primeconf – Cubicgarden.com…

Dating in the 90’s vs Now, which do you prefer?

Tim continues his run of good quality links on twitter. This time something from Buzzfeed Yellow Youtube channel.

Dating in the 90’s verses now… is a witty look nostalgic trip back to dating in the 90’s (loving the drink reversal btw) Something I see a throw back to in many dating apps. I hear everyday from certain friends, I just want to meet someone like the old days… Well this is a reminder of what it really was like.

I’m not saying things are better now, just different. As I said in my Primeconf talk, the geeks won but it was a pyrrhic victory (not peridoc victory as I thought it was spelled in my talk). People have been left alienated and hurt by the way things have changed. I’m unsure if people will get over it or it will swing back the other way?

Fascinating reading the comments on youtube following the video.

Gareth Ferguson writes…

Virtual dating is for cowards. Nothing says success like meeting a girl somewhere in public, flirt for a lil bit, and get the number. There is no mystery, what you see is what you get. When using the Internet, its common for fat chicks to use old pictures of themselves so they can give the illusion that this is who you are talking with. Where is the confidence in that? Then you get persons who seem to be so interesting online til you meet them in person and its like BORING!!! Give me a real date than a virtual date any day

As you can imagine that caused a massive load of comments… but there are some interesting ones mixed in.

atomic jacob replied with…

it has nothing to do about not having courage, its infact the opposite. women need to stop taking the role of submissive and have the courage or balls go out and get what they want. i admire women who have that sort of courage, and that doesnt make me weak or lacking balls(i liked that term lol)

On balance, I prefer to float between both ways. There is a feeling that a nostalgic look back is waste of time really? And ever so easy, maybe this part of growing old? Sorry things are the way they are, learn to adapt… Change is the only constant.

The fight over dating will rage on, and anyone who manages to get the balance right will make a killing, specially if they don’t manipulate users too…

Dating, lies and algorithms the primeconf talk

The short talk I did for Primeconf is now live like most of the talks on the site. I blogged about the conference here already but its funny looking at the talk from a audience point of view. Not only because there is a 3min section which is dropped in to cover some technical problem, but also because I now notice the lack of smooth transitions between sections. Putting in the books as reference was somewhat missed too, which is a shame.

I didn’t know I was running over, as the mac timer said 6:50 mins when I finished. I certainly wouldn’t have elaborated on certain areas if I knew the time. Its always best to have a countdown clock somewhere very visible for speakers. Must remember to never trust a mac with keynote…¿

So as a whole and based on the fact it is a subset of a much deeper talk. Its not bad. It would be good to explore in more detail some of the sections and bring in some of the video evidence I have. But alas that’s for another day maybe…

Thanks again to Thayer and the prime team for the invite, the amazing venue and recording the talk. The other talks are well worth watching.

2 conferences in 1 week (Sheffield Doc Fest & Primeconf)

This week just passed and I got to say it wasn’t half as bad as it seemed on paper or at least my calendar.

Sheffield documentary festival

I headed across to Sheffield on Sunday to give a talk with Tony Churnside at the Sheffield international documentary festival about Perceptive Media. It very went well and I kind of wished I stayed over so I could keep some of the conversations going and there was plenty else going on which I wanted to check out.

The festival seems to take over the whole city and the weather was great on the Sunday and Wednesday. Wednesday I didn’t talk but rather supported some collages who showed an early preview of the variable length documentary.

Next year I hope we will have a lot more to show, and next year I hope to spend more time at the rest of the festival.

Best of British / Primeconf

This conference which started out on kickstarter and became a real conference arranged by long time friend Thayer Prime. It was a bit of a crazy idea but the result was something worthwhile and maybe the start of something new and interesting.

The speakers were as you can imagine by the title, British speakers.

It really was something special, and it was a joy to be a small part of the whole event.

I gave a shorter version of the dating, lies and algorithms talk I have been wanting to give. So look out it may be back sooner or later as a more involved talk. It went down well although I certainly did take out all the personal stuff and non PG-13 stuff to fit with the code of conduct. Something which sadly later in the day seemed to have got forgotten, with swearing and a questionable slide.

Regardless, I learned a number of things including Priya is behind changify.org (something which we tried to do ages ago in the form of wedreamthecity) and could be helpful with gentrification and communities. Some other stand out presentations include Pete Duncanson, Chris Thorpe, Herb Kim, Dr Tom Crick, Amy Mather and a special mention of Mazz Mosley’s super low budget style of presentation. Love it! Good to finally meet her too.

Is Thayer going to do it again? I certainly think she should… I’m actually thinking Herb and Thayer could create something which is special? The venue was great (Royal Institution, yes the one they do the Royal Christmas lectures from!) and a good turn out.

Both events were well worth effort of attending and speaking at… For such a packed week going to London twice and Sheffield twice, I actually feel ok. Just a shame my treat of going to Thorpe Park wasn’t anything like when going in March/April.

A few cool events over June

I don’t know about you but my June is pretty packed solid. But theres a raft of events which you may not know about. Here’s a few… (I really feel like I should turn them into microformats or rather RDF/a)

The Best of British Prime Conference – Friday 13th June at The Royal Institution of Great Britain, London. I will be talking about Dating, Lies and Algorithms, as I mentioned before.
Tickets and details are available and if you use the discount code of iknowaspeaker you may get a nice little surprise on ordering tickets.

Sheffield Documentary Festival 2014 – running from 7th – 12th June in Sheffield. Myself and Tony will be presenting at the Shefdocfest (8th June) about Perceptive Media. And Matt Brooks and Rhianne will be showing off a research preview/alpha of the previously mentioned variable length documentary (11th June).

Film Data Hackathon – Abandon Normal Devices (AND), in partnership with the BFI are running a weekend (28 – 29 June) hackathon about everything cinema – from selecting the right movie, to how we watch them, and what we think to how we share our thoughts afterwards and everything in between. Tickets are available now.

More Bubbles Than Balls reception – for drinks, conversation and a celebration of all things Urbanista. Tuesday 24th June 5:30pm – 7:30pm at Velvet Central, 2 Mount Street, Manchester M2 5WQ.
Tickets are free and can be booked.

House Party 14 – is the first unofficial housing fringe event, providing a grassroots alternative to the annual CIH housing conference in Manchester on Tuesday, 24 & Wednesday, 25 June.
The waiting list is available.

Re:Fest! – Tuesday 17th and Wednesday,18th June at the Black-E Community Centre in Liverpool. This is the second Re:Fest! event, building on the success of last year’s event in Nottingham.
Find out more and book free tickets.

TVX Hackfest – June 25th at Culture Lab, Newcastle University. ACM international conference into interactive experience for TV and new media experiences is 26-27th June but there is a hackfest before hand.
To find out more including team sign up.

Derren brown is back in the Lowry theatre in Salford Quays with the new show infamous. Very limited seats left…13-21st June

Thanks Jane and Hwayoung for the heads up…