The Technology Strategy Board is running a competition to encourage developers to create games that support their work in addressing power distribution and the management of demand. There are looking to support work around cognitive design and social gaming to generate novel, demand side, consumer focused technologies.

Some of the ideas they suggest as examples include;

• A multi-platform app on smart phones or tablets that talks to individual smart meters
• A Sim City style game featuring real time data
• A vertical application for smart meter data with gamers demonstrating real-world energy usage, related carbon emissions and efficiency

To explore the possibilities, Creative Industries KTN and the Pervasive Media Studio are hosting a ‘Partnering for Innovation’ event at the Watershed Media Centre in Bristol on 16 January 2012. It will bring together people from the games and design sectors with businesses and organisations in the energy supply chain to:

• Network with other organisations
• Gain an understanding of developments in Smart Energy space
• Explore the themes for the competition and the potential role of creative businesses
• Make contacts and discuss potential collaborations

If this is a challenge that interests you and you would like to take part in the event, please register your interest with anita@creativeindustriesktn.org

A new three-year initiative in Bristol will help local people access the internet, learn new skills and find out more about computers and technology. The project, called Get IT Together, is focused on helping older people and individuals with disabilities gain basic IT skills. Sessions are tailored towards the learners’ own personal interests and are delivered by friendly, approachable tutors.

Project Coordinator Marius Jennings is working in partnership with other charities, libraries, schools, community groups and agencies to see that basic IT courses are available throughout the city, with the aim of breaking down barriers to  learning, strengthening community relations and helping residents become more digitally included.
Should you be interested in attending a course, or becoming a volunteer tutor, please write to Get IT Together, Room 404, The Council House, College Green, Bristol, BS1 5TR.  Alternatively contact Marius by email marius.jennings@citizensonline.org.uk

The Bear Pit has long suffered with a reputation as a less than convivial public space. The Bear Pit Improvement Group have been working hard to challenge this and are begining to see the results.

BBC Magazines staff plant up beds in the Bear Pitt

Connecting Bristol played its own small part in the story, enabling free to access wifi in the area so that people might be encouraged to head there to grab a coffee and check their email in their lunch hour, or a break during a shopping trip. Some of the other members of the group have planted flower beds or held events to draw people in and show the space being used positively.

There have been quite a few positive comments left on Qype about the work that’s gone into the Bear Pit, if you have a comment or suggestion they would love to hear it. You could even join the Facebook group and get involved in some of the work.

There was quite a buzz on Nelson Street at lunchtime today. Office staff, midday shoppers and the City’s artistic hipsters were all mixing together watching the incredible pieces of street art emerging as part of the See No Evil project. The project has seen more than twenty internationally renowned artists take up residency in Bristol city centre as part of a free, three day long arts and music event.

See No Evil will culminate on Saturday 20th August in a Block Party curated by local crew Team Love, celebrating the best of Bristol’s art and music culture with live street painting, bands and DJ’s, cartoon drawing, screen printing, a pop up barber shop and fancy dress emporium, street theatre and street dressing with a mini garden area stretching along the length of Nelson Street.

You can watch the works in development through a timelapse photography feed, or see the impressive range of styles and subjects through the flickr group.

***UPDATE****

The project was captured on video as it developed;

The Innovation Hub is a virtual space established by the Government enabling digital innovation of public services.

HMG Skunkworks was established within the Cabinet Office as part of theInnovation Hub to develop innovative, low-cost, fast and agile ICT solutions.

This video demonstrates the way that maverick yet solid ideas will help the public sector deliver better services and get better value from its technology.

The Coordinator’s role is to use strategic, tactical and operational approaches to cohere support for benefits of ICT/internet usage. This will involve working with partners at all levels from such as community groups and education providers, to deliver a bespoke combination of activities relevant to local need. You don’t have to be a technical expert, though you do need experience in the specific use of technology by older and disabled people. More important to us is your understanding of information and communication technology in its wider context, and its relevance to social inclusion. Ideally you will have experience of delivering informal ICT sessions.

The closing date for application is 12.30pm Thursday 1st of September. Interviews will take place the following week on Wednesday 7th of September in Bristol.

Please send your completed application with a covering letter of no more than two pages to: linda.morris@citizensonline.org.uk

Documents available for download in Word format are:

Project Coordinator – EverybodyOnline Bristol Job Advert

Project Coordinator – EverybodyOnline Bristol Job Description

Project Coordinator – EverybodyOnline Bristol Application Form

David Cameron visited Bristol today, taking in a number of high profile creative digital businesses, such as Aardman, and seeing the site for the new Enterprise Zone in Temple Quarter.

The 173-acre zone will drive the regeneration of the City. There will be a particular focus on attracting Creative Industries and technology but it will be a hub for all creative minded businesses.  The zone takes in land around Temple Meads station,  and runs along Bath Road to incorporate the Paintworks.

Bristol’s Enterprise Zone is amongst the Country’s first and it is hoped that it will underpin economic recovery and create significant numbers of jobs over the next 25 years

Skunkworks is a term that has come to describe small, autonomous, groups within organisations who operate in a collaborative, non-bureaucratic environment to develop and deploy specific technical solutions rapidly. The Cabinet Office has recently developed a Skunkworks for Central Government. Mark O’Neil, head of this initiative, and a panel of experts will be exploring what the Skunkworks hopes to achieve, and what this might mean for public sector ICT.

The webinar will be live from 2pm on  Thursday 28th July 2011. You can register to view and take part here.

The Arts Council England, AHRC and NESTA have announced a new £500,000 fund for projects that will harness digital technologies to connect with wider audiences and explore new ways of working.

The call is looking for proposals focusing on the following six areas:

• user-generated content and social media;
• distribution;
• mobile, location and games;
• data;
• resources;
• education and learning.

Organisations that are eligible to apply to the programme include visual and performing arts organisations, cultural organisations in England including arts and cultural archives, literary organisations, museums and galleries, libraries, commercial arts and cultural organisations and creative industry businesses (where the funded activity is self-contained and has a clear benefit to the public). You can find criteria for arts and cultural organisations wishing to apply on the NESTA website.

The deadline for applications to the Digital R&D Fund for Arts and Culture is 2 September 2011.