As Cilla Black would say, “We’ve ‘ad a lorra lorra laughs”.

But as Winston Churchill would say (if this were circa 1941), “This is not the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning”.

Andrew Burnett

Andrew Burnett – aka Treadstone, aka The Traffic Warden, aka the CEO of SEO.

Andrew knows not only how to promote online content but also has a strong sense of what is promotable. On this basis he has turned down more clients than he has worked for. Fortunately for us he didn’t turn down Deirdre Bunting when, in her own inimitable, polite, charming, but ultimately persuasive, SIS-trained style, she recruited him for Spectre EdTwinge.

Was it the twinkle in his eye, his taste in hats or his ability to blend technology, presentation and content that turned her head? Who cares? We’re just glad that he was batting for us.

Blonde

Blonde creates and builds sexy digital stuff that helps people achieve their goals.

They designed and built the Edtwinge site.

More specifically Ricky Stevens designed it, and Fraser McCormick built it. Fraser was also responsible for the maths and the code behind the Karma engine.

Phil Adams had a laugh and arsed about.

Deirdre Bunting

Deirdre Bunting, Mrs (retired)

Deirdre’s age is not something she likes to discuss. Suffice to say she’s probably an octogenarian. During the war Deirdre was an integral part of the Enigma codebreaking team at Bletchley Park. She is still faster with her slide rule and logarithmic tables than a Quad Core processor.

Deirdre is the EdTwinge data queen and charlady. She is also an unflappable regal presence around the office. She is frequently unamused by the antics of the  whippersnappers in the team. And, yes, that does include you Mike.

Deirdre’s official biographer is Mr Chris Miller, the greatest drag-writer we’ve ever met.

Jim Wolff

Jim Wolff is a digital do-gooder and social-media whizzkid who also has a keen eye for content that people will want to talk about.

When we started our EdTwinge journey Jim was a lone Wolff, but he joined Leith as a ‘digi-planner’ en route.

He also became a father.

(Deirdre is still forlornly waiting for the invitation to become a doting Godmother).

Mike Coulter

Mike is an ideas man. He has more ideas in the average morning than most agencies have in a week.

Aggregating tweets around the Fringe was his idea.

Mike registered and launched DigitalAgency.com back in 1997. Clearly he was ridiculously ahead of his time and spent several frustrated years waiting for the rest of us to catch up.

Mike started the Edinburgh Social Media Coffee Morning (EdCM), and it was there that fate lent a hand when he found himself wedged into the corner of a Centotre booth next to our very own Deirdre Bunting. The rest, as they say, is Twistory.

Stripe

Stripe is a ’smart thinking, hard working, brand focused, strategic communications consultancy.’

And Vicki Fox is a smart thinking, hard working, brand focused, strategic communications consultant.

Vicki has ‘previous’ on brands like Yell, Nokia, Amazon and Microsoft and she used her nouse and contacts to get our story into all sorts of high profile spaces.

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So now the fringe is just about over we can reveal that secret sauce that’s kept the team running over the last 4 weeks:

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Well, those ghastly days of secrecy are long gone. I can now talk with gay abandon about my WWII code-breaking exploits until interviewers politely ask me to stop. Or, failing that, until they fall asleep on top of their microphones. (Apologies to John Humphrys for my indiscretion, there.)

The past is the past, though. Onwards and upwards. Tally-ho, and all that rot. These days, when I should be spending my time being offered piña coladas by accommodating young Barbadians in their Speedos, I’m crunching data and performing algorithmic alchemy in a cramped basement in Edinburgh. A basement, moreover, that smells of smoky bacon crisps and marijuana (Acapulco Gold, if I’m not mistaken).

Still, it’s been immense fun. Creating the edtwinge.com karma score has been every bit as rewarding as deciphering dastardly Nazi plans for world domination. Perhaps even more rewarding, if you take into account that my “rider” for this “gig” consisted of a crate of vintage sherry and a Stannah stairlift. Yes, there’s a subtle connection between those two items.

Anyway, my poppets, your great-aunt Deirdre has to sign off now. Some raw data is in need of cooking. Someone’s “bigging up” @bigcox so much, he’ll soon have to call himself @evenbiggercox.

I have been Bunting. You have been wonderful. Over and out.

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But actually presenting your act from a bog, now that deserves a standing ovation.

And that’s just what the Not/Not ensemble had planned for their performance of ‘Still Waiting for Godot’.

Just a couple of shakes from the Princes Street, the play was due to have a run until 31 August at the St James’ Public Toilets, Cathedral Lane. But apparently Samuel Beckett’s Estate raised a bit of a stink about the staging, so now they’ve moved to the more fragrant venue of C-Central on North Bridge.

Of course, as the Independent noted; toilets aren’t the only off-beat venues at the Fringe, canal boats, restaurants, hotels even medical schools are all providing unusual locations for acts.

What’s the best, worst, most creative, most awful venue you’ve been to?

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This appeal is just too cute for EdTwinge not to get whole-heartedly behind. If you can offer any help to the lovelorn lassie please do get in touch with her at her email address: lostcuteboy@hotmail.co.uk

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So we’ve taken some of the top comics on EdTwinge, and with some help from the clever folks over at Cursebird, compiled a Top 13 list, from the cleanest to to the pottiest-mouthed. Scores are calculated by  tracking the recent usage of profanities on Twitter, including f*ck, sh*t, b’stard, b*tch, c*nt, d*ck, tw*t, c*ck and b*llocks.

No 13. Tim Key

In spite of naming his show the mothercussing Slutcracker, Tim’s a bit a lame in the curse department. Swears like a primary school teacher. 21/100

No 12. Axis of Awesome

They may Australia’s most tolerated musical comedy trio, but they swear like kids TV presenters. 41/100

No 11. Pappy’s Fun Club

World record attemptors of 200 sketches in an hour. Swear like bad golf players. 53/100

No 10. Dan Antopolski

More cock than balls. Swears like a construction worker. 68/100

No 9. Andrew O’Neill

Occult comedian. Swears like a prisoner cell block H warden. 78/100

No 8. Chris Cox

Mind magician and top to the EdTwinge pops right now. Swears like a drunken sailor. 80/100

No 7. Mark Watson

Famous for 24 hour comedy epics that allegedly remain funny throughout. Swears like a rude bwoy. 90/100

No 6. Tim Minchin

Piano playing dandy. Swears like an Aussie Sheila. 94/100

No 5. Sarah Millican

Tough nut. Swears like a drill sergeant. 96/100

No 4. Richard Herring

Bloke spotted with a Hitler ‘tache. Swears like an enthusiastic porn star. 97/100

No 3. Janey Godley

Scottish WAG of the year, but that’s not saying much. Swears like that guy off of In The Loop. 98/100

No 2. Amanda Palmer

Her blog is titled Amanda Fucking Palmer. ‘Nuff said. 99/100

No 1. Tiernan Douieb

And at the top of the fuck parade, Tiernan curses his way to No.1. Well done. You fucker. 100/100

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The same issue was raised in rather more direct fashion when our mate Sal sent us the message below…

Sort your "Carr"ma out

“Noise” is the operative word when it comes to acts like Jimmy Carr. He has just shy of 200,000 followers who are (with some justification) hanging on his every word and waiting for the next opportunity to interact with him. That interaction generates an awful lot of noise. Set up a Twitter search for @jimmycarr and just watch those tweets come rolling in.

EdTwinge measures noise. But it has to be relevant noise. Noise that is relevant to the Fringe. Noise that gives an indication of “happeningness” around an act at the Fringe.

The easiest way to determine which noise is relevant is via hashtags such as #edfringe, #edtwinge and #festbuzz, amongst others. Provided people are using these appropriately they are a good indicator of relevant noise.

But not everyone uses hashtags and we want to be as comprehensive as possible in terms of monitoring and analysing everything that is being said about Fringe shows on Twitter. And, especially for established Twitter celebrities like Jimmy Carr, that is the crowdsourced review equivalent of skiing off-piste.

We have a comprehensive (but not entirely perfect) database of Fringe shows and performers that we can monitor mentions of.

We have also been manually establishing an ever growing database of “nicknames” that real people use to refer to the shows on Twitter.

And, yes, we can monitor mentions of performers’ @names.

For acts like Jimmy Carr, the latter approach affords both opportunities and problems. Many fans who are seeing him perform in Edinburgh will also be existing followers of his on Twitter. These people are more likely to refer to his show as @jimmycarr than Jimmy Carr or Rapier Wit – “Saw @jimmycarr at EICC last night. Brilliant!”

So if we actively monitor @jimmycarr we pretty much guarantee to pick up everything that his fans are saying about his Edinburgh shows. But we also guarantee to pick up everything and anything that his fans are saying about or to him, the vast majority of which has nothing to do with the Fringe. This means that we have to be cute about how we apply additional filters to maximise relevant noise and minimise the extraneous stuff. To this end we’ve been experimenting  with alternative approaches all through the Fringe – not just with Mr Carr it should be said.

Depending on how we have those filters set up we either open the floodgates to a deluge of (for our purposes) irrelevant crap, or we can over-zealously ‘prune’ an act’s mentions back to the ground. To be honest, the experimenting continues and we haven’t got it exactly right yet as Ms Salidatious so nicely points out. Indeed, at the moment, it is quite possible that Jimmy Carr is suffering from his Twitter celebrity rather than benefiting from it as far as EdTwinge is concerned.

We’re not going to divulge exactly how we’re currently filtering but suffice to say that our attitude to relevant noise is loosely related to the main currency for EdTwinge – namely Karma. Karma is a statistically robust measure of net positivity of sentiment that has been expressed about an act on Twitter.

For us Twingers (pronounced with a soft “g”) the learning we’re gaining from continually adjusting our filters is one of the main benefits of the whole exercise. EdTwinge is a non-commercial venture, but the engine behind it has undoubted commercial potential in the future and we need to get these things right.

We aim to be useful but do not claim to be perfect.

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TMI?

Every August the population of Edinburgh swells by who knows what percent as thousands of culture-seeking tourists flock to the various festivals.

Some year-round inhabitants complain about how long it takes to get anywhere through the crowds. Most of us love the added colour and buzz, and relish the fact that our beloved city is the centre of international attention.

But it isn’t just the audience numbers that mean you can’t get a table in a decent restaurant. It’s the cast of thousands that put in the hard hours to deliver the shows that we all want to see. That’s “cast” in the loosest possible sense – not just the performers, but the stage managers, the front of house bods, the lighting technicians, the chippies, the flyerers (a word that can only get widespread use in Edinburgh at this time of year), the list goes on.

From the outside looking in, the assumption is that, for the protagonists, August in Edinburgh is 31 days of working hard, playing harder, shared experiences, lifelong memories and bonding (interpret “bonding” any way you will).

But what is it really like?

Is it all glamour and camaraderie?

If you’ve been involved, in any capacity, it putting on a show or event at this year’s Fringe it would be great to hear about your experiences. What’s the funniest, grossest, weirdest thing that has happened or been said? Please share via the comments on this post.

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Sadly it was way past @deirdrebunting’s bedtime, but edtwinge’s; @phil_adams, @jimwolffman, @wiieb, @the_emecks, @flimgoblin and @mikecoulter where all there. And giving it laldy.

Sincere thanks to the hosts and organisers of the nights #twingeparty event held at the Appleton Tower: Festbuzz & Informatics Ventures, and to @MagnersUK for some damn fine pear Cider lube.

Photos here:

(We’ve named-checked/twitter-checked everyone we know who was there, see if you can find your self.)

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