I’m a great fan of TED talks. These aren’t the best presenters in the world but who can failed to be excited by dry water, squashy magnets or 10ft poles you can keep in your pocket…
It was interesting to hear top novelist Cecila Ahern, still only twenty-seven years old, describe this morning how she prefers to write everything longhand, reflecting on life, before taking her draft to the word processor. She was talking about her latest book “The Gift” - a story of a man who’s life is in a perpetual state of “busyness” and the effect a present of time makes.
So here is an author who doesn’t despise technology, but perhaps uses it differently to the digital native group to which she belongs. Other folk definitely crossing the border between literature and technology are those engaging in the massively popular book awards run by the school library service in Birmingham. Over the years thousands of young people have been debating and voting for their favourite books and this year the theme is ‘chills.” Simple use of technology to provide an enagaging medium that students love to use. The target group is key stage three - 11 to 14 year olds - and to see their online debate unfold over the following weeks will be truly encouraging. Check it out yourself at www.bgfl.org/ks3chills
An article in guardian.co.uk last week highlighted the findings of a survey that claims to have pinpointed the time when we are at our most creative to a very precise 10.04pm. Although the sceptic in me views these results with some incredulity, they certainly offer food for thought.
Taking creativity as synonymous with bursts of inspiration, ingenuity, productivity and resourcefulness, I thought it would be interesting to gather the thoughts of the IE team – which boasts numerous ‘real’ creatives amongst its numbers – and pose them the question: when are you most creative?
Early birds vs. night owls
Does the magic 10.04pm strike a chord with IE? Not really, it seems. There were a couple of night owls whose creative highpoints occurred ‘lying in bed trying to get to sleep, dark room. No noise, no distractions, no sleep!’ but the majority didn’t back this up. Whilst some of the team acknowledged that they experienced late-night bursts of creativity, the same people maintained that these were just as likely to occur first thing in the morning. Indeed, early mornings were generally cited as the optimum time for a creative high, with a couple of the team commenting that they go downhill after lunch and that the chances of a major breakthrough occurring in the afternoon are slim to none. Continue reading
Jack Cheng wants to know if you can judge a book by its cover. Just vote on the quality of the cover and see if you can match the Amazon rating. Â Warning - if you love books and book cover design, this could be addicting!
How would you judge this book?
Found via Swiss Miss
At the Future of Web Apps conference last week I went to a very interesting talk by Suw Charman-Anderson, a social software consultant, working with companies in the UK and US on social media and Web 2.0 projects.
Suw highlighted some scary facts about email, including: