NLab: creativity and collaboration

AudioBoos from NLab's Amplified Individuals and Business Resilience 18th June 2009

Thanks to Steve Lawson aka Solobasssteve for recording AudioBoos on the day. And here come the Boos:

Amplified Individuals and Business Resilience 18th June 2009

Amplified Individuals and Business Resilience
Thursday 18th June 2009
Institute of Creative Technologies, De Montfort University

A free one day event hosted by NLab and Amplified

Economic constraints coupled with new technologies mean that changes in the way we work are creating both dilemmas and opportunities.

The Amplified Individual has the necessary skills to grapple with these challenges and use them to create a resilient business model.  This event will explore the nature and characteristics of the Amplified Individual and enhance your own level of amplification. Come along expecting to interact and contribute in order to share the valuable takeaways of an unusual and challenging series of encounters.

We've tried a different way to organise this event. Invitations were sent to 'seed' people, who in turn invited more. It's already full and we're ready to go! Watch outputs of the day via hashtag #nlab

Fun at Amplified08

Photo courtesy of Billy Abbott

Very interesting time at Amplified08 yesterday, hosted by NESTA. I couldn't resist the session entitled "come and play, have fun" and I ended up playing some impro ball throwing and catching games (not real balls), and trying out the co-creation exercise that led to the pictures above.

 
Photo courtesy of Billy Abbott

Here's a picture of everyone gathered together for the mid-way whole group session and feedback from some of the workshops. Amplified08 managed to be that hardest of things - both well-organised and remarkably relaxed and informal. The event was put together and run by a host of people, and their enthusiasm, energy and goodwill was infectious.

Photo courtesy of Phil Campbell

Sessions were organised, hosted and facilitated by Amplified08 participants. If you had something you wanted to say, a topic you wanted to explore, you just signed up in advance on the wiki. On the day, you selected your time slot and space (boardroom or pod?), and anyone who was interested joined you. Many of the sessions were filmed (link to follow), and you can see the results along with a host of other cultural products. Here's the instructions for finding the 61+ pages of Twitter comments (tweets) made by people about the event:

Many of the tweets will include links to blogs, pictures and videos.

The next Amplified event takes place in February 2009 - register your interest on the wiki if you are interested in getting news (remember to include your e-mail address) or follow @shanitomorrow, @suethomas on Twitter. The timing of the event was 4-8pm - very handy for people from Leicester wanting to take advantage of cheap travel.

Creative Writing and New Media MA showcase 5.30pm Wed 18th June 08

If you expect to arrive in Leicester by 5.30 why not come along to the IOCT Salon and discover new media writing? 

The Online MA in Creative Writing and New Media at De Montfort University is designed for writers interested in experimenting with new formats and exploring the potential of new technologies in their writing. This first annual CWNM Salon is a unique opportunity to enjoy the best work from the first two years of the course with installations and talks from some of the graduates and current students.

Arriving the night before?

If you're planning to arrive in Leicester the night before the conference you might like to attend the first annual CWNM Salon on Wednesday 18th June 2008 at 5.30 for 6pm. This is a unique opportunity to enjoy the best work from the first two years of the MA in Creative Writing and New Media with installations and talks from the writers and artists. For more information about this innovative online degree visit the Humanities Postgraduate Studies website or see Toni Le Busque's fun video.

CreativeCoffee Club - Spring Programme

NLab is partnering with CreativeCoffee Club to explore the potential of social networks to generate wealth for small businesses. Here in Leicester we've established a regular meeting of CreativeCoffee Club - about every fortnight at the Graduate Bar in the Campus Centre, Mill Lane. What's noticeable about CreativeCoffee Club Leicester is the very relaxed, non-threatening atmosphere - ideal for wallowing in the conversation.

CreativeCoffee Club was initiated and continues to be organised through Facebook. Although the applications for groups are not as well developed as personal profiles, Facebook still enabled fast growth of a community that was interested in the ideas behind CreativeCoffee Club.

Here's our Spring Programme
Venue: The Graduate Bar, The Campus Centre, Mill Lane, Leicester 10-12noon

Wednesday 27th February
Wednesday 12th March
Wednesday 9th April
Wednesday 23rd April
Wednesday 7th May

Tools of Change for Publishing Conference, New York, 11-12 Feb 08

This conference is obsessed with social networks, and so it should be. It's packed with print publishers trying to figure out how to convert their one-to-many model for the new market where, as Douglas Rushkoff says, 'contact is king'. According to Rushkoff, what makes the net different is that it offers the chance to socialise and to break down the barriers of mass media which were created to intermediate - to put something between people e.g. buying their oats from a company called Quaker rather than, as in the past, from Joe the local miller. The same thing happens with TV, which has increasingly split families into people sitting alone in different rooms of the same house. And lone individuals buy more because the purchases are substitute people. I'm blogging this over at PART - please do call in to read the posts.

LIFT 08: First Thoughts

A busy lunchtime on the first formal day of the LIFT08 Conference, the place is buzzing, people are taking the spare chairs from my table to sit with friends and I can finally get on the wireless internet connection. I guess no network can take 750 conference delegates suddenly wanting to sign on!

Geneva is a fabulous city, with a population about two thirds that of Leicester but with a very different feel. The geography is different with the huge lake and the surrounding mountains, but more than that, you are conscious of being in a European city, an International European city. My lunch companion yesterday was telling me that over half the population are non-nationals, and many of them carry not just two, but three passports. There is a large British enclave, who, in a city where most people rent, are buying their homes - in the English way. The city has a British University and two British drama  clubs.

There is a wonderful open feel to the city with large public squares and gardens, and an excellent (and free to visitors) public transport system. I've arrived to unusual sunshine. Normally, Geneva is sheathed in cloud cover, with the city emptying at weekends as everyone races to the mountains above the clouds to enjoy some winter sun.

There are many grand buildings with balconies and shutters, but not too far behind the main streets are small courtyards, rather more run-down and housing the flotsam and jetsam of everyday living - the bins, a small playground, a seat or two and the odd small tree reaching up to the scarce sun. Some are given over to parking with tiny access streets requiring skillful negotiating, and inevitably colourful graffiti adorns any building looking vaguely empty.

Geneva is a small city and easy to get around. My hotel is within two minutes walk of Gare Cornavin and the tram stop. Yesterday, Sandra Wendland, another LIFTer staying at the same hotel, showed me how to use the trams, and with some pride I made my own way home. It was easy getting from the Airport to the Hotel, too. Taking a taxi, I was intrigued to see the woman driver had her handbag sitting openly (and open) on the front passenger seat. What kind of city is this, I thought, where a woman is not obsessed with personal safety and security?

The feel to the Conference is similar. Yesterday was a day of workshops held at the University. I felt transported back to being a student myself. The carefree-ness and instant friendships that one makes, the easy come and go as you chat with some people and then move off to meet others or go to a workshop or a walk or a coffee. People are open to talking, and have responded kindly to bossy entreaties to "Come and sit here with me".

This morning I chatted to Hamish Campbell,an independent web tv journalist, who had been in one of the workshops with me yesterday. When he decided to interview our companion, Khaled Bazzi, in the coffee room, I went across to introduce myself to Yann Mauchamp, another workshop participant who made some interesting and, to me, infinitely alluring, comments about laziness. Just now, as I am writing, Yoshiko Kurisaki has come across to say hello and pass the time of day.

Both Hamish and Khaled are here looking for partners. Both are involved in small businesses - and at least one of them is a social enterprise, I would say. Khaled represented one of the businesses showcased at the Venture Night yesterday evening. "LIFT is a rare opportunity for entrepreneurs to make the right connections and take their project to the next level."

Yesterday, my first day here, I attended two workshops, each spread over half a day. They were excellent - very different from each other and very challenging, but exhilarating and stimulating and fascinating. I'll blog about each of them separately, but let me finish by saying that if you're a business that's concerned about building creativity and innovation into your business in a structured way, you could do worse than come to LIFT. I recommend it!

Facebook and Generating Wealth for Business, Nov 26 2007

On Monsay 26th November 2007, Vijay Singh Riyait  (of iQUBED), Toby Moores of Sleepydog and Shani Lee (NLab co-ordinator) shared their tips on using Facebook in business. From the Facebook event blurb: "Come along to this introductory event to learn how to use Facebook, a social networking website. Local business people will talk about the benefits they've gained from using social networking, and we'll take you through the process of getting yourself set up. Bring your laptop and register with Facebook on the night!"

Plan: 6:00pm - Registration, Refreshments (yum), networking 6:30pm - Welcome from Prof. Sue Thomas 6:40pm - Toby Moores from Sleepydog 6:55pm - Vijay Ryait from iQubed 7:10pm - Setting up on Facebook with Shani Lee 7:40pm - Questions and Answer session 8:00pm - Close Sue began with a little introduction to the background of NLab as a way of building links to generate new ideas and business.

Toby is going to talk about what this means in practise.

Sleepydog is in the "content" business.  Even though some things on social networks might not seem to be useful, the fact that they are part of communication makes it interesting. Facebook is better than linkedin, myspace etc...because it's conversational.

"what is really interesting is the news feed."

The news feed is a little way of getting a glimpse of everybody's day.
It also gives you insight into people. For example Toby didn't know Prof. Bob John liked basketball but now knows thanks to info on Facebook.
Facebook keeps the conversations going,

"it glues us a little closer together."

Trying to understand how people are conversing, how conversations are happening, and what software supports conversations.
Think of the trajectory of an idea...from the conversational end it is so easy for the idea to get lost but if there's a piece missing (video for example) the idea may die, but if someone in the network knows then they might be able to help.
As a business, how might software support the creative process at the conversational end.
For an example, check out the Bob Dylan application on Facebook:

(read techcrunch's post on the app. here)

***

Vijay - how do we bring small businesses into the IOCT and the university environment.

As a small business you really struggle to raise your profile and traditional marketing and pr might not be so well suited. However, with Facebook Vijay has been able to really raise his profile so his business has benefitted in those terms.

Toby asks Vijay - what's the difference between blogging and Facebook? Vijay - finds more conversations related to his network occur on blogging because of the searchability but that is changing now with Facebook.  Vijay wonders how many people know that Microsoft has bought a stake in Facebook and what is interesting is that they are linking their CRM software to Facebook. On Facebook people can sign up to your company and companies can make pages for products so that people can sign up to be a fan for each product. But are certain things more suited to Facebook rather than others? (music was the example Toby gave). Shani - what's quite interesting about the new business pages, you can sign up to be a fan but you can decide not to have updates. With the groups we don't have that option. 

Workshop session - everyone on Facebook!!

Creative Coffee Club and NLab

Leading up to June's conference, NLab and  CreativeCoffee Club are organising regular meetups and networking events. We aim to provide a place for business people, academics, teachers, public sector workers and managers to network, exchange ideas and discuss how to foster creativity and innovation in the workplace. There's a meeting every Wednesday, alternating between London and Leicester. Check out the Facebook group for meeting dates. For a little more about the thinking behind the project read the CreativeCoffee Club Manifesto. Companies who have joined the Creative Coffee Club in Leicester include NEXT, Sleepydog, iQUBED, Rock Kitchen Harris, Deft Studios, Precision Recruitment, Helen Roscoe Photography, Streetvibe Youth Services, Michael John Design, the LCB Depot, Leicester Council of Faiths and Timberplay Ltd.