What I'm really happy about is that I think there is something to be learned about the success of the process from watching the films themselves, rather than just from observation reports and feedback questionnaires.
The teenagers who took part have taught me how it should be done through what they've done!
The Arts Council have asked me to give a talk to the people who work in literature in our region - publishers, writers and so on - about technology and literature.
The Guardian have launched a film making competition, that at least on the surface is for amateurs (people who do things for love), rather than professionals.
What they've got right is to create a structure in which people who don't consider themselves to be writesr/artists/filmmakers can get started, in this case a very productive-feeling story about the youth and young manhood of a settee, which participants have got to interpret however they like in no more than five minutes worth of anything that can be uploaded to YouTube.
What is less good is the prize - a week working in the proper media - and the judges, who are the usual type of suspect.
Those two things are going to encourage just the wrong sort of people to enter, and since a book is only as good as its readers, the winner will be a usual type of suspect as well.
And so, I predict the winner to be a young advertising creative from East London.
The closing date isn't until December, but I will faithfully report back here when the results come out, no matter how wrong I'm proved.
Watchmen and V for Vendetta writer Alan Moore turns out to be a local history buff, and appears in the fantastic short documentary "X Marks the Spot", made by young people in Northampton, where he lives, about the history of their town.
I used to be the short film programmer for a big film festival, so I've watched thousands of short films, and X Marks the Spot is one of the two best "community" films* I've ever seen (and believe me, I've seen a few). I'd happily have programmed it alongside proper shorts made by grown up filmmakers without expecting it be be granted any special favours at all.
As Alan Moore himself says: "I loved it. It is the most exciting thing to come out of the Boroughs since the Great Fire."
I came across X Marks the Spot through Lee Hutchinson of Northampton Museums, who got the film going in the first place, and Lee and I have since been working on a very happy project called Mobile X, to see if we could push the DIY feel of X Marks the Spot further.
We've been trying to find a structure for using the fact that all teenagers carry video cameras around with them all the time as a way to get them to have a look at museum collections.
More on that soon, but I really put my heart into Mobile X, despite there being no money, just because I felt the pressure not to let down the X Marks the Spot legacy!
And speaking as a participation nerd, if you are interested in structures that open up and welcome participation, just marvel at the genius of the "x marks the spot" device, which came from the teenagers themselves - you could use that device absolutely anywhere.
On top of everything else, the lead presenter, one of the youths, is a natural, miles better than any of the day-glo idiots you see on kids TV. I think he's working in a warehouse now, which I guess is what happens to your talents when you're from Northampton not Hampstead.
* the other best community film I've ever seen was a spoof horror film made by a group of disabled teenagers from Middlesborough who cast themselves as zombies in wheel chairs, trying to infect the straight walking world and turn everyone into cripples. Piss funny and in the worst possible taste at every turn. It went in the festival programme with no added explanation, and the audience did it justice, though you could sense them wondering at first "Are we really allowed to laugh at this?"
This is Part 1 of X Marks the Spot. Alan Moore (those are his feet on the X) is on at about 3.40 and very good he is too, but do the film justice and watch it all, you know Alan would be disappointed if you don't:
"For 30 years, greedy, callow, ignorant financiers, supported by no less
callow politicians from all the political parties, have proclaimed the
wonders of financial innovation and how proud we all should be of the
City of London. The price tag for their behaviour is an economic
calamity. We should never have bought such snake oil."
If you are interested in games, mobiles, physical computing, computers_everywhere, stories, fun, writing, misuse and most importantly participation, this really is where it's at.
If you do make the trip you'll find that We Love Technology talks about those subjects in a modest and welcoming but unique voice that can't be heard clearly anywhere else.
That voice is modest, in part, because it comes from Lisa's amazing ability to find the people who share it, ask them to talk about what they enjoy, and allow the meaning to emerge from that.
This year the event is presented by the clan alone, and all the better for it.
