DigitalCircle – Page 9

The Skills to Build Tomorrow

Article on Wired.com: 2011: Second Wave of Children’s Mobile Apps Is Coming Attributes of a Second-Wave Educational App The app can only exist on the mobile device. The app maximizes the opportunities presented by the technical capacity of the mobile device. It allows children to create. It connects children to each other and to the … Continue reading “The Skills to Build Tomorrow”

Article on Wired.com: 2011: Second Wave of Children’s Mobile Apps Is Coming

Attributes of a Second-Wave Educational App

The app can only exist on the mobile device.

The app maximizes the opportunities presented by the technical capacity of the mobile device.

It allows children to create.

It connects children to each other and to the outside world.

It looks beautiful.

Each of those points is explored in more detail in the article itself so you should read it. It also contains links to some apps which epitomise each point.

These decisions are much harder to implement than any of the arguments about platform or technology used. You’ll find it difficult to implement in non-native technologies (Flash, HTML) because they’re sufficiently abstracted from the platforms that they cannot take advantage of the plethora of unique sensors and attributes of each device. You’ll need to do this in native code.

Each challenge will require a separate skillset to be implemented. A chance meeting with Conann Fitzpatrick, who, along with Greg Maguire, is running a Maya course in the Belfast Campus of the University of Ulster today, got us talking about the different skillsets* which are needed to bring an animation or a game to fruition.

Whether the end result is to entertain, to instruct, to guide or to distract, the principles, the core skills are the same. We have already built considerable capability in platforms, in creativity, in new technologies and Northern Ireland has always been quick to adopt the new and shiny. Our weakness has traditionally been working together. Luckily, with Digital Circle, that’s a thing of the past.

*an example is rotoscoping. A lot of people with skills in Photoshop and the time to spend on it, could become good at this. And it’s one of the skillsets that an animation studio would need. So what’s stopping them?

What’s the Spanish for…

Today I was involved in a lunch meeting with a media company looking at the feasibility of coming into Northern Ireland to create a development and support centre. Extremely likeable folk – especially when we slightly digressed into the solutions for hyper-local news, the opportunity for e-learning solutions based around challenge-based learning, the colloquial Spanish … Continue reading “What’s the Spanish for…”

Today I was involved in a lunch meeting with a media company looking at the feasibility of coming into Northern Ireland to create a development and support centre. Extremely likeable folk – especially when we slightly digressed into the solutions for hyper-local news, the opportunity for e-learning solutions based around challenge-based learning, the colloquial Spanish for “motherfucker” (part of a much larger discussion around games used for language acquisition) and the opportunities for really really passionate people in a company that values passion over all.

Really nice guys, very easy to talk to.

to drink a lot of bourbon and stay up late

The title quote was made by Lauren Bacall. It comes from the founding of the Rat Pack – when asked by columnist Earl Wilson what the purpose of the group was, Bacall responded “to drink a lot of bourbon and stay up late.” ref: wikipedia Today I spent several hours with the University of Ulster … Continue reading “to drink a lot of bourbon and stay up late”

Today I spent several hours with the University of Ulster Interactive Media Arts Second Year students who were finishing up a two week ‘in-house” placement within the university and working on projects related to Digital Circle: some code4pizza projects and also the formation of an initial showreel for the upcoming SxSW Interactive trade mission.

Over the 10 days, the students were joined variously by Paul Malone (PaperJam Design), Stuart Mackey (PaperBag Ltd), Stuart Mallett (Mac-Sys Ltd) and Bertrand Lassallette-Desnault (Supernova Productions). Each of these folk works in a different part of the digital content industry and had some views (sometimes conflicting) for the students.

When I first met these students I wasted all of my good joke material early as I was keen to get some sort of response from them – and there wasn’t much of a response. Today though, I saw a group of entirely different minds. I had waxed lyrical about how they needed to develop their portfolio, about how their attitude was the deciding factor between working in a great job or a McJob, about how they didn’t need anyones permission to be inspired.

I’m really happy with everything I saw today. I saw redesigns and rebranding for Code4Pizza, web site designs, app user interfaces, heads buried in XCode, hand drawn art, short (but amazing) paper-based pinball animations, stop motion, vector art and, best of all, some real enthusiasm for the subject.

We finished today with a talk that started in the classroom and ended in the car and ranged from Secret Cinema to Cut-up Technique, Building Projections to the Graffiti Research Lab. That, the conversation that comes from collective enthusiasm, is the best place to be.

Fucking walk the walk rather than just talking the talk

Digital Circle was a project funded under the Collaborative Network Programme, run by InvestNI under the European Regional Development Fund. The project started in April 2008 and I got the job in August of that year. The project officially ends at the end of March 2011, giving me two months and a bit to tie … Continue reading “Fucking walk the walk rather than just talking the talk”

While I think the last two-and-a-half years have been good, it’s been a series of ups and downs; mainly due to a schizophrenic set of reporting lines and objectives. It is difficult to reconcile the needs and wants of three distinct masters. I do believe the impact of the Digital Circle project (and more specifically, my work) has been very positive for a few companies but I am aware that a lot of companies didn’t get a lot of out of it. In the end we had limited resources and also, to be honest, I could only work with companies who worked with me, companies who wanted my help.

Digital Circle has served as a single contact point for the industry, it gave some companies something to rally around. There were (and probably are) a lot of people who didn’t know what Digital Circle was for, just as there are a lot of people who don’t know what Momentum is for, or what UNISON or trade unions are for. We want to keep work here so it’s important to use local talent where you can, it’s important for the development of skills to communicate your needs and it’s important we capture and dole out any incoming work in a fair manner. This all happened.

Digital Circle served as the initial funder for local events in many cases. While BarCampBelfast I was funded by Mac-Sys Ltd, Digital Circle provided the first funding for BarCampBelfast II and III. It funded CreativeCamp I and II. It provided a hefty amount of money to get BUILD started. It was a sponsor of the Cinemagic Festival, of Planzai’s SXSW preparation blueprint and is a sponsor of the SXSW 2011 trip itself. As the project ends, so does that avenue of funding for ‘making things happen’.

Digital Circle served to lobby for the industry. Not entirely successfully, I admit, but we have a burden of proof when dealing with government agencies and politicians and the fragmented nature of industry actively prevents identification and labelling. We needed to find everyone before we can ask them questions and I don’t believe we’ve found everyone. Getting everyone to fill in a questionnaire is a task I have ahead of me. We were successful, I believe, in changing some opinions as we barged our way onto consortia, met with the right people in colleges and universities and fought on behalf of our members for funding.

I think we did some really good things. We created some networks for people to hang their hats and brought people into the community. We attracted the attention of some really amazing guys (Thanks, Tim, David) and we used them to advise our local startups. We can always do with more help, obviously, and I’ve put a lot of people in touch with our locals – all about creating opportunity.

Digital Circle is about to launch a new web site, funded by DCAL under the Creative Industries Innovation Fund, it’ll replace the current NING site with something that permits membership, the appropriate representation of professionals within the field, the opportunity for businesses to showcase their work and a more centralised forum system. It’s being developed by ‘Rumble Labs & Dave Rice’, folk I have immense respect for.

But how to move forward with Digital Circle is something I can’t necessarily do alone. I’ve been very lucky to have some great helpers and directors including the original steering group (Adrian, Davy, Russell, Gerard), the second group (Adrian, Davy, Aidan, Andy, Kev, Marty) and the latest group (Mary, Martin, Ian, Alan, Ryan and the co-optees Rory, Aidan, Mark). I’ve also been very lucky to have great support from within InvestNI as well (Thanks to Glenn, Stephen, Linda, Pat, Martin, Terry, Alastair, Cheryl, Noyona, Lisa, Bob, Michael, Paul, David and a host of others). There’s a lot of love for the Digital sector within InvestNI – they know that this sort of knowledge economy is the future but it still falls to us, those who work in the sector, to stand up and identify themselves so we can gather the proof we need.

I look ahead with a sense of trepidation but also of hope and wonder. I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do next. I received a stern talking-to this afternoon regarding my long-mentioned new startup plans. My reluctance comes from my previous role in Infurious, a company I originally founded with my best friend, Aidan. Circumstances were not ideal and eventually Infurious turned from being a product company into a software contracting company. That wasn’t what I wanted and my position in the company conflicted directly with my Digital Circle work – I knew which was more important to me (at the time) but in hindsight I wish I had taken more of a stand back at the start and done more to assist Aidan especially in the area of raising money. It’s something I’ve never done and, to be honest, it scares the bejasus out of me. As someone said to me, “Raising money is easy. Delivering to your investors what you promised is hard”.

Being involved in Infurious was a lot harder than running Mac-Sys Ltd. With Infurious, I wasn’t really involved in the creation of the product except very peripherally. With Mac-Sys Ltd, I was the product. With that level of control comes a lot of confidence. That’s something I find hard to find with a software business. I know there are cool things I want to help build, but finding the right people to build them and finding money to pay them is hard.

I’ve worked with mentors now for nearly two years and I still don’t feel like I have the confidence to walk alongside some of the folk I mention above. I wish I’d listened more and worried less. It pains me that I don’t really understand what preferential shares are or really how to negotiate a convertible loan – that the idea of arguing for good terms on the term sheet is something that fills me with dread. I want to start something but being pre-product (never mind pre-revenue), it may require an amount of chutzpah* and moxie* that I simply don’t have. Yet.

I think that 2011 may have to be the year that I, as Marty delicately put it, “Fucking walk the walk rather than just talking the talk”. I never claimed to have done it but I loved helping others go through the process. I was never a mentor, but loved finding them.

The title of this blog post is therefore 100% aimed at myself and not the brave souls who are already Just Fucking Doing It.

*I love these words.

#TIC, #KTN, #Science, #Technology, #Innovation

I wrote my first business plan for a co-working space in about 2006 – in response to some encouragement from an ex-colleague who was in Investment Belfast. It helped crystallise some ideas I had with regards to not only co-working, but skills, inclusion, business incubation and innovation. Over the last two-and-a-bit years I’ve been included … Continue reading “#TIC, #KTN, #Science, #Technology, #Innovation”

Over the last two-and-a-bit years I’ve been included on snippets of longer conversations regarding the ‘need’ for a Digital Hub in Belfast. It’s something that inspired us to create StartVI, among other things. I’ve been part of these attempts and also witnessed them being opposed by people who should be helping.

But while CoWorking spaces are generally places to “work” and by that I mean write, create spreadsheets, lay out books, edit images, create software and network online. They provide desks, light, heat, WiFi, coffee, armchairs, water coolers and toasters.

is there a way to have a coworking (or co-researching) facility for freelance scientists?

and this article continues:

A coworking space has three important components: the physical space, the technological infrastructure, and the people. A Science Hostel that accommodates people who need more than armchairs and wifi, would need to be topical – rooms designed as labs of a particular kind, common equipment that will be used by most people there, all the people being in roughly the same field who use roughly the same tools.
…
But in the modern world, there can be more of those. There will be vast differences in size, type and economics. Some will be built and funded by large, rich institutions. Others will be cooperative projects. Some will be free, but by invitation only. Others will be open, but charging for space and use of the facilities.

We don’t have the resources in Northern Ireland to create a vast Fraunhofer-style network of collaborative research institutes so we have to be clever. £200m will be spent on this network of elite technology centres and despite our low population, the strength of our two local universities will mean we can expect to get >£10m of this, which would build 2-3 such centres. I would be disappointed if they were just carbon copies of what had gone before or worse, they just extended the duration of stuff that wasn’t working particularly well in the first place.

One of these in Belfast, using the Technology and Innovation Centre model, could provide access to shared facilities and useful knowledge which would help make up for the small population we have in Northern Ireland. The initial candidate areas of energy & resource efficiency, transport systems, healthcare, ICT and electronics, and photonics & electrical systems all require a significant ICT resource, resource which could be shared and which could take advantage of ‘traditional’ co-working models – bringing in our local experts in software engineering, user interface design and content. Just as a co-working centre contained writers, designers, software engineers, journalists, teachers and life-coaches, so a co-research centre could contain biologists, chemists, physicists and other disciplines – harnessing relationships with the universities for particularly specialised equipment but only containing individuals dedicated to the future of scientific progress.

It’s only thorough these collaborations that create “some of the luck and coincidences that gave us huge leaps in science and technology.”

Who’s interested?

Paper

This morning I had two meetings with two local companies. The first was with Paul and Dee from Paperjam, a local brand and design company responsible for some of the most iconic and lasting designs in the industry. We talked about their commitment to excellence in branding, their conscientious and research-oriented approach to the development … Continue reading “Paper”

This morning I had two meetings with two local companies.

The first was with Paul and Dee from Paperjam, a local brand and design company responsible for some of the most iconic and lasting designs in the industry. We talked about their commitment to excellence in branding, their conscientious and research-oriented approach to the development of a brand and their desire to work with excellent people. They’re intending to do some work with Digital Circle in 2011 on the importance of establishing a brand as well as doing some exclusive work with StartVI companies on improving their brand impact.

The second was with Stuart from Paperbag and we talked about the future direction of their company which specialises in the development of apps for iPhone and Windows Phone 7 and their development from a services-based company to one that also has their own IP and product. They’ve some exciting plans and a heap of great products (as well as being an active and contributing member of Digital Circle) and I’m very excited to see the development of their business in the year or so I’ve known them.

The thing they have in common (other than the word Paper) is that they’re both started by young entrepreneurs who have big ambitions and a lot to offer. Both already export most of their work outside of Northern Ireland and fulfill all of the conditions of being an InvestNI client so I’m going to help both of them avail of some of the supports which are available from our local offices.

SBRI

Last week I attended a presentation on the Small Business Research Initiative or, as it is known locally, Pre-Commercial Procurement. Much of this content is cribbed from Eoin McFaddens (of the Innovation Policy Unit in DETI) excellent presentation and description and enthusiasm for the project. Pre-commercial procurement for especially for SMEs For innovative products, processes … Continue reading “SBRI”

Pre-commercial procurement for especially for SMEs

For innovative products, processes or services
Contracts (procurement), no subsidy and no grant
In competition

Goal is threefold:

Solving public questions/concerns , e.g. waste management
Stimulating innovation among SMEs
Exploitation of public knowledge and technology

Exempted are:

Products/processes/services which are not new compared to the state of the art world wide
Projects which were already procured

This diagram captures much of the process. The identification of the Unmet Need, the provision of first stage pre-commercial procurement, the establishment of filters to help define exactly the right process and prototype. The entire process is geared towards deliverables, not hourly rates.

The concept hinges around “Unmet Needs” – areas of development which may not be fully developed locally and where domain knowledge is not present within the public sector.

This process will build domain knowledge within local industry as well as in the public sector, it is 100% funded R&D as it is a procurement and not a grant (and therefore is not subject to EU state aid rules) and in most cases the IP will remain with the company while allowing the public sector certain usage rights. The increase in domain knowledge should bring better products to market for the public sector company and increase competition for the best product.

The most important part here is the green box – full open procurement permitted by every company, even those that were admitted earlier in the pre-commercial procurement but which didn’t make it to later stages.

Examples where this has been used in the past:

Retrofit for the Future – Department for Communities and Local Government
This competition aims to retrofit UK social housing stock in order to meet future targets in reduction of CO2 emissions and energy use.

Keeping Children Active – East of England SHA
Looking for technologies which can help and motivate children to take more exercise, to understand and monitor the amount of exercise they are taking and to incentivise them to exercise more.

Synthetic Environments – Department for Transport
This competition explores the use of synthetic environments applied to transport, in this case, modelling and managing complex traffic situations on motorways

And to finish off, some links to related reports and web pages:

Design for Business Conference 2010

This morning I attended InvestNIs Design for Business conference. The keynote by Richard Seymour of SeymourPowell was, as you’d expect, both inspirational and obvious. My tweets from the conference with Twitpics: #DFB Design For Business conference starting soon. @timtendo on the podium soon http://twitpic.com/2wxo2o http://twitpic.com/2wxo2n #DFB Michael Thomson, DesignConnect – MC for the event. http://twitpic.com/2wxoi1 … Continue reading “Design for Business Conference 2010”

This morning I attended InvestNIs Design for Business conference. The keynote by Richard Seymour of SeymourPowell was, as you’d expect, both inspirational and obvious.

My tweets from the conference with Twitpics:

#DFB Design For Business conference starting soon. @timtendo on the podium soon http://twitpic.com/2wxo2o http://twitpic.com/2wxo2n

#DFB Michael Thomson, DesignConnect – MC for the event. http://twitpic.com/2wxoi1

#DFB Standing room only! #tweetni http://twitpic.com/2wxoxh

#DFB Promoting Design to the Wider Community @timtendo – one show only http://twitpic.com/2wxpxc

#DFB The UK had one of the best consumer electronics industries in the 1980s. Trounced on quality, technology, design.

#DFB Design differentiates Innovative companies

#DFB InvestNI have a whole new programme of design supports for client companies.

#DFB Design being highlighted as a strategic business tool at the European Commission level.

#DFB Richard Seymour of Seymourpowell about to take the stage.

#DFB Richard Seymour – “Design is a verb, a process, not a noun” Technical functionality + Emotional functionality http://twitpic.com/2wxsd8

Video of the Virgin Galactic lifter & spacecraft. Quite inspiring. #DFB

#DFB Folding TShirt video used to demonstrate the creation of ‘minor magic’ from the banal, the boring, the mundane.

#DFB Typewriter – a laptop that prints as you type and doesn’t need plugged in.

Emergent behaviour the key #DFB

Shinjinhui? What was that word? #DFB

#DFB Good design is very cheap (per unit cost). Bad design is very expensive.

#DFB Apple is brilliant in their anthropology, not their technology.

Short, Medium, Long term all come at the same speed. Focus on the long term now.

#DFB Industrial Judo

Lasagna as a laminate. #DFB

#DFB Plan for Discontinuity. Richard Seymour reckons genetics is coming. I knew that degree would come in handy someday.

#DFB Understand the Young. Emergent behaviour starts here.

#DFB Sustainability. Embrace it or be regulated out of existence.

#DFB GET OUT MORE Broaden your perspective. AR. ASR. IoT. All coming. Flashmobs. Groups. Social. Learn, understand or perish.

#DFB Talk to someone who works there… (in the future)

#DFB Hindenberg is a legacy.

#DFB The future of packaging might be no packaging. See soap, cheese, sausages

#DFB Refill and Concentration will rise, as will counterfeit and contamination.

#DFB Start at the end, pull from the future or repeat yourself ad nauseum.

#DFB In the C21, your competitor is Jurassic. Don’t expect the old rules.

#DFB Optimism, Truth, Honour Two words propel Apple (and are not ‘Steve Jobs’) OPTIMISTIC FUTURES

Apple did MP3 better. Apple did phones better among competitors. With tablets, most other manufacturers waited to see what Apple did first.

Knights Templar Oath : BE WITHOUT FEAR…

#DFB that oath seems to be sourced from “Kingdom of Heaven” (2005)

Digital Design #DFB with Paul McKeever of FRONT http://twitpic.com/2wy6zw

So far, every speaker has mentioned the iPad. #DFB

#DFB Customers are harder to reach, don’t trust mass media, web influential FRONT throwing out the hard facts.

Value, an intangible quality, is experienced by people. #DFB

The web is text. #DFB

#DFB Very impressed with @paulmckeever ability to tease out the definition of a problem.

iPad TV

Impressive visuals here for an idea I blogged about earlier in the year (here and here) Click through the graphic to see the full article and other examples. Related posts: Focus A Physician completely refutes Plandemic HSDPA coverage in NI Holidays in England

Impressive visuals here for an idea I blogged about earlier in the year (here and here)

Click through the graphic to see the full article and other examples.

DIGITAL CIRCLE STEERING GROUP ELECTIONS

From Digital Circle The Digital Circle is a collaborative network funded by InvestNI under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The big news this month with Digital Circle is that the nominations for the elections for the Digital Circle Steering Group are now open. Each Steering Group is elected for one year so the next … Continue reading “DIGITAL CIRCLE STEERING GROUP ELECTIONS”

From Digital Circle

The Digital Circle is a collaborative network funded by InvestNI under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The big news this month with Digital Circle is that the nominations for the elections for the Digital Circle Steering Group are now open. Each Steering Group is elected for one year so the next group will be responsible for steering the Digital Circle through its most exciting and challenging year.

We would personally like to thank all the past elected steering
group members over the last two years for their support, their hard work, their selfless ability to make decisions and take calls for the good of the entire industry. They are Adrian Lennon (Being), Davy Sims (DavySims), Gerard McBreen (Fable), Russell Moore, Martin Neill (NoMoreArt, AirPOS), Andy McMillan (BUILD), Aidan McGrath (Aetopia) and Kevin Traynor (Sonic Academy). All of them are contactable through the Digital Circle membership list.

The Steering Group represents the industry when working with our colleagues in other sectoral groups and organisations such as Momentum, NIScreen, NISP CONNECT, HALO, The Arts Council, IntertradeIreland and
Invest Northern Ireland.

At this point we are requesting nominations for the five steering group positions. Steering Group nominees must be members of the Digital Circle, involved in the business of Digital Creativity in all forms. Please consider individuals who would have the time and drive to contribute to the industry as a whole and who can represent the sole trader, the small business and the larger business in the digital media sector. They should have an interest in the four pillars of Digital Circle: investment and funding, skills and training, innovation and creativity and export and internationalisation.

Please send any nominations to Matt Johnston via email and he will contact the nominee and ensure they are willing and able to stand for election. Nominations will close on Friday the 6th of August and the elections will run from Monday the 9th of August until Friday the 20th August.

We’re looking for a few good men and women…