David Maybury | Blog

The Arts Council has announced a one day conference, New Media, New Audience?,  aimed at Arts Council funded organisations and policy makers that are interested in “the potential that new media has on the way in which they work, and in the way it can attract and broaden audiences.”

The conference is free and has some really great speakers - including Charles Leadbeater, Damien Mulley, Conn Ó Muí­neacháin, Dermod Moore and plenty more who-be-whats-its of web the world, including yours truly.

Plenty of topics and workshops to get people looking at new media formats - so if you want to know your twitter from elbow; or your facebook from your bebo then you probably should tag along. There is a website to boot - and all of the talks and discussion will appear as podcasts after the curtain has closed.

I’m heading back under the duvet for the day to fight off whatever has me feeling lousy. Here’s what I managed to miss over the weekend:

> Spencer Tunick had a few hundred people strip down and stand in the water. And then again in an apartment.
> The Dublin Pride Parade went off with a glow - despite the rain!
> Belfast was Barcamped.
> The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian was premiered.
> The Fringe Festival started looking for volunteers.
> Vulpe Libris gave away some books - I managed to win one!

And I caught something that has me craving the solace of my warm bed.

Caught up with some bloggers (Darragh, Sinéad C - who seemed genuinely distraught by boyish face - and Laura) over the weekend - but managed to miss The Spanish Exposition’s look at the Irish Blogosphere until today. Rosie’s post hits on/near something, I think, that needed to be said - and some of the comments make for interesting reading.

There used to be a time when all Irish bloggers could fit around three tables in the Market Bar. The Irish blogging community is larger now and I doubt that most know who blog in various niches now. - Bernie Goldbach. (BG’s site)

As for the blogosphere itself this is an interesting post. I wrote something vaguely similar a couple of years ago. As the scene matures it’ll will splinter, that’s normal. - Twenty Major. (Twenty’s site)

Others have takes on it too: Le Craic, Alexia, Darragh, Colm, Jazz Biscuit - and more…
Update: Rick O’S has an interesting post take on things too…

And in other news:

> HAPPY BLOOMSDAY!

> Sinéad G is leaving the Sigla blog - the best Arts and Culture blog, three years running.

> The Dublin Writers Festival Blog has some reviews - Esther Freud, Tom Stoppard and the Irish Values Debate.

> Rob got a haircut. (In case you missed it, this is an all inclusive Irish bloggers post)

> Rapture Ponies is excited. Really excited. You will be too, when you see the trailer for the new Coen Brothers movie.

> The Sunday Tribune website has gotten a clean up. (It looks very like Independent.ie)

> And, not Irish, not even a little, but well worth reading. Sigmund Freud vs The Male Nurse.

JK Rowling’s Harvard commencement speech - entitled The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination.

On the benefits of failure:

failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.”

On the importance of imagination:

Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

Full video, audio and transcript is up on the Harvard Magazine. (via Kottke.org)

I forgot to mention earlier that Kate Thompson will be in Dublin on June 30 talking with Keith Gray and Robert Dunbar about writing for teenagers and the life that goes with it.

Tickets are free but booking is essential - visit the Children’s Books Ireland website for more.

And, before I forget anything else - introducing Very Hungry Caterpiller, the blog from inside CBI. Head on over for news, views and interesting links on all things bookish. Ah, go on.

Badges have hit the blogosphere - first came the Mulley Man’s most sought after Fluffy badge (and Sabrina’s Fluffer badge for himself). Elly created the WWMD (What Would Mulley Do?) stickers for the blog awards and then Tuppenceworth’s Fergal announced the Obbsessive Blogger badges - for blogging with passion, or obsession.

But wait! There’s more - Midget Wrangler has brought us the Filthy badge - awarded to the dirtiest (naughty not muddy) post of the week. And Dr. Fústar-stein has created the Dreadful Thoughts badges (or are they spirits cleverly made to look like badges in a bid to get close your organs?)

Go earn your blogging stripes…

John Scalzi has ten practical money tips for writers looking to make a career out of writing. Scalzi has written a lot about money and writing on his blog - and the points he’s making are interesting:

1. You’re a writer. Prepare to be broke. Sad but true. And even more unfortunate is the news that even Edison died broke and he was a genius.
2. Don’t quit your day job. Best way not to be broke (see above point). You know it makes sense.
3. Marry (or otherwise shack up with) someone sensible with money, who has a real job. Scalzi has come under fire for this one. Personally, I couldn’t agree more. Having a partner who is smart with money has saved my ass more times than I can count.
4. Your income is half of what you think it is. This is one of those things that should be obvious - not that I had ever thought about it. There is one nice thing about Ireland - writers don’t pay taxes on money earned from creative works.
5. Pay off your credit cards NOW and then use them like cash later. How many have fallen for that trap?
6. Don’t have the cash for it? You can’t have it. Reluctantly I agree. No matter how shiny it is…
7. When you do buy something, buy the best you can afford — and then run it into the ground. This point just makes sense, whether you’re a writer or not.
8. Unless you have a truly compelling reason to be there, get the hell out of New York/LA/San Francisco. I’d make a case on this for Dublin too - except that I live there.
   
9. Know the entire writing market and place value on your own work. Charge what you’re worth, not a penny more or a penny less. If you don’t know what that is - ask the union.
10. Writing is a business. Act like it. Wear a shirt and tie to work? No. Just take it seriously.

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Something else worth reading: Harvard papers are to go online - free.