Category: interesting things

On my (relative) silence, some good events, and upcoming speaking gigs

For regular readers I’m sorry that its been a bit quiet around here lately – especially as I embarked on a series of six posts about models of social media adoption but have only managed to write four of them so far (I promise I will do my best to get the final two completed in the next few days). Work colleagues (and my mother) would tell you this is nothing new.

There are several reasons why its all gone a bit tumbleweed:

  • My summer holiday – last year I also found it hard to get back into the groove of writing when I returned from my break (despite – this year as well as last – resolving to write prolifically whilst away).
  • Returning to a groaning intray – been trying to get a number of projects off the ground, and been thrown several new pieces of work – they all get in the way of thinking / posting time.
  • Another recent short weekend break – disrupted my attempts to get ‘back in the groove’.
  • Most importantly, suffering from social media overload – nothing I have read recently has inspired me or drawn me to do anything. In fact, there seems to have been an awful lot of social media navel gazing going on at the moment. Its not like I have nothing to say, but when all I hear is noise, I don’t really want to add to it (this despite the fact that there are plenty of things I want to write about. But if I’m not inspired, it doesn’t feel right to be broadcasting my thoughts either).

So, let’s hope I snap out of it soon. Not for your sake (necessarily) but for mine. If this all sounds a bit sorrowful, hey – it’s my party!

Anyway, whilst I remember there are three events taking place shortly that you should think about participating in (if you don’t know about them already).

Two are taking place this Saturday (27th September), both in London. First up is the UK Youth online, run by Tim Davies. Its being held at DIUS in Victoria Street. Second is Barcamp London 5 overspill, organised by Harry Metcalfe (a brilliant idea, might I add). Both of these events look like they are going to be cracking. I was hoping to go to both (don’t ask) but sadly family obligations have got in the way so I may only be able to pop in for a short time, if at all. But I recommend them both to you.

A little further away (both in time and in distance from London) is Scot Web 2, being held in Edinburgh on 30th October. Organised by the ever resourceful Alex Stobart from the Scottish Executive/Government. It’s a barcamp style type event focusing on social media in the public sector. I’m trying to work out how to get there myself.

Also, I’ve reluctantly (because I don’t really enjoy it) agreed to speak at a few upcoming events. If you’re planning to attend any of these, please do say hello and either settle my nerves before the event, or tell me I was fabulous afterwards (I hate to hear the truth..). These include:

  • Mashup* event – Government 2.0 on 7th October – not really sure what I am doing here as it looks quite ‘techie’ but I guess I will find out shortly.
  • Public Sector online on 21st October at Inmarsat – talking about ‘web2.0 and beyond’ with other speakers (so hoping this will be some kind of panel thing).
  • Online Information on 2nd December at Olympia, London. I’ll be participating in a panel discussion here about ‘web2.0 after the buzz’.

There, so i finally wrote something…. 🙂

view from my window

view from my window

Originally uploaded by Jeremy Gould.

We’ve been moving offices over the weekend and today I was in with some colleagues checking our kit all worked before the others come in tomorrow.

We’ve moved from Victoria Street to the old Home Office building in Petty France (two minutes away) but a quantum leap in terms of space, facilities and location.

We’re right next to St James Park and this view shows you are general location in relation to Whitehall – not too shabby I’m sure you’ll agree.

The only problem is that it’s at least two minutes more walk to Teacamp 😦

There are a few more photos of the place in my flickr stream if you are interested.

Two tools I really like

Don’t normally do tech tips or gear I generally like here, goodness knows there are enough places on the web to find that kind of stuff. But I’ve recently come across two online resources that I think are absolutely fantastic so I’ll share them here for anyone who is interested.

First up is up is Addictomatic (hat tip to Oli Barrett via David Wilcox). A fantastic tool that pulls content from across the web based on a keyword or phrase.

I’ve been doing a lot of work recently with departmental colleagues to set up dashboards to allow them to view content based on their professional interests. Addictomatic works like that, though of course its limited by only being able to return information based on one keyword / phrase at a time and filtering is not available (as far as I can see). Nevertheless its a great way to get a snapshot on a particular issue (or person) very quickly.

I heartily recommend it, if only to demonstrate the potential value of making better use of RSS readers and web aggregators like Pageflakes or Netvibes.

Second is the AgencyTool web design dashboard. Can’t remember where I first saw this but its an absolute goldmine of information and advice about all aspects of web tech, design, build and marketing.

I’ve spent a fair few hours wading through the resources. Some are better than others but I bet you find something there that will be of use to you in your work.

Interesting2008: fascinating and inspiring

When Russell Davies first floated the idea last year of holding an event full of interesting speakers, I was hooked. Unfortunately I couldn’t go due to holidays so when Interesting 2008 was announced, I was determined to go (I don’t know Russell, but am in awe of his energy and his imagination. “How to be interesting” really inspired me when I was in a creative rut”).

Yesterday was the big day and I went along to learn some ‘interesting’ stuff. I wasn’t disappointed, in fact it was great. I’m not going to give a comprehensive review here of all the speakers (others have already begun doing that) just a few things that stuck in my mind (The Guardian will be uploading videos of all the speakers in the next few days. They’re well worth watching if you couldn’t make it).

  • There’s enough Lego bricks in the world that each person could have 62 bricks. Why isn’t Lego made out of wood rather than nasty chemicals? (a great example of pace and brevity from Roo)
  • Horses have a blind spot in front of their noses.
  • We need more creative generalists rather than specialists (moot point for me, plenty of generalists in the civil service, creativity is often at a premium).
  • The ecological footprint of the world would need to expand by two and a half times if we all lived in Salisbury (which has the third best carbon footprint in the UK) – and children need to explore more.
  • The history of popular music and graphic design is interlinked and both inspire each other (phew, this one was a riot).
  • Exploration is not finished, its online.
  • Patagonian mirrors – an amazing method of long distance communication (now sadly long gone).
  • The best time to slaughter calves for ethical veal – “when they stop looking cute”.
  • The cure for insomnia – trash crime fiction (must try this). Can I add, I find a sound asleep pillow to assist in this regard :-).
  • Churchill’s leadership style – improvisation and dare (I’ll go along with that).
  • Funny words are more likely to contain a K than an L in them.
  • Old computers make great musical instruments
  • Turntables make amazing zoetropes

All in all an amazing day. Not perfect by an means. The start (a communal rendition of “The Final Countdown“- you had to be there to appreciate how absolutely effective this was) had everyone pumped up, the meditation after lunch almost sent me to sleep and left me drowsy for the early afternoon set of speakers (though the two pints I had around the corner probably didn’t help). Running longer sessions straight after lunch didn’t help either and didn’t feel as punchy as the morning.

But these are minor quibbles. My real takeaways were:

  • You can learn an awful lot from seemingly random subjects to apply to your own work and life, provided they are interesting. Personal passion from the speakers went a long way in this regard.
  • Not really knowing what’s happening next, and a healthy dose of chaos, makes a conference many times more exciting than the usual corporate dross.

I’d love to see something runalong these lines inside Whitehall to inspire and educate decision makers about the opportunities of online / digital / web and creativity. Who knows, it may happen…

Two more quick things: Lloyd really does have the most amazing voice, and hello to Arthur.