Green, Open and Social Event
Connecting Bristol has organised a Green, Open and Social Event as part of the Bristol Partnership's 20:20 event programme. Although this free event is now sold out you can add your name to the waiting list at greenopenandsocial.eventbrite.com and we will release tickets on a first come first served basis if they become available.
If you are not able to obtain a ticket you will still be able to follow and interact with the event via a live stream. The webcast will be shown at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/green-open-and-social.
The event will be mix of inspiring presentations, live theatre and video case studies, this event aims to celebrate Green, Open and Social as three words/ideas/principles that can continue to shape the Digital Future of Bristol.
You will:
- Hear thought leaders from BT, Wikimedia and Sirius explore how “Green”, “Open” and “Social” media/technology/computing can help position Bristol as one of Europe’s leading smart, digital cities
- Understand how Bristol organisations are successfully putting these principles in to practice
- Experience an interactive theatrical performance that will tell the Green, Open and Social story
- Network with like-minded people, organisations, innovators and champions
- Hear about the City Council’s new Innovative Data Projects programme/competition
To follow this event on Twitter: #GOS. New Digital Lifestyle
Pete Taylor, a carer from Knowle West in Bristol looks after his son who has a limiting health condition. Last year he became aware of a new service via Knowle West Web, part of the Digital Neighbourhoods programme, which is a partnership between Bristol City Council, Knowle West Media Centre and Citizens on Line. As part of this service Pete was given a free, “no strings attached” recycled council computer and no-frills Internet access as part of our Digital Neighbourhoods programme. A video of Pete talking about the positive impact that being online has had on his life can be viewed on the Connecting Bristol website. Since appearing in this film, Pete has embraced his new digital lifestyle and has signed-up to commercial broadband too. He’s been in touch with old friends via Facebook, is a regular on the online shopping circuit and has also found it a great help when needing to email and liaise with organisations that are helping to support his son’s wellbeing. During 2010 Connecting Bristol plans to extend the reach of this project in Knowle West and in other parts of the city.
Green Addict
We are all proud of Bristol’s status of being a leading UK green capital - home to businesses, universities and organisations at the forefront of tackling climate change. Business use of ICT costs Bristol £11 million per year in energy costs and produces a staggering 67,258 tonnes of CO2. To help address this issue we have been working hard to help Bristol meet Carbon reduction targets by commissioning research, raising awareness, supporting behaviour change and piloting new approaches to ICT and Energy Efficiency.
Less than four months ago our dedicated Green ICT website went live. This website acts as a hub for sharing Bristol's work on Green ICT, encouraging more organisations and cities to add ICT to their green agendas.
For top tips, useful guidance and ways to help reduce emissions why not check out the Green ICT database which can assist ICT professionals and other interested parties to consider different methods of reducing the carbon footprint of their ICT use.
It helps users challenge existing ICT practices encouraging them to think about changing settings on computers and benchmarking ICT system performance to requesting paperless billing and increasing replacement recycles of computer equipment.
Tom Cumberlege the Carbon Trust's Public Sector Manager said "This is a fantastic website and a really useful tool for engaging partners and spreading knowledge. Lots of fun too!"
Smarter Self Reporting
Bristol-based Overlay Media, experts in creating next generation, mobile technology, is working with Connecting Bristol to test the potential of using mobile phones to capture and report issues requiring the Council's attention.
This feasibility study is being carried out thanks to a grant from the Technology Strategy Board.
Overlay Media have created a Smarter Self Reporting application which has been tested across several different offices and service areas in the Council.
The application allows users to photograph evidence of a particular issue (ie graffitti or fly tipping) and send that to the Council along with some brief comments. If the mobile phone has GPS (Global Positioning System ) the application automatically geocodes the users location, sending all this information as a report to the authority.
An evaluation report has just been submitted to the Technology Strategy Board. The report demonstrates that the application was generally well received and outlines the feedback and improvements suggested by the testing team.
Connecting Bristol sees that mobile platforms generate a whole range of new opportunities for people to interact with Council data, and will be exploring ways to take advantage of this over the next few months.
Award Winning Data Centre
Bristol City Council’s new Data Centre has been named winner of the 'Innovation in the Micro-Data Centre Award' at the 2009 Datacentre Leaders Awards. These national awards recognize sustainability, efficiency and true innovation across the industry. The Data Centre is housed in the Council House and uses the latest energy efficient design to save £20,000 per year in electricity. By using the Council House moat to provide chilled water for the air conditioning, the Data Centre will only need 20% of the power used to run the servers for cooling, and there are plans to reduce that even further.
The design and operation of data centres of fewer than 20 racks (cabinets holding multiple servers) brings with it its own problems of space utilisation, power distribution and back-up, cooling, access and also security. The majority of micro-data centres are situated in buildings designed primarily for purposes other than housing IT and this may accentuate the challenges of designing and operating a micro-data centre.
“Working on the design in conjunction with Future-Tech, we have achieved an elegant solution to a tricky problem” commented Geoff Endicott, the City Council's senior Customer of the project.
He continued: “This year's awards paid particular attention to Green ICT, with the Carbon Reduction Commitment and the European Code of Conduct of significant importance.
“Team working and collaboration across traditional boundaries were key elements in the success of this project. We also looked at other energy efficiencies but it was not possible to re-use waste energy at this point in time. However the system has been designed in such a way that it could be powered from a combined heat and power plant during winter, allowing the option of waste heat re-use when 4th floor heating is replaced in the Council House”.
The “innovative design” was placed ahead of those at Blackpool and The Fylde College, the University of Hertfordshire and the Ministry of Defence Police and Guarding Agency. |
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