French Planning

I spent a very interesting couple of house at the Pavilion de l'Arsenal, the home of Parisien planning, and outside the Hotel de Ville, which is displaying an exhibition of the main developments planned for Ile de France, Paris aujourd'hui et demain.

It is particularly interesting because many people think of Paris as a museum city where nothing changes. In the centre, that is to some extend true, although plans to develop the banks of the Seine may change that. Most of the projects, however, are taking place on the outskirts of the city, or in the suburbs. They don't insist on attention as so many London projects do, perhaps because the vogue for tall buildings hasn't taken off to the same extent.

LeWeb

A very interesting week exploring the French tech schene at LeWeb, Europe's largest tech conference, and with the folks at Cap Digital, Paris' official government cluster.

I'll be writing about it for th next edition of Invest in France magazine, so for now I'll just restrict my thoughts to the presentation by Tony Fadell, CEO and founder of Nest Labs (and the guy who invented the iPod). He was presenting his latest gadget, a smart thermostat who learns from your habits to automatically control the temperature of your house (or be controlled via iphone). It reminds me of one of the very first articles I ever wrote, for Australian Computer magazine, about Bill Gates house. He could run a bath from his car, so it was the perfect temperature when he arrived home. Screens and music centres around the house automatically screened images and tunes adapted to the personal preference of the person in the room at the time. Even the plants could be watered automatically. That was back in 1998. Soon, those options will be open for all of us....

Silicon Roundabout to get a facelift

So, the ugly Old Street Roundabout, home to Tech City, is to get a £50 million facelift.

According to No.10, the new civic building will host classrooms, co-working spaces and workshops equipped with the latest 3D printing technology, for use by both the local start-ups and the wider community. It will be a resource for start-ups, a cenre for international conferences and investement fairs, and a place to engage school children.

Sounds wonderful, but I do hope more thought is put into the actual building. The vision presented by Architecture 00:/ (shown above), who have long been working on ideas for the roundabout (below is the first attempt), is already being slated by the critics.

Interestingly, The Guardian says it will be run as a community interest company: just like what Fringe Benefits, my masters renegeration study group, proposed for the Olympic Park's broadcast centre.

East London’s Digital Divide

I have long thought that the digital economy has the potential to offer new horizons to many of the young East Enders who for whatever reasons feel excluded from many of the other employment options available in London. The issue was touched on at two conferences I attended recently, Future London, and the London Policy Conference.

Here are a few notes:

One of the most stinging challenges levelled at the government’s championing of the inner East London tech scene is its lack of diversity. In stark contrast to the local communities, a recent report for the think tank Centre for London on the Tech City policy found that the Shoreditch-centred tech community was overwhelmingly white, male and British.

For the report, A Tale of Tech City, I interviewed chief executives at many of the digital economy companies that are clustering in inner East London. There may be a lack of diversity, but I found a huge amount of good willing waiting to be tapped for the benefit of young Hackney residents, with many CEO personally committed to helping the local community bridge the technology knowledge gap.

“We’ve done workshops in skills and when you show kids how creative they can be with something like programming, like make something happen on a screen by moving their hands in the air, they’ll go nuts, “ said one chief executive.” Just show them the potential.”

The digital economy mushrooming around the Old Street roundabout offers a real possibility for Hackney’s unemployed youth. Digital technology not only inspires those who’ve been turned off by mainstream education, it’s also more accessible: the best coders, like musicians, are self-taught.

Some CEOs volunteer their skills in programs like Apps for Good, run by CDI Europe, or Devcamp, both of which teache young people to create imaginative mobile apps. Others offer internships or take part in schemes such as the recently announced Tech City Apprenticeship programme.  Delivered by Hackney Community College, this government-backed scheme will give 500 unemployed young people the opportunity to work in companies including Google Campus, Facebook, TechHub, Moo.com, Poke London, The Trampery and Passion Capital.

For young people, there are real jobs at the end of such courses. One teenager who taken part in Devcamp was finding work only a few months after learning how to code.

“I don’t need to worry about getting a job anymore,” she said. “I don’t have to worry about my young age or lack of previous experience: code wins the argument.”

Gavin Poole, CEO of the iCity bid to provide a tech hub in the broadcast and media centres of the Olympic Park, said at the recent London Conference 2012 that there could be an “explosion of jobs and growth” in the area – but more efforts may be required if local communities are to benefit.

Speaking at the same conference, Rushanara Ali, MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, said it’s a “disgrace” how few jobs the Olympics provided for the local community. She called on the government agencies in charge of the legacy of the Games to do better in future.

Why London and Paris should talk more #1

Very interesting report from the Startup Genome reserahc prohects and Telefonica Digital into the world's top 20 tech centres.Based on information from 50,000 start-ups it shows the dominance of the U.S., which has 5 of the 6 top spots. Silicon Valley remains in pole position, although it is looking less secure in that place, challenged at No. 2 by Tel Aviv.

London takes the top European place at No. 7, scoring particularly well in terms of mentality, government support and finance. Where it falls down is in its ability to come up with new differentiated ideas. Interestingly, that is where Paris, at No. 11 Europe's second highest scorer, does well. Where Paris is strong London is weak and vice versa. Perhaps the two capitals, only two hours apart on the train, should stop scrapping and start learning from each other. Although that would require overcoming centuries of rivalry.... hmmmm.....

Hastings

It is not often I disagree with The Economist. But their latest article on seaside towns in the south east doesn't chime true with what I know of Hastings. They dsecribe the burnt out pier, recently awarded a £11.4 million lottery grant, as a symbol of the town's decline. I'm not sure if they visited the town for the article, but I've spent a bit of time there recently and every time I return, it is getting livelier.

Autolib

I remember first reading about the proposals for Paris' Autolib, the city-and-suburbs electric car-sharing scheme. Similar to the successful Velib bike rental scheme, subscribers can pick and drop off these handsome so-called Bluecars (even if they are grey) from charging points across the Ile de France. Almost a year old, the service has 37,000 registered subscribers, of which 13,000 have an annual subscription. I first became aware of the plans from a leaflet distributed at my local market, and I never thought it would happen. Where would they find the space, for one thing? Let alone the cost. I'm very happy to have been proved totally wrong and was delighted to see this car nonchently recharging on the streets near my appartment on a recent visit. But I wonder who is in charge of making sure the car gets plugged in.....