{"@context":{"rdf":"http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#","rdfs":"http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#","owl":"http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#","foaf":"http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/","dc":"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/","dct":"http://purl.org/dc/terms/","sioc":"http://rdfs.org/sioc/types#","blog":"http://vocab.amy.so/blog#","as":"https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams#","mf2":"http://microformats.org/profile/","ldp":"http://www.w3.org/ns/ldp#","solid":"http://www.w3.org/ns/solid#","view":"https://terms.rhiaro.co.uk/view#","asext":"https://terms.rhiaro.co.uk/as#","dbp":"http://dbpedia.org/property/","geo":"http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#","doap":"http://usefulinc.com/ns/doap#","time":"http://www.w3.org/2006/time#"},"@graph":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2013/04/gemucon-making","@type":"as:Article","blog:bloggerid":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18505529.post-3067828619841552713","as:actor":{"@id":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/12227954801080178130"},"as:content":"
GemuCon, a first-time gaming convention, wasn't normally the sort of event I'd\r\ngo to. Especially not with the £35 ticket price tag.
\r\nBut it was being organised by one of my friends from my undergraduate, so I\r\nagreed to do the website (violating my no-more-freelance-work policy), and\r\nhaving botched together a custom registration system (scope creep) I was\r\ndrafted in as 'Registrations Officer' on the committee, too. Since I was in\r\nNottingham on the 4th for the Lovelace Colloquium anyway, I had no excuse not\r\nto go.
\r\nIt was a good job I did, as the checking-people-off-who-arrive system was web\r\nbased, and the hotel wifi was not playing ball from the outset. We'd thought\r\nof that of course, and brought backup wifi dongles. Neither of which could\r\nget signal. So half an hour before registration opened I was writing a script\r\nto export the database into a nicely formatted spreadsheet (sounds simple;\r\nwasn't; ask if you're curious) so that we had more than one machine (I had the\r\ndatabase locally on my laptop) we could register over 700 people with. Then\r\nit was literally non-stop.
\r\n\r\nThe other reason I was there was to morally support my good friend\r\nTomSka, who was attending as a guest because he is\r\nInternet Famous.
\r\nSo my time was split between hanging out in the Operations Room (mostly) to\r\nhelp confused con-goers with things like registration, lost property, picking\r\nup merchandise, finding the stairs, getting free cupcakes; making myself\r\nuseful by running up and down ten flights of stairs on errands (until I\r\ndiscovered the service elevator; two 6-man lifts between 800 people hadn't\r\nbeen so accessible); and hanging out with Tom and Matt.
\r\nOn Saturday I helped him on his merch stall (we sold everything but all of the\r\nwristbands and all of the keyrings and earrings).
\r\n\r\n\r\nDuring the quiet times when there were other big events on, and thus no\r\ncustomers, I had to make my own fun.
\r\n\r\nOn Sunday I live-tweeted Tom and Matt's panel "How to YouTube".
\r\n[View the story "TomSka's YouTube panel at GemuCon" on\r\nStorify]
\r\nThis generated a small amount of controversy, as people who have never had to\r\nlive off advertising revenue often hate people who live off advertising\r\nrevenue even if it means they have found a way to survive by doing something\r\nthey love, and can provide what they create to the world for free.
\r\nFrankly I'm just excited that we do live in a world where young creatives\r\ncan be their own boss, make a living from doing what they love, and where the\r\nonly hoops they have to jump through to do so are getting better at their\r\ncraft. Whilst the advertising-centric revenue model may be outdated and may\r\nbe despised by a good number of people, it's working for YouTubers at the\r\nmoment and I haven't seen a better alternative present itself. Not everyone,\r\nparticularly consumers of amateur media, can afford to pay for content they\r\nconsume; accessing content for free empowers consumers too because their\r\nentertainment choices are not controlled by the same person who controls their\r\nfinances (and thus probably most other aspects of their lives). I'm also\r\nfairly convinced that if the advertising revenue model falls flat in the\r\nfuture, amateur content creators will be much faster to recover and adapt than\r\ntraditional media industries would.
\r\nThe other great thing about this business model - for YouTubers at least - is\r\nthat many/most don't start out with financial motivations. After a while they\r\nrealise thier hobby is giving pleasure to increasing numbers of people, so\r\nthey carry on, and suddenly a side-effect is that they're making money as\r\nwell, at no cost to their audience. (This may change as YouTubing is\r\nacknowledged as a career choice).
\r\nMaybe naive or overly idealistic, but I don't believe anyone should be stuck\r\ndoing a job they hate. It's a very, very long term goal for society, but the\r\nultimate utopia is a world in which everybody is motivated and empowered to\r\ndevelop skills they enjoy or knowledge they're passionate about, and to put\r\ntheir abilities to some use that can sustain an acceptable standard of living\r\nfor themselves and their family. Technology plays a crucial role in this (for\r\na start, all the jobs nobody wants to do will be automated).
\r\nAnyway, Tom and Matt's panel was full of sound advice for digital creatives\r\njust starting out, though the current landscape is a very different one from\r\nwhen _they _began their YouTube journeys (for example: no YouTube).
\r\nThough I didn't experience much of it myself, GemuCon had all sorts going on.\r\nThere were a few rooms packed full of video game consoles (for people to\r\nentertain themselves at leisure, as well as scheduled tournaments with cash\r\nprizes), a room of tabletop games, merch dealers and artists galore, various\r\npanels with the various guests, a talent show, a cosplay masquerade, and\r\nparties all night every night. Now, I don't like parties, but even I couldn't\r\nresist hanging around at a rave for a bit when the music was Pokemon theme\r\nremixes, or the Zelda soundtrack. Et cetera.
\r\n\r\nThe most impressive thing about this wee convention (and 700-odd people is\r\nwee, compared with similar more established cons) is the air of friendliness\r\nand solidarity that seemed to be ever-present. Granted not everyone could\r\nhave been happy at every moment, and there was definitely douchebaggery from\r\ntime to time, but in general there was a unification of nerds; an unspoken\r\nunderstanding between the stereotypically socially awkward that allowed people\r\nto come out of their shells and enjoy themselves in a way that they might\r\nnormally suffer abuse for, thanks the the common background provided by video\r\ngame and Internet culture. This is somewhat tongue in cheek, but... hopefully\r\nyou know what I mean.
\r\nI made a few new friends, too.
\r\nIf you're thusly inclined, check out 'official' photos (here\r\nand here) and videos (here) from Team Neko.
\r\nAnd if you visit the new GemuCon holding page, don't\r\nforget to Konami Code.
","as:name":"GemuCon (and making a living from YouTube)","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#datetime","@value":"2013-04-08T20:43:00.000Z"},"as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/thats+so+gemu+baby"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/done"},{"@id":"blog:Done"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/ad+revenue"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/amateur+creative+digital+content"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/convention"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/cupcakes"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/digital+creatives"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/games+convention"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/gaming"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/gemu"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/gemucon"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/nottingham"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/that%27s+so+gemu+baby"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/tomska"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/video+games"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/youtube"}],"as:updated":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#datetime","@value":"2013-04-14T23:26:55.613Z"}},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2013/05/week-review-vidfest","@type":"as:Article","blog:bloggerid":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18505529.post-6612882439652945717","as:actor":{"@id":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/12227954801080178130"},"as:content":"20th - 26th May
\r\n
\r\nContinued to work on literature review. Nothing much to report.
Went to MCM Expo in London and managed to find time (around non-stop merch\r\nselling for TomSka and Eddsworld) to ask between 30 and 40 content creators -\r\na wide variety of ages, experience, types of content - about their process and\r\ncollaborative practices. The thing they all had in common (I randomly picked\r\npeople as they were waiting in the two hour long queue to get autographs from\r\nTom) was that they all do what they do because the love it, want to\r\nentertain people, and if the could earn a living from it too that would be\r\namazing; but that's not why they do it. For many it's the dream, but not one\r\nthey expect realistically to achieve.
\r\nThat is why this is important to me. Because everybody should be able to\r\nmake a living from doing what they love*, and the technology exists to allow\r\nit. How exciting.
\r\n