Handle with Care, it#039;s an Amstrad

Last night we gathered at the Pervasive Media Studio for the second in the Dorkbot Showrsquo;n'Tell series. Sam Downie gave us an introduction to life casting and some of the technologies hersquo;s been using in his internet radio and video casting shows. There was also a large swag bag from the last MacWorld that Sam was trying to get rid of generously giving away.

John Honniball then stepped up and showed some of his near inexhaustible range of old junk that too many of us recognised from our early brushes with technology. Whereas we used and abused these artefacts, John has accumulated, restored and demonstrates them. But not the Amstrad in the picture; thanks to Sir Alan Sugarrsquo;s engineering/business acumen, the plastic has degraded to the point that it has to be handled with latex gloves to prevent getting decomposed Amstrad all over your hands. Nasty.

We also had an introduction to SWiM from Tom Holder. Since a large portion of the audience were involved in web development, there was a ton of interest. Some great questions about authentication and the quality assurance for the apps store that theyrsquo;re planning rounded out a great evening. Thanks to Sam amp; his Eye-Fi card for the photo and to Rachel for organising. More Dorkbot photos on Flickr soon Irsquo;m sure.

Uploaded on November 6, 2006 by Luis Alves

Bit slow off the mark on this post but itrsquo;s been a busy couple of days.

We had a really good morning on Tuesday with new faces and new coffee to try. Jack had popped up from the Temple Meads branch of Starbucks to mix some fresh brew for us using their Organic Ethiopian blend together with some cinnamon pastries to bring out the spicy aroma and flavours. We hope to have Jack back with his coffee tasting table.

Over the fresh coffee a couple of new faces joined the familiar ones. A twitter link brought Rick Hurst along for the first time. We also welcomed Jamie Dyer all the way from Plymouth and only just back from Canada, kudos! Just as I was leaving I saw Jamie and Mark Paney deep in discussion and it sounds like there could be another partnership arising from OpenCoffee, great stuff!

It was also good to see Peter Livingston, Tom Orsquo;Neil and Nick Sturge along providing the professional business services side of things.

Joel Huges was also along having developed his platform but missed the Seedcamp deadline. Have to see if there is a business development / funding opportunity there, hopefully therersquo;ll be something to demo shortly.

Chris Garrett amp; Craig Hellen from BexMedia were along as was Rachel Carney; apologies to anyone I missed.

The next OpenCoffee will be on 26 August, from 8.30am at Starbucks on Park St as usual. See you there.

Photo by Clare Borley

The Cambridge Folk Festival might be a strange topic for this blog, but it is a function I have been working for the past sixteen years!  Most people attend events such as this to watch great bands performing live.  They get to enjoy the atmosphere and attempt to dance between the rain drops. I however am there to work!  Obviously many people are there to work; security, general helping staff, vendors, bar staff, stage hands, electricians, gas engineers, not to mention the performers, but as it is often said an army marches on its stomach.  That is where I come inhellip;hellip;

I meet up with a select team of people each year under Bob the chef as part of the lsquo;Quintessential Cuisinersquo; team tasked with providing food for the ldquo;Staff and Artistsrdquo;.  This merry band of 5 produce breakfast, lunch and evening meals for 2000 people over a four day period.  I am part of this team, but I also specifically look after the artists and their riders.

A contract rider includes specifications on stage design, sound systems, lighting rigs, as well as an artistrsquo;s wish list-from transportation and billing to dressing room accommodations and meals. At some festivals, a promoter will refuse a demand (crossing out the request on the document), but at Cambridge the stars usually get what they want, whether itrsquo;s new black cotton soaks, or a box full of fruit so they can prepare their own smoothies.

So I spend considerable amount of time preparing special meals for some artists and vast numbers of sandwiches and deli platers for others.  What this does mean is that when the rest of the catering team are not working I am in the kitchen trying to get on top of things so that when the main rush hits, I can help out with the staff meals and coordinating service times.

This break from the routine of health/clinical psychology and research analysis is wonderful.  As a qualified chef, preparing food is a careful balance of colours, flavours, textures and presentation not to mention getting it on the table in time (no mean feat when yoursquo;re basically working on a camping gas stove).  I also experience a whole different side of humanity.

It essence it keeps me fresh and if yoursquo;re not going away on holiday then a change is as good as a rest!

Photo by mistersnappy

This (below) is the abstract from a piece of research that has taken quite some time to complete, but that is the joy of a multi-centre study.  The paper is available online ahead of hard copy publication.  So please have a read if the abstract is of interest and feel free to ask any questions you like.

Educational impact of pulmonary rehabilitation: Lung Information Needs Questionnaire.

Authors: Jones RC, Wang X, Harding S, Bott J, Hyland M.

Respiratory Research Unit, Peninsula Medical School, Devon, 1 Davy Road, Plymouth PL6 8BX, United Kingdom.

INTRODUCTION: The Lung Information Needs Questionnaire (LINQ) assesses, from the patientrsquo;s perspective, their need for education. This questionnaire yields a total score and scores in six domains: disease knowledge, medicine, self-management, smoking, exercise and diet. The aim of this study was to assess the sensitivity of the LINQ to change before and after pulmonary rehabilitation (PR). METHOD: PR programmes across the UK recruited 158 patients (male=94; 59%). The participants completed the LINQ and other measures as used by the individual sites pre- and post-PR, including the Shuttle Walking Test, Chronic Respiratory Disease Questionnaire, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. RESULTS: Data were analysed on 115 patients who completed data collection pre- and post-PR. The LINQ total scores, and subscales scores across all sites improved significantly with large effect sizes, except for the smoking domain as information needs about smoking were well met prior to PR. There were similar patterns of information needs at baseline and after PR in all sites. DISCUSSION: This study shows that the LINQ is a practical tool for detecting areas where patients need education and is sensitive to change after PR. The quality of the education component of PR can be assessed using the LINQ, which could be considered as a routinely collected outcome measure in PR. The LINQ may also be a useful tool for general practitioners to assess their patientsrsquo; educational needs.

I was just thinking I needed some inspiration to write a post and Rob Sheffield emailed to point me at WhyNot? an ideas exchange from Profs Ayres amp; Nalebuff of Yale. Rob and I had been chatting recently about creativity, entrepreneurship and intersections between ideas. Irsquo;ve not seen this site, though it seems similar to global:ideas:bank and a couple others.

The concept is simple enough that you apply the wisdom of the crowds to identify the best ideas. People are free to post their idea, everyone votes on them and the best float to the surface. WhyNot? seems to be suffering from lack of participants, the top rated ideas are all from 2003 vintage and have just over 100 votes each (except for the top idea that has 337 votes). With over 3,500 ideas and 5 years yoursquo;d expect a bit more activity. WhyNot? uses a very simple vote count to determine the best ideas (Support, Neutral, Oppose).

The global:ideas:bank has a few more ideas (just over 6,000) and a different rating system based on % for Feasibility, Originality amp; Humour. The drawback here is that a small number of high rating gets you to the top. There doesnrsquo;t appear to be any weighting for a balanced opinion.

Of course Digg has been surfing the wisdom of the crowds for some time. Google also uses a variation on this to track site traffic and links and back-links to work out which are the best sites (or solutions) to your problem (or search query). Therersquo;s a whole industry in getting your product announcement to the top of Digg and your site to the top of Google (I just did a search for Angel Networks and Oprah has the top two spots on Google).

Digg and Google are successful (in small part at least) because there is an instant path to action. You find something at the top of the list that addresses your need and you click the link to go to the site. Alternatively, if you have a problem looking for a solution (or a site looking for ad traffic) then Digg and Google also work quite well for you. The challenge with many of the other idea exchange formats is that therersquo;s no champion or pathway to change. So you vote an idea as being great, so what, does anything happen?

Thatrsquo;s the great benefit of purposeful network events like BEN, OpenCoffee (disclosure: I run OpenCoffee Bristol) and SeedCamp. Theyrsquo;re great melting pots for ideas because they go out of their way to bring diverse groups together. They also do this with a clear objective in mind; learn something new that will make you and your business more enterprising, find people in your city/region to help grow your business, hook up with investors and springboard your start-up.

They also give people the time and space to figure out who they can work with before disclosing the golden nugget idea. They also have the wider network to help bring the idea to some degree of realisation.

So how do you get your ideas to become reality? If itrsquo;s your idea, how do you find your partners and collaborators? If yoursquo;re into making things happen, how do you find cool ideas to work on?

Craig Hellen (Pod Chains) brought up Carrotmob at the OpenCoffee meeting on 1 July. We were talking about Seedcamp and various ideas for supporting innovative new businesses across the South West. Craig kind of lobbed Carrotmob in as a thought grenade and since none of us had heard of it it kind of fizzled out until later that evening when Irsquo;d had a chance to see the video and twittered it.

Craig and I swapped a couple of DMrsquo;s but everything pretty much went quiet until he shared an email hersquo;d just received from Brent at Carrotmob saying what a great thing itrsquo;d be to see a Carrotmob campaign in Bristol. That got us going again and I dropped Kevin Orsquo;Malley a note at Connecting Bristol to drum up some more interest from the wider readership that he gets. I also got in touch with Bristol City Council as they organise the Harbour Festival and wersquo;d (Craig and I) thought thatrsquo;d be a great event to put Carrotmob alongside.

Following Kevinrsquo;s post and another twitter post lots of folks responded (@Z303, @mikedunn, @emargee, @PeteJ, @wrestlevania, amp; @bluerocket) so we set up a room in Friendfeed to discuss and share. Then Jacob Park from Carrotmob got in touch and Zoe and I swapped a couple emails with him and that lead to the suggestion that we (Bristol) might work with Carrotmob testing an application to help folks put together their own Carrotmobrsquo;s.

Which is all really cool!

The drawback is their application probably wonrsquo;t be public until October, and itrsquo;s now only 10 days to the Harbour Festival (9 by the time I post this).

All of which means wersquo;re still really keen to see Carrotmob come to Bristol, and wersquo;re going to be helping Brent amp; Jacob specify and test their application, and wersquo;re going to keep building the momentum here ready for a (probable) Halloween launch!

Right now the best way to register support is probably to join the Friendfeed group and/or subscribe to this blog. That way wersquo;ll know yoursquo;re specifically interested in Carrotmob rather than my general ramblings, and yoursquo;ll find out more information as it becomes available. You can also leave suggestions in the comments for other groups to partner up with to make Carrotmob Bristol really take off.

Also, if anyone wants to take the lead in organising the Bristol Campaign, let us know and head over to the Carrotmob sign up page.

Happy mobbing



Carrotmob Makes It Rain from carrotmob on Vimeo.

This morningrsquo;s Open Coffee had some visitors from the research community asking about user generated innovations in the field of intelligent transport systems. Prof Glynn Lyonns and Drrsquo;s Juliet Jain and Tilly Line are leading the activity to better understand this bottom up innovation driver in an industry that is dominated by top-down incrementalism.

The discussions quickly wheeled around forms of innovation, the challenges facing government in supporting innovations, and the competing interests after the funding that the Technology Strategy Board is making available. Nick Sturge (SetSquared) was on hand to provide a wider city and business perspective and the entrepreneur / innovators started coming up with both ideas and examples that Irsquo;m sure will keep Glynn, Juliet at Tilly busy for several weeks to come.

It was great to also welcome Sam Tipper from Gloucestershire who was pointed at OpenCoffee by Chris and got the details via chatting with Sam Harding via the GTalk widget on this website; and Robin from Bath whorsquo;s providing media businesses with growth and development consultancy support (and launching a business start up; website pending).

OpenCoffee will be running through the summer, every other Tues from about 8.30 in Starbucks on Park St (the next few are on 29 July, 12 amp; 26 Aug). Contact me at jwgbradford@gmail.com to be added to the email reminder list and/or follow OpenCoffeeBR1 on Twitter for reminders and nudges.

Yesterday was spent in Manchester at the NESTA launch of their latest report (pdf not live yet) into innovation in the Creative Industries.

From a broad reading of the report, it seems to largely reflect last yearrsquo;s report that much innovation in industry isnrsquo;t recorded in official statistics rather than not taking place. The Creative Industries face a further double whammy since very small and micro companies (under 10 employees) are excluded from the official returns, as are many of the SIC codes that cover the sector. Profrsquo;s Ian Miles and Lawrence Green recognise that the existing surveys are a potential burden that the micro companies could probably do without, except that without the evidence base there wonrsquo;t be policy and incentives from central Government.

This could be a valuable role for places like the Pervasive Media Studio and Universities? Aggregating and presenting an industry perspective on behalf of the micro business communities?

Most of the findings from the case study interviews could apply across pretty much any sector. Customers are more sophisticated, networked, discriminating and active. Not sure there are many industries where that isnrsquo;t the case. One point of note was a comment from the video games industry (one of the 4 sub-sector foci) for novel titles, sophistication and interfaces - wonder how that translates to the explosion in casual amp; mobile gaming, Kongregate, Gameloft, the Wii etc?

One aspect that might be unique was the reported lack of innovation management. Some of this is undoubtedly down to the speed of change and comparative size of companies, but may also be down to a culture of perpetual beta. Many of the associated issues that have been reported could be related to company size. How many firms under 10 employees have a dedicated Ramp;D budget, or a formal knowledge management system whatever industry theyrsquo;re in?

How about providing/managing a framework for Open Innovation as a role for HE in the creative sector?

There was a distinct whiff of entrepreneurial planning (if such a thing isnrsquo;t an oxymoron) at yesterdayrsquo;s Open Coffee. The trigger was the launch of this yearrsquo;s Seedcamp and the ensuing conversation about how we could encourage local start-ups to apply.

Things quickly moved on to running something in Bristol to encourage regional entrepreneurialism. Drawing on Seedcamp, Mashed, etc the idea was to give people an outcome orientated brief (i.e. build something that lets me communicate to a group) and then let folks come up with their own solutions. Critically, each idea would be judged not just on itrsquo;s technical/interestingness merits, but also on the marketing/presentation of the idea and on the business case. It sounded like more than a weekend event since we wanted to provide people with lots of plenary events and workshops to help round out ideas. Having said that we quickly came up with a whole bunch of people in the area that would have the relevant expertise to cover pretty much everything.

Sam Machin was fresh back from Mashed08 where the range and variety was outstanding (and the geekiness unsurpassed), but he thought there was a need for a longer event where the wider aspects of building a viable application could be rapidly prototyped. Clare was also along from the Pervasive Media Studio and we bounced a few ideas around on how this could be done and who would be instrumental. There was also a recognition that we needed to include Falmouth, Plymouth, Bournemouth and benefit from the many hotspots across the region.

Lots more to follow Irsquo;m sure!

Apologies to the folks on the other side of the room, there was plenty of intense discussion going on but I didnrsquo;t get over to join in. Hopefully wersquo;ll hear what that led to shortly.

I hot-footed it from Cheltenham to the Pervasive Media Studio a couple nights back for a Gurteen Knowledge Cafe. The topic was lsquo;unlearningrsquo; which is a sufficiently interesting topic for a Knowledge Transfer/Exchange professional to drag me out and through the wind and rain that Bristol chose to throw at us!

I wasnrsquo;t entirely sure what lsquo;unlearningrsquo; was; Irsquo;d constructed a meaning that was roughly a bit more purposeful than forgetting. The brief presentation from Daniel Doherty (University of Bristol, Management School) ranged from the quite possibly certifiable Institute of Unlearning through to more constructivist (and believable) approaches.

There was quite a bit that bordered on (or was overtly about) brainwashing and lsquo;re-programmingrsquo; people Leaving aside the ethics and morals of those particular applications of unlearning, the discussions were mainly around trying to decide if there was more to it than situational flexibility. We touched briefly on meta-physics in trying to figure out how far back into perceptions of reality you had to go before it became lsquo;unlearningrsquo;.

Quite a few of the examples described were really just putting one set of learnt behaviours or patterns of thought aside to more effectively address a particular situation. We didnrsquo;t feel (and Irsquo;m speaking in the royal lsquo;wersquo;) that this represented unlearning. Quite a few of the proposed unlearning situations (miltary training, regime change, etc) are externally imposed. Even if there is a degree of consent there is an external mechanism, framework and big shouty Sergeant Majors moulding you to become the best of the best of the best. Sah!

Uploaded on 12 May, 2006 by minxlj

I was curious to see if anyone could propose an instance where that level of lsquo;unlearningrsquo; could be initiated and carried through in a purely individual framework. Apart from physical impact injuries to the skull, or psychotic drugs, there didnrsquo;t appear to be. Which got me to wondering if in fact unlearning is something that you can consciously undertake.

Even more benign approaches to unlearning, such as the coporate merger or unlearning intolerace require external intervention. The incoming organisation (or new CEO) will impose lsquo;theirrsquo; view on the organisation being absorbed. The UN has a conference series on unlearning to help people identify strategies to tackle intolerance in their societies through education, inclusion and example.

Therersquo;s no doubt that you can learn new patterns and behaviours that are more effective to the changing circumstances and social lsquo;normsrsquo;. Can you unlearn without the rather scary brainwashing aspects, Irsquo;m less sure. The brain is remarkably good at retaining data, sometimes we are less good at retriving it and most of us canrsquo;t recall every detail of every second of our lives, but I think itrsquo;s all in there.

Thanks go to Ed for organising and the Pervasive Media Studio for the venue.

After the introductions and thank yous, the keynote was Adam Goodyer (co-founder of Concert Live, UWE graduate amp; HSBC 2007 Start-Up Stars winner). Adam gave a barn storming keynote, with a mix of humour, humility and insight into how theyrsquo;d grown and overcome early adversity. Concert Live basically record gigs live, mix them to CD, burn them and then sell to the crowd just as theyrsquo;re leaving the gig. Following early success (they secured an early contract to cover The Levellers gig tour) they hit a dry patch where the industry wouldnrsquo;t touch them because their business model was perceived as potentially competitive to the core business of shifting CD singles.

Adam used Porterrsquo;s 5 Forces to identity the dominant force in the market (major labelrsquo;s fear of losing sales amp; chart positions) that was overcoming a strong customer force (people love buying CDrsquo;s of the actual gig they attended) and figured out how to flip the forces in their favour. By setting up a secure chart transaction system to sell singles at the gig, they could bundle a couple of singles mixes in with the live CD. That was a bonus to the customers (they basically got 2 albums for the price of one) and a huge bonus to the Labels (each single mix counts as a separate chart sale). They could then go to the major labels and say that by giving Concert Live a license, their artist would shoot up the chart with every concert, genius!

Adam then admitted that they hadnrsquo;t actually sat down with Porterrsquo;s diagram and worked it out, but the process did accurately describe what theyrsquo;d down and how theyrsquo;d identified the dominant players and the blockage that needed to be cleared.

Next up was Patrick Dasoberi (Student Community Portal System amp; 2007 BizIdea winner). Patrickrsquo;s idea, as submitted to the 2007competition, had evolved significantly into the business hersquo;s now running, though the core vision is the same: helping temporary international residents find their way in a new country. Patrickrsquo;s initial focus was on the student population but hersquo;s now working with a wide range of organisations that send people around the globe to work in communities.

What was really interesting was that the software developed to do this (Whahala), is to be provided as a white label solution for other organisations that want to establish their own international support network. Very cool!

Claire Foster (Superjuice) - discovered smoothies and juice bars when on her travels in Australia. When she came back to the UK it proved really difficult to get the same idea of the ground here. So she went to London and talked to everyone in the juice/smoothie business (being from Somerset she wasnrsquo;t perceived as a threat). She went down into the far South West and worked a couple days for free to learn the business. She then landed some Business Link support, Princes Trust support (links to page with video) and things began to take off. Shersquo;s now purveying to the rich and famous (well Prince Charles at least) and building her brand. The immediate expansion plans are into the new Bristol Broadmead development.

Last up on the Keynotes was Sally Lincon (co-founder Nomensa). Sally described their journey of building a digital design and usability company, along with some highs amp; lows.The common thread with all the presentations was that every day was different and they all thoroughly enjoyed the experience of running their own businesses.

Competition Winners

The winner of the Best Business Idea was Carolyn (Chief Whale of Whale Bags), eco-shopping bags made of 100% cotton/calico that fold neatly into a small pocket thatrsquo;s part of the bag. We didnrsquo;t get to see the business plan but the idea is a really good one, and very topical with the Zeitgeist of recycling and reusing shopping bags.

The runner up was Magee Private Investigator, a criminal law student that setting up her own PI business. The gap in the market being that soon PIrsquo;s will have to be licensed (they arenrsquo;t at the moment), with her law background Magee thinks shersquo;s got a differentiator.

The winner of the Best Social Enterprise Idea was the Bristol Festival Community Group a collection of volunteers, with a wide range of backgrounds, interests and ages, who have come together to plan a community-based festival for September 2008 following the sad demise of the Bristol Community Festival at Ashton Court. The runner up was Vscheme a volunteering management scheme for individuals and organisations.

In the Best Creative Design Idea, the winner was Five on One (canrsquo;t find a website) with a DVD magazine showcase five aspects of Bristol social and cultural scene, given away alongside Venue magazine and funded through advertising. The runner-up was Basic Baroques, providing everyone with the elements to make their own baroque styled interior.

[I'll try and get more links and logos as people launch their websites]

Open Coffee continues to grow in Bristol with more new faces plus a good number of lsquo;regularsrsquo;.

There was a definite mobile-video thing going on (at least around the conversations I heard). Matt Thurling from Science.TV (a video sharing community dedicated to science communication) was a new face to OpenCoffee. Hersquo;s particularly interested in the iPhone and was one of the early adopters downloading it to see how it would fit with his particular offering. That project is still in gestation but Matt has announced today a collaboration with Clifton College (which is why this post is a bit late) that will see students devising their experiments, testing them, recording the evidence and then sharing those films with Science.TVrsquo;s global audience of scientists and students.

Following the iPhone and discussion about using video to record and provide a learning platform there was a side discussion about monetisation and hopefully therersquo;ll be more anouncements or developments to see arising from that.

Just had an email from Craig at Podchains Ltd that, having met Mark from OK-Cool on Tues at OpenCoffee they went for a follow-up meeting and have now ldquo;struck up a working relationshiprdquo;.

I think we can chalk that up as the first deal of this OpenCoffee series!

If yoursquo;d like to come along and find out more please check out the Upcoming or Facebook groups. We meet every other Tuesday in Starbucks off Park St in Bristol. The next couple of meetings are 1, 15 and 29 July.

The OpenCoffee Club was started to encourage entrepreneurs, developers and investors to organise real-world informal meetups to chat, network and grow.

Its sometimes difficult to explain to people what sailing training is really about. They tend to think of big square riggers a la Hornblower and the Tall Ships Youth Trust (which is part of it). Generally they believe me when I tell them that the young people do everything on board (sail handling, helming, repair work, cooking, cleaning, engine maintenance, navigation, etc), but thatrsquo;s not what itrsquo;s really about. I try and explain that its about bringing a group of young people (that have never met before) together and over the course of a week help them form into an effective and social group, but that doesnrsquo;t really convey what itrsquo;s about.

As a volunteer Ships Captain with the London Sailing Project I could refer to our lsquo;mission statementrsquo; which is accurate but a bit dry:

No more - Irsquo;ll just point them to this YouTube video, produced by the 22 kids and Afterguard (yes the Captain is in there) over 6 days sail training (plus a bit of post production) filmed between the UK, France and Channel Islands. Theyrsquo;re raising money for the project (visit http://www.justgiving.com/rockstar to donate). Oh, and of course therersquo;s the website and Facebook page.

Remember, those young people hadnrsquo;t met beforehand to plan that out, and because of the volunteer nature of the LSP, the afterguard (Captain, First Mate, Watch Officers and Watch Leaders) probably hadnrsquo;t met before either.

Fantastic!

Just back from the opening of the Bristol Design Festival down in the old Fire Station. Donrsquo;t let the website put you off (itrsquo;s a bit Flash heavy and not very up to date). The festival is getting underway with a wide range of product and concept designs, including the ever popular Grafikea.

Upstairs is the Expressions design show from UWE final year students, quite a few dealing with various packaging and fast food solutions (obviously close to the interests of students) but also some very clever ideas including a neonatal incubator designed to encourage and strengthen the bond between between premature babies and their mothers.

The main floor has design consultancy showcases from across Bristol (and beyond) and the Grafikea exhibits. Mobile Pie have set up an SMS voting system so you can text your vote for the best example of what you can do with a Lack table from Ikea, and you can buy your favourite table direct from the artist (prices vary, the ones I saw went from £15 up).

Lots to look forward to over the coming 4 days:

• Spike Design (Spike Island) Sat, 14 to Thur 19 June, 10:00-18:30


• Drop In Design (The Old Fire Station) Sat, 14 June, 11:00-16:00


• The Pitch in partnership with businesszone.co.uk (The Old Fire Station) Mon, 16 June, 14:00


• Designer Karaoke (The Watershed) Mon, 16 June, 18:30-23:00

The reason this post is a bit late is I spent most of yesterday evening setting up a Facebook group for OpenCoffee Club Bristol (and we already have 5 members, cheers), posting the next four dates (17 June, 1 amp; 15 amp; 29 July and 5 August), updating the upcoming group (17 Jun, 1 15 29 Jul, 5 Aug), and posting the OpenCoffee Bristol Twitter; still need to construct an OpenCoffee group in my Gmail (for those not on the aforementioned socnets) to send out reminders and updates.

Back to yesterday, Sam and I arrived just after 8am and set up shop downstairs while the Starbucks folks put up signs and balloons. First to arrive was James and we quickly had a couple tables pulled together with discussions bouncing around business, technology, social catching up and finding out what each other did.

Chris Garrett (via Twitter) and Craig Hellen came down from Gloucestershire with their new mobile, locative and video media ideas. After exploring their business model and target segments a few business cards swifted exchanged hands, which is what its all about.

About half-way through the morning a couple of fresh pots of coffee arrived and refueled everyone through to past 10.30am.

We closed with Martyn Shinerrsquo;s open source manufacturing systems development project at Severn Delta. Theyrsquo;ve built their own system and are looking for hot php/PostgreSQL/UI coders to help them turn an internal project into a set of repositories that they can open up properly to other companies as a series of modules (sorry if I got a few details wrong Martyn). Martynrsquo;s still looking so if yoursquo;re in the Somerset area (or are happy to spend a bit of time there) drop him a note on twitter (if itrsquo;s up).

Wersquo;ve also added a client page where short client / project descriptions will go. This post tells the story of the first of these, Gordon Morris.

Gordon and I spent some time yesterday catching up at his new factory in Somerton. I first met Gordon back when I was working for UWE as a Business Sector Specialist, my job was basically to meet companies in the West of England area, conduct a business needs analysis and figure out how the Universities could help them.

Gordon had single-handedly built a successful business selling equipment to help organisations communicate with individuals that were deaf. An electronics engineer by training, Gordon also designed his own bespoke solutions for situations where the existing products werenrsquo;t up to the job. His usp was that, being deaf himself, he could assure the systemrsquo;s quality and functioning personally.

However, the business was getting too big for Gordon to contain in his head, he recognised that he was beginning to be the limiting factor in future growth. He was also facing a factory move and these two triggers were the catalyst for a business transformation plan.

I worked with Gordon over a couple of months learning about his business, understanding the challenges and putting together a plan of action. I introduced Gordon to the Bristol Business School and together we wrote the funding application for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership that introduced an excellent young graduate to implement a financial and operations planning system. This system acted as the foundation for the following business cycles.

As the Disability Discrimination Act came into force, Gordon saw a major upswing in business, the plan we put together gave him the infrastructure to cope with that. After the upswing came the downturn, but Gordon took this as another opportunity to broaden the sales and marketing part of the business; I had joined Futurelab by this time but he came back for another KTP.

Hersquo;s still a live wire looking for new opportunities and ways to simulate the energy within his staff and company to continue growing. The discussion we had ranged across Skype and Qik for doing video conferencing and presentations in order to reduce his carbon footprint (and the expense of driving all over the country), hersquo;s looking for product videos to be shot so that people can see these systems in use at their own convince, we also talked about the factory layout and how some of that was working really well (the open plan) and some of it less well (the separate customer demonstration suite).

Gordonrsquo;s working with another business consultant in his ongoing development but Irsquo;m going to be sending Gordon some links to other Bristol organisations that may be able to help in his new ideas for the future. What are your business headaches and how can I help?

Not about a portfolio of businesses, but rather for a business to have a portfolio of income streams from a single (or small number) of core products / services.

Several recent conversations in Bristol, Leeds, London and elsewhere have shown that a winning business model could be through diversification of income. A number of excellent projects have been initiated with funding from the Government or charitable foundations. These usually have a section on sustainability, but they tend to be very light.

When the funding ends, the crunch bites. Obviously you donrsquo;t want to kill the service, goodwill and community thatrsquo;s been built up, but without a cash flow, any service will end or at best stagnate.

Irsquo;ve found examples of deep community knowledge and solid data even without Facebook / Phorm style tracking. The challenge then becomes how to identify income streams to sustain the service/community once the grant funding runs out.

The models that are intriguing me most at the moment are blending sponsorship models (basically brand association), membership fees, and the possibility of consultancy / expert witness type activity.

If yoursquo;re managing a community (however lightly) then you know the demographics, levels of engagement, patterns of engagement, areas of interests, whatrsquo;s current, what annoys, etc. And thatrsquo;s valuable knowledge, knowledge that another organisation wishing to work with that group, or develop products/services for that group may pay for. This is not about selling your email list / registration database, there are good data protection laws in place to stop that.

So thatrsquo;s part of whatrsquo;s interesting me at the moment; mixed business models blending sponsorship, membership and consultancy. The other two two oft-cited business models (freemium services amp; advertising) are also of interest for commercial clients, but less so in the situation of many foundation initiated projects.

What are your experiences of transitioning from grant funding to revenue funding?

Abstract:

From 2001 to 2005, 66 patients referred for perioperative hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO₂) for debridement of necrotic tissue or prevention of radionecrosis were assessed with quality of life measures, before and after completion of HBO₂ and surgery. The Medical Outcomes Short Form 36 (SF-36) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) showed no significant changes. The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Core (EORTC-C30) questionnaire showed significant improvement in pain, global health, and dyspnoea (p = 0.011; p = 0.027; p = 0.008, respectively). The Head and Neck sub-module (Hamp;N35) identified significant improvements in teeth, dry mouth and social contact (p = 0.002; p = 0.038; p = 0.029, respectively). The University of Washington Scale (UW), showed significant changes in relation to chewing and shoulders (p = 0.031; p = 0.047). When sub-group analysis using ‘osteoradionecrosis’ and ‘dental extraction or implants’ was performed on the EORTC and UW data, variations in the patterns of significance were found. Adjunctive HBO₂ should be considered for the treatment and prevention of some of the long-term complications of radiotherapy.

Another great OpenCoffee with more new faces to the OpenCoffee networking scene. Yesterday we welcomed Katie More from Business Startup Community. With over 500 subscribers and the prestigious conference series in London, Katie promises to be a valuable addition to the Bristol entrepreneurial ecosystem.

James Gareh was back from South Africa where hersquo;s been specialising in company turnaround projects. Itrsquo;s good to have him back in Bristol where his skills in identifying and driving growth plans will be put to good use Irsquo;m sure!

I had to leave a bit early but the conversation around supporting company growth and connecting business needs with solutions was in full flow.

Next OpenCoffee Bristol is on 3 June, from 8.30 in Starbucks on Park St.

Today was an important day for jbsh, I gave our first unsuccessful pitch. Obviously in writing research grant applications and funding proposals, Irsquo;ve had unsuccessful submissions and Irsquo;ve talked a couple of clients out of engaging me in favour of more appropriate (and cheaper or free) options.

What was different today was that I really felt that this was a great business that I could add value to.

With most funding applications you donrsquo;t get great feedback on why yoursquo;re unsuccessful. When the negative email came through there was an invitation to explore why we werenrsquo;t proceeding with the plan as discussed.

The discussion brought an important point home, you need to constantly evaluate every message across every medium to make sure itrsquo;s effective and conveying what you think it is. Irsquo;ve been working on building the QuickMark service, taking on new Researchers and more clients. Irsquo;m actively seeking ways to grow and build the service as a sustainable offering outside the funding that has provided stability so far. In doing this Irsquo;ve significantly refined the proposition, carefully positioning the service between the core activities that the Universities offer and those that are provided by commercial market research organisations.

Unfortunately, I hadnrsquo;t spent quite so much time on this blog evaluating what message I wanted it to convey. Originally it was a place to share thoughts, talk about events Irsquo;d attended and give jbsh LLP a presence on the web. This has all be augmented by LinkedIn, Facebook, MyBlogLog, Twitter, etc. Since that launch (almost exactly a year ago) the message that this blog is being used to convey has changed. Sam is using it to promote, explain and disseminate her research, and I was using it to build confidence with potential clients to trust their businesses to my advice and guidance. This last bit hasnrsquo;t worked, because I havenrsquo;t developed the blog, Irsquo;ve just used it to a different purpose (one it wasnrsquo;t designed for).

The other messages are still important, so we wonrsquo;t undergo a complete redesign, but there will be some changes. Most critically Irsquo;ll be putting more references to existing jbsh clients and stories from businesses Irsquo;ve helped in the past.

Itrsquo;s not survival of the fittest, itrsquo;s survival of the most adaptable and appropriate to the environment.

[Note on the photo: I grew up in Gibraltar and have fond memories of walking across the runway to catch planes to 'exotic' locations like Southend where my Grandad lived. My first thought was say something about stopping and re-evaluating, hence the flickr search for stop signs. Searches for failure weren't as nice so I'm sticking with the image.]

Then Google announced the launch of their FriendConnect (here on TechCrunch and all over the blogsphere).

Irsquo;ve pre-registered, see we get access, but that triggered me to see how MBL was doing (and the fact that the widget wasnrsquo;t there any more). So itrsquo;s reinstated, I like that itrsquo;s more personal that ClusterMaps (though that gives a nice global feel to the web). I donrsquo;t have a need or desire for folks to register with jbsh, so its nice that there are 3rd party services that can take care of that and show whorsquo;s dropped by in person.

I should admit that I do all my blog surfing via Google Reader so probably have a much smaller blog footprint than I did even 12 months ago, despite reading a much larger number of blogs, twitter streams, etc.

The nominal theme for this morningrsquo;s Open Coffee was lsquo;articulating your messagersquo;, or the art of the elevator pitch. Without wishing to do anyone (including myself) out of a job - go to this blog post and read it.  Actually might as well read the whole site if yoursquo;re looking at the investor path.

Having suggested that Matt from Montage Communications might get the ball rolling with a few pithy words on communicating complex ideas in compact spaces, by the time I got downstairs at Starbucks on Park St, the conversation was in full flow!

With roughly 2:1 entrepreneurs to business support professionals there was plenty of discussion and swapping of business cards. Everyone I spoke to had met someone new and interesting.

My new connection was with Rob Cox, launching a new motivational and self belief workshop and mentoring service for kids to ldquo;Dream, Believe, Achieveldquo;.

Thanks go to Hannah at Montage Communications for handling the coordination with Starbucks and to Rosie (Interim Store Manager, Starbucks) for keeping the (free) coffee and cakes flowing.

The next Open Coffee is on 20 May, same Starbucks on Park St., please sign up or leave a comment here so that Rosie can order in enough fresh muffins!

LINQ is a self-complete questionnaire that measures the information needs of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). LINQ can also be used for patients with some other chronic lung diseases. It is not suitable for patients with asthma.

What is it used for?

LINQ is designed to help clinicians identify which patients would be helped by information and the type of information an individual patient needs. This questionnaire can also be used to evaluate the impact of intervention, including pulmonary rehabilitation, for research and audit purpose.

Why am I writing about it?

I have been involved with the development of LINQ for the last four years, and think it is a really valuable tool. Over this period we have used LINQ in a number of projects and it has be embraced by doctors working with patients suffering from chronic lung conditions.

We have had several papers published reporting patient needs and the relaibility and validity of LINQ, and have recently had another paper accepted reporting LINQs ability to measure change in information needs. The details of this publication will soon be posted on the research page, but if this is a topic you are interested in, then visit the LINQ homepage and learn a bit more about it.

One last thing is,who can use LINQ?

The LINQ is freely available for clinical use and not-for-profit research. It can be downloaded from the homepage in multiple languages. Because it is still a ‘young’ scale, it would be helpful if researchers email me or one of the members of the team listed on the LINQ website let us know if they intend to use it, so we can update them if needed. This is, however, entirely voluntary. We welcome comments about the experience of using the scale, and any data you care to share with us.