Jim Cavanagh

Feeding

jim — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:50:00 +0000

While driving today a song by CItizen Fish came up on random called ‘Feeding’. It got me thinking how the way of thinking of thoughtful consumption can apply in many different ways. Channels, topics, feeds, friends, foods, etc all should be dealt with thoughtfully. A series of posts has come to mind that I will follow up with.

Below find the lyrics and the song itself.

We’re feeding on facts, we’re feeding on fiction
Feeding cos we need to eat
Supplying our minds with information
But half of it is incomplete

They used to wrap chips in newspapers
Now they microwave fast food
We end up picking at rumours
In the hope of a grain of truth

Do you know what you are feeding?
Do you know what you are fed?

We say we don’t believe all that we read
But is anyone reading at all?
Or merely feeding on what’s being fed
In the hope of feeling full?

We all need to be resources
Rather than receptacles
There’s too many lies and rumours
To recognise them all

Do you know what you are feeding?
Do you know what you are fed?

Do you know what you are feeding?
Do you know what you are fed?
Do you repeat what is worth repeating?
Or store it all inside your head?

Be a source of information
Inspire debate, protest and go!
Feed on food for thought reaction
If no-one feeds it, grow your own!
If no-one feeds it, grow your own!
If no-one feeds it, grow your own!

New Torey Pudwill part actually filmed in the streets.

jim — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:50:09 +0000

Its good to see Torey film a part outside of The Berrics. Seems these days so many kids make their marks in parks and in private. Torey has the skills and its nice to see him skate where he belongs, in the streets.

Cultural Institutions as Social Beings.

Jim — Fri, 06 May 2011 17:54:26 +0000

Taking on the online social persona of a cultural organization is a huge undertaking that can not be understated. While working at The Franklin Institute I played the role of @thefranklin and experimented with different voices. At the time not many museums were on Twitter and the ones that were used the service as an extended RSS feed. Trial and error using a new channel allowed me to realized that to be true to the org, I had to be transparent and honest. I had to be three things in one: me, the sum of all employees and the Institution itself.

In order to be honest and allow personality to shine through as well as give a sense of who it was that was the voice of the museum on Twitter I would take random photos around the museum of whatever I came across both on the floor and behind the scenes, post what I was listening to, and sharing links.

To be the sum of all the employees the goal was to focus more on behind the scenes and show more of who makes up the museum. Any kind of peek behind the curtain gave followers a better sense of the workings of the museum as well as showed off what might not otherwise be seen. A more direct connector were things like question and answer sessions with our Chief Astronomer, curatorial photos and the such which generated attention with little effort.

To be a storied 180+ year old institution was the hardest of the tri-personality to live up to. Show off the academic work, get the right information out to followers for events, tell the history in a way that connects the mission directly to the goings on within the physical walls. We all know more goes on than what the general visitor might see and we want to make sure that aspect gets its due.

These three things seem like they may be a lot but once you have your targets set and a strategy in mind its not as hard as one might think.

Being Scared

jim — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 15:46:56 +0000

Fear.

Fear has been a problem of mine for a while now, both professionally and personally. Fear and anxiety all to often dictate my life rather than confidence in what I do and know. I’ve recognized this for a long time now and have made strides to change my ways. The above video by Merlin Mann has helped to add a bit of extra context to my madness.

Why haven’t I progressed or shipped some projects I have been working on? Am I scared of putting myself out there and having to deal with the critique of others?.

Yes. Thats hella stupid to even look at. Such a silly non- excuse.

Moving forward I will be posting here a bit more on things and stuff I may be working on or at least be interested in.

If you are seeing this in an RSS reader thank you for not deleting me.

Tracking Museums Visitors Socially.

Jim — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 13:01:09 +0000

While sitting in the US Holocaust Memorial Museum for the most recent DC Mobile Collaborations Meetup and listening to all of these Institutions on the National Mall talk about how they “should”, “possibly”, “plan”, to evaluate different channels of social media and how / what it means to their institutions. At this point a game of catch up is being played. Instead of planning as to where to insert themselves Institutions should be evaluating where their visitors are currently interacting both within their walls and outside of their walls as an to attempt to meet them there. Many social sites are geolocating users posts and that information is available publicly. By taking a look at specific points at which visitors make a connection enought to Tweet, post to Facebook, Flickr, etc is a priceless insight into those wandering your halls.

One caveat is many museums have both spotty wifi and cellular data coverage so make sure to take a discerning eye to the content and context of the post.

Ardbeg – Single Malt Islay Whisky

Jim — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:55:36 +0000

While in Rehoboth and after a weekend of too many beers for my taste buds I had to pick up a bottle of brown. Having never seen Ardbeg before on the shelves in Philadelphia I grabbed it. This has to be one of the peaty-ist Islay whiskys I have ever had. It took a few neat drams for it to settle in but after that it was a fine drink to come home to after a day at the beach. Funny enough the wife could smell the peat from across the room!

Dogfish Head: Steampunk Porter / Dark Side Rum / 2006 World Wide Stout

Jim — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:40:32 +0000

Recently I was visiting Rehoboth/Bethany, Delaware for a bit of holiday and one night we ventured down to the Dogfish Head Brew Pub in downtown Rehoboth to see what we might be able to get out hands on that is not readily available in Philly. First up was the brew pub exclusive Steampunk Porter. I am not normally looking to the darker side of beer in the summer months but had to give it a go. Super dark smooth and a nice creamy head. Of note was the spicy and chocolate hints that came out together which made the beer a tasty start to the evening.

Next up I wanted to give their Dark Side Rum a taste so I asked for a pour. A nice dark smooth rum that I asked for with 2 pieces of ice. No bite that many dark rums are known for and a smooth finish that I have not encountered outside of the more aged rums from the Carribean. Wish I could have taken a bottle to go but they were out.

To close the night I looked into their reserve fridge and picked a World Wide Stout from 2006. Wow. Just Wow. The age allowed for this barley heavy beer to settle down a bit and effectively made it a barley wine, at least to my un-trained tastebuds.The World Wide Stout sits at an 18.0% ABV and made it the last beer of the night.

I left the bar that night swimming in a content Dogfish induced haze.

This Makes Me Sad For Skateboarding

Jim — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:15:17 +0000

Street League, which is presented by Rob Dyrdek, initially looked to have some promise to be different. Setting itself up to be a skateboard contest by and for skateboarders. In theory it sounded good and then the backers started lining up and thus degrading the legitimacy in my eyes.At first it was DC and Monster, then it was ESPN as the media partner. Now connecting the project with Justin Bieber is just suspect. Money has and always will be part of skateboarding, it is a business after all, but is this answer? Both pros and kids on the street deserve better than this from the industry. Money almost always derails projects that once started in a good place. “Writing paper” and wearing a “I’m A PC” shirt for Microsoft? I don’t know about all this. It is also sad to see many of the old guard looking the other way and not calling bullshit.

*After sitting on this and talking with a few people a new outlook has come through and its nothing new. East Coast vs. West Coast skateboarding is just different. The West Coast is all hype, glamor and money while the East Coast is raw and unsettled. Street League, X-Games, Maloof Money Cup all come the West Coast and it is not for me to understand. I have decided to purge that side of skateboarding from my view.*

Introspective.

Jim — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:55:59 +0000

Re-birth? Re-awakening? I don’t know. I turned 30 recently and have been introspective and will be using this space as a sandbox for thoughts, ideas, plans, schemes, and possibly shenanigans. Please do not take the design, to seriously as it will be continually under development with the latest and greatest toy code. For example right now the layout is being done thanks to masonry.js. Stay tuned, I guess.

ArtBabble launches and makes connections.

jim — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:01:49 +0000

ArtBabble, developed by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, launched this morning. Partnering with other art museums such as LACMA, MOMA, SFMOMA, New York Public Library and the Smithsonian.

From the site itself:

Art-Bab-ble [ahrt-bab-uhl]
noun; verb (used without object) -bled, -bling
1. free flowing conversation, about art, for anyone.
2. a place where everyone is invited to join an open, ongoing discussion – no art degree required.

ArtBabble was conceived, initiated, designed, built, sculpted, programmed, shot, edited, painted and launched by a cross-departmental collection of individuals at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA). It is intended to showcase video art content in high quality format from a variety of sources and perspectives.

ArtBabble was created so others will join in spreading the world of art through video.

As a platform this is great, bringing together digital collections into one place and allowing an ongoing conversation focused on the creation and critique of art. As a step forward for museums this is rather large. Within the videos there is additional context added to a sidebar to take what is being talked about to the next level of understanding. Weaving a more cohesive understanding of art and placing this next level of context is much more than just a babble, its placing art and the conversations surrounding it at a more attainable level to users.

Congrats! to the IMA dev team. I had the pleasure to meet some of them last year and their vision and excitement is invigorating and inspirational.