Hugh Garry

5 things I liked this week - 26/11/10

1. How Twitter users balanced the budget - crowdsourcing and infographics from the New York Times

2. Nesta's paper on Serious Games - Pretty compehensive coverage on a hot topic

3. All Day by Girl Talk Mash Up Break Down - Data driven visualisation of the latest album by Girl Talk. We've recently been looking for a soloution to how we visualise Annie Mac's Mini Mix

4. Can 'Double Screening' hinder producers - The Guardian questions the effect of SM on the media. Will TV suffer the 'faster horses' effect?

5. Where do ideas come from - I don't necessarily agree with all of Seth's list but do like 'Ideas come from our ego, and they do their best when they're generous and selfless'

Plus

Simon Pegg's Nerd Do Well graphic novel/autobiography iphone app - this looks promising. I'll have a play with it on the train

Twitter Racing

Earlier this year I had a meeting with Newsbeat to help them think about some creative digital ideas around the election. One of the insights was that young people think that their vote counts for nothing. I suggested we create something physical (like a car on a racetrack) that moves every time someone tweets '#vote'. The idea being that they would watch their '#vote' make the car progress around the track on a webcam throughout the news report.

For various reasons it never happened. So, me being me, I pestered the genius that is Dr Patrick Sinclair to give the idea some thought for the future. He brought in Nick Humfrey and together they built this:

It's Scalextrix powered by Twitter and SMS. The more feedback we get from our listeners the faster the car goes. We can have 2 separate hashtags which would create a Twitter race if we wanted. As a proof of concept it's done a great job in getting on-air to think creatively about where we can take it. Turntables, running machines and demolition have all been mooted as replacements for the racetrack.

Despite Gillian McKeith's brave attempts do dominate Twitter this week Zane Lowe's Masterpieces managed to knock her of the top trending spot thanks to the amazing amount of conversation around the shows. Masterpieces is a really great feature, brilliant in its simplicity and something that we've really nurtured over the years.

We started Masterpieces in 2007 and soon realised that conversation around the show was strong. We started holding listening parties in Facerbook, we created Wordles of audience feedback and this year blitzed the studios of Radio 1 with printed out tweets. Like voting, it's easy for our audience to think that their tweets comments and SMS interactions with Radio 1 vanish into a digital puff of smoke. They couldn't be more wrong.

As a public service broadcaster we have a responsibility to our audience to make best use of their interactions with the network. As social media has grown it's become even more difficult to acknowledge the comments, suggestions, photos or simple 'Hello's' that stream in via SMS, Twitter and Facebook. We do try and have had some fun giving our audience digital rewards.

Taking on challenges like this can be great if you have hugely talented people like Patrick and Nick to call upon when you need something building. Coupled with the great creative minds of our producers working on how you translate to raw ideas into great digital/radio features you can expect some interesting happenings in this area in the coming months.

 

Private Eye is watching me

So, until 10am this morning I wasn't even aware of Private Eye's 'Birtspeak 2.0' column until this tweet landed in my stream:

It turns out my innovation session on 'gamification' has caught the attention of Private Eye who quoted me in their Birtspeak 2.0 section. If you don't know Birtspeak is 'convoluted and impenetrable jargon', the likes of which people employed by the British Broadcasting Corporation excel in.

I must admit to feeling quite proud, I'm in some very good company. I was tweeted by the awesome Roo Reynolds telling me he had featured previously, whilst Jem Stone assured me that far greater people than myself have been on the receiving end of the feature.

I'm currently reading Chip and Dan Heath's 'Made to Stick', a brilliant book that talks about 'the curse of knowledge' and how when we know something we assume everyone else does which results in us becoming lousy communicators:

"JFK dodged the Curse (with “put a man on the moon in a decade”). If he’d been a modern-day politician or CEO, he’d probably have said, “Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry, using our capacity for technological innovation to build a bridge towards humanity’s future.” That might have set a moon walk back fifteen years.”

As for as I'm aware I wasn't misquoted. I probably did say it all. Word for actual word. Sounds like something I'd say. Especially the 'inspiration leap-off point for brainstorming' - I'm all over that stuff like a tramp on a tray of chips.

5 things I liked this week

I guess the description is in the title...

1. Why Twitter matters for media organisations by Alan Rusbridger 

Decent piece in the Guardian stating 15 great reasons why us media types love Twitter.

2. Metaphwoar! by Poke for Internet Week

Great talks from some clever people on metaphors. I've always said there is a football metaphor for everything in life... Jess Greenwood gives her baseball metaphwoar!

3. Post Digital - An Apology by Russell Davies

It's a phrase that has been used and misused a lot this year. Russell clears up what his vision of 'post digital' is.

4. The story of Polaroid inventor Edward Land one of Steve Jobs' biggest heroes

Nice article on invention and discovery. "The world is like a fertile field that’s waiting to be harvested. The seeds have been planted, and what I do is go out and help plant more seeds and harvest them."

5. The full uncut Jay-Z Daily Show interview with Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart and Jay-Z chat about the differences in gauging the success of rap vs rock n roll and how having to hustle early on has turned rap stars into entrepreneurs. Jay-Z also wears a very nice jumper.

Authenticity is invaluable

Originality is non-existant.

Tanzania: 30,000 smiles later

Since arriving back from Tanzania I've struggled to put into words how good the trip was. So, I thought I'd let my photos do the talking.

The beauty of The Great Football Giveaway is summed up in this picture. You give £10 towards a ball and we put it in the hands of a child who needs it. Simple.

The boy in the picture is holding a hand made ball in front of a hand painted advert for a sports channel. We pulled over and gave him a new ball, probably the first new ball he had ever kicked. Perhaps one day he will be the painted picture on the wall.

This is Freddy. His mother died and he ran away from his mentally ill father who was a danger to him. We came across him and many other incredible children at an orphanage outside Dar Es Salaam. As well as providing the orphanage with loads of footballs and netballs we gave them $1000 to continue doing their brilliant work.

You can read our travel blog here and find out more about the Great Football Giveaway here. Also you can donate money here.

Finally, I wanted to thank you all for your incredible generosity in helping us raise over £10,000. You are amazing! As are my fellow travellers who committed a huge amount of their personal time and money to bring happiness to the children of South East Tanzania:

The man who brought us together and played father to all was Neil Perkin. The men I shared a room with and annoyed with my late night podcast listening habits were Gooner Matt Kandela and hippo fan Willem Van Der Horst. The smartest 25 year old I've ever met was Thomas (T-Bone) Wagner. Chef Bjorn and Justine Van Der Horst who take card playing and food tasting to new levels of expertise. Chief coach and always willing to take one for the team Darren Robson. Last and by no means least, a man I'd describe as being a cross between Bill Hicks and Hans Christian Anderson with a hint of Louis CK thrown in for good measure Steve Farrell.