In years past, Philip Minchin has single-handedly organized and managed IGD’s Global Gossip Game. Here is a message from the man himself regarding this year’s event:
By now it’s probably obvious (or you could say it’s no… Secret) [groan] that the Global Gossip Game isn’t going to happen this year.
I am sorry (and saddened myself) – it’s just been a relentless year. New family demands, the inflexibility of full-time working hours (even for a particularly flexible and awesome employer), long commutes every day, putting our home on the market, AND health problems have meant that I just wasn’t able to make it happen.
The good news is that I do plan to be around for the 10-year milestone next year, and bigger and better than ever. The GGG is too silly and lovely not to run again. Especially if we can finally line up… certain exceptionally awesome libraries that have tried to participate in the past but not always been able to make the scheduling work.
The even better news is that I plan to make this possible by creating tools that anyone can use to run Global Gossip Games, or any other kind of similar multi-location sequential event they like. A lot of the organising I’ve had to do has been the kind of tedious clerical work that computers were made for – and while I’ve managed to automate a lot of it, there’s been a lot more I didn’t have the skills to code.
To make these tools happen, therefore, I may be running a small crowdfunding campaign – keep an eye out after IGD is over and, if you’ve enjoyed the GGG in the past and/or hope to play it again, throw in whatever you can, whether a few bucks, a bit of a signal boost, or something else.
(Alternatively, if you know a coding and/or design hotshot who would be interested in helping make a quirky tool for the sake of something random, ridiculous, and beautiful, please put us in touch!)
So there’s bad news this year, but (hopefully) good and better news for next year… and, oh yes, some AWESOME news for THIS year about what I have managed to organise instead. But that’s so exciting it needs a post of its own… coming soon!