I’ve been impressed with this project and I’m proud of the way the project has made the UK a leader in terms government data transparency.  If you look at the website www.data.gov.uk itself, the functionality and what is actually on there (for instance the COINs finance data) – its quite staggering.

So onto the session – the angle was different from what I expected – they talked through the challenge of getting data opened up within the govt, especially with central govt – no mean feat, and much diplomacy and tact were required, especially with the changing priorities.

The other main angles were about transparent government and creating a society of ‘armchair auditors’, and the risks of getting negative front-page headlines the day after each new data set is opened (which seems to happen).

So it was really focussed predominantly on ‘supply’, what can we make free and open, how quickly.  On the ‘demand’ side (the ‘who wants this stuff’ bit) the ‘development community’ were talked about a lot, alongside the more-theoretical ‘armchair auditor’…  Now I’m totally up for open government but I was surprised there wasn’t more talk about entrepreneurs, packagers, start-ups, people who are trying to spot market needs and then get developing things on top of this information.

So I guess this is my rallying cry to entrepreneurs – lets get a hit app out of this!

Tomorrow I’m going to try GeoCommons as a comparison.

So onto what I’ve come up with – it’s a heat map of London’s boroughs showing the percentage of all businesses that were started recently – more specifically, what % of the total number of businesses were started in the two years leading up to when the study was done. This data is from March 2010 so it includes all new businesses that were formed in the period between March 2008 and March 2010, otherwise known as ‘the recession’.

Interesting that around a fifth of all businesses were started in this time – this could be individuals calling themselves companies for tax reasons, or because they are working in temporary capacities, or that companies are starting and closing all the time, or (hopefully) it could be real new economic activity?  If its the latter, are the areas feeling a mini-boom from this?

The main ones that spring out are Tower Hamlets, Redbridge, Greenwich, Barking and Newham. This is likely to be because they are starting from a lower base… But encouraging to see from the point of view of 2012 and TechCityEast.

(info and commentary for illustrative purposes only, raw data from ONS)

He designed Jamie Oliver’s recipe app for the iPhone.  Finding out more about this app was the clincher for me to attend.  He had other things in store.

Rewinding a bit, I saw a tweet from @markwardstudio via the really talented special effects guy @vectormeldrew.  I checked out Ian’s online profile – suited, cold stare, power stance, flash website.  I thought “young gun” is about right!

As it turns out, while this guy Ian is certainly a talented creative, he also has one hell of a marketing head on him.

When he started his presentation, we didn’t get a media hard-ball (thank god), we got a nice lad from Preston who has become slightly disillusioned with advertising and who’s proudest creative moments are including a twitching owl in the corner of a website for an eccentric Lake District photographer and his animated student film about two characters who send the moon into space every night on a railway track bent into the air (BTW the animated short is called Solar and is seriously slick).

What really came across was that Ian knows that keeping the creative light alive is all about staying pure and true to what you do, trusting your instinct, and working your arse off by all accounts…  He has managed to stay untainted by the industry, with his discipline and work ethic intact – not that you’d know any of this from his steely marketing persona, which seems like a well crafted protection shield that allows him to stay true to himself.  All creatives need one!

The notes I took were mainly quotes from people who had inspired him on his journey.  Here are a selection -

“When you wake up in the morning, if your day ahead doesn’t inspire you, do something else”

“Embrace aspects of youth, especially the ridiculous”

“Instinct > Experience” (instinct beats experience)

“Creativity is being just crazy enough to not realise you can’t do something”

So thank you Ian for sharing your creativity, and giving a guy ten years older then you unexpected lesson in staying true to yourself and being disciplined.

Then he mentioned his theory that its actually parent-money paying for the leases betting on a rise in rents in the area, and that they are mainly making an operating loss.  He was speaking from anecdotal evidence only.

Interesting theory, and one that I doubt to be true, or certainly not in the majority of cases, but it does make me think about the UK economy as a whole being a bit like this – are we really a nation really good at betting on increase of house prices?  Is that what we do at our core?  Even when it looks like we are enterprising and productive, is it just a facade to mask a deep love to speculate to accumulate?

I really hope the Columbia Market theory is wrong, and that its a “real economy” success, and that the UK catches onto it soon.