After producing four editions of BarCamp Leeds between 2007 and 2010, I figured I should finally speak at one of my own events! I'd originally planned to host a screening of August as part of the LSx2010 fringe. A little known 2008 movie starring Josh Hartnett, that chronicles the ambitions of a pair of dotcom entrepreneurs. I couldn't clear the rights in time, so […]
In establishing CARBON:imagineering, a little over three years ago, one of our goals was to reinvigorate the technology ecosphere in Leeds and more broadly, Northern England. In the course of this journey, I've come to believe that cities, and our understanding of the concept of a city, are critical to this, and other wider projects. […]
If you have an ever-expanding to-do list - then you're failing to understand your mortality. That's right, your cherished, life-affirming task list is ultimately a pathway to your own death! Let me explain… Years ago, my good friend Rich Gibson and I were thinking about design principles for software that reflects who you are, what […]
A couple of years ago, my good friend Ian Pringle wrote about the anachronistic persistence of a floppy disc icon to indicate a save command. Ian noted that the notion of ‘saving’ in an age of web applications is itself an absurd notion and that state is perhaps more appropriate – recording a temporal snapshot […]
TED conferences are famous for the complimentary gift bag distributed to each delegate upon registration. Not only are the bags replete with politically/ecologically-correct goodies, but the bags themselves aren't your usual cheap-ass branded schwag, but sourced from the likes of Timbuk2 and Rickshaw Bagworks…this year, TEDsters got very cool (and very large) Zero Messenger. So […]
I don't really remember where I first came across the TED conference but in recent years, I've quickly become hooked on the eponymous talks and, in recent months, TED seems to be serendipitously intersecting with my career in many wonderful ways… Earlier this year, Lee Bryant and I nominated Professor Salim Al-Hassani to the TED […]
After two years, two editors and 140-ish posts, I'll be stepping back from my role as a contributing writer to Corante's Mobile Messaging 2.0. The first couple of years for MM2 were a sponsored curation of thought leadership and conversation around mobility. As my first paying gig as a professional writer, I learned a great […]
The five great cities of the North are buzzing with conferences and festivals as we close out the Spring and head into Summer… 5th May – 3rd June: LSx, Leeds' annual web festival returns for its sophomore year with the FOWA Tour, its third BarCamp and a Physical Computing workshop. 13 – 17th May: Newcastle's […]
There's been an interesting confluence of commentary recently on why precision is not only unnecessary, but perhaps undesirable, in the formulation of communication services… Dopplr's Matt Jones reflects on Google's Latitude location-sharing service, noting that designing Dopplr to be 'nothing more granular than cities-as-place and days-as-time' is enough to fulfill the goal of surfacing serendipity. […]
I first started following the work of Neil Gershenfeld during my various visits to MIT Media Lab, and of course through his book Fab, along with speculating about fictional HP DeskFabs and Fabster P2P networks…a miniature attempt at Bruce Sterling-eqsue Design Fiction! So it was a huge surprise to learn that Gershenfeld would be stopping […]