by Sue Black
Not everyone could be a codebreaker, but every person had an important job to do.
09
Tweeting Bletchley Park
I signed up for Twitter in June 2007 on the recommendation of my friend Eileen Brown, a BCSWomen committee member. I didn’t know it yet, but that was a momentous occasion: Twitter would prove to be an absolutely invaluable tool for the Save Bletchley Park campaign. At the time I was mildly curious; I filled out the registration form and played around with Twitter for a bit, but I couldn’t really see the point of it. After half an hour, I thought to myself: It’s rubbish. I don’t see what use it could possibly be.
I closed the browser window and forgot all about it for a few months.
Fast forward to December 2008. I was at a conference at the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE – what a great acronym!) in Westminster. I was sat at the front of an audience listening to a guy called James Whatley talk about social media. Quite early on in his talk he asked,
“Who here is on Twitter?”
I put my hand up. So did both of the guys sitting either side of me, so I leaned over and whispered,
“Its rubbish, isn’t it?”
About ten per cent of the eighty or so people in the audience had put their hands up – not very many. James carried on talking about Twitter, telling us that his Twitter ID was @Whatleydude. I remember thinking, what a cool name.
The guy sitting on my right has since become a great friend. His name is Professor Jonathan Raper, but he’s known on Twitter as @madprof – another great name. He replied to my comment about Twitter being rubbish by asking me if I was using it through the app on my mobile or just through a web browser. I told him that I’d only used it on my laptop at home – I didn’t have it on my phone.
“Aha!” he said. “Download it now. It’s so much better on your mobile. You’ll love it.”
I wasn’t convinced, but I downloaded it all the same. Once I had the app on my phone, Jonathan tweeted me, I tweeted him and we tweeted James on stage, and my other neighbor, Roland Harwood (@rolandharwood), who I’d met through the NESTA Crucible programme and known for a couple of years, joined in too.
We tweeted at each other throughout the session. It was surprisingly enjoyable.
During the day we carried on tweeting each other; it was especially useful when we were not in the same room together. We could have conversations about various topics of interest but also address logistical issues, such as, “Where are you now?”, “Is the talk you are in any good?” and so on.
By the end of that day, I was in love with Twitter. It gave me another completely new way in which I could connect with people, and it was fun. It was cool to be able to interact with a speaker whilst he was on stage giving a presentation, for instance; it was also nice finding out how things were going with people in different parts of a conference – a bit like having your own private spies reporting back to you.
Looking back now, knowing that it was about to become such an important part of the Save Bletchley Park campaign and my life more generally, it’s amazing to remember my first tentative foray into the world of Twitter. One of the many things I love about Twitter is that you can look up and find conversations that you have had in the past. In a way it’s like writing a diary together with your friends: as everything is recorded you can just look it up, even years later, remember, and reminisce. While working on this very book in 2013, I tweeted James, Jonathan and Roland to tell them that I was writing about them:
Sue Black
@Dr_Black
@whatleydude @madprof @rolandharwood Hey Dudes! I’m writing about you guys + that day when I started tweeting at ICE unbound.co.uk/books/saving-bletchley-park
2:37PM – 3 May 13
Initially James didn’t remember the day, but then I got a tweet from him containing a link to our actual tweets from the 3rd December 2008 – the day I discovered how useful Twitter could be:
Sue Black
@Dr_Black
Good to meet you @whatleydude
3 Dec 08
James Whatley
@Whatleydude
@rolandharwood @MadProf @Dr_Black Well met! Surprising (in a good way) to find fellow Twitterers in the room today :)
3:10 PM – 3 Dec 08
Roland also tweeted. He remembered the day.
rolandharwood
@rolandharwood
@Whatleydude @Dr_Black @MadProf I remember! Had no idea that was your 1st day on twitter. And look at you now all grown up ;-) #siezetheday
3:44 PM – 3 May 13
Jonathan, saying that there had been days when Twitter had changed the course of his life.
Jonathan Raper
@MadProf
@Dr_Black @whatleydude @rolandharwood We were young then eh? There have been days since then when Twitter has changed the course of my life.
3 May 13
I completely agree with that. It has changed the course of my life many times since that day in 2008.
Sue Black
@Dr_Black
Good to catch up with @rolandharwood today and to meet @madprof and @whatleydude. Hope to see u again soon
4:54 PM – 3 Dec 08
I may not have had a sense yet of the role Twitter could play in the Save Bletchley Park campaign, but my interest had been aroused.
And a growing obsession
Towards the end of December 2008, I went away on holiday to Cornwall with my partner Paul and young daughter Leah. It was a good time to start really playing around with Twitter – there were lots of great photo opportunities and memorable moments.
I was starting to use Twitter more and more as the days went by. I loved posting photos and using the “Nearby” function on the Tweetie app, which allowed me to strike up conversations with tweeters nearby, most of whom I didn’t know. I also enjoyed interacting with people I did know – when Rory Cellan-Jones tweeted that his wife, the economist Diane Coyle, had received an OBE, I was able to congratulate them right away.
Sue Black
@Dr_Black
@ruskin147 Big congrats to Mrs CJ :-) my friend Wendy Hall become a Dame :-D a great start for
2009.
11:17 AM – 31 Dec 08
I was starting to find some really interesting people on Twitter. The process I followed went something like: follow people I know; have a look at who they’re chatting to on Twitter; follow the interesting ones; have a look at who they are chatting to on Twitter; follow the interesting ones; and so on. In pseudo computer code that would be something like:
10 Find friends on Twitter
20 See who they are talking to
30 Identify interesting people
40 Follow interesting people
50 GOTO 20
There is a problem with this program. Have you spotted it? Yes: it never ends. This was manifesting in real life, too. I was finding myself so interested in finding and talking to interesting people on Twitter that I was spending hours at a time doing it. The downside was that my partner Paul was becoming a Twitter widower. He was spending evenings on holiday sitting on the sofa watching TV, and I was sitting next to him completely absorbed by my iPhone. Poor guy.
I was starting to realise why my first dabble with Twitter several months previously hadn’t got me very far: I hadn’t really known what to do with it or, more importantly, what I was looking for. But once I had met and spoken to friends who were not only using it but actually finding it helpful, it was like being launched into another dimension: there were so many possibilities. Poking around and following the little Twitter start-up algorithm above had led me to find some very interesting people. This was how I came across David Bott, for instance, who worked at the Technology Strategy Board (TSB). As I had written several successful funding proposals to the TSB in the past, I knew who they were and I was interested in what they were doing. David had tweeted on New Year’s Eve, a
sking whether we thought the internet was a success or not. I love computing, the internet, and everything techy, so you won’t be surprised at my response:
Sue Black
@Dr_Black
@david_bott the Internet has revolutionized our lives and will continue to do in ways that we can’t yet imagine. A massive success.
7:25 PM – 31 Dec 08
Those tweets marked the beginning of one of my many great Twitter friendships. I was starting to learn something really important about Twitter: it wasn’t just a passive, mindless time-suck; the connections you could form through it could be real and lasting.
A social media campaign
We’d had a lovely holiday in Cornwall.
I’d also had an intriguing direct message from a guy called Mike Sizemore (@sizemore) during our time away. He said that he had seen my Saving Bletchley Park blog, which was linked in my Twitter profile, and was very interested in helping with the campaign. Although I had put the blog URL in my profile and had mentioned it a few times in tweets, I hadn’t actively done much to call people’s attention to it, so it was exciting that someone was taking an interest already.
Mike suggested that we chat on the phone once we were back at work. He said that both he and a friend of his, a guy called Christian Payne (@Documentally), were really keen to help out.
Documentally
@Documentally
Getting excited at the possibility in helping to Save Bletchley Park . . . http://www.SavingBletchleyPark.org
3:32 PM – 6 Jan 09
Sue Black
@Dr_Black
@Documentally thx very much for the link to my Bletchley Park blog savingbletchleypark.org and for getting excited about saving BP
4:57 PM – 6 Jan 09
On the 6th of January, Christian tweeted a link to my blog, saying that he was getting excited about helping to Save Bletchley Park. I was also getting excited – it was wonderful to think that such cool people were interested in becoming part of the campaign. I had a great chat with Mike on the phone. He reiterated that both he and Christian wanted to help with the campaign: what could they do? I told Mike about everything that had happened so far: about my first visit to Bletchley Park, shattering my image of it as a small place with a bunch of old blokes in tweed jackets smoking pipes and doing The Times crossword, learning about the women of Bletchley, meeting the amazing Jerry Roberts, and so on. I told him that Jerry was going to be giving a talk about Bletchley Park at UCL the following week; why didn’t he and Christian come along? Mike thought that was a great idea.
We arranged to meet before the talk, and we also arranged to go to Bletchley Park the day after. I really wanted them to have the full Bletchley Park experience. I also wanted Simon Greenish and Kelsey Griffin (Director of Operations at Bletchley Park), with whom I was working fairly closely, to understand why I thought Twitter could be so useful for Bletchley Park. My time tweeting over the last month or so had already helped me to realise that Twitter and social media, if used wisely, had massive potential for raising awareness of our campaign and for finding, bringing together and building a community of people that were interested in and cared about Bletchley Park. It was going to be an interesting couple of days.
40s Four Ts
The day of Jerry’s talk arrived. I made my way into London, arrived at Goodge Street tube, and walked out of the station and into the café next door. I tweeted Mike and received a reply saying that he was in the Starbucks, which is just a few metres away from the station. I went over to Starbucks and saw Mike straight away, recognising him from his Twitter profile pic. We said “Hi”, and he introduced me to his friend Jamillah Knowles (@Jemimah_Knight), who worked at the BBC. We had a quick chat about Bletchley Park and Jerry Roberts and how excited we all were to be going to listen to his talk.
At UCL, I introduced everyone to each other, Jerry and Mei introduced us to Professor Suzanne Kord, who was organising the talk, and then we all walked over to the lecture room together.
There was an audience of around 30 in a small room. Our group went straight to the seats at the front and sat down. The anticipation was immense.
sizemore
@sizemore
Interview with the good Captain today and then tomorrow off to Bletchley Park where they have an Enigma machine set up for us! #bpark
12:41 PM – 13 Jan 09
We were not disappointed. Jerry is a great speaker, quiet and measured, and he had us hanging on his every word. He told us many stories about his time at Bletchley Park, including the time when he deciphered and translated a message that ended with: “Adolf Hitler, Führer”.
How incredible must that have been? Jerry told us all about what he called the “four Ts” (an updated version of the “three Ts” he’d told me about when we first met): Tommy Flowers, Bill Tutte, Tunny and Alan Turing. Tommy Flowers had invented Colossus. Bill Tutte had shared an office with Jerry at Bletchley Park during the war and cracked Tunny ; and Alan Turing, of course, is one of the best-known codebreakers from the Park.
Jerry told us some great stories, including how in 1941 we had almost lost the war during the Battle of the Atlantic because we were losing almost all of our supply ships. If it hadn’t been for the intelligence received at Bletchley Park, which enabled us to locate and destroy some of the U-Boats that were taking out our ships, Britain, as we know it, probably wouldn’t be here today. The room was silent in awe and contemplation.
Jamillah Knowles
@jemimah_knight
At UCL W @Sizemore. Captain Jerry Roberts has the grace and charisma of an old movie star #bpark
4:04PM – 13 Jan 09
Sue Black
@Dr_Black
@jemimah_knight that’s so true!
7:04 PM – 13 Jan 09
At the end of Jerry’s talk, we made our way over to a local café; Mike and Jamillah had arranged to interview Jerry there. However, it was clear that Jerry had run out of energy. He apologised and said that he needed to sit quietly for a bit as he was worn out from his lecture. Because Jerry was so engaging and interesting, we had lost sight of the fact that he was nearly 90 and didn’t have quite as much energy as he might have had a few years before.
We apologised and after making sure that Jerry and Mei were alright to get home, we all parted ways. It had been a great afternoon. Jerry losing his energy after giving his talk brought back the feeling of urgency that I’d first felt with the Women of Station X project. We really needed to capture as many veterans’ memories as possible, as quickly as possible. Time waits for no man . . . or woman.
Sue Black
@Dr_Black
thx so much @sizemore + @jemimah_knight 4 today. Have blogged here: http://www.savingbletchleypark.org/ see you tomorrow! #bpark
12:38 AM – 14 Jan 09
That evening, I wrote a quick blog post about the day and tweeted Mike and Jamillah the link. It had been a great day, but the next day might be even better. I was taking them and Christian Payne to meet Simon Greenish and Kelsey Griffin at Bletchley Park. I really hoped that they would feel the same way that I did about the place. After our successful trip to Jerry Robert’s talk, I was optimistic that they would.
Sue Black
@Dr_Black
Really looking forward to introducing @sizemore and @documentally to the wonder that is Bletchley Park tomorrow :-) #bpark
2:22 AM – 13 Jan 09
Living on video
The next morning, I had a quick breakfast with my daughter before she went to school and then got the train into London, meeting up with Mike and Jamillah at Euston. We left the train at Bletchley and walked over to the entrance to Bletchley Park itself. As always, I had a sudden rush of excitement as we walked on site. This time there was a great sense of anticipation too, as I was here with people that I was hoping were going to make a big difference to my campaign. Mike, Christian and Jamillah are all remarkable people, an
d they all had expert knowledge of a world that I knew little of: the media, both traditional and social.
Direct To Consumer
@dtcdeals
Many thanks to @Dr_Black for following – Sue has recently been campaigning to save Bletchley Park
8:51 AM – 14 Jan 09
Sue Black
@Dr_Black
@dtcdeals thx very much. I’m on my way to Bletchley Park now with @sizemore @documentally + @jemimah_knight who will b reporting live #bpark
9:17 AM – 14 Jan 09
We headed up to the Mansion House where we were greeted by Simon, Kelsey and Christian. We all went into the morning room for some coffee and biscuits. As soon as we got there, Christian did a quick video of us and posted it online straight away.
This was a great start. I’d not met Christian before and didn’t know much about him, but he is one of those people who, once met, is never forgotten. Friendly, smart and extremely talented in so many ways, he is an absolute phenomenon – he’s been a shepherd in Italy, a social media advisor to leaders of UK political parties, a photographer of Kurdish freedom fighters, and so much more. As he started videoing us all, it became clear that these three people I’d brought up to Bletchley Park were going to make a massive difference. They were all game changers, people who had expertise and influence in a sphere that neither Bletchley Park nor I did.