Digital Hat (now called This Is On)

I am producer and post-doc researcher for This Is On – a new app and website being developed by albow (previously called Digital Hat) – the same company who helped make the framework that theatrebristol.net and theatredevon.net run on. The new app and website, This Is On, is setting out to revolutionise how people discover, share, and exchange value around live events online, this time for a uk-wide audience.

Albow have been awarded a Digital R&D Fund for the Arts grant (supported by NESTA, AHRC and Arts Council England) for a year’s worth of research and development into building a new kind of events listings network (alongside several partner organisations, including UWE, Calvium, Isotoma, and Sam Machin). The project is based at the Pervasive Media Studio, and they are now starting to look for people to come on board as one of 200 exclusive beta testers – having first-look access for 3 months following the first burst of development.

This Is On will provide a listings community for the social age – the app will show you what’s on and allow you to tell others what’s on based on the people, producers, venues, artists and organisations you choose to follow. There is also a ‘buzz’ section, which will allow you to find more outside your immediate followers, all in a social network of curators, reviewers, events-goers, enthusiasts, producers, artists like you. Building on albow’s experience of setting up a series of local events sites this new site allows you to put together your own personal events feed (as well as being able to search by location, date, time, price). It also attempts to open up a place of exchange – rather than just posting or discovering events users will also be able to donate time, money, and attention (reviews, comments, maybe even photos) to events and producers, and list and respond to jobs and opportunities.

See albow.com for more.