Posts Tagged ‘Digital Birmingham’

The Next Gen Skills Debate – Birmingham Re-Worked on Monday was organised in association with Birmingham’s Commission on Youth Unemployment and Birmingham’s Smart City Commission, to take a transformative look at how we invest in skills & enterprise as part of a digital economy and create a brighter future for the young people of this city.

The Next Gen Skills Debate took place at Millennium Point in front of a packed house, energised by the support of Sampad and BOA students, who were our ‘Next Gen’ reporters’ for the day  – a reminder that young people need to be at the heart of the debate and shaping the next generation of learning – their future now. More – #nextgenskills

The Council is moving on with its project to make council data available as open data. Our aim is to make

as much open data available for free. However,  there is some policy work, which includes sorting out IPR issues and which licensing to use.

However, work is going on at the same time to abstract operations data which is not currently published. This is being used to test ways of publishing data in formats which will encourage re-use, such as XML, JSON and RDF.

The current Open Data web page on birmingham.gov.uk will be replaced with a platform to provide a repository for open data as well as additional information and services, such as metadata. If you want to find out more about this project or get involved please contact raj.s.mack@birmingham.gov.uk

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.

Discover – Digital Skills for carers was launched at a Carers Celebration which took place on the 21st June 2012 at the New Bingley Hall in Birmingham, England. The event was put together by the Birmingham Carers Centre in recognition of the positive difference all carers, both formal and informal in Birmingham, make to those that they care for and in the long run, the communities that they live in. It was great to see so many carers, of varying ages, nationalities and backgrounds joining hands to celebrate all that they do well!

Digital Birmingham were proud to launch Discover, on behalf of all Partners, at this event. We spoke to an array of people who were keen to learn more about the project and what incentives and qualifications it may be able to offer them and how this could better their lives in the long run. The key thing that both Annette and I observed was that a majority of carers were keen to have some sort of involvement in future trials, however dependent on what their personal situations were like at the time.

Overall a successful launch – A big thumbs up to Tina Donovan, Manager of Birmingham Carers Centre and all of her Partners in arranging a hugely successful event to mark the end of the UK’s National Carers week. If you would like to sign up for updates on the project, please go to http://www.discover4carers.eu for more information.

Digital Birmingham welcomed RT Hon Francis Maude MP to Fazeley Studios, Birmingham on Wednesday 14 March where he launched a series of case studies on ”Open for Business’ which will be available through the Open Data Innovation Community hub (#odinnovation). The morning was live streamed directly to the London Digital event in the City of London.

The morning was opened by Birmingham City Council’s Deputy Leader, Paul Tilsey, where he was particularly proud that the Minister had chosen Birmingham to launch this programme.

The Minister conveyed a broader message about #opendata, its benefits and how it is fueling business growth as well as playing a key role in creating new #smes.

Francis Maude MP said:

“Birmingham did not hang around in the 20th Century when it came grasping the possibilities of a smart, connected city.”

“Digital Birmingham saw a future where the city’s local businesses, local government, local universities would grasp economic opportunities and meet social challenges by ensuring the city had 21st Century digital infrastructure and digital services.”

“And as we know tying a digital city together is intelligence sharing – data sharing – transparency. Another area where you are forging ahead and setting a global example.”

He then went on to praise a couple of Birmingham’s prime examples of effective use of #opendata, Mudlark and Digital Birmingham’s Birmingham Civic Dashboard and Integrated Transport Planning Ltd‘s Access Advisr’ which brings information about accessible transport networks together in one online location.

The Minister concluded with saying:

“I certainly look forward to seeing Birmingham build its digital infrastructure and become one of Europe’s leading Smart, Connected Cities.”

“’ll be expecting the rest of the country to follow your lead.”

The speeches were followed by group discussions about the quality of open data; how the Council should publish its data; who data is aimed at; open data uses for managers inside public services; procurement; what the government and public sector can do to encourage SMEs to use open data as well as an ‘opt out’ clause for those who do not wish for their data to be used. An outcomes report will be available soon.

Deputy Leader Paul Tisley said:

“Making data openly available provides real opportunities to transform our services and

create value for citizens and communities.”

“Entrepreneurs and businesses will play a pivotal role in driving innovation to deliver new services and applications that will create jobs and build vibrant and successful communities. Our focus is to make the data open and accessible and create the right conditions that will enable them to derive the benefits of being part of our Smart, Connected and Open City.”

We like to especially thanks Nick Booth from Podnosh for brilliantly facilitating the discussion and Daniel Cremin and his team from Civico for hooking us up to London Digital.

Click here to view the live stream and press release.

If you weren’t able to book yourself onto the Birmingham: The Ticket to a Smart Connected City event today. You can follow us via live stream http://civico.me/v/537 and via #SmartBrum

Enjoy!

Final preparations are underway, yes even at

this time of the night, for the first Stakeholder event of 2012 – Birmingham: The Ticket to a Smart Connected City tomorrow.

The event aims to discuss the smart city agenda and key developments in Brum with interactive participation from the audience. Click here to view agenda.

Follow us on Twitter via #SmartBrum

We’ll also be streaming live (with special thanks to @civicolive), watch this space for the link up details!

Digital Birmingham will be hosting Digital Unite‘s second National Social Housing Forum in Birmingham this Thursday 1 December 2011 from 10.30 – 15.30 at Maple House.

The aim of the forum is to look at ways to support digital inclusion activities for residents and tenants. There will

be hardware, software and connectivity suppliers there (BT, Avonline and Networked Neighbourhoods are amongst a few) plus social housing providers to explore how services can be better tailored to benefit your organisation.

Places are complimentary but limited, so if you’d like to attend, please email kathy.valdes@digitalunite.com

Again we’ve been busy with the preparation of funding bids  and supporting the support the three city Council priorities; Employment, Education & Skills,  Clean Green & Safe City and Protecting Vulnerable People with a strong focus on raising the profile of Birmingham.

Please click here to read the second quarterly update of what’s viagra price happening in the world of Digi Brum!