Urban Digital

A test post of a posterous auto post

2009-08-05T12:51:00.001+01:00

Here is a photo

How to play @cluedo

2009-01-22T15:35:00.001Z

@cluedo is a twitter based guessing game. The idea is simple: test your powers of deduction and your knowledge of twitter-folks by working out who is running the @cluedo account. To play you simply need to be on twitter and follow http://twitter.com/cluedo

Notes for Guessers

I'm a game. Read the advice. Follow me, @reply me some questions, guess who I am. Possibly win a prize perhaps.

My tweets will be honest answers to questions.
I will post at least once an hour while I'm online.
If there are no questions, I will tweet a clue
Once you have asked me THREE questions you are allowed to guess my identity.
When I'm identified, I'll close the game, and favourite the winning tweet, then pass the account off to a new player of my choice.

Please note, these are not so much rules as guidelines. This is a community game and we're not sure that rules have a place or much value: over time the community will evolve this game as they see fit.

Notes for @cluedos

So someone has put you in the hotseat? Here's what you need to do:

Confirm you want to play and wait for the username and password to be sent to you
Login, and start playing!
Favourite the winning tweet and confirm the end of the game
Select someone from your network and invite them to be @cluedo. We suggest you ask them toe reply to you in a certain timescale

You should at least do the following, but once you have the keys it's your game:

always be truthful, but feel free to be evasive
follow anyone that follows @cluedo during your play
you can request retweets or for new followers to "hello @cluedo" but shouldn't illicit followers in any other way (it's more fun and tells us more about Twitter if we allow the @cluedo network to grow organically from the twitter stream and through hearsay)
have fun

Make up your own tactics, put on a silly voice, ask questions from your main alt: it's your game, play it your way.

Posted via web from Jon's posterous

Today's randomness

2008-09-05T16:25:00.001+01:00

To explain the posts below, Andrew Dubber and I are running a workshop with a group of ten or so people on Monday, which will pribably involve them using Posterous to share a load of content and blog their experiences of a work programme we'll be working on for the next 3 months.

We're aggregating all of these blogs into a tumblr, to create an overview of the whole project and to demonstratr another service while we're at it.

Or we might not. The whole project is pretty organic and we might do something else completely. That's why I like my job, I have no idea what we're going to dream up when we meet these guys and find out what they're up to, and Dubber is the man most likely to come up with something we haven't thought of our preapared that will be combination of ridicuolosuly simple and so obvious no one else thought of it.

Happy days.

Posted by email from Jon's posterous

Having a meeting with Stuart

2008-09-04T21:01:00.001+01:00

Discussing the merits of Posterous against Tumblr

Posted by email from Jon's posterous

i can has (completely random) shiny? a bonus friday win for me

2008-08-08T17:08:00.001+01:00

Out of the blue today, the professor dropped me off a shiny new imac.
that kind of wrote my friday off a little bit...

the transfer was surprisingly seemless (the only slight tricky was getting the university proxy to deactivate my cs3 on the old machine, then activate it on the new one)

inevitably some of the few staff in the building came to play with photobooth (pictured here while I assure the prof on the phone that we are working)

my old mac is now being passed to Jez - unfortunately both machine now think they have the same name, so I'll have to fix that Monday, generally speaking though a great day.

Loving my mighty mouse... was very worried about the keyboard (looks great thought it might actually be crap). It is actually lovely, although I so wish it was wireless

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted by email from Jon's posterous

another test...

2008-08-05T16:47:00.001+01:00

This is a test of a post channelled to both tumblr and my wordpress and blogger blogs

Posted by email from Jon's posterous

Pushing from mobile to flickr via posterous

2008-07-30T12:04:00.001+01:00

This is slightly long winded but i can now send to flickr and posterous in one shot. I can also update all my spaces all at once, so this will tweet and tumbl and blog too

Posted by email from Jon's posterous

If my calculations are correct...

2008-07-30T10:18:00.001+01:00

when this baby hits 88 miles an hour your going to see some serious sh*t

OK: this post will update my http://mediacommunity.wordpress.com/ and my http://urbandigital.blogspot.com/

but nowhere else.

all this generated by an email. sweet

Posted by email from Jon's posterous

And now the end is near...

2008-04-12T14:47:00.004+01:00

Well Urban Digital ended today (for now - we will be back!!!).

Time moves on and I am now a bit of a word press obsessive.

For that reason, I'm going to start putting together a bigger and better urban digital blog at http://mediacommunity.wordpress.com/

We'll keep playing with this blog of course, as we need a live demo of what we can do with blogger.

And strangely enough, I'll be encouraging my students to use Blogger more than Wordpress in the first instance as it's that slight bit simpler...

So this place will look quite neglected but we'll be back.

Happy blogging, happy designing and see you all next time Urban Digital is on.

Here we go again!

2008-02-09T07:58:00.000Z

Urban Digital finally starts today.

In the morning, I'll be going over the tools you can use to get yourself up and running with a website that costs nothing, and is simple to use. We're going to look at some of the great tools that are out there like flickr, wordpress, blogger etc.

The full notes pack are posted below in an earlier blog, so if you miss out use the notes to try it for yourself.

In the afternoon Andy's film students will be getting to grips with their cameras for the first time

Good luck everyone!

Urban Digital is Back!

2008-01-25T13:24:00.000Z

Urban Digital is running again from February to April 2008.
This year we are offering courses in both web design and film.

There is an open day to find out more at Handsworth Library on 31st Jan from 5pm - 7pm

Please come along if you want to get involved, or call Joan Henderson on 0121 464 1185

Developing a simple web presence

2007-11-25T11:16:00.000Z

Class notes from seminar on Saturday 24th November

Having a simple website presence is easy, and can be achieved in very little time and for FREE!
It all depends on what you are looking to achieve.

Best for Photographers & Artists
(painting, drawing, graphics, any 2-d forms) – Flickr

Also good for sharing photos with friends and family.
http://www.flickr.com

FREE (with enhanced functions available for small cost)

• Upload images
• Organise into galleries
• Apply searchable tags allowing people to find your work
• Add blogs and other info to explain your work
• Join networks and groups to share ideas or to display your work as part of a wider set of themes
• Be sure to carefully check PRIVACY settings

More help at http://www.flickr.com/help/ (once logged in)

Other skills and tools needed to make the most out of Flickr:

• Digital camera or scanner
• Photoshop or other image editing packages

NOTES:
Part of yahoo – you will need a yahoo ID / email address which is free of charge

Time Taken to set up profile: About 10 minutes – then time to add your photos will depend on how much work you have to add!

Difficulty Rating 4/10 – some more advanced areas of the site are more difficult.

Best for Bands – Myspace

http://www.myspace.com

FREE

Myspace is a social networking website that has been used successfully by many bands to raise their profile. Notable acts include Arctic Monkies and Lilly Allen. Myspace is seen as a professional tool within music, and you will notice Myspace links listed on advertising for new music.
The website is also useful for keeping in touch with friends.

• Write blogs
• Create a network of friends
• Upload photos, music and video clips
• Be sure to carefully check PRIVACY settings

More help at:
http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=misc.faq

Other skills and tools needed to make the most out of Myspace:

• Digital camera or scanner for photos
• Photoshop or other image editing packages
• Facility to create MP3 files of your music, and MPEG videos

Time Taken to set up profile: About 15 minutes
Difficulty Rating 6/10 – need to know HTML tags to make the most of it!!!

Best for Keeping in touch with friends – Facebook

http://www.facebook.com

FREE

Facebook is similar to Myspace in that it is a social networking website. It can be used for promotional work but is more useful for keeping in touch with friends and family. Tools such as groups and events allow you to easily manage events such as parties, and groups such as clubs and societies. The groups area provides you an instant chat forum, allowing you to communicate easily as a group. Handy features also include photo galleries, allowing you to share images e.g. from a family event quickly and easily.

• Social Networking
• Share photos and other media
• Groups with forums
• Uses American English – e.g. you can search for your “high school” but not your “secondary school”
• Be sure to carefully check PRIVACY settings

Time Taken to set up profile: About 10 minutes
Difficulty Rating 4/10

More Help at:

http://www.facebook.com/help.php

Specialist Networking Sites

There are a wide range of other networking sites, often based around issues such as:

• Culture and ethnicity
• Hobbies and past times

There are networking sites available for businesses that include:

http://www.linkedin.com (FREE)
http://www.network2connect.com (FREE for basic functions)
http://www.ecademy.com (Charges for use)

There is a list of other social networking sites here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

Best for Mailing Lists – Yahoo! Groups

http://groups.yahoo.com/

FREE

There are Yahoo! Groups covering a full range of topics. The groups allow users to share photos and information, and they offer a message board facility, which can automatically generate emails.

The Birmingham Freecycle Group uses Yahoo! Groups to manage it’s system. Why not sign up for Freecycle, clear out your cupboards and see a Yahoo! Group in action?

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/birmingham_freecycle/

• Mailing List
• Share information and images
• Be sure to carefully check PRIVACY settings

Time Taken to set up profile: About 10 minutes
Difficulty Rating 3/10 for using existing groups – setting up your own group is 6/10

Best for Blogging or publishing small articles / poems etc. – Blogger

http://www.blogger.com

FREE

Blogging is a great way of building a personal website that is simply about you or one of your interests. It’s like publishing an online journal – you simply login and start writing an article: from a rant about rubbish on your street, to a review of a concert you have seen, a recipe you want to share, your latest poem… anything really can be added to your blog!

Users can also provide feedback to you.

Other useful blogging tools include www.wordpress.com however I have recommended Blogger because you can easily ad Google adverts to it, meaning that you could generate revenue if your Blog becomes popular.

http://urbandigital.blogspot.com/ - there’s not a lot there yet

• Simple to set up and use
• Allows users to add comments
• You need to register a google account to use blogger (relatively simple)
• Google account can be used for adsense advertising programmes, which can generate revenue from your website
• Simple to use
• Share information and images
• Be sure to carefully check PRIVACY settings

Time Taken to set up a blog: About 5 minutes (additional 5 minutes if you do not have a google account)

Difficulty Rating 3/10 for basic editing.

Learning HTML tags will help you to create more effective layouts

Best for Collaborative Projects – Wikis

http://pbwiki.com/

FREE Plus paid options for more advanced features

A “wiki” is a type of computer software that allows users to easily create, edit and link web pages. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites, power community websites, and are increasingly being installed by businesses to provide affordable and effective Intranets.

The best known wiki is http://en.wikipedia.org - an encyclopaedia that users can edit.

PBwiki allows you to create your own wiki in minutes. You can then begin collaborating with partners to build a simple website.

http://urbandigital.pbwiki.com/ - a wiki for Urban Digital (email jon@theplan.co.uk for the password!)

• Simple to set up and use
• Open and collaborative – anyone can register and ad content
• Customisable layouts for advanced users
• Simple to use
• Share information and images

Time Taken to set up a wiki: About 5 minutes

Difficulty Rating 3/10 for basic editing, 7/10 for ading pages, 9/10 for customising templates

Learning HTML tags will help you to create more effective layouts

The library has facilities for more advanced web design and graphic design, using industry leading packages. We also have access to video and stills cameras.

Ask at the front desk about how to book these facilities for your won media projects.

There may be training opportunities in the future – please look out for notices or contact Joan Henderson: Joan_Henderson@birmingham.gov.uk

2007-11-24T15:46:00.000Z

A useful workshop today - a returning Urban Digital web student got the chance to brush up their skils, and 2 new people joined us for a crash course in promoting a business online

Urban Digital - Crash Course Seminar

2007-11-24T10:31:00.000Z

Well this morning is the first Urban Digital seminar since March.

We have new people, and only two hours in which to cover a lot of ground.

Therefore we're going to look at building simple web presences using:

flickr

myspace

yahoo! groups

blogger

facebook

Hopefully it will go well!

Urban Digital

A test post of a posterous auto post

How to play @cluedo

Today's randomness

Having a meeting with Stuart

i can has (completely random) shiny? a bonus friday win for me

another test...

Pushing from mobile to flickr via posterous

If my calculations are correct...

And now the end is near...

Here we go again!

Urban Digital is Back!

Developing a simple web presence

Best for Photographers & Artists (painting, drawing, graphics, any 2-d forms) – Flickr

Best for Bands – Myspace

Best for Keeping in touch with friends – Facebook

Specialist Networking Sites

Best for Mailing Lists – Yahoo! Groups

Best for Blogging or publishing small articles / poems etc. – Blogger

Best for Collaborative Projects – Wikis

Urban Digital - Crash Course Seminar

Best for Photographers & Artists
(painting, drawing, graphics, any 2-d forms) – Flickr