designswarm

Smart meters: the glass half empty of the internet of things

As someone who makes a living of talking about and designing connected products, I also try to eat my own dog food. I signed up to Hive last summer after working with British Gas on an event and with EDF for years. I know enough about how the energy sector to be curious. These things aren’t… Continue reading Smart meters: the glass half empty of the internet of things

Insurance in the internet of things: the Future Stigma of Data

In May, Ana Bradley joined my consultancy as a Partner and one of the first clients we worked on together was Imago TechMedia. We helped them plan an event for the insurance sector around the internet of things in a half day workshop. The insurance sector is one I’d recently been looking at anyway for… Continue reading Insurance in the internet of things: the Future Stigma of Data

Crowdfunding a hardware project: Tips & Tricks

I’ve been getting a lot of requests for coffees from startups who want to hear about crowd funding and the lessons I learnt running a campaign for the Good Night Lamp back in early 2013. I thought I’d capture what I’d say to them here and share it to a wider audience:) 1. What are… Continue reading Crowdfunding a hardware project: Tips & Tricks

That’s nice

Made it to the Top 100 Most Influencial Women on Twitter in the technology sector. Thanks Business Insider.

Pantry: better than the internet fridge

It’s been a couple of very busy day. I gave the keynote at Thingscon and it gave me an opportunity to actually think about the internet fridge, that idea which doesn’t seem to want to die. So I thought I’d put my designer hat on (yes it’s a little dusty but hey ho) and think… Continue reading Pantry: better than the internet fridge

Meaningless but nice

I appear to be 2nd in the top 100 thought leaders around the internet of things. That’s nice. Thanks Onalytica.

A litmus test for the internet of things

It’s taken me about 2 months to work out how to show the differences between products that companies say are iot and those that possibly aren’t. I suspect I actually need to explain it but I’d rather have a good conversation on Twitter about it so I can tweak things accordingly. For clarity, a lock… Continue reading A litmus test for the internet of things

Introducing #iotangels

Funding the Internet of Things in the UK from Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino There are many reasons why the UK is a great space for internet of things startups: access to the creative industries, manufacturing, advertising, technologists. Funding isn’t one of them sadly as I highlighed in a talk at a Policy Connect event last week at… Continue reading Introducing #iotangels

Gonzo Products: how crowdfunding is changing the internet of things

I gave a talk about this at Future Everything last week. As usual the shape of the talk only really came together an hour before (this drives conference organisers nuts) and I thought I’d write it up. If you come to IOT Forum in Cambridge or Thingscon in Berlin you can ask me about this… Continue reading Gonzo Products: how crowdfunding is changing the internet of things

A map of UK maker spaces

As part of my work with the Connected Digital Economy Catapult, I’ve been putting together a map of hacker / maker spaces in the UK. These spaces are really important in linking a person with a project idea to a community with resources. Maker spaces are also more than physical resources, they can be a… Continue reading A map of UK maker spaces