The topic of citizen journalism, old/new media has been a favourite topic of mine this past week after Jeff Ullman mentioned the “death of newspapers” in his talk. To my surprise, the Guardian announced that they are building a blog focused on local media, and for some unknown reason, has chosen Leeds, Edinburgh and Cardiff. Plus, they are advertising for a position of a local blogger! And we’re not just talking about “pay per blog” type of job – but a real job. With money attached. In fact, it’s marked as a 12 month freelance post. I’ve copied the job description verbatim below.
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Last week, Jeff Ullman from Stanford University gave a talk to the Informatics Entrepreneurship class which was opened up to the wider world. The core of it was the ideas that made Google really what it is – PageRank and TrustRank – and the technical concepts behind it. Here are my notes from the talk just in case you missed it and wanted to know what it was about …
The early search engines crawled the web (following the links from page to page, finidng and copying as many pages as you could). Index the pages by the words they contained. And then when you’re given a search query, you find the pages that contains those words. Continue Reading »
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This week is set up in quite a logical order. First, channel your mental energy into creating some brand new ideas Tuesday evening with the help of iCUE and SIE. Then on Wednesday afternoon, learn about the market research tools that are at your finger tips, but that most people overlook. Wednesday night, cheer for your favourites at the E-Club pitching competition (£1000 at stake!), touch base with the developer world at TechMeetup, or skip both to celebrate commercialisation at the uni (who knew 14th Oct would be such a busy night?!). Then be inspired to keep the ball rolling with Thursday’s impressive speakers, and make some new connections at Edinburgh Coffee Morning (every Friday!) if you have some energy left – always worthwhile. Good luck!
LAUNCH.ed explained: Tuesday 13th Oct, 4pm at Informatics Forum G.07
For any students or staff at the University of Edinburgh, Becci Difford will enlighten you on the LAUNCH.ed help we are lucky to have. Highly recommended for anyone not already in the loop… Continue Reading »
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I’m often told that starting a business with someone is like getting married to them. Some of the most successful businesses have been built on partnerships – just look at Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Everyone has to have their ‘soulmate’ that they have to work with.
Continue Reading »
Posted in Opinions | Tagged dating, marriage, partners | 5 Comments »
Apart from free food, free beer, and free speech, the next best thing is software that you don’t have to pay for. Microsoft Bizspark program is for software startups where you can get Microsoft software for free, as well as some technical support for free too. According to the entrepreneur’s handbook, the support you get is:
Get Support: Get professional support from Microsoft and get connected to BizSpark Network Partners around the world who provide a wide range of support resources for software startups. Network Partners Continue Reading »
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Georgina Hamshaw from Edinburgh Research and Innovation is running a lunchtime seminar next Wed (14th Oct 2009) on Scotbis. According to the Scotbis website, they are:
SCOTBIS (Scottish Business Information Service) provides a research service for businesses across Scotland.
SCOTBIS is based on the vast resources of the National Library of Scotland. At NLS you can access market research reports, business databases, international directories, and business and trade journals.
Sounds like anyone doing opportunity/market assessment might be interested! I’ve never heard of them before, so if anyone does go and want to volunteer a roundup post, then please let me know. More details below.
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Recession? What recession? Looks like bright, keen, good programmers are always in demand. George Lewis from Doc-Department, a local startup, is looking for an XSL developer for a pilot project. The job description is below, if you’re interested, please email George directly using g.lewis@doc-department.com
Posted in Jobs | Tagged doc-department, job | 10 Comments »
Barry Sealey and Peter Shakeshaft kicked off the University of Edinburgh Archangel Speaker series tonight about the Angel Investment market in Scotland. Here are my notes from the talk (which means that some of the points were directly copied from the slides).
Barry Sealey is co-founder of Archangel Informal Investment, originally formed in 1992 and has 100 investors. Currently chairman of Indigo.
Peter Shakeshaft – currently chairing LINC Scotland
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This week’s spotlight is on Jennie Lees, a jack of all trades in the developer and startup world. You may have crossed paths with her at Tech Meetups, Informatics Ventures happenings, Appleton Tower 6th floor parties, or other awesome events in London and San Francisco. She’s also an insightful blogger (trendpreneur) and much loved tweeter (@jennielees), and if you know about her company, you know she may just be listening to you as well.
Name: Jennie Lees
What’s your startup, and your role? Affect Labs, though we’re probably best known for FestBuzz (http://www.festbuzz.com). I’m anything, depending on what’s needed – from the suit to general dogsbody. Most of the time you’ll find me knee-deep in code though, as my ‘official’ role is CTO!
Give us your company culture in 3 words: Laid-back, quirky, connected
What’s the next big challenge or hurdle the company needs to overcome? Continue Reading »
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[Reporting live from Darlington, half-way through a fantastic programme called Enterprisers, and enjoying facilitator responsibilities with a bit more experience this time…]
A lot can happen in a day when you’re surrounded by energy, potential, and of course strong coffee. We launched rockets in the morning, developed business ideas in the afternoon, discussed ethics this evening, and challenged ourselves to larger-than-life Jenga tonight alongside a piano sing-a-long. I think the sugar rush from a big bowl of jelly and chocolate ice cream is the only reason I’m still conscious.
The rockets were an absolute blast (pun intended), and I’ll try to get some photos up later on. However, it’s the business ideas that this afternoon’s brainstorm generated that I’d most like to share right now. Thanks to 7 subject prompts, 45 fresh minds, and hundreds of post-it notes, participants developed and presented 14 new enterprise possibilities. If you wanted to think about a new business idea every day, these would last you a fortnight! And they are… *drumroll* … Continue Reading »
Posted in Events | 6 Comments »
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