Christian Oliver's digital thoughts

I was invited to the Advisory Board of Full Sail University in Orlando. I’m incredibly impressed with this university. There is nothing like it in the US and maybe even the world. There may be equivalent or better facilities in other universities or training centers but none that encompasses so many disciplines and with such cutting edge level.

Just to give you an idea of the progressiveness of this school, EVERY student gets a pre-loaded Mac Book Pro when they enter.

Here is a video tour:

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Here are some pictures from my trip. Makes you want to go back to school!!

Full Sail are incredible hosts, they put me at the Grand Bohemian Hotel, which is recognized not only by the celebrities that stay there but by the incredible art collection. It even has a gallery inside the hotel.

Amanda Watlington and Nell Thompson at the welcome dinner

More industry experts and Full Sail staff at the dinner. Al (to the left) has more than 30 years as a music industry lawyer.

Very good Surf & Turf

With my friend Luis Emiro Garcia

Tim thought it was unfair that I never appear in the pictures

Luis Emiro at the dinner

Venezuelan artist Marianne Lerbs was coincidentally exhibited at the floor I stayed in at the Grand Bohemian

My place at the board room

They gave us a tour of the facilities, this is a shot at a class on Computer Animation theory

Electric cars to go around campus

One of the computer animation labs. This one is in session and is all Mac based. They are learning Shake now.

The studio backlot

The students build their own sets and record their own programs

Broadcast quality High Definition production studio.

Music recording class in session with a Grammy award winning professor

Theater for surround sound mixing and video editing on a large scale.

Green screen studio

Motion Capture studio. The red spots (lights) are actually infrared cameras to capture the actor’s movements

The Backlot has its own Jumbotron to exhibit studen’ts work, play movies, concerts and internal messages.

Everyone’s office at Full Sail is a collection of memorabilia, toys and interesting stuff. This is Nell Thompson’s collection.

We are having an internal meeting in INNOVATION at Norfolk, near Juan Antonio Giner’s home. We are discussing our latest lessons learned regarding newsroom integrations and the 2008 WAN congress. Very interesting meetings. One important message from the WAN; its not a matter of wether or not to integrate, its all about how and there are no unique magic formulas because each company has different realities, different skills and different audiences and since media companies can no longer force content to their audience, they have to be really innovative and listen hard to determine how to compete.

Here are some pictures of us working:

Juan Antonio Giner and Marta Botero

Javier Zarracina and Marcos Foglia

Carlos Soria

Carlo Campos, Ernesto Rinaldi, Christian Oliver and Alvaro Moncada

Ernesto Rinaldi and David LaFontaine

I’ve been saying this since 1999. Filtering is the key and the mayor challenge we are facing. With so much information and so much BAD information, the Playlist is the most valuable asset and the best added value. Who can build a “playlist” ideal for me. This playlist should have all kinds of media that I would like and should consume. The key to the playlist is also context because I don’t want the same playlist when I’m in the car than when I’m home nor in the morning on a Monday than in the morning on a Saturday.

Peter Gabriel explains it very well in this video about the site he endorses and invested in called The Filter: