Citizens to Play Role in 'State of the Union' Speech

Tonight citizens will be able to contribute to the President's State of the Union speech.

Steve Outing reports on Poynter org that "ABC News and AOL News will be experimenting tonight with a "People's State of the Union," which will allow citizens to use the Internet to contribute text and video comments with their reactions to the president's speech and the Democratic response. This is designed as a sort of electronic town square.

Some of the video is expected to come from people sending in short cell-phone video clips".

Picture: President George W. Bush reviews his State of the Union speech in the Oval Office Tuesday morning, January 20, 2004. White House photo by Eric Draper whitehouse.gov.

Portuguese film festival throws spotlight on mobile phone movie

Portugal has held its first-ever film festival featuring short movies made with mobile telephones, reports the AFP.

"More than 30 international films ranging in length from 30 seconds to 10 minutes were shown on a normal screen along with regular movies as part of the three-day "Olhares" festival which wrapped up Sunday.

One film examined the attachment Tokyo subway commuters have to their mobile phones, another took a close look at Paris rooftops while a third tracked the afternoon activities of an alcoholic.

The public was encouraged to vote for their favourite "pocket film" and the filmmakers behind the three most popular movies received new mobile telephones from British mobile phone giant Vodafone which partly sponsored the festival."

Grandparents' Love Story Wins Cell Movie Prize

A film starring a student's grandparents was named the winner Monday of CellFlix Festival, a college's contest for 30-second movies shot entirely on cell phones. CBS Channel 4 reports.

"Ithaca College junior Mike Potter, from Broomfield, Colo., won the $5,000 grand prize in the first CellFlix Festival.

Potter's piece was titled "Cheat." In it, his grandfather plays a game with his grandmother while reading the Sunday newspaper. He reads a headline and rewards her with a kiss if she guesses correctly whether it's true or false."

Potter's film was chosen from 10 finalists. "It's a 30-second love story, with a buildup and a payoff," said David Lebow, one of the two grand prize judges.

Click here to view video.

tvmobilenews.com

Two of the most knowledgeable and kind people I know have opened a new website on mobile TV called TV Mobile News. "Together they aim to help the TV and mobile industries understand each other better and to help them explore the opportunites from the technology."

They are Monique van Dusseldorp, of Van Dusseldorp, an Amsterdam based research company focussed on European new media developments and Mike Grenville from everyone's daily read, 160characters.org. Bookmark!

Flickr Photo Booth

Shine, a San Francisco bar with a blog, has just installed a Photo Booth that automatically uploads pictures to Flickr.

See pictures in ShineSF.com Photobooth Photos.

[via guerilla-innovation.com]

Police warning over naked girl video

A video clip showing a naked 14-year-old girl is circulating among mobile phones in West Cumbria, UK, reports the Times and Star.

"The girl is believed to be local. Police are concerned at the number of people who have seen the message and are warning anyone who sends it on could face criminal prosecution."

Color Barcodes in TV commercials and DVD contents?

Digital video production company Ray Corp. set up a subsidiary to sell ColorCodes s in Japan. ColorCodes can be read by camera phones from farther away (than QR codes.) So, the company intends to leverage this feature to promote the use of ColorCodes in television and commercials and DVDs.

"Viewers will be able to simply point their camera phones at the screen to capture the codes and get directed to Internet sites where they can purchase goods or learn more about the programs they are watching."

The new subsidiary will work with television stations to adjust the ColorCode technology for use in Japan and begin active marketing in April once pricing has been firmed up.

reBlogged from wonderful RFID in Japan

Malaysian hospitals to ban camera cellphones

Malaysia may ban visitors from carrying cellphones in hospital wards in an attempt to stop people from taking indecent pictures of patients and protecting patient rights, reports IOL.

"The New Sunday Times said patients answering the call of nature or undergoing medical procedures that require removal of clothing have been photographed."

The paparazzi are now everywhere

The Sunday Times Scotland has a wonderful interview of Kyle MacRae, the founder of Scoopt, the first agency to broker cameraphone pictures for amateur paparazzi and citizen reporters.

Excerpts

"On July 4, the website launched. Three days later London was bombed. “At the time, it was disastrous for us,” says MacRae. “Pictures of maimed bodies and people in distress were allegedly making their way onto the internet, and to be associated with that would be bad news both from a business and a personal ethical perspective.”

Many of the most iconic images of the attacks were taken on camera phones, however, in Tavistock Square and on the devastated trains. “Over a longer period, that helped to close the credibility gap and convince people that we had an idea that could work,” says MacRae. Scoopt was picked up by, among others, CNN, Wired magazine and Newsweek. A bandwagon was rolling.

Six months later, MacRae has crow’s-feet from working round the clock, and the site has 5,500 members in 86 countries. More significant, perhaps, are its imitators — sites such as The Snitcher Desk and Cash Your Pics. Last week Splash, one of the biggest picture agencies in America, announced that it too was starting a service for members of the public who wished to “snap, send and sell”.

But some of the successes appear to have taken even MacRae by surprise: “The highest single-value picture we’ve sold so far was of the new Dr Who monster, Sycorax. A Dr Who fan was watching the filming in June in the Forest of Dean, and this monster came out of the dressing-room trailer, so he took a photograph of it.

“That’s a good example because it was just an opportunistic moment. Nobody was hurt. Nobody killed. No damage done. The photographer made a thousand quid just before Christmas. He was delighted.”

... For all the animosity between celebrities and paparazzi, professional photographers know the rules, where the legal and ethical boundaries lie — even if they sometimes choose to overstep them. The amateurs of Scoopt don’t.

True, the site offers guidelines and has some safety checks built in: all contributors must be over 18; Scoopt will not accept any pictures of children; nor will it take pictures obtained through what MacRae calls an overt breach of privacy (such as breaking into somebody’s house).

But it seems almost inevitable that amateurs will overstep the mark. “They won’t think twice about sticking a camera in somebody’s face,” says MacRae. “Is that something I feel happy about? No. But it’s not something we encourage either. "

Firing up youthful creativity

Teenagers are making their own entertainment in ways never before possible. Alex Pell for Times Online discovers how they record their adventures, then share them with friends.

"The most chilling images of the past week showed a teenager callously holding a camphone to video her three mates while they beat up a passer-by. All four were jailed for a killing that resulted from another attack that night. The whole episode reveals a distressing aspect of the voyeur society that new technology facilitates. Not all young people are thugs, though. Indeed, many now apply cheaply available everyday gadgets to far more sociable ends.

... Alex Chin, 19, an A-level student from Windsor and his friends almost always video their skateboarding runs, either with a camcorder or, more likely, with their mobile phones. Alex explains that the person doing a difficult skateboard trick cannot see whatever “crazy stuff they’ve done, unless it’s being filmed. And wanting to nail a trick, on camera, encourages you to repeat it until you get it perfect”.

... Teenagers are able to share ideas in ways impossible to conceive a decade ago. There may be something disconcerting about their constant need to video each other, rather than going out to play for the sake of it. ... There is no denying that technology has changed their world. They no longer want to be the best on their street. For good or ill, they belong to a virtual gang, whether they chat, show off or play computer games online in teams, or clans, based all over the world."

Mobile RFID services will start shortly in Korea

If all goes well, it is expected that the RFID leader attached cell-phonea will appear in the first half of 2007. To trigger the mobile RFID cell-phone boom, SKT, KTF, LGT are preparing the mRFID demonstration services by the end of this year, reports Digiens@u.City.

"One of SKT’s mRFID services is the “safe return” service in which is to attache the RFID tag inside the license card sticker of taxi, and the customer use the cell-phone RFID leader to send the SMS message that he/she is coming to home to their family during late night. " ...

Code of practice launched on 'citizen journalism'

A code of practice for media organisations embracing the phenomenon of 'citizen journalism' has been launched by the National Union of Journalists, reports HoldtheFrontPage.

"The Witness Contributors' Code of Practice outlines guidelines on issues such as accuracy and checking sources, along with payment to contributors.

It also covers copyright and other legal and moral rights and says that organisations should not do anything to encourage people to put themselves in danger in order to gain material."

To read more details of the debate go to: the_citizen_journalism_debate.html

For more about the implications of citizen journalism for photographers visit: http://www.epuk.org

To see a copy of the Code of Practice click below: Code of practice.doc.

Young thugs carry out attacks just "for the buzz"

Here's something appalling.

According to The Mirror, "one in five young thugs carry out attacks just "for the buzz", with figures showing a sharp rise in street crime.

"The Home Office found violent teenage attackers gave innocent victims a beating simply for fun or because they were bored and "had nothing else to do".

Five per cent of those quizzed admitted carrying out assaults as a dare by friends - often with the happy slapping filmed on their mobile phones. Only six per cent blamed their behaviour on boozing. "

Student accused of violating bus driver's civil rights for recording his behaviour

An incident on a Lee County school bus where the driver stopped the bus and yelled at the kids for no reason for 20 minutes was recorded on a student's cell phone. The cell phone was confiscated by the bus driver and returned to him a few days later, but the principal pressured him into erasing the recording, for "violated the civil rights of the driver". [via NBC.]

Click for video

Saitama supermarket tries out online vegetable info system

According to Crisscross News Japan, a trial for a new information system in which a label attached to vegetables containing produce details is read by terminals and cellphones was successfully conducted Thursday at a Saitama Prefecture supermarket.

"The system allows consumers to retrieve data embedded in such labels to learn about where a given vegetable was grown, which farmer cultivated it, how many agrochemicals were used and the route through which it has been distributed."

Related:

-- Nokia camera phones for grocery shopping

-- Camera phones let you know if brocoli is fresh

-- Traceabili-Tea

-- Fish bar code system under development

-- KTF to Trace Imported Beef with RFID

-- RFID Tracks Shrimp

-- Reading the wine label with your camera phone

-- Japanese Use Cell Phone QR Bar Code Readers to Check Food Safety

NEC Develops Cell Phone-Based Teleconferencing System

NEC Corp. has developed a teleconferencing system that allows up to eight people to talk to each other while seeing pictures and documents on their cell phone screens, reports Nikkei Net Interactive.

"The new system uses third-generation cell phones for the FOMA service of NTT DoCoMo Inc. It allows conference participants to choose which pictures to see as well as turn the pages of documents presented by other speakers."

semacodeshop.com

This is soooo cool.

You can turn your website adress into a semacode, have it printed on a t-shirt thanks to semacodeshop and when someone takes your picture wearing the t-shirt with a cameraphone, people can visite your website!

[via del.icio.us/blackbeltjones]

Related: Get your free semacode!

Cell phone-accessible ATMs coming in the Fall

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. will introduce a service in the Fall enabling clients to deposit or withdraw money at automated teller machines using cell phones. It's the first service of its kind to be introduced by a major bank, according to The Daily Yomiuri.

"Sumitomo Mitsui Banking will remodel about 7,000 ATMs to provide the phone cash service.

Clients will use the service by holding cell phones equipped with noncontact integrated circuit chips over terminals that read information on IC chips, and then inputting their password."

Garbage Scout

If you like to snoop around garbage and dig up something good, snap a picture of it with your camera phone, add a description + location and email it to Garbage Scout. It will be added on a Yahoo Maps for others to go and fetch it (treasures include so far: a rowing machine, a mirror, candy canes an electric heater, etc).

To keep up with the latest from the bins, there are even feeds.

reBlogged from WMMNA

Creating Drama Out of the Banalities of Everyday Life

Intimate Visual Co-Presence by Mizuko Ito. Creating Drama Out of the Banalities of Everyday Life.

Photo sharing via handheld devices has unique limitations and affordances that differ from paper-based sharing and PC-based archive and moblog sites.

Based on studies of camphone use in Japan, this paper suggests an emergent visual sharing modality that is uniquely suited to the handheld space. Intimate visual copresence involves the sharing of an ongoing stream of viewpointspecific photos with a handful of close friends or with an intimate other. The focus is on co-presence and viewpoint sharing rather than communication, publication, or archiving."

reblogged from networked performance.

O2 plans live gigs to your mobile

O2 has annouced a link-up with America Online, XM Satellite Radio and AEG, to provide O2 customers with exclusive live video and audio mobile content from acts such as Greenday and Bon Jovi. [via Tech Digest]

Vlogging?

For a few minutes of great fun, watch Michael Schnapp interviewing "the man on the street" at a market place in Holland about vlogging on mobuzzTV.

Happy slappers jailed

A killer gang of "happy slappers" were jailed for a total of 44 years yesterday, after chilling pictures were released of them committing their crimes, reports The Daily Telegraph.

... "In October 2004, the thugs (including a female accomplice) staged five separate attacks on eight people, mirroring the gang in the book and film A Clockwork Orange, in which codewords are used to initiate violence.

The gang, known as the Sargeant Crew, muttered, "You know what time it is?" to trigger their assaults. When they got home, they gathered around the girl's phone and laughed at what they had done, even mimicking the agony of their victims."

Related articles on happy slapping crimes - an appallingly long and chilling list:

-- Shades of Happy Slapping in Spain

-- "Happy slappers" attack women with baseball bats

-- Happy Slapping youths convicted of manslaughter

-- 'Happy slappers' attack star

-- Video phones spread 'happy slapping'

-- Boy bound, masked and set on fire - and filmed on cameraphone

-- Parents see dying son in phone video

-- Girl raped in 'happy slap' attack

-- Bullies 'taking phone pictures'

-- Tortured for £75: a victim of the new form of 'happy slapping' designed to instil terror

-- Happy slapping' victim tells how attack was filmed

-- Boy, 12 videoed as he was attacked

-- Gang 'happy slaps' cancer woman

-- Happy-slappers now target pizza delivery drivers

-- Girl arrested over 'happy slapping' attack

-- Mother's Anger at 'Happy Slapping' Attack

-- Does 'happy slapping' exist?

-- Thugs film girl attack on phone

-- "Happy Slapping" footage

-- Concern over rise of 'happy slapping' craze

-- The Happy Slap collection

-- Sick beating is filmed for fun

-- Happy slap culprits face suspension

-- Schools Ban Camera Phones Amid 'Happy Slapping' Craze

-- Putting the photos in perspective

Nokia, Motorola, Intel form alliance for mobile TV

Mobile phone giant Nokia has teamed up with other technology firms to promote the DVB-H technology standard for mobile TV, Nokia said on Monday, reports The Washington Post.

"Other firms in the alliance include Intel Corp., Motorola, Texas Instruments and Modeo. The tie-up, called the Mobile DTV Alliance, aims to encourage open standards for TV broadcasts to mobiles, focusing on the North American market."

Mobile ESPN debuts Super Sunday

ESPN is getting ready for the national rollout of its own mobile phone. Already for sale on the ESPN Web site, the phone will be available at Best Buy stores starting Feb. 5, Super Bowl Sunday. Mobile ESPN will air a 60-second spot during the game to promote the phone. The Mercury News reports.

"The phone is part of an emerging trend where big consumer companies extend their brands by providing phone service through an agreement with a wireless carrier. In this case, Sprint Nextel provides the network ESPN uses.

... ESPN content can be seen on other mobile phones offered by wireless carriers. But with other services, the "carriers control the content distribution," Jha said. "Here we control it end-to-end and we can deliver it very quickly."

Sundance Clips on Mobile Phone

Sprint is offering video segments for mobile phones "showcasing Sundance Film Festival highlights available on the official Sundance website".

[via Moco News]

Local TV content to go mobile

Belo, a media conglomerate based in Dallas - with operations in newspaper
publishing, television broadcasting, cable news, and online content - plans to announce on Monday that it's adding content (news, sports and traffic) from its various TV stations across the country to a mobile content service run by Weathernews, which provides weather content to over 1.5 million paying mobile subscribers. [via News.com]

Sun to readers: Send us your video rants

Britain's Online Sun has come up with a novel idea. They are asking their readers to submit "video rantes" for a new page online, called Video Letters.

"We want readers to send in clips of themselves from their 3G mobile phones sounding off about anything they're annoyed about.

For example, if you think Ruth Kelly should be sacked after revelations of paedophiles working in our schools, tell the world about it in a video message.

It doesn't just have be about the news of the day. Feel free to let rip about the latest showbiz and sports stories - or anything that gets your goat.

The best ones will be shown on The Sun Online.

To enter your clip simply video call into 80988 and follow the on-screen instructions. "

Lost Video Diaries for Verizon cell phones

According to Newsday, we can soon expect Lost "Video Diaries" on Verizon cell phones.

But it's not what you think.

"Two-minute episodes that will chronicle the stories of characters who were on the doomed Oceanic Flight 815 but who do not appear on the show."

Naked Woman At Auto Show may have been Drugged

File under tabloid. This story has been in the news for a couple of days, about a woman who posed naked after hours at the North American International Auto Show, with onlookers snapping pictures with their cameraphones.

But today, Channel 4 News in Detroit sheds new light on the story. Aparently the woman was drugged, presumably by "the same men who ogled and photographed her".

"The good new is that none of the photographs have surfaced. Local 4 reported that the woman may be contemplating a lawsuit and has already retained an attorney."