As part of my Bachelor of Graphic Design degree we have to sit a paper called Creative Process. Although this paper frustrates me almost all the time (it’s a very open to anything class; about unleashing and cultivating your creativity and I prefer having more definite restrictions and rules) I do see the need; especially for someone like me. A good example of why this is, is our current assignment.
We are meant to communicate or change a perception of Auckland. I would have liked a more specific brief than “Design a real world solution to solve the problem; perception of Auckland”, specifically one that includes information such as target audience (is this for outsiders, local, tourists?), an aim (what message am I trying to communicate) etc. However we don’t get any of that. My initial reaction was to design an advertising campaign comprising of various billboards, tv ads and posters however, after a couple of weeks of brainstorming and exploring variations I’ve come up with two finals ideas.
The first idea is actually my newest idea that was sparked off by another idea that I was pursuing. The basic idea is that we try and get Auckland to trend on twitter. Seeing as media has just seemed to pick up the existence of twitter and are trying to get as much out of it as they can I thought I could cash in on this too. If Auckland trended on twitter, then NZ media would care; right? And maybe other types of media would care also. I think twitter possibly would, possibly international media and probably the more geekier section of the blogosphere.
So simply; over a certain period, say a particular day or over a couple of days. We invite everyone to post a tweet about their perception of Auckland, tagging the tweet with a common tag (I would suggest something short but unique to this “campaign” such as #myauckland) and then try and trend on twitter. The tag wouldn’t be solely available to NZers either because in this case; the target audience is everyone on twitter really. Yes, even Britney Spears. What is the global perception of Auckland.
The tag is important because I know that my network is pretty limited and although a tag like #perc-auck is simple to spread via textual communication (such as twitter itself, or email or IM) it is a lot harder to share verbally; say at the water cooler, or on the radio. Yes, I said radio. If I choose this idea I need to try and get as many people as possible getting involved and I figure a morning radio show could be helpful! Say, Polly from ZM who also really likes twitter right now.
On the day I would be collecting and organising the tweets via a script and create a collection of them on a website. Organising? Well, there’s an idea to have people rate their perception as either positive (#+) or negative (#-) and then we can create comparisons between the numbers of positive and negative opinions.
The second idea?
A second way I thought I could promote Auckland, and try to change a perception about Auckland is by sending an Auckland landmark around the world. People think that Auckland has no history, landmarks, culture etc especially when compared to Paris, Rome etc however that is simply not true. Although Auckland is much newer and therefore may lack hundreds of years of history, it doesn’t mean we don’t have any of it. And although we may be business orientated, it doesn’t mean we lack culture. And we certainly have our share of landmarks, even though they aren’t World Icons.
So, I for this idea, I plan to send an Auckland landmark around the world. Since the Skytower is our most recognised landmark I thought I would choose it, especially since it all has a character based on him. I would purchase a number of these (5-20) and give them to tourists on Auckland airport (I would prefer a much more controlled method of giving it to family or friends who would be more dedicated to carrying out the instructions) and would ask them to take the Skytower and pose with it in front of another landmark, say the Eiffel tower, around the world. These images would then be sent to an email address that would automagically post them to a blog.
In order to get enough people who are going to different places I thought once more that I might be able to entice a radio station to help me out, ask for callers who are leaving to go sightseeing or who could take this photo to ring in and give their details. i could then post the packs to them before they left.
Once they have taken a photo with a landmark, the idea is to hand it to someone else on an airport who is travelling to a different country. In this way, we have a few Skytower replicas travelling around the world, allowing the character of the Skytower to travel around the world and go sight seeing.
I hope that this would also attract media attention and bring the spotlight on Auckland, its culture, heritage & history and landmarks.
Do you think they are doable? I may point out that this project is due 8 June.
Hello everyone.
Barcamp Auckland 3 will be on the 11 July at Botany Downs Secondary College. Please make sure to keep that day open.
We will again be limiting the number of people who can attend so make sure to follow the twitter account (@barcampauckland) to find out when registrations open.
Where’s the website? I’m working on it; we are trying to attempt to hook the registration system into the event management system (written by the amazing Glen Barnes!) SO it is coming.
How can you help? For now, talk to your friends, your bosses, the boss next door; anyone who you think will be interested in sponsoring us this year. I will ofcourse be working on getting sponsors as well but I heavily overestimated the free time I would have at University (who would think it would be less than high school?) so it would be awesome if you all could help out.
Please stay excited, it’s coming; July 11. Be there!
Between the 13th of February and the 21st of February I’ve had what can only be described as an amazing week of geek. I was honoured to be invited back to KiwiFoo this year which ran from the 13th to 15th of February and just as honoured and extremely excited to be able to attend my first ever Webstock or rather, first ever real web conference, from the 15th -21st. I know you are confused by my Webstock dates but it will all be revealed.
Nat Torkington ran his annual Kiwifoo event based on O’Reilly’s FOOcamp (Friends of O’Reilly - so really, it should be FONcamp) in February this year from Friday the 13th until the next Sunday, the 15th. The unconference was about bringing interesting people together, who generally have the opportunity to talk to each other and to see what happens, what they talk about and hopefully to see if the cross-pollination of ideas could come about.
A lot of what happens at Foo - in my opinion - is not what happens in the sessions themselves but in the corridors between them. I always like to bring up a quote by Erica O’Grady who has run many a Barcamps in the USA (Barcamps are a way of bringing Foo to the people) where she says At a traditional conference the best ideas originate in the hallways and corridors. BarCamp is all corridor.
It is possible to switch the words Barcamp in that quote for Foocamp and it would hold up just as true. In fact; quite possibly we could take it a step further to say that the ideas generated at Foocamps change the world because the people there are those of influence.
A good example of this is the action against Section 92A of the proposed New Zealand copyright act which makes one guilty upon accusation. The rise up against S92A originated at Foo, and the people from Foo who were passionate about this act were able to co-ordinate with other people just as passionate and influential; together they were able to make a difference. The world noticed S92A and it’s flaws. Now it’s up to the government to set things right.
My experience at Foo this year was slightly different to last year’s and in that respect a lot better. I spoke to a lot more people this year because I felt a lot more comfortable in the situation where I was surrounded by a whole lot of brilliant people who were much older than I was. Last year I felt like a kid slightly out of place (it wasn’t you, it was me) however I made a decision to make the most of Foo and get over the issue regarding my age. It turned out to be a great decision as the people I spoke to were interesting, informative and very positive about our future. Although I got over my age, some people didn’t - and that brings me to my next point.
Werewolf! This year I actually played Werewolf and I love it. Oh how I love werewolf. My previous comment regarding my age is a reference to a lynching based upon the fact that I was the youngest there (as the village had no other leads.) If you ever get the chance; play Werewolf!
The other difference this year were the sessions I chose to attend. As I understand it; the point of Foo is to get out of your comfort zone and learn from other people about issues that aren’t directly related to your day job or direct interests. The point is to be inspired, or to pass on inspiration to others. So, this year, I chose to attend more sessions that weren’t directly web-related and instead attended sessions on video production, the future of telcos, the economy, the future of Auckland City etc. Although in many of these sessions I didn’t have a full understanding of all the implications of the issues, I felt like I learnt a lot and at times were able to contribute the little bit of knowledge I had - or at others, provide a new perspective on things.
Finally, I didn’t stay in the Wharenui this year, I tented! Joy!
I would like to thank Nat for the opporunity to attend Foocamp this year, again. Foocamp has played an immense role in my life to date - changing my life, my dreams and inspiring a confidence in my abilities. Thank yous to no end must go out to Jenine who worked very hard to make sure everything ran smoothly. You are magical!
Unfortunately my time was cut short as I had an early-ish flight from Auckland to Wellington so that I could be in Wellington for the volunteers meeting Sunday afternoon for Webstock.
Wow. Webstock was definitely a dream come true. The whole reason I started BarcampAuckland was because I felt like I was missing out on the “experience” that most web professionals enjoy in the States and the UK. My dream was to attend a conference and thanks to Tash, Mike, Ben and Deb, that’s been made possible the past week. I cannot thank you enough for giving me this opportunity and experience!
The organization that went into Webstock is jaw-dropping. Many of the speakers I talked to over the past week would say that Webstock was one of the best conferences they had attended and upon further investigation I found that they were sincere in their thoughts. For me, America or even England could surely do a better job than NZ at organising a conference of this scale but this past week has proved this prejudice against Kiwis completely incorrect. We can do it, and we can do it better. Natasha Hall’s attention to detail is inspirational, everything needs to be perfect and it shows in the end product. Webstock outshines SXSW, WDS and many other large-scale conferences across the globes for many of the speakers I spoke to and I am grateful to have been part of this experience. All congratulations needs to go to Natasha Hall for all the effort she has put into making the past week happen over the last year. You can tell she’s put her heart and soul into this conference and it definitely showed.
An amazing thing for me this past week was meeting the speakers, who were just as inspirational for me. This inspiration didn’t come from the fact that they were super-heroes or magical creatures - although I am sure some of them come extremely close, it came from meeting people. The fact that these people I had followed for so long, put on a sort of pedestal and looked up to were just normal people (who would have thought that they were human after all) was highly inspirational because it means that I could do it to. We all have it in us to become great, many of us don’t realize it and others who do, don’t have the tenacity to reach greatness. I hope that the speakers have inspired me to have the tenacity to reach greatness.
There are so many great people who I met this week but you could probably go find them on the Webstock speaker’s page and I don’t really want to name drop but to all of you who I spent a lot of time with and was able to converse with properly; thank you for being awesome.
The NZ web community came out in the hundreds over the past week to come together. More inspiration; you ARE out there. The fact that there are some many of you who care makes me feel so much better about the world we live in. To all the people who aren’t famous or web-celebs or what-have-you but with whom I conversed over the past week; thank you for being awesome, also.
Finally, two awesome people who made this week comfortable and possible for me need some thankin’! Mike and Kat Forbes provided me with not a room or lodging but a home for the week and that is something I greatly appreciated. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I haven’t much more to say; I wanted to write more about the experience than the details because although the details make the experience it’s the experience that lives with you for the rest of your life.
In short, my Geek Week of ‘09 can be summarized into one word; INSPIRATIONAL.
This is the second time I’m writing this. Expressing Engine doesn’t have an auto-save feature. Officially ticked off.
Today we held Barcamp Auckland 2. Back, bigger and better! I think we lived up to that promise, at least I hope we did. The event was held at Botany Downs Secondary College, like last year, a perfect place to hold a Barcamp. Not only did we have the great food, great t-shirts, free water, awesome Twitterscreens and free wifi from last year but we had an Ace up our sleeves, Barcamp App and were dealt a couple of surprise Jokers! Not understanding why I carried on that card-related extended metaphor. The event started of with the alarm going off (if you remember last time it went off during the last session) getting it out of the way quickly.
Please tag your photos with #barcampauckland2 and #bca2 and try to add them to our Flickr Group.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Thank you to those who made this event possible, our main sponsors: Microsoft, Shift, Telecom, webstock and Developer’s Inc, supported by Userfaction.com, EON Foundation and Serendipity IT.
Get sponsorship for this year’s event was a lot easier than year! I believe that’s because we have built a reputable brand around Barcamp, one companies want to be associated with and support. I believe that companies have realised the potential of supporting the communities around them but I also think a major concern from last year has been addressed. This whole thing is organized by a (then 16) now 17 year old kid. I believe that last year I proved that age isn’t everything and that I am quite capable of successfully running this event.
I think companies like Shift and Microsoft see the the value in supporting local community events like these. Shift is one of the most respected design agencies in the country, not just because of their great work, but also their continued support of community ventures like Barcamp Auckland. Microsoft, who’s generally had a bad reputation with the web community due to their extended neglect of their Internet Explorer product (between IE6 and IE7) also see the value in supporting these events. Microsoft builds goodwill among web developers, showing them they care and are willing to help. People like Nigel Parker at Microsoft make the Redmond Giant seem more human, seem friendly and approachable even.
T-shirts, Lanyards and Plastic Badge Sleeves. We were hoping to give some other talented illustrator the opportunity to design the t-shirt this year but noone stepped up when I pleaded on Twitter. Matthew Allen stepped up once more, even though he was weighed down by a heavy work load, and produced a beautifully illustrated design (backed by great philosophies) in record time! We had some communication issues with the company who provided the shirts, lanyards and sleeves. I bought blue lanyards. Received white and black. I bought the same size plastic sleeves as last year. Got sleeves twice the size. The shirts only commenced printing on Friday (needed to convince the printer to shuffle things around) because I wasn’t reminded I had forgotten to pay the full amount upfront (granted this was my responsibility but really, they knew the deadline was approaching [10th July], it took me calling on the 9th to find out I hadn’t yet paid the full amount upfront. A simple reminder email would have helped save me from a lot of stress!.)
Having a backup. I tried to prevent against possible issues as much as possible this year. I set the deadline for shirts two days early, I got hold of some mobile broadband cards (thanks Telecom!) incase Wifi was painful or it died, I had a whiteboard for the schedule for the first few sessions in case we had some bugs or issues with the BarcampApp (which some Barcampers managed to fix in time, anyway!) Most of the time the backups saved me, or weren’t needed, but sometimes they didn’t exist when I needed it.
I should have:
I talked about the Ace up our sleeves. That Ace is the BarcampApp. Glen Barnes helped me to develop this app (by that I mean he did most develop while I focused on design.) The point? A virtual schedule. Why? 171 people signed up via the form on bca.geek.nz however we limited the event to 140 people, the extra 31 had to go onto a waiting list. About 20 people let me know they couldn’t make it so we could let 20 from the waiting list join the coveted 140 who were allowed to come. So many people expected to come meant we needed more room (an extra whanau block) which meant we had to come up with a way to synchronise the schedule accros all the buildings. We couldnt have people running from one building to the other to check what’s next, nor could we synchronise two whiteboards (logistical nightmare), so I decided to use what we know, the web, to solve the problem. I decided we needed a scheduling app.
What else does it do? We figured we’d build an experience around the schedule, the sessions. We integrate the back-channel, create discussions in context, and aid networking with a directory of attendees. Each attendee would have a profile which shows where the user has participated in discussions and what the person has presented.
The app has a web and iPhone interface. Awesome.
If you have any comments or criticism about the BarcampApp then please let us know in the comments below - we’d like to make it better for next time.
A dissapointing part of Barcamp Auckland was the amount of no shows. Numbers aren’t in yet (Glen will be crunching them soon) but my dad said he counted about a 100 people at some point. That’s around 30 people more than last year (in 2007; officially 72 attendees, although on the day we counted up to 80 - some may not have checked in if they arrived late) so I‘ll play it safe and say 25% growth (from 80 to 100.) This is great, if we limited the event to 100, or even 120 people. However we raised enough funds for 140 people! We had about 11 people who couldn’t come because they were on a waiting list (still) and we ended up with 40 no shows. We should have had much larger growth than 25%, 40-50% at least.
I appreciate those who let me know they wouldn’t be able to make the event (your spots were given to people on the waiting list) but slightly disappointed at those who didn’t show up (and didn’t even let me know they weren’t coming.) Lessons learnt though, although there is a slight chance that we may not have enough t-shirts and food next time, we will overbook the next one. Please let me know about numbers, how many people do you think is a good number to have present on the day? Did you prefer the smaller 80 or like rounder 80. Maybe you think 140 people is a good number to be aiming for, or you think big and think we should aim for 200! Let me know, in the comments.
Barcamp Auckland 2 was amazing. The day ran well (yea we had some glitches but which event doesn’t) and the people got stuck in really well. In the morning I was starting to get a little worried when we only had one presentation up for the first timeslot on the whiteboard but after a few minutes a few more joined the first and I relaxed a bit.
Long time, no post. Agh, sorry.
Barcamp Auckland is going well, we’ve secured all our sponsors and I’m just awaiting artwork for the t-shirt designs! But, more Barcamp Auckland stuff in a later post. This post, is all about motion picture! No...not movies, but podcasts! Specifically video podcasts!
My (one-man) design firm, WebCreative, is now producing a weekly podcast called the Second Draw Down. The show is hosted by my great friend, Novia Ng, who’s doing a great job so far. The show was supposed to be aimed at teenagers but it seems the show has a much more general appeal, with almost a 50/50 adult-teen split (We did aim the show at the older teenager which is why this general appeal makes sense.) As you would hear Novia say, the show is as random as the stuff you find in the second drawer down! This means that anything off-beat and exciting we find on the internet and around Auckland, we’ll stash in the second drawer down (which is usually a collection of strange, single-use utensils) and then share this with you every week when we release the show.
Please visit Second Draw Down and watch our latest episode, and then subscribe if you like it! Following is a little behind the scenes video I made using iSight to just share how we do things and to share some important tips I’ve learned along the way.
How to make a Podcast from Ludwig Wendzich on Vimeo.
This page only contains my 5 latest entries. Go to the archives to read more.