Fair winds…

Yesterday I made a resolution to take some positive steps towards my eventual yacht ownership. I don’t want to just buy a boat and start trying to sail. That way would inevitably lead to some sort of personal disaster in a sad boating accident. I want to learn how to fix the inboard engine, wire … Continue reading “Fair winds…”

Yesterday I made a resolution to take some positive steps towards my eventual yacht ownership.

I don’t want to just buy a boat and start trying to sail. That way would inevitably lead to some sort of personal disaster in a sad boating accident. I want to learn how to fix the inboard engine, wire the lights, set up something to charge the batteries and maybe wire in some solar or wind generators. As electrics have always scared me (a holdover from being a biologist I reckon), I figured I needed to find some local courses for ridding myself of the fear and getting some knowledge. Of course, due to some nanny state regulations, none of our local colleges seem to do any sort of instruction.

So, today I ordered two books, text is from reviews of the books.

“There is no denying the scope of this book is, to say the least, comprehensive. It covers almost every topic imaginable in DIY from dry lining your basement to capping the chimney and covers it at every range whether you just want to change a fuse or rewire the entire building.”
“this is one of the best books I have EVER seen on any aspect of sailing. It is also probably the best illustrated sailing book I have ever seen – there are so many photos it makes every task extremely straightforward. I like the way it breaks the tasks down into ease of use, and tells you step by step how to solve the problem (even where to find the area you need to work on!”

I’ve also tracked down a RYA Basic Navigation Course at the Bangor Campus of SERC which I’ve enquired about. 5 weeks and starts in February. I reckon I’ll have time for that. The RYA describe it as:

This course is for anyone interested in sailing, motor boating, sea angling or diving. It’s also the perfect stepping stone to the more in-depth Day Skipper shorebased course or our on-the-water courses such as the Intermediate Powerboat, Start Yachting, Helmsman or Day Skipper courses.

They also note: it will be possible to take it online too through our RYA Interactive e-learning site.

My hope is to also get myself onto a Competent Crew course in 2011. My preference would be one of the courses operating from foreign shores, preferably the Med.

I’m intending to do some Skipper courses in 2012 – there’s no rush here.

One folk legend, two social workers and a poisoning.

There is an expectation that entrepreneurs will just get up and do stuff. That they need nothing more than a whiff of an opportunity and they’re off making millions. What utter rot. I’m reading Ken Robinsons book, The Element. In it (p120), he relates how a young Robert Allen Zimmerman had heard Woody Guthrie songs … Continue reading “One folk legend, two social workers and a poisoning.”

There is an expectation that entrepreneurs will just get up and do stuff. That they need nothing more than a whiff of an opportunity and they’re off making millions.

What utter rot.

I’m reading Ken Robinsons book, The Element. In it (p120), he relates how a young Robert Allen Zimmerman had heard Woody Guthrie songs many times before but it took one afternoon of listening to Guthrie to inspire him to become a performer himself.

If Bob Dylan needed to wait to be inspired, then surely we cannot expect more of anyone else?

I had an environment which should have inspired me to be an entrepreneur early. My father ran his own businesses from when I was four years old until I was thirteen when he was poisoned. He owned a record store, a whole raft of tyre/exhaust fitters, a pub. His passions were always music and beer. His most successful business, however, was the tyre/exhaust fitters. He made a goodly amount of money during the late 70s and early 80s being one of the few local companies who supplied the security forces with tyres and fittings. He got a lot of support from LEDU, the economic development organisation in Northern Ireland at the time. Until he got ‘sick’, we never wanted for anything.

My mother, on the other hand, is a strong-willed, independent woman who has managed rise to the top of any organisation while still maintaining a family (especially after 1985, when my Dad was ‘ill’). She’s made her career in the public sector, in the care of the elderly and infirm and my sister, another strong-willed, independent woman, has followed her in this line of work. They’re both empathic yet objective, both care deeply about the welfare of their clients and both get very frustrated with what they see as poor performance and wasted resource in the NHS. I admire them both.

My mother has described me as stubborn to the point of bloody minded. She says I knew my own mind from an early age and would make decisions about my education, about my future, without consulting either parent – decisions which they would be told about after the fact.

There was no ‘entrepreneur’ class in my school. The idea of starting your own business was not mentioned at all in Rathmore Grammar School. I think they expected all of us to become teachers, doctors, lawyers, vets, scientists and engineers. It’s different for kids now. They have the Go For It Challenge sponsored by InvestNI, there are programmes run in the FE colleges to help students start businesses and within our universities, the commercialisation offices are extremely keen to help smart undergrads and graduates start something.

So, how did I get started?

The first time was in the early nineties when reading a RPG book and thinking, “I could do this.” and so I did. I published three RPG books between 1996 and 2001. And they made money and got good reviews.

In 1997 I was working in Nortel and taking part of their “Management for Achievement” process. I was asked by my manager, Brendan, what I wanted to do in five years. My immediate answer was “Your job” but it got me thinking. And I decided that I’d be running my own IT services company. In 2003, I founded Mac-Sys Ltd. I left Nortel in late 2002 and spent six months with a startup (called Macinni) that was possibly the worst managed company in existence. When it folded, I had thought, “I could do this” and so I did. And it’s made money and gotten good reviews.

To my mind, seeing inferior work was ‘permission’ for me to do something. And I think it’s the same for our young latent entrepreneurs. We need to find ways to give them permission to start something. It’s not about being born with fire in their belly. It’s not about finding a way to give that permission.

After all this, with half a lifetime of experience, I’m not 100% sure what my “Element” is. Arlene says it’s a condition of never being satisfied with what I have. It’s not enough to have the day job. It’s not enough to settle into a routine. She reckons I’ll always be miserable because I’ll always be trying to do one more thing. And yes, it’s exhausting.

I guess I’m still playing the music, I’ve just not heard the music.

Movember update, Week 3

While it’s not quite a “Selleck” yet, it’s certainly filled out. It would be nice if it was the same colour as the rest of my hair 🙂 I did have a dream where Arlene and I were running, no idea where to. And she was trying to colour my moustache from “ginger” to “black” … Continue reading “Movember update, Week 3”

While it’s not quite a “Selleck” yet, it’s certainly filled out. It would be nice if it was the same colour as the rest of my hair 🙂

I did have a dream where Arlene and I were running, no idea where to. And she was trying to colour my moustache from “ginger” to “black” using Mascara. I have no idea what that means.

Anyway – here’s my Movember donation page. It’d be swell if y’all could swing by and add some pennies to the total.

Mindmapping the future

Digital Circle, my current job, is an ERDF-funded project supported by InvestNI. The project ends in early April 2011 so I’ve a few months to start thinking about what to do next. There are quite a few choices so I fired up Omnigraffle and drew a map of them. I’ve annotated a few of the … Continue reading “Mindmapping the future”

Digital Circle, my current job, is an ERDF-funded project supported by InvestNI. The project ends in early April 2011 so I’ve a few months to start thinking about what to do next. There are quite a few choices so I fired up Omnigraffle and drew a map of them. I’ve annotated a few of the choices with the costs/risks/rewards of each on my private copy but it’s a document I’d quite like some feedback on.

Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA)

I mentioned the RSA a few days ago via their iPhone app, RSA Vision. The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity (and on the building’s frieze The Royal Society of Arts … Continue reading “Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA)”

I mentioned the RSA a few days ago via their iPhone app, RSA Vision.

The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity (and on the building’s frieze The Royal Society of Arts – see photo). It was founded in 1754 and was granted a Royal Charter in 1847. Notable members have included Benjamin Franklin, Karl Marx, Adam Smith, William Hogarth, John Diefenbaker, Stephen Hawking and Charles Dickens.

While it has the trappings of an Establishment body, at many times in its history the RSA has been a radical body which has sought to challenge the status quo and change the world around it. A prospectus was issued inviting people to form a society in which concerns were expressed that developments in society were leaving too many people behind. Its founding charter expressed the purpose of the society as being to “embolden enterprise, enlarge science, refine art, improve our manufactures and extend our commerce”, but also of the need to alleviate poverty and secure full employment.

Why has it taken 38 years for me to discover this organisation? I really should get out more!

An email sent to a senior person in one of NI’s Health Trusts

Hi, Some of the stuff we were talking about. As you know – I’m funded by InvestNI in assisting media and technology companies in Northern Ireland compete on a global scale. We’ve been looking at areas of “Connected Health (aka Telecare, Telemedicine) to find ways where there can be market pull rather than technology push … Continue reading “An email sent to a senior person in one of NI’s Health Trusts”

Hi,

Some of the stuff we were talking about. As you know – I’m funded by InvestNI in assisting media and technology companies in Northern Ireland compete on a global scale. We’ve been looking at areas of “Connected Health (aka Telecare, Telemedicine) to find ways where there can be market pull rather than technology push for ambient assisted living. We do some work with both the University of Ulster and QUB to find real-world solutions.

We can develop all of this locally with local expertise – we’ve worked hard to develop significant expertise in mobile development (specialising on iPhone and iPad but also including Android and other mobile platforms). Recent developments from DEL have meant there is fully funded training available to qualified organisations in the development of mobile technology plus local businesses are able to avail of innovation vouchers from InvestNI to solve particularly though problems.

And with new guidelines from the Central Procurement Department in the DFP, we’ve been working with DETI to find pathfinder projects for Pre-Commercial Procurement.

We’ve been trying to work with Mencap NI at the moment to find a way where our developers can tie into their perceived needs to provide ambient assistance, travel training, social networks and other products which are slightly more specialised for the individual with learning difficulties. The possibilities are pretty much endless. The idea that an app can ask someone how they feel in the morning (good, bad) and have that reported back and plotted to discover trends is very exciting. The ability to use off-the-shelf hardware to permit safety tracking of vulnerable adults and a social network of carers to assist in the location of a vulnerable adult or child is very close to my heart.

So here are some of the links to give you an idea of what we’re talking about. Very happy to talk to people who are interested in this.

Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures.
http://cimota.com/blog/2009/08/12/global-social-open-mobile-playful-intelligent-and-instantaneous/

As ‘media’ has become disruptive – are there other industries that can be end-to-end digital: created, distributed and consumed – without ever becoming atoms.

Fred suggests:
Consumer Finance – money is already just bits. Why do we still use cash?
Education – education is interactivity, media, straight to the brain. The web as a textbook.
Energy – smart power in the home, renewable energy creating peer-produced micro-grids
Healthcare – self-care reporting, digital doctors, sharing data worldwide about pandemics?
Government – procurement, defence, law enforcement, entitlement, planning, crowd-sourcing?

Think about these areas: they’re incredibly disruptive to large organisations. To banks, schools and universities, power companies, hospitals and health trusts and, of course, the government itself.

The Fund for NHS Innovation
http://www.e-health-insider.com/news/4788/money_found_for_nhs_innovation

Health minister Lord Darzi has unveiled a package of measures to encourage and spread innovation in the NHS.

The Department of Health is creating a £20m prize fund to encourage people working inside and outside the NHS to combat the key health issues facing the nation.
DH information says: The funds will focus largely on promoting innovation in healthcare delivery, health improvement and patient engagement rather than the development of new medicines or devices, for which funds are already available.

New mental-health apps for iPhones like a ‘therapist in your pocket’
http://www.theprovince.com/health/mental+health+apps

The new apps let users track their moods and experiences, and either get instant advice on how to change negative affective states or assist mental-health-care providers with making psychological assessments.

“It gives me an additional source of rich information of what the patient’s life is like between sessions,” University of Pennsylvania researcher Dimitri Perivoliotis told NPR. “It’s almost like an electronic therapist, in a way, or a therapist in your pocket.”

A Doctor’s Review of Rounds with An iPad
http://www.medcitynews.com/2010/06/a-doctors-review-of-rounds-with-an-ipad/

For any provider who is highly mobile this blows the doors off of the COWs (computer on wheels) which is like rolling a file cabinet around. It’s faster, more reliable, insanely long battery life, and goes up stairs (although I have often thought of testing the ’down the stairs’ mode on the COWS when they run out of batter halfway through rounds on CC7) this is the machine to get. If you are office based, there isn’t a reason for this, but if you round on more than a few patients, then it will be invaluable.

iHelp for Autism – from SFWeekly
http://www.sfweekly.com/2010-08-11/news/ihelp-for-autism/all/

Leo is Rosa’s 9-year-old son, and when people ask her about him, she is mindful to explain him in a way that will set appropriate expectations. He is a boy with intense autism, she says. He is not conversational, he learns very slowly, and he has been prone to violent outbursts.

Though scrolling through the icons is easy for most users, the device was not created with special-needs consumers in mind.

So when Leo took it in his small hands as if it were an old friend, and, with almost no training, whizzed through its apps like a technology virtuoso, his mother gasped in amazement. After he began spending 30 minutes at a time on apps designed to teach spelling, counting, drawing, making puzzles, remembering pictures, and more, she sat down at her own computer.

iPhone’s VoiceOver Helps A Blind Person “See”
http://behindthecurtain.us/2010/06/12/my-first-week-with-the-iphone/

Last Wednesday, my life changed forever. I got an iPhone. I consider it the greatest thing to happen to the blind for a very long time, possibly ever. It offers unparalleled access to properly made applications, and changed my life in twenty-four hours. The iPhone only has one thing holding it back: iTunes. Nevertheless, I have fallen in love.

I have seen a lot of technology for the blind, and I can safely say that the iPhone represents the most revolutionary thing to happen to the blind for at least the last ten years. Fifteen or twenty years brings us back to the Braille ‘n Speak, which I loved in the same way, so have a hard time choosing the greater.

The other night, however, a very amazing thing happened. I downloaded an app calledColor Identifier. It uses the iPhone’s camera, and speaks names of colors. It must use a table, because each color has an identifier made up of 6 hexadecimal digits. This puts the total at 16777216 colors, and I believe it. Some of them have very surreal names, such as Atomic Orange, Cosmic, Hippie Green, Opium, and Black-White. These names in combination with what feels like a rise in serotonin levels makes for a very psychedelic experience.

The next day, I went outside. I looked at the sky. I heard colors such as “Horizon,” “Outer Space,” and many shades of blue and gray. I used color cues to find my pumpkin plants, by looking for the green among the brown and stone. I spent ten minutes looking at my pumpkin plants, with their leaves of green and lemon-ginger. I then roamed my yard, and saw a blue flower. I then found the brown shed, and returned to the gray house. My mind felt blown. I watched the sun set, listening to the colors change as the sky darkened. The next night, I had a conversation with Mom about how the sky looked bluer tonight. Since I can see some light and color, I think hearing the color names can help nudge my perception, and enhance my visual experience. Amazing!

Corporate Social Responsibility

From Wikipedia: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) … is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. Ideally, CSR policy would function as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby business would monitor and ensure its support to law, ethical standards, and international norms. Consequently, business would embrace responsibility for the impact of its activities on … Continue reading “Corporate Social Responsibility”

From Wikipedia:

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) … is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. Ideally, CSR policy would function as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby business would monitor and ensure its support to law, ethical standards, and international norms.

Consequently, business would embrace responsibility for the impact of its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere. Furthermore, CSR-focused businesses would proactively promote the public interest by encouraging community growth and development, and voluntarily eliminating practices that harm the public sphere, regardless of legality. Essentially, CSR is the deliberate inclusion of public interest into corporate decision-making, and the honoring of a triple bottom line: people, planet, profit.

This is in line with my previous costs on extraordinary possibilities via my own personal interest: code4pizza. Indeed, some companies may choose to see involvement in code4pizza to be an effective demonstration of CSR (though I would hazard it should not be the only one).

But does CSR really mean that the public sector can get “off the hook” when it comes to the provision of public services. Our own work with OpenTranslink would indicate to me that CSR labour is complementary to and not a replacement for public sector investment.

The best example shown to me today from the NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) blog. This is the Chicago Lincoln subway station owned by the cash-strapped Chicago Transit Authority.

Copyright Eric Allix Rogers

And this is the station today after a $4M investment from Apple.
Copyright Steven Vance

Apple took it upon themselves to invest in the subway station because it made the approach to their new retail store that little bit more pleasant, not only for customers but also their staff. Apple also built the plaza in between the North/Clybourn transit station and its new store, which opened in late October.

Copyright Ian Freimuth

“A plaza, with seats. Like these guys weren’t so terrified of homeless people sitting down that they weren’t going to let anyone else sit down, either. And a fountain, that instant supplier of peace. It made me want to sit down on a nice day with a cup of tea and a book. OK, in gratitude to Apple, it should be an iPad, but whatever. I say thank you to Apple.”

I do not exclude the public sector from CSR, of course, because they have some of the largest budgets and the largest numbers of people in employ. I know that Belfast City Council has several installations of public art (which they desperately need to publicise better) and has a remit to make the city more attractive. The same for Derry City Council.

The main driver for this sort of investment is the improvement of a city for staff and customers of large corporate companies. In order to better retain staff, it’s good to be seen to have a wider remit than simply profit. If people are your most important asset (as is the refrain of every company I’ve been employed by), then investing in the infrastructure that surrounds your staff is worthwhile. This is not the same as privatising services – this is about sustaining your working environment.

Just donated part of my face to Movember

If you meet me in the next 30 days, forgive the beardiness and donate. http://uk.movember.com/mospace/293694/ Related posts: Movember update Growing a Mo for charity I want FaceBook out of my face. Brave Face

If you meet me in the next 30 days, forgive the beardiness and donate.

http://uk.movember.com/mospace/293694/

I believe in extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people

Mike Cane tweeted: Democracy is based on the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people. ~ Harry Emerson Fosdick I firmly believe in the extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people. Code4Pizza is a light-hearted meeting of minds, open to coders, designers, people with ideas and people who want to just talk to other people … Continue reading “I believe in extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people”

Mike Cane tweeted:

Democracy is based on the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.
~ Harry Emerson Fosdick

I firmly believe in the extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.

Code4Pizza is a light-hearted meeting of minds, open to coders, designers, people with ideas and people who want to just talk to other people about the possibilities for public service value (or public good) especially in the area of open data. Our mission is to turn those possibilities into realities by creating opportunities for reflection, collaboration and innovation.

We expect our attendees to become active participants in society by contributing to the creation of goals and the evaluation of actions and work towards these goals. It is not enough to be passengers on the train of democracy – we must take our turns as conductors, engineers, navigators, and drivers.

On November 3rd, We’re having a Code4Pizza meeting and on December 4-5th we’ll be hosting a local RHoK (Random Hacks of Kindness – original site at http://rhok.org/). We will be applying our brains to the various Problem Definitions, modified only for local bias, and working to create teams who can deliver prototype solutions.

And, we hope, innovation.

Vote for StartVI

So, the first news is that StartVI has been shortlisted for The Europas, in the Best Ongoing Startup Programme 2010 category. The shortlisting is the important part – the other nominees for the category are organisations like BizSpark (the innovative and amazing value startup assistance from Microsoft) and the Digital Mission (who organise trade missions … Continue reading “Vote for StartVI”

So, the first news is that StartVI has been shortlisted for The Europas, in the Best Ongoing Startup Programme 2010 category.

The shortlisting is the important part – the other nominees for the category are organisations like BizSpark (the innovative and amazing value startup assistance from Microsoft) and the Digital Mission (who organise trade missions to other countries on behalf of UKTI and other bodies). Being included here is reward enough on two counts.

  • We’re getting some recognition and eyeballs. This is always valuable.
  • We’re able to see the other organisations in this space. They’re potential collaborators.

It’ll be my interest to make links with these other organisations and see how we can help each other. Whether that’s with the formation of a “Startup VISA” where we can provide support for each others startups in our local market or whether it’s finding potential SME partners for Pan-European projects – it doesn’t matter – as long as there is some sort of interaction.

Now, run along and give StartVI your vote.