My wife and I decided that we'd attend BrickCon this year -- it's been one convention that has been running a long time, that we have not attended yet. From what I understand, next year will be it's 13th years. We have heard from friends that it's one of the nicest cons to go to, but honestly, each con we've been to has it's own different flavor, and I really think it depends on what you like in a con (ie. size, quality/quantity of MOCs, venue, city traffic, local food, etc.). Each having it's own pros and cons... to make a really bad pun.
We didn't bring a MOC with us; we were planning to take in a little bit of the sites/city since we've never been to Seattle before. We also wanted to enjoy a con without the hassle of trying to ship a MOC across country. And we also wanted to get to know some new people and make new friends. All of which we got an opportunity to do.
The creations themselves were impressive, although I've seen a few of them on-line before. And from what I overheard, a few had been at BrickCon in years past -- no matter, we hadn't seen them in person before & they're still impressive. My favorite was Rivendell and the castle area; which was front stage as you walked in & rightly so. Being a castle guy, it made me proud. The only problem with the area, it was hard to find time to look at the details of Rivendell, because there were constantly film crews hovering around it -- before and after the public. Here's my quick video... It looks a little strange... I don't know if it's video from the iPhone or if YouTube processed it funkily:
What I found surprising/interesting about the con, was the lack of large 9v train displays. Rivendell has as much details in it as a large 9v train display would have in the Mid-West, the difference is, large train displays are the product of a LUG with many members, Rivendell from what I understand was a creation by 2 people.
All-in-all, I've enjoyed the con and really enjoyed the keynote speakers. I'm hoping a video will be posted of both speakers soon. I've been waiting for fan reaction to the changes LEGO has implemented this year -- to which I'm a little surprised there hasn't been more public outrage at cons -- but Hillel Cooperman did a wonderful job of summing up my feelings... a little bit to Kevin Hinkle's dismay.
Showing posts with label lego community. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lego community. Show all posts
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
228 Web-Sites Added
I have added about 228 web-sites to BrickBuildr -- look for them under the 'sites' menu on the web-site. I feel this is still the tip of the iceberg in terms of the on-line LEGO Community. This list doesn't include Facebook fan sites and Twitter accounts (which I don't feel inclined to add those at the moment, maybe as additional links down the road), or related Flickr groups... I'm trying to build the web-site/Flickr group relationship in the database -- this will take some time to accomplish.
The biggest challenge to creating a list of web-sites, is how to display information in a useful and easy to access... On one hand, I know our group's GFLUG 'brand' is a nightmare of web-sites where our club disseminates information -- we have information on Twitter, a Facebook fan of GFLUG page, a public/private Facebook groups, a public/private Yahoo Groups, on our main web-site, etc. With some of those web-site have more up-to-date information than others... Now multiply this by about by 50 LEGO clubs world-wide...
On one hand, I like some of the tools social media gives you... but on the other hand, it's made getting information out a chore -- multiple sign-ins, different user interfaces, no fine-grain control on how information is shared between sites, no concept of public/private information within groups...
AN ASIDE: If you haven't seen it, check out the web-site Swooshable. It maps LUGs, LTC, LEGO Events, location of LEGO Stores and theme parks onto a interactive Google map. It's a great resource of information... just needs a little updating.
Thinking down the road, this information is very dynamic; it's constantly changing. A web-site here today is gone tomorrow... Groups change names and directions... Funding and hosting costs are factors... Lost of interest in the hobby... Blogs change hands from Wordpress to Blogger... Thinking about an interface, information needs to be easily updated without too much hassle. "Brands" are no longer one web-site, but a whole string of URLs... calendars, event schedule, photos, discussions both public/private, sharing of documents & layouts... Then thinking about information from another perspective, once a new LEGO product is released, or somebody builds an interesting MOC, it's blasted across 20-30 blogs and personal fan web-site... And getting this information from one web-site to another means more data entry -- this no common language for sharing/exchanging these types of complex data relationships with other web-sites...
I'm over simplifying this, but a few years ago at Brickworld, there was a workshop, asking AFOLs what they think the biggest problems facing the LEGO Community; there was talks of fragmentation, lack of a central source for information... From what I gathered afterwards, people wanted a AFOL version of Facebook, thinking this would help. I thought it was naive.. the real issues is this lack of a common language for sharing multi-dimensional ideas related to our hobby -- be it information about our MOCs (where you can find pictures of it, textual inspiration, where it can be seen/shown, etc.), to LUGs (pictures at events, where our discussion go on, information about us, etc.), to news affecting our community.
...to be continued...
The biggest challenge to creating a list of web-sites, is how to display information in a useful and easy to access... On one hand, I know our group's GFLUG 'brand' is a nightmare of web-sites where our club disseminates information -- we have information on Twitter, a Facebook fan of GFLUG page, a public/private Facebook groups, a public/private Yahoo Groups, on our main web-site, etc. With some of those web-site have more up-to-date information than others... Now multiply this by about by 50 LEGO clubs world-wide...
On one hand, I like some of the tools social media gives you... but on the other hand, it's made getting information out a chore -- multiple sign-ins, different user interfaces, no fine-grain control on how information is shared between sites, no concept of public/private information within groups...
AN ASIDE: If you haven't seen it, check out the web-site Swooshable. It maps LUGs, LTC, LEGO Events, location of LEGO Stores and theme parks onto a interactive Google map. It's a great resource of information... just needs a little updating.
Thinking down the road, this information is very dynamic; it's constantly changing. A web-site here today is gone tomorrow... Groups change names and directions... Funding and hosting costs are factors... Lost of interest in the hobby... Blogs change hands from Wordpress to Blogger... Thinking about an interface, information needs to be easily updated without too much hassle. "Brands" are no longer one web-site, but a whole string of URLs... calendars, event schedule, photos, discussions both public/private, sharing of documents & layouts... Then thinking about information from another perspective, once a new LEGO product is released, or somebody builds an interesting MOC, it's blasted across 20-30 blogs and personal fan web-site... And getting this information from one web-site to another means more data entry -- this no common language for sharing/exchanging these types of complex data relationships with other web-sites...
I'm over simplifying this, but a few years ago at Brickworld, there was a workshop, asking AFOLs what they think the biggest problems facing the LEGO Community; there was talks of fragmentation, lack of a central source for information... From what I gathered afterwards, people wanted a AFOL version of Facebook, thinking this would help. I thought it was naive.. the real issues is this lack of a common language for sharing multi-dimensional ideas related to our hobby -- be it information about our MOCs (where you can find pictures of it, textual inspiration, where it can be seen/shown, etc.), to LUGs (pictures at events, where our discussion go on, information about us, etc.), to news affecting our community.
...to be continued...
Monday, May 7, 2012
More Updates
One of my ideas for BrickBuildr is to (down the road) better integrate the web-site with Flickr, Facebook, Google+, and Open ID. I honestly don't want to store any passwords on BrickBuildr; so you'd simply log into one of the partner services, and if BrickBuildr is an authorized web-site, you'll be redirected back as being logged in, with access to your information... Since most of the 'accounts' on BrickBuildr originate from Flickr, Flickr integration is easy enough to do; so as of last Friday, if you sign into the web-site via Flickr (instead of using the 'join' button), you can by-pass reCaptcha...
You'll also noticed on the web-site that I removed the list of 'friends' web-site from the left hand side, and I added a drop down item called 'sites' -- all of that information have been moved there. In it's place, I've added a few images with links to web-sites I enjoy and a few up-coming LEGO (US) conventions.
There are a large number of LEGO fan sites. If you read through my On-Line LEGO Community presentation, you see I only touch the tip of the iceberg. The decision to move the list of web-site it's partly spurred by my desire to expand upon that list. And somehow figure out a way to organize the list... and somehow pull out/highlight some of those web-sites in a better fashion. For right now, the list is crude -- just the web-site name and URL. But that should change over the next few weeks.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
The 5th Edition of the Great Game in Review 0937
I don't understand Portuguese, but thanks to Google's help, I see the 5th Edition of the Great Game in Review 0937 has been released.
To quote:
Organizers of the latest edition of the Great Game 0937 Community created a PDF with more information about this issue. A place you can only find information such as: the winners of a given proof, see the images of the MOC, check the differences in race, etc..
You can download two versions:
High resolution (70mb): http://rapidshare.com/files/272196642/5E GJ_0937.pdf
Low resolution (4.5 mb): http://rapidshare.com/files/272196644/5E GJ_0937_web.pdf
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Hispabrick Magazine #005
Hispabrick Magazine #005 is out... if you can read en español. :)
Just a quick glance... lots of tasty Star Wars goodness in this issue. Also an article on Ldraw, Mindstorms, Jan Beyer, Emerald Night, and an interview with Mark Kelso... and lots more.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
My Presentation On the On-line LEGO Community
If you want to download/view a copy of the presentation I gave at Brickworld, you can find it here.
When I came up with the idea to talk about the On-Line LEGO Community, I meant for it to be a round table discussion... it didn't work out that way. So at the last minute, I threw together a slide presentation on my Mac. I meant for it to be an introduction to the on-line community to newbies; to (1) introduce them to some web-sites they may have never heard of before; (2) give them some tools for keeping up with the on-line community; (3) expose them to the diverse nature we call the LEGO community.
But at the same time, for those of us who have been in the community for awhile, I wanted to (1) address some of the problems we're having as a fragmented community; (2) look at emerging technologies that might help overcome fragmentation; (3) think about the future and how to "play well" together; (4) steps in preserving our on-line past; and (5) ask ourselves how much involvement should TLG play in the development/preservation of the fan of LEGO community.
Needless to say, there's a lot of topics to cover & I didn't cover them nearly as deeply as I would have liked. And after about 45 minutes of standing in-front of people, talking, I needed a drink & started loosing steam.
At first, I just had a rough outline and really didn't think I had much to say, but the more I thought about the LEGO community, certain ideas started to emerge. And I also thought that I wasn't best qualified person to do it, but to be honest, I've been fascinated with the LEGO fan community for some time now -- the creativity, the personalities, the drama, and the fragmentation.
Anyway, as I think more on the subject, I'll update the presentation, hopefully with more details. I've already have a few more ideas that I want to add to it, but still trying to figure out where/when in the presentation they should go.
Oh, by the way, I'll post my thoughts on Brickworld in the next day or so... been meaning to do that as well.
Update: Just added more slides with more details... It's staring to shape up into a nice document.
When I came up with the idea to talk about the On-Line LEGO Community, I meant for it to be a round table discussion... it didn't work out that way. So at the last minute, I threw together a slide presentation on my Mac. I meant for it to be an introduction to the on-line community to newbies; to (1) introduce them to some web-sites they may have never heard of before; (2) give them some tools for keeping up with the on-line community; (3) expose them to the diverse nature we call the LEGO community.
But at the same time, for those of us who have been in the community for awhile, I wanted to (1) address some of the problems we're having as a fragmented community; (2) look at emerging technologies that might help overcome fragmentation; (3) think about the future and how to "play well" together; (4) steps in preserving our on-line past; and (5) ask ourselves how much involvement should TLG play in the development/preservation of the fan of LEGO community.
Needless to say, there's a lot of topics to cover & I didn't cover them nearly as deeply as I would have liked. And after about 45 minutes of standing in-front of people, talking, I needed a drink & started loosing steam.
At first, I just had a rough outline and really didn't think I had much to say, but the more I thought about the LEGO community, certain ideas started to emerge. And I also thought that I wasn't best qualified person to do it, but to be honest, I've been fascinated with the LEGO fan community for some time now -- the creativity, the personalities, the drama, and the fragmentation.
Anyway, as I think more on the subject, I'll update the presentation, hopefully with more details. I've already have a few more ideas that I want to add to it, but still trying to figure out where/when in the presentation they should go.
Oh, by the way, I'll post my thoughts on Brickworld in the next day or so... been meaning to do that as well.
Update: Just added more slides with more details... It's staring to shape up into a nice document.
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