During the dramatic and violent raid on the Occupy encampment at Zuccotti Park, on November 15th, as main stream media and citizen journalists were being rounded up, roughed up and marginalized, there began a live, unfiltered, Ustream feed that continued, unabated for 21 hours straight. This continuos video, was shot entirely on a smartphone by Tim Pool. By the time the last dumpster, containing Occupiers' shredded tents and personal property, including computers, was hauled away, Tim Pools' Ustream images had gone viral on Twitter. The live video account was so compelling, so right there and so far superior to the traditional big, heavy camera crew coverage, Al Jazeera English, MSNBC and Time.com., featured his Ustream coverage on their sites.
The fact that all these news agencies picked up my live feed shows that it was better than everything they had. Obviously, they didn’t want cameras at the raid Nov. 15. The way I see it, when you live in a country that claims to be ruled by the people for the people, yet you refuse to let the people know what’s happening, it’s a crime. I don’t really take a hard stance on the politics, but one thing I know for sure is that if there’s a women on the ground being beaten I know which side I’m on.
Two days later, rawstory.com, posted a Youtube video of a riveting, birdseye view, live feed of a dramatic demonstration in Poland. It showed in complete detail, the police massing to confront the protestors.
Warsaw Protester Launches Drone to Spy on Police.
http://www.rawstory.com/... (scroll down the story to see the video)
I read the story and was totally intrigued and during a veer slightly ot, in jpmassars excellent diary, "We Have Put a Woman Named Gayla Back in Her Home", I commented on December 7th that, "i think ows should invest in a RoboKoptor."
This raw story recorded over 7000 rec's, including mine and started to get picked up by other outlets, like Wired.com, whose editor in chief and drone builder, Chris Anderson took note. Anderson is the founder of DIY Drones.com, the largest Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) community on the web. When he realized the drone had a mounted videocamera, something clicked.http://www.diydrones.com/
It clicked for Tim Pool too.
"When the Polish protesters put up the robo-copter video my friend said I think we need to do this for Occupy.”
But Pool isn’t stopping with his heavily trafficked live broadcast. In the works are new ways of covering protests around the world, such as his “Occucopter,” which will be capable of shooting and live-streaming aerial footage of protests. Airspace can sometimes be closed during police raids, preventing media helicopters from capturing the action or estimating crowd size — not that Pool has access to a helicopter. The Occucopters will fly below 400 feet in the air, where FAA airspace begins, and therefore cannot be banned.
On photographer, Stanley Rogouski's Flickr page, dated December 16th, are pics of Tim Pools', OccuCoptor.
http://www.flickr.com/...
Meet the OccuCoptor.
It's unclear whether The OccuCoptor has yet seen service, in it's service of democracy but one thing is clear, this drone technology is just getting started. There is a new term we need to learn and no doubt, will be hearing much more about; "Drone Journalism."
The term “drone journalism” has been gathering steady buzz in the media.
The idea that a drone, or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), can become an eye-in-the-sky witness taking pictures or video of protests or other breaking news events is a timely one. There’s a lot going on, here’s what journalists need to know to get started.
Drones are already starting to cover hot spots. Check out these stunning shots from a remote-controlled drone hovering over massive protests following the contested elections in Moscow. It was fired on with pistol shots but stayed aloft, getting views of the city that no single journalist could have captured in the circumstances.
They are an affordable way to cover disasters, breaking events. “I think drones — small, cheap, easy-to-use vehicles that can fit in a small bag and carried into the field by a reporter — offer a major opportunity to improve certain kinds of reporting,” said Professor Matt Waite of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who recently founded the Drone Journalism Lab, in an interview with Los Angeles Times database producer Ben Welsh.
The lab is so new that Waite isn’t sure yet how it will fit into the journalism curriculum. “On one hand, there’s very cool opportunities to do all kinds of new things with drones for reporting. On the other, it’s just a tool for reporting,”
http://mashable.com/...
Click on the link below and there you will find a video of Tim Pool and an in depth, question and answer interview. In development now, in addition to The OccuCoptor, is a single base location, multi-platform system that can direct multiple drones, at different locations around the globe. He can be everywhere at once, thwarting any attempt by authorities, to guess his exact whereabouts. And borrowing technology from a toy that's already being sold to kids, is a brainwave directed drone; directions are transmitted through a headband. No, I'm not kidding.
http://mashable.com/...
Here's a little information about the Drone Journalism Lab.
The College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln established the Drone Journalism Lab in November 2011 as part of a broad digital journalism and innovation strategy. Journalism is evolving rapidly, and journalism education must evolve with it, teaching new tools and storytelling strategies while remaining true to the core principles and ethics of journalism. The lab was started by Professor Matt Waite as a way to explore how drones could be used for reporting.
In the lab, students and faculty will build drone platforms, use them in the field and research the ethical, legal and regulatory issues involved in using pilotless aircraft to do journalism.
http://dronejournalism.tumblr.com/
So, in typical push the envelope, Occupy style, Tim Pool and his OccuCoptor might turn the tables and stem the tide, against the alarming trend to restrict the press from covering anything Occupy related. And it's all legal, at least for now.
We, The 99%, are now looking at them.
And it's all legal, thank you very much.
Occupy!