BrumTwestival video mini site

Thanks to the excellent team of guys at Full Range we received a load of lovely video footage from February’s BrumTwestival this week. On the night, people were suggesting who else in the room the film crew should speak to so we decided to build a fun little mini-site where the navigation follows the users suggestions. You can view the mini site here.

It’s a bit Javascript intensive, so if it runs slow then you can click on the ‘lite’ version (top left) to jump straight to Vimeo.

Thanks again to everyone who attended and agreed to be filmed – here’s a full list of ‘who was there‘.

BrumTwestival – we did it!

Well that was it folks! Only a few weeks since we first speculated about the possibility of organising a Birmingham Twestival and it actually happened. Thursday night saw Birmingham gather with over 175 cities around the world to get together and raise money for Charity: Water. The turnout was amazing and saw 185(ish) local tweeple make it down for an evening of music, raffles, games and general fun. To cap it off, the total raised was  a superb £1519!

It has been a busy few weeks for us at 383 Project, having been involved in both BrumTwestival and doing design bits here and there for the wider Twestival campaign. We’re currently trawling through tons of press coverage and photos etc from around the globe and will do a separate follow up post in the coming weeks on Twestival’s impact as a whole.

For now, here’s a few more pictures from the evening provided by the very talented Lee Allen. Fullrange were also around on the night doing some filming so expect video content to follow!

Lastly, thanks to everyone who donated raffle prizes, got the word out and helped plug the event. Birmingham couldn’t have happened without the help of the other organisers. I’ve listed everyone below and would suggest if you’re not following them on twitter already you should do so- they are good people to know!

@ellielovell
@bounder (Jon Bounds)
@victoriahedley
@chrisunitt
@getgood (Nicky Getgood)
@lovelychaos (Jessica Elvidge)
@abbycorfan

Tweelove – Anonymous twitter greetings

Today sees the launch of a little project we’ve been working on called ‘Tweelove‘. Tweelove is an anonymous twitter messaging service with the aim of spreading a bit of positivity around twitter.

For 383 the site has mainly been an exercise in getting an idea (provided by @Bostinbloke) designed and built quickly. Seeing as it’s coming up to Valentines we figured it could be a bit of fun to design and build this and it also gave us an excuse to be a bit more indulgent than we might otherwise be with our daytime work.

The design came together pretty quickly, and after hammering out a few different ways of creating the interface we settled on a simple ‘pick a word’ and ‘add a message’ format. As well as ensuring the messages have some level of consistency in their tone, ‘picking’ a word at the beginning helps remind people the service is meant to be positive. You can follow the account to see who’s recieving the kudos by following @tweelove, or visit the site yourself to send a few messages.

The development side of the project has itself been a bit of fun, so for those that are interested, you can read about the process here:

The geeky bit

Once the design was handed over, we coded it up and then made a start on the functional parts of the site.

First, to minimise spam from bots and user error we made sure that when someone builds a Tweet the site will check whether the Twitter user who the message is directed @ exists. If they do, the TweeLove account will auto-follow the recipient. If they don’t, then the user will be prompted with an error message to try again. If the service gets used a lot we’ll knock the auto-follow on the head if it’s getting near 400 a day to ensure twitter don’t think there’s any spamming going on!

To minimise abuse the site will also check the body copy of the message for any un-niceities in the text. This checking has been built into a buffer so Tweets don’t just get sent straight to Twitter as the user submits them. The buffer currently submits every two minutes so messages you send will have a slight delay before getting pulled in to the main feed.

Lastly, we used the twitter search RSS feed to catch any messages people might hashtag with #tweelove or @tweelove. This way, people can tweet messages from their own accounts if anonymity isn’t a concern.

Brum Twestival now official!

Rather than keeping a long list of comments going in the other post we figured it was better to do an fresh update post here now more details have been confirmed. We also wanted to address a few questions that have cropped up since we first blogged about the possibility of of a Brum Twestival. So:

Where and when?

Brum Twesival will take place at Poppyred on Thursday February 12th. You can find a map of Poppyred by clicking here. Once we have firmed up a few more details we’ll confirm the start time but it will likely be 7.30pm till late. Thanks goes to Poppyred for providing the venue free of charge.

What?

Brum Twestival will take place in conjunction with over 80 (confirmed) Twestivals in cities all round the world.  The evening will be a ‘tweet up’ with two aims. The first will be to help raise money for Charity : Water and the second will be to meet up with Tweeple you know face to face, say hello to some you don’t and generally enjoy a fun evening together.

On the evening there will be a range of fun things happening including music, live linkups with other Twestivals and a raffle. More details on the specifics  to follow as we get nearer the date.

Why Charity : Water and not a local charity?

A very valid question indeed and one Twestival organisers thought about too before making the decision. First, it’s important to know who Charity : Water are so go and check out their website for yourself. Right now 1.1 billion people on the planet don’t have access to safe, clean drinking water. That’s one in six of us. Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Charity : Water is a non-profit organisation working to bring safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Importantly, 100% of the money raised by Twestival will go direct to project costs, funding sustainable water solutions in areas of greatest need. Since 2006 charity : water has funded the construction of more than 600 wells that, when completed will provide drinking water to 250,000 people.

So, hopefully there’s no doubt that supporting a cause like this can only be a good thing. But why did Twestival orgaisers decide to support a single charity? We all know that Twitter can be a powerful communications tool. It can connect, mobilise and inform people around the world instantly. A lot of thought went behind the decision to have each city in the world support the same charity. When you consider the kind of awareness Twitter can bring a unified message as simple as safe drinking water is something that everyone around the world can get behind. There are obviously charities which have similar aims around water, but by bringing in multiple organizations, even if they are working towards a similar goal, dilutes the message. Providing clean, safe drinking water is a simple concept. One charity offers a simple message.

Lastly, in the spirit of Twitter connectedness you can follow @scottharrison one of the founders of Charity Water on Twitter. At the time of writing this Scott is on route to wells in Ethiopia. If you want to know where you’re money goes and how it gets used then following Scott, checking out his photos, and reading his blog should give you a great insight.

How can you get involved?

First and foremost by attending! We currently have 146 people following @brumtwestival and it would be ideal if the majority of those people could make it on the evening. We’re in the process of getting an online ticketing system up for the event which will enable people to register in advance. As soon as this is available we’ll tweet it through @brumtwestival and would encourage people to buy tickets before the 12th if they can come. This will help us to know definite numbers and plan more easily for the evening. There will be a nominal fee for entry which can be paid online, again with 100% of the ticket price going straight to Charity : Water. We’re aiming to keep the entry price low and will let everyone know the amount in the next week or so.

If you do think you CAN attend then please sign up to the mailing list here on brumtwestival.co.uk to give us an initial idea of numbers. If you’re already following @brumtwestival and CANT make it on the evening then don’t worry – you wont be missing out by signing up as all news will still be tweeted. This is really just so we can get an initial show of hands for those who know they can come.

Sponsorship opportunities and raffle prizes

A BIG thank you goes to all those people who have already offered prizes or support for the event. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, or can donate a prize to the raffle then please drop us an email and we’ll give you some more details. We’ll be tweeting all the raffle prizes once they’re confirmed and putting a list up on Brumwtestival.co.uk for everyone to get excited about.

A Birmingham Twestival?

To kick off the new year we thought we’d blog about a little logo we’ve designed for the upcoming series of ‘Twestival‘ events happening in cities across the globe this February. Twestival is a get together for people who use Twitter with the aim of providing a fun regional meetup for people to network with others in their city, and to raise money for charity : water. Cities so far include Edinburgh, Bucharest, Amsterdam, Bangkok, Lisbon, Brussels, Sydney, Boston, Bejing and San Francisco to name but a few!  Twestivals will be happening on February 12th and you can follow @twestival on twitter or visit twestival.com to register your own interest.

Now for the bit we need help with. We’re really keen to help organise a Birmingham Twestival and need others to volunteer to see it happen. So far Ellie Lovell and Jess Elvidge have been in touch to lend a hand, but we’ll need a few more people if possible to make it happen. So, if you’re from Birmingham, on twitter and like the sound of a Twestival let us know and we’ll try and kick things off. If you drop a comment below as a first step we can guage ideas about people/venues etc and then move the conversation off to a board elsewhere if it looks feasible.

UPDATE: If you’re interested in attending/helping out with Brum Twestival then you can follow updates on twitter @brumtwestival