Jonny Douglas – http://jonnydouglas.com
A familiar face (I think I’ve seen him down the local 
) has been nominated as one of the most influential business people in new media in Yorkshire.
He is speaking about why you shouldn’t believe your art teacher… They decide on people’s own perception of whether you are or are not “one of those (creative) people”.
Maverick Thinkers
- Learning comes most easily with Fun.
- Brainstorming. Start it in advance. Drip feed info to get people started.
- Sleep (or rather dream)
- Question Everything. Apparently eating breakfast for breakfast is bad news… something about digestion and filling. This speaker ate dinner for breakfast.
- Failure. Stop fearing it. (linked to) Risk – risk things. Otherwise you won’t gain anything.
- Flux. Stay flexible. Adapt, change, it’s natural.
- Brains. Your conscious brain processes vvvv.little information compared to your sub-conscious. Use your conscious mind to adapt your sub-conscious mind to be more productive.
- Carry a notebook. Help make connections by giving your sub-conscious reference points.
- Input. “Standing on the shoulders of giants”. Use the ideas of others.
- Be inspired by the world. It has billions of years of R&D behind it. Imitation of nature isn’t a bad thing.
- Think inside the box. The 3 Ps of this are: People, People, People and Planet. You, your associates, the end user and the box we’re all in – Earth. It’s interlinked and it’s important.
- Think outside the box. Imagine futures – there’s no wrong answer to what hasn’t happened yet!
There was then a great quote:
Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate,
but that we are powerful beyond measure.It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.Your playing small does not serve the world.There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give
other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Ben Terrett – Founder of Really Interesting Group
Introducing Really Interesting Group – “doing projects for fun, money or both”.
The recent project – THINGS OUR FRIENDS HAVE WRITTEN ON THE INTERNET 2008 – is a paper copy of what it says on the tin.
Firstly sent out to 23 authors and containing a lot of stolen content it appeared online in discussions. All 1000 sold out in record time.
Geo-tagged pictures on Flikr from around the world show a want for post-digital content.
Real objects have digital identities. BakerTweet is referenced and lamp post repair stickers utilising communication by users to issue a FAIL state.
Moving past digital infatuation and analogue nostalgia. Quote a Google staff member “Things I would rather read on paper”. Also quotes PaperCamp.
“We have broken your business. Now we’re coming for your machines.”
The business model of publishing is changing to allow for as little as 5 copies of your issue, laying waste to the huge printing facilities necessary for national newspapers etc.
Simeon Yates – C3RI
Introducing Simeon Yates – C3RI – an academic intrested in social science.
How has technology been changing the social landscape.
Nowadays people can build their own game (levels on 1st person shooters, band tracks on Guitar Hero etc).
How can one human communicate with another in the future? How is texting different from twitter? Remove barriers of space and time help. This then changes the classification of public and private when using the net.
“Who in this room does not have a mobile phone on them?”
No hands go up.
“That’s the first time that’s happened!”
“We’ve gone 3000 years to move from poking clay to poking a screen.”
</lecture>
Hardware hacking – Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
Introducing Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino of Tinker.it
The Arduino was developed in the academic sphere in Italy with the use of Open Source. They have been used for:
Proximity sensor devies for musicians – like a theramin.
Pressure sensitive devices for artists – public installations of staircase pianos.
A asked the question:
“I know FOSS appeals to businesses after the “free beer” explanation, but projects that involve custom programming cost time and money. What can the revenue streams look like?”
“Look at Redhat… becoming a services-based company is a natural shift. This holds true for open source hardware.”
Why entrepreneurship?
“that moment” tearful emotive catharsis.
tips for wannabes:
- Find a foil – a ying to your yang (example of paul+john – the beatles)
- Innovation (find somethign and make it better). Be the ‘live, local’ version.
- Elevator pitch – the 5 Ps – Pain, Premise, People, Proof, Purpose.
- Be local, be reliable, be nice.
- Be lucky – get the right Team…
- Delivery, Sales, Finance. Outsourcing one is fine – the best to offload being Finance.
- Firstly sell to friends, learn about spreadsheets (balance sheets), get a loval book-keeper, a local part-time accountant, Get a finance director (or a virtual one), once someone wants to buy your company – get an accountancy firm for management.
- Get a mentor. They will open doors for you.
- “It’s easy” – All you need is love.
- Don’t let ego take over.
It begins
Chris Anderson explains TEDx
“Bring people together, bringing ideas together brnigs Sheffield back to what it was… to achieve what is possible.”
Introducing Codeworks.
Codeworks
Herby Kim introduces Codeworks. Sheffield’s TEDx is the 3rd leg of the northern tour oranised by Codeworks.
Twitter types may find the event under #TEDxS
Lecture Hall / Electric Works.
Set in a modest lecture hall (I expected a larger turnout – but we look as though we’ll all fit) however the building that surrounds it is exquisite!! See here.
For those who haven’t seen or heard of the Digital Campus it is Sheffield Hallam University’s attempt at an agile R&D workspace that has a helter-skelter in the lobby.
For those of you who do know, it may not have lived up to the hype built before it in the planning and building phases but if first impressions count it certainly fails to disappoint.
Behind the seats are the expected cameras to add each lecture to the appropriate distribution service (I’m not too sure where yet… maybe here ). Infront of us are screens set to ‘dazzle’ and some excited faces running around preparing the stage with last minute tweaks.
Something interesting this way comes….
First Impressions
Registration and initial mingling… people being introduced and sizing each other up (purely in the intellectual sense of course!)
The familiar ramblings of geeks / new media types are being batted back and forth once again… “Do you facebook?”
“Oh no I twitter”
“Do you find it’s actually good for anything…”
….and so the conversation turns to iPhones and the “anything, anytime” opportunity given to us by technology.
Welcome to TEDxSheffield – live reports
Hello and welcome to AFDIT’s live blog from TEDxSheffield – the popular “open source” offshot of the globally popular TED lecture events from he USA.
We will be blogging the one-day Sheffield event live from the Electric Works in Hallam University’s Digital Works campus.
Please hit that F5 button to stay tuned to what is happening at the event.