i4SM

Does anyone remember Heinz Wolff? I feel a bit like him today…but only because I’m blogging about a couple of experiments that we’re involved in over here at i4SM. This has nothing to do with The Great Egg Race or Tomorrow’s World or Think of a Number or any other vaguely scientific TV programme from the 70’s or 80’s you’d care to mention.

As this is i4SM, these experiments are obviously firmly centred on the use of social media in providing a useful service for people. Initially, these should both be of interest to those in and around Manchester.

The first is an entry into the b.TWEEN ‘Mapping Creativity’ initiative. As part of the Manchester Beacon, Mapping Creativity is looking to commission an ‘interactive project that drives Manchester’s collective creativity’. So, they’re looking for innovative projects that fit the bill. You can read more about it over at their pages.

The entry that I’ve been lending my support to comes from Alex Hough. I know Alex through Manchester Business School and he’s a chap who is bursting with ideas - one of which he decided to put forward to the Beacon. Here are Alex’s descriptive words for the submission:

“Merging social bookmarking and viable systems visualization to support regional networks

The Manchester Beacon indicates its purpose as a powerful metaphor. A beacon transmits signals This proposal is to provide a map for illuminating projects. Users who gather around this new map can understand more easily how projects relate to each other. More informed strategic decisions can be made, resources can be optimized, events coordinated, and useful partnerships facilitated.

Technology and Theory

The social bookmarking tool Delicious will be applied to create communication channels between Beacon projects. The channels and systems are designed according to the internationally respected Viable System Model, a theory with strong connections to the region through its originator Stafford Beer.”

Reading between the lines, Alex wants to provide better connections, through Delicious, for community groups and projects across the City. Delicious can certainly act in this fashion and I thought that it would be a great application of a simple technology to a potentially complex set of relationships.

So, I’m going to continue supporting Alex whenever, however and if I can. It’s the sort of project that we at i4SM want to see more of.

So, get over there and vote for your favourite project. I’m not going to offer bias here at all as there are some very worthy ideas popping up as part of this initiative. I’ll look forward to the next stages of the Beacon projects and will keep you posted here.

The second experiment is in partnership with MDDA.  It is in the very early stages of delving into the API of a well known social platform to try and pin down whether our theory can be put into practice. The idea is to provide a very useful service to the people of Manchester.

Early signs are good. We’ve got over some of the initial problems that we anticipated and are now building some custom code to ensure we don’t blast through the API call limits and get switched off.

You’ll notice that I’ve not told you anything about what the experiment is. There’s a very good reason for that and it is this. There are so many great brains, clever developers and quick fingers out there in Manchester and beyond, that I feel if I revealed this idea too soon someone would jump on it, build it and try to make money from it.

I don’t want that to happen. I want this to be an experiment in social media where we get some real insights into public take up and interaction with one of these new social tools. I expect to be able to reveal all very soon…in a couple of weeks maybe.

Keep your eyes peeled.

-pc.

*Update* - Pleased to note that Alex has been selected as one of the four projects to go forward to the final stage. We’ll keep you updated on progress.