Just another WordPress site
This is a morning briefing for all prospective mentors for CoderDojoBelfast. It is being held in the Gerald Moag Campus of Belfast Metropolitan College at 10 am on Saturday 22nd September. This briefing will include details on the 2012-2013 programme and the plans and expectations for each mentor and opportunities to get involved. http://digitalcircle.org/events/coderdojobelfast-mentor-briefing Related … Continue reading “CoderDojoBelfast kicks off for 2012-2013”
This is a morning briefing for all prospective mentors for CoderDojoBelfast. It is being held in the Gerald Moag Campus of Belfast Metropolitan College at 10 am on Saturday 22nd September.
This briefing will include details on the 2012-2013 programme and the plans and expectations for each mentor and opportunities to get involved.
http://digitalcircle.org/events/coderdojobelfast-mentor-briefing
For me, the highlight of TEDxBelfast was this talk from Colin Williams – the man behind Sixteen South – Northern Ireland’s biggest and best children’s TV producer. There were other great talks, from a doctor self-diagnosing hypoxia while climbing Everest to a local teacher, originally from Nigeria, who highlighted the effects of poor choices. They’re … Continue reading “TEDxBelfast 2012: Fear; the Enemy of Creativity”
For me, the highlight of TEDxBelfast was this talk from Colin Williams – the man behind Sixteen South – Northern Ireland’s biggest and best children’s TV producer. There were other great talks, from a doctor self-diagnosing hypoxia while climbing Everest to a local teacher, originally from Nigeria, who highlighted the effects of poor choices.
They’re all worthwhile. But this one, for me, is special.
This morning I went for a walk around Bangor seafront. Yes, I love it here. Related posts: Holidays in England Living in Bangor Costs of Transport Sunday morning: After the Holiday
This morning I went for a walk around Bangor seafront.
Yes, I love it here.
@PadPad tweeted this earlier. Related posts: Use of OpenData: Icelandic Earthquakes Onlive: Gaming in the Cloud review TEDxBelfast 2012: Fear; the Enemy of Creativity CoderDojoBelfast kicks off for 2012-2013
@PadPad tweeted this earlier.
Translink said in their annual report that they had 77 million passenger journeys. I’m sending an FOI request into Translink to ask some questions that I think need answering. Dear Translink, I would appreciate some information about the operation of your services. According to your 2010/11 Annual Report, on page 59, it seems to say … Continue reading “Questions for Translink #FOI”
Translink said in their annual report that they had 77 million passenger journeys.
I’m sending an FOI request into Translink to ask some questions that I think need answering.
Dear Translink,
I would appreciate some information about the operation of your services.
According to your 2010/11 Annual Report, on page 59, it seems to say that you have 1,469 buses and 34 trains.
- can you clarify if this is correct and whether I have interpreted the figures correctly?
- can you clarify the breakdown of vehicles between Metro, Ulsterbus, Enterprise and other services?
Can you clarify how many seats you have across all of your services:
- how many of these buses are single decker and how many are double decker?
- how many seats are there on each of these bus types?
According to your 2010/11 Annual Report, you claim 77 million passenger journeys. Can you clarify the following:
- can you provide a breakdown of the time of day for these journeys?
- What percentage were before 9 am?
- What percentage were between 9 am and 5 pm?
- What percentage were between 9 am and 7 pm?
- What percentage were after 7 pm?
- can you provide a customer profile for these journeys?
- What percentage of these journeys were subsidised fares due to the traveller being pensioned, possessing an ELB pass other concessions due to low income, disability or unemployment?
- What percentage of these journeys used monthly or annual ticket arrangements to reduce costs?
- What percentage of these journeys paid full price?
- can you provide a regional profile for these journeys?
- by county, how many of these journeys originated in each of the counties of Northern Ireland?
- by county, what percentage of their journeys attracted a concessionary or subsidised fare (see above)?
- by county, what was the approximate revenue obtained from each county?
- And with special reference to Derry~Londonderry, can you provide the following information?
- by timetable, how many individual buses and trains service Derry~Londonderry?
- by timetable, how many inbound and outbound journeys are there servicing Derry~Londonderry?
- how many of the 77 million passenger journeys were attributed to the Derry~Londonderry region?
- by occupancy, can you define the percentage usage of the buses and trains servicing Derry~Londonderry?
Many thanks for your patience.
As I said earlier, my aim is to piece information to create a business case for the following pilot –
All of this in support of UK City of Culture 2013.
You have to start somewhere.
From a discussion on LinkedIn: For 95% of businesses, connectivity isn’t an issue. It never was – they’re not hamstrung by their slow speeds because the services they use are all located out of country anyway. And so I think its better to focus on these 95% – they’re the business owners in retail, in … Continue reading “Digital Northern Ireland – don’t ignore it”
From a discussion on LinkedIn:
For 95% of businesses, connectivity isn’t an issue. It never was – they’re not hamstrung by their slow speeds because the services they use are all located out of country anyway. And so I think its better to focus on these 95% – they’re the business owners in retail, in farming, in small manufacturing. They’re happy to limp along on <2Mbps connections. But the body of knowledge in using their Internet connection for more than the purchase supply chain is incredibly poor and laced with difficulty. Difficulties that are, for the most part, caused by the other 5% and the daft idea that every business needs its own web site, it's own e-commerce space and it's own app. These things are quickly becoming commodities. In the recent Innovation Fund, web sites and shops/e-commerce sites are not considered innovative for a reason. A small manufacturer (we often use the almost-pejorative "craft sector") can easily use online platforms such as eBay, Amazon Marketplace or Etsy or Folksy to sell their wares. And for most of the good ones, the problem is not accessing the Internet to sell, it's in meeting the capacity the Internet has created a demand for. Most small retailers already use the Internet in their supply chain because their suppliers demand it. My own business has been using the Internet for supply chain for 10 years now. It was never speed that was the issue, only connectivity. When moving offices meant losing Internet connectivity in the office for a month, that was the big issue in connectivity. And it still is. For the 5%? The digital businesses? Ones who should be better equipped? I can't even begin to describe where we fail them. From the provision of connectivity to the supply of their raw materials (skilled workers). But there is a reason my content servers are in the USA and that comes down to the cost of providing connectivity per sq ft.
There is an inevitability of a concentration on the digital knowledge economy for Northern Ireland. We have a thriving group of developers and designers in Belfast, a huge amount of ambition in the North West and a heap of activity building in the Southern and Western counties of the province. Last week I went to … Continue reading “There’s Digital Hubs and digital hubs.”
There is an inevitability of a concentration on the digital knowledge economy for Northern Ireland. We have a thriving group of developers and designers in Belfast, a huge amount of ambition in the North West and a heap of activity building in the Southern and Western counties of the province.
Last week I went to the Digital Hub along with Momentum, Belfast City Council, InvestNI and representatives from DCAL and OFMDFM.
We heard the spiel about how it brought some regeneration to the area, that they still have a considerable subvention from the government after 10 years (less than €2m a year, but overall investment has been around €30m since inception and may not include transferred assets).
I also spoke to some of the guys in some of the businesses. They said they wish the Hub was one mile closer to the city centre, that the reason they use bikes and public transport is because they don’t want to bring their cars to that area of town and even the big lads feel a little concerned leaving the Hub with a laptop.
It re-iterates my belief that a city centre location for a Belfast Hub is essential. Not least because Davy Sims put together a map of Digital Media companies in Northern Ireland back in February of 2010 and discovered most were within a square mile in the city centre.
View Belfast Media Square Mile in a larger map
I don’t think we want a straight property play like the Hub in Dublin. We’re a small region with a big ambition so we have to think much more strategically about what goes where. We also need to be 100% joined up. I think I have the support of the Digital Circle steering group in my opinions and in my vision for a digital hub-type infrastructure in Northern Ireland. It’s a big plan, an ambitious plan, even an audacious plan and if it delivers, it will bring the concept to the province as a whole rather than just to a small region.
Last weekend I went out sailing with Ballyholme Yacht Club for their RYA Adult Sailing Beginner Course. Best. Fun. Ever. I’m going again on the 24th-25th September for the Level 2 sailing which will cover more about: rigging, ropework, sailing techniques and manoeuvres, launching, recovery, capsizing and an introduction to racing. Related posts: Pivot? No, … Continue reading “I’m the one in the yellow lifejacket…”
Last weekend I went out sailing with Ballyholme Yacht Club for their RYA Adult Sailing Beginner Course.
Best. Fun. Ever.
I’m going again on the 24th-25th September for the Level 2 sailing which will cover more about: rigging, ropework, sailing techniques and manoeuvres, launching, recovery, capsizing and an introduction to racing.
Further to my earlier post about CIIF, I think it’s important to point out what an amazing opportunity this is for web and mobile companies in Northern Ireland. I remember the first time I saw a CSS-based parallax scrolling background (Example) and I marvelled. And then I saw the Safari tech demo pages (Example) and … Continue reading “Where does he get those wonderful toys….”
Further to my earlier post about CIIF, I think it’s important to point out what an amazing opportunity this is for web and mobile companies in Northern Ireland. I remember the first time I saw a CSS-based parallax scrolling background (Example) and I marvelled. And then I saw the Safari tech demo pages (Example) and I marvelled again. I just loved the falling leaves demo and I absolutely love what Paul Hayes did here.
It cannot be underestimated what the creation of toys can bring in terms of eyeballs. For a talented web developer team, they might get 100,000 hits from Hacker News but it only takes one new client (resulting from the coverage) to pay for the investment in the tech demo. The Creative Industries Innovation Fund can help a smart development team make great amazing toys.
For instance: look at this Kickstarter for A Canvas and WebGL Programmer’s Text Editor by Robey Holderith. He’s seeking $4,096 in order to “pay” him to build this. CIIF is offering up to four times that amount of money to get people to build amazing stuff.
I also look at the recent release of Kindle Cloud Reader which, although not perfect, really shows how good a web app can be (especially on iOS if you pin it to your home screen and therefore lose most of the Safari borders).
CIIF is looking for 50 great projects. Some of them will be tour guides, some of them web apps, some of them promotional videos but I’d love to see some really REALLY inspiring HTML/CSS stuff. I want developers and designers to thin hard about breaking the laws of (web) physics with this stuff. Do something that makes your peers go “wow”. Make it kick ass with WebKit and use your network to test and refine it.
And if you’ve already made some wonderful toys then please send me the link for it. We need to showcase talent when we see it. I want to rave about my colleagues and countrymen and tell everyone about their talent because while there may be appsterdam, we were doing it first with XCake.
Now, I know this isn’t always going to be possible but I am reminded of when the XCake folk have been able to stand up in front of their peers and tell them all about their latest view controllers. It’s gobbledygook for the rest of us but it shows the talent of the teams involved.
What I’m saying is: Make something awesome. Make a wonderful toy. And tell everyone.
The show is on from the 16-25 September in Southampton, no less. Advance tickets are very reasonable. See here. Just interested in seeing if other travellers would like to attend as I’d love to make the trip down maybe for one of the weekend days. Bringing this back into the realm of the day job: … Continue reading “Anyone fancy going to the Southampton Boat Show in September?”
The show is on from the 16-25 September in Southampton, no less. Advance tickets are very reasonable. See here.
Just interested in seeing if other travellers would like to attend as I’d love to make the trip down maybe for one of the weekend days.
Bringing this back into the realm of the day job: I went to the London Boat Show earlier this year and I was struck by one thing: how few of the traders and chandleries in the exhibition stands were prepared for taking payments other than cash. I’d see this sort of market ripe for companies like AirPOS to provide mobile points of sale turning netbooks, tablets and even phones into a point of sale for small businesses.
The first business show that I exhibited at really drilled home the concept:
Don’t give me your business card, give me your credit card.
For smaller items, you just want to buy, for larger items you want it to be shipping to your house just after you get home (or waiting in your office). Having a connected Point of Sale with an online store can make all of the difference. It pains me that so few companies take this on board.