Guy Degen in Germany

Don't mention anything about the war

2010-06-01T10:05:14Z

Given the euphoria over Germany's Eurovision win, it was probably only an event of the magnitude of the German President resigning that could bump Lena off the headlines... But as tabloid Bild shows not by much...

The surprise resignation of President Horst Köhler has both politicians and the media playing over and rewinding the tape of an interview he gave to Deutschlandfunk, the national radio broadcaster, on his way back from visiting German troops in Afghanistan.

Here are the specific remarks about sending German military forces on missions that imploded on Herr Köhler.

"A country of our size with its focus on exports and thus reliance on foreign trade, must be aware that military deployments are necessary in an emergency to protect our interests, for example, when it comes to trade routes, for example, when it comes to preventing regional instabilities that could negatively influence our trade, jobs and incomes."

Köhler is a long time member of Chancellor Merkell's CDU party. Opposition politicians and some media commentators claimed his views could be interpreted as gunboat diplomacy and supporting military missions not covered by the constitution to protect Germany's economic interests.

Germany has only just got to the point where (some) politicians have actually uttered that German troops are fighting a war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

I wonder if the journalist who recorded the interview knew that he had a potential political IED on his hands? The piece ran under the headline: "They do great things under difficult conditions" - obviously referring to the head of state's visit to meet and thank troops for their service.

In his short resignation speech, President Köhler fired back saying his comments were misunderstood.

The man has a good point there. He supports the United Nations and a multilateral approach to sorting out global problems. Something you'd expect from a European, a career civil servant (who should know his country's constitution quite well), and a former head of the IMF.

It would appear this resignation is another twist to Germany struggling very publicly to define its modern role as a global citizen - both to Germans and to the rest of the world.

Being on the receiving end of flak from politicians about his views on German military deployments, Köhler also said his critics do not have respect for the office of the President.

This is a point which has left many political commentators wondering why a public figure such as the President has become so prickly over public criticism that he could have weathered, and what does it say about Germany when the President, and supposed moral voice of the country, decides to quit in a sort of a huff over an important, yet robust, public debate?

Winning hearts via Eurovision is obviously a lot easier. As Lena loves to say: "You're crazy!"

Shooting with Malian musketeers

2010-05-26T18:56:00Z

I've just got back from a short filming assignment in Mali and still trying to remove fine red dust from all of my camera equipment. I've worked in West Africa several times but this was my first trip to Mali. I'm indebted to an old friend in Bamako in the form of the BBC's Martin Vogl for food, shelter, money changing, mozzie repellent, travel advice and good conversation!

One of my assignments was gathering multimedia materials about clean water in rural villages. The filming schedule included a slight detour to pop by a Dogon village, about 80 km out of Mopti, to shoot the opening of a new village water pump. Hmm... so on the way there me thinks the potential shot list will probably be something like officials clad in safari suits, ribbon cutting, water pumping, speeches, and as usual, loads of children going completely nuts in front of the camera held by me - a slightly sun burnt bloke wearing a faded Hong Kong Rugby Sevens bucket hat circa 2000. Perhaps best just to get my shots quickly and move on because geepers it's hot in the midday sun and I'm already dreaming of a ice-cold panache back at the hotel followed by a tasty fillet of local Niger capitaine.

Well, that was the plan until a volley of gun fire erupted as I arrived. And no, not a war over the new water pump, but the welcome from Dogon...um... warriors.

Maybe it's just the boy in me, but these fellows and their muskets, some sporting some home-made-retro-fitting mods, seemed far more interesting to film than the opening of a water pump. Apologies to any avid readers of Jane Defence Weekly but I didn't look close enough to note any particular make of musket.

I did note that most men carried gun powder in a small pouch, tin or plastic bottle. Out comes a ramming rod to pack the powder down in the barrel. And thankfully no shot was used as weapon discipline in the ranks was a rather casual affair.

At one point the firing became so intense that someone from the official party dashed over to respectfully ask for a cease-fire so the official speeches could be heard.

Dogon Musketeers in Mali from fieldreports on Vimeo.

By coincidence, while I was in Mali, the annual Operation Flintlock was underway - a large regional military training exercise.

I'm assuming that the Malian army is using more up-to-date weapons than muskets in their training with US Special Forces, but correspondents covering the exercise saw that there seems to be a big gap in military training and basic skills... including knowing how to drive a vehicle.

A U.S. Special Forces instructor leans toward a steering wheel, showing some 50 Malian soldiers gathered around an army pickup how a passenger should take control of a car if the driver is killed in an ambush.

The elite Malian troops look on, perplexed. "But what can we do if we don't know how to drive?" asks Sgt. Amadou, echoing many of his colleagues' concern.

There are a few laughs, but the Malians are not joking; most of their unit does not know how.

Five favourite gadgets for the kit bag

2010-05-03T08:42:55Z

I've got quite a bit of travel coming up over the next few months and these five gadgets have become must haves in my kit bag. Do let me know if you've got any essential travel gadgets that you don't leave home without.

1. Novatel Mifi 2352 portable wireless hotspot

Stick in a SIM card to access a 3G network and start surfing the net via wifi. This little wonder lets you connect up to 5 devices by wifi. I gave the Mifi 2352 a good workout earlier this year in Iraqi Kurdistan using the Mobitel 3G network. It won a lot of praise my co-producers wanting to get online quickly. It turned literally anywhere we were into an instant internet cafe.

2. PowerMonkey eXplorer Solar Charger

Recharge on the run. Christian Payne aka @documentally has a good review of the PowerMonkey on his BushTech blog. It's a practical device for recharging small devices. I often carry the battery pack to give my iPhone or Nokia a boost. The array of included adaptors makes this gadget quite versatile. Anyone using a Kodak pocket video camera such as a Zi8 might be interested to know that the battery pack will charge the camera battery (slowly) or work as an external power source. I have yet to test how long you can film using the PM on a full charge. As for the solar panels, I'm going to Mali shortly for a filming assignment so I'm keen to use the solar panels to help keep some small gadgets charged up.

3. Solar powered + wind up radio-torch + mobile phone charger

I love radio. I usually take quite a bulky Sony short-wave radio on my travels. But if I want to travel lighter and I know the BBC World Service is available locally on AM or FM then I usually opt for a small Walkman transistor set. But a couple of months ago a small all-in-one radio caught my attention. For 12 euro I thought it was worth giving a go and either it would do what it says on the tin or I'd give it away. No regrets. It's quite rugged and is staying in the kit bag for the time being - perhaps a one-year after test would be useful to see how it holds up. The AM/FM radio works fine with loudspeaker or headphones. The LED torch is reasonably bright and fine for flapping around during power cuts (though I still carry a mini Maglite). The solar panel charges both the radio and torch. And as for the most interesting part of the unit - the wind-up crank handle - well I'm happy to report that it's not a gimmick. After a couple of quick revolutions it begins charging not only the torch and radio, but via a short cable, just about anything accepting a 5 volt DC charge. Think mobile phone, iPhone and even a Mifi. Ok, it's going to be an emergency situation that you need to charge your phone by a crank handle, but you never know... The one I bought in Germany was under the brand Moorhead. But I've noticed the same/similar model is sold under other brands elsewhere. It comes with several small adaptors for charging. I have a little bag for these adaptors (they're all mixed up with the similar PowerMonkey adaptors) but I wish there was a little cubby hole in the unit to store the cable and the adaptor I would use the most. The unit can also be charged up by a USB port connected to a computer or another battery source.

4. Polaroid Pogo photo printer

The crowd pleaser. In combination with a mobile phone or digital camera via USB, the Polaroid Pogo is a pocket-sized photo printer. It really makes a difference if you're working in a visual medium to be able to offer someone a photo on the spot - about the size of a business card. Result? Smiles all round. I used to cart around a small Canon printer that plugged into a car ciggie-lighter, but the Pogo is much more portable, powered by a rechargeable battery and there's no mucking around with ink. However, keep in mind you can't directly print with the iPhone - Apple has crippled the iPhone's bluetooth for sending photo files. Nokia, no problem. It's a pity really as it would be brilliant to use some iPhone photo editing apps such as PS Mobile in tandem with the Pogo.

5. Stainless steel coffee plunger

OK, perhaps the title of this post should of read four gadgets and one life saving utensil... but good coffee is technical. When an espresso machine is not within coo-ee, I'm certainly up for any local brew whether it's a Turkish coffee, a glass of mint tea or chay with the teaspoon standing upright in a small mountain of sugar. But, I get irritable if I have to stare at a tin of instant coffee and consider the words freeze-dried. So if coffee is likely to be a problem on a trip I bring my own coffee and a portable plunger. Probably the best 10 euro I've spent on travel kit. The one pictured below is from Jack Wolfskin and it does the job for two cups. I'd like to find a slightly larger one for three cups - a "crew" model, then everyone is happy

Coffee breaks at the Press Institute of Mongolia improved dramatically!

What to do about Greece?

2010-04-29T21:02:50Z

It wasn't so long ago that the Germans adored the Greeks. Cast your mind back to 2004 and the European football championship. It was a fairy tale football finale for Greece, cheered on whole heartedly by Germans, who though a tad shocked after their national side was knocked out, were elated that Greece was guided to a glorious 1-0 victory by German manager Otto Rehhagel.

Oh lieber Otto! What a night that was mate. Greeks and Germans like Eurozone brothers-in-arms. Bier and ouzo never tasted so good together and we all danced to Zorba the Greek just like it was Karneval. Schön...

But oh meine Damen und Herren, what a difference an EU financial crisis makes. Especially when your average German is trying to work out if Berlin should be bailing out Athens to the tune of about 8 billion euros and where exactly do their politicians stand on the issue.

A TV talk show debate on the proposed Greek bailout mid-week had me rather engrossed (which is saying something as I feel there're far too many talk shows on the national broadcaster). Politicians from across the spectrum thrashed out their views on how to help Greece on the appropriately named programme, Hard But Fair. Though a well known Greek-Berliner restaurateur-actor on the panel somewhat struggled to get a word in.

So, it was with little surprise the next morning when I popped into my local cafe, the headline of Bild screamed:

"Greeks want even more billions from us!"

Regular Bild readers might have been dismayed that such a headline left hardly any room for the page 1 girl. The tabloid spelt out rather simply that while the coalition government considers billions of euros for helping Greece, there's no money for tax cuts, repairing schools or maintaining streets and parks.

Meanwhile, we have to keep things stable. That's what Chancellor Merkel's CDU party is campaigning for in the May 9 election in Germany's largest state, North Rhine Westfalia (NRW). A state election which might end up signaling what Germans think about the federal government stepping in to help sort out the economic woes of Greece. The emergency Eurozone summit is scheduled the day after the NRW elections.

However while Germany, being the good EU member that it is will be seeking to do its (usual) part to maintain stability in the Eurozone, the German reaction to whole episode has me thinking back to what Timothy Garton Ash mentioned at a Frontline Club talk recently. TGA spoke about Germany's change in attitude towards Europe. Germany is now much more sceptical and much more happier talking about national interests.

Anyway, getting back to what Germans and Greeks do well together, I wonder if on May 10 the German delegation at the Eurozone summit will emerge from the talks singing the classic Griechischer Wein? Take it away Üdo...

Mountain minefield rescue at night in Iraqi-Kurdistan

2010-01-20T21:33:39Z

I couldn't leave him there. He was going to die.

Over a hubbly bubbly and sweet chay in Dohuk this week I met Faris Zubair Ali - a highly experienced deminer and Operations Manager for the Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency.

My co-producers Karlos Zurutuza and Borja Portuondo had interviewed Faris and his team at work in 2007, but his extraordinary account of a minefield rescue on a mountain at night had us sitting up in our seats and drawing back hard on the shisha.

At around 9pm on November 23, 2008, Faris was called by local civil defence authorities in Dohuk seeking his help. Four hours earlier, two teenage shepherds had unknowingly walked into a minefield near the village of Bagera. They were cousins. One lad had stepped on a landmine - it killed him severing his legs and injured his cousin in the back. The mine was an Italian made Valmara 69. This bounding fragmentation landmine contains 500 grams of explosives and 1400 pieces of shrapnel.

By the time Faris and two other deminers reached a trail leading to minefield it was well and truly dark. Emergency services had lit a fire to guide them up the mountain - rugged stoney terrain with a lot of low bushes.

When they reached the minefield Faris and his team took stock of the situation. Time was critical and they only had one metal detector between them.

By torchlight, the deminers cleared a path to the injured boy - 150 metres long and one metre wide - within an hour. To put that in context, a team of deminers in daylight and under good weather conditions can clear 20-30 metres in about six hours.

We were not following standard procedures. We were not following our own rules. It was an emergency.

Deminers never work at night and avoid working in areas where they have not surveyed or conducted a reconnaissance. Faris said that they decided not to use protective clothing as it would slow them down.

The deminers used sticks to mark the cleared lane and whatever was at hand to mark the mines. At first they were able to mark the location of mines and move around them. But as they edged closer to the injured shepherd, Faris had to disarm and remove mines to make the area safer for the paramedics.

Along the path they cleared, the team found five different types of landmines. They had to remove seven mines linked to trip wires, including a mine underneath the injured boy's arm. Faris says it was fortunate that the boy had a spinal injury that prevented him from moving too much.

Faris gave me video footage shot on a mobile phone by a rescuer accompanying the deminers. It's quite rough and sometimes the camera was held the wrong way but this clip shows the conditions and Faris working quickly to disarm and remove a mine.

Extraordinary. Brave. The injured boy survived and Faris said he is slowly making a recovery.

These photos taken after the accident show the area where the boys encountered the mines and the path cleared though the minefield.

Faris told me the boys and their family moved to Bagera from Mosul and were unfamiliar with the local terrain. Yes, they had received MRE - minefield risk education training - but as I found out in Georgia last year, sometimes the lessons about the dangers of landmines are sadly learnt the hard way.

The beginning of Germany's other season

2009-11-11T15:11:52Z

While Britain, France, Belgium and Commonwealth countries commemorate Remembrance Day and the end of WWI on November 11, something quite different happens in Germany.

At 11 minutes past 11 am on November 11, the traditional celebrations begin for Carnival (Karneval) or the "Fifth Season" as it's known in Germany.

You either love Carnival or you hate it, depending of course on how much you enjoy getting dressed up in costumes and to sing, dance and drink... a lot. The celebrations culminate in the days leading up to the beginning of Lent, and if your television channel selections are limited, then you better prepare yourself for some epic live televised Carnival singing sessions. Though, admittedly the athleticism of dancers in Carnival groups and bands is spectacular.

However this year, the beginning of the Carnival season in Bonn caught my attention for an entirely different reason - the designated Carnival Prince of Bonn, Herr Amir Shafaghi.

The 39 year old was born in Iran and immigrated to Germany with his parents when he was 10. Being Carnival Prince or Princess is a big deal and means you love Carnival, or rather live Carnival. For the next few months Herr Shafaghi and his Princesss partner Uta Göbels will be the focus of attention at all Carnival events in Bonn. It no doubt helps too that in real life they are a couple as they'll be seeing a lot of each other.

Herr Shafaghi is a member of the Bonner Stadtsoldaten - the Bonn City Soldiers. The members of Carnival clubs and societies such as the Bonner Stadtsoldaten are the heart and soul of festivities. Their elaborate uniforms are a nod in jest to the time when the Rhineland was occupied by the French and later by the Prussians.

Integrating immigrants into society is a much debated issue in Germany. Your blogger correspondent arrived in Germany shortly before compulsory integration courses began. (Actually I'm not sure if I could have stuck it out for up to 645 hours of German language, politics and history.) So, I was curious to hear the thoughts of the boy from Tehran who grew up to become the Prince of Bonn. Backstage after the launch of this morning's festivities I managed to catch Prince Amir I for a quick interview.

Carnival Prince of Bonn interview by fieldreports

(You can listen to the full interview via Audioboo).

Amir and Uta will be officially proclaimed the Prinzenpaar Amir I & Uta I on January 8, 2010.

Carnival also means big business along the Rhineland, particularly in Cologne. The parade on Rose Monday attracts over a million visitors. According to a recent Boston Consulting Group study, the Carnival season generates around 460 million euros for Cologne each year.

Given the current economic climate, not only are these figures worth dancing about, but Carnival is widely regarded as very important for business networking. Many industry or professional groups hold or their own Carnival singing and cabaret evenings or costume balls. Knowing your Carnival songs and holding your own in Koelsch could well be good for business or your career.

Better get your mojo working

2009-10-27T08:44:18Z

"News Quoyle, news. Better get your mojo working."
- Annie Proulx, The Shipping News

A draft of this post has been loitering in my documents folder for a while. But six months on from when I gave some mojo apps a workout in Nigeria and in Georgia I've got a few more points to share about what a mobile phone offers journalists for field reporting.

Maybe one of the reasons why I put this post on hold is that every other week a new app or gadget comes out that presents a tempting challenge for geeky inclined journalists to incorporate it into their kit and workflow. Trust me, once you're hooked, it becomes an obsession - particularly if you have the chance to work with a decent smart phone.

So, I'll try to balance this post with some general practical points on getting started and list a few apps worthy of consideration for reporting with a mobile phone.

Mojo skills

Most smart phones now offer connectivity to the internet over 3G and WIFI networks as well as a camera with a good lens and sensor for digital photographs and high quality video in a palm-sized tool. So, when it comes to skills, if you start looking towards borrowing and adapting some basics of broadcasting, online journalism, blogging, video journalism and photography, you're going to be on the right track for working out how you want to best use a mobile phone for reporting and incorporating it into your workflow.

But as much as I get excited about new technology, new applications and gadgets, what I really want to do with all of this mobile tech goodness is to tell stories and engage with people.

I really hope reporting with a mobile phone helps to push the boundaries and styles of multimedia reporting and doesn't simply end up replicating traditional radio and TV reporting.

I also think Andy Dickinson has some great training advice for newsrooms and journalists seeking to use new technology in their work - make time to play.

Whether it's uploading photos and videos of my travels or tweeting about burning tacos in the kitchen, I know how my gadgets work and have developed a workflow that suits me by learning through playing. You'll be more agile as a mobile journalist if you know your way around the tools and the technology. The last thing you want to do on a breaking story is to be learning how to use your phone on the run.

Social media apps and content sharing platforms

If your media organisation issues you with a smart phone and has innovative "Q" type tech boffins who have developed systems for you to upload your materials direct from the field with one push of a button, great - you're lucky. But if you're working independently, you'll need to harness social media apps and platforms for sharing content that are free or low cost. So along with launching your own blog, some of these web and phone apps/clients would be a good starting point to explore.

Twitter (have a look at mobile apps/clients such as Tweetdeck,Tweetie, Twibble, Gravity and Dabr)
Friendfeed
Qik
Audioboo
Bambuser
YouTube
Blip.tv
TubeMogul
Kyte
Fring
Shozu
Flickr
Tumblr
posterous
12seconds
Twitpic
Yfrog

That's only scratching the surface. For mobile blogging, many of the larger blog platforms also offer clients/applications to post content from a mobile phone and by email. And of course the Apple iTunes store offers an ever expanding galaxy of free and low cost iPhone apps that can be handy for mobile journalism.

Know your mojo phone

Read the manual. You've got to know your way around your phone's settings. What's the point in having a smart phone if you can't change for example the access point settings to log onto wifi or 3G services?

Make a mojo plan

OK it might be tempting to just head on out and unleash your mojo-ninja-self on the world. But what are you really trying to do? What are your mobile reporting objectives? What materials do you need to file from the field with your mobile phone? Consider the conditions you'll encounter. Will you have good wifi or 3G access? What will you do if the 3G network is a little slow? A little bit of planning can save a lot of flapping around.

Where is your mojo content going?

Most mobile phone clients/apps will offer plenty of ways for you to integrate photos, audio and video with social media services such as Twitter or with a blog. So, have a think about where you want your media to go. Check out the share and network functions on whatever application you use. Make a test before you head out to report. Do you want to be selective or do you want your content to be everywhere at once? Keep track of where you are crossposting material. (That may need a pen and paper!)

A one push application such as Shozu can distribute or crosspost your content to numerous social media and blogging platforms. Likewise posterous makes it dead easy to post any content by email.

And don't forget about harnessing RSS feeds from any of the social media platforms you use. For example, widgets are easy to build from RSS feeds. You can aggregate your live stream feeds and embed a widget into your blog.

Photographs

The quality of images produced by mobile phones is continuing to improve. For the past 18 months I've used a Nokia N82 that has a 5 megapixel camera. It's fantastic to have a decent camera with me everywhere I go. Same goes for the iPhone 3GS. It only sports a 3 megapixel camera, but it's more than adequate for photos in good lighting conditions.

No matter how good the camera is in your phone, you'll only produce good photos if you know the basics of photography. I cringe every time I hear about reporters handed a camera without any training and asked to "take a few pics for an online story".

If you're a beginner, a basic digital photography course is going to make a huge difference in the range of photos you will produce. And to build upon those new skills you need to get snap happy and take photos everyday.

The camera in the phone may also have some unexpected yet useful features. Who would have thought that Nokia would include a time-lapse function in the Sequence mode? Certain situations may let you set up the phone to capture photos, video or audio while you go off somewhere else to gather more material with another device. In Nigeria I set up my phone in a hospital operating theatre to capture a time-lapse sequence while I interviewed patients outside with a audio flash recorder.

Video

Similarly to photos, the video quality of camera phones is constantly improving. Samsung's Omnia HD offers... yep, HD video.

If you're new to video think about doing an introductory video camera course and turn to the skills and techniques of video journalists. It will surely whet your appetite for video blogging and/or using camcorders and pocket camcorders such as the Flip, Kodak Zi8 or iPod Nano, or even the video function on a compact digital camera.

As for live streaming video from a mobile phone, that's great when there's action or for an interview, but try to think before shooting and avoid 'hosing the garden' with the camera. I think less is always more. If you have time, look around for interesting angles - plan your shoot or interview. Think about how your video and accompanying title and/or tweet can tell a story.

It's difficult to avoid camera shake with small camera phones, but if you require better quality video use a small tripod with an adapter to hold a mobile phone. You can even build your own tripod for an iPhone.

Cut through - set a title and description

Sounds simple but setting a title, description and #hashtag will help the material you upload or live stream to cut through the noise when you crosspost to a platform such as Twitter. It's easy to forget when you're on the run. If I'm planning to stream live video I usually set a generic title just in case I have to start filming quickly.

Audio

Radio journalists have long made use of the mobile phone to report live from the field or for filing reports. Apps such as Audioboo now offer journalists a powerful audio recording tool - produce an interview or report and publish it direct to the net with a photo. Along with interviews, I like making use of mobile audio applications when I'm moving between places. During the April demonstrations in Tbilisi I used Utterli. You can walk and talk and offer your audience updates while you're on the move. And if you're new to radio/audio, don't forget it is a "visual" medium too. Describe what you see and paint a picture for your audience.

Producing better audio

If you're using an iPhone, then straight away you have an advantage over many smart phones. The audio captured by the iPhone's internal microphone (and even the native Apple Voice Memo app) is surprisingly good.

The internal mic on a Nokia is not particularly good. Moreover, I find the audio recordings using the Nokia Voice Recorder app to be far from adequate and produce a really thin, tinny sound. If you use a S60 Nokia and need better sound I'd recommend downloading a free trial version of the Alon MP3 Dictaphone application. It offers a several settings to record in mp3 and WAV. Unfortunately the send function in Alon does not offer email, but if you locate the file via Nokia's File Manager function you can email the file.

But no matter what smart phone you're using, audio will be improved using a good external microphone.

Reuters teamed up with Nokia for a mojo project that used an external mic with the Nokia N95. If you're into a little DIY hacking you can quite easily adapt the TV-Out cable that comes with a Nokia for an external mic. For the iPhone there are several plug-in mini external mics available too.

(No sales pitch here, but you'll note in the photo of my kit above that I use a bespoke external mic cable that I've tested with Jesse Versloot of uwkabelopmaat to suit Nokia and the iPhone. Early days, but results are encouraging so far.)

Editing in the field

An audio editing application called Poddio is available for the iPhone. It's an app that seemed to get a good rap at this year's NAB. I've yet to try it. Since the middle of this year the price shot up from US$29.99 to US$149.99! Perhaps the developers might consider offering a trial version or lighter version? (Thanks to Stephen Quinn for pointing me to Poddio.) I can't wait till someone develops Audacity for the iPhone.

Basic video editing on a mobile phone has also arrived. The Samsung Omnia includes a Video Editor system and the iPhone can now make use of the ReelDirector application (screenshot below).

ReelDirector has a straightforward timeline that lets you move clips around and offers a range of shot transitions. I had some fun filming simple shots and sequences on a day trip in Georgia this month and afterwards edited a short video on my iPhone in a Chinese restaurant. It has field reporting potential but you'll need to plan carefully. Keep in mind, a video over say three minutes will leave you nudging 100MB. That's a big file to move from a mobile phone and might leave you needing a mobile FTP solution... not too mention looking for more power. I'm also very keen to get my hands on the Samsung Omnia to explore its video editing features.

And photo editing is also going mobile with applications such as Best Camera and TiltShiftGen. Best Camera gives a mobile phone photographer several preset filters that you can apply directly to a photo. TiltShiftGen lets you go toy-town crazy to get the tilt-shift effect.

But I've really fallen for this iPhone app because it not only provides filters, but each filter setting is adjustable. I love being able to adjust saturation, brightness and contrast on the fly in a mobile phone. Both of these apps let you email your photos or post to Twitter and Twitter photo sharing clients such as Twitpic.

Location, Location

Geo-tagging the content you produce and upload from a mobile phone can be really useful for mapping a story. If several field reporters covering the same event begin geo-tagging content, a map can become one the core ways of telling the story. Check out the GPS and map/location services on your phone and applications such as Flickr and Qik. Did someone say... Ushahidi?

Mobile partner in the field

I think working with a mobile phone and having access to the net and apps such as Twitter is like having a tech partner in the field. As a freelancer I don't feel like I'm working on my own anymore. My initial view of Twitter was that it was a handy micro-blog tool to complement my blog and way to let a lot of people know where I am (just in case of....) But that's changed. I'm now communicating with friends, contacts and whoever else is interested in my story as I'm working. Even a basic Twitter search can be useful for real-time updates, but having access to extra filters via Twitterfall can make Twitter a more polished source of information - allowing you to pull in information that is more relevant to what you're working on.

More mojo power?

As a minimum I carry a second battery and a small 5 euro AA battery charger. Looking for more charging ideas? Christian Payne aka @documentally has posted an excellent video covering loads of mobile power charging gadgets.

Need more mojo ideas?

In this post, I've only concentrated on capturing, producing and filing material with a mobile phone.

Mobile journalism is obviously much broader when you add what you can produce with netbooks, laptops, 3G dongles, Eyefi cards, sat phones and whatever other hand held digital devices you want to mention. You're only limited by the imagination. There are plenty of people exploring mobile journalism and here are a few projects/blogs to check out.

- Alex Wood and the Berlin Project team will cover the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9. I'm very interested to see how they'll build upon their mobile coverage during the G20 demonstrations.

- ARD journalists in Germany recently produced an innovative mojo reporting project during the general election. Check out Marcus Boesch's post (German) on his experience using an iPhone 3GS to blog and report. Marcus has made some recent tests using Skype for video interviews (Two-way video interviews via Qik or Bambuser are next Marcus!)

- Stephen Quinn is a journalist and lecturer at Deakin University in Australia and has an excellent blog Global Mojo. I'm told that Stephen's e-book on mobile journalism will be available soon.

- Paul Bradshaw has also posted a series of video talks on his blog discussing mobile journalism and he has produced a list on what a mobile journalist needs. Great stuff.

- Frank Barth-Nilsen is a Norwegian journalist with the public broadcaster NRK and blogs about all things mojo at Mojo Evolution.

- @documentally. If you're looking for more than just a little mobile journalism inspiration, have a look at Christian's blog. Loads of innovative ways to use mobile phones and various other digital gadgets for telling great stories, and engaging with an audience. Always good.

- Fellow Frontline Club blogger Onnik Krikorian is leading the mojo charge in Armenia - particularly covering stories with tweets, live streaming video and uploading photos and David Axe has experimented with a Nokia 95 and Qik in Chad. And no doubt we'll see Frontline and KigaliWire's Graham Holliday delivering content from Rwanda with a mobile phone.

Germany's grand colour coalition election

2009-09-23T19:27:55Z

It's supposed to be a Superwahljahr - a super election year in Germany.

Yes, we've seen many elections of the state and city variety, but you could hardly describe the campaign leading up to Sunday's general election as "super".

And why? Well your correspondent wonders if anyone in Germany is potentially excited about casting their ballot or about the possibility of, dare I ask, change? However great or small that may be.

Just to jog your memory, the Christian Democrats (CDU) of Chancellor Angela Merkel, and their Bavarian sister conservative party the CSU, govern in a Grand Coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD). The Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier (just call me Frank) is the SPD's candidate for Chancellor.

Having seen the way Berliners turned out to hear a speech delivered by an American Democratic Party Presidential candidate in 2008, you might have been mistaken for thinking that Germans would relish their own political contest a year later.

Well, nein. And don't put it down Germans finding Oktoberfest and all things to do with beer, Dirndl and Lederhosen more interesting at the moment - that's just down in Bavaria.

Just a few days out before the country go to the polls, any real contest of vision or of issues such as a minimum wage, unemployment, environment/renewable energy, troops in Afghanistan or the dreaded global financial crisis seems to have evaporated. Not even the upcoming 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall is raising the pulse of the electorate.

Even the much vaunted TV-Duell between Frau Merkel and Herr Steinmeier, saw little real debate or political sparks fly. It was more of a Meet the Press style programme with four journalists posing questions to the two leaders.

Actually it was a very polite exchange of... yawns, well at least in my living room. Reading the #tvduell twitter stream was more interesting.

Instead the entire campaign is coming down to two words: coalition/combination.

Neither the CDU nor the SPD are likely gather enough votes for a majority in the Bundestag.

That means German media coverage is now concentrating on possible coalition options for the CDU/CSU or SPD to govern with the minor parties - the Free Democrats (FDP), the Greens (die Gruenen) and the Left Party (Die Linke).

Coalitions in German politics are all about colours, and not just coloured pie charts. Let me give you some examples.

Currently there's the Grand Coalition of Schwarz-Rot. Black for CDU/CSU and red for SPD.

A so-called "Ampel" or traffic light coalition would be:

RED (SPD),
YELLOW (FDP),
GREEN (die Gruenen).

Another favourite of political pundits is the "Jamaica Coalition":

BLACK (CDU/CSU),
YELLOW (FDP),
GREEN (die Gruenen).

And don't forget the Tigerente coalition of BLACK (CDU/CSU) and YELLOW (FDP). A Tigerente, if you didn't know is a tiger-duck. The cartoon creation of artist-author Janosch. This is the centre-right coalition that both the conservatives and liberals hope to form.

The colour coalitions are made all the more confusing because the Left Party like using the colour red too. So, conservatives talk up the threat to German industry, banking and taxes by any potential RED-RED coalition between the Social Democrats and the Left Party. But, the SPD have been keen to tell voters they're keeping the Left Party at arms length and are not considering joining forces in the Bundestag.

No one it seems wants to play coalitions with the Left Party. But this political force that grew out of the former East German Communist Party is not to be ignored. The Left Party have consistently won new voters in recent state elections, and not just in eastern states.

In all of this you'll be happy to know that there's also the Piratenpartei - the Pirate Party. Maybe they might follow the example set in Sweden and gain a toehold in the German parliament?

As I wander around my home city of Bonn, this political poster has sort of summed up the final days of the campaign for me.

Frau Merkel wears a bright coloured jacket, pleasing to the eye. Her media trained hands are neatly positioned. The poster sits at perfect spray paint height, yet no street artist has bothered to enhance the Chancellor's appearance. There is however a little scrawl in what you might call crude Denglish.

A note of apathy? Hmmm, maybe. But more likely a little joke at Merkel's expense connected to flashmobs.

I'm waiting for a last ditch political "spray" from any of the political leaders before Sunday. At this stage, I'd even settle for a lively DJ set by the Economics Minister, (Baron) Dr Karl-Theodor von und zu Guttenberg.

As for me on election day, I'll be looking out for a little experiment the German public ARD network is attempting with reporters producing video-blogs with the iPhone 3GS. Oh, and tuning into Bavarian telly with a beer for a little sing-a-long.

Summer and something of a seaside independence

2009-08-30T19:47:58Z

Earlier in August I had the opportunity to film in Abkhazia with Matthew Collin - Al Jazeera's correspondent in Georgia and fellow Frontline blogger.

It's now one year since Russia recognised Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states.

The first time I visited Abkhazia was in December 2006 to produce radio features.

I had always wanted to visit the region during summer. This time I was keen to not only experience what brings Russian tourists and their much needed roubles to Abkhazia's Black Sea coast, but also try to get a sense of what's happened inside the territory in the past year.

Abkhazia is not the Côte d'Azur, but if you're after a cheap flop and drop beachside holiday, plenty of hearty shashlik or trout, cold beer and smooth vodka, then Abkhazia would fit the bill.

Unfortunately the closest I came to a quick dip at the beach was filming two Russian anti-submarine corvettes anchored of the coast near Novy Afon. My bad luck for not getting up early for a dawn patrol paddle.

Russia has announced it will begin providing protection for merchant vessels trading with Abkhazia. That's the sort of news that will go down well with local taxi drivers complaining of fuel shortages after Georgia's coast guard recently intercepted a tanker.

Early in the trip we had the chance to interview Abkhazia's Vice Foreign Minister, Maxim Gunjia. He says that since Russia recognised Abkhazia as independent and pledged to offer protection, Abkhazians have more confidence to invest and develop businesses.

Gunjia says the Russian-Abkhaz relationship is broad and rejects the idea that Abkhazia is just a buffer state.

Max Gunjia clip by fieldreports

Matthew Collin's online report has more and you can also watch the accompanying video feature.

(Photos: Guy Degen)

Desert night hike to meet Baluch guerillas

2009-07-18T20:25:50Z

While people who fled from the fighting in the Swat Valley begin travelling back to their homes, another conflict in Pakistan is often overlooked.

The south-western province of Baluchistan makes up nearly half of the country. It's capital Quetta is synonomous these days with al Qaeda and Taliban leadership. It shares a border with Iran and Afghanistan, and the ongoing conflict led by Baluch nationalists seeking autonomy or secession will have you dusting off your history books on the days of the British Empire.

Baluchistan is rich in minerals and natural gas. That's attracted investment from China but also fueled the grievances of Baluchs who say their province sees nothing of the profits.

Robert Kaplan's recent article in The Atlantic offers plenty of insight into the development of the Arabian sea port of Gwadar and why it's highly valued by Pakistan.

Meanwhile, freelance journalist Karlos Zurutuza has just returned from Baluchistan. He's made several reporting trips into Kurdistan to cover fighting between the PKK and Turkish forces over the past couple of years, so I wasn't surprised when he wrote to me describing how he managed to make contact with a group of Baluch guerillas.

At 12.00 at night I was sitting inside a pickup truck driving across the Baluch desert with my eyes bandaged. Two hours later I met the guy who took me on a 5 hour night hike in the mountains. By 6.00 am I was up there, looking at masked guerillas praying towards Mecca. I was exhausted, almost dehydrated, but happy.

Karlos added that he spoke with several Baluch leaders and was able to gain a rare interview with Khair Bux Marri, head of the Marri tribe.

I asked Khair Bux Marri whether it was realistic to fight against the Pakistani Army, one of the biggest armies in the world. He replied that, so far, 'death was the only alternative to slavery'.

I'm looking forward to Karlos' features and photo-essays on Baluchistan.

Cross of honour and debate

2009-07-06T21:10:40Z

Four soldiers have received Germany's new medal for bravery for their actions in Afghanistan - the first German military decorations awarded for bravery on the battlefield since WWII.

It's known as the Ehrenkreuz der Bundeswehr für Tapferkeit or Cross of Honour for Bravery.

Yes it does bear a similar shape to the Iron Cross (Eisernes Kreuz) that was abandoned after WWII, but the design is in keeping with other Bundeswehr decorations for long service. View image

For Germany's Association of Armed Forces a decoration recognising bravery is long overdue.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also said, "Too little is said about the achievements, burdens and risks of soldiers."

Frau Merkel does have a point. But, while the German Government and military publicly backs their men and women in uniform, a fighting army that, even as peacekeepers, may have to be aggressive and kill an enemy, is still a major issue in German society.

Focus journalist and mil-blogger, Thomas Wiegold, also touches upon this point. The four soldiers awarded Ehrenkreuze put themselves at risk to save the lives of comrades and children injured following a suicide bomber attack in Kunduz last year. Clearly very brave deeds. But Wiegold wonders what debate might arise when German soldiers are nominated for decorations recognising valor on the battlefield. Actions involving killing the enemy. Doing what soldiers are trained to do.

It's clear that even in northern Afghanistan German soldiers are doing more than say helping to dig wells, and at a cost.

Committing more troops to ISAF in Afghanistan, or deploying forces to regions where there is heavy fighting such as Helmand, has long been a political hot potato and even more so in an election year.

In contrast though, the military is very visible in Germany and a part of growing up for many males.

When I first moved to Germany in 2004 I was surprised to hear of conscription.

All German males over 18 are supposed to either elect for nine months of training and service in the Bundeswehr or the equivalent time doing Zivildienst - civillian service, such as working with the aged.

Catch a train on a Friday afternoon in Germany and you'll see lots of young warriors in uniform heading to or from their training unit. Though, you could also easily be mistaken for thinking that white iPod earphones were part of their uniform.

(Photograph: Bundeswehr/Dopke)

Presidential wrestling in UB

2009-06-22T14:12:53Z

Shouldn't all presidential inauguration celebrations include a wrestling competition?

Last Thursday Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj was sworn in as Mongolia's new President. Along with a military parade in Ulan Bator's Sukhbaatar Square opposite Parliament, there was a concert staged at the Cultural Palace.

But sports fans in Mongolia were not disappointed. A wrestling competition to mark the occasion was also held on Friday. Yep, Friday Night Wrestling in Ulan Bator.

Like many buildings in the capital, the circular exterior of the Wrestling Palace reflects the traditional Mongolian Ger. But, on the inside, its wrestling arena stands beneath a high dome and is surrounded by several tiers of seating.

It's a sweaty cauldron for warrior wrestlers and spectators alike.

Wrestling competition during 2009 Presidential Inauguration Celebrations in Mongolia from Guy Degen on Vimeo.

My colleagues and I bought tickets for 6000 MNT (tugrug) a piece - around 3 euro each. There's no allocated seating and we found ourselves looking for seats among wrestlers and their trainers.

You kind of politely step out of the way for these lads. They're huge. A large arm swept me aside while I was filming on a landing.

I've since learnt that many players in Mongolia's Rugby team are drawn from the ranks of wrestlers. Looking closely at the ear of the wrestler in the opening shot of the video above, you can clearly see he sports the cauliflower ears of a forward. Whether that's from packing down in a scrum or from wrestling I can't tell you.

Wrestling is steeped in Mongolian culture and tradition. Along with archery and horse riding it's one of three so called "manly sports".

Next month these sports will feature at the Naadam Festival in Ulanbaatar - the biggest festival in Mongolia.

Meanwhile in Mongolia...

2009-06-18T13:48:58Z

It had to be exactly 12:06 pm.

Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj set the time of his swearing-in ceremony to become the fourth President of Mongolia in a symbolic nod to the year Genghis Khan was proclaimed ruler of the Mongol Empire.

Dressed in a gold-coloured traditional deel, Elbegdorj took the oath of office today at Parliament in the capital Ulan Bator.

On a fuzzy television set it looked like a fine set of robes fit for a president. However later in the afternoon at the ceremonial military parade in Sukhbataar Square, an onlooker was grinning as she told me that maybe the President's deel was not such a good cut. Apparently it looked a little too big for him.

Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj succeeds President Nambaryn Enkhbayar. Elbegdorj is a Harvard grad and has served twice as Prime Minister. He pitched his presidential campaign on fighting corruption and won the elections on May 24 by a slim majority.

Already President Elbegdorj has made headlines over whether Mongolia should join foreign mining companies and invest in a major gold and copper mine.

Despite a few technical glitches, namely poor sound during speeches, the military parade was quite a spectacle.

Personally, I'm looking forward to the traditional wrestling competition that will be held on Friday night as part of the inauguration celebrations.

#Winnenden and Twitter: German media's conversation of a shooting

2009-05-13T12:37:02Z

"Kein zweiter Hudson-River-Tweet" (Stefan Winterbauer, Meedia.de)

"Not a second Hudson River tweet"

Two months have past since Germany was stunned by a killing spree in which 15 people died in Winnenden, just north of Stuttgart.

At about 0930 on March 11 a former pupil of the Albertville Secondary School walked into the school and began shooting pupils and teachers.

He killed nine pupils and three teachers. He fled the school and shot and killed three other people before turning the gun on himself and taking his own life. His last moments were captured on a mobile phone video camera.

It was a major event in Germany for the media and also on the micro-blogging network Twitter. However, it's interesting to look back at how German media used Twitter for newsgathering, reporting and communicating with Twitter users.

As the headline above suggests, if German media pinned their hopes on Winnenden being their first big Twitter event, a Twitter Ereignis - a test case where Twitter users quickly provide dramatic front page photos, a river of descriptive tweet-quotes from the scene and a way to contact eyewitnesses, then it didn't work out that way. In fact, Winnenden may have set back the German media's credibility in how they use social media for reporting.

The German word for gun rampage or killing spree is Amoklauf. A simple connection of the Indonesian word amok, that you'd no doubt recognise, and the noun Lauf - meaning run. Lets keep that in mind for later.

Along with #winnenden, #amoklauf or #amok were terms used on Twitter to discuss the shootings, and by German media, who turned to Twitter to gather any information, photos, or interviews with people at the scene.

It's widely acknowledged that @tontaube was the first to post a tweet about the shootings in Winnenden. Note, it was about an hour after the shooting began.

"Attention: In the Winnenden high school today there was a gun rampage, the perpertrator is supposedly still on the run - best not to come into the city!!!!"

@tontaube's first tweet was a warning to her friends and followers. She sent this tweet from her office located a few kilometres from the Albertville Secondary School. What she tweeted was accurate. There was a shooter at large in Winnenden, but @tontaube was relaying information passed to her from a colleague whose husband phoned to say he was stopped by police on the road leading to the school.

Her 129 character tweet began to gain traction. In an interview with a youth programme on Bavarian public television BR, @tontaube said she was first contacted by the media about an hour after her initial tweet. German tabloid Bild was the first to reach her, then other media including N-TV, Stuttgarter Nachrichten and CNN - all of course seeking updates and interviews.

BR's interview with @tontaube also shows she posted tweets making it clear to followers and journalists that she was not at the scene and was tuning into local radio reports for new information.

"Dear Press: I actually also don't know about this mad guy... #winnenden #amok"

And, there lay one of the main problems for the media trying to use Twitter in Winnenden. There just weren't active Twitterers in the immediate vicinity of where the shootings were taking place.

Lets back track a little bit and look at how one media outlet used Twitter to cover the story. After news of the shootings broke, journalists from the magazine Focus scrambled to get down to Winnenden to report.

One of the first steps of the Focus team was to open a new Twitter account dedicated to this event. But the username they choose to report events and communicate with the Twitter community instantly drew fire for being inappropriate - @Amoklauf.

"@jochenjochen was the twitter account you chose @amoklauf actually too embarrassing for you? Shame on you!!! #winnenden #amoklauf"

(Tweet to @jochenjochen - Jochen Wegner, Chief Editor of Focus Online)

Perhaps to put it in an English context, it would be interesting to consider how English speaking users of Twitter in similar circumstances would react to a journalist gathering information via a new Twitter account called @gunrampage or @killingspree.

Of course, you could also argue: what's in a Twitter name? Does that even matter? Afterall the term or phrase was used in headlines and TV news graphics. But I think it runs deeper than that. Will you have credibility in the eyes of Twitter users if you're starting from scratch with a new account - even if you are a big media brand? Have you thought about your Twitter 'tone' or 'voice'? Do you know and understand your audience on Twitter?

In the case of Winnenden, German media seemed to be going through a lot of learning by doing on a big story.

Focus soon backed down in the face of protest. @Amoklauf was deleted and @FocusLive was used instead.

But, even then, @FocusLive was not winning fans. In a blog post about Twitter and Winnenden, journalist and blogger Stefan Niggemeier points out that the journalists using @FocusLive were at first tweeting more about how they were getting to Winnenden or needing toothbrushes if they stayed in town overnight, rather than offering any new information. I think Herr Niggemeier raises some good points for journalists to consider their purpose and method of using Twitter on a story such as a mass shooting.

In response to criticism about their use of Twitter, Jochen Wegner, Chief Editor of Focus Online, said:

"We will find a way to use Twitter and other social networks, that fits both the networks and the journalistic standards. Ironically we've been also heavily criticised, for not communicating via Twitter and only posting links of our reports."

If Twitter during Winnenden did not prove to be effective for news gathering it certainly helped to point out the media's errors in reporting the event. Here's a useful example from Twitpic

http://twitpic.com/photos/brunser

The caption reads: "@N24: What matters is a photo gallery with flashing lights and pistols drawn, or what? That was Erfurt, you losers #winnenden"

Twitter user @brunser noticed that the German TV news channel N24 was using a photo from the 2002 Erfurt shootings in their online reports of Winnenden. @brunser has circled the police car number plates that give the game away, and even sent a couple of cheeky tweets to the channel's @n24_de and @N24 twitter accounts to point out their error. However, there's no public reply to @brunser from N24 acknowledging their actions.

If I'm painting a gloomy picture of German media using Twitter then that's not what I set out to do. There are several media outlets using Twitter to good effect. I do like the way for instance regional newspaper Der Westen is using Twitter to engage with readers. I check out their stories online because of the way they tweet. At the heart of it, Der Westen is keeping it simple. They appear to know their audience, they're being social and I think winning respect.

Looking wider, debate in Germany still continues over how the media used photos and videos of victims and the teenage shooter from social media sites. That's another story. However, I'll end this post with some Twitter thoughts from Marcus Boesch - aka @blogschau. Marcus produces a weekly blogging and social media programme on German international radio. I asked him how German media views Twitter and social media for news gathering.

@Blogschau discusses Twitter and Winnenden from Guy Degen on Vimeo.

Keeping an eye on the Tbilisi demonstrations

2009-04-09T20:37:10Z

Fellow Frontline Club blogger Onnik Krikorian has produced a great round up of online and social media coverage of the first day of demonstrations in Tbilisi, Georgia.

April 9 is a date firmly etched in the memory of many Georgians. Any demonstration on the anniversary of the 1989 Soviet crack down would always bring out people, whether supporters of the opposition or people just curious to see what was going on.

For perhaps more of a grassroots perspective I'll be keeping my eye on the blog that Georgian journalism students at GIPA are producing that Onnik pointed out.

The Georgian Young Lawyers Association is another independent group that's useful to get a picture of what's happening between demonstrators and police/security services. I bumped into the chairperson Tamar Khidasheli late last night outside the Georgian parliament.

Her group has monitors observing the demonstrations. Here's what she had to say.