I have created a project model to help highlight its benefits above the standard radio model. I have simplified the current radio model, which essentially broadcasts content and music to the listener, without any ability for them to have any direct input or interaction over the content/music they listen to. ALPHACAST allows for direct feedback into the music the listener hears, and also the ability to share content via social networks.

A large part of my application is the use of the last.fm API to generate customised music listening to replace the radio generated playlist. I have been making good use of actionscript 3 last.fm api over on google code. It has been a huge help in getting last.fm data in to Flash. However, it seems to be an early version, as certain methods are far from complete, including the auth method used to authenticate users.

I have rewritten parts of the auth method so that it is called correctly. Particularly the current requestToken() parameter was a little clunky as it involved [...]

The broadcast model is essentially a centralised distribution model. It is one that dominated media distribution throughout the 20th century. Radio was, and still is, the original broadcast medium. At its heart, the broadcast model produces content from a central location to a large number of receivers (listeners in the case of radio, viewers in the case of television).

Radio content by its nature has a strictly linear structure, which offers little or no control to listeners. This was all well and good during the analogue age, where users were subject to the authority of content producers. However, the Internet, [...]

I had been keeping an eye out for articles relating to the Guardian Changing Media Summit which took place in march, and was far beyond my budget to attend(about £340!). According to this article on the media guardian website, commercial radio is ‘dying out’. It even has a rather doomsday-esque warning that it could be gone within 15 years. This is based upon the declining advertising revenues in the commercial radio sector. Commcercial radio is, as the name suggests, entirely dependant on advertising/sponsorship to fund its operations. Advertisers are being tempted by the benefits of online advertising, such as more [...]

I have suffered a bit of a setback, due to the fact that the streams the BBC offer are not compatible with flash. I contacted James Cridland, who is the head of future media & technology at the BBC (formerly head of digital at Virgin Radio). James writes a regular blog on the radio industry which is fascinating, I urge anyone who has even a mild interest in radio to have a read. Anyway, he kindly got back to me and explained that the BBC only provide two external links to their streams, .asx to play in windows media player, [...]

I have been fiddling around with uk radio station metadata. I started my efforts with the radio station i spent my year on placement, Absolute Radio (formerly Virgin Radio). I have to hand it to Absolute Radio, they are deffinitely the frontrunners in terms of online radio streaming. They use icecast audio streaming, and provide on-demand metadata for their three stations. For example, they typically send the station name, station genre, a url and more importantly the currently playing track. This makes building an app for their station a joy, as you can connect to the server over a socket [...]

Well, my idea for my final project has shifted radically since my last musings. I originally was looking into peer to peer radio, however, i was never really comfortable with this idea, firstly as it was potentially beyond my skill and secondly it just didn’t POP enough. In the course of my dissertation research I covered many areas in which Internet culture has influenced the radio listener of today.

A topic that came up which really interested me was the effect of customised music (think last.fm, pandora and personal music players) on music discovery. Once upon a time this would have [...]

My dissertation looks into the role of radio, and its viability as a media platform and social tool in the future. One of the key themes i am looking into is the lack of interactivity offered to the next generation of listeners, the so called digital natives who are used to dynamic, user generated environments and content (YouTube being a great example).

The standard model of radio offers only limited interactivity. I want to explore the idea of user generated radio, based on a peer to peer model where content can be generated by the user, and eventually broadcast by them [...]

Well, after my brainwave to use my ideas project, i have realised it is not really suitable for my final year project. It is more suited to a commercial environment, so i have taken a different tack.

My main focus is to attempt to create peer to peer radio. They key aim is to for users to record their own content which can then be broadcast. I feel that this is a potential area that radio could expand in to, to give users the level of interaction that they are seeing in [...]

Its been all change on the dissertation front, which in turn has affected my project hugely, and its shaping up to be a corker. My original idea for my dissertation was focused on the avatar, and therefore for my project I wanted to create an installation that generated abstract avatars on the fly using sound and light.

Well, anyways as with my dissertation, I really pounced on the avatar through a lack of creative ideas on my part. Having now decided to focus on the role of radio as a social tool/media [...]

Ok, so im back peddling slightly as my blog took a little longer to set up than expected. I have been looking into the work of AntiVJ, who has made some really inspiring light and sound installations, to help give me some inspiration for my final year project.

My dissertation idea currently focuses on the avatar, and how it can be used to mis-represent the self in a digital space.  In a simplified nutshell the key question i am exploring is the notion that we are having to learn new ways of interacting, [...]