The schedule of programmes is:

• Monday 29 December at 7.15pm Breaking the speed limit
• Tuesday 30 December at 7.15pm Chips with everything
• Wednesday 31 December at 7.15pm The ghost in the machine
• Thursday 1 January at 7.15pm Untangling the web
• Friday 2 January at 7.15pm Digital intelligence

I remember them being on in the morning on Channel 4 (they were on the BBC before that) and more often than not I’d only catch the last 5 minutes, so I approve of the shift to the evening.

There’s a little mini-site to accompany the lectures, with a few games to play.

My favourite bit on the booking form for attending the lectures themselves - “adults must be accompanied by an 11-17 year old”.

This afternoon I was Trig - one of the ugly sisters in Twitpanto, a production of Cinderella played out over Twitter. My co-stars were mainly Birmingham-based twitterers, along with a few of minor Twitter slebs.

Jon Bounds, a social media consultant, was responsible for the idea, script, direction… pretty much everything in fact, and a fine job he did too.

My fave things about Twitpanto:

• It was absolutely chaotic but it absolutely worked
• The audience participation - it’s an important part of a panto and seeing over 50 tweets of ‘oh no it’s not’ and ‘oh yes it is’ come rolling in was fantastic
• It was popular - not a penny was spent on promotion but it spread because people liked the idea. #twitpanto was the top trending topic on twitter and so far my tag search is showing over 1,300 uses of the tag (and they’re still coming)

A ‘performers’ eye view

Managing the number of #twitpanto tweets coming through was a bit of a mission. I started off watching the #twitpanto tag on Tweetdeck. However, with 15 minutes to go there seemed to be too much audience ‘noise’ coming through so I created a new group for cast members only. However, tweets came through too slowly, so halfway through I was glad to be able to shift to watching the Roomatic chatroom (screenshot below) and tweeting via Tweetdeck.

Matthew Somerville deserves hearty thanks for, first of all, knocking up the Roomatic chatroom and then tweaking it so the cast’s tweets were distinct from the audience’s.

What Twitpanto ‘was‘

There’s loads that could be said about something like this - why it appealed, what platforms were used and why, how the idea spread through networks, how it could be monetised/improved/replicated, etc and so on…

However, keeping up with the audience banter and trying to follow along with the loosely-prepared script was surprisingly exhausting, so for now it’s enough to say that it was a lot of fun and I can’t wait for the next one.

I’ll leave you with a few Twitpanto-related links:

• The website (incl cast list)
• The script
• The transcript
• The transcript passed through Wordle (above)
  
• The Upcoming event for PantWeb08
• Cinders’ wish to go to the unconference

And some other Twitpanto posts:

• Nick Booth
• Actors Online
• Tom Roper - “It was rowdy, bawdy and sometimes hard to follow, just like the real thing”
• Emma Jones (Dandini) - “ludicrous though it sounds, I felt like I’d really been part of something big”

Markers have been laid out across a map of England and Scotland making the shape of a chronometer. People are asked to go to the place of one of those markers and lay a stone, thereby building “a geoglyph which spans all of Great Britain, from Aberdeen to Bristol”.

One of the markers is a 10 min walk from my house, so I fully intended to do this. Probably. One day. That is until I saw a tweet from my old housemate Alex. Turns out he was going to make a Britglyph-related detour to Birmingham on his way to a weekend stay in Snowdonia. Hoorah!

So I met up with him and his buddy Phil, we placed our rocks and then they carried on their merry way. My photos of this momentous event are now up on the Britglyph site. Here are the rocks:

It’s worth mentioning another public art project involving stones - the V&A’s World Beach Project. I heard about this via a talk from Gail Durbin, the museum’s head of online, yesterday at an event called C:Cubed. There’s a post about that coming.

I’ve never been keen on attaching CiB’s name to any awards. If things change when I move on then that’s cool and I’d support that, just not on my watch.

That said, I have to admit there are appealing aspects to the idea of some kind of alternative awards. There’s a ‘putting your money where your mouth is’ side of things, as there was with Film Dash. I’ve given the Creative City Awards a bit of a kicking and I much prefer the idea of doing something positive to carping from the sidelines.

So, I’ve said I might (help to) organise something. I think there’d be a few provisos to that:

• Importantly, that enough people want to see this happen. At least as many people as attended the Creative City Awards (400 people?)
• No judging panel of appointed experts - nominations and judging to be by public vote
• An event with free entry, no special guests and no dress code
• Everyone involved in producing something gets paid something for their work. That means funding/sponsorship

That last one includes me if I’m putting things together. I did Film Dash for the love of it - that wouldn’t be the case here. I wouldn’t take the proverbial though. I guess costings for the organiser’s time, a venue, website, design, etc would be needed.

Anyway, those are some thoughts off the top of my head. Feel free to chuck your suggestions or support in the comments. Negative comments gratefully received too - I’m well up for being talked out of this.

A couple of notes first:

• There’s no single ‘right way’ to set up a blog.  If you do things differently then great - who wants homogenity?
• This is for the free Wordpress.com, not the self-hosted version of WP
• I’m posting this in Nov 08.  Sorry if the layout and features have changed
• I’ve assumed that you’ve signed up and got yourself a blog

Ok, on with it…

Quick list of changes

• About page - update content and disallow comments and pings
• Delete ‘Hello World’ post
• Links - delete Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org and add a couple of my own (if relevant)
• Change blog tagline
• Add Stumbleupon, Delicious, Digg and Reddit icons to posts
• Free up comment publication
• Disable Snap Shots
• Hide ‘related links’
• Update profile details
• Choose a theme and some sidebar widgets

Making the changes

I’ve ordered this part as per the tabs at the top of the Wordpress dashboard, only I’ve gone right to left (NB - no need to change anything under ‘Comments’). There’s method to my madness though.

Users

• Click ‘Your Profile’ (just above where ‘Manage Users’ is in big letters)
• Enter your name (unless you want to be anonymous) and nickname.  Choose what you want your name to be displayed as (at the bottom of posts and in comments) from the drop down menu.
• Click on ‘Update Profile’ at the bottom of the page

Settings

• General - delete the existing tagline that says ‘Just another Wordpress blog’ and replace it with something more suitable (or just leave it blank)
• Reading - tick the boxes to add Stumbleupon, Delicious, Digg and Reddit icons to posts
• Discussion - untick the box that says ‘Comment author must have a previously approved comment’

Remember to click ‘Save Changes’ at the bottom of each page where you alter settings.

Design

Themes and widgets are really a matter of personal preference, although I’d always recommend getting rid of Snap Shots (the link previews that pop up when you hover a cursor over some anchor text) and ‘related posts’ (the rarely relevant list of posts on other wordpress.com blogs). They’re both irritating.

• Themes - scroll through and pick something you like.  Click on it to preview it and click ‘Activate theme’ in the top right of the preview window to, well, activate it.  The look of your blog will change straight away.
• Widgets - these will be dictated by personal preference and the particular aims of your blog.  As a basic layout I’d suggest (from top to bottom) Pages, Text (with a brief explanation of what the blog is about), Recent Comments (apparently placing this high up encourages commenting), Categories, Links and Search
• Extras - untick ‘Enable snap shots on this blog’, tick to ‘Hide related posts on this blog’

Manage

• Posts - tick the box next to ‘Hello World’ and click delete
• Pages - click on ‘About’ and change the text to something more relevant. Also scroll down, click on ‘Comments & Pings’ and untick both boxes to disallow them both
• Links, tick the boxes next to the two existing links to Wordpress websites and click delete.  Then click on ‘Add link’ to insert a link of your own

Write

• Pages - add any extra static pages that are needed
• Posts - finally, time to write that first post.

As I see it, the problems are:

• You limit yourself to people with Facebook accounts - not everyone has signed up
• Some workplaces ban access to Facebook
• Your info won’t be found by a Google search
• URLs for items in Facebook are long, ugly number-stuffed things - not the sort of thing you’d want on a poster or flyer
• You have no control over your content and can’t back it up easily. What if your profile is deleted?
• Your group/event/page looks just like everyone elses - not excitingly creative is it?
• Facebook isn’t futureproof. Chances are you didn’t use it a couple of years ago - chances are you won’t be using it in a couple of years time

A couple of provisos:

• Of course I’d encourage people to use Facebook to promote their events - there are several great features to use there and, after all, you should go where the people are
• One size doesn’t fit all - it might be perfectly sensible to promote your event solely through Facebook

However, in most cases I’d definitely advise against using it excusively. The problems listed above can all be avoided by getting your own website (blogs work well for this and have the added bonus of being free).

• Being unique makes it easier for people to find you online, and
• Using Google Alerts and the Social Media Firehose is an awful lot easier if you’re not sifting out irrelevant search results.

Choosing names for things is difficult at the best of times but there are a couple of tools that will make the process a little less painful.

Domain name availability

I tend to use Instant Domain Search to see if the .com domain for a given name is available (as well as the .net and .org).  There might be a better tool - if so let me know - but I’m happy enough with this for the time being as it’s ridiculously quick.

Checking username availability

As well as the domain name, it may make sense to have matching profiles on sites like Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, etc and so on.  When I was picking a name for the film competition I ran (Film Dash) I spent far too much time checking username availability on the principal social media sites.

The Username Check service simplifies that process massively, although perhaps replacing it with an urge to sign up to every single service.  (Thanks to Phil Oakley for the heads-up on this one).

My talk was only 20 minutes long so I rattled through many of the websites and services listed below - this post is for further infomation and in place of notes.

The talk and this blog post have been written to apply particularly to music events but most of this will apply to promoting many other sorts of event.

Basics

• Choose a unique name - search Google and check a good domain name and social media usernames are available
  
• “Nothing you can’t spell will ever work” Will Rogers.  Why make it hard for people to remember the name of your event?

Profiles

• MySpace (choose your friends well)
  
• Facebook (group or page + events)
• Twitter
• Atomkeep to update all your profiles together

Email

Your mailing list is one of the most important tools you’ll ever have for promoting your night.  Build it and look after it.  Here are a few tips:

• BCC all recipients - making everyone’s email addresses public will not make you popular
• Have the same info online and give a link to it in the email (this should be on your own website but at the very least try using Posterous)
• Learn the opt-in rules
• Don’t send images with no text
• Don’t spam - be sparing with how often you send emails out
• Don’t waste peoples time - it’s an email, not an essay.  Make your information clear and easily digestible
• Remember that many people will get your emails at work - don’t make them have to unsubscribe
• Give an easy way to unsubscribe (this is a must)
• Consider the costs/benefits of using a paid service like Campaign Monitor

Listings (general and Birmingham specific)

• Dontstayin/Skiddle
• Last.fm
• Live Brum
• What’s On In Brum
• Birmingham Alive
• Birmingham Gig Guide
• The Music Network
• Brum Rock
• Eventbrite (this populates Google, Upcoming, Eventful and Zvents automatically)
  
• Ents24

At/after the event

• Take photos, put them on Flickr
• Take videos, put them on YouTube (TubeMogul) and Vimeo
• Give reviewers/photographers free entry in return for a review/photographs (see Birmingham Live)
• Set up tagging conventions and tell people about them

Blogging

• Get a blog (Wordpress/Blogger/Typepad or self-host one)
• Buy a domain name
• Comment on other blogs
• Talk about others on your blog
• Suggested blog topics - upcoming events, collective memories… (to be continued)
• Your blogroll defines you, just as your MySpace friends do
• Learn from those who do it well (there are loads but off the top of my head - 7 Inch Cinema, Capsule, Autumn Store, Marc Reck, Rich Batsford, Robot v Dinosaur, Colour)
• Use Google Alerts for your name (esp if unique) and Social Media Firehose
• Is someone out there enthusing about your night and telling people about it? Give them free entry, an exclusive mixtape for them to distribute, etc - help them to help you

Further reading

Subscribe to New Music Strategies (do you use an RSS reader yet?) and browse through the archive, especially:

• What websites should I be on (and pt 2 and pt 3)
• What’s the best way to manage a fan list
• How many social media platforms

Also have a read of this Wired article on how to promote your band on MySpace

Your suggestions

I’ve been far from comprehensive.  Using each of the above is a blog post/talk in itself but the intention was to get people started. What did I miss?

I’ve had a great evening.

I’ve not long returned from the Birmingham Social Media Surgery held as part of Blog Action Day 08.  If you’re reading this there’s a fair chance that sentence makes sense to you.  If not, it was a chance for folk from community and voluntary groups to sit down with some soi-disant social media ‘experts’ and get some free advice.

Nick Booth posted in advance of the event here but the reality must have far exceeded his expectations.  I arrived 15 minutes late to find the scene in the pic above - several people crowded round each ‘expert’ with some serious learning going on (on both sides).

It really was great.  I spoke to some people about sharing calendars, how to sort out hosting, what Wordpress is and how blogs could be used to support film making projects.  I hope my advice was helpful; I certainly learned a lot about how to pass this sort of information on and apply it to the concerns of those trying to make a difference.

Anyway, as mentioned it was scheduled as part of Blog Action Day.  The object of BAD08 itself is to get as many bloggers as possible talking about poverty and raise awareness/start a conversation/etc and so on.

I wouldn’t say I’ve got anything groundbreaking to put offer besides my own experience of this evening.  Instead, I’d like to highlight a post Cat Bray has written called Blog Action Day: Shelter, a conversation.  Essentially it’s an IM chat she had with her fella about charities, in the course of the which she said:

i think one of the most effective things charities can do is tell you where your money is going, or better, show you

Which is just what I (and several others) have spent the evening telling community/voluntary orgs to use social media to do via blogs, video, podcasts, etc.

Hopefully we’ll get the chance to do the same again sometime soon.

By the way, to the person that has my copy of the book - I know it was a while ago now, but can I have it back please?

Here’s the best bit:

1. Know what you’re buying: Reporting is now so contaminated by bias and campaigning, and general mischief, that no reader can hope to get a picture of what is happening without first knowing who owns the paper, and who it is being published for.
2. Follow the names: If you find a reporter who seems to know the score, particularly in an area you know about, cherish him or her.
3. Register bias: Even when you read the same paper every day, be aware that reporters are now less embarrassed to let the bias show.
4. Read the second paragraph; and look for quote marks: Surprisingly often, the key fact is not in the first paragraph, which is general and designed to grab attention. Look for the hard fact in the next paragraph. If it seems soft and contentless, there is probably very little in the story.
5. If the headline asks a question, try answering ‘no’: Is This the True Face of Britain’s Young? (Sensible reader: No.) Have we Found the Cure for AIDS? (No; or you wouldn’t have put the question mark in.) A headline with a question mark at the end means, in the vast majority of cases, that the story is tendentious and oversold. It is often a scare story, or an attempt to elevate some run-of-the-mill piece into a national controversy and, preferably, a national panic.
6. And watch out for quotation marks in headlines, too: If you read ‘Marr “stole” book idea’ then the story says nothing of the kind. If quotation marks are signs of real reporting in the body of a story, in the headline they are often a sign of failed reporting.
7. Read small stories: Just because something is reported in a single paragraph does not mean it is insignificant.
8. Suspect ‘research’: Hundreds of dodgy academic departments put out bogus or trivial pieces of research designed to impress busy newspaper people and win themselves some cheap publicity which can in turn be used in their next funding applications. If something is a survey, see if the paper reports how many people were surveyed, where and when.
9. Check the calendar: Not simply for April’s Fool, but for the predictable round of hardy annuals that bulk up thin news lists. Anniversaries; stories about wettest/driest/longest/warmest spring/summer/autumn…
10. Suspect financial superlatives: Even if the underlying rate of inflation is modest, then in the ordinary way of things, prices for many limited good are going to be the highest ever. What is interesting is how these increases relate to inflation and therefore to other prices and to each other.
11. Remember that news is cruel: Reading the awful things that people apparently say about each other, or newspapers say about them, can be depressing. Is life really so writhing with distaste, failure and loathing? No.
12. Finally, believe nothing you read about newspaper sales—nothing: Work it out for yourself.

(half-inched from Sans Serif)