I am thinking about the Phoenix Digital Art scheme. There is a £750 budget as well as other support. Most of what I do is extension of blogging but maybe it could be art. I have found an online explanation of how MoMA New York has "acquired" the asperand - aka @.

Still thinking about #likeminds and Exeter. I feel disjointed as if it all happened in another place. Without a suitable piece of kit I cannot connect.Both Gowalla and Foursquare allow you to login to their site from the web but I don't think you can show where you are. I find that a netbook over 24 months or a phone over eighteen months could be within the £750. A few problems with this. Would they like the idea of blowing almost all the budget on kit? Also it is supposed to be a six months project. So what would the Phoenix do with the phone for the rest of the contract? I think the phone is more likely as some sort of geo positioning needs to be built in.

Argument number one - there could be a high number of @ produced.

More generally, text is enough to link to other stuff. I encourage Creative Commons because usually other people do things better than I do. So for art that links to social media the limited buget for outputs may not be a problem.

A couple of examples. I spoke to Damien Houston from the Wheely Saying something radio show on Phonic about Fieldworks by Juliet Robson. This is from last year but there are Flick photos. Why not do some photos from wheelchairs around Exeter? Earlier today I got a tweet about photos of slum dogs in India. What about the dogs in Exter? Or anywhere else. Of course we do not need location based social media to take photos. But it may add something.

And this on Flickr



Creative Commons licence as well. So maybe the stills could be combined with others.

Now I have found some embed code



This is from the Exeter Twestival Mama Stones

#ExeterTwestival on Twitter

Ellie Williams on Facebook

The Exeter Twestival is over but some video exists. Ustream seems to work well and the sound is good on what I hear so far.

This is a really good development. I have tried to work on several music videos with mixed results. Mama Stones has the resource for sound recording which is a good start. Suggest this is checked out as reference occasion.

This is video from Exeter. So don't worry about the nonsense on YouTube. Reasonable production is possible.

Still thinking about #likeminds and how Exeter continues meanwhile. I have found a Flickr link for Phoenix Galleries. Not sure how I missed it for so long. there are photos from several recent shows. I had thought that policy was to not allow photography from the public or casual bloggers. Just repeating myself but gradually getting towards a three minute version, social media assumes some sort of free access to samples, mashup possibilities and soforth. Music is ok most of the time, visual art not so yet as far as I can tell. The Flickr photos are not Creative Commons but can be linked to. Presumably no permission for collage with something else.

There are several from Fieldworks by Juliet Robson. Also text on Facebook (keep scrolling down). I will try to raise this with the Wheely Saying Something radio show on Phonic. The work involved several ropes showing a line of sight, for example from a wheelchair. There could be more photos from around Exeter, maybe paint the ropes in later.

The current show may involve a stage set and invite performance inspired by the Gold Diggers of 1932, 1934, 1937 etc. Warner are not the most obvious people to encourage a mash up. But what else is possible?

This post may claim to be about content but is an extension of the wifi Exeter idea. (Possibly some animation later but meanwhile the Aninexeter blog is off topic often enough).

The Phoenix is offering some funds for a digital experiment so I am thinking of what might fit. Trying to understand how online learning happens, it seems to relate to comparisons through time and space. There is something by way of script or process that is similar enough online and offline. Enough for some sort of feedback and connection. Script implies fiction, but not always. Leave that open till I understand the scope of the application form a bit better.

The #likeminds ideas are still sinking in. I tried out Gowalla and FourSquare. Location based and although there are websites they seem to assume you have a phone with location sensing built in. My guess is this is still rare in Exeter unless there are a crowd of visitors. Conference Centre on Queen Street still scoring high for Gowalla visits.

I checked with the New Horizon coffee shop on Longbrook Street and St Sidwell's. Both have web access but no positioning as far as I can tell. Still this would work with Twitter if you just needed to know when to meet. Sometimes there is web access at the Phoenix, a minimal Mac in the Imaginary Lounge. So there could be three locations to try out even before suitable devices are widely available. The spots could be imagined as other spots. This is what is beginning to make sense for me. I have thought about a walk for example on the Lancaster university campus with the InfoLab as a start and the Management School as a challenge to techno claims. Other scenarios are possible.

Looking in Dixons it appears that a laptop with web access is £30 a month on a two year contract. This is most of the budget. What else could you do as an output? Would a phone be cheaper? How long a wait is possible before the contract? I think it is supposed to be a year project.

Yesterday the City Centre Manager was on Twitter again about being in the City Centre. I am gradually learning more about how this sort of thing works. A link to Gowalla showed which coffee site he was in. Meeting up with #likeminds types.

I still find there is a disconnect with much of Exeter as I think about it. Maybe I should get out more or have not checked recently. The Exeter Twestival is using social media much more than most events. I think the Phoenix could do even more in this area.

Can't keep up with video for all that happens so here is a link to previously



I think the effect of options such as Gowallah could be to make links with other places. Exeter can be benchmarked through shifts in time or location.

Chris Brogan at Like Minds , embed invited on blog so I am encouraged to continue borrowing stuff.

I went back to Tools of Change New York. Forgot to look much last week in the excitement about Like Minds being in Exeter. Found this from Chris Brogan so it confirms stuff fits together.

Searching blogs for more on LikeMinds. This from John Bell-

Exeter UK is a hidden gem. Okay, hidden form me perhaps. Two and a half hours outside of London, who would have guessed that such a cool little town existed. It is a place that you could actually imagine living in (if you have kids) and you can actually buy stuff there as well. @scottgould and @drewellis did a great job of luring us all there and John Harvey aka @exeterccm - the City Centre Manager was a terrific host.

John Bell works for Ogilvy PR and teaches graduate studies in Digital Influence at Johns Hopkins University. So it is great that he has visited Exeter and may do again. But I have a bit of a disconnect as I don't really know who in Exeter will be continuing this conversation round the year. I miss LifeBytes as an internet resource and social connection. It might have more support if it existed at this time when the case for social media is better understood.

Also Flickr photos can be found. No complaints yet about my borrowing photos from Twitter for my own versions. So I am still thinking about Rougemont Global Broadcasting as social communication rather than pure video. What this actually means is going back to text, some of it in very short chunks, and linking to other people. They won't mind. Trust me, I'm a blogger.

See Whatleydude blog for map of where Exeter is.