Under our guise of Cardiff Web Scene, we’re getting together with Nocci (Network of Creative and Cultural Industries) to hold the first UK Ignite event!!!

Ignite was started in Seattle in 2006 by Brady Forrest and Bre Pettis. Since then hundreds of 5 minute talks have been given across the world. There are thriving Ignite communities in Seattle, Portland, Paris, and NYC and it is an internationally recognised format for producing dynamic, high energy and engaging presentations, with topics as wide ranging as “How to produce a low-budget horror movie”, “Did today’s architecture cause the financial crisis” and “How to use public transport without going mad”.

But the craze has not yet been brought to the UK… until now!

Ignite Cardiff is being held on Wednesday 3 December at Sodabar in Cardiff City Centre, and will start at 6:30pm: if you want to take part or would just like some more information visit www.cardiffwebscene.com or www.noccinet.com. Entry is FREE and you don’t need a ticket to attend.

Interested in taking part?

The format is simple:

• come up with a subject that you’re passionate about, it can be on any topic (it doesn’t have to be creative, cultural or web related), it can be serious or fun – the only rule is that you can’t talk about yourself, your company or one of your projects.
• Then visit www.cardiffwebscene.com to sign up (or just send an email to hello@cardiffwebscene.com telling us who you are and what you want to talk about).
• If you are selected you’ll be sent the Ignite PowerPoint template. Presentations should be 20 slides in total with each slide lasting 15 seconds.

It’s not a contest, it’s just for fun, but don’t miss your chance to take part.

All applications need to be received by Friday 14 November and the selected speakers will be notified by Tuesday 18 November. Final presentations need to be submitted by Monday 1 December. It’s free to enter so what have you got to lose?!

The Ignite community is sponsored by O’Reilly – We really hope to see you there!

*** Claire

Having a huge wealth of information available on demand is fantastic, if I want to know what the weather forecast is going to be, I’ll just hop on the BBC website, I don’t need to wait and catch the forecast on the TV. Why waste my time queuing up at banks and shops when I can sit in the comfort of my own home and sort everything out online?

Our lives are faster due to the speed that we can now get hold of information and make plans. So does that mean that we’re now being more efficient? Does it mean we’re more organised and can manage our time better? Does it mean that we’re more knowledgeable?

In theory I think we probably are. We are now better at processing information in a fast and efficient manor, because we have to. Apparently the average working person in the UK will receive 40 emails per day! Whereas before email and the internet became common place you would receive your post in the morning which you dealt with, and then maybe one or two phone calls throughout the day. The normal office based working person is now constantly supplied with information and tasks throughout the day which need to be dealt with, so yes we should be more productive.

But are we also better at wasting time? 40 emails a day, that’s 40 times you’ll be interrupted by a little flashing icon in the bottom corner of your screen. And I wonder out of those 40 emails how many are relevant to you, how many have you been copied in on ‘for your information’, how many are your mates asking you if you want to go out on Friday or (in my case) your colleagues asking whose turn it is to make the tea? How much time do you spend pointlessly surfing the internet for rubbish, browsing Facebook, watching random videos on Youtube?

Are we also less sociable? Social Networking websites are very popular, but is social networking? Or even just being social? Why would you want to get dressed up and go out to catch up with your friends in the pub when you can sit in your pyjamas and write on their wall? Why make an effort to go out and meet people when you can just join dating sites, chat rooms and forums?

I think potentially the answer is ‘yes’ to all of the above and I guess the answer is all about striking a balance.  But I wonder if the next step in popular web culture is sites such as Smynx (which is now in beta form for those of you that can’t wait for the official release) that span both online and offline activities and encourage users to get away from their screens and actually do something?  I guess only time and trends will tell, and I can’t wait to find out!

*** Claire

]]> http://bbclabs.boxuk.com/2008/06/24/faster-and-cleverer-or-distracted-and-lazy/feed/ 0 Claire S http://bbclabs.boxuk.com/2008/06/06/web-scene-3-overview-and-pics/ http://bbclabs.boxuk.com/2008/06/06/web-scene-3-overview-and-pics/#comments Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:59:40 +0000 Claire S http://boxuk.wordpress.com/?p=54 ]]> So Wednesday 4 June was the third Cardiff Web Scene Meet-Up at 10 Feet Tall and what a great night it was!

We were really pleased to see both familiar and new faces, mingling and chatting about the latest happenings in the web and the industry. We were even happier to hear that some of you made some great connections and even potentially got some new work from the event!

We were very lucky to be joined by Matthew Cashmore, Senior Research Producer for the BBC who invited everyone to Mashed at Alexandra Palace on 21 June (and also provided some free BBC goodies … We love you Matt!). For those of you who were unable to come to the meet-up but still want to take advantage of the free Cardiff to London (and return) ‘Mashed’ bus, you may still be able to sign up for your place online.

You can also keep up to date with the latest ‘Mashed’ and backstage news at Matthew’s Backstage blog.

Unfortunately our second speaker, Tim Holmes from Cardiff University wasn’t able to attend the meet-up, but we’re hoping he’ll join us to talk about journalism and writing for the web and one of the next events.

So that’s it for another couple of months, if you’ve got any questions or comments about the last or the next meet-up, or would like to speak at the next one, please let us know. We’re already thinking about Meet-Up number 4 which we’re planning for September and maybe even a festive meet-up in December.

If you want to keep up-to-date with our plans and progress you can join the Facebook group , sign up to the mailing list or watch this space…

*** Claire

Organising the next event has given us a warm fuzzy feeling that we’re doing something nice and good for the web industry and we hope that everyone who comes along will feel the same. As I’ve mentioned before, networking events and recognition for those that work in the web are few and far between however, thankfully ‘Geek Meet-Ups’ seem to be springing up all over the world from Oxford to Leeds to Boston.

Hopefully it will give the industry the bit of a boost that it needs, for example the BBC Innovation Lab that we recently attended follows a similar pattern to the last two web scene meet-ups in that the male to female ratio was about 15 – 1, and I bet Mashed will be the same. Why are women in the web in such a minority?

Is it to do with reputation? I’m not sure that terms such as ‘Geeks’ and ‘Nerds’ have helped promote the industry in the best light. Perhaps schools teaching ‘IT’ should get kids involved in the web a bit more and show them the funky stuff you can do with Flash and AJAX as well as the Word and Excel basics that are drilled into them on a daily basis. And not just the web, but games development, 3D graphics and simulation too.

Let’s all do our bit to show what a stimulating, fun and sexy industry the web is to work in – it can only be a good thing. It’ll help with recruitment and job prospects, more recognition and cooler events, bigger and better improvements in technology, and your mum and dad won’t keep asking ‘so what is it exactly that you do?’.

The future is not just bright, it’s luminous!

*** Claire

The next event is scheduled for Wednesday June 4^th at 10 Feet Tall in Cardiff. 10 Feet Tall can be found on Church Street, not too far from the Hayes, and we’re going to be on the top floor.

We’re going to kick things off at 6:30 pm. It’s free entry and we’re still looking for a couple of people to volunteer to talk about interesting things, so please get in touch if you’d like to be one of our speakers.

On top of the usual format, the night will round off with live music from Ridinghood and Suitcase. Entry to see the bands would usually be £3 per person but if you come along to the Meet-Up then you can stay on and watch the bands for free!

As if this weren’t exciting enough… in my last post I mentioned about the BBC Mashed event at Alexandra Palace on 21 June. We’re putting together a bus for anyone who wants to attend, so if there is anyone in the South Wales area who is interested in going to this, let us know and we’ll provide your transport free of charge (courtesy of the BBC). You can find out more information about the event through the Facebook group and we’ll also be talking about it at the next meet-up so if you’ve got any questions feel free to come and speak to Dan or myself.

We look forward to seeing you at 10 Feet Tall on Wednesday 4 June.

*** Claire

We’re really excited that we’re getting to work with the BBC, especially as we’ve got a chance to get involved with Mashed which is a really cool innovation day that the BBC are running at Alexandra Palace on 21 June.  We think that events like Mashed are a really great way to not only do cool stuff but also to meet other people within the web industry.

Last week was incredibly hard, but was made slightly easier by knowing some of the other companies there and at a time when social networking sites such as Facebook and Linked-In are more popular than ever, let’s make the effort to properly network, not just though our computers!

I know this is easier said than done, having worked in the design industry for eight years I was impressed by the number and range of local events that were held for designers and marketers, there is the Bi-lingual Design Awards, Cardiff Design Festival, regional CIM meet-ups to name a few… but since I moved into the web, local events are few and far between, and recognition for Welsh companies working in the web is virtually non-existent. When was the last time somebody gave an award for the best code, best management of a project or best user journey? Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that designers get the recognition that they deserve, but how about a nod in the direction of those who are involved behind the scenes as well?

Now that that section of the rant is over I’m going to end on a positive note. So that we can do our bit for people who are involved in the web in South Wales, we have just organised the next Cardiff Web-Scene Meet-up for the evening of Wednesday June 4. For those that haven’t been before it’s a very casual get together, not just for developers, but for anyone who is involved or has an interest in the web.

For the last meet-up we changed the format slightly and had a couple of 5 minute speakers (these were Mark Boulton who talked about Typography and Dan Zambonini – Box UK’s Technical Director as well as being my fellow lab rat and blog writer who talked about 19 interesting things that he’d discovered recently). This seemed to go down quite well so we’d like to do the same again and we’re looking for volunteers! If you’ve got something interesting that you’d like to talk about, please get in touch.

The venue is to be confirmed, but you can join the Facebook group to stay up to date or look out for the next blog post, but keep the date free and hopefully we’ll see you on Wednesday June 4.

*** Claire