#yearnotes

It’s been a hell of a year, peppered with great work with many clients as our consulting activities ramped up.

This year we’ve done many things:

– Helped finalise the outreach activities of Eyehub, a government funded internet of things demonstrator project

– Wrote a report (pdf) on what connected products businesses needed in the UK for the Digital Catapult. We then helped them test some of those findings by designing and running the Boost event last October.

– Wrote two research papers for Nominet R&D on various verticals of the internet of things.

– Helped a client of the Arduino group understand the types of maker projects that could influence the homes of the future

– Helped support the research efforts of trends and market researchers like Future Foundation, the Future Laboratory, Advantage research, The Futures Company, Sturm und Drang.

– Helped government departments like the Danish Ministry of Rural Affairs understand what makes the UK a great place for the internet of things

– Took part in design and research workshops run across the country and gave talks around the world.

– Gave a freely accessible webinar on the internet of things for RS Components after we helped them with content for their new design centre.

– Ran a paper wearables workshop at the Victoria and Albert Museum to feed into Connected, a quarterly paper publication we launched at Thingscon.

– Spent the summer with BBC R&D North Lab and Adrian Woolard‘s team looking at how they approach #iot

– Helped support Tech City UK and the Technology Strategy Board’s promotion of a funding call for internet of things startups. We designed and ran a day of engagement for London startups to meet other potential partners and hear about the details of the competition.

– Just spent two weeks with Wintec Research, an applied research centre in Hamilton New Zealand who offer various technical and research capabilities which are very #iot focused. I’m happy to say we will be helping them grow a UK & European presence in the new year. More to come on that.

– Designed and ran a Demo Day to show off Intel® ‘s new maker-friendly platform Edison to a community of developers. If you’d like to meet the workshop attendees, join us for drinks next week in Shoreditch. We’ll have a tab behind the bar :)

– Ran our first Master Class for investors to understand the internet of things. The next one is up on December 16th.

– And finally this week, after 10 years of slow development, the production of the first batch of Good Night Lamp’s has started. There are still a few on sale, so buy now.

So what’s next? Back in May, I decided to give up our office on Scrutton Street. Shoreditch was getting really expensive and I realised that with all the client work we had, I was only really in the office a day a week. I wanted to experiment with working remotely with Ana and for months we both worked from home. It’s time to experiment with being located somewhere again and as of next week I will be starting a six month residency at the Digital Catapult’s Centre.

This is exciting as it will allow me to test out an idea I’ve been mulling over for the past month. What does a centre of expertise on the internet of things look like? Is it a member’s club? Is it a gallery? Is it a school? These are all models I’m interested in experimenting with and the Centre with great people like Marko Balabanovic and Maurizio Pilu is the perfect place to start to have those conversations. I hope you’ll come say hi and if you’d like to have conversations about these models, I’d love to hear from you.

In the meantime I hope you’ll join me over startups, mulled wine and mince pies at the Christmas edition of the London Internet of things meetup on the 16th. It’s a showcase event and I’ve designed a little treat for attendees. If i don’t see you then, happy holidays!

 

By designswarm

Blogging since 2005.