Data Pub

Last month I outlined a strategy for running an ultra-local blog from a cafe. This went down pretty well and it looks like, touch wood, it’s going to realised in some form later this year. So with that moving nicely along I started thinking about pubs.

It occurred to me the other day that pubs contain a hell of a lot of data. By data I roughly mean information about a thing that can be transmitted, although it’s obviously a lot more complicated and nuanced that that. So what kind of data does a pub have?

• Commercial data. The beverages and food for sale, the sorts of spaces (lounge, public bar, garden), the opening hours, all the sort of things you’d expect to see in a directory of pubs.
• Qualitative data. What the pub is like. This can be subjective but would also bring in the categories the pub fits in. It could be a village pub, a “vertical drinking establishment”, a family-friendly gastropub, a student bar, etc.
• Event data. What’s going on at the pub? Anything from snooker matches to gigs in the back room. The diary.
• Social data. Who is in the pub? This data is normally captured by sticking ones head around the door and looking, or asking the landlord if “John” has been in tonight. The bar staff will also hold an incredible amount of data about the customers from their preferred drinks to the sort of stuff you only tell a barman when tired and drunk. Further to this, the pub will contain a social graph made up of the connections between customers.
• News data. Gossip, yes, but also hard news about the local area. The landlord will know what’s going on.

Now, the last two forms of data are mildly contentious. You wouldn’t necessarily want your activities, or even your presence, in a pub to be broadcast across the Internet. Pubs offer a pseudo-private space which, while public, has certain social rules ingrained it in. If a gentleman has an intimate drink with a lady who is not his wife, for example, that information is appropriately flagged. This lack of transparency is what makes the pub function as a relatively safe social environment.

That said, there’s potential for social and news data to be published in an opt-in manner. For example, if I find myself walking home and wanting an unplanned drink I might send a message to Twitter announcing my intentions. Or if a quick drink with as friend has turned, somehow, into a few drinks and we’d welcome company I might send another message to that effect. Here’s a Twitter search for the Spotted Dog in Digbeth which just the other day got some business from me when I was standing at the bus stop and, checking my phone, saw John Mostyn was advertising his presence there. News can also be published from the pub where appropriate. Nicky does this occasionally on Digbeth is Good. Check the Spotted Dog archives to see how she gets the balance right. (Come to think of it, is the Spotted Dog the most social-media-ified pub in Birmingham?)

So there’s social data about pubs floating around out there. It’s early days and penetration is minimal but the synergy between an online social space and an offline social environment like a pub is not hard to see. Still, it’s probably a few years off before we can do something really interesting with that sort of data other than keep tabs on it and see how it evolves with wider adoption.

The more traditional data, however, offers much more immediate potential. Let’s have a look at The Wellington in Birmingham City Centre, a pretty nondescript looking pub that’s carved a niche as one of the few places around New Street where you can get a decent pint of bitter. By the bar they have a large LCD screen showing the beers on tap which is also displayed on their website:

This is fantastic. I was looking at this screen just the other night and, not for the first time, wishing I knew something else about these beers. Now I know it’s coming from the Internet, and since I have a Internet enabled phone, the potential is suddenly clear. Here’s what I’d do with The Wellington’s Beer Board.

• Generate it using a WordPress. Each beer would be a “post” and have comments enabled. When a beer is on tap it goes into the “Beer Board” category which builds the above page. When it’s replaced it’s set to “Not On Tap”. Yes, it’d need a fair it of hacking but even I could build this.
• Explain the beers. I’d imagine they don’t change beers that often so writing, or copying, a short piece of blurb about each one shouldn’t be a chore. I’d imagine the staff are given notes to sell them anyway so the data is already in the system. These explanations form the body of each post. Clicking on the name of the beer takes you to that information. Make it clear customers can do this from their phones using a short URL (I see thewelly.co.uk is available).
• Open up comments. Since you’re using a blogging system you might as well make the most of it. Let your customers debate the merits of the beers via their phones while in the pub. Not only does this add potentially useful information it also augments the pub with another social space not restricted by time or place, which is always interesting.
• Once this is working, develop it further. Start thinking about the resource you’re developing for Real Ale enthusiasts both locally and nationally, not just informationally but socially.

What about events data? My local pub is the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath. It’s nice enough but the main draw is the upstairs rooms where all sorts of things go on from gigs to clubs to comedy nights. The pub is also used by groups like the Stitches & Hoes knitting club amongst others. Most, if not all, of these are “dry hire” where a promoter or individual can rent a room for the night and will undertake the organisation and publicity themselves. The pub simply provides the space, any equipment required, runs the bar and lists the event on their flyers and website.

The first thing I’d do is structure the event data on the website using the hCalendar microformat and by providing an iCal feed similar to the way Upcoming, Facebook, Last.FM and other event listing sites work. This would allow people to subscribe to the events and, if they chose, manipulate that data. This isn’t a particularly big step but in doing so it gets the website talking to the rest of the Internet. Add some simple geotagging to the website and you’ve got the basics of a machine-readable database of events sitting on your website. I’d imagine building a system which takes a spreadsheet and turns it into an events listing would be fairly simple and while you can’t necessarily get this off the shelf for free there are plenty of people in Birmingham with experience in this area. Talk to Josh from LiveBrum or Simon from Birmingham Alive.

Next I’d look at some kind of alert system. Frequently an event which is advertised as starting at 8pm will be delayed or, as happened on Sunday, cancelled at the last minute. The trick here is to keep it as simple as possible and only use it where necessary. I’d suggest using a Twitter account for this purpose, not necessarily with the intention of having people follow it but because it’s incredibly easy to update be it through the website or by text message. You don’t want to be doing complex stuff on the website on a Friday night but sending 140 characters to Twitter when you hear the event is delayed shouldn’t be a hassle. Feed the Twitter stream onto the website and folks can check it before they head out. It might seem counter intuitive to tell potential customers they should stay away but I’d argue they’ll appreciate not having their time wasted and be more likely to come again.

This is stuff that’s relatively simple to bolt on to what they’re already doing. All it needs is a small initial investment in infrastructure and integration into existing systems. It might even make things simpler depending on how the data is currently being processed.

But, you might be wondering, what’s so social about event information? On its own nothing. But by making it available in a standardised form it allows it to be moved around the Internet free from but connected to your website. (For an illustration of what I mean see my post Explaining Metadata with Velcro Covered Balls.) What moves your information around the Internet? People finding it in search engines and event aggregators and talking about it. This is what is meant by that vastly misunderstood term Web 2.0 – making data available in ways that enable conversation.

I’ve barely scratched the surface on this one but at 1,500 words it’s time to draw it to a close. As with the cafe blog idea I’m very interested in developing this further so do get in touch if you run or know of a pub that is in a position to try something like this. It doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact if it’s complicated then it’s missing the point. As with everything I do it’s just a case of looking at what you’re currently doing and applying some simple social media tools where applicable.

Photos are my own. The Wellington’s Beer Board being online drawn to my attention by Andy Mabbett.