What’s going on? Summer Update……

Posted by Dave Carter on August 13, 2010.

Having just got back from holiday (first time to Croatia, fantastic place and time!) it’s time to take (a bit of) stock and think about what’s next for all of our work on next generation access (NGA) digital infrastructure. For the past few months we’ve been ploughing ahead with the Corridor project, more about that later, and waiting to see what might happen with regional funding for a much bigger project which could start rolling out NGA across Greater Manchester. Now that regional funding is ……facing problems (polite term) we are actively looking at alternative and more innovative business models that could find other ways of finding the investment needs to start building an advanced fibre to the premises (FTTP) network across the city region. Now that Metrolink is going to be developed in full, which is great news, there must be opportunities to roll out NGA alongside the new and refurbished tracks. So we are hoping to go “TFON” (you heard it here first), creating a “Tramside Fibre Open Network” which could provide the core of a city-region-wide digital development zone, creating a world class transformational digital infrastructure, with three main objectives:

1. To safeguard, support and further the Manchester city region’s position as a globally important centre for digital industries in Europe by promoting the development locally of the next wave of digital applications and services that rely on a modern digital infrastructure;
2. To promote the use of new transformational digital applications and services among the city region’s businesses and citizens, with resulting benefits for business efficiency and social inclusion;
3. To enable improved quality and improved efficiency in the delivery of public sector services in the city region.

More on that story later (too)!

Manchester City Region makes the case for fibre

Posted by Dave Carter on February 9, 2010.

Yesterday at 5pm we finally got the full submission into the NWDA to ask for just under £10M of investment to build a state of the art Open Access fibre to the premises (FTTP) network connecting up as many of the key employment sites in the city region as possible. The MDDA team, together with colleagues from the Community Broadband Network (CBN) and the Commission for the New Economy, have been working flat out on this since the beginning of January and we now believe we have the best possible case to put forward for this. This will now go in for appraisal and then we hope a positive decision will be made by the NWDA Board in March. This all follows the amazing response we got to the launch of the Corridor Fibre project when more than 200 businesses crammed into a room at 8am in the morning and told us, in no uncertain terms, that they wanted accessible and affordable real fibre now, not in 2017. We’re now working in partnership with the company which was the successful bidder from the tender process, Geo,  to develop this. The new project will be subject to a separate tender. Watch this space for more info.

and so this is Christmas (nearly)…..

Posted by Dave Carter on December 16, 2009.

Here’s to a Green (and Digital) Christmas! Things are finally beginning to get a little less hectic and we’re starting to plan some great things for 2010. In the meantime the Tech Team have put together a great little time lapse video piece of the view from the Town Hall tower across St. Peters Square and Princess Street which our colleagues at Marketing Manchester picked up on in their Visit Manchester  blog (check it out!). We’re still getting lots of interest from the launch of the Green Digital Charter at the Eurocities AGM in Stockholm at the end of November, see the Press Release, under the title “Europe’s big cities go ’smart and green’” in the Press Room of the Eurocities web site. Plus the best stuff is yet to come in terms of our plans for becoming the best connected fibre and wireless city in the UK and our modest objectives of halving the price for next generation access (NGA) business broadband connectivity as soon as possible. 2Mbs for all? More like 2Gbs for all, why limit our ambitions? We’ll be saying a lot more in the new year, starting with the NW Insider Breakfast event on Jan. 15th, more details on the events page of the NW Insider website. I’ll be back next week with more examples of seasonal cheer but until then……

Finland agrees legal right to 100Mb broadband for all by 2015

Posted by Dave Carter on November 10, 2009.

BBC story on how home fibre is taking off all around the world, but, once again, not in the UK, yet!

Posted by Dave Carter on September 17, 2009.

The BBC have been consistently good on picking up on these stories, this one last week from the BBC News site, showing that the deployment of the fibre to the home and businesses is surviving the downturn, at least in other parts of Europe. The UK is nowhere near the top ten ‘fibre to the home’ (FTTH) countries, languishing behind: 1. Sweden – 10.9%; 2. Norway – 10.2%; 3. Slovenia – 8.9%; 4. Andorra – 6.6%; 5. Denmark – 5.7%; 6. Iceland – 5.6%; 7. Lithuania – 3.3%; 8. Netherlands – 2.5%; 9. Slovakia – 2.5% and 10. Finland – 2.4%. In fact figures are so hard to come by for the UK, some commentators believe we are not even at 0.1% yet alone at the 1% which is sometime quoted. So much to do, so little time!!

Post Digital Britain

Posted by Dave Carter on September 17, 2009.

It only seems a few days ago that I was enjoying the last of the summer sunshine, thinking I was still on holiday, but in fact I’ve been back for two weeks and I feel I’ve done nothing but catch up on emails, posts, blogs and general updates on where we all want to go with this agenda. There is still a very cautious mood around larger institutions, pondering and ponderous, as someone commented last week. The really exciting stuff, yet again, is coming from small businesses and the voluntary and community sector. There really does seem to be a renewed commitment to making things work for themselves/ourselves and there are some great ideas knocking about, Software Freedom Day  taking place this Saturday, being one of them. We’re continuing to work very closely with the Community Broadband Network and it’s worth checking out the “Scenarios for NGA”, i.e. Next Generation Access broadband networks, piece that they’ve just republished on the website. Next week I’ll be over in Amsterdam to meet with colleagues rolling out the City-Net fibre to the premises project and also the Amsterdam Living Lab to find out how they’re getting on and what we can learn from their experience. For those who say it’s impossible to do this in the UK I’ll stick with my favourite answer, ‘the difficult we try to do immediately, the ‘impossible’ simply takes a little longer…’.

Peterloo 190 years on

Posted by Dave Carter on August 18, 2009.

Great turnout to commemorate the Peterloo massacre on Sunday. Speeches from the campaign plus Tony Lloyd MP and Cllr. Jim Battle, Manchester City Council Deputy Leader. Really impressed with the group from Oldham who marched all the way following the routes taken by protestors on August 16th 1819 some in period dress and carrying some of the replica banners produced as part of the Manchester International Festival Procession. Then on to the Cornerhouse where the Procession exhibition is on until this Sunday, so if you’ve not seen it yet, get along before it’s too late. Here’s a photo of some of the banners lined up in front of Central Station during the speeches.

Peterloo Commemoration Aug. 16th 2009

Stay Sharp!

Posted by Dave Carter on August 14, 2009.

One of the most exciting developments this year has been the Sharp Project, based at the old Sharp Factory, just off Oldham Road, north of the city centre.

This is being seen as a “digital growbag”, a new and innovative digital media centre where small businesses, freelancers and community based initiatives can have an accessible and affordable base for developing their activities.

Over the summer I’ve been involved in a series of meetings discussing the services that are going to be available there, everything from instant offices to be created from shipping containers to education and training facilities and from secure data centres to which way the ducts should go to carry our new dark fibre super network which will have a major base at Sharp.

There is now a Sharp Project website through which you can register to recieve news updates and to be kept informed. Much more to come in September.

What’s going on? Summer in the city……

Posted by Dave Carter on August 13, 2009.

In spite of all my best efforts July came and went without a chance to add anything to the blog so now things are a little bit quieter I’ve sat down to add a few things, starting with info about the Peterloo anniversary events taking place this Sunday below. The last six weeks have been some of the busiest of the year.

July started with me going to the Living Labs European conference in Lulea (pronounced Loo-lee-oh), which is the most northern large (-ish) city in Sweden, just 100km south of the arctic circle. Over 250 people from more than 100 Living Labs across Europe were there, together with people from the newly emerging Living Labs in other parts of the world, including Brazil, South Africa and Japan. I was one of only a handful of people from the UK, which was disappointing, but it was great to hear, and hopefully learn, from the people involved in doing some amazing work across the Living Labs network, more on the openlivinglabs website. Living Labs are all about ‘open innovation’, going beyond the research lab and out into the real world, trying to maximise the social, economic and environmental benefits that can come from good research and innovation practice. Over the next few months we’re aiming to create a higher profile for the work we’re doing within the Manchester Living Lab so watch this space.

Peterloo anniversary this Sunday – August 16th

Posted by Dave Carter on August 13, 2009.

This Sunday marks the 190th anniversary of Peterloo, an event that played a pivotal role in not only Manchester’s history but also the history of the struggle for human rights generally. For years many of us have campaigned for there to be a proper commemoration of the events that took place around (what is now) St. Peter’s Square on August 16th 1819 and finally it seems that there is a big groundswell of interest and activity. A number of websites have included the following information, but please note that the Trades Council says that they are not involved in organising the 11am event and it is unlikely to take place. If you want to do a tour then there are a couple over the weekend, see the excellent Jonathan Schofield’s piece on Manchester Confidential:

Guided walk by Jonathan Schofield and Sibby
Saturday 15 August, 3pm, Sunday 16 August, 3pm
Walk in the footsteps of the protesters on the blackest day in Manchester’s history. Meet at Manchester Visitor Information Centre in St Peter’s Square. The tours last 1.5-2 hours and cost £6 per person. To book for Saturday 15 August, call Jonathan Schofield on 07876235638 or click here to email. To book for Sunday 16, contact Sibby at info@newmanchesterwalks.com. For more information visit newmanchesterwalks.

EVENTS OF THE DAY

Otherwise this is what is generally ‘out there’ on the web (but please take the ‘health warning’ about the 11am event listed). Otherwise hope to see some of you there at 1pm.

11am Peterloo historical guided walk by Paul Mason (BBC Newsnight correspondent, acting in a personal capacity. Paul has a long standing interest in the massacre.) Organized by Manchester Trade Council. The walk will finish at the site of the massacre in time for the main commemoration…

1pm main commemoration- Manchester campaigners will be met on the steps of G Mex by delegates marching in from Oldham and Middleton. (Following the original marching routes from 1819) Replica Peterloo banners kindly lent to the campaign by PROCESSION artist Jeremy Deller (one carried in from Oldham), will then be raised, along with 20 replica ‘liberty caps’ on poles. The red and gold liberty cap is an ancient symbol of political freedom dating back to ancient Greece, and has been used as an icon of freedom by many movements, including the French and American revolutions.

Liberty caps raised on wooden poles were a crucial icon during the 1819 protest, and were ruthlessly targeted with sabres by the yeomanry, resulting in many of the injuries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrygian_cap

An extract from Shelley’s 1819 ‘Peterloo’ poem, ‘The Masque of Anarchy’ will be read, along with the names of those who died.

Guests will include Tony Lloyd MP, and Manchester City Councilors.

3pm to 5pm ‘REUNION’ at Cornerhouse art gallery, Oxford Rd. As part of the ‘PROCESSION’ exhibition, Cornerhouse are inviting all those with “a connection to any of these events” to “join us at this special informal event to meet others and share your stories.” See-

http://www.cornerhouse.org/events/info.aspx?ID=1527&page=0

7pm Music Event- ‘Hear and Now’. Singer songwriter Claire Mooney and guests perform at Briton’s Protection Pub to commemorate Peterloo and contemporary political struggles, organized by Manchester Trades Union Council. £3 / £1

8pm Music and poetry event‘ PETERLOO – SOLDIERS ON THE RAMPAGE’ will be presented for the first time on Sunday 16th August at The Angel Pub, Angel Street, Manchester. Tickets £5. Details- Martin Gittins 07760 430 577 email- http://uk.mc273.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=mgittins@ntlworld.com.

UNTIL 26th SEPT 2009 A month long exhibition commemorating Peterloo at the Central Library in Manchester- first floor. Includes period and modern items, including the mugs and liberty caps created by the campaign. Curated by Terry Wyke and Stephen Yates, opening hours Monday – Thursday 9am – 8pm and Friday and Saturday 9 – 5pm.

Green Digital Charter starts to take shape

Posted by Dave Carter on June 24, 2009.

I’m currently in Malmo at the Eurocities Environment Forum where, amongst a wide range of discussions on cities tackling climate change, we are discussing how the digital agenda needs to go green. These discussions are bringing together city decision makers from a very wide range of interests, including environment, energy, regeneration, planning, engineering and ICT. We are looking at ways that, as well as being part of the problem, ICT could also be an innovative and dynamic part of the solution. On the one hand ICT/digital technologies are responsible for about the same amount of emissions as the airline industry (estimated at about 2%), but on the other hand these same technologies could be used to help us not only to reduce total emissions but also to make many of the things we do more energy efficient. So how? Firstly, we need to get our own houses in order and ensure that the ICT we do use is as green as possible, so looking at things like intelligent thin clients, virtualisation and greener data centres is a good start. Secondly, we need to find innovative ways of using ICT to monitor and reduce energy use, such as ‘real’ smart meters, ones which are really accessible and usable by energy users rather than just being used to help energy suppliers reduce their costs and workforces. Thirdly we need to start thinking of ways of linking this in with social networking so that users can start coming up with good content and applications for themselves, perhaps an on-line energy saving co-op or smart metering mash-ups for starters. So, over the next few months we’ll be working with other cities in Eurocities to come up with new ideas and then we are aiming to bring all this together in a “Green Digital Charter” which we’ll be launching at the Eurocities AGM in Stockholm in November. More on the Eurocities website and, of course, on the MDDA website.

Europe going Next Generation Broadband everywhere, except in the UK (yet!!)

Posted by Dave Carter on June 24, 2009.

On Monday and Tuesday this week we hosted a two day event on how we could, and must, get Next Generation Broadband in the UK. It was organised by the Community Broadband Network (CBN) to ensure that there was some immediate follow-up to the Digital Britain report with a new strategy for community led action. This included the launch of a new network that will enable independent operators to work together and offer services on a national and international basis, it’s called the Independent Networks Cooperative Association (INCA) and was launched with a video message of support from Lord Carter (no relation) himself. On Monday we had three colleagues who gave an excellent overview of what could be possible, drawing on their international experience, James Enck (independent analyst and blogger), Dirk van der Woude (leading the City-Net project for the City of Amsterdam) and Benoit Felten (a leading global analyst with the Yankee Group). All three showed that all over the world, and especially close to home in other parts of Europe, city-led partnerships are rolling out ultra-high speed broadband using fibre and wireless which is affordable and accessible to all (costing about £30 per month for 100Mbs symmetric services and even less, e.g. in Stockholm prices have just been halved to £7.50 per month). Their advice, which is being given freely and generously,  is crucial to ensuring that we are successful here in Manchester, both with the pilot project in The Corridor and our plans for wider accessibility across Manchester. A great event and thanks to CBN and everyone else for making it so. Watch this space for more on “Fibre to the People” in Manchester.

Big Chipper

Posted by Dave Carter on June 24, 2009.

One of the best “Big Chip” awards ever was the general verdict on the event last week as far as I could tell, I certainly thought so. In spite of genuine concerns about the current economic downturn most people seem to be doing OK at the moment and, either way, were determined to enjoy themselves in celebrating the achievements of the digital sector in Manchester and the North West. Terry Christian continues to do a great job as MC, having taken over from the late, great Tony Wilson last year. Shaun Fensom, as Chair of Manchester Digital, gave an inspiring speech about looking to the future beyond the current slump and I was tolerated once again in having the chance to have a bit of a rant about the need for Next Generation Broadband and how we’re going to try to start the “Fibre to the People” revolution here in Manchester. Great fun!! All the details on the Big Chip website.

Iceland shows the way on green energy

Posted by Dave Carter on June 24, 2009.

I had the chance to visit Iceland again a couple of weeks ago for the Eurocities Knowledge Society Forum meeting, what we all know as ‘Telecities’. Apart from the fact that it is an amazing place, scenery, environment, ambiance etc., with great people and very interesting recent political developments with a radical left-green government elected in the wake of the financial scandals, it is also now very affordable, with the Icelandic Krona halving in value against the pound. As part of the event we were taken to look at the latest geo-thermal power plant just outside Reykjavik, it’s already at 60% capacity and when it’s finished in 2010 it will produce more energy than is required by the whole of Reykjavik. In addition this is 100% renewable energy and the only emissions are steam and most of that is converted into hot water that is pumped into every home in the city-region at a fraction of the cost that any of us pay for hot water here. The digital angle is that the country is positioning itself to be the green data centre of the world. This was my third trip over the last five years and it just gets more interesting every time I go. If you haven’t been, give it a go, there are direct flights from Manchester every Monday and Friday. Also take a look at the film ‘101 Reykjavik’ if you haven’t seen it.

Manchester in New York

Posted by Dave Carter on May 20, 2009.

Last week I was lucky enough to be in New York for a few days at the international conference of the Intelligent Communities Forum – ICF – on “Broadband Economies” – there is more info on the ICF website. Not only was this a great opportunity to meet up with cities from all over the world involved in developing Next Generation Access (NGA) broadband, but it was also a great experience to see all the work that I and the MDDA team have been doing over the past few years recognised when I was presented with one of the three ICF annual international “Founders Awards”. More information about the award can be found on both the MDDA website and the Manchester City Council website. The most amazing thing about the experience, as well as frustrating in a way, was realising just how far ahead of us most of these cities, regions and, indeed, nations are, in terms of not only having really detailed policy commitments to go for NGA (based on fibre everywhere) but also actually doing it. Many of these places are rolling out open access fibre networks at an incredible rate and demonstrating real economic benefits in terms of job growth and new investment. This is the presentaton of the award, at the Steiner Studios, the second largest film studios in the USA (after LA), where ‘Sex in the City’ was shot for example (no stars in sight though!), which is also an fascinating regeneration project, being in the heart of what was the Brooklyn Naval Yard.

Rober Bell, Exec Director of ICF, presenting me with the award

This is me making my thank you speech, thanking friends, family and everyone and everything “Made in Manchester”. If you really want to experience the full thing there is a video of all the speeches (it does go on a bit) on another part of the ICF website.

Unacustomed as I am...............

Launching the Institute for Social Media – i4SM

Posted by Dave Carter on May 5, 2009.

We had the first of our launch events for the new Institute for Social Media – i4SM – at Manchester Business School (MBS) this afternoon with friends and colleagues from across Greater Manchester, including the University of Manchester, University of Salford, Media City, Marketing Manchester, Sharp Factory, Manchester Digital,  Cornerhouse, Radio Regen, Knowledge Capital, Creative Concern, the MDDA team and many others. This is part of an ongoing set of consultations and discussions with potential partners about how i4SM should operate, what it should be focusing on and, most important of all, what it could achieve for people and organisations working in the Manchester city-region. We talked about participatory culture, creating a history of the future, hyper-contextual marketing, digital cooperatives and much more. A great start I thought, but with much more to come. Watch out for more on the MDDA and i4SM websites, we’ll be building on this as we work towards our formal launch in October 2009.

May 1st 2009, Accelerando

Posted by Dave Carter on May 1, 2009.

One of my favourite recent books is ‘Accelerando’ by Charles Stross, one of a great new wave of UK science fiction writers who are considering the impact of the digital age and just how near that “singularity” might be. See the book The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology which is a 2005 update of Raymond Kurzweil’s 1999 book, The Age of Spiritual Machines and his 1987 book The Age of Intelligent Machines for more info (thanks to Wikipedia for that). ”Accelerando” starts with the main character in Amsterdam: “The bandwidth is good here, he realizes; and it’s not just the bandwidth, it’s the whole scene…………”. As well as being advised by the City of Amsterdam on how we can learn lessons from their amazing ‘CityNet’ project, which is delivering accessible and affordable fibre to the premises in tens of thousands of buildings across the city, we are also trying to take the technology out of the equation so that it is rather the “whole scene” that drives innovation, investment and imagination in creating a sustainable digital city of the future. More on that story later………. [read "Accelerando" too!!]. On June 22nd we hope to have colleagues from Amsterdam in Manchester for a workshop on “Digital Britain, Digital Europe”, get the date in your diary! We’ll confirm all the details later.

May 1st 2009 – New May Day, New Start

Posted by Dave Carter on April 26, 2009.

It’s been a few weeks coming but we now have the new Blog ready to go, or at least we will have when we relaunch on Friday May 1st. I’ve always been a great fan of May Day, even through we’re just about the only country in the world to celebrate it on the nearest Monday rather than on the day itself! There’s been much happening and, hopefully, much more to be happening soon. In the last few weeks I’ve been to the Digital Britain Summit (great on hope, less so on promises!) together with 250 other people, including Lord Carter (no relation!), Lord Mandelson, Andy Burnham and the Prime Minister, no less, we’ve been discussing the future of green ICT projects and we’ve started on plans for a European Living Labs network on social media. Plus we’re looking forward to the launch of the Institute for Social Media – i4SM – in partnership with Manchester Business School (MBS) on May 5th. So here’s to the May 1st Digital Manifesto and all who sail in it! Back on May 1st.

A Green and Digital Future? Eurocities in Manchester

Posted by Dave Carter on March 27, 2009.

Watch the Keynote speech by Linda Mauperon, Member of Cabinet, DG Information Society and Media, European Commission.

The rest of this week we’re hosting the Eurocities conference on Digital Innovation and Sustainable Cities.

Delegates from over 50 cities across Europe will be meeting in Manchester Town Hall to discuss the idea of a Green Digital Charter which will set out opportunities for using digital technologies in more dynamic and innovative ways to tackle climate change, especially through improved energy efficiency.

At the moment ICTs have a similar carbon footprint to the airline industry, about 2%, but they also have the capability to be used to support intelligent systems for reducing energy use and increasing the use of renewables.

It’s still controversial though and I’ve had several people saying why bother when the carbon footprint of an avatar in Second Life is higher than that of real individuals in most of the world.

Well there’s a number of reasons: firstly, is this a ‘global myth’ (rather than just an urban one) as I’ve never seen any proof to back this statement up, although it is a good way of making a point; secondly, there are some compelling arguments for, and examples of, people using ICTs in really clever ways to engage people in tackling climate change and create intelligent systems that are cheap and easy to use. More on this story later…

Next Generation Broadband Launched

Posted by Dave Carter on March 24, 2009.

After months, if not years, of planning we had a great day on Tuesday (March 24th) when we launched, what we hope will be, the largest fibre to the premises – known as FTTP (in the ‘trade’) – project in the UK covering the area of the Oxford Road Corridor, now called The Corridor Manchester.

This basically covers the Ardwick and Hulme wards and the southern part of the city centre, up to the canal and Portland Street.

More than 50 people crammed into the meeting room above the original Kro in Oxford Street to hear the Leader of the Council, Sir Richard Leese, Damien Bourke from the NWDA, Jackie Potter, CEO of The Corridor Manchester Partnership, and me talk about the project and what we hope to achieve.

There was a lively Q&A afterwards and plenty of networking. The next stage is to get everyone thinking about what we can do with (virtually) unlimited bandwidth.

You can read some more about this in the press release.