Flaneurs: The network is the city
by Imran Ali
I was recently invited to an intriguing workshop…unfortunately I can’t attend, but here’s another sign of London’s role as a global hothouse for mobile innovation.
Next Thursday, Living Labs Europe is holding a half-day creative workshop on the development of mobile urban services for the 2012 Olympics, to be hosted in London. The Flaneurs: The network is the city event will bring together around 50 participants during the afternoon of Thursday 27th March.
The group’s objective is to explore interaction, experience and service design with a view to develop applications or services that may be showcased in the period leading up to and including the 2012 Olympics; the ideas and concepts which emerge from the workshop will be circulated amongst the industry to inspire others to conceive of new opportunities.
There’ll be a bunch of speakers interspersed throughout the workshop, most notably Orange’s Neil Churcher. Though I left Orange just as Neil began his role there, we collaborated during his previous role as the Academic Director of Interaction Design Institute Ivrea. The work that the IDII students prepared for us was nothing short of inspiring and astonishing, on a par with NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Programme or the MIT Media Lab.
For this reason alone, I can’t wait to see what Flaneurs comes up with - organiser Nico MacDonald has promised me some follow up insights following the workshop. The group looks incredible - I’m loving that fact that there are tech people, broadcasters, public transport officials, architects and designers in the same place - ace!
