Sadly it's time to move on from Kentish Town. With new baby boy very much on the way we're about to need a little more space. So reluctantly I'm renting out my beautiful flat. I'm trying not to think about it too much because Kentish Town was perfect for me. Within a few minutes I could be running on Hampstead Heath, record shopping in Camden or eating cakes in Primrose Hill.
I'm posting here in the hope of renting it to a friend or friend of a friend. I'm not really fussed about the money - I'd rather know the place was being looked after by someone I can trust.
Essentially it's a stylish two bedroom basement flat. One large double bedroom with door opening out onto a terrace and one smaller bedroom with room for a single bed and desk. There's loads and loads of storage space with a massive airing cupboard and place for bikes / suitcases / things you can't bear to part with under the stairs.
Last year we had a new kitchen fitted. It's beautiful with slick white units and a HUGE granite work surface. Sorry there's no dishwasher but the smallish sink encourages you not to leave it too long!
Located about 7 minuets walk from Kentish Town tube and about 5 minuets from loads of bus routes into town it's in an ace location. Personally, I love the fact that it's quick to get to Regent's Canal which whisks you traffic free from Kentish Town, through Camden and Primrose Hill to Regent's Park. Last but not least the local boozer is fantastic. You can't beat the Lord Stanley for meeting friends or sunday lunch.
If you're interested in renting this out it will be available from April. Drop me a line at daniel dot heaf at gee mail dot com to discuss.
Sorry for the delay. I really ought to have posted this yesterday but conferences, trains and curry houses colluded against me. Yesterday at the Oxford Media Convention Jon Gisby announced the beta launch of AudioBoo - one of the first 4iP commissions.
AudioBoo is an iPhone / iPod Touch application, website and API which will allow users to record and share audio from their mobile phones. Conceived & developed by Best Before Media, AudioBoo will use geo-location data to provide individuals, local groups, institutions and commercial services with a set of tools to easily record audio – be it conversations, walking tours or local services – and upload it to the internet.
Mark Rock,CEO of Best Before Media, posted a brilliant description on 38minutes and there's some technical detail on TechCrunchUK. Rather than repeat what's already been said I thought it might be useful to put the commission in context and explain why the idea was so attractive to 4iP.
When we launched 4iP last year our ambition was to help identify projects that would deliver public value through the innovative and creative use of digital media as well as supporting the development of creative digital talent throughout the UK. To my mind AudioBoo delivers on both of these objectives.
Firstly, and most importantly, AudioBoo is an open platform to ignite the creativity of both users and developers. I like the way a simple mobile application puts the power of local / contextual broadcasting into peoples' pockets. AudioBoo creates a range of exciting possibilities to use audio content to provoke, inform and entertain. Imagine the power of being able to record, find and share first hand accounts of major news events, public events or personal stories. However, this commission reaffirms our commitment to digital tools over content. Secondly, it's great to invest to invest in small, talented and passionate UK outfits like BestBefore. As Tom Loosemore said to me the other day 'I've lost too many firends to the West Coast'!
Finally, I hope this is the first of many mobile applications we commission. To my mind there aren't enough mobile applications produced in the UK for the UK. AudioBoo takes advantages of the explosive growth in the mobile applications industry, recognising a growing user demand for digital services away from the PC on the move.
By enabling the public to create and find audio content in a completely different way AudioBoo enables empowers users with Channel 4's mantra: to go forth and innovate. cause trouble, championing alternative voices and fresh perspectives.
Update: if you’d like to be on the private beta you need to send your phone id to beta@bestbefore.tv. To get
your iPhone ID connect the iPhone to the mac and Alt click on the word
“serial number” in the iTunes summary, you’ll get a long Identifier
code, like 1rc4a770e53c33af7aab78a7e9f3af3be07d6034. Click on the code
number, copy with Command C and paste it into an email with a short
description of what you want to use it for. BestBefore will then be in
contact by email or IM to go through the simple install process.
This is a fantasic episode of The Moral Maze that asks "can you ever have too much democracy?" From the judges on Strictly Come Dancing to congestion charge campaigners in Manchester, there are those people who might say yes.
Have
the expectations of the TV phone-in vote generation gone too far? Is
representative democracy being undermined by continued government
consultation exercises? Or do we need to vote on more contentious
issues to encourage people to engage with the political process?
So,
democracy - is it the worst form of government except all those others
that have been tried from time to time, or does it substitute election
by the incompetent many, for appointment by the corrupt few? What is
clear is that democracy is not an unambiguous virtue.
The panel
of Claire Fox, Clifford Longley, Michael Portillo, Kenan Malik and
chaired by Michael Buerk cross examine Matthew Parris, Richard Wilson,
Stephen Wilson and excellent Professor Steven Coleman.
Portillo,
takes the line we'd expect from such an experienced politician. He's
generally in favour of the current democratic model. He asserts his trust in the
public concluding that in general elections, even those he's lost, they
tend to get the answer right.
Portillo stands in contrast to both
Parris and Longley who believe in government for the people and of the
people but not necessarily always by the people. Parris sees the virtue of general elections in there providing a mechanism for removing
leadership without the use of force and that on the whole the 'proletariat' will reach
the correct conclusion. Governments disliked consistently and
long enough by the majority of the people will fall. However, Parris feels strongly that individuals and the pubic
shouldn't be entrusted with decision making on single issues like
whether or not to join Europe or go to war. They're in the car but they can't drive it. A few years back he wrote an excellent feature for the Times on just this subject.
Richard Wilson, Director of Involve, takes
a more moderate stance arguing that we need to tweak the processes and
the tools to better engage and inform the voting public. Opinion poll politics is
dangerous suggesting our leaders lack the confidence to lead.
The
absolute highlight of the programme is Professor Stephen Coleman,
Professor of Political Communication at Leeds University. His research
backs up what any reasonable person intrinsically knows; people who
vote in reality TV programmes are just as likely to vote in elections.
The anxiety caused is more interesting than the activity itself.
Coleman
chides Parris asserting that democracy is no frivolous debate. He
builds on Wilson's argument questioning if there is scope, within this
major transitional period of democracy, to
rethink the way we do things. Are interactive
technologies capable of being used to make democracy more meaningful to
people bringing them closer into it rather more.
He goes on to question that if the media are
cable of eroding social trust are they not equally capable of enhancing
social trust? His arguments are compelling and reinforce my personal belief that that we should
move away of the grand vision of democracy and look in more detail at
it's component parts. How can technology help bring fairness,
tolerance and having an equal share of voice are questions worth pursuing.
The more I dig
around some of these 4ip themes the more I see people are seeing
citizenship as something constrained and limited when compared to media
and other areas of their lives. Hence my enthusiasm for what the Obama seems to be up to in the US. Just as TV and Radio became tools of
democracy networked, participatory technologies provide us with a rare
opportunity to engage the public in political opinions and political
parties.
But democracy is precious and delicate. We need to think carefully and prepare thoroughly.
Today Channel 4's chief exec, Andy Duncan, gave a speech about the UK's changing media ecology. While most of the coverage is focused around a possible merger with Channel Five his speech contained some interesting thoughts on digital Britain and the role of 4ip.
On content:
"we are no longer only talking about ‘content’ in the conventionally understood sense, but a rich and complex mix that includes traditional linear content but also includes a growing range of services, networks and tools that allow users to build networks and services of their own design"
On 4ip's role:
"...as our big £50 million 4IP project gets under way, what is mainly being commissioned is not content in any conventional sense but tools and content that enable the public to do things online which at present they are not able to do. 4IP isn’t a digital production studio so much as a digital machine tool factory – helping equip Britain with tools for 21st century living."
On 4ip commissions:
"Or I could mention two services with which 4IP is engaged. One, Patient Opinion, set up by a former GP in Sheffield, lets hospital patients and visitors share feedback on their experience. Another, Talk About Local, will equip people in 150 of the most deprived areas of the country with skills to launch and maintain sites aimed at improving their local environment. There are dozens more."
On digital divide:
"...the digital divide is no longer some potential problem for a special unit in Downing Street to worry about – it is a growing reality that affects us all. Poorer households, older people, disadvantaged communities are all getting left behind and while that has a direct and damaging impact on them it has a wholly negative impact on the rest of society, too. It holds back the real potential for many commercial services. It stops government from interacting as effectively with citizens as it could. It impacts on the way in which schools engage or fail to engage with pupils, even the way in which parents and children engage or fail to engage with each other at home. Nor will it be resolved by market forces alone, any more than the crippling impact of illiteracy on the growth of our economy and society in the nineteenth century was resolved by market forces. Both require public policy and public intervention."
A conversation with Mike Mathieu of Frontseat.org and Joshua Michéle Ross of O'Reilly Media. Front Seat describe themselves as a civic software company and incubator. Like 4ip they're a form of social hedge fund looking to develop small, lightweight software that has the potential to have a disproportionate impact on peoples' lives.
With projects like Jane Jacob's inspired Walkscore and Obama CTO they're demonstrating how the use of public data and web services can be used to solve small but important problems.
The Basics
Daniel Heaf is a creative technologist. Previously he was Interactive Editor for the award-winning BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra and an investor at 4iP, Channel 4's £50M digital innovation fund. He's now back at the BBC at the corporation's commercial arm BBC Worldwide as the Digital Director. He lives in North London with his wife and two children.
