London social media development February 14, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : social media, social objects, London, cider , add a commentIt was Wednesday evening so I went along to the Coach and Horses in Greek St, Soho to take part in an early user testing session for i-together’s new twitter and google maps mashup project. The usability test was run by Ofer Deshe of Flow Interactive who introduced himself as coming from a background in cognitive psychology, using techniques borrowed from ethnographical anthropology, so being chosen as the user to be observed was something of a privilege. I was sat in front of a laptop running a web service with no explanation or guidance, asked simply to explore and try to make sense of it. Well I just hope my slightly flummoxed attempts at navigation and comments provided some useful data.
Afterwards we had some wide ranging conceptual discussions which touched on ideas about public identity and personal security, activities or events as social objects, the natural development of some online communities into face-to-face meetups and much more. There’s still a fair amount of work to be done on the prototype service, both in explaining the concepts and making a winning user interface, but if anyone can do it then Luke, Benjie and Jof are in position to succeed with support from the vibrant and friendly London social media development community.
The Coach and Horses is also the venue for Social Media Café on Friday, and I was happily able to use the free wifi to update the cider wiki to mention the Westons Old Rosie currently on tap.
Platform Art February 2, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Art, London , 1 comment so farAt Gloucester Road tube station there is one whole platform that isn’t currently used by passenger services. Rather than being a ghost platform though, it’s in use as an exhibition area for a piece of platform art called “Life is a laugh” by Brian Griffiths.
I can’t tell whether it’s a celebration or a mockery of retro computer games such as Super Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog but the whole point seems to be to make a pun on the overused word “platform”. I asked one of the staff if theer was any more information and he disappeared into the ticket office for ten minutes then came back with a leaflet. Unfortunately the leaflet contained no clues for me, just a rambling stream of consciousness type piece of prose covering all pages. Well, it brightened up my morning journey and gave me something to think about.
London Bloggers January 28, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : london bloggers, blogs and community, London , 1 comment so farAndy Bargery, who I met at a London Geek dinner last year, has set up a new home for London Bloggers, which is a blog of course, and a meetup tomorrow evening near Waterloo. I’ll be there. If you haven’t registered already, it’s too late but why not subscribe to the blog and come to the next one in February.
Welcome to the Home of London Bloggers
If you live in London and write a blog then you might be interested to come along to the regular London Bloggers Meetup. The next event is on Tuesday 29th January at the Camel & Artichoke Pub near to Waterloo, check out the Meetup page for more info.If you can’t make it, check back here in early Feb for a round-up of the event and quite possibly a handful of photos. Then of course you can register for the next event in Feb.
If you are a London Blogger you might also want to add yourself to the London Bloggers Wiki page
Bird flu fiction as a blog January 14, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : blogs and community, UK , 4comments
The avian influenza or Bird flu H5N1 virus represents an all too serious threat to the world population as experts are predicting an pandemic not as a question of “if” but “when”. Here’s an effort in public consciousness raising through the medium of fictional writing, and in the format of a blog.
dominieschronicle.blogspot.com
The story has already started but it won’t take long to catch up on all the posts from January 2nd to date and then probaby the best way to experience would be by subscribing to an RSS feed but there doesn;t seem to be one working at present.
Also there has been an outbreak of visitors from the Flu wiki who don’t seem to appreciate the subtleties of “in character blogging” or that the events are situated in in a Scottish cultural setting.
Death of a community member January 12, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Community, online facilitation, UK, cider, listservs , add a commentOn the E-Mint listserv there’s a discussion about what happens after the death of a community member. Should their profile be taken down? Can the next of kin access their email?
My story involves the death of a prominent member, waybackmachine ,
wiki and transfer of websites.
A prominent member of uk cider stopped posting for several months
and people began to inquire after him. Eventually his wife found the
group and explained that he had been in a car accident and was
recovering very slowly. Then we heard that he suddenly died of a heart
attack.
I was approached by a couple of members who were concerned that
Paul’s own website and accumulated content should not be lost to
posterity and they tried writing to his wife as tactfully as possible,
but understandably she had bigger worries at the time.
So I created a wiki page linked from the members page, which contains
tributes written by the group as a reaction to hearing the tragic
news, and links to Paul’s site as archived on the “waybackmachine”
where I assume the content will remain indefinitely, even if the
original site is taken down. It’s the saddest task for a facilitator,
but seemed very necessary.
http://ukcider.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Paul_Gunningham_In_Memorium
Interestingly I later discovered that the domain names and content had
passed on to another small scale web developer in a similar niche. I
don’t know how this was arranged, but I assume it was agreed with the
next of kin.
If somebody dies owning domain names and nobody inherits them, then
they eventually expire and come up for resale. There are then
companies who specialise in auctioning off the means to acquire them.
Three dead swans in Dorset had Bird Flu January 10, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : wildlife, Bird Flu, UK , add a comment
Join the RSPBThe Swannery at Abbotsbury, down on the South Dorset coast has been hit by the deadly H5N1 virus which causes Bird Flu, with three dead swans testing positive for the deadly disease.
This latest case is worrying because it suggests that infection may be originating in wild birds, whereas the outbreak at the Bernard Matthews turkey factory in Suffolk last year looked more like human error with contaminated trucks or feed.
Indeed, the only reason for not beginning a cull of wild birds in the area is given as “because such a move could disperse birds and spread the disease.” according to Guardian News this afternoon
Foodie Greenwich to have no Kitsch in! January 4, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Long Tail, London , add a commentBy the end of January there will be one less reason to visit Greenwich, one of London’s more interesting centres, since The Flying Duck is set to close after thirteen years of selling unusual tat, memorabilia, retro designs, kitsch furniture and fittings.
This comes after the closure of Essential Records and Godards Pie Shop, representing a further step in the gradual decline and homogeneity of what remained a relatively unique shopping area.
original photo by Jon
The owners say this is because they feel that Greenwich has lost some of its charm with more chain stores opening up at the expense of the independent trader. Not that they were competing directly with Woolworths, Marks and Spencer or W H Smiths but the niche market served by the curious little shop is probably better located in Brighton or Harrogate these days rather than south east London. There’ll still be plenty of Vietnamese noodle bars, Mexican burgers and posh fish and chips shops though.
The The Flying Duck online ecommerce site continues with a massive sale on all stock and I’m wondering if the rise and rise of Ebay, Amazon and Etsy as venues for buying and selling “long tail” collectibles may have a lot to do with it as well.
London Google Maps mashup with what’s on listings December 5, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : object centred sociality, social objects, London , 1 comment so farThe LondonPaper has launched a website which mashes up Google Maps with up-to -date listings data to provide a service which will also be available by mobile phone using Monilink.
They (News International, Rupert Murdoch) call it “The London Knowledge” and the listings information is apparently supplied by Londonparties, one of the best Time-Out style online guides to London nightlife. The checkbox allows you to map any or all locations for categories Cinema, Theatre, Comedy, Art shows, Live music, Nightclubs and ‘Something different’
The Search box accepts street name , venue or postcode for 5,000 listings of cinema showings, music gigs, theatre shows, club nights and art events for any specific day, so you can find out what’s on at the London theatres for example.
The one fatal drawback at this stage though, is NO PERMALINKS !
It’s all done within Javascript, Ajax, Flash or whatever within the same initial page URL so no social objects, no ‘email a friend’ and no community reviews, community content. If this is engineered into the software design then Trusted Places have nothing to fear for a long time to come, except for the mobile phone aspect perhaps, which Londoners may take a liking to especially for finding out what’s on last minute nearby when you’re already out and about.
Big fire near Stratford, East London Olympic 2012 site November 12, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : London , add a commentStratford Olympic 2012 site on fire?
A large smoke plume is rising from the direction of Stratford, East London. It seems to be coming from the area just to the North of the main railway line from Liverpool Street to Essex, possible from the Olympics building site, Channel tunnel international railway station or wastelands around Stratford railway and Waterden Road.
update: BBC News report
Hackney Wick station is affected by the smoke, so the new London Overground service which starts officially today, is suspended between Stratford and Dalston.
London Overground starts next week November 7, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : London , 5commentsWhat is London Overground
There’s a little two carriage train that runs from Barking to Gospel Oak, and then on to Richmond or Kew Gardens. The route carefully skirts around the whole of central London, passing through reservoirs and industrial estates, over bridges, alongside cemeteries, with views of the backs of houses. Known as the “North London Line”, and neglected for decades, the line has until recently been in constant danger of closure due to a downward spiral of poor service and lack of customers. Under the franchise system, the line was taken over by Silverlink Metro who replaced the ancient trains with some slightly less ancient Sprinters from one of the UK regions, and painted some a ghastly purple colour. There was a half hearted attempt to do up some of the platforms, and the timetable frequency of service remained at two trains per hour on the Barking to Gospel Oak stretch, during daylight hours only it seemed, except Sundays when there was usually not even a replacement bus service.
That’s all changed because from November 11th the line is taken over by Transport for London and becomes linked to the London Underground tube service and timetable.
Last month I noticed automatic ticket machines on the platforms instead of a guard with his portable printer, and some other machines with a blue hood over them and lettering which spelled:
Oystercard Pay as you Go coming Soon!
Yes, the popular (because cheaper) Oystercard and a more frequent time table service is coming to the North London Line (silverlink) on Nov 11th when TFL take over “London Overground” and start to integrate it with the rest of the capital’s transport systems.
The new London Overground routes will also be shown on the famous Tube map itself, how about that! And there’ll be “an Underground-style service” which may not necessarily mean overcrowding, uncomfortable journeys in hot stuffy trains with noise and anti-social behaviour. Instead passengers will benefit from fast, frequent, accessible services, and safety and security standards. Lovely.
This is actually very good news, because the Oystercard option will provide more flexibility and so is the announcement that the crossrail project linking Essex through East London and the Isle of Dogs to central London, Paddington and beyond is finally set to go ahead, albeit too late for the Olympic Games in 2012.
All we need now is for TFL to take over the “One” line from Liverpool Street to Shenfield and Gants Hill so that the pre-pay Oystercard can be used in Forest Gate and Ilford as well as on the London Overground It’ll come eventually, but unfortunately not on the timetable for any day soon.
Thanks for reading Andy Roberts articles about UK
on Darnet
is an online professional who initiated DARnet 
