Mashup fatigue

This is mostly just a feeling at this point, but I’m starting to think that overenthusiastic mashup-making is a waste of time.

Mashups, I’m now thinking, are a path to, or perhaps even only (as Ivan suggested across the round table today) practice for, a solution that helps to solve some human problem. When we go to develop social and sociable systems, we are trying to solve some problem in the hands of users.Practice. Like a textbook problem. To build skills and test ideas. A demo. To mix shit together and see what happens. To test openness and transparency. A place on the way somewhere.

So, let’s go and mash up all these APIs, but let’s not waste all our lives on it.

In searching for real problems we’ll find elegant things to do that help.

Hack Day

I didn’t get to write a summary of Hack Day.. Fell into a week of busyness and a bunch of real work to get out of the way before Glastonbury. But that’s another story.

Hack Day was good fun:

• Lots of interesting people
• Lots of encouragement
• Great inclement weather and systems problems to make us work together
• Lots of great ideas flowing around. One of the things I love about the hacker crowd is the willingness of pretty much everybody to put forward crazy, mad schemes to test all the boundaries in sight. And how delightful to have somebody to listen to my mad schemes as well.

With a couple of annoyances for me:

• The WiFi never quite got reliable, at least on the Saturday. Very frustrating, and pretty quickly made me attempt to do something that didn’t need a net connection.
• I had an offer of a comfortable bed and good food close by, so that made it easy to sneak off on Sat and get a good night’s sleep. (Not really an annoyance, but the temptation got to me and i didn’t stay up hacking all night :-)

I got a good way through making a python APML library at Hack Day. I had intended to use it to do some attention-based searches on BBC content, but that will have to wait for later. I’ll put the finishing touches on that and post the code in the next couple of weeks after a bit more testing.

Hack Day lightning strike

A lightning strike to Alexandra Palace caused a fire system failure in the building housing Hack Day, opening air vents in the roof and letting rain into the room.

So, we all have had to evacuate to the palm court and hack together power and internet networks to keep Hack Day going again.

We’ve found a corner, have got some power strips, and I’ve set up a WiFi access point via my 3G mobile.  We’re off and running again, but the whole event is pretty disrupted at this point.

Rich talking about Scouta in 1 Minute

Here’s my mate Richard Giles, Scouta’s CEO, giving a one-minute interview. One minute isn’t long, but he managed to fit a fair bit in there.

Authentic Blogging courses in Brighton

My partner Libby has just started up a series of courses on blogging, and along with it a new blog at authenticblogging.com which aims to introduce people to blogging as a creative process, and finding an authentic voice in community.

The first course is starting in the Autumn term at Varndean College in Brighton. Places are limited and I get the feeling that these are going to be popular, so if you are interested, get in quickly.

I’m likely to be helping out a little in these courses; but only a little. The focus is very much on the creative process  and not on the technical details.

MA in Person Centred Education

I want to share the MAPCE Course Outline 2007/2008 for our Masters with everyone. It is being offered as a joint initiative of the University of Sussex Centre for Educational Innovation and the Guerrand-Hermés Foundation for Peace.

A profound learning opportunity. But how to describe it. Hmmm… For me, so far, it has been a journey into the true meaning of education and The Self.

It is suitable for:

“Those who are interested in whole-person education, and personalisation in learning and other innovative pedagogical approaches.

“This programme will appeal particularly to teachers, lecturers, teacher trainers, home educators, adult educators, HE staff, therapists, health educators, and others who have an interest in person-centred education” (eg. home schooling parents, involved parents).

“Teaching experience is desirable, but applications are also welcome from those just beginning or planning to embark on their educational careers, by which we mean ‘teaching’ in its broadest sense.”

Not only is the course allowing me to discover my own truth about how I/we learn best - construct knowledge, acquire skills - it is also opening up the wealth of possibility around the whole question of what it is to be human - and to become the person we are.

I will have to stop there, and simply encourage you to read the Course Outline to find out more. Applications are open now for a proposed starting date of October 2007.

But regardless of when you might be available, get in touch to register your interest and be kept informed, plus we can share some inspiring materials with you.

The course is being offered part-time and would be suitable for anyone that can attend one residential weekend a term in Brighton, UK plus other distance or local learning opportunities depending on where you live (UK Resident only at this stage).

We might be able to host anyone needing accommodation on those weekends if necessary, and there are quite a few grants available towards your fees. It actually works out to be a great way to expand your mind, your heart and your professional and creative horizons, without a stifling structure or exhaustive commitment. You would be able to work fulltime and do the course.

Just contact the lovely Dr Scherto Gill if you want to know more, or contact me. There are many other posts on my Learning blog if you want to find out a little bit about where it has taken me so far. Of course, everyone’s experience will be different. More about the course, course inspirator Professor Michael Fielding, and my first engagement with it here. If you are thinking of applying, check the minimum requirements but speak to Scherto too. I had some concerns about my eligibility and potential, but it has worked out well, despite a lack of confidence at times.

Indeed the MA underpins much of what we are going with Authentic Blogging and the courses we are running.

Dialogue, reflection, learning, making our meaning visible to ourselves and others.

Yes.

A good journey to be on.

Vanity Time

I just found a photo of me in a crowd at the Google UK Developer Day in this Google Deveoper Day blog post.

You’ll find me second from the right in the front row, brown jacket and laptop.

Next Blogging Course

Okay people. It’s official. We will be running two blogging courses at Varndean College, Brighton UK (at the bottom of our garden) over the Autumn and Spring term.

UPDATE - GO TO THIS MORE RECENT POST FOR THE LATEST COURSE OUTLINE. Feel free to get in touch to clarify or contribute to how things shape up.

I will be the main teacher, but Gra will be supporting us behind the scenes, making sure my technical knowledge is up to scratch.

But we will also be learning a lot from each other as we go along. In the meantime, send me links to any blogs that inspire you, and stay tuned for more posts that will explain what this and other courses we will be offering.

Autumn Term

X361 8 weeks from 25/09/07 Tuesdays 19.00-21.00

Spring Term

Y379 8 weeks from 15/01/08 Tuesdays 19.00-21.00

At this stage I am imagining the Autumn Course being for beginners and people newish to blogging. The Spring Term would then extend people on from there and offer a more indepth approach.

The prospectus is not quite up on their site yet, but should be by late June 2007.

Shoot me an email if you want to be kept informed about courses. There are already a fair few folk out there …… And we haven’t even really started promoting it yet, just word of mouth so far.

Testing testing - Profile Photos

So I’m trying to work out how to get my photo to display. There’s a lot that’s changed on the new wordpress. I started my first blog two years ago (eons in the online, constant change world). Off to the FAQ. Hope it’s a good one. Just writing this to see if new posts will display with the photo alongside. Will be a nice friendly look when I get it working. And as new authors come on-board, we will get to see who everyone is.

London Geek Dinner: Jaiku

I’m heading off to the London Geek Dinner tonight to hear all about Jaiku from Jyri Engeström.

I think they are onto something. Whereas twitter and co are really just messaging, these guys seem to be talking about continuous presence
(all the time). Which is quite different to chatting sometimes.

I’ve got a lot more to say about continuous presence; really need to write an essay about my own ideas sometime soon. I just need a catalyst to start writing.

And Jason Calacanis is going to be there too. He raised an interesting question on LinkedIn sometime recently, and I want to share a few thoughts with him if I get the chance.

Upcoming event

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