Category Archives: Cardiff

Why you should use the location field in Twitter

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I have two good reasons why you should consider using the location field for its intended purpose:

  1. You’re not being as clever as you think (see below).
  2. One of the best uses of Twitter is finding out what is happening locally.

Personally, I will almost always follow someone local to me. If you’re a postman in Hull, then who cares, but if you might be my postman, then you could be really interesting to follow.

You don’t have to type out your whole address or anything. City or county is close enough to be handy.

An analysis of the non-geographic information entered into the location field

via Augmented Social Cognition Research Blog from PARC: “Location” Field in Twitter User Profiles (and an interesting fact about Justin Bieber) – asc-parc.blogspot.com

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Cardiff International Comic Expo

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Cardiff International Comic ExpoThis February 26th at the Mercure Hotel there’s going to be a big Cardiff Comic Expo (follow them on Twitter). Tickets are currently £5 each, but they imply that the price may go up in the new year.

There are some very interesting guests, but no megastars (yet). I’ll be interested mostly to see the exhibitors myself, and hopefully discover some interesting indies.

I had no idea this was happening, so I figured others may appreciate the heads up!

How do you like them apples?

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This weekend while visiting St Fagans I decided to look upstairs in the workman’s institute for the first time – to discover a massive collection of apples on display. Seemingly this was an event organised for ‘Apple Day‘. My camera was in my hand as I’d been snapping away all day, so I naturally took a picture – only to be loudly tutted at.

It seems – according to the prominent signs I had missed – that photography was not allowed because the information on the laminated cards next to all the apples is the property of a library. Apparently a photograph would constitute a reproduction of this information, and that’s when the lawyers got involved and decided to spoil the fun for everybody.

They had quite a detailed sign explaining exactly why. I’d like to have taken a picture of it, but it was very busy and I felt quite conspicuous. I got the impression that the organisers didn’t like the situation much either, but didn’t have any real choice.

Crapestry / PechaKucha night

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I’ve just come back from my second PechaKucha night at Chapter Arts, and as before the lineup was exceptional. For me, the highlight was Theo Humphries’ talking about his Crapestries. I think I may have to give this a go myself!

Richard Weston kicked off with his own hobby, of scanning incredibly detailed close images of natural materials and using them in art, fashion and architecture. Guto Evans‘ gave an excellent primer on what exactly branding is, and why it is important. Finally, Jon Chase brought the house down with an amazing rap: “Life – An autobiography.”

The other talks were equally good, but these struck a particular chord with me.

I’ve pretty much missed the first week of the Cardiff Design Festival, but there’s still plenty more stuff coming up that looks great. In fact, I’m going to have to run around on Saturday to see everything I want to!

Tweetcarts: Can we have some of these in Cardiff?

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This is a brilliant idea – food trucks that move around and advertise their presence on Twitter! Examples from the states include @Whiffies (deep fried pies?), @kogibbq (Korean BBQ tacos, with over 74,000 followers!), the wonderful looking @RickshawTruck (dumplings), @DumplingStation (more dumplings) and @cremebruleecart (‘better living through dessert’). I’m sure there are others.

Can some dumpling chef start one of these in Cardiff please? (And if you do, try and think of some clever ways to use Foursquare / Gowalla / Facebook Places as well as Twitter.)

EDIT 19.09.2010: Our very own mobile Twitter entrepreneur @big_blue_bike just pointed out to me a brilliant variation of this from Copenhagen: A Coffee Bike!

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South East Wales Local Exchange Trading System

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Update 2012.01.11: Since this post was written, SEWLETS have (wisely) rebranded as Cardiff Taffs Community Currency.

South East Wales Local Exchange Trading System

SEWLETS is all about getting back a sense of community spirit. As a group we exchange all kinds of goods and services with each other, using community credits. You might earn credits by painting a fence for a neighbour, then you could spend those credits getting computer help from someone else in the group. So the circle goes on, always helping people in our community. Our credits are called “Taffs”, and you should value them at about one pound each. LETS are already popular across the UK, including Bristol, Bath, Edinburgh and several areas of London. If you value community spirit then this will be just the thing for you!

via sewlets.org.uk

Discovered via a tweet from Guardian Cardiff, this is my first exposure to the idea of a Local Exchange Trading System. It reminded me of a great science fiction story I read years ago: “…And Then There Were None” by Eric Frank Russell. It’s the final story from a novel where a starship is visiting different human colonies in the hopes of establishing an empire…

The final planet, K22g, has developed an unusual social system. The population call themselves Gands (after Gandhi) and practice a form of classless, philosophically anarchic libertarianism, based on passive resistance (“Freedom – I won’t!” and “Myob!”); and a money-free gift economy based on barter and favour-exchange, using “obs” (obligations). To perform a service for somebody “lays an ob” on them; they can then “kill the ob” by returning the favor.[1]

via The Great Explosion – en.wikipedia.org

SEWLETS are using a Drupal plugin called Local Currencies for functionality:

Local Currencies (Complementary currencies) is an all-embracing and flexible package which includes a mutual credit engine, transaction forms and displays, including several views and blocks. It can be used as a digital back end for paper money projects, or to run an entire LETS or Timebank. With a little tweaking, it can manage currencies conforming to a wide range of designs.

via drupal.org

Interesting stuff. Sadly without signing up there’s no way to gauge how much of a community there is (the forums are certainly quiet). Some kind of dashboard on the front page (ideally showing a thriving community of people trading various skills) would make a huge difference. Maybe I’ll sign up when I have some free time and report back…

Follow SEWLETS on Twitter

Handy Cardiff Bus live departures map

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Cardiff Bus live departures map

Fellow Cardiff public transport users – you have my sympathies! Hopefully, the following post will mitigate your suffering.

Cardiff County Council provide a handy Google map that displays Cardiff bus departure information in real time:

From this site you can locate real-time bus departure information quickly and easily.

No more waiting around for late buses; by using GPS technology to monitor the movement of our vehicles, we can accurately predict the arrival of buses at our stops for several hours into the future.

Its cold, you should not be waiting for a bus for more than five minutes. We can help!

When you click on any of the stops, you will see a list of the next departures. What’s even more useful is you can detatch the little lists into separate windows and bookmark them, so you can keep an eye on your next bus home without having to load the map and find your stop every time. I have a few key pages bookmarked on my iPhone, which works nicely enough. A proper mobile version of this site would be extra useful.

The homepage gives you options to search by service number, stop number and postcode, so you can get the information without using the map. It’s all rather helpful and nicely done.

I notice Cardiff Bus don’t seem to link to the service, which is a shame.

My bad. Cardiff Bus do have a good links page, that I really should have seen. Thanks to the commenter below, who also points out that the map is not just for Cardiff Bus services.

cardiff.acislive.com

[Updated 11th March 2010]

Boundaries – a tool to visualise the shape of neighbourhoods

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Boundaries - a tool to visualise the shape of neighbourhoods

Boundaries uses Flickr geotagging data to draw local area boundaries on a map. It’s creator, Tom Taylor, says:

Flickr understands that places are more than unique geographic identifiers; that they are mental models people use to identify with location. Moreover, they are fluid and opinionated, varying based on a number of parameters such as context, ambition and personal background. In true wisdom of the crowds style, Flickr use the combined selections of their thousands of photographers to compute the shape of these places.

I think it’s a wonderful idea. Tom has several other fun projects, including the Flickr game Noticings, and a handy micro-printer you could use for to-do lists or hyperlocal news print outs. He also has a talk up on http://www.dolectures.com/ where he explores more ideas.

Cardiff regions on Boundaries.

Mapumental

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I watched a fascinating presentation on mapping technologies and their use in the BBC yesterday. The highlight for me was an amazing video showing all the Open Street Map edits made in 2008. The Channel 4 / MySociety / Stamen project, Mapumental was also demonstrated (well, just the Mapumental YouTube video actually).

It’s a really useful tool. Here I’m showing a few Cardiff examples.

Mapumental — Cardiff

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More upcoming geek events in Cardiff

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Another list, primarily for my benefit, so I don't forget anything. Give me a shout if you're attending any of these, and let me know if I've missed some cool event.

Cardiff Photomarathon
Saturday June 20th
The deadline for entry was June 10th. I have my ticket and plan to be at the Wales Millennium Centre at 10am.

CardiffWebScene, Summer Meetup
16 July at Funky Buddha

WordCamp UK
18-19 July at Future Inn
I'm probably looking forward to this one the most. I need to get my WordPress blog up and running by then!
Tickets £35, still on sale.

Ignite Cardiff #3
15th October
I really enjoyed the last Ignite, so hopefully I'll make it to this one. No plans to talk myself!

Cardiff Design Festival
October
I don't know anything about this yet, but it sounds fun.

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There's a list of events at the Cardiff Web Scene site.

Upcoming Geek events in Cardiff

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I've been in Cardiff for approaching a year now and it's about time I sought out the geek community. I'm following some of the local colour on Twitter, but have so far forgotten or been forced to miss the Linux User Group meetings, Trydan gatherings (always during working hours, grr!) and other fun meetups that have happened. (Although I did make it to the SWN new media presentations last year!)

Well, there's a whole bunch of geeky fun coming up over the next month, and I'm determined to attend most or all of them! This list was mostly written for my benefit, but I decided to share it here:

Moonwatch: Telescope Open Evenings, Cardiff School of Physics and Astronomy

Cardiff University Observatory will be
holding free Open Evenings on one or more of Monday 30th March to
Thursday 2nd April 2009 (weather permitting) from 5pm to 8pm. They will
also open Friday 3rd April if there is sufficient demand, or if the
weather is unfavourable earlier in the week.

Joint N.E.R.D. Geek Event / SWLUG meetup

Wed 1st April at 7pm
The Central Bar (Wetherspoons)

Ignite Cardiff presentations
With talks from:
Matthew Cashmore (Lonely Planet) – (title to be confirmed)

Tom Beardshaw (www.tombeardshaw.com/) – Lifestreaming
Pete Prior (http://nermal.org/) – CATaLOG
Suzi Wells – Infinity
DK (MediaSnakers) – Change
Denis Campbell (UK Progressive) – When School Ties and Party Organisations are not Enough to Win

Tim Millwood (http://millwoodonline.co.uk) – Drupal
Mike Ellis (http://variousbits.net/) – Everyware
Mark Stevenson (www.lifeinpixels.co.uk/) – Cardiff Twitter trends
Lloyd Morgan (http://LoneGunman.co.uk) – Vines and Minds
Rob May – How to survive the zombie apocalypse

Facebook event page
April 8th at 18:30 – 21:30
SodaBar, Mill Lane

University's 125th Anniversary Celebration Lectures
As part of the celebrations for the 125th Anniversary of the University, a number of lectures are being given by internationally renowned speakers from institutions across the world.  These lectures are free, but booking is required.

I'm planning on attending only two:

The Warped Side Of The Universe: From The Big Bang To Black Holes & Gravitational Waves
Professor Kip Thorne, California Institute of Theoretical Physics

16th April 2009 at 6pm – Julian Hodge Lecture Theatre, Julian Hodge Building, Column Drive.

Robots with Biological Brains and Humans With Part Machine Brains
Professor Kevin Warwick, University of Reading. In this presentation a look is taken at how the use of implant and
electrode technology can be employed to create biological brains for
robots, to enable human enhancement and to diminish the effects of
certain neural illnesses.

7th May at 7.00pm – Faculty Lecture Theatre, Manufacturing Engineering Centre, Queen's Building (T/2.09)