Then came the incredible and passionate, self-branded Icelandic Parliamentary hacker, Birgitta Jónsdóttir. Not only did she take to the stage but she took over the #futr hashtag as more or less every word of her keynote “The Future Is You” was transcribed or paraphrased into a tweet. Her beliefs were obvious, the political system is at present too large, too corrupt, too limited – it needs to be wiped “defragged, zero’d” and “reinstalled”. She described her impression of the conference and festival beautifully, as a poet activist would, “the brave new world, the FutureEverything island.”

Ideas of co-operation and co-creation from Birgitta’s keynote dominated the day. Mark Robinson-Field from the Co-operative Membership Team led the “Co-operation – The Original Social Network?” presentation reinforcing comments made by Birgitta and reminding us of Manchester’s role as the home of the co-op movement. Passions continued to run high through the afternoon as Bilal Randeree delivered his keynote “Al Jazeera and the Arab Spring”. Bilal embodied the political and activist themes of today with references to  Ethan Zuckerman’s ’cute cat theory’, were the politically disinterested only become turned on when their access to social media is taken away by governments.

With all these experts at hand we could not ignore the fact that today Facebook went public, interviews with a host of speakers asking whether the evaluation at $100 billion is worth it, provoked interesting responses in a video which featured in the top ten most watched videos on the BBC website today.

The final day of the conference drew to a close with discussions about reasons for the London riots, social media and social change, and the importance of context in a venue which was at the centre of the industrial revolution, MOSI is on the site of the world’s first railway.  Discussions around  transferring social movements from the digital to the real world came alive in response to speeches from Birgitta Jónsdóttir, Mark Robinson-Field and Bilal Randeree, striking the political chord and affirming and expanding the role of a digital revolution.

See the comments on BBC News Technology of key speakers including Richard Ayers, Head of Digital at Manchester City Football Club; Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsodottir, an internet activist with the Movement Party; Blogger and internet entrepreneur Rohan Gunatillake; Rufus Pollock, Co-founder of the Open Knowledge Foundation; and Loz Kaye, leader of the Pirate Party UK.

The afternoon resumed and swiftly built up momentum with the intriguing Turing Sunflower project, throwing questions out to the crowd; how can curiosity and interest can be retained with such a long winded participatory project? Cesar A Hidelgo then took to the stage of room one immediately capturing the attention of the audience and exploring the entire global economy with the most basic of analogies. He then demonstrated the potential that remains still unreached with data visualisation as it bubbles away in the near mainstream.

The excitement continued for the rest of the afternoon as the panel: Producing A Living took to the stage, the day ended with closing keynotes by Juha van’t Zelfde and Rufus Pollock with The City and The City and Open Knowledge Foundation.  The evening activities continued with the launch of Blast Theory’s incredible real world game www.idhideyou.com and music at the Institute Cervantes’, Mutek supported Audio/Visual show by Nikka + Alba G. Corral.  The programme also includes Metropolis restored + restructured w/live a score by Dieter Moebius, supported by Polinksi with his own A/V show at St Philip’s and the evenings TriAngle records showcase at Islington Mill.

The Co-operative is one of the world’s largest co-operatives with over 6 million members. This year they are welcoming the world back to Manchester as the city hosts the global culmination event of the United Nations International Year of Co-operatives 2012.

http://www.co-operative.coop/2012

With the support of The Co-operative, artist Lawrence Epps has created 8,000 little clay men which will appear at various surprise locations in the city centre as part of FutureEverything Festival, 2012. The idea of the project, entitled “Human Resources”, is to encourage engagement with the city, spark conversation and for people to view and think about things from a different angle.

The public are encouraged to pick up and take away the miniature ceramic figures for their own enjoyment and, to send photos, videos, links or thoughts to the project by emailing contact@sykey.org or by twitter at #littleclaymen.

The little clay men are part of the artist’s practice of exploring the world of work and the rise of corporate culture including ideas around scale, group dynamics and conflicting feelings of love, hate and need for employment. Placing the work around the city is intended to provide an unexpected and unusual opportunity for members of the public to encounter and engage with art as part of their daily lives.

Cambridge based artist Lawrence Epps, said: “The little clay men will be found in various locations around Manchester and once loose in the city, I hope the figures will be a catalyst for conversation and find their way into the lives of the local community.”

Mark Robinson-Field, National Co-operative and Membership Manager for The Co-operative Group, said: “This work encourages people to think differently and, the co-operative business model itself is an alternative approach to enterprise with members co-owning the business and having a real voice it is the antithesis of the corporate world.

With 2012 designated as the International Year of Co-operatives – recognising co-operative impact on poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration – we were keen to support a local arts initiative that fits with the aims of the year and, we felt that the “Human Resources” project does just that. Especially as later this year the worldwide co-operative movement comes to Manchester to share ideas and explore ways to further unlock the enormous potential that co-operation can bring.”

Andrew Wilson is a member of Thumbprint Cooperative has been using mobile technology for creative participation for more than 10 years. In 2001 he designed the Guardian’s text message poetry competition and in 2003 his City Poems project was among the first wave of artworks to explore everyday mobile communications technology, the city, public space and creative participation. City Poems was commended in the British Interactive Media Awards and adapted as STADSchromosomen (City Chromosome) for Antwerp World Book Capital in 2004. In 2005 he was the ACE/AHRC Arts and Sciences Research Fellow in the School of Biology at Newcastle University, exploring portable technology and the science of co-operation. Since 2009 Andrew has been collaborating with Dr Paul Coulton of the School of Computing at Lancaster University on Free All Monsters! a worldwide mobile phone Augmented Reality game for families, and they have co-authored papers for conferences including HCI 2010: ‘Play is a Serious Business’; Digital Games Research Association 2011 and Advances in Computer Entertainment 2011. In 2010 he founded Thumbprint Co-operative, and he has worked with large organisations including the BBC, Greater Manchester Police and Kirklees Council as well as with local councillors, front line council staff, third sector organisations including a drug treatment agency and an arts and mental health charity, and small voluntary groups such as a tenants and residents association and a community allotment. Part of this work has been supported by funding from NESTA through two of its national programmes, Reboot Britain and Make It Local. http://foldup.org/about/ http://youtu.be/9X7Tx_dx8PY

This presentation looks at the process of innovation with the use of technology when done in collaboration with front line public service staff. Drawing on examples of work with the police, a local authority and a Sure Start centre, it will explore the conditions that need to be in place for innovations to be adopted and sustained, and the skills that designers have to bring to work in this context.

FutureEverything Conference

Thursday 17 May 2012

Museum of Science and Industry

Liverpool Rd, Castlefield, Manchester

Charles Hunter is co-founder and MD of Mudlark, His background stretches back into television –  directing and producing at the BBC, ITV and for Channel 4, but since starting Mudlark he’s produced Such Tweet Sorrow, the twitter production of Romeo and Juliet with the RSC, the Civic Dashboard and  a series of social impact mobile games for India and East Africa. Mudlark’s Chromaroma Oystercard game is played across the London public transport with travel smartcards.

In response to NESTA’s Make It Local callout for Open Data projects that partnered developers and councils, Mudlark zeroed in on the datasets produced by contacts between local government and residents. After a well-received approach to approach to Digital Birmingham, the Birmingham Civic Dashboard was born: a website that shows the requests for service that members of the public make of the council and how the council categorises those requests.  Every day, the site picks up live data from the city’s Customer First contact database and displays it so that the council and residents can identify ‘hotspot’ areas where issues are common or recurring. In turn, residents can comment on  trends that emerge over time. 
 

FutureEverything Conference

Thursday 17 May 2012

Museum of Science and Industry

Liverpool Rd, Castlefield, Manchester

Jon Kingsbury is Programme Director, Creative Economy Nesta, He runs Nesta’s Creative Economy programme with a remit to develop successful models for innovation within the creative economy and by bringing creative input to innovation in other industries. These include Make it Local, a programme which encourage collaboration between local authorities and digital media developers to provide useful services for their communities and Destination Local which is stimulating the development of economic and social opportunities for hyperlocal media in the UK.

Nesta is an independent charity with a mission to help people and organisations bring great ideas to life by providing investments and grants and mobilising research, networks and skills.  Nesta works in partnership with other innovators, community organisations, educators and investors with particular focus on public services, the creative economy and economic growth.

FutureEverything Conference

Thursday 17 May 2012

Museum of Science and Industry

Liverpool Rd, Castlefield, Manchester

Dave Carter is Head of the Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA), within the Regeneration Division of Manchester City Council. MDDA runs the Manchester Living Lab, an innovation centre focusing on digital technologies and their applications to support smart, inclusive and sustainable economic growth. MDDA coordinates strategic initiatives and projects across the Greater Manchester city-region and European funded projects, including those supported through the Future Internet enabled services in ‘Smart Cities’ programme. He is a founder member of the Telecities network set up in 1993, now the Eurocities Knowledge Society Forum (KSF), and the first President of Telecities (1994-96), and a founder member of the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL). He is currently Chair of the EU Smart Cities Portfolio Working Group, which coordinates the fifteen projects supported under the EU’s 2010 Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP) and Co-Chair, with the City of Barcelona, of the Eurocities KSF Smart Cities Working Group. MDDA is also currently involved in projects supported through the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and the Interreg programme.

FutureEverything Conference

Thursday 17 May 2012

Museum of Science and Industry

Liverpool Rd, Castlefield, Manchester

• FutureEverybody – FutureEverything Report (2012)
• The FutureEverything Manual (2011)