nicreatives
SXSW 2009
Much as I would love to be going to SXSW 2009, it really isn’t on the cards (unless some kind organisation would like to sponsor me to go), but there are several people I talked to at last nights Open Coffee who really were interested in attending but wanted to be able to organise a more group-like contingent, partly for the company but also to make their presence more effective. Given that www.nicreatives.com has the intention of enabling exactly this sort of thing, a page has been set up there for people to register their interest and get some preliminary discussion going about who plans to attend.
Busy and Productive Day
I spent most of today setting up the various access points for my little endeavour to provide a focal point for the Northern Ireland creative community (www.nicreatives.com). At this point, I could go ahead and soft launch the site and start getting some content up. The idea is that there are loads of events going on in Northern Ireland that a lot of people would go to, if they knew about them. Things like Creative Camp and Mobile Monday I only discovered throgh Twitter, so I have to assume that there are a lot of non-twitterers that are missing out. Hopefully, the site will allow people to get information coming to them and help build the community a bit by getting more people talking. We’ll see how it goes.
The essence of the site is there, but I would like to create a custom Wordpress theme that suits the sites needs better instead of the rather generic (though functional) one I put in place to avoid that hideous blue rounded rectangle that is the WP default. There are few more functional items that need added and I’d like to streamline things a little to cut down on the repetition of adding events in multiple places as well as automate the generation of .ics files for new events, or at least automate the link to Upcoming.
I’ll take a run through things tomorrow and check it works as I think and then loose it upon the world. If people like the idea and get onboard, I think it could be a success.
Merlin Mann Stops Getting Things Done
I like Merlin Mann. A lot. He’s become the geek poster boy for GTD, created the Hipster PDA and promoted the idea of Inbox Zero. So why does he now want you to fuck off?
Creative Camp and the rise of the new media darlings
I’ve had an interesting week. Since the 2.0 iPhone software was released I’ve suddenly discovered a whole new, much more interesting side to Twitter. I blame Twinkle, primarily, because its “nearby” feature has opened a whole world of local Twitterers to me. Northern Ireand can feel a little insular at times, even more so when you are outside the sprawling metropolis that is our capital city, so to find this whole world of other geeky types so close was a revelation. Within a week I had stopped following @kevinrose, @veronica and all the other web 2.0 celebrities and started connecting with real people there was a chance I could actually meet.
A Proposal for a Northern Ireland Creatives Website
Apologies for the quick and dirty Wordpress, but would like to start getting feedback on this…
Executive Summary:
To create a site where creatives from all areas, music, art, web development, programming etc., can go to discuss their business, passions and future. To provide up to date information on forthcoming events and news and to nuture a self-promoting community.