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Tube Friends - Merry Christmas

Posted by jenny on 19 December 2007 at 7:20 pm

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Jenny Carpenter
Project Manager

BLOG: Tube Friends - Merry Christmas

BLOG: Tube Friends - Merry Christmas

These are the people I recognise soley from my journey into work.  We get on the tube at the same station, we always try and sit in the same seats.  I don't know much about you but I know you all by name - 'woman with big hair and strong perfume', 'man who looks like my uncle' (gets me every time) 'boy who stares' and the 'old lady who tuts when the carriage gets full' who I always wonder if I should offer my seat to (but I don't).

I see you more regularly than some members of my family, so I thought I should just throw out a quick Happy Christmas. Sorry I didn't get you a present, perhaps I'll just give you a smile next time I see you (and you pretend not to recognise me either), although would that just make me 'random smiling' girl to you.......?

Computer Face

Posted by jenny on 13 December 2007 at 8:17 am

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Jenny Carpenter
Project Manager

BLOG: Computer Face

BLOG: Computer Face

We all have one. Some are worse than others. If you’re lucky, yours is one of considered concentration, for the unlucky, it’s more of a cross between constipation and surprise.

The computer face is one of the small pleasures in life available to everyone. You’re at the desk, staring at your screen, trying to make sense of a complicated spreadsheet, you let out a big sigh as your eyes wander from your screen and fix upon....the guy opposite and his weird looking computer face. His eyes squinting together, mouth scrunched together and nose wrinkled. The corners of your mouth start turning up, you cover your face with your hand and look away. You can’t help it, you look back, his brow furrows as his eyes squint even more, then his eyebrows rise up, culminating in a look of sheer bewilderment! Your mouth breaks into a full smile, you have to lower your head and distract yourself by fiddling with your pen pot.

The question is – what’s your computer face? I would suggest that you ask a colleague to determine this for you. They must of course catch you unawares. They could either snap a picture of it or perhaps give you a description or even an impression – although be warned this might result in foul-play.

For the unlucky people among us who have a bad computer face, do not fear, I have some tips to remedy the situation. Firstly, cover part of your face with your hand, as much as possible without restricting your view. Next, as soon as you feel the face emerging, smile with your lips together. Finally, identify someone in your office with a worse computer face than yours and quickly point at them should you come under the spotlight.

Whatever your computer face is, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. In a world determined to categorise us all by tick box forms it may be the last chance of individualism we have left. I say, embrace it, “embrace the computer face!”

Future of film and tv on the web

Posted by david on 4 December 2007 at 3:57 pm

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David Hart
Co-Founder

BLOG: Future of film and tv on the web

BLOG: Future of film and tv on the web

Future of film and tv on the web

We went to a talk last night, given mainly by broadcasters. Predictably the view was that broadcasters had a future in the changing landscape, but that the challenge was really how much they could get down with the kids.

In some ways, a bunch of middle aged men in Soho talking about how 14 year olds are going to be consuming media in a decade's time is probably more about them convincing themselves that they will still have a job then. But it did raise some interesting points.

It is only a matter of time before the broadcast quality of video on the internet, or on mobile phones will become the same quality as TV.  So broadcasters will lose their oligopoly in that sense. Which means they will be left with what? As far as I can see, they will be left with a budget to commission content and hopefully a way of shoe-horning their traditional advertising revenue model into new formats.

But there will be thousands of other people doing the same thing and in the way that YouTube doesn't rely on anything other than a search function and word of mouth, the decision when and what to watch will be impossible for the broadcasters to control on any way near the level they do currently.

The talk ended by everyone saying how exciting it was to be in our industry, and that everything is up for grabs. It IS exciting, but it's also pretty scary and the only certainty is that whatever we think we know or understand about media consumption today will no doubt look hopelessly naive in years to come.