Off for a couple of weeks

I'm leaving in a few hours on vacation for a couple of weeks (Seychelles). My good friend Régine Debatty from WMMNA will be taking over as much as she can. Updating will be irregular as Régine will be busy travelling too.

Bear with us! Back on track April 13.

Teacher's saucy video is a hit

A sex video of a Scots teacher made using her mobile phone has become a huge hit on the internet, according to The Daily Record.

"Demand on the web for the 13-second clip has been phenomenal, with thousands downloading copies of her raunchy antics.

The full-frontal footage of the nude teacher was sent to the mobile phones of hundreds of pupils at her Dundee school. The X-rated film shows the teacher wearing nothing but her spectacles reclining on a purple sheet, with her head resting on pillows.

The clip was recorded on the teacher's mobile phone.

It was stolen from her handbag when it was left in an unattended classroom. The embarrassed teacher has continued working while police investigate the theft. "

clicktoscan

Clicktoscan enables users of camera phones or digital cameras to capture, share and store information that is important, wherever they are. [via mobile|blog.it]

Just take a picture of your document and clicktoscan will scan it when you are ready to use it. You may also want to fax or email it to someone, and they will do that for you too.

Most pictures of documents or whiteboards are hard to read and poorly legible, even with higher resolution cameras. This is why they are not being used for this purpose today - clicktoscan’s core technology makes such images legible and clear so you can communicate them to others or store them for personal use.

How does it work?

clicktoscan uses proprietary patented technologies to process camera phone images, and produce “scanned” images. Images taken with the camera are simply sent by MMS or email or uploaded in the clicktoscan server, processed and stored. If you specify an email address or a fax number in your MMS or email, clicktoscan will automatically send the scanned document to your contact.

The cautionary tale of a citizen hoaxer

Scoopt Blog points to a citizen reporting hoax story, published in The Guardian.

Ian Mayes, The readers' editor on ... the cautionary tale of a citizen hoaxer.

"On Monday last week the Guardian published a report - accompanied by a dramatic photograph - of a heath fire in Dorset. The report began: "Canford Heath has blazed before, but rarely like this." In fact it has never blazed like that. The photograph showed not the fire in Dorset but a forest fire almost six years ago in Montana, the north-western US state bordering Canada.

How did it get into the Guardian? Seeking to illustrate the story late on Sunday, with no still pictures from the fire in Dorset then available, the picture desk "grabbed" a selection of images from the rolling news coverage on Sky News. The presenter said on air, while this particular image was held on the screen: "We have actually got some pretty dramatic pictures our viewers have sent in".

The Guardian report, addressing the picture, said: "Wild animals, silhouetted by the bright orange inferno in a photograph taken by a local resident, were left to fend for themselves." The wild animals in fact are elk a hoax indexed on Snopes, which, as one of my correspondents later that day put it, are rarely seen in Dorset.

... I tell all this as a cautionary tale of our time. The picture editor said it points up a problem with "citizen" journalism. Picture agencies, such as AP and Reuters - the Guardian too - he reminds us, have draconian rules about altering pictures or passing them off as something they are not - photographers have been sacked for that sort of thing. There are no such rules for the citizen and we do not have the reassurance the rules should bring that seeing is believing.

Citizen journalism story frenzy (part 4) - Using a cameraphone to cover Iraq for CNN

The UK Press Gazette has put together a special feature about citizen journalism. [via Scoopt Blog]

This is part 4.

Using a cameraphone to cover Iraq for CNN - by Nic Robertson.

As I climbed out of our armoured car at the Iraqi checkpoint my heart was pounding.

Within a few hours the shots were e-mailed and broadcast on air. Soon there will be no waiting, we'll be able to broadcast live right form the spot with our mobile phones. Please don't ask if I'd have the nerve to do that at a checkpoint."

Other chapters from the special feature in the UK Press Gazette:

-- ITV welcomes the 'video witnesses'

-- Turning the digital deluge into news

-- Opportunity knocks

Citizen journalism story frenzy (part 3) - ITV welcomes the 'video witnesses'

The UK Press Gazette has put together a special feature about citizen journalism. [via Scoopt Blog]

This is part 3.

ITV welcomes the 'video witnesses' - by Jonathan Munro deputy editor of ITV News.

"Citizen journalist" is a dangerous phrase and people in our industry use it every day. They shouldn't.

Mr Bloggs witnessing and filming an event is not a journalist. He doesn't check facts, find context, and look for second sources. He's more valuable than an eyewitness, who gets things wrong... Mr Bloggs with his cameraphone can't do that. So I call him a "video witness".

Better than an eyewitness, but miles away from being a journalist.

As a starting point, we at ITV News will ask for pictures after an event, but not in advance. Culturally, we may all become more proactive, but at this very early stage being reactive feels better.

And it is an early stage. All sorts of issues will hit us, and it'll be rare to have a big breaking story without someone capturing it on their mobile. But we, as an industry, are good at change — and as our audiences increasingly use phones to watch their news as well as gather it — they're changing too."

Other chapters from the special feature in the UK Press Gazette:

-- Using a cameraphone to cover Iraq for CNN

-- Turning the digital deluge into news

-- Opportunity knocks

Citizen journalism story frenzy (part 2) - Turning the digital deluge into news

The UK Press Gazette has put together a special feature about citizen journalism. [via Scoopt Blog]

This is part 2.

Turning the digital deluge into news - "Last summer, the BBC created a dedicated department to filter and verify the mass of video clips and images sent in by the public. As Martin Stabe finds, the unit is already being expanded to cope with the volume of submissions.

... Whether it's a riot in Khartoum, an earthquake in Pakistan, or everyday life in Iraq, a witness with a cameraphone is rarely far from an unfolding event.

"Citizen journalism" is not a phrase heard frequently at the BBC. "User-generated content" is the preferred term in Television Centre.

Whatever the label, if anyone needs evidence that it is not putting trained journalists out of work, they need look no further than the busy newsroom of BBC News Online, where Nicola Careem, Felicity Cowie and Anna Stewart work.

Since last summer, the trio of broadcast journalists have formed the User Generated Content (UGC) hub, a dedicated BBC unit tasked with sifting though the deluge of material that the BBC's global audience contributes to the corporation by email and text message, verifying its authenticity and legality, and ensuring that it is swiftly passed on to appropriate BBC news outlets.

"You don't go into this lightly, thinking you can sack a few journalists and get the public to do our jobs for us. It's just not like that — it's quite the opposite actually," says BBC News interactivity editor Vicky Taylor, who oversees the hub.

"The main concern we have with this at the moment is the volume — it's only going to become more and we need to ensure that we have the systems in place to deal with this. It's incredibly resource-intensive. You need to have staff to look at all this material and decide whether to publish it or not."

Indeed, the UGC hub is expanding: next month three more journalists will join the team, allowing it to work longer hours in two shifts.

... The BBC aims to give a byline to anyone who sends a picture, but what they can't expect is any payment, says Taylor: "As a publicly-funded organisation, we can't pay people."

Other chapters from the special feature in the UK Press Gazette:

-- Using a cameraphone to cover Iraq for CNN

-- ITV welcomes the 'video witnesses'

-- Opportunity knocks

Citizen journalism story frenzy (part 1) - Opportunity knocks

The UK Press Gazette has put together a special feature about citizen journalism. [via Scoopt Blog]

This is part 1.

-- Opportunity knocks - Scoopt picture agency founder Kyle MacRae talks about the early days of the venture and why he has made few fans on tabloid newspaper features desks.

Interesting: "While picture desks are only to happy to deal with Scoopt, the feature desks won't touch us. You can see why. All newspapers (and broadcasters) can solicit pics from their own readership for free, so they have a vested interest in not promoting a company that tells their readers not to be such mugs."

Other chapters from the special feature in the UK Press Gazette :

-- Using a cameraphone to cover Iraq for CNN

-- ITV welcomes the 'video witnesses'

-- Turning the digital deluge into news

Cameraphone insight

EETimes offers some interesting insight on cameraphone usage, in an article outlining what they're missing to really compete with standalone digital cameras.

-- Studies have found that "90 percent of camera phone users never print pictures they take with their camera phones," said Philippe Quinio, marketing director of the imaging division at at STMicroelectronics.

-- More specifically, 7 billion images captured by mobile phones have never been uploaded or printed, said Rutie Adar, director of product marketing at CMOS imager developer TransChip Inc.

-- Many consumers never bother to learn how to move pictures out of their phones. Even those who figure it out assume the images are too low-quality to print.

-- Kodak draws a distinction between the camera phone and digital still camera by calling the former "a photo-capable device" and the latter "a photo-taking device."

Happy slapping arrives in Tenerife

The first known case in the Canary Islands of so-called “happy slapping”, a youth craze in which video phones are used to record attacks on unsuspecting victims of 3g technology, took place in Puerto de la Cruz this month when three local teenagers recorded the beating they meted out to a classmate outside Puerto de la Cruz’s IES secondary school, on camera. [via Tenerife News]

Sadly, not a first for Spain. - Shades of Happy Slapping in Barcelona

Blog via SMS via LetMeParty.com

LetMeParty.com, was developed by Nemanja Stefanovic, a student of the University of Illinois in Chicago over his spring break this past week. It's a free tool to let you post to your blog (or blogs) by sending text messages to them.

"The way it works is that you register on the site and then add your blogs to your account or profile. You also add your phone number. Your phone number is how the site recognizes you. That way, only you, from your mobile phone number, can send SMS's to your blog.

You can add as many of your blogs as you want, one SMS will post to all of them.

LetMeParty.com currently support LiveJournal, Wordpress, Blogger, and Movable Type.

Japan, SKorea, China to launch joint study unified cell phone standard

According to The Associated Press, Japan, South Korea and China agreed to launch a joint study aimed at developing cell phones under a new unified standard that provides high speed data transmission.

"The study's main purpose will be to look at the development of cell phone technology capable of transmitting data and high quality video as fast as via optical fiber, public broadcaster NHK said."

Picture all the news that's fit to upload

Since 3 launched See Me TV in October, it has had more than a million downloads a month, reports The Guardian.

"Now it is about to launch 24 Hours, claimed to be a "world first" service for would-be journalists that I have been testing. Its motto: "Break the news and spot celebs wherever you are and make money too."

... The point is that we are only at the start of what may turn out to be a grassroots revolution. It is rare for the average person to witness a major incident, but there will be hundreds of others there with cameraphones at the ready. As phones become more powerful and easier to use - so will photo-journalism improve."

Related: - See Me TV: the ultimate reality mobile TV channel

Pay your cell-phone bill by watching ads

Israeli customers of mobile operator Orange who have 3G phones will soon be able to kiss their bills goodbye -- if they're willing to watch a few commercials instead. Physorg.com reports.

"The amount of the discount depends on the number of commercials the customer watches.

In the pilot and the first stages of the plan Orange will combine ads with the Celltrix game, a product of the Cellfun company. Celltrix is currently available to Orange customers via the "Oboxlive" portal.

..."Unlike traditional advertising, cellular advertising on the Orange network puts the customer in the center, and allows him to decide at every stage whether to watch commercials, to skip directly to the game, or even to download the game without ads," the company statement said. "

Slingbox Beta Streams Video To Phones

SlingMedia said early Thursday that it has released a beta application that will allow customers of its Slingbox to view content over certain PDAs and smartphones. PC Magazine reports.

"The Slingbox connects to a user's television, enabling him to watch and control his own television from a remote location, such as an international business trip."

The People Paparazzi

Check out what looks very much like a promotional video for Splash News' citizen journalism agency, on extraTV.com - ending with a catchy "Becoming a paparazzo is as easy as snap, send and sell!"

"Us Weekly's resident trend spotter Katrina Szish told us (extraTV.com) that Average Joes are now, "Snapping pictures of celebrities with their cell phones or digital cameras, and then trying to cash in on those pictures."

Some useful information from the article:

-- Britney Spears' wedding photo made $150,000 for the lucky guy who took it,

-- Colin Farrell's kiss was worth $4,500

-- Brangelina in a mall brought in $30,000

-- Paris in a make out session was worth $7,500.

Related: - Splash News & Picture Agency taps into citizen journalism

Phlash!

Foxden Holding has just introduced Phlash!, which they claim in their press release is "the world’s first universal cameraphone flash designed to provide powerful, even lighting for superior mobile phone photography".

To use, simply press on Phlash while pressing the ‘capture’ button on the cameraphone. Phlash emits an intense pulse of light that takes the perfect picture and also helps the user to clearly see what he or she is shooting.

Designed for the close-up pictures usually taken with cameraphones, Phlash provides optimal performance at a distance of one meter, or about two arm’s lengths away.

[More in Engadget]

Other flash for cameraphones:

-- BriteFlash for LED Flash Cameraphones - Cap-XX has announced its BriteFlash power architecture to provide LED flash camera phones with enough light to produce high-resolution images.

Mobile phones will deal a final blow to makers of music devices and video camcorders

Mobile phones will deal a final blow to makers of music devices and video camcorders, having already hit the photo industry, a senior executive at handset maker Nokia told the Financial Times newspaper, reports CNN .

"Anssi Vanjoki, head of the multimedia unit at the world's largest cell phone manufacturer, pointed in comments published Tuesday to Nokia's 2000 forecast of the death of the photo industry, and said the same fate was looming for other sectors.

Nokia made 100 million cameraphones last year, making it the world's largest camera manufacturer.

Among famous photo industry players, Konica Minolta Holdings Inc. said in January it will withdraw from the business and Agfa-Gevaert sold its once-famous photographic arm in 2004.

"In the next 6-12 months, there will be more of these announcements. The next to disappear will be the makers of music devices and then the manufacturers of video cameras," Vanjoki was quoted as saying."

The rise of clip culture online

The popularity of the websites that allow people to share short video snippets is leading to the rise of a clip culture, according to internet law professor Michael Geist, reports the BBC - and it's spilling over from the Internet to cell phones.

... "The emergence of video sharing sites is yet another seemingly instant internet success story that has caught many by surprise.

The best of user-generated video today attracts large audiences and competes with anything being offered on the major networks.

... From a business perspective, media companies are being forced to grapple with the competitive threat of user-generated content and to determine how to address unauthorised sharing of their clips.

... Telecommunications companies and intransigent broadcasters face an even tougher choice, as their vision of an on-demand converged internet, must now compete with the clip culture.

This presents new challenges, since users are increasingly not satisfied with merely consuming content, but rather demand the ability to share and re-create it."

First cameraphone for kids (not 3 megapixel)

Update March 22 Papipo from Wilicom Japan is the latest cellphone targetted at 7 to 12 year old kids, reports New Launches.

... Parents are able to set the phone up such that it can sms and call up only preset numbers.

The phone uses PHS technology which allows parents to track their kids via email. Just send an email to the carrier and you get the reply with the position.

The handset has a 300,000 camera (and not 3 million as I previously wrote), and to the best of my knowledge, this is a real first.

cf Papipo's Website launched for the occasion.

Other cell phones for kids:

-- Assited tracking kids phones launches at CES

-- Mobile phone firm launches handset for four-year-olds

-- DoCoMo unveils phone to keep kids safe

-- Dutch introduce phones for kids

-- Telefónica Spain launches cell phone for kids

-- Barbie My Scene cellular phone

-- Firefly emergency cellphone for kids

-- Hasbro launches ChatNow

-- MYMO: The child phone

-- Baby cell phone being removed from French market

-- "TicTALK Jr." a cell phone for infants (April Fool's day)

Vodafone floats curfew on adult shows

Vodafone is proposing to broadcast video clips with restricted content to mobile phones only after a "watershed" time, similar to that which applies to free-to-air TV, where restricted content is only shown after 8.30pm on school nights and later on weekends. Stuff reports.

"Under the mobile content code, restricted content could include sex scenes, nudity, violence, and offensive language.

The proposal would mean Vodafone would be able to stream such content at night without requiring age verification"

Mobile extras may not attract US consumers-survey

Telecommunications executives are banking on big revenue increases during the next few years from new mobile phone services, but getting customers to pay more may not be so easy, according to a report released on Monday, reports Reuters.

"More than a third of North American consumers surveyed said they would not pay a premium for music and video downloads, according to the report by audit, tax and advisory firm KPMG LLP.

Further underscoring that point was that 20 percent of mobile device users said they would pay no more than 10 percent above their current bill."

Never say never is what I say, I really hate these downer reports.

More on MobsVideo

MobsVideo claims to be "the worlds first free mobile download website". Here you can download from between 20 second to full video clips to your mobile handset. Access to thousands of video clips in the palm of your hand. [via The Inquirer]

"Other sites have advertised their wares as being compatible with mobile phones – only for the viewer to be forced to attempt to load the files onto a mobile phone via a transfer from a PC. That's not true with Mobsvideo. It's perfectly possible for some-one with a mobile phone to cruise the content at will."

Previous post: - MOBS VIDEO, the world's first free mobile video website

Snap2Tell and Snap2Go

French Internet Actu reports on Snap2Tell, a new mobile service which enables someone to take a picture of a monument with their cameraphone, send it to a phone number to receive in return a description or information about the monument. So far the guide references 101 sites from Singapour.

More interesting is a project still in development called Snap2Go, which would enable someone within a building, to take a picture, send it off to a database via a cell phone number, and receive in return, a detailed plan of the inside of the building.

Operation Iraqi Freedom Documents

This is not related to camera phones, but it's so interesting, I can't resist plublishing it here. The US government is releasing intelligence documents from Irak - for bloggers' feedback. [via Friday afternoons nanoTV news bulletin]

"U.S Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Holland, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, today commended a decision by the Bush administration to publicly release millions of pages of documents, recordings and other media captured during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom and Desert Storm.

This is a bold decision in favor of openness that will go a long way towards improving our understanding of prewar Iraq,” Hoekstra said. “By placing these documents online and allowing the public the opportunity to review them, we can cut years off the time it will take to gain knowledge from this potential treasure trove of information. This decision effectively places a collar on the bureaucracy and unleashes the power of people and the Internet to help speed this process.” Peter Hoekstra Website

Released documents can be found at http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/products-docex.htm
and http://www.ctc.usma.edu/harmony_docs.asp

Hospital staffer accused of molesting comatose children and taking cell phone photos of himself in the act

This has got to be the darkest story every on how someone (mis)used a cameraphone.

The Associated Press reports that a respiratory therapist has been accused of molesting brain-damaged, comatose boys and girls, taking cell- phone photos of himself in the act, and posting them on the Internet.

"Wayne Albert Bleyle, 54, is in jail on $5 million bail after pleading not guilty to two counts of child molestation and 24 counts of child pornography. But prosecutor Laura Gunn said Bleyle molested many more patients over the past decade, preying on the hospital's weakest of the weak, including youngsters who would never be able to speak.

Gunn said that when an investigator asked how many children he had abused, Bleyle replied: "How many snowflakes are there out there?"

Border Film Project

Though disposable cameras were used and not cameraphones, this project is another fascinating illustration of citizens as reporters. reBlogged from WMMNA.

For Border Film Project, Brett Huneycutt, Victoria Criado and Rudy Adler spent three months on the U.S. Mexico border filming and distributing hundreds of disposable cameras to two groups on different sides of the line: undocumented migrants crossing the desert and Minutemen volunteers trying to stop them.

The aim of the project is to simplify the complexities of immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border, but also to show the realities on the ground. To date, the trio has received more than 1,500 photographs and more continue to arrive everyday. The pictures tell stories that no news piece or policy debate or academic study could convey."

Related:

-- Al-Jazeera equips citizens with phones and cameras - Al-Jazeera had equipped ordinary people around Iraq with phones and cameras as the invasion got under way, anticipating that communications in Baghdad would deteriorate as the US forces closed in. As a result the station was broadcasting pictures from hotspots such as Fallujah, which openly contradicted the claims the US military was putting out."

Stanford Journalism Fellowship: Citizen Journalists Welcome

Stanford University's Center for the Study of the North American West is offering a $3500-$7000 two-week fellowship for for western enterprise reporting.

... Independent, freelance, or citizen journalists would be eligible to apply -- even if the outlet for their reporting would be their own Web site or blog, or a citizen journalism venue such as YourHub or backfence.

"They would certainly be welcome to apply. The fellowship awards will be decided on a case-by-case basis on their own merits. And we are all very much aware that the journalism landscape is changing", according to Jon Christensen of the Center.

[via E-Media Tidbits]

Broadcasters to Transmit Video of Breaking News Faster

The Associated Press news service has teamed with Sprint to help reporters file broadcast-quality breaking news video over the nationwide Sprint Power Vision (EV-DO) Network using SNAPfeed, a store and forward video application developed by the AP. [via Slashphone]

"Journalists equipped with SNAPfeed, a laptop, compatible camera and a Sprint Mobile Broadband Connection Card can send 60 seconds of breaking news quality video back to their broadcast newsroom in less than ten minutes on the Sprint Power Vision Network. Photographs and audio clips can be transferred even faster."

Microsoft joins with 3 for video sharing

Microsoft's MSN.co.uk website has linked up with mobile network 3 to provide bloggers with access to mobile TV and video-sharing tool, reports The Guardian.

"Users of MSN Spaces the blogging tool that allows them to share thoughts, photos and music lists, will now be able view each other's video clips taken on their mobile phones.

... Users will also be able to access SeeMeTV, 3's mobile TV channel, which shows and pays for customer-created content."