fisharepeopletoo

Do we still do the dance?

You know, the dance that everyone used to do when they were talking on their mobile phone in a public place - outside a bar or a shop or a library.

The dance that was giving a physical expression to being in a mixed reality.

I've been trying to see if we still do the dance.

But either we've stopped doing it, or it's become so commonplace I can't make myself remember to notice it.

A Brutal Industrial Machine for Shifting Time

Museums as mixed realities.

ThePower Hall at Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry is a brutal industrial machine for shifting time.

The 9 Things You'll Need for Civic Engagement Using Mobile Phones

I started writing a discussion of "What Makes a Good Tool for 'Mobile Civic and Social Innovation' " but it just kept getting longer and longer to the point that even I'd had enough, let alone anyone else reading it.

So here is the short version (which has turned out to be useful and surprising to put down like this):

1: works on any mobile phone, straight away
2: no registration
3: post but not pre moderation (you mostly won't need either)
4: partnerships (a way to get your call to action out to people)
5: a well worded call to action
6: examples for participants to follow
7: an awareness of the context: who is here? what do they want?
8: an archive that values the responses and keeps them in context
9: access to the archive from any mobile phone, straight away

The problem with putting these 9 points down like this though, is that they are based on nearly 10 years of experimenting, succeeding and failing to create civic engagement through mobile phones, and so even if (when) I've got them wrong, I know inside-out what all my reasons for, and discussions about, each of the points would be.

But it might not be so clear to anyone else what they mean or why?

So, questions, comments and doubts are very welcome.

The Mk 2 Machine in Action

The Mk 2 Magical Monstervision Machine in action capturing monsters in Lancaster.

Big thank yous to Paul Coulton and the cell of inventors in Lancaster.

Magical Monstervision Machine

I've been in communication with a cell of eccentric inventors based in a ramshackle unmarked building deep in the grounds of Lancaster University.

These inventors have built a Magical Monstervision Machine, which can be used to reveal the presence of the ancient monsters that lurk on our city streets, invisible to human eyes.

Trials are still at their earliest stages, but last week I successfully used a Magical Monstervision Machine Mark 1 to discover for the first time several monsters in their lairs.

Here are the secret blueprints of the Mark 2 Machine.

Your computer will now self-destruct in 10, 9, 8...

Obama's Cairo Speech by SMS

Highlights of Obama's Cairo speech tomorrow (June 4th) are being "broadcast" by SMS, and comments can be sent back by SMS.

The only snag I can see with this is that you still need web access to sign up, which might cut down the number of people who can and do sign up from the developing world - I wonder if they have also used regional radio stations to broadcast a way of signing up by SMS?

That would be easily done, so if not, maybe their SMS gateway (Clickatell) are worried about it being so popular it actually costs them a bit of money - which it bloody well should do considering they have got their logo right underneath Obama's picture in connection with what might be a historic moment.

Here is where you go to submit your phone number, but no registration process.

Three words that can get you damned

I've been a bit unsure about using the phrase "call to action" as a quick way of describing things like a poster at a bus stop asking "Where were you happiest to arrive and why?"

Partly because it feels like one of those phrases it's easy to repeat so often it becomes meaningless, and partly because it makes me think of marketing.

But then I had look on wikipedia and found that Call to Action is also a left wing Catholic group in the US, which if you join you automatically get excommunicated by the Bishop of Nebraska - no trial, no right of appeal, straight to Hell.

Three words that can get you damned can't be all bad.