FestBuzz is a new way to find cool stuff at the Edinburgh Festivals. It’s a project from Affect Labs, a data processing company based in Edinburgh, and we’re supported by Channel 4’s 4iP fund.
The point? Word-of-mouth’s always been what the Festivals run on. Want to find something cool? Ask the bloke next to you in the queue. Ask a ticket seller. Ask a flyerer. Ask… anyone, really!
With the increasing amount of inconsequential online chat, especially on Twitter, we figured that this year’s Festivals are going to be tweet-tastic. That is to say, 140-character messages about everything — shows, events, people, places, gigs, comedy, exhibitions, you name it — will be flying back and forth like there’s no tomorrow.
What a waste.
We’ve decided to capture some of that chatter and feed it back into the community. By telling you what people are saying about events, as well as using our unique sentiment classification engine to assign a star rating to a show based on the tweets about it, we can help preserve some of the meaning of this new digital word-of-mouth.
Plus, I’ll never have to spend a tenner on a show I absolutely hate ever again. I hope.
Data partnerships
We’d be fools to hang on to our data when there’s so much cool stuff you could do with it. We’re opening up our API to data partners, but the catch is, you have to get in touch with us to request access and talk about pricing. Go on. It won’t hurt.
Feedback
We’d love to hear your feedback on the site, the idea, the Festivals, your favourite smoothies; whatever. Drop us a line or give us a ring (0131 668 6906), or you can always, well, tweet us. Hell, if you’re passing by Appleton Tower at any point (it’s the big ugly tower with the luminous ‘Fringe Performers Centre’ sign outside), come up and say hi!
