Awards Opportunity - closes 29th July

@BhamScienceCity's Susannah Goh tells us about an award for those working in digital technologies...

Image Credit: Kristian Dela Cour

Catching up on news from the ICT Knowledge Transfer Network, today, I came across the announcement of the  prestigious Next Gen 13 national competition for digital technologies within  ‘next generation access infrastructure’. (Details can be found at: http://www.nextgenevents.co.uk/awards ).  If you know of a business or initiative that will fit the bill, please contact awards@nextgenevents.co.uk   by 29th July.

The awards are:

• Urban (Fixed) – digital access infrastructure deployments in city and urban areas
• Rural (Fixed) - digital access deployments for rural and ‘hard to reach’ areas.
• Mobile – service developments in mobile cellular and public Wi-Fi connectivity
• Network Quality – initiatives and systems designed to improve the performance quality of networks and their design/deployment

(With the exception of Mobile the Digital Network categories are technologically neutral)

• Open Data – the use of Open Data in commercial, community or public service projects together with related Cloud Computing services, facilities and systems for large volume (Big Data) and the capacity for high performance processing.
• Digital Innovation – includes examples of innovative products and services and initiatives to improve ‘innovation capacity’.
• Digital Skills – Projects, Services and campaigns that increase digital skills levels amongst individuals, SMEs and charities, and that contribute to Go ON UK's vision of making the UK the most digitally skilled nation in the world.

All that the Next Gen team  need is:

• a contact name, email and phone number
• a brief summary statement of your work or project (maximum 40 words plus Web url) and
• the implementation status of your project - whether at design stage, in Beta testing or fully operational.

Good luck and let us know how you get on!

If you are would like to explore possibilities and collaborative partnerships, contact Susannah Goh at Birmingham Science City s.goh@aston.ac.uk

(Image Credit: Kristian Dela Cour)

The Tales of Shakespuss -DM Opportunity

We've just heard about an exciting new project about a cat called 'William Shakespuss' The basic premise of the project is to bring the elements of Shakespeare to children as soon as they can sit up and look at pictures.

The Tales of Shakespuss have a number of facets, including a stage show which is presently the element which relates to the crowd-funding indicated on the website at present www.shakespuss.com.  For digital media businesses, the interesting element will be the creation of the animation of the Tales.  They have secured the wonderful talents of Patricia Quinn (AKA Magenta in The Rocky Horror Show), whose appearances include acting with the RSC and a great many roles including children's roles such as The Box of Delights in the mid 80s.  She is to be the voice of Shakespuss, and no doubt they'll have other exciting actors for the many colourful characters which are members of the Shakespuss troupe.


Support on any level for Shakespuss will have a tangible supporting effect on every aspect of the project, and they certainly hope they can enjoy the talents of the many professionals working within the animation and support industries in and around the Midlands.


Shakespuss and Shakespeare naturally share the same home of Stratford upon Avon, the creator of Shakespuss, Melissa Mailer-Yates, says she was born in Yardley, and keeping the creative side within the Midlands area is very important to the Shakespuss project. Support on any level would be gratefully received, particularly as they are currently seeking the financial backing in order to achieve what will no doubt become a worldwide phenomenon.

We at Digital Media Businesses wish Melissa and William Shakespuss every success and look forward to telling you about any creative opportunities that arise during the project

You can watch a video about the project on the website www.shakespuss.com

Opportunity- ITV seek apprentices for ITV News Central team

This Friday is the closing date for applications for the ITV apprenticeship in the ITV News Central team, working in the Birmingham studio. Interviews and assessments happen towards the end of this month. Why not visit the web page for more details or tweet or share this opportunity with someone you know? http://bit.ly/11dFxvb
 
ITV even have Top Tips on applying to and working at ITV on YouTube ...

BBC seek volunteers for Wildlife Revival event

The BBC are looking for volunteers for a Britain’s Big Wildlife Revival Event taking place as part of the BBC’s Summer of Wildlife. This event will be held on the 14th September  in Sutton Park.

This summer the BBC will come together to celebrate the UK’s extraordinary wildlife.

The BBC is going to harness the power of much loved programmes and new ground-breaking nature content from across the BBC to create a ‘Summer of Wildlife’ – a season which will galvanise and inspire people across the UK to celebrate, discover and ultimately protect the sheer range, speciality and importance of wildlife in the UK.

Birmingham has been selected to host the only Britain’s Big Wildlife Revival event. It will take place at Sutton Park, Birmingham on Saturday, September 14th 2013. It is expected to be open to the public from 10.00am to 5.00 pm, and will be free to enter.

Volunteer Roles
We are looking for a minimum of 15 volunteers to act as stewards for the event.

Exact duties will be allocated on the day. These are expected to include:
·        Meeting and greeting visitors at the gate
·        Acting as an information point for visitors
·        Signposting visitors to attractions and suggesting alternatives if their first choice is too busy
·        Managing queues
·        Supporting partner activities

All roles will be ambassadorial and information based. You will be expected to:
    Encourage people to get involved
    Be a positive face of the BBC and BBC Springwatch
    Be on hand for any questions or queries
    Be enthusiastic about the event and about the Summer of Wildlife

You do not need to have any wildlife or conservation knowledge or background.

Please note that this is an outreach event and volunteer roles are not related to television production.

Download the PDF application form and information sheet from the DMB website here

Conference on Digital Health

Do you have the skills and expertise to innovate with Health Sector? Check out this free event:

Conference on Digital Health
Institute of Digital Healthcare at the University of Warwick
Thursday, 25th July 2013 0900 -1630

The Insititute of Digital Healthcare is a five year partnership with NHS, WMG and Warwick Medical School which aims to improve people's health and wellbeing through the development, evaluation and use of innovative digital technologies and services.

The purpose of this workshop is to hold a collaborative event with NHS partnering organisations, industry representatives and University colleagues from the West Midlands. We envisage it will set the agenda for the future AHSN digital theme programme:

To create effective networks and contacts across the West Midlands region for moving forward the use of digital technology and informatics in the delivery of healthcare
Build a framework strategy for the digital work-stream of the AHSN
Demonstrate how IDH can support the adoption of innovation across the NHS
Identify possible future opportunities for innovation and collaborative working

Click here to book or for more info on the venue

'Up' your street smarts with Smart Streets - event

Designing Smart Streets – InfoLab21 event 25 June Lancaster University

Digital Birmingham is leading the Smart Cities agenda on behalf of Birmingham City Council. It is working with many of its strategic partners to ensure that we can maximise the city assets and resources and accelerate the release of data so that it can be used by businesses to create new applications, products and solutions to help the city achieve its strategic outcomes.   The potential benefits of Public Service Information have been estimated by Deloitte at £1.8bn of direct value with wider social and economic benefits raising it to £6.8bn.  The release of real time information by Transport for London has enabled new apps to be developed, promoting public usage and generating business opportunities.

The InfoLab21 event on 25 June at Lancaster University provides a great opportunity for businesses and organisations who work in app development or who have an interest in open Data to develop creative solutions for highways / street maintenance challenges and work on a competition entry for part of a £60K prize fund. The project is a TSB funded collaboration and will bring together project partners Carillion, Balfour Beatty and Amey and the small business community to explore how our highways can be digitally enhanced/enabled and, more importantly, what data might that might provide and how a range of stakeholders, particularly smaller businesses, can access the data and make money from it.

To register your interest visit:  http://smartstreets.eventbrite.co.uk/#
For further information please email: Paul.Rose@amey.co.uk or download poster at: http://www.digitalbirmingham.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/DesigningSmartStreetsPoster.pdf

3D Print event - do.CAKE 25th June

You are invited to attend the next FREE do.CAKE morning 10am on Tuesday 25th June 2013, at do.collaboration's Chowen and Garfield Weston Foundation Prototyping Hall. This month's exciting theme is 3D printing and there will be presentations from Black Country Atelier and 3D Creation Lab.

To find out more and register, visit http://docake.eventbrite.co.uk/

image credit Keith Kissel

Venue:

do.collaboration Hub
Chowen and Garfield Weston Foundation Prototyping Hall, 

Ground Floor, ERI Building
University of Birmingham, Pritchatts Road, Edgbaston
United Kingdom, B15 2TT