Suggested Speakers
- Alison Gow | @alisongow
Trinity Mirror - Tom Metcalfe | @tommetcalfe
Thomas Buchanan
Working with audiences, newsrooms, designers, technologists & academics, #NewsThings explores journalism innovation & the Internet of Things
Session Description
The Internet of Things has vast potential to change and influence the way we live our lives. But what opportunities does IoT – a platform that connects the physical and digital worlds – offer to shape journalism and what new interactions, business models and stories will emerge as IoT becomes a dominant digital platform?
NewsThings explores how the news media might combine audience engagement with ambient design and the Internet of Things to create a unique, collaborative model for news and innovation. It does this by placing users at the centre of the design process, bringing together audiences with news industry, design, technology and academic skills from around the UK to imagine what IoT NewsThings could be, and build them. In a world of Intelligent Objects, Connected Homes, Smart Cities and the next digital revolution, the project creates physical prototypes, new content management systems and analytics suites that track connected objects which offer new editorial and commercial opportunities.
This panel will see the NewsThings partners John Mills (University of Central Lancashire) Tom Metcalfe (Thomas Buchanan Consultancy) and Alison Gow (Trinity Mirror) explain how NewsThings, backed by the Google Digital News Initiative fund, has gone from concept to reality, what connected news objects could be, and what the emergence of IoT could mean for the news industry.
How does your submission contribute to the diversity of the conference?
This international, diverse and multidisciplinary panel offers a diverse range of perspectives, and viewpoints on the Internet of Things, which is yet to be fully understood or realised as an emergent digital platform. Combining news media professionals (Alison Gow, Trinity Mirror Regionals, UK), digital product design (Tom Metcalfe, Thomas Buchanan, UK) and media innovation research (John Mills, Media Innovation Studio, University of Central Lancashire, UK).The subject will challenge conventional assumptions that the future of journalism is screen based, and offers a counterpart to other emerging storytelling platforms such as virtual reality, and a new take on locative media (such as beacon technology). The Internet of Things has yet to reach the news media’s agenda, and this panel is an early conversation around how the next digital revolution could impact on journalism.