It was an unusual experience last night being able to watch a memorial service as it was taking place on the other side of the world. For anyone unaware, the memorial for Lemmy from Motorhead was livestreamed on YouTube last night.
The service was run in full and was not subject to editing. I watched about an hour of it both with a sense of sadness and curiosity. Sadness because any funeral or memorial is upsetting. But also curiosity because of the technology that was being used. Around a quarter of a million people were watching in when I was, which shows there was an audience for it.
At work we have videoed many news conferences in full and then placed them on YouTube. It is a sense of being as open as possible so that people can see everything and don’t have to rely on the media’s edited version. Take last night Sky News showed two minutes but the event lasted 90 minutes. Why should we have to rely on the two minutes that people in the media think we should see?
I wonder whether in future we will need to consider livestreaming news conferences, particularly if it is about a significant event? It feels as though livestreaming for such events or conferences should now be a consideration. It is a sign of transparency and openness that many organisations are looking for.
Being connect is now something we are increasingly just accepting. If I can’t get to something then I expect to be able to access it, or part of it, through technology. After all the technology exists so why aren’t we making more,nor better, use of it?
Last night’s livestreaming of the memorial may have felt distasteful to some people but I think the world is changing and it felt no different than being able to view it on television news. Perhaps all communicators need to take another look at how they are using technology to support their work.
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