Archive for the ‘Research’ Category

Launch 48

The aim of Launch48 is to bring together participants from different backgrounds and levels of experience in the web industry to think/plan/develop and launch one or multiple web apps in one weekend. It’s a frantic, energy fuelled, entrepreneurial event designed to engage all participants while offering the opportunity to learn and meet new people.

Launch 48 Birmingham will run between 12th and 14th of November 2010, at Birmingham Science Park Aston.

Launch48 Mini-Conference Birmingham runs from:

1 pm to 5 pm Friday the 12th of November, 2010

6 pm to 10 pm Friday the 12th of November, 2010
9 am to 9 pm Saturday the 13th of November, 2010
9 am to 9 pm Sunday the 14th of November, 2010

For more information, please click here.

Recently read an article which reported that Alzheimer’s could be staved off by becoming web-savvy.  Dr Gary Small, an expert on ageing at the University of California, Los Angeles, said “Our findings point to an association between routine internet searching and neural circuitry activation in older adults.

Google, more than ordinary reading, stimulated the brain regions controlling language, reading, memory and vision.”

The study of UCLA’s Memory & Ageing Research Centre, used 24 adults aged 55 – 76, half of whom were used to performing web searches.  Dr Small added:  “it seems people who are more adept with internet technology are likely to remain mentally agile.”

If the above is true, I think the DB team must be the exception to the rule as we all seem to be suffering from one mental dysfunction  or another, but just not Alzheimer’s!

I’ve just read an interesting article from the BBC site which makes reference to London’s attempt to free up some of the public sector data in order to see how people might use it.  Birmingham is doing a similar project called Timely Information – but I hadn’t realised until now that 4ip Channel 4′s innovation fund are offering a £200,000 reward for the best of the ideas that come out of the mashup.  If I were a hacker, that would give me another good reason to work into the small hours.  And when you’re analysing the released datasets, why not check out the Council’s ‘Be Heard’ database.  This is an online portal for all of the City’s consultation.  Eg. what people want.  Hackers, you have the data, and you also have a font of information from the public, on what services they need or would like to see developed. Check out the piece from the BCC here

Birmingham City Council have just unveiled a new and exciting database which pulls together all research & consultation projects they (and all Be Birmingham partners) undertake throughout the year, and gives Birmingham people a greater chance to get their voices heard.  The Be Heard database is an easy to use system which allows the user to search for key words or topics of interest.  There is a simple video which walks you through how to use the system, and a consultation calendar which shows when key pieces of research are planned.  The best bit though, is the database allows you receive email alerts when topics that interest you are due to happen.

New and interesting ways have been developed to help busy orgs.  evaluate and monitor the growing level of feedback from social media and review sites.

Some time ago I saw a product that evaluated text feedback on customer service received in a clothing shop.  By setting up key words, the feedback system was automated and daily/weekly/monthly reports could be produced to monitor how the shop was doing.

Today I read how similar systems are being developed to evaluate the ever growing quantity of comments and feedback left on social media sites.  Statistics show that 75% of feedback is being unread because of a lack of back end resource.  Automating the process seems like a very sensible move forward.  Especially when the methods of evaluating qualitative social media comments are few and far between.  Check it out here

The Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics was a spectacular sporting event, no-one can deny it. China has set the bar extremely high for London 2012, not only in the way they hosted the Olympiad but also the level of sporting achievement.

The “Water Cube” was one of the busiest venues throughout the Games, and the attention that the swimmers created for the sport was none other than amazing - 25 world records were broken, 8 of which by Michael Phelps alone. However, there has been much discussion since the Summer Olympics ended that these world records would not have been broken in such vast numbers without the technological advancement in swimming attire.

More – Innovation can encourage pessimism

What does the average Joe on the street know about how galaxies are formed? Well, apparently we know more than we think: www.GalaxyZoo.org allows anyone to help researchers at Oxford University identify the shapes of one million galaxies photographed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey telescope.

This is the latest example of how computers and humans can not only co-exist, but can combine their strengths in new and innovative ways to achieve things that neither could achieve alone. More – What do you know about galaxy formation?