Nine out of ten readers whose cats expressed a preference have commented on the quality of what they (erroneously) think is my new black and white tea towel. One of my friends popped round the other day and caught me drying the dishes, and the second thing he said to me was, “Stewart, that tea towel is a reet bobby dazzler; I’ve nivver seen one like that afore”. (The first thing he said to me was, “Why ist tha drying dishes, ist tha a puff”.) One needs to note at this time that he is from Barnsley, and in terms of that fair town is seen as something of a new man. Not only does he rarely physically chastise his children but he also allows his wife to vote in local elections. He even admits to one time having partaken of a vegetarian meal, which he felt was alright, although following it he did need to take a couple of days off work because of “a bit o’ gut trouble”. But I digress somewhat. The tea towel is not new, but is to some extent novel. I feel now is the time to tell the full story of my excellent tea towel.
The story begins in 1973, predating the three day week and the winter of discontent, although where I worked on the railway there were a fair few discontented souls and despite turning up for five days in each week most only actually worked a one day week. The phrase “work is the curse of the drinking classes” could easily have been coined for the staff in West Offices in the 1970s. It all started with a trip to the local butchers. We were a bit strapped for cash so my mum sent me out to buy a sheep’s head. Now, in these days when less than choice cuts of meat are hard to come by and offal is either trendily expensive or simply unavailable, and BSE and scrapie have ruled out the sale for human consumption of nervous tissue, a sheep’s head is not even perceived of as food. How wrong that is. Anyway, I went to the butcher and asked him for a sheep’s head, to which the hilarious wag replied, “what do you want a sheep’s head for, your own head seems to fit you very well”. He was such a card. I patiently responded by stating that I was not Wurzel Gummidge and only wanted the sheep’s head for food and sustenance not as an alternative adornment to my neck. I then added “could you leave the eyes in as I want it to see me through the week”. He then proffered me a nice looking head complete with a full set of peepers, for which I paid him one shilling and then duly took home to my mum.
Upon receiving the sheep’s head my mum washed it and then put it in a big bowl and covered it in brine. (Now, as a relatively poor family we didn’t buy those fancy bottles of made up brine, but made our own just by adding table salt to cold water, and I remain convinced that it is just as good as supermarket brine.) She left the head to soak in the brine overnight and then she washed it again, put it in a big pan, covered it in cold water, added a stock cube and brought it to the boil, then simmered it for two hours, constantly topping up the water. She then removed the head from the pan and left it to cool. She added diced carrots, sliced onions and a handful of pearl barley to the remaining liquor and brought it back to the boil. She then removed the chaps (cheeks) from the sheep’s head, cut them into small pieces and added them to the pot. This was left to simmer and reduce and within another couple of hours we had a tasty pan of sheep’s head broth. Mum then removed the tongue from the sheep, peeled off the outer skin and placed the peeled tongue on a plate and added a weighted plate on top. By the following morning we had some delicious pressed tongue for sandwiches and salads. Finally, she cracked open the skull and removed the brain, which then went into the fridge to chill, and was used as a wonderful creamy paté or spread. (It may seem strange today, but my memories of sheep’s brain are that it is one of the very nicest things I have ever eaten.)
As all this was going on I was watching the telly. Not surprisingly, Bruce Forsyth was on reprising his act from the first ever TV broadcast in 1936. Although I am not his biggest fan it was nice to see him (to see him nice?). Then my mate Dave rang up on our new trimphone and asked if I had heard of the new competition on BBC2. They were offering a prize of a weekend in London and a meeting with PLO leader Yasser Arafat for the person who could best complete the phrase “What shall we do the National Front do dah do dah, what shall we do the National Front?????…..” Dave the brave (so named because he once went to Leeds by himself – although it later transpired that the epithet was somewhat undeserved as most of his family actually lived in Leeds) knew I had a more than passing interest in politics so thought I would be the man to give it a go. I pondered the phrase for several hours and discussed with my mum and dad and eventually came up with the answer. “What shall we do with the National Front do dah do dah, what shall we do with the National Front, make them go away” Amazingly I won, manly because the only other entrant was an illiterate lunatic from Cardiff who just sent in a picture of a racing car. When the man from the BBC rang me up I was quite excited, partly because of winning the competition, and partly because I loved the ring tone of the trimphone.
So, it was time to go to London. I then remembered the sheep’s head and asked my mum if I could have the eyes, so she got them out of the bin, washed them and gave them to me. “What you want to take these eyes from me for?” she sang; “because I have read that sheep’s eyes are a delicacy among Arabs and I think Mr Arafat is an Arab”, I replied. (I had read it in a book somewhere that was all about weird food like salami, olives, garlic and such stuff.) Anyway, I got on the train and went to London and met Mr Arafat at the BBC Television Studios, where he had just completed a recorded interview with Robin Day. I was shown into his dressing room and immediately offered him the sheep’s eyes as a gift of friendship. “You’ve read that bloody book, haven’t you, I am up to here with sodding sheep’s eyes, but thanks for the gesture, it beats that knobhead last week who brought me an entire casserole of pig’s eyes; what he was thinking beats me, and he was the Israeli Prime Minister for God’s sake. Look lets go the Savoy Grill and have a proper meal; I’m paying”. So we dined on Caesar Salad, Beouf en Croute and a nice bit of Blue Stilton from the cheesboard, washed down with a creditable yet unassuming Bordeaux Villages, and a couple of Crème de Menthes. We then got talking about vexed question of Israel and Palestine. I must admit he did seem to have a slightly one-sided take on the issues, but you know what it is like; when you are too close to something it is hard to see the wood for the trees. My main contribution was to posit the ‘two-state’ theory and suggested that it would probably begin to see the light in about forty years. He was unsure, but thanked me for my contribution and offered me a gift in appreciation of my efforts; he gave me his keffiyeh (his distinctive hat).
I bad him farewell and made my way back home with my wonderful prize. Sadly, as the years went by I lost the agal (headband) so the keffiyeh became reduced from a symbol of Palestinian nationalism to the role of a large yet distinctive tea towel, which upon marriage and subsequent children served me very well, drying a million dishes whilst all the time I was thinking of the day when Palestine would be liberated. Unfortunately as the years went by it become more and more worn out, until last year I had a fateful decision to make; do I throw it out or renovate it. Despite the cost I got a team of expert cloth renovators in to give it a complete retread, and once again it graces my kitchen and has started the process of drying its second million dishes. So my tea towel is not new, but it is novel, and will always hold a special place in my heart.
All of this is true. I know, as I made it all up myself.
Friday 20 November 2009
Tuesday 17 March 2009
CMS for our website clients
After much reading, Googling and experimenting, I have now found a Content Management System that seems ideal for our website clients. It seems to offer enough features, whilst retaining a very, very inuitive interface. Early testing also suggests that the pages validate, and, because it actually builds real pages, a full set of metatags for each page, and an accurate Google sitemap as part of the simple editing process, it seems SEO friendly as well. It is Light N Easy CMS. My role as the website designer will be to devise a template for each site (and disable or remove all other templates), which simple means creating a PHP fime and a CSS file. The software even takes care of linking the CSS. It is also constructed in nice, straightforward PHP, allowing the designer / developer to include all sorts of other stuff in the pages just as plug-ins.
The thing comes in two flavours; a genuine flat file version and a SQLite version. I have plumped for the SQLite version. I fully understand that SQLite isn't as powerful as a genuine relational database such as MySQL, and it may be fractionally slower than a a site driven by a 'grown-up' database. However, we are talking about sites of less than 50 pages in general and the simplicity of the user interface is the real selling point.
It can be a nightmare to read a .db file if you don't know what you are looking for, so I have got myself a copy of SQlite Database Manager just in case the db for any of their sites gets corrupted and needs amending manually.
The one thing i am not sure of yet is the security of Light N Easy sites, but it bit more Googling should get that sorted.
I know customers will still make a hash of things sometimes, but far less than when they go into the XHTML and try to make amendments.
You never know, the clients may even decide to pay a little more; one can only hope.
The thing comes in two flavours; a genuine flat file version and a SQLite version. I have plumped for the SQLite version. I fully understand that SQLite isn't as powerful as a genuine relational database such as MySQL, and it may be fractionally slower than a a site driven by a 'grown-up' database. However, we are talking about sites of less than 50 pages in general and the simplicity of the user interface is the real selling point.
It can be a nightmare to read a .db file if you don't know what you are looking for, so I have got myself a copy of SQlite Database Manager just in case the db for any of their sites gets corrupted and needs amending manually.
The one thing i am not sure of yet is the security of Light N Easy sites, but it bit more Googling should get that sorted.
I know customers will still make a hash of things sometimes, but far less than when they go into the XHTML and try to make amendments.
You never know, the clients may even decide to pay a little more; one can only hope.
Sunday 8 March 2009
Books that changed my life
There are many lists produced by people of the ten best films, hundred best songs, twenty best books etc. and these lists can be very engaging and interesting. However, even the compilers of these lists would generally admit that on a different day they would compile a different list.
My list is a little different. It is a short list of books I have read that have changed my world view and helped to shape the person I am and my hopes for the world and its future. None of these books is my current ‘flavour of the month’; indeed I first read all of them at least ten years ago.
The first life-changing book I ever read was the authorised version of The Bible (not cover to cover but in an ordered fashion at Bible classes). What I took from The Bible was not the distorted message that is the watchword of many so called fundamentalists, but the humanity and sheer goodness that comes from the Sermon on the Mount, the concept of the glory of sacrifice, and the central tenet of The New Testament, to love thy neighbour, when all men are my neighbours. As a teenager the profound effect of The New Testament caused me to ‘get religion’ and I became a Methodist Lay Preacher for a short while. However, as time went on my scepticism grew as I observed so many pious and religious people who clearly defined their neighbours in a much more circumscribed manner. This led me to increasing secularism, but the concept of worldwide brotherly love never left me.
The second of these life-changing books I read was Robert Tressell’s The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Robert Tressell was actually Robert Noonan, an Irish housepainter, who arrived in Hastings via South Africa, and wrote a thinly veiled story of the lives of himself, his workmates and their families in the fictional town of Mugsborough. The book revolves around the central character of Frank Owen, a housepainter who believes the capitalist system is the cause of all the poverty and degradation of himself and his workmates. The book is a brilliant analysis of the hypocrisy of religion and the contradictions of capitalism, written in a style that is easy to understand and exceptionally moving. It advocates a socialist society in which work is performed to satisfy the needs of all rather than to generate profit for a few. Although he completed the manuscript in 1910, the book wasn’t published until 1914, by which time Noonan had died. It is a truly remarkable book, written by a non-professional writer that remains in print to this day. It has been said by senior Labour politicians of the 1970s as diverse as Denis Healy and Tony Benn, that The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, available to servicemen in abridged form, was the book that won the 1945 General Election, and thus brought into being the greatest government that the United Kingdom has ever known.
It is difficult to put a measure on the influence and power of this book. In the end it shows not only hope but anticipation of the better days to come:
The gloomy shadows enshrouding the streets, concealing for the time their grey and mournful air of poverty and hidden suffering, and the black masses of cloud gathering so menacingly in the tempestuous sky, seemed typical of the Nemesis which was overtaking the Capitalist System. That atrocious system which, having attained to the fullest measure of detestable injustice and cruelty, was now fast crumbling into ruin, inevitably doomed to be overwhelmed because it was all so wicked and abominable, inevitably doomed to sink under the blight and curse of senseless and unprofitable selfishness out of existence for ever, its memory universally execrated and abhorred.
But from these ruins was surely growing the glorious fabric of the Co-operative Commonwealth. Mankind, awaking from the long night of bondage and mourning and arising from the dust wherein they had lain prone so long, were at last looking upward to the light that was riving asunder and dissolving the dark clouds which had so long concealed from them the face of heaven. The light that will shine upon the world wide Fatherland and illumine the gilded domes and glittering pinnacles of the beautiful cities of the future, where men shall dwell together in true brotherhood and goodwill and joy. The Golden Light that will be diffused throughout all the happy world from the rays of the risen sun of Socialism. (Tressell, R. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists)
Anyone who cannot be moved by such hope and a burning desire to awaken from our “long night of bondage”, must be a very odd person indeed.
At this point in my life, my early twenties I was active in Labour Politics and had a clear view that the Co-operative Commonwealth was the world I wanted to live in. I knew I was a socialist and that capitalism was an abominable evil, but I lacked any robust skills of analysing and fully understanding capitalism. In my mid thirties I was lucky enough to get a place at university and at this point two more books came into my life. These were Karl Marx’s The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, and The German Ideology, also by Marx. These early Marxian works; one a collection of assorted notes, the other a philosophical treatise, made several things clear to me. Firstly, and most importantly, everything in our capitalist world is essentially upside down. Most importantly they make clear that God didn’t create Man; Man created God, and that capital is stored up labour and that any profit made by the capitalist beyond what is paid in wages is the theft of that stored up labour from the worker. Suddenly, things are beginning to become clear to me, and I am beginning to understand why there are different classes, and why I am destined to be forever poor: I am routinely being robbed and simultaneously being lied to.
University also opened my eyes to the fact that not only was I oppressed and exploited, but as a white European man I was also an exploiter. Yet more books changed my view of the world. The first of these was Robert Miles’ Racism, which laid bare the oppressive nature of Eurocentricism and the routine positing of the Black or the Jew as the other. This was particularly challenging to me as someone proud of his home town to realise that it was the first place of the first recorded instance of racial cleansing. I am from York and on the night of 16th March 1190, the feast of Shabbat ha-Gadol, the small Jewish community of 150 in York took refuge in Clifford’s Tower, to take refuge from the rampaging mob outside. Rather than face the mob, many took their own lives, others died in the flames they themselves had lit for warmth and light, and the rest eventually surrendered to the mob. All of those who surrendered were massacred. Miles takes issue with those who take sophistry too far in trying to determine how one should analyse racism, stating that it is tantamount to “fiddling whilst the gas ovens burn”.
This recognition that as a White European I was an oppressor was quickly followed by another book that showed me that as a man I was also an oppressor. Close to Home by Christine Delphy is an analysis of the patriarchal relations within the household, demonstrating that the household is an arena for the organisation of labour, in which the means of production are owned by the man and the labour of the woman is expropriated.
At this point I am in my mid-thirties and have begun to get a clear grasp of the trajectories of inequality in this world, but still have problems wondering why others can’t see it. At this point I encounter a number of books that one would best describe as social psychology. Many speak volumes in explaining why people are as they are. Erving Goffman (Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Asylums etc.) even explains why people appear different to different audiences. However the social psychological writings that impact on me most are the Collected Works of Sigmund Freud. I still believe that much of Freud’s theorising is based on paper-thin evidence and amounts to little, but he does make a very powerful argument for the internalisation of cultural norms. He shows us that our psyche is an internalisation of our world; thus middle-class families beget middle –class children both in terms of status and in terms of outlook. So I now know why so many apparently intelligent people cannot see what is so plain and obvious.
At this point I have more knowledge but I still have no idea how the Co-operative Commonwealth can be brought into being. Although Marx tells me it will, he does not say how. Everything then falls into disarray. I read Michel Foucault. In The History of Sexuality Volume 1 and in Discipline and Punish, Foucault not only shows the relationship between power and knowledge, but also theorises power in what seems for me a completely novel way. For Foucault, power is not a ‘given’, unchanging entity to be won or lost, but a constant ebb and flow of knowledge and social interactions. He also shows how power can be exercised in absentia through his brilliant analysis of panopticism. Reading Foucault is one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life. I suddenly really see the world as it is. This, however, would not have been the case without the books that had gone before. I now am more convinced than ever that the Co-operative Commonwealth will come to pass, that the world will become a greener and more loving place, but it won’t come through a great revolution as in the meta-narratives of Marxism, but through constant vigilance and innumerable small victories, as we, slowly but surely, change the world. At last I know. We can make a difference.
So there you have it; a short, and rather poorly written, essay on the books that have changed my life.
My list is a little different. It is a short list of books I have read that have changed my world view and helped to shape the person I am and my hopes for the world and its future. None of these books is my current ‘flavour of the month’; indeed I first read all of them at least ten years ago.
The first life-changing book I ever read was the authorised version of The Bible (not cover to cover but in an ordered fashion at Bible classes). What I took from The Bible was not the distorted message that is the watchword of many so called fundamentalists, but the humanity and sheer goodness that comes from the Sermon on the Mount, the concept of the glory of sacrifice, and the central tenet of The New Testament, to love thy neighbour, when all men are my neighbours. As a teenager the profound effect of The New Testament caused me to ‘get religion’ and I became a Methodist Lay Preacher for a short while. However, as time went on my scepticism grew as I observed so many pious and religious people who clearly defined their neighbours in a much more circumscribed manner. This led me to increasing secularism, but the concept of worldwide brotherly love never left me.
The second of these life-changing books I read was Robert Tressell’s The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Robert Tressell was actually Robert Noonan, an Irish housepainter, who arrived in Hastings via South Africa, and wrote a thinly veiled story of the lives of himself, his workmates and their families in the fictional town of Mugsborough. The book revolves around the central character of Frank Owen, a housepainter who believes the capitalist system is the cause of all the poverty and degradation of himself and his workmates. The book is a brilliant analysis of the hypocrisy of religion and the contradictions of capitalism, written in a style that is easy to understand and exceptionally moving. It advocates a socialist society in which work is performed to satisfy the needs of all rather than to generate profit for a few. Although he completed the manuscript in 1910, the book wasn’t published until 1914, by which time Noonan had died. It is a truly remarkable book, written by a non-professional writer that remains in print to this day. It has been said by senior Labour politicians of the 1970s as diverse as Denis Healy and Tony Benn, that The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, available to servicemen in abridged form, was the book that won the 1945 General Election, and thus brought into being the greatest government that the United Kingdom has ever known.
It is difficult to put a measure on the influence and power of this book. In the end it shows not only hope but anticipation of the better days to come:
The gloomy shadows enshrouding the streets, concealing for the time their grey and mournful air of poverty and hidden suffering, and the black masses of cloud gathering so menacingly in the tempestuous sky, seemed typical of the Nemesis which was overtaking the Capitalist System. That atrocious system which, having attained to the fullest measure of detestable injustice and cruelty, was now fast crumbling into ruin, inevitably doomed to be overwhelmed because it was all so wicked and abominable, inevitably doomed to sink under the blight and curse of senseless and unprofitable selfishness out of existence for ever, its memory universally execrated and abhorred.
But from these ruins was surely growing the glorious fabric of the Co-operative Commonwealth. Mankind, awaking from the long night of bondage and mourning and arising from the dust wherein they had lain prone so long, were at last looking upward to the light that was riving asunder and dissolving the dark clouds which had so long concealed from them the face of heaven. The light that will shine upon the world wide Fatherland and illumine the gilded domes and glittering pinnacles of the beautiful cities of the future, where men shall dwell together in true brotherhood and goodwill and joy. The Golden Light that will be diffused throughout all the happy world from the rays of the risen sun of Socialism. (Tressell, R. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists)
Anyone who cannot be moved by such hope and a burning desire to awaken from our “long night of bondage”, must be a very odd person indeed.
At this point in my life, my early twenties I was active in Labour Politics and had a clear view that the Co-operative Commonwealth was the world I wanted to live in. I knew I was a socialist and that capitalism was an abominable evil, but I lacked any robust skills of analysing and fully understanding capitalism. In my mid thirties I was lucky enough to get a place at university and at this point two more books came into my life. These were Karl Marx’s The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, and The German Ideology, also by Marx. These early Marxian works; one a collection of assorted notes, the other a philosophical treatise, made several things clear to me. Firstly, and most importantly, everything in our capitalist world is essentially upside down. Most importantly they make clear that God didn’t create Man; Man created God, and that capital is stored up labour and that any profit made by the capitalist beyond what is paid in wages is the theft of that stored up labour from the worker. Suddenly, things are beginning to become clear to me, and I am beginning to understand why there are different classes, and why I am destined to be forever poor: I am routinely being robbed and simultaneously being lied to.
University also opened my eyes to the fact that not only was I oppressed and exploited, but as a white European man I was also an exploiter. Yet more books changed my view of the world. The first of these was Robert Miles’ Racism, which laid bare the oppressive nature of Eurocentricism and the routine positing of the Black or the Jew as the other. This was particularly challenging to me as someone proud of his home town to realise that it was the first place of the first recorded instance of racial cleansing. I am from York and on the night of 16th March 1190, the feast of Shabbat ha-Gadol, the small Jewish community of 150 in York took refuge in Clifford’s Tower, to take refuge from the rampaging mob outside. Rather than face the mob, many took their own lives, others died in the flames they themselves had lit for warmth and light, and the rest eventually surrendered to the mob. All of those who surrendered were massacred. Miles takes issue with those who take sophistry too far in trying to determine how one should analyse racism, stating that it is tantamount to “fiddling whilst the gas ovens burn”.
This recognition that as a White European I was an oppressor was quickly followed by another book that showed me that as a man I was also an oppressor. Close to Home by Christine Delphy is an analysis of the patriarchal relations within the household, demonstrating that the household is an arena for the organisation of labour, in which the means of production are owned by the man and the labour of the woman is expropriated.
At this point I am in my mid-thirties and have begun to get a clear grasp of the trajectories of inequality in this world, but still have problems wondering why others can’t see it. At this point I encounter a number of books that one would best describe as social psychology. Many speak volumes in explaining why people are as they are. Erving Goffman (Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Asylums etc.) even explains why people appear different to different audiences. However the social psychological writings that impact on me most are the Collected Works of Sigmund Freud. I still believe that much of Freud’s theorising is based on paper-thin evidence and amounts to little, but he does make a very powerful argument for the internalisation of cultural norms. He shows us that our psyche is an internalisation of our world; thus middle-class families beget middle –class children both in terms of status and in terms of outlook. So I now know why so many apparently intelligent people cannot see what is so plain and obvious.
At this point I have more knowledge but I still have no idea how the Co-operative Commonwealth can be brought into being. Although Marx tells me it will, he does not say how. Everything then falls into disarray. I read Michel Foucault. In The History of Sexuality Volume 1 and in Discipline and Punish, Foucault not only shows the relationship between power and knowledge, but also theorises power in what seems for me a completely novel way. For Foucault, power is not a ‘given’, unchanging entity to be won or lost, but a constant ebb and flow of knowledge and social interactions. He also shows how power can be exercised in absentia through his brilliant analysis of panopticism. Reading Foucault is one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life. I suddenly really see the world as it is. This, however, would not have been the case without the books that had gone before. I now am more convinced than ever that the Co-operative Commonwealth will come to pass, that the world will become a greener and more loving place, but it won’t come through a great revolution as in the meta-narratives of Marxism, but through constant vigilance and innumerable small victories, as we, slowly but surely, change the world. At last I know. We can make a difference.
So there you have it; a short, and rather poorly written, essay on the books that have changed my life.
Saturday 21 February 2009
What is interactivity?
Everyone talks about interactivity on the web, reckoning it to be just about the most important thing about a website; but what exactly is it, how important is it, and how do I get it?
The World Wide Web by its very nature has always been interactive in that it involves computers ‘talking’ to each other, but interactivity must mean more than that. Outside the cyber world, social scientists have always talked about interaction and interactivity; it is the basis of sociology, anthropology, economics and many other disciplines. In the real world, interactivity is simply the process of people interacting with one another; human interaction. This meaning seems to be more and more becoming the meaning of interactivity on the internet. People use instant messaging services and chat rooms to interact in real time either in or across cyberspace, and are increasingly using web pages in similar ways.
The basic level of interactivity on a web page that differentiates websites from static media such as books and magazines is the email link. You click the link and, hey presto, your email client opens with the address already in and all you have to do is type your message, click your mouse and you have sent a message to the website owner. That, however, seems very basic. The next step from that, and possibly the most common form of interactivity on websites is the email form. You fill in all the fields and click send, and an email has been sent to the website owner without the need to open your email client. For most users this is little different to the previous method, but it is more inclusive. Anyone using a computer can send a message even if away from their own computer and thus their email program. I recognise that this is less of s step forward than it seems as many people use online email programs such as yahoo mail and hotmail. I suppose all of these things are interactive but only in terms of being given the capacity to send someone an electronic letter.
The concept of interactivity in the media began in the1980s with interactive books. By making choices at specific points the reader determined the course of the story, and this concept has been developed and is the basis of many modern console and PC games. The human being is no longer a passive recipient of the messages from the artefact but plays an active part in shaping those messages. The thinking behind this aspect of interactivity is the reason why modern computers for home and small business use are all built to an open architecture (i.e. the owner of the computer can install whatever programs she likes, and customise the computer as she sees fit). In terms of electronic goods this is unique. Try to imagine an open architecture DVD player or radio; it isn’t possible. Many of the things we refer to as interactivity are just that; the capacity to actively interact with the machine. Using the dark arts of advanced web technologies, webmasters create a space where we can run through simulations of specific activities with choices at different points (just as in video games), and this can provide a very rewarding and active user experience.
In other words there is the idea of human-machine interaction.
The other key element is human-human interaction through the computer by leveraging the power of the World Wide Web. This is evidenced by the development of Web 2.0; a world of machines constantly talking to each other on our behalf as we conduct debates and discussions the social networking sites.
I am still not sure what interactivity means, but it all seems very worthwhile, and I am sure it helps with my online shopping. I know it is studied academically, and I know that it is a buzzword in the world of web developers, but as a social scientist that designs websites, I can’t help thinking that interactivity is the capacity of some websites to allow people, in the very broadest sense, to do stuff, rather than just read and look at the pictures.
The World Wide Web by its very nature has always been interactive in that it involves computers ‘talking’ to each other, but interactivity must mean more than that. Outside the cyber world, social scientists have always talked about interaction and interactivity; it is the basis of sociology, anthropology, economics and many other disciplines. In the real world, interactivity is simply the process of people interacting with one another; human interaction. This meaning seems to be more and more becoming the meaning of interactivity on the internet. People use instant messaging services and chat rooms to interact in real time either in or across cyberspace, and are increasingly using web pages in similar ways.
The basic level of interactivity on a web page that differentiates websites from static media such as books and magazines is the email link. You click the link and, hey presto, your email client opens with the address already in and all you have to do is type your message, click your mouse and you have sent a message to the website owner. That, however, seems very basic. The next step from that, and possibly the most common form of interactivity on websites is the email form. You fill in all the fields and click send, and an email has been sent to the website owner without the need to open your email client. For most users this is little different to the previous method, but it is more inclusive. Anyone using a computer can send a message even if away from their own computer and thus their email program. I recognise that this is less of s step forward than it seems as many people use online email programs such as yahoo mail and hotmail. I suppose all of these things are interactive but only in terms of being given the capacity to send someone an electronic letter.
The concept of interactivity in the media began in the1980s with interactive books. By making choices at specific points the reader determined the course of the story, and this concept has been developed and is the basis of many modern console and PC games. The human being is no longer a passive recipient of the messages from the artefact but plays an active part in shaping those messages. The thinking behind this aspect of interactivity is the reason why modern computers for home and small business use are all built to an open architecture (i.e. the owner of the computer can install whatever programs she likes, and customise the computer as she sees fit). In terms of electronic goods this is unique. Try to imagine an open architecture DVD player or radio; it isn’t possible. Many of the things we refer to as interactivity are just that; the capacity to actively interact with the machine. Using the dark arts of advanced web technologies, webmasters create a space where we can run through simulations of specific activities with choices at different points (just as in video games), and this can provide a very rewarding and active user experience.
In other words there is the idea of human-machine interaction.
The other key element is human-human interaction through the computer by leveraging the power of the World Wide Web. This is evidenced by the development of Web 2.0; a world of machines constantly talking to each other on our behalf as we conduct debates and discussions the social networking sites.
I am still not sure what interactivity means, but it all seems very worthwhile, and I am sure it helps with my online shopping. I know it is studied academically, and I know that it is a buzzword in the world of web developers, but as a social scientist that designs websites, I can’t help thinking that interactivity is the capacity of some websites to allow people, in the very broadest sense, to do stuff, rather than just read and look at the pictures.
Web 2.0: an idea not a look
As a web designer I have often been asked to produce something Web 2.0. It is at this point that I start to get depressed. Web 2.0 seems to have become a mantra for modernity on the web for those who have little understanding of the inexact arts of web development. Do I at this point begin to discuss SOAP, HTTP requests and the finer points of web services? Not if I want the contract I don’t. It is at this point that I have to fish for what the client actually means. Nine times out of ten he or she (usually he – female clients tend to be much more to the point) then tells me about such and such a website with rounded corners and that special sort of blue colour, and can he have one that looks a bit like that.
This brings us to the crux of the matter. Hot air in copious quantities has been said and written about Web 2.0, and most of it is at best confusing. As one delves into the bowels of the internet to try and grasp the elusive meaning of Web 2.0, it all becomes terribly confusing. Some suggest that a concept it has no meaning at all, as it employs exactly the same technology as Web 1.0. However, the general consensus would seem to be that Web 2.0 refers to the rapid growth of web services and the explosion of many-to-many publishing sites.
It would appear that there are two distinct elements to Web 2.0. Firstly, we witnessed the widespread development of interactive technologies such as blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, and web services, fuelled by enhanced hardware both in terms of higher spec computers for the end user and the rapid development of broadband. This in turn led to an increasing propensity for computers to ‘talk’ to each other in ever more sophisticated ways. For business this has meant an increasing capacity to share data with relative ease and for individuals the exponential growth of online social networking. The reality of Web 2.0 is probably that it is an idea rather than a tangible set of technologies we can point to. It is the idea of a more interactive internet. If Web 1.0 can be seen as analogous to a magazine or a brochure, then Web 2.0 is better seen as a conversation or a workplace.
Somehow, in all this, some people appear to think that Web 2.0 has a specific ‘look’, and that perception seems to revolve around the idea of rounded corners, even though sites such as MySpace and Facebook tend to have a decidedly rectangular look. The growth of rounded corners is less to do with Web 2.0, and much more to do with the transition from table-based websites to CSS styling, allowing web designers greater overall freedom including the capacity to provide small background images for elements of their sites; creating rounded corners. And then of course there is Web 3.0.
This brings us to the crux of the matter. Hot air in copious quantities has been said and written about Web 2.0, and most of it is at best confusing. As one delves into the bowels of the internet to try and grasp the elusive meaning of Web 2.0, it all becomes terribly confusing. Some suggest that a concept it has no meaning at all, as it employs exactly the same technology as Web 1.0. However, the general consensus would seem to be that Web 2.0 refers to the rapid growth of web services and the explosion of many-to-many publishing sites.
It would appear that there are two distinct elements to Web 2.0. Firstly, we witnessed the widespread development of interactive technologies such as blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, and web services, fuelled by enhanced hardware both in terms of higher spec computers for the end user and the rapid development of broadband. This in turn led to an increasing propensity for computers to ‘talk’ to each other in ever more sophisticated ways. For business this has meant an increasing capacity to share data with relative ease and for individuals the exponential growth of online social networking. The reality of Web 2.0 is probably that it is an idea rather than a tangible set of technologies we can point to. It is the idea of a more interactive internet. If Web 1.0 can be seen as analogous to a magazine or a brochure, then Web 2.0 is better seen as a conversation or a workplace.
Somehow, in all this, some people appear to think that Web 2.0 has a specific ‘look’, and that perception seems to revolve around the idea of rounded corners, even though sites such as MySpace and Facebook tend to have a decidedly rectangular look. The growth of rounded corners is less to do with Web 2.0, and much more to do with the transition from table-based websites to CSS styling, allowing web designers greater overall freedom including the capacity to provide small background images for elements of their sites; creating rounded corners. And then of course there is Web 3.0.
Web Design – the benefits of simplicity
As the internet has grown to become a mega-network of millions of computers across the whole world, the world wide web of internet sites has grown with it. There are web sites for every conceivable interest, in a multitude of styles. At the most basic level all websites are trying to achieve the same thing. Whether the site is a family blog, the shop-front of an online retailer, or a social networking site such as Facebook or MySpace, they are all attempting to tell the viewer what the author wants to say. To use the obvious analogy, they are all trying to sell something; either goods and services or ideas and thoughts.
The look of any website will depend on what it is trying to ‘sell’. A website selling building materials to the construction industry needs a very different appearance to a political blog or a site promoting a rock band. They do, however, share one thing. They have to get the message across. There are situations where getting that message across means that the website needs to be at the cutting edge with a complex interplay of sounds and graphics, but in the vast majority of cases simplicity is the watchword. However much the temptation is to produce sites with beautiful Flash intros and rollover images, we need to remember that the web is in essence a text-based medium, and that content is everything. However cleverly we try to get the message across is of no avail if there is no message. I am not advocating a world wide web of vanilla sites that look like poorly formatted word documents, but suggesting that web sites should be simple and easy to navigate; with clear content that actually says what the author wants it to say. Here are some simple rules:
- All content to be in text; i.e. none of the content should be graphical; the graphics are there to embellish the look of the site not impart information.
The navigation should be text-based. Using CSS means we can produce highly attractive and stylish navigation without the need for images. - The structure of the page should be clear and conventions such as underlining for hyperlinks should not be overridden unless it is obvious to the user without explanation.
- The site should use an appropriate colour palette avoiding any shimmering effects that could be detrimental to some users, such as those with photo-sensitive epilepsy.
- The typography of the page should pay due account to what fonts users will tend to have on their computers, so stick font families that are part of the default font sets for Windows, Mac and Linux. Also ensure that the font colour is readable against the background for people with colour blindness.
These are important for several reasons. Any graphical text will not be recognised by screen readers thus excluding some users of the site. Limiting the graphics on a page decreases its bandwidth and thus the loading time. This reduces the possibility of users with slower browsers getting frustrated and leaving your site before you have had the opportunity to give them your message. Most importantly, a simple, well laid-out site gives the user a comfortable browsing experience, increasing the possibility of a return visit. Following these rules enhances your capacity to get your message across. I am not suggesting that websites should be entirely devoid of graphical content. There is a place for the judicious use of CSS to provide background images to elements of the page, and photographs and other graphics can form an integral part of the content of a page. The key issue is that although graphics can enhance the experience, the key element of a website is the text.
Qualitative Research
Although it is well understood in academic circles, a large number of clients (and even a number of commercial social researchers) I have worked with have only a tenuous grasp on the concept of qualitative data collection and analysis. As far as data collection is concerned, most clients are fairly happy with the idea of in-depth interviews or focus groups, for example, yet when it comes to the analysis, they have a tendency to ask for the figures. It is at this point that I have to explain that there are no figures; the analysis is qualitative. This can often lead a lot of head scratching and furrowed brows, and comments such as “Well, it’s just hearsay”, or “How does that tell us anything?” So, what is the point of qualitative analysis, and what can it tell us?
Firstly, what it can’t tell us is how much, how many, who or when; that is statistical data derived from quantitative data collection and analysis, such as surveys and audits. What qualitative data tell us is why, how and what the particular research object means to the respondent. The most powerful use of qualitative methods on commercial social research is either alongside quantitative techniques, or when the statistical evidence is already known. If the quantitative data represents the skeleton of an answer to the research questions, qualitative data gives it flesh. Once we have established with the client that the figures come from a different source and the focus group or the interviews are about the meaning of the research object, the next question is “How do you know they were telling the truth, or if they have made a mistake?” That is the biggest question of all and the answer is “I don’t”. Without exclusive access into the head of another person it is impossible to know if they are telling the truth. More prosaically, they may be telling the truth as they see it but be mistaken. This leads clients to then question the value of qualitative research, feeling that there is no ‘scientific’ element to it. But they are wrong.
Qualitative research can be as rigorous as quantitative research. Take the example of in-depth interviews. The researcher uses a basic script or aide-memoire to ensure that all the pertinent tissues are discussed with the respondent, but the respondent is allowed to ‘ramble’ to a limited extent as he or she may then introduce other pertinent issues that the researcher had not thought of. These issues then enter the script and are used when interviewing the next respondent. This tends to ensure that all issues are dealt with in the data collection. The analysis of the data begins immediately upon completion of the first interview. The researcher develops a series of themes and perspectives that can be best thought of as mini-theories about the issues being researched. After each interview he or she reviews and amends those themes and perspectives, and possibly adds new ones. At some point during the process, it becomes clear that now new ideas are coming from the interviews. This is the signal to the researcher that all the issues have been explored and the interview process can end. He or she then goes back through the collected data and his or her themes and perspectives and comes up with the final analysis.
Back to the issue of truth. Max Weber (1863 to 1920) basically stated that unless we know that someone is lying we must assume that they are telling the truth, and in some ways all social research depends upon that commonsense idea. In a more refined way, it would be nonsensical to believe that 20 or 30 people would all tell the same set of lies to the researcher. In our own practice we do however, part from Weber on this issue to some extent. From experience we can tell if we have a rogue respondent, as they will project a series of answers and ideas that are completely at odds with those of the other respondents. This can actually create something of an ethical dilemma in some cases. If, for example, the respondents are workers within a specific project, it could alert us to the fact that one individual is at odds with the team. We cannot report this to the client as it would be a breach of confidentiality, but we need to report in a generic way that there may be an issue, using phrases such as ‘a small minority of respondents felt that..”
To sum up, qualitative research is valid and useful in its own right or as part of a mixed methods approach with quantitative research, as it gives us insights into the meanings of specific objects or activities, but it is the job of quantitative research to come up with the numbers.
Firstly, what it can’t tell us is how much, how many, who or when; that is statistical data derived from quantitative data collection and analysis, such as surveys and audits. What qualitative data tell us is why, how and what the particular research object means to the respondent. The most powerful use of qualitative methods on commercial social research is either alongside quantitative techniques, or when the statistical evidence is already known. If the quantitative data represents the skeleton of an answer to the research questions, qualitative data gives it flesh. Once we have established with the client that the figures come from a different source and the focus group or the interviews are about the meaning of the research object, the next question is “How do you know they were telling the truth, or if they have made a mistake?” That is the biggest question of all and the answer is “I don’t”. Without exclusive access into the head of another person it is impossible to know if they are telling the truth. More prosaically, they may be telling the truth as they see it but be mistaken. This leads clients to then question the value of qualitative research, feeling that there is no ‘scientific’ element to it. But they are wrong.
Qualitative research can be as rigorous as quantitative research. Take the example of in-depth interviews. The researcher uses a basic script or aide-memoire to ensure that all the pertinent tissues are discussed with the respondent, but the respondent is allowed to ‘ramble’ to a limited extent as he or she may then introduce other pertinent issues that the researcher had not thought of. These issues then enter the script and are used when interviewing the next respondent. This tends to ensure that all issues are dealt with in the data collection. The analysis of the data begins immediately upon completion of the first interview. The researcher develops a series of themes and perspectives that can be best thought of as mini-theories about the issues being researched. After each interview he or she reviews and amends those themes and perspectives, and possibly adds new ones. At some point during the process, it becomes clear that now new ideas are coming from the interviews. This is the signal to the researcher that all the issues have been explored and the interview process can end. He or she then goes back through the collected data and his or her themes and perspectives and comes up with the final analysis.
Back to the issue of truth. Max Weber (1863 to 1920) basically stated that unless we know that someone is lying we must assume that they are telling the truth, and in some ways all social research depends upon that commonsense idea. In a more refined way, it would be nonsensical to believe that 20 or 30 people would all tell the same set of lies to the researcher. In our own practice we do however, part from Weber on this issue to some extent. From experience we can tell if we have a rogue respondent, as they will project a series of answers and ideas that are completely at odds with those of the other respondents. This can actually create something of an ethical dilemma in some cases. If, for example, the respondents are workers within a specific project, it could alert us to the fact that one individual is at odds with the team. We cannot report this to the client as it would be a breach of confidentiality, but we need to report in a generic way that there may be an issue, using phrases such as ‘a small minority of respondents felt that..”
To sum up, qualitative research is valid and useful in its own right or as part of a mixed methods approach with quantitative research, as it gives us insights into the meanings of specific objects or activities, but it is the job of quantitative research to come up with the numbers.
Community Development and a Community Development approach to Service Provision
Community development has been seen as emphasizing self-help, mutual support, the building up of neighbourhood integration, the development of neighbourhood capacities for problem-solving and self-representation, and the promotion of collective action to bring a community's preferences to the attention of political decision-makers. However, community development and community development work are concepts that can be hard to narrowly define. However, community development is probably best seen as …an occupation (both paid and unpaid) which aims to build active and influential communities based on justice, equality and mutual respect (Community Development Exchange (CDX))
CDX go on to make clear the purposes of community development work and what it means in practice. Community development work is done in ways which challenge oppression and tackle inequalities. It involves changing the relationships between ordinary people and people in positions of power, so that everyone can take part in the issues that affect their lives.
Community development work involves working with communities to; identify their strengths, needs, rights and responsibilities, plan, organise and take action, and assess the effect of any actions taken. It also involves working with agencies to increase their capacity to understand and work with communities.
Terms such as ‘community development’, ‘community capacity building’ and ‘community involvement’ are similar in the sense that they can all refer to processes of helping community members develop skills and confidence so that they can have more influence on the issues that affect their lives. However, terms such as 'community involvement', 'community participation' and 'community engagement' usually refer to attempts to encourage communities to get involved in the work of an outside agency or organisation. This type of work is more likely to start with the needs or targets of the agency, rather than the needs of the community. Community development is different to other community-related work because it involves a commitment to; starting with the issues which people in communities identify as being important to them, rather than starting with the issues that an outside agency wants to tackle, helping people understand why the issues they want to tackle have come about, and why some groups have more power or resources than others, and working towards changes which reduce inequality and poverty.
Taking a community development approach requires being committed to; collective working (working together towards common goals, forming networks and making connections to help people collaborate and come together in groups), equality and justice (challenging discrimination and working alongside those who are powerless, and raising awareness about inequality and how things can be changed) learning and reflecting (recognising that everyone has skills and knowledge, and learning from mistakes as well as successes), participation (helping individuals to get involved and sharing power throughout communities, and increasing people’s influence over decisions which affect their lives), political awareness (raising awareness of communities’ concerns, and linking local concerns to the bigger picture), and sustainability (working with and investing in the capacity of people and groups so that change lasts, and using environmental resources responsibly).
At a practical level we have involved ourselves in community development in the course of our evaluation work, primarily by involving local people in the data collection and data analysis process.
CDX go on to make clear the purposes of community development work and what it means in practice. Community development work is done in ways which challenge oppression and tackle inequalities. It involves changing the relationships between ordinary people and people in positions of power, so that everyone can take part in the issues that affect their lives.
Community development work involves working with communities to; identify their strengths, needs, rights and responsibilities, plan, organise and take action, and assess the effect of any actions taken. It also involves working with agencies to increase their capacity to understand and work with communities.
Terms such as ‘community development’, ‘community capacity building’ and ‘community involvement’ are similar in the sense that they can all refer to processes of helping community members develop skills and confidence so that they can have more influence on the issues that affect their lives. However, terms such as 'community involvement', 'community participation' and 'community engagement' usually refer to attempts to encourage communities to get involved in the work of an outside agency or organisation. This type of work is more likely to start with the needs or targets of the agency, rather than the needs of the community. Community development is different to other community-related work because it involves a commitment to; starting with the issues which people in communities identify as being important to them, rather than starting with the issues that an outside agency wants to tackle, helping people understand why the issues they want to tackle have come about, and why some groups have more power or resources than others, and working towards changes which reduce inequality and poverty.
Taking a community development approach requires being committed to; collective working (working together towards common goals, forming networks and making connections to help people collaborate and come together in groups), equality and justice (challenging discrimination and working alongside those who are powerless, and raising awareness about inequality and how things can be changed) learning and reflecting (recognising that everyone has skills and knowledge, and learning from mistakes as well as successes), participation (helping individuals to get involved and sharing power throughout communities, and increasing people’s influence over decisions which affect their lives), political awareness (raising awareness of communities’ concerns, and linking local concerns to the bigger picture), and sustainability (working with and investing in the capacity of people and groups so that change lasts, and using environmental resources responsibly).
At a practical level we have involved ourselves in community development in the course of our evaluation work, primarily by involving local people in the data collection and data analysis process.
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