Archive | August, 2015

2015 NextGen Digital Challenge Awards: Sharing Economy

27 Aug

 

This is the last in our series of blogs for each of the awards categories in the 2015 Digital challenge.   Earlier in the year the Open Call for nominations signaled that the Sharing Economy deserved to be recognized as a significant new category.

NGShortlisthi-resSo, in this final Awards Blog we are delighted to introduce contenders with a wide range of approaches to collaborative endeavours.

The Sharing Economy is all about better use of resources – enabling folks to utilize spare capacity, share talent and expertise, and help individuals and communities to work in greater harmony.

The digital connection is that these projects are often made possible by greater online engagement with systems and platforms to connect resources to needs – and those resources may range from intangibles like expertise and data to tangible assets like a redundant Hard disk Drive or the driveway to your house.

The six 2015 Shortlisted Finalists for our Sharing Economy Trophy are:

Fairsay with eCampaigning Forum – sharing the talent for debating skills and social action.

Just Park – Pre-Book Parking – utilizing the value of your home driveway.

MyNeighbourhood – the Smart City and Sharing Communities initiative in Birmingham

Circular Data Solutions – Large-scale 100% recycling of redundant Hard Disc Drives whilst ensuring that no stored data can be inadvertently recovered or misused and full compliance with Data Privacy legislation.

Roomlala – a flat and room-share platform new to the UK and very popular in student communities where the property rental market needs greater flexibility.

Made Open Monmouthshire from Monmouthshire County Council & Made Open Communications – creating the conditions for communities and businesses to raise challenges, start projects and play a part in tackling the challenges that impact their place.

Research suggests that the emergence of Sharing Economy is a significant step in the long transition towards a more sustainable ‘circular economy’ where resources are not wasted but are re-used or re-purposed – designed to be ‘made to be made again’.

The independent judging panel will review all the shortlisted contenders during September. The winner will be announced at a dinner in the House of Lords following the NextGen 15 event on November 5th.

For details of event sponsorship opportunities contact Marit Hendriks

( marith@nextgenevents.co.uk ) or call David Brunnen on +44 (0) 7714 325 657

 

 

 

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2015 NextGen Digital Challenge Awards: Digital Innovation

24 Aug

 

[This is part 7 of an 8-part series profiling the short-listed Finalists – Ed]

Over the past five years of the Digital Challenge, Innovation has always been a strong theme.   In 2015 the contenders for this award once again demonstrate a diversity of imaginative responses to emergent needs.

NGShortlisthi-resWhen the judging panel buckles down to review the shortlist they will be faced with a three-part submission from each Finalist – detailing each project’s Challenge, Solution and Achievement.

The scale of each Challenge and Achievement is relatively easy to quantify but the judges must also assess each Solution by considering its degree of innovation, and ask how each project is differentiated from the general tide of progress.

The six 2015 Shortlisted Finalists are:

  • British Gas Connected Homes with the My Energy Live – a smartphone application.
  • Dorchester Collection with eShop – adding bitcoin payments to the online shopping experience.
  • DVLA with an Integrated Enquiries Platform (IEP) – the alternative to a Driving Licence paper counterpart – easing, for example, admin for car rentals.
  • Glasgow City Council with their Future Cities Demonstrator project – paving the way to smarter cities.
  • Kemuri with Wellbeing Monitor – a smart power socket with multiple sensors to allow remote activity monitoring for carers.
  • Northamptonshire County Council with Development Infrastructure and Funding for ‘INV-ENT’ (innovation & Enterprise) project.

Which of these projects will be judged to have the potential to make a real difference?

The independent judging panel will review all the shortlisted contenders during September. The winner will be announced at a dinner in the House of Lords following the NextGen 15 event on November 5th.

For details of event sponsorship opportunities contact Marit Hendriks ( marith@nextgenevents.co.uk ) or call 07714 325 657

 

 

 

 

 

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2015 NextGen Digital Challenge Awards: Intelligent Communities

20 Aug

 

[This is part 6 of an 8-part series profiling the shortlisted finalists for the 2015 Digital Challenge Awards – Ed.]

This new category for the 2015 Digital Challenge Awards celebrates how some folks are already thinking beyond the much-hyped ‘smart technology’ projects.

NGShortlisthi-resIn part it reflects the convergence of thought leaders both in the UK and North America but it must be said that, in our first introductory year for this award category, the contenders are recognized as contributory projects.

Emulating the vastly experienced global ICF awards would be a very tall order but there is huge scope in future years for UK recognition of more comprehensive ‘whole community’ projects. Meanwhile our contenders all have great relevance in their local impacts – reminding us that good things happen when centralised policy initiatives are made more sense in the context of action on the ground.

The six 2015 Shortlisted Finalists are:

DONATE – a digital platform enabling immediate charitable donations via multiple channels

Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC) with My Knowle West App – a channel to a huge range of community activities

Link Group Ltd – so much more than a conventional Digital Inclusion Project

Nottinghamshire County Council with their Digital First project

RunAClub.com – a Digital Infrastructure and Support Platform to overcome the administrative hurdles faced by club leaders.

Tinder Foundation and NHS tackling health inequalities with Widening Digital Participation

All the shortlisted contenders will be reviewed by the independent judging panel during September. The winners will be announced at a dinner in the House of Lords following the NextGen 15 event on November 5th.

For details of event sponsorship opportunities contact Marit Hendriks

( marith@nextgenevents.co.uk ) or call David Brunnen via 07714 325 657

 

 

 

 

 

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2015 NextGen Digital Challenge Awards: Urban Networks

17 Aug

[This is part 5 of an 8-part series reviewing the 2015 shortlist – Ed]

Since 2011 the history of the Urban Networks Award illustrates two things: how new connectivity providers have entered the market and how far customer expectations have grown.

NGShortlisthi-resThe 2014 winner was Virtual 1 for their wholesale London network and sharing joint second place were City Fibre and ITS Solutions

This year’ shortlist again highlights connectivity for businesses – where (relative to households) the demands for future proofing are more intense and where shifts in costs (downwards) and revenues (upwards) are transforming investment models.

The five 2015 Shortlisted Finalists are:

CityFibre back again with Peterborough: Gigabit City – a project that has a ‘business first’ plan.

Metronet (UK) Limited – with a wide range of advanced hybrid wired and wireless Internet services for businesses.

MS3 Networks Limited with Fibre to the Business in Hull

Venus with Superconnected Busworks, London

Genesis Technical Systems with faster ‘superfast’ broadband for WarwickNet and its business customers

All the shortlisted contenders will be reviewed by the independent judging panel during September. The winners will be announced at a dinner in the House of Lords following the NextGen 15 event on November 5th.

For details of event sponsorship opportunities contact Marit Hendriks ( marith@nextgenevents.co.uk )

 

 

 

 

 

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Finding your niche: reaching the most remote locations

14 Aug

It is said that the (now leaning slightly less) bell tower in Pisa was used to gain valuable data; news of ships approaching the port – vital news for traders and ship owners who would be affected by the riches on board and, possibly, good news for the families of returning sailors.

The truth of that tale is suspect. Pisa is a fair way up the river Arno and even in the 11th century it was 2.5 km from the coast. But the plausibility of the tour guide’s story rests on our current wonder at how those earlier generations of seafarers managed without reliable communications.

Keeping in touch with very large mobile assets with valuable cargoes en route around the globe has got to be the ultimate broadband challenge. Far more than keeping in touch with crew and passengers, every aspect of shipping operations produces a wealth of data – the engine room’s performance metrics, navigation tracking, cargo conditions and maintenance schedules. Life on board is never dull. Fleet owners and operators (and their insurers) expect to be fully informed.

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

The international fleet operator Vroon, based in The Netherlands, operates and manages a diverse fleet of around 170 vessels, with more than 400 shore-based staff and around 4,000 marine personnel worldwide.

Their vessels are active in offshore support, offshore wind turbine installation and maintenance, dry cargo, container and other segments, including product/chemical tankers, asphalt/bitumen tankers and car carriers.

That diverse fleet adds up to a megaload of megabytes and the job of keeping Vroon connected to its offshore assets has fallen to Hong Kong based SpeedCast, a leading global satellite telecoms service provider. Their always-on 24×7 broadband platform will support a wide range of services, including Internet, voice and video streaming, with real-time connectivity at sea.

Anyone who has experienced Satcomms on land will be well aware of the challenges. Internet connections via satellite are relatively slow compared to a fully fibred connection – slower even than the hybrid fibre/copper connections that claim to be superfast – and the latency (over half a minute) on a round trip of 70,000km would never be the first choice of games enthusiasts.

But to meet Vroon’s specific requirements SpeedCast have designed solutions for every aspect of the operation with a range of Upload and Download capacities and optimized routing from earth stations to minimize delays. The prize for this design expertise? A multi-year contract for three parts of the Vroon fleet including subsea support ships and Wind Turbine installation & maintenance vessels with up to 110 people on board.

This is a classic example of a technology finding its market niche and ensuring that it has a reliable future – unlike that bell tower in Pisa that took 200 years to install and another 500 years to stop it falling over.

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2015 NextGen Digital Challenge Awards: Digital Inclusion & Skills

13 Aug

This year we have combined the Digital Inclusion and Digital Skills award categories – reflecting how the effort to increase online participation has evolved to embrace a spectrum of skills now considered more essential for living and working in a modern society.

NGShortlisthi-resPrevious winners included projects from the Tinder Foundation – now recognized across the UK for the capabilities of their volunteers to reach disadvantaged sections of society.

Following the 2014 report from the House of Lords, there is now a far greater recognition of digital skills needs across all sectors of the UK economy.

The 2015 Shortlisted Finalists are:

CommunityUK.net Ltd with their project Going All Inclusive

AmicusHorizon with project Get Connected

Commendium Ltd for their BIG Cumbria project

bITjAM with an online platform to support National Youth Debates

Digital Unite with their Digital Champions Network

Hyde Plus with their Housing Initiative amongst social housing communities

Northumberland County Council with their project iNorthumberland

The independent judging panel will review all shortlisted contenders during September and the winners will be announced at a dinner in the House of Lords following the NextGen 15 event on November 5th.

For details of event sponsorship opportunities contact Marit Hendriks ( marith@nextgenevents.co.uk ) or call 07734 919 479

Registration is now open for the  NextGen 15 event

 

 

 

 

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2015 NextGen Digital Challenge Awards: Rural Networks

10 Aug

 

The Rural Network Award has been part of the Digital Challenge since 2010.

NGShortlisthi-resPrevious winners include B4RN – now recognized across Europe as an exemplar of community investment.

With the launch in September of ICF’s 2016 Connected Countryside campaign we can expect far greater recognition of the massive economic growth contribution that originates in areas beyond the major metros.

The 2015 Shortlisted Finalists are;

Abthorpe Broadband Association – The Tove Valleys journey, from Satellite to FTTP, illustrates more than a decade of development. The villages and remote properties are now served partly by fibre directly to their premises or via wireless from village access points.

Gigaclear plc – Piddington and Ludgershall ultrafast broadband deployment. These rural communities had one of the fastest ever sign ups with the support and help of the local people.

Lothian Broadband Networks Limited – Providing Fast Broadband in Rural East Central Scotland. Lothian Broadband provides high-speed wireless services via strategically positioned masts to reach 1000s of village properties that would otherwise be on the wrong side of the digital divide.

Satellite Internet – Superfast Satellite for Communities (SS4C) – positioned as a solution for extremely hard-to-reach areas. Using a mix of satellites with different footprints, there is now a range of flexible packages that can deliver a variety of services.

Vfast Internet – Providing super fast access to some of the hardest to reach communities across Kent. Vfast uses its fibre network to feed local wireless broadband services and now also offers a fixed line service for customers within range of its local cabinets.

The independent judging panel will review all shortlisted contenders during September and the winners will be announced at a dinner in the House of Lords following the NextGen 15 event on November 5th.

For details of event sponsorship opportunities contact Marit Hendriks ( marith@nextgenevents.co.uk ) or call 07734 919 479

 

 

 

 

 

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2015 Digital Challenge Awards – Open Data

10 Aug

NGShortlisthi-resThis is the 3rd year that The NextGen Digital Challenge has honoured Open Data projects.

Last year’s winner The Driver & Vehicle Licencing Authority (DVLA) highlighted a great step forward in public sector online capabilities.

The shortlisted contenders for 2015 include three from the Public Sector – and they are competing with a Community Project from rural England and a major Utility.

The judging panel’s reactions in September will be interesting as they study the scale of challenges, the novelty of the solutions and evidence of achievement.

DVLA are back – this time pitching their system for allowing Fleet companies to view vehicle records. For companies managing more than 50 vehicles this will enable huge administrative efficiencies.

Cybermoor – based in Alston Moor, high up in the North Pennines – have are enabling a greater understanding of what is going on in rural communities through their Community Data Explorer project.  Making data relevant – drawing on planning and crime stats – it has recently won funding from the Department for Communities and Local Government to extend into other parts of Cumbria.

Ordnance Survey are hoping to find a route towards another trophy with their Open Map project – enabling vast swathes of landscape details to be incorporated into other online systems.

British Gas are looking forward to more Connected Homes with their My Energy Application platform – a service that brings together smart metering and Predictive Analytics to transparently communicate to customers on their energy consumption.

And the final contender comes from the Channel Islands: the States of Guernsey with the Electronic Census Project that turns the costs and hassle of census production on its head. Why ask citizens to fill in forms every ten years, when by pulling together a whole range of data already known to government, you can get complete census results at every quarter of the year at a fraction of the cost?

We must wait until 5th November to find out just who will be celebrating at the Awards dinner in the House of Lords – but all of the contenders have great stories that will fuel further adventures in Open Data development.

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For more information on NextGen 15 and the Digital Challenge Awards visit: http://www.nextgenevents.co.uk/events/NextGen15

 

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NextGen Digital Challenge Awards 2015: The Shortlist

3 Aug

SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED

NGShortlisthi-res

For this 5th year of the Digital Challenge Awards we have seven Awards categories.

Back in January, when we launched the Open Call for nominations, we had no idea what projects would be in the running by the end of May.   We hoped that the nominations would highlight some new trends. We have not been disappointed.

This year will see a new award for Sharing Economy projects, even stronger backing for the Open Data award and another group of Finalists shortlisted for their contributions to Intelligent Communities.

Time-honoured favourite, the Digital Inclusion award, is combined this year with great projects around Digital Skills.   The continuing pace of projects in Digital Innovation, Rural Networks, and Urban Networks fuels all these long-standing Awards.

Over the course of the next few weeks we will profile the contenders for each of these Awards Categories.   The independent judging panel will review each project’s merits in September and by October we will be deeply immersed in trophy production for the big night in the House of Lords on November 5th.

The summary of shortlisted Finalists is now online.

Further news will be tweeted (#NG15, @eventsnextgen , and @groupeintellex ) and all Finalists now have an email signature button to mark their success.

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