Chris Hinton
The interviews are coming thick and fast at the moment, with more in preparation, so please keep coming back to read them.
This time I’m taking to my friend & cohort Chris Hinton, so let’s get straight into it.
Q: Chris, can you give us a little picture of who you are? We’ll get to what you do shortly, but share a little bit about who Chris is?
Sure thing. I’m 31 years old, married to Dawn for nine years now, and dad to two small children (Amy and Lewis). I’m hugely interested in technology, Formula 1, and cars in general. I’m a Christian, and currently have the role of Salvation Army pastor/officer, but before that I was a computer programmer in a bank’s e-commerce department. So the techie side of my personality is pretty well ingrained.
I love spending time with my family and friends, and I’m pretty often the guy with the camera capturing the occasion for posterity.
Q: My guess is that there may be – at least – two sets of people who will know you from two quite distinct places: that is Chris Hinton the WIRED UK Geek Dad contributor/ Geek-Speak author and Chris Hinton the Salvation Army Pastor. Am I reading that right, and can you tell us something about how you’ve managed to balance those two elements of your life?
Yes, I think that’s probably right. I’ve been asked quite a few times about how I manage to find time to do both. It’s pretty easy right now as I’m on a sabbatical, but it was a bit tougher before. Believe it or not, carrying a notebook helps so if I get an idea for a blog post while I’m doing something else I can just note it down. I find that if an idea is well formed, writing it out as a blog post doesn’t take too long.
Sometimes there does have to be a bit of balancing… adjusting the number of posts I write during a week, and so on, but so long as I’m sensible with my time it all seems to work out.
Q: What makes a Geek?
That’s a very good question! I think it’s a cross between obsession and intelligence. It’s knowledge and an interest in subjects that’s somehow outside the norm… so it might be knowing the registration number of every Starfleet ship (from Star Trek), the handling characteristics of certain cars, technical knowledge, or being able to recite every line from a film. There’s a great diagram on Geek-Speak that helps show just how many different types of geekery there are:
Q: What was the inspiration to start the Geek-Speak blog?
I’d blogged about several different subject areas – personal insights, faith, books – and just decided it would be fun to write about my geeky interests. Geek-Speak is the outcome of that and it’s been great to explore that whole area. I love cars, technology and sci-fi, so there’s plenty of material to keep going for a while yet!
Q: I’ve mentioned something a little about the work you’ve done with WIRED UK on Geek Dad. That’s pretty high profile work. How did that come about, and are there any other folks you are working with right now?
I’ve started a number of short-lived blogs in my time, one of which was about parenting from a geek’s perspective. Oddly enough, it was called Geek-Dad. A friend (Martin) from Exeter used to read it and it obviously stuck in his mind. When one of his friends who was involved with Wired.com’s Geek Dad blog mentioned that he’d been asked to set up a UK version, Martin suggested he get in touch to ask me to contribute. It was a great opportunity – working as part of a team, so there’s less pressure to come up with topics, and being associated with a pretty prestigious brand.
I’m also a contributor to GamePeople.co.uk, which is run by the same bloke who curates Geek Dad UK. And I’m working on a site to support bloggers, called “Blogging Dojo”, with some guy you’ve probably never heard of 
Q: I know you’re pretty well connected within the blogging community; how did that start, and how has it evolved over time?
Bloggers tend to be pretty friendly people and you can get to know most of them simply by being part of their community: commenting on posts, thanking them when they post something particularly helpful, and offering help when needed. Guys like Darren Rowse, Arnold Aranez of Mr Gadget and Chris Garrett (among others) are all great to get into conversations with. There’s something to be said for journeying with people, too. Mike Cliffe-Jones and I “met” when we were both taking part in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog course and we just kind of hit it off.
Q: Do you have other plans for online activity beyond Geek-Speak?
There’s BloggingDojo.net, and I’m very excited to see where that ends up going. I also started a photoblog recently, which you mentioned on your site a little while ago. Other than that I don’t have any plans, but it won’t be long before something else pops into my head.
Q: Freespace; anything else to share with us?
I don’t think so – although as soon as I send this something else will come to mind! I just want to say thanks for letting me share with you and your readers.
You do ask some good questions, Johnny! Geek Speak is one of my favourite sites. Unlike many, it appeals to “semi-geeks” like me!
The Questions are the easy bit!
He sure does ask some good questions – thanks J. And thanks too, Mike – I like the idea that Geek-Speak appeals to “semi geeks”