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
Tag Archives: society
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
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
Scaling Twitter
On Thursday evening I went to an event at Twitter hosted by their Women in Engineering group featuring a series of lightning talks on the challenges of designing technologies that scale. As ever, I’ve put together a Storify of the event here. Tom Woolway, one of Twitter’s engineering managers, also collated a tweet collection summarising … Continue reading
Caitiewrites at Mozfest 2013: a Storify Journey
I was lucky enough to go to Mozilla Festival for the first time over the weekend. I experimented with Storify for the first time also, capturing my notes and photos for the festival here. Here’s a sample of what you can find on my Storify of Mozilla Festival 2013! Much more detail over there, organized … Continue reading
Sounds Like It to Me: Am I a Woman in Tech?
While I was at yet another Women in Technology event last night (this one called “Tech Shouldn’t be a Boys’ Club”, a panel discussion aimed at getting women interested in Entrepreneur First), I was struck again by how many women either don’t think they have the chops to be in technology or (like me) are … Continue reading
Meeting the Neighbors
Last week appears to have been a week for testing my mettle. The day after Bus Day, I was running an errand in my neighborhood in the middle of the morning. I walked from Shadwell station towards my house; in front of me a couple walked along the road together, laughing. Suddenly he reached out, … Continue reading
Anthropological Anxieties
I’ve been watching Grayson Perry’s series on the English class boundaries around ‘taste’ (titled helpfully ‘In the Best Possible Taste’). His research was ultimately aimed towards creating six large tapestries, but as the techniques he’s using to do the research are largely anthropological in nature it brought home for me again some of the anxieties … Continue reading
Computing Anthropology
Lately I’ve been spending a LOT of time at the computer. The vast majority of my life, in work and entertainment, has revolved around this screen recently, in exactly those kinds of scenarios that writers like Faranheit 451 and Brave New World and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? got all worked up about. This … Continue reading
In a Merry Hour: Caitlin E McDonald 