Royal Week in Edinburgh – Spurtle/Greener Leith – Our smartphone app – Beyond The Outbreak : Getting On In Gorgie Dalry – Enquiry into sports
Her Majesty the Queen has taken up residence at Holyrood for the week of garden parties and other special events to mark the Diamond Jubilee. On Thursday Prince William will be appointed to the Order of the Thistle at St Giles Cathedral which is the highest Scottish honour she can bestow. Today the new Lord Provost Donald Wilson has an important ceremony to perform when he hands the Queen the keys of the city.
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Well done to The Broughton Spurtle and Greener Leith who have won NESTA funding of £44,750 to develop an app together. We told you about this funding earlier in the year but the money is available purely for the purposes of projects like smart phone apps, rather than the development of hyperlocal news media sites.
Two of Edinburgh’s oldest and best known community news providers have won major funding from the UK innovation foundation Nesta to develop a news and loyalty-card phone application for the capital, it was announced on 29 June 2012.
Environmental charity Greener Leith and ‘independent stirrer’ the Broughton Spurtle – based in adjacent and partly overlapping parts of north/central Edinburgh – teamed up with Edinburgh technology company Tigatag to propose a ‘Local Edge’ phone app.
The principle of the winning idea is to develop a phone app that acts as a virtual loyalty card for the benefit of local shops and services. It can also reward those who participate in civic activities with vouchers that can be spent at participating local stores.
In a parallel thread, it will also allow users to receive and post geographically relevant news and information on their mobile phones, thus increasing the news-sites’ immediacy and interactivity. The project funding is worth £44,750 which will be used to develop software and cover start-up marketing. Local Edge was among 10 proposals chosen from 165 applications as part of Destination Local, a major new £1million programme led by Nesta and the Technology Strategy Board. Launched in March this year, it is designed to understand and stimulate the development of a UK hyperlocal media sector.
An external judging panel sifted the applications according to Nesta’s criteria (see link above). They also looked to support projects that would complement each other and provide a portfolio of learning for the wider sector. The panel felt that the Local Edge proposal was ‘very strong and had some great ideas on how [they] would take the service forward’.
Commenting after the announcement, Spurtle Chair David Sterratt said:- “At a time when independent businesses are under enormous pressure due to the recession, national-chain competition and tramwork disruption, we hope this scheme will be a shot in the arm for local shops and services.
“If successful, it could also provide an additional, stream of revenue for our news outlets and and allow us to improve what we offer readers.”
Charlotte Encombe, Chairperson of Greener Leith said: “We are delighted with this NESTA announcement of funding.
“With our partners The Broughton Spurtle and Tigatag we can now build on Greener Leith’s previous campaigns to promote local shopping and develop a series of apps that will enable businesses in Leith and Broughton to promote their products to locals in a cost effective way.
“Furthermore, if the app is a success, it has the potential to support the development of neighbourhood community news projects throughout the country. “
Bruno Panara, Tigatag said: “In a time when worldwide online services make the headlines for their million-user campaigns, it’s refreshing to see services that can help much smaller local communities take advantage of mobile technology.
“Nesta has given us the chance to work with our partners to deliver a really exciting piece of technology that can improve the quality of the life in Broughton and Leith, while being a fun app to use and collect rewards from.
“We hope the service will also be a success with local shops, providing a simple way into online marketing that can deliver consistent value that can be exported to help businesses in other areas.”
(The council also obtained funding from the charity NESTA earlier in the year to develop online services to enable people to enjoy their parks and outdoor spaces.)
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We decided not to apply for any NESTA funding as above but we do have an app for you which is still in its test phase. If you download Wikitude on your smart phone and then search to find The Edinburgh Reporter you will be able to find our articles spread out around the city, a bit like air graffiti. It is true that most of these are in the city centre but as time goes on we will be using this Augmented Reality feature to bring relevant local stories to you wherever you are in the city’s geography. Wikitude explains what it does:-“The Wikitude World Browser is your “third eye” and allows you to see things you wouldn’t normally see. Wikitude’s Augmented Reality connects you with the world around you in a completely new way. By using the camera, simply hold up your smartphone and engage with your immediate surroundings. See places, discover people, play games – all through your camera’s field of vision – a truly exciting and immersive experience.” Our own involvement in this is as a tester on behalf of fellow hyperlocal founder, Mike Rawlins, who runs Pits ‘n Pots in Stoke on Trent who developed this for his own and other sites also with funding from NESTA through the organisation TalkAboutLocal. You can also access our articles through the app Layar and searching for hyparlocal (with an a) but it does not yet click through to the content of the article.
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An organisation has sprung up in the west of the city to help residents deal with the aftermath of the Legionella outbreak. The organiser said:-
“Despite the outstanding way Gorgie Dalry residents coped during the recent outbreak of Legionnaire’s Disease – The area’s image has been left severely damaged!
Local residents, community groups, businesses and politicians are now coming together to share ideas and put into practice means whereby Gorgie Dalry can be promoted as a great place to live, work and visit!
The GD is hosting afternoon and evening meetings to go over a number of proposals such as the production of a ‘digital leaflet’ outlining the many positive aspects of Gorgie Dalry. The leaflet would take a similar form to the digital Gala Programme (as available from www.thegd.org.uk/thegala ) and could contain an outline of the area’s history, local businesses and attractions, excellent selection of restaurants, etc. There could also be positive quotes from local politicians, residents and community organisations alongside (free) advertising/listing space for local companies under a “Proud To Be Doing Business In Gorgie Dalry” section.”
Afternoon Meeting
Wednesday 4th July at 2.00pm
Tynecastle Community Wing
Tynecastle High School
Evening Meeting
Thursday 5th July at 6.30pm
Gorgie Dalry Community Assoc.
22 McLeod Street
For further information contact
Pol Steele via www.thegd.org.uk
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The impact of sport in our communities to be the focus of a major inquiry by MSPs at Holyrood.
The role of sport in our communities, a key strand of the legacy of Glasgow 2014, will be the subject of a major inquiry by the Health and Sport Committee. MSPs plan to tour community sport facilities across Scotland but first want to hear from organisations and individuals about their experiences.
Convener of the Health and Sport Committee Duncan McNeil MSP said:-“Both London 2012 and Glasgow 2014 are two significant sporting events that will highlight the extraordinary ability of athletes across the world. The Scottish Government has rightly outlined the legacy to our communities that they hope will result from Glasgow 2014.
“But against a backdrop of high levels of physical inactivity, this inquiry will examine the role of sport at a grassroots level and its impact on preventing health problems. MSPs want to hear from people across Scotland to inform the inquiry and help the Committee determine if sporting facilities are both available and accessible.”
Deputy Convener of the Health and Sport Committee Bob Doris MSP said:-“This inquiry will focus on people, participation, and places. Many local sports clubs need the contribution of local volunteers – how we maximise their contribution will be a crucial part of this inquiry.
“The Committee will also look at the importance of places of sport in terms of availability, affordability and quality. Finally the inquiry will consider participation, and the benefit of clubs and facilities to communities.”
The Committee is calling for views on the following issues:
• The contribution of people – focusing on the role of volunteers – and looking at how to ensure they have the opportunities and support necessary to contribute to sport at a local level (for example, quality of coaching, fostering a culture of volunteer-ism, and all aspects of support, including employer attitudes);
• The benefit of local sports clubs both to the preventative health agenda and their communities;
• The importance of places for sport, in terms of availability, accessibility, affordability, and the quality of facilities.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
