I’m A Dedicated Follower Of Fashion
Posted by Brian Kelly on 16 Mar 2007
Around Christmas time, I think it was, I was talking to my colleague Paul Walk (in The Star, probably Bath’s finest pub) about ways in which we can communicate effectively complex ideas. We discussed the JISC e-Framework strategy in the context of the animated cartoon which seeks to explain the Service Oriented Approach (Feb 2007).
We then discussed aspects of Web 2.0 – and suddenly the Kinks’ song “Dedicated Follower Of Fashion” came to mind. How do you explain the concept of social networks and services which become better as the numbers of users grows? “Dedicated Follower Of Fashion” sums that up nicely, I thought.
However last week I noticed that on the programme for the UCISA Management Conference that Gill Ferrell, JISC infoNet, is giving a talk with the title “Are you a Dedicated Follower of Fashion? (Designing technology rich learning spaces for the future). Damm, beaten in coining of this analogy, I initially thought. But no, on reflection I realised that now I really am a dedicated follower of fashion (oh yes I am!), whereas Gill is clearly the leader of the gang (she is).
Now what other songs can help communicate aspects of Web 2.0? “I am the eggman they are the eggmen I am the walrus Goo goo g’ joob” struck me as providing an interesting biological mashup, with perhaps some character encoding problems at the end. But I’m sure you can do better than this!
UK Web Focus (Brian Kelly) 
Ian Watson said
Brian
In your talk at the AUKML conference in Edinburgh last September I’m sure you slipped in the Monkees’ ‘we’re the young generation and we’ve got something to say’, without missing a beat!
Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) said
Hi Ian – Now you mention it, I think I did. And this was a line which just came to me; I hadn’t scripted it :-) I’ll have to use that again as a description of the .net generation who want to create their own content.
Tim Beadle said
Hi Brian,
Enlightened old-media firms might think “It’s the end of the world as we know it, but I feel fine” ;)
James Brown said
Hey Brian,
I’m going to suggest Lorenz Hart, Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered!
Also, straight from pedant’s corner…
“ways in which we can communicate effectively complex ideas” ->
“ways in which we can effectively communicate complex ideas,” surely?
Cheers!
James
Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) said
I’ve just noticed that Owen Stephens is blogging again this year at the UCISA 2007 Management Conference and he has commented on the talk on “Are you a Dedicated Follower of Fashion? (Designing technology rich learning spaces for the future)”:
When I saw the programme, this was one of the talks that caught my eye, so I’m hoping it lives up to expectations.
Unfortunately it would appear that the battery on Owens laptop died shortly afterwards, so Owen will have to transcribe his paper notes later (I hope the ink in his pen doesn’t run out!)
It was interesting that the title (and, I assume, the abstract) could his eye. I, too, thought the title was great.
paul walk’s weblog » Blog Archive » Punk Tagging said
[…] and I have pushed the ‘music-genre-as-analogy-for-what-we-do’ a fair bit (Brian even blogged about being a Dedicated Follower of Fashion getting cited in the Wikipedia entry for this song title in the […]
Hey, Hey, We’re … In The Charts Again! « UK Web Focus said
[…] title of this talk, incidentally, I used after Ian Watson reminded me in March that I’d used this song title as a metaphor for young people providing […]