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One of those brain dump things where I want to write more than 140 characters but not enough for a “proper” post, whatever *that* is.
The not-so-obvious sign that twitter’s about to go mainstream is that the really smart people are so bored with it they are messing with the concept. This week has seen Hugh making the ultimate sacrifice and fairly swift resurrection. It’s also seen Andrew Baron trying to sell his account & followers on e-Bay (although he’s now deleted the auction) These are the kinds of one-offs that can’t be replicated, but hopefully will inspire some more interesting activity - Mark, how do you describe this sort of copying behaviour?
At the same time, it is becoming more and more like the playground with bullies and victims finding each other very easily. It’s a good job there are some grown-ups keeping things sensible. pfffft!
We’re trying to get the next couple of months of the Tuttle prototype settled with sponsorship - £300-£500 gets you fame and geek gratitude for a week, but on the basis that it’s often easier to raise a lot of money than just a little - you could book say the first (or second, or third…) Friday of the next three months for £1500. Helen’s done some work on polishing the value proposition for sponsors - go take a look and if you or your clients would like to play, you know where I am.
The Tuttle Breakfast next Wednesday sold out in a matter of days and now has a waiting list of 13 people. We’ll do more. Post your ideas for sessions on the wiki - we’ve already loads - I particularly like Mike & Mecca’s suggestions that we need to break out of the echo chamber - I’m hoping that Wednesday will fulfill some of that.
I went to MeasurementCamp last week - I’m still feeling uneasy about it. I just know that with hindsight if I was back where I was 12 years ago, with hindsight I wouldn’t have put so much effort into measuring public services. Or maybe I would, but would try to find ways of balancing the hard and the soft better. Social Media metrics enable and encourage gaming in place of authenticity but when you say it like that it sounds awful pompous and spoilsporty.
I still need more work and somewhere to live from 18th May. Shortest paragraph - greatest headspace. HALP pls kthxbye.
Oh God, I know, I’ve sat at the “centre” and written this sort of stuff - it needs a few more buzzwords to make it truly awful:
“BLAHBLAH has released enhancements to BLAHBLAHBLAH , its professional-networking website for support
of more effective collaboration and knowledge sharing across BLAH.
This is the first major refresh of the design since the platform was launched over 12 months ago and is the result of the feedback we have received from our growing number of registered users and the recommendations received from a detailed usability study commissioned by BLAHBLAH.
We are confident that users will find the new design more intuitive to use and will benefit from the enhanced help and guidelines that are available on the site. We anticipate making a number of other functional enhancements to the site over the coming weeks and will advise you about these soon.”
Clearly the excitement was too much for “users” of this “community” and they all tried to click at once…
Error 500: SRVE0207E: Uncaught initialization exception thrown by servlet
I suspect that there’s only one thing worse for Adriana than admitting she’s ill and that’s to have to endure several hours offline 
original pic by doc searls
derived from this shot under by-sa licence
Now with extra added “Yay!”
In a hurry and doing a 100 other things (which is what I said I wasn’t going to do today *at all*) but here are a sample of the new moo product to complement their lovely calling cards which everyone I meet simply drools over (I said “simply” not “literally” - ewwwww)
They are Notecards - 100mm x 100mm square with a 42mm flap on the side to enable them to stand up. Of course I should have photographed them standing up. (Well I did, but I mean I should have made them stand up, not me - can you tell I’m writing this far too quickly?) On the back you get to print your contact details, but there’s a big space for you to write or stick labels on. They also come with their own envelopes so you can put them in the post or leave them on the mantelpiece for when the intended recipient gets home or something.
I already gave my first one away to Suw for her birthday on Sunday - she got a pile of fruit from Berwick Street Market on hers. This of course was before the romper-suit stuff came up and she started feeling uneasy.
You can now order them from the moo meisters perfect for totally personalised “I’m sorry I completely screwed up omgwtfbbq” or “I love you, you’re my best friend” or “Stop lying there so ill, get up and dance around” or even “You’re mad and I’m mad. Let’s do something completely insane together” cards.
From my twitter feed:
howardgr: friday the 13th. now where’s my hockey mask?
Sent at 1:49 PM on Friday
plasticbagUK: It’s conceivable I may kill everyone before this day is out. If you’re sitting near me, now is the time to start getting scared.
Sent at 1:55 PM on Friday
And they look like such nice boys
No, this wasn’t a queue for the Marshall Street Clinic in Soho. Wash your minds out with soap.
There’s a reality TV show (well, ‘reality’ might be stretching it a little) called WAGs boutique being filmed over the road where a group of young women who have some relationship to a sportsman get to run their own fashion business with a shop off Carnaby St. For some reason hundreds of other (presumably less fortunate) young women (and a few guys) were lined up over the street and being admitted in small groups. I assume they are going to have the thrill of meeting some of these superstars and end up on ITV2.
I saw Tamara Beckwith in one of the shops as I passed. I think I’d prefer a trip to the clinic myself.
The very opposite of Interesting2007
It’s not nice to snicker at people having fun at work and loving their employer. I just wanted to remind you of that while I pass this on from Ben Casnocha
Just to let triangulation freaks know that the official blogging4business blog is being written by Robert Andrews - a much linkier live-blogger than I can manage.
And for another reference point you can see the conference filtered through the fingers of Stephanie Booth.
I’m ashamed to admit such worldly inexeperience, but last week’s trip to Barcelona was my first to Spain and the second furthest south I’ve ever been.
So I just want to explain that I’m not used to these sorts of things. I went for a little walk at the end of the middle day of the conference and suddenly, there in front of me was a fruit tree… now I’ve seen apple trees and pear trees and damson bushes and blackberry hedgerows but I have never seen a tree with ORANGES on it.
And the thought of being able to just reach up and pick an orange off a tree, for free, without having to go into Sainsbury’s or tear a red stringy bag apart, taking your fingertips with it, took my breath away.
Next week…. LEMONS
Ladles & Jellyspoons,
give a big blogosphere welcome to Katie Ledger who has quietly started making some social media, firstly with her blog which has been running for a month or so now and now with her youtube debut on the Government’s Nursery Education Grant where she interviews the owner of a local nursery school on how the NEG (you couldn’t make this stuff up could you?) is having, shall we say, some unintended consequences.
The Social Media Club motto is “If you get it, share it”
I prefer “If you get it, MAKE it… and share it”
Nice one, Katie
This looks like fun, from the London Theatre Guide
“Cast members from Monty Python’s Spamalot are hoping that the public supports them on St George’s Day (23 April) as they attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest coconut orchestra. The current record stands at 1,789 and was set in March 2006, outside the Shubert Theater New York, to celebrate the first birthday of Spamalot’s Broadway production. This new record attempt will be held in Trafalgar Square, so has enough room to smash the current total.”
“Taking part in such a prestigious record attempt is not as easy as turning up and banging two halves of a tasty, healthy snack together. Aspiring record-breakers need to have registered at a Trafalgar Square checkpoint by 18:30 to be assured of their exclusive Monty Python coconut. They will then be taught how to play their husky instruments by members of the Spamalot team. The official record attempt takes place at 19:00 and is followed by an al fresco screening of Monty Python And The Holy Grail at 19:30. “
If I’m in town, I’ll try to be there to record the event for posterity.
Bonus Link: More SPAM & Coconut fun
Nice to have a Twitter story to break on this side of the pond.
I’m being followed by one of the most intellectigent men on the planet
“Long day of sitting around, staring at the protraits today, not much napping. I got to make fun of a few Democrats, though. Time to head home.”
Seen on The Kitten’s Toe’s photostream
via tunatheday - Thanks Ade!
They’re at it again. I thought I saw Jason saying nooooo-waaaaay Rosé to this but nevertheless Hugh’s just announced The Stormhoek/Threshers 40% off voucher for getting shitfaced by Easter (well April 1st anyway - uh-oh that date rings alarm bells).
Oh but read the small print: “cannot be exchanged at Main Line stations, Petrol Forecourts, Center Parcs or Student Unions.”
Download the coupon from here and take it to Threshers for 40% off - yes really. Now you know that I don’t drink, but that doesn’t make me a spoilsport - 40% off is, like, a lot.
You don’t need me to remind you what happened last time.
I try to make out that I don’t care about animals. I casually take the mickey out of Gia for her cat blog I have to admit it’s really because I’m a big softy and can’t bear to get too involved with the little darlings.
So I was lost this evening when I came across this little fella in St George’s Square, just outside Pimlico School. He was just hopping across the pavement and I could neither encourage him to hop back into the School nor very effectively keep him out of the road where he wanted to go and would undoubtedly be squished. I told him to go and stand by the wall and keep away from people’s feet, but I’m worried that next time I go out there there’ll be toad guts all over the place.
For a few weeks earlier this year there were parties over the road in the Villa Elephant on the River. Every Saturday hordes of young people would arrive from about midnight onwards and the sound system would start up with bass booming through the night. At least that’s what I’m told happened. I always sleep like a log and so missed even the loudest bits every week.
Then a couple of weeks ago we got a letter through the door saying that the police were going to make sure nothing happened and that week and last weekend, all was quiet. But about 8.00 tonight we saw this scene where the police seemed to be making sure that the sound system and all the kit was packed away in a big van. The police have gone, but the party organisers are back out on the street, occasionally remonstrating with each other. Later on, it might get interesting if people arrive for the party but have to be turned away.
update: apparently this is what was supposed to happen (seen on MAXX’s myspace)
Just got this.
1. What does “only original vouchers accepted” mean in this context? Do I have to dial up my mail on my phone and show the waiter the pic? Or am I allowed to print it out. If I can print it out, what’s to stop me printing out 50 and giving them to my friends? And what, apart from their high ethical standards, is to stop anyone reading this downloading it and using it?
2. does “exclusivley” mean the same as “exclusively” (I’m just guessing here)
3. I didn’t realise I’d signed up to be a wagamamama covent garden member. I don’t know if I like wagamamama’s food as much as I like wagamama’s. AFAIK there are zero wagamamama covent garden members so this is a bit worthless really.
Steve Moore passed this on from Jonathan Simmons at PublicZone:
“Public Zone have become involved in a wonderful campaign called May Day For Nurses, which aims to highlight the plight of nurses as the lowest paid public sector professionals, by asking every premiership footballer to donate their wages from the last day of the season to a hardship fund.
We don’t want your money (that will come from the players), we just want your support. We have built a fan table on-line www.maydayfornurses.com (it even has space for non football fans!), please go and register your support, it will really help us get press, and convince the players.”
I have, why haven’t you?
First, say “Happy Birthday Helen!”
Now, even on her birthday she gives her friends something, she told me about this and I’m going to pass it on. If you’re a fan of Yo! Sushi, then for the price of some of your valuable personal information (no, nothing beyond the usual name, e-mail, birthday etc) you can get a Halfprice Heaven 50% discount voucher to use before 31st January. Redeemable against food only - maximum 10 plates per person
I don’t have time to do this justice right now, but i’ve just been shown blogtalkradio by Alan Levy, their CEO and my head is exploding with different applications. Bottom line: you want your own talk radio station? You got it. For free.
This is my page
I’ll do a show soon and announce it here. At the moment interaction is constrained because callers have to dial a number in the USA, but that’s due to change in the next few weeks.
Alan says it’s podcasting 2.0 hehe! I agree.
p.s. I’m very serious when I say that 2007 will be the year that folks get that social media will be likened to a communal table rather than a printing press. That social media has more in common with barbershops, trading posts, village bazaars, coffeehouses, piazzas and plazas, eighteenth century Parisian salons, troubadours and minstrels, theater, and Homeric poetry than it has with newspapers and television.
And so it is… and so it is
Maybe I can start watching again then. Maybe
While we’re talking quite innocently about knobs, my attention has been drawn to Kids Night On Broadway. It’s true - and you can download the souvenir KNOB playbill as welll as signing up for KNOB (and other offers… whatever *they* are)
Good grief! Will someone please call Chris Morris
SOLT launched their ‘blog’ The Alternate yesterday.
OK, I’m still trying to get my head round the strapline “An alternative view of Theatreland from www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk” I will give it some time to find it’s feet, but honestly what is alternative about this? What does the title mean?
I’d love to see some posts on what they are trying to do here (beyond the bland about us statement) and how they are going to be different from fan sites or the gossip columns of the freesheets.
I’d like to see something a bit edgier, a bit more backstage and with more imaginative use of media - we’ve been podcasting for 2 years now people - we don’t want (censored) transcriptions of interviews - let’s hear them, or even better, get your camcorder out and let’s see the luvvies! I’d also like to know that this is a community I can be part of, not just another part of the publicity/money extraction machine.
And a full text rss feed. Don’t make me click through, you’re making me work too hard to be your friend.
Most of all - get rid of the registration in order to comment. This says “you can only be my friend if you give me 5p”. This makes me nervous and not really want to play with you or recommend you to my friends.
I can help - you only have to ask.
tags: theatre & blogging & marketing & audience engagement & 2ndWave & post geek & london
Can’t be bothered to dig out an exact quote on the amount of cocaine that is alleged to be stuck to banknotes in the circulation, and I don’t know (naturally) how you would go about extracting it, but I think there’s at least a feasibility study to be done on how much you could make from washing out your ten pound notes and then exchanging them for others, then selling the coke.
Drugs and money-laundering (literally) - that’s the kind of stuff people have come to expect here (well at least it makes a change from semi-nudity and knob gags).
I’m sure that the young people who get involved in www.makeyourmarkwithatenner.org (which was launched yesterday by the totally brilliant Oli Barrett) will have more sense, moral fibre and honesty than to follow my hare-brained scheme (and of course kids, it harms other people and it’s illegal so is against the rules)
Oli’s premise, to encourage social entrepreneurship, is to give £10 each to 10,000 young people as a competition to see what good they can do with it, while they are also hopefully making a profit. You can see Oli and Andrew Reynolds (who’s putting up the dosh) in this clip from Working Lunch yesterday (though it will probably disappear from that location soon - grrrrrr! get it on youtube somebody!) [update:Adrian tells me it's already disappeared, but I just heard from Oli that photos of the launch are on flickr]
The money is being distributed via schools and colleges, so if you’re in that world, go along and have a look. In the meantime, I’d love to hear how *you* would use your tenner for simultaneous good and profit.
tags: social enterprise & young entrepreneurs & Oli Barret & education
Last summer I wrote this and it set me on a slow plod to try to get theatres and arts organisations into the blogging and social media space. I pitched to a couple of theatres and sent material to lots more, but It’s never really got enough momentum behind it and there seemed to be a lot of resistance too - not least, worries about interference with the creative process and lack of cash, or more accurately other priorities for the relatively small amount of cash available.
Yesterday, the very lovely Katherine Wood at the Society of London Theatre pointed me in the direction of this report from London Calling. It’s the findings of a survey carried out among a range of arts organisations across the country in June 2006 (actually the same time that Debbie was melting the phones in the Pimlico branch, trying to get us in to speak to theatre comms people).
In addition to the no cash problem (more than two-thirds of respondents have a budget for web development of less than £10k) the survey identifies “no clear grasp of the benefits/opportunities” and the fear that “digital solutions only add to workloads” as lines of resistance to embracing these technologies.
I read the following general strategy into the answers given about the rate at which different technologies are being understood and adopted: “We’ve got to have a website, this is primarily for online ticketing, though we can do some other merchandising and marketing with it too. Then we game the search engines to make sure people come to us. Get their e-mail addresses and spam them” As usual I exaggerate for effect, but it all feels a bit 1997. Thank God most of them haven’t heard of Bluetooth…
The section Engaging with Audiences reveals more about what “engagement” seems to mean in this context. To focus on which technology to use gets it the wrong way round (it’s about people, people!) - but all of the technologies presented are best suited to a mindset of one-way communication - what I see as a narcissistic approach to engagement - see how beautiful and clever I am and you will want to be my friend and then buy my products - rather than saying “I, like you, am a human being, I love making and enjoying art and I see that you do too, let’s talk about how we can work together for mutual benefit - how I can help you and you can help me” That’s what I consider engagement.
There’s lots of work to be done here - it’s part of Web 2.2, of what Nancy has termed “the second wave” and Debbie keeps calling “the post-geek phase”. I’m interested in doing education and experimentation in this area, but most of all shifting the mindset from one-way to two-way - how do you do that? One mind at a time, baby, one mind at a time.
These lastminuteliving diaries for Cabaret and Wicked (there are others too) are a start and so is this rat blog from Soho Theatre but I can’t help feeling they could be so much more engaging (and more easy to find!) and I worry that without the mindset shift, they will be seen to not have worked and therefore be abandoned.
If you’re like those in the survey, 64% of whom said they face no internal resistance and 76% of whom said “No” to the question “Would you say that your website meets all the needs of your audiences at present?” or if you’re working on sites already and want to bounce ideas around about making them better, give me a ring and let’s have a chat about it.
[btw yeah, that's me at the back of the picture on stage at the Swan Theatre, Worcester in the 1982 production of Lark Rise, directed by John Doyle, and including Adrian Phillips and Rufus Norris in the cast - I have no pictures of Rufus, but there's one of Adrian on my flickr stream - heh!]
tags: theatre & blogging & marketing & audience engagement & 2ndWave & post geek & web2.2
I must unsubscribe from the Headlines from The Stage They upset me too much.
OK, so no sign of action on Helen’s Blog yet this morning, but the pictures are on flickr and I had a text from her last night to reveal her experience of Celebrity Scissorhands - she was Rowetta‘d and you can see that her hair is very different, but in a “looking good mama” way! Give money to Children in Need now.
And talking of bobs, look at this poseur in the making - I think that’s my ninth birthday party, so probably 1973. Joining in the celebrations are Charles Istead and Diane Rixom. Where are they now? Do I want to know, or have I dug up enough old friends recently? (with apologies to those who read this blog and who might not like to be referred to as “dug up”)
Grumblings and disruption in the music biz are getting my attention, mostly due to my association with Mr Phillips at TunA . This one uses the ‘C’ word - consumer, there I said it, sorry folks - far too often. I’m looking forward to next Monday’s ORG event on copyright extension - NOT
The Stage: Jimmy Savile is to return to screens in a new UKTV show celebrating Jim’ll Fix It, as part of the broadcaster’s £15 million investment in new commissions for 2007.
And: BBC2 is bringing back Swap Shop for a special seasonal edition featuring the original presenters including Noel Edmonds, Keith Chegwin, Maggie Philbin, and John Craven.
Hugh says Dotcom was about ‘taking’. Web 2.0 is about ‘giving’
Yup
Dotcom was about taking the piss.
Web 2.0 is about giving the piss away.
Just easing myself back into blogging on my own behalf.
I feel the need to recognise publically that *this* is a Cat Blog
Not until I saw this:
did I understand this, which was e-mailed to me earlier in the day…
In local news, 11 people are right now inside the court buildings and about to be charged with conspiracy to murder in connection with an alleged plot to bomb transatlantic flights. The Pimlico branch office here has been buzzed by helicopters all morning, so when I had a little slot in my schedule, I wandered over to Horseferry Road.
I got there after the suspects had arrived and obviously some time before they were again to emerge, but I did capture some footage, mainly of the assembled members of the news media who, unlike me, get paid to sit around and wait for things to happen.
David has just published the video interviews he grabbed from people in Hyde Park last Wednesday. Really interesting stuff here from a variety (though all male 
) of perspectives, but of course you’ll be most interested (NOT!) to hear what inarticulate nonsense I came up with. God, the park looks dry! Hopefully the last few days rain has helped, but we do need lot’s more. It’s my favourite sort of London day today - blue skies, sunshine, cool breeze.
Hey dig the cool virtual earth map that I get to insert easily when I use Windows Live Writer (Beta). It’s a bit fiddly working out how to make it right-align and get my text to flow on the left as I’ve become accustomed to… but I’m sure I’ll find a way (Yup, found it - just dragged and dropped it)
That’s where I am - right now - I have an enormous red push pin stuck in my head and I’m standing out in the yard (where we did the Stormhoek experiments).
And I’d like to be able to add technorati tags easily & automagically (like Flock does). Aha - I spy a plugin (would like to not have to install .NET framework for it to work…)
tags: live+writer, tag4writer, plugin, blogging+tool
Peter joined YouTube 5 days ago and is this week’s number #1 for subscriptions (#31 of all time, so far). He’s 78 years old and talks simply and beautifully from his armchair “in the middle of the UK” about his life and what he thinks. This one is his latest and most touching - he’s not surprisingly blown away by the reaction he’s had from members of the YouTube community.
Peter’s a member of what we’re calling the New Generation - people who never thought they’d get this old, let alone have another fifteen or twenty years to live. He rocks. Watch him and don’t get goosebumpy and dewy-eyed. I dare you.
Had lovely lunch with lovely Suw today. She reminded me of lots of things I’ve seen in passing and not delved into for a while, but I was particularly taken with the Odeo voice messaging service which you can now see on the sidebar.
Talk to me. Leave me a message and I’ll aggregate them into a wee podcast.
E-mail is b0rked, let’s try something differenter(ly).
Adriana’s been back and forth to the land of the free all year. It’s obviously taking it’s toll and the poor thing seems to have gone native.
Be afraid. Be very afraid. (and buy earplugs)
Gia has managed to get permission to start showing sneak previews of Sunshine on the film’s blog.
Go see Danny Boyle’s intro to Sunshine.
Gia explains:
My colleagues Phil and Damien interviewed Danny Boyle a while back. A bit later on, they took a video camera into the edit and pressed record while the editors were viewing scenes. Then Damien took the interview and the sneaky edit suite footage and cut it all together using music by the fabulous Digitonal. After a bit of persuading, Danny and Producer Andrew Macdonald agreed to let me put it up.
The resulting trailer-embryo bears more than a passing resemblance to the “You ought to string DVD pirates up by their guts for peddling this shit” adverts showing in cinemas at the moment. I half expected someone to get up and walk across the screen in the middle.
The videos are also nicely wrapped up in a feed for consumption by your favourite vid-aggregator.
Helen is getting ready for the Swan Youth Theatre reunion next week by digging out some of the most toe-curling memorabilia. This one, and others of me through the eighties and in a variety of bizarre outfits can be found on flickr with the tag lloyd davis
OK, so how come there are any fat french people at all? Today for the second day, no part of lunch is bigger than my thumb (except those skewered fishy things which are longer than my thumb, but a lot thinner. And what’s with wine at lunch? Does the french bloggers’ union insist on it or something?
Well today, I brought my own, that’ll stop me falling asleep this afternoon. That and Marc Canter singing & Ben Hammersley whirling around in his utilikilt.
tags: lesblogs
Here’s a snippet of David Weinberger’s keynote to Online Information. His speech is entitled Everything is Miscellaneous and rattled a mostly taxonomy-loving audience by looking radically at how we can extend the organisation of knowledge by introducing alternatives to tree structures.
Check out the Online Information blog for some more vox pop video clips. If you’re not already subscribed to Joho the Blog, then shame on you.
This is a (very) rough transcript of the content of this clip:
When the data and metadata are both digital what gets made easier? Well, there are four things that change:
1. Leaves can sit on multiple branches - for example a camera has to sit somewhere, probably best under ‘cameras’ but in an electronic store you want to put it in as many places as possible
2. Messiness is terrible in the physical world, organisation is success, whereas in the digital world you want as many links in and out and crossing over as you can find, so many links that no-one could possibly follow them all - that sort of messiness really works - the more contextualised, the more findable you are.
3. In a clothing store, almost everything you see is noise. It’s the stuff that doesn’t fit *you*. Much better to be able to go to the store that says: Sixteen and a half, thirty two inch shirt store - that would be good for you (if you happen to be that size) So in a normal store, if you do the rational thing and make a big pile of everything that fits you so you can go through it in a rational way- you’ll get thrown out, they’ll think you’re crazy - because the owner of the information also owns the organisation of that information. So now we have electronic stores that let you order how you view stuff - close to faceted classification (actually parametric search) but getting closer to you being able to design your own store. It is less and less the case that the owner of the information owns the organisation of the information
4. Users are becoming contributors to the metadata that used to be owned by the information owners. For example, sequential file names from digital cameras give the problem that it’s impossible to remember what the content of the file is. Uploading such a picture becomes functionally equivalent to throwing it away - because you’ll never remember which one is which. So why not upload your pictures and have other people annotate them. For example at an event like this, people can say “that’s me!” and type in annotations, so that onerous job of entering metadata (which humans are supposed to hate so much) when distributed over a large enough group, especially when that group is motivated in part by egotism then magically it gets done. Sometimes that’s the only way to get information.
So the tree metaphor is incredibly useful - compact and efficient and will continue to be valuable. The difference is that in the future the question will no longer be about getting the right tree, there will be many trees. So rather than trees, it’s helpful to think of knowledge as a large pile of leaves.
It used to be that the role of information professionals to keep us from bad knowledge to cut down what people see, but now it’s the opposite, now it’s a complete flip we want as much metadata as possible. Now filters may be filtering out something useful and keeping a user from something they want. This flips the basics of our culture because before with paper, we couldn’t handle an abundance of information, now we’re really good at it.
Information is growing all the time, but we’re not overwhelmed with it, because we did what we’ve always done, we generated more information to be able to deal with it. Just like Callimachus the librarian at the Library of Alexandria who had 400,000 scrolls or so to classify. How did he manage it? He made more scrolls.
But we don’t need to filter things on the way in, we need experts who can help us think about things in all sorts of multiple ways, but filtering on the way in is a dead idea.
tags: david weinberger & online information 2005 & london & olympia & tagging
In the end, there was only one session that I managed to take notes in as my head got full of cold and my throat needed constant sipping of warm fluids to keep me going. So I listened on Tuesday to Bob Boiko, author of The Content Management Bible and all-round sound as a pound chap on things dear to my heart (in particular urging information professionals to get talking about information again rather than ‘content’).
His presentation was entitled: What every exec should know about information management and my notes follow.
Extremely frustrated when working with clients over the years - most problems aren’t things that practitioners can really do anything about. We have lots of ideas, but there are people who are supposed to be able to tell you what the goals are, but this is the biggest gap in Information Systems. So this is what you should tell them (or somehow influence or convince them of to escalate the concepts up to the people who need to know)
Information management not content management
Putting the IC back into ICT - Information, Communication and Technology - everyone’s trying to communicate, figure out how to talk to each other, who’s got it who needs info. But people hide behind technology, infrastructure or products rather than deal with the real issue - what’s the valuable information, who needs it and how do we get it to the right people in the organisation. Reframe everything you do into that context - it’s all about that aim. It’s not about content - it is about information, so take back the word - get it back from the information technologists who might not actually deal with *information*. Talk about information & communication. What is important? How many meetings do you have that talk about this, rather than choosing products and differences between applications. So challenge executives to behave as if you really were about information and communication supported by the technology rather than the other way round.
Not trying to convert us - just trying to give people here passionate arguments for doing the right thing.
Take the long view - it may be the end of your career and you’re still being asked to talk about the implications of technology. But this is still an interesting field - we’re still working it out, we don’t have it all sorted yet and it will take time.
What does it mean for a piece of information to be valuable. Are we in an information age? No not yet, we’re still wannabe’s: Imagine an info supermarket - you look at the labels on piece 1 and piece2 and you decide you want 1 but it’s too expensive so you keep looking. We can’t actually do this - we have some idea of the value of tangible objects, but it’s still very difficult to put a price - how would you have a dialogue in your corporation about the value of a white paper. Bob thinks we will get there, but only if we all start working on the problem now. So far, we can do something with relative value, but absolute is too hard. Also value isn’t only monetary.
Find allies in other people who are working on communication.
Study information - how do people look for it, what makes it good, who gives and who gets, what’s worth the expense? How much do you actually know about it - did you study at university? have you studied it since? One of the things we focus on is structure and this is something we tend to own - this is good, but there are other areas, that we still don’t really know about. Keep saying that it’s a profession in itself, people need training in it - it’s not a sub-topic of management or technology.
Create a strategy for information - how do you know what it should be? Well whatever it is you need to do it, you need to have one. If Knowledge is Power then why don’t we have a strategic approach to information - how are we going to use it. MOst people would tacitly agree, but they would have no idea how - maybe they could look to you. Basic point is If we deliver the right information to the right people in the right way it will help us meet our goals. There are no villains here, it’s that they really don’t know - it’s not neglect it’s lack of understanding - this is a whole new idea, a new discipline. Either get a strategy, or quit saying Information is Power, because you’re not behaving as if it were. Bring this contradiction up, talk about it, work out whether and how information is valuable to your organisation.
So ye executive types: Lead, Damn it! Lead your team, your peers, your bosses, their bosses. Please give us leadership - tell us why we need an intranet or whatever it is that people say they want you to build. What are we going to get from it - when you tell me then I might tell you that we should do it in a different way than you think.
Bob recommends www.cmprofessionals.org/
Ain’t it weird when someone from another part of your life suddenly pops up and says “Oh yeah, I’ve got a blog too”?
But I can tell you it’s really weird when someone says “Yeah, I’m podcasting”. This happened to me this week when my friend Sabrina revealed that she’s been doing a podcast about standup comedy since August when she was up at the Edinburgh Festival.
The earlier ones from the festival are fun - comics round the table riffing off each other. Now Sabrina’s publishing regular interviews with people who are performing at the Angel Comedy Club in Camden Passage.
The podcast feed is at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/newcomedyradio/ but doesn’t seem to have enclosures enabled. Have a listen and let Sabrina know that you heard about her here (She’s sabrinageorge AT sabrinageorge dot co dot uk).
Meanwhile, Gia is really, I mean really, getting into the swing of her behind the scenes movie production blog Sunshine
Great pictures, stories about the cast and crew and fascinating facts about space and being in it. And now not only do we know it’s brilliant but she got featured in today’s Guardian so hundreds of thousands of muesli-knitters all over the UK do too. What a star…. (geddit!?!)
technorati tags: sunshine, sunshinedna, film, production blog, gia
Dear esteemed readers, do please add yourselves to my frappr map. For those outside the UK, don’t worry, the map is global, it just defaults to show people nearby - which leads to a niggle. Within the US, pins can be attached to ZIP codes, but elsewhere you have to stick with City, so anyone in London will be assigned an arbitrary place here (there’s no option to go down to boroughs or areas such as Chelsea, Wimbledon or Islington - to name but three locations where I know my readers hang out) - hopefully this is just a beta issue! Come on - what are you waiting for? Get your pins out.
Most comment spam on this site gets deleted within a few hours of posting (that’s because I’m very rarely unconnected for that long!) It’s also usually either a generic comment like “Nice Site! Keep up the hard work! Meanwhile you might be interested in…” or else it’s completely irrelevant. However, I thought I’d share the following bit that came through this morning attached to the previous post about Zeldin, Conversation and building trust.
It comes from a nice person called Steve with this e-mail address: singa9876@yahoo.com
“Try some Liquid Trust!
I found that a great way to gain people’s trust is with a product called Liquid Trust. It is a spray that makes people trust you! Trust me, it works! You can get it here: “
oops, I seem to have lost the link in copying across just before I hit the delete button on this SPAM
“Ha ha ha ha, oh god, put them away you’re so sad”. That’s the reaction these get from my kids, so I thought I’d share them with a wider, more mature audience.
Yes, folks this is Mr Perfect Path twenty-one years ago, just having left home and disappeared off to the Guildford School of Acting. That haircut was the one after the Phil Oakey comb-over effort and before the standard actor’s short back and sides. Yes that’s a collarless grandad shirt, and yes that’s a grubby gabardine mac with shoplifters pockets, ideal for threatening all and sundry with impromptu acts of indecent exposure. Ahh the cheap nights at Cinderella Rockerfellas that that NUS card got me into.
A note to younger readers: If you’re under 21 (ie you weren’t born when these were taken) I really don’t want to know, OK? Just leave me in blissful ignorance that I’m old enough to be your father.
A note to older readers: Point me (and the rest of the Perfect Path gang) to pictures of you at that time, the more gorgeous the mullets or bubble perms, the better - bonus points for Buggles-style specs.
OK, is it just me, or does the right hand bit of this header graphic from an esteemed public service organisation remind you of a famous creation of Walt Disney? Y’know, if you screw your eyes up a bit…
I wouldn’t normally be interested in dog sites, especialy ugly dogs. Personally, I aspire to having a cat blog, perhaps one like Gia’s.
But there’s a special reason for linking to The Ugliest Dog in the world (WARNING: link is nsfgosm - not safe for granny or small children), and it involves an upcoming talk called Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts & RSS - what do they have to do with your future?
Darn. I was going to use that title (the talk one, not “World’s Ugliest Dog”)
Shut up.
tags: ugliestdog & ugliest & dog
London continues to welcome a stream of geek-beloved names. This Friday, 22nd July, Lee Wilkins has organised a special night with Jeremy Zawodny of Yahoo! [ sign up in the comments to Lee's post on geekdinner.co.uk ]
Lee sez: “Venue is the luxurious Bar Blanca, 3/4 Sherwood Street, London W1 [map]. We have hired out the whole bar! As with previous Geek Dinners [last 2] £20 will be payable on the door to cover cost of food.”
Jeremy’s here for the feverish geek excitement that is OpenTech 2005 which takes place on the following day.
Be there, or be quietly sniggered at in binary, hex and l33t.
tags: London Geek Dinner & London & Geek & Jeremy Zawodny & Yahoo! & OpenTech2005
London continues to welcome a stream of geek-beloved names. This Friday, 22nd July, Lee Wilkins has organised a special night with Jeremy Zawodny of Yahoo! [ sign up in the comments to Lee's post on geekdinner.co.uk ]
Lee sez: “Venue is the luxurious Bar Blanca, 3/4 Sherwood Street, London W1 [map]. We have hired out the whole bar! As with previous Geek Dinners [last 2] £20 will be payable on the door to cover cost of food.”
Jeremy’s here for the feverish geek excitement that is OpenTech 2005 which takes place on the following day.
Be there, or be quietly sniggered at in binary, hex and l33t.
tags: London Geek Dinner & London & Geek & Jeremy Zawodny & Yahoo! & OpenTech2005
Another blog-baby so cigars all round - I can’t take full responsibility for this one though, Noël clearly just needed a gentle push in the right direction.
So the production journal for Holy Ghost is up and running, and taking comments. The hope is that this will be a full company affair with contributions from as many people as possible. You’ll be glad to hear that there are RSS feeds both for entries and for comments. They know their RSS from their elbow down in the Carolinas, I can tell you.
Forget the blog for a minute and read the synopsis of the show:
“Set in Lowcountry South Carolina, this remarkable new play brings together a Nazi prisoner of war, American soldiers and Gullah sea islanders during World War II. Trustus Playwright-in-Residence Tuttle brings to life an incredibly relevant story. Be among the first to see a future American classic!”
Attendance at at least one performance is mandatory for all Perfect Path readers to the South and East of Nashville, though readers deep in the Florida panhandle may be excused under exceptional circumstances, such as a poorly leg, a bad cold or hurricane-induced homelessness. Residents of elsewhere in the United States are encouraged to holiday in Columbia, SC this year (right now, I hear it’s 100°F and 100% humidity… so goodness knows what it’ll be like in mid-August!)
While you’re waiting for the next instalment, you may marvel at the power of my mighty googlejuice whether using the British or the American spelling. Mwah hah!
Very glad that I’m not in Central London this morning.
At least one explosion confirmed so far on or near a bus outside the BMA in Tavistock Place (confused about whether it’s there or Russell Square). Reports of the double decker bus having the top ripped off.
Hearing about two other possible explosions on buses.
This together with explosions (the first reports that these were simply collisions or a power surge are fading away) at several points on the Underground . The entire network is closed.
A lot of people hurt.
Not a good day.
tags: london & explosions
For those of you who like your marketing mobile, check out Perfect Path Podcast favourite Helen Keegan’s new blog Musings of a Mobile Marketer - latest news? Orgasmatones - yes, I spelt that right - ooer missus, get over there and check it out.
Mild-mannered Stuart Reid does his best to improve public services by day, but he also has a passion for short films and film-making which he shares with us on UK Shorts.
Meanwhile, in the flickrsphere:
Ashley Sickler is one of my favourite new finds on flickr after I used her television picture to illustrate a post the other day. Good, clean, wholesome American teen-life. Subscribe to her feed to enjoy from the comfort of your aggregator.
Not quite new, but a kid at heart and worth a mention anytime, Neal the Podchef takes a break from photographing mouthwatering food to bring us some great pictures of 4th of July fireworks over the water from Lopez Island on his flickr photostream (RSS feed)
Alex Bellinger (he of the excellent SmallBizPod - small business podcast, inventor of simultaneous podcasting and owner of a hairy wotsit) has a new personal blog called Verbalism.
I think it’s personal in the sense that it’s not the smallbizpod business blog as I haven’t seen anything (yet) about Alex’s cat, crushes on his English teacher nor the size of his hairy wotsit, but it’s still early days.
Alex is a little worried that in the age of ubiquitous RSS you might not get to see verbalism in all it’s shiny clean newness, so I encourage you to go over there and prove him wrong by trampling all over his comments.
The Royal Television Society holds its biennial convention in Cambridge this September.
Charles Allen, CBE, Chair of the 2005 Convention says this in the invitation blurb:
“All of us in the TV industry, producers, broadcasters, are facing what has been described, rather painfully, as ‘Burning Platforms’. Add to that the very real threat of mass piracy about to hit us as it did the music industry and the challenge of delivering to advertisers the attention, rather than just the eyeballs, of a multi-tasking generation, and the issues of the future becomes frighteningly stark. Oh… and we’ve also got an irritating blue frog with airbrushed genitals to contend with!”
So they are coming together to answer these questions:
“How should we rise to the threats and the challenges of a world which is ‘Always On’? How do we ensure that we continue to enjoy in the next 10 years the wealth and depth, the quality and the invention of television that we have enjoyed in the last? And, as this is an issue that we all face, it’s vital that you are there to contribute to the discussion.”
Mmm… I think Charles may be thinking of a different ‘we’ than I am, but may I humbly offer some suggestions?
- I sense that your chirpy tone is like a small boy, whistling in the dark - that’s OK, this world can seem scary, but it needn’t be, if you approach us in a non-confrontational way, you will find us to be friendly and helpful. If you can’t do that, some of us will find it hard to resist biting you on the arse, the others will just leave you to wither. (Hint 1: start off by giving up the name-calling - don’t label anyone a pirate unless they choose to do so themselves. Hint 2: ‘Mass piracy’ implies everyone’s doing it - that’s the same ‘everyone’ that you usually call your ‘audience’ or the people who pay your wages.)
- Loosen up, open up and accept that you’re no longer alone in this room. Adopt these new tools and ways of working - they can benefit you too!
- TV is dead, because broadcasting is dead. Not broadcasting as an industry (yet) but broadcasting as an organising principle for communication and for wider society. Get Dave Winer to speak on this and the death of monoculture. For a taster, listen to Morning Coffee Notes for May 12th especially the last 7 minutes.
- Get Paula Le Dieu to speak on the Creative Archive and Creative Commons and how they can be your friends.
- Blog, Vlog and Podcast this as if your life depended upon it - start immediately and you could generate enormous buzz about this.
- Start a wiki to help get other people working on this with you and to create a record of the event.
- Hire at least two vloggers and podcasters to cover the convention week (ie last-minute preparation through to closing) and produce a take-away DVD.
- Create a video of the opening session/dinner, post it, blog about it, get others to do so too. Use flickr, technorati and del.icio.us to pull everything together using tags. (hey I made one up for you below!)
- Encourage, sponsor, do (whatever!) the organisation of two alternat