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Photo: Tuttle101 at @TheDeafCat Coffee Bar (Rochester)
Original photo taken and licensed by @fellowcreative

Photo: Twuddle Tunbridge Wells
Original photo taken and licensed by @ankertw

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The growing community of Tuttle.101 has lead to repeat comments, ideas and suggestions from attendees:

1. Not everyone can make 9:30 am on a Monday morning.
2. Coffee doesn’t calm nerves when introducing yourself to a room full of strangers – a beer or glass of wine might prove even more social.
3. Its difficult to get round and speak to everyone at a single Tuttle, and many folk feel bad interrupting/joining others long conversations.

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With the above in mind, we’re adding an evening Tipple to the February Calendar – inspired by the fantastic Royal Tunbridge Wells Twuddle.
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Tuttle.101 – Monday 15th February 2010 (9:30 am)
will be upstairs in The George Vaults Rochester (Kent)
(35 The High Street, Rochester – click here for a map)

Tipple.101 – Wednesday 17th February 2010 (7:30 pm)
will be upstairs in The George Vaults Rochester (Kent)
(35 The High Street, Rochester – click here for a map)

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A few additional things to note:

1) A big thank you to Matthew at Innovation Centre Medway who supplied the free coffee and tea at last months Tuttle.101

2) You don’t need to sign-up to attend either but please do try and leave a comment below (with preferably your actual name) so there’s a rough idea who and how many might be in attendance.

3) If you’d like more information about the above or would like to sponsor the coffee, please email Carl at tuttle101@fellowcreative.com or call me directly on: 07929 601737. More information on the ‘now global’ Tuttle Club can be found via the original tuttleclub blog. We hope you like the sound of the above and look forward to seeing you there! =)

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Photo: Twuddle Tunbridge Wells
Original photo taken and licensed by @ankertw

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On Monday 18th January 2010 (between 9:30am – 12:30pm)
Tuttle.101 (otherwise known as Social Media Café Medway)
will be upstairs in The George Vaults Rochester (Kent)
(35 The High Street, Rochester – click here for a map)
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Photo: I enjoy increasing conversation! Original photo taken and retouched under creative commons from James Whatley–

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Tuttle.101 isn’t your traditional business networking event, its about conversation and inspiration over coffee, not business card swapping or customer referrals. If you’d like to know more about Tuttle.101 click here.

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Photo: Every Body Comes Here Original photo taken and licensed under creative commons by Lloyd Davis–

You don’t need to sign-up to attend but please do try and leave a comment below (with preferably your actual name) so there’s a rough idea who and how many might be in attendance.

If you’d like more information please email (tuttle101@fellowcreative.com) or call me directly (Carl: 07929 601737). More information on the ‘now global’ Tuttle Club can be found via the original tuttleclub blog.

As some of you already know, following a conversation at November’s Tuttle.101 and inspired by Tunbridge Wells #twuddle, I’ve been kicking about the idea of a Tuttle.101 ‘Seasonal Social’ for local freelancers and alike.

I’m a little disappointed to report that such a pre-organized social won’t be realized before Christmas due to everyone’s pre-existing client and family commitments (and me running around like a headless Santa Claus) but I remain encouraged that many Tuttle.101 attendees expressed an interest in the idea.

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Photo: HE SEES YOU WHEN YOU’RE SLEEPING
Original photo taken and licensed under creative commons by Tizzie

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I had already part-planned a group trip to the ‘Hoodeners Horse’ (a country pub In great Chart, Ashford, Kent) on Friday 18th to meet up with a few Canterbury Geeks and tweetup types for the Great Chart Beer Festival – put together by Andy and Simon – thank you for offering to welcome us with open arms gents, greatly appreciated at such short notice! I’d also like to thank Ahmed Nuaman for volunteering as a potential taxi driver for the trip. Now, although there’s no guarantee and it remains only part-organised, I (we) may still attempt the journey on Friday afternoon/evening so please do let me (us) know if you’d like to join us.

I use this blog post to open up the ideas box to everyone for such a 2010 social – all ideas are welcome (please add comments and thoughts below).

Finally, I’d like to thank all those who’ve supported and attended Tuttle.101 since it began in September (with special thanks to Lloyd Davis, James Yorke, Rob Ocallaghan, Brian Condon, Stephen Bartholomew and Steve Rowland) and I’d like to wish everyone a very inspirational Christmas break and a very positive new year ahead! Tuttle.101 will be back in the new year, and there are already other ideas on the to-do list.

Snowman thoughts and Paulo Coelho proverbs *-)
Carl @FellowCreative

As a gregarious Fellow who gets about quite a lot, I am fortunate to know a large number of diversely talented individuals and companies. So much so that I have never had to contact a recruitment agency to find someone with a particular skill set.

Although I often feel such a network has formed itself quite naturally, when I launched the Fellow brand I did consciously set out to meet gifted individuals that I might collaborate with and even be able call upon when and if I needed to. The name Fellow was born from the concept of exacting standards, academic connection, and a professional commitment to question everything and develop over time – but also the idea that I am a fellow creative, part of a larger community of talented individuals driving the future of technology, communications and creative disciplines forward into an uncertain future.

Many of the people I have met over the last few years have helped to shape what Fellow has ultimately become. I once read that Einstein wasn’t born a genius, he forged himself into one by surrounding himself with exceptionally smart people. I might be about as far removed from Einstein as a scruffy creative type can get, but we do share one thing in common: I am also surrounded by exceptional people.

Over the last few months, people from places like Tuttle, Tweetups, BarCamp and my broader social web have been getting in contact asking if I know anyone who can develop, say, widgets for this or a design for that. In each case I’ve been able to make those connections.

With this in mind, I am proud to launch Fellow Trustees.

The concept is very simple. The people and companies on this list I whole-heartedly recommend. They are exceptional at what they do and conduct themselves with absolute professionalism. I trust them enough to align my Fellow brand with them. They are Fellow Trustees.

If you are thinking about talking to a creative recruitment agency to help fulfill a project, I would say check out the individuals and companies on the following lists first (in time I may even develop some relevant twitter lists too but some of my recommended connections can’t be found on twitter).

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CLICK HERE TO VIEW LIST

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Get your hands on a Nokia N900, Nokia N97 mini
or Nokia Booklet 3G !!!
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Following my recent Social Media work in Budapest, I’m pleased to announce that I can provide one lucky individual with their very own chance of Nokia goodness – get your hands on your very own choice of either the Nokia N900, Nokia N97 mini or the Nokia Booklet 3G – the prize will arrive in the form of a free product trial (hopefully before the official UK release dates but sadly this I can’t guarantee).

Please note that the winning entry will be selected at random but if there’s less than ten correct entries overall then the first correct entry will be deemed the winner. The competition closing date will be Monday 2nd November 2009 10am GMT.

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Simply tweet (or leave a comment below containing) the following message word-for-word (with the blank‘s replaced by the correct one-word answers) for your chance to win:

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Missing blogger’s first name = blank. The boat sailed from Port number blank. A Star blank.
#Nokia #OnlineAsItHappens    http://bit.ly/3gahcC

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Below are two ‘yet-to-be-released’ Nseries video’s… watch them closely because there were four bloggers in Budapest (I was one of them) but only three of them feature in both of the following video’s. You can find some additional clues in my blog posts if you need them.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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What is Tuttle?
The Tuttle Club is a loose association of people working better together both online and off.

It is not a business networking event. It is simply a meeting place for people to share in conversation, have a coffee, work on their laptop (with free WiFi), and hopefully talk to complete strangers about what they are reading, inspired by, or perhaps even working on in their shed or spare time – hopefully leading to some creative collaboration and long-term innovation.

In this video, Lloyd Davis (the Founder of Tuttle) loosely outlines it’s story in conversation with Chris Dalby:

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When and Where?
Monday 5th October 2009 may seem like a strange day for a networking event, but I repeat, this is not a business networking event! 9.30am – 11.30am, wear what you like, bring who you like, share what you like, and it doesn’t necessarily have to end at 11.30am.

The Venue: The George Vaults (35 The High Street, Rochester – upstairs!). It’s free to attend (you might have to buy your own coffee).

You don’t need to sign-up to attend but please do email or leave a comment below (with preferably your name and email) so we have a rough idea who’s and how many are coming. If anyone would like to sponsor the coffee please don’t hesitate to let me know =)

If you’d like more information please email (tuttle101@fellowcreative.com) or call me directly (Carl: 07929 601737).
More information on the ‘now global’ Tuttle Club can be found via the original tuttleclub blog.

We look forward to meeting you there =)

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Click here to view the embedded video.

Walkaround BarcampBrighton 4 (2009)
Original footage filmed and uploaded by Chris Keene

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The rest of my thoughts form the remainder of this post – plus a brief mention of my trip to Tuttle in Royal Tunbridge Wells on Wednesday 9th (thank you all whom make me welcome!).

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It was my 4th BarCamp of recent years, I’ve now attended three in Brighton and one in London. I’ve run sessions at three out of four, but ‘participated’ at all, as are The Rules of BarCamp =)

For those who may not be familiar with the BarCamp experience I offer a quote from ‘Man on the Moon’, the 1999 film based on the life of Andy Kaufman:

“The audience expects me to shock them all the time, and besides faking my own death I don’t know what to do.”

Replacing the word ‘shock’ with ‘encourage discussion and thought’ lacks the comedic genius of Kaufman but it does loosely describe both a) my consciousness every-time I sit down to write a blog post; and b) the BarCamp attendees role (focused mainly on shared participation and experience).

The beautiful part about a BarCamp (and to a large extent a Tuttle gathering) is that there’s no need for anyone to be nervous or fake their own death – all attendees are accepting, friendly, supportive and most importantly willing to share – you definitely get out what you put in! The key things to remember are that product presentations and sales pitches are not allowed, the ‘two ears one mouth‘ approach is a considered rule of thumb; and if you find that you’re not interested in a session or conversation you can simply use the two foot rule and walk onto the next without disruption or feeling as if you’ve offended anyone.

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I view BarCamp and conversation as non-linear (they are threaded and dispersed, two-way or multi-channel, just like Web 2.0 social media and online community).

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If you ‘the reader of this post’ have actually met me in person it is probable that you will already know of my respect for Dr Edward de Bono and his concept of PO and Six Thinking Hats methodology. You may also be aware of my fascination with the two hemispheres of the brain and how the left-brain is extremely process driven where as the right-brain is more dispersed and energy driven. I recommend watching Jill Bolte Taylor’s amazing TED talk for a better insight:

You may not be aware that I present much of my thinking relative to the mathematical theory of ‘Dispersed cross-sensitivity (in a self-organizing system)’ – which roughly speaking means:

“Water flowing down a river does less for the land than rain falling widely over the same area – this is why the Grand Canyon runs through a desert.” Edward de Bono

It is under this same principle, and with the same high regard for ‘creativity and innovation without boundaries’ that I scatter my thinking, my time and my energy, in a perhaps bold attempt to develop inspiration, understanding, thoughts and abilities (both within myself and others) – I continue this approach when I attend events like BarCamp and Tuttle.

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A quick summary of BarCamp 4

I met and was introduced to at least eight new and truly interesting people – this was worth the journey alone! I also attended a host of sessions including a few geeky presentations such as ‘an introduction to the internet browsers new CSS3 standard‘ and ‘Andriod Mobile development made simple’, through to graduate employment discussions like ‘Is a qualification, or just plain enthusiasm, the most suitable requirement for getting a job in a creative/digital agency? by Sam Murray-Sutton‘ and even broader workshops such as ‘How to trace your family tree online by Rachel Clarke‘ – I trust this underlines my dispersed ‘rain falling’ analogy.

The diagram below is a quick attempt to demonstrate some of my developing thoughts relating to the ‘current’ social, technological and capitalist evolution (from an Industrial Age, towards a Digital Age), and an apparent acceptance/emergence of a dispersed approach – from linear (top-down) processes and policies, to dispersed (bottom-up) business models, communities and social networks.

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Now, at this point, I must state very clearly that this post offers no answers, and on the day I attended BarCamp I did not intend to deliver answers, nor did I intend to present a linear series of questions, I simply set out to scatter some random thoughts amongst some open-minded participants in an attempt to discover if any of my concepts/mindset rang true.

The closest thought connection I made that day was during a session delivered by Tom Hume entitled ‘Aikido & Software Development’.

Firstly his presentation title reminded me of a blog post I’d seen entitled ‘How to be a Samurai designer’, but Tom’s considered similarities between the martial art of Aikido and the complex art of software development went much deeper than a short blog post, covering key individuals such as Mary Poppendieck, to highlight some common cultural/philosophical values such as ‘keeping balanced in your approach’, ‘keeping a clean sword cut’ (code cleanliness and re-factoring), ‘keeping up regular practice and re-examination of technique’ – plus the importance of mastering the basics.

The presentation, and resulting participant feedback (from both Tom’s well delivered presentation and my own un-structured un-focused session), plus a recent trip to Royal Tunbridge Wells Tuttle (where I met yet more interesting and friendly folk) has provoked my thinking upon ‘the principles and learning of development systems’; which have since forced me to further consider our likely evolution from Industrial to Digital (or at least our acceptance/emergence of Digital Age values/practices).

From a perspective of martial arts, I find myself pondering the potential value in ‘protecting yourself whilst protecting your opponent’ and most interestingly:

During our move from Industrial Age to the Digital Age, we must be extremely mindful when transferring the weight from one foot to the other or else we risk falling over or being caught unaware by unforeseen opponents (circumstances).

Spreading our weight across both feet and being agile in both movement and thinking may allow us to defeat the toughest opponent.

Finally I digress once again, towards another TED talk on social dynamics and motivational drivers, to underline how some of our ‘Industrial Age’ beliefs are now proven to be fallacies – and thus there may be better ways to ‘learn, exercise and develop’ long-term value. See: Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

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I do hope this post hasn’t been too unfocused/unstructured. I do hope you’ve got some goodness out of it and I look forward to any thoughts and constructive criticisms you may have on my latest babble =)

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The past months have proven extremely busy with client projects and some might say dreaded speculative work (from the usual bread-and-butter design-for-print work such as brand guideline production for enterprise and magazine adverts for talented independents like Remy Sharp of Full-Frontal Conference, to client WordPress sites and blog development; lending some free time to organizations like Nacue and P45 Camp – plus more strategic dot-joining stuff like writing Social Media adoption documents relating to Training & Education, online conversation and other shiny technologies – including some really cool opportunities in the arena of live-streaming video (hopefully more to come on that!).

From what I can remember I’ve not attended #tuttle in weeks and I missed Cozy Tweetup but I did get to the AudioBoo bash to meet interesting tweeple like @briancondon @dailytwitter and @alexwoodcreates. I’ve also had the pleasure in working with great teams like Toggle and Leaps & Bounds.

In addition, I managed to take six days out to go camping in Cornwall which involved an awesome sea-fishing boat trip landing me twelve fish approximately five miles of the coast of Newquay, plus given the fact I’m self-employed I managed to crowbar in three of those days to work from a tent surrounded only by cow fields, friends and cider =)

Sadly all of the above has meant that my ‘already infrequent blog posts’ have been ‘seriously thin on the ground’ but a break in my client workload over recent days has resulted in an out-pouring of thoughts and related research links from a build up of draft text/blog documents, quotes and random pages of iPhone Notes I’ve been pondering, consuming and bookmarking over recent months.

This weekend I unexpectedly managed to attend one day of Brighton BarCamp 4. And I’m hoping to get to visit Tunbridge Wells Tuttle this week.

I’ve currently got three paid client projects on the project board but in true ‘non-linear’ thinking fashion I’m also pursuing a few other endeavors/ideas including the long standing SustainableWidget.com plan, the creation of Floor101 – an open Co-working Space for Creative and Digital freelancers in Kent and #Deathbook – an open-source campaign to raise awareness of Digital Literacy and Asset Legacy.

I’ll leave this post here for now. If you have any thoughts please do comment below and I will reply =)

Positive thoughts and Paulo Ceolho proverbs,
Carl @fellowcreative