In the field… 2010-01-21

January 21st, 2010 § 0

  • 5 years? crikey. #

Five.

January 21st, 2010 § 0

We’ve been having lots of meeting about the show. I mean, lots. I’m not really a big meeting lover so usually this would be particularly difficult. This last few weeks though, have been fantastic as a whole lot of new names have entered my address book. This week alone there’s been stadiums, olympics, design, editors and much fun. One of the recurrent questions in the conversations about the show however, and often posed by people on a first meeting, has been, “what are you going to do for the anniversary?”

Honestly, it hadn’t even occurred to me.

The project is going to be five years old this year. Just thinking of the stress, new friends, risks, amazing talks, stupid mistakes and general adventure makes me come over a little nostalgic and slightly sick. I think what’s surprising me most is that it doesn’t feel five years old at all – not just in a “we’re so young and fresh” kind of way – but in a “we still don’t really understand *exactly* what it is” kind of way. We’re getting a lot closer, but there are still a lot of elements of the show that remain wilfully, stubbornly obscure and long may they remain so. Which isn’t to say we’re not trying to formulate parts of it…
I sat down with Allen this morning for breakfast to start to try and model what a more robust, transferable foundation for the show might be. Not terms of the spirit & feelings it might inspire, I think we more or less have that down, but in terms of how we make the right structure to allow others to play too. Every year the event has grown more and more complex, and whilst it hasn’t felt especially bigger in scale (from my perspective, anyway) the challenges have kept shifting with every new invention.
So, over coffee we started sketching out how we could best create easier ways for third parties to use the show if they wanted to – be they audience, developers, students, parents, whoever… What would an a.p.i. for a festival look like?

Notes.

T-shirts are interesting.

Don’t ever, ever, ever write work emails late at night.

In the field… 2010-01-20

January 20th, 2010 § 0

  • trying to work out some knitting puns… #
  • I am overwhelmed and a little touched by the volume and quality of knitting puns. We shall crowd-source all future press releases… #

In the field… 2010-01-19

January 19th, 2010 § 0

  • …has done some world-class apologising today. Now looking forward with fresh optimism to the count-down to the UltraParty… #
  • is equally excited by both the partnership and pun-potential of this new activity… #

In the field… 2010-01-18

January 18th, 2010 § 0

  • pages full-screen, more coffee, following @drjimmy recommendations and working to ambient electronica which I've never done before. #
  • has resolved never to write work email late at night ever, ever again. #
  • …off to talk about the olympics in the first of my two stadium visits this week. #

In the field… 2010-01-17

January 17th, 2010 § 0

  • We've come a long way since that exploding cake, Robin. #

In the field… 2010-01-13

January 13th, 2010 § 0

  • Should be writing more stuff for @drjimmy but instead am writing this. He won't be pleased. #

In the field… 2010-01-12

January 12th, 2010 § 0

  • stripped schedule board today, flipped postcards, shamefully thought of all the folks i have to catch up with… #
  • tom chatfield appears to have a feature in everything I read this week. Anyone going on weds? #

In the field… 2010-01-11

January 11th, 2010 § 0

  • Sorry to everyone I owe bits of writing to… Moving through the list, honestly (just slowly)… #

tool notes.

January 10th, 2010 § 0

2010.

Despite the snow, something of a frenzy so far this year.

All machines flattened and formatted with Snow Leopard, all archive data properly organised, active dropbox folder wholly ordered, omnifocus engaged and even occasionally used, iPhoto library de-duped even DevonThink working nicely and syncing across machines. I’m now diving down into a frenzied few weeks of planning and writing, there’s lots that needs to be done by the end of the month.

A real, concerted attempt to slim down and focus with a clear distinction between the ‘car’ and the ‘bike’. @DrJimmy was telling reading someone using this analogy earlier last year for describing different machines having clear, focussed purposes and capabilities accordingly. This really helps with planning work.

Inventory in brief.

Home.

Mac Pro -
writing / audio / video – any heavy lifting.

Mobile – In my bag always…
MacBook Air
BB Curve 3900
iPod Touch
Zoom  H2

Software

email
browser based gApps / Mailplane on the mba for offline (gears still sporadically ropey under Snow Leopard)

Scheduling
gApps / gCal (synced locally via Busysync / tight task link from Omnifocus)

Docs / groupware -
OpenAtrium (GameCity / Takahashi Playground)

Writing/ Notetaking
Scrivener (synced via Dropbox)
Nottingham (synced via MobileMe)

Browsing
Safari (but edging toward Chrome which I’m really enjoying)

Presentation
Keynote

Research
DevonThink

Notes

Install less.

Your mobile computer should be mobile, but that doesn’t mean you want a Netbook.

More lists, less GTD, more stuff done.

Make lists into time in iCal, otherwise they’re useless.

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