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: Innovation & business
#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
The cost and time to make things
So last week I launched sales for a limited edition of the Good Night Lamp. This is both an exercise in pig-headedness and a suicidal financial exercise. What prompted this? Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of this idea. There’s only so much time you can spend trying to turn lights on and off, but… Continue reading The cost and time to make things
Boosting the internet of things in the UK
View IOT companies (UK & Europe) in a larger map I’ve been putting a map together of internet of things startups in the UK & Europe since May 2012. It’s not that I don’t care about the rest of the world, but as I’ve written about before, there is a real opportunity for the UK… Continue reading Boosting the internet of things in the UK
Berg (2005-2014)
This has been a strange day, mostly because some of my friends who have run a really great studio have decided to shut it down, 483 weeks in. I met them when we were still students, Jack‘s class came to visit mine in Ivrea in April 2005. The year after he was to design Availabot and… Continue reading Berg (2005-2014)
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
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
The process of Connecting Products
Last December, I was asked by the Connected Digital Economy Catapult to help them out scoping a possible Connected Products Studio. This is great fun for me as I have tangible experience of building connected products for installations, industrial applications and now the consumer market. The first thing Maurizio Pilu, the Catapult’s Director asked me… Continue reading The process of Connecting Products