David Chang and deliciousness

One weekend back in August I was slumped in a chair in a front room a short drive from Washington DC catching the end of Jimmy Fallon square off with David Chang for a hot wing eating contest. Chang's one of those guys that I find fascinating. There&

Opening the Leeds School of Data

When I moved to secondary school, in my first days of my first year of secondary school, I was introduced to the formal concept of 'science'. I was worried, scared a little even. Lessons in 'physics', 'chemistry', and - gulp - 'biology'

Hacking together a data masher

To say I started my latest hack on Sunday when I had a spare hour would be a misstep. I actually first had a go at it a few months back, around Easter time. The idea back then was a simple: Grab all the Leeds based events from Eventbrite and

Weathering a two hour hack

After finding a little time Friday lunchtime to hack about with Bradford council's website stylesheets, I found myself with some unexpected downtime today as well. Towards the end of last week there were threats of thunderstorms across the UK. The storms were spectacular. As the storms hit buildings

Try something new to something already there

>“I hate it. Especially as I have an iPhone. Look. It’s not like it is on your [Nexus 5’s] bigger screen. I have to pinch to zoom and put the phone that bit closer to my face - and squint. It’s horrible. I don’t want

'Open data in Leeds: represented by just three organisations?'

A quick note off the back of having a look through Leeds Data Mill’s data sets. There are 78 data sets: * 73 provided Leeds City Council * 4 from Yorkshire Water * 1 from Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Firstly, I was surprised by the high number of contributions

The return of the Leeds digital lunches

So, after a little beavering away in the background the Leeds digital lunches are coming back. As a reminder, the digital lunches are a lunchtime forum where a (digitally focused) topic is talked about by gals and guys with experience on the subject, and other people can mosey along and

mhLeeds workshop

!Thought cards I spent Saturday at the splendid Duke Studios in Leeds for a hack-day-cum-participatory-workshop to help design an NHS supported mental health and wellbeing website for young people. Unlike at the recent Leeds GovJam, where my role was more of a 'listener' and 'director' to

The 'public spaces' of Bradford and Leeds

During a trip to New York last year I visited the Sony Wonder Tech Lab. The Wonder Lab is a four story interactive exhibition taking you though the history and a glimpse into the future of Sony. So a pretty wide story. (The lab is probably how the National Media

Bettakultcha Leeds June 2014

I talked tonight at the latest Bettakultcha. I've done it before and I regularly attend when I don't talk. I am a big fan of the nights. (In short I think tonight's was one of the best.) For my most recent talk I decided

Leeds GovJam 2014

!Drawing wireframes I've spent the past couple of days at the awesome ODI Leeds space, part of the team running the Leeds GovJam, Leeds's contribution to the global GovJam, one of 34 across the world. Up front the event was put forward as a neutral environment

A website within a service

Previously I had jotted a brief note about the idea 'user experience'. As a postscript to that I was recently involved with a website project and not for the first time it was made clear "We don't have to worry about the SEO - that&

Odd spaces

Advertising may be coming to your thermostat and lots of other strange places, courtesy of Google ran a recent piece in the WSJ. The jist was Google had documented they could put ads on "refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities." Which

'Briefs and work: Inspire. Inspiring. Inspirational.'

In agency world the brief is key. It's a cliche, sure, but it's also true. Usually with the traditional agency structural model departments are split from each other, divided, and those functions operate in silos. It's a structure and approach that sees work driven

'A dog: one year on'

Today marks a year since our dog, Rosie, entered our lives. Actually, today marks a year and one day since our dog, Rosie, entered our lives. Today actually marks a year since I went to the BBC over in Manchester for an interview - which I faffed up. I blamed

Brand guidelines as guides

I had a chat a few weeks back with a friend who works "client side", seeking some advice. Her point was one I've come across a bit over the years, working in agencies and working with clients. My friend is a marketing head and had brand

Because Robert Redford

We've been to see Captain American: The Winter Soldier. In short it's a rollicking adventure mainly, as I explained to my kids, "because Robert Redford!". To which they were bemused. And you may be too, so I'll explain - but beware, there

Next

A couple of weeks back I shared I'd been let go from my job. I signed off not saying what exactly I was doing next. I was unsure, and a little mentally punchdrunk - being let go wasn't something I was expecting. Prolific North got in

Let go.

On Friday I left my job. Well, to be precise I was "let go". Last summer I promised going into this role I would keep my distance mentally and just do what the job - creative and development director - needed, not put 'myself' into it.

'"Look at this from a user experience point of view"'

I get asked, a lot, "to look at this from a user experience point of view". Because what else would I do? Look at it from a user's non-experience? A user's unexperience? A non-user's experience. Maybe on that last one. But a

'Responsive design work: not that new is it?'

I came into full time employment fully into the "world of digital", starting as a junior developer. Fast forward ten years and I am managing the branding and advertising teams at a big (and very good) marketing agency. I frequently see the "digital" and the "

The inveitable Whatsapp post

$15 billion dollars. $18 billion dollars. Google offered $10 billion. That can buy a lot of other things. 450 million users, over 90% of which are users daily. Facebook are paying something like "$42 per user". 50 billion Whatsapp messages sent daily. 20 billion SMS messages sent daily.

Defined work. Speculative work.

Traditionally, lazily even, there are two types of work that come into agencies: pitch work and client work. Pitch work is stuff there is out there you aren't going to be doing, but you want to. It is out there to be won. You get a chance, you

Rational Irrational

Ken Levine has announced he is closing down Irrational Games. The press is concentrating on Levine's move - and there's no doubt it is a move initiated by Levine - to start a smaller, more entrepreneurial endeavour at Take-Two that makes replayable narrative-driven games that will

Reach out, with your government

This morning I was made aware, as I tend to be whenever I go on the Twitters these days, of an event that caught me eye: Flood Hack, which is happening this weekend. The event's tweets that caught my eye were from the folk I'd associated