Well to blog more really.. I have been far to busy.

Click the pix to see more..

www.flickr.com Documentally's SXSW photoset

Tags: film, sxsw, texas, austin

Tags: sxsw, texas, USA

Tags: sxsw, photography, USA, Flight

This place is massive.. Sorry to state the obvious but on flying in on the approach in it looked like we would never find the landing strip and would have to put down in one of the ample parking lots that seem to adorn the county sized shopping complex's sprawled beneath us.

It was dark and everywhere was built upon.. I had expected a little but of desert and perhaps the odd nodding donkey but no such luck.

Oh and how cool is this..?

Thanks to the wonders of blogging and the fact there are people that do actually read this, Bill a podcasting friend from the Florida Soap Box and also the Progressive Podcast Network (PPN) managed to hook up with me for a brief hello at Texas airport where we were getting picked up by our friend Kity Kity aka Susan.

For each of us it is the first time we had met a member of the PPN in the flesh and a great welcome for me to see a familiar face and hear a voice I have listened to for ages.

Myself and Phil Campbell are the guests of Kity Kity in Wylie, Texas before we head down to the interactive extravaganza that is South By South West (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, about 3-4 hours south of here.

Make sure you check out Bills blog at http://filthandthefury.blogspot.com
You can also follow/add bill on Twitter

He is a really decent guy and I hope we can grab a beer together soon!

So.. In amongst making content and recovering from the trip we are slowly getting excited for the week to come..

We have some cool apps on the horizon thanks to Phil's magic hands.. Watch this space!

I'd love to have taken the time to have written my thanks to Bill Cammack regarding his job as editor on the recent UNHCR Podcast I have been working on but now I have seen his blogging skills in full swing..

I am glad i stuck with a brief video and didn't embarrass myself.


When Bill talks about the connections made within social media I think he hits the nail on the head. So much so that you should just click this link and read his post. That way I can get on with my packing and preparations for my flight tomorrow to Austin, Texas and the massive festival that is SXSW.

Let me just say though.. All these places we spend time on allow us to converse with people in some ways on better terms that we could do in the flesh.

A couple of days ago I posted my 3000 video post on Seesmic and soon after was asked.. "Was it worth it?".

I answered that I would have happily posted 5000 posts in exchange for the chance to have made contact with half of the amazing people I have met through the site. It has taken many of my previous 'Twitter' connections to another dimension, as I choose what conversation I wish to get involved with, with whom and when.

How many conversations do you have in a day where you do not have the chance to choose those parameters?

I have been podcasting for a couple of years now and before that I was a heavy forum poster.. That said, I still feel I am very new to many of the intricacies of social media and with this in mind I am more than a little excited to what the future may hold.

Project Update:
Regarding the UNHCR project.. As I type this there are a few representatives in a small office in Amman, Jordan looking over it now. I hope to hear back soon and have a date where I can put it out there. Then, hopefully it will start a conversation and perhaps direct some help to some people that really need it.

Tags: Bill Cammack, UNHCR, seesmic, social networking, social media, twitter, Jordan, iraq, podcast

I have been playing with a video streaming mobile phone application called QIK (pronounced quick). This enables me to stream live video from my Nokia N95 straight to the web and simultaneously hold conversations with people viewing on Qik's site.

As you chat and explain what you are up to, little text comments scroll up onto your phone screen and a real time conversation is possible with anyone in the world who is viewing your video on Qik. As an added bonus as soon as you film you can notify anyone following you on twitter that you are live and as soon as you stop filming the video is also sent to Seesmic.

Not content with all that exposure I have also embedded the clip here below...

Tags: qik, twitter, iraq, seesmic, Jordan, journalism, amman, photography, phone, podcast, refugee, podcasting

Here is a turn up for the books..

Instead of grafting away at a podcast all of my own I have relied on the very professional skills of David Bailey over at The DFBMBE Podcast

I feel I am bowled over with my various projects at the moment so I am literally popping the url to his podcast in my feed. This not only saves me some valuble editing time but also helps me to introduce and thank a British podcaster who lives in Canada called David Bailey.

David kindly took the time to phone me up whilst I was working In Amman, Jordan and stole a few moments to record this brief interview. This may go a little way to explaining where I have been these last few weeks. Maybe it will even go some way to apologising in advance for my lackadaisical approach to podcasting as I finish up the project and get it over to the UNHCR.

David's content can be found at http://dfbmbe.wordpress.com and of course my podcast is at Documentally.com

You can also stream the podcast here.. DFBMBE Blog

Many thanks to Dave in taking the time to call me in jordan and for making the interview available as a podcast.

correction: During the interview i should have said... It is the largest refugee crisis to hit the Middle East in 60 years. We must not forget Afghanistan.

Tags: documentally, dfbmbe, amman, Jordan, podcasting, podcast, UNHCR

Since I went freelance about four, almost five years ago, I traded under the name 3rd Eye Photography. I still love it but the creation of this site and I guess.. brand 'Our Man Inside' brought together many of my projects and offerings under one roof.

Our man inside was an old blog going way back. Many of the original anonymous posts have been moved and hidden in another location to protect the names of the innocent. (Mainly me).

As I pack to fly to Jordan in the early hours of tomorrow I thought it reasonable for me to tell my clients I will be away and thought I would also take the opportunity to officially launch this new site and the direction I wish to take for the foreseeable future.

Photography is still my main focus (scuse the pun) and I feel it will always be my main passion. There are so many other skills I wish to expand upon and incorporate too.

I won't write late into the night as I am a little sleep deprived and I don't feel tomorrows flight to the Middle East will be the most conducive for sleep. So I have linked the pdf newsletter I sent out to a few clients at the end of this post.

Should anyone want to contact me from tomorrow night (the 14th) I will be on my Jordanian mobile.. +962 795 316 772 or the usual electronic places. I will warn you in advance though, communication may well be sporadic.

Please click the link to read the PDF..
OMI-rebrand

Tags: 3rd Eye Photography, photography, rebrand, blogging, podcasting, Jordan, assignment

It feels like it has been days since I last posted. It is days, weeks. Days and weeks spent on Seesmic.

This is what I wanted to talk about today.. Not the fact that I need to work on my time management, not that I have been short of bloggable inspiration, but the fact I am hooked on a new video blogging application I have been meaning to write about since my first 'seesmic post'.

Initially I saw Seesmic as a video-polaroid. A place to sound off in a timeline with a random thought, question or instance of craziness. Then as more and more pre-alpha testers were admitted, conversations started. Then it became more of a Video-Twitter.

Look it up on Wikipedia a few days ago and you would have seen nothing.. today it says "Seesmic is a video micro blogging web application in pre-alpha stage being developed by French Entrepreneur Loic Le Meur" And it was Loic that gave me my invite.

Phil Campbell mentioned it in a twitter post so I DM'ed Loic and moments later I was in. I think that being on twitter already may have helped as Loic did not know me from Adam. He has spent more time hanging out with Bush than he has talking to me..

So now as videos were being batted back and forth at close to real time speeds. Comments made and themes formed, I realized this wasn't just a chatroom I was looking at. These were multi dimensional people not too dissimilar to me and I was getting to know them in a face to face kind of way. In a far more personal manor than on any other social network. The international timezones crossed have tested my ability to survive on only a few hours sleep as i have been facinated with the threads and conversations spanning the globe.

It is still early days for 'seesmic' At the moment it is in Pre-Alpha release and the number of people signed up and online have formed a tight nit community posting snippets of their opinions from their home computers, from there work spaces and sometimes even out on the road streaming through 3g networks or public wifi.

I feel like I have been a part of seesmic for a lifetime and I feel like seesmic has taken a chunk of my life and placed it online for the world to see.

Whilst podcasting I had previously made a point of not giving too much away about my life or my opinion.. Seesmic has really brought out the Jeckell to my Hyde the yin to my Yang and I find it very therapeutic. Cathartic I guess.

I could go on and on but I won't, Seesmic is a different application to all who use it and to really find out about it's intricacies you need to be signed up and a part of the myriad conversations helically intertwined across the globe between anyone with an internet connection, a webcam on a computer.. and of course.. the golden ticket.

I feel I have so much to say.. but it's easier to show you.. to 'seesmic' it..

Check out the embedded post below and... "Seesmic ya later.."


Incidentally the Seesmic Crew have been kind enough to give me a couple of invites to pass on to anyone that has read this far and is willing to leave me a blog comment below telling me why they want to join Seesmic. Let me know..

If you want to see what I see.. Here you go..

Tags: seesmic, video blogging, internet, social networking, twitter, loic le meur

I still make an effort to read the paper but I couldn't help but notice this morning that whilst flicking through the Guardian magazines from yesterday, I seemed to need my macbook to supplement the supplements.

I love the touchy-feely experience of leaning over the paper with a coffee, skimming the bits that don't raise a brow and absorbing the others that do. Still, It was obvious I needed that extra dimension.

I know that if I don't check that link or search that person or view that trailer or check the price of that product.. I will forget and not get a grasp of the whole picture.

Feed reading is a new thing for me as up until a few months ago I hadn't found a feed-reader I liked. I try to avoid the homogenized world of google and was glad to stumble apon Vienna.

So today I was reading Stephen Fry's blog (which I subscribe to online anyway) and was fascinated by the 'Trevor Baylis Eco Media Player' he was talking about. It is the sort of device you will wish you have come the apocalypse and we are all living 'Mad Max' lives. A kind of windup hippy ipod with a torch, radio, phone charger, audio recorder and so on.. I got the gist of this amazing gadget but needed to see a photo to complete the picture. After 30 seconds I had not only viewed a selection of photos, but had also read some reviews and found an ethical superstore selling it for a much lower price.

With this mornings realisations I fear for the continuing purchases of my Saturday/Sunday paper. Perhaps I should have more faith in the RSS feed..

Tags: rss, feed, guardian, news, newspaper, print, gadgets, macbook, vienna

Everyday I see some new application, web based or downloadable that I didn't see the day before. I now am fully aware that for me to keep up with all these new cerebral arrivals I would need an army of clones and as many mac book pros.

Today in @sizemore's twitter post (tweet to those in the know) I saw a mini video he had made with a web app entitled Animoto.

Literally 2 minutes later I has sucked 15 music photos out of my flikr account and mixed them with some supplied music to produce this..

It wasn't even a a drag and drop affair, just a few clicks.. Where was all the messy editing.. where was the faffing about with cuts, timelines, titles and syncing?

The future is scary... Scary but very convenient.

p.s. The hairy guy with the camera at the start is not me.. It's 'Badly Drawn Boy' I am sat with Noel Gallagher on the last slide.

Tags: music, video, festivals, web 2.0, animoto, editing, Badly Drawn Boy, Noel Gallagher

Is it shallow of me that this current swing away from facebook makes me smile?

In particular, I read Deek's blog and felt a quiet internal fist punch the air whilst whisper-shouting "YES!"

I can't help but think it's all still too late for those that did have an account and have now deleted, as they have already signed away the rights to have their name extracted from wherever it may exist online. It is interesting that they say they reserve the right to extract your details from off line sources as well.. Are there any of those places left?

Years ago I remember seeing an exhibition in New York from an artist (sorry can't remember his name) who had patented the DNA from a select few of his friends. A painter, a sculptor and so on. He stated that with this new ownership he now possessed their individual artistic merits.

Obviously it was a statement against the use of DNA databases, but with the human gnome now technically being 'open source' If we can't own the right to our physical being, how on earth can we expect to keep a hold of the personal details of our life? It's as if by joining facebook we too have signed a copy of the Bermuda Principles.

There are those that would argue that a totally transparent society is the way to go. With DNA for scientific medial reasons I would have to agree making it 'open source' can do nothing but help us find all kinds of cures. But for our personal lives, (or whatever is left of them) rubbish.

Privacy helps us as individuals maintain our autonomy and individuality. We define ourselves by exercising power over our personal information.

Not to mention the functional benefits too. It protects our identities, not just from identity theft but also from repercussions for our political and religious beliefs. The Nazis found ID cards very helpful when it came to rounding people up.
I wrote a little in 'The Perfect Prison' about what happens to our minds and how we begin to behave when our privacy is slowly taken away from us.
I used to think that my home was a 'private' place but when I spend 70% of my waking hours online how much privacy do I think I really have.
Check out this short film on who's watching you..
There are not many 'private' places left. And now that policing has been brought right into out home.. do you have anywhere private to go?

Tags: social networking, facebook, surveillance, privacy, press, data mining, Deek Deekster, DNA

When I wrote this article back in June 2007 I got a few emails telling me to stop being paranoid and just assimilate like everyone else... In fact I got many more emails in defense of facebook than I received in support of my concerns.

Is the tide now turning? Or is there always going to be a miniature backlash against the corporate Goliath's?

Yesterday Jon Swifts blog post came up in my twitter stream posted by Deek Deekster.

It talks of an account closure due to a real name not being used and then a total backtracking turnaround by facebook.
I imagine facebook suddenly realized they were playing with fire by banning a prominent bloggers account and someone in marketing decided it would be better to reinstate it than to face a barrage of negative blog posts as they pop up all over the net. They need your REAL name to collect REAL data on the REAL you. Wouldn't is be wonderful if we all signed up with another account under a false name and used some kind of ip masking to hide our digital identities..

Would this make facebook effectivly worthless?

I have a facebook account but it pretty much lies dormant. I only really signed up to research the phenomenon and to prevent 'Johnny identity theft' from using my name instead of me.

Anybody harvesting data from it would be pretty bored by now. Apart from a few ignored pokes and zombie bites there is nothing really to see.

There are loads of more interesting, less in your face ways to network and yes, perhaps they may all one day all come under the great empirical umbrella that is google, but as it stands today.. Don't add me or ask me to join the 'facebook owns me and my life' group.


I don't spend any time there and I don't miss it.

More Facebook links to browse.. link link link link

Tags: facebook, social networking, orwell, big brother, privacy, internet, twitter, blogging, blog

I was listening to a podcast from the late great Philosopher Alan Watts and as my twitter stream passed before my eyes, his words just seem to fit.
He had a beard, I have a beard and the tweeting you can hear is that of the Bearded Tit.
(Pun Intended.)

Tags: philosophy, Alan Watts, social networking, twitter, Zen Buddhism, podcast, video

Well what can I say.. I was recently contacted by Iso Ban of the Blog 'Iso Ban's Journal'.

He is a listener to my Documentally podcast and dropped me a comment on my blog saying nice things and wanting to know how he could support the podcast..

Rather than say "Cold hard cash please.." I saw that he was pretty handy in the design department and hinted I was looking for a new logo.

Two days later I was inundated with design concepts that I really liked. Now I am spoilt for choice and as I decide which logos I want to utilize, I will be pondering how generous certain artists and new media folk are.

First Deek Deekster comes to the rescue with some quality hosting and now Iso Ban zips some logos to me from the other side of the world. I am inspired and very grateful.

I really should get some more podcasts out..



p.s. I have already had some very swanky vinyl stickers made.. Keep your eyes open on a hand drier or telephone box near you.. Or drop me a postal address and I will send one. (While stocks last).

Tags: Iso Ban, Deek Deekster, logo design, support, podcast

I am a Twitterholic, that is I use the application 'Twitter' every day. I have met some great people and find it my favorite social networking site. If you have never heard of it, then Wikipedia explains it as such:

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service, instant messaging, email, or an application such as Twitterrific. Twitter was founded in March 2006 by San Francisco start-up company Obvious Corp.Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone is the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, email or through an application.

In addition to that outline I found these two decent articles.. Article one and Article two.

Due to Twitter's success, a large number of sites imitating its concept have sprung up around the world. There have also been a number of other sites cropping up utilizing a mashup of twitter profile details and pictures. TwitterPoster.com is one of these sites.
It is basically a montage of twitter posters avatars sized relative to the numbers of followers each member has and how many posts they make.

As soon as I saw it I thought, Hey up.. If people actually give a damn about appearing on this site we will soon see an influx of posters posting crap for the sake of it and people trawling for followers in a myspace type 'please love me..add me as a friend', kind of way.
Luckily this hasn't happened.. Well not in my circle of Twitter friends.

TechCrunch said TwitterPoster is pretty but not much else and although I would like to see a little more statistical information mixed in with a little more imagination, I still was inspired enough to create my own spoof...

This is how I see TwitterPoster...

As TwitterPoser.. (i.e. Look how big my avatar is.)

Tags: twitter, twitter poster, twitter poser, wikipedia, social networking

In a time of everybody photographing everything