Well, then you’ll love our new word quiz: VOCABILITY - a word challenge game with a difference!
Test just good your vocabulary is – and how many words you know compared to your friends – in our new, never-ending word quiz. Challenge your buddies and the rest of the world – and test your vocability!
Good luck.
http://www.wordia.com/Games/biggest-vocabulary/question
A very happy new year from the Wordia Team
It’s been a fair few weeks since our last blog posting here at Wordia towers, as like most tech or video content start-ups, we’re been absolutely snowed with work – importantly, pushing forward on a few different fronts!
We’re now super busy developing Wordia Schools: a dedicated Wordia schools environment that works within school online safety filter and is private for security purposes…
But as a small team, it’s not easy pushing forward on a few levels. For starters, two development environments near-doubles the team’s work-load – from both a technical and content production perspective. We’re making these changes as we can see the potential in a collaborative, ‘learning by doing’ audio-visual schools dictionary – and it looks like some of you do too!
Over the last few months we’ve created a Pilot group of passionate literacy and ‘ICT in the classroom’ educators – individuals and schools excited about the potential of what Wordia Schools could become – folk, keen to help steer our direction in education. It’s this shared belief and opportunity that adds to the excitement – and challenge (and keeps us going!).
If you hadn’t spotted it, we theme our Word of the Day videos by weekly topic, so this week we’ve taken a playful and light-hearted approach to the Christmas period, filming with some fantastic comedians and entertainers exploring Crimbo-language, from Danny Robins, to Tiernan Douieb, to McNeil and Pamphilon.
The mighty McNeil and Pamphilon:
http://www.wordia.com/wotd/2009/12/14
We’re always on the look out for partners for our themed weeks (we develop and produce 52 themed weeks per year!), so if you have an suggestion or an idea for a week, then we’d love to hear from you! Please drop us a line at: production@wordia.com
Oh and if you missed it, one of our favourite recent themed weeks was in partnership with the British Library, when we explored the language of entrepreneurship with some of the Dragon’s from BBC’s Dragon’s Den!
Doug Richard:
http://www.wordia.com/wotd/2009/11/18
Enjoy!
Wordia team
Next week we’re trying something a little different over here at Wordia headquarters. We’re partnering with leading literature website, East of the Web on an exciting online project that explores the connections between words through story and video.
We’re looking for very short flash fiction stories, no longer than 500 words, that incorporate the following seven words:
REFUSE
CASE
LIGHT
WOUND
FAST
ROW
NOTE
Each short story should centre on ONE of these words – e.g. if you choose ‘note’, the story might be about a note that is written by one of the characters.
But as an extra, intriguing twist, ALL SIX of the other words should be used in some form, somewhere in rest of the text – e.g. the story about the note must also include the words: refuse, case, light, wound, fast and row, in some form (i.e. refused or fasting are acceptable).
Your submission can be any genre or style – in fact, we’re looking for interesting uses of the words!
Successful pieces will be featured at East of the Web and Wordia. The Wordia team have asked seven leading authors to debate and explore the meaning of one of these words, published as Word of the Day over ‘Flash Fiction Week’!
Wordia is about shared perspectives of language, so why not explore and add your own take on what one of these words means? We looking forward to seeing the results (and perspectives!)
Today, I’m very proud to say that we’ve reached our first birthday!
As you might well know/remember, Wordia was launched this time last year from Dr. Johnson’s house, in the City of London.
Today it’s not only Wordia’s first birthday, it’s Dr. Johnson’s tercentenary! 300 years to the day that the pre-eminent English scholar was born (1709!). Birthday celebrations all round! [popping of corks!]
It was a crazy few months getting Wordia built, creating seed video content and getting the project out the door, ready to deliver to coincide with Doctor J’s big day. To be honest, we could have done with a few more months to test and perfect things – but when is anything perfect (as a tech start-up)?! We worked long days and even longer nights in the run up to launch, and I am happy to say on reflection, our efforts then – and over the last 365 days – have been worth it.
We’ve broken new ground, creating something that hasn’t been done before. Yes, there are many online textual dictionaries, but none to date use an audio-visual entertainment mechanic to engage and entertain – and our latest, top-secret project – to educate!
That’s right, we’re working on a dedicated schools version of Wordia, that gets around the problem of YouTube not passing schools safety filters. Video brings the dictionary to life and in educational sense, makes literacy more engaging – more palatable to a young audience than a standard online textual dictionary.
If you’ve like to find out more about our Wordia Schools pilot (joining other literacy educators we have on board, to create something of real educational merit!) then we’d be delighted to hear from you and tell you more about the pilot and programme! Drop us a note here, and we’ll get back to you quick sharpish:
schools@wordia.com
This week’s theme is, would-you-have-guessed-it, Dr. Johnson Week! We’ve been scouring the Internet for Dr. Johnson experts, logophiles and word-lovers and have the pick of the bunch: 7x Johnson experts exploring words associated with the great man.
Test your knowledge! What’s the connection with Dr. Johnson and the following word?
‘Scrofula’ Not so sure? Well click here
Fresh from defining ‘five’ for us last week, Danny Robins is our guest blogger for today. He discusses the most important ‘five’ of all to an Edinburgh performer – those crucial stars at the top of a review.
And this year, he’s dishing them out as well as taking them.
Poacher Turned Gamekeeper
For a comedian, the Edinburgh Fringe is like one of those relationships you have where, even though you know you’re going to get hurt, you somehow find yourselves always ending up back in bed together. Year after year, we head up there with dreams of winning awards and landing big money TV deals; some do, a lot don’t, but still the buzz of this strange and unique experience – like a holiday camp for stand ups – draws us all back.
This year, I’m poacher turned gamekeeper. Instead of performing, I’ll be watching shows for Radio 4’s Saturday Review. It makes me feel slightly uncomfortable telling other comedians that I will be there as (whisper it) ‘ a critic’. It’s tantamount to confessing I slept with their wife or defecated on their collection of Bill Hicks DVDs.
Comedians and critics may be co-dependent but we will never get on. A few years ago I took part in a Comedians vs Critics football match. All the critics knew who we were but we had no idea who they were. In the second half when people started making connections – “their centre forward is the bloke from the Evening Post who gave me two stars” – the tackles went in a lot harder.
It always feels a bit weird going up to the festival if I’m not doing a show. Edinburgh is to comics what Ibiza is to DJs; anyone who is anyone is there and if you’re not gigging, you feel like you’re missing out. That’s where the Ibiza analogy ends; the weather is always awful.
I think one of the most interesting things this year will be seeing how the Fringe rides out the recession. With more and more people opting for ’staycations’, it may be that a trip to Scotland’s hilly rain-soaked capital offers an interesting and affordable alternative to the annual break in Tuscany or Provence. Who needs sun and red wine when you can have street performance and deep-fried pizzas?
This could be the year that the Fringe reclaims its ‘DIY’ status. When I first performed there as a student in 1997, in a tiny sweaty attic room so hot that men in the front row actually took off their shirts and sat there bare-chested, we were completely unheard of but people came and watched. We were probably quite awful, but for only a few quid a ticket, they weren’t afraid to take a risk.
In recent years though, with ticket prices hitting £15, audiences tend to be more wary about who they give their money to, relying on bigger name comics who they’ve seen on the telly and often missing out on some of the rougher diamonds and undiscovered gems who can’t afford to splash out on billboards and adverts on buses. Last summer however, the Free Fringe, organised by legendary Edinburgh Festival veteran Peter Buckley Hill, started to attract both punters and performers and 2009 sees the debut of the ‘Five Pound Fringe’ where every show at the venues involved will cost – you guessed it – a fiver.
There are some decent acts doing these cheap shows, perhaps because comedians themselves are starting to feel the pinch. Putting on a show at one of the big established venues can cost as much as a deposit on a small house once you’ve paid for publicity costs, venue hire, accommodation and of course beer money, and some Edinburgh stalwarts are now opting to do shorter runs at smaller venues and pass on the savings to their audience. This can only be a good thing. This summer, go and see one or two big names at fifteen quid a pop and then take in 6 other shows for the same cost. Of course I get in free anyway – I’m a reviewer; I just need to get over the self loathing first.
What do strawberries & cream, queuing and a bit of sunburn all epitomise? That’s right, it’s that fantastic time of year again when the world’s elite descend on Wimbledon for a fortnight of doing battle on the green courts!
Game, set and match to the Wordia team who have working with the LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) to get ‘British Tennis Week’ up and running as our next campaign!
We have been filming down at the LTA’s very impressive, very modern training grounds over the last few weeks to meet and greet some of the existing and rising stars of UK tennis. We have also endured the blistering heat of the Wimbledon queue to get some very enthusiastic fans to give us their views on the words for ‘British Tennis Week’.
We have braved sunburn and dehydration, but it is all worth it in the name of Wordia, and next week’s campaign is set to be as scorching as the sun has been over the Wimbledon skies.
So starting Monday 29th June we will have some great names from UK tennis up on the site giving us their unique views and ideas on some inspirational words, and how these words are applicable to them in their everyday life.
So it is all systems go here at the Wordia office as we are checking & re-checking everything in preparation for the launch of refugee week! Don’t forget that you can come and join us with the Celebrating Sanctuary festival on London’s southbank this Sunday. We are going to be down there with the other 22 thousand people enjoying the sunshine, and getting some of the great members of the public to come and define some words for us, so come along and get yourself on Wordia.com
We have some great talent lined up for this weeks Word of The Days, so don’t’ forget to log in on Sunday to check it out and to see the new layouts and additions to the website!
We’ve been really busy over the last few months here at Wordia HQ, heads-deep in code and production rushes, working on some exciting new developments. In that time, you’ve emailed us in your dozens, kindly giving us feedback on the current Beta site – what you like and what you hate – and we’ve responded!
Firstly, a big technical development; we’ve changed the way we produce and publish our word of the day videos. We’re now ‘theme-ing’ our Word of the Day videos, creating a week of related words by topic. This allows us to create themed content around public events (‘Christmas Week’ for example, with words relating to the festive period).
We’re kicking things off with an exciting partnership with Refugee Week, starting June 14th – a week of words, raising awareness of refugees in conjunction with a fantastic media partner (stay tuned!).
What better way to start this week long activity, than by filming at the Celebrating Sanctuary event on London’s Southbank (22K people!). If you want to come down and have some fun, support a great charity – and even meet the Wordia team and define a word of your own – then check out http://www.refugeeweek.org.uk for all the details. See you there.
On a different note, we’re still busy filming great Word of the Day content (you have subscribed, right…?); Wednesday was a real treat as we got the chance to catch up with world music legend Baaba Maal, http://www.baabamaal.tv. The Senegalese super star took us on a journey around his favourite London record store before hitting the stage to play out songs from his latest album, much to delight of the crowd.
Friday saw us whipping up a storm with the Irish indie boys, The Blizzards. We were treated to some good old-fashioned rock & roll as Niall from the band serenaded us with his melodic tones and explained his thoughts on ‘Reverie’ (coming soon!).
Saving the best ’til last we’ve just met and filmed comedy genius and living legend, Mr Andrew Sachs for Refugee Week (Andrew’s father moved to the UK from Occupied Nazi Germany). Andrew had some a truly unique perspective of the word ‘Home’.
Don’t forget to check out Andrew, Baaba and much much more from Sunday 14th June as part of our Refugee Week activity.
If you have any thoughts, comments or suggestion for us, please drop us a note to:
Looking forward to hearing from you.
The Wordia team
It’s been a lively start to the spring at Wordia. The comedy contributions rumble on apace with definitions from a pair of funny Simons – Life of Si, offal-obsessed Diane Morgan, Kettering’s own James Acaster and some familiar-feeling faces from top impressionist Jess Robinson (her from the Head Cases & Dead Ringers).
Sexpert Tracey Cox got our temperatures rising with her definitions. Our red-blooded, two man crew struggled to maintain their professionalism when visiting her stunning West-London pad to film the interview. She offered to let us film in the bedroom, but that was more responsibility than we were prepared to take, so we stayed put in her living room.
We were treated to a culinary treat by Antonio Carluccio, who invited us to his Covent Garden restaurant, where he rustled up an amazing zabaglione, and treated us to a glass of his finest champagne while defining some gastronomic terms for us. More of this please. We’re checking on Heston’s availability for our next course!
We met post-punkers The Rakes, ahead of their new tour. We’re big fans of these skinny rockers, so a flooded venue didn’t manage to scupper our interview, and we were relegated to the car park for their on-camera English lesson.
Our producer’s pile of free books is growing by the day. Recent interviews with Marcel Theroux, Chris Manby, Olivia Darling, Karen Maitland and Kasey Edwards mean that his commute is suddenly overrun with choices of literature. Sadly, Tracey Cox never gave him any of her titles.
Wordia continues to grow, and our power people are preparing pitches for various exciting online delights. We’ll keep you posted on these, but in the meantime, as ever…
…keep it Wordia.
Here at Wordia HQ it’s been a hectic start to the month, caused mainly by mother nature covering us in a blanket of snow, and forcing us to down our linguistic tools for a few days . Ever since, we’ve been making up for lost time, out filming all over the place.
The snow had an impact on our Words of the Day too, with Marcel Lucont and Nick Doody both doing snowman-related definitions. They are just two of the many comedians who’ve been keen to get involved with us. Katherine Ryan delighted us all with her (non-filthy) definition of spunk (see it here http://www.wordia.com/wotd/2009/2/9). There’s more to come from her over the next few weeks. Pappy’s Fun Club were a delight, and squeezed us in for a few sketches before they headed off on their ridiculously extensive tour. Comedian’s comedian and Eddie Izzard’s replacement-in-waiting Gerry Howell will help us to feel the love with his definition on Valentine’s Day.
It’s not all frivolous though. Property developer and presenter Kristian Digby gave us all a moment for thought with his great and personal definition of Dyslexia. He’s dyslexic himself and had a genuinely refreshing insight into dealing with the condition. When we were filming him, it came as no surprise to us that his pad was unbelievably plush – a Beverley Hills crib in the middle of East London.
The next week will keep us on our toes, and Wordia to a money expert, a hundred-metre sprinter, an author, a sexpert, a mercury-nominated jazz musician, four more comedians and another author. Keep an eye on our Words of the Day to see who they are.
We’re off to define “pub”.
As ever, keep it Wordia.
Tweets- wordia: @uaedtechbear - absolutely! We're building Wordia Schools, which doesn't use YouTube. I'd love to explain: sam@wordia.com February 5, 2010
- wordia: Stop working like a machine,get your machine to work for you whilst you sit back and enjoy Will Stopha defining robot http://bit.ly/aBVEW1 February 5, 2010
- wordia: Revolutionary Che Guevara once said "Silence is argument carried out by other means.” What does 'silence' mean to you? February 4, 2010
- wordia: Poet Dean Attta says "silence is not golden". Take look and listen to his poetic definition of 'silence' http://bit.ly/bKuME0 February 4, 2010
- wordia: @uaedtechbear hey uaedtechbear - thanks for checking out Wordia! We'd love to have a chat with you. Pls do drop us a line on sam@wordia.com February 3, 2010
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