January 21, 2013

Posts from smithery for 01/21/2013

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These Pages Fall Like Ash: Planning & Pitching Jan 18, 2013 11:57 am | john v willshire

Tom Abba (http://people.uwe.ac.uk/Pages/person.aspx?accountname=campus\tw2-abba) is Senior Lecturer in Narrative Theory at UWE, and has been using Artefact Cards since the second wave of testing.

Together with Circumstance (http://productofcircumstance.com/) , he’s been creating a project called These Pages Fall Like Ash (http://www.react-hub.org.uk/books-and-print-sandbox/projects/2013/these-pages-fall-like-ash/) where they are working with leading authors Nick Harkaway (https://twitter.com/Harkaway) and Neil Gaiman (https://twitter.com/neilhimself) to explore what the book, the editor and the author could be on a digital-first platform.

You can read more about that here, and follow the project as they go – http://www.react-hub.org.uk/books-and-print-sandbox/projects/2013/these-pages-fall-like-ash/

Tom’s also kindly written a piece here on how they’ve used Artefact Cards as part of the project so far…

Pitching is difficult. Pitching is even more difficult when your project partner is in Hong Kong, beamed in by Skype, and you’re in front of the panel in Bristol and by some strange coincidence the Queen drives past the building and everyone – except your project partner, who’s in Hong Kong – turns to look.

That happened. Except for everyone turning to look – only one of the panel did that.

I had an idea for this project over eighteen months ago and I’ve been trying to find to right opportunity to pitch it since then. It arose from an offhanded remark Adam Greenfield (https://twitter.com/agpublic) made on a walkshop in Bristol and grew from there.

It’s been drafted on the original (S logo) Artefact cards (http://shop.smithery.co/) , and redrafted on the yellowbacked editions. It’s been expanded, contracted and expanded again to suit circumstances, and while it keeps changing, the ideas at the heart of it are always the same – audience-driven story, cities as story engines, and challenging the terms of the reader/text/author relationship.

Here’s a sample of the deck I used to pitch (it’s a sample, because the panel asked to keep some of the cards – always a good sign):

http://smithery.co/story/these-pages-fall-like-ash-planning-pitching/attachment/img_2763/

So why were the cards so useful? Well, I’m in broad agreement with John’s take on post-it notes; they’re fabulous for prompting me, but for something that needs both structure and a sense of permanent flux, they lose their appeal pretty quickly. Cards, on the other hand, are a deck. They can be shuffled and reused in partial decks to explain ideas, subdecks can be borrowed to start a train of thought on interaction or UX design, and then reused to clarify and develop ideas within a larger frame.

We’ve started this project -’ these pages fall like ash’ is a very Circumstance (https://twitter.com/ofcircumstance) title – and we have our first day planning with Nick Harkaway (https://twitter.com/harkaway) in London on the 22nd. I’ll take a deck with me, and see if Nick bites.

Neil Gaiman (https://twitter.com/neilhimself) we bring into the process in March, by which time the shape of each experience will be much clearer, and I confidently predict there’ll be a deck on its way back to the US.

However, if John is taking suggestions, what I’d like to see are wallets. I have a set of tiny bulldog clips that hold the decks for this project together, but it’d be much nicer to have those organised and available without digging through a bag every time I want to revisit an idea.

And you know what? Apps…

Read more: http://feedproxy.google.com/_r/Smithery/3/Y9q7n0jEHn4/ Comments: http://smithery.co/story/these-pages-fall-like-ash-planning-pitching/#comments

When The Snow Comes Jan 18, 2013 09:57 am | john v willshire

Not the sort of thing I’d usually post up here, but snow days aren’t normal days…

When The Snow Comes – Smithery

Not the sort of thing I’d usually post up here, but snow days aren’t normal days… When The Snow Comes When the snow comes We’ll see the flakes fall And run out in pyjamas With no shoes at all Then run back inside With our feet cold and wet When the snow comes (But it …

When The Snow Comes

When the snow comes We’ll see the flakes fall And run out in pyjamas With no shoes at all Then run back inside With our feet cold and wet When the snow comes (But it isn’t here yet)

When the snow comes We’ll pull on our boots And run out the door With screams, whoops and hoots We’ll gasp as the snow Falls down into our mitt When the snow comes It’ll come in a bit

When the snow comes We’ll race round the street Collecting up snowballs To pile at our feet Waiting for dad To step out of the car When the snow comes It can’t be that far

When the snow comes It’ll cover the garden At first light and fluffy Then icy and hardened It will all melt away We’ll be twiddling our thumbs Waiting again For when the snow comes

Read more: http://feedproxy.google.com/_r/Smithery/3/AFYKNecwpsA/ Comments: http://smithery.co/random-inspiration-2/when-the-snow-comes/#comments

Little Notes on Little Printer Jan 16, 2013 08:19 am | john v willshire

I’ve been testing a use for my Little Printer (http://bergcloud.com/littleprinter/) from Berg (http://berglondon.com/) ; to send hand drawn notes, rather than using the text templates provided. It’s been good this week as I’m at a workshop for a few days in London, and want to send Helen and the kids some wee notes and things during the day, just generally to say hello.

It probably shares something in spirit with “Where’s Dad” (http://tobybarnes.tumblr.com/post/10398593786/whereisdad) / Arrivals (http://www.iamdanw.com/wrote/arrivals-for-foursquare/) by Toby (http://tobybarnes.tumblr.com/post/10398593786/whereisdad) and Dan. (http://www.iamdanw.com/wrote/arrivals-for-foursquare/)

Given James is three years old though, he needs something a bit simpler than that. ‘Dad drew this, and sent it to me, on this here little printer’ is about the right level.

So, if you have a Little Printer, and want to try it yourself, here’s what to do…

http://smithery.co/making/little-notes-on-little-printer/attachment/little-printer-love-notes/

Step 1

First of all, you’ll need something to draw with. It needs to be pretty punchy black-on-white, because you’re going to put it through as a theshold image, and not a dithered image.

Mr Reid’s picture, from his ‘Publishing for Little Printer (http://wordpress.mrreid.org/2012/12/18/publishing-for-little-printer/) ‘ post, illustrates the difference; dithered image on the left, threshold on the right:

http://smithery.co/making/little-notes-on-little-printer/attachment/dither-threshold-example-640x250/

Now, I use Artefact Cards (http://shop.smithery.co/) , as for obvious reasons I always have them to hand. The thickness of the Sharpie on the white card creates an image that’s really going to pop as a threshold image, as we’ll see. But a sharpie on anything white will work well, a thin rollerball or biro not so much.

http://smithery.co/making/little-notes-on-little-printer/attachment/img_4870/

Now, when you take a picture of the message, most likely on your phone, get the image to fill the screen, like this:

http://smithery.co/making/little-notes-on-little-printer/attachment/img_4869/

It doesn’t really need to be that clean a shot, lighting wise; Little Printer is going to force the darks to black, and the lights to white.

Step 2

Go and follow the instructions on Dan Catt (https://twitter.com/revdancatt) ‘s Little Printer Email Bridge (http://littleprinteremailbridge.com/) hack.

I’d suggest, if you use IFTTT already, you might want to start a new account rather than make it your existing one, because in a minute you’ll need a new tumblr too. If I have one bugbear with IFTTT, it’s that it doesn’t support multiple accounts for the same channel yet.

When you finish doing that, you’ll have an IFTTT (https://ifttt.com) account with the Little Printer email address down as your email channel with IFTTT:

http://smithery.co/making/little-notes-on-little-printer/attachment/screen-shot-2013-01-15-at-23-12-56/

Step 2

OK, now you can set up a new tumblr (http://www.tumblr.com) . You can use an existing one if you wish, but if you do you’ll just end up with the pictures you’re sending sporadically interrupting the stream of whatever else you’re doing.

I think keeping it as its own clean stream is a good idea. Then you’ll also have a repository of all the notes you send.

When you’ve set up the new tumblr, then also hook that in to your IFTTT account.

(You could also use a flickr account, but again, it needs to be set to public)

Step 3

Create a new recipe in IFTTT, using the step-by-step walkthrough procedure, as follows:

i. IF there is a new post on my tumblr… ii. tagged with [WHATEVER KEYWORD YOU LIKE]… iii. Send me an email… iv. Subject: POSTTITLE v. Body: [””] If you want to print normal pictures, rather than the black and white threshold forced image, that last line needs to be

v. Body: [””]

Testing

Once all that’s done, give the IFTTT recipe a few minutes to establish itself, and upload a photo to the tumblr. I use the iPhone app, and post a photo post with a tag; I upload a picture, tag it with James, then it’ll send it to Little Printer.

Take heed of Dan’s advice (http://littleprinteremailbridge.com/) , though – “Because everything is a bit beta and held together with string at this end, it may take a couple of minutes for your message to show up.”

Your message could well take fifteen, twenty minutes to get through.

But it’s quicker than a postcard, right?

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There you go then, hope that’s interesting/useful. Any thoughts, builds, examples you have, please do share, either in the comments below, or find me on twitter @willsh. (http://twitter.com/willsh)

Read more: http://feedproxy.google.com/_r/Smithery/3/W6Z6Ocumf3w/ Comments: http://smithery.co/making/little-notes-on-little-printer/#comments

Folksy, invisible economies, and Artefact Cards Jan 15, 2013 10:25 pm | john v willshire

This was a wee inteeview for the Artefact Cards blog I carried out on email with Emily Barnes (https://twitter.com/mrsemilybarnes) of Folksy (http://folksy.com/) (they’re also on twitter as @folksy (https://twitter.com/Folksy) ). Usually I keep the Artefact Cards interviews over there, but this turned into an interesting discourse on invisible economies, so it fits right at home on the Smithery blog too…

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http://smithery.co/making/folksy-invisible-economies-and-artefact-cards/attachment/screen-shot-2013-01-15-at-22-14-17/

JVW: Hello Emily. Tell us about Folksy, and Frankly. I tend to think of Folksy as a Tactile Tour of Britain…

EB: I love that image! Folksy.com (http://folksy.com/) is a place for UK makers and designers to sell their work. We believe in people and their talent to make things and our aim is to foster a vibrant economy of talented makers, built on craft skill. Like we used to have. We have around 10,000 active sellers at the moment and over 130,000 unique handmade items for sale.

Frankly.folksy.com (http://frankly.folksy.com/) was set up just over a year ago to share our passion for making, leaving the Folksy blog for tips and advice for sellers only. However (exclusive!), next week Frankly and the Folksy blog are moving in together, having thoroughly enjoyed being neighbours for the past 14 months it’s now time to take our relationship to the next level. The Folksy Blog has given Frankly a key and we’ve been busy amalgamating our possessions.

The new Folksy blog will showcase the best in Folksy talent through the ever popular Meet the Maker strand (http://frankly.folksy.com/category/meet-the-makers) , publish commissioned articles on selling online from industry experts like Yeshen Venema (http://yeshenvenema.com/) and Patricia van den Akker (http://www.thedesigntrust.co.uk/patricia-van-den-akker-director-of-the-design-trust/) and be the perfect place for us and our community to pop in for a brew and share great craft inspiration together. We’re rather excited about it to be honest.

JVW: I think that’s interesting and smart; the story of making Folksy and making the things sold there in the same place. It becomes the ‘town hall meeting’ for all things Folksy, perhaps? Sometimes it’s about infrastructure, sometimes it’s about personal projects. It feels like there really is a great community around Folksy, how does that come through online and offline?

EB: It’s something we’re wanting to focus on more this year. How do we create a real sense of Folksy being a ‘club’? At the moment the forums are a hive of activity, Facebook is an obvious source of conversation, shared ideas and inspiration, we have a huge following on Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram and the blog is used frequently be readers who want to comment on posts or ask questions to featured makers.

The offline world of making generally fosters a great sense of community. There are local craft fairs in every town hall across the country and there is no better way to integrate yourself into that community than selling with them. Even as a buyer, craft fairs are the perfect place to get involved in your local making community; to meet makers, have a good old nosey at their products and hopefully come away having met a couple of like-minded potential friends. Most towns also have craft groups that meet regularly to knit, stitch, paint, crochet, draw, build or bake. It’s a thriving community out there in the offline world, you just need to ‘want’ to be a part of it and be prepared to search it out.

This year at Folksy we want to take this sense of ‘community’ one step further. We want our community to feel supported, to come to Folksy to learn and share and be inspired, not just to buy. To be able to speak more freely to one another, to openly show which makers or products they like on the site. For the experience to feel more personal. Initially the new Folksy tumblr will do that but eventually we plan to add features to the site that really make people feel part of a supportive, nurturing, inspiring ‘making’ world. Lastly we’d love to run a summer school this year. We love online but offline can be so rich and the thought of that really floats our boat!

JVW: Part of the thing I like about the Artefact Cards is the notion of ‘hand-crafted ideas’, perhaps because a lot of my work is knowledge work and can be intangible at times. Do you find some Folksy makers are balancing out an urge unfulfilled from a less tactile career?

EB: I spend a lot of my time speaking to makers and lots of them tell the same story that was told 100 years ago when domestic crafts became popular amongst housewives and young women. ‘Making’ allows them to fulfil a creative urge not met in their daily lives. Few of our community are interested in making a full time business from their making, choosing rather to use their kitchen tables and front room sofa’s to design and make in the evenings when the chores are done. It’s largely an invisible world and one we’re here to nurture and support.

JVW: From an economic perspective, I think that’s symptomatic of various things that have been cropping up in the last ten years. The internet allows commercial activity on a small, precise scale for people, as they can connect to others who would never have seen their their work before. Folksy lets the world walk past a someone’s handcrafted clock stall in Whitstable.

So as more and more people do things like this, it becomes a more significant factor in the economy, and arguably those ‘invisible worlds’ are probably subtly changing a lot of the traditional economic measures and assumptions. It feels important, in short, because I get the sense that the Folksy makers aren’t ‘internet entrepreneurs’, they’re people who make lovely brilliant things and can sell them easily on Folksy?

EB: That’s exactly why Rob and James initially wanted to create Folksy. They could see, and were impressed by what people were doing with their hands. And they could also see how difficult it was for those makers to be seen, to be accessible and to feel supported. Joining Folksy is no more difficult that filling out a form with your name, address and paypal details.

Of course the great thing about Folksy is that it also allows to create your own shop as a professional business if you want. We get makers who have ‘had a go’ at making a few things and just fancy listing them as an experiment and then we get makers who have spent a year doing market research and developing their brand and product collections before launching on Folksy as a fully functioning business. It makes for a broad range of practices, abilities and skills and that is one of the beauties of Folksy.

JVW: So, I saw a picture of you plotting something out the other day… what have you been using Artefact Cards for?

EB: The Folksy team like to get together every January and plan for the year ahead. I cover social media, marketing, PR and content so talking to the team about what I feel has worked, what hasn’t and my plans for the next year can leave me wandering aimlessly between branding, mail shots, Mollie Makes and Facebook insights. The Artefact cards just helped me order my thoughts in preparation for that meeting. They also serve as a good visual cue during the meeting and I think it’s useful to get them all out on the table and let the rest of the team ‘see’ what I’m thinking too.

I’ve been thinking a lot about that way of working, lately; it’s like letting other people walk around in your ideas with their fingers. When you put the cards down on a table, even though they are full of your words and drawings, they become common currency, everyone can play. Which makes the cards different from notebooks or devices, which you feel weird about reading or using.

JVW: How did it go?

EB: Ask me again next week – the meeting was cancelled due to the snow. What I will say is that it did a great job of allowing me to jot down and organise my thoughts without having to cross things out, rip out pages or start again. The thoughts are there now to be moved around and played with as we see fit. They can be added to, taken away, moved into different categories or duplicated if need be and there is no end to the page! That’s a brilliant thing.

Thanks Emily

Folksy.com (http://folksy.com/) Frankly.folksy.com (http://frankly.folksy.com/) Artefact Cards (http://shop.smithery.co/)

Read more: http://feedproxy.google.com/_r/Smithery/3/h81hLnyeWzI/ Comments: http://smithery.co/making/folksy-invisible-economies-and-artefact-cards/#comments

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