Friends — David Hughes

8 June 2010

The Future of Web Conferences

In recent years I have been fortunate to be able to attend all of the major web conferences: @Media, Future of Web Apps, Future of Web Design and more. However this year with our credit being crunched, and a new cost conscious employer I’m only able to attend one, and for a varierty of reasons, some sentimental, I’ve chosen to attend @Media later this week.

When Future of Web Design took place a few weeks ago I must admit I started to doubt my choice; the buzz on Twitter was huge and very, very positive. It was oddly fun experiencing the conference vicariously via the Tweets, but it made me wish I was there all the more.

A request via Twitter to ‘crash’ the Future of Web Design party turned into an invitation to have dinner with Jon Hicks which, as is the way with web conferences, turned into dinner with Dan Cederholm, Mike Kus, Aral Balkan, Katie Atkinson and Ryan Carson of Carsonified – the organisers of Future of Web Design. I’d met Dan at @Media a couple of years back so it was good to see him again and it was a huge pleasure to meet Aral and Katie for the first time. This is the one of the many things I love about web conferences; the opportunity to meet your web design heroes who are all friendly, open, modest and very happy to chat.

I made it along to the conference party with Jon, and it was fascinating to watch the attendees with the slight detachment of not being one myself. They were literally buzzing with excitement at the day, the sessions and the chance to meet design greats in the Design Clinics, that were part of the conference, and at the party itself.

Over dinner Ryan talked about the Carsonified conferences, and it was clear that he is committed to creating great conferences that are as affordable as possible. Yes they are a business, but his top priorities are quality and affordability for the attendees. I love that Ryan always builds in great opportunities for socialising and ‘networking’; I feel this aspect of conferences is as valuable as the event itself.

If you can attend Future of Web Design I highly recommend it; I know I’ll be there next year.

3 February 2010

Leaving Twitter

I was interested to read that my friend Mike Rhode is taking a “Twitter Vacation” following closely, as it does, another friend’s Twitter exit.

Mike explains his need for a Twitter break:

I’ve sensed lately that I need to take a step back. I’ve caught myself constantly checking my Twitter mentions, working very hard to tweet something of value and scanning my live feed in Tweetie for something, anything interesting to read.

Mike goes on to say:

While that’s typical Twitter user behavior, I’ve felt this incessant attraction to scanning random tweets and replies at all times to be distracting my focus from more important things in my life right now.

I can identify with Mike’s feeling of compulsion to check Twitter often, perhaps too often, and for the desire for there to be something new and interesting to read. This reminds me of a talk about Technology and Psychology by Suw Charman-Anderson at FOWA two years ago. Suw described a series of common ‘symptoms’ connected with email which I think many of the audience could identify with; it transpired that there were the psychological symptoms of addiction.

Andrew’s reasons for leaving Twitter share a theme with Mike’s: that of ‘mental bandwidth’ and time. But Andrew also had issues with the content and perceived value of what he saw being Tweeted. In an email he explained:

For me, social media, and Twitter in particular, is becoming a billion banal internal monologues being broadcast to the world. I think there is a serious risk of us all becoming infantilised. We are not talking to others, just ourselves. With a few exceptions, there is no real “conversation” going on.

I was also not sure what I was contributing by talking about what I was “doing”. It started to feel childish and pointless.

I now see Twitter as a waste of valuable processing time in my already cluttered head . I’d rather spend time with real people – thinking, arguing, and just being with them and not worrying if I need more than 140 characters to make a point.

Interesting, and again there are some sentiments with which I can sympathise.

Why I find Mike and Andrew’s thoughts and actions so interesting is that I a phase of wondering about Twitter, and what it means for me. I’ve ditched all other social media sites and accounts. I took particular enjoyment in deleting my Facebook account; now that is a place devoid of conversation and full of banal, superficial rubbish. So that Just leaves Twitter.

I don’t have any problem with what people say on Twitter; if I don’t like it, don’t find it interesting or of value or if somebody tweets too much I’ll unfollow that person. I manage the signal to noise ratio with extreme prejudice.

I’ve just found that the Lists functionality on Twitter allows me to put people into lists without having to follow them. So I can keep my main Twitter feed clear of clutter, but still have easy, occassional access to people that are of interest. I’ve recently found a number of Formula 1 and motor sport journalists and teams that are highly interesting to a petrol head like me. I’ve been able to put them into a motor sport list so I can get my racing fix without having my main Twitter feed full of testing updates from Valencia for example. This facility is transforming how I use Twitter.

The compulsion to check Twitter and the associated time-suck is an issue I can completely identify with. I recently started a new job that is wonderfully busy, and now I really can’t afford the time during the day to check Twitter as much as I used to; my streamlined main Twitter feed and use of lists is going to help me quickly catch up at the beginning and end of the day.

I don’t see myself stopping using Twitter or even taking a break, but instead I’m controlling more carefully when and how I use it. Twitter should be a tool to use how you see fit: be it a news source, a place for conversation with friends, micro-publishing platform or a combination thereof and more.

Most of all I’ve been fortunate to meet and get to know some great people through Twitter. Some I’ve met in person, some our conversation has moved to email and IM, but for many it’s just a Twitterthang and I’d miss that too much to stop.

19 August 2009

Biting The Big Apple

As I no longer have a links page or blogroll I’d like to draw your attention, if I may, to Biting The Big Apple; a great blog written by my friend Stephanie.

Stephanie and I worked together for a few years in London, then in 2007 Stephanie made the huge step of moving to New York to live and work.

Biting The Big Apple records that adventure and Stephanie’s thoughts and experiences of living in New York City.

It’s been really interesting re-reading a number of the posts with a new perspective following my first trip to New York.

Take a bite from the Big Apple.

14 August 2006

London Calling

Samuel Johnson said “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”

Well, I was starting to become tired of London when I was working there; experiencing too much of the tedious, overcrowded public transport side of London and not enough of the fun, entertaining, historical side.

However, this Tuesday I’m heading into London for the first time since I stopped working there and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to London once again being a place to visit and place for fun and entertainment.

I’m spending the day at a user testing session; I can’t say what we are testing but it’s sure to be fascinating as user testing always is. Followed, if time allows, by a little light retail therapy at the Apple Store.

Then in the evening I’m meeting some of my friends from American Express; of course this is what I’m looking forward to most.

London is a funny place though, even though working there was hard at times I think once you have been part of London it remains part of you.

Guess I’m not as tired of London as I thought I was…

23 July 2006

Good Bye Blue Box

Friday was my last day at American Express and it was a very, very good day but also a sad day.

One of the things I wanted during my notice period was to do for one last time the things that I had enjoyed about London. One was eating dim sum; I’d never eaten dim sum until I started work in London and I love it. So we had a farewell lunch at London Jade Garden which was really very good indeed.

Following an afternoon’s gentle file deletion and handover we headed out the main event…

I had my ‘leaving do’ at my favourite bar the Boisdale; a fantastic bar and restaurant with amazing food, live jazz and a whisky list thicker than any wine list I’ve seen… superb.

Having had a bit of a roller coaster ride at Amex over the last three years I was surprised, honoured, touched and happy just how many of my friends and colleagues came to say good bye. Even one friend who’d been on holiday that day came over and stayed until the very end.

Starting at 5pm and leaving some time around 1am it was a long, fun, drunken and very happy night; even Tommy Twopence made a guest appearance. I had some lovely, deep, emotional chats with my closest friends.

Which brings me to what I think was the impetus for this post: my friends. Sitting here now neither working at Amex or for my new company I feel strange; I feel as if I’ve lost or forgotten something.

It took until just now but I’ve realised that it there is now a hole in my life the size and shape of my friends at Amex. There are so many great people I’ve left behind but this time I am intent on keeping in touch – if you guys are reading this don’t forget to invite me out next time.

So to my friends at Amex and in particular Amrita, Steph, Marie, Christine, Joel, Mel, Dean, Sian, Benjamin, Bruce, Francois, Jenni, Luis, Ivan and so many more around the world…

THANK YOU and see you soon.

The Future of Web Conferences

A Week Off

Leaving Twitter

Biting The Big Apple

London Calling

Good Bye Blue Box