchflicker); Dan Rafferty (Jibbering Records); Jeff Thompson (Fat Northerner/Un-Convention); Mike McNally (Consultant/AIM); Jenny Moore and Lisa Meyer (Capsule); Howard Mills (Humble Soul); Liam Walsh (Modern English Recordings); and Sarah Purcell (Concrete Recordings).

Some of the questions I think about:

• As music appears more disposable, how do people connect with bands?
• And what does that mean in terms of the development of scenes, youth 
culture?
• Can music become a central source of identity in these times of de-centred identities?
• As there is less investment in the development of bands, how do bands 
sustain a career, does this impact on the way music is produced?
• Do new formats impact on the way music is made?
• Do artists have time to be creative and create music or do they spend 
more time interacting with their fans?
• How have older generations changed they way they consume music?
• What is important to the consumer in the music domain?
• What are ways of monetising music?
• How can future new music break through?
• How do online social networks play a part in fan interactions with 
bands? Is this more or less meaningful than previous ways of interacting?
• How important is the live experience for consumers?
• What do brand band relationships mean for the way music is produced?
• Can music scenes emerge in the future?
• Will scenes be localised or global? Online or emerge from the streets?
• Do bands need long term development? Or will careers become shorter?
• How proactive should bands be in their own promotion?
What creative innovations have worked for the promotion of indie label 
bands?
• What successful creative collaborations have happened between music and other art forms?
• What tangible product do people want?
• Do bands need to diversify? Do they need to be promoters, clothing lines
etc…?
• Is there still room for genuinely rock ‘n’ roll personalities to emerge? Or are will they simply be products of A&R and media imagination?

After presenting my ideas about the sorts of questions I have from a label and general interest perspective, the group engaged in fiery debate about the areas that should be covered.

I think the most important thing stressed by the Birmingham team was that the research would simply be to speak to consumers and report back in a way useful to industry – not to predict the future or state where the industry is going. I feel this will be an exciting project to be involved in. Most research into music consumption has been commissioned by major label industry and larger companies and often looks into areas such as illegal downloading, to provide statistics to influence government agenda. This research has no agenda. It is simply to investigate what is happening and why.

It excites me when academia meets industry and can work together on new research. I think the work of the Interactive Cultures group at BCU is really exciting and members of the team are very much involved in the heart of current music industry debates. Feedback after the event suggests that the industry people present also share my excitement in working with the team at BCU on this seminal research project.

Ruth Daniel

Ruth Daniel co-founded Manchester indie label, Fat Northerner Records in 2003. In the proud tradition of great British indies such as 4AD, Warp, Creation and of course Factory, Fat Northerner only release music by artists they believe in.

Fat Northerner has worked with over 60 bands and was one of the first labels to fully embrace the digital revolution. Their recent project involves current bands reworking Salford punk-poet John Cooper Clarke’s material and has attracted interest from many top artists, bands and spoken word artists.

Ruth is co-founder and chair of Un-Convention, a music conference aimed specifically at the grass roots of the industry; the goal is to bring together like minded individuals to discuss the future of Independent music. Ruth is also Director of a new online live music industry project with fellow UKYME nominee Ian Chamings. Ruth was shortlisted for UK Young Music Entrepreneur 2008. Ruth believes in making music as culture, rather than music as commerce.

I visited the interactive culture blog. Things really have moved on a lot since I graduated, despite Britain’s famed love of times gone by!

The 4ip fund is very interesting. It reminds me of the continuing struggle we’re facing in Singapore to figure out how to get stuff broadcast on mobile and online. This is despite the fact that Singapore is now the most wired country in the world (though I suspect the previous leader, South Korea, has simply upgraded to wireless and left us congratulating ourselves on an obsolete standard) and the government has some fund or other to encourage cross media content.

We are taking a little time to figure out what works and what doesn’t. For example, one commonly held belief was that clips had to be short and contain a lot of close ups so people could see what was going on. But you only have to think of what viewership would be like if Manchester United vs Liverpool were broadcast live via mobile. Everyone would be watching for the full 2 hours and they’d be able to see that pinprick of a ball for sure. Hammering further nails into that theory is the rise of the iPod Touch and other portable media players. I’ve got one with a 2.5 inch screen and, much to my surprise, I can actually understand what I’m watching.

We now think that, thanks to the ability of the mobile phone to be carried everywhere, programmes whose premier is popular are likely to be watched via mobile. These are mainly live events like sports, but could also be the finals of Britain’s Got Talent or American Idol. You don’t want the results to be spoiled, you don’t want to look like a loser, watching repeats the next day, you don’t want to feel cut out of any conversation involving “where were you when Paul Potts started to sing…”
 
The case of online TV is even more interesting, as most people still watch stuff online in their homes, which means the crummy quality of what is sometimes a bootleg broadcast is competing with their television sets. Some of this is because these people live in countries like China and can’t afford to pay to watch Premier League Football on cable.

One useful case study is that of Korean esports – professional gamers playing computer games broadcast via cable and online for fans to watch. The teams are sponsored, the leagues are sponsored and the TV stations sell advertising time. (I’m going to try to remember to send you a documentary I did on this… I keep promising this to people but I never, literally, deliver)
 
One Korean executive I spoke to said that esports was fabulous because it reached out to the missing generation of advertising – people aged below 30 who do not read the papers, do not watch television and generally ignore all forms of media except the internet. And when they are faced with the internet, they close pop up ads faster than they can load. Esports is the only thing they watch, and they generally watch it online. 
 
Because of that, I’ve seen a fair number of public service adverts during these esports matches, especially anti-smoking ones. Some of the sponsors also tend to be companies you’d think would invest heavily in more traditional ads. For instance, Shinhan Bank sponsors one of the very popular leagues to attract young customers. It’s impossible to reach them any other way.

Anyway, these broadcasts are available via cable and online. Online broadcasts are available as a service from the broadcasters themselves, but also on independent platforms like Gom and Daum Sports. I assume these platforms pay the broadcasters for the rights, or maybe it’s the other way round? The online quality is not as clear, yet online broadcasts are very, very popular.

Being a fan of these broadcasts myself, I’ve found that one of the biggest reasons why people like to watch online is the sense of community. Imagine watching a football game with 6 friends. You chat, you banter, you scream. Well, when these guys watch online, they open up MSN Messenger and IRC, they chat about the game with their friends, they post on esports forums as the game progresses, and it’s all stuff you would expect to hear if there were 10 people in a room together. Stuff like “He’s flanking! He’s flanking! I don’t know if this will work!” and “Oh wow, that was such a great move!”.

This is something online TV has over traditional TV – the ability to let people watch in a virtual group and communicate as they watch. The communication is done via text, so it does not take away much concentration from what’s being watched. The possibilities, I think, are enormous. Midsummer Murders could premier online, and everyone could log in to a forum where they could try to be the first to guess the murderer. Soap operas could premier online with everyone discussing the plot twists.

Most importantly, people tend to type short messages while the show is on, and longer ones during adverts. However, they also tend not to leave the room during adverts unless they have to, because there’s something to do. I’ve noticed that if a particularly good ad comes on, people start talking about it and those who missed it look out for it. That ought to keep advertisers very happy!

The Interactive technologies For Active Learning section reminds me of the book “Nudge”, which I have just read. It’s about how small changes can make people more inclined to act the way one wants them to (like having the picture of a fly on the urinals in Amsterdam to encourage proper aiming). Some of that is about how it’s easier than ever to get people to do what you want them to because with the internet, you can get them to sign up for programmes with “one click” instead of wading through forms. Might be useful when you want to nudge students to do what they ought to?