Bristol Mediascape technology used across the world
September 19, 2006 Posted by Clare in : Wireless, Community Media, News , add a commentOn Friday 15 September, HP Labs, Bristol staged the first Mediascape conference, an event which brought together people from around the world who have downloaded the Mobile Bristol mediascape authoring tool.
From tourist guides to health-related games, the tool helps users to create applications that overlay digital experiences (sounds and images) onto physical environments. Since the authoring toolkit has been available it has been downloaded as far afield as Australia and Japan.
From Odense in Denmark to Yosemite in California, The Mediascape Conference featured applications that used the tool within heritage, education, community and artistic installations as well as interactive games.
The tool has also been widely used with a school and community setting - participants were treated to a glimpse of the work of children from schools in Belfast, who had collaborated with researchers to create social and personal histories of the Titanic.
In the Southville area of Bristol a local group have not only created their own mediascapes about wartime memories of Bristol but have set up a loan scheme for equipment to encourage others to create their own mediascape eperiences.
At lunchtime, attendees of the conference were invited to experience ‘ere be dragons’ one of the first games to be created in the new medium which used location and heart rate sensors to encourage excercise and determin the game’s outcome
Bristol’s Futurelab also announced the recent launch of www.createascape.org.uk, a mediascape creation website for schools which provides a resource for pupils and teachers to encourage use of the toolkit and the exploration of the new medium for education.
Finally, HP Labs, Bristol described the forthcoming release of the latest full version of the toolkit this autumn which addresses many of the limitations of its predecessor.
Building successful social networks
September 18, 2006 Posted by Alan in : Digital Challenge, Bristol, Community Media, Media, e-society , 1 comment so farSocial networking sites are all the craze right now, Friendster and MySpace being 2 popular examples that allow people to link with friends, tell the world who they are and share what they know and like. Connecting Bristol proposes to build digital communities where citizens can become more active, enjoy greater participation and be better informed about their city. How do we ensure that any technology that comes out of Connecting Bristol truly enables us to meet these ambitious goals and does so in the ways that we really want? Surely we want our new resources to be as successful for us in Bristol as these other social networks have been worldwide!
How do we know that we aren’t just building another clever and whizzy website that looks good on the surface and is technically brilliant underneath but does none of the thing we want?
The key is in understanding the range of citizens who will use the facility, how their needs and abilities differ and how best to match this with suitable technologies. Its easy to say this, but its also a huge task to get it right. MySpace is popular for 20 somethings who are very computer literate and have easy access to the Internet, however, its the culmination of many other such social networks also aimed directly at this group that have tried and failed to engage. We need something that is just as popular and successful for as many people in the Bristol area as possible.
The page linked below was written back in March 2006 and it raises some interesting points. The most import claim it makes is that the success of MySpace, currently the world’s largest and most successful (in terms of number of members) social network is directly related to the fact that it make a minimum number of restrictions on its members. It doesn’t structure what people can or can’t do or say in their information, it lets them be themselves. There is a lot in this; people don’t want to be controlled by technology, they want it to help them do what they want to do anyway both as individuals and members of a community.
http://www.danah.org/papers/FriendsterMySpaceEssay.html
I’d welcome any thoughts on how the needs of various groups in the Connecting Bristol area can be addressed so that people can retain personal ownership in their contributions but still be part of the larger network. What would make YOU feel engaged in a Bristol based social network?
Alan Parry (alan.parry@hp.com)
Momentum Meeting 13.09.06
September 13, 2006 Posted by Clare in : Digital Challenge, Events, Momentum , 1 comment so farFor anyone who couldn’t attend, slides from the Momentum Group meeting can be downloaded here.
Dick Penny (Watershed) kicked off the meeting by underlining the importance of the Momentum Group to the Connecting Bristol bid - a key factor being to keep intelligence flowing.
The story so far:
78 bids were submitted across the UK, 12 from the south west. 18 of these went through to a national panel, which comprised of representatives from nearly every department of government, led by DCLG. On 12 July, Bristol was announced as one of the 10 national winners.
The government have now launched www.digitalchallenge.gov.uk - A place to build on the responses to the digital challenge (shortlisted and not) to network best practise and share ideas.
This is also being encouraged between the shortlisted bids, who have had two joint meetings so far.
Bristol’s strength is the Momentum group, as this means we are local authority partnered, rather than led. There is a flavour/quality in our bid that is unique - a people centred approach.
Stephen Hilton took over to discuss what is required of Connecting Bristol now we are at the second stage.
The prize
Central Gov are contributing £3 million to the final prize and industry is committed to supplying £4million of in in-kind support. So Connecting Bristol needs to plan how best we can engage with industry both locally and nationally.
The structure
The Momentum group is key to the success of the bid. The Bid Development Group will put more time and energy into the actual drafting of the bid, and a small executive group has been created to ensure we work efficiently with the council. This is chaired by the Barbara Janke, leader of the council. Stephen Hilton has been seconded full time to developing the bid.
The actual bid will contain four areas of work:
Connectivity - led by Helen Bream of Bristol City Council, Education Network and Internet Services Manager at Bristol City Council which will create a strategy for connectivity across the city, join together infrastructure and lobby for investment.
Co-production - led by Dick Penny of Watershed, which will focus on five showcase neighbourhoods, each with a different flavour and focus, to empower those neighbourhoods with the capacity and skills to become co-commissioners of their own content and services, and then share information and skills to roll out their learning across the city.
Skills and knowledge - led by John Bradford of Futurelab, concentrating on advocacy, mentoring and sharing skills, including looking at the positive role young people can play in sharing their skills in the digital world with others, and pulling together existing activity to see how Connecting Bristol could add value and join up what is already going on.
Coordination is final area of work, led by Stephen Hilton which will capture, coordinate and structure what is happening elsewhere and ensure the sustainability of the bid.
How you can involved:
At this point I took over (Clare, Watershed) to plug reading and contributing to this website, getting involved with Electric December and organising your own meetings. Whether this be at your place of work, a community event or hi-jacking another meeting to give this a plug, we want you to help us get the word out there. So do let us know what support we might need to give you on this.
We are really keen to start a Connecting Bristol podcast to document, capture and share events, what people are up to and the development of the bid. David Aston from BBC has been seconded one day a week to help the bid so get in touch with him if you have any ideas around this.
Finally we will be looking to tender out a new project around online skills sharing and to recruit an admistartive post for the team in the next few weeks. Keep an eye out here for more news.
The evening ended with questions from Mary Breeze from Bristol city council’s social services who was keen to promote the needs of older people. Mary’s excellent Companion project is one of the projects on the Connecting Bristol case studies pages. And from Kevin O’Malley who cautioned against framing the bid too much around the existing activity that is already going on in the city.
Keep checking this site for ways to get involved, and the events section for forthcoming dates, which have now been published.
Satellite Broadband on Trains
Posted by Clare in : Digital Challenge, Wireless , 1 comment so farThe train has been sitting outside the station for the last 30 mins and shows no signs of moving. Buy another cup of coffee? Read the paper? Pretty soon you will be able to make a sykpe call, book or holiday or aimlessly surf without racking up a hefty mobile phone bill: Ofcom today made a new type of spectrum licence available that will allow broadband access on trains via a satellite link.
Some trains already offer Wi-Fi, which is delivered though a series of terminals located alongside the train tracks. This new type of licence will allow to deliver broadband to trains via satellite, which would provide faster and more reliable connections for customers.
Full details of the new type of licence can be found at:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/ifi/licensing/classes/satellite/proce
dure_manuals/ofw342.pdf
