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Slivers of Time

January 29, 2008 Posted by Stephen Hilton in : Bristol, Innovation, Skills, jobs, Flexible Working , add a comment

We at Connecting Bristol have been banging on about the potential of Slivers of Time, Homeshoring and other forms of ultra-flexible working for quite some time now.

The idea is to create a new type of employment market place, which gives far more control to employees about where and when they work and at the same time helps employers run their businesses effectively.

The Guardian has picked-up on Slivers of Time with a feature aimed at graduates appearing in this week end’s Work section.

You can read it here

I Think or We Think?

Posted by Stephen Hilton in : e-democracy, Bristol, Innovation, Festival of Ideas, collaboration , add a comment

In many large, corporate organisations, it is the Chief Executive’s views that all-important. But is there another way? Can organisations develop new, collaborative ways of working and will these deliver better services?

In the Connecting Bristol bid we referred to “co-production” – Charles Leadbetter talks and writes about “we-think”

“We-Think: the power of mass creativity is about what the rise of the likes of Wikipedia and Youtube, Linux and Craigslist means for the way we organise ourselves, not just in digital businesses but in schools and hospitals, cities and mainstream corporations. My argument is that these new forms of mass, creative collaboration announce the arrival of a society in which participation will be the key organising idea rather than consumption and work. People want to be players not just spectators, part of the action, not on the sidelines’
from Charles Leadbetter We Think

In this Festival of Ideas event, you can, for £7.50, help co-create an interesting lunchtime outing as Charles Leadbetter is speaking at the Watershed in Bristol.

Charles Leadbeater
We-think: the power of mass creativity
26 February 2008, 12.45-13.45
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol

Are we getting enough fibre?

January 25, 2008 Posted by Kevin in : Bristol , add a comment

Fibre networking firm H20 has launched its Fibrecities initiative, with the aim of bringing ultra fast connectivity to homes and businesses in the UK. The fibre optic cable is deployed through underground sewer networks bringing speeds of up to 100meg to users. H20 plan to pilot the scheme in Bournemouth, Northampton or Dundee from September before rolling it out more broadly over the next five years.

Dublin Free Wi-Fi Plans Blocked by EU Ruling

January 10, 2008 Posted by Stephen Hilton in : Wireless, Europe, Connecting Bristol , add a comment

Dublin City Council’s plans to deliver free city Wi-Fi have been dashed by an EU ruling that the project is in breach of state aid rules.

The Sinn Fein Dublin MEP Mary Lou McDonald is reported as saying that ‘the decision is another example of EU policy making negatively impacting on member states national interests’ Clearly the decision is something of a blow!

Connecting Bristol presented our own work in this area to a range of Dublin City councillors and officers some time ago. The Dublin Institute of Technology arranged the exchange and it is good to see that other Dublin programmes appear to be progressing well. For example, the ICING project, which is looking at the real time reporting of street repairs and problems using accessible technologies.