Made me smile: defining creativity

Links for 2009-07-26 [del.icio.us]

• euansemple.com - The Obvious? - Don't just do something stand there
  The following tweet from Tim O'Reilly just got me thinking about why I don't feel drawn to many of the "change the world" conferences that seem to take place all the time. "George Church: In a changing world, inaction can be the radical "action" It relates to my old favourite "to rescue someone is to oppress them". I am less interested in coercing people into moving towards a new way of doing things so much as stripping some of the crap away to let what has always been there thrive and survive.
• The Digital Backpack Universe - BLC09 page
  Track the superb BLC09 conference in Boston this week with a bespoke Netvibes page.
• Two-way Search (Scripting News)
  Here's the idea -- if the search engine knew a little about me, it could give more relevant answers. But it's too much trouble to enter demographic info, and I might not want to share that with the search engine company. But... There's a single piece of data that unlocks a vast trove of preference information -- the address of my weblog. From that it would be obvious that I live in the Bay Area and am involved in tech. So when I ask about New York style pizza, you might include places in Berkeley in the search results. When I search for a driver, I'm probably not looking for someone who drives a car. It goes on and on. Permalink to this paragraph

Links for 2009-07-25 [del.icio.us]

• Stupeflix - Video production made easy
  Stupeflix is a REST web service that turns your pictures, videos, and text into professional videos.

Links for 2009-07-24 [del.icio.us]

• wordpress dissected » CogDogBlog
  my collection of WordPress Dissected where I break down web sites I have been building using WordPress but with some moderate to severe template wrangling.
• Accept What Is — Don’t Judge as Good or Bad
  “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” - William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”
• Benjamin Zander on music and passion | Video on TED.com
  Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it -- and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections.

Links for 2009-07-23 [del.icio.us]

• Matt Webb: Scope (Acts not facts)
  And what he could have said is this: when you have a design problem you will think of two ways to do things and you’ll make a choice, but actually there’s aren’t two ways but there are two hundred, so you should do the design work and invent a good one. But he didn’t bother saying that—he just did it. He drew the two hundred faces. Acts not facts.
• Matt Webb: Scope (Macroscopes)
  “A macroscope is something that helps us see what the aggregation of many small actions looks like when added together.” Scientists have microscopes. Astronomers and peeping toms have telescopes. Designers, in order to see the very big, in order to see culture, which is much bigger than any one of us personally, have macroscopes. The way I think of a macroscope is as something that shows you where you are, and where you are within something much bigger—simultaneously, so you can comprehend something much vaster than you suddenly in a human way, at a human scale, in the heart.
• Matt Webb - Scope - reboot video
  Matt Webb and his opening presentation at reboot 11. Scope - Design and contributing to culture; ourselves as individuals and the big picture; taking action.
• Matt Webb: Scope (The body becomes all eyes)
  There’s this idea in Kalarippayattu that you reach with your body an optimal state of awareness and readiness [p19], where you’re instinctively and intuitively ready for anything, and it’s as if, and I quote, “the body becomes all eyes.”
• Matt Webb: Scope (100 hours to get good at something)
  After 100 hours, you’re pretty good at something. Imagine putting in 8 hours a week – one working day a week – every week for the next three months. 100 hours is nothing, but you’d be really pretty good. You could learn to dance, or to draw, or to program. Driving only takes 30 hours to learn. It’s rare you put a consistent 100 hours practice into something, but it’d be worth it I think.
• Matt Webb: Scope (Practice)
  “when people start learning something new, they perceive the world around them differently. If you start learning how to play the guitar, suddenly the guitar stands out in all the music you listen to. [...] as more and more people have access to things like iMovie, they begin to understand the manipulative power of editing. Watching reality TV almost becomes like a game as you try to second-guess how the editor is trying to manipulate you.”
• Summer At MoMA
  With so much to choose from at MoMA this summer, you may need a little help planning your visit. Our customized MoMA summer planner will tailor your MoMA experience based on your profile and personality.

edinburghmsc: via @sbayne: Senior learning technologist post at Leicester: http://tinyurl.com/ntklfp

edinburghmsc: via @sbayne: Senior learning technologist post at Leicester: http://tinyurl.com/ntklfp

Links for 2009-07-22 [del.icio.us]

• blethers: Linguistic creativity
  But the most memorable of her words is one which is all her own. Catriona hates having sticky hands or a dirty face - indeed, does not like anything to be messy, wet (mouillé - including the pool!) or untidy (brings on the need to "rangé" - arrange - the books, toys or whatever). Because of this urge to be clean, she is always demanding a damp wipe, like the one which which she is daintily dabbing ice cream off her face in the picture - in a cafe in Colle di Val d'Elsa. The French word for these wipes is "lingette". But usually she uses them for her hands - "mains" in French - and so she demands a "maingette".
• We Make Stories
  For kids, a follow-on from WeTellStories: This is a world full of stories where YOU are the Storymaker and can choose all sorts of ways to tell your tale. Here you can create your own story, share it with friends and visit the gallery to see what other Storymakers have made.
• acrossair | Nearest Tube Augmented Reality iPhone 3GS App
  One of the first augmented reality apps to go live in the iPhone AppStore. Forget boring 2D tube maps! Try this amazing new application that tells Londoners where their nearest tube station is via their iPhones video function. When you load the app, holding it flat, all 13 lines of the London underground are displayed in coloured arrows. By tilting the phone upwards, you will see the nearest stations: what direction they are in relation to your location, how many kilometres and miles away they are and what tube lines they are on. If you continue to tilt the phone upwards, you will see stations further away, as stacked icons. Only available to Apple iPhone 3GS users.
• Can Social Games Make More Money?
  Social games take in only $1-2 per month, compared to $60 trad video games. But they could become more interesting and more profitable with a change in thinking: A common problem with current social games, Reynolds said, is that they don’t make players’ choices interesting over time, instead “burying the player in tedious repetitive clicking.” The challenge is improving the games’ progression curve, so players get steadily increasing rewards (points, virtual money and items) to encourage continued play. He believes simply refining this would instantly make social games more fun to play.

Seeing a bilingual baby grow

Our weeks in Italy and France were super relaxing but, above all, marked a real transition from our little baby into a wee girl, as Catriona's language really started to take off. Everything was repeated, remembered, brought back later on. She was even greeting the Italian airport staff with a 'ciao' as we left.

This playful, fun, engaging interaction of the everyday was made all the more sharp in focus as I turned the pages of the life-changing Art of Possibility (more on that later), and my mum has written a lovely post encapsulating how we all have the potential to be hugely creative and spongelike if we want to be:

...The most memorable of her words is one which is all her own. Catriona hates having sticky hands or a dirty face - indeed, does not like anything to be messy, wet (mouillé - including the pool!) or untidy (brings on the need to "rangé" - arrange - the books, toys or whatever). Because of this urge to be clean, she is always demanding a damp wipe, like the one which which she is daintily dabbing ice cream off her face in this picture - in a cafe in Colle di Val d'Elsa. The French word for these wipes is "lingette". But usually she uses them for her hands - "mains" in French - and so she demands a "maingette".

Catriona's spending another week in France as her dad gets back into the work of finalising contracts and building things. I just hope she hasn't excelled my own French by the time she comes home.

edinburghmsc: via @sbayne: Bad games colloquium in Bristol 18 July: 'drugs! sex! fear!' www.playfulsubjects.org

edinburghmsc: via @sbayne: Bad games colloquium in Bristol 18 July: 'drugs! sex! fear!' www.playfulsubjects.org

edinburghmsc: via @flittleton: Interesting Web3D article in Innovate (thanks Youenn) http://bit.ly/IYeqE

edinburghmsc: via @flittleton: Interesting Web3D article in Innovate (thanks Youenn) http://bit.ly/IYeqE

edinburghmsc: via @flittleton: Interesting new Time cover on Twitter by Stephen Johnson "Everything Bad is Good For You" : http://bit.ly/R5PMx

edinburghmsc: via @flittleton: Interesting new Time cover on Twitter by Stephen Johnson "Everything Bad is Good For You" : http://bit.ly/R5PMx

edinburghmsc: via @s0793898: Don't know when it happened but you can now filter Google image search by creative commons licences

edinburghmsc: via @s0793898: Don't know when it happened but you can now filter Google image search by creative commons licences

edinburghmsc: via @sbayne: The fourth JISC international online conference www.jisc.ac.uk/elpconference09

edinburghmsc: via @sbayne: The fourth JISC international online conference www.jisc.ac.uk/elpconference09

Links for 2009-07-13 [del.icio.us]

• The Ed Techie: The Keynote Equivalent?
  eing invited, and giving, keynotes is often listed as one of the marks of esteem if you are seeking promotion. The reasons are twofold I believe: Reputation - it demonstrates that you have gained significant standing in your field to be asked regularly to give a keynote talk at a conference. Impact - if you are giving the keynote then everyone at the conference hears it, and you can therefore claim a significant impact in your subject. The important element then is not the keynote itself, but what it signifies. If we start with this basis, then we can think of online equivalents. For example, if I give a talk and then put up a slidecast of that presentation, a certain number of views might equate to impact (how many people would hear a live presentation?). If the presentation is retweeted, linked to, embedded, then this might give an indication of reputation.

edinburghmsc: via @sbayne: International Conference of Networked Learning, Denmark, 3rd & 4th May 2010 http://www.networkedlearningconference.org.uk/

edinburghmsc: via @sbayne: International Conference of Networked Learning, Denmark, 3rd & 4th May 2010 http://www.networkedlearningconference.org.uk/

edinburghmsc: via @jimwolffman: Innovating e-Learning Online Conference 09: http://tinyurl.com/lfb99g - via @digitalmaverick @Angrybeth @JISC

edinburghmsc: via @jimwolffman: Innovating e-Learning Online Conference 09: http://tinyurl.com/lfb99g - via @digitalmaverick @Angrybeth @JISC

Links for 2009-07-12 [del.icio.us]

• ITO - Compelling UK Travel Maps
  ITO provides free online products to the UK transport sector to improve the quality of key public transport datasets under contracts with the Department for Transport and Traveline. ITO can provide compelling public-facing publicity information for any location in the UK and is developing powerful information analysis and presentation capabilities.
• Taverna Agia Fotini
  Situated in a secluded bay and literally perched at the water's edge, you can fall asleep to the sound of the waves after a perfect meal of freshly caught and perfectly cooked fish and a carafe of local wine.
• YouTube - A visit to AudioBoo
  Mark Rock, whose company makes the web audio sharing service AudioBoo, takes Rory Cellan-Jones around the offices and shows him what they are up to.
• CRC | Reports and Data | Rural Services Data Series: Availability of Services Output Area Data 2009
  This is an Output Area file which contains a measure of distance from households to various services for England, this file has been made available to allow users to develop their own bespoke analysis of access to services data.
• Every quango in Britain | News | guardian.co.uk
  Did you know there are nearly 1,200 unelected bodies with power over our lives? This is the full list, complete with number of staff and how much they cost. As a spreadsheet
• BBC - Today - AudioBoo
  The biggest phenomenon on the internet for the last couple of years has been video. From YouTube to the BBC's iPlayer, moving pictures seem to be what people want from the web. But could the next revolution involve something rather closer to our hearts here on the Today Programme? Websites are springing up encouraging people to record sounds and share them over the internet. One of the more successful is a British firm which has come up with a service called AudioBoo. Technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones explains how the UK sound-sharing website works.
• Biking the Great Divide
  My mate Ollie and two chums cycling from Canada to Mexico and blogging all the way... Cycling 2780 miles (4474km) from Canada to Mexico

edinburghmsc: via @jar: #thewebis a good tag to keep an eye out for over the next few days.

edinburghmsc: via @jar: #thewebis a good tag to keep an eye out for over the next few days.

edinburghmsc: via @sbayne: Research Associate post at Bradford on 'the student experience': http://tiny.cc/gOC6H

edinburghmsc: via @sbayne: Research Associate post at Bradford on 'the student experience': http://tiny.cc/gOC6H

edinburghmsc: via @sbayne: PhD studentship at Glasgow Caledonian - Being a Learner - http://www.jobs.ac.uk/jobs/SO866/

edinburghmsc: via @sbayne: PhD studentship at Glasgow Caledonian - Being a Learner - http://www.jobs.ac.uk/jobs/SO866/

Links for 2009-07-04 [del.icio.us]

• MiLK - The Mobile Learning Kit
  Teachers can now design everyday learning activities using mobile phones and the internet. For students this makes events such as excursions, group discussions, and questionnaires all the more engaging. Using MiLK students can create their own learning profiles, discuss topics with other students and teachers, share ideas, photos, comments, and most importantly, design their own learning events.
• Mobilise Your Imagination - CipherCities
  Build, Play and Share Games Anytime Anywhere
• Malcolm Gladwell reviews Free by Chris Anderson: Books: The New Yorker
  There are four strands of argument here: a technological claim (digital infrastructure is effectively Free), a psychological claim (consumers love Free), a procedural claim (Free means never having to make a judgment), and a commercial claim (the market created by the technological Free and the psychological Free can make you a lot of money). The only problem is that in the middle of laying out what he sees as the new business model of the digital age Anderson is forced to admit that one of his main case studies, YouTube, “has so far failed to make any money for Google.”

Blog break

I'll be offline for the next couple of weeks recharging the inbuilt, solid-state batteries. In the meantime, I've closed comments on posts over a month old to limit those who choose to pummel me with cold meat. See you soon, and while you're here, play nicely without me...;-)

Links for 2009-07-03 [del.icio.us]

• TrustedPlaces one step closer to profitability thanks to LocalPeople
  The sites focus on communities of between 10,000 and 50,000 users, and blend Northcliffe’s local news and traditional media assets like classifieds and job ads with TrustedPlaces’ local business directories and social media elements, to create an ad-funded community publishing platform.

edinburghmsc: via @shugod: http://www.etni.org.il/virirc5.htm

edinburghmsc: via @shugod: http://www.etni.org.il/virirc5.htm

edinburghmsc: via @sbayne: Social media: trends and implications for learning. Free online seminars. http://AACE.org/GlobalU/seminars/socialmedia/

edinburghmsc: via @sbayne: Social media: trends and implications for learning. Free online seminars. http://AACE.org/GlobalU/seminars/socialmedia/