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By viv, 21 May, 2013 8:00 am

Wales Coast Path GeoVation Challenge winners, Helen and Nicola Steer, have just launched their new iPhone app, Real Food Wales, which will help visitors to the area discover  local, sustainable and delicious food.

Last year’s GeoVation Challenge  called for innovative ideas using geography and technology which would help connect communities and visitors along the Wales Coast Path, benefiting those who live and work along the route, and beyond and Real Food Wales was one of the 5 ideas we funded.  They were awarded a £30,000 of innovation funding to develop their idea.  They are part of Mapkin: a team of five people who have worked together to develop this app.

Real Food Wales is an easy to use app, which maps over 150 of the best food businesses in Pembrokeshire, helping users access sustainable and delicious food.

Helen from Real Food Wales, said: “Real Food Wales is an ideal app for anyone looking for a special meal at a restaurant, a bite to eat in a quirky café, the best sausage in town for your campfire or a food experience you’ll never forget. The app utilises our unique network of local knowledge by displaying a large selection of food businesses on an offline interactive map of Pembrokeshire. The map really highlights what an exceptional range of local food businesses are operating in this area.”

The core feature of Real Food Wales is the interactive map, consisting of five zoom levels, which allow users to find the best places to eat out, buy food or have a foodie experience. A unique feature of the app is that it stores an offline map of Pembrokeshire onto the device, meaning that users can still access all of the information even when there is no mobile signal.

Continue reading 'GeoVation winner launches Real Food Wales app'»

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By viv, 3 April, 2013 8:00 am

Last year we ran a GeoVation Challenge asking how we could transform neighbourhoods in Britain.  One of the GeoVation winners was Shout Crime – an idea for app to make it easier to report hate crime.   Below David Williamson of Development Keys tells us how this is progressing.

Hate crime is one area of the criminal justice system that, evidence shows, often goes unreported. Recognising the negative impact that hate crime can have on individuals and communities,  Ideal for All (IFA), an Independent Living Centre in Sandwell, decided to use its experience and resources to make a real difference. Drawing on the passion of one of its User Groups, a project was conceived to develop a new, flexible and accessible reporting system for hate crime. an application that would provide  a crime reporting mechanism for individuals and a visual analysis tool for communities and agencies alike. Recognising the strength of commitment and the technical integrity of the project, Ordinance Survey decided to back the concept and awarded IFA  £25,000 to develop the first application for both desktop and mobile technologies.

Building on the excitement of receiving the award, Ideal for All  set about the detailed definition of the project that is ‘Shout Crime’. Our newly formed Steering Team, including experts in the field of Information Technology, crime reporting and community engagement, was supplemented with specific skill sets around project management and the delivery of successful web enabled applications. An Invitation To Tender was issued toward the end of 2012 with an aggressive set of requirements for delivery of the Shout Crime application by the end of March 2013. The New Year saw the development contract awarded to BoilerHouse Media, Birmingham and the project was up and running.

Continue reading 'GeoVation winner develops new app to report hate crime'»

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By viv, 27 March, 2013 8:00 am

Development funding from GeoVation enables innovative ideas to get started.  We’ve published case studies in which GeoVation winners, like liftshare, explain what happened after they won funding and how they developed their innovative idea.

liftshare were one of the winning ideas awarded funding in our ‘How can we improve transport in Britain?’ GeoVation Challenge with their idea for a tool to create individual personal travel plans.

A personal travel plan in itself is not a new idea. However, being able to create a plan with all an individual’s options in one document, with a search time of under 30 seconds, is the innovative idea that was put forward by liftshare.  liftshare is a social enterprise, which describes itself as mission-driven rather than profit-driven’ and whose aim is to encourage sustainable transport options and cut carbon emissions by car-sharing. It wants to get people to think about their travel options, but understand that this isn’t always easy, especially for those new to an area or working parents. myPTP’s are individual personal travel plans produced in a single document, which allow individuals to evaluate their transport options while considering CO2, financial and other implications such as calories burnt. This can be used to improve the commute to work and create a modal shift towards more sustainable travel options.

Continue reading 'An innovative idea to see your transport options'»

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By viv, 21 March, 2013 8:00 am

So what happens if you win funding from GeoVation to develop your idea?  We’ve just published case studies in which several of our GeoVation winners explain how they went about developing an idea. One of these, AccessAdvisr, is a platform that enables members of the public to improve the quality of information relating to the accessibility of transport stops and stations, as well as public places. It aims to make difficult journeys easier for people with limited mobility. The idea came from Neil Taylor, of Integrated Transport Planning Ltd (ITP), and was awarded funding in our ‘How can we improve transport in Britain?’ GeoVation Challenge.

Insight from previous user-needs research conducted by ITP revealed that accessible transport networks and destinations remain ‘hidden’ from clear view. People with limited mobility must often piece together information about the location, quality and reliability of accessible transport networks and destinations from journey planners, online maps, discussion forums and destination websites. AccessAdvisr aims to be relevant to anyone who needs information about the accessibility of transport and places before and during their journey. It puts people who experience mobility impairments in charge of managing and maintaining accessibility information, so that it reflects ‘real-world’ user perspectives.

After securing funding, the key stages of the project were to review and broker existing data, recruit a team of
software developers, establish proof-of-concept software specifications and develop the software.  Find out more about how the project has progressed  by reading the case study. Continue reading 'Developing an idea to make difficult journeys easier'»

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By viv, 5 March, 2013 8:00 am

We’re really excited! For many months now we have been working on creating a GeoVation booklet to include information on  GeoVation Challenges and case studies on winning ideas – and now its published!

The booklet  has some interesting facts about GeoVation which has been running since October 2009.  In that time:

• 1448 participants have registered
• 509 ideas have been submitted
• 57 teams have participated in GeoVation Camps and
• 20 winners have been awarded a share of over £435, 000 in innovation funding to develop their ventures.

GeoVation Challenges are open to entrepreneurs, developers, community groups, government and individuals.  They are focussed on finding innovative and useful ways of using geographical information, including open data and tools, to build new ventures that will generate social, economic and/ or environmental value.

We’ve made the booklet available online,  so you can find out more about how you can innovate with GeoVation, the GeoVation journey,  the ideas we have funded so far and the people who make GeoVation happen.  We’ve also made the case studies available individually on line – see our case study map.

Download your copy of the GeoVation booklet and find out more!

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By viv, 20 February, 2013 8:00 am

Today we have a great guest blog from GeoVation winner, Ed Dowding who tells us what Sustaination is aiming to achieve and how they will be doing this using gathering and using open data:

Imagine if there were a shop in which you knew that everything had been sustainably and fairly sourced.

If you picked up an apple, it would be from the nearest, most viable orchard; if you choose burgers, they would be locally produced from locally grazed cattle; and if it was February the tomatoes would be preserved ones – you’ll savour the anticipation of fresh ones when they’re back in season. In the meantime there’s winter stews to enjoy.

Wouldn’t it be great to shop there? I’d love to know that the money I spend isn’t creating hardship for a farmer – it’s generating livelihoods; it isn’t polluting the planet – it’s actually purifying water; it isn’t hindering future generations – it’s actively enriching the soil; and, in short, that we’re doing the very best we know that we can do.

That’s the vision we’re working towards, and that’s the vision GeoVation is helping us achieve.

So how do we do it?

We’re working on two complementary projects:

1) Foodtrade —  a business-to-business food trade network. It’s  really simple: if you’re a food business (of any size or type, from farm-to-fork) you tell us where you are and what you buy or sell. We’ll try match-make you with others near you. We also do a lot of other clever stuff, and we’ll be launching that soon.

2) I Want Better Food — a new type of campaign site where we help consumers and businesses work together to create a better food system.

The timing really couldn’t be better (unfortunately). The recent horse meat scandal has brought to mind, again, that we need to take more responsibility for our food.

Continue reading 'Open data, big data, big changes'»

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By viv, 30 January, 2013 8:00 am

In the guest blog below, Richard Fairhurst, one of our GeoVation Challenge winners explains how he’s been progressing with development of a website which will help businesses identify opportunities along the Wales Coast Path

Growing Routes is designed to help people identify business opportunities along the Wales Coast Path. By bringing together many sources of data, and presenting them in a simple, appealing way, it helps the would-be business owner the work out where their venture might have the greatest chance of success.

For example, Growing Routes might highlight areas along the path with a paucity of Bed & Bs and campsites, or areas with good wildlife (shown by Sites of Special Scientific Interest) that could attract visitors. By identifying the ‘sweet spots’ where all the favourable data comes together, it encourages successful businesses to start up along the Wales Coast Path.

That’s the theory. So what about the practice?

The core of the site will be a heatmap, draggable and zoomable like any modern webmap, but with a colour layer superimposed to show the best areas. The initial stages of work have been to build this heatmap, test the design, and feed sample data sources into it.

Continue reading 'Identifying business opportunities along the Wales Coast Path'»

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By viv, 23 January, 2013 8:00 am

The winners of last year’s  ‘How can we connect visitors and communities along the Wales Coast Path?‘ GeoVation Challenge  have been working hard to progress their innovative ideas.  In the guest post below, Steve Knight of ap Ogam explains what they’ve been doing to develop their billingual smartphone app for augmented reality storytellling along the Wales Coast Path:

Since winning our Geovation award – we have been extremely busy! But we thought it time to give a bit of an overview of what we’re aiming to achieve and our progress so far…

We have a 9 month program (which started in October) for delivering the pilot phase of the project.

We have created a not-for-profit company to run the project. For two main reasons:

1. We feel this better represents it’s community aspirations
2. By separating responsibility for the company from profit, we give it more opportunities for future development in whatever direction and in whosoever’s hands are the most appropriate

Apart from extensive business planning and incorporating the company The first three months have seen us design, wireframe and develop an operational prototype app. It’s not very pretty yet, but we have now designed branding which will be brought into the app during the next phase of development.

Continue reading 'Augmented reality along the Wales Coast Path'»

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By viv, 16 January, 2013 8:00 am

Before we launch a GeoVation Challenge, which calls for innovative ideas in response to the chosen theme of the Challenge, we run a Problem Powwow to unlock the real problems and needs behind it. We invite people with expertise in the area the challenge and the problems identified are grouped into key themes and insights. At GeoVation Camp we spend time with our teams focusing on these problems and how much the ideas offer a solution. In his guest post below David Townson, one of the facilitators at GeoVation Camp, explains the thinking behind this.

What drives innovation? A personal vision? Of course. A new technology? Sometimes (though solutions don’t always need new technology). Recognition of a need can and should also drive it. Without a need for the innovation to address, success in the market place will be limited. In his book ‘Patent Nonsense’, Clive Anderson suggests a common inventor’s mistake is “imagining a problem no one else had noticed and then solving it”.

Failure to identify a need can lead to disastrous, even fatal results. Messrs Boyle and Neill invented a Saluting Device – a hat you could doff automatically. Andrew Jackson Jr. developed an Eye Protector for Chickens, helping chickens everywhere retain peck-free eyes. Albert Bacon Pratt’s invention of a helmet-mounted gun for trench-men in World War I broke the neck of the user. All three were patented. All three seemed to have something lacking; a genuine need.

A problem clearly stated is a problem half solved” Dorothea Brande

Continue reading 'Innovation – what you really need, is a need…'»

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By viv, 8 January, 2013 8:00 am

Those of you who’ve attended one of our GeoVation weekend camps will know that we spend time developing the shortlisted ideas into prototypes. This helps to test out the ideas and see if they fit the problem they are trying to solve. It also helps when trying to explain it to a judging panel!   In this guest post, Sean Miller of Nonon,  who facilitate at our GeoVation Camps, explains the value of prototyping for innovative services.

For decades, prototyping has been synonymous with product innovation. And it makes sense to people. You wouldn’t draw a picture of a car, go straight to production and then start shipping it to your customers. You would complete numerous drawings. You would build lots of models (sometimes of the whole car, sometimes of key parts of it). You would design several simulations. All these elements would be tested hundreds, possibly thousands, of times.

Take James Dyson, for example. It took him five years and 5,126 prototypes to come up with his revolutionary cyclonic vacuum cleaner.

Speaking to most people in the street, they get the concept of prototyping in the context of a product. But talk about prototyping a service and there is often a look of confusion, apprehension and a sense of cynicism that a service can actually be prototyped. However, organisations around the world seem to be quite comfortable piloting a new service without prototyping. Madness!

So let’s tackle the word “prototyping” first.  I describe it in different ways depending on my client but I’ve got it down to three:

• trying stuff out
• de-risking your ideas
• rehearsing for the future

Continue reading 'Prototyping for innovative services'»