Geolocation start-ups win Ordnance Survey developer challenge
Three start-up businesses whose products use digital maps and location data have won a support package from Ordnance Survey and TechHub in a developer challenge. Seven finalists were invited to pitch their business ideas for a geo-app or a geo-location product using Ordnance Survey data to a panel of judges. One of the winners - whose prize included a 12-month mentorship programme - was Downstreams, a service to connect communities along rivers and help people identify, incubate and crowd-fund flood prevention and environmental improvements on river systems. Another was Locappy, an app helping to connect small, local businesses with their customer base. Ordnance Survey data helps define and cluster neighbourhoods so that customer and businesses can choose the areas relevant to them to advertise in or receive information on. The third winner was Tindre, a service that enhances location awareness of mobile apps which work with Bluetooth beacons (iBeacons) and a platform for iBeacons owners to manage them and connect with developers.
Pictured, L-R: Ant Parsons of Downstreams; Jakub Tomanik of Tindre; Paula Nickson of Downstreams; Sebastian Lyall of Locappy; and Simon Redding of Downstreams.
Ordnance Survey: www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk
TechHub: www.techhub.com
Cisco report explores how UK is harnessing Internet of Everything
A report detailing how the Internet of Everything (IoE) is helping to solve some of the UK's biggest infrastructure and economic challenges has been published by Cisco. In an era when it is possible for everything to be given an Internet address, 50 billion "things" will be connected globally by 2020, creating $19 trillion worth of value at stake, according to the report, "The Internet of everything: bringing the future to life". Speaking at the report's launch Phil Smith, chief executive of Cisco UK & Ireland, said: "The Internet of Everything provides the platform from which an ever-increasing number of connections will 'wake-up' the world around us. With just 1% of the physical world connected at this time, this is just the beginning of an amazing future. As connections become smarter, faster and more insightful, we will only see more imaginative and ambitious applications of the IoE which will quite literally change the world." The report identifies five areas that will see the biggest benefits first: healthcare, retail, transport, energy and manufacturing. In healthcare, for example, not only will patients be able to manage their own healthcare conditions, but medical staff will also be able to keep track of recovery remotely and automatically update health care records. And in the transport sector, developments will include remote monitoring of infrastructure conditions through digitally connected tracks and roads, and the provision of real time data and journey-planning applications to help customers make decisions about their travel. The report can be downloaded from the Cisco website.
Cisco UK and Ireland: http://www.cisco.com/cisco/web/UK
