MDDA

Smart City Future: The New Conversation - 23rd July 2009

David Edwards — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:55:55 +0000

Smart City Futures will bring together leaders from business, government and research for a desperately needed, honest and open conversation about connectivity, collaboration and community empowerment. Go to www.smartcityfutures.co.uk/legacy to find out more about this journey.

What’s the Aim

This event will be packed with installations, conversations, workshops, brainstorms and one to ones. Moving away from traditional formats, technologies will invite participation and interaction from participants throughout using interactive web technologies.

Who’s attending

Lesley Gavin - BT’s first female Futurologist, UK
Prof. Paul James - Director Global Cities, RMIT, Austraila
Prof. Takeda Shuzaburo - Exec. Director, Business Universities Forum, Japan
Prof. Carolyn Kagan - Psychology and Social Change, MMU, UK
Veli-Pekka Nittamo - Nokia, Chair of European Living Lab Portfolio, Finland

How to Book

Book now to ensure your place on the day: www.smartcityfutures.co.uk/book-now

Further Information

Smart City Futures is the result of a collaboration between Manchester city-region’s three outstanding universities, proving that universities can be catalysts for change

If you have any queries:

info@just-b.com or 0114 221 0274

Video: NextGen Roadshow 09 [Manchester]

Paul Spensley — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:01:43 +0000

The NextGen Euro conference was aimed at giving practical examples of best practice fibre networks from across Europe. The event gathered together some of the foremost examples of FTTH development presented by leading experts.

The Keynote videos above currently feature [1st July 2009]:

Welcome speech by Dave Carter [Head - Manchester Digital Development Agency]

Amsterdam fibre after two years: problems & fails, lessons learned, successes and how all things end well - Dirk van der Woude, City-Net Project, City of Amsterdam

Thomas Lecker - FTTH [Fibre To The Home] in Germany

Benoît Felten (video interview) - an overview of European fibre deployments

The future ain’t what it used to be: perspectives on investing in fibre - James Enck - Analyst, investor, blogger and journalist.

NextGen 09 Conference, welcome & opening speech by Sir Richard Leese [Leader, Manchester City Council]

Video: Manchester Week 2009

Paul Spensley — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:17:30 +0000

This video is in HD, older computers or slow internet connections may affect playback.

The 16th to the 20th March 2009 saw the Greater Manchester Brussels Office host Manchester Week, MDDA were on hand to film, stream and tweet the event. MDDA also set-up a LIVE video conference to allow a remote participant to present & interact with one of the events taking place within the European Parliment.

This video gives a flavour of the many events that took place during Manchester Week 2009.

About Manchester Week:

The Manchester City Region is a city of firsts. Manchester was the first industrial city, it is where the first computer was built, where the atom was first split and the first test tube baby born. In the European Year of Creativity and Innovation Manchester Week is an opportunity to share some of Manchester’s latest firsts, via a series of discussions, debates, presentations and performances.

For more information & videos visit http://www.manchesterweek.com
To learn more about the Greater Manchester Brussels Office visit http://greater-manchester.eu/

Green Digital Charter starts to take shape

Dave Carter — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:32:09 +0000

I’m currently in Malmo at the Eurocities Environment Forum where, amonst a wide range of discussions on cities tackling climate change, we are discussing how the digital agenda needs to go green. These discussions are bringing together city decision makers from a very wide range of interests, including environment, energy, regeneration, planning, engineering and ICT. We are looking at ways that, as well as being part of the problem, ICT could also be an innovative and dynamic part of the solution. On the one hand ICT/digital technologies are responsible for about the same amount of emissions as the airline industry (estimated at about 2%), but on the other hand these same technologies could be used to help us not only to reduce total emissions but also to make many of the things we do more energy efficient. So how? Firstly, we need to get our own houses in order and ensure that the ICT we do use is as green as possible, so looking at things like intelligent thin clients, virtualisation and greener data centres is a good start. Secondly, we need to find innovative ways of using ICT to monitor and reduce energy use, such as ‘real’ smart meters, ones which are really accessible and usable by energy users rather than just being used to help energy suppliers reduce their costs and workforces. Thirdly we need to start thinking of ways of linking this in with social networking so that users can start coming up with good content and applications for themselves, perhaps an on-line energy saving co-op or smart metering mash-ups for starters. So, over the next few months we’ll be working with other cities in Eurocities to come up with new ideas and then we are aiming to bring all this together in a “Green Digital Charter” which we’ll be launching at the Eurocities AGM in Stockholm in November. More on the Eurocities website and, of course, on the MDDA website.

Europe going Next Generation Broadband everywhere, except in the UK (yet!!)

Dave Carter — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:30:31 +0000

On Monday and Tuesday this week we hosted a two day event on how we could, and must, get Next Generation Broadband in the UK. It was organised by the Community Broadband Network (CBN) to ensure that there was some immediate follow-up to the Digital Britain report with a new strategy for community led action. This included the launch of a new network that will enable independent operators to work together and offer services on a national and international basis, it’s called the Independent Networks Cooperative Association (INCA) and was launched with a video message of support from Lord Carter (no relation) himself. On Monday we had three colleagues who gave an excellent overview of what could be possible, drawing on their international experience, James Enck (independent analyst and blogger), Dirk van der Woude (leading the City-Net project for the City of Amsterdam) and Benoit Felten (a leading global analyst with the Yankee Group). All three showed that all over the world, and especially close to home in other parts of Europe, city-led partnerships are rolling out ultra-high speed broadband using fibre and wireless which is affordable and accessible to all (costing about £30 per month for 100Mbs symmetric services and even less, e.g. in Stockholm prices have just been halved to £7.50 per month). Their advice, which is being given freely and generously, is crucial to ensuring that we are successful here in Manchester, both with the pilot project in The Corridor and our plans for wider accessibility across Manchester. A great event and thanks to CBN and everyone else for making it so. Watch this space for more on “Fibre to the People” in Manchester.

Big Chipper

Dave Carter — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:29:12 +0000

One of the best “Big Chip” awards ever was the general verdict on the event last week as far as I could tell, I certainly thought so. In spite of genuine concerns about the current economic downturn most people seem to be doing OK at the moment and, either way, were determined to enjoy themselves in celebrating the achievements of the digital sector in Manchester and the North West. Terry Christian continues to do a great job as MC, having taken over from the late, great Tony Wilson last year. Shaun Fensom, as Chair of Manchester Digital, gave an inspiring speech about looking to the future beyond the current slump and I was tolerated once again in having the chance to have a bit of a rant about the need for Next Generation Broadband and how we’re going to try to start the “Fibre to the People” revolution here in Manchester. Great fun!! All the details on the Big Chip website.

Iceland shows the way on green energy

Dave Carter — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:28:07 +0000

I had the chance to visit Iceland again a couple of weeks ago for the Eurocities Knowledge Society Forum meeting, what we all know as ‘Telecities’. Apart from the fact that it is an amazing place, scenery, environment, ambiance etc., with great people and very interesting recent political developments with a radical left-green government elected in the wake of the financial scandals, it is also now very affordable, with the Icelandic Krona halving in value against the pound. As part of the event we were taken to look at the latest geo-thermal power plant just outside Reykjavik, it’s already at 60% capacity and when it’s finished in 2010 it will produce more energy than is required by the whole of Reykjavik. In addition this is 100% renewable energy and the only emissions are steam and most of that is converted into hot water that is pumped into every home in the city-region at a fraction of the cost that any of us pay for hot water here. The digital angle is that the country is positioning itself to be the green data centre of the world. This was my third trip over the last five years and it just gets more interesting every time I go. If you haven’t been, give it a go, there are direct flights from Manchester every Monday and Friday. Also take a look at the film ‘101 Reykjavik’ if you haven’t seen it.

Seven Wonders in Seven Days

Alan Holding — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:22:50 +0000

Most people could only dream of seeing the modern seven wonders of the world in their lifetime. But one Manchester businesswoman has set herself the challenge to race around the globe to visit them all in seven days.

Chi-chi Ekweozor, 30, who lives in Salford, aims to raise £777,000 for seven charities, setting off on September 9, 2009.

Earlier this year, Chi-chi, who is the director of east Manchester-based Internet TV and social media consultancy, Real Fresh TV, had just returned from her grandmother’s funeral in Nigeria, and read an article in magazine about a challenge to see the new seven wonders of the world in seven days. And so the idea was born!

Money raised from the super-speed global trip will see an education foundation in Nigeria set up in her grandmother’s name, the Jessie Ekweozor Foundation. The other six charities to benefit are: Alzheimer’s Research Trust, Diabetes UK, Open Doors, British Red Cross, Young Minds and Feed The Minds.

Chi-chi said: “The idea came about after I was moved to tears watching Channel 4’s Secret Millionaire programme in April. I saw an elderly man caring for his elderly wife who suffers from Alzheimer’s and the memories of what my Gran went through before she died came flooding back. I know it’s a massive physical challenge to see all seven wonders in seven days: I will be crossing multiple time zones in that time but I’m willing to do it if it raises money and awareness for the seven charities I’ve chosen.”

So far, Chi-chi, a keen musician, has set about raising awareness of her challenge, setting up a blog at www.7wondersin7days.com and has already arranged a launch evening and charity auction.

The challenge will be launched on June 25 with a charity auction at the Living Room in Manchester. Award-winning cellist and pioneer of contemporary music Peter Gregson will also be performing at the event. Peter won the prestigious Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland award in November 2008 and recently performed at the ClassicalFM Live concert at a sold out Royal Albert Hall.

Much of the awareness and promotion for 7 Wonders in 7 Days has been done using social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, where it is easy to get the message out. The trip was inspired in part by journalist and blogger Paul Smith’s successful Twitchhiker challenge in February where he traveled from Newcastle upon Tyne to Stewart Island in New Zealand relying solely on transport donations from people on Twitter.

The seven modern wonders of the world are: Chichen Itza in Mexico, Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, the Colosseum in Rome, Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu in Peru, Petra in Jordan and Taj Mahal in India.

Further information

If anyone or any companies would like to donate an auction prize and have their names associated with this feat, they should contact Chi-chi at chichi@7wondersin7days.com or call 0161 918 6739.

Anyone who wants to attend the launch event at the Living Room on Thursday, June 25 can buy a ticket for £4, all of which goes towards funding the trip. Thomas Cook Manchester are working with Chi-chi to plan the trip and estimated the journey to cost just under £7000. To buy a ticket: http://7wondersin7dayscharitytweetup.eventbrite.com/

AmbITion - Website Launch

David Edwards — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:24:36 +0000

MDDA is pleased to announce that the new version of the AmbITion website. A one-stop shop for digital development for the arts, the site contains a wealth of resources, videos, case studies, and other information for anyone in the arts who is looking to develop digitally.

AmbITion is an Arts Council England funded project - and has seen us work with 14 arts organisations over the last 2 years. As our work with them comes to an end we are developing a range of case studies and other materials which will provide an insight into their successes and their difficulties, as they aim to become “digital exemplars” for the arts sector.

The AmbITion project is continuing to showcase our learning through a series of regional roadshows, aimed at arts organisations, and through a range of other resources that will be made available via this website over the summer.

Further Information

www.getambition.com

Salford Launches MA in Social Media

David Edwards — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:33:24 +0000

Social Media has become a fashionable phrase. From blogs and webcams to citizen journalists a great deal of energy and enthusiasm informs debate around the empowering potential of such technologies. But as the concept gains ground there are some who begin to question whether social media represents more of the same.

Whatever the technology promises the content and the new generation of producers behind it will inevitably be co-opted back into the mainstream. The evening will include a discussion on social media, to thrash out the meaning of this term and, in the process, engender a useful discussion in which guests can play their part.

Salford University has now launched an MA in Social Media.

Further Information

visit: Salford University Website