ARTICLES
Creating Information Not for Consumption. NoMaps Conference: The Role and Potential of Local Media" Event Report
What is NoMaps?
NoMaps aims to create the next society and future with creative ideas and technologies. Since 2017, NoMaps has been holding business conferences to share ideas and values, exhibitions and demonstrations to experience the future, providing a place to meet people, and events to experience cutting-edge music and movies in Sapporo and Hokkaido. The 2020 event will be held on October 14 (October 14, 2020). In 2020, the event was held over five days from October 14 (Wed.) to 18 (Sun.), 2020. NoMaps/What is NoMaps Conference 2020?
The NoMaps Conference invites a diverse range of speakers who are paving the way with new technologies, services, and ideas, and holds sessions on a variety of topics. 2020 saw more than 40 sessions conducted online, with a total of more than 10,000 attendees.Overview
In an age when individuals can disseminate information, "media" are increasing in number as well as type.The eastern part of Hokkaido, known as "East Hokkaido," is no exception, and there are a number of local media outlets that disseminate information rooted in the region. Three of them, who operate a unique form of local media management that transmits information while operating a "place," will discuss how to be a media outlet rooted in the community.
The three speakers at the NoMaps conference on the theme of "The Role and Potential of Local Media" are Akira Tachikawa, who runs the Tsubetsu-cho-based Internet TV station "Doto TV," Takuro Nakanishi of Dot Doto, who has completed an unofficial guidebook for the Doto region, ".doto, Tatsuya Shimizu of "Field Note," which introduces stores and people in the Kushiro region.
And to bring you the charm of Doto through images, the broadcast was made from the Lake Kussharo area.
Local Media x Place
While managing local media, Mr. Tachikawa of DotDoto TV will open a coworking space "JIMBA" in Tsubetsu-cho in 2019, and Mr. Shimizu of Field Note will open a coworking space "HATOBA Nishikimachi" in Kushiro City, as well as Mr. Nakanishi of DotDoto Dot-Doto's Nakanishi operates a community space called "Dot-Doto," a collective of freelancers that serves as a hub to connect the Doto region.Mr. Tachikawa says that he had never thought of running a "place" in an area that is not a "city" where many people live, but he has realized how well "local media" and "place" go together. In addition to the initial media approach of covering what is in the community, the presence of "JIMBA" often generates stories that he would like to cover. Mr. Shimizu, who holds talk events such as the "Human Power Plant" at the co-working space "HATOBA Nishikimachi," feels that events and places create a chain of input and output that can reveal latent local values and create a network within the community. He also feels that the events and venues are the key to the realization of the latent value of the community and the creation of a network within the community.
Mr. Nakanishi, who created ".doto" while creating a community space involving various people, says that by raising funds through crowdfunding and creating it as a participatory entertainment tool, ".doto" has created a new form of guidebook that conveys the real life and attractions of the region. doto" is a new type of guidebook that conveys the realities of life and attractions of the local community.
Creating Information with a Long Shelf Life
The media that began with kawaraban, or tile-printed newspapers, later expanded to include newspapers, radio, and television, and with the full-fledged spread of the Internet, a variety of platforms have emerged. The hurdles to disseminating information have gradually been lowered, and now individuals can easily disseminate information.The three members of the panel believe that the "shelf life" of information is becoming shorter and shorter in this age of information overflow and "information overload. Under such circumstances, what is "information with a long shelf life" and how can it be created? Mr. Nakanishi says that they are aware of the need to go beyond "conveying" information and to take action beyond that.
Mr. Shimizu, who has covered many people in the local community, says that he has continued to build "relationships" in the local media, such as vegetable farmers who are introduced as "grown by Mr. Fat Fat" on vegetables sold at direct sales stands, and to cherish these connections.
The Future of Local Media
In the production of ".doto," Mr. Nakanishi divided the regions into "Kushiro" and "Obihiro," and had each of them interviewed as they pleased. That's right. Based on this experience, he believes that it is meaningful to break the stereotype of what a guidebook should be like, and to transmit information through the way of life.Mr. Shimizu says that the role of the media in the future is to "rewrite the perception of the region," and he hopes to convey a positive image of the region by unraveling the negative perceptions and history of the region, and by covering people who are prepared to take action. He also says that by following his initial impulse and taking action to solve the issues he finds, he will gradually expand his field of activity.
Mr. Tachikawa also believes that in creating local media and places, it is important to create "experiences that we can build together. For example, in terms of funding, rather than one large sponsor for the same amount of money, he thinks it would be possible to sustain high-quality information transmission by receiving fees from many people in the community in small amounts for the use of the place and transmitting the interesting things created at the place as media.
Conclusion
Mr. Tachikawa, Mr. Shimizu, and Mr. Nakanishi have established their own "local media" in East Hokkaido and are managing "places" out of a sense of necessity.One phrase that left a strong impression on me during the conference was "companionable media. I think the joyful expressions on the faces of these three people symbolized the conference as they spoke of their desire to continue to be a media outlet that "accompanies" proactive activities, connecting the dots of places and events that emerge in each region.
Please keep an eye on the future of "Doto TV," "Field Note" and ".doto.
Doto TV
.doto
Field Note