Month: May 2007

My lovely funders NESTA have an interview about our new project Planet SciCast. It gives you a brief overview of what we’re trying to do, and – more importantly? – some of the background as to why. In the grand scheme of things it’s a relatively small-scale project, but there are some Big Ideas behind it, and around it. I’m pushing for it to be seen as a useful test case for some of the debate that’s going on about public service publishing, for example.

The site itself is now live too. The ETB have done a cracking job of munging their content management system to deliver the design work that was done last year – but you’ll rapidly notice that it’s a work in progress. In the short term you’ll see mostly bug fixes and tweaks, but I’m hoping I can talk everyone round to understand the difference between what we have now, and the living community site we should have.

But hey – SciCast is now officially happening. The competition will open for entries later this month, and we’re already getting a terrific response from schools about the films, the site, the competition, and the project.

Children’s TV 2.0.

[still no comments on Quernstone.com, sorry]

Ah, too much to do, too much to say, too little time. Fleetingly:

The Science Council are building (yet another?!) new science careers website, and they’re taking the branding/design thing commendably seriously. How seriously? Well, I’m glad you asked, thank you dear reader. They’re taking it seriously enough to have thrown up a stylish little examples-and-voting site; they’re asking for opinions.

To my eye there’s a direct correlation between the funkiness of the branding and the obscurity of the message, which is a bit of a shame, but you can’t fault them for trying. One of the ideas in particular I’d love to see rolled out as a sort of ‘kite mark’ for science engagement work – it’d be a neat little bit of branding.

Anyway, take a look, cast your vote.

More from me later. Promise. Mostly because if I don’t post lots this week, Patrick will get angsty in email again.

[comments are still down, by the way. Yes, yes, I know. Humph.]