ODI Leeds Digest - September
After the slow-down over the summer, September has required the reflexes of a mongoose and the speed of a cheetah to respond to all of the amazing projects, events, and proposals that we've been involved with. Now that autumn is here, does that mean we get ready for hibernation? No way! ;)
The space is now well into the next phase of the refurb. New features include new visual presentation & sound equipment, a brand new tea/coffee area, lockers and increased storage, a sunny little breakout space with benches, and perhaps one of the biggest 'whiteboard-walls' in all of Leeds! You can't imagine the temptation to just scribble all over it...
We were delighted to welcome ESRI UK back to the space for their annual Government Special Interest Group meeting this year and they were the first to experience the space with new features and layout. The theme for this year's meet was 'smart communities' and how geographic information systems (GIS) fit into those smart communities.
CodeMill is a brand new meetup focused on exploring and promoting digital skills for the careers and industries of the future. They held their launch night on 14 September with spacecraft engineer Katie Hassell! The next meetup is 12 October and will be all about some creative real-life applications for the micro:bit.
From 18-20 September, we were the host venue for the NHS Digital Graduate Induction, the first of its kind within NHS Digital. The group of graduates had come from all over the country and, despite what you might think, were a mix of ages. It was brilliant to see so many people truly engaged and committed to improving lives by improving NHS Digital.
Barely a week after the NHS Digital graduates, we were host to their designers! In a workshop lead by Matt Edgar, longtime friend of ODI Leeds and newly appointed Head of Design for NHS Digital, people from other parts of NHS Digital were taken through the process of service design and the benefits of design on other areas.
On 28 September, Leeds City Council and Stonewall came to use the space for their workshop about safeguarding and allies within council services.
And finally, September also saw the return of Leeds DevOps after the summer break. As always, it was a sold out night and had a fantastic turnout. The next event is scheduled for 31 October. Yup. Halloween. There will definitely be spirits present.
Coming up...
#TravelHack2 is currently sold out with a growing waiting list. With a huge 70 attendees, it is going to be a busy day! We encourage anyone who still wants to be involved to contribute online, either via social media using the hashtag #TravelHack2 or via the open-access document located here. We will have someone dedicated to social media and note-taking on the day, so we will do our best to make sure your comments, questions, etc, are seen and answered ;)
The open data publishing research & development workshop has also been very popular. Working with ODI HQ and Open Manchester to deliver a series of workshops (Leeds will focus on publishing, Manchester will host a workshop about open data and IoT), this is an opportunity to help guide the future of open data. As with all of our projects, we will be documenting everything openly. Keep an eye out for the materials published in the week after the workshop.
Look out for future innovation pathways - with Department of Transport and with OFCOM.
We are also very excited to be working on the next evolution of DataCity. Data City comes from years of listening to people and organisations, frustrated with the collection, use, and presentation of economic data. Spending money over again on new versions of reports that use overly-generalised data and outdated methods of analysis, are unnecessarily complex & out of date at publication.
We know that there is a better way. Watch this space.
Leeds - a 5G city
We at ODI Leeds are proud to support Leeds' bid to become a pilot city for the 5G scheme. It is best-placed to offer brilliant and relevant pilot projects that would not only test 5G to the limits but also demonstrate the potential for 5G in the future. Boasting a strong financial district, world-class teaching hospitals, and a tech climate of its own, Leeds will not only benefit from 5G but show the benefits of 5G to the rest of the UK, if not the world.
