I first started delving into the works of the legendary Bev Davies only just over a year ago but after discovering what I have (which is simply scratching the surface) I realized what an important person she is to rock and roll history, along with Vancouver history.

Along with Kris Krug, whose rock photography is recent yet not any less inspiring and captivating, Dave Olson will guide these two through a journey of their craft both on and offline.

“I wanted to start with something a little bit bigger than that, which is why you are taking these photos,” asks Dave while avoiding conversations about aperture and depth of field etc.

Bev was working at the Georgia Straight during some of these shots, including one of Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden. “I was collecting, I wasn’t sure what I was collecting for but I was.”

Why are you there if everyone else is there? With regards to crammed photo pits that Krug has been a part of (while Bev was often the only camera at a punk show back in the day.

The next slide is Iggy Pop, decades apart – one from Davies, another from Krug. “I have a real crush on men that wear eye makeup,” says Bev.

Krug says Davies is “one of the pillars on which the entire movement is built,” talk ing to how she captured these moments and opened doors for fans and photographers.

Dave asks how perspectives change when you’re a fan versus just showing up at a concert – how does your appreciation and passion for the subject affect your shots?

“There’s also a pressure to get a good photograph, whether you’re doing it for a newspaper, a magazine, or for yourself.”

Bev’s style changed with digital, while Krug carries a big kit almost everywhere (although sometimes it’s left in a corner until he needs to pull it out get snap some unmissable shots).

Dave loves to casual shots, talking about the edginess of the Dead Kennedys (as photographed by Bev) but behind the scenes both Bev and Kris can capture those more casual moments. Pointing to the Dead Kennedys shot Dave notes, “And look like them, they look like the IT department at work!”

He also asks them to talk about those surprising and candid moments and Bev describes the joy of photographing the band interacting with each other – capturing their times with each other, not just the poses for the fans, posters, and calendar covers.

Photo credit: Kris Krug on Flickr

Dave, “once you get to know an artist is it easier to shoot them?” Bev got a heads up from members of DOA whenever something noteworthy was going to take place ie. the burning of the guitar that we see in an image on the screen.

Tips for getting caught without accreditation? Krug swaps out memory cards, while Bev says “in the bra” worked for her. However there is the fear of being blacklisted – you don’t want to totally go nuts.

How do you go in and capture these shots full of movement? Bev says, “stand at the front.” With regards to workflow, you’d get that one shot and what happens to the rest? Bev references her 144 Punk Rock Photos exhibit that Dave actually covered a while back. She says she’s been working on archiving her photos digitally by scanning them over the last two years — Dave does a quick shout out for an intern for Bev.

Dave pulls up two comparison photos of shadowed, backlit rockers and Bev says you’re always aiming for the eyes, face definition etc. but sometimes you just have to “start shooting for the shape, rather than the content and let the shape tell a story.”

More shots without faces appear on screen including one from a backstage perspective of the frontman’s legs, shoes, then the lit up faces of the audience. “I was just standing back in one area and again, I just liked the shape,” noted Bev and she says she started noticing the shoes and footwear of bands — quirky examples of connecting (or not) with a band through all artistic aspects.

“It’s one thing to shoot your buddy’s punk band but it’s another for these bigger shows just to get in and get your camera in there,” Dave asks Bev and Kris about access. Kris says, “it’s always the same dudes at most of the same places, life’s long and you don’t want to burn out right away,” his advice is to take it easy – even show them some shots you’re taking on the fly.

Bev’s shot for The Province and the Georgia Straight before so she knows the difference between having “access” to the photo pit compared to looking out and seeing cameras in the crowd — be one with the audience if you can, whenever you can. The photo that’s up on screen for this part of the discussion is one Bev took of Madonna during her first concert… ever.

“Look we have a young earnest Bono (look his head was only tiny then,” Dave says pointing to a shot Bev took of Bono that’s up on the screen. Bev notes that she’s getting all kinds of feedback from Flickr – people saying she could crop and photoshop these images although I think we all realize the impact of her captures of these moments and these people at this point in their careers far out weighs any ‘photoshopping’ criticism.

Pressed for time, Dave rips through the remaining slides and the final image is of the band “The Spores” at a concert in Surrey that Bev took and a little young DaveO is right there, in black and white, in the audience.

Update: Slides from this presentation are available online.

The first Northern Voice 2009 session following lunch in room 1005 here at the UBC Forestry Sciences building is Robert Scales (of Raincity fame) along with Dr Andy Miah, whose various credits include writing for the Huffington Post during the 2008 Beijing Olympics (he also came all the way here from Scotland, just for this!)

Photo from Beijing last summer: Scales on Flickr

Update: With the network issues I will attempt to update real-time but if that doesn’t work I’ll take notes and publish them here as soon as I’m back online.

Update: I have just been informed that there is a full panel for this talk, including DaveO as well who just blew on a big red horn to get our attention. “Michael Phelps has got nothing on these lungs.”

Debbi Lander came here from England as she is on the Cultural Committee for London 2012.

“I’m going to have the chance to see the third Olympics in Canada,” says Scales as he leads off the presentation. He gives us a run through of Canadian Olympic moments and says he’s definitely a fan.

He went to Turin in 2006 as independent media (through the non-accredited media centre) along with Kris Krug and covered it from a local perspective ie. hockey in the streets, and the impact on local culture. In 2008 he went to Beijing, which was a small leap from the Raincity offices in Shanghai. He was able to collaborate and create a document about the spirit of the Olympics with various research. Scales attended various events including achieving one of his goals of seeing Olympic fencing. As a result, the BBC picked up some of his work and asked him to write an Olympic diary. When he returned to Vancouver he opened more dialogue with VANOC and eventually became accredited through the BC International Media Centre. With that, a representative from the BCIMC comes up for a quick talk about how Olympics

“The international media centre for the 2010 Games will be at Robson Square,” and he says he’s been faced with how to accredit bloggers, “let me tell you that we’re not there yet,” but they are working on it. “We do want folks to register.”

January 29th 2010 the media centre will open and will have an auditorium about the size of the one we’re in. The majority of the money for the media centre will be spent on the pipe – so everyone can get information in and out as quickly as possible.

Update: Scales now moves on to the London 2012 Games and introduces Andy who is a professor in ethic and emerging technologies at the University of the West of Scotland. He discusses ambush media and marketing ie. billboards that are not sponsored by Olympic sponsors are left empty. As a side note, I think Seattle’s Best Coffee has the rights for 2010 so Starbucks shops near venues such as Whistler Village will have to cover their signs — don’t quote me on this but I believe this is one of Andy’s points. Sort of like how GM Place will now be Canada Hockey Place for two weeks in 2010.

Ambush media consists of things like “reversing the direction of interrogation towards traditional media and then broadcasting the results often before traditional media.” I just found this presentation on Slideshare, which contains more information:

Andy says that in the short term social media can make a bigger impact than the traditional outlets. He also discusses branding and brand protection ie. the London 2012 logo being used for a Facebook group. “The Games time is remarkably different than the years before it, leading up to it.”

Update: DaveO is up next talking about his experience living in Japan in the pre-Nagano times as well as his time in Utah for the Salt Lake City Winter Games, catching 28 events in 13 days.

Don Cherry in Salt Lake City wearing Dave’s hat: Dave on Flickr

Dave’s coverage was a marathon of photos and video, he was able to catch moments and “microcosms of events” that were taking place and not getting covered ie. the first Olympian from Nepal at the Winter Games. He also describes heading to an Olympic media briefing and being immediately told, “the protesters are over there across the street.” Dave said it sucked because “we’re not journalist-y enough to hang out with the journalists and we’re not protest-y enough to hang out with the protesters.” He says “we’re not here to live stream the women’s figure skating in prime time,” that’s not the idea. “We own as much of the culture about the olympics as the IOC does,” says Dave. “People are coming and i plan to welcome them and make cool stuff.”

world. Update: “Every host nation has the responsibility to push the boundaries of one aspect of the Games,” says Debbi who is up last on the panel. “When the handover happened from Beijing to London they opened a Flickr channel although it wasn’t open to users yet, there was simply a chat.” She says there’s a willingness to bring it into the centre but they’re also discussing if that’s appropriate and “if that can exist in a parallel universe”.

When the handover happened from Beijing to London they opened a Flickr channel although it wasn’t open to users yet, there was simply a chat. “I don’t want to put four years into something that no one wants to ever get to hear about.” She will be working with the ANDFestival, check it out for more details.

“Traditional corporations have been doing this for a long time – there’s science behind it, they know what they’re doing.” Steve’s opening comment is following by a “ha” from the audience.

“I think before we define the worst, I think we should define what would make it the best.” Steve Pratt starts off showing promo shots for morning shows on radio stations, from Dano and Jono to the nugget. The all request lunch hour, the all request electric lunch. Then there’s “the wacky morning show idea the morning zoo,” followed by other formats and re-hashed formats.

Truths of private radio:

What would be the Worst. Radio Station. Ever?

Who is dumb enough to make the worst radio station ever? Good news, it’s your public broadcaster, the CBC. “The CBC is that dumb,” says Pratt who will discuss CBC Radio 3.

It’s not a podcast, it’s not a radio station and it’s not a website. “We are experts in new Canadian music.” They “put it out to people wherever it makes sense.” They define themselves on content rather than platform and offer multiple formats and mutiple ways to consume the content, “think about the audience and don’t force people down a certain path – let them have the choice.”

Steve describes different types of audience members (passive vs active): grazers, full meals, lurkers, active participants, community members – you want to make it friendly for all of those. “The majority tend to be a lot more passive – and we try to be a good filter.” Radio 3 also tries to enhance the interactivity of radio, “accessibility is key.” Also, “celebrate participation, celebrate evangelism when it happens,” it all helps to engage and enhance the audience experience.

Steve says that they need to be grateful for the people who submit their content and also shares Radio 3′s “dumb” goals for being the worst radio station:

“We want to change the way people think about Canadian music.” He adds, “There’s such amazing music getting made in this country that nobody ever hears.”

Because they are a public broadcaster Steve says, “You’re all paying for this, come on in and help us shape the face of Canadian music.”

What are they going to do next? They’re going to make it “worse”. They will add more of a community but not so much a free-for-all. From the mock up Steve puts on screen it looks more like a personal profile page including, “what I’m listening to” and “what concerts I’m going to” elements.

Unfortunately the internet connection is being spotty so I am unable to finish updating in real time – sorry Steve!

“He might look like your average college professor but he’s f’ing insane – he’s the funniest guy I know,” notes Kris Krug as he introduces Rob Cottingham, today’s second keynote. Nancy White will also be doing a freeform graphical interpretation of Rob’s talk as we go along.

He says his daughter told him to “Break a leg” this morning, “and can you tell her that Peter Mansbridge really should make way for some younger blood?”

“I would like to begin with a moment of silence for all the services that have died since the last Northern Voice: Pownce, SocialFM, Rogers Customer Service.”

“We’re going to try and make a little history this morning, I’m going to use a little tool made by our friends here in Vancouver, “HootSuite” — I’m going to strive to become the first stand up comic in history to heckle himself. And frankly I’m exactly the kind of jackass that I was afraid would show up.” He says we’re all welcome to join him on twitter using a special hashtag that is exactly 140 characters long.

Here’s here to talk about what makes social media funny. Starting with podcasting, how funny is podcasting? Rob then impersonates a podcaster’s opening remarks, which I wish I could get the audio for.

Up next, end-user license agreements, funny? “There’s a reason the button says ‘submit’.” Rob says, “The guy selling heroin at an elementary school would say, my that sounds a little one-sided.” “Take my rights, have my kidneys and give me my free Scrabble application!”

Beta testing – funny? The room is slightly indifferent but Rob thinks beta testing is funny. Rob is reading a beta testing agreement while Nancy is writing and drawing feverishly with felt markers on the board behind him.

Memes, funny or not funny? “I’m going to go with not funny.” On the screen Rob has the”Drive a 6″ stake through your hand meme” which ends with “tag six people you really don’t like.” He then calls up the “3 people you’ve cheated on your spouse with” meme” and the instructions are hilarious.

Photo credit: John Biehler on Flickr

Blogging, funny? “Blogging amazes me, how much of blogging is about blogging?” A lot. “Any communications channel opens up conversations about that communication,” ie. the Verizon “can you hear me now?”. The topic more interesting to people about blogging is monetizing blogging.

Business in the social web is funny to Rob. It’s all about “continuous arguable improvement”. It’s not the heart of social media. This “wasn’t dreamed up in anyone’s boardroom,” he adds, “this world of social media was invented and re-invented by us.”

With regards to social media or web 2.0 whatever you want to call it, “at the heart of this thing is creative self expression and the ability to connect.”

Rob mentions Andrew Keen’s book, The Cult of the Amateur, and how he thinks that’s the wrong idea. It’s about a supportive culture of friends both online and in the real world.

“By applause, LOLCats, funny? Or not funny?” Funny wins. Rob never was a big fan, but it’s the lesser of many evils. “Shared laughter is more than just a sound.”

“The social web is hilarious, and thank god.” He says, “if you’re already doing teh funny, keep it up.”

Welcome to day two of Northern Voice 2009 we have two keynotes this morning and the first is Nora Young (from Spark on CBC Radio) to discuss On Buried Hatchets and Better Tomorrows discussing a new ecology of information for content creators, from mainstream media to online publishing.

Photo credit: mstermaq on Flickr

Update: When new technologies arrive there is a culture shift. Nora’s first example is the telephone and how it changed the way people communicate — from small things such as what do you say when you first pick up the phone?, “ahoy” got a nice round of chuckles.

Spark is about technology and culture so the intersection with social media was a great fit for Young. Along with a colleague they came up with tips for mainstream media based on social media such as transparency. “Mirror the more open, loose, and character of a blog,” asking, “what would a blog sound like on the radio?”.

“We deliberately try to show that we’re not live, and we’re not perfect — which isn’t too hard to do — but we try and let the seams show.” Nora’s presentation is peppered with great archived audio as well.

Another tip for mainstream media based on social media thinking is to “give up on the idea of being the sole authority.” They “try to bring the idea of a perpetually unfolding conversation into the program.” She says they are also very open about the fact that some of the best ideas come from the Spark community and those who enjoy the show. “Have integrity in your desire to foster community.”

Update: “There are some real, practical and esthetic challenges,” for mainstream media in order to shift to this kind of thinking.

“It’s not what you know but who you know, we’re living in an age of socialized information,” Nora uses Twitter as an example of this, “it’s becoming a fantastic tool for information gathering and dissemination.” With Spark they also put out questions, share information and engage their audience even more.

Nora also mentions that it’s a collaborative truth meaning “the contribution of the individuals is important but not an important as the sum total,” which she notes as a really big change. “The culture of the book which is linear and individual to the culture of the web.”

Update: “Mobiquity: being continually connected in the mobile web,” is another shift Nora mentions. When more people connect to the internet from their phones than desktop computers what does that mean for content and the way blogs are viewed? (Editor’s Note, check out Brave New Code‘s WPtouch plugin if you’re on WordPress — it makes your blog look amazing from a mobile device).

What happens when you have perpetual internet connectivity? The web isn’t detached from geography, it can be hyper-local, mentions Nora.

“It’s not just about the technology it’s about all the layers of social organization,” Nora gives an example of her local farmer’s market and how she likes to get eggs from the egg lady. If they market were totally connected and she was aware that the egg lady would not be at the market that day she probably wouldn’t have ventured out. However she didn’t know, she did go, and she had a great experience — which she could have missed out on if she had all the information re: the egg lady. (There are some negative implications of being *too* connected…)

She moves on to sustainability, what people want versus what people say – closing the gap, “so there’s a better marriage of information,” so that “consumers can now contribute information about what they want in a product and designers can get that.”

Example of a participatory culture in business is the stock photo industry and how the model for stock photos no longer exists with sites like Flickr.

“Who the hell has time for all of this?” Nora notes that, “If you can make things simple and elegant people will spend a lot of their own volunteer energy to figure things out.” (Editor’s Note: Yay open source!)

Flipping information sharing on its head Nora gives an example of a class where the teachers sent the kids home with video podcasts in order to get the info and learn then when the kids came to school, the personal face time was to interact, work, and discuss what they learned.

Update: How do we find spaces for deeper shared learning? At the bare minimum, Nora says this means we have to push for information access, and we need to remember what all of this collaboration is for.

The name for this session per the Northern Voice website was “Mash Media Storytelling” and having recently seen RiP: A Remix Manifesto, I’m definitely interested in this topic. That, and I also caught James Chutter speak at Interesting Vancouver this past summer and would love to hear more.

Update: In 2004 James graduated film school at NYU, at the same time Tim O’Reilly coined the term web 2.0 noting that just as he received all his professional training the tides shifted, and now “some kid in his basement who didn’t finish high school is making better films than you.” He looked up “web 2.0″ and saw that one of its largest elements is participation.

His first example is radio and how War of the Worlds mashed what radio was — news and audio theatre — and how Orson Wells was a storyteller that understood the technology of radio and also the distribution of the medium, creating what was a great mash-up.

“Now this is the slide I call ‘Don’t do what Doug does,” Doug is the CEO of Universal Music. A short while ago he realized he made a mistake by throttling the music industry and it’s all about getting, sharing, re-using, and interacting. As a result, the online music channel for Universal is now widely popular.

Whether you’re in music, art, film etc. how do you get it out to more people and networks? James Chutter calls it Mash Media: Appropriating media to reach a mass audience. “Let’s use the content that’s already out there.”

Update: With regards to sharing content and re-mixing it (and a concerned person in the audience when it comes to original content and copyright — and also keeping the quality of the original work), James personally believes “if you don’t want someone participating with your art work, then don’t put it out there.” I just added that this is why Creative Commons exists, so that people can give you permission (and publish under a license) that allows for re-mixing, depending on the levels you set.

Another comment from the crowd says that sometimes new works, based on others, might actually bring more attention to the original creator — you may not have seen the original but maybe now you’ll look it up based on what you’ve seen. It’s turning into a Q&A session so everyone decides to let James proceed with his presentation.

Update: James pulls up more examples from art work to We Feel Fine, a site that scrapes the net for the words “I Feel” and then re-posts those statements.

James’ next slide actually tells the story of a band that was promoted by a mash-up artist, whose own fan base included someone who worked at Apple and then used a song from the first band in an iPod Touch commercial (which pretty much ties into a comment we heard from the crowd just a few minutes ago).

He introduced MindsOnTwitter.com which is his little mash-up story using Tweets from people on Twitter.

James’ presentation has concluded and now the copyright and re-mixing discussion continues in the room.

From Dave on Flickr

When Uncleweed is on tap for a speaking engagement I make sure not to miss it even though I’ve seen him do over a dozen talks in the years I’ve known him.

In fact, his F*ck Stats Make Art talk last year was so successful that he was asked to present it this year at SXSW.

Today he was talking about the process from idea to publication while sharing his personal journey surrounding his Letters from Russia series. I wasn’t live blogging his session as I wanted to pay attention and focus on his message, delivered as he stood before a packed while sporting a smoking jacket.

I did however jot down some of his quotes on Twitter and John Biehler snapped some photos so I’ll share those now.

“I came across a ticket that was $420 to Belize. I was like ‘BUY’ … I wonder where Belize is?”

Photo credit: Dave on Flickr

“If any of you have read it, it’s a big long story and there’s a lot of war and a lot of peace…”

Photo credit: John Biehler on Flickr

“If you snip the kite string will it soar higher? No it will tumble to the ground.”

“80% meditation, 10% execution, 10% inebriation.”

Photo credit: John Biehler on Flickr

“What makes a work important is giving it an audience.”

Photo credit: Dave on Flickr

Check out Dave’s podcasts, blogs, and prose on his site, which links to a bagillion other sites where his inspirational content lies.

By John Biehler on Flickr

Is advertising dead and if so, who killed it? Chris Heuer‘s talk becomes a discussion rather quickly surrounding marketing, advertising and its shift to reality and reviews in the online realm.

“Big clients, small clients, they’re coming to me and saying my advertising isn’t working anymore,” Chris then plays a clip from Monty Python bring out your dead comparing it to the world of advertising. “They don’t understand that marketing has become a four letter word.” He adds, “We don’t want to be sold anymore we want to be able to buy.”

Update: It’s all about a power shift, “because things are more visible now, we don’t need people to make us aware of it — our friends do.” What killed advertising? Tivo? Craigslist? Chris says it’s choice. He ads that informative and entertaining advertising works — “it’s not spam, it’s helpful.”

The discussion in the room is going back to print advertising quite often and how that is looked at as dead.

“We don’t have to sit back anymore, we can interact,” says Chris, which leads to sharing and more engagement. He pulls up a screen that shows a heat map of eye-tracking when people look at websites and the “red zones” are all on the main content – not the sidebars or on banner ads within posts.

“One of the reasons why advertising must die as we know it is because we have to change the way we think about it.”

Update: Chris talks about advertising versus adding value. This is something I personally believe in (for anyone who advertises on my site I also write up a blog post in order to add content, information and value for my readers and the client.

Chris pulls up Will it Blend – saying this is a form of advertising and it works even without “ads”. They toss products in a blender and create videos and posts which then land on the front page of Google for that product — they are profitable yet spend zero on ads. At one point you could Google “iPod” and you’d get the episode of Will it Blend where they blend up on iPod. The product they actually do sell… is the blender itself.

We’re running a bit behind at Northern Voice so Chris wraps up his talk while the discussion continues about where should people be putting their advertising dollars… he adds (thanks to Twitter, I could look it up after the fact) that you shouldn’t be spending money on advertising when you can simply be making money (a la Will It Blend).

As I took my seat at the very front of the auditorium (like a keener) for Northern Voice 2009 I realized I forgot my card-reader as well as my camera cable. The result of this being none of my photos will be uploaded until the evening so in the meantime I’m going to grab a bunch from John Biehler (who is uploading his pics on the fly). That in itself is not a terrible thing, it’s actually a fantastic system since John’s photos from last night’s dinner are pretty spectacular, here’s a sampling:

Photo credit: John Biehler on Flickr

Photo credit: John Biehler on Flickr

Photo credit: John Biehler on Flickr

Update: The fact that I’m sharing John’s photos from Flickr is fitting seeing as how our morning keynote is none other than Stewart Butterfield — one of the founders of Flickr.

Photo credit: John Biehler on Flickr

Update: Stewart’s keynote begins as a photo story, from an image of a shack in the woods to illustrate his home town of Lund, to black and white hippie photos of him and his parents, and a young Stewart in a “Radio Shack Computer Camp” trucker-style hat.

“Back then, in 1992, the internet was a way to keep in touch with people going to university in other places,” mentions Stewart while sharing some of his old usernames and email addresses (that, at the time, were at least 20 characters long). He’s also showing some postings he’s made to groups online (circa 1993) including his first online community rec.music.phish.

“There was a web when I first got online but it was such a small thing, there was so little content there that it didn’t pop on my radar til about 1994.” His first real expressions on the web was Sylloge, and he shows us an example of its activity using the Wayback Machine.

Update: “When I first got online, Howard Rheingold had already written a book, The Virtual Community.”

Photo credit: John Biehler on Flickr

Update: Stewart moves on to “this is who I am” and shows images of various ways people express themselves and who they are, from bumper stickers to hairstyles and clothing. “People tend to pick up more adhoc bits of culture,” while a photo of a crowded auditorium pops up with Apple notebook symbols glowing (and a little red arrows points out the single PC user).

Update: “In the early days, photography was about memory preservation,” notes Stewart as the Flickr logo spins up on to the screen. Trends Stewart highlights include: Ubiquity of capture devices, Spread of the network, Change in perception and attitudes — participating is no longer weird.

“Obese man in underwear hunched over computer in basement,” pops up on a slide as Stewart addresses some of the stereotypes of internet users and mentions another trend: The desire to participate became very wide spread. Stewart shows an image of Obama and the crowd before him, each person with their own camera. “You can see a whole wall of LCDs.”

“There was a time when you wanted to make music, you would head into the parlour and friends and family members joined you,” moving on to a brief discussion about Web 2.0. “This will probably be the last time I have to do this presentation because I think we’re going to stop calling it web 2.0.” It’s about creating and sharing rather than consuming.

A graph representing internet usage pops up on screen, “when you look at this graph you must know it’s totally made up — but it’s super positive!”

Stewart address the changing role of computing over the years including, ‘Relationship-based computing’ which replaces document-based computing which replaced application-based computing (from Stewart’s slide).

Update: The presentation ends with “Anyway, this is why I love the internet.”

Photo credit: John Biehler on Flickr

The keynote has ended so it’s time to pick up the schedule and see where I should head next. There are so many tracks and presentations today (including an unconference track that will have sessions added in a few minutes). Ill continue my coverage today in another post but so far, NV09 is off to a great start.