The Third & The Seventh

Just about the best CG you could hope to see. Highly recommend viewing this in HD over on Vimeo.

383 Christmas Album – win a Flip!

It’s that time of year when everything gets a bit Christmasssy at 383 Project and as such we wanted to share a new competition – the 383 Christmas album.

The premise is simple- find or create an interesting photo of a ‘383′, add a message and send it through to us. There’s more details of how to enter on the site.

In the new year we’ll pick a winner and runner up to receive a Flip Mino HD camera and Holga 35mm camera respectively.

There have already been some great submissions, so get going…

The Fun Theory

I’m really liking some of the short videos that are coming out of VW’s mini site ‘the fun theory‘. The premise is simple – can behaviour be changed for the better by making things fun. A simple idea and some great executions. As it reminds me of Big my favourite experiment is the piano staircase, but there’s a couple of other nice projects in there too.

Another app, another season

Hot on the heels of the iPhone app we developed for the DRUM, we’ve unveiled another – this time for Style Birmingham. It’s been a busy few months since the summer shoot and we’ve been busying away on a number of different fronts. Here’s a well overdue update:

Going mobile

First up, the iPhone app. This is the first incarnation of what will hopefully become a great (free) tool for Birmingham shoppers. At present the app allows users remote access to directory data and news from the site, as well as guiding users around the city centre based on their location in Google maps. Before going to press the app has so far been downloaded over 100 times and we’re already planning a number of updates in time for the New Year.

Here’s the full press release:

Retail Birmingham has launched the first iPhone App designed to guide visitors around the city’s shops and entertainment venues.

The Style Birmingham iPhone app provides users with a directory of over 1,000 shops, bars and restaurants, access to news updates from the stylebirmingham.com website and full route planning through Google Maps. It is the first iPhone app in the UK to be developed on behalf of a city’s retail district and it is available to download for free.

The iPhone app is the latest in a number of promotional activities to market Birmingham’s shops and lifestyle destinations. For the second year running, a comprehensive shopping directory has been published, providing listings for all of the retail outlets in the city centre.

The recently developed stylebirmingham.com website also hosts a new day planner feature, allowing visitors to create a customised search of fashion and dining locations in Birmingham.

Kevin Breese, Chair of Retail Birmingham Marketing Group and General Manager of Harvey Nichols said:

“Birmingham has a great reputation for shopping, and attracts millions of visitors each year. With the new Style Birmingham iPhone app, shopping directory and day planner we want to make exploring the city and its fantastic retail offer as easy and enjoyable as possible.”

The press release also mentions a day planner feature which has recently been added to the site – this allows users of stylebirmingham.com to register and save a customised shopping route which suggests stores and activities based on users age, buying habits and shopping choices etc.

You can download the app here

AUTUMN ADS

In addition to the iPhone app we’ve also got another photoshoot wrapped up featuring the Autumn lines from Birmingham retailers. If you grab a copy of Style Birmingham magazine this month the shoot features heavily, or alternatively grab a taxi and look at the doors- we’ve been seeing them everywhere!

CHRISTMAS

Lastly, stay tuned for some exciting news leading up to Christmas – there’s some big stuff in the stocking!

383 Project go to Europython 2009

In any industry a conference is an important event, but in the web development industry they become almost vital. Conferences provide people within many sectors of the industry an opportunity to;

• Network and meet with their colleagues,
• Discuss developments to the industry,
• Share ideas and gain feedback on projects,
• Inspire new ways of thinking,
• Provide a sense of purpose to your role.

This week 383 Project have been at Europython, a conference about the Python programming language. Python is a high level programming language which features everywhere across the programming world as a tool for running servers, completing and automating tasks, but most importantly to 383 Project, building rich web applications.

The conference was held just around the corner from 383 Project, at the Birmingham Conservatoire. With more than 400 delegates from across Europe and the world the conference was the biggest it has ever been.

Community is a vital part of software development and Europython is entirely community run. The introduction featured a great phrase;

“If it’s not here, its because you haven’t done it”

This really sums up the achievement of the Python community in Europe, because the conference was packed full of useful talks, discussions and opportunity to share ideas and get involved.

So what did we learn at Europython?

The main focus of the conference is the lectures. Anyone is free to submit a lecture topic, but generally they are presented by well renowned people in their fields, so you can expect real expert opinion. We went to a range of talks covering everything from the nitty gritty of python, through to testing our code and using new technologies such as Google App Engine, and Amazon’s S3 to host our Python projects.
As professional developers there will always be things we already know, but often this is just blind convention. One of the definite highlights was learning about the underlying thinking behind what we do and gaining a deeper understanding.

Of course, when at a community conference you can expect divides within the community as people vocally demonstrate their passions. There was a great discussion on automated testing in Python which turned in to a very productive debate about the best way to be testing our software. Usually when a community debates like this you realise there is often no “right way” of doing anything, but the debate highlights reasons that you may choose one approach over another to suit your needs.

But there is so much more at Europython than just the lecturing. Book sales from major publishers, open spaces for un-moderated discussion, and a personal favourite, the lightning talks.

Lightning talks are free for anyone to present, but can last no more than 5 minutes. Usually this is just someone getting up on the stage to tell everyone about their latest program, or an idea they’ve had that they wish to share. Listening to people’s ideas and seeing new trends from the grass roots of the community can only lead to inspiration, and there was no shortage of ideas on offer this year.

Finally, Europython provides a more subtle benefit to developers. Throughout the conference, both formally and informally, those steering Python are listening to feedback of users. As a commercial user its a chance to explain what it is that makes my job easier with Python, and how it benefits the clients of 383 Project directly. Its also a chance to say where Python doesn’t work, what we need and how it can improved. As a community driven programming language it really is possible to see how this feedback directly influences and brings about change. This channel of communication is essential to the development of Python and is infinitely more difficult without the real-world interaction.

All in all Europython is one of the best conferences of its kind in the world, and it was great to be there. The contacts we make, and the knowledge we part with with can only make us better at what we do.

Next year’s conference will be in Birmingham again, and I highly recommend anyone with an interest in Python attends.