I’d like to think that’s where I am every day, only I’d be kidding myself! But it’s definitely where I was yesterday, along with about 3,000 other interested people plus Sir Bob Geldof, Sir Tim Berners-Lee (founder of the worldwide web for anyone who doesn’t know – I didn’t!) and, wait for it, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister! We were all at the Innovation Edge conference at the Festival Hall, organised by NESTA. I have to say it was great. Well organised, professional and inspirational, with amazing chocolate brownies to boot!
So, some highlights (other than the chocolate brownies):
- Tim Berners-Lee talked via video link about his positive intentions for the web, and how he hoped it would be used for the good of humanity, to foster co-operation, collaboration and citizenship. He could have made millions, probably billions, from his invention … but he chose to give it away. And he’s now working in the new field of web science, trying to develop our understanding of how and why we use the web, and to ensure its social benefit. What an understated hero!
- Less understated but no less heroic, Bob Geldof paced the stage, swore occasionally and stirred things up a bit, as you’d expect. He spoke really eloquently about the absolute necessity of harnessing innovation to solve some of the huge challenges facing the world. According to him, if ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ then desperation is the father of necessity! And he painted a pretty desperate picture of what the future holds if we don’t work together to come up with some innovative solutions. He made most of our day-to-day concerns seem unutterably trivial and firmly focused attention on the bigger picture. It reinforced my commitment to making Mummo a way of harnessing the power of mums! Between us, we’ve got to be able to change things for the better.
- Channel 4 hosted a fringe event in the evening on the subject of ‘creativity beyond television’. It was fresh and invigorating … and confirmed something I’ve always known, which is that I want to work with creative people! Not only are they intimidatingly cool, but they really do seem to live on the innovation edge. Some of the stuff they showed us blurred the boundaries between fact and fiction, TV and reality. Morally debatable, perhaps, but certainly thought-provoking. Keep your eyes and ears open for a new project ‘central station’. I can’t seem to find anything about it on Google so I may have got the name wrong – let me know if you know!
- Also met a really nice guy from the company behind viewmy.tv, a website on which you can watch pretty much any TV channel from around the world, for free! So, if you’ve got a hankering to catch up on the French news or the American Woodworking Channel, now you can!
It’s always good to go to these events as I’ve come back with a million and one new ideas (not that I really needed any more!) and feel fired up with enthusiasm for life, Mummo and everything! So a quick salad Nicoise, courtesy of M&S, then big bursts of energy for this afternoon. See you soon …
Tags: Channel 4, Gordon Brown, humanity, Innovation Edge conference, Mummo, NESTA, Prime Minister, Sir Bob Geldof, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, viewmy.tv, web science
May 21, 2008 at 11:16 pm |
Where were the brownies ? More seriously, cool event – read a different take at: