This article made me laugh:
A scalable business or activity refers to one that requires little additional effort or cost for each unit of output it generates. Example: Making software is a scalable business (building it requires lots of effort up front; distributing a million copies over the Web is relatively painless). Venture capitalists crave scalable businesses. They crave them so much that the term now has become more annoying than the media’s obsession with Lindsay Lohan.
From Forbes
Interface3 has just crossed another milestone. Through these last few years, we’ve worked hard and kept going. I aim to have the same commitment and standards for the next few years.
Well, it’s been a while but it’s been worth the wait. Sharon Moore and I are organising a BCS Women dinner/event on 27th June, starting at 6pm at the IBM offices in Edinburgh.
Save the date!
The last 6 months has seen two of my best friends get engaged – Phil and Hilary and Ianthe and Mark.
Ianthe and Mark’s wedding won’t be until Summer 2013 (it seems so long away!) and it since it’s going to my first wedding as a bridesmaid! Congratulations to them both!
More than a decade ago, I innocently sent an email to the (then) Dept of Computer Science mailing list at Edinburgh University asking whether there was a Computing Society. The reply was “no, maybe you should start one”.
So I did.
Since then, we managed to assimilate the A.I. Soc, kidnapped their Cascade Scheme (and redeployed it, thanks to the drive from Paul Hamiliton) (and we also changed the stuffed toy from a Moose to a Monkey, to reflect the move to Appleton Tower), and started a series of Special Interest Groups which boasts Hoppers as part of it.
Nowadays, Compsoc is a much, much bigger organisation than I ever imagined. I can’t even come near to claiming any credit for this. Each year, each new committee breathes new life into the society and for the past 2-3 years, the folks involved have been amazing. Compsoc even runs its’ own version of Techmeetup – a monthly gathering of people from industry to engage with undergrad students here. I’m immensely proud of what they’ve achieved and hope that this continues long into the future.
Back at the start, Back with the Old Guard
It wasn’t easy though. For the first year, we even struggled to get the 20 signatures required to be recognised as an official society. Our main project was EARWIG – a MMORPG based around navigating your way from the JCMB entrance to finding Stephen Gilmore’s (our 1st year Director) office. The whole thing was supposed to be implemented in Java. Needless-to-say, EARWIG’s vision was never fully realised in code, but we did spend many hours and days debating its architecture and implementation.
As with any society, there was the ‘core’ lot of people that ran the show, most notably: Mark Miles, Paul Hamiliton, Michael Eng, Alex P. We were affectionally nicknamed as the “Old Guard”. As rarely as we get to see each other nowadays, when we do get together, it’s as if we’re back in 2000.
Luckily, a few weeks ago, Mark (now in Germany) and Michael (now in Japan) happen to be in town the same week as each other and we had an impromptu reunion. The CompSoc Time Capsule is now resurrected and placed under Paul’s command. So for a bit of nostalgia, here’s a few photos of us through the years …
Here we are back in 2000:
Then again in the 5 year anniversary (2005):
And the most recent one … (again at the Pear Tree):
Over the next few months, I’m going to be speaking at quite a few engagements about multitouch and iPads. Would love to hear from anyone else going along as well …
13th April – Mobile Apps Group, 6-7pm, InSpace
This is an event as part of the Science Festival. Alongside Anthony Ashbrook (Mobile Acuity, Augmented Reality), Gavin Dutch (Kotikan, Event Guides) and myself, we’ll be talking about the past, present and future of mobile.
This open Mobile Innovation Camp (MIC) is on Gamification and will be held in Dundee. My talk will be based around the game mechanics in Cityville and how they are used to fuel our addiction.
7-9th Sept, 1st iOSDev UK Conference, Aberystwyth
The first ever iOS Development conference in the UK. I’ll be talking about designing and developing multi-user applications on the iPad.
So there you go, if you’re going along to any of these events, please drop by and say hi!
This is the last instalment of my predictions for the big tech trends this year. To recap, they have been:
1. Home Entertainment Embracing the Second Screen
2. Gamification of Everything
3. The Rise of Multi-user, Multi-device apps
4. A Re-Focus on Non-Smartphones
Everyone wants an iPhone app. EVERYONE. Why? Look at the stats – according to one report, it is estimated that revenues will hit 2 billion dollars in the iPhone apps store this year … Just like everyone wanted a website back in the early 2000s, we’re seeing a similar trend with iPhone/Android apps.
Building websites back in 2001 was a pain, in the same way that building iPhone apps nowadays is not exactly a walk in the park (Objective-C is about as much fun as brussel sprouts – its an acquired taste). Thankfully, Content Management Systems (CMS) began springing up to help build and maintain websites in a much less painful way. Once configured and installed, a website could be handed over to your regular user and they could update as much as they want. And this year, I predict that we will see a similar trend with iPhone/iPad apps.
Two startups with iPhone building systems that impress me at the moment – Red Foundry and AppMakr. I’ve been lucky enough to beta test Red Foundry’s system in the last two months and I have to say, I’m really impressed with the look and feel of the final output of the app. There’s a CMS type option where you can produce a “magazine” type app using RSS feeds. There is also a more advanced version using a markup language. Either way, it is now possible for a non-programmer to build and update an iPhone app. To me, systems like these will help to bridge the demand for iPhone apps and the lack of iPhone developers.
I think 2011 will see a massive growth in the use of these systems – especially since the smartphone market is growing and growing.
This is the last instalment of my predictions for the big tech trends this year. Have you got a list of your own? or do you have any comments on this? Feel free to drop them below.
This is the fourth instalment of my predictions for big tech trends for 2011. You can read predictions 1, 2 and 3 respectively.
Remember the days when you didn’t have a smartphone? I only switched over to an iPhone in Nov (let me add that this was after some cruel bullying by all the other geeks in Appleton Tower about how the screen on my Nokia N95 didn’t ‘work’ – peer pressure is harsh 
and I don’t think I could ever live without it. But sometimes it’s hard to remember that people with smartphones are the exception rather than the norm. According to a recent report published by Nielson (Jan 2011), just under 70% of the phones are non-smartphones – a statistic that is sometimes forgot when the discussions about iOS vs android (vs Web OS) are dragged up.
This really means there is a huge market out there for any startup that can make feature phone services. Hailed as the next big startup – GroupMe – is a service which allows people to set up little groups that they can text with a single number. These groups can be set up for an hour, a day or a week. It just makes communicating with a bunch of people fairly easy. One scenario would be being on a long weekend with a bunch of friends; you can set up a short number to allow people to communicate with each other when everyone is off doing their own thing.
I know that local mobile design company – Yiibu – is re-focusing on mobile web design. Bryan has an excellent presentation on this:
The web isn’t just about smartphones and I think this year, with the upcoming success of GroupMe, we’ll see a bunch of new startups which will shun away from smartphones only and tap into the huge market of non-smartphones.
This is the third instalment of my predictions for big tech trends in 2011. Read prediction 1 and prediction 2 as well …
Multi-user games and apps are not new (just look at World of Warcraft), but alongside the rise of the new multi-touch tablets, a new type of user experience is possible: co-located, multi-user applications. In other words, apps which allow two or more people to simulatenously interact together over the same device. Continue reading
