Nick Booth comes to supper to test a new website
I met Nick in 2000 when he made a documentary about allotments for BBC WM called 'Losing the Plot' about the selling off of allotments in the West Midlands. The case of the Victoria Jubilee Allotments was a central feature of an entertaining and at times moving half-hour investigation into the loss of food growing space in central Birmingham. Since then we've stayed in close touch as Nick has moved from broadcasting to narrowcasting developing a distinctive talent in the evolution of a new grammar of communication - as fecund with possibilities as the steam that rattled the lid of the kettle.
Developing a new technology is complicated because in testing it out, in draft form, on possible users you have to work out what needs to change - the techniques of the user or the design of the new tool. Coming to friends' homes and sitting with them as they tinker with what you're offering is as good a way of piloting something as any.
In this case Nick and collaborators have something amazing in mind - a site that will use social networking to do the kind of investigation that has made Heather Brooke a local hero. www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/15/mps-expenses-heat...
It's early days but I find the idea exciting but incredibly tricky to get right knowing the fickle attention span of those who use new sites. It needs to work from the moment of launch. After that the web spreads the word.
More about Nick:
www.audiencescentral.co.uk/our_work/?p=About+Nick+Booth;;404
and here are his current sites:
www.podnosh.com/channels/channel_grassroots_about.php
Richard cooked supper.
Nick Booth comes to supper to test a new website
I met Nick in 2000 when he made a documentary about allotments for BBC WM called 'Losing the Plot' about the selling off of allotments in the West Midlands. The case of the Victoria Jubilee Allotments was a central feature of an entertaining and at times moving half-hour investigation into the loss of food growing space in central Birmingham. Since then we've stayed in close touch as Nick has moved from broadcasting to narrowcasting developing a distinctive talent in the evolution of a new grammar of communication - as fecund with possibilities as the steam that rattled the lid of the kettle.
Developing a new technology is complicated because in testing it out, in draft form, on possible users you have to work out what needs to change - the techniques of the user or the design of the new tool. Coming to friends' homes and sitting with them as they tinker with what you're offering is as good a way of piloting something as any.
In this case Nick and collaborators have something amazing in mind - a site that will use social networking to do the kind of investigation that has made Heather Brooke a local hero. www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/15/mps-expenses-heat...
It's early days but I find the idea exciting but incredibly tricky to get right knowing the fickle attention span of those who use new sites. It needs to work from the moment of launch. After that the web spreads the word.
More about Nick:
www.audiencescentral.co.uk/our_work/?p=About+Nick+Booth;;404
and here are his current sites:
www.podnosh.com/channels/channel_grassroots_about.php
Richard cooked supper.