DigitalCircle – Page 11

Videogames don’t kill people, People do.

An EU report claims Video Games swill not rot your brain. Contrary to fears about the violent reputation of some games, there is no firm proof that playing them has an automatic negative impact on children’s behaviour, for example by causing aggression, said the report from the committee on the internal market and consumer protection. … Continue reading “Videogames don’t kill people, People do.”

An EU report claims Video Games swill not rot your brain.

Contrary to fears about the violent reputation of some games, there is no firm proof that playing them has an automatic negative impact on children’s behaviour, for example by causing aggression, said the report from the committee on the internal market and consumer protection.

Instead, “video games can stimulate learning of facts and skills such as strategic thinking, creativity, cooperation and innovative thinking, which are important skills in the information society.”

It’s about time that games (and serious games) were taken seriously. In Northern Ireland we have various discrete pockets of technologists who do digital animation, games, serious games, e-learning and other content without realising that through collaboration, they could create a real industry for these skills in the province.

The European parliament conceded that “violence in video games can in certain situations stimulate violent behaviour,” but said there was no need for Europe-wide legislation. It called for a Europe-wide approach to prevent the sale to children of games intended for adults and urged the introduction of stricter identity checks at the point of sale and a wider application of the age-rating system that currently applies to computer games in many European countries.

It might be more honest to admit that someone who commits a videogame-inspired crime was probably already doing it or thinking about it. This is an old argument. People don’t kill people due to videogames, they kill people for money or land, for abuse or betrayal, for their colour or creed or simply because they’re mentally ill.

If someone is already unbalanced enough that they’re going to be influenced by a game, then it’s hardly the fault of the game. The game itself becomes a scapegoat.

#portfolio

Today I did a guest lecture spot at the University of Ulster in Coleraine. The students were from two course: Interactive Media Arts and Media Studies and Production. I droned on for around an hour on the Digital Circle, entrepreneurship, funding, how they, as final year students, should seriously be considering their portfolio, the addition … Continue reading “#portfolio”

Today I did a guest lecture spot at the University of Ulster in Coleraine. The students were from two course: Interactive Media Arts and Media Studies and Production. I droned on for around an hour on the Digital Circle, entrepreneurship, funding, how they, as final year students, should seriously be considering their portfolio, the addition of extra-curricular work and even the presentation of tangents followed when pursuing curricular assignments.

I then asked this question on Twitter…

Twitter replied…

johngirvin @cimota: significant; shows genuine interest and passion for the subject if they spend free time at it. #portfolio

and

johngirvin @cimota: ex-curricular activities = more experienced, better rounded candidate. #portfolio

and

TaraSimpson @cimota, @johngivin: John nailed it, but I’d go a tad further. I’d say *hugely* significant. Software especially is much more than a day job

I agree. When asked to take on placement students earlier in the academic year, I said that I’d be interested in placing any student who could show me a portfolio outside of their coursework assignments. It stands to reason – if you turn up to a job interview and other candidates can demonstrate a significant portfolio, then you may as well go home. In addition, the creation of portfolio might mean you retain the gem of an idea which could be developed commercially in the future.

While I may have charmed some of the students into somnambulism, some seemed interested in the material and were keen to learn about the moves in the industry, keen to note down sources of funding for their pet ideas and left considering how to get a step ahead – by starting now and not waiting until after graduation.

Events events…

I’ve just updated the Digital Circle blog with a heap of new events in the calendar – some of them will have their details posted during the day today (delayed publishing in WordPress rocks!). Some of them are: Web 2.0 Expo Future of Web Apps, Dublin 2009 Digital Media Breakfast, Belfast, 5th Feb at 8 … Continue reading “Events events…”

I’ve just updated the Digital Circle blog with a heap of new events in the calendar – some of them will have their details posted during the day today (delayed publishing in WordPress rocks!).

Some of them are:

Web 2.0 Expo
Future of Web Apps, Dublin 2009
Digital Media Breakfast, Belfast, 5th Feb at 8 am
OpenCoffeeNewry, 4th Feb at 8 am.
SXSWi 2009
BarCampBelfast 2009

In order to get notifications of these, you really should be following @digitalcircle.

iPhone Developer thingies

Anton Mannering writes about an iPhone Dev Camp happening in Belfast and Dublin. “The intrepid guys up in the North have been kicking around the idea of an iPhone DevCamp for hose interested in learning how to develop for the platform. … Matt Johnston of the Digital Circle brought this to my attention and is … Continue reading “iPhone Developer thingies”

Anton Mannering writes about an iPhone Dev Camp happening in Belfast and Dublin.

“The intrepid guys up in the North have been kicking around the idea of an iPhone DevCamp for hose interested in learning how to develop for the platform. … Matt Johnston of the Digital Circle brought this to my attention and is one of the main motivators in making it happen.”

We’re going to get some of the people kicking off some meetups in the two regions – aim of which is to raise awareness of the event and also give us some idea of the coverage. This sort of thing is gaining momentum behind the scenes and therefore we want it to go ahead without a hitch.

At the moment it looks a bit like this:

POSSIBLE AGENDA
9:00am	Welcome, and overview
9:15am	Keynote speaker
10:00am	Programming Talk 1 – Developing for Cocoa. Someone builds an application live on stage. On the Projector, we can see what he’s doing. Obviously limited to some simpler projects.	Basic Game Development for iPhone – someone goes through the basics of setting up a background, showing accelerometer code, collision code. Keywords: Unity? 3D? 2D? Must bug the UNITY team about this. Spoke to Chris McClelland about the QUB interests in Unity.
11:00am	Coffee and bio break
11:30am	Programming Talk 2 – Developing for iPhone. Someone builds an application live on stage.	TILT – More on the controls needed for games.
12:30pm	The App Store – Some devs with experience of the Apple App Store talk through their experiences	The Business of Entertainment – Games and entertainment are selling hot on the Apple Store – from the complex Super MOnkey Ball to the simple ‘sound grenade’.
1:00 pm	Lunch
2:00 pm	Show and Tell Any developers attending take ten minutes to walk through their projects. If they wish, they can open the floor to answer questions and take suggestions.	Making it special – adding in location based services or even just a high score page on the net for your game.
2:45pm	Coffee and bio break
3:00pm	Getting your App to the iPhone for development and distribution
4:00pm	Prize Draw (e.g. books, Pragmatic Programmer gift vouchers, iTunes gift cards) for stuff happening that day – prizes from sponsors. And I think this would be a good opportunity to launch an All Ireland iPhone Competition to run over the next few months.
4:30pm	Random chattering until home time.

It’s not set in stone of course and I kinda want there to be three tracks:

Developing apps using Cocoa (using the standard Cocoa controls)
Game development (or developing stuff using OpenGL, collisions, non-standard controls)
The Business of Apps (or realising that getting your app on the App Store is 10% of the work)

Before then, let’s get together and have Belfast and Dublin Meetups to pave the way – a quick show’n’tell, a quick demo. What do you say?

Digital Media Breakfast, 8 am Thursday 5th Feb

I twittered @antonmannering isn’t there a breakfast thing happening next week? (yes, this is a lead in…) Anton Twittered @cimota That’s right there’s a Digital Media Breakfast in Belfast next Thursday 8am. Exact location TBC (Probably Ten Square or similar) 🙂 I twittered @antonmannering did you say there’s a Digital Media Breakfast in Belfast next … Continue reading “Digital Media Breakfast, 8 am Thursday 5th Feb”

I twittered

@antonmannering isn’t there a breakfast thing happening next week? (yes, this is a lead in…)

Anton Twittered

@cimota That’s right there’s a Digital Media Breakfast in Belfast next Thursday 8am. Exact location TBC (Probably Ten Square or similar) 🙂

I twittered

@antonmannering did you say there’s a Digital Media Breakfast in Belfast next Thursday 8am. Exact location TBC (Probably Ten Square) 🙂 Cool

Did you get it?

Facilitation

From Wikipedia A facilitator is someone who helps a group of people understand their common objectives and assists them to plan to achieve them without taking a particular position in the discussion. The facilitator will try to assist the group in achieving a consensus on any disagreements that preexist or emerge in the meeting so … Continue reading “Facilitation”

From Wikipedia

A facilitator is someone who helps a group of people understand their common objectives and assists them to plan to achieve them without taking a particular position in the discussion. The facilitator will try to assist the group in achieving a consensus on any disagreements that preexist or emerge in the meeting so that it has a strong basis for future action.

“The facilitator’s job is to support everyone to do their best thinking. To do this, the facilitator encourages full participation, promotes mutual understanding and cultivates shared responsibility. By supporting everyone to do their best thinking, a facilitator enables group members to search for inclusive solutions and build sustainable agreements” – Kaner

Sometimes, if you’re working in an area that you are personally passionate about, it can be very easy to be caught up in the flow and be contributing. For the most part – especially when dealing with a small facilitated group and a larger group of onlookers, I find myself constantly defending the decisions of other, justifying the fact that change takes time and that if the process itself is not the full time work of those involved then the process may take an order of magnitude longer.

In many areas it’s not my place to make the decisions. I can work on two levels – helping the core group to get to their destination and also making life easier for the wider audience. An example of this is currently in operation – the core group has a set of tasks to do and little spare time to do it however, in the absence of directed action, it’s possible to work on things and organise events which benefit the wider community that do not take a high level of participation from the core group.

Creative Industries Innovation Fund Workshop – Thursday 29th Jan

Today I posted a quick note about a workshop being held in the OhYeah building (with special thanks to OhYeah and NoMoreArt for helping pull it together). The event itself was conceived during an OpenCoffeeMorning conversation between myself and Marty Neill of NoMoreArt – as he puts it, democracy without bureaucracy. The workshop is designed … Continue reading “Creative Industries Innovation Fund Workshop – Thursday 29th Jan”

The workshop is designed to help those in the “creative industries” find the time to fill in the forms for the Creative Industries Innovation Fund. I’ve spoken to a lot of people about this Fund and extolled it’s virtues and I hear a lot of the same story – it’s something they’ll get around to.

Well, time is up. The closing date for this first call is Thursday the 5th of February and if you miss this one it’s months until the next. And the best reason in the world to hold a workshop is to help people focus the mind. Ideally we’re aiming for a largish group of people all focussed on filling in their forms and getting the paperwork out of the way.

There will be two sessions: one from 11 am to 1 pm and the second from 4:30 pm to 6 pm. The content for both is the same and it straddles part of lunch and just after work so that people from all walks of life can make some time to come in and at least get the forms.

The workshop itself is not about guidance – it’s not about trying to ensure success – it’s about getting the forms in on time, because if they’re not in then you’ve got no chance. I have invited representatives from the Arts Council (who are managing the fund), NIMIC and NIScreen (who are especially relevant to the digital content industry) and the Digital Circle Steering Group – hopefully an individual might be able to talk to these representatives and maybe get some guidance or inspiration from people who have experience with this sort of thing.

It’s meant to be collaborative, it’s meant to be a learning experience and it’s meant to be a shared social experience. At the most basic level it’s a heap of forms and pens and desks and chairs. What’s more is that it’ll be a collection of people who all have something creative inside them which they feel is deserving of public funding in order to have it realised.

There’s a form for registry – just to help us get an idea of how many people will turn up so I’d appreciate it if people could register beforehand. The format will be informal and it will be about completing forms.

What’s happening in Ireland …

We’ve got quite a few things happening over here so this is a little micro-link blog post about the sorts of things you can see if visiting sunny Ireland. On Wednesday the 15th January, the Northern Ireland Science Park are holding a “Seed Capital” event about how to attract early stage funding for your venture. … Continue reading “What’s happening in Ireland …”

We’ve got quite a few things happening over here so this is a little micro-link blog post about the sorts of things you can see if visiting sunny Ireland.

On Wednesday the 15th January, the Northern Ireland Science Park are holding a “Seed Capital” event about how to attract early stage funding for your venture.

On Monday the 19th Jauary, Mobile Monday Belfast will be entertaining us with presentations and discussions about Location Based Services with speakers from Locle, RateMyArea and Anaeko.

On Tuesday the 20th January, OpenCoffeeBelfast opens it’s doors at 9 am in Charlies Coffee Shop in Bradbury Place, Belfast. The opportunity to mix with technologists, entrepreneurs and people with great ideas is too good to miss.

On the 28th January, there’s a ‘free’ Digital Marketing Roadshow in Dublin. This free one-day conference will bring you up to speed on successful digital marketing for your business. From designing a website for the user experience, through building brands online, leveraging search engines, social media, and blogs, to campaigns, online PR and digital marketing. Hear from high-profile, industry leaders during this information packed day.

On the 6th and 7th of February, Unconvention launches in Northern Ireland. Backed by Belfast City Council and the Northern Ireland Music Industry Commission, it will have an innovative format of participant-led panels, workshops, speed mentoring, open-floor presentations and informal networking, coupled with a showcase of some of our best musical talent, Unconvention will be the first of its kind in Northern Ireland.

We’re also working on an event for collaboration, learning and networking for the Irish iPhone development community. Discussions to be found at the XCake site.

The Creative Industries Innovation Fund

I attended the Creative Industries Innovation Fund breakfast briefing with Kate Keys (Sectoral Business Development Manager at the Arts Council) this morning at The Presidents Club in Belfast. It was hosted by The Creative Entrepreneurs Club, a networking group funded by Belfast City Council. The CIIF provides access to funding for many who would not … Continue reading “The Creative Industries Innovation Fund”

The CIIF provides access to funding for many who would not normally be able to access funding. For one thing, it covers:

services
content
events
originals

– a lot of which cannot be covered by InvestNI’s funding charter due to the type of work (content, services, events) or the expectations (forecasting of Â£100K revenues). The CIIF is therefore an important part of the framework – and for this reason, existing INI clients may not be eligible. This has to be taken with a pinch of reason – someone who attended the Start A Business programme 7 years ago is an INI client but would not be restricted from applying for this grant but someone who is in receipt of an InvestNI grant in the last three years may not be eligible – in all cases, talking to your client executive is important (and even dragging him or her to the discussion with the Arts Council might be useful).

The subject of ‘not being eligible’ drew some fire from the crowd but there are very good reasons for it.

This fund is for people and companies who cannot normally avail of InvestNI funding for whatever reason. InvestNI cannot normally invest in content creation or fund the running of an event highlighting creative work – this attempts to cover that.
EC Regulations regulate the amount of support that a company can receive in three fiscal years to â‚¬200 000. There’s a detailed page at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform which explains this fully.
There’s degrees of interpretation here. Again, if you received the Â£400 marketing grant as a startup, you may indeed be eligible. If your company is a new startup based around a “Collaborative Special Purpose Vehicle” then it may be fine even if some of the collaborators were previous recipients.

There are two calls remaining for CIIF applications. One started on the 5th January and ends on the 5th February. The last call starts on the 7th September and ends on the 8th October. Applications will take approximately 8 weeks to process and feedback will be given if your application is unsuccessful – the guidance was to speak to them first, apply in the first call and if unsuccessful, obtain the feedback ad re-apply for the second calls.

The judging panel for these applications will have input from the Arts Council, InvestNI, the Department of Employment and Learning, The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Industry and the Department of Culture, Arts and Learning.

The CIIF is a part of the funding ecosystem of the Northern Ireland marketplace. It fits around the funding available from InvestNI, NIScreen, the Arts Council and other funding bodies.

I found it incredibly encouraging to be in a room which had run out of seating, where I was sitting beside an award-winning clothes designer and someone from an award-winning design and branding company. There were a few familiar faces as well – all keen to find out how their next great project can be turned into a reality.

60% of the fund will be going to fund 143 individual projects over the next two-and-a-bit years to March 2011. The remaining 40% will be distributed to Sectoral Bodies ( councils, universities, sector leads ) to run projects which will help focus on the themes of innovation, creativity, collaboration and entrepreneurship. The Arts Council are urging individuals to apply early and apply often. The demand received for this fund will help indicate a further and/or extended funding requirement for the future.

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