Russell Davies

dawdlr ticks over

I just updated Dawdlr. I've realised how happy it makes me that there's this lovely little job to do every six months until the end of time. W have a small but perfect selection, nicely stretching time out. Someone writes from before Christmas, hoping they've got a new job by May. And someone writes from Chicago, hoping they're pregnant. There are thoughts about moving long distances, and about lunch. That's what we're doing, more generally. I hope everyone got their wish.

I guess this update represents about minute 5 at the origins of twitter, so if I wanted to accurately replicate a slowed-down twitter experience I could take about 10 years off now. But I'm enjoying the pointlessness too much so we'll be back, regular as clockwork, on November 21st.

the point of pointless

I was delighted to discover a review of dawdlr today lamenting that it couldn't see the point of it. Brilliant. If something's been dismissed as pointless it's probably destined for success, but a certain degree of pointlessness saves you from being stalked by the monetisation monsters.

I've been thinking about the joys of pointlessness ever since it occurred to us, while building the instorematic, that one of the things we need to do is strike the right balance between pointful and pointless.  It could just spit a postcard out of the printer straight into a tray, but that would be so prosaic as to be pointless. And we could build a track that carried the postcard all the way round the shop and up and down Carnaby Street, whistling Max Boyce songs, but that would be, well, too pointless.

There's a balance to be struck, somewhere between captivating and irritating. Let's hope we get it right.

(While we were debating the optimum level of pointlessness Matt also pointed out we were following some distinguished predecessors. It seems some beauty and some play add up to a lot of point.)

dawdlr - a twitter for the long now II

Dawdlr has just updated for the first time. (What's dawdlr?) I think it's worked rather well. People have sent excellent things. Some florid, some restrained, some silly, some thoughtful. It's like twitter; people are making up 'what it's for' on their own. And, of course, even though there's been six months to get one in some people are late.

I wasn't quite sure whether to scan both sides of the postcards but mostly I did, unless there was really nothing on the other side.  The only problem thus far is tumblr only lets you do fifteen posts per page, which means the first update stretches over a couple of pages. Apart from that I like the way it looks.

I wonder what'll happen now. Is this lot just a first novelty flurry or is this somehow interesting or useful? We shall see.

Next update May 21st. At this rate we'll be out of beta by 2312.

dawdlr - a twitter for the long now

Inspired by this, this, this, this, this and of course this, I thought it was time we had a really slow twitter. Something less rushed and immediate but still brilliantly rich and daft. So I've set up dawdlr.com. (I say 'set-up', I've registered a domain name, created a tumblr blog, rented a mailbox and written this post, and that's it. But you know.)

I've tried to make dawdlr way slower than twitter. I reckon most people I know twitter about twice a day, so dawdlr is going to update twice a year. To try and get people to say what they're doing, you know, more generally.

To submit a dawdl send a postcard to this address:

dawdlr
77 Beak Street
London
W1F 9DB

I'll scan them in and upload and update them every 6 months. Regular as clockwork. I'm curious to see if something that slow can be 'viral' or will it just dwindle to nothing as everyone forgets last time around. Or if it's not an immediate enough call to action to get people to participate, or if actually getting a postcard and writing on it is too much work. Or whether, maybe, it'll all work and be rather nice.

Dawdlr is a tiny community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing, you know, more generally? Answers on a postcard please.