AOIR 8.0 Vancouver Conference (1)

Well it's been a fascinating time out here so far. Although I seem to be dedicating one hemisphere of my brain to things back in the UK and the other to stuff going here in Vancouver, it's been fantastic out here. The highlight of yesterday was a talk given by John Lester from Linden Lab's Second Life that highlighted how plain surreal and powerful the environment is. Perhaps one of the most powerful points he made was about the implications for the disabled being able to truly 'be themselves' in this virtual environment. It is perhaps fair to ask which life is more real?

Today (Friday) started off with Matt Allen (President of AOIR) and Roy Bendor (PhD student and software engineer from Simon Fraser University). What particularly stuck me about both their talks was the concept of immaterial labour (Lazzarato). Although I've discussed this in terms of branding and viral ads, I had not prior made the connection to wider Web 2.0. debates. Essentially the term refers to the idea that we as users and more importantly producers of online culture (Flickr, YouTube, Wiki's, etc.) are unpaid for our labour. This also has particular impart when one considers the various beta tests companies ask us to undertake in the name of participatory media.

The keynote speaker today was Henry Jenkins from MIT who gave both a comprehensive and inspirational presentation on changing media structures, audiences and fan culture. The relevance to media studies and advertising cannot be stressed enough. Media structures in terms of ownership is changing and although there is confusion and resistance amongst media corporations it is fair to say the writing is on the wall. Rather than top down media, media companies are urged to work with users, consumers and small scale media production in a mutually beneficial relationship. As such media culture is no longer the preserve of the few but is rather in the hands of us, the users.

I also had chance to ask about the role of advertising within these changing media structures. He noted that in these changing times brands are in difficulty in terms of how they manage their brand mesages. Whereas prior advertisers and their agencies were largely in control of their brands, these are now being opened up by spoof virals and similar Web 2.0. tools. Sometimes this works in their favour, sometimes it doesn't! Instead brand management needs to be much more multi-directional and allow consumers to demonstrate their hopefully positive feelings about the product and brand. As such the situation is a much muddier than hitherto seen. Interesting times ahead!