case studies

“Geo-stories” with BBC Innovation Labs, Brighton University, and Nokia

The brief:
Ymogen were commissioned by the BBC to produce an innovative ‘citizen journalism’ project to explore how content (video, pictures and text) combined with location and time can most effectively be used to create crowd-pulling stories. Ymogen's application for the project was handpicked by BBC Innovation Labs 2006.

Solution and delivery:
A group of MA photography students were chosen from Brighton University to push the boundaries of conventional photojournalism by capturing narrative elements with the latest Nokia N-series mobile phones and tagging them with location information recorded with GPS devices. The resulting Geo-stories were uploaded by the students onto a web-based gallery, designed by Ymogen, to support shared access of the multi-media stories from a variety of perspectives.

The project demonstrates the rich capabilities of combined GPS and mobile devices. The GPS provides not just location but also direction, velocity and elevation, while the mobile captures pictures, video, audio, and text. When used in conjunction, these allow the creation of captivating stories from citizen journalists.

Outcome for the client:
Geo-stories demonstrates that pictures and video captured from multiple devices around a specific event or narrative can be mapped in time and space automatically, creating a rich view of the entire scenario from multiple perspectives.

Mika Setala, director of Nokia multimedia marketing, said, “This project will help us explore how citizen journalism could really change the media landscape.”

And Priya Prakash, Innovation Executive at BBC Innovation commented that, “Our job is to expand the BBC's future media services, encourage awareness of trends in technology and social behaviour, and plan new products that will keep the BBC at the cutting-edge of new developments in media technology.”