Death of a Pub Quiz

Last night our team had an off night at the pub quiz. There are no two ways about it, it was our lowest score ever and we didn’t even come close to the prizes.

When I got home I checked my Twitter account and was left with a bad taste in my mouth. There were tweets asking people for the answers to the questions I’d just been racking my brains to find.

The pub has free wi-fi and we’ve always known that there are people who are Googling for answers or hitting Wikipedia a couple of times per night. But twittering for answers? That’s crowd sourcing and there’s a limit of five people per team. So should each team now pay €2.50 for their 500 Twitter followers as well? And what about the extended network via re-tweets? Maybe we could let them pay a reduced rate of just €1. Either way it’s going to be an expensive night out.

Perhaps we could adopt the freemium model. Free entry for those that don’t use network devices. ‚€2.50 for 6 tweets or €10 for the deluxe unlimited tweets and surfing package.

So it looks like Pub Quiz 1.0 is now officially dead and I’ll be attending the funeral. I know it’s the taking part blah blah blah, but what’s the point in taking part in an unwinnable contest?

Can you stop people cheating in a pub quiz?

Our pub has free wi-fi and you have to reserve a table to enter the quiz. Usually, all the tables are reserved so everyone must be taking part in the quiz right? Surely the pub can just switch off the router for a few hours and then no one can cheat.

Eh, no. This is the Network Age. We are the network, if you block us, we will reroute. Switch off one wi-fi router and the mobile networks takes over, USB dongles are plugged-in, next door’s open wi-fi is sought out, neighbourhood wi-max is discovered and mesh networks created.

So the door will always remain open for people to “research” their answers. But it’s just a doorway to information and as we know, having the information doesn’t mean it’s good information. The funny thing was that none of that answers I saw tweeted back were correct!

This is the Network Age. We all have a voice, we all shall speak, but we’re not all right. And that’s just fine.

So what’s the answer?

I think it’s (nearly) time for Pub Quiz 2.0

Maybe the answer is to do pub quizzes via Twitter or a similar tool. The quizmaster reads out the question to the crowd so you still have to be in the pub buying their beer. Participants then tweet the quizmaster their answer and it appears on a big screen in the room. The first correct answer gets the point. Next question.

People would still be able to look up answers and ask for help, but those that know that answers anyway wouldn’t have to look it up and would have the advantage. People with big thumbs might be at a bit of a disadvantage but hey, that’s evolution for you.
Will it be better or worse? Who knows? It’ll be different, that’s all. And that’s true for most of the rapid changes that the Network Age brings.

But I don’t think it’ll be a very busy pub quiz. At least not yet. As the saying goes, “The future exists today. It’s just unevenly distributed”. I’d go a step further. It’s not just the future that is inequitably distributed – i.e. the tools to access the network – it’s the knowledge of what the future is that is inequitably distributed. And that’s why I say it’s nearly time for Pub Quiz 2.0

Until then we’re in a grey area. I think I’ll take up dominos instead.

But what about the couple in the corner who have been coming to the quiz for years, who don’t want a camera on their phone, who just want a phone that make calls, you know the type.

Well they’ll probably sit there each week blissfully unaware of the changing nature of competition in the Network Age, wondering why their place in the league table is progressively getting worse and joke about how they must be experiencing the early onset of Alzhiemers.

I think I’ll join them and have a quiet pint.

Filed under: Benelux

Brussels Twestival Was Smooth

So the party is over, lots of people came and a great time was had by all.

If you didn’t make it to the Twestival but would still like to help you can. The site is still open for donations.

Checkout www.twestival.be to see what the event was all about and for a donation link.

Thanks

Filed under: Benelux, NGO

Twestival – Time to Party In Brussels

This article is about the Brussels Twestival. If you’re in Brussels on the 12 February please sign up. You’ll have a great time and meet some great people and you’ll help raise money for a great cause www.twestival.be

I have to admit, when I first heard the date of Twestival – 12 February – I thought, “Oh this is an elaborate scheme by some geek to make sure that they have a date for St. Valentines Day”.

I looked into it a little more, not because I’m looking for a date I hasten to add, but because I was curious to see why Twitter users wanted to meet up. What was their purpose? Then I saw the videos and I knew why people were signing up.

And then it mushroomed. Cities have signed up in their droves!

What started out as a vague idea to try and get a handful of cities together to raise money to drill fresh water wells in Ethiopia is fast becoming a major global fundraising party. The deadline for cities to sign up passed on 31st January and at that point nearly 200, yes you read right, 200 cities throughout the world have signed up for Twestival.

You don’t have to be a Twitter user to come to the party. Tickets cost between €5-50 depending on how much you want to pay. There are 3 bands lined up and a DJ and we’ll be at Le Botanique from 5pm-1am.

And here’s why!

Get your ticket today

Filed under: Benelux, NGO

FontStruct – Free Fridays #17

FontStruct is a fantastic application. It’s free and it focuses on one particular task well which means it fits all the criteria for inclusion in the Friday review, but that’s not why I’m writing about it here.

By deciding to take a punt and release FontStruct for free in the Spring of 2008, FontShop did something that exemplifies the web business model and the great benefits it brings when done right.

So first of all, what is FontStruct…

FontStruct is a web app that anyone (with the time) can use to create their own fonts. USers of the servic can download their fonts and make them available for others to use under the Creative Common license. It’s available at fontstruct.fontshop.com if you want to give it a go. Registration is free. This video says it all though.

Why is it so exemplary? What have they done?

Well by setting up a free product in parallel to their core business, they did some key things.

 

1. They did what they know and love. Fonts
2. They created a framework for User Generated Content.
3. They have gently integrated their paid products into the free product.

 

By a stroke of genius they brought their passion, fonts, to an even wider audience and made it accessible to anyone with a computer. By doing so they let people in to their world, made it fun, released new talent. They gave people a behind the scene look at what they and typographers do. That’s something we all take for granted and it turns out to be not so easy after all. In other words, they’ve brought us round to respecting what they do and have picked up new customers along the way.

They also had excellent timing. FontShop, the company behind FontStruct, specialises in selling catalogues of fonts. New fonts are going to become more and more important on the web as browsers start to move beyond the standard font families over the next few years due to the widespread introduction of font embedding. It’s not a bad time to be in the font business.

The buzz around this product when it launched was enormous and things like that can help attract good people to your company and boost morale internally.

As a business they could have settled for more traditional routes to increasing their sales such as affiliates, but the products they sell on their main site cost between  €169 and €13,200.00. Not really an impulse purchase.

By setting up a free product they can rapidly build up a new user base to whom they can promote their core business.

This is what the web is good for, but you have to be quick and you have to be good at it. Most of all, it seems that those that do best at it didn’t have pure profit in mond when they started out.

So sign up at at fontstruct.fontshop.com and have a go at creating your own font. It’s not as easy as you think.

Filed under: Free Fridays, Free Software, Promoting Your Website and Organisation

Easy Solar Wi-Fi

Do you live in a place where the sun rises each day? Yup, me too.

Coming to a street near you very soon.

Filed under: NGO, New Technology

Last Day Of The WidgetBucks Sign Up Bonus

To day is the last day of the WidgetBucks sign up bonus. All new bloggers and web site owners that sign up will have $25 credited to their account.

If you’re not familiar with WidgetBucks yet, here’s the typs of thing you can add to your site with one line of Javascript that they generate for you so all yo have to do is copy and paste it into your site.

The video below is a screen capture of some ads running on one of my sites and shows you how eye catching these ads are compared to standard banners and text ads.

You can sign up here

Filed under: Online Advertising , WidgetBucks