you want to start something?

Ian Graham of TheCodeFactory.ca writes about whether we CREATE or FACILITATE communities:

Create is in fact a very strong word and implies that you make something from nothing. If you read the bible you will recall the story of creation. In seven days God created the earth, man and all of the wild beasts. Pretty powerful stuff. Most mere humans lack the capability to create something.
Facilitate is different and more of a catalyst in nature. When you facilitate you act as an agent on existing elements helping to bring them together. Communities waiting to happen exist everywhere. These communities can often be made more vibrant and dynamic with a bit of facilitation or the act of bringing elements together.

I tend to the side of FACILITATE.

The first community I worked with was the Northern Ireland Mac User Group. I created the mailing list, web site and the forum which allowed the community to manifest. The community was already in existence throug word of mouth and shared emails.

Some groups don’t tend to naturally congregate and therefore it’s hard to quantify the community as whole – though the internet provides a method of easily managing this side of community engagement.

My day job, as the Facilitator for the Digital Circle really means creating a focus to allow the digital media creation ‘community’ which then permits the “Steering Group” to focus the direction of those members of the community who want to collaborate towards the given goal. Yes, at times it’s a little like herding cats and everyone can joke about managing a committee towards a decision.

If we, as facilitators, focus our energies on creating an ‘oasis’ where communities can engage with each other, and then work through the process removing baggage where necessary, we can better achieve the stated aims of the ‘oasis’ (which, again, may not be core to the community aims).

Tags: Bedouin, CoWorking, Commentary, DigitalCircle by mj
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Andy and I viewed a great location today for Co-Working. We’ll likely post photos over the next day or so but right now we’re wanting to know who will be interested in taking a space. It really is time to put your chips on the table. I’ve also posted a little update on the Digital Circle blog and sent this message onto the OpenCoffee mailing list.

I reckon we can fit 20 people in there which brings the rent down considerably per person – down to £100 per month which is incredibly good. The venue isn’t perfect but nothing other than a custom venue will be and I think it’s important that we put our foot down, stand up and be counted.

At the Digital Island Meetup last Thursday it was argued that the reason broadband in the Republic of Ireland is so poor is that it has yet to be proved by broadband faster than 512 Kbps is needed. The point was made by the panel that unless people get faster connections, that’s impossible to prove – like deciding to build roads after everyone decides they need a car. This is why it’s important to show that it’s time for Belfast to have some sort of Digital Hub – that the people needing it are here waiting.

I have, with the help of BCC, applied for some funding under the Creative Industries Innovation Fund for computer equipment and desking but we don’t have to wait for that in order to get started.

[UPDATE: Andy posted his own blog entry which includes an excellent photo]

Who is interested? Seriously.

Tags: Bedouin, CoWorking, DigitalCircle by mj
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Bernie Goldbach wrote a comment:

And accepting the iPhone’s poor battery performance by suggesting a clever work-around is fine, as long as you also accept its leading role as the phone with one of the largest carbon footprints.

My reply:

Phones don’t have carbon footprints. People do. When I’m using my iPhone I’m not using my MacBook Pro which has an 85W Power Supply.

It may seem crazy but this is an example of doing more with less. When I’m doing stuff on my iPhone (playing a game, tweeting, sending email, browsing the web), I’m not powering my MacBook Pro with it’s 17″ screen, dual core processors and kick ass graphics card – any one of which is likely to exceed the entire power drain of the iPhone.

My MacBook Pro has a 68-Watt-Hour battery holds 244800 (68 x 60 x 60) watt-seconds which equals 244800 joules. It drains in just under 4 hours of normal usage.

iPhone has a 1400 mAhour 3.7V battery. This means 1.4 Ampere-hours at 3.7 V. If the voltage remains constant (which is the real trick), this converts proportionally to Watt Hours so 3.7 V x 1.4 ampere-hours = 5.18 Watt Hours. Which means it holds 18648 joules. It drains in around 5 hours of normal usage (meaning constant usage. Standby is much better)

Can someone who knows a bit more about power check my figures? Being conservative with my power is important to me. (Point being that I recharge my iPhone using solar collectors – difficult enough in Northern Ireland)

Having a ready source of energy is important to someone who finds himself more often than not out of the office.

Tags: Bedouin, Commentary by mj
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One half of the issues of being ‘Bedouin’ is the relative scarcity of net access. There’s heaps of WiFi out there, 3G and EDGE connections but every now and then you find yourself bereft of networks to attach to, for instance, in the middle of the North Sea. You can still work especially if you have a laptop with you and even if you’ve just got your iPhone or other ‘relatively smart’ phone, you can hammer out some ideas, prepare some emails to be sent when the network returns or do those boring jobs which you’ve been putting off.

Power, on the other hand, is a must. It’s not usually a problem at home or in the office but what do you do when out and about. First thing is to look for any power sockets you can find – it’s worthwhile noting where they are in cafés (and on the Ferry/HSS). Not surprisingly, most vendors take a dim view of plugging in even if you’re a paying customer.

So what do we do to deal with that? I’d blogged previously about The FreeLoader but I’ve added to this with a third party battery booster (which provides ONE good charge for an iPhone) and also a PowerMonkey eXplorer.

Check this out. A charger that can harvest enough motion from walking to replenish cell phones or other small gadgets, like GPS devices. It says that six hours of cumulative motion can add 30 to 60 minutes of talk time to a cell phone. The idea is to place the charger inside a purse or backpack and let it charge in the background

Tags: Bedouin, Commentary, Cool by mj
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pTerm, a new SSH client for the iPhone has been released – but seems to be only in the US App Store.

Why is this important to me?

Because I’m managing customers while away from the office. That’s the way things go when you work alone.

Thankfully there’s been no emergencies and all requests were handled using a web interface which works fine on the iPhone. It would be nice to have SSH though because for my hosts with Pair, I would be the only person checking on them. The servers with host.io would be checked elsewhere.

So, roll on the UK release. Means I’ll be able to relax better.

Tags: Bedouin, Cool by mj
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