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Police in Twitter experiment

A version of this article was first published as UK Police in Twitter Experiment on Technorati.

A police force in England has made a splash in the social media world by tweeting every incident it dealt with over a 24 hour period from 5AM BST (midnight EST) on Thursday October 14th to the same time yesterday, Friday 15th.

Greater Manchester Police decided to open up their operations for the day to show the public exactly what its officers do, and to demonstrate to the government how damaging proposed cuts to funding and staff would be.

The force used four different accounts because of Twitter’s spam-reducing tweet frequency limit to detail a total of 3,205 incidents. 341 people were arrested over the 24 hour period, and 126 of those remained in custody by the end of the 24 hours the force was tweeting for. The experiment received wide-ranging praise from across the world, with the hashtag used in each tweet, “#gmp24” becoming the most-mentioned phrase worldwide on the site.

The calls reported varied from serious incidents like possible domestic violence to more trivial matters like a nuisance call about a trapped cat and reports of loud music being played.

It wasn’t long before hundreds of people started following the police’s activity, with many retweets spreading the word of what the force was doing across Twitter and the web. A spoof account was quickly created by some witty chancer, while the main @gmpolice account gained thousands of new followers.

Greater Manchester Police is hailing the experiment as a success. The force’s Chief Constable Peter Fahy was fully behind the idea, and afterwards spoke about what it achieved.

He said: “The reaction we have received proves that the public perception of modern day policing was removed from the reality that my officers face.

“As well as serious crimes, we deal with many social issues and other incidents that the public are quite surprised about.”

Using social media tools available to everyone, like Twitter, is a great way of drawing the attention of the mass media to things that might otherwise go unnoticed. In the last year, simple hashtags have been used to whip up support for several things threatened in the UK, including “#welovetheNHS” and “#proudoftheBBC”, which was just today turned in to a song by popular comedian and singer-songwriter Mitch Benn. Enjoy it below, and you can see all the tweets by GMP here.

Image © Copyright Greater Manchester Police. All rights reserved.

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3D TV – must-have gadget or modern gimmick?

Article first published as 3D TV; Must-Have Gadget or Modern Gimmick? on Technorati.

3D TV is the latest idea to move out of the lab and in to the home. At the beginning of this month, Rupert Murdoch’s Sky TV launched Europe’s first 3D television channel, showing 14 hours of content daily. So far this has been selected films and Premiership football matches, following on from trials of the service in pubs across Britain.

Just like when you see a 3D film at the cinema, you need to wear special glasses. But gone are the plastic blue and red specs you pay more for at the flicks. The new generation of 3D TV uses sleek, futuristic-looking glasses. They’re not cheap, at around £100 ($158) a pair, but are of course more sturdy and reliable. The old glasses will still let you see in three dimensions, just not as well.

However, the cinema is a place where, over the last few years, people have become accustomed to picking up a pair, sitting down to watch the film and looking a bit silly. The living room is a whole new arena – are people ready to adapt?

Where is the market for non-fictional 3D content on TV? I’ve seen one or two films marketed as “3D”. One was Coraline, Henry Selick’s computer-animated adaptation of the Neil Gaiman novel. I remember a few things seemingly coming out of the screen towards me, which I presume is scary for children. But is it entertaining? Does it add anything to the plot, or is it just a gimmick? I think the latter. Warner Brothers announced last week that the planned 3D release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One had been cancelled as the studio was unable to ready it in time for the November release. As such, the film will only be seen in cinemas in 2D. Part Two, to be released in July next year, will also be in 3D.

I cannot see 3D being employed as a serious tool by, for example, news broadcasters, talk shows, comedy programmes or any drama series. It would ruin the feel of the programme by figuratively and, literally via technology, breaking the fourth wall.

Then there is the actual capability to view the programmes. For this, a TV with the necessary hardware built-in is required. Many people have forked out for expensive high definition televisions, and these are just now becoming the new standard available in shops. Consumers set them up to find that the quality on a small selection of programmes is only marginally better. It will be some years before HD becomes standard on the majority of television output, and surely many more years later before 3D is so – if it ever takes off properly.

Also this month, the first hardware supporting Google’s upcoming TV offering will become available, with Logitech’s Revue set to ship on October 21st and offerings from Sony and other companies debuting later this year or in early 2010. Apple also started selling its relaunched Apple TV box, first shown in September.

It seems there is a future in television, despite what the online future media nay-sayers might claim. But the content and format is certain to be very different to that seen today.

Image by user pcs007 on Flickr, used under a CC-BY-SA license.

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Les Misérables celebrates 25th birthday

Article first published as Les Misérables celebrates 25th birthday on Technorati.

The West End and former Broadway musical Les Misérables celebrated its twenty-fifth birthday yesterday.

The world’s longest-running musical opened on October 8th, 1985 at London’s Barbican Centre. Critics were vocal but the public quickly took Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil’s adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel to their hearts. Advance bookings soared and Miz, as it’s affectionately shortened to, transferred to the West End’s Palace Theatre in December that year. Nearly two decades later in 2004, it moved to a new home at the Queen’s Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, where it is still running.

Last night members of the original London cast sat down for a private get-together with the people behind the show, including original directors John Caird and Sir Trevor Nunn. But the anniversary was far from forgotten.

Last Sunday two concerts took place at the o2 Arena, the former Millenniun Dome. Performers from the current cast at the Queen’s and the Anniversary Cast, which recently finished up its tour by coming home to the Barbican, joined together with members of the original London cast to form a stunning one-off ensemble and choir, including Les Mis alumni Lea Salonga, Peter Polycarpou and the current Éponine at the Queen’s, Samantha Barks.

Although the tour is over, a production with its brand-new orchestrations is scheduled to open in Madrid in November. Producer Cameron Mackintosh recently revived the long-running rumours about a film version of the musical, saying he had signed a contract. The speculation continues, then, one day more.

Image by user jaumemeneses on Flickr, used under a CC-BY-SA license.