News

OPEN 09 - Creative futures and dynamic change.

Sandbox is helping to organise a 2 day event in Preston on November 16th and 17th called OPEN 09.

OPEN 09 breaks with the normal conference model and creates a new participatory experience to explore, inform and create change in the Digital and Creative sectors.

Sessions will include open discussions alongside world class speakers, workshops and networking events.

OPEN 09 is for designers, developers, musicians, artists, photographers, journalists and gamers – in fact it’s for anyone working in the creative industries – so whether you’re a coder, strategist, information architect fashion designer, user experience professional or gallery curator, you’ll feel at home at OPEN 09.

And in the true spirit of social media, the content of the sessions will be decided by the delegates contributing to what will happen on the day via the OPEN 09 blogs. The blogs are the virtual spaces where the themes for sessions – we’re calling them ‘Turtles’ – will be debated and decided. We’ll be adding more Turtles that focus on particular areas of the creative industries.

So, if you want to find like minded people to talk about the things you’re interested in go to the dedicated website at http://open09.com.

 

      

Dual Diagnosis - co-creating the future of the service through collaboration

Sandbox is currently working on a one year project with the NHS in the area of dual diagnosis provision.

Dual diagnosis is arguably one of the most complex issues currently being tackled by mental health services across Lancashire. As its name suggests, dual diagnosis clients are people diagnosed with multiple problems, a combination of mental health problems and alcohol or drugs related issues.

Because of the nature of the condition, a dual diagnosed client needs to be supported by several services and agencies. The danger with this is that all too often the person ends up being bounced around from service to service, which only serves to worsen their condition. For the agencies providing the service, the situation is not an easy one. Data is not shared across services and agencies; very often they don't know where to refer patients, who to call, who to ask. In addition, who wants to admit that they don't know, who wants to do anything that can leave a negative impression on their professional standing? Also, if nobody else seems to be interested in collaborating, why should they?

The complexity of nurturing a collaborative culture within these agencies is at the heart of the work we are doing.

We live in an age of ever-increasing information overload, emails, guidelines, strategies, frameworks, pathways. We seem to be so confused with everything we have to deal with. We think it is acceptable to have poor communication with each other. We have more “communication” devices and technology than ever before; however we feel more and more isolated and lost than ever before. Have we forgotten the basic human skill of collaboration? How can we re-learn the skills and benefits of collaboration in an increasingly complex world? Why should we do it? Who will be affected if we don't?

Using a number of creative tools such as Lego, serious play, and open space technology, we are, for the first time, inviting all stakeholders, managers, link workers, carers, patients into an space of co-creation and collaboration to work together to find solutions for the challenges they are all facing. Top-down directives are unlikely to generate longer-term attitude shifts; we are helping participants to think and work creatively in order to generate solutions based upon a spirit of genuine collaboration.

As opposed to a “client-centred” approach, we think of what we do as a human-centred approach. It not only has to work and benefit the client, it has to make sense for the mental health and substance misuse workers, the managers, the carers, the liaison workers; the change has to come from them if it has any chance of surviving.

As Rosabeth Moss Kanter (Professor of Business at Harvard Business School) once said, "change is disturbing when it's done too us, exhilarating when it's done by us".

North West Higher Level Skills Partnership

As content is commissioned for multi-platform dissemination individual journalists role will extend to include commissioning agency specialists to supply a range of 'value added' services e.g. interactive programming, additional graphics, photography and video etc. Their relationship with audiences will change. Networked journalists will deliver niche audiences to mainstream media. All Journalists will need a series of entrepreneurial, technical and creative skills to manage themselves and these new relationships. They will need to demonstrate a thorough understanding of future business models for cross-platform content and demonstrate they can apply new thinking in this context. This project will produce the toolset to equip future editorial content creators with the necessary conceptual, creative and technical skills to do this.

Building on the process developed for the previous successful HLSP bid and drawing on work done in collaboration with NWVM and the BBC through inFUZE, if successful this bid would bring together key editorial, creative, business and technical staff from a diverse range of media and creative companies looking to address the impact of digital convergence on the business of gathering, producing, editing and circulating content over web, TV, mobile, print and radio – and eventually onto games consoles like PS2, Nintendo Wii etc.

This process will be hosted at Sandbox, UCLan’s Digital and Creative Industries Centre and has 2 stages. The industry panel actively participates in each of them.

The first stage of the process is a series of intensive ‘future-scoping’ workshops providing the opportunity for panel members (from competing businesses drawn from across the sector) to meet each other, determine the ‘rules of engagement’, set their objectives and hear guest speakers from related industries talk about the various challenges and opportunities of digital.

The second stage of the process has two elements. Firstly, it uses a variety of online tools to encourage all panel members to refine and hone the suggested content drawn from stage 1 of the process. Secondly, this virtual development is complemented by further Sandbox facilitation sessions where draft content is fed back to the panelists for further revision. As part of this process the industry panel are also invited to explore the preferred method of content delivery – in line with the expectations of the funding criteria.

Merseyside Police

Officers from Merseyside Police Force were recent guests of Sandbox. Following initial meetings with senior managers in the police force at the Liverpool HQ, Sandbox were asked to run a pilot workshop with 20 officers. Although very much a ‘what can Sandbox offer’ workshop, the themes were very real.

In a culture of measurement and targets, the people and community element side of the officer role can at times be neglected. There seems to be a genuine desire from Merseyside Police managers to work on changing this culture – to move to a more consultative operational style that engages local communities and delivers a professional service that meets the needs and expectations of victims and witnesses.

The Sandbox design for this particular workshop focused on using and Appreciative Inquiry approach.

Organisations were originally created to meet a challenge or satisfy a societal need. Appreciative inquiry philosophy comes from the standpoint that organisations are not (at their core) problems to be solved. Re-connecting to those original needs / challenges and the original motivation for joining the organisation are powerful ways of initiating change conversations. It is an approach that seeks to uncover the best in people and involves a systematic discovery of what gives life to an organisation. It is an approach where intervention gives way to inquiry, imagination and innovation and involves the art of asking positive questions to heighten positive potential.

Further conversations between Sandbox and Merseyside police are planned to establish the next steps in this change project.

Digital Industries Job opportunities at UCLAN

Knowledge Exploitation Manager (Limited term contract to 31 July 2011)

Actively advancing our knowledge transfer agenda, you will develop, protect and exploit our significant intellectual property portfolio. We will expect you to make a major impact on our reputation and the bottom line, so we require a high calibre professional with an impressive record of developinglicence, spin-out, consultancy and CPD opportunities.

For informal enquiries please contact Dr Nick Lancaster,
Deputy Director of the Knowledge Transfer Service,
Tel: 01772 895959,
e-mail: nlancaster@uclan.ac.uk

Salary: £46,278 - £53,650
http://www.uclan.ac.uk/information/services/work/support_vacancies.php

Project Champion Digital Industries

In this vital role, you will lead our participation in the growth of digital industries on an international scale. Notably, you will raise our profile with key stakeholders, secure diverse sources of funding and enhance graduate employment through key partnerships. Your credibility and expertise in this area will enable you to make an immediate impact.

For informal enquiries please contact Dr Nick Lancaster,
Deputy Director of the Knowledge Transfer Service,
Tel: 01772 895959,
e-mail: nlancaster@uclan.ac.uk

Salary: £46,278 - £53,650
http://www.uclan.ac.uk/information/services/work/support_vacancies.php
Closing date: 6th March 2009 at 4pm.

Government's Digital Britain Interim report published

The Government has published a plan to secure Britain’s place at the forefront of the global digital economy.

The interim report contains more than 20 recommendations, including specific proposals on:

• next generation networks
• universal access to broadband
• the creation of a second public service provider of scale
• the modernisation of wireless radio spectrum holdings
• a digital future for radio
• a new deal for digital content rights
• enhancing the digital delivery of public services

You may wish to note Section 6, Conclusion, which gives the opportunity for interested parties to submit comments and feedback by 12th  March.

The final Digital Britain report is due to be published by the summer.

Find the report online here: http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/broadcasting/5631.aspx

Paul Egglestone Joins Sandbox

Paul Egglestone joins Sandbox from UCLan’s School of Journalism, Media and Communication, where he previously lead an International Documentary MA and a Media Management BA over in Shanghai. A former independent producer working for BBC, ITV and Sky on regional and network programming, he now focuses on international documentary and digital content generation for broadband and mobile dissemination. He sits on the steering group for Lancashire Economic partnerships New Media and ICT group and is also leads the Journalism Sector of Northern Edge, the centre of professional excellence for creative and cultural industries. He also continues to make films and write music.

Paul joins Sandbox as a New Project Champion and will focus on developing cross disciplinary research and commercial collaborations.

Paul’s recently launched ‘inFUZE’ (http://www.meldonline.org) combining the expertise and resources of the BBC with the skills and experience of leaders in convergence and multiplatform journalism training at the School of Journalism, Media and Communication in Sandbox. infuze is a cutting edge course training journalists in the latest digital techniques and helping them get to grips with producing content for online, TV, radio, and mobile.

Paul’s latest collaboration, Bespoke’ marks another foray into cross disciplinary working. Paul will join project partners from Dundee, Falmouth, Newcastle and Surrey to explore social inclusion through citizen journalism and bespoke design. The project team aims to tackle the issue of digital exclusion at a neighbourhood level, by helping local people to tell their own social exclusion stories and using these stories to inspire simple bespoke design solutions created with, and for, the excluded people. Working closely with communities in the Preston area and their local news media, the team will give residents training in how to identify and report needs through a daily community broadcast and news paper. Community members will then prioritise needs to be discussed in design workshops at Sandbox. Designers on the project will then take away concept solutions generated in these discussions to create new bespoke digital objects connecting people to each other and people to existing content and services on the web.

Annual Northwest Business Pitch - Digital / ICT / New Media

24th February 2009

The North West Innovation Network, along with Sandbox and key sponsors, have collaborated to arrange a pitching and networking opportunity for companies operating in the Digital / ICT / New Media sector.

It will give individuals and companies a unique chance to hear first hand, the technologies and innovations available from some of the leading companies in the North West. It will undoubtedly help to identify potential business opportunities with companies on your doorstep.

The event will be of benefit to the following companies:

• Those based in the North West of England
• Developers of technology, products and expertise in Digital / ICT / New Media
• Suppliers of technology into the Digital / ICT / New Media sector
• Users of products, technology & expertise from Digital / ICT / New Media companies

The collaborating organisations have seen the value of the rapid pitching process and of the associated networking activities to help support the growth of businesses. In particular it aids the rapid identification of business development opportunities, sourcing of business-critical expertise and the development of collaborative routes to market. The aim of the event is to efficiently integrate existing networks to create new opportunities for all.

For more information contact the Peter Rawling (pjrawling@uclan.ac.uk)

European Think Tank

 

The think tank is comprised of select members from various European organisations that support and stimulate growth for regional SME’s and promote international collaboration and thinking.

Sandbox hosted their December meeting and created a engaging and target oriented workshop. Challenges, solutions and strategies were actively explored and the results will be used to address European ICT Policy and Strategy.

Attendees:

• Irina Blomqvist (Chair), Culminatum Innovation, Finland
• Marta Ysern, Business Development Director, Barcelona Media - Centre d’Innovacio, Spain
• Marina Zago, Digital Media Cluster, Venice, Italy
• Iain Bennett, Sector Leader, Digital & Creative, NWDA, UK
• Esa Blomberg, Programme Director, Forum Virium Helsinki, Finland
• Jean-Baptiste Soufron, Pôle de compétitivité CAP DIGITAL, Paris, France
• Andrew Bullen, Independent Consultant (for IIP/Create, Dutch Creative Industries Platform), Netherlands
• Bill Boffin, Strategic Sector Champion (Digital), Yorkshire Forward, UK
• John Joughin, Dean and pro-Vice Chancellor, UCLAN, UK

Creative and Innovative Diffusion of Knowledge

Sandbox presented at the “Creative and Innovative Diffusion of Knowledge”

On November 18th Sandbox presented at the conference which took place at the Lancashire Brussels office and  was attended by a wide range of representatives from both regional offices from across the European Union and companies.

As a result of this George Dimitrov from the European Commission will be visiting Sandbox.

Picnic 2008

Sandbox are presenting at Picnic 2008 in Amsterdam

More information can be found on the events page:

http://www.picnicnetwork.org/page/22301/en

You can also track our team as they carry around GPS enabled mobile phones which enable them to upload images and sound they encounter in the Venice of the north. Their wanderings are here.

Roses Nomination

Our Direct Mail campaign has been nominated for a Roses Design Award.

The concept and design were delivered with love, care and attention by Co.Pop.

  

 

Personal Traffic Assistant: 'Passenger in Control'

The Directorate for Infrastructure, Traffic and Transport in Amsterdam is exploring innovative solutions for the creation of a ‘Personal Transport Assistant’ (PTA). This mobile device would provide public transport users with dynamic and reliable information in planning their journey from start to finish. Essential to this concept is the user perception of “control” over the parameters surrounding the planned journey; such as choice of transport, time of departure, punctuality, avoidance of delay or discomfort, estimated time of arrival and the availability of an alternative plan in case of potential delay. The whole journey is therefore personalised, the user being in control of their journey and comfort.

This project should also be seen within the wider context of the global ‘Connected Urban Development Program’, under the general heading “Smart Cityscape, Smart Networks, Smart Behaviour”. In this case, PTA development has great potential as a pioneering instrument in changing the behaviour of urban travellers. Specifically this could be in stimulating the adoption of public transport by former private transport users, and thus directly reducing environmental pollution from noxious emissions, noise and congestion.

Factors such as the growing commercial public transport market, the planned introduction of an RFID-based Transit Payment system in 2009, the ‘Transmodel’ PT Tracking system, and growing customer awareness of the potential damage to the environment through urban traffic problems, all contribute to the potential for innovation within the public transport system.

The Directorate has assembled a consortium of candidate partners to jointly address the challenge of finding a truly innovative, effective and sustainable PTA solution. These partners have been selected not only for their specific expertise, but also for their passion and imagination in exploring new ideas and formats around the PTA over the coming months.

The Media Guild, Amsterdam, has been selected to run an Innovation Workshop over two days, in order to; bring the consortium together, develop a common vision, examine trends and driving forces in the sector and develop future scenarios with respect to the potential PTA format, interaction and application. Janine Huizenga, coordinator of Sandbox’s “Cultural Mapping” project, has been asked by the Media Guild to mentor this Innovation Workshop. The Media Guild believe, “Sandbox’s Cultural Mapping is all about involving local citizens as co-creators in the planning and design of their future urban environment, and transport is a critical factor in this design process. We are very fortunate to have Janine’s experience and expertise at our disposal in developing our strategy and scenarios for this strongly future-oriented urban design project”.

Based on the results of the Innovation Workshop, the consortium is planning the development of a PTA demonstrator, to be shown at the next meeting of the global CUD partners in September.

OpenCoffee Leeds

Tuesday 3^rd June sees the first birthday meeting of OpenCoffee Leeds.

Over the course of the last year over 300 people have participated in group cake, coffee, code, connectivity and co-working!

Also the past year has seen the emergence of other Leeds meetup groups -Leeds Flickr Group, GeekUp Leeds (also a year old!), Leeds Ruby Thing - and of course BarCamp Leeds and the forthcoming PhotoCamp.

For more information or to confirm you can attend please see http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/592095

Clive Grinyer

As a special pre-Valentine treat, Old Broadcasting House will be hosting an evening with design maven Clive Grinyer, currently director of product design at France Telecom’s Orange. Grinyer’s passionate advocacy of design-oriented thinking is more than apparent in his popular talks, “The Silence Of Design” and “Lipstick On A Pig”, as well as his book Smart Design: Driving Technology To Suit Our Needs.

Grinyer’s career has taken him from physical product design to user interface and the full customer experience - as a consultant, corporate manager and at the head of national design organisations. His travels through the design world include:
 

• senior design management roles at IDEO
• co-founder of design company Tangerine with Martin Darbyshire and Jonathan Ive (yes, the designer of the iPod!)
• Director of Design for Samsung
• Head of Design for TAG McLaren Audio
• Director of Design at the Design Council, creating the Design Demonstration projects with UK manufacturing and technology companies

The evening will begin with drinks at 6 pm, followed by a talk from Grinyer, an open Q&A session and a chance to network with other guests and meet with Grinyer himself.

Designers, creatives, technologists, entrepreneurs and innovators will find great insight and passion in Grinyer’s work; as such this is an event not to be missed!

For more information and to register, please visit http://www.oldbroadcastinghouse.com/events/an-evening-withclive-grinyer/.

Leeds OpenCoffee Meetup

February 5, 2008

The second Leeds OpenCoffee event of the year will take place from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Tuesday, 5 February in the Flannels gallery of Loftart, 68 Vicar Lane.

Geeks, coders, bloggers, investors, entrepreneurs, designers, developers and anyone else with a passing interest are all invited to share, demo and network. Organizers are looking for contributors who can run demos or clinics throughout the morning (SEO, blogging, Ruby, careers, VC etc....), give advice or simply showcase their work and ideas.

For more information, including directions and contact information, visit http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/401961/.

Call for innovative new projects

January 21, 2008

Sandbox is pleased to announce its call for innovative new projects for 2008.

We are particularly interested in projects that bring together a number of disciplines, and that have real impact and benefit to a broader user base. All proposals will be seen as a collaboration or partnership with Sandbox.

We are especially interested in projects that:

• Benefit the wider community
• Engage and look at user-generated content
• Make use of the creative facilitation space at Sandbox
• Are exploratory in nature with real outcomes
• Bring together a number of individuals and partners

We would be happy to discuss any potential projects prior to application. You can download the application form below. Deadline is March 31st 2008.

Download the application form as a word document

Download the application form as a PDF

Moved in at last

January 11, 2008

Sandbox has now occupied the top floor of the Media factory at UClan! It's been a long time coming but both the creative facilitation space and the R & D area are fully operational. If you would like to drop by send through an email!

MELD

January 11, 2008

The residential workshop developing seven new project ideas with teams of journalists and interactive media practioners was a great success. During the week of December 10th seven project groups went through an intensive workshop at Sandbox. The final ideas were pitched to Haymarket, Sky and Johnston Press, for more info see  http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/2008/02/the_university_of_central_lanc.html or http://meldonline.org/meldblogs/

Sandbox to deliver Insight Out programme

October 2, 2007

Sandbox will be working with Creative Lancashire to deliver NESTA's Insight Out programme. We will be recruiting North West participants shortly via the NESTA website (www.nesta.org.uk/programmes/insight_out) where you can complete an online application form and submit examples from your portfolio or your CV. Successful first stage applicants will be invited to attend a free open workshop event in Manchester on 06 or 07 November where you will have a taster of the programme and a chance to meet the trainers. The second stage selection of Insight Out participants will be made at this event who will then be invited to present their business idea in more detail.

 

Sandbox is a dynamic new initiative from the University of Central Lancashire that brings together a wide range of skills and expertise to enable innovative and collaborative ways of working.

The hybrid Sandbox centre is both a creative facilitation space and a digital media R&D lab, with opportunities for academic and industry partnerships across all of the centre’s activities. Our interdisciplinary staff welcomes the opportunity to rise to your particular challenge.