Futuresonic 2008

For the next 5 days I'll be in Manchester attending Futuresonic 2008, which is slated as "an international festival of Art, Music and Ideas now in its 12th year occupying the orbits of both digital culture and music."

There was an introductory event this morning, with a panel of about 6 speakers opening debate on different aspects of the future of social. It was a bit hit or miss, with some speakers getting it right and others alienating the audience through discussing perhaps inappropriate ideas.

For example, James Wallbank tried to talk about how real-life is the root of our social lives and so we should be down the pub rather than on Twitter. It was a strange topic considering he was speaking at the opening of a conference on the social future, which the vast majority believe online will be an inherent part of.

Gerd Leanhordson hit the right notes, speaking with light humour on various issues affecting us now or will soon affect us all (all the time subtly plugging his event later this evening...).

The main problem seemed to be that each of the speakers came from different backgrounds and regions, and so brought vastly different ideas to one event. Still, it was useful in showing us just how wide ranging all the tools floating around right now are being used and influencing society today.

You can follow my updates on Twitter (@benrmatthews), but there are others here - including @dominiccampbell, @infovore, @blackbeltjones, @russelldavies, @timdavies, and @tomtaylor - so follow along.

I'll be blogging on the events I've attended when I get the time/energy!