The Value of Truth in Transmedia

There are many important aspects to consider when starting out creating a transmedia property. There is creating the mythology, the narrative superstructure, as deep and rich as possible. There is timing all different releases, and making sure the right things get released on the right platforms. There is securing a sound financial basis to stand on – i.e., where’s the money going to come from?

Every aspect is vital, some to the core of the story being told, some to the framework around the story that lets it find its’ audience and gives its’ creators and producers funds to work with to take the story in the direction it is supposed to go.

But since everything about a transmedia project, in my opinion, goes back to the need to engage an audience and give them the best experience possible, I’ve found truth to be the most important aspect.

”Truth” in transmedia, as I see it, is the simple fact that everything needs to fit. The things that do not fit must also fit, as non-fitting parts (carefully planned, naturally) or be re-developed or omitted. We as human beings can tell when things are not as they should be, when they are not true. We might have been conditioned to set aside our beliefs, or willingly believe in certain things, but if we just let our instincts guide us, we mostly have the gut feeling of what’s wrong and what’s right, what’s ”True” and what’s false.

”Truth” in transmedia is keeping in mind that platforms do not matter, OS or programming languages do not matter. What matters is the story and that the users experience it the way you as the creator/producer planned for it to be experienced.

”Truth” in transmedia is a fragile thing. It can be shattered by a wrongly worded tweet from a character in a series. It contains a lot of pitfalls – and I know from my own experience that you, as a developer, will fall into many of them. The trick is to recognize when you’re in a pit and quickly get your ass out of there before anyone notices. You might need help to climb out of the pit. You might experience resistance, in the form of partners, sponsors, financiers, directors. But you know what ”truth” means in your creation. Stick to that.

Tools for Transmedia part three - WireWAX

I first laid my eyes on WireWAX’s technology for producing clickable videos at this years (2010) Pixel Lab in Cardiff in July. Paulina Tervo of WriteThisDown Productions had used the technology for her documentary work on the Ethiopian village of Awra Amba, adding clickable sections that nicely and seamlessly let you know more about the subject at hand, communicate with the people of the village or take you to a shop to buy goods from the village. All in all, really neat and handy.

The really funky thing, technologically wise, is that everything is embedded in the video itself, you can take the video to any site anywhere and all the clickable things are the same. It’s a stand-alone solution that seems really really nice.

Since I talked to the guys and saw the service for the first time, WireWAX has taken off a bit more. No wonder, as the service to me seems like a no-brainer. If you want to show a video online, why wouldn’t you want to engage the audience more? There are so many possibilities, especially with touch screen devices, to bring the audience deeper into your storyworld and engage and excite them.

There is certainly the artistic view to be taken into consideration; one should not tamper with a video created to convey a message or a feeling. On the other hand, if the video (as all transmedia properties should be) is developed with all the different parts, technologies and storytelling devices integrated from the beginning, in this case the WireWAX technology, then that sorts the artistic issue out. The end result is also guaranteed to be better.

As for how to use the WireWAX technology in transmedia storytelling, I can see many possibilities. The creators talk of clicking oneself on to the next video in a narrative sequence; I think that it could be used in online treasure hunts (”looking for clues”) or in deepening the understanding of the storyworld that we want the users/audience to immerse themselves into (think a segment of ”Avatar”, filmed like a scientific / documentary film, with clickable sections that launches explanatory videos narrated by Sigourney Weaver, for instance). Or something much simpler – or more advanced.

I’d have a couple of requests, as a developer – if there isn’t already, there would be nice to have the possibility to ”hide” the highlighted areas, making it more of an exploration mission to find what to click. Also, it’d be seriously funky if the clicks could launch stuff outside the window – this might be a big nono, but if it isn’t, I’d like that.

For some additional comments on the service, please read these insightsful posts. And WireWAX – congratulations!

Transmedia in 2020 AD

(The background: our third child, a baby girl, was born on the 15th of December. Now, I’ve watched my other kids, born in 2000 and 2004 respectively, take to the new media landscape as if they’ve never done anything else before (which they haven’t, come to think of it ☺ ), mastering iPhones and iPads within minutes, watching VOD as naturally as any tv series and so on. As I watch that little infant live her first days on this Earth, I start to wonder what her world will look like, when she’s of the age of our older daughter. That’s where this post comes from, playing the part of Nostradamus for a brief while. And, yeah, take it all with a pinch of salt (although I WILL take credit for anything that turns out to be accurate :) )

AP / Reuters

As the year 2020 comes to an end, the eyes and ears of the world once again turn to the Annual Transmedia Academy Awards (ATAA). This year the host city of choice was Auckland, New Zealand. In their motivation for the, in many industry people’s eyes, strange choice of venue, The Transmedia Academy had previosly stated that

”… we wish to embrace the principles of transmedia also in our arrangements, showing that the powers of transmedia storytelling can bring the farthest corners of the world together at once, even in connection with a live awards event like this. Auckland, New Zealand, is therefore a natural choice and we are thrilled to meet you all there, live or virtually in late December!”

The award categories include ”Best ARG”, where the innovative LARP / mobile gaming / online adventure ”Natives”, where people around the world take on the roles of their native ancestors in a Sid Meyers ”Civilization” type of world domination game, is the overwhelming favorite.

A new category this year is the ”Collective Creation” Award. The description for the category states that ”for a long time, ever since transmedia became a widely acknowledged term in the late ’00s, the collective effort has been taken almost for granted. Creators have counted on the audience involvement, producers have relied on input and UGC from devoted fans and so on. At the Transmedia Academy we feel it is time to acknowledge the importance of creating transmedia storytelling collectively, with other professionals as well as with the public, and have therefore included this category in the proceedings for this years awards.”

The Awards ceremony will be held on the 27th of December 2020, at 20.00 Pacific Time.

Background: Transmedia became a household term in the early 2010s. Since then, the transmedia storytelling principles have intergrated themselves into all aspects of society, from education to business, from pre-school to university, from entertainment to industry. Although there had been a number of relatively successful transmedia ventures prior to 2011, it was the multi-billion dollar generating transmedia campaign ”Spy Game” that let loose the full powers of transmedia on the general audience in late 2011. ”Spy Game” began as a graphic novel, a book trilogy and a high-profile tv series from HBO, letting the audience take part of the storyline by adding themselves as characters and participating online or via mobile phones. With a 10 million dollar global cash prize up for grabs and a program to support and promote collective efforts over national boundaries, it was the first transmedia project to generate over 200 million dollar in revenue and has up until today grossed more than 400 million. The Transmedia Academy was founded in 2012, and funded partly by donated money from the ”Spy Game” project. The Annual Transmedia Academy Awards have been held since 2012. (Source: Wikipedia)

Holiday hiatus....

.... with holidays fast approaching and a newborn baby girl in the house I will now take a couple of weeks off to concentrate on things that are NOT transmedia NOR cross media or any kind of media at all.

Hope you have a Merry Christmas and a successful 2011!

What makes a good transmedia format?

It is very encouraging to see how quickly transmedia has become a trend that not only is a buzzword or a hype, but rather a phenomenon that seems to grab peoples’ attention and imagination and spur them on to think in new ways, create new things and talk to new people.

There are still probably as many definitions of transmedia as there are people talking about transmedia. These are not necessarily differing all that much from each other, but rather in a nuance here or a nuance there. It’s all good though; we should all fear the day when we have the definite definition of what transmedia is. That’s the day when it’s time to start doing something else.

It’s not just talk either. A growing number of people are starting to venture into the field of transmedia to tell their stories. These range from major multi-million dollar ventures to small dramas or documentaries with next to no financial power behind them. Some will fail, even amongst the colossal ones, but some will succeed magnificently, even amongst the small ones – such is the way of the storytelling business.

As more and more projects are being developed, there seems to be a need to look beyond the ”what is transmedia?” or ”why transmedia?” to the much harder ”should I and this project go into transmedia?”.

From my personal point of view, I know that some of the projects I work on lend themselves nicely to transmedia development. Building the mythology, developing a canon, working on different storylines to be told via different platforms – even if it is a documentary, a music show or even a game show, it is quite possible. On the other hand, I know that some other projects – good projects, in and of themselves! – would not benefit from a transmedia treatment. They are stories that either would not be enhanced by expanding the universe they exist in, or stories that would carry a much too hefty price tag, should a transmedia development and implementation take place.

Some people in the transmedia field were kind enough to give me their opinion on the matter, and there is a pattern, at least so far. Tyler Weaver – do check out Whiz!Bam!Pow!, a project I’m looking forward to seeing more of – was of the opinion that the story was the most important feature. As he said:

- The most important thing - a good story. I just want a good story well told. If I want to welcome the characters into my home (good or bad), it's a good story that I want to revisit.

We all probably agree with this. It has to be a good story, for there to be anything to build around. It also needs to be a story that can have a mythology, a universe of its own (even if it is our own, real universe we’re talking about). If it’s a thin story, or unengaging, or linear withour the possibility of other storylines touching it, there’s just no way it would ever make a good transmedia entity. (I do, btw, love that definition of a character in a story – ”if I would want to welcome them into my home” – and will happily start using it to gauge the characters in my stories).

Sparrow Hall, of Nightworks and Two Blue Wolves fame, shared his beliefs:

- What attracts me to transmedia: the ability to inhabit the environment/vibe of a story, to see deeper into characters. What engages me with transmedia: seeing how consistent art direction and tonality is achieved over multiple mediums. Subtlety. High production value even with little to no budget. Authenticity of feeling/language. Also the multiplatform aspect needs to feel compelling/enriching, not just a device to continue.

Many things to agree with. Also, naturally, the possibility to offer many entrypoints, as well as exit points, to and from your story universe, to let the users/viewers/audience participate, either freely or via the Swiss cheese model and to, through all these actions, find new stories where you thought there were no more stories to be told.

So, to apply this on what one should do when assessing a development project; if there is a reason for there to be more than one platform involved, and the content on these platforms are unique but can be and is being developed together, that is a good sign for a transmedia property. If you can see how the audience can participate, and to what degree, and if you can see this ”spread” of the story happening even without big bucks behind it, you’re even further on the road to a transmedia winner (or at least a doable project :-)

I’ll leave the last word of this post to Stephen Dinehart, who commented on the current hype around transmedia:

- I think perhaps the best way to see through the hype is not to listen to it. Just create.

So, let’s go out there (or, stay in here for that matter) and create. I'm really looking forward to the next few years.

Transmedia - destroying or enhancing franchises?

I just read this excellent post on how a transmedia take on expanding a franchise can ruin the franchise beyond redemption. It rings absolutely true and is a danger that we all should be aware of.

From my point of view, which then would be the point of someone who has been developing formats for interactive television, cross media and transmedia since 2005, we need to make a distinction between transmediating an existing franchise and developing a transmedia property from scratch. That is what we found very quickly with the first interactive tv formats we developed, amongst them The Space Trainees, a childrens cross media language training game show set in space (Emmy-nominated this year, yay!). It started out as a show for interactive television, via set-top-box interactivity. While trying to integrate interactivity into the flow of the show, we found that we had to take several steps back to be able to integrate the interactivity in a logical way that did not disrupt the story we were trying to tell.

The same goes for any transmedia venture I can think of. As discussed in the post linked above, there is often a major danger of the ”cashing in on the success”-factor taking over. We used to call it ”slap-on interactivity”, when interactive services had been implemented in a late stage of the development and just slapped on as an extra layer on top of the show or the story. That was what it felt like as well, an extra layer that hindered you more than it enabled you. With any sort of existing franchise going into transmedia this rings true; make sure what new things you offer are integrated into the mythology, the storyworld, make sure they add to the canon of the storyworld and do not detract from it and make sure it all fits in a very logical way.

Now, the best thing is of course to start a transmedia property from scratch. In that way, as we ourselves quickly realized, you can let the different parts influence each other to create a logical and engaging whole. And I absolutely agree with the points about keeping the creative(s) in the loop - they know the story and the story world, and are the ones best equipped to see if a new addition fits storywise or not. So, just to find the proper story then, I guess!

Posting elsewhere

As I have written about earlier, I'm blogging over at ReedMIDEMs MIPBlog as well. Just did a short piece showcasing interesting transmedia projects, past, present and future. I guess I could post a copy here, but that wouldn't feel fair to them, so here's the link instead :)

Funding transmedia - a comment

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the debate in the comments on Simon Pulman’s post commenting on the presentation of the ARG Perplex City at the NYC Transmedia meetup a couple of days ago. Andrea Phillips presented the work they had been doing on the ARG, which in itself is an impressive and inspiring talk. The live stream is still up here.

Now, if you read the discussion, you can see two slightly conflicting points – the need to create great content and thus gain a loyal following that will interact, and the need to have someone stump up the money to pay for all that great content and the work you put into it. I think this is more and more the case now; back in the days a tv show could be bought straight up by a television channel, who paid what it cost to produce it. Nowadays you can’t make much of anything without a sound business plan as the foundation.

This is how it should be, I think. Yes, there should be creative freedom. Yes, there should NOT be intrusive ads that interfere with the story being told. But creating a viable business plan is as challenging creatively as creating the content itself, in many cases. It just juggles other parts of your brain, which can only be a good thing.

I also find that there is a shift going on in how people experience brands connecting to content they are attracted to. It is not about making people realize that they have to pay for great content, it’s simply about making people realize that great content can’t be made for free. The currency that your audience is paying you with for access to the great content (be it tv, ARGs, comics, webisodes, whatever) is not €€ or $$, it’s their time. This time of theirs, willingly given to you as the creator as payment for your work (strangely enough, even though their time is the only currency they can’t get more of in any way. Your content must be great!) is something that you can then sell onwards, to get the necessary funding in to make your project a financially viable one.

The trick is, of course, to do it with taste. I find for instance the writings on Propagation Planning quite interesting in this aspect, resonating well on a number of points with the workings of a transmedia producer. I also think a near-brutal honesty will work in many cases. Openly state that ”hey, we’re doing this, but we’ve only got funds up until three weeks from now. We’re working to bring in a brand, so don’t be startled if you see everyone changing to Toyotas all of a sudden, ok?”. If they like what you make – and they will, right? – then they’ll like you making more of it as well.

Users, meet Story. Story, meet Users.

Disclaimer: some of my posts are down-to-earth stuff from a developers point of view. Others, like this one, are more of the rambling-philosophically-late-at-night kind of stuff. In those cases, this acts more like a notebook to jot down thoughts I'd otherwise forget. If someone else also finds something of use, that's brilliant.

There are two levels to it. On one level the stories are made up. But they're made up for a reason, and the reason has to do with a different kind of truth. It has to do with emotional and spiritual truths. It is a way of trying to use a lie, which is the story, to approach some deeper, more spiritual sense of truth. I don't mean truth with a capital T; I just mean small kinds of truth.
-Tim O'Brien

When creating a transmedia property, no matter what kind – be it drama, be it a documentary, be it a music property or just about anything else – producers (me included) tend to think of their target group. What will they like? What will excite them? What will turn them on, engage them and make them jump into the story? We perhaps even conduct research into the target groups to glean more information on what they really really think, what they’d like and which solution they’d prefer over all other solutions.

Then we tweak our stories, our worlds, our properties, so that they fit, thus creating a transmedia property in the same way as people in the industry have been doing traditional media for decades.

What strikes me as a transmedia truth of sorts, is that we are not only talking of the Users meeting the Story. In a transmedia setting, it’s as much, or more, about the Story meeting the Users.

Now, this can be very stressful for a newly–launched, young and insecure Story. As I think we all know from school, Stories don’t reach their full size until well into the third season. Until then, they easily fall prey to larger Stories or succumb to over-hyping, low ratings or the No-Hit Syndrome that has been plaguing many of the latest herds of Story-younglings.

Attenboroughisms aside, and again as in so many of my posts relating back to what I’m working on myself, I feel many transmedia projects forget this. The Story needs to be influenced by the Users, and the Users must feel that they have influenced the Story on a fundamental level, for there to be genuine trust and commitment.

Re: the quote at the beginning – I believe that we can use the lies (or the creative stuff) that all good stories are made up of to approach our audience, our users. I believe that in a transmedia setting, the small truths Tim O’Brien talks about are all the more apparent, allowing an audience to see or sense the truths embedded in the content and engaging them more. That’s also how I view the need for a Story to be able to change after meeting the Users. The truths at the core should stay the same, but the story, the lies, around – they can change.

Some good posts that made me think of these things - Andrea Phillip's post on ARGs and dancing with audiences, and Robert Prattens slides on Transmedia audience angagement and content strategy. Good reads!

Tools for Transmedia part two – ThingLink

There are so many services and tools out there that could be used to enhance a transmedia property, enable creators to implement new solutions or just plain make it easier to do what you want to do with your story. A service that could be a good tool to implement for producers and creators alike is ThingLink, a venture from Ulla-Maaria and Jyri Engeström (of Jaiku / Google fame).

ThingLink is a fairly simple tool, allowing you to tag photos. As the ThingLink ppl say themselves, it’s ”a product identification tool that makes it easy to add clickable tags to any image on the web and share the tagged images on social networks.” What it means is that it enables you to use elements in pictures to help you tell more of a story in a quicker, better streamlined and more logical way than for instance hyperlinking stuff.

It looks something like this:




ThingLink is mostly geared towards advertisers and brands, which might want to have an easy way to forward interested customers to “more info” or “webshop”. But as I see it, it is a tool that can and should also be used for transmedia storytelling.

It’s a very handy tool if you as a creator want to keep a part of your story that you publish online to be based on, for example, just one full screen picture, ThingLinking your audience to different aspects, different storylines etc. It’s also possible to get a mass-tagging version of the tool, although I would feel the impact of one high-res, full screen, detailed image would be more attractive than a number of pics. It could be the entry point to everything you're offering online, or just a small piece of a much bigger puzzle - the ease with which you can implement it makes it a good tool.

I just have one small favor to ask of the developers - please include some sort of stealth mode, so that you can implement the tagging but without the spots on the picture. That would turn it into a great big Easter Egg hunt, which from a storytelling perspective is oh so much more fun!

And, yeah, it’s free to use btw. I’ll leave the rest up to your imagination and creativity.

Tools for Transmedia part one - Storify and Shadow Cities

There are a growing number of services and tools available for people who want to create transmedia projects, tools that not only give creators a new way to get their stories out to people but also juggles the creative parts of peoples’ brains (in a good way, I might add!) Here are two quite different ones, Storify and Shadow Cities.

Storify is a ”real-time curation service” that lets a user build his/her own story from a number of sources (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube etc) and insert own comments to create a kind of a story around a subject. It’s easy to handle – what I found is that the most time-consuming part is finding the most meaningful content and arrange them so that the pieces fit together nicely and logically. In a way, it’s very much like writing a blog post, but more handy in many ways – not bothering with embedding, searches possible through the same interface etc.

A brief video explaining the concept:



As for using Storify in a transmedia project, a couple of the things that immediately sprung to mind were, for instance

• curating the storyworld, by being able to in one place give people access to the different narrative strands in a logical and informative (and why not entertaining!) way
• encourage users to use the service to glean new information from seamingly non-connected pieces of content (could be as crude as the classic ”take the first letter of every sentence in the five articles written on the subject and see what they combine too” or something more elaborate)

There are, I’m sure, a number of other ways to use Storify in a transmedia setting. It’s an easy tool that gives quick results that can be easily distributed to a huge number of users/followers. That in itself should be attractive to transmedia creators!

The other service is from the other end of the spectra. The iPhone game ”Shadow Cities” was launched by Grey Area of Finland a little over a week ago. It’s a game that uses OpenMap as the basis, and then puts a magical layer on top of the real world, a layer where the user participates as a wizard of sorts.

You sign up as a wizard for one of two sides; the Animators (or ”Hippies”, as the opposition usually calls them) or Architects (affectionally called ”Drones” by some of the Animators). Then the battle is on, to conquer Gateways that give you energy, to fight and catch Spirits, to Research new Mana Potions, to advance in levels and gain new Spells, and so on. Through Beacons you can jump anywhere in the world, even though the game is only realeased on the Finnish App Store as of yet. (It’s GPS-based, so where ever you are in the real world, that’s where you are in Shadow Cities when you log on. Turning on the app in a crowded place in a big city can very well land you in the middle of a serious magical fight… which is great fun! )

Now, the background story is flimsy to say the least. I do not think anyone has any idea about why we do what we do (yes, I’ve been playing it since it was released, addictive it is, yes!) apart from the need for there to be a struggle between two opponents for there to be the necessary competition. There are also some flaws in the game mechanics, but these are being corrected (hopefully) continously, so there is bound the be many improvements over the coming months.

This game does juggle the transmedia creative brain quite a lot, I must say. If the game engine would be licensable, there is no end to the fun we could have with this app. Think of being the Harry Potter of the real world, throwing ”real” spells as you move through the physical world, fighting monsters and evil stuff along the way (or be a Death Eater, if that’s your thing). Or connect it to something like TRON or The Sorcerer’s Apprentice or suchlike; why not the Underworld property or just about any story where there already is implemented the idea of a ”layer” on top of our regular world.

Do check Shadow Cities out, when you get the chance. Here’s a short explanatory video to give you an idea of what it’s about (mind you, playing it for a week, there is a lot less running around and a lot more farming Gateways....)

Transmedia - the jigsaw puzzle

From the first time I laid my eyes on Robert Pratten’s picture defining transmedia (slide 6 here), it made sense. When we started out creating formats some five-six years ago, interactive television was the rage. In Finland, where I work, MHP (Multimedia Home Platform) was the chosen platform for set-top-box interactivity. What baffled me from the beginning was the limits imposed on creators and users by that platform. It was like being taken back in time to the days when, as a teenager, I was excited about installing Windows 3.1 on a 386. The possibilities were not only decidedly not endless, they were very few to start with.

From the outset, we have worked along the principles that what we create and combine should make sense. Much as a narrative in any regular tv series, movie or documentary, the human mind is used to stories being told in a certain manner. You can tweak this manner of telling; if you do, however, you’d better have it thoroughly planned and tested from the start, and know what you’re doing. The end result might very well turn everyone away from the story you’re trying to tell otherwise.

The same applied (and still applies) to interactive television. What is created must fit logically with all other parts of the narrative, so as not to deter anyone interested in the story. With MHP-interactivity, this was nearly impossible. The slow connection, the weak processors, the slap-on effect… all added up, so that in the end we had to compromise the story, in order to be able to implement the interactivity. The end result? Working interactive television, yes, but nothing to write home about in terms of exciting end result.

Going back to the jigsaw analogy, I can see that what we were trying to do back then was to make a jigsaw puzzle with an axe as the only tool. End result? Four square pieces that a 3-year-old could fit together in under ten seconds. Yes, it was a puzzle. Yes, it fit together logically. No, it was not exciting. No, it was not what we wanted to do.

Looking at transmedia and the state of interactive platforms and possibilities today, not only do we creators have access to a multitude of tools that give us the possibility to make the most intricate jigsaws we can imagine (while of course risking that 90% of the populace give up halfway through the 10.000 piece puzzle, leaving the jigsaw in a box in a closet somewhere), we can also choose material to work with almost freely – heavy materials for stories that should stay put, light materials for stories we want to be spread. We can also hire the best artists possible to paint our jigsaw to be an absolutely beautiful creation. And it is increasingly possible to send some tools to the users themselves, letting them play around with the jigsaw and create their own pieces, or paint pieces we deliberately left unpainted with pictures of their own.

There’s never been a better time to make jigsaws!

Transmedia - the Story, the Experience and the Needs

When Paul Burke commented on a post of mine a week ago he mentioned that there is a subtle difference between the story and the experience. That thought has been nagging away at the back of my head for a bit, so I decided to elaborate slightly on the matter.

At MediaCity, we have a number of very competent people working at our UX laboratory, doing research into user experience. Looking at stuff they put out is always enlightening, even when it doesn’t touch on your project directly. They’ve been talking a lot about the Needs of people and these Needs connection to User Experience. In my mind it feels very true, that taking these Needs into account while developing transmedia will result in a better User Experience in the end.

The Needs in question are six different ones (out of ten, developed by Sheldon et al); Autonomy, Relatedness, Competence, Stimulation, Influence and Security. My colleagues did a study last year, available here, that looks into these different Needs with regards to using interactive products and media. It’s a good read!

So, to look at these Needs and how to apply them to a transmedia development process,:

- Autonomy. This is a Need closely related to ”being real”, being oneself. Also to the flexibility of the product – can I use it anywhere, as it suits me? One good example right now is the as-of-yet only available in Finland iPhone social game Shadow Cities; I can play it anywhere at anytime over my iPhone, connected to the real world via OpenMaps, and it really enhances my Autonomy IMHO.

- Relatedness. The Need to feel connected to a bigger whole, a group of friends, the place where you grew up… basically, your place in the world and in the story (and in the storyworld, of course!)

- Competence. The Need to master stuff, to feel that you can handle what’s thrown at you. No matter if it’s cracking a code on a website or just finding the website in the first place; it’s the feeling of being competent and up to the task. (I.e. don’t make it too hard for people to master your challenges!)

- Stimulation. The Need that is most closely connected to creativity – the interaction with others or with media (or with the challenges you pose them in your transmedia narrative) spurs people on and stimluates them. Given the opportunity to express oneself brings out hte creativity in people. (Leave sandboxes for people to express themselves in!)

- Influence. The Need that is about reaching out to others, to communicate, to feel connected. Your users will want to be part of a whole, but also be able to influence that whole in some way.

- Security. This last Need is closely connected with experiencing that things work the way they should. A coffeemaker fills this Need, as it always works. It also fills the need in a different way, as it is a familiar machine, thereby strengthening the feeling of Security. The feeling that everything is as it should be. Conclusion: you might very well include things that don’t work, or hoax people, or make things be NOT as they should be – but plan for that and be aware of this need, Perhaps your users need a sancturay somewhere?

Feel free to expand on these ideas – I know many of them are applicable to our work right now, so I would imagine they could help some others on the way as well.

Creating a Transmedia Symphony

I re-read the article in Wired on transmedia today, and found it as good a read as the first time. Coming to the last paragraph I read Jeff Gomez’s comment about transmedia and the birth of a new Mozart, ”We are going to see visionaries who understand the value of each media platform as if it’s a separate musical instrument, who’ll create symphonic narratives which leverage each of these multimedia platforms in a way that will create something we haven’t encountered yet.”

This rings true for me as an analogy of what many of us are trying to create. The question that popped up in my head was, however, “but hey, how do you create a “normal” symphony?”. Lo and behold, a Google search later I found this wikihow on, yes, how to create a symphony. After reading it, the analogy rings truer still. So, to translate the creation of a “normal” symphony to the creation of a transmedia symphony, these would/could be the steps to take:

1. Before considering creating a transmedia symphony, you most know a lot of the theory behind the storytelling and the structure, as well as the analysis of audiences and the different media platforms. If you have done this, follow the next steps.

2. Be inspired. Take some time, relax, bring som inspirational material with you somewhere and create. Wherever you are, when the ideas suddenly pop up in your mind, write them down, no matter how small. Keep letting life inspire you until you have a bunch of these ideas. Try to make your ideas connect with people on an emotional level.

3. You’re going to need some good writing and scheduling software. Set up your project thoroughly, with all the different elements in place from the beginning. In this way you can see how they fit together, and where strengthening is needed. The base of the project is the story and a couple of platforms. Unless you’re taking on a massive Hollywood project you shouldn’t need to worry about every possible platform and outlet. It’s all up to you, what you want your project to look like and how you want it to be perceived.

4. When you’ve selected the platforms you want to work on, go back to your ideas. Expand on them, build the world around them, put them in the middle of some context and think about how you would like to introduce them, and how you will digress from them as the narrative rolls on. Which ideas would be best at the beginning, or in the middle of the narrative? What should be the grand finale? Slowly add onto these ideas and interlink them. Make sure to stay within logical boundaries and watch for errors that would throw an audience off. This is of course unless you really feel you want some of these. Many creators throughout history have sought out theoretical guidelines, but if you encounter an opportunity to do something which breaks the rules but really feels right to you in the context of the piece, you might want to leave it in.

5. Eventually you will have a number of different, fleshed-out ideas going on. Try to get them all work in the same context, yet have their own unique style. You will use this to develop the different movements of your work. Keep expanding on these ideas, adding subplots, side characters, and so on. Watch and study other great transmedia projects to hear, see and feel how they progress, to help give you ideas of your own.

6. Eventually each idea will become a decently long plot. Do a walkthrough of all the different parts of your project. Does it flow right? Change and fix anything that does not feel right. Remember the interlinking of the different parts and how they should exist in the same story world and fit logically in the same context. Keep refining your project until it is complete.

7. This creative process may take a while, but by this step you should have a fully developed transmedia project down on paper. Take it to a group of people you know closely, or perhaps a group of students, and narrate the project to them, or ask them to partake of any material you have produced so far, like written text, graphic novels, online portals etc. Observe them partake of your idea. Did they experience it like you expected? Were their reactions the desired ones? Make sure you have the possibility to write down comments and reactions on the spot.

8. Go back to your transmedia mess and make a second draft with the comments and reactions taken in. Repeat these two steps until you are satisfied.

9. Take it to someone in the industry. It depends on your idea, but could be anything from a broadcaster to a production company, from a publisher to a telecom operator, depending on your idea and the platforms you’re concentrating on. Rehearse your pitch well, and reel them in with your great story and magnificent execution.

10. If you get traction and commissioning (or at least adequate funding) - Voila! Time to unleash your transmedia symphony on the world!

...and after writing this down, the analogy still rings true. Granted, there might be a lot more involvement from different sources from the beginning - brands, partners, tech etc - but if I start developing a new transmedia idea, this could work pretty well! There is also other aspects, like the need for a viable business plan etc, but we're talking symphonies now, so I omitted those :)

(Credits go to the Wikihow users who wrote the original post: BoldStepFixer, Gewg, Johnny, Nicole Willson, Maluniu, BR, Sarah Eliza and KP, wikiHow user(s) Isabelle C, Getmoreatp, Geena04, J424, Tryme2 and Anonymous.)

Pitching transmedia

(disclaimer: there are as many pitches as there are ideas, and as many ways to pitch them as there are people to pitch them to. With that in mind, I hope you get something out of this post.)

I’ve met a number of people who subscribe to the notion that what people do for a big part in their life is pitch ideas. It doesn’t matter what you’re thinking of – marriage proposals, what to cook for dinner, where to go on your next trip, when your kids should be doing their homework, what club to go to on a Saturday night – it’s all about how you pitch it.

Part of my job description (well, actually not part of my job description, but anyway) is to pitch; i.e. the ideas and the projects we work on have to be pitched successfully to get the necessary funding in for development work, the developed ideas must be pitched to participants, partners etc to go into successful pilot production, and the finished format must be successfully pitched to get a commission in the end. Lots of pitches, lots of different targets and goals.

What I have found challenging is pitching transmedia concepts. There is the issue that transmedia is a relatively new concept and hard to grasp. The people I mostly pitch to are executives and commissioners from more traditional media, television predominantly. Many of our projects have a strong TV connection still, as there is a still a lot of funding to be had from that area, and also, of course, because it's still a powerful media to tell stories in. These people know their line of work very well; they can ”see” the idea executed in their mind, they have an innate feeling for revenue streams, they know what would make a good show and what would require work, sometimes too much work. But ”seeing” transmedia is different, and I belive it needs a different approach to pitching the ideas as well.

The challenge is to tell just enough of the brilliant transmedia project for everyone to feel that they're hearing something unique and thrilling, that they simply have to be a part of and take part in. As transmedia projects often are complex workings, dependent on careful planning and execution, the full explanation is a lot to pitch and a lot to grasp. Personally I am a big fan of the elevator pitch - getting the idea down to a 30 second pitch that'll explain it to anyone. If I can't manage that, my idea needs working on.

This post is an attempt to gather some thoughts on the subject. Better pitching leads to more great ideas being commissioned, which we all want, methinks.

(There are a great number of other aspects as well, like for instance how to get in touch with the right people to pitch to, how to follow up on pitches etc. For some run-downs on pitching in general, have a look here, or here. I'll stick to the transmedia part for this post though.)

I’ve polled some people on their thoughts with regards to pitching transmedia, people from slightly different corners of the transmedia field. I asked about what they regard as the most important aspect when pitching a cross media/transmedia property. The thing they, and I, all agree on is the importance of getting the story through in a compelling and exciting way. Mike Monello, of Blairwitch Project and Campfire fame, told me that for him, it’s ”always the story through user experience. Technology only in the context of a specific tactic, and only if necessary. The storytelling that interests me the most isn’t complete without the audience/user, therefore it’s their experience that brings it to life.” (Q:s and A:s were done over Twitter, which explains some omitted words ☺ )

I will most definitely agree on the story being the thing that should hook the audience to your pitch. When I started out, I pitched badly. Really really badly. We were so proud of the tech we had included in our formats that we skipped a large part of the story, in order to explain how nicely all Java-interactivity and set-top-box-interactivity, along with the mechanics of the show fit together. After a dozen pitches during one hectic MIPTV day, I grew tired of the blank look on people’s faces and decided I needed to change my approach. So, yes, the story!

One drawback when pitching transmedia is that there are not that many comparisons you can make. When pitching a script for a movie, you could go for "It's like Godzilla meets Titanic, in space!" which sort of gives everyone an idea of what it's about (hmm, I'd like to see that movie btw :). In transmedia, possible comparisons are fewer, which leads to you having to stress the points that are easy to get and that hooks the audience immediately - so if you do not have those points and hooks, you really need to think about developing them!

The guys over at http://www.willyouhelp.co.uk and their interesting and potentially brilliant project Resonance are on the same track. ”[It’s the] story x 3. Must be good enough to engage & sustain across the platforms. [The] story hooks the reader. Tech … reels them in. ;)”

I like the notion of using tech to reel in audiences; using tech as a means to an end is what the content creation business is / should be all about. There quite a few instances where tech takes the more important role; this in turn leads to great examples of how to implement tech, but more seldom to content that engages an audience.

Thirdly, Dr Christy Dena, one of the pioneers in the field and the author of ”Transmedia Practice: Theorising the Practice of Expressing a Fictional World across Distinct Media and Environments.” listed the following points (which may change depending on the client, and are based on the project being unreleased as of yet, as Christy pointed out):

1) Start with story - theme, logline, synopsis, characters
2) A walkthrough of the experience (or part of it - the beginning & perhaps end) from the perspective of the audience
3) Aspects of innovation - the design principles, audience strategies etc
that sets this project apart as being well conceived (which includes a bit
of context)
4) The team - who are the awesome people involved
5) Timeline - what stage are we at, how much longer to go, what the
milestones are, when marketing will happen, when revenue intends to happen
6) Business strategy - including measurement
7) What we want/their role

Again, I’m definitely inclined to agree. These points make sense, especially if you are pitching the idea to a possible partner or financier that you belive has the potential of having a large impact on your project. In my opinion, the points also apply all the more if the person you are pitching to has at least a basic knowledge of the workings of transmedia and the benefits of a transmedia approach to a project. These points should naturally be a part of anyone's development work as well. It's a good way to test your idea, to try to do a walkthrough from a users perspective. Also, it's very easy to forget the last point - to have a firm grasp of what you see your role together with the ones you are pitching to. If you don't know, who will?

If you however have a 10 minute slot with an acquisition executive of a global production house, I would suggest you stick to the story, the hooks and the grand finale. Hook them and reel them in, make sure you get the go-ahead to approach them for a longer meeting with more executive staff involved in the near future. It’s always easier to say no than to say yes, if you are being sold something (like a transmedia project). But with a good enough story to hook them, you know they will not want to let it go easily. Make sure you’re interesting and exciting, avoid spaced-out and technological.

Finally, a couple of things: as Jeff Gomez suggested, always bring something tangible. A flyer is OK, a graphic novel or a comic is even better. Something to give your idea, your format, more of a physical presence. Just make sure it is up-to-date and repesents your idea properly. I don't think you need to have a drama-based idea to make a graphic novel either; make an episode of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire into a graphic novel, from the view of a participant, spice it up a bit and you have a great piece of fiction, which explains your game show.

And, when the questions about ”but how do we make any money on this transmedia stuff then?” start piling in, make sure you’ve read up on Robert Prattens slides on Measuring RoI for Transmedia.

I feel there is a lot more to say on this subject, but I'll stop here (for now :). I'd welcome comments, as there are a lot of people better at pitching than I am, and with a better track record of interesting projects. Hopefully we can make the task of pitching transmedia a slightly easier one :).

Transmedia - the story of the story

I find it exhilarating and exciting to follow the current flow of interesting discussions and even more interesting projects and examples of transmedia bouncing around the Internet these past few weeks. Suddenly it seems like everyone is talking transmedia, from a great number of angles.

So, having read some tweets and comments on current transmedia projects today, I found myself sitting staring vacantly into space, my mind trying to grasp some thought that just did not want to be grasped. Irritating in the extreme, as I'm sure you all agree.

The glimpses I could see of the thought implied that it had something to do with the core and underlying premises of transmedia. I finally gave up and decided to start writing instead, hoping it’d show up.

After a while, it did. And with it, and in the sentences before this one that gave the setting and the background of it’s arrival, it brought the meaning of transmedia. It’s not the story you’re telling. It’s the story about the story, that gives your story meaning - that’s transmedia.

In that sense, we actually don’t need media. So, in the most simplified sense, there’s nothing for the transmedia to trans- around from and to.

OK, so we have no trans- and we have no –media. What’s up with that? I found myself thinking. Wasn’t it namely transmedia that I’ve been happily embracing for the past year or so?

Actually, I don’t think it’s transmedia I’ve been embracing. I have not, for instance, been embracing the production of storylines on three different media, stemming from the same storyworld but adding to each other rather than copying or duplicating each other. Or rather, I have, but that has rather been a by-product.

What I’ve been embracing is the thought process and the development process of creating more than you need, just in case (and there is always the case). The process of not saying ”this is enough, we don’t need more than this” but rather ”hey hang on, let’s elaborate on that for a bit”. The process of building the story, and at the same time the story of the story, to enable new stories and explain and expand on old ones.

It’s like you’re planting a sapling and nurse it to be a massive tree, trunk and all – even if audiences just pick the fruit, i.e. your stories, the stories would not be there to be enjoyed without the work before.

At this point, the elusive thought let out a sigh and went away, mission fulfilled. I will continue to grow the tree tomorrow, and at lot of other trees as well. See, the telling of the story, that tells of the story, that's work that's never done.

Until later.

PS. A couple of good blog posts from the last week or so - Simon Pulmans post reviewing and commenting on Brent Weinsteins presentation at the PGA Transmedia Masterclass some weeks back was a very good read, and a reminder of things to remember while developing. The post about hoaxing in transmedia, by @poburke was also a mighty interesting one, good comments and all.

Transmedia sans fiction

I'm a big fan of @Jeff_Gomez, as you've probably noticed. He really opened my eyes to the powers of transmedia at The Pixel Lab in Cardiff last summer (and he also helped create the Magic The Gathering card game, which I thoroughly enjoyed playing back in the day :) .*

I've enjoyed listening to his visions and his presentations (a great and touching video from the TEDxTransmedia conference can be found here, and a review of his Cinekid presentation last week here) and firmly believe that more and more properties and stories will go the way of transmedia, for the better of all story-interested members of mankind.

One aspect that I'm struggling with at the moment is when a development project strays from the path of fiction, or never originated as fiction to start with. As with the examples Jeff talks about in the links above, well executed transmedia projects in the vein of Avatar or Pirates of the Caribbean have a rich story world to build on, to create stories in, just as it should be. At the same time, this is almost a prerequisite for creating these types of transmedia projects; you need that fictional world, well built and stable, to be able to tell your fictional stories that complement each other and build the world onwards.

The challenge, as I see it, is to figure out what happens when you base these in the real world, omitting or at least limiting the fictional elements. Is it still transmedia? Or are we then reverting back to cross media (if that indeed can be considered reverting?). If it is still transmedia, is it possible to base it in the real world and still create a good transmedia narrative?

My opinion is that this is more than possible. What you need to do is to create the narrative superstructure in as great a detail as when you create your fictional world. Just because what you're creating is based on the real world, doesn't mean you can take it for granted that everyone perceives this world the same way as you do - not even your collaborators on the project. When writing this narrative superstructure, the mythology of your project, you need to explain the essence of, say, London, as represented in your project (if London is a part of your story of course) in as great a detail as the essence of Pandora is explained in the Avatar mythology. You also need to be able to explain this essence, via the descriptions and the mythology, to each and everyone involved in the development and the production. I believe this is the only way to avoid mishaps in the production (such as people not realizing what you want to get out of the narrative, what feelings you want to convey, how you want people to interact etc). One hour spent on the mythology will save you five hours in execution; production and editing.

This will also assist you a lot when bringing new people into the development and/or production team. Finally, I agree with Jeff on one point he has been making; if you feel the need to make some material to explain your project, a graphic novel is a great way to go. And if you base it in the real world, so what? Who wouldn't want to be in a graphic novel??



* see Jeff's comment below; the honor of creating MtG goes to Garfield and WotC.

A guest post and a couple of questions

I wrote a guest post for ReedMIDEMs MIP blog; it's geared towards the typical MIP-goer; i.e. a TV executive with a fair amount of years in the biz, just hearing about the term "transmedia" for the first time and wondering whether this will be a hype that'll fade away in a couple of years time, or something that they should take note of and start acting on.

I'm for the latter, so that's the angle I'll try to take in my guest posts. Not in a "do-this-or-be-DAMNEDFORALLETERNITY!!!"-way, but rather just to tell people what I know and show good examples that other's have done. Transmedia - or whatever you want to call it (I came up with the term "Sansmedia" the other day, since I'm fervently waiting for the day when we get rid of all "platforms" and concentrate on the stories being told) - is in my opinion the way forward, and I hope many others will recognize this as well.

I do, of course, as everyone involved in the transmedia business probably does, welcome a discussion on the subject. I started thinking about the multitude of people who are not aware of transmedia, who do not care about transmedia and probably never will. So, is transmedia a fad that'll fade? Will it merge with something else? Is it a phase we will go through on the way to finding an even better way of telling stories and engaging people? What do you think?

(I'll put my 2c in, in just a bit :)

The mixing of Real and Not Real in Transmedia

(the musings continue, now with something I'm struggling with right now)

One particular challenge that I face while developing transmedia, is the thin line between being just about enough fictional, but not too fictional. I don’t work – or, should I say, I do not at the moment work – with drama-based transmedia projects; instead, the ones we’re working on now are music projects, game shows, kids formats, etc.

As I see it, one key element of any transmedia venture is the classical ”willful suspension of disbelief” (love the phrase, btw). You know that you have your narrative superstructure in place, it’s solid and will be a fine, nurturing growth bed. You have some – three, then, to go by PGA’s rules for a transmedia producer – different media platforms utilized. The different pieces of content support each other, either directly or indirectly, but are not duplicates of each other. What you need now is for the consumer / participant (the ”consupant”? sounds a bit constipated...) to go into your story, your narrative superstructure, and embrace the willful suspension of disbelief and engage him-/herself.

This is a bit easier when building a drama-based transmedia setting, as anyone connecting to the mythology of the story knows and has accepted that it is a story. When blending ”real” stuff with a narrative that contains fictional elements, the cracks are a lot easier to spot.

What I’ve found out so far is one fairly simple thing, yet hard to stick to while developing, writing and scripting. Simply – be as true as possible. If you embark on the mission to include real stuff – be it persons, objects, physical landmarks or whatever – in your transmedia project, these different kinds of stuff will be a lot more credible if they, to as large an extent as possible, base themselves and present themselves as their real selves. What you don't want is for these characters and stuff to show any light shining through them. They need to be as solid as possible - which is only possible if they are, for the main part, grounded in who or what they really actually are.

The only thing you need to add are the small fictional things that lets these real persons and real places function within your transmedia venture.

I’ll update with an example of ours as soon as we’ve got stuff to show ☺

Musings on transmedia development

(Felt the need to write down some stuff re: transmedia development that have been bouncing around in my head for some time. It's basically just some reflections from the ground floor of the transmedia development factory...)

We started out as developers of interactive television-formats some five-six years ago. These were based on television as the core of the content, with interactivity included either via mobile phones or via digital set-top-boxes. We realized very early on that if you want to develop something that should accompany a traditional piece of content - like a tv show - you needed to develop the two (or more) together from the start. Thus you avoided the awkward feeling of added content being slapped onto existing content, without any form of seamless and enjoyable experience.

As time has gone by, we have thankfully been able to let go of the limited MHP interactivity for set-top-boxes and have happily embraced the cross media / transmedia approach to telling stories, be they music shows, kids shows, game shows or just about any kind of content. Now, some things are always good to keep in mind while starting up or being in the development phase of a transmedia project:

First off, make sure you're developing and creating compelling content - you need a great story to function as the framework, with enough holes in it for the audience to be able to fill in stuff themselves and become engaged in the story (Jeff Gomez's "Swiss Cheese-model"). Don't forget the narrative superstructure - build it solid enough to serve as a vehicle for this particular story, but also as a bed for future stories (from past, present and future in the story universe) to spring from.

Secondly (but developed at the same time so it all fits together nicely without any last-minute panic solutions, thank you very much) - logical ways for the audience/users to connect to the story, from platforms that are themselves logical ways into the story. I.e., do not make an iPad app just 'cause everyone else has one. If it's not essential for how you experience the story, leave it out.

Thirdly, get out there and get some traction for your content. Lots of stuff gets developed and produced and perhaps gets a blog mention or three, topping out at 452 users over a three month period. Don't do that. Get those people interested that can tip your little thing over the edge and into the abyss of a global phenomena. Get everyone to step over that invisible "WTF"-threshold (the threshold where you KNOW you should be doing something else but you're seeing thousands of people (who also should be doing something else) involving themselves in the story and having the time of their lives, so you think "Oh hell, WTF" and you jump right in). How? Read up on Propagation Planning. As they say - plan not for the people you reach, but the people they reach. Find your spokespersons. Be inclusive, not exclusive. Which nicely builds over to...

Be interactive. Listen. Communicate. You're probably not right every time, and others may have better ideas for your story and it's development. Face it - it is no longer yours only. Embrace that fact and take it onwards - it's all a good thing.

Lastly, don't leave people hanging. There's nothing worse than getting peoples expectations up and then letting them down. They have invested in your creation. Make sure they get full value for their investment. If you do, they'll be back.

Feel free to add stuff in the comments!


PS. Just read this in a blog text of mine from 2006, still agree 100% with the need to focus on content :)

"Myself? I believe that the changeover to new forms and ways of watching television will go much slower than people think, or hope for. I believe that in five years time there will be a small minority watching television via portable devices, while for the most part the audience will watch television in their living rooms, just like back in the 50s. I also believe that content is the most important factor, and that less energy and resources should be spent on developing and offer to people gadgets and trinkets they don't want or need, and more should be spent on doing great television shows."

MIPCOM apps - a review

I was suitably impressed with the iPhone app launched for MIPTV this spring. Now we have two competing apps, the official MIPCOM app and a "survival gide to MIPCOM", launched by C21 and Warner Bros. Below, a quick review of the two apps. Which one do you need? (Note: this is of the 30th of September, so updates are most certainly coming up in hte next few days):

Official MIPCOM app

It looks shiny and nice, good graphics and a good interface (although the woman who serves as wallpaper looks like she's aghast that you've just showed her something very inappropriate). The options on the opening screen are easy to understand, the categories being Live, Conferences, Speakers, Attendees, Mailing list, My favorites, Videos and Photos/Maps.

The Live category naturally features nothing about MIPCOM yet, but offers instead stuff that was uploaded at MIPTV 2010. Good for a reminder on what went on then, but not much else. Conferences gives you a fairly good view of what's happening during the different days, and lets you go through to the different seminars and comment, upload photos and notify that you'll be attending. Nothing extra though - as a tip, perhaps if you notify that you are going to the Entertainement Master Class on Monday, you'll have something waiting for you there as an "early bird present"? Doesn't have to be much, a pen or whatever, but would be a nice touch.

Speakers gives you a iTunes/Mac-ish photo scroll which lets you browse the different speakers and read more about them, as well as comment. Again, it all looks good and moves slickly, but perhaps something a little bit extra could have been in the offering? Attendees lets you browse who's coming to MIPCOM. There are quite a few people, so a search option for categories (buyer, for instance) might help? Also, it's hella sluggish, so perhaps not putting all attendees in one big row is the best way? Clicking on a person puts you through to the Online Database (which then is a chapter all to itself)

Mailing list/websites is essentially links to updates from Reed MIDEM about the MIPs, nothing special as far as I could see. Videos are a bunch of best-of videos from MIPTV 2010, and one promo video for MIPCOM 2010. Photos/Maps is a clutter of, yeah, photos and maps. Although the maps aren't that good resolution and are not really that useful.

All in all, the official app feels at the moment like a last-resort backup for when you can't find your catalogue, or anyone to ask, or a MIPNews paper for that matter to check what happens next amongst the conferences. It simply does not feel as essential as the MIPTV app did this spring.

The C21/Warner Bros app

Well now, this is another creature. It's a "survival guide", implying that you'll most likely die at the Palais if you do not have this app installed. (hint, you might still just survive without it).

It's pretty cluttered with ads for C21 and first and foremost WB-productions, like "Pretty Little Liars", "Memphis Beat" etc. You're down to four categories: News, Local Info, What's On and Warner Bros.

The last category lets WB show you their shows, tell you their news and give you their contact info. All good, if you're interested in what they have to offer, or want to get in touch with them. If not, just skip that particular button.

News is a C21 RSS Feed combined with (at the moment) a couple of pictures, one audio clip and a twitter feed for - I presume - the #MIPCOM hashtag. Nothing essential, nothing to write home about, still might give you some interesting stuff to read if you have a spare minute or two.

What's On gives you the chance to sort all keynotes and seminars via date or via speaker, of which the speaker search feels like a good one.

But it's the Local News category that you'll be interested in, and not the Numbers subcategory with hotel hotlines etc. No, it's the combination between a map of the Croisette and Cannes beachfront combined with a listing of all bars and venues in the area, with a short description of every venue. And all venues are pinned on the map. Mmm, here we go :)

Conclusion

The official app is the one you will download, not use, and then delete in November at some point. The C21/WB app is the one you'll download, forget about because it really doesn't help you in your daily business at MIP, but which you'll pull out at 11.15pm on Monday night to check "goddam which bars are still open eh??". You choose the ooze.

TV Entertainment Forum

Just back from London where i had the chance to take part of the TV Entertainment Forum, thanks to winning the Entertainment Twitch competition over at Combined Mind's web portal.

As a brief reflection on the day, I found it totally instructive as the heads of commissioning from all major broadcasters told the audience more or less what they were looking for, for which slots and what the budgets might look like. To put it briefly, most are looking to go into the cross media field (not quite transmedia yet, but getting there) with C4:s and Endemols The Million Pound Drop as a prime example. Sky are continuing with their "Fewer, Bigger, Better" policy, whereas BBC is looking for new talent and "crazy ideas", ITV wants scaled entertainment and C4 is looking for new talent both on screen and behind the scenes.

Recession or no recession, if you're active in the UK television industry, it looks like there's a bit of money laying around, waiting to be put into work in new and exciting shows. Go get'em tiger!

How did it go for me and my pitch? We'll see, but some healthy leads at least :)

Good article on the future of the web

Steve Rubel has written an interesting article over at AdAge about the future of the web. Which, according to Steve, is pretty much non-consistent. See (and I find it hard to argue with him), with regards to mobile and tablet platforms - or screens, rather - Steve argues that "...we will need to rethink, remix and repackage information for an entirely different modality than platforms of yore."

Quite so. To do this, we need to think about not only the content itself, but also context, collaboration and adoption, as Steve says, and base it all on the all-important data, that which Brian Newman coined "the new oil".

It's an interesting read and well worth some minutes of your time. Found via a blog by Emily Chang and a tweet by @anitafiander.

The Pixel Lab - reflections pt 1

I, as 33 others, attended The Pixel Lab in Cardiff last week; a lab focussing solely on transmedia, from every possible angle. Engaged in the lab were also twenty-odd tutors and experts, each with their own take on the matter (but, and which was slightly amazing to me, not contradicting each other, but rather building on each others presentations and views. This wasn't about agreeing on everything said, not at all, but rather about knowing that everyone had their own experiences and their own cases to bring to the table, and respecting that fact. Felt good, I'll happily admit.)

The format of the lab felt a bit odd prior to the event, as 17 producers WITH a project were paired with 17 producers WITHOUT a project, for sparring and workshop purposes. As a producer attending without a project, I was slightly sceptic - what would I get out of it in the end? This turned out to be a non-issue in the end. I actually think I benefitted more from not having an actual project at the lab, seeing as I could then absorb everything I learned and realized during the week with regards to everything we're working on, not just one specific project. On the other hand, looking at the projects that were participating - from the highly experimental "Mechanical Figures Inspired by Tesla" (which was the project of Helena Bulaja, the Croatian producer I acted as sparring partner for), to more straight-forward stuff like the follow-up project from the makers of "Outpost" (Zombies! Gotta love'em!)

All in all, it was a packed week. 10-hour days, absorbing, reacting, discussing, developing and most of all THINKING all the while, I've simply had to take some days off now afterwards to clear my head. So, what were the impressions and reflections for my part? There were some key points to take from this, I gather:

- Transmedia might be a buzzword of 2010. This does not, however, mean that it's a trend that will die away in the next couple of years. Transmedia is a revolution in storytelling; the audience is not only participating; the audience is now the story, and what used to be the story is the setting.

- The Revolution Will Not Be Televised! So said Gil Scott-Heron back in 1971. Today, this rings true for transmedia as well. There are a few producers who realize the possibilites (and to some degree, the limitations). There are some brands and perhaps even some channels that understand the hidden power that lies in making your audience invest in the story you are telling. But for the most part, traditional media remains traditional media, even if you hit it over the head with a transmedia axe. The week was filled with anecdotes about financiers, power houses in the media industry, colleagues, independent producers etc, just not being interested in transmedia at all (or IF interested, completely misunderstanding the topic). This fact made the Pixel Lab such an extraordinary event - there were fifty-odd creative people gathered to talk about transmedia for a week, and if we perhaps weren't really agreed on where the goal posts were located and what the best route to that goal should be, at least we were on the same playing field, playing towards the same goal. That felt good!

- Context is King, Data is the new oil, said Brian Newman during his (excellent) presentation at the Lab. In a way I agree, especially regarding data. But for Context vs Content, I still have to go for the latter. As was evident during the week, at least to me , was that as soon as a great story arch was raised or a great turn to a story was invented, everything else seemed to fall in place quite naturally. Well, perhaps it took some time, but it was somehow already there in the story, as soon as the story fell in place. What made this week so great was that it gave us a number of tools to help facilitate that "falling in place" process much easier, without banging our heads on a brick wall for months during the development process (as we did with The Space Trainees, for instance). So, for me Content is still King. But Context is dais the King is stood on, so everyone can see him, hear him and touch him.

- We need more venues like The Pixel Lab. There are already a number of interesting projects spawning from the contacts made during that one Lab week, and the contacts everyone made with other like-minded people from around the world were just impossible to calculate a value on. So - EU Media Fund, Film Councils all over the world, philantrophists and just about anyone who got a dime to spare - help finance more of these things. We need them, and the world does too! :)

Here are links to some of the presentations during the week:

Steve Peters presentation "Shattering the 4th Wall w Social Media-How the Future Will Tell Stories"
Mel Exon's slides on the social web, storytellers and brands
Brian Newman's thoughts on the Pixel Transmedia Lab
Wendy Bernfeld's (Rights Stuff) list of case studies of legal disputes, new media vs old media
Dan Lawsons reflections on the week

Thank you all again for a great week, hope to meet each and everyone of you at some point in the future!

//S

Economy busting up, storytelling not

It is a new world order we're experiencing right now. It might not be 100% obvious to everyone, but in 10-20 years time the books (or iPads) will be filled with comments and analyzing articles about the years 2008-2012; the "Destruction of the Global Economy"-era, as it will be called.

The EU bailout of Greece the other day is just another nudge in the completely wrong direction. If someone has taken all their money and spent it on fancy clothes and toys for their chihuahua, then come complaining to you that they can't afford food, do you lend them the biggest bank loan in history? Or do you say "tough luck, go hungry 'til your next pay day and try to save up some money next time"?

I feel it is simply silly and naive to hope to contain the economical mess in this or similar "Quantitative Easing"-ways. I believe the PIIGS will go tits-up, the euro will lose at least half its value compared to the dollar, one or more countries will vote to leave the euro and we will all be in a big big heap of trouble before long.

On the other hand, with the iPad notching up 1 million sales so far, I see storytelling entering a new era. Back in the old days, a storyteller sat by the fire and told stories to a whole village; essentially he was gifting them the gift of imagination, of entertainment, of morals, of culture. He also got instant feedback; the roars of approval, the laughters, the sighs of his audience.

With the iPad as a first vehicle, we're nearing that same storyteller-setting as described above, only on a global scale. Where ever we are we can bring our own branch of the campfire, we can listen to the stories being told, choose which one to partake of, interact with our fellow listeners and give instant feedback to the storyteller. Moreover, I see the listener being given more and more power to create their own content within or outside the story that engages them.

It's a whole new storytelling world, and I'm simply thrilled to be telling stories in it.

Refuting the "Content is King, but a King w/o an army is nothing" claim

Just read the statement in the header on Twitter, a quote from some conference or another.

I can understand where they are coming from, as I assume whomever came up with that statement is a developer of apps/technical solutions/whatever. Code, gadgets, widgets, the stuff that will take the story to the audience. Or they are marketers, specialized in the bringing of the story to an audience and engaging said audience.

As a developer in transmedia and cross media, however, I just think that they are missing the point. If there is no content, there is no king. If there is no king, there is no rallying point.

For sure, the Content (or the King) needs an audience (followers). But a truly great story always has an audience. And that audience is the main delivery channel of that story. Ergo - I still believe Content is the most crucial factor in any development process.

My 2 cents, which seem pretty obvious to me; anyone disagree?

Yahoo Customer service FAIL

A year and a half ago, I had a minor computer crash. All the automatically stored passwords were lost, amongst them the pw for my Flickr-account. Now, I had not been such an avid user of Flickr, granted, but I still liked the possibility to upload stuff. This, btw, is my account - or WAS my account, should I say.

Below is the correspondence with Yahoo Customer Service. I think I've lost some mails along the way, but if you want a good example of NOT to handle a case, read below.

DISCLAIMER: yes, it was my own fault for not being able to remember my Yahoo ID. Yes, I believe I might have entered some faulty info during registration (I have a vague feeling that something, like my postal code, was messed up and I though "what the heck" and just pressed Sign Up anyway). Still, it shouldn't have to be this difficult, surely??

Yeah, and... sorry for the line breaks below, mail systems messing things up. Hope your eyes do not start to bleed (at least not heavily).

[This is the last mail I got from them, except for a later mail asking for feedback on the customer help experience which I promptly ignored]

Hello Simon,

Thanks for writing to Yahoo! UKIE Customer Care.

Thank you for taking the time to share your comments and experiences with us. We are always looking for ways to improve our service, and we consider your feedback a valuable resource.

We appreciate your comments which we have forwarded to the Yahoo! Mail development team for review.

If you would like, feel free to use the URL below to provide feedback directly to our product and development teams as well:
http://ymailuk.com

If I may be of further help, please reply to this message and I will gladly assist you.

Please let me know if I can help you further.

Regards,

Anna
Customer Care - Yahoo! UK & Ireland


[This is the mail conversation, starting with my answer to the post at the bottom. You'll get the hang of it. Some info blotted out.]

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

Serena,

Thanks for replying. Just the short thing - I've given up, and created a new Flickr account.

Below is most of the conversation I've had with you guys at Yahoo!
regarding
this extremely frustrating affair. If you want a good example of how NOT to resolve anything as a Customer Service, please read. (Top to bottom)

/Simon


Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

>>REDFRMCON Case ID: 74785832

Mail-Id:
w2.help.ukl.yahoo.com-/l/us/yahoo/edit/alternate_email/general.html-1222
106428-9281

Name: Simon Staffans

Yahoo! ID: sstaffan at yahoo.com

Email Address: simon.staffans at abo.fi

Date of Birth: 0xxxxxxx

Zip Code: 6xxxx

Alternate Email Address:

If yes, check here: Not set by user

Subject: Sign in & Registration - I need my password reset

Additional Information: I've apparently entered some wrong info while registering - birth date, postal number or whatever. Now, years later and a newly updated computer without the automatic firefox login, I can't get back in.
Assistance would be great.

While Viewing:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/edit/id_password/edit-20.html

Form Name:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/edit/alternate_email/general.html

Yahoo ID: sstaffan@yahoo.com : NOT verified, authorized by CAPTCHA Yahoo id from form "https://amt.yahoo.com/amt/dosearch?.token=.ojcyzSoTalpxJqZQnULWyTWqG2EH
QLPpMEHZDRJkP5V8o7zfMSxig--"


Other ID:

Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; sv-SE; rv:1.9.0.1)
Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1

REMOTE_ADDR: 85.157.154.75

REMOTE_HOST: y75.ip6.netikka.fi

Date Originated: Monday September 22, 2008 - 11:00:28


------------------------

Hello Simon,

Thanks for writing to Yahoo! UKIE Customer Care.

We have received the account information you have provided and understand that you are unable to login to your Yahoo! account.

The Yahoo! ID 'sxxxxxn' does not appear to be yours since the verification information you provided does not match up with the
information on the account.

We have manually searched our database for a Yahoo! ID associated with the alternate email address and verification data you supplied and have found a match.

The Security Question listed on this account is:

What is your fathers middle name?

Please supply us with the Secret Answer you entered at the time you set up your account. We will then be able to verify and update your information.

Regards,

Customer Care - Yahoo! UK & Ireland


------------------------------

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

Hi there, and thanks for the reply. The answer should, if it's my account your looking at, be "Hxxxxxx".

I mean, I can see my own page on Flickr - that of Simon Staffans, on http://www.flickr.com/people/57971491@N00/?search=simon+staffans but as I said, I cannot log into it.

here's hoping it works!

Simon

------------------------------
(24.9.2008)
Hello Simon,

Thanks for writing to Yahoo! UKIE Customer Care.

In order for us to proceed, please reply to this email and provide us with your desired new alternate email address. Please note that this cannot be a Yahoo! Mail address.

We will then be able to update your account information.

Regards,

Customer Care - Yahoo! UK & Ireland

-------------------------------

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------
(24.9)
Hiya,

Please use simon.staffans at gmail.com as my desired new alternate email address!

Cheers,

Simon

--------------------------------
(22.10)

Dear Simon,

Thanks for writing to Yahoo! UKIE Customer Care.

First of all, on a personal level, I sincerely apologize for the delay in answering your email. It is definitely our intention to reply to your query within 24 hours, however, due to an increase in email volume, our response time has been delayed.

Should you still be experiencing this problem, please provide as much detail as possible in your response, if you haven't done so yet, in order for us to investigate.
Also, even though we might have asked you before, if required for our investigation we need your permission to test your account, send/receive/delete messages etc so may we ask you to kindly provide this in your reply to us.

To efficiently support Yahoo! Services, we provide a wide range of "How To"
and troubleshooting questions and answers on our Website 'Yahoo Mail Help'.
Please visit our help pages at
http://help.yahoo.com/l/uk/yahoo/helpcentral/

Apologies again for any inconvenience caused.
We appreciate your feedback and suggestions, which help us to consistently maintain and improve our services.


Regards,
Luisa

Customer Care - Yahoo! UK & Ireland


--------------------------------

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------
(22.10)
>>REDFRMCON Case ID: 76148498

>>REDFRMEUR Case ID: 43276305

Dear Luisa,

No problem, let's just try to get this sorted out now. I'll repeat my
problem briefly:

- I've lost / forgotten my Flickr-password
- apparently I can't find my Yahoo-account password either
- I'd be needing to have my password reset

In the conversation below is the reply from you service earlier on -
this is
the core of it:

> We have received the account information you have provided and
> understand that you are unable to login to your Yahoo! account.
>
> The Yahoo! ID 'sstaffan' does not appear to be yours since the
> verification information you provided does not match up with the
> information on the account.
>
> We have manually searched our database for a Yahoo! ID associated with

> the alternate email address and verification data you supplied and
have
> found a match.
>
> The Security Question listed on this account is:
>
> What is your fathers middle name?

The answer to this question, as I stated below, is "Hxxxxxx".

Could this be possible to rectify now?

Thanks, best regards,

Simon


------------------------------------------

(18.11)

Hello Simon,

Thanks for writing to Yahoo! UKIE Customer Care.

You have previously written us with a request to have your account
details
changed or help you obtain access to your account again. We are unable
to
action your request until you have sent us your account information and
we've been able to verify your account.

Please reply to this email with a brief summary of what it is you want
done
to your account and include these details:
- Yahoo! ID
- birthdate
- alternate email address (non-Yahoo! email address) - this is required
if
you need us to send you a new password
- postcode
- secret question and answer

Regards,

David
Customer Care Abuse Team
Yahoo! UK & Ireland


----------------------------------


(18.11)

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

>>REDFRMEUR Case ID: 43276305

>>REDFRMCON Case ID: 76310295

>>REDFRMEUR Case ID: 43276305

Hi again David,

missent the earlier mail. Here we go again!

So, I have a Flickr-account, this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/57971491@N00/

Lots of pictures of me and my kids and my trips etc etc

In July I lost the stored passwords on my laptop. I could remember some
of
them, but for instance the yahoo-ID for the Flickr-login (as that is the
only place I use a Yahoo-ID) I could not remember at all.

I tried to find out what the ID might have been, but one thing
complicated
matters. I had - at some point, probably just to check it out - created
an
earlier Flickr-account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82603779@N00/

So the only login I managed to get hold of was the login for this
earlier
account.

I then contacted you for assistance and tried to explain the situation.
This
is now the... seventh? time I'm writing you, let's hope we can get
something
sorted now.

What I need is the login for my account at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/57971491@N00/

To answer your questions below:

> - Yahoo! ID

This ID I, as explained above, do not know

> - birthdate

9xxxxxxxxxx

> - alternate email address (non-Yahoo! email address) - this is
required
> if you need us to send you a new password

simon.staffans at gmail.com

> - postcode

6xxxx

(I have a nagging feeling I might have written something else here at
the
time of registering, but I'm not really sure)

> - secret question and answer

"What is your fathers middle name" I think it was, and the answer is
"Hxxxxxxxxxx"

best regards

Simon


------------------------------------

(20.11)

Hello Simon,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Account Services.

In order to assist you further, we need to verify the Secret Answer
associated with your Yahoo! account.

The Security Question listed on this account is:

What is your fathers middle name?

Please send us the Secret Answer you entered when you set up your
account.
Then we'll be able to verify and update your information.

We look forward to your reply.

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Account Services.

Regards,

Sam

Yahoo! Account Services Customer Care


----------------------------------------
(20.11)

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

>>REDFRMCON Case ID: 76328628

Dear Sam - the fifth person I've mailed to at your place so far - I
already
wrote the answer to that question a bit further down in this mail.
Sometimes
it pays to read through a mail.

So, for the third time...

The Security Question listed on this account is:

What is your fathers middle name?

Answer: Hxxxxxxx

Mmmkay?

Thank you

Simon


----------------------------------------


(21.11)

Hello,

Thanks for writing to Yahoo! UKIE Customer Care.

In order for us to proceed, please reply to this email and provide us
with
your desired new alternate email address. Please note that this cannot
be a
Yahoo! Mail address.

We will then be able to update your account information.

Regards,

Customer Care - Yahoo! UK & Ireland


---------------------------------------

(21.11)

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

I'm starting to think that you are making fun of me.

In my PREVIOUS MAIL, as can be read below, I pointed out that I had
ALREADY
ANSWERED your question about "My secret question" and that, should you
guys
bother to read through the mail, you would've found the answer in said
mail
below.

In the EXACT SAME MAIL, which is a part of this correspondence and CAN
BE
READ BELOW, I stated my desired new alternate e-mail address.

This is the address: simon.staffans at gmail.com

So, for the SIXTH TIME - could we please get this sorted?

/Simon

--------------------------------------

(21.11)

Hello Simon,

Thanks for writing to Yahoo! UKIE Customer Care.

We have prompted our system to generate a new password for your Yahoo!
account. This password will be sent to your alternate (non-Yahoo!) email
address and will help you restore access to your account.

Once you've received the new password and signed in to your account, you
will immediately be prompted to change it to something different. Please
also verify your alternate email address so that you may utilise our
automated password request form should you experience future sign-in
problems. You will only be able to receive a new password via email if
your
alternate email address is verified.

To change your password after you sign in, just enter the password you
received from us in the Current Password field, and enter your new
desired
password in the New Password fields. Then click the Save button for
the
change to take effect.

Please use the guidelines on the page to help you in creating a new
password.

To verify your alternate email address, please follow the steps below:

1. Sign in to your account on one of Yahoo!'s personalised services
(Mail,
Chat, Groups, Message Boards, etc.)

2. Click on the "Account Info" or "My Account" link usually found at the
top
of the page. You will be asked for your password again.

3. Click the "Edit" button next to the "Member Information" section.

4. On the next screen you will see the alternate email address you have
listed on your account. (If your email address has changed, simply make
the
appropriate changes on this page and click "Finished." Then click the
"Edit"
button again to return to this page.) If your email address is verified
it
will say so. Otherwise, click on the "Click here to verify" link.

5. Next, click on the "Verify Your Email Now" button on the following
page.

6. Check your alternate email address for a "Verification Code" and
follow
the instructions.*

*Note: if you do not receive your code right away, you do not need to
request a new one. There may simply be a delay in receiving this email.

Regards,

Customer Care - Yahoo! UK & Ireland

---------------------------------------

(21.11)

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

Hi again,

I received a new password from the customer service in Sweden. As I
stated
on a number of occasions in this conversation though, I do not have my
Yahoo-ID either. So if you could provide me with that, it'd be a whole
lot
easier to log in with the temporary password.

thanks

Simon


------------------------------------------
(27.11)

Hello Simon,

Thank you for your email.

The email address you are referring to is a Yahoo! US address.
Unfortunately, we do not have authority on these here at Yahoo! UK and
Ireland. Please forward your query directly to Yahoo! US at
mail@cc.yahoo-inc.com.
We apologize for the inconvenience.

Regards,

Laetitia
Customer Care - Yahoo! UK & Ireland


------------------------------------------
(28.11)


You've got to be kidding me. I've now spent TWO MONTHS trying to get
access
= to MY OWN ACCOUNT and NOW you're telling me that it's out of your
area?
=
Screw you! I'll start using Picasa instead! And I'll post this
RIDICULOUS =
thread all over the net, for everyone to see. Happy thanksgiving. S. =


[I believe I might have been a little tipsy while writing this, I am normally more civilized. And no, I never started to use Picasa.]

------------------------------------

(29.11)

Hello Simon,

Thank you for your email

The email address you are referring to is a Yahoo! US address.
Unfortunately, we do not have authority on these here at Yahoo! UK and
Ireland. Please forward your query directly to Yahoo! US at
mail@cc.yahoo-inc.com.
We apologize for the inconvenience.

Regards,

Laetitia
Customer Care - Yahoo! UK & Ireland

------------------------------------
(29.11)

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

Hi again,

Just so I get this straight, you cannot TELL ME what my yahoo ID is, as
it
is registered in the US?? IS this correct?

Thanks

Simon

---------------------------

(1.12)

Hello,

We apologize for the miscomunication caused.

Your Yahoo! ID is 'sxxxxxxxxx'

We have prompted our system to generate a new password for your Yahoo!
account. This password has already been sent to your
'simon.staffans@abo.fi'
email address and will help you restore access to your account.

Once you've received the new password and signed in to your account, you
will immediately be prompted to change it to something different. Please
also verify your alternate email address so that you may utilise our
automated password request form should you experience future sign-in
problems. You will only be able to receive a new password via email if
your
alternate email address is verified.

To change your password after you sign in, just enter the password you
received from us in the Current Password field, and enter your new
desired
password in the New Password fields. Then click the Save button for
the
change to take effect.

Please use the guidelines on the page to help you in creating a new
password.

To verify your alternate email address, please follow the steps below:

1. Sign in to your account on one of Yahoo!'s personalised services
(Mail,
Chat, Groups, Message Boards, etc.)

2. Click on the "Account Info" or "My Account" link usually found at the
top
of the page. You will be asked for your password again.

3. Click the "Edit" button next to the "Member Information" section.

4. On the next screen you will see the alternate email address you have
listed on your account. (If your email address has changed, simply make
the
appropriate changes on this page and click "Finished." Then click the
"Edit"
button again to return to this page.) If your email address is verified
it
will say so. Otherwise, click on the "Click here to verify" link.

5. Next, click on the "Verify Your Email Now" button on the following
page.

6. Check your alternate email address for a "Verification Code" and
follow
the instructions.*

*Note: if you do not receive your code right away, you do not need to
request a new one. There may simply be a delay in receiving this email.

Please let us know if we can help you further.

Thanks for writing to Yahoo! UKIE Customer Care.


Regards,


[The problem here was that it created a new account when I tried to use the info above. It did not link to the old one at all. And, I was unable to delete the new account in any way that I could think of.]

-------------------------------------

[AT THIS POINT I CONTACTED FLICKR TO SEE IF THEY COULD HELP ME OUT, AND
SO THE SAGA CONTINUES]

---------------------------------------

(1.12)

sxxxxxxx,
Just a quick email from Team Flickr to let you know that we've
successfully
received your recent Help by Email query and we hope to respond shortly.

We'd also like to take an opportunity to remind you that one query is
sufficient and multiple queries regarding the same issue make the Magic
Donkey cry.

Lastly, you may not be aware that our FAQs and forums are full of help
goodness:

http://www.flickr.com/help/faq/

http://www.flickr.com/help/forum/

The Flickreenos


----------------------------------------

(1.12)

Hello Simon,

Thank you for contacting Flickr Customer Care.

I'm sorry to hear that you are having problems with your account.

Merging refers only to the linking one Flickr account with one Yahoo! ID
for
the purpose of signing into Flickr. This action usually applies only to
accounts created before Yahoo! acquired Flickr and, therefore, had to be
"merged" with a Yahoo! ID. Each new Flickr account created after August,
2005, has been created with a Yahoo! ID already associated with it.

If you want to use the Yahoo id simon_staffans with your account you
will
need to go to this page:

http://www.flickr.com/account/transfer/

and select the option to use a different Yahoo ID for your Flickr
account.

Thank you again for contacting us. If you have any other questions,
please
feel free to reply to this email.

Regards,


John
Flickr Customer Care

--------------------------------------

(5.12)

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

feedback for Support Case: 76571117
(KMM138912265V44771L0KM)

Hi,

My problem is still not resolved. So, I'd be happy to discuss it
further..

/S


---------------------------------------

(5.12)

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Flickr Customer Care.

I'll be happy to look into this matter for you. To do so, I'll need the
following information:

- a detailed description of the exact steps taken that led to the
problem
you're experiencing

- the full and exact text of any error messages you may have received

- the web address of the page you are seeing the issue on

- please let us know if you have received the previous email and
followed
the instructions.

Thank you again for contacting us. If you have any other questions,
please
feel free to reply to this email.

Regards,


John
Flickr Customer Care


------------------------------------

(5.12)

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

feedback for Support Case: 76571117 (KMM139201538V2899L0KM)

Dear John,

To answer your questions:

>- a detailed description of the exact steps taken that led to the
>problem you're experiencing

In August my computer broke down and I lost all the automatic logins
stored
on said computer, amongst them my Flickr login. As I had created a
Yahooo ID
for my Flickr account, and ID I don't use anywhere else, I could not for
my
life remember the details of the ID or the password.

In September I contacted Yahoo customer service to try to sort this out.
Cue
an extremely long and frustrating period, where I was in contact with
5-10
different people, all asking the same questions I'd already answered two
or
three times before - readily readable in the history of the
mailexchange.

So, finally, I got a new Yahoo ID and a temporary login.
But, as this of course was not meant to be easy, I apparently could use
this
login only to create a new account, not access my original account.

I got an answer from you guys, basically saying that a "merger" between
my
Yahoo ID and my Flickr account was impossible - and I did get some
advice
from you guys but unfortunately it does not work out.

See - THIS is my account that I cannot get access to:
http://www.flickr.com/people/57971491@N00/?search=simon+staffans

THIS on the other hand is the account I just created when I tried my
Yahoo
ID and new password, and which I now cannot delete as it always bounces
me
back when I try to delete
it:
http://www.flickr.com/people/32922635@N05/?search=simon+staffans


So pretty pretty please, with sugar on top, can I gain access to my
account???

Best regards,

Simon Staffans


------------------------------------------

(8.12)

Hello Simon,

Thank you for contacting Flickr Customer Care.

We are really sorry for this situation. I understand your frustration.
I have analyzed your message and it is best addressed by our Account
Verification team. To protect account security, this team requires
specific
information about your Yahoo! account that you provided during sign-up
or
when you last updated your account, so I will need to ask you to contact
them directly to provide the necessary info to resolve your issue.

The Account Verification department offers two ways to contact them:

1) Call 866-850-4303 (Open Monday - Friday, 6 am - 6 pm Pacific Standard
Time)

2) Cut and paste the link below to send an email with all of the
information
an agent needs to respond within 12-24 hours:


http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/edit/alternate_email/general.html

NOTE: Please do not reply to this message. Calling the number above or
submitting an email through the form is the best way to get your answer.

For more information about Yahoo's privacy policy, visit:

http://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/details.html

For more information about Yahoo! ID registration, please
visit:


http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/edit/registration/edit-03.html

If you have any other questions, please feel free to reply to this
email.

Thank you again for contacting us.
Regards,


Marta
Flickr Customer Care


---------------------------------------

(January 2009, to Yahoo! again as the Flickr solution didn't work )

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

>>REDFRMCON Case ID: 76769866

Mail-Id:
w2.help.ukl.yahoo.com-/l/us/yahoo/edit/alternate_email/general.html-1228
814816-9141

1. What is your name and Yahoo! ID?
------------------------------------
Name: Simon Staffans

Yahoo! ID: sxxxxxxxxxxxx

2. What is the email address where we can contact you?
-------------------------------------------------------
Email Address: simon.staffans@abo.fi

3. What is your date of birth? (mm/dd/yyyy)
--------------------------------------------
Date of Birth: 0xxxxxxxx

4. What is your zip or postal code?
------------------------------------
Zip Code: 6xxxxxxxx

5. What is your alternate email address on file?
-------------------------------------------------
Alternate Email Address: simon.staffans@gmail.com

6. Do you have more than one question?
---------------------------------------
If yes, check here: This box was NOT checked.

7. What are you writing about?
-------------------------------
Subject: Sign in & Registration - Other not listed

8. Enter additional information here:
--------------------------------------
In August my computer broke down and I lost all the automatic
logins
stored on said computer, amongst them my Flickr login. As I had created
a
Yahooo ID for my Flickr account, and ID I don't use anywhere else, I
could not for my life remember the details of the ID or the password.

In September I contacted Yahoo customer service to try to sort this out.
Cue
an extremely long and frustrating period, where I was in contact with
5-10
different people, all asking the same questions I'd already answered
two
or three times before - readily readable in the history of the
mailexchange.

So, finally, I got a new Yahoo ID and a temporary login.
But, as this of course was not meant to be easy, I apparently could use
this
login only to create a new account, not access my original account.

I got an answer from you guys, basically saying that a
"
between my Yahoo ID and my Flickr account was impossible" - and I did get
some advice from you guys but unfortunately it does not work out.

See - THIS is my account that I cannot get access to:
57971491@N00/?search=simon+staffans" target="_blank"
http://www.flickr.com/people/57971491@N00/?search=simon+staffans

THIS on the other hand is the account I just created when I tried my
Yahoo
ID and new password, and which I now cannot delete as it always bounces
me
back when I try to delete
it:
32922635@N05/?search=simon+staffans" target="_blank"
http://www.flickr.com/people/32922635@N05/?search=simon+staffans

I was directed to this form by the Flickr customer service staff. I do
hope
it would be possible for you to help me.

best regards

Simon Staffans

While Viewing:

Form Name:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/edit/alternate_email/general.html

Yahoo ID: simon_staffans : NOT verified, authorized by CAPTCHA Yahoo id
from
form
"https://amt.yahoo.com/amt/dosearch?.token=wPWuRFV0qUCFFqvCv2b9mgOC3YwID
1Q_A_mT1ON3D7iz6WNI"


---------------------------------------

(31.1.2009)

Hello Simon,

On behalf of the Yahoo! Customer Care Team, I would like to apologise
for
the delay in answering your email.

We wanted to let you know that we've received your message, and more
importantly we want to thank you for your patience. Yahoo! Customer Care
is
committed to answering your questions as quickly and accurately as
possible.
Please know that your email is important to us and we sincerely
apologise
for the delay in responding to your message.

Could you please reply to this mail letting us know if you still need a
password for your account "sxxxxxxxxxxxx"?

Please let me know if you still need help.

Regards,

Corina
Customer Care - Yahoo! UK & Ireland


------------------------------------

(31.1)

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

Hi Corina,

To answer your question, NO, the problem has not been resolved.

This is me:
http://www.flickr.com/people/57971491@N00/?search=simon+staffans

But it seems it's impossible for me to get hold of my login and password
to
this profile.

I don't understand why, but it just, apparently, is. See problem in
detail
below, in the submission form.

NOTE: I DO NOT NEED A PASSWORD FOR MY PROFILE sxxxxxxxxxxxx!!!! That
profile was one I created by mistake, following advice from you. Now I
cannot delete it.

This profile I would want deleted:
http://www.flickr.com/people/32922635@N05/?search=simon+staffans

THIS profile I want access to:

http://www.flickr.com/people/57971491@N00/?search=simon+staffans

So, yes. If I now, half a year later, could get access to my own
profile,
this would be very good.

Thank you

Simon Staffans


--------------------------------------

(10.2)

Hello Simon,

Thanks for writing to Yahoo! UKIE Customer Care.

We understand you have issues affecting your Yahoo! account. We're glad
to
be of assistance. To help us get a better understanding of the issue,
please
reply with the following details:

1. Please describe all the actions you took leading up to the problem,
and
include what functions you had wished to accomplish.

2. If you're seeing an error message, please include the exact text of
the
error messaging. It's important that you include the entire error
message
for our analysis.

3. Describe how often the issue occurs and provide any other relevant
information.

4. Are you using our new Mail or do you work with classic Mail?

5. Have you tried switching to Mail/Classic Mail to solve the issue?

Once we get your response, we'll be happy to look into the issue


Please let me know if you still need help.

Regards,

Sadie


Customer Care - Yahoo! UK & Ireland


------------------------------------------

(April 2009)

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

Hi,

please read about my problem below. I've been asking you to correct this
matter since SEPTEMBER 2008!!! And nothing has happened yet.
PLEASE do something!

Simon


------------------------------------------



-----Original Message-----
From: Yahoo! UK & Ireland Login Support
[mailto:uk-account@cc.yahoo-inc.com]

Sent: den 1 april 2009 12:12
To: Simon Staffans
Subject: Re: Yahoo! Team (KMM83633921V13257L0KM)

Hello Simon,

Thanks for writing to Yahoo! UKIE Customer Care.
I'm sorry to hear that you experience with Yahoo! hab't been a positive
one.
In order to reset the password for the account simon_staffans we need
you to be able to pass our verification procedure which according you
email history has not been successfully passed. In the same way we need
to verify the same detaisl for the accountt hat you wish to delete.
In order to avoid further delays and misunderstandings please reply to
this email providing every single verification details relating both
accounts:

1. Your Yahoo! ID

2. Your zip or postal code OR date of birth you entered when registering
your Yahoo! ID

3. Either the secret question(s) and answer(s) you specified in your
profile (If you specified 2 secret questions/answers, you must provide
both OR Alternate Email Address you specified when registering your
Yahoo! ID

For security reasons, I regret you will not be able to view the secret
question and answer or the date of birth associated with this account.
However, you may determine/modify your alternate email address or zip
code via the Account Information screen by signing in at the web URL
below:

http://edit.yahoo.com/config/eval_profile

As an alternative, I suggest that you sign in to the Yahoo! Mail help
page using the Yahoo! ID in question and resubmit the help request from
there. This way, your account will be verified upon signing in.

You may use the web form below to resubmit your request:
http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/mail/cgi_feedback

Please understand that these requirements exist only to protect the
privacy and security of your account.

I'll be happy to assist you after matching this info with our records.


Please let me know if you still need help.

Regards,
Serena
Customer Care - Yahoo! UK & Ireland

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email and any attachment is confidential
and may be legally privileged. It is intended for the named recipient
only.



[And, so, this was the point where I just plain gave up and created a new Flickr-account, and mailed the message that was at the beginning of this thread. Three days later I received the following:

Dear Yahoo! User,
Please tell us about your recent experience with Yahoo! Customer Care in a brief online survey.
You’ll find the survey here:
http://survey.confirmit.com/wix/p407622488.aspx?r=11342743&s=YOHYFOLM
Thanks so much for taking the time to give us your feedback.
Yahoo! Customer Care

Needless to say, I did not enter the survey.]