Apr
22
...such a dapper chap
The newest addition to our family...
Sam is a Silver Tabby Persian (we think) and is 7 years old (we think). He's already our little pride and joy.
Oct
12
I really should be making money out this sort of advice...
1:06 PM
Richard have you done a south park portrait yet?
Carl No, not yet. Maybe I'll try and do one of me and V over lunchtime.
Richard yeah. try harder!
Carl Soem of us have work to do!
1:07 PM
Richard I need a nahd with my work
hand
Carl Well, if there's any advice or suggestions you feel I could contribute, just let me know
Richard I need to write a presentation on how the media of the future will change the way we target and market ourselves
any ideas?
1:08 PM
e.g. Extreme example
Minority report - companies tailoring the messages you see based on your retina scan.Carl So, you've got interactive TV (press Red) on your campaigns and programmes with related content. You've got user communities (youTube, mySpace) to tap into
1:09 PM
Richard yep.... but how will people like us start to use these techniques?
googtube
1:10 PM
Carl well, look at the mySpace angle to start with, you've got people who can link themselve sup easily to other like minded people, so you can then (knowing that welfare and charity minded people are especially vociferous) build communities online that allow people (say farmers) to get together and communicate openly, and in a way that allows other people to tag onto them
1:12 PM
Web Tv, you can have the interactive option whenever you have a campaign ad on telly, that goes straight through to info about CIWF, pay per view for movies will open up to being able to buy almost anything from your tv, even a charitable donation tere and then.
Richard all good stuff
1:13 PM
Carl What you do need to do though in these examples is give a reason or 'stickiness' to get these communties or user generated content going in the first place.
Richard I specifically need to demonstrate how these technologies will change the way we segment and target the marketplace
1:15 PM
Carl Other things, and easy to do, how about web cams, people love web cams. What about a web cam in two different places/farms following say a chick from egg, to chick to chicken to slaughter - a very stark contrast over time showing the different quality of life between a battery hen and a organic hen - that will make people cry (and donate) by the bucket load...
It's difficult in terms of demonstrating, I mean YouTube just got bought for millions of dollars but has yet to figure out how to make any money.
1:17 PM
Richard 1 billion dollars
Carl I think you might need to emphasis how you can get the public to indirectly do more work for you using new technolgies - I hate the term but 'viral marketing' is based on the idea that you throw something out there and let the consumer do the promotion and pushing on your behalf - it's cheap as you can throw lots of stuff out and if some things die, so be it.
With You Tube, I mean how to turn it into a profitable business model on an ongoing basis
1:19 PM
So if you can come up with starting points to tricker the intereste of online communities, then the effect will hopefully snowball.
Richard Dr Carl
1:20 PM
Carl at a simple level, getting into blogging and getting those blogs linked to from other like mnded people and so on, will create a trickle of visits, which will grow and grow and then eventually become peoples first read of the day - you are pushing content and info out to people and they can then push it on further
1:21 PM
Richard aaah. I knoew there was a reason you are my best friend!
clever boy. you have helped my over some mental blocks!
Carl Here's one
fridges with internet points on them, you've seen those right? The idea being you can access the web, do your online tesco shop and then get it delivered.1:23 PM
How good would it be to have fridge that showed you pictures of the different meats based on how cheap it is, and better still if you buy this cut at £2.50 or whatever, 50p goes striaght to improving farming standards in this country. Who'd turn down the ability to campaign at the fridge at the point of sale
1:24 PM
Richard ha ha! They said that all our fridges would have internet bluetooth connection to our underpants by 2003!
i am still waiting for mine!
1:25 PM
e.g. your fart contains too much sulphur. We have checked with the fridge and you need more yoghurt. We have taken the liberty of ordering from OCADO
Carl Eggs-actly! Now you get it.
1:26 PM
Richard or... we have detected that you have a guilty conscience. We have donated £35 to Oxfam from your bank account to make you feel better
1:27 PM
Carl I think one thing that would work, is proven, relatively cheap and you could do with today's technology is more user generated content. Like I say it encourages communities (geographical and virtual) to come together, it encourages repeat visits, it encourages word-of-mouth etc etc.
1:28 PM
Richard i agree
this conversation is going on my blog.
at last a use for my blog!
that's media convergence in action
1:29 PM
chat + blog = CHATTERBLOG
like NUMBERWANG!
1:30 PM
Carl But this presentation sounds odd as it is encouraging you to do bluesky thinking based on technology you don't even know about. If you were working as a futurologist then that is exactly what you should be doing, but really shouldn't you be empahsising how you cna do so many cool things today which will easily be valid in 4-5 years time. Fine, as new technologies appear on the horizon, plan their usage in then.
Richard I am from the FUTURE
1:31 PM:
Carl: Yeah, I know I met you in 2027 only last week
Sep
20
Thoughts after moving day
So the dust has settled, the bills have been requested and (some of) the boxes have been unpacked. We are finally in our new home.
Has it been worth it? You betcha.
Of course there's a couple of things here and there that need attending to, there always is buying a house I guess, but that's the norm.
The main thing is we're in and the house is great. I have got so many ideas
for what to do inside and out, much to V's continued exasperation. Yeah,
I've got some DIY experience from helping others and doing things at my
parents' house in the past, but a whole house to destroy improve?
Wow, that is quite cool.
I'll be starting simple with my Study - a nice small room to get my feet wet. It'll be a room where I can then get on with all the work I have to do in a creative and inspiring atmosphere. It can also then be a 'base' from which to plan the other home improvement projects in the pipeline.
Nov
24
Getting a bit political in my old age. I read this in the Independent GCSE coursework doesn't work any more - let's just drop it and had to write to say basically howI cannot agree with this view. If it gets published - good. If not, it's just vent my spleen time.
Sir,
I can only be thankful that irrational dinosaurs like Robert Newton will not be around to teach my children in future years. An individual who chose to throw out centuries old examination based teaching for 100% coursework (as he states) with no appreciation of an interim can only be viewed with a healthy dose of sceptisim.
Worse still, his unpleasant attitude to gender difference within the education system. To state that “How unfair it must seem when a bright boy hands in a hastily but intelligently written concise piece of coursework which scores the same mark as the ton of paper produced by his conscientious and equally bright female peers” is not only crass gender stereotyping, but also a failure on his part to understand how examinations are marked.
Exams and coursework are independently and anonymously marked. To suggest that girls have to work an order of magnitutde harder, and provide a greater amount of written material just to get the same mark as a boys’ scribblings is grotesque. There will always be individuals (boy or girl) who have to work harder to keep up with their peers (boy or girl). To assume that ‘conscientious girls’ spend hours ‘padding’ their work just shows the disdain with which Mr Newton now views the whole concept of coursework.
Just as some minds can reel off worthy prose, or remember reams of factual information – so there are also minds that are natural researchers and interrogators of evidence. A healthy balance of coursework and examinations, with neither assumed to be more ‘worthy’ than the other is a great step towards assessing the all round character and skill of the individual.
The GCSE is dead – long live the GCSE,
Carl Smith
May
1
Making a game to break down ignorance.
Have
been busy, busy, busy working on a very nice project to tie-in with Refugee
Week 2005 (20-26 June). I'm making an interactive activity to be delivered online
that will teach kids (9-14 years) about where refugees come from, what it means
to be refugee and to hopefully dispel a number of myths and prejudices.
I've been busy making a 3D effect room that the the kids can explore using simple point and click methods. This has been quite challenging but really rewarding to see all the elements as they come together. I'm doing the work in Flash and using a lot of seperate movies that get load as they are required, to try to keep the overall sizes down and make a smoother experience.
When the activity is fully finished, I'll make sure there's links to it available here. After all, it is a very worthy cause. Anything to help reduce prejudice and narrow-minded behaviour has got to be a good thing.
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