fisharepeopletoo

Seems like it is all just words after all

The rhythm of "today" from Pretweeting.

Isn't it beautiful?

Here is something else beautiful about the rhythm of today.

We are reading and writing more than ever.

But  that writing has to have a voice - it has to be "speaking in text".

Wordsworth described poetry as "a man speaking to men".

My street? No, My Street!

in Salford.

For 36 pence a click.

If you live in London, go on Facebook and are a writer...

look out for our Battersea Poems ad, it's aimed at you, for 36p a click.

The Two Kinds of Twitter User: Seneca the Younger and Samuel Pepys

Twitter users, and even one "tweet" and the next, are at different places on the private-broadcast scale of social media.

The twitter user Samuel Pepys, for example, is down near the private end - he's chatty and everyday, describing everything from what he had for his tea to frolics that involve dressing up in wigs and leaping around.

He's also indiscreet and naive, and hasn't yet realised that when he tweets about an evening with his mistress, he's telling the whole world.

Seneca the Younger, based in Rome, is at the other end of the scale.

His every message is a carefully crafted nugget perfectly designed to be tweeted and retweeted for ever.

And he never links or retweets because he is, in fact, the source of all wisdom.

[square brackets]
["tweet" and "twitter" -- those words still say so so much.]

Comedy Buzzwordology or A Shred of Something Meaningful by Accident?

I used "hyperlocal poetry" as a joke at first.

But when I look at the Battersea Poems page on Thumbprint, I wonder if even though it sounds crap, it does describe something real.

What the Battersea Poems writers are doing, collectively but anonymously, is making a shared meaning for Battersea as they understand it.

A process that anyone can contribute to who has a mobile phone.

Despite the marvellous technology behind it, this is and should be a folk process.

Naming the subject and archive of this process after Battersea adds a real and graspable layer of meaning.

Two of these men is Andrew Wilson

Me with Andrew Wilson, in a queue for the bar at a conference. 

Andrew is the second of us I've met in real life.

We are many. Andrew is also the rugby league correspondent of the Guardian, for example.

There are almost as many of us as our mortal enemies, the John Smiths. A curse on him.

Blot Out the Artists!

I had a smashing time at the Hide and Seek Weekender.

The Magical Monstervision Machine Mk2 and Spotter's Guide got a very positive response from families and children, and there were some unexpected insights.

The Fluffy Orange Pencil Case brought many monsters to life.

But most of all, having lots of children running around made the always unselfconscious and enthusiastic Sandpit atmosphere into one of the warmest and most enjoyable events I've been involved in.

Big thanks yous to the Cell of Inventors for the Monstervision Machine, Holly, Alex and Rosie for the invitation to such a fantastic event and Aoife for helping out on the day so ably.

The Birthday of Mixed Reality Moment

If there is now a corner of our head space that is laid out by being connected to everyone, anywhere, all the time, then it has a birthday.

In the UK it's the period between 1998 and 2001, by the end of which it felt annoying to have to make arrangements with someone who didn't have a mobile phone, even for people like me who had only just got a mobile phone themselves!

(Not having one now seems like a quaint if mannered fashion choice.)

In Finland and Japan the birthday is earlier? In America later? In Africa still to come?

And the closest comparison?

Mass literacy?

That is over stating it (though maybe not in Africa, for economic reasons) and it's not quite a direct comparison.

But being able to read is a head space.

Novels and newspapers were made to go in it. As were train timetables.

If there is a mixed reality head space, what goes in it?

Where Does Alicious Likkerish Live?

She lives at  N 51 30.397 W 000 07.035 that's where!

So beware!

ThumbBrum

Thumbprint Birmingham is now up and running thanks to a request from the emergent gamers of Barg 

Manchester, London and Birmingham at the moment.

A constellation of cities feels right somehow, especially if we could devolve enough power down to each city for them all to be different while sharing the best innovations from each among them all.

But that's a long way in the future, depending on whether Thumbprint turns out to be meaningful and valuable.

Nice to have Barg involved now though - "this is not an acronym" - what other slogan could anyone ever need!