Thoughts and ideas of a dyslexic designer/developer
You got to hand it to Novell, they are quick off the mark. Rather that trying to fight Wave they have embraced it (something I suggested big collaboration corps should do). Novell have a nice clean enterprise product/service called Pulse, which looks and feels like a very cleaned up Wave system. But here's the kicker, it interoperates with the Wave protocol. smooth move Novell and I'll certainly keep an eye on Pulse for our future plans.
Novell Pulse Demo from ReadWriteWeb on Vimeo.
And believe it or not there are a few tickets left over still….
We are all working flat out to get everything not only ready for BarCampManchester2 but to make it special for everyone involved. Not only do we have 2 days and 1 night of unconference enjoyment but there's also going to be some evening entertainment which will blow your socks off. This year having the host being Contact, we're also going to have a lot of new people and new ideas injected into the event, if you think you know BarCamp think again. I hope to see you there…bright and sharp on Saturday morning 9am.
Found via VickyJo – Can you even imagine what would have happened if BBC Backstage ran a hackday/mashed or any kind of event involving poll dancers and strippers? Oh my goodness can you imagine the newspaper headlines, Eric Huggers apologizing to Mark Thompson, Mark Thompson apologizing to the Trust and the public. And of course I'd be fired and seeking employment elsewhere, maybe Yahoo would be the place to go. I know the culture is very different in Taiwan but as a global brand you've got to think about the reaction.
Seems Tuesday 20th October things have blown up. Not only have the videos been removed or made private but also there's a number of twitters talk about it and blog posts including from Cristano Betta and Simon Willison.
Yahoo finally feeling the pressure, tweeted. Hack Girls from Y!'s Taiwan event don't reflect our values. Was inappropriate, we regret offending anyone. We'll ensure won't happen again.
Thats how I generally feel about a lot of things. Microblogging included. Slate have a post (found via @tdobson via @technicalfault about the recent Twitter outage, which I've not really talked about too much yet.
Twitter is run by a single company in a single office building in San Francisco. When you send out a message, it flies about Twitter's servers and then alights in all your Twitter pals' cell phones and Tweetdecks. The system is fast and technologically simple, which helps explain its exponential growth.
But for Twitter, centralization is also a curse. In its early days, the site was known for its regular brokenness—its error-page logo, the “fail whale,” became a cultural shorthand for suckiness. Twitter went down so often because the idea behind Twitter—sending out short status updates to the world—became too popular for one company to handle.
I know Twitter's strategy is to connect everyone, but I don't see it. The big systems are interconnected with interoperable standards and work although on paper they wouldn't. Email, Newsgroups and the internet generally are good examples. All too important for one company to rule.
The rest of the post switches into looking towards alternatives. On one foot you got the open microblogging platforms such as Laconi.ca and Jaiku Engine. But then on the other you got the RSS extensions such as RSS Cloud and Google's new pubsubhubbub. Both approaches are valid and I can see room for both. I'd like to see pubsubhubbub in my desktop reader one day soon.
ESPN Tells Employees They Can Only Tweet About ESPN, as reported by Mashable. Shocking stuff I would say. Telling your employees that they must talk about only your business is bad news. It feels unhuman. I'm so happy that the BBC are more forward looking than this. Here's some cluetain's which seem to fit.
36. Companies must ask themselves where their corporate cultures end.
38. Human communities are based on discourse—on human speech about human concerns.
55. As policy, these notions are poisonous. As tools, they are broken. Command and control are met with hostility by intranetworked knowledge workers and generate distrust in internetworked markets.
57. Smart companies will get out of the way and help the inevitable to happen sooner.
There has been some talk about BarCampManchester2 on the geekup mailing list and other corners of the internet. So I got a email from a couple of people who will remain name less for now because I've not asked if they want there names on this post and I wrote a long winded email back. This is the email with a few bits cut out for obvious reasons.
Ok so from my point of view, I'll just lay it out so you guys know where I'm coming from.
Right so I'm looking into a Manchester Barcamp. I had *************** almost sorted but they wouldn't go for the overnight part (more about this soon).
I also secured the *********** conference centre but its going to cost about 3-5k to run it. On the up side the venue is perfect, allows for overnight, can handle almost 300 people if needed, has a late running bar and is 5mins from Piccadilly station and Oxford Road.
I mentioned to the London BarCamp guys about the venue and we are considering a special BarCampGB using this venue, but its unlikely this year.
I'm also in the process of talking to the ************** who have hosted ************** in the past. I will meet them and we will discuss the details.
BBC hosting a barcamp, yes that could be possible/actually too easy but I'm talking to BBC Workforce about doing a overnight event one day soon. I don't really want to derail that if possible because I feel its important that we set things up for Media City. Beebcamp3 is also going ahead for sometime this year.
I also had leads for overnight venues in Huddersfield and Newcastle.
Right so after all that, the overnight thing. And don't take any of this the wrong way, I'm just telling you whats on my mind.
The North West has been deprived of a full barcamp and because of that, people are saying they love the one or two day events. Fine, but it would be a crying/terrible shame if for the next few years it carried on that way simply because its very difficult securing a venue for a overnight. And it won't get any easier. So I'm not going to lecture you guys on the overnight thing, because that would be disrespectful of everything you guys have done and tried. And I really do think you guys have done a great job.
Alistair who did BarCampNorthEast, worked hard and got a great venue in a art centre. It wasn't perfect but actually for the 35 people who stayed it was a good barcamp. If there was more people, it would have been fantastic. Its also worth noting Alistair and that duck of his, secured the overnight venue by himself, they also almost secured a 2nd overnight venue next to Newcastle train station this year. Alistair has proven it can be done. Reason why not many people turn up is another problem which is off topic.
If we/me/who ever can pull one off, that would be fantastic. Manchester deserves a overnight barcamp in my mind. Its special, something totally different. The experience is very different, just ask Dom. It also attracts more people and gets more attention. Not everyone likes them but not having one worries me. To be slightly frank, 2 day events are getting very common. I'd rather give up my spare time for a overnight that 2 day. One thing I've learned since I've been here is the north has a great bunch of communities and there really strong. Look at whats happened with TEDxNorth! While London is still trying to sort out the venue and stuff, the north has clubbed together and straighten out dates, venues and promoted each other in the way that it should be (thanks Herb). There's some great people who we all know and honestly if we all tackle the problem of the overnight venue, we actually will do it.
So from my point of view, I'm honestly happy with you guys going ahead, hell I can even put you in contact ************************* about a venue. My calendar is pretty full with stuff like TEDx, Beebcamp and other stuff but I can easily help with a 2 day barcamp. I also don't want people to think I'm being selfish holding out for a overnight barcamp. But I'd like to echo I think Manchester deserves a overnight barcamp, people may disagree but thats fine, I encourage them to run a barcamp in there own vision.
I didn't know Thinking Digital had put out a video of the Next Generation event which I had the joy of speaking at. Enjoy.
Warning this post is mainly insider baseball politics, aka its not of much interest to most people, just those involved and those who are interested in the movement of BarCamp.
So I asked Emma Persky what she thought after the whole thing had finished as few moments ago. She said, she's not made up her mind. And you know what she's right. I can't quite make my mind up about BarCampSheffield either. For a lot of people reading this, they maybe thinking a barcamp is a barcamp what is all this about. Well running up to the event, there has been a lively discussion surround BarCampSheffield. The event was officially named UnSheffield and the barcamp part dropped, but it kept the barcamp fireball logo. Jag Gill one of the organisers of the Sheffield event had this to say about the change.
BarCamp Sheffield has evolved to Unsheffield. We’re taking the technology unconference format to a broader public. We pushed some of the boundaries of BarCamps last year, and we’re continuing to do so this year under our new name, which is intended to reflect its broader content, format and appeal.
The principles of participant-generated content still remain at the heart of the event, and we’re encouraging a strong focus around the event theme – Future Users of Cool Technology. Integral with the unconference will be public workshops that create a bridge between local and regional talent and the international event and its contributors.
At the GeekUp Sheffield birthday party we laid out some of the plans for this year’s flagship grassroots digital event. In keeping with the Future Users theme, we’re looking for public spaces to extend the unconference to public workshops and symposia, thereby spreading the joy of techs to non-geeks in the city and region.
Emma Persky picked up on this and pointed out, and have to say quite rightly that BarCamp isn't exclusively about technology. And wrote this quite sting reply on her blog.
I’m fed up of people perpetuating the myth that BarCamps are just for techies. Seriously fed up. Yes, there are a bunch of technical folk who attend these events, and yes they may be the majority, but that majority is not large. Out of all of the many BarCamps I have ever been to I have rarely been to a “technical” talk, and only myself given one that was in any way technical (that was demonstrating my dissertation project and was seriously cool).
By segregating “geeks, hackers and core techies” from regular people you are only diving apart the community of people who desire to “share and learn in an open environment.” And yes, we are one community, with members from all sorts of backgrounds. Our community is defined by our desire to share and learn, and not by the types of activities we do (hack, paint, fish, etc.). Anyone, from any walk of life, any background, and profession and or any experience level should be comfortable being a member of this community.
Emma is right, but the way she says it alienates people. On Saturday there was a point when there felt to be a standoff betwen Emma and others. This doesn't help anyone let alone those caught up in the debate as such. Alistar tried to defend some of the positions of the Sheffield crew, but it was no real use because Emma was after all, right.
So how did it pan out? Well I didn't make Friday night or the Saturday welcome talk. But everything I experienced was exactly like a barcamp with noteworthy exception. One of those exceptions was the end talk/Inspired Ideas Surgery. Everyone was gently pushed into attending this session at the end of Sunday. The session was a chance for a few voted for ideas to be put forward in front of a small panel. To me this felt a little forced and to be honest by 5pm on a Sunday I had just wanted to have a couple of drinks and chat with people. Instead I started falling a sleep in the warm room. Emma also pointed out that some of the panelist were sponsors. Talking about giving sponsors room, Evernote were giving time on a Saturday to “show us” Evernote. What was funny was that, it wasn't actually Evernote, instead it was some company which works with Evernote and frankly, I knew about more about Evernote that they did.
At this point I want to stop and say, the event was enjoyable and I want to give the guys a huge amount of respect for what they have worked on and achieved. I never went to the previous barcamps in Sheffield but have to say, last weekend for me was a better described as a festival. Imran Ali created the Leeds Web Festival which included in the middle of it BarCampLeeds. This made sense, he didn't mess with BarCamp, just put it in the middle of a range of events. No one battered an eyelid. However Sheffield decided to follow suit and build/extend/evolve BarCamp which caused all the comments and high feelings. Imran's approach is better thought out and celebrates each event as a part and whole of the bigger picture. From a sponsorship/support point of view, he's also put together something which is easy to understand, follow and ultimately sponsor/support. While to support something like Unsheffield would be a hard sell. Theres a lot of value in the BarCamp brand and its a event which the BBC has supported across the UK including recently BarCampLondon6, BarCampNorthEast2, BarCampLiverpool, etc. If someone pitched UnSheffield to me, I would say its too confusing and ultimately would not benefit from any sponsorship because its a confusing message to back. Now to be fair they did secure a lot of sponsorship elsewhere, which is great but I'm just saying from my perspective looking at everything.
So ultimately I did have a good time and I wish the guys luck in there next event. Team work alone was excellent, the venue was ok if a little noisy sometimes. Food and drink was all good (cooked breakfast on Sunday morning, was lovely even if I did miss the eggs). The turn out on Saturday seemed to be quite large and diverse while Sunday was quieter there still seemed to be about 40+ people floating around. Saturday was closer to 80-90, so I've heard. The sessions were as you'd expect at a barcamp, varied and some better that others. I gave two talks of my own, one about social engineering a nd scamming, the other was titled the state of the nation, and involved a talk about the digital britain report and how to it enable it ourselves. The comments and discussion are not meant to be some kind of attack, instead I would like to help with the next one.
The Spinningfields district of Manchester is to become a destination for film buffs and sports fans alike, thanks to a new open air cinema.
Spinningfields is right between the city centre and the start of salford, its a great little area with some fantastic places to live and rent. This news about the outdoor cinema is good news, specially with it only being 10-15mins walk from my own flat. The choice of films is so so, but also the proms and there's sports. What surprises me is that the popular castlefield area didn't do the same. There's actually a amphitheatre there already, so rigging up a massive screen would have been easy as pie.
Recently there's been talk about what events BBC Backstage and myself have done in the North. For all the talk, I have not run a Manchester BarCamp and from a business point of view, I've not run anything like mashed or hackday. Instead we've been waiting and watching, I would say becoming a good citizen and looking where it makes sense to get involved. The BBC Manchester building on Oxford Road isn't ideal for large events unless we use a studio, so I thought. Since the Ubuntu 9.04 launch party which crammed about 80 people into our BBC Bar, I've been thinking about the ability to maybe support some kinds of camp events.
DrupalCampManchester was discussed ages ago and Dan did a great job putting the whole thing together. Being the host, I just stepped in when needed but generally I spent the weekend writing Java/XSL. Everything went well and a special thanks to Herm and Derek for there help from a BBC point of view. The only complaint we had was the heat which is currently broken. But generally there were about 80 smiling faces at the peak but even on Sunday the numbers didn't drop far below 50. Its certain the drupal uk community is certainly a lot tighter since this event.
From a BBC point of view, the event was relatively simple and cheap to host. The biggest cost is actually peoples time to help out. Having someone else also run the event took most of the management out of it. So whats next? TED-X Manchester seems to be next but the dates are TBA. Currently we're masterminding the idea of a Friday afternoon with a suitable event to follow it into the night.
So upfront, I'm reviewing this book after it was sent to me from O'reilly. However this is my honest opinion of the book.
The book has been talked about elsewhere quite a bit, so I came with a but of scepticism when reading the book. However I'm pleasantly surprised. The first part of the quite thick book is all about twitter as a idea and service. Even before you sign up you can get a feel for what its all about and what the etiquettes are. Actually the book does a very good job laying out the ground work of the culture around microblogging.
It could get very hippy or meta and how great this all is, but the book doesn't it actually goes into how to track trends, topics and generally use twitter as a service like google. For example theres a page called “Figure out who's influential on Twitter.” I actually decided to add myself to We Follow after reading it. Just when you had enough about whos top of the list we're back into the more meta stuff about how to have a great conversation. Lots of tips taken from places like the Cluetrain but served up in the notion of twitter. There's lot of useful stuff even for tweeters like myself who have been at it for years. For example I had no idea about the spam twitter user Lots of this stuff has come in over the last few years and totally bypass us old skool users. Again there's a few section for those wanting to use twitter for marketing and publishing. And again there's a more human section with advice about reveling yourself and how to retweet.
The pages of information are chunked up nicely and you can quickly skim read the pages you know and get a bit more depth out of the ones you don't. Every other page is a related large picture, which adds to the enjoyment of reading through this book. The only real negative thing I can see about this book is the price. It really quite high at about 14-16 pounds. Amazon actually have it for about 10 pounds. which is much more reasonable.
This book has everything in it and certainly earns the title of the twitter book, but the best thing about the book is the balance between those who want to use twitter to communicate and particpate, and those who want to leverage it for there own means. Excellent work O'reilly.
I checked out the online documentary H*Commerce, after hearing about it on Hak.5 . Its in pieces, so you can only see part one and trailers for parts 1 and 2. Its all flash which is painful because I really wanted to watch it on my TV and didn't want to go through the trouble of extracting flash files. The content its self is pretty engaging although very short and punchy. I enjoyed the subject matter and look forward to the next lot of parts. Shame updates are only via email and not via rss or even twitter.
I certainly feel strongly about this area, education about protecting yourself is low in this area. People are being scammed left, right and centre with all types of attacks and the awareness is low. Hopefully things like this will help, even if its sponsored almost to death by McAfee.
Been thinking about changing my identity a lot recently and even got talking with FactoryJoe I mean Chris Messina about this at Next09. The video sums up the debate pretty well, but I still can't decide if I should use ianforrester instead of cubicgarden.
As Facebook continues dragging the world online using their real names and photos, Chris Messina, David Recordon and John McCrea grab a few minutes to chat with Josh Elman (Facebook) and Kaliya Hamlin (Identity Woman) out on Lake Austin about their philosophical differences when it comes to using your real name versus a pseudonym on the social web.
I like what Stowe's proposing here. I specially like the fact I can now say I'm in /Manchester UK/, which should make pin pointing me much easier that just /Manchester/ alone. It also means you can be more descriptive if there the system or application supports it, such as /Bar TV21 on corner of the northern quarter, Manchester/. This certainly beats L:Manchester.
So the guys from Next09 have released all the video from the event 2 weeks ago. The video includes some really good sessions but also me on stage trying to show and talk about R&DTV on someone's Macbook. Thankfully they cut the first 15mins of me trying to get my laptop working after they screwed around with the display. Yes feel the pain, like scratching your nails down a blackboard.