From an idea on Twitter to an online event: Wray village highlights rural broadband campaign and benefits of 'symmetrical' fast upload to digital future
The 'world's first' streaming of a village cricket match took its place in internet folklore today with thousands tuning in to the #twicket.
Complete with an appearance from a 15 foot scarecrow and the issuing of yellow cards more usually associated with football, the cricket match from Wray in Lancashire was broadcast across as far afield as America and Australia.
Organiser John Popham, who first came up with the plan to highlight the need for faster rural broadband provision just a few week ago, told me: "It worked better than my wildest expectations both in terms of viewers and the technology. The BBC even came along ? I think they might be a bit worried!"
At its height the match attracted more than 2,300 live viewers ? and succeeded in making a local woman who stepped in to be commentator, Brenda Nickle, into an immediate online star with her observations about players as she sipped her Pimms.
Popham now hopes to use other live events as part of the campaign to highlight the need for fast upload speeds to enable people to share content more easily.
Almost all broadband provision in the UK is "asymmetric" - meaning that download speeds are far greater than upload speeds. Studies in Australia have found that symmetrical upload and download speeds leads to more creativity among users, while asymmetric connections creates a "consumer culture". The UK government has repeatedly said that it wants the UK to be a leader in content creation, but there is little sign that it has taken in the importance of symmetric broadband in achieving this goal.
Future events could well prove more difficult to achieve - Wray was chosen because, thanks to a network installed by Lancaster University, it is one of only three villages in the UK to have a symmetrical community network.
"It's going to be hard to live up to this, to do it again to this standard," Popham said.
The livestream was managed by Birmingham company Aquila which used basic camera equipment (two Sony Z1 cameras and and a DSR 350) with microphones on the boundary and at the commentary.
There was also an audio only stream brovided by Radio Youthology with iPhone and Android apps.
The hash tag #twicket started trending on Twitter shortly before the end of the match.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2011/apr/25/twicket-wray-lancashire-boadband
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