Ben Werdmuller joins festivalslab team as geek-in-residence

We’re delighted to announce that Ben Werdmuller will be joining the team as the festivals’ geek-in-residence.  This is an exciting and experimental new role in which Ben will work with and across the festival set to spot and develop project opportunities and bring his expertise and experience to explore what it is to be a festival in the 21st century. 

If you don’t know Ben already, here is a little bit more about him.  Ben is a web strategy consultant and open source entrepreneur. He co-founded Elgg, an open source social networking platform whose users include the World Bank, Greenpeace and Great Ormond Street Hospital, among other places. More recently, he has been the tech lead for Latakoo, an online news startup, and has covered the Edinburgh Film and Book Festivals for the arts community Central Station. He blogs regularly at http://benwerd.com and can be found on Twitter as @benwerd.  Why not follow him and say hello?

And if text just doesn’t do it for you anymore, here is a little interview Ben did just earlier today:

http://boos.audioboo.fm/swf/fullsize_player.swf

As part of his role, Ben will also be contributing to the blog, sharing his thoughts and experience of our activities as they unfold.  And importantly – giving his opinions on how other cultural organisations can take an approach like this.

And thank you to everyone who applied for this role – it really was a terrific response and we’re so grateful and appreciative for your interest.

[And in case you're wondering the image is of Ben making his contribution towards the recent life.turns project hosted by blipfoto which was part of the Edinburgh Art Festival.  Thank you to Marcus Povey for sharing his image via flickr Creative Commons]

Do you want to be our first geek-in-residence?

As mentioned last week, we are now looking for a so-called geek-in-residence to play an important part in the first year of the Lab and the application process for this role is now live.

Full details are available here and online applications will be accepted until Monday August 16th.

Thank you to katsommers for sharing your images via flickr Creative Commons

Geek-in-Residence: register your interest

The Geek-in-Residence is a playful term for an exciting new role as part of the Lab.  The geek will work with the festivals to identify innovation opportunities, build networks and develop projects.  It will be a part-time fixed-term contract and will suit a highly-networked individual with extensive and broad digital expertise and an interest in the creative industries and festivals in particular.  

You can find more details here and register your interest by emailing geek@festivalsedinburgh.com – and the full details/job description/application process will be live very soon 

[thanks to jez' for sharing her images via flickr creative commons]