I am thrilled to be included on the bill of Interesting South - a Conference of Interestingness.

I’ll be talking about taking it to the streets… looking at culture jamming, where I’ll no doubt touch on the fun of the Zero Coke Movement. Here’s more on the conference, which is $25 a seat…

Thursday evening, November 22nd at the Bondi Pavilion

This is a marketing conference for marketing people but not at all about marketing.

Not about brands, advertising, blogging or twitter but interesting, unexpected, original things.

We’re found 20 fascinating people and have asked them to speak about something they care about. We want to replicate the experience of clicking from one really good blog to another, ranging across sciences, arts, music, jokes and whatever.

There will be 10 minute slots and 3 minute slots to speak. And some people who can’t be there will send in three minute videos. The idea is to be informal and fast paced.

Interesting South is sponsored by Open Intelligence Agency but overall is very much a collaborative, not-for-profit project.

So we’re deliberately keeping the price low enough so anyone can rock up.

More details at interestingsouth.com

I just registered timlonghurst.com.au - it’s just parked at timlonghurst.com, but I thought I should protect my name - you never know when some enterprising teenager might decide to try and cash in on your name.

Version 1:

Tim Longhurst is a speaker, change agent and communication strategist.

He has helped shape the marketing campaigns of some of the world’s leading brands - not always from the inside.

In 2007 Tim has worked with brands including Nokia, Unilever and Vodafone.

He campaigns on issues of social justice and sustainability and is a board member of Vibewire Youth Services.

Tim is based in Sydney, Australia.

Version 2 (hopefully an improvement…)

Tim Longhurst is an idealist, change agent and culture jammer.

His eyes light up when he talks about making the world fairer and more sustainable and the innovative ways this can happen.

He campaigns on issues of social justice and sustainability and is a board member of Vibewire Youth Services.

Tim is based in Sydney, Australia.

All feedback gratefully received

In the spirit of Open Source, I present to you - Creating a video brief, part one - the initial questionnaire.

As a communication problem (there’s a lot that could be communicated in a limited amount of time), gathering the basic information on the video subject before you begin is a good place to start.

For the Vibewire videos, I have developed a pretty simple questionnaire that I hope will be used to gather all the information we need for each video into one place.

For each project we’d like to produce a video on, I think we need, at the very least, the following information, hopefully on a single page:

WHAT (The project name):
WHO (The people/organisations involved in organising/supporting the project):
WHO ARE THE INDIVIDUAL ADVOCATES (The people who would be great spokespeople/3rd party supporters):
WHERE (Where the project takes place):
WHEN (How often, at what times, for how long):
WHY (Why does this occur at all) :
WHO PAYS (How are the costs of the project absorbed?):
WHO BENEFITS (Who are the primary beneficiaries of the program? What are the numbers here?)
WHAT ARE THE OUTCOMES (both measured/unmeasured).

Having these questions answered would be an excellent starting point for a discussion on communication strategy, and whilst I’ve penned the questions for the Vibewire project, I can imagine using them in other projects in the future.

In the spirit of open source, if you use this questionaire, or if you have improvements, please post a comment so the questionnaire can be refined over time.

Tom from Vibewire has asked me to help him with a project he’s had in mind for Vibewire - communicating the value of various Vibewire projects through video.

The best case scenario is that there will be a mini video (between 30-60 seconds) for each of the following programs:

• Reelife Short Film Festival
• the sQuareOne creative project incubator space
• the Vibewire.net website
• Election Tracker
• Interface Magazine
• E-Festival of Ideas

And finally, there will be an ‘overview’ video that aims to bring all the videos together.

These are all fantastic projects, and I’d love to see these videos created. It’s just a matter of how to make it happen quickly and cheaply!

I’m going to meet with Treffyn (who works with me on various projects) to discuss the best way forward. Typically this kind of project can be incredibly involved and I don’t have a lot of time to see this project through at the moment. Vibewire has a network of clever, creative people, so the challenge will be to harness the talents of many to create videos that are engaging, but not incredibly resource intensive to make.

I’m sitting in the office of Vibewire on Harris St, Ultimo (Sydney). I haven’t blogged about Vibewire before, so I’ve dug up a few paragraphs that do a good job of explaining what Vibewire is and why it exists. These are from an internal document that the guys were happy for me to post:

Vibewire is built around the vision of an Australian society with significantly greater levels of youth community engagement and media-literacy and, ultimately, a more informed and participatory public debate about the issues and challenges that confront us all.

Vibewire’s goals are to:

• Empower young people by giving them leadership and expression opportunities;
• Enhance young people’s self-esteem by giving them a sense of belonging in a community and ownership of their destiny via leadership opportunities, self-expression and education;
• Foster a sense of ‘connectedness’ for young people by creating significant, sustainable relationships with their peers and youth communities nation-wide (and world-wide);
• Break entrenched cycles of apathy and alienation by creating new participation pathways;
• Create platforms for showcasing the talents of young creatives from a variety of fields;
• Provide a unique and inspirational environment for peer mentorship and training;
• Develop the skills, competencies and relationship networks of our team and the youth community.

Vibewire is focused on re-engaging young people in the political decision-making processes which affect them, improving their media literacy and understanding of these processes, and providing opportunities for the creation of non-commercial arts and culture and the showcasing of the talents of young people in Australia.

Media and arts-based expression and community involvement around it are also known to build resilience and mental well-being for young people. We believe that being valued as a member of society and empowered to represent your feelings and ideas is fundamental to preventing youth apathy, isolation and depression.

Vibewire Inc. was incorporated in September 2000 by then university student Tom Dawkins. It was originally conceived of as a vehicle simply to create Vibewire.net, a youth culture and expression portal. Since that time however it has grown into a multi-faceted youth media and arts organisation with five key project areas: Vibewire.net; Online Events; Reelife Short Film Festival; Print Projects and; the sQuareOne creative project incubator space.

Vibewire is run entirely by young people (16-30). All staff, volunteers and board members (National Steering Committee) are aged 30 or under. In fact, the vast majority of Vibewire management, staff and volunteers are aged 25 or under.

A few months ago I was invited to participate on the board of Vibewire. The feeling seemed to be I was a good fit because my activism and communication work made me an obvious candidate.

Vibewire’s done some great work in the past few years - in 2006 I posted about the e-festival of ideas which is a great initiative. I was honoured when Tom invited me to join the board and I hope to make a great contribution.

I won’t post more about Vibewire here, but I thought I should post a little information so future references to Vibewire make a little more sense.

It’s all a bit much, really. Email, Voicemail, Facebook, Youtube, MySpace, Bebo, Blog, Wiki, Intranet… Electronic communication makes it possible for 500 people to talk to you at once, and in my case, it feels like that’s exactly what’s happening.

Don’t get me wrong - I love communicating - and it’s great to have so much going on, but I feel like I’m spinning so fast I’m blowing people off.

People that I care about - family, friends - even clients, are witnessing my lack of ‘bandwidth’… I’m working hard to move through the 300+ unreplied emails in my inbox, the 50 unanswered messages on Facebook, return calls etc. But I know that my significant delays must just come across as plain rude.

I’d like to be as respectful and courteous with electronic communication as I am with real world communication - if people speak to me, I generally say hi straight away, not six weeks later.

I’m working hard to be great at this stuff, but in the mean time, here’s a tip - I ALMOST ALWAYS answer my mobile phone, so if you’re trying to rise above the noise of my digital life, let your fingers do the walking.

All tips and advice gratefully received, you just might not get a reply.

No time to give a significant update (stay tuned, it’s coming in the next 24 hours…) but I’ll just say that playing Phil T. Rich at the APEC protests in Sydney yesterday was a lot of fun. Our demands for “Corporate Might, not Workers’ Rights”, “Privatizing Everything” and “Devastation, not Education” were messages that the world’s most neglected minority needed to send. I’ll look forward to posting a full wrap up very soon!

Barcamp 2 is on its way and I’ve checked out the 91 people who have registered ahead of me and it’s a list of people I know and people I’m looking forward to meeting. Hope to see you there.

BarCampSydney 2
Saturday, August 25, 2007 (9:00 AM - 5:00 PM)
This is the 2nd BarCampSydney event. Wohoo! It will be at the main building on Jones Street, UTS in the city.
NO SPECTATORS, ONLY PARTICIPANTS

When you come, be prepared to share with BarCampers.

When you leave, be prepared to share it with the world.

BarCamp is an ad-hoc unconference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment.

It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees.

Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to participate.

What’s Next?
Sign up on the wiki, check out the blog, tell all your friends, prepare your presentation, ask your company if they’re interested in sponsoring…

Venue Details:
University of Technology, Sydney
Broadway
Sydney, New South Wales

http://barcamp.org/BarCampSydney2

Thanks to Craig Rispin for the tip…

I’ll be speaking on one of my favourite topics on the 14th, so come along if you haven’t seen me give a broad overview on the Future of Media. I’ll leave time for questions so come along and stump me in front of an audience.

Here are the details…

TOPIC: The Future of Media
The ways Australians are entertained and informed are changing rapidly. In this session, Tim Longhurst will highlight emerging trends in the new media landscape and identify the consequences for business. You will see the video credited with shifting Rupert Murdoch’s attitude to the future of media and explore the websites early-adopters are already using for their information and entertainment.

Tim’s presentation will demonstrate that:
The audience has become the media
Traditional advertising is dead (or at least, it’s very, very ill)
Everything old is new again (it’s just being communicated in a different way)

Tim’s presentation will encourage his audience to:
Grow their business by better understanding the new media landscape
Benefit from new marketing opportunities by adjust their communication practices
Utilise their real-world know-how for online advantage

SPEAKER: About Tim Longhurst
Tim is a communication strategist and culture jammer. As a communication strategist he has helped global brands develop and implement online communication programs. As a culture jammer he has used new media technologies to transform the business practices of several large corporations from the outside. He blogs at timlonghurst.com

http://pioneer.businessswap.com.au/