So I went to Moseley Barcamp on Sunday and good fun it was too.
Loads of interesting people, lots of great discussion but I just don’t have time to do a proper write up. Real life is taking up all my time this week and I figured I just didn’t have time to blog.
But then, as usual, the conversation continued on Twitter (#mbcamp). Jon Bounds just posted the following tweet
I tried for about 10 minutes to reply in 140 characters and just couldn’t.
Instead, I am posting my somewhat longer reply here.
@bounder I think the connection between design, content and the production thereof is key.
A content producer like you needs to know just enough about the technicalities to do your job well.
Brilliant graphic designers generally know enough about print technology to know what’s possible – if only so they can push the boundaries.
In the same way a book author tends to have an opinion on how their work should be presented.
So a Social Media Gun For Hire needs to stay sufficiently abreast of the productions side of things (web development) to know what’s possible.
There’s nothing better than a brilliant piece of writing that’s also designed beautifully and printed using special papers by a true craftsperson. It’s the combination that makes it magic.
I agree that web developers and social medians are different groups, different ’scenes’. Each group needs to develop their own ways of sharing. You don’t want to listen to a talk on the merits of different javascript libraries. Web developers are not interested in reading discussing the Big City Plan.
But the intersection matters. The true magic happens when they we all get together and have a natter.
5 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.
I very much agree.
I can see the difference between these two industries, but like you point out, there is most certainly a benefit to be garnered from co-operation and understanding.
Hopefully the connection will strengthen in the coming years and this will be one of the things that enhances our community.
I completely agree with you Josh, my thoughts are more perhaps that the lack of “web scene” we keep hearing about is more about a lack of “web development/design scene” – something I’d like not to be true but something not as directly related to my work as people seem to be thinking.
I’d really say that s/m stuff is done with web tech rather than because of it – so while it’s really useful for me to know as much as possible about web stuff it’s not a prerequisite. I like to dabble, so I have much more cross over than some s/m who are more users rather than creators of tech.
Can’t agree with this tho: “Web developers are not interested in reading discussing the Big City Plan.” – I mean surely web developers can be interested in discussion about their environment (or anything else that interests them – including web dev) with social media tools. What they are within their rights to do, if they wish, is only take a partial interest in the social theory and user path and community theories of use of s/m tools – their work may be better if they do, but they don’t have to in the way that not all s/m people can code a jot.
The overlap is where the cool edge-case stuff happens, but it’s the result of two disciplines clashing rather than merging (they’ll probably get further apart yet)
Continuing the Discussion