Last Friday we were joined by Hannah Nicklin and Seth Honnor who came to talk to us about the latest developments of Digital Hat; a project focussing on using pervasive technologies to revolutionise the concept of value exchange surrounding live events.

Digital Hat

This talk was a kind of follow up to a talk that happened 18 months ago, at the very beginnings of Digital Hat as a concept. Since then, the project has changed considerably, though the motives behind it have always stayed the same. Both Hannah and Seth come from performance and production backgrounds. Hannah has a PhD in Theatre and Digital Technology, and has held many different roles in the theatre world, including playwrite, performer, academic and producer. Her recent work concerns pervasive and digitally influenced theatre. Seth also has many strings to his bow; he is an artist, performer, award winning web designer and theatre producer. He was Director of Theatre Bristol for six years and is currently director of Kaleider and online performance network, Albow.

A year and a half ago, Hannah and Seth set out to explore ways in which people could adequately collect value (money and data) in non-standard locations, or a non-linear context, whilst still enabling the gifter to feel in control of that value. They came up with an idea to use pervasive technologies to enable someone to physically tip money or information (e.g an email address or feedback) from one mobile device into another, as if putting money into a busker’s hat – hence the name of the project. One and a half years down the line, and the project has been through a lot of big changes, including a change of name. Hannah and Seth’s project is now called “This Is On”.

This Is On

This Is On takes the concept of Digital Hat and the strengths of a listings website/application like Theatre Bristol and essentially leans them together to radically change how people interact with live events online. Hannah and Seth are working as part of Albow, in their research and development of this idea. They received support from the Digital R & D Fund, and are working alongside Sam Machin, the DCRC and Calvium among others. The project is currently based solely on the web, but Albow are planning to build a This Is On app, so that information can easily be navigated wherever you are, and you can find out what events are happening round the corner with a geo-locative “Near Me Now” function.

The site will have a simple and clean aesthetic, so that users can easily navigate their way through events, and so that they can also easily post their own. When first accessing the site, you will be asked to create a Digital Hat profile, which allows you to give or receive value after/during others’/your own events. In order to create this profile, you are asked for your bank details in order that your profile would be linked to a Direct Debit arrangement. This unusual pay system means that when paying or donating, you have seven days to pull back from a payment. If you skip setting up a Digital Hat profile, the site will allow you to see events, but not to interact with them. The site will operate similarly to Twitter in that you can follow people who interest you and also unfollow them, curating your own listing experience, as well as searching for events outside of your follow list, and filtering results. One function of ‘This Is On’ will be to allow you to search according to the ‘Buzz’ generated. The site/app will translate the amount of attention an event is getting into ‘Buzz’, letting you know what your community is up to and what events are generating the most activity. You will be able to see three different Buzzes on your profile; My Buzz; activity surrounding your own events, Follow Buzz; activity surrounding everyone you follow, and Big Buzz; the most activity across everything listed.


Money, Love and Attention

Seth and Hannah strongly believe that value shouldn’t be viewed purely in a financial context. They want This Is On to be a platform for encouraging human systems of exchange, where people have real agency and are able to choose what, and how much they give, which will fall into the categories of ‘money, love and attention’. This Is On will not only allow you to donate money, but also words (in the form of critical feedback, praise or an email address for a mailing list for example) and time (suggestions for which are given by the receiver, e.g. an hour of set painting or putting up posters). Hannah and Seth want This Is On to prompt the question: ‘why care?’ or ‘why donate?’; they want to cultivate human peer-to-peer relationships and discussions. Seth’s experience working for Theatre Bristol and the Albow network has taught him the importance of community, and of supporting peer networks with grassroots listing experiences, that anyone can add to and share. Seth highlighted the importance of sharing information surrounding live events with different online communities, by allowing people to embed relevant, filtered streams of information from a listings site like This Is On onto other sites.

Hannah gave us an insight into the academic research taking place side by side the This Is On project, by highlighting findings from a DCRC report on ‘Cultural Value Networks’ based on research conducted in the Studio:

‘Once we abandon the idea that there is just ‘the’ economy of money, we can apply economic thinking to other patterns of valuing. Cultural organisations that are not (only) businesses are creating value in economies other than money. By keeping ‘money at the margins’ it is possible to expand the space available for these other patterns to thrive and also to create money downstream in the ‘conventional’ economy’.  
Cultural Value Networks Report, written by Bachmann, Dovey, Monaco & Sharpe.

In terms of monetary donations to the site, Hannah spoke about how smart interaction design can encourage a people to really consider how much something is worth to them. For example donation sliders set at 10p per uploaded event would need to be physically dragged down to zero in order to avoid the small donation, causing people to consciously think before they act. Hannah flagged up a good example of the use of clever donation sliders: Humblebundle, where you can choose what you want to pay for a bundle of games, and customise what percentage of your donation goes to charity, the games designers and Humblebundle itself in order to keep it working.


What Would Humans Do?

Seth told us that in order to focus on developing this project in the right way, he continually asks himself ‘What would humans do?’ This Is On’s sole function is to focus on the needs of its users, not to be disrupted by hidden algorithm recommendations as so many of these sites are. When computers carry out hidden tasks for us (such as recommendations) it can create a strange cultural dislocation, the simple and intuitive nature of the site will lie in its human agency. Hannah and Seth are very aware that there should be no listing hierarchy. Big organisations should be balanced with small in the buzz section, by measuring percentages of activity and feedback, rather than sheer numbers. Seth mentioned that big organisations tend to be the last people to join these sorts of community-focused networks, so right from the start the site will be community driven.

The best way to get a user generated system to work is to give as much as possible back to contributors. Hannah and Seth want to give people all the tools they need in order to have an event- focussed lifestyle, and to connect with vibrant communities. People who put on events will be able to easily promote and receive feedback and donations, and people who are looking for events to attend will be able to curate the information they receive by following and anonymously unfollowing other users. The site will not privilege a certain kind of usage, and will be as supportive as it can be, allowing users to explore, promote, discuss, give and receive – allowing for connectivity and activity in communities.