We’re a week away from the deadline for the Smart Oxford Challenge and I was asked if this was a hackathon. That expression and the format it has come to represent gives me the heeby-jeebies so I wanted to share why, and what makes the Challenge different. This is coming from ten years of organising events… Continue reading How to get people to make things for you
Category: Internet of things
HOME/SICK : the new nature of things in a connected world
I was asked some months ago by the Science Gallery in Dublin to join the curation team to help choose pieces for the HOME/SICK exhibition which is opening to the public tomorrow. We were presented with a number of artworks which would fit within traditional boundaries such as sculpture, architecture, video work, paintings but the team… Continue reading HOME/SICK : the new nature of things in a connected world
Placebos, invisibility & just enough information: a long term informal study of wearables
Last November, after a month away for client work and visiting family in New Zealand & Australia I decided to buy an activity tracker. When at home in London I can clock 10K of walking easily. When I’m travelling, all activity ceases. So I wanted to try out a so-called “wearable”. I did what ever… Continue reading Placebos, invisibility & just enough information: a long term informal study of wearables
February
A list of what we’re up to at the moment: – We’re working with a very large client at the moment helping them plan and find partners for a hardware project. Hopefully more on that in the next months. – We’ve been giving SevenLeague a bit of advice on an exciting project they have for one of their sports… Continue reading February
The Internet of things for the common man & woman
I took part in the Digital Catapult Advisory Meeting this afternoon and we were presented an exam question: How do you sell #iot to the average man/woman? Here’s my suggestions of things to say to people who ask this in the pub (note: this will possibly never happen): – Making sure your grandfather can stay healthy &… Continue reading The Internet of things for the common man & woman
Fear & loathing in the internet of things
I’ve been asked by BLN to come to Cambridge and give another talk at IOT Forum one of the best events on #iot in the world along with Thingscon. This’ll be my third time there and this blog post is I suppose the prep work for that talk. For the past 6 months, I’ve been seeing… Continue reading Fear & loathing in the internet of things
How to run a hardware or maker focused hackathon / event
We’ve just finished organising a Demo Day for Intel ® Edison a new maker hardware platform which was great fun. After years of running Arduino workshops, corporate training days and other hardware centric events at Tinker it seems there is renewed interest in this format. The amount of press around the internet of things means new… Continue reading How to run a hardware or maker focused hackathon / event
Elderly care and the internet of things
Last week I took part in a workshop run by DIOTTO an EU-funded project on the use of connected products in elderly care. Some real issues came up which I thought I’d share. It’s important to note we were mainly looking at the use of connected hardware to enhance the relationship between carers and an… Continue reading Elderly care and the internet of things
#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… Continue reading #yearnotes
Making & the corporate office
(This was originally written for and published in last month’s in Andrew Sleigh’s beautiful zine Hot Glue) I’ve worked for all sorts of businesses: large, medium and small and they all share a common aspiration: to be more like start-ups. You can’t swing a cat without taking part in a meeting where organisations wonder how… Continue reading Making & the corporate office