Liveblogging : Hello World Part 1

11:47 : I am at Hello World at the digital convergence live debate . Come and say hi, I look like this.

11:49 :  Apparently there are big questions about digital media and business.

11:52  : Joanna from Birmingham Post. Moving digital. Talking about mobile site launch. How she was shocked at how backward print was, and how they have grasped digital recently. (Interestingly, I was a temp at the post when the web began, before they closed that original dept).

11:54 : Richard Allen, Cisco . Looking at video quality for HD streaming. Following  the money. How internet ad revenue is moving greater than TV.

11:57 : Mary Matthews : Indie Videogames Developer. Export lots. Casual games. Ad games. Serious games like LOL... Always digital, interesting point about convergence around IP. Challenge reaching audiences who consume in a different way. 'Net not ready for cinematic play... Can they do it in real time? (I think so, see Flash 10 and recent developments in HW acceleration, links to follow).

Purposeful play. Playing with a reason. Wo__nder if she knows about the concept of Creative Agenda.

12:03 : Re-evaluation of business models. Considered giving away tech.

12:04 : Digital Public. Government and public sector. T__oo much offering, fragmentation (definitely agree there). All about improving impact. 2 things they see key: communities of practice, taking social networks applying to organisations to share best practice. Peer communities. Move from big monoliths, avoiding the "build it they will come" problem (comparable with HE there). How to reach people?

12:09 RPGs. How people play exaggerated versions of self... Do avatars have rights?

12:10 : Too much digital? Opportunities to syndicate? NHS Direct distributing content apparently... (I__nteresting they are doing this, their site aisn't very modern otherwise, see internationalisation issues in their non-english language). Crime mapping in London.

12:13 : Cumulative innovation. Trying to replicate that in public services. Giving people tools to innovate. Show us a better way. How easy is it now? Aim on making Birmingham a case study. Wisdom of crowd vs insanity of mob. How to teach people to filter? Difficulty of getting decision makers onboard. Economic cases. Admitting there are more intelligent outside your org.

12:18 : David Harte from Digital Birmingham. Influence of Created in Birmingham.

12:20 : Andrew Dubber. Push vs pull.

12:22 : It's about addressing needs first. Citizens vs consumers. Joanna: Link between Birmingham Post and local blog scene. Not audience but community/network. Difficulty of starting conversations elsewhere, lack of culture of collaboration in business/government. Journalists not used to the criticism...

12:25 : Conversation is harder. Complex interaction. Functionally much better, but harder transactions. Appropriate conversation tone, and teaching people to interact in a human tone. (Very similar to my experience with marketing people, business and academics, the problem of defaulting to talking at people rather than too them).

12:29 : Finding/defining communities of practice. Not being put off by the "rude things" in Spore.

12:30 : Open questions.

Lucy from BBC : Usefulness of platform to learn how to talk differently. Guidelines on how to talk bloggerly (see me coin neologisms). Practicing tone internally. Are people invited into communities? Teaching people how to interact online. Response about framing conversations appropriately.

David Furmage : Access being blocked to web technologies. How to solve these blocks? Response: Example of how Flash is disabled on many government PCs, a problem when you want to use Flash video to disseminate info. Trusting users.

Question: Small businesses lacking impact? How to get it? Response: Opportunities for intervention. Awareness of what you can do for free. Follow-on: How do we use the energies on the ground level. Response: Tolerance of failure. Fund projects that may fail. Note on utilising classic media, not ignoring it. Plug for Pete Ashton. Plug for Crossover.

William Perrin : Harnessing volunteers to clean up communities.

12:50 : And convergence is done. Link amends and cleaning up of grammar and spelling to follow.