thebigidea

Maker spaces are growing in popularity, bringing hackers, crafters, and creators together to share tools and skills. Urban zones are sprouting knitted or crocheted overlays, embedded with Arduino open-source electronics for interactive creations. Old skool crafts are being given a geek twist, with knitted robots, crocheted computers or games characters immortalised in cross stitch.

Listen to the audio podcast or watch the animated video clip. Read show notes at the BIg Idea.

I became obsessed with tagging when I lived in the UK, though I have never sprayed my name onto an urban landscape. I was an online editor adding keywords to content, with new taxonomies and member generated folksonomies. Now tag clouds can be found all over the web, and are not just useful for visitors navigating your site. Search engines rely on tags to define and weight the content of pages. One of the most important parts of digital publishing is using the right keywords and tags, as if you don't keyword your content then you probably won't appear on the first page of search results.

MsBehaviour looks at why tagging data is important as the next phase in the development of the Web. Read Tags and the semantic web in full at The Big Idea.

Listen/Download MsBehaviour on Tags and the Symantic Web from Radio Wammo on Kiwi Fm.

The concept of Crowdsourcing has been in vogue for some time with the media making open calls for content and input from audiences. Now independent filmmakers, musicians and other creative types are harnessing communities of fans to microfinance, or 'Crowdfund' their creative projects. The Renaissance would not have happened without the support of the Medici family, and crowdfunding is a modern way to become a Patron of the Arts.

Read Crowdfund Your Creativity in full at the Big Idea. Listen to MsBehaviour talking about Crowdfunding on the Radio Wammo show. 

Local brains have been buzzing this weekend as the X|Media|Lab moved their festival of ideas to Auckland. Seventeen international mentors, keynote speakers, plus seventeen projects teams met at the Viaduct Harbour to share their knowledge, experiences and pathways to success. 

This is my third X|Media|Lab to date, though the record holder is Dale Herigstad with six under his belt. I had an inspiring time listening to the diverse keynote speakers from across the globe, and learning about the innovative digital media projects chosen for the Lab workshops. My brain had a full blown information hangover by the end of the weekend, but it was well worth it.

Read Helen Baxter's roundup of the X|Media|Lab, Auckland in full at the Big Idea and follow live tweets from the keynote conference day @thebigideanz.