I am not sure I am using Tales of Things as intended. Certainly I got it wrong the first time when I got confused about a RFID number. I now realise this is optional, the unique ID turns up later as a 2D barcode. My friend Gary sent me a PDf of his fridge lighting so then i realised it was possible and persevered. Also one of the first things loaded was BBC Broadcasting House. Or really that is to say a photograph of Broadcasting House taken some time ago, as is the case with all still photographs. So I loaded several photos of places in Lancaster following a trip there a couple of weeks ago.

I had intended to set up some meetings based on Gowalla, a location site for social media. In Exeter the tweets from the City Centre Manager since #likeminds have alerted me to how Gowalla could work even though my phone is too out of date to register geo positioning. On the Lancaster campus I found three Gowalla locations, MJR Web in the Info21 building, the Management School and Pizzetta Republic. The sort of script I have in mind for a workshop starts with some technology vision, considers critique from academics, and connects with a wider public space. So these three sites could work as a set. However as it turned out MJR Web were busy though there could be a meeting through email another time. And one of the meetings happened in the middle of Lancaster the city.

So what I have done is to add photos of locations on campus and in the city. Search talesofthings.com on "Lancaster". Not much there as on April 25th so mine can be found.

So the set of photos make up a sort of map or could be arranged as such. There is some confusion as a university campus is no longer close to the city. Art galleries can take on the role of critique. Associated views include a reluctance to accept mass production. The website prints an A4 sheet with a 2D barcode for each object, in this case a photo of a place.

I will be interested in how this might work. I am thinking about other localities such as Earl's Court. The London Book Fair filled the whole ground floor except the part of EC2 where Total Print Expo happened a couple of years ago. I speculate about Total Print alongside the Book Fair, near the Digital zone with the sony Reader etc. The idea of places as remembered barcodes helps to mix up times. One realirty is that the 2009 Total Print Expo was cancelled and that IPEX is not till May. However, the ePUB, XML, cloud publishing etc. from the Digital Zone represents a challenge the print industry could respond to. Imagining a Total Print in April 2010 has some sort of point. Also if it happened as part of the Book Fair there would be access to the Cromwell Room. The worst thing about the London College of Communication Futures Conference was walking round to the front of the Earls Court 1 just to get a lift and then walk most of the way back again.

Next week there is Internet World and also InfoSecurity. I wonder if it will be possible to move between them? Earls Court is such a confusing place that a set of barcodes to shuffle may be easier to handle. Two interesting ones will be the stand for Brand Republic and the keynote the Keynote Theatre where Meg Pickard will explain how the Guardian is making media social. through Printweek I usually get the view that Haymarket still has a focus on hard copy. The print journalists in the Guardian sometimes raise issues about bloggers. But Earls Court seems to be a place to assess the timescale if anything changes.