A 'story of the-phone-book' presented at the Banff New Media InsituteInteractive Screen conference 2004. Kind of a summary of what the-phone-book Limited had been trying to do as a company between 2004 and then. http://www.banffcentre.ca/bnmi/programs/archives/2004/interactive_screen/presentations/plumley_fee.pdf

1. fee plumley
production director
the-phone-book Limited
team@the-phone-book.ltd.uk

2. who what where why
o who: ben and fee - personalities not company
o what: did we want out of it? travel, play, learn, meet, debate,
explore...have adventures...
o what: did we do? commission, research, present, train, re-
appropriate, rant, play...
o where: japan (isea), thailand (british council), australia
(electrofringe, aimia, abc, uts), canada (banff, hotdocs,
L'Inis), europe (split film fest, emaf, isea04), usa (eyebeam)
and of course UK
o why: creative industries could claim empty wireless data
space before it was filled with adverts; true personalisation

3. projects vs products
o the-phone-book.com - open submission paid market;
new genre of literature; books, spoken word cd, the-
phone-box, vinyl
o artones.net - ringtone/logo commercial research project
o the-sketch-book.com - education programme; WAP, i-
mode, 2.5G, FOMA/3G, SMS (ringtone & logo, caller group
graphics) & MMS content creation & distribution
o movingmovies - high production values for small screen
distribution, 12 second - 3 minute animations

4. "wap is crap"
o wml - wireless markup language
o black and white bitmap images, 150 words a page
o limited not limiting - creative challenge
o the wap conspiracy (imode, foma, nancy)
o wait for 3G (tv, feature films)
o killer app - voice calls
o wap 2.0 = xhtml
o commercial future

5. html is dead (w3c)
o xhtml extensible hypertext markup language; xml based
(phones, internet, digital tv)
o hand coded all pages; literature market friendly database,
minimal design, storytelling as audio, biographies
o the more that xhtml/smartphone browser usage develops, the
less need for unique 'ultra-short' content

6. the business of creation
o make a chair = sell a chair; unknown = stay unknown
o pay professional rates = encourage creativity; synergy of
artists/consumers = ethical framework
o product vs project; consumers vs audiences; bridging the gap
of suspicion/paranoia/unknown; artists distrust business,
business see artists as flaky and only invest in 'known'
o "niche is the new black": internet driven by mobile
communities, self supporting networks: why shouldn't
phones?
o sponsorship changes function; art for art's sake? artists make
work then find market; business finds market & sells to them

7. the business model
o emergent market & innovative platform, yet same old
business models
o global technology, yet global ventures rare (boo)
o fair trade for artists, protection for artists
o consultancy (vodafone, skillset, thepublic, fact)
o consortiums (creative crossings, manw, mani)
o timescales: artists turn on pin head vs 5 year business
plans (st lukes) - "small and fast and light" (charles kriel)

8. where's the dosh
o ringtones are the new singles: €1 billion sales in Europe 2003
(MDA) more than single sales over same period; new
ringtones chart (sugarbabes)
o mobile internet market august 2003 "884 million page
impressions with daily average of 28.5 million, vs 9 million per
day in August 2002" (MDA)
o tv tie-ins, games (accessible, known, safe models)
o telcos not interested in niche markets until gain mass markets
(02)
o hard to prove new concept & retain interest/integrity

9. did it work?
o ace funding short term - £82k over 3 years; bought approx
£30k of content; inspired new creativity & skills in fun way
o irony of limited liability for non risk business - just more
paperwork
o everyone's doing it; less of a challenge, not 'innovative'; ultra-
short form still interesting vs 'our work here is done'
o mature arts org yet an immature business
o education programme revenue allows us to employ trainers
and get back to our own creativity
o maybe it's not the right time, maybe we had the wrong
approach, or maybe it will never work...(tbc)

10. what now?
o commercial projects less interesting to produce; the risk is
that the more 'business' we become, the less creative we are
o partnerships underway but aim now to hand over 'business'
roles to people who want them and are good at them
o personally back to basics with new research and projects: gps,
locative, cartography, astrology, performance, swimming,
diving, robotics...
o more new media curation - movingmovies in manchester and
australia planned with discussions for wales, scotland...
o we have hope for the future