Mashupevent on Philip Sheldrake

Chairing the Internet of Things mashup

Wed, 05 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The BCS, Chartered Institute for IT, hosted the Mashup Event in London last night, an event focused on the Internet of Things. As chair I knew it was important to establish boundaries for the evening’s discussion, but the problem is… there is simply no sector or discipline that is or will be left untouched by the Internet of Things.

Fortunately, I could lean on an expert panel to shoulder the burden of picking out the topics, although I was first to take a stab at defining the topic: a network of objects beyond the ‘usual’ including:

the device containing electronics in order to fulfil its primary function (eg, washing machine, car, aircon unit)
the electrical device traditionally absent of sophisticated electronics (eg, lighting, heating, power distribution)
non-electrical objects (eg, food and drink packages, animals, clothing); and
environmental sensors (eg, for variables such as temperature, heat and moisture).

David Orban opened the evening in ten minutes with a fast, furious, compelling and fascinating slide stack. He could have banged us over the head with ten minutes about WideTag , but preferred to situate his company’s endeavours in the bigger picture. Videos from tonight will go up on the Mashup Event website, but if you can’t wait, here’s a video of David in action at Momo Amsterdam a month ago.

Online, offline, up a tree, down a cellar - effective networking is all in the mix

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Being so fascinated by and engrossed in social networking, and digital media relations more widely, I’m asked on a regular basis “What’s the point of spending so much time online?”.

The very basis of the question betrays the fact that the questioner still, like the majority of people to be fair, feels it necessary to divide their life up into “offline” and “online” portions. Yet they don’t distinguish “time eating / not eating”, “time talking / listening”, “time with new people / with old acquaintances”, “time on the phone / not on the phone”.

Like eating, listening and telephones, digital media simply exists. It is part of life. Sure it may have its unique characteristics, but then what doesn’t? I am living, working, having fun, exploring, innovating, learning… some of which just happens to be online and some offline.

Social Network Levelling

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0000

“If Facebook is the Cathedral, who owns the bazaar?”

This evening’s Mashup Event , hosted this time at Merrill Lynch’s London HQ, focused on Social Networks. It was the busiest of the series to date; at over 200 attendees it was twice the size of the one I chaired earlier this year. So congratulations to Simon and Tony on making it happen.

Social networking has arrived. I can say this on the sole basis that we were in less-than-5-star hotel venues not long ago, and now we’re hosted by one of the world’s biggest investment banks! Moreover, the breadth of attendees is growing as more and more employers and leaders become interested in how Mashups affect their business, affect their markets, affect their lives.