Public Radio and TV - More than a Mashup

January 16, 2008 at 8:17 am · Filed under Andy Carvin, CPB, Emergent, NPR, NPR Music, PBS, Public Media, Relationships, Social Media, Social Networking, Social Objects, TV, Trusted Space, Web 2.0, Wisdom of Crowds

Wouldn’t it be something if Public TV and Radio got together to cover the election? Would it be great if the local stations got together with the big producers to cover the election?

Well it’s more than a dream now - CPB is funding just such a Mashup - The beginning I think of the key new force in public media - a Real Network of Many to Many.

Many of us had had a problem wit the term “Network” in Radio and TV. What it really means is one powerful producer using a system to distribute its product. Of course a real network is a diverse multi node system that where many nodes add value to the whole.

This is what is being “born” in Public radio and TV. Our hope a year ago was that the Election would be a powerful enough incentive to help the current large players to grit their teeth and really share and work with each other. This is working.

Here is Andy Carvin with the story.

Earlier today, NPR and its partners announced that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is awarding more than $1.3 million dollars to a consortium of public media organizations to expand our coverage of election 2008 across multiple platforms. The consortium, led by NPR and including American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio, Capitol News Connection, KQED, PBS, PRX, PRI/Public Interactive and The NewsHour, will work together to produce election-related content and interactive tools available to the entire public broadcasting system.

“By pooling content produced locally and nationally — for radio, television, and online — we will discover new ways of doing business to better serve the public,” said NPR CEO Ken Stern in a note that went out today to the public radio system. “We are pleased to have succeeded in coming together to deliver on the commitments made at the 2007 Annual Meeting.”

“This grant underscores CPB’s support of innovative projects that move public radio and television into the digital future so they can help individuals better connect with their communities wherever they are,” added Pat Harrison, CPB President and CEO. “This ambitious project will provide us with new ways of looking at how we serve the public on existing and emerging media platforms.”

The basic premise of the project was built around a simple reality - many public broadcasters were planning to create on air content and interactive modules for their websites, but we didn’t have a structure in place to work together during the election cycle. Around a year ago, NPR and PBS began conversations around editorial partnerships for the election, including the creation of an interactive map that would work on both of our websites, as well as on the TV show NewsHour. While that conversation was taking place, I co-organized a group discussion at the February 2007 Integrated Media Association conference for public broadcasters to talk about the Election 2008 social media plans and how those activities might be replicable across the system.

The conversation kicked into high gear at NPR’s annual meeting last April, where you may recall I blogged about some of the ideas that were brewing among those of us present at the event. We organized breakout conversation in which we laid out what was at stake and how we might collaborate. It didn’t take long to realize that we had an opportunity that might quickly slip through our fingers if we couldn’t get our act together. We needed to pull together a SWAT team and get to work……….

Now with NPR Music - we are seeing a real network emerging. With a real network, there will come the network effects for all concerned.

Comments

Getting to Maybe - A backstory of the effort required to cooperate

November 7, 2007 at 9:26 am · Filed under Change, Culture, Enterprise 2.0, Hylton Joliffe, NPR, NPR Music, New Realities, Public Media, Relationships, Social Media, Wisdom of Crowds

Hylton sent me a link today that discussed the relative values of a range of social technologies in helping shift organizations to become more cooperative.

My experience is that in organizations and between organizations that trust has to come first.

I wrote earlier this week of the pre-work that occurred at NPR leading to the the brilliant new Music site.

Here is a reprise of the post I made at the conclusion of that work. I offer it up to show you how hard this is - even after all of this - even after it was clear that 300 stations saw the same predicament, saw the same threats, saw the same things to do - ONLY 12 could cross the chasm and try and work with each other on this - a project that EVERYONE has said that they thought was a good one. It also took a year longer to pull of than any had imagined.

Have you ever given up a lifetime habit? Say smoking, fast food, sugar, alcohol?

Technology such as the Patch, gum, diets are useful tools - but they don’t drive the change. Why should we think that social media will drive change in organizations when control is the main cultural habit?

This is why we are finding that UFIT works so well - on the surface there is a tool - the exercise - but it is wrapped in the key to cultural change - a supportive social network of peers

Comments

The New NPR Music Site - A Model for Social Media

November 6, 2007 at 8:18 am · Filed under Enterprise 2.0, NPR, NPR Music, New Realities, Public Media, Social Media, Trust, Trusted Space

NPR launched its new Music site yesterday. I spent much of yesterday walking around and playing in it - yes it’s a complex world not a “site”.

I am really impressed as I hope that you will be too. It really does allow for an informed “discovery” for instance when I listened to a new recording of Elgar’s cello concerto, it took me to the incomparable Jacqueline Du Pre, to articles on Elgar and to many other pieces. All can easily be played and put onto my own playback list with an exceptional Flash Player - no more WMF!!!!!

Most musical tastes are met. As are many different “views” - Not only can you listen to recordings but also concerts and view video. Not only can you establish a personal playlist but you can buy music too. You can also tap into the streams of up to 12 stations - many of whom have a global reputation in the field

Not only can you hear music but you can hear informed discussion about music.

For me the site offers the current ideal in a social media site

• It’s a complex world but with intuitive navigation that not only allows you to find what you are looking for but also to discover things that you were not! So you tend to spend hours there. As the site builds - so will its complexity and your ability to hang about there for long times
• It’s a personal world - you can shape it to meet your own needs both in terms of taste and time and control
• It’s interactive with many open and informative blogs
• It can grow as more stations join and has the potential to become the major music site in the world - it demonstrates the mutual value of cooperation that exceeds the early coop venture in podcasting - for here each new addition adds to the over complexity and hence life of the system.

So how did this come about? That is itself a story.

I think that the key was a decision by a few brave NPR folks over 2 years ago that they did not know what to do.  I am finding the the most inviting and most successful beginning to find the new way is to accept ignorance.

Not only did they accept that they did not know, but that intuitively understood that maybe most did not know either BUT that if they genuinely asked the stations, an answer might emerge.

They also knew that they had to get some help to enable them to do this - they needed a few (They got 3) people who were not selling a solution either but who could help build the conditions of trust to have a huuuuge conversation so that the “Wisdom of Crowd” could be heard.
In later posts, I would like to talk a bit about what happened. For look at the results:

• The NPR Music site is truly a child of the process
• It is truly cooperative
• It hits a bullseye for design and outcome
• It is the new standard for a social media site and very importantly supporting organization

For me the key to any organization seeking to do the same is to build the requisite trust with some of the parties.
I have found that building trust is dependent on building a shared context, a shared language and a shared understanding of that is going on. This includes getting the elephants out into the open. Just talking does not do this - we found that people had to do things with each other to create this trust.

Then some key ideas emerge - they literally float up. They do not belong to anyone - that is their power. But they are seen as being true by many. By being owned by all, there is no owner barrier to the idea and this seems a precondition to joint action.
Then it takes more hard work still than anyone could imagine - I had hoped that the music site would have been ready a year ago. I was naive. Even with the best preconditions, moving to the new reality is exceptionally hard to do.

The product is all about technology. But the process to getting there is not. More later

Comments