Cx3: Fry's Planet Word

Fry's Planet Word - The inimitable Stephen Fry provides expert curation on language and the written word across the world that has driven communication. If you have not already seen it, I do recommend you take the time to watch.

The series provides fascinating insight into the evolutionary (and revolutionary) characterisation of language and the essential development of the written word that supports interaction, engagement and technology. Without it, we would not be where we are today.

In last night's programme, "Stephen discovers the earliest writing - cuneiform - at the British Museum, and learns how our alphabet came from the Phoenicians. As part of his exploration of the diversity of scripts, Stephen visits 106-year-old Mr Zhou, the inventor of the Chinese phonetic writing system called Pinyin, who relates how literacy increased four-fold after its introduction under Mao.

After the written word came the printed word, and Stephen looks at how this has shaped our relationship with writing, giving us libraries, dictionaries and encyclopaedias. From the Bodleian to Diderot's favourite café to the cutting-edge research at MIT, Stephen explores how the written word evolved into printing, then libraries, encyclopaedias and computer code. Blogging and twittering is just the tip of a brave new future which no one dares predict."

There are echoes of Steve Jobs' passionate story about taking calligraphy classes upon dropping out of college, which retrospectively turned out to be a 'connecting dot', introducing multiple typefaces and proportionately spaced fonts to the Apple Mac.

Stephen Fry has carved his niche as an expert wordsmith and an influential voice on Twitter. He curates the programme with a down-to-earth raw passion that cannot help but draw you in. Watch Stephen Fry's Planet Word on BBC iPlayer.

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Cx3: Why follow a Twitter celebrity?

Why not!

Twitter is reaching its populist celebrity-craved audiences now and not just the techy purists. Twitter has different priorities for different people whether business oriented, marketing focused, or pure entertainment, however, there is room for all - an intelligent quip from Stephen Fry or the latest gossip from Phillip Schofield helps the day go by.

Gordon Macmillan seems to be getting a little worked up on the subject with his blog post Why would you follow a Celebrity on Twitter. I say relax and accept Twitter, 'il est arrivé' - as I've said previously, celebrity Twittering is the new Heat magazine.

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Cx3 blog entry: Twitter, Stephen Fry and halibut

Cx3: Twitter, Stephen Fry and halibut

Twits, Tweets and Twitterati are infectiously spreading at epidemic paces. Yet, the diarrhoeic verbal that Twitter generates is completely aligned to today’s disposable and celebrity-driven society.

Famous celebrity Twitterers/Tweeters such as Stephen Fry and Andy Murray have been pinpointed as advocates of Twitter. Stephen Fry ranted on Twitter today:

“Papers are asking me to write articles on Twitter. I've declined. Twittermania will calm down I hope. Forgive multiple tweets, but…I just know, although I don't read papers, that the "arentcha just sick of Twitter?" "Who cares what Fry ate?" articles will begin…Even though the only people talking about Twitter are the papers, the rest of us are just quietly doing it. It'll calm down though…and we'll be able to get on with it without all this nonsense. Rant over. XX”

Do I want Stephen Fry to tell me “I had halibut for lunch. I'll tweet you my dinner menu in a hour”? Well, why not! It is no different from a candid celebrity picture appearing in Heat magazine with the exception it is coming from the celebrity themselves rather than chasing paparazzi or a hungry journalist.

The day will probably come when a celebrity will try to go to court for invasion of privacy – but hey guys, check your privacy permissions.

Stephen Fry’s dinner menu came through an hour later: “The Ivy Club offered splendid squid followed by smoked haddock. Having a fish n seafood splurge at the moment. Quick dinner, home to bed x.”

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