Thanks for Remembering

Thanks to everyone who remembered the anniversary of the Thames Tunnel!

Social Media

Social Media Critique

Pick a current social media campaign and critique it with an eye on your goals. Look at how the growing conversation is affecting our world. Then discuss your social media ideas for your online presence. Will you concentrate on Twitter or YouTube and why?

For this assignment, I’m looking at The Victoria and Albert Museum’s Twitter stream (@V_and_A). The V&A uses it to connect with patrons, announce events and exhibits, and run contests. The V&A makes good use of hash tags to foster conversation and highlight events, such as #V_and_AFreebieFriday, #FridayLate, and #Ballgowns. The museum maintains a steady chat with their nearly 100,000 followers, and seeks to actively engage those who physically attend their events.

Their use of social media has been successful on many levels. Their number of followers is impressive, and their account has a reasonable amount of follower activity in the form of retweets and tweets directed to the museum. Calls for attendee photos from a recent vintage fashion themed event (via Twitter and Facebook) brought in many entries, and the winner blogged about winning and gave the V&A additional social media exposure. The V&A follows a fairly aggressive tweeting schedule, sending out several tweets per day.

For my online presence, I plan to continue focusing on Twitter and blogging. I would use YouTube on occasion for special projects, but it wouldn’t be an emphasis. I’m also planning on starting a weekly blog roundup of the best Victorian and historical engineering posts appearing that week. I’ll also continue to build out my Pinterest pin board collections.

Video Script: Driven

Video Script: Trailer for Brunel documentary

 

Video		Audio
FADE IN
Iconic photo of Isambard Kingdom Brunel in front of launching chains of the Great Eastern. Camera slowly closes in on head shot.		Narrator: For two centuries, the name Isambard Kingdom Brunel has exemplified the Victorian drive to overcome any obstacle…
Cut to film of Clifton Suspension Bridge		…Whether across…
Cut to shot of the ship SS Great Britain at its pier		…on…
Cut to historical print of Thames Tunnel		…or under water…
Cut to shot of steam train coming out of a rail tunnel in the countryside		… and through mountains.
Re-enactment: Brunel holding a set of plans, pointing across the landscape and discussing the route with his foreman. Surveying tools, drawings and maps cover a table in to one side of the men, and workers are seen clearing brush in the background		Now the BBC brings Brunel’s work to life in Driven: The Engineering Life of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Fade to montage of 19th century documents and illustrations		Using an extensive collection of contemporary sources, including Brunel’s own writing,
Re-enactment: Brunel in Thames Tunnel during 1828 flood, with water bursting in and sweeping him away		As well as re-enactments, Driven shines a new light on a man obsessed with success.
Re-enactment: Brunel recuperating in bed after the Tunnel accident. He is propped up drawing on a tablet, papers and pencils strewn about.  Camera comes around to look down over shoulder at bridge drawing.		A man obsessed with progress.
Cut to period photo of Brunel at the launching of the SS Great Eastern		A man willing to risk everything to see his visions come to life.
Cut to film montage showing scenes from Paddington Station in London, across the path of the Great Western Railway, to Bristol		A man who left an indelible mark on the English countryside and imagination.
Re-enactment: Brunel, grinning, with cigar clamped between teeth, shoveling coal into the open furnace of a steam locomotive		Driven, the story of Victorian Britain’s greatest engineer, who always
Re-enactment: Brunel, covered in soot, leaps down from the locomotive and shakes hand with a man who just walked up		Re-enactment, fade in voice of Brunel: ..put on all the steam I could command!
Freeze on Brunel, fades out to black. Title graphic for the documentary fades in.		Narrator: Driven, coming soon from BBC

CLOSE  

Sacrificed to Progress

Progress leaves ruin in its wake.

February 27th marked the 200th anniversary of Lord Byron’s first speech to the House of Lords. He was speaking during the debate about the Frame Breaking Act, which imposed the death penalty for the destruction of loom machinery. Automated loom machines had transformed textile manufacturing from a skilled trade to an industrial production line using unskilled labor, and unemployed weavers struck back by destroying the machines that had destroyed their livelihoods.

The Luddites were not opposed to technology and progress, they were protesting the cheapening of their profession and loss of their jobs. The manufactured goods weren’t of equal quality to the handwoven materials, rather the cloth was low quality and was unloaded cheaply on the colonial market. Factories didn’t need skilled (and thus more costly) weavers, they just needed bodies to tend the machines.

Technology both lifts up and puts down. The “march of progress” is littered with the detritus of the Unintended Consequence.

For every leap forward, there are winners and losers. Email and smart phones have made communication fast, but at the cost (arguably) of the loss of the written letter as an art form and at the threat (without doubt) of job losses among those who work in the postal service.

We may not see an army of cashiered letter carriers breaking into data centers and smashing mail servers, but the spectre of those displaced by our current technology revolution may yet haunt the modern world.

The pursuit of progress and profit without consideration for the human cost has always been, and will always remain, an unwise journey.

Transcript: Master Engineer Badge Pitch

Transcript:

[Slide 2] This proposal is for the establishment of the Master Engineer Badge for Foursquare. The badge is designed to take advantage of user-generated media to promote attendance at venues associated with Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

[Slide 3] Marketing is no longer decided by men in suits. Advertising directed to a passive audience is becoming less effective in a world where consumers are becoming creators.

[Slide 4] Audiences are active. They don’t want to be fed ads – particularly ads that probably have no relevance or interest to them. They want information. They want to know what’s going on downtown, or where their friends recommend going to eat after the show. They are mobile, and they want you to find them.

[Slide 5] Foursquare is a geo-location service that people can use to “check in” to venues. Over 15 million people use a Foursquare application on their mobile device, and make more than a million check in’s per day. Foursquare users can be hooked into their other social media accounts and connected to their friends.

[Slide 6] Foursquare is social and rewarding. Users can meet friends, share information, and receive specials from local businesses using the service. Users can unlock special badges denoting accomplishments, and they develop relationships with the venues they frequent.

[Slide 7] The Master Engineer Badge follows in the footsteps of the great Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Users can check into a wide variety of venues associated with Brunel.

[Slide 8] Brunel is still very popular, having made an indelible mark on the English landscape and the field of engineering. In 2002, Brunel was voted the second greatest Briton, being edged out only by Winston Churchill.

[Slide 9] Participating as a badge venue benefits the business by leveraging the users’ own networks. Word of mouth – or of text and tweet – spreads through these networks, increasing the venue’s reach.

[Slide 10] To unlock the Master Engineer Badge, the user checks into at least 4 Brunel-related locations. Since Brunel was involved with many engineering projects on land and sea, there’s a venue for every interest. Students at Brunel University have a distinct advantage.

[Slide 11] Unlocking the Master Engineer Badge also unlocks a special sponsor deal, a free pint from one of Box Steam Brewery’s pubs. Box Steam Brewery has a line of Brunel-inspired ales. Other participants can also offer special deals to badge holders.

[Slide 12] Venues benefit from participating by expanding their advertising reach, by connecting to people interested in their business, and growing their local and long-distance visitors.

Video Pitch: Master Engineer Badge

Executive Summary: Master Engineer Badge

The Master Engineer Foursquare Badge merges the best technology of the 21st century with an appreciation of the best technology of the 19th century.

Foursquare is a geolocation technology that allows users to check in from businesses and other locations. Users can use the service to find local businesses and deals, and unlock special reward badges for checking in to specific locations.

The Master Engineer Badge is a reward unlocked when a user checks into at least 4 locations associated with Isambard Kingdom Brunel, such as Paddington Station, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, Great Western Railway Museum, or the SS Great Britain. Once the badge is unlocked, specials linked to locations become available. Examples of specials are:

• Free pint of Brunel-inspired ale at one of Box Steam Brewery’s two pubs;
• two for one museum admission;
• 10% off museum gift shop purchases;

The badge project will take an estimated six months to set up in order to coordinate the specials with the different businesses and complete all of the FourSquare requirements.

The Master Engineer badge will focus attention on the history of technology and transportation and encourage more visitors to these related venues.

Elevator Pitches

Elevator Pitches

Elevator Pitch #1: Master Engineer Badge (Foursquare)

What could be better than to follow in my footsteps? When someone uses Foursquare to check in to all of my major projects (Thames Tunnel, Clifton Suspension Bridge, Great Western, Bristol Docks, etc.) they will unlock the Master Engineer Badge. Then check into one of Box Steam Brewery’s two pubs for a free pint.

Elevator Pitch #2: Brunel’s Grand Tour

Establish a guided tour of the locations and museums of my life and works. The tour will be guided by a professional historian, and historical reenactors will be on hand for events at several of the tour locations. The tour operator can work with the museums and local businesses to form partnerships that provide a reasonable cost to tour participants and expanded revenue for local businesses.

All That Endures

#ironwasadraft

Was there ever a final version of trains and bridges?

Of course not. Materials technology continues to advance and allows engineers to design and create ever more advanced structures. My iron was today’s engineers’ high-strength steel. In the next century we’ll build with materials we can barely imagine.

But though materials and techniques advance, that doesn’t mean the great works of past times are due for the scrapheap. The well-built works of the past still endure and hold our imaginations. Many Roman bridges still stand, even serving automobile traffic after nearly two thousand years in use. They are perfect examples of how simple materials and solid engineering can far outlast a modern structure.

My own Clifton Suspension Bridge carries nearly 12,000 vehicles across the Avon Gorge everyday. Your own Brooklyn Bridge seems to  be holding up admirably

Contemporary engineering is no guarantee of lasting success.

On the Road, Off the Rails

A Midterm Proposal

I am generally happy with the direction my online persona is taking. This blog and the associated Twitter stream give me the opportunity to explore twin passions of mine, history and technology. There’s been a slow start, but the fastest engine  may be slow to come to full steam.

I will continue thispersona long-term and see how it develops. I will, however, shift focus slightly. Initially, I intended to focus on the comparison and contrast of today’s technology landscape with the Victorian era, showing that the issues facing the contemporary world are not unique. This focus has been too narrow. Going forward I will approach history, technology, and the comparison of the two more broadly. For example, I may blog about a Victorian engineering project, but not necessarily make an explicit connection to the present. This will allow me to do more historical work in addition to making opinionated commentary about current events.

To further advance my online voice, I’ll work on blogging and tweeting more often. Given an expanded (or perhaps “loosened” is the better word) topic, there will be more opportunities to do so. I have begun to make online connections with those interested in Victorian era history and engineering, and will continue looking for and making connections.

I will differentiate myself from “the crowd” by being a “personality” voice, the Ghost of Brunel, instead of “just another blogger.”