Made in Unsheffield: Shacknet holds inaugural meetup

It started off life as an Inspired Idea at Unsheffield and now Shacknet has officially launched with its inaugural meetup. A mouth-watering demo, a call for projects and exciting news about Sheffield’s homegrown FabLab project were all on the agenda. Plans for the future are exciting and unfolding – this promises to be a group to keep your eyes on.

Emma Persky: Social Media Consultancy – the trade that dare not speak its name

Looking at Social Media Consultancy, the people that give it a bad name, and what we can do to boost the integrity of the industry and improve practise.

David King: Is a Computer Science Degree Worthless?

Does society expect you to have the degree in computer science before you can do a job in the industry?

Jay Cousins: Open Business

Open Business – crowdsourcing an entire business. What is an “open company”, and how do we set one up?

Ian Forrester: The State of the Nation in 2012

The BBC could do some really interesting things for Digital Britain. What should they be doing?

Neil Crosby: Voyeurs to Participants

How do we turn voyeurs into active participants?

USE Stimulus Lineup Announced

The submissions have come in, and the final line-up has been decided. Many thanks to all who sent in their ideas and talks. Congratulations to the speakers who have been selected to present on the event theme Future Users of Cool Technology at the inaugural Unsheffield USE Stimulus night at 7pm Friday 19 June.

Open Invite to Social Media Surgery

Unsheffield wants to help organisations from the region get going with new social technologies that can further their causes. The Social Media Surgery will be open as a drop-in from 11am to 5pm on both Saturday June 20 and Sunday June 21. There is no need to book a place, just come along to the Showroom Cinema and find out how easily technology can make a difference to your cause.

No Future Shock

Okay, it’s rough to criticise the work of Alvin Toffler, nearly 40 years after he published ‘Future Shock‘. But while Toffler’s key premise – that the shift from an industrial age to a post-industrial, highly technology-mediated society would leave us all feeling rather disconnected and over stressed – may have some merit in terms of information overload, it’s perhaps not quite as stressful. We’ve certainly been living a more connected existence in technologically developed societies since the early 1990s.

Joanne Jacobs explores the evolution of technology into the contexts for engagement of Future Users.