Month: February 2015

Imagine if media could scale?

Variable Length Documentary

People always ask what I do at work or the BBC. I generally and quite flippantly say build the future. It may seem like a bit of a joke but theres quite a lot of truth to it too. One such area of research is around the future of media and storytelling.

I decided with colleagues after the perceptive radio,  the radio needed content of its own. This lead to the idea of a variable length documentary which was first showed at Sheffield Doc Fest, which would scale based on a number. That number could be time, movement, attention, or something else.

Responsive Radio is a new experimental way to make radio content more personalised, relevant and flexible. Responsive radio creates the story you want at the length you’ve time for. And this is just the start of a broadcasting revolution.

Imagine if Serial or any podcast could scale to fit your journey to work? Thats the level of personalisation were talking about here. Non creepy, and actually useful.

The responsive radio (as it became) morphed into a much bigger project and finally you can go experience it for yourselves at BBC Taster. http://www.bbc.co.uk/taster/projects/responsive-radio

Automated your tindering

Tinderbox dashboard

This has got to be one of the most creepiest (and slightly impressive) things (I seen a lot of stuff, but nothing recently) I’ve seen recently in online dating news… Cheers Dave for the heads up on this project which is also available under a very free and easy licence on Github…

While my friends were getting sucked into “swiping” all day on their phones with Tinder, I eventually got fed up and designed a piece of software that automates everything on Tinder.

Dubbed “Tinderbox”, the first version only took 3 weeks to build. It uses an existing Tinder account and taps into Tinder APIs, which is nice so you don’t have to create an entirely new account. Tinderbox recreates the Tinder app in your browser, including the inbox and discovery preferences. The workflow is simple:

  • The built-in bot builds facial models using your likes/dislike

  • Bot examines profile images, cropping faces

  • Faces are loaded into an “average” face representing choices

  • Eigenfaces are computed from average faces

  • Bot then makes future selections based on Eigenface comparison

  • Comparisons are essentially k-nearest neighbor selection

Yes its a Tinder bot which starts conversations with people based on profile pictures… I’m glad I’m off Tinder. But the author also had this to add.

What do girls think of the bot? I’ve gone on at least 10 dates with the help of the bot and I’ve shown my partners the bot in its entirety. One date literally didn’t believe me and thought I was pulling her leg. Another person thought it was really cool and wanted the full tour. All were in agreement that it is not creepy, though some felt it was borderline.

Enough said really? This has got to be on this weeks Lovegrumps!

Its Pebble time…?

I do enjoy my pebble smartwatch. Just recently it starting supporting Android wear notifications and replies, making it much closer to the other smart watches you can buy on the market but still with 7 day battery life and a readable screen in bright sunlight.

But even with that, I was thinking it would be great if they just included a microphone, so you could reply instead of using prewritten messages or emoticons. Well its almost like they heard me and not only added a microphone but also a 64 colour epaper display in their new kickstarter project, Pebble time…

I’ll be interested to see the timeline interface in daily life too.

Loving man seeking woman

Man seeking woman

There is a new TV series on FX man seeking woman.

Man Seeking Woman is an American television comedy series that premiered on January 14, 2015, on FXX. The series is based on a book of short stories, The Last Girlfriend on Earth, by Simon Rich, who is also the series creator, executive producer, and showrunner.

Its worth watching as its got such great pieces throughout. For example when our unlikely hero is finally in a relationship, he is tempted back into singleton by alien women from the planet of sex. Then later, his friend gives him a tour of his future while he’s dressed in prison clothes. They go for a ride prison ride into suburbia, where they witness a man bbqing big flat mushrooms instead of meat.

Its all fun  and games and worth watching…

The walls eyes up a design award

BBCRD up for a design award

So happy for Libby, Andrew and Jasmine who worked on the Walls have eyes exhibition within the ethical dilemma cafe at Mozilla Fest last year. Its been a bit of a secret but now its been announced along with the other digital entries.

Mozfest 2014

Knock them over guys! It was a great idea and the images were so great. So happy to have given you guys the space to run it and frankly make us think about the ethics of our personal data some more.

Interestingly while thinking about the ethics of personal data, Doc Searls and David Weinburger recently kindly took time out of their busy schedule to talk about the Cluetrain and NewClues at Commonground. Doc said something which got people going a little…

..what seems to have struck the Chord of Controversy was something I blabbed: “Tracking-based advertising is creepy and wrong… and needs to be wiped out.” Martin Bryant (@MartinSFP)tweeted a video clip and a series of other tweets followed.

Being tracked around spaces is something we did within the ethical dilemma cafe and its a mistake to think others are not doing this already.

The dilemma is what are you going to do? And I’d love to see a proper public debate about this all. Maybe this could be arranged following some of the work I’m about to release…

 

50 shades of an opportunity wasted?

Saines lectures dans le métro aussi ;-) #qml #ligne6 #50shades #50s #50nuances

Girl with a one track mind, reviews the 50 shades of grey film, so we all don’t have to watch it…

It is not acceptable for a man to stalk a woman, harass her, and to drive a wedge between her and her friends and family. Showering a woman with expensive gifts does not make it okay that a man can break in, then hide in her home waiting for her. Emotionally manipulating, then harassing, a woman to agree to a man’s relationship terms (or have no relationship at all) is not, in any sense, alright. All good relationships are built on respect, trust and consent and this one contains none of that. Grey’s abusive behaviour is excused, because he is “a dominant”, as if enjoying a sexual kink removes the need for a man to be a decent person too.

As I imagined, its a male power film with elements of BDSM thrown in to convince/sidetrack people in to thinking its ok to be a total dick, because the female is calling the shots in his playroom.

No its not ok… Its creepy, manipulative, bullying and just not on, now or ever…

Like Zoe I was hoping for something a little different from this film. I haven’t read the books but heard so much that I feel like I know the text. Not necessarily because its a female writer and director but because it 2015 and I hoped friends would say how good and surprising it is. Heck a clever twist, on the story would have been great. But the opportunity was utterly wasted…!

…as I want to applaud a movie written and directed by women, I can’t condone one which idealises male power and emotional abuse as something seductive and sexy. They’re not. With the kinky-sex as a saucy distraction, the central message of this film – that it’s okay for men to control and manipulate women – remains unquestioned, and that’s not just bad, it’s dangerous.

Stop following stupid dating steps, get some advice

https://twitter.com/MancNewgirl/status/560711024543014913

Ah Valentines day, the day when us singletons are meant to feel crap about the fact we are alone and unloved? Bollox, I feel great and to be honest it feels like any other day, except I imagine most restaurants will be overpriced and booked up? Brunch in Pimlico, London wasn’t… (I even said to a female friend I would love to meet up for brunch while I was down in London, forgetting it was valentines day, thats how much I care about the moneymaking day)

And its the whole, how you should be living you’re life which slightly winds me up, just like the follow my steps and this will work for you.

Just like a while ago somebody (sure it was Mancnewgirl) sent me this from the New York times. How to fall in love with anyone.

More than 20 years ago, the psychologist Arthur Aron succeeded in making two strangers fall in love in his laboratory. Last summer, I applied his technique in my own life, which is how I found myself standing on a bridge at midnight, staring into a man’s eyes for exactly four minutes.

I already had enough problems with most of the 36 questions and the setup…  For example.

6. If you were able to live to the age of 90 and retain either the mind or body of a 30-year-old for the last 60 years of your life, which would you want?

What? Seriously when would you bring that up? Why would you bring that up? What would you ultimately learn from it which isn’t a binary state?

Now I admit some of them are pretty good and I have been known to ask at speed dating, of my own mind (I knew nothing of the 36 questions)

30. When did you last cry in front of another person? By yourself?

Which I ask as… Tell me the last time you cried?

The problem with most of these is the context and the answers will sometimes be almost useless. If it was more about picking and choosing from a few of these questions or a general guide it wouldn’t be so bad. Frankly besides the science (yeah I can’t believe I said that too, but bear with me) its not exactly much more than another buzzfeed list, which funny enough got the force of the community against it.

Just like the buzzfeedy list… there was always going to be trouble around the corner.

I had enough of this frankly bollox advice things… The problem seems to exist not because the science is wrong, although I could argue they are trying to quantify the unquantifiable. Nope its taking the science and then trying to boil it down to a easy to digest list for us common folk to follow. F-that! and F-them for doing the science a great injustice!

If you start the experiment with …

Let me acknowledge the ways our experiment already fails to line up with the study. First, we were in a bar, not a lab. Second, we weren’t strangers. Not only that, but I see now that one neither suggests nor agrees to try an experiment designed to create romantic love if one isn’t open to this happening.

Then whats the bloody point? You might as well just pick and choose the questions, modify some and do you’re own thing. Yes I understand it doesn’t sell adverts/papers but frankly I get sick of these pre-subscribed nonsense. Say this and you will get this, if this then that, because humans are well known for acting exactly the same to the same input.

Its worth saying I’m not against advice but there is a big difference between

4. Keep it fresh – Avoid the Yes/No game with light-hearted open questions. Chat matters know “who, what and how” yield greater results than “me, myself and I” But tread lightly, nobody wants a grilling.
– All bar one’s guide to flirting from Flirtology

and ask this question:

13. If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about yourself, your life, the future or anything else, what would you want to know?

Generic pointers are far more useful when dealing with the unquantifiable. Directed or rather specific advice will get you specific results and only work in specific conditions. Unless you can recreate the whole experiment then why even bring it up? Plus if you go back to the start, don’t tell me exactly what to do! That is no way to live life, feel the joy and energy of life in the opportunities which arise out of mistakes and being adventurous.

Would you watch me date?

Dates in the past, have said I’m a very good dater, maybe because I like to ask a lot of questions and tend to spin from one thing to another quite naturally. Something to do with my dyslexia I think, or I’m just good at cocktail parties?

But would you want to ever see me date? I thought about this with channel4’s first dates programme, but didn’t get picked…

However recently Simon Lumb pointed me at the guardian’s watch me date…

Each week, we’ve chosen two different people, given them two pairs of Google Glass and packed them off on a date (there is usually a lot of alcohol involved too). Filming begins the minute they meet, and that off-button is only pressed once they’ve said goodbye. The results? You’re right there with them, on these awkward, often funny and sometimes even romantic first dates.

I heard about it via my collection of dating feeds but hadn’t checked it out till now.

The results are not too bad, I think there reasonable and quite interesting for 5mins of web video.

Would I sign up for it? Unlikely, although part of me is wondering if I should just give it ago. However this type of thing is what got me on the year of making love and how to have more sex… Harsh lessons to remember.

Quantified relationships?

https://twitter.com/TonyChurnside/status/565482176566001664

Tony asks my view on pplkpr.

pplkpr is an app that tracks, analyzes, and auto-manages your relationships. Using a smartwatch, pplkpr monitors your physical and emotional response to the people around you, and optimizes your social life accordingly.

Its a interesting project/art project. I don’t think it would work so well but I seen it all before in QSEU13 with Fabio who records every single person he talks to.

Well at least its not a complete system, it works with other wearable devices.

pplkpr has been extensively tested with the Mio wristband, but any Bluetooth LE (also called Bluetooth Smart or Bluetooth 4.0) device that transmits heart rate in real time will work. This includes the Polar H7 chest band and the Zephyr HxM.

The internet is the singularity?

It was something David and Doc said on Twit’s Trianglation #186.

David compared the internet to the transformation of language. Doc added the internet renders distance to zero, which is pretty amazing to think about when looking at the cluetrain rules especially my favourite one – Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy. This is only possible because of the internet era.

This got me thinking, if the internet is as transformational as language, and there’s thought that language could be one of the first singularities. Then that would make the internet the singularity?

This raises a ton of observations I and others have wondered about.

  • What technologies are likely to cause the next singularity?
  • When will the next singularity happen?

and my own…

  • Will we know, we are experiencing a singularity as we are in one? (getting meta about the singularity). Maybe the internet is the singularity and things like the cluetrain is actually carving out the new rules?

Luckily, Doc and David will be talking to us via the singularity in Manchester for the Commonground launch event. You can still get tickets. How’s that for a launch event? We are forever thankful they agreed to take part.

'The Singularity is Near'...very

Talking of singularities…

Ray Kurzweil and others have been talking about how they would like to see stricter controls on artificial intelligence, assuming the singularity is closer than we think.

Ray Kurzweil, director of engineering at Google, has estimated that robots will reach human levels of intelligence by 2029, purportedly leaving us about 14 years to reign supreme.

Of course theres always the other view, from the rich and educated.

Now I wonder what happened to the energy singularity?

Android App inventor 2 tempting me away from Webstandards

A long time ago , I blogged about Google’s App inventor. then  noticed Google gave it away to MIT who redeveloped it into something more usable. Recently App inventor has been upgraded to version 2 and it has some niffy features, including a live view which shows you the working app on a connected phone.

I’ve have been thinking about creating little apps for personal reason, for example a Tokyo maps app which doesn’t show ads. Its the little things. But something keeps me thinking about using the web standards and instead building a webapp.

I almost added to my new years resolutions…

Develop a webapp which runs on the Mozilla Firefox phone and takes advantage of Ubuntu’s webapp features.

I was slightly inspired by Bristlr not going the standard app way. I was a little deflated by the way Android didn’t have a way to launch straight into the webapp (except as a bookmark it seems).

I prefer to work directly with open webstandards but App inventor is very tempting… Now if I could create webapps using app inventor…

People who are afraid of death are scared of life

Hector and the Search for Happiness

Disillusioned with the tedium of his existence, psychiatrist Hector (Simon Pegg) confesses to his girlfriend (Rosamund Pike) that he feels he is a fraud for dispensing recommendations to patients who never seem to improve or get any happier. He considers breaking out of his lackluster routine. Summoning up some courage, Hector gives his starved curiosity free rein and embarks on an international quest to find the right formula to bring him joy and vitality

Like About time, this film has a really good film with a core message.

People who are afraid of death are scared of life

With that message in mind, I’ll be experiencing the joys of Japan and hopefully avoiding death.

BBC Backstage needed to close, for BBC Taster to happen

BBC Tatser front page

It is my opinion. BBC Taster could not happen if BBC Backstage was still running.

A long time ago there was BBC Backstage, it was great and did a lot for the BBC and the licence payers who didn’t quite fit in the SME/Company bracket but were also not just consumers of the BBC’s output. I would suggest they were the 9% (I don’t think this figure is correct but go with it as it fits the 1% theory) which the BBC had a harder time understanding.

BBC Backstage was a great success and lasted 5 years achieving some incredible things including the first UK hackday. It changed the relationship with the tech & media-savy 9%, who frankly had enough of being treated mere audience members.

But it had to end, for good reasons as explained in my blog about why I shutdown BBC Backstage.The BBC Connected Studio and the newly launched creative playground BBC Taster. Would have been a very different proposition if BBC Backstage was still around. It would also been an injustice to the changing and diverse 9%.

I said in a previous blog…

Things need to end (such as BBC Backstage, Innovation Labs, etc) for others to spark, grow and mature like BBC Connected Studio.

Well you can add BBC Taster to that list of others to spark, grow and mature… I know its not every-bodies cup of tea but change never is, but give it some time.

“Times change, people change, situations change, relationships change… the only thing constant is change.”

What happened to Ubuntu Unity across all devices?

Ubuntu devices

Interesting to think about while watching the Microsoft Windows 10 launch… What even happened to the Ubuntu on Android?

Update: A number of friends commented on my blog entry.

Jas finds an engadget entry talking about how the launch will be limited to Europe and the East.

https://twitter.com/Jas/status/563777195114770432

Light!

Light Trailer from Theatre Ad Infinitum on Vimeo.

LIGHT

Inspired by Edward Snowden’s revelations and the ensuing debate on state surveillance, Theatre Ad Infinitum conjures an Orwellian future where a totalitarian regime monitors the thoughts of its citizens through implants.

I just experienced Light at the Lowry Theatre and I was blown away. Its all experienced in the darkness of no light and the setup is incredible, especially with only 5 people! The story is interesting but its the amazingly smart setups using light and dark which steal the show.

If you get a chance to see it, go experience it! You will love it..