Sarah Hartley

A museum exhibit that bridges real-life with Second Life has won its two Manchester-based creators a trip to America as part of a major prize.
Pete Wardle, 42, of Swinton and Alan Hook, 25 of Rusholme will be jetting off to San Jose in California in May to see their project Connecting Point become a reality.
The pair of MA students on Salford University’s creative technology course have been named as one of four winners of an international competition run by The Tech Museum of Innovation.
Their project provides a link between SL and the real world. Visitors to the real museum will see a large screen and be able to interact with avatars.
“The idea is that it’s a gateway between the two”, explains Pete, “The avatars will be six foot high but able to talk directly to the visitors and they will be able to talk back.”
At the moment the pair are working on overcoming the challenge of time lag between the two worlds in readiness for the installation of the project and Alan revealed that the choice of SL for the project wasn’t an easy decision.
“I was quite adverse to using Second Life to begin with because I thought it was just a 3D chat room and didn’t really understand its potential in terms of creativity,” he said.
“After helping on a project for Prof. Paul Sermon for the Urban Screens festival and discussing it with him and other artist it really opened my eyes to it’s creative potential.
“Maybe for some people it is just a chat room and it’s got a lot of bad press recently but it has great potential in terms of creativity and experience both for artists and the public.
“It is a very simple and open platform to use, it has and is developing a great supportive community to help people build their ideas. Its potential is massive and, because it is built largely by the users it is always growing and producing new ideas that make us think about the capabilities of the internet in the future.”
Find out more about the project at the Tech Museum here.

The latest progress report on the Manchester Digital Strategy makes interesting reading.
Released last week by Manchester City Council , the report signals its intention to make Manchester a “Next Generation Digital City” and install broadband with speeds up to 1,000 times faster than those presently available.
It also proposes “that Manchester takes a national lead” by establishing the UK’s first ‘fibre to the premises’ (FTTP) open network.
The feasibility study for the work, kicking off along the Oxford Road Corridor , was due to be completed and published this month.
This will be followed by an application for funding to start putting in high speed data networks for up to 50 businesses and about 400 homes in the Oxford Road area at a cost of about £550,000.
After that, the plan is to extend digital development into other areas, such as East Manchester, with an emphasis on creating employment opportunities.
The full report can be downloaded in this Pdf .

What do you think of the strategy? Let us know below.

If you’re a betting man or woman who follows the news, new website hubdub.com gives you the chance to predict the future.
Users sign up to receive some virtual dosh and then set the odds on any subject they like. There’s not much to do with Manchester at the moment – this football prediction is it – but the site’s founders revealed at yesterday’s Jeecamp event that a UK version is due to launch soon.
I thought this was a great initiative with compelling contnet but I’d love to hear what you all think. Please let me know belo – sopmething you’d use? Too gimmicky for news? Whatever your opinion I’d like to hear it.
And while we’re on the subject of Jeecamp – which was a bit like a baracamp for journalists – how about bringing these two things togther? An event which brings digital journalists, bloggers, content products et al in contact with the best developers, designers and all-round techie types?
Thoughts on that also gratefully received as we get ready to do a second M.E.N event, possibly in May..
All I know is that anyone who wants to hold a camp session on a one-click editorial publishing opportunity will have my attendance guaranteed and, from what I heard yesterday, will need our largest room to host!

Last week we heard news of a threat facing Jodrell Bank. Local geeks and scientists have been in quiet uproar since then, and the petition started on the Downing Street website has gained nearly 3,000 signatures already.
But why is it so important? Why are we all so hot and bothered about a 60-year old observatory now we’re in a city of New Media agencies and spending our days reading RSS feeds?
Is it all just a fondness for the mighty Lovell telescope, viewable for miles across the flat Cheshire fields surrounding it?

Read the rest of this entry »

As Sarah blogged not once, but twice over the weekend, on Saturday we orchestrated the very first BarCamp Manchester at the MEN offices. Over 100 people had tickets with 80-90 showing up on the day. Over 30 sessions happened. We consumed a hundred danish pastries and croissants, around 50 bananas, at least 40 apples and 30 satsumas, 160 bottles of water, 150 cans of fizzy stuff, 250 cups of coffee, 150 cups of tea, 320 slices of pizza, 300 sandwiches, and nearly 100 bags of crisps. Then in the evening we managed to get through more beer and wine than is probably sensible to admit to with even more food on offer.
One thing you can’t say is that anybody went hungry. But why did we do it? Who turned up? Why should you care?

Read the rest of this entry »

I see that the Flickr group is up and running.
Plenty to see and do from yesterday’s event at the M.E.N. and there’s even this fetching logo bee-n created! (Sorry, couldn’t resist that!)
And don’t forget the Google group too.
All I’m waiting for now is Manchester Barcamp the movie – don’t suppose it will be long! If it does make an appearence, I’ll make sure there’s a link here.
Also looking forward to hearing what everyone thought of the event. Let us know by submitting your comments below.

I went along to the M.E.N Media HQ this morning and just look at what I found!
They’re everywhere. I’ve never seen the place buzzing so much. Thanks to my co-blogger and self-confessed geek Paul Robinson , we hosted our first barcamp today with scores of geeks, developers and IT bods getting together to share.
For the uninitiated and cynical, like myself, barcamp seems an unlikley concept – people who spend their working days developing sites, functionality, applications and any manner of online activity get together on a day off and share experiences.
There’s no agenda. Little planning beforehand and no-one deciding the day’s events. Sound like a recipe for disaster? Well prepare to eat your words. Not only did it work, but it cooked up a great atmosphere to boot.

First the day’s events were selected by a flurry of sticky notes on a schedule. It was amazing to see the enthusiasm of all these experts who were so keen to share that they descended like a pack to offer their talks.
The topics posted were so varied there was something for everyone – setting up an auction site, discussing the UK teen market, getting to grips with wordpress or how to become famous – were just a few that caught my eye.
Four rooms were handed over, forty pizzas were ordered and everyone got stuck in.
There’s video being shot as I post this and undoubtedly other blogs to come, so if you were a part of it, share your links, submit your comments and collaborate here and at the Google group.

It was great to meet so many of you and I can’t wait to hear what everyone thought about it.