–

–

Listen to ‘The Bridge‘ podcast here.

–

–

–

–

Due to some first show teething issues with our audio we’d like to apologize to Didi for the low-quality LIVE recording of her first track ‘Blame it on the Day’ (you can find a more professional recording on the Didi Bergman myspace page). We’d also like to give an additional hat-tip to @Kosso for inspiring the VITAL (sharing creativity throughout the web) concept.

Katie Fotis is inspired by Dan Thompson’s Empty Shops Network

Phil Dillon is inspired by MedwayEyes, photography, music and Desolation Row

Steven Keevil is inspired by the balance between life and creativity (see additional links at the bottom of this post)

Carl Jeffrey is inspired by the future creative/digital landscape (see LikeMinds Helsinki and blog)

The Wilderness EP by James Bell – Track 2: Jeremy Benthams Head (We’d like to say a massive thank you to the legend that is James Bell for allowing us to include his song about the philosopher Jeremy Bentham).

Thank you to Jenny Uglow for The Lunar Men inspiration; plus a hat-tip to Jonathan Porritt.

Here’s a link to the 2010 Lunar Calendar, hopefully the dates of future TheBridgePodCast releases.

Phil Dillon’s VITAL image can be found on Flickr

George Orwell’s #1984 – SocialMediaPicnic

Antony Mayfield’s book on ‘How to Manage Your Reputation Online’ – Me and My Web Shadow

Didi Bergman’s DragonFly (and other tracks) can be found on myspace

-

Other things we discussed but didn’t make our edit:

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

My afternoon with lonelysandwich

Animate adapted from Dan Pink’s talk at the www.theRSA.org

Tuttle101 & Tipple101 & HyperLocal Activity (Rochester, Medway, Kent)

–

The-Bridge-Podcast-1.mp3 < click to download!

Now, less than six month into 2010, I’m encouraged to report that many of January’s bullet-point ‘hopes and aims’ are well on their way to being realised, some are even complete, and much more has happened to convince me that I’m personally (and professionally) on the right road – all I need to do now is appease my bank manager by building a sustainable business model out of what I know but I’ll still remember Steve Jobs advice: “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish!“ ‘~)

In an attempt to mark some lines in my cognitive sand, I’ve decided to publish this update. What follows is last January’s re-prioritised bullet-point-list, accompanied by some written explanations – and just for the record, each point seems to me, to fit very neatly within the framework of Chris Messina’s latest SlideShare presentation (as embedded below). I hope the following provides some inspirational mind-fodder to you, and hopefully it delivers some mental-release and focus to me – putting such things in writing usually does ‘~)

–

–

Aim #1 – Afford travel & ticket to SXSW® Interactive, March 2010

I commence this update on a slightly ironic footing, my original #1 priority back in January was to “Update FellowCreative.com and define ‘What I Do’ so that I can provide my bank manager with some form of stable cashflow graph”. Today I find myself hesitantly declaring that I’m yet to achieve such stability but I’m very happy to report that I not only earned my way to SXSW Interactive 2010 in Austin Texas but whilst I was there I learned from, and met, many inspiring and forward-thinking people.

I didn’t find the time to specifically blog my SXSW experiences but I can say for certain that I benefited greatly from my trip in terms of knowledge, inspiration and connections – and I trust the content within ‘Social-Web for Entrepreneurs and Start-ups‘ (published in March) has since demonstrated this fact.

My trip state-side provided non-stop activity, when I wasn’t listening to presentations from the likes of Danah Boyd or Clay Shirky, or wrapped up in conversation, I was socialising with friends (some of whom I’d not met in person but had been talking to online for years) – in short, Austin left me speechless (quite literally horse upon my return) and I’d recommend the trip to anyone with an open-mind and a soft-spot for shiny things.

I’m also proud to note that during the SXSW Digital Mission Breakfast I found myself suggesting a bold idea to Intel (the world leader in silicon innovation, processor technologies and supporter of global initiatives to continually advance how people work) – it appears the idea has since been signed-off for implementation by Intel’s HR Vice President *~)

As a closing note on this, I’m also pleased to say that only days ago Nokia got in touch regarding LikeMinds in Helsinki – I will tweet as soon as I know more about the participatory four day trip, so far it sounds extremely interesting! *~)

–

Aim #2 – Organise a Tuttle101 Project (or bigger: BarCampKent)

I will assume that you are already familiar with the concept of BarCamp, and thus I’ll move onwards to an explanation of the lesser known Tuttle:

Lloyd Davis, the founder of The Tuttle Club, describes Tuttle as ‘a loose association of people finding a way of working better together both online and off‘.

As a Tuttle Club regular, I think of Tuttle as ‘a philosophy or approach’ more than a Club or Event; I perceive it less as a Noun or Event Name, and more as a Verb or Action ~ as in: ‘to Tuttle‘. I believe people are participants of Tuttle, not members or attendees. Everyone who experiences Tuttle walks away with their own unique experience and perception of its unframework, open-social-approach and value; but almost all those I’ve met describe it as ‘fun and inspiring’.

If you’re a likely friend of Harry Tuttle, I do hope to meet you soon:

Click here to view the embedded video.

–
My personal understanding of Tuttle continues to evolve daily but today I’ll pose the following definition: ‘a participatory action or moment in time, where the spaces between people (as individuals or in groups) provide an open-mind and conversational canvas for transversal lines and alternative angles of exploration, learning, perception, approach, collaboration, ideation and innovation, resulting in positive-participation and social-value‘ – or put simply, to Tuttle, is to have a great excuse for an open-minded conversation over a coffee or beer, plus its free to participate and provides a much better platform for social-interaction, education, inspiration and creative collaboration than any structured conference, speed-networking programme or lead generation event I’ve ever attended.

In September 09 I decided to introduce Tuttle to the community of Medway in Kent (UK) – Tuttle101 was born. Now, only eight months later there’s a ‘casual community’ mailing-list of 78+ and an expanding ‘core community’ of participants who actively propel things forward and encourage evolutions of the concept such as Tipple. Last month (17th May) Tuttle101 welcomed 19+ participants at 9:30am on a Monday, with a further 15+ appearing for Tipple101 on the evening of 25th May.
Click here for the latest info on Tuttle101 and Tipple101.

Such community participation was somewhat unexpected, but its been magically inspiring and welcomed; it has also presented challenges of time, resource and the eternal questions: So what’s Next? Is such a thing Sustainable? How could it be done better? Where’s the Value (social, financial, educational, transversal) ?

As it turned out, Tuttle Club founder Lloyd Davis had been asking the same questions – on 15th May 2010 I spent the day at TuttleCamp discussing such things amongst a small group of nationwide Tuttle participants – the agenda for the day ‘come talk about tuttle, lets see what happens’ – suffice to say it provided interesting and stimulating conversation between people who wouldn’t normally meet.

I left with a few nuggets of inspiration to ponder: 1) Tuttle – its not for everybody but it is for anybody. 2) Tuttle works best in a publicly social space such as a Café or Bar, partly because hosting drinks and washing-up is already catered for, but mostly because it automatically supports social inclusion and openness. 3) At least one person needs to assume the role of saying hello to new participants. 4) Twitter, more often than not, provides the social back-channel to Tuttle, and thus it automatically supports the unwritten rule of no business cards or name badges. 5) As highlighted by the principles of Activity Theory and Open-Source Community Management, Tuttle appears to develop both a ‘casual community’ and a ‘core community’, whilst removing any formal sense of hierarchy.

So, what’s next on the agenda for Tuttle101? Well, in many ways that’s up to the community but one core conversation from TuttleCamp continues to surface – the idea of Tuttle Projects. The concept of ‘core community participants’ being able to provide value to a wider community through collaborative projects – this interests me greatly and I hesitantly find myself paraphrasing Erasmus Darwin and Jenny Uglow’s book The Lunar Men: “a group of enlightened improvers abounding in charity’s deeds and everything valuable in human life, principles, ethics and social liberty”. The word ‘charity’ is perhaps a little misleading but ’social-value’ is more my mindset – and already such projects have begun to present themselves:

A. Medway Council have expressed an interest to engage the Tuttle101 community in the redevelopment of their public service website – more information here. Such engagement is yet to be confirmed but things certainly look hopeful.

B. The result of much co-working and floor101.org related discussion and inspired by the national Empty Shops campaign, the tuttle101 community (@BecomeKnown @DavidBahia @OnMeJack & @FellowCreative – helped by Steve @KentishFella at Royal Tunbridge Wells #Twuttle) collaborated over the course of two days to Geo-Tag and Photograph 136 #EmptyShops across Medway – the result of which can be seen here as the beginnings of an Open-Source Platform ~ more information can be found under ‘Aim #3′ (below).

C. As the community grows and new faces arrive in the mix, opportunities and like-minded projects are beginning to present themselves, only last week I gave up a day of my time to help out Gary Weston @LightVessel21 – LV21 is a 40 metre steel-hulled lightship being transformed into a floating cultural facility, designed to provide a range of services promoting and supporting the creative industries in the Medway area and beyond. And please note, if you’re any good with paint-brushes, hammers or abseiling lights, Gary @LightVessel21 is happy to welcome all hands on deck! please ‘~) http://www.lv21.co.uk

D. A PodCast, it seems that Steven @OnMeJack and myself @FellowCreative are in the midst of attempting such a production to help engage others in conversation and spread the word of local like-minds and unsigned musicians; as well as furthering discussion and connections towards HyperLocal-Activity-Streams and Community-Generated-Newspapers – TheBridgePodCast is now available here!

E. The final Tuttle Project to mention is that of a KentBarCamp – at this stage there is nothing even planned, let alone confirmed, but I feel it worth mentioning that a collaborative group of like-minds is slowly forming that might just be able to realise such a feat in Kent ‘~)

If you’d like to participate, or have your own idea for a Tuttle Project(s), please do get in touch, and please do SignUp for Updates.
In addition I’d like to note: Tuttle101 is not owned by anyone, it merely exists because of its growing community of people – and this means that the community are free to shape it, use it, or discard it, as they please. With this in mind these assets are now available to help you, but please do let us know what you’re up to beforehand so we can help ‘~)

PS. I will also note that January’s ‘Aim #5 – Plan a 15,000ft LIVE-stream sky-dive for charity’ is now added to my Tuttle101 Project list but due to finance and time constraints, and a few technical checks awaiting completion, it is now at the very bottom of my priority list.

–

Aim #3 – Inspire an Open-Source Platform

When I set out this aim in January 2010 I thought it likely to be realised through http://deathbook.info (Facebook Privacy and Digital Legacy Issues) or other matters relating The Digital Economy Bill but today I simply point you in the direction of the #EmptyShops Flickr Gallery, the Public GeoTag data (longitude and latitude data) of 136 Shops across Medway, the National Empty Shops Network – and I suggest there is now a foundation upon which to build such a platform, so please do ‘~)

#EmptyShops locational-data and shop-front photos were collected during the 21st & 22nd of May 2010 between Strood, Rochester, Chatham and Gillingham (Medway, Kent). Full details can be found here:

–

Aim #4 – Update FellowCreative.com and define ‘What I Do’

Suffice to say that this is currently my #1 priority and I will be back with more details very soon! In the meantime I’d like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone who replied with an answer to my open question ‘What Do I Do?’ – as promised, below is a collection of your tweets, thank you for providing me such food for thought! ‘~)

–
–

–

“Sometimes you need someone else or something else to cultivate the great creative thinking. For a crucial piece of creative thinking we asked Carl to help facilitate us, and use his creative methodologies, his knowledge of our market but crucially his distance from our consultancy to improve our chances of making the mental jumps we needed. It worked! Carl was patient, thoughtful and used fun, theory and careful interventions to help us find ourselves some little gems of thought. A good man and one I’m happy to recommend”
Will McInnes, MD of NixonMcInnes

As I’ve said before, I believe we’re defined by What We Do, not by our Job Title’s. I still love my title ‘Creative Midwife & Joiner-of-Dots’ but ever since Will McInnes gave me his testimonial I’ve been pondering: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

–

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

–

The North Foreland Public House in Rochester

The Deaf Cat Coffee Bar in Rochester

–
–
#Tuttle101 Venue @TheDeafCat (83 High St.) – Click here for GoogleMap
#Tipple101 Venue @MadeLabs (Bonded Warehouse, Hulkes Lane) – Click here for GoogleMap

Photo: Tuttle.101 at The Deaf Cat Coffee Bar (Rochester)
Original photo taken and licensed by @fellowcreative

–

A few announcements/questions if I may please:–

1. Running since October 2009, with 7 monthly Tuttle’s now under our belt, and a host of community tweets and opinions about local government initiatives it appears that our enthusiastic community of conversation, connection and expertise is gaining some notice. Following recent conversations with Medway Council and some of our community’s attendance at Kent County Council’s recent TransformedByYou Event, we’ve been approached with an awesome question/opportunity and I’d love to hear your thoughts please…
   –

   <Please note that I (Carl) have paraphrased the statement below from two emails>

   –

   Hi Carl,

   Hope you’re keeping well? Wondered if you might have some thoughts on the following please:

   Medway Council would like to engage local (Medway or nearby) web and digital enthusiasts to get their feedback on our website re-development progress thus far. After going out to tender a few months ago, we’d really like the opportunity to talk about the evidence/knowledge we have of our web audience and explain what’s happening next in our project; including wireframe testing for key user journeys etc. We’re not sure how this would be received and wouldn’t want to be thought to be hi-jacking or taking over tuttle.101 but we’d love to engage in a way that fits with the community – whether that’s an existing tuttle.101 event or doing something specific for this purpose. Any thoughts please?

   ~ Simon Wakeman,
   Head of Communications and Marketing,
   Medway Council

   –
   –

2. Due to the growing popularity and success’s of Tuttle.101 & Tipple.101 I’m pleased to say we’re currently fixing dates for May – the dates and venues are yet to be confirmed but a simple eNewsletter/MailChimp system is being designed to make it easier to stay Up-To-Date – please email: subscribe101@fellowcreative.com with you’re details if you’d like the be added to the community mailing list.
   –
3. On behalf of all the Tuttle.101 April attendees I’d like to say a big thank you to Laura and Kevan at The Deaf Cat Coffee Bar for providing us with a venue at such short notice – the photo above shows just how great a venue it is and here’s a video to convey the musical ambiance – I’d also like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to Natasha @NatashaSexton and James @BecomeKnown for organizing the April Events!
   –
4. There have been various discussions at Tuttle & Tipple of late in regards to the development of a Rochester co-working group and concepts relating to Floor101.org – with these in mind, and in support of Star Wars Day (May the 4th be with you!) and Dan Thompson’s #EmptyShops on Flickr initiative I’d like to announce the idea of a May bike-ride through Gillingham, Chatham, Rochester & Strood to take photos and geo-tag (map-out) all the EmptyShops on route – with the aim of creating a GoogleMashup along the lines of (example A) or (example B) for #EmptyShops in Medway. I’m currently thininking about doing this on Saturday 22nd May 2010 – who’s up for it? B
   

–
April 2010 sees two meetup’s planned…

Building upon the success of @BecomeKnown’s March meetup (which received a great review in the local news and attracted some new faces) I’m very happy to see a true Tuttle101 community spirit emerging – hope to see you at one/both of these:
: –
–
:

Evening Tipple101 by James @BecomeKnown

Tipple101 – Tues 20th April 2010 (7:00 pm) – organised by James @BecomeKnown – click here for more details!!

Venue: *somewhere* inside The George Vaults Rochester (Kent)
(35 The High Street, Rochester – click here for a map)

:

Morning Tuttle.101 by Natasha @NatashaSexton

Tuttle101 – Monday 26th April 2010 (9:30 am) – organised by Natasha @NatashaSexton – click here for more details!!

Venue: upstairs in The George Vaults Rochester (Kent)
(35 The High Street, Rochester – click here for a map)

–
–

In addition… some feedback on the following would be most welcome please! ‘-)
–

Since I organised the first Tuttle.101 back in September 2009 I’ve tried to encourage one simple philosophy: ‘Tuttle101 is not owned or run by me @FellowCreative, it is in fact owned by, and exists because of a growing community of people – and this means that the community are free to shape it, use it, or discard it, as they please’.

I’ve done my utmost to keep the Tuttle and Tipple experience(s) very separate from the world’s of sales, marketing, corporate sponsorship and paid-monthly-memberships but since January I must admit that I have given much thought to the introduction of a logo/identity, not because I want to constrain, dictate or monetize, but because I believe that such a visual key may be useful in establishing further community support.

E.g. over the past few months various people have asked me if I could supply them some  visual assets for blog posts and articles but I’ve had nothing to give them – I’m convinced there’s only so many photos of people drinking coffee you can handle =)
–

With the above in mind, I’d like to introduce two things and I’d love to hear your thoughts please:

–

1. an eNewsletter sign-up system (built using CampaignMonitor or MailChimp) to send out a single email notification each month to a Tuttle.101 and Tipple.101 attendee list (1 email per month, with a simple subscribe/unsubscribe feature – it’ll be concise and to the point, with a simple design theme!).
   >> NOW AVAILABLE HERE

2. two logo’s for community use – one logo for tuttle.101, the other for tipple.101 (please tell me what you think of the following, they have been designed to work alongside pretty much anything in terms of imagery or colour – if the community like them I’ll prepare a host of downloadable assets for you to use on blog posts – and as you see fit).

–

–
The above identity designs can also be found and commented on at  Flickr.com

–
–
More information on Tuttle.101 can be found here.
More information on Tipple.101 can be found here.
More Information on Floor.101 can be found here.