Martin Wright.tv

Kiva Progress

Martin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:00:49 +0000

Loan repayments are coming in regularly as part of the 0% credit for Kiva in Peru idea. There are still 20 loans outstanding which are all on track to pay back within the next 6 months.

If you’ve not tried Kiva yet, its a great way to donate money to those who need it.

Twestival 2010

Martin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:15:56 +0000

Nottingham Twestival

Twestival 2010 is on the horizon and once again I will be heading up the organisation of the Nottingham event. The last two events have been great with over £500 raised for worthwhile causes. At this event we’ll be concentrating on requesting corporate sponsorship.

I’ll be looking for a team of keen volunteers to help choose a venue, select entertainment for the night and spread the word!
Follow @nottstwestival on Twitter and join the Facebook group.

Performance Testing Services

Martin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:30:08 +0000

Over the past couple of months the following services have been trialled:

Google Page Speed – analysis of web page performance and guidance on improvements – runs from within Firebug
Yahoo YSlow – analysis of web page performance and guidance on improvements – runs from within Firebug
Quixapp – bookmarklet allow easy access to Pingdom
WebPageTest – analysis of web page performance which provides alternative download locations and video playback
SpriteMe – tool to merge all graphics from a page into a single file to improve page performance
Performance Advent Calendar – links to articles on improving web site performance

That Was 2009

Martin — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 18:00:25 +0000

2009 turned out to be pretty remarkable year that charted a path unexpected 12 months ago.

Being involved with Twestival by arranging the Nottingham Twestival in February was the trigger for much of the rest of the year. The event was a modest success and introduced me to people who would become friends over the coming months. Meeting a great crowd of creative and techies at Nottingham Twestival led me to setting up a regular event, Web 2.0 Surgery. The event was a great excuse for a meetup and this also coincided with a other events starting up and gaining popularity in Nottingham in 2009.

Our 3 week trip to Peru was an amazing experience which took us to Machu Picchu and everywhere in between. This was also a key reason for using Kiva to issue loans in Peru.

September brought Twestival Local which raised money for The National Autistic Society and there is another event planned for March 2010.

There was a great turn out for the last Web 2.0 Surgery of 2009 and with co-operation with the eBusinessChampions initiative it looks to be even better in 2010.

Happy 2010 to all!

0% credit for Kiva in Peru

Martin — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:00:54 +0000

I’ve been wanting to give Kiva a try for a long time and the trip to Peru was encouragement enough. I issued a few loans when we got back and was very impressed. Its great that as a microcredit service you get to choose who the money goes to and you receive the money back for reissue on loan completion. This gives more long term involvement with lending than many other lend-and-forget microloan services.

I recently decided to use some of my unused 0% interest free credit limit to increase my Kiva lending. While slightly risky there seemed little justification for not going trying it out. The money could be much better used by people that need a loan, than by sitting unused on my credit card statement. I chose loans which would be repaid in less than 6 months and only loaned $25 per per person to spread the risk of any delinquent payments.

Follow the progress of my loans and consider lending yourself.

Using Twitter at Think Visibility

Martin — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:19:09 +0000

There was a fair amount of activity on Twitter happening at Think Visibility. Here’s some pointers on how to make the most of Twitter at an event like Think Visibility.

Buildup

Watch the #thinkvisibility hashtag
Follow the event Twitter account @thinkvisibility
Join in the conversation
Follow the speakers
Follow interesting people

At the event

Those you have followed will now appear in your Twitter stream
Continue watching the event hashtag
Continue following interesting people as they appear
When talking to people, ask them for their Twitter name and follow them

Post event

Catch up with your new followers and follow them
Post Tweets about the event
Find to presentations being posted about Think Visibility with Twitseek.

Nottingham Twestival Returns

Martin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:00:52 +0000

Nottingham Twestival is taking place at 7.30pm on Thursday 10th September 2009 at Muse, Hockley. This time round the very worthy charity is The National Autistic Society – Nottingham.

Volunteer meetups are currently taking place with much more help than last time, thanks all! With the venue agreed it is now the interesting part of finding sponsorship, getting raffle prizes and choosing bands.

To find out more about Nottingham Twestival , check the blog and follow @nottstwestival.

Web 2.0 Surgery Gains Momentum

Martin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Web 2.0 Surgery is going from strength to strength with the fifth event. There is another great line up of experts ready to answer questions on everything Web 2.0 and internet related.

Nottingham Tech Scene

Martin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:00:06 +0000

As part of figuring out the Nottingham Tech Scene there is now a wiki page to track the tech companies, web companies, web design companies, games companies and tech events based in Nottingham.

Please feel free to add your company to the Nottingham Tech Scene wiki.

Invisible Festival Unveiled

Martin — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:34:59 +0000

It seems appropriate to find out about a virtual festival through a friend on Facebook who I’ve never met. This lead to a shared experience with hundreds of other festival-goers who never get to meet each other.

The Invisible Festival is taking place over the weekend of 8/9 August 2009. The venue for the festival is wherever you want it to be. The soundtrack is the same but the venues are different. The very simple idea being that you invite all your friends to your place and you listen to a set playlist. This happens at many different venues but the experiene is shared on Twitter, Facebook and Flickr. Its all provided free but donations are requested for Cancer Research UK.

The music is provided by The Invisible Festival as playlists on Spotify. The event wouldn’t be happening without Spotify which as a service has to be seen to be believed. See Lifehacker Spotify article for glowing review. Spotify has 3.8 million tracks available for streaming, for free. Its like iTunes without the shopping cart.

Similarly, without the Invisible Festival I wouldn’t be a Spotify user. Its ridiculous but I just didn’t realise how great it was going to be even though people have been raving about it. And its a nice smug feeling that the UK is one of the first countries to get access to the service.

Spotify and Invisible Festival made the best festival of 2009!