I have moved my blog over to Scriptogr.am....and here's why: Back to basics

You can find me at this address: http://scriptogr.am/rachaelburns

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"This year", I told myself, "will be the year I 'get my shit together'".

I let my boyfriend read this before posting and he described it as a Bridget Jones blogpost, a condensed Jackie Collins, something i may not wish to post if I want potential clients not to think i'm a nutter.

I answered that with "it goes live in 30 minutes".

Obviously if you know me, you'll know that since making that bold "shit together" claim on January 1st i've actually had no time to stop and think, let alone make any serious changes to my life, but as from now I promised myself its happening.

My January started with a bit of self critique, too much really. I'm coming up to 30 and wanted to make sure I was on track for doing what I wanted to do in life, and career was the top priority. "Is this a late 20's crisis?" I panicked, oh god, I haven't got time for this!

Its simple really, I want to continue working internationally, being less of a coding monkey and more the origin of ideas. My goal this year is to jump above the production companies I work for and muscle my way in from the start. To be brought into project at an earlier stage. I suppose you could say interaction consultancy. How does a sole trader/1 person ltd company get trusted with much larger projects? If its not by word of mouth by existing clients, then how? 

Anyway, i'm going off topic, but what I want to say is that instead of just churning out job after job i'm trying to book time in to 'better myself', for want of a better phrase.

To kick this off the best way I can i've split my goals into four parts. A list! Ooh I love a good list.

I've decided to….

1) Force myself to book time to do more self initiated projects.

2) Attend as many conferences on museum development/art/technology/data visualisation as possible

3) Work with more international clients

4) Have a day off

Lets see now…

Re: #1 I've had an idea, a really interesting one, one that i'm actually going to book a decent amount of time off to implement, and i'm hoping that its going to turn into something i'll eventually concentrate on full time, but i'll talk about that in later months when i've formulated it a little better and I can describe it in a single sentence instead of with very dramatic hand gestures and too many 'ummmms'.

Re: #3 and #4, there isn't much to discuss other than hopefully #1 & #2 will help me achieve #3 & #4… Its all maths you know.

I'm waffling, so lets stick to discussing #2 for now, starting with me telling you about my attendance at the MADE NORTH conference this week.

I have to admit, I only took the jaunt to Liverpool to hear from United Visual Artists and with the hopes I could wrestle Matt Clark to the ground and use my considerable mass to sit on his chest until he offered me a job. Alas, he managed to escape my clutches and lives to fight another day. This was ok, I had plans to barge my way into the UVA offices in the fourth quarter of 2012, when my carcass was a little fitter, had better hand to hand combat skills and my cardio was up to scratch.

Matt sauntered nicely through their very impressive work and did wonders to inspire me, i wasn't disappointed. In fact it was worth the ticket price alone. I managed to control my excitement and take notes, my inspiration cup runneth over.

Next up Troika, imagine my excitement when i saw photographs of their workspace and listened to their tales of multidisciplinary colleagues. WOW. Exciting ideas, implementation and people. Eva Rucki thoroughly impressed.  My mind was running at full speed, could I also kidnap Eva and hold her at gun point till she allowed me to 'collaborate'?

So wait, thats two speakers down and i'm inspired beyond belief. Patting myself on the back for buying the ticket I continued to live tweet the event and make some internet friends. I didn't meet them in person (despite them being around 15 metres away). But hey, thats what happens these days.

I have to say the rest of the event I could have taken or left. Coming from an engineering background, interested in programming and data visualisation I wasn't that bothered about product design. Herb Kim made some interesting statements about social media, or lack thereof. I think 'stealth networking' was my quote of the day.

Sam Hoey from Jason Bruges Studio also had some interesting concepts, I loved Sam's thoughts on keeping certain achievable projects in house. The actual 'making' of things is something I love getting my teeth into. Getting dirty with electronics, ooh bearded men with electronics! But thats another blog post altogether.

This was all fine and dandy, however one thought kept clouding my brain.WAIT A MINUTE, NONE OF THESE PEOPLE ARE FROM THE NORTH.

Hold on, i've come to an event called 'Made North', sold as "a unique one day conference exploring the roles of design, art and technology in the future of the North."  Yes you read correctly, 'OF THE NORTH', yet the speakers (all excellent) didn't hail from anywhere nearby. Whats going on? Why don't 'we' have people who can talk at this thing? I felt cheated! 

Questioning myself, are we crap up north? or has credit not been given where credit's due? I think this is something i need to investigate. Does me living and working in Manchester make me less likely to be involved in influential projects? Maybe thats whats stopping me from being a worldwide success?

The outcome is that i'm going to try and exhaust #1 to #4 before adding a #5.

5) Emigrate.

 

 

 

 

I was asked by the guys over at Thrive Solo to be featured on their blog as part of their 'user profiles' *blush*. I've been using their web app for my project management and freelance time keeping services and have to say its absolutely fantastic!

I'm featured as their January edition, and I answer general questions on freelance life, my work and my hobbies...along with admitting how much cooler my dad is. Being cool by association works doesnt it?

Feel free to go check it out http://thrivesolo.com/blog/15/january-user-profile

In my boyfriend (James Gilbert)'s recent talk at Northern Digital's Blab Mini on 'A Celebration of Design Culture' he mentioned that 'THE INTERNET IS A BASTARD'. Whilst I agree it can be a real distraction at times, and often I kick myself for spending way too much time on it while trying to work, today it has led me on a lovely little journey.

I've been researching whether or not I should dole out the cash to attend this year's MuseumNext conference in Barcelona. I said to myself at the end of 2011 I would make a real effort to immerse myself in relevant lectures, events and conferences in 2012. This one just so happens to be directed perfectly at my field of expertise and in a beautiful city that I love!

I began my decision making by watching some of the videos taken at the 2011 Edinburgh event. (Safe to say this has now spurred me on to convincing James it would be a good idea for me to spend a few hundred quid to go on a 'work trip'). 

While watching videos from last year's speakers I enjoyed listening to Geer Oskam from n8.nl about his work with museums of Amsterdam, the after hours events they put on sound fantastic, I attended an after hours event at the Manchester Museum recently, and the opportunity to see the museum in a different light was fantastic. I'd like to hope other museums in Manchester can take their lead and create more late night events targetted at adults to take the opportunity to temporarily show more of their collections.

I am actually visiting Amsterdam in a couple of weeks, so this stumbled-upon information happened to fit into my life just at the perfect time! How strange! The internet happened to accidentally throw me some relevant information. After spending alot of time looking at their up and coming events and locations in and around the city, I realised that Manchester doesnt have anything similar. In fact, i've never seen a map which locates all the local galleries and museums in one place. So I decided to quickly create one.

View Museums & Galleries of Manchester in a larger map

This could have been seen as another waste of time, but the collecting of information has the potential to lead to lots of relevant future work. Whether that be research data for myself or a starting block for regular blog updates of up and coming events, I know i'd rather there was another place to 'find out more' than having to trawl through M.E.N.'s hundred page listings. Without advertising! In an easy place!

So as is the way with the internet, once you get an idea into your head, it starts spreading. I thought i'd make a map of all the museums and galleries i've worked for over the last few years, this really made me visualise wanting to work over in the USA and Australia, even if it were to just add more pins on a digital map by getting to do much more travelling (for work of course).

View Places I have work in a larger map

 

This led me to making a google map for my trip to Amsterdam, I know, you can make your own maps on google, get over it. I adore the idea of being able to use social media to ask for recomendations, tailor those to your own tastes and produce something quickly that not only is useful to you, but also that you can share. Another example of how small amounts of data can be beneficial when using simple apps.

 

View Amsterdam in a larger map

 

Before I ramble further, i just wanted to note that an afternoon on the internet has given me a wealth of information about relevant conferences, given me an idea to track museums in manchester, helped me to keep tabs on the work i'm doing locally and internationally, and given me some tips on enjoying my time in amsterdam.

Basically, the point i'm trying to make is that sometimes internet meandering creates happy accidents...and no, thats not a metaphor.

Thanks Internet.

So my website is now live! Well, a BETA version is at least.

http://www.rachaelburns.co.uk

I wanted to get at least something online for the new year having promised myself an 'end of November' deadline. As all you freelancers know, having time for personal projects is almost impossible, so getting a site up that i'm really happy with has been very difficult!

You have to see this as a 'first step'. Eventually the site will revolve around lovely little video edits, showcasing the work i've done properly, with movement, plus a more mobile device friendly version. I'm hoping that these will happen much quicker now that the main skeleton of the site is up.

The site was designed by the wonderful and talented James Gilbert (twitter), extremely happy with my site design and with the branding.

On a quick jaunt to london for the Shillington College Staff Christmas Do, James and I managed to shoehorn in a bit of culture inbetween the hangover and train home.

We had a wander round the Power of Making Exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum. It was a gorgeous display of hand made arts and crafts, very impressive indeed! If you're around before the exhibition finishes its definitely worth a visit. I'd never visited the museum before, what a building!

After discovering that the next exhibition on our itinerary was sold out (Robotville festival at The Science Museum) we headed over to the Natural History Museum to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year temporary exhibition. This also ended up being too busy, we were'n't having a lot of luck.

However, the NHM turn out to just be a fantastic place to wander around and take snapshots while trying to take in the enormity of some of the fossils they had on display. Absolutely fantastic.

We finished our brief stab at culture by wandering around some of the famous sites i'd never visited (Buckingham Palace, St James's Park, Downing Street and Big Ben). First time i've ever seen one of the Queen's guards.

Just shows, with minimal time, and maximum hangover, you're still able to expand your mind!

 

I managed to attend the After Hours at Manchester Museum event. It was a chance to see the Manchester Museum in a new light. They had Victorian photography equipment, objects which weren't usually on display, and the chance to wander around the display cases with camera and glass of wine in hand

I took some shots as I wandered around listening to the lovely sounds of old records. 

I was asked by Lee Griffiths at University of Salford to come in and talk to his 2nd year BSc Computer Science students about Museum Software Development and the industry in general for their current assignment.

I covered UI and UX considerations, Design and Build basics, best practices and commonly forgotten aspects of software building, hoping to inspire and inform. I explained what 8 years of building touchscreen software for museums has taught me and how my past mistakes could illustrate things they could think about before diving straight into code to make their lives easier.

I thoroughly enjoyed speaking to the students about my career so far and things I've learnt from the industry.  Hopefully they were insipred and the talk helped them think about building a solid foundation in their builds which will ultimately allow them to pursue a more creative and fun way of bringing the information to the visitor in the future. As I told them, once you have your infrastructure solid, you can spend more time creatively thinking of ways to engage the user.

Used the Uk's rail system to bob over to Blackpool today, wanted to check out the Comedy Carpet and the Worlds largest disco ball!

Rest of the set on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150924934155232&l=f677da7d2a