The Going Visual Blog

CONNECTED IMAGING REVOLUTION --

Thanks to the combined effects of an unprecedented surge in sales of image
capture devices, the Internet, and wireless telecommunications, average
people are being empowered for the first time in history to communicate with
each other using images as readily and easily as they do using words.

This "Connected Imaging Revolution" is the theme for Future Image's
inaugural 6Sight conference, scheduled for October 25 in Monterey CA, and
co-hosted by the International Imaging Industry Association (I3A). The
annual event will bring together technologists, marketers, futurists,
artists, educators, high-volume users and members of the media for a program
emphasizing innovative use cases, breakthrough technologies, and creativity.

Connected Imaging is among the key trends to emerge in recent years at the
intersection of technology development and social evolution, as reported in
the ground-breaking book Going Visual  -- co-authored by Future Image
founder Alexis Gerard, and AVA Mobile founder Bob Goldstein.

"Industry conferences are typically all about features, specifications, and
market statistics. Instead, 6Sight focuses primarily on impact to people's
everyday lives," said Gerard. "The term Connected Imaging communicates value
to users. It's about the myriad ways we can be enriched by imaging tools
that help people connect more effectively with each other - whether for
work, personal, or community purposes. It's about being more informed, more
productive and more in touch. And the 6Sight conference is also about first
looks at exciting new imaging technologies that will expand our horizons."

For more information please visit www.6Sight.com.

Mobile Imaging Summit

By Bob Goldstein

I have just returned from the Mobile Imaging Summit in Monterey, CA. This year's event made it perfectly clear that, only three years after the release of the first camera-phones in the US, mobile imaging has become an information and entertainment phenomenon. This year's Summit focused on the current state of the industry and what applications, devices, network communication infrastructure, and services were on the mobile imaging horizon. The panels and conversations ranged from new uses of traditional media such as print - to instant, automated distribution of images to PC's, mobile phones and blogs - to video content and video conferencing. To illustrate the world-wide nature of mobile imaging, the Summit's keynote address, given by Rick Smolan, author of "America, 24/7," featured a segment entitled "5 Minute World" during which 200 people from all over the world sent images from their camera-phones for posting on the Going Visual web site. Click here to take a look at this international, all visual event. We'll have more details and images on display in the coming days.

Rick Smolan to Keynote Mobile Imaging Summit, October 11-12, Monterey CA

YOU'RE SO VAIN! YOU PROBABLY THINK THE WORLD REVOLVES AROUND YOU - How will our world view change when everyone on earth has a camera with them 24/7?

Former Time, Life and National Geographic magazine photographer Rick Smolan, author and creator of the best-selling photography books in history (five million copies in print), including the "Day in the Life" and "America 24/7" books, will focus on the profound implications of having a billion ordinary people carry camera-phones with them 24/7 in his presentation at the Mobile Imaging Summit.

How is the camera phone phenomenon accelerating the pace of mass customization and affecting how images appear in the news and entertainment industries? Projecting a decade into the future, Smolan will describe what life may be like in a world where everyone records everything going on around them all the time. From personal and shared video blogs to Hollywood editors weaving raw cell phone footage into new forms of cinema, the way we see ourselves and tell our own stories will be forever transformed by the marriage between still/moving still or moving images and the ability to instantly share these images.

It's hard for us today to imagine a world not documented by photographs but in reality it’s only been about 160 years since humanity was able to record itself. 100 years from now people will be amazed that it was only in the early 21st Century that people had affordable tools that enabling enabled them to record and instantly share every aspect of their lives.

Post-sale customer relations on eBay

Of all the visual applications that have emerged in the digital age, the single most powerful driver of image creation is one that most people don't think of as imaging at all - it's eBay. When the company teamed up with PictureWorks in the late 90's to make it easy for its sellers to post images, it started a phenomenon that's resulted in tens of billions of images that would otherwise never have existed.

Of course pictures in eBay auctions are old hat by now, but I recently had an experience on the system that demonstrates yet again that, when someone starts "Going Visual", their use of the technique tends to expand.

I collect vintage lenticular images, and recently bought one on eBay. As the seller was packaging it for shipment, the frame broke. So he sent me this picture of the broken item so I could see it for myself and decide whether I still wanted it.

A Seismic Shift in Communications

Bob Goldstein

A seismic shift in communications took place in London on July 7, 2005. Images of the horrific events taking place in the subways and on the streets were recorded and instantly transmitted around the world by ordinary citizens caught in the maelstrom of violence, death and confusion.

For the first time participants in a major news story provided the most immediate and shocking information in the form of video and still images taken with and transmitted by camera-equipped cell phones. These videos and stills were broadcast as the lead images on worldwide cable and network newscasts, Internet news sites, and printed on the front pages of major newspapers like the NY Times. The BBC put out a special request for any relevant camera-phone images witnesses to the event might have. A new era in communication had officially begun – the era of the Citizen Journalist.