Who Resurrected the Electric Car?

So I won the opportunity to test drive an electric car in December, courtesy of the lovely people over at ESB. The competition that I won asked the question, “Why do you want to test drive an electric car?” “For the craic” didn’t seem like a winning answer, so my response alluded to the very excellent 2006 documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?”, which explores the brief rise and fall of the battery-powered automobile in California in the 1990s. I wanted to know if the electric car could be resurrected.

I went to the ESB offices on Fitzwilliam Street, where I was given details on how the eCar will be rolled out across Ireland in 2011. I have to say, their commitment to the process is really encouraging. Having installed the first on-street charge points in March 2010, the plan is to have 1,500 public charge points around the country by the end of 2011. One of the great criticisms of electric cars is that the battery won’t get you very far the Mitsubishi I drove has a range of 150km – 180km on a full charge), so the plan to have 30 fast charge points around the country, including along motorways is encouraging – with the potential to make the M1 the world’s first transnational electric car highway. Fast charge points provide an 80% top-up in 20-25 minutes, compared to the 6-8 hours need for full battery recharge at normal charging points.

However, the real deal stealer for those with an interest in owning an electric car (apart from the no emissions stuff) is the very low cost of running eCars. Driving an eCar costs just 1-2 cent per kilometre, compared to 10-12 cent per kilometre for conventional cars. Also, eCars don’t have the moving parts that you would usually find in the motor of a conventional car, therefore the replacement car parts you would need to get are mostly limited to brake pads and tyres.

As for the drive itself – I was very impressed! I got into my Mitsubishi MiEV, got the low down on the controls (most eCars have automatic transmission, which is nice for city driving) and what I was seeing on the dashboard.  It’s such a strange sensation turning the ignition for the first time – nothing happens. Like turning the key in a car with a flat battery – except a little green light comes on to tell you you’re ready to drive! The drive is smooth and the car has plenty of acceleration (dispelling another common misconception about electric cars).

But – and for me it was a big but – the silence of the car in unnerving. Whatever the positive impacts of electric cars might be on noise pollution, as a cyclist I’m aware of how much people use their sense of hearing to navigate their way around town – particularly cyclists with hoods up on a rainy day. Furthermore, our work with the Nation al Council for the Blind has alerted me to the grave concerns they have for their members, who rely on hearing alone to detect oncoming traffic. Many eCar manufacturers have installed simulated motor noises in the vehicles, and I for one think it should be mandatory. Particularly as my co-driver and Mitsubishi rep regaled me with tales of near death incidents for American cyclists having close encounters with the eCars that the postal service on the Aran Islands is using.

So all in all, brilliant cars to drive, a wonderful concept, and ESB are fully committed to the resurrection of the eCar, but a couple of minor tweaks are needed to stop them becoming environmentally-friendly death machines. And at €30,000 a pop (including government grant of €5,000) I think I’ll wait until the price comes down before snapping one up!

What’s so innovative about Dublin’s creative industries?

CreativeD took part in the annual Innovation Dublin festival through the CreativeD member showcase – which offered visitors the chance to engage with some of Dublin’s most innovative and creative people; to learn about leading edge technologies and processes and explore how they can contribute to making Dublin a more vibrant creative and cultural place. The showcase was attended by some of the key decision makers within Dublin’s creative and cultural industries.

The following CreativeD members were on-hand to present their latest innovations, in an engaging and interactive manner:

 TwelveHorses

Gabrielle Stafford presented their new technological development VIZI, which is a unique data visualisation platform designed to be used by non technical users. It integrates quickly and seamlessly with existing systems to show what really matters, by presenting data in a fast, dynamic and intuitive visual interface.

 3^rd Dimension

With the recession forcing many retailers to pull down their shutters, high streets in many cities and towns around the country are beginning to resemble ghost towns. With this in mind, Nick Polley from 3rd Dimension have arrived at an innovative solution that counteracts all the negatives ensuring that the remaining businesses and retailers continue to survive and that means making sure our high streets and town-centres look as attractive as possible to shoppers, tourists & potential business investors.

The Virtual Shopfronts give the impression that the vacant shop unit is actually occupied. Apart from being visually attractive and very realistic, they are an ideal way to show the potential of empty retail units. They even have the capability to inspire new businesses to setup throughout our cities and towns.

Ethical Sector Communications

Rory Sturdy from Ethical Sector Communications developed a visual presentation of how mathematics plays a key role in design, art and nature – and how he has applied this to the development of his latest online communications project – Mary Robinson Foundation Climate Justice  http://www.mrfcj.org/. You can check out Rory’s fascinating video here http://vimeo.com/16907457

Act4Business

Celine Mullins and her team of actors presented a unique workshop where attendees learned how subtle changes in their communication can make all the difference in business and life!

Joris Vreeke

Joris worked with attendees to help them communicate their message online. He offered expert advice on how this can be done by designing engaging and effective websites or by developing high-end intelligent web services and everything in between.

Precious

Precious’s display showcased how innovations in rapid prototyping are both accessible and can be applied by many small Irish businesses.

They exhibited the journey of RP design innovation, raw models, partly built models, finished models, with a short video showing the stages in design and finished designs – a process for most industries that can go from unique sketch to completed design within a working week!

HelixID

Martin Moylan from HelixID engaged with the attendees by demonstrating the advantage he has over others, in that no other small company can provide such a vast range of quality marketing skills tailored for individual customers. Martin provides a centralized source for business marketing, through the following media:

Logo Design
Publishing
Web Design
Social Networking
Corporate Marketing
Video Production
Animated Logos & Idents

 RiseCreatives

Nina Lyons from RiseCreatives demonstrated how they have adopted emerging technology to assist their members in promoting their work and themselves. Mobile phones have taken on a greater emphasis in people’s lives in recent years. With the launch of the iphone and the android equivalents, people are using their phones differently. RiseCreatives see this advancement in the use of mobile phones, particularly augmented reality, as a very valuable tool for their members. The ability to use the camera of the mobile phone to see real time digital information, displayed in a real world context, allows users to locate and access work by their members in galleries and shops immediately around them.

Ingenious Guides

Mary Mulvihill brought along audio samples of her revolutionary new Audio Guides, which offer people the chance to stroke volcanic ash or Jurassic creatures on the streets of Dublin, and explore the Hill of Tara, to walk in the footsteps of high kings and heroes.

Innovation Dublin and the Meaning of Innovation?

He also said innovation is in danger of becoming a cliché, so we need to great real about innovation.  There is no doubt that innovation is a term that has become overused (look how many times I’ve used it already!) and, as such, can suffer from misunderstanding, misuse and often mistrust.  It has also become lauded as the solution to all economic and social ills.  So can innovation rise to the challenge of “divining a path out of where we are today?”.

Surely that is what Innovation Week is about? i.e. to show real examples of something that is new or reconfigured that adds value whether in a technological, organisational or social context.

One of the things about CreativeD that excites us the most, besides the contagious passion of the creative industries for what they do, is that we get to work with people who continuously create newness, who see things differently and translate their thoughts into products, services and technologies.  They represent the opposite of what the Lord Mayor called the “habitual mode” of doing things in the same way because we’re used to it.  The only habit we have seen in CreativeD is to continually strive to change and to develop solutions to problems or needs we may not even know we have yet.  That has to be what innovation is all about.

Like many things, innovation is best understood by way of example.  Whether you are an innovation fanatic or sceptic, you should come and see real examples of innovation designed and developed in Dublin at the CreativeD showcase on November 18^th in the Mansion House from 11.00 a.m. to 2.00pm.  Innovations ranging from rapid prototyping processes, data visualisation tools, augmented reality, new apps and web design methodologies, or how acting can improve your business, will delight the fanatics, convince the sceptics and educate the confused.

Other great examples mentioned at the launch were the Innovation Studio (their exhibition on the 2nd Floor of the Civic Offices is well worth a visit), the live streaming of Tosca on www.platformireland.ie and George Boyle’s Fumbally Exchange.  There are many more and details can be found on http://www.innovationdublin.ie.  See all you can and celebrate our achievements – we must be doing something right if we are as Minister Conor Lenihan pointed out the 2^nd most entrepreneurial country in the EU and the 4^th most entrepreneurial in the OECD.

Long may innovation and entrepreneurship continue and pave the path to positive social and economic change.

Anything the Monkey’s Don’t? – Culture and the City 4

“Culture is roughly anything we do and the monkeys don’t” – Lord Raglan

Definitely my favourite quote from the rather excellent fourth instalment of “Culture and the City” held in Dublin City Council’s Wood Quay Venue on Thursday 21^st October. Surrounded by remnants of the ancient Dublin City walls, and some of the most influential people in Dublin’s creative and cultural circles, it was hard not to get caught up in the excitement of it all. Paul Hayes, who forms part of the Steering Committee for the International Content Industry Association, enthused, “Dublin Rocks”!, and with excellent events such as Culture Night and my ongoing education with the CreativeD network, I’d have to agree.

 

However, as excellent an event as this was, we still face the same looming issue. Dublin does rock, but it can certainly be improved to create a more collaborative and supportive environment for those with a passion for the development of the arts, cultural and creative sectors in Dublin. And, based on attendance at a number of similar-ish events this year, passion is not hard to come by. And it’s very much the same group of people that you meet at these events – tireless Grainne Millar from the Temple Bar Cultural Trust, Willie White from the Project Arts Centre whose questions I always wish I’d asked, the wise Gerry Godley. With such talented people on board, you would imagine that it wouldn’t be difficult to foment decisive action from the passion and debate. It seems the time for talk is coming to an end, I really hope so.

The event’s speakers were from a range of backgrounds, and all of them were very enthusiastic, and often very funny. No more so than Stephen McGowan, Head of Creative Industries and Innovation at the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure in Northern Ireland (first of all, why don’t we have a similar body, specifically established for the Creative and Cultural Industries here?). Stephen spoke about two key elements with regards to developing the CCIs in Ireland. Firstly, people in the sector need to work in partnership with each other. He’s mad about partnership and collaboration, and so am I. He says it’s because he wants people to like him. Maybe so do I. It seems obvious that collaboration is a pre-requirement for the sector to develop, but it’s not being done enough. Maybe we need a formal structure, a go-to place, where people can collaborate and bring their ideas. More about that towards the end of this Blog. The second element of his argument is that the CCIs should not be seen as a separate sector of themselves, creative and cultural input should be seen as a catalyst for progress across all government departments.

I could talk about all of the other speakers, and their argument for the importance of the CCIs, all day long, but I fear I’m one of the few readers who have made it to paragraph 4, so I’ll synopsise.

Michael Stubbs, Assistant City Manager, talked about some new creative and cultural developments currently underway in the city, most prominently our very own CreativeD. And also, “The Studio”, an ideation office for Dublin City Council employees which is very exciting. I’d love to see a “The Studio” for whole city, but one step at a time I guess.

Denis Roche from Vivartas showed a Nationwide video about his brilliant Open Windows project, where he projects family pictures and artistic images on the walls of hospital isolation for people who have spent too long looking at the four walls of their hospital rooms during their long-term hospital stays.

Paul Hayes gave an insight into the International Content Services Centre, which was one of the overall winners of Your Country Your Call for Neil Leyden. The ISCS will initially operate as a clearing house for international content, but will hopefully grow into something a lot more interesting and exciting.  Paul also gave a fascinating insight into how Ireland is at the forefront of the computer gaming industry, with such big hitters as Havok, Demonware, Zinga, Jolt and Blizzard operating here. Although the fact that we are so closely tied to the horrific Farmville, Facebook’s biggest app, made me a little embarrassed.

Finishing the event off was Cr. Pete Lunn, an economist from ESRI. But not any old economist, he spoke about how we value culture in the context of behavioural economics. It wasn’t boring. In fact, it was brilliantly engaging to see how economics is beginning to move away from the idea of markets valuing things, and taking into account that people have emotions, thoughts, opinions that all impact on their behavioural decisions.

In closing the event, Grainne Millar asked that something tangible come of the event. “Yes please Grainne” I thought. She suggested that we all go away and think about the formation of a creative space in Dublin where the evolution of the cultural and creative industries can be discussed on a more continuous basis. Watch this space for more on that….

One who teaches with experience – Part 2

Everywhere we went in the Camara van we were greeted with waves and smiles. It’s clear that awareness of Camara’s is growing. Our driver Joshua, another remarkable man who volunteers as a driver for Camara, works as a preacher, and wants to become a computer technician through the training and experience he receives with Camara, told me about his burning ambition to “spread the light of Camara”. He believes that Camara should eventually be able to reach even the most rural areas of Kenya over the coming years, and he spoke with passion about the great difference it would make for the rural people of Kenya to have easy access to the volumes of educational information Camara computers provide.

It is clear to me that education really is the best way to help Africa reach its great potential, and that Camara are providing African nations with invaluable tools and skills with this goal in mind. To the old maxim “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” can be added “Give him a computer and he can do a correspondence programme in best-practice fishery management, and blog about it to his Tweeps.” Or something like that.

Spreading the light of camara

Camara Kenya Guest Expedition 09 by Mitchell O’Gorman (Newmarket Consulting)

It wasn’t easy getting there, as I had to suffer the worry of waiting for my passport to make the trip to Dublin and back to London without me as we waited for our Kenyan Airways connection in Heathrow, but it was well worth the anxiety. The warm breeze that met us on exiting Nairobi airport whisked away all memories of the pandemonium that I had unwittingly started in London by leaving my passport on the plane, and it was good to finally be in Kenya.

Myself and my travelling companions, Barbara Dooley from UCD and Barbara O’Callaghan from State Street, were the very fortunate beneficiaries of a decision by Irish charity Camara to send some of those that were involved in fundraising activities during the year to Kenya, to witness some of the fruit borne by their fundraising efforts. And I’m pleased to report that what I saw in Kenya exceeded my expectations and gave me great hope in the future of Africa, and the significant role Camara has to play in facilitating that future.

I had been aware of the work of Camara since they won the David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Awards in 2008. The decision made by Cormac Lynch in 2005 to send a couple of Irish computers, destined for the skip, to Africa for use in education has inspired the development of a social enterprise that in early 2009 saw Camara ship their 10,000th computer to Africa. What greeted us in Africa however was not just an organisation putting recycled Irish computers to good use, but an organisation providing a key to unlocking a bright new future for Kenya.

Kenya is a stable nation, relative to some of its east African coast neighbours, but it still bears the hallmarks that blight many African countries, widespread poverty and crippling corruption. What really defined it for me though was not the extent of its problems, but the relentlessness of its positivity and ambition. Our week-long jaunt brought us to the coastal cities of Mombasa, Malindi and Lamu and introduced us to some of the most joyous and passionate people on Earth.

We began in Mombasa, visiting the hub that Camara have established there. Not only do Camara clean and refurbish computers in Ireland, but they have also established a number of hubs in the countries they provide to in Africa; Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Lesotho. The hub in Mombasa relies, as does the entire Camara organisation, on volunteers and the quality of volunteers that the work of Camara attracts was a real eye-opener.

Barbara O’Callaghan refurbishes a Camara computer

Hugely motivated and passionate about what Camara is striving to achieve, the task of uploading the Linux operating system, and installing educational software (including information on HIV Awareness and Gender Equality and Camara’s very own version of Wikipedia) falls to some of Mombasa’s best and brightest. We were each assigned a teacher, to run us through the procedures carried out once the computers arrive in their containers from Ireland, to ready them for installation in schools. My teacher, a 19-year-old girl who had never even touched a computer as recently as 5 months ago, delighted in the task teaching me about the Ubuntu operating system, while explaining to me the opportunity her involvement with Camara offers her. As well as the practical experience she gets, she also undertakes the teaching programme Camara provides for its volunteers. She tells me that it will be of huge benefit to her, as she wants to become a computer teacher. And she’s well able for it. After her in-depth tutorial, I manage to upload an operating system and all of the required educational software by myself, and I record the tracking number Camara assigns to each computer to see where it will eventually be sent. Delighted by what I had learned, I bade farewell to Pilli my teacher, wondering whether I should give her my postal address or e-mail address for keeping in touch. “Neither”, she replied, “I’ll Facebook you instead”.

Having visited the nerve centre of Camara in Mombasa, we were transported up the coast to Malindi, with our guide (and dedicated Camara volunteer) Chiku and our driver (and dedicated Camara volunteer) Joshua. In Malindi, we met up with a local student teacher, and Camara volunteer, Mujahadid. Speaking with Mujahadid was a treat, he was keenly intelligent and had great knowledge to impart on the state of current affairs in Kenya. At the end of our tour of Malindi he asked us if we would visit a school that he was involved with, which had also benefited from the receipt of Camara computers. “Involved with” didn’t quite explain the situation. As we arrived at the school Mujahadid was met with deferential greetings of “Hello Mr. President” by the kids playing outside and the school’s caretakers. He explained that the school was established by an English woman a couple of years ago, and the man she had initially hired to run it had grossly mismanaged all of the funds she had supplied for running of the school. Mujahadid had been recommended to her, and now he finds himself in the situation of running a school while studying to be a teacher at the local University.

He informed me that he is treated with mild distrust in his community, as he maintains meticulous records of his use of school funds and never profits himself. He told us the story of how, the week before our visit, he had gone down to Malindi port to collect a container that had arrived from England with toys for the school. Port security, however, wouldn’t release the container without receiving a hefty kickback first. Mujahadid had to ask his fellow University students to pool together their money in order to have it released. He explained to me how corruption was endemic in Kenya, and needed to be erased for the country to progress. I asked him how the cycle of corruption could be broken. He stated, “education is the key” before adding, “that’s why Camara is the key”.

Freed toys in Kenya

Final part to follow in the next few days…

Newmarket Consulting win the Inaugural Camara Cup!

Clodagh and I were recently presented with the inaugural Camara Cup, of which we will be the proud owners for the next year. From the Camara website (www.camara.ie):

“On Thursday 22nd October at 15:00, GAA All Ireland winner Eugene McGee presented the inaugural Camara Charity Cup to Mitchell O’Gorman and Clodagh O’Brien of Newmarket Consulting.

Newmarket and other companies participated in the Camara Charity Cup, a corporate fundraiser to raise awareness of what Camara does. The Cup was played out over the GAA Football Championship in the summer of 2009, where companies picked teams to win in a “fantasy football” style tournament. Newmarket Consulting defeated runners up State Street Ireland in the final.

Eugene McGee managed the Offaly senior footballers to the All Ireland final in 1981 and then went on to win the All Ireland Football Championship the following year in 1982. Eugene also managed Ireland to Compromise Rules success over Australia in 1990 away from home. He also managed the team in the previous campaign in the home defeat in 1987.

The Camara Charity Cup was designed by famous Irish artist Seamus Nolan and manufactured by Tyrone Crystal, Dungannon. Seamus epxlains, “based on the design of the functional tube of the computer monitor, the form commemorates both Camaras role as an agency that recognises the potential and value in the afterlife of outmoded technological waste, and also the private sponsors who acknowledge the value in this process and the role played in humanitarian and educational development.”

“In accordance with the ethos of sustainability, of using to its fullest potential the objects and technology of our civilisation, the computer monitor as a format for delivering visual communication, the piece uses as its starting point the aesthetic of this technological process the crystal piece re-constituted as a decorative, commemorative award produces a very subtle and elegant play of light which renders the piece an object of visual stimulation in itself.”

Camara is a registered Irish charity, founded in 2005, which uses Irish technological resources to equip schools in Africa with refurbished computers, educational software and IT training. It is the largest computer refurbisher in Ireland.

Cormac Lynch, Camara CEO says “We provide an ideal low cost computer disposal solution that also ensures secure data destruction. While this computer disposal solution is good for the environment and the education of African children, it is also a commercially attractive solution for businesses. Furthermore, these computers will transform the lives of African children and the knowledge will provide the stimulus for new African indigenous enterprises and success stories.”

You can view pictures of the handover at http://www.flickr.com/photos/camara/sets/72157622640950584/

Are the Creative Industries the vanguard of our new economy?

The Department of the Taoiseach’s “Building Ireland’s Smart Economies” has a lot of nice things to say about the cultural and creative industries.  It declares that “In economic terms, the cultural and creative sector is globally one of the fastest growing” and also ”Creative industries are also a key driver of the digital and knowledge economy”.  It extols the need to “pursue an integrated policy framework to maximise the return economically, culturally and socially from these sectors”.

To date,  there has been very little sign of this pursuit. The recently launched National Campaign for the Arts (www.ncfa.ie) aims to highlight the enduring value of the arts, culture and creativity in a reaction to a series of Bord Snip recommendations that could seriously damage the arts and creativity in Ireland.

However, there are some who suggest that the cultural and creative sectors in Ireland are worth very little, yet others insist that the “creative sector” is not a sector at all, and is a roughly thrown together amalgam of various established sectors.

Yet, there can be little doubt that creativity is a key driver of innovation, and innovation is what this country dearly needs at the moment. Creative businesses have long been recognised as vital economic and social contributors in other countries, such as the UK, US, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Germany, yet Ireland, for all of its wealth of culture, craft and imagination, has never undertaken a serious effort to engage with and support the creative industries as a sector.

There are signs of that beginning to change.  The recently launched CreativeD (www.creatived.ie), an initiative of Dublin City Council, Dublin City and County Enterprise Boards and the Digital Hub, is looking to bring together the creative sector in Dublin with a view to ensuring that creative and cultural businesses are given the support they need to become a significant force in the new economy. Innovation Week (www.innovationdublin.ie), organised by the Creative Dublin Alliance, is also looking to showcase Dublin as a place of creativity, innovation and inspiration. Other ventures such as the recent Culture Night, and upcoming events like the Music Show at the RDS, Open House 2009 and Offset 2009 demonstrate that there is an ongoing passion for creativity in Ireland. How that passion is supported could be one of the key factors in Ireland returning to economic normality.

Creative D to kick off on June 24th!

On Wednesday June 24th we will be teaming up with the Dublin City Enterprise Board, Dublin City Council and the Digital Hub to launch the exciting new network for the Creative Industries in Dublin, CreativeD.

We are very excited about our involvement in this project, which has at it’s core the task of harnessing creative thought and transforming it into innovative action. Very little has been done for the creative industry in Dublin as a collective, so this is a groundbreaking initiative to get this entrepreneurial sector working together, to hopefully instigate some great projects and joint-ventures.

Creative Industries have a massive role to play in the drive towards developing a world-class  knowledge economy, and CreativeD aims to be an accelerator of that contribution. We are defining the Creative Industries in Dublin as those involved in:

• Advertising
• Architecture
• The Arts – Music, Visual, Literary  and Performing Arts
• Cultural Tourism – Festivals and Events, Culinary Arts, Tours
• Crafts
• Design
• Designer Fashion
• Film, Video and Photography
• Publishing
• Digital Media
• Software Applications, Computer Games and Electronic Publishing
• Television and Radio

We look forward to seeing some of you at the Auditorium in the  Exchange, Digital Hub on Crane Street at 14:00 on June 24th, and we’re really excited about getting involved in this project.

If you have any questions about this project, or any of our work (or you just fancy a chat):

• call either myself or Clodagh on 01 4293600,
• email us at: mitchell@newmarketconsulting.ie or clodagh@newmarketconsulting.ie
• visit our website: www.newmarketconsulting.ie

 

Ireland’s creative flair, in under 30 minutes!

As part of our ongoing quest to hone our marketing skills, Clodagh and I attended the Get Motivated Get Marketing event in the Digital Hub organised by Merrion BD. Each of the 5 speakers had something valuable to impart to a packed room, however the real treat of the day came at the concluding activity.

In what seemed an impossible ask, the attendees were broken into 3 groups, and each group was asked to formalise an imaginary product and bring it to life through nothing more than imagination and inspired teamwork. Each team were asked to carry out on-the-street marketing research, get a testimonial about the “product”, do a budgetary analysis of the product, develop a visual brand for the product, create a marquee event to launch the product, and even film a 30 second advert on the product!

In what can only be described as a frenetic scramble, tasks were divided, unsuspecting members of the public were harangued for information, creative thinking went into over-drive and the results were absolutely breathtaking. The presentations made by each group were insightful, imaginative and very, very funny. And all of this took place in under 30 minutes!

The finished articles were a testament to the drive, energy and creative spirit of everyone who partook in a seemingly impossible task. It is this sort of creativity and drive that needs to be harnessed to truly drive Ireland out of a recession and into a bright new future. Newmarket Consulting will be looking to build on that creativity when we embark upon a 2 1/2 year journey as Creative Industries Coaches for Dublin this year. If you want to have a chat about what we’re up to, give myself or Clodagh a call on 01 4293600 or visit www.newmarketconsulting.ie

Mitchell

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