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 IIA appears to be America’s counterpart to Digital Birmingham, as it seeks to promote US public policies that support equal opportunity for 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
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 9th December 2010.
For successful applicants interviews will take place on Wednesday 15th 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.
SOS – Hackers urgently needed for trans-global ‘Hackathon’ – Birmingham in collaboration with Edmonton (Canada) and Seoul (Korea)!!
When? Wednesday 20th October 2010 – 14:00 to Thursday 21st October 14:00. We know this announcement comes at short notice but you don’t get notice in a real emergency!
Where? Birmingham Science Park Aston Faraday Wharf, Holt Street.
What will our hackathon be like? It will be slightly different from most hackathons. As we work on our project, we will be sharing what we’re working on with Edmonton [Canada] and Seoul [Korea] as we ‘follow the sun’.
We’re going to spend 24 hours trying to create the blueprint for an app design that can be used in cities all over the world. This will be an application that will help families prepare during a disaster and will list emergency muster points, emergency info, alerts during disasters, and what to do. It will cater for different scenarios: although floods or a Buncefield type explosion are both emergency situations, you don’t handle them the same way. The aim of this app is to keep people safe, and we hope to come up with a guideline for how it should look – so that app designers around the world can pick up the guideline and run with it.
For more information and to book a place, please click here.
The dates for the Birmingham Open Weekend 2010, part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, have been confirmed as 23 – 25 July 2010.
As part of Cultural Olympiad, Say Hello, Aston Pride, the BBC and Digital Birmingham will be on hand to showcase the Digital Time Capsule where you, the people of Birmingham, will be able to record and upload your memorable moment in the form of a video, an image and/or audio file etc.
Come and join the team in Victoria Square on Friday 23 July 2010 from 10am – 4pm and be a part of Birmimgham’s digital journey!
Digital Birmingham is a Birmingham City Council initiative and part of a city wide strategic partnership of more than 40 public, private and voluntary organisations
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