Dance Hack Day is a global celebration of technology and the choreographic arts. Participating in this year’s Amsterdam sister site event with an evolution of my light-up motion-responsive Arduino costume was a joy and a privilege. My biggest learning from the weekend is that with the right kind of supportive and open environment, even someone … Continue reading
Category Archives: Featured
Duologue, the chatbot that rescues you from uncomfortable silences
The highlight of my week (and possibly my year) has been finally releasing Duologue, a chatbot that rescues you from uncomfortable silences by prompting you with questions to ask when the conversation starts to dry up. You can check out this Facebook messenger bot on the Duologue Facebook page. Duolouge is also open source, so … Continue reading
What’s so Bad about the Internet? Reflections from the OII Connected Life Conference & the EU Referendum
Naturally the EU referendum came up for discussion during the Oxford Internet Institute’s recent Connected Life conference, but as an afterthought and an aside. I believe everyone present was nearly certain that Britain would vote to retain the status quo, and as subsequent reaction in the media demonstrated we were in good company. Even those … Continue reading
Dancing Graph
Recently I’ve been exploring Neo4j, a graph database that makes it easy to see the connections between things. It’s a great way to visualise Twitter data, for example. Yesterday I went to see the McOnie Company’s Jekyll & Hyde at the Old Vic. I had the pleasure of reviewing the McOnie Company’s original show Drunk … Continue reading
On Imaginary Things
San Francisco always seems imaginary to me. Unlike many of my friends I’ve never felt the urge to move here because it would be like asking to live in a daydream: beautiful and otherworldly but insubstantial. But then, the digital worlds that we build of which Silicon Valley is the spiritual home are no more … Continue reading
Mozilla Festival 2015
I went to Mozilla Festival again this year, Mozilla’s annual convention dedicated to building a better web. What I noticed most this year was the greater emphasis on discussion in sessions. The first two years that I went were much more focused on building and doing. I had mixed feelings about this: I always view … Continue reading
International Women’s Day: The Rest is Just Syntax
Last week I was invited to observe a women in technology celebration day for young teenagers who are starting to look at the kinds of higher educational paths they want to pursue. The highlight of the day for me was meeting Genevieve Smith-Nunes, an educator who uses arts to convey computer science concepts–and computer science … Continue reading
Diary of an Expat Lady: Winter Edition
A few years ago I discovered E. M. Delafield’s Diary of a Provincial Lady and various sequels. With its whimsical epistolary style underscored by deeper ruminations on feminist social themes of the 1930s and 40s, Delafield’s writing is a clear forebear to Bridget Jones’s Diary and similar works. Her influence is also the reason that … Continue reading
Another Madcap Adventure at Brasserie Zédel
You may recall that back on Bastille Day last year my friends Paul, Hannah and I hand-made some berets to get dinner on the house at our favourite French restaurant in London, Brasserie Zédel. For La Fête des Rois, Brasserie Zédel offered the same deal for anyone who came in wearing a crown. Naturally, we couldn’t … Continue reading
Think Drink Do: Innovation from Paper, November 2014
I always enjoy innovation agency Paper’s Think Drink Do events, in which they have a series of speakers focusing on behaviour change and related concepts followed by a practical crowdsourcing innovation exercise. This time we had Cath Richardson from the Government Digital Service providing insights about how to encourage government departments to focus on citizen … Continue reading
In a Merry Hour: Caitlin E McDonald 