Comments [0]
Feb 12
Design Week asked me about The Public Gallery, this is what I said
What should happen to the digital artworks which were supposed to go on
display in West Bromwich's Public Gallery, which has closed before it even
opened?'
The Public is in danger of seeming a grand digital 'folly' (in the architectural sense). The gallery seems to be integral to the building - physically and conceptually. Finding a new home for the digital artworks would be obvious, but the hole left behind could be difficult to fill. They should stay for now. Rather this needs someone with a passion for the region's digital economy to create a business plan to get the space functioning quickly and sustainably.
Comments [0]
Jan 7
With most of the songs on the radio these days, you already know how they go. You can just hear them in your head. So why actually play them? We use the simple suggestive power of the mere mention of a catchy song to start that tune playing in your brain.
Like this: "U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer. And now, like magic, you can hear it.
But instead of having that song stuck in your head all day and driving you nuts - we play you another tune in a little while to dislodge that one, and replace it with another. Hence radio - and silent.
Like, for instance "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" by Kylie Minogue (La la la - la la la laaa la... ) See?
Stef and I have a lot of ideas. It's what we like to do. We look for them everywhere and in everything - and we do it very deliberately. We both love music, so that's a recurring theme. The way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. We throw out dozens of them, and have become very good at identifying the ones we think are the most fun.
Fortunately, Stef knows how to very quickly make fun ideas into stylish and functional web applications. Twadio was 15 hours of solid work over as many cups of coffee in one weekend.
Stef is the 30 year-old super entrepreneur, Courvoisier 'Top 5 Future 500' person, Webby award-winning developer, graphic designer and founder of what will undoubtedly be 2009's hottest UK-based web property, Odadeo.com - a social network for Dads. He's a bit of a genius.
Dubber (that's me) is a 41 year-old Senior Lecturer in Music Industries and an AHRC Knowledge Transfer Fellow at Birmingham City University, music industry consultant, public speaker and author of New Music Strategies (http://newmusicstrategies.com). Being this old, and having worked for 20 years in radio stations, means that I can remember a lot of pop songs.
Simple. If they're on Twitter, they follow @tweejay. If they're not on Twitter, they join Twitter, then follow @tweejay. We've made that a very simple process on the website (http://twadio.com)
Using a simple update on Twitter, the Tweejay announces a song every 15 minutes. There's a link back to that song's page on twadio.com, in case the 'listener' wants to be reminded of what it actually sounds like - or if they want to buy the mp3.
Otherwise, it's as simple as reading the message in your twitter stream, and humming happily to yourself.
We've already had requests for a "lite" version that updates less often - so that's next. And we're thinking of a song-a-day version that will choose one 'earworm' to get stuck for the whole day. That one will come with an email option. Check your inbox in the morning, and find you're stuck with Blue Monday all day. Neat.
The Tweejay picks. At present, she has carte blanche from a list of a couple of thousand tunes that we've provided her. She's pretty poptastic in her selections, but she has the largest range of any hit radio station in the country that we're aware of. Also, she's a robot.
Sometimes - and we're looking at formalising this process. In the meantime, send a message to the Tweejay, and see how you get on. She may not like it, and as I say - she gets to choose. But if she has it in her collection, and she thinks it's cool - who knows?
Everything from "This is genius!" and "Wheee!! Madonna!" to "I don't like this sort of music."
Yep - this is our answer to that last point. Think of this as Twadio 1. It's our flagship pop station, but we have experts in a range of scenes and genres ready to populate playlists full of country, hip hop, 70s funk, jazz, soul, reggae - and lots more besides. We're going to be the silent digital multiplex.
We're also broadening the range of the main station to include cooler stuff, because our research indicates that Twitter users are cooler than other people. So, Death Cab for Cutie, Glasvegas and MGMT will probably start to appear. I've already thrown out the James Blunt records.
So far, I've been excited by 'Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy' by Kid Creole and the Coconuts, which had me doing a bit of a chair-dance on the bus, and you can't beat 'I Love Rock & Roll' by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts for getting stuck deep in your brain and following you around all day.
Officially, though - I like jazz. Serious jazz.
'Agadoo' by Black Lace. No question. That and the 'Macarena' have been banned. Too hard to replace them once they're in there. People have gone mad. Just the mere mention of them can... oh. Sorry.
An interview with Andrew Dubber about Twadio
Newslite.tv interviewed us about Twadio.com - silent radio for Twitter.
Here's what Andrew Dubber (@dubber on Twitter) said...
Here's what Andrew Dubber (@dubber on Twitter) said...
What is a silent radio station?
With most of the songs on the radio these days, you already know how they go. You can just hear them in your head. So why actually play them? We use the simple suggestive power of the mere mention of a catchy song to start that tune playing in your brain.
Like this: "U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer. And now, like magic, you can hear it.
But instead of having that song stuck in your head all day and driving you nuts - we play you another tune in a little while to dislodge that one, and replace it with another. Hence radio - and silent.
Like, for instance "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" by Kylie Minogue (La la la - la la la laaa la... ) See?
Where did the idea come from?
Stef and I have a lot of ideas. It's what we like to do. We look for them everywhere and in everything - and we do it very deliberately. We both love music, so that's a recurring theme. The way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. We throw out dozens of them, and have become very good at identifying the ones we think are the most fun.
Fortunately, Stef knows how to very quickly make fun ideas into stylish and functional web applications. Twadio was 15 hours of solid work over as many cups of coffee in one weekend.
Who is behind Twadio? (names, ages, occupations)
Stef is the 30 year-old super entrepreneur, Courvoisier 'Top 5 Future 500' person, Webby award-winning developer, graphic designer and founder of what will undoubtedly be 2009's hottest UK-based web property, Odadeo.com - a social network for Dads. He's a bit of a genius.
Dubber (that's me) is a 41 year-old Senior Lecturer in Music Industries and an AHRC Knowledge Transfer Fellow at Birmingham City University, music industry consultant, public speaker and author of New Music Strategies (http://newmusicstrategies.com). Being this old, and having worked for 20 years in radio stations, means that I can remember a lot of pop songs.
How does it work for a user? (basic explanation)
Simple. If they're on Twitter, they follow @tweejay. If they're not on Twitter, they join Twitter, then follow @tweejay. We've made that a very simple process on the website (http://twadio.com)
Using a simple update on Twitter, the Tweejay announces a song every 15 minutes. There's a link back to that song's page on twadio.com, in case the 'listener' wants to be reminded of what it actually sounds like - or if they want to buy the mp3.
Otherwise, it's as simple as reading the message in your twitter stream, and humming happily to yourself.
Do you have any plans to use delivery methods other than twitter? (emails, widgets ...)
We've already had requests for a "lite" version that updates less often - so that's next. And we're thinking of a song-a-day version that will choose one 'earworm' to get stuck for the whole day. That one will come with an email option. Check your inbox in the morning, and find you're stuck with Blue Monday all day. Neat.
Who picks the songs which are played?
The Tweejay picks. At present, she has carte blanche from a list of a couple of thousand tunes that we've provided her. She's pretty poptastic in her selections, but she has the largest range of any hit radio station in the country that we're aware of. Also, she's a robot.
Do you 'play' requests?
Sometimes - and we're looking at formalising this process. In the meantime, send a message to the Tweejay, and see how you get on. She may not like it, and as I say - she gets to choose. But if she has it in her collection, and she thinks it's cool - who knows?
What has users response been like?
Everything from "This is genius!" and "Wheee!! Madonna!" to "I don't like this sort of music."
Are there plans for more stations with different styles of music?
Yep - this is our answer to that last point. Think of this as Twadio 1. It's our flagship pop station, but we have experts in a range of scenes and genres ready to populate playlists full of country, hip hop, 70s funk, jazz, soul, reggae - and lots more besides. We're going to be the silent digital multiplex.
We're also broadening the range of the main station to include cooler stuff, because our research indicates that Twitter users are cooler than other people. So, Death Cab for Cutie, Glasvegas and MGMT will probably start to appear. I've already thrown out the James Blunt records.
What are your favorite tracks?
So far, I've been excited by 'Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy' by Kid Creole and the Coconuts, which had me doing a bit of a chair-dance on the bus, and you can't beat 'I Love Rock & Roll' by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts for getting stuck deep in your brain and following you around all day.
Officially, though - I like jazz. Serious jazz.
What is the worst song you could get stuck in your head?
'Agadoo' by Black Lace. No question. That and the 'Macarena' have been banned. Too hard to replace them once they're in there. People have gone mad. Just the mere mention of them can... oh. Sorry.
Comments [0]
Jan 6
By coinciding with Christmas the plan has dropped off the radar for a lot of people. You need to do a lot of promotion to get people interested again. I also think that if you are actually interested in getting Joe Public to respond you need to extend the consultation period. The more conspiracy-theory-minded might conclude that you don't want people to be interfering with the planning process, an that is a view that a few people have expressed to me. To be honest I'm withholding judgement for a while but this does concern me a great deal. * Rubber-stamping.
There are many people expressing serious concerns about this whole initiative, and the fact that much of this content is identical to what was put out on day one of the plan implies to a few people I have spoken to that this is just a 'going through the motions' excercise and you aren't really interested in what people have to say about these issues because you have already decided what you're going to do. This is the major challenge that you must address with your communications and what you must express in any of these invitations to submit comments. * Translation.
The document is very difficult to understand for the layman, and just trying to read through the council-speak is difficult. As a group a handful of bloggers are producing a Plain English translation of the document so that we can actually start blogging about it. However that process is time-consuming and will probably only be online next week, leaving us very little time to get the messages out contained in the document. * Document structure.
Numbering is inconsistent, sections are apparently missing - this is what we have found from the translation exercise. * Moderation of comments.
At the moment no comments are appearing on the consultation site. I would recommend inverting your moderation procedure. I'm assuming that all comments are held in a moderation queue and someone manually approves each one. Why are you not just putting them live immediately to get the conversation going? If you're worried about libel or spam, you can change moderation procedures at a later date. But seeing as you only got 4 comments on the last consultation (which was news to me after the fact) I doubt you will have a problem. * Maps.
It's a poor show that you have used maps to illustrate the plans that are not publicly sharable via the web or print because of their Crown Copyright status. We are not able to embed these maps anywhere else on the web to report on the plans without reproducing them ourselves. You should have a member of your team recreate these maps using freely available tools like Google maps, or just release maps where the copyright is cleared. * Consistency.
There are two subtly different documents - the PDF and the consultation document that's available to comment on. Which is the correct one? * Printability.
The PDF has heavy use of background colours that will make it very expensive to print. I'd suggest releasing a black print on white background version of this text.Let me know if you have any others to add.
Big City Plan issues
This is a rough draft email I'm sending to the Big City Plan people about how to get more people commenting on the consultation document: * Length of the consultation and timing.By coinciding with Christmas the plan has dropped off the radar for a lot of people. You need to do a lot of promotion to get people interested again. I also think that if you are actually interested in getting Joe Public to respond you need to extend the consultation period. The more conspiracy-theory-minded might conclude that you don't want people to be interfering with the planning process, an that is a view that a few people have expressed to me. To be honest I'm withholding judgement for a while but this does concern me a great deal. * Rubber-stamping.
There are many people expressing serious concerns about this whole initiative, and the fact that much of this content is identical to what was put out on day one of the plan implies to a few people I have spoken to that this is just a 'going through the motions' excercise and you aren't really interested in what people have to say about these issues because you have already decided what you're going to do. This is the major challenge that you must address with your communications and what you must express in any of these invitations to submit comments. * Translation.
The document is very difficult to understand for the layman, and just trying to read through the council-speak is difficult. As a group a handful of bloggers are producing a Plain English translation of the document so that we can actually start blogging about it. However that process is time-consuming and will probably only be online next week, leaving us very little time to get the messages out contained in the document. * Document structure.
Numbering is inconsistent, sections are apparently missing - this is what we have found from the translation exercise. * Moderation of comments.
At the moment no comments are appearing on the consultation site. I would recommend inverting your moderation procedure. I'm assuming that all comments are held in a moderation queue and someone manually approves each one. Why are you not just putting them live immediately to get the conversation going? If you're worried about libel or spam, you can change moderation procedures at a later date. But seeing as you only got 4 comments on the last consultation (which was news to me after the fact) I doubt you will have a problem. * Maps.
It's a poor show that you have used maps to illustrate the plans that are not publicly sharable via the web or print because of their Crown Copyright status. We are not able to embed these maps anywhere else on the web to report on the plans without reproducing them ourselves. You should have a member of your team recreate these maps using freely available tools like Google maps, or just release maps where the copyright is cleared. * Consistency.
There are two subtly different documents - the PDF and the consultation document that's available to comment on. Which is the correct one? * Printability.
The PDF has heavy use of background colours that will make it very expensive to print. I'd suggest releasing a black print on white background version of this text.Let me know if you have any others to add.
Comments [6]
