Beebcamp 2 - The BBC's version of BarCamp

Wednesday the 18th February saw the BBC host it's now annual 'BeebCamp. Yes this is a play on the word BarCamp and yes - they do have the same theme.

"BeebCamp is designed as a collective, spontaneous bashing together of ideas, with no set structure to the day." This was a get together of largely BBC employees but also included some external bloggers of note to add to the mix.

I'm slightly confused. BarCamp (and all other get togethers with the 'camp' suffix) is a user generated 'unconference' - For the people by the people. Surely a camp organised by a corporation afor a corporation will never truely have an unbiased agenda? Therefore maybe they shouldn't have jumped on the Camp bandwagon. Kinda like if Lloyds were to call their annual conference 'Lloyds Fest'...It's just a bit...

Anyway thats only a mild query as any get together of digital minds is always an exiting thing. Items discussed included pre pay TV, uses of Twitter, a user generated content presentation and 'open source documentaries'.

Each discussion was limited to 20mins (10 mins each) although there were some who would like to see 30 mins sessions next time as there's just too much to talk about!

This is one blogger who would love an invite to BeebCamp 3...hint hint ; )

Read more here:

BBC Internet Blog

Phillip Trippenbach's blog

Nick Reynolds' blog

Photo's on Flickr

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Computer Games: My 10 fondest memories

A slight deviation from the norm today...

From my ZX Spectrum Sinclair to my Playstation there have been some games that not only did I enjoy playing but that actually left a mark on my conscience (as well as blisters on my thumb!) Here they are in no particular order. Comment if you have any to add:

1) Lemmings - AcornArchimedes

2) Chuck rock - Acorn Archimedes

3) Street Fighter 2 - First the Arcade game then the SNES version

4) Arkanoid - ZX Spectrum

5) Sonic the Hedgehog (original version) - Sega Master System

6) Super Mariokart - SNES version and Wii version

7) Olympic Gold Barcelona 92' - Sega Master System

8) Alex Kidd in Miracle World - Sega Master System

9) Vendetta - Arcade Game

10) Michael Jackson 'Moonwalker'- Arcade Game

Dam it now I really want to play Chuck Rock!

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Has Second Life become reality?

You know who your friends are and most people can count the number of their 'real' friends on one hand. It used to be so simple; you had a group of friends and that was it. You spoke to them on the phone, you met them in town or went round their house to play Mario Kart on a Saturday morning (ok that still happens). If you didn't want to see someone, you didn't. If your lives went down a different path then you lost touch unless your friendshop was strong enough to last. Survival of the fittest. You'd meet new friends along the way and so went the cycle of friendship.

NOW... I have old friends, new friends, auld enemies, weirdo's I never spoke to, work colleagues past and present, relatives and even my parents friends all on Facebook. Then there are my aquaintances on Twitter and the old school Myspace crowd.

So does that mean I have a second life? A secret life? Are friends, like products, becoming niche items. Things to be compartmentalised and kept separate, only to be called upon when a specific need is required. I use Twitter mainly for networking but Myspace to yell about what my band are up to. I'm friends with people on Facebook who made my life hell as a kid and I thought i'd seen the back of - only for them to appear in the god dam 'People You Might Know' area...

The other side of the story is that this segmentation of friends helps get the most out out existing relationships and find new ones.

One things for sure...keep your social networking friends close, but your social networking enemies closer! You never know what they're saying about you.

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100 best blogs (arguably)

Following on from a great Sunday roast yeasterday at the folks house, my wife threw Times newspaper supplement at me shouting, 'YOU'LL probably be interested in this!' (as though it were an accusation?). I flicked through the pages of the 'Culture' magazine to find an article on the top 100 blogs in the world/on the web (same thing really).

This list must be read carefully and with a pinch of salt. As Steve Clayton, London commented on the Times' website "The UK has more to offer from blogs than fluffing up the careers of these folks. This list proved to me that The Times is the best Sunday Paper but The Guardian has it's finger on the the tech pulse." Couldn't have put it better myself. Personally I prefer the work of Jemima Kiss of the Guardian.

The Times has tried to be trendy with an article on blogs but what we are presented with is a shallow list of blogs...Richard Madley, Paul Daniels anyone?! The article itslef is a well written and incisive piece of jouranlism if you ignore the shameless self plugging "I am also, thanks to Thought Experiments (the title of my blog)" It is a great way of making the 'real world' more aware of whats going on on line which can only be a good thing for those of us who's careers depend upon it.

Here are some of the cream of the crop:

blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/harare

A blog updated by staff of the British ebassy in Harare. A place where actually saying what you think can get you killed. Well they say what they think and it's great.

myspace.com/lilymusic

I know, I know Lily Allen is not cool and not clever. But hey she does say some funny stuff about other celebs and we all like to laugh at celebs don't we?!

orwelldiaries.wordpress.com

A wonderfull insight into the life of Eric Arthur Blair. Had he known that Big Brother would actualy become an inane show, synonomous with attention seekers and weirdos, he may not have written the novel 1984 to prevent Big Brother the TV series ever being born!

stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com

Quite simply the Blogger's Blog

Read the actual article here

Thanks to Bryan Appleyard for the original article in the Sunday Times.

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Twitscoop - What a wonderful Tworld

Ok how many more words can begin with the Tw prefix?

This is cool though. It is updated by the second and allows you to view what is being talked about in the Twitterspere. Funny how what people talk about in the wonderful Tworld bears little ressemblance to whats happening in real life! Most talked about item as I write is Shakespeare??

You can also paste it in as a nice little widget to your own website or blog (see right hand column of this blog). For those who require further details...hover over the words (which are displayed in tag cloud format) and the sources are revealed.

Good stuff! Twitscoop check it out

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