Brrism enters the Video Age

I first heard a recording of my voice when I was 7 years old. My dad had this funny old reel-to-reel tape recorder (purchased in the 1960s) and I was convinced that it was the recorder that was making my voice “sound all funny”. I soon discovered that it wasn’t. I really DO sound like that.

Several decades later, the same thing happens but this time with digital video. Once again, I think it must be the camera that’s making me “look all funny”. And once again, I realise that it isn’t…

This Wednesday, Bristol Social Media (Brrism) will be holding its monthly meeting at the Pervasive Media Studio. People have complained at previous Brrisms about the difficulty in finding the studio (we've even had people who've given up and gone home without getting there) and so last week I decided to do something about it. Sam Downie and myself went out and shot the video below. Sam did a great job of shooting and editing the video – I’d like to take this opportunity to thank him – but, despite his video skills, I still look and sound funny. Strange that...

Seriously, if you haven’t been to the Pervasive Media Studio before, I’d suggest you have a quick look to familiarise yourself with the location of Bristol’s very own “Platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross”. Just remember to turn the volume down. ;)

Constructive feedback on the video is welcome too – please leave a comment on the YouTube page.

If you click on the video frame you’ll be taken to YouTube and you might notice that Brrism has its own YouTube “channel”. This is because, at this coming meeting, each of the guest speaker’s 5 minute presentations will be videoed and uploaded to BrrismTV. These videos can be embedded on other people’s blogs (just as the video was embedded in this blog) and its hoped that the videos will be used as a prologue to all other social media items about that particular topic. (In other words, people start with the video and follow links to other blogs/websites/tweets about that topic.) Is this taking us towards a meeting format for the social media age? Judge for yourself at the meeting. It won't be perfect and I’m sure it will need a bit of and tweaking around the edges. Brrism aims to be as innovative as the social media that it focuses on.

The three speakers for Wednesday are Paul Smith, Lee Cottier and Colin Rainsforth. Break a leg, guys and don’t worry if you think the camera will make you look/sound funny: It does that to everyone!

Brrism5 - Time, Politics and Community

It's a brand new year, a brand new decade and Brrism has a brand new format. Every Brrism meeting now consists of three topics and an icebreaker. For the first meeting of 2010 (which takes place on Wednesday 20th at the Pervasive Media Studio) the line up is as follows:

• The Digital Economy Bill with Paul Smith (twitter, blog). Paul is a PPC which I normally take to mean "Pay per Click" but Paul assures me that it means "Prospective Parliamentary Candidate" which gives him an added incentive to be interested in the Digital Economy Bill which is currently making its way through the House of Lords before progressing to the House of Commons and being made law. This is your chance to find out about the bill, discuss it with fellow Brrismers and decide what action to take (e.g. change ISP, write to your MP, etc etc). Pre-meeting discussion can take place here (registration required).
• Social Media versus Time Management with Lee Cottier (twitter). The first of January is the day that we traditionally make our New Year's resolutions with the second of January being the day that we traditionally forget them. Lee will be telling us how we can rethink our habits around social media such we can work more effectively and not get sucked into the Twitter/Facebook/etc time-waste. Pre-meeting discussion can take place here (registration required).
• Social media tools for the Brrism Community with Colin Rainsforth (twitter, website). Brrism's "pattern of use" so far has been a great deal of activity in the week of the meeting followed by 3 weeks of inactivity. It would be great if we could generate conversations that would transcend the meetings and allow us to act as an integrated community throughout the month. Colin has much experience with social media tools as well as being involved with online communities before the likes of Ecademy and Facebook made the term popular. Pre-meeting discussion can take place here (registration required).
• Icebreaker: The 2009 Memory Game. 2009 was chock full of interesting news stories concerning social media and this game refreshes your memory, gets you talking to other people at the meeting and allows you to have a lot of fun.

As usual, Brrism is free though we do like people to chip in a quid or two to cover the food and drinks that are provided. Also be aware that there will be digital cameras at the event and if you are on the run from the police it would be best to stay away as your mug could end up on the internet. You will also have to sign up on EventBrite by using the form below.

The venue is always hard to find. There is a map here or email the venue for directions.