2011-2-28

I wasn’t well today during lunchtime but soldiered on to the end of the day finishing off some spreadsheets for one of my bosses so when I got home I closed down my email client and took a snooze with some headache tablets. Arlene snapped this. I’ve not re-opened my email so if you’re waiting … Continue reading “2011-2-28”

I wasn’t well today during lunchtime but soldiered on to the end of the day finishing off some spreadsheets for one of my bosses so when I got home I closed down my email client and took a snooze with some headache tablets. Arlene snapped this.

I’ve not re-opened my email so if you’re waiting for something from me, it’s going to be tomorrow. Sorry folks.

This post also signifies the end of the first month of my Pic-A-Day effort. I hope it’s been entertaining.

London, City of the Future

As I mentioned here, I was in London last week. While there I spent time with with Mary McKenna (Chair of the Digital Circle Steering Group and Co-Founder/Owner of Learning Pool from Derry) and Ryan Adams (BBC Project Manager in their Media/Online arm and also on the Digital Circle Steering Group). So, to get to … Continue reading “London, City of the Future”

As I mentioned here, I was in London last week. While there I spent time with with Mary McKenna (Chair of the Digital Circle Steering Group and Co-Founder/Owner of Learning Pool from Derry) and Ryan Adams (BBC Project Manager in their Media/Online arm and also on the Digital Circle Steering Group).

So, to get to London at 9 am, I needed to be up and about at 3 am. It was going to be a long day.
My schedule included the following:

  • Quick visit to a Learning Pool event at the Kings Fund. To see what they do and also soak up some coffee.
  • Visit the RSA building at Charing Cross to finally check if I want to join and also what facilities are there.
  • Visit to the Technology Strategy Board at the BIS building on Victoria St.
  • Attending CityCampLDN
  • Turn up and see what goes on at the Social Entrepreneurs Network monthly meeting at the RSA.
  • Meet folk at the Tuttle Club, held at the Centre for Creative Collaboration.

London is one of those cities where everyone seems to be up to something; not necessarily a nefarious thing but everyone seems involved in something to a greater or lesser degree.

So what is a Learning Pool?

This was the first surprise of my visit. I’d considered that Learning Pool was a good name for a company that sold e-learning content. That’s not exactly what I discovered. Learning Pool work with the public sector (and voluntary sector) mainly and the “pool” in their name is their process of pooling all of the content and resources they have developed in co-operation with their public-sector clients and sharing it among the other clients. It really was a bit of a revelation that something so simple and sensible can actually work – ideal for the Age of Austerity. It made me wonder why we don’t do more of this in education (at all levels) and also how it could work well in a private sector environment. Learning Pool recently launched a SME product as well which builds on this: MyLearningPool. The event itself was a gathering of nearly 20 individuals from different councils around London. This group is usually much larger but half-term conspired to make it a lot more intimate.

The enthusiasm of the group was a real eye-opener. Some of these council project managers were encyclopaedic in their knowledge of the product and in the content not only developed for their own region but that of other regions. Considering that Learning Pool works with nearly every council in Great Britain (but oddly none in Northern Ireland), that’s a considerable amount of shared content and knowledge.

The RSA

I’ve posted about this organisation before so I’ll just include some photos now.

The Technology Strategy Board

A meeting was planned with Iain Gray, CE of the Technology Strategy Board and his colleague, Paul Mason (Head of Development), regarding the future of Digital Circle and also our interest in pursuing a Technology and Innovation Centre for Digital Media and Software in Northern Ireland.

The meeting was originally scheduled to be in a prison cell office within the BIS building but after reviewing (and the late hour) we retired to the pub to talk.

We covered the _CONNECT social network, created by the TSB to encourage collaboration and open innovation. Everyone agreed on the importance of networks of networks and I took away the action to encourage people to join the TSBs network in order to access their competitions and contacts.

CityCampLDN

Organised by Dominic Campbell and sponsored by FutureGov, CityCampLDN, it was hosted at The Hub, Kings Cross. There were some great pitches from folk with ideas looking for collaborators. The original pitch was “CityCamp LDN brings together city leaders at all levels from government, business and community organisations to reimagine the way in which technology can help to reshape the future of London.” which sounds like something needed in Belfast.

Dinner

Later that night, I met up with Ryan and Mary and went to a chinese restaurant in Chinatown. The food was tasty though the ordering process left a lot to be desired.

At about 11 pm, bone-weary I arrived at the hotel and barely made it to my room before falling unconscious.

Early next morning: RSA Social Entrepreneurs Network

After breakfast, Mary and I wandered down to the RSA and met with some of the local social entrepreneurs who are Fellows of the RSA. We stayed for about an hour and spoke about both Digital Circle and Learning Pool to the collected group.

The Tuttle Club

The Tuttle Club is named after Harry Tuttle (a renegade air conditioning specialist) from Brazil:

The Tuttle Club is a loose association of people finding a way of working better together both online and off-

There’s no need to sign up – everyone’s welcome at our Friday morning meetups. They run from 10am to midday at the Centre for Creative Collaboration, 16 Acton St, London WC1X 9NG.

The last picture is of Lloyd Davis, founder of the Tuttle Club. He’s about to head off across the US as part of his Please Look After This Englishman (PLATE) project. So anyone in the US who wants to help a funny, charismatic do-gooder should probably get in touch.

And then home…

I finished off the trip to London hoping to catch a meeting with Steve Moore, to talk about some of the BigSociety and BetterSociety ideas we have in the Northern Ireland. Steve is originally from Northern Ireland only timing and short notice conspired against us to prevent us meeting.

I arrived home around 9 pm, exhausted but mind abuzz with ideas and things to do. So I went out and registered a domain for a new social enterprise based around taking small positive actions to an overall better society. But that’s fodder for another blog post.

2011-2-27

Taken with my iPhone last night. It wasn’t actually that dark – but that Plasma screen is really bright. Three kids playing, creating, role-playing using Little Big Planet 2 as a toolbox. Related posts: Onlive: Gaming in the Cloud review Where have you been? London, City of the Future Dystopia UK

Taken with my iPhone last night. It wasn’t actually that dark – but that Plasma screen is really bright. Three kids playing, creating, role-playing using Little Big Planet 2 as a toolbox.

2011-2-26

This was a blast from the past and one of the few times when digging an old series up actually delivers good story and writing. Is it any wonder the show “consistently ranked in the top twenty U.S. television programs during the first five years that the series was originally telecast in the United States” … Continue reading “2011-2-26”

This was a blast from the past and one of the few times when digging an old series up actually delivers good story and writing. Is it any wonder the show “consistently ranked in the top twenty U.S. television programs during the first five years that the series was originally telecast in the United States” – Wikipedia.

2011-2-25

Two young women painting in a shop window. Some smartypants is going to tell me that it’s the window of an arts college. I don’t care. No shop window should be empty in Belfast or Derry during March 2011. It’s Creativity Month, after all. Related posts: College degree or Entrepreneur There Are Women Who Code … Continue reading “2011-2-25”

Two young women painting in a shop window.

Some smartypants is going to tell me that it’s the window of an arts college. I don’t care. No shop window should be empty in Belfast or Derry during March 2011. It’s Creativity Month, after all.

2011-2-24

I was in London today and had lunch in the Garrick, beside the theatre. Also spotted the actor, Sam Kelly, enjoying a delightful repast. This pic is of mine, not of his. Obviously. Related posts: Blame Apple. Blame Steve Jobs. Don’t blame the technology pundit. London, City of the Future London Underground leads the pack … Continue reading “2011-2-24”

I was in London today and had lunch in the Garrick, beside the theatre. Also spotted the actor, Sam Kelly, enjoying a delightful repast. This pic is of mine, not of his. Obviously.

2011-2-23

I attended the Creativity, Innovation and Sustainability Symposium at the University of Ulster, Belfast. And I got this business card. Related posts: The Creative Industries Innovation Fund The Broadband Blueprint (re DETI Telecoms Consultation) One Vision for the North of Ireland Game changing research networks for the Video game industry Arts and Humanities Research Council

I attended the Creativity, Innovation and Sustainability Symposium at the University of Ulster, Belfast. And I got this business card.

2011-2-22

Man shall not share a wardrobe with a woman. That is the entirety of the law. So, I had to get myself a cheap wardrobe. Meh. I wander round the IKEA labyrinth to find something cheap that doesn’t look awful and find that this simple thing looks better than the units that are three times … Continue reading “2011-2-22”

Man shall not share a wardrobe with a woman. That is the entirety of the law.

So, I had to get myself a cheap wardrobe. Meh. I wander round the IKEA labyrinth to find something cheap that doesn’t look awful and find that this simple thing looks better than the units that are three times the price. I photograph the little tag and pick up the box from the market hall.

#ImprovingCodersFromColleges Fundamentals

Stephen Houston (@egeek) contributed this to todays meeting – some things that need to be considered or taught and things that have been lacking in his experience of recent graduates. #ImprovingCodersFromColleges Fundamentals – How does a computer execute your code? – What does the OS do? – Where does your code execute? JS, server side, … Continue reading “#ImprovingCodersFromColleges Fundamentals”

Stephen Houston (@egeek) contributed this to todays meeting – some things that need to be considered or taught and things that have been lacking in his experience of recent graduates.

#ImprovingCodersFromColleges Fundamentals
- How does a computer execute your code?
- What does the OS do?
- Where does your code execute? JS, server side, etc
- Network/Internet, TCP/IP, etc
- How your further your own knowledge, blogs, etc
- Writing your own projects, advantage of doing so for interviews
- Self-starting, own initative
- How are the large sites architected?
- Scale, how much data do the big guys handle?
- DBs, relational, schema-less, etc
- Agile methods
- Handling requirements
- Professional behaviour and attitude
- Different languages, what are they used for? Advantages/Limitations of each
- Why you need to be a polyglot

Software skills
- Version control
- Team working
- Emphasise the need to understand projects during placement, how they fit, team dynamics
- Language fundamentals
- Coding standards
- Unit and integration testing
- Code patterns - don't just know, understand
- Multi-threading/concurrency
- Deadlock
- Documenting your code
- Thinking maintenance

Local Industry
- Who is out there?
- What do they use and what do they need?
- What can they do for you? How will they further your career?
- Your own ideas?
- Your internet profile
- A good interview

I reckon this is a good start. I have toyed with the idea of getting hiring managers (not HR) to contribute to the process by essentially sponsoring spaces which will turn into jobs. So if CompanyX needs 10 enterprise Java guys, then maybe we find training for 20. And if CompanyY needs 5 PHP or Ruby guys, we train 10. We have to remember to not only fill the job pipeline but also to provide training to supply our growing startups.

All in attendance were agreed that software engineering is vocational and not academic and that more could be achieved with training courses and input from industry than with a 3 year degree. And for the most part an honours project is a complete waste of time.

I’ve spoken to Momentum and BMC and I believe we can do this if we have enough support from local industry leaders. It can’t be just the usual suspects – we have to engage with the little companies as well as the big ones. I left with a few actions to go speak to people. In all a very positive meeting.

Very happy to also meet today with @bndouglas, @andyboal and @hamstarr to chat about this subject.

This is supplementary to the Code4Pizza FreeSchool. We need everything working in unison.

This is, to my mind, the best way out of the Age of Austerity.