TedxSeattle Discussion
February, 5th, 5:30pm-8pm
Rat and Raven (http://www.ratandraven.com), University District.
5260 University Way NE Seattle, WA 98105 - 206 524 3166
Complementary, No Registration Required.

Street parking up there on the Ave is free and available at that time.  Happy hour specials include $2 off the entire menu (bar food, mostly standard with some twists); $3 wells, $3 domestic drafts and $4 imports (and $2 PBR if that is to your taste). We have reserved the *upstairs deck* (covered year-round and heated.

As part of this discussion, I will present ideas for filming, streaming and live synthing the event using an integrated internet dashboard approach.  We will be looking for student volunteers to learn about this approach and work on the TEDxSeattle event.  If all goes well, we will pitch this work to the main TED based on our efforts here.  This presentation will go on around 6:00pm .

About TED - Technology, Entertainment, Design.

We are building the TEDxSeattle New Media Team working with UW MCDM faculty, students and the public to create a real-time events system. Join us to learn more and visit http://www.ted.com and http://www.tedxseattle.com to better understand the history and philosophy of TED - Technology, Entertainment & Design.

About Real-Time Event Synthing

At the TedxSeattle event I will host a short demo and brainstorming session focused on what I have coined “Real-Time Event Synthing”.  Click here to launch a very basic demo with an internet dashboard that is pulling information about keyword “Tim Reha” across Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, YouTube Videos, Photos and even a click-to-call Skype channel.

Today, we are in a hyper-convergence point where a number of innovations are taking place from HD video chipsets that encode H.264 video in real-time to new consumer media consumption devices such as Apple’s iPad. These converging technologies and social adoption will drive the future of real-time events production.

In the past, events were typically one-to-many communicaiton affairs with a finite group of people who fit into a conference center. I always thought this was odd because there could be 100,000 people interested in an event’s topic that can only host 250 guests because of a finite space.  Events in the past have also typically one-way without a coordinated back-channel for information from the event guests. With the advent of Twitter’s webservices and integration with uStream.TV we now have an effective internet global broadcast system and backchannel communication system that is in the form of an RSS feed. Lastly, events in the past were not captured or streamed live in HD due to limited broadband penetration and video streaming web services.

Over the years I have worked at or attended major events from the Future in Review to my own Venture All Stars events. I have always thought the “note taking” process at the event was archaic and not very “social” tapping the greater knowledge of the group. The idea of group notes and automated artificial intelligent internet spiders / robots seemed like a next step in event production innovation.

Imagine you are at an event with your laptop and a new iPad tablet.  On the tablet you have the real-time TEDxSeattle event dashboard with different tabs that correspond to each speaker and section of the event.  This provides you with multimedia content, social media conversations and deep information across hundreds of real-time information sources. It is like a real-time, continually updated multimedia notebook for an event.

A real-time time event synthing team that works like “real-time multimedia disc jockeys” (RTDJs) to build data feeds, annotate websites, setup new event data tabs and more. Much of the event information is synthesized into the dashboard in advance of an event. Then during the event, the team focuses on adding new data gleaned from audience questions, speaker points via annotated screen captures, tagging live photo streams and more.

Every participant both in the room and viewing remotely via internet teleconference is also part of the real-time event synthing team. We leverage the use of unique hashtags such as #TEDxSeattle to create search queries across web services. Guests are instructed to “tag” their photos, videos, Tweets and other information using the official hashtag. Then our real-time events team is able to pull the tagged information and post it to the real-time event dashboard.

The big is idea is that a huge amount of data and back channel “social” content is purified, tagged, categorized and pulled to the dashboard and updated in real-time. After the event participants will view a continued thread of multimedia information related to the event and further social media conversations. 

Background

I am an old-school DJ and music remix artist that also live video djs “VJs” to create a combined audio and visual performance. In addition, I help as a catalyst for the Northwest Audiovisualists Group (NWAV) where we share ideas for live multimedia performances by leveraging creativity and technology.

The act of mixing multiple multimedia sources in real-time is where my core DNA and inspiration for “event synthing” comes from.

For my Venture All Stars events, the objective was to leverage media in new ways to highlight our Venture All Star companies, members and sponsors. In 2004, I rented the Chateau Ste Michelle winery for our NASDAQ sponsored awards event. At this time Podcasting was emerging, so we setup a “radio style” recording studio at one area of the event. Our CEO’s and sponsors loved to have the chance to tell their stories. Then I worked with a partner Eyeplay.TV to build the Venture All Stars TV studio in the Chateau Ste Michele’s Barrel Room. Lastly, we hired a professional photographer to capture hundreds of high quality photos. The big idea here was to capture all types of rich media—videos, photos and audio podcasts and then distributed the media via our website, email newsleter and blog. The rich media also was turned into our sponsorship package for the next year’s event.

In 2007 I worked as the new media advisor for the Future in Review known as “FiRE” a top technology conference. For the Future in Review I setup an array of social media and web service accounts for everything from photos to live uStream.TV video streaming. My task was also to create Future in Review TV our own private label media channel recorded at the event.

At the IABC’s 2009 Social Media / Web 2.0 Summit I had the pleasure to work with the event organizer to setup a number of social media accounts, live stream channel and on-site video studio. We created an event instruction sheet to coordinate guests to tag their event posts on Twitter, etc. using a hashtag #iabcseattle . This event was good test to use “social media tagging” that is fundamental to event synthing.

Last year at Searchfest 2009, Oregon, I observed Amber Case, known as “caseorganic” using Skitch to annotate website screen captures. She was also using Yahoo Pipes in concert with Netvibes dasboards to create and view “purified” data feeds. I have played around with Yahoo Pipes and Netvibes before but not in the hyper-fast fluid manner that Amber was rocking the keyboard. She literally had worn out the paint on her Macbook.

At the 2009 Seattle Wine Awards, I set up the real-time events team with live video stream, HD video recording studio, Twitter team, Bloggers / Press, social media accounts, Netvibes Dashboard, Yahoo Pipes and more. I set up a real-time media room at Seattle’s historic Rainier club where the event was hosted.