wellieswithwings

June 26, 2008

Where have I been?  Well if I tell you that tickets for this year’s dConstruct launched on Tuesday, you’ll understand that right now I’m in the middle of a conference organising fever.

The build up to dConstruct is always exciting and with two months to go I can already feel it start to bubble.  I’m really looking forward to this year’s event and the fact that, without last year’s EPIC travel FAIL, I will actually be here!  There’s no dashing off to the desert for me, although I am going to miss being at the Burn this year.  Who’d have thought I’d miss that dust?

Conference aside, it’s been an emotional couple of months.  On a philosophical note, I guess you can never have the really good up’s without the really horrible down’s.  To fit both into two months has been, shall we say “interesting”.  It is really good to be feeling more myself again.  It’s also been lovely to stop and catch up with the world.

What would I take out of the past six weeks?  Well, I guess much of it is pretty obvious really.  Friends are great, wine is probably best drunk in moderation (I still haven’t made up my mind on that one!), and sometimes you just need a really big kick up the proverbial.

There: no earth-shattering gems from me I’m afraid; but I do recommend that people watch out for curbs - they have a nasty habit of attacking you when you least expect it and causing post-gig ankle injuries.

Lift Day One February 7, 2008

Tom asked me yesterday what I was hoping to get out of Lift, I told him “I want to fill my brain with interesting stuff that I wouldn’t normally think about”. I’ve spent much of today doing just that, listening to some very smart people talk about fascinating topics, including online environments, user experience, sustainable development and getting a glimpse of technology usage in Asia.

I jotted down some notes, here are those I’ve found most interesting today.

Jonathan Cabiria, Permeability, Real Life + Virtual Life = One Life

Jonathan is a psychologist researching how participation in virtual worlds affects real life.

We present ourselves in certain ways, to certain people, in order to feel safe. We come together to be safe. We need to feel a sense of belonging; if we feel we don’t belong then we either rebel and hyper-identify ourselves or we close-in and cloak ourselves with an identity cover, a public face.

Taking part in virtual worlds can help those people who close-in to re-identify themselves as they actually are, rather than this fake self. These benefits then translate into real life, one life and not a split between virtual and real.

So creators should think more broadly and deeper about what they are creating, to solidify what we do in these social worlds.

Genevieve Bell, Intel

There are now nearly 30 anthropologist working at Intel.

45% of mobile phone users in the UK have admitted having lied about their whereabouts via text message.
100% of US online daters lie about their height (men) or weight (women).
James Katz - we’re entering “an arms race of digital deception”.

Secrets are different from lies/white lies. Sharing a secret cements relationships.

People tell between 6 - 200 lies every day, 40% to conceal misbehaviour, 14% to keep our own social world ticking over, 9% to increase popularity. Men tell 20% more lies then women, but women are better at it.

Lying is about creating the opposite of reality. Are lies a form of play? Israeli reserachers have found that online deception appears to be an enjoyable activity. Feelings of guilt, fear and shame are largely absent.

There are a number of sites now which exist to promote secrets, Twitter makes some forms of confabulation into art.

We now have many ways of uncovering & celebration deception: mobile phone tracking, use of video & camera phones, lie-detection algorithms on text messages and alibi services to create whole back stories.

Tensions between cultural practices and cultural ideals persit around secrets & lies. Do the twin ideas of secrets & lies offer new ways to think about privacy and security? What people really care about are the things they want to keep secret, the things they don’t want to be told.

Rafi Haladjian - Violet

Wanted to create calm technologies. The ratio of information to available time is increasing rapidly, multiplying screens is not the solution to this information overload. Wanted to explore new means of communication that use non-saturated senses and channels.

Created the Nabaztag - but why a rabbit? There are 30 reasons for this: “If you can connect a rabbit, you can connect anything”. Not only about functions, but also emotions. Rabbits have ears which are simple to move, rabbits don’t have a voice so they could add one, rabbits multiply, rabbits are Trojan horses…

What lies beyond the rabbit? RFID tags, Ztamps.

“Let things be connected. Let all things be connected.”

Brain now full, but I’m looking forward to this evenings fondue.

Ainsi, je suis arrivé. February 5, 2008

Top of my list of “things I have learnt today” is that landing (in a plane that is) with a cold is rather painful.  I’m glad that the sharp stabbing pains in my ears have stopped, and hope that my hearing comes back sometime soon.  But on the plus side, I am in Geneva and I’m getting very excited about Lift 08.

First though I have to get over my compulsion to speak German.  I’ve been to Switzerland a number of times before, in fact around a tiny 8th of me is Swiss.   However I’ve always travelled to the eastern side of Switzerland, high in the Alps where they speak Switzerdeutsch, a lovely sing-song sounding German.  Which means that so far today, in the hour and a half I’ve been here anyway, I’ve wanted to say “danke schoen” or “bitte zehr”, rather than “merci”.  When the world is somewhat muffled and confusing already, this doesn’t help.

I’m hoping that a good nights sleep will leave me able to hear once more and settled in the right language before tomorrows workshops start, when I shall dip my toes into the worlds of IA and ubiquitous computing.

running January 28, 2008

At the end of last year I promised myself that I’d do more exercise and so in time honoured tradition, set this as one of my new year’s resolutions. Four weeks later, and minus a week where I suffered some nasty lurgy attack, I’ve kept it up. Three times a week I don my running shoes, clip on my ipod and join Tom (albeit briefly before he runs off) to jog round the Level.

I’m actually rather impressed with myself. I hate exercise. At school I was always picked last and was never very good. I can completely understand why no one would want me on their team, I dropped the netball, fell over, generally got in the way and remained resolutely miserable throughout any games lesson. I did join a gym a couple of years ago and for six months I did go along, still miserable and forced myself to lift a few weights, row a few yards and would dump myself on the exercise bike for as little time as I thought I could get away with. Perhaps not the best introduction to any new form of exercise - I didn’t expect to last once round the Level.

What has surprised me most is that I actually enjoy running. Who’d have thought it? I listen to music, I try and push myself a little further each time, I get a little shakey, I breathe mist into the air and clutch at my sides, but each lap round feels good. Even when I have to force heavy legs on those occasions when my body really doesn’t fancy it (normally Friday’s for some reason - I suspect it would rather be down the pub). So I’ve invested in some decent running shoes, am going to stock up on podcasts and continue to jog around. It’s no marathon, but it’s good enough for me.

fin January 3, 2008

So 2007 has drawn to a close and it’s time to look back on what has been another busy year. I thought last year was busy but I was wrong, last year was a quiet stroll in the park.

I began the year working at Sussex Uni, feeling like I was, in turn, banging my head against a brick wall and

pointlessly treading water. Fortunately all this changed in May when I left the squirrels and countryside of Falmer behind and, somewhat nervously, started at the beginning again with Clearleft. The change was immediate, it’s so refreshing to really enjoy your job again! There have been plenty of new challenges and I often find my head swimming with the new, but that makes it all the better.

Apart from a trip to Barcelona in March, our big travel adventure for 2007 was Burning Man and boy was that an adventure! Closely followed by Picnic in Amsterdam, one of my favourite cities. I still feel as if I’ve spent more time in the last two years travelling than over the rest of my life. I think each trip spurs me on to visit new places, and the possible list for 2008 shows no sign of slowing.

On the home front I’ve managed to decorate half the flat, with the kitchen still to rip out and build anew at some point this year. I’ve decided to sell my car, having had the roof slashed and numerous issues with the insurers. I’ve come to realise I don’t really need a car, not if it’s going to be that much trouble. I suspect 2008 will include further upheavals in the home department, but admit that I’m looking forward to those adventures.

I’ve spent time with my friends, cats, puppies and of course the lovely one (despite his propensity to make somewhat cheeky remarks). Fear not, I’ll get my own back somehow.

So any resolutions? Unsurprisingly two of them revolve around finding time, something which I spent lots of 2007 trying to do. So will they be unachievable? Well I don’t really like to set myself too hard a task, so I must have some confidence in finding this time from somewhere surely? Only time (ha ha, ed.) will tell but I’m looking forward to the coming year and the journeys it will bring.