This morning there is much excitement in the media and on twitter about the launch of Raspberry Pi.  A small computer developed to help children to learn how to code.

Rory Cellan-Jones talks about how it will offer “every child in the country a cheap computer on which they can learn to programme”. There’s no doubt it’s brilliant, long overdue in a country where our education system (with a few exceptions) has largely confined classes featuring computers to learning about how to use word processing packages, rather than what’s under the hood.

I went to school in the early 80s, when learning to programme really was something for the hardened coder.  It didn’t even feature on most people’s radar as being relevant or interesting or something that was worthwhile.  But as we know now, the geeks shall inherit the earth, and programming is officially cool.  Largely thanks to the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Steve Wozniak et al, everyone appreciates the opportunities that can come from being a good programmer. And now there are so many resources available for anyone to teach themselves, with initiatives like Codecademy aiming to make it as accessible as possible.

So middle class parents, striving to give the best to their children, will no doubt be rushing out today to buy their Raspberry Pi’s to help give their child a head start (they may have to wait actually, stockists are already showing as sold out, presumably because vast swathes of middle aged men have already snapped them up…). And I think it’s fantastic to develop this kind of knowledge in children, I certainly will with mine. But I also worry that there will, inevitably, be a whole section of the population who will be left behind.

Martha Lane-Fox has long championed the need for digital inclusion, and Race Online 2012 is an admirable attempt to make a real difference to getting previously marginalised sections of society online.  With the launch of Raspberry Pi, we need to ensure that as well as encouraging people to get online, we also ensure that all children have access to these tools.  Because actually, programming is one of the few skills that really allows you to make a name for yourself with very little but your brains and dedication.  You don’t need friends in high places, or a daddy’s connections but you do need to have access to the tools.  Let’s hope Raspberry Pi really does make a difference.

*photo websmith (under Creative Commons)

A quick post to share my current top 5 favourite tools & apps (this isn’t a post about new apps, more those tools I’m using a lot):

*ifttt – With the tagline: ‘Put the internet to work for you’ – is a brilliantly simple yet clever idea which automates your use of the web.  For example every time I post to Instagram, ifttt saves it to Evernote for me.  Every time I favourite a tweet, it plugs it into Instapaper.  There are some fantastic ‘recipes’ from other people you can use or you can create your own.  Which bring me on to….

*Instapaper – Save web articles to read offline.  Brilliant on the iPad and equally useful on the laptop.  I constantly come across interesting stuff on twitter and elsewhere, now I tend to store them up and read them in a bunch, and (obviously) you don’t need wifi access.

*Feedly - I still use RSS loads, to catch up on new stuff.  Feedly remains my favourite way to sort through my google reader subscriptions (although yes, Flipboard is very pretty), particularly as I can switch between views – from ‘latest’ to individual topics ‘history’ or ’saved’ stuff.

*tweetbot – twitter client for the iPhone.  Very slick and intuitive UI.  Miles better than official iPhone (although who remembers how much we loved tweetie?)

*Evernote – Note taking on steriods.  After years of persevering, I’m finally starting to get real value out of this.  The more you use, the better it gets.  Although I still feel like I’m barely scraping the surface of all the ways I could be using it

What are your current favourite tools & apps?

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/indiamos/

I’ve just done something that I haven’t done for over three years, well 10 years depending on which way you look at it.
About three weeks ago I was coming out of the gym, pulled my iphone out of my pocket and wham, dropped it on the floor and completely smashed the screen.  So it had to go away to be repaired with the words buzzing in my ears from the insurance company that it could take “up to 10 days to be fixed”.  10 days?!! Were they out of their minds?

Now I pause at this point to acknowledge that I fully realise not having a phone for 10 days is hardly catastrophic in the scheme of things but it’s given me a short sharp shock into the reality (positive and negative) of a life lived in the thrall of the small screen.

So what did I find?

*I am utterly and completely addicted to tapping away on my bloody iphone.  There I said it.  Obvious, right? Well yes and no, I did realise how much time I spend swiping up and down timelines, checking in, checking emails, sharing photos, looking at photos, commenting on photos, updating, sharing, searching, listening to podcasts, checking the weather and numerous other trivial and not so trivial actions but when it’s not there anymore you really feel the gaping hole that was there and appreciate just how much time you waste spend on it.

*Without the phone, I let go of twitter since without the real-time aspect, I lost interest.  It just didn’t have the same grip.

*The three things I missed most: Instagram, mobile search and my beloved This American Life podcasts, particularly while travelling.

*For a couple of days when I was out and about I borrowed my son’s, basic to the core, Samsung (see the pic).  And for a brief time there was something nice about having a phone that only does two things: make calls and send texts.  Without any clutter on the phone, I didn’t have the ever present, unconscious ‘tap tap’ in my head, that causes me to launch twitter, check email, browse Instagram and on and on (from the minute I wake up until, quite literally, the moment I go to sleep).  I’ve always been someone with a surfeit of nervous energy.  In that respect technology is bad for me, it compounds my tendency to be constantly fiddling with stuff.  Without my phone I was, stiller.

So, I missed my phone and…I didn’t miss my phone.  I was inwardly ashamed at how utterly delighted I was when it turned up a whole three days early, you’d have thought I’d was being reunited with a long lost love. It was interesting (although I don’t want to repeat it). I’m trying to learn from the experience and be more mindful of how technology can seep under your skin without you really noticing how deep it has embedded itself into you.

This morning I tried to explain the significance of his passing to my 10 year old.  He has never known a world without the technology for which Jobs was responsible. To him it’s part of the fabric of everything.  When he and his brother are a bit older I will sit them down in front of the famous Stanford commencement speech.  I want them to understand why Jobs was so important and I want them to live with that advice ringing in their ears: to grab life with both hands, to jump into it, to not waste precious time doing something they’re not passionate about.

He gave us so much more than tech.

Not once but over and over again.

I’m at Thinking Digital in Newcastle, a 2 day conference of ideas, culture and technology; yesterday was day one and by the end of it, I’d given away my heart.  Before I explain who was the object of my affections, I know that hearing about someone else’s experience of a conference can be similar to listening to them re-tell a dream; to them it blew their mind, to you it’s fairly inconsequential but this was a dream of passion and love so bear with me.

I don’t go to many conferences or events, a lot of them seem to regurgitate the same content, trotting out the same speakers.  But year after year I kept hearing fantastic things about Thinking Digital from people I respect and admire.

Which is why, yesterday, I found myself in the Sage being carried away on a tide of incredible people and falling head over heels. Scientists, artists, entrepreneurs, writers, all with stories or projects that left you longing for more. Steven Bathiche, Erin McKean, Conrad Wolfram, Nancy Duarte, Dan Lyons, Maryanne Hobbs, Heather Knight… I won’t even attempt to explain what they each talked about, I couldn’t possibly do them justice.

Herb Kim has managed a rare feat with Thinking Digital, the word ‘inspired’ is used to death these days but there is no other word that adequately describes the way Thinking Digital makes you feel.  The speakers are people who draw you completely into their particular passion; you want to hear more, learn more, absorb yourself into their world.

Hence the falling in love thing…

*photo: trustypics

The start of Day 2 was considerably quieter than the first day which undoubtedly had something to do with the official party the night before (I was very boring sensible, opted out and ended up having a lovely dinner with some fantastic people including @vero and @bash).   Jeremiah Owyang's talk was much anticipated but a bit of a let down.  Although he's undoubtedly insightful, articulate and extremely knowledgeable, it did feel a bit like he was preaching to the converted with talk of 'listening' and recruiting brand advocates to help amplify your cause.

The Legend that is Yossi Vardi popped up like a malevolent genie, with a seemingly unending collection of funny photos and videos scraped from YouTube.  As Paul Carr pointed out,"It's like my grandfather has just discovered the Internet."

But whatever you thought of his talk, there's no doubt he was a breath of fresh air in the face of all the earnest talk of how real-time is changing the face of search/the internet/world/universe.  I inadvertently stumbled across him and managed to grab a quick audioboo. And yes it was a slightly bizarre question to ask, don't blame me, I was star-struck, it was all the idea of Mark Rock.

Then the arena become thick with anticipation (and security guards) at the arrival of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah.  She received a rapturous welcome and went out to deliver a surprisingly intrancing speech.  I have to say I was sceptical beforehand but there's no doubt she's intelligent, perceptive and using her incredible power to do some fantastic charity work.

Into the afternoon Chris Brogan, Brian Solis, Steve Rubel and others discussed how brands can adapt to real-time WOM.  It was a genuinely interesting discussion, not least because, let's face it, these are the heavyweights of the social meeja world (that's naff but you get my point).  There was a heated debate about the old chesnut how to demonstrate ROI, with some of the panel members suggesting that we shouldn't try, CEOs need to understand that it's not about trying to measure against old metrics etc at which point Brian Solis came out with the quote of the day: "This panel may resonate here but we all have to report to people who don't give a shit".  Quite!

There were more tech gazilionares in the afternoon including Fabrice Grinda (just what was the combined wealth of all the speakers…..) who was refreshingly honest about how great it was to wake up and realise you are worth $40m.  And of course the AWESOME Gary Vee.

It's the first time I went to LeWeb but I truly hope it won't be the last.  Well-organised, fun, inspirational and exciting.  I'll leave the last words to @loic and @geraldine

LeWeb '09 kicked off in style with Loic Le Meur telling the packed conference room that there are over 2000 attendants from over 50 different countries. 
Seeking to capture the zeitgeist of the tech world, Loic called it an historic period in our industry, with real-time changing the face of the web irreversibly.  Combine that with the onward march of mobile, throw in geolocation and connected objects and these are truly exciting times.

So highlights from Day 1

Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, tipped up to talk about his new project Square, a nifty piece of hardware that attaches to a range of mobile devices to enable the user to accept credit card payments.  Despite an inevitable few hitches with the live demo (first rule of conferences, even if you've practiced it 300 times back stage, it will never work live), he eventually managed to show it in action and there's no doubt it's innovative.  He admitted they have a fair few issues to iron out and the issue of fraud protection is a mammoth one.

TechCrunch Europe's start-up competition revealed some gems most notably:

Friendbinder, an aggregator of social networks that allows you to see conversation trends and search just within your friends.  

Tigerlilly, a really neat app that makes it much easier to customise the tabs on a Facebook fan page.  It takes away the requirement for FBML plus it's makes it much easier to change the tabs once set up.  Marketers will love it.

Tasky:ly, a streamlined task manager, that made me think "that's exactly what I've been waiting for".

Sokoz a real-time auction system – think ebay but snappier

In the afternoon YouTube founder Chad Hurley seemed fairly underwhelmed about the idea of real-time (perhaps his new passion for racing cars is occupying his mind).  He did throw out some astounding facts and figures about YouTube though, most notably that 24 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube EVERY MINUTE; that's a lot of cute cat videos.

Scoble introduced pearltrees , which helps you 'organize the web' and definitely deserves a closer look (if for no other reason that it will make it much easier to find previous links that you've shared on Twitter).

And of course, (my hero) Marissa Mayer showed once again why she's the right hand girl of Larry and Sergey and a worthy winner of woman of the year.  Articulate, knowledgeable and with an inside track on one of the most influential companies in the world, she talked about combining social search with real-time and the algorithm Google are working on to better assess which of the real-time web content is most valuable; effectively sorting through the volume to get to the gems.

Roll on Day 2……

I've submitted a panel suggestion for SXSWi.

Looking at the competition I think I stand a chance of roughly less than 0.1% but heh, who knows, if I'm lucky the system might break and I'll be allocated all of Peter Kim's votes.

Here are some of the ones I'll be voting for (although I've yet to wade through the 2000+ entries).

http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/2371
http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/4544
http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/2514
http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/4560
http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/4942
http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/2385

And er, of course, if you'd like to vote for mine, that'd be lovely
Social Media: Tools to show The Man that it works

Cartoon reproduced from ReadWriteWeb

Anyway, let’s hope Plebble makes them sit up and take notice, it’s not a new idea as such by very neatly executed.