Talk:Tom Barker (designer)

message: The article is really quite a mess, largely (I found, while seeking references) because paragraphs were copied from Barker's page at the RCA, where he is not only the youngest professor ever appointed: he is the head of its Industrial Design Engineering department.  I'm going to take this article under my wing and see what I can do to improve it.  It may take a few days. — Athaenara  ✉  03:50, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: You're doing a great job so far! --Ronz 04:04, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  Thanks! — Athaenara  ✉  04:10, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Cleanup

message: I had some comments on my page about my edits.  As both b consultants ltd and SmartSlab Ltd were already referenced here and the additional information is factual and can readily be referenced at Companies House, I fail to understand the difficulty.
Londoner1961 22:43, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Comments about my edits

message: As Londoner1961 pointed out, most of two long paragraphs can be cited only from Barker's own pages.
Paragraph 3:  several international experimental projects, Go global initiative, postgraduate students, RCA, Tsinghua University, TCDC, design and production projects in Uganda, Future of Food in Japan, Tsukuba University, UNESCO, fairtrade accredited designs, design fellowship with Garrick Jones.
:* (Found citation only for design fellowship with Garrick Jones.  Removed the rest.)
Paragraph 4: 12 story eco tower, Peabody Trust, modular building systems, Hanssem, Korea, composite panels for oil industry, structures for theatre projects, project engineer for London Eye capsules & boarding systems, photovoltaic solar products for BP Solar, new technologies on Millennium Dome zones, folding refugee shelters, Bluetooth wireless headset for Emkay, V/SpaceLAB, Masterplanning Tool digital city planning system, Curvatex.
:* (Found citations for Millennium Dome zones, V/SpaceLab and Curvatex.  Removed the rest.)
Note: as the London Eye info is not cited, there isn't an encyclopedic reason to have the image in this article.  I suppose we could leave it with a  tag, but as the item has been uncited for so many months I simply removed it. — Athaenara  ✉  22:25, 15 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unreferenced paragraphs 

message: Athaenara, we should try to reach agreement, don't you think? In the interests of improving the article? I removed the sentence about contributing to Building magazine; your response was just to revert it, but putting it in the past tense. My point - as I put in my comment - is that the occasional journalism by Barker is not only well in the past, but also irrelevant to his notability, and therefore does not belong in the article. His notability is as a designer/inventor of new applications of materials, etc. for display and architectural purposes, and perhaps (yet to be proven) as an academic. The journalism was very occasional comment pieces. The sentence about it only ended up being in the article because one piece was a self-reference inserted by Barker. You generalised it into 'occasional contributor to'. Now you defend your editing simply be reverting that of others. The journalism is not part of the case for notability. Bristolian46 (talk) 10:32, 7 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Trying to reach agreement 

message: I have had doubts for some time about the "youngest professor ever appointed by the RCA" claim in this Wiki article.  Of the current references for this claim, the official press release issued on Barker's appointment is silent on the point (in itself this absence seems a bit suspicious for such a notable event).  The basis for the claim appears to rest on 1) a newspaper interview with Barker, where the reporter appears to be repeating Barker's claim; and 2) Barker's profile on the RCA staff link pages, which I suspect Barker wrote himself.  I have now found two obituaries of Professor Richard Guyatt, who worked at the RCA for many years.  These were published in The Guardian and in The Independent in late 2007, and they both state that Guyatt was hired as the RCA's youngest professor in 1948.  As Guyatt was born in 1914, he would have been 34 on his appointment.  As Barker was 38 on his appointment, his claim to be the youngest ever appointee would seem to be disproved.  The Guyatt obituaries can be found here Professor Richard Guyatt (Independent) and here Professor Richard Guyatt (Guardian) Londoner1961 (talk) 14:37, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: As Richard Guyatt appears to have been a genuinely significant British designer, as well as having been Professor and later Rector of the Royal College of Art, where he worked for 34 years, I have added a new Wiki entry for him. --Londoner1961 (talk) 16:33, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
replies: text:  See WP:OR --Ronz (talk) 19:03, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
replies: text:  After going over the Richard Guyatt references, I think it is best removed. --Ronz (talk) 19:15, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks.  If I may say so, this pruning and the many others implemented over the article's history, could be indicative of a certain carelessness over veracity of its original author.  (Go ahead, delete this comment, Ronz. ;)) --Londoner1961 (talk) 21:10, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Youngest Professor? 

message: I see that several of the links cited on this page are broken. --Londoner1961 (talk) 16:39, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Broken Links