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By viv, 22 February, 2012 8:00 am

GeoVation recently supported RNIB’s Hackathon held on 11-12 February. The Hackathon was held in London and attended by 37 developers, 22 technologists, 8 RNIB staff and Chris, of the GeoVation team. It aimed to help the developers and others think about accessibility for mobile Apps and to get a better understanding of the barriers people with sight loss contend with on a day to day basis.

We are excited to announce that we are awarding £1 000 funding  (£500 now and £500 on launch) to  ‘Friend in my pocket’ by Rupert, Sakib and Finn. The idea will use current GPS and other information, to tell you what is around you in real-time as you travel.  So you will be told when you are walking past a bank, for example, and can include street names, area names etc.

The event kicked off with information on RNIB, accessibility and usability with emphasis on mobile phone and Android accessibility, and understanding the barriers and pitfalls with mobile phone apps.

The developers grouped to discuss what they would be working on and the hacking commenced, with several hackers working through the night to develop their solutions.

Other prizes awarded by RNIB and others sponsors at the Hackathon were:

Place Friend won the Most Innovative New App. This app could use navigation around Points of Interest or landmarks that are tagged by speaking into the phone and recording the voice. 

VIA TV Guide won the Everyday Living category; an Electronic Programme Guide for Android with: 453 channels, a ‘what’s on now’ feature, a description of the programmes and  a ‘record’ feature.  It could also access radio stations and be used for Virgin and Freeview. 

Money note scanner won the Independent Living category. This scanner would pick out the colour of the bank note to differentiate the different notes. 

RNIB App won a special judges commendation award.  Its creator, Grant Kemp, was invited to meet with RNIB project managers to discuss how to corporately support the prototype. It would pull out information from RNIB website and also use an RSS feed and browser.  This app proved the concept of making RNIB content available via a mobile app.

Speaking about the event and the Geovation winner, Chris said:

“Congratulations to “Friend in my Pocket” and the other hackathon winners. The RNIB Hackathon was a very useful event. It was great to see teams hacking solutions to real problems, as experienced and expressed by other blind and partially sighted people. I learnt a lot and gained a number of very useful insights. We look forward to seeing these hacks progress towards launch”

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By viv, 14 February, 2012 8:00 am

Below is a guest post from Daniel Raven-Ellison of Mission:Explore on the new GeoVation Challenge – How can we transform neighbourhoods in Britain together?

I’m very excited to see the new challenge on GeoVation. It’s an exciting opportunity to bring about real change through geography. Thinking geographically is a powerful way to see patterns, make connections, present ideas and crucially, scale-up projects.

We have been lucky enough to win GeoVation awards twice. For us this has not only meant significant and important financial support, but also access to support, guidance and thinking that has helped us to push our solutions forward far more quickly than they would have done otherwise.

Our project, Mission:Explore, is deeply connected to the question that sits at the heart of the current challenge ‘How can we transform neighbourhoods in Britain together?’. At the GeoVation powwow 16 people identified 104 problems and 7 themes. One of these was “how do we provide safe environments for our children to be active?” and this problem sits at the heart of what Mission:Explore is about.  Children being active in their community has a wide range of benefits of course, not least their personal physical and mental well-being as well as that of their wider community.

Through Mission:Explore our solution is to encourage and inspire more children and families to play outdoors. We are working to do this through our series of children’s books and social website that includes hundreds of quirky outdoor activities to do. On our website children and families can pick missions , collect points and earn rewards for doing them. Some missions can be done anywhere but others need to be done in specific places.

Last year we won funding from GeoVation to tackle the problem “How can we improve transport in Britain?”. Our work focusses on the National Cycle Network and using new functionality on the website to find ways to increase the number of children and families using the cycle paths. Focussing on 10 cities in England we’re going to be releasing 500 missions along cycle paths that support playful learning and with a mixture of reward types. Some rewards are just online badges but others will result in physical prizes. For this project the Technology Strategy Board’s Ideas in Transit project has been providing financial support, UWE is helping with research, Sustrans are providing logistical and cycle counter support and the dairy company Arla are supporting us with sponsorship through their energetic Kids Closer to Nature campaign. The website itself is built in partnership with the fantastic interactive agency, The Workshop, in Sheffield. Mission:Explore the National Cycle Network will be going live from the end of this month and will be in full swing before the summer holidays.

We’re currently looking for charities and public sector organisations that would like to use Mission:Explore to challenge children and families to discover new places and learn in creative ways. Later this month we will be launching private accounts which will allow schools to create missions that only their pupils will be able to see.

Our experience of GeoVation has been a powerful and inspiring one. I really recommend that you take part and see how far you can get. Good luck.

Mission:Explore are currently crowd funding their next children’s book, Mission:Explore Food. They are looking for people like you to contribute as little as £1 to help make the book happen. In return you can be illustrated into the book, request an experience day and much more. Visit Mission:Explore Food to be part of it.

Daniel Raven-Ellison
Mission:Explore

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By chris, 13 February, 2012 8:00 am

Great news!! The award fund for our new GeoVation challenge “How can we transform neighbourhoods in Britain together?” has now been increased to £115 000, for the best use of Ordnance Survey products or services in addressing the challenge problems.

We will be looking to make up to 5 awards to the successful finalists at the GeoVation Showcase on 20 June at Ordnance Survey in Southampton. Finalists will be competing for a £40 000 first prize, and 3 runners-up prizes of £25 000each. Finally there will be a community awarded prize of £1 000.

So, post up your ideas, help develop others’ ideas through your helpful comments and, if you and your idea is invited to the GeoVation Camp on 18 – 20  May we look forward to welcoming and working with you then.

Good luck!

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By viv, 9 February, 2012 8:00 am

It has been over a year since our last GeoVation challenge and we are delighted to launch our new challenge ‘How can we transform neighbourhoods in Britain together?’. Following the successful format of the previous challenges we are calling for innovative ideas to help people help each other in their neighbourhood.

What problems are there in your neighbourhood and what barriers are stopping you and your local council from improving them? In the current economic climate we are all being asked to do ‘more for less’ and ‘do things differently’. The new challenge allows anyone to submit an idea which could ultimately help deliver solutions in local neighbourhoods across Great Britain.

Using GeoVation’s established Powwow methodology to uncover the problems associated with meeting the challenge, we’ve worked with Barking and Dagenham Council, Business in the Community, Cabinet Office, Design Council, Kent County Council, NESTA, Nonon, Ordnance Survey, Social Reporter, University of the Arts and UnLtd to produce a list of problems which form the basis for the challenge – see here.  Please read this before you submit your idea.

As with previous GeoVation Challenges we are looking for great ideas that address the identified problems using geography, technology and design. Ordnance Survey will be offering a slice of £115,000 in development funding for best use of our data, including OS OpenData and OS OpenSpace.

The challenge runs to 28 March and the best ideas will be invited to a weekend GeoVation Camp in Southampton from18 – 20 May 2012. The finalists from this camp will be invited to a GeoVation Showcase on 20 June 2012 to pitch for a share of the funding.

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By viv, 6 February, 2012 8:00 am

Back in November last year GeoVation awarded £1000 to The Sunshine Bank in Kent Council’s innovation competition themed: Help people help each other in their neighbourhoods.

The award was for best use of OS OpenData in their ‘Sunlighting in Kent’ prototype, which aims to help individuals and organisations connect with each other to exchange skills, resources and opportunities in their local area.

‘Sunlights’ consist of skills which people want to share while ‘Sunlacks’ will be gaps which members or groups are trying to fill. The concept will use mapping from OS OpenData to provide visual information about the locations of members and places, helping to match available skills and resources to people who need them.  Members could search the site for people in the area who want to ‘Sunlight’ or post their need to the community notice board under ‘Sunlacks’.

Since winning the award The Sunshine Bank have been busy looking for funding to take this prototype forward and have a meeting with Kent Business School to explore this.

Our new GeoVation Challenge will link closely with this theme of innovating to help people in your neighbourhood and improve local services. Watch this space as there will be more details later this week.

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By viv, 26 January, 2012 8:00 am

In September 2011, GeoVation challenge winner’s liftshare began development of ‘myPTP- A Travel Plan Just for Me’; an innovative web-based tool, designed to provide personalised travel plans to individuals at a fraction of the current time and cost.

liftshare’s myPTP Project Manager, Katie Lumley, gives us a most up-to-date progress report on how the tool has been shaping up over the last 5 months:

Since September 2011, the liftshare project team have been working hard to develop and refine one of our most exciting projects – myPTP – funded through GeoVation and the Ideas in Transit project.  myPTP will uniquely combine public transport, walking, cycling, and car-share options for individual journeys, and have the potential to help any organisation or community effectively deliver personalised travel plans (PTPs) at a fraction of the current time and cost associated with traditional approaches.

myPTP encourages and enables users to make informed choices about the way they travel.

Development began with design, before working to build, test, and refine the new and innovative web-based tool. During November, our biggest hurdle; accessing data for all modes of transport (walk, cycle, car-share, bus and train) across the UK, was overcome, and work to integrate data for all transport options then began in December.

Users will input individual’s journey information and in return will receive clear information on all transport options available to them, including maps, local provision options such as community transport, and any incentives the organisation has put in place to change their travel behaviour e.g. a week’s free bus pass. Ongoing communication is then possible to monitor modal shift and follow up changes in provision etc. Below is a sneak-preview of the online myPTP results:

Over 38 organisations have already expressed interest in using myPTP to deliver PTPs to individuals, and of those three organisations have been chosen to pilot the tool this February. These initial tests will be carried out in collaboration with researchers from the University of West of England, through the Ideas in Transit project, and will help us to evaluate the usefulness and usability of myPTP from an end-user point of view (that’s me and you!), as well as assess its impact ongoing on travel behaviours. We are looking forward to hearing feedback from the test pilots so we can keep innovating and refining myPTP to ensure it is useful and effective for all.

We are very excited with the progress of myPTP so far; both internal development of the tool itself, as well as its seeming ability to appeal and meet individuals, organisations, and transport operator needs. If you would like to:

• Help individuals make informed smarter choices about their mode of travel, as well as improve accessibility.
• Better understand transport patterns of your organisation, to increase efficiency and save time and cost.
• Help Local Authorities determine shortfalls in provision and help local transport operators determine what services will best satisfy demand.
• Have on-going communication with individuals about their travel options to achieve real modal shift, and to relay any possible changes in provision.

myPTP could be your solution. For more information please feel free to contact me, Katie Lumley, on: (01953) 451166 or katie@liftshare.com.

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By dee, 16 January, 2012 8:00 am

Hello all and Happy New Year. Following on from last year’s theme of special days and weeks in Britain the Big School’s Bird Watch (a schools based version of the RSPB’s long-running Big Garden Watch) starts today.

Coming into its 11th year, Big Schools’ Birdwatch asks teachers to take their class outside and to watch birds for a total of one hour during the day and to then send their results to the RSPB.

A comment from last years’ activities “We used the information collected to carry out an investigation in maths, drawing graphs, concluding from results and to discuss probability” (Reception teacher, Cambridgeshire).

Teachers could extend these activities and use
OS OpenSpace Web-map builder in the class to plot their sightings, much like Nottinghamshire Birds.

The RSPB would like to beat the record set last year of just under 90, 000 UK school teachers and children getting involved, which I am sure they will achieve.

.

GeoVation has just launched a similar initiative at BETT with its Mission:Explore GeoVation Challenge which will ask children to identify a food related problem in their community and think of an idea to solve it. Children in Key Stages 2, 3 and 4 who make use of Ordnance Survey mapping can win a slice of funding to help turn them into a reality.

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By viv, 11 January, 2012 8:00 am

GeoVation winner’s Mission:Explore will be announcing their support for a new GeoVation Challenge and a brand new Ordnance Survey “Viewpoint” reward, both aimed at supporting children, families and schools in using geography in innovative ways.

During a presentation at the BETT Show on Saturday 14 January Alan Parkinson from Mission:Explore will start the GeoVation challenge which will ask children to identify a food related problem in their community, think of a solution and come up with a plan for executing it.The best plans that also make use of Ordnance Survey mapping can win a slice of funding to help turn them into a reality.  Children in Key Stages 2, 3 and 4 can enter by doing a series of three GeoVation missions on Mission:Explore to win a GeoVation badge and then completing and entry form.

Alan will also be sharing a brand new Ordnance Survey ‘Viewpoint” reward. Made up of missions that are located on nearly 800 viewpoints across the UK, children and families can log into Mission:Explore, find their nearest viewpoint and win points  by submitting evidence of their explorations. The missions encourage young explorers to discover other people’s points of view, to identify (in)visible things, create interpretation panels and much more.

Now launched – find out more

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By viv, 4 January, 2012 9:55 am

Last year we had a great year at GeoVation with funding awarded to 8 GeoVation Challenge winners in our ‘How can Britain feed itself?’ and ‘How can we improve transport in Britain?’ Challenges.  Since then our winners have been busy getting their ideas up and running as a result of GeoVation Challenge funding  - you can catch up with their progress here on the blog.

In 2012 we are focusing our GeoVation Challenges on key areas where we think geography can play a positive role in enabling change.  We want this year to be our biggest yet!  Very soon we’ll be announcing our GeoVation Challenges and calling for entrepreneurs, developers and community groups to focus their efforts to address two distinct challenges.   Both challenges will conclude, in the summer, at a GeoVation Showcase where the top ideas will be awarded funding to help them develop.

So keep visiting the blog and Enter the Challenge page for the latest news on the launch of our Challenges.

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By chris, 16 December, 2011 8:30 am

GeoVation has recently supported Kent Connect’s challenge and we are excited by the winning team behind Sunshine Bank, and their prototype “Sunshining in Kent”.

One-planet living in the current economic climate means “doing more with less, and doing it sustainably” at work, home, at play and in our neighbourhoods. With that in mind we are currently working with a number of other organisations to develop and launch our next two GeoVation challenges, which we are really excited about. We shall be launching these early in the new year so watch this space and @Geovation for further news.

We recently held a GeoVation PowWow event for one of the new challenges at the Royal Geographical Society, London. GeoVation PowWow’s are workshops that unpack meaty problems / unmet needs around a particular challenge by bringing together a unique mix of participants. These problems are then synthesised into themes and supported with insights providing great opportunities to innovate. GeoVators responding to a particular challenge will have access to the PowWow output to help ensure that the ideas they are posting address a real, identified problems / unmet needs.

PowWow participants kindly joined us from Barking and Dagenham Council, Business in the Community, Cabinet Office, Design Council,  Kent County Council, NESTA, Nonon, Ordnance Survey, Social Reporter, University of the Arts, and UnLtd.