Somewhat embarrasingly, when I tried out the tent & sleeping bag on Friday night, I managed an hour or so and felt a bit odd, so came in to a nice warm bed. Mmm, perhaps sleeping outside is not so easy after all.. :$
I should say that I cycled around Brittany with a school friend when I was 19, and for 2 weeks that was rather pleasant – perhaps it was because it was during the Summer…
Anyway, I’ve learned that
a pillow would be a terrific idea
bed roll was rather good
sleeping bag was warm enough (fingers crossed)
it could be quite a tough gig to sleep out, especially if the weather isn’t kind :-s
I’m not all that good at putting up tents :$
I’ve also found my own survival / bivvy bag and also a sleeping bag liner.
I think I’m beginning to get my head around it all – but it helps having the pledges so far, and also means I can hardly back out.
Hello folks, I’m thrilled to be able to say that (at the time of writing) I’ve nearly reached 2/3rds of my initial fund-raising target of £500. I’ve also got some cheques coming in, so the fund-raising continues! :-D
I’m really happy about this, but am keen to collect as much money as possible.
[The widget on the right is powered by the JustGiving website, so the total will hopefully have gone up.]
My Brother has offered to double his donation if I shave my beard off, but I’m not altogether sure for how long!
So, if you can think of other ideas as to how I can raise some more wonga – please leave a comment.
I’m including some more background information:
Things I think I’ll need
The second part of a previous Byte Night video diary from Reading
The flyer to accompany the Newcastle event, to give you an idea of what’s it all about.
Packing List
I like lists, so this one is my aide memoire starter-for-ten:
Second Skin takes an intimate look at three sets of computer gamers whose lives have been transformed by online virtual worlds. An emerging genre of computer software called Massively Multiplayer Online games, or MMOs, allows millions of users to interact simultaneously in virtual spaces. Of the 50 million players worldwide, 50 percent consider themselves addicted. From individuals struggling with addiction to couples who have fallen in love without meeting; from disabled players whose lives have been given new purpose to gold farmers, entrepreneurs and widows, Second Skin opens viewers’ eyes to a phenomenon that may permanently change the way human beings interact.
In March 2008, Second Skin premiered opening night of SXSW. Without any news of a theatrical or DVD release, Second Skin landed extensive coverage in Newsweek, NPR, Wired, BBC, The Dr. Phil Show, Boston Globe, Variety and dozens of other major media outlets. Second Skin was also voted the #4 Documentary of 2008 by internet juggernaut Ain’t It Cool News.
This August, Second Skin will become the first widely released movie about virtual worlds- a movie for the 50 million gamers who spend most of their time in virtual worlds, and all those curious to understand this phenomenon.
[btw slightly peeved that I was at SXSW and missed it!]
Trailer
Eye-opening – even for a trailer! Looks like a balanced view of the whole phenomenon.
Potential Christmas present?
If anyone would like to buy this for me for Christmas, here is the link ;-D :
Mega quick post (that I may well update) to capture any comments you goodly people might have about this preso.
The story is that I have been invited to speak at the DFK UK & Ireland Annual Conference on the 2 October at the Marine Hotel in Troon (www.barcelo-hotels.co.uk/marine-hotel/)
This is my draft presentation to 50 Accountants to give them an intro to the Why’s and Wherefore’s of Social Media.
UPDATE: The presentation is up to slide 44, and the rest are stats or ‘off-cuts’. Many props to Emily Coltman for input re Acountants who ‘do’ social media.
I’ve no idea who sent me this link, probably some well meaning soul on Twitter but the embedded Slideshare presentation is worrying. Stuffed with out of date ’stuff’ like on overfull suitcase, it takes the wrong angle on so-called social media, a term I detest, for accountants. It demonstrates a lack of understanding about what makes this style of audience tick. It’s hard enough to get professional accountants to understand the world of marketing, social media as presented here will blow their heads off.
Instead, can I suggest that those who are curious steer away from the consumer facing spiel and think more about communications, internally at first and how sharing information might better serve the practice. Professionals should be looking for ways to better collaborate both internally and among their communities.We’re starting to see that at ion. And it’s not about using these tools as direct marketing tools or gimmicks but about the indirect effects that arise out of your efforts at supporting those around you through the stories you tell.
But above everything, please don’t see this as any quick fix. Making these things work takes time.
Interesting points & I need to update the deck asap with the gist of this, and also from Phil Richards (see comments).
I’ve been invited to take part in a roundtable event by RMT – my accountants.
This is an excerpt from the invite:
Getting the north east trading online @ RMT Gosforth on the 24th Sept 09
The aim of the day is to discuss how we can help get more north east based business trading online.
Cut through the mystery of trading online and dispel some of the myths, many of us take our knowledge for granted!
I will need to have a think about this and collect my thoughts – but please suggest anything you want me to raise on the day.
‘Trading online’ – to my mind – is about using the Web to market, sell, and serve customers. I suspect the ‘answer’ will be quite complicated and ‘multivariate’!
I believe there is a local newspaper involved, and also some people from various ‘grown-up’ industry bodies – so please chip in!
Agenda
There are two sessions, either side of lunch:
Session one – online business issues
Session two – develop a strategy to get the north east online
Further background:
If you could all think about your experiences of businesses that you have dealt with, which trade online and those that don’t, and try to identify any key issues.
Please bring to the table anything you think might be hampering online trade in the region, and things that might help improve it.
If you raise it, I’ll do my best to mention it – and then blog the upshot.
UPDATE 21/9/09: I thought I’d dig out the PDF that Peter Moran mentions and publish it through Scribd.com and hence make it more accessible…
This post describes the work around the new SCL identify, and how you can get involved.
Introduction
I’ve asked Steve and the Gang at Fat Frog to draw up the identity for Souter Consulting. I had thought of putting the work out to Crowdspring, but that could have been a bit too hard and difficult right now. That said, I’m keen to explore the crowdsourcing approach. Alex Bogusky has posted about this recently.
So, I’ve gone for a different approach. Steve has nominated Gino for this, and I met with him last week to talk through his initial thoughts.
By way of explanation, Gino normally works with customers in a slightly different way. They will give FF the brief, and then Gino will present a design which is pretty close to complete [er, I think that’s it :-s].
Steve and Gino were happily willing to go along with my suggestion that I be involved in the design process.
What I’ve done here is to take Gino’s creative ideas, and post the PDFs so we can see where he’s going with it all.
I mentioned to Gino that I spent some time hanging out at the St Bride Library, in my early twenties. Styled as “the world’s foremost printing and graphics arts library”, it’s a haven for typeface nuts – of which I count myself one. :-D
So, I was proper thrilled when Gino unveiled the following design. Key ideas behind this face are a mixture of tech & readability – probably to be used for headings. What do *you* think?:
This section contains Gino’s ideas for the visual identity for SCL. Please comment at the bottom to let us (Gino and I) know what you think.
Round 1
I like the idea of these primary colours being blended together to make black in the middle. Also, they struck me as being “accessible” – hopefully easy to ‘take in’ when they first see them.
I realise it’s a bit cheeky to criticise, but the thought crossed my mind at the time that perhaps they look a bit like Housing Association re-branding exercise maybe?! [Did I get away with that? ;-)]
So, this time a similar approach in terms of colours, but more of a sense of motion, change, etc. The middle roundel / start at the bottom is great because the colours are built in layers.
They remind me of a corporate logo of yesteryear, but something here definitely to work on.
This cube / hexagon is fascinating. Cleverly, the design means that it can be both.It reminds me a bit of the old skool Mystify screen-saver effect.
I like the thought that it represents some sort of continuum, with ideas flowing around the cube in some way. To me, the concept of a ‘digital nervous system’ covers
Document and records management
Knowledge management
Process
Lightweight application integration
Social Media & collaboration tools
And various other things I can’t think of right now
Umm, I’ve been seriously slack in getting myself sorted for this – mega :$
However, I’ve resolved to do a ‘multi / social media’ sleep out, basically because I need to rev myself up, and also rev up my fundraising activities, because I’m so behind schedule.
So, the idea is that you join me in giving money to Action for Children, but don’t worry, you can wait until I’ve actually done it to cough up.
JustGiving sends your donation straight to Action for Children and automatically reclaims Gift Aid if you’re a UK taxpayer, so your donation is worth even more.
Videos
Videos below, photos to come via Flickr, no doubt.
My lame first attempt
Ken Deeks intro
This explains what it’s all about.
Video Diary from 2007
A video showing the experience for some folk down in Reading.
This is the second of three planned posts to bring together some useful introductory material around Cloud – designed to give a balanced view, and cover the upsides as well as the challenges (e.g. security):
Because these are written works, necessarily there is more scope for detail and balance. These appear to be surprisingly good resources (well, *I* was pleasantly surprised).
Background papers
Draft NIST Working Definition of Cloud Computing v15
“The methodology for the Rackspace Hosting survey research, which was conducted between mid-October and mid-November of 2008, involved 1,500 US- and UK-based small- and mid-sized companies.
Approximately 36 percent of survey recipients responded to the questions.”
Sun Microsystems’ take on Cloud. Given Larry Ellison’s seeming contempt for Cloud (as per the previous Cloud post), it will be fascinating to see how Oracle progresses from a tie-up with AWS – to more fully integrating Sun & its expertise.
It’s 2/3rds Cloud intro & 1/3rd Sun product plug, but still a worthwhile read.
I’m whanging this in here for the purposes of balance, but arguably not as well developed as the other documents here. Suggestions for a better doc, anyone?
