With an increase in use of the Internet by clients and an emphasis of new media, there is no better time to discover how interactive approaches, digital marketing and effective corporate communication can help further develop your business and online presence.
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On-line booking / Registration is now open at:

http://www.khlinteractive.com/book-now or directly via the Registration page

An early bird discount price of £224 is available until 3rd February 2010 midnight.
The cost includes all materials, refreshments and lunch. After this date the full regular price of £280 applies.

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You can watch previous courses run by KHLInteractive for free from their dedicated streaming page.

The good thing about the U1 product is its potential to both adapt and provide flexible applications.

Another interesting concept is the 2 screen e-Book. I always wondered how writing an e-Book with links would work. Cynics suggest that it could limit the writing capability as the tapestry or mental images provided by great text will be compromised by a simple link. My view is that there is room for those that want an ascetic feel of a book and / or creative writing.

Take a look at the following. I wonder how many actual e-Books with interactivity are actually available yet?

Click here to view the embedded video.

There are many flexible video booth solutions available in the market-place and are often used at exhibitions and for personal events such as  Weddings and Christenings.

We recently spoke to some clients who consider Video Booth technology as an essential way to capture opinions, especially during for example, workshop breakout sessions or public meetings.

A recent project at Knowledge Hemispheres involved the set-up of a manual video booth. A council was conducting an campaign against the expansion of a transport station. They wanted to gather opinions that were both pro and con the central issues. Dates were booked for a video booth to be made available firstly after a public meeting and then for up to 3 weeks at local libraries. NB An essential  consent form was also completed before any video opinion was recorded. The final consolidated video was delivered to the client including a full recording of the public hearing.

The content was then re-purposed by being compiled into a series of Video podcasts that were time released. In addition, content was re-used internally.

There are many advantages for using a dedicated video booth especially through some wonderful automated stand systems, for example:

• Branding and Professional capture
• Focused questions through a survey mechanism
• Automated consent
• Forming part of the entire story.
• High Quality recordings
• Collection and moderation post event

With regard to the latter, an integrated approach is facilitated using such technologies, i.e: It encourages dialogue, captures views from people who may be shy to speak in public and in many ways is a enabling technology of democracy.

Other ways of capuring opinions, e.g: You Tube Direct
Youtube have recently released Youtube Direct. Combined with video booths, further content can be captured from personal camera mobile phone and video footage. The interface using an open source approach and includes a moderation panel. Once content is moderated it can be published on an Intranet or on a public website. One of the benefits of this virtual video collection mechanism is that the Bandwidth is YouTube’s with built in navigation!

It is a wonderful tool for Citizen Journalism, for example if you run a news-site, for example: BizBuzzzz you can ask for citizen reporting. Non profit organisations can call-out for support videos around social campaigns. From a commercial perspective businesses can ask users to submit promotional videos about your brand.

NB We consider Youtube Direct as a complementary service to reach an blended New Media solution -  just as outlined in the example above. i.e: Recording conventional footage, virtual/adhoc video from mobile devices and providing a mechanism to readily access opinions through dedicated video booths. The latter as previously stated will produce higher quality recordings.

In addition, in conference voting can also provide another way to capture opinons and feedback:

Online Web content is changing!

Incidentally, it is also worth watching: The Machine is (Changing) Us: YouTube and the Politics of Authenticity – This is effectively an update of the initial featured presentation (pls see the video above). It explores an  interesting aspect of New media, i.e: The way that people are currently focused on promoting themselves.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It is important to ask is Youtube really a community or simply a platform for the projection of self expression?
Could outlets such as Youtube be considered as potentially artificial, especially as there is a delay to a possible interactive response?
Will microblogging and Video Bloggimh have a limited life once we all get over the age of reality TV, i.e The compulsion to be entertained by Idol and X-Factor type programmes?

I remember when companies hardly used Youtube. Now major organisations are using it  as an outlet, especially with the addition of on-screen tagging.

With over 20,000 daily video updates, more research is required to understand if there is a rise or drop in personal content.
In addition, more insight is required into the behaviour of the online watching community.

What has really changed for viewers? Or, are we still too passive to absorb what we are given?
Anthropology can be defined as the study of cultures/communities – currently the Internet is still moving to fast to track!

It will certainly bring about the potential for

1. A more comprehensive eBook
2. New field based applications
3. Collaborative working (inc: content sharing)
4. Greener apps – reducing paper
5. Colour for a A new type of interactive experience for content / articles/ ebooks.

If the latter is true, have publishers already started to develop books with on-line links to reliable references?

But what about basic issues such as:

• Accessibility
• Battery life
• Standards
• Interoperability both in terms of applications and different hardware (will there be a return to IBM VS APPLE)
• Secure information &
• Ensuring you don’t get mugged!

Could it become an interface for a surface computer? Now that would be something!

An Alaska-based notebook designer and manufacturer gScreen, aims to solve that problem, no matter where you are, with what can only be described as the PC version of a two-headed hydra: the dual-screen laptop. Now instead of only a compatible dual screen desktop there is now the adaptable dual screen laptop. Where you now can have your browser, iTunes, Tweetdeck, Word documents or any other folders open on a dual screen laptop.

It operates just the same way as a dual screen desktop, where various programs, folders etc can be dragged from one screen with other programs being visible at the same time on the other screen. However the laptop dual screen is slightly different, where the screens can be adjusted, it can be transformed into a single screen with the use of a horizontal sliding screen, (imagine a sliding door).

To View Full Image Click here.

The specs are listed on the gScreen website :

- 2 LED backlit display screens
- Windows VISTA (Windows Vista)/ WIN XP PRO (optional)
- Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26-GHz
- 4 GB of RAM (2GB DDR2 SO-DIMM x 2)
- 320GB 7200-rpm HD
- NVIDIA® GeForce® 9800M GT with 512MB dedicated memory (or)
- NVIDIA® Quadro FX 1700M Graphics with 512MB dedicated memory
- 9-cell battery
- IEEE 1394 1 Graphics Card Output (15-pin, D-Sub) X 1, HDMI X 1 Mic-in X 1, Line-in x 1, Headphone X 1 PCI Express Card X 1 AC Power Adaptor Output: 19V DC, 90W Input: 100~240V AC, 50/60Hz universal Battery Pack Li-ion 9 cells

Though this laptop is ideal for designers programmers and film-makers, it is easy to see the compatibility of this device and that it allows you to get more work done!

The disadvantages of this device is the power/battery requirement that may be needed to power such a device, and also the price is a major issue, as it is said to cost a shocking estimated $3000 which is roughly about £1500.

The wait for these devices to be avaliable to the public will not be long as the dual screen laptops are scheduled to be released in Christmas.

It is certainly a fascinating insight from a well respected figure from the world of broadcasting.
Jon works for Channel 4 in the UK. He suggests that he straddles between stone-age and the digital age.

Interestingly the BBC have certainly embraced new innovations and have always been at the forefront of using social media to extend what I call ‘the public reach’ to information for our daily lives.

On a recent visit to the US I spoke with a journalist from KOMO 1000 in Seattle:

He described himself as a news gatherer. I had a great chat with him after he had just finished interviewing a group of Boeing executives. I asked him if he was podcasting. His reply was ‘Nah! We don’t do that anymore as none of our listeners were subscribing. I find it far more dynamic to simply record on my iphone 3GS and post directly to YouTube. Then our news service announced on the air that the latest associated new video can be viewed from our website’.

Interesting how content is now being gathered and sent out at the same time.

The biggest new revelation is that the iPod touch and nano are about to get themselves on-board cameras. Apple is introducing this method of file sharing where they have integrated a a camera into the new iPods to be launched on September 9th. Apple has stated that this has been a long time coming, and with the introduction of the iPod Touch, it was only a matter of time to add a camera tool to the device.

Online Photo Sharing has increased massively since the introduction of the i-Phone, imagine the impact it would have if your mp3 player had the ability to take photos as well as upload them to various sites, whether they be social, business related, personal or otherwise .

This has been rumoured to reinvent the way you take pictures and listen to music. The i-Pod franchise having such a huge impact on society is ready to raise the stakes and jump to the next level, combining the worlds most popular music player with possibly the world’s, most popular camera.

A quick display intro can be seen!

Sony’s New reader is quite impressive as it is able to store roughly 1000 full novels, borrow books from local libraries and download at an immensely fast speed.

The Kindle, known for being  the leading wireless electronic book, is packed with the ability for users to read over 46 different newspapers, magazines and other documents. However there have been criticism to where this e-book is concerned, starting with the price, as it is deemed too expensive costing roughly £300. Now with the introduction of the Sony’s e-book reader there have been comparisons to the size, unlike the Kindle the Sony boast a slim 7-inch sleek fit.  Other comparisons made include the availability of a touch screen facility which Sony has introduced with the electronic device, unlike the Kindle, giving the Sony reader a significant advantage.

Though not yet avaliable to the public, the Sony wireless e-reader should be avaliable in the US for distribution and purchase in December.

The anti-Twitter site has been launched, and the main feature that keeps audience  coming back is the fact that Woofer gives the user less character limitations. Meaning that the user does not have to worry about shortening their post to accommodate the character limit.

The downside to having so many characters is there is more freedom to rant, where every ‘woof’ is equivalent to a ‘tweet’, with 1400 characters the user has the option of writing a short story if they so wished. This also leaves us to question if it was written would it be relevant for reading, as it would not be short or to the point any more.

With their 1,400 charcter limitation, Woofer raises an important point that twitter probably needs to address.

Woofer