I’ve just read this interesting item on Techcrunch about the growing number of tools which help with what is being called deep tagging. It is a way of making it easier to search for exactly the right piece of audio or video.
The author (in this case us) would run the audio through some deep tagging software and mark relevant bits with keywords. An online search will identify those bits and allow listeners to jump directly to the part which concerns them most. Read more
Time to apologise to David Cameron for querying his intentions in yesterday’s post about the use of brummie created icons on webcameron.org.uk.
The talent behind the visuals, Mark James of www.famfamfam.com has just e-mailed me to say:
Just to let you know that the webcameron designers have contacted me and I’m now happy with their usage. They had sent me a small donation towards my hosting (which I hadn’t spotted, they got lost amidst the emails), but they’re getting the credit sorted.
They made their donation late Saturday, but that didn’t excuse them from the terms of the licence. If you wish to mention that it has been sorted, that would be cool, but I don’t think a full apology is required.
Well that’s that put right, although as Mark suggests, good manners should always be timely.
Max who works on the Podminions podcast has just alerted me to a problem with the ever-so-polite leader of the opposition, David Cameron MP. It relates to the visuals on the newly launched webcameron.org.uk.
The site uses some very funky little icons, popped in their no doubt by the designers commissioned to make it so. The trouble is those icons were made by a talented web designer based here in Brum and they’re being used in breach of his copyright.
Mark James makes them freely available on his site www.famfamfam.com under what is known as a Creative Commons license. It is a widely used and respected way to protect what is written on the web and requires generosity and integrity from all those involved.
So the deal is simple: you can use the natty icons free as long as you credit the source, and in web parlance this means linking to Mark’s website.
Anything else is simply rude.
Mark would like to see the credit – and told us “I expect people to occasionally overlook the issues of the Creative Commons, although I have to say I’m a little shocked that this escaped a political party”.
From my point of view I want to see local creativity given its due. So Mr Cameron please remember your manners, sort out the site and then pop Mark a quick apology.
You can make it a video apology if you like.
I’ve just noticed that the think tank Demos has launched a project on conversation called Talk us into it. You can download a pdf of their first pamphlet on the theme here. It proposes that
by combining what we know about conversations with what we know about the changing nature of community, we have the opportunity to reinvigorate the public realm to engage a wider range of people and give voice to the wider range of opinion on which our society is now built.
Curiously enough this throws me back to a conversation I had a good three years ago with a man called Grahame Broadbelt. At the time we were both working for the education charity Common Purpose – he as a staffer, me as a freelance. After years with CP Graeme had reached a stunningly simple conlusion – that ultimately it is the quality of the conversation which counts. It certainly struck a chord with me.
Almost all the work I have ever done has been improved and enriched by people willing to make the effort to have open, honest and challenging conversations. It is the route to that mental zing which in turn spawns the ideas and the energy to get things done. Of course this is a statement of the obvious, but oddly important in a world which seeks to measure every moment we spend against a tangible outcome.
I recently finished some work with R4R Europe – a vibrant network of active citizens from different European cities. 350 of us had spent three days in Birmingham listening to each other’s experiences, learning from each and building support networks. Everyone there had had a number of those ideal conversations – the ones with zing.
At the end someone stood up and asked where the outcomes of the different work groups would be posted. The R4R organisers replied that this is not the plan, but under pressure they agreed to sort out some bullet points for the different sessions. I absolutely sympathised with their position. To not agree to this almost looked like they couldn’t be bothered to write up the feedback. Yet what counted about this group was not the written feedback. It was the new things churning around in our minds. For each of us this meant an entirely different set of bullet points. This was the real outcome and it was all a product of nothing more complex than good conversation.
With my podcasting I have tried to create situations where conversation can both happen and be recorded. It’s tricky but sometimes works. A great example is when Sir Albert Bore met Natalie Brade. Have a listen, after all most us love to eavesdrop.
One last thing; Grahame Broadbelt isn’t at Common Purpose any more. He is now the Managing Director of Demos.