Archive for the ‘technology’ Category

Back in June, we were approached to see how we could support the YRS Festival 2012, after it had outgrown its previous location in Bletchley and bring it to Birmingham. Through the hard work of many people, particularly Lara Ratnaraja and Big Cat, the Custard Factory and Birmingham, became home to the YRS Festival for the very first time.

Cllr McKay, Cabinet Member for Green, Safe and Smart City at the Show and Tell

This was a great coup for Birmingham; not only do we have the youngest population out of all the cities in Europe (so capturing the talent and ingenuity of young people resonates really well with us), but also the Open Data agenda is right at the heart of our Smart City programme. Ensuring data is open and accessible and easier to use will enable huge possibilities in the development of new apps, services and innovative products as part of this.

YRS 2012 proved just that. With access to open data and a week of intensive coding by youngsters (nigh on 500, some as young as 7!), at different centres across the country – we had a centre in Birmingham, courtesy of BCU (Millennium Point), something amazing took place. The culmination of all the hard work and late nights, ended with a massive sleepover session at the Custard Factory on Friday night  (fuelled by some 200 pizza’s) and show and tell on Saturday.

Their creations, along with the presentations were awe inspiring – postcode wars app; a way to go were some of the winners -100 projects from 38 centres; but for me it does drive home the need for us to get our data out there, and let nature do the rest.

Our thanks to Emma and her team for a brilliant event.  YRS is living proof of what is possible, highlights the significance of supporting young people to develop the skills needed for the jobs of the future and provides a great concept that we would like to explore and develop further in Birmingham.

Or, O Hai! Kultcha, as one commenter referred to it.

Anyway, on Thursday 17th November I attended Hello Culture at Zellig in the Custard Factory. It was billed as a day “to explore how the cultural sector can exploit digital technology, innovation, knowledge and skills” and I had  a little speaking slot on a panel in the morning about social media and user generated content. More – Hello Culture

Based on US statistics from the Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA) – their latest ‘broadband infographic’ details the connection between Broadband utilisation and the impact on the local economy, and in particular the beneficial effect this can have on job retention, creation and employment opportunities.

So, reiterating what Digital Birmingham has been saying for years:

The Ten Facts

The IIA appears to be America’s counterpart to Digital Birmingham, as it seeks to promote US public policies that support equal opportunity for online pharmacy universal broadband availability and adoption so that everyone, everywhere can seize the benefits of the Internet – from education to health care, employment to community building, civic engagement and beyond.

So, lets get all the US stats out of the way and I’d be really interested in finding out whether the UK has an equivalent body other than the Office of National Statistics (ONS) or West Midlands Regional Observatory, but in the meantime the Strategic Networks Group (SNG) has created a Digital Economy Index (DEi), which not surprisingly, the research shows that age and income have very significant impacts on how people use the Internet.  The proprietary Digital Economy Index summarises how households use thirty distinct Internet activities.  The higher the DEi, the more Internet activities a household engages in.  The Digital Economy index progression from 1 to 10 (10 being highest) reflects the number of e-solutions being utilised – 10 being a household at 100% utlisation.

Utilisation is impacted by income and age – the lower a household income or the older the household, the lower its Internet utilisation.  The differences (or divide) is most pronounced for those over 55 and those making less than $50,000.

So the digital divide is actually expanding as younger, higher income households best leverage e-solutions.

This years International Broadcast Convention in Amsterdam (8-13 Sept 2011) will see Touch2Views‘s giant iTab show-casing a new type of way-finder kiosk using ‘app based’ content along with software creators EUMediaNET.

The Giant interactive tablet is designed to present apps and app based content on a giant scale, with all the controls and gestures of the smaller sized tablets and smart phones of today. It can be run using mac, PC or bespoke systems, as preferred.

If you’re passing through, you can find Touch2View and EUMediaNET at Hall 6, Stand A26 from 9 –

13 Sept!

Digital Birmingham attended the launch and networking session of the European Competitiveness and Innovation ICT Policy Support Programme (CIP-ICT-PSP) in Brussels back in April.
The team are busy leading on a €2M EU match funding bid focused on developing digital skills and competencies for carers, as well as being a partner on the Digital Cities in Europe – Lifelong Learning Programme.
We successfully ran two workshops this month, one involving formal and informal carers and the other involving experts within the arena, in order to carry out

research to put into this bid.
The bid is due to be submitted shortly- watch this space for further developments and updates.

Birmingham’s ‘Looking Local‘ service developed over four years ago by Digital Birmingham, is part of a nationwide initiative to make local authorities easier ot access and is alreadt available via interactive digital TV, PC, Wii, online and via standard web-enabled mobile phones.

Birmingham City Council services such as housing, waste collection, street reporting and transport can now be accessed via an iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, with the launch of a brand new free app.

The new free-to-download app gives residents the functionality of the TV and web applications, with options including finding out about bus and train services and searching for jobs and health information as well as Council services.

Birmingham’s Looking Local TV service, available on Sky and Virgin Media, is the country’s most popular with 126,000 hits per month and a number of unique features including online school admissions.

Here’s how you can access Looking Local:

- via the dedicated iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch app: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/looking-local/id409806455?mt=8
- on web-enabled mobile phone at www.lookinglocal.gov.uk
- on Virgin, press the interactive button, select ‘News and Info’ and then select ‘Looking Local’
- on Sky, go to channel 539 and press RED
- on the Wii or PC, insert www.lookinglocal.gov.uk into the browser

We haven’t had a great deal of success with e-readers in Digital Birmingham it has to be admitted.  A couple of years ago we decided to test out the Sony Reader.  Unfortunately for us this purchase coincided with the city’s rollout of software that encrypted any USB drives plugged into its computers. A couple of ill-judged clicks later and we had an unusable device.

It took me weeks to work out how reset that darned thing.

This photo, Kindle 2: Electronic Paper Display, is copyright (c) 2009 Yutaka Tsutano and is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license

More – Stress testing an e-reader

Birmingham’s Festivals and Initiatives Team are seeking to commission six new projects which will deliver bold and inspiring public participatory programmes as part of Say Hello for 2010/2011.

The projects will celebrate Birmingham’s digital and technological achievements by developing new collaborations to increase the presence of digital content and widen the engagement with online and offline users. It is intended that the commissions will create ground-breaking initiatives, using digital media along with other artforms or technology such as Dance, Music, Film, Visual Arts, Animation, Open Data, Gaming etc to assist in developing a more meaningful and sustainable engagement with new audiences.

If you have had experience of developing and delivering participatory work and engaging with a wide range of communities and young people, this is an excellent opportunity to provide high quality digital initiatives in the heart of neighbourhoods and communities; creating dialogue and interest in the arts from new audiences through creative digital interventions and improving visitor perceptions more..

Note, applications should arrive no later than 10am on Wednesday 9^th December 2010.

For successful applicants interviews will take place on Wednesday 15^th December 2010. The contract will commence in December and run between December 2010 and March 2011.

Invitation to Next Generation Business Event  – Connected Companies Make Money
Date: Monday 22 November, 2010
Time: 9.30 – 13.30 – FREE to attend with lunch included
Venue: International Convention Centre, Hall 4

Technology is developing rapidly. Nearly half of our waking hours are spent using media and communications. Broadband is the fourth utility and users’ bandwidth demand grows by 50% each year (Nielsen’s Law).  61% of 15-24 year-olds use social networking…

What is your company doing about this?

If you are a business in Birmingham or the West Midlands conurbation already using email, web sites and the internet and want to find out more about the Government’s approach to Next Generation Access and what this means to your business, then come along to this free morning session and find out how you can:

1) Make better use of technology
2) Obtain the business advantage of fast access
3) Access a global market place
4) Afford the faster connections to enable you to be competitive in a digital age

This event is sponsored by Digital Birmingham, Birmingham & Black Country City Region, Business Birmingham, who are concerned about the area’s digital infrastructure (Digital Districts) and the take-up of broadband by businesses.  They are convinced that future business growth will exploit technology and require increasing speed of connection.

To look at the programme and book online, please click here.