Category Archives: technology

Nominated in two categories for the Online Media Awards 2013

<![CDATA[ The nominations have been announced for the 2013 Online Media Awards and I’m pleased to see my products nominated in two categories. First, heraldscotland.com has been nominated in the category Best Local/Regional News Site. Stiff competition in this category including BBC News, Sky and Newsquest stablemate the Daily Echo. Second, our Sunday Herald LifeContinue reading “Nominated in two categories for the Online Media Awards 2013”

Guest blog post live on Nesta's Destination Local site

<![CDATA[ For close to a year I’ve been working with my colleagues at the Herald & Times Group and independent charity Nesta to bring OurTown to life. The history of the project is documented here and here. On Friday, Nesta kindly published a guest blog post I wrote for them outlining the successes, challenges andContinue reading “Guest blog post live on Nesta's Destination Local site”

Digital Street Paper project visits New York

<![CDATA[This week, amidst one of the worst snow storms to hit the Northeast US, the Digital Street Paper project I’ve been working on with the INSP was the subject of one of the talks at the Brand Perfect Tour in New York. The INSP’s Maree Aldam talked about the challenges that street papers face inContinue reading “Digital Street Paper project visits New York”

Digital Street Paper project goes live!

<![CDATA[ A couple of years ago I had an idea to take street papers like the Big Issue into the digital age. Working with the INSP and David Craik we got buy-in from several street papers around the world and the Big Issue in the North agreed to support a pilot project. Our project receivedContinue reading “Digital Street Paper project goes live!”

EE's 4G pricing announced: First thoughts… no thanks!

<![CDATA[Yesterday, the UK's first 4G operator, EE, announced their pricing. As they’re the first UK network to get iPhone 5 compatible 4G LTE spectrum (and one of only two that ever will) their pricing will be of interest to many people. At first look, it really disappoints. I’ll ignore subsidised phone contracts for now sinceContinue reading “EE's 4G pricing announced: First thoughts… no thanks!”

Is this whole music policy report the result of a calculator slip?

<![CDATA[Today my attention was drawn to a widely-covered (link, link, link) MusicTank energy report with an alarming headline statistic – Streaming media could have larger carbon footprint than plastic discs – and, specifically, streaming an album 27 times could use more energy than producing and shipping the physical product. Wow, sounds alarming. Could that beContinue reading “Is this whole music policy report the result of a calculator slip?”

Funding success for my Nesta Destination Local project

<![CDATA[A few years ago, while I was Web Producer at s1, I was asked to develop a ‘hyperlocal’ community web platform. The system I designed and developed with Duncan McDonald, s1community, went on to power over 100 s1-branded community sites, 80 Evening Times local sites and still employs full time journalists to curate content fromContinue reading “Funding success for my Nesta Destination Local project”

My first Kickstarter project: The Digital Street Paper

<![CDATA[About a year ago my manager at the Herald & Times set me a challenge – how do you move street papers like the Big Issue into the digital age? On one level it sounds like a trivial problem. Dozens of solutions already exist to translate newspapers and magazines into digital editions. We already useContinue reading “My first Kickstarter project: The Digital Street Paper”

Adventures in RFID (with the MF522-AN module)

<![CDATA[I've been meaning to do some experiments with RFID for a while. The technology is cheap, reliable and opens up a world of possibilities for exhibit and event IT interactive displays. I chose Arduino as my platform for RFID, not only because it's robust and I'm familiar with it, but also because it has establishedContinue reading “Adventures in RFID (with the MF522-AN module)”

Space Invaders Gmail Notifier – parts summary

<![CDATA[Wow! I've been blown away with the amount of interest in my wee Space Invaders alarm clock modification. Thank you everyone! Four days on from my original blog post my YouTube video has been viewed over 11,000 times and details of my project have spread right around the globe, translated into German, Spanish, Portuguese andContinue reading “Space Invaders Gmail Notifier – parts summary”