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: Technology & Society
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
Let there be light! (An Arduino Adventure)
I think there is no greater power on this earth than creativity: the freedom to forge, even in a small way, the world in the way that it should be. And I knew that my world needed a new creative fabric-and-programming project in it. I’m not sure exactly when I got interested in learning to … Continue reading
A moment of gratitude and a call for action
As we come to the end of year that has been full of unanticipated challenges, I’m drawn to reflect on the things I’m truly grateful for. One of those things is Ada’s List, a group which supports women in technology (and science, engineering and maths) by offering an exchange of opportunities, space to talk about … Continue reading
String, post-its and dancing bots: Mozilla Festival 2016
Yet another Mozilla Festival has come to an end. This year I presented for the first time, delivering a session on network evaluation methodology. The lead analyst for Mozilla’s Leadership Network, Arliss Collins, co-presented with me on Mozilla’s approach to network evaluation. Before the session we both agreed that as it was a methodology session … Continue reading
Nesta’s Future Festival
Nesta recently held the two-day FutureFest covering innovation in a range of areas like work, play, and love. With talks and roundtables interspersed with interactive, immersive experiences, there was certainly plenty to stimulate the curious mind. There were several sessions on the future of education. Most of these were slotted into the ‘Work’ theme of … 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
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
In a Merry Hour: Caitlin E McDonald 