after recently meeting a bunch of very active and passionate bloggers who do well out of producing content on a subject they love i have decided to roll into the ammobox project a blog that will be a one stop shop for the small content producer, web media maker and 'ontheground' content creators detailing the very latest tech and hardware that you can use in the field to get the results on a budget.
we feel this is a great crossover framework for the use of the ammobox, testing products and creating media in an organized event by event fashion.
we have established contacts in blogging and web/broadcast production in the local midlands area. as i already work with companies that send me test equipment (nokia, centrance, tekkeon, cradlepoint to name a few) to review it makes sense to take it to the next level and tie all these projects together. to give you a clear understanding how i see these things fusing together i have grouped each product together with a short text to explain how i see it fitting in.
theammoboxproject
to start with i will be posting advice on the current configurations of the equipment in the ammoboxes by each item and hosting that as an ammobox media channel. we will be producing videoclips about up and coming technology that is on the horizon and test some of this new trial hardware giving you quick video snippit episodes. this of course will tie in very well with the daily audiogravity audioboo that i already do. i hope to have a number of ammoboxes sponsored by some of my favorite video streaming sites (and hopefully interest by some pr companies in the south) in the next 3/6 months.
My absolute goal with the ammobox is to use it also as a platform to launch a full time blog with initially me remarking and writing simple quick blog posts detailing hacks, snippits or realworld usage of mobile broadcasting and streaming devices from real use in the field - not cosmetic fashion driven consumer playing. real world usage and examples of how things perform as a media maker in a real scenerio. obviously i would like to form a team of mini reviewers that can help out with this cause and we would be looking to ask people who use the ammobox to maybe become a contributor to how they got on with the box in the hope we can fine tune the experience and the boxes everytime.
thegravity & audiogravity
all episodes and tech reviews will be under the brand of thegravity (be it audio or video) and will be a transportable asset around my blog network of partners - they will be free to reuse the content on their websites and i am open to requests about certain brands or putting together custom overviews for partners to use on their own website.
the 'ontheground' team
not an official team, but one that has worked quite well over the past year has surfaced comprising currently of three freelancers - @documentally, @buddhamagnet and myself - this team (as proven on http://48hrs.rezpondr.com) are a media making machine that can rapidly prototype an idea and be dropped 'ontheground' at an event and produce content on different mediums.
although @buddhamagnet is currently working as an element of a remote team worker on the coding front he could quite easily be brought onboard for writing/documenting and covering events also with us as well if the requirement was there to expose more content - all members of the team have HD recording equipment that they personally own and have the ability to do live audio podcasting interview style coverage. my hope is this social freelance company can be pulled together to assist with any requirements that a venue might have in ordering an ammobox. outside of this we hope to work with local production companies to add to their existing media footprint if they need more social media distribution.
the rezpondr connection
being an unfinished product that has changed direction is not a good thing for anyone (i.e - seesmic) but rezpondr really has been a learning curve for me over the last 12 months in this scene of social media versus value vs free and then the perception of value in the ambient content that is being created. i personally see rezpondr bratching off to become more of a service - more lightweight with a preset layout of themes instead of trying to keep everyone happy all of the time.
the majority of web 2.0 sites that serve a single purpose are the ones that are doing well in this new space - doing something simple and doing it well. we aim to switch gear on rezpondr and make sure that creating plugins and widgets are our focus for rapid deployment for existing content creators and media makers. we aim to have a whitelabel service so that different industries can get the full potential out of the media a team can create at a venue/event. this includes working on better metrics support by using google visualizations and we are working with @buddhamagnet to make this happen - we did a mockup on http://48hrs.rezpondr.com for the 48hrsindenmark weekend that we think went very well in aarhus, denmark.
