ForbesOnTech

HBO's Crisis Hotline, Veterans, Press 1: An Ultra Compelling Documentary

“Crisis Hotline, Veterans, Press 1” may be one of the most powerful documentaries ever produced and aired.

This HBO documentary is on all-hands-on-deck look at the Veteran’s Administrations Crisis hotline. Staffed by up to 100 professionals per eight-hour shift and available to veterans on a 24/7 basis, the national crisis call center is in Northern New York. This film’s Point of View focuses on the VA’s responding operators’ interaction with Veterans who may be suicidal.

Sky-rocketing PTSD rates and the corresponding increased suicides in this country’s veteran population is a compelling story by itself. But this documentary puts you alongside the responding operator as they assesses a situation, reinforce a veteran’s self-worth or discuss the consequences of their suicide and deals with a suicidal veteran in real time.

The VA’s Crisis Center call center receives 22,000 inbound calls a month and since its inception in 2007, it’s handled more than 900,000 calls from veterans in crisis or their family members. Because of the rapid redeployment tempo associated with current conflicts (it’s not uncommon for some soldiers serving four-year enlistments to deploy to combat zones more than two times and some career soldiers and Marines have seen active combat over five deployments), PTSD and its lasting effects – the inability to find lasting jobs, plus alcoholism, drug addiction and other conditions) are now recognized as a significant problem for most combat vets.

In response to the flood of PTSD patients, the VA has opened clinics in many US cities with significant veteran populations

Crisis hotline deals with Issues of patient confidentiality by only showing and filming the operator during the call. Deft camera work heightens the drama by showing the Messaging traffic between the operator and their supervisor. It’s the messaging traffic—which confirms calls to emergency service providers and in-route times that really attenuates this documentary.

The real stars of this HBO documentary are the VA’s Crisis call center operators who have the presence of mind and attention to detail to hear background sound such as the noise of a pistol’s magazine being loaded or unloaded or a veteran’s tone of voice and the seriousness of his intent to kill themselves. Watch this documentary and you’ll understand that there really are heroes among us and that some of them work for the Veterans’ Administration at a fully technology evolved call center in upstate New York

Crisis Hotline, Veterans, Press 1, is in HBO’s current line up of shows. It can also be streamed at any time from HBOGo.com. If you know of a veteran who may be in crisis, please have them call the VA’s hotline at 800-273-8255 and immediately press 1.—Jim Forbes on November 20,2015.

Disclosure: I am a veteran and have benefitted from the VA’s PTSD programs.

 

 

VidCon Soars-- is this the Champion New Tech Conference?

 

It’s a rare day when I encounter something that shatters some of my  long held opinions.

but that’s exactly what happened earlier this July after I saw the effects of the content of a trade show called VidCon, now in its fifth year.

Some background, I’m  not a fan of most video blogging content I see on Youtube or other websites.. I find much of it to be overly self centered and segments seldom incorporate a fundamental precept of film and videography, storytelling.

VidCon breaks with the traditional elementary school “show and tell” format of most contemporary curated conferences. First, it uses a format that actively engages its attendees, secondly it exposes them to pioneers of video blogging who are eager to pass on what has worked for themas well as industry luminaries. Finally, VidCon takes networking to a new level with in formal “meet and greet” sessions.VidCon is the brainchild of Hank and John Green, who produce and stream content on YouTube as the VlogBrothers.

What I like about VidCon is its mix of industry, creator and viewer tracks, which has helped make VidCon a sellout confab for the last several years. While most conferences struggle to attract and retain corporate sponsors, VidCon continues to book marquis backers like GoPro, Kia, Panasonic, Tumblr,Univision, YouTube and other companies.

With attendance this year at more than 19,500, VidCon may be on its way to Super Bowl like status among conferences.

VidCon absolutely made me change my views of video blogging, and forced me to understand that storytelling is critical to success in this medium. On my way home, I immediately made a couple of connections: one to the video story telling of public TV’s Huell howser. An dI had witnessed this success bedfore but on a smaller and equally vocal tech segment  in a crowded commercial market before, notably the Berkeley Macintosh User Group (BMUG) in the 1980s.

It also provided the call to action I needed to buy a new camera that includes built in editing software and to reacquaint myself with Apple’s iMovie software.

VidCon may be the best conference on video i’ve ever seen and I hope to be there next year, with a new video camera, a shot list and rough story notes.

Oh dear, maybe I should have gone to film school at Long Beach State or Figueroa Tech in Los Angeles.--Jim Forbes on August 6, 2015.

disclosure: I produced the DemoMobile conference and selected companies for the  Demo Conference.

 

PBS Sets High Technology User Standard on Genealogy Roadshow

Apple may be the beneficiary of the best ever use of products on any broadcast television series.

DOn’t believe me? Turn your television on to a local PBS station on Tuesday nights and pay attention to a series called “Genealogy Roadshow.”

This PBS show about finding your roots and using publicly available and restricted documents to research ancestors features genealogists equipped with iPads and Macbook Air portables. If you watch it, pay close attention to the cast’s carefully styled and executed  pinches, expands and swipe gestures

Staffers at Apple’s company stores couldn't do a better job of showing off Apple's gesture technologies than the hosts of PBS’ Genealogy Roadshow.

Apple doesn't sponsor this show, and one of its producers confirmed what I noticed, Apple logos on tablets an notebooks used in the show are obscured.

TV Product placement for technology companies can be as difficult and  expensive. It’s definitely not something that MBA candidates learn on graduate schools’  cookie cutter entrepreneurial tracks. Getting a product visibly used on a TV show is much more complex than a VP of marketing or product manager calling an associate producer or Production Designer (who are in charge of setting up shooting locations) in Century City or Hollywood. Genealogy Roadshow is not sponsored by Apple, but it should be. I've never ever seen any television show highlight  technologies like this PBS series does tablet, display and portable computing technologies.

Product placement negotiations take time, and technology companies trying to get their technologies spotlighted may not understand the value of real estate on a theatrical or other set.

The best possible scenario appears to be what's happening on this series. producers. directors and other professionals use Apple hardware to seek out and explain family history to the show's guests.

In general, the specialized knowledge associated with product placements isn't part of the Silicon Valley marketing playbooks. That knowledge is found in Los Angeles and is costly. but in this case it appears that apple didn't pay anything to have its technologies used on the show.  Which is a huge coup for grandfather personal computer maker

there are two approaches that have been employed in product placement: Apple shows its current technology in appropriate settings: Microsoft, on the other hand, highlights mostly coming technologies in a way that captures the audience’s attention 

For an example compare Apple’s products on genealogy Roadshow with Microsoft's transparent display technology on CSI and Hawaii 5-0.

Today, Silicon Valley’s 5000-pound gorilla, Google, isn't engaged in this. but it’s only a matter of time before Hollywood jumps on the autonomous car bandwagon.

There are a lot of technologies that could be highlighted on PBS and commercial network shows. but the void  between “We need to do this” and getting it done may, for the moment, be completely missing from the skills found in Silicon Valley-- Jim Forbes, March 1, 2015

 

*** Note after receiving a comment on this post from a PBS Genealogy Roadshow staffer, I change d this postand its headline  to clarify that Apple does not supply hardware seen on TV.--jmf on 3/10/2015

 

Watch Out, Google May be Terraforming TV Advertising-Hot Analysis from Churbuck.com

Dave Churbuck’s Real Life with Google’s Media Server

David Churbuck, one of the preeminent voices on all things interactive, starts off a post on Google Interactive television advertising methodology with:

Last fall and early this year I’ve been exposed to an interesting beta test at Google involving the insertion of television ads into the Dish satellite network using Google’s auction model and browser interface. The results have been very interesting, but the process carries some ramifications for an entire ecosystem of agencies, media planners, clients and broadcasters.

Immediately read the rest by clicking here

David Churbuck’s post on Google’s abilities to change an existing business model is incredible. First, Churbuck isn’t merely regurgitating talking points from a canned Google presentation. He’s speaking with the voice of an “informed consumer” and as one of the countries leading interactive marketers. Moreover, Churbuck’s weekend post has the authority of someone who is objectively observing an ongoing ad serving test from inside the box.

After reading Churbuck’s post several times this Sunday, I want to know why none of the other so-called Google “authorities” (those who have written books, countless articles and hundreds blog posts about Google) haven’t come as close to detailing the impact of a Google revolution on television advertising as Dave Churbuck?

If there’s one thing you need to read to gain a basic understanding of what’s beyond “disintermediation,” Then Churbuck’s “The 30-Second Spot Ain’t Dead Yet” is the piece to read now.—Jim Forbes 01/10/2008.

(Mandatory disclosure: David Churbuck and I were coworkers at PCWeek.  We are friends.—jmf)