This is only Q2 of 2010 and the atmosphere could not be more different from 2009. As in the late 1970’s the reaction of the UK creative has been to turn to punk rock. Only now it is 2010 and we are talking about startup creativity and the geekNrolla punk attitude that Mike Butcher has been cultivating. It clearly resonated with Morten Lund for one. UK entrepreneurs have woken up and are no longer prepared to wait for an economic recovery; they are going to create on of their own; and they are going to do it the hard way, with ultra-lean startups, microcapital and massive derisking and leveraging of their business through the startup ecosystem. That is all good, if it works. And it might just work, not least because the London scene is now large enough to support itself, and because the network extends into the EU, Nordics and Eastern Europe. The entrepreneurs are not alone. The investors appear to have woken up to the change, and we must all give credit to them for doing so. The older among them have seen this all before and know a good resurgance when they see one. The younger ones are smart enough to feel the buzz and ride it. This was a good event. It felt like San Francisco. It felt like London tech entrepreneurs have woken up, and decided to get down and make their future. Which is something we should all applaud and support. Applaud loudly, GEEK’n’ROLLA style.   more »

Twenty or more start-ups challenging the panels for their futures. I'm not going to comment on them, but I list them here as a way to get you to pay them some attention!   more »

The critical session of the day for most start-ups - with serious insight from some of the best investors in the world.   more »

Summary Post from the morning sessions at Geek'n'Rolla 2010 (#gknr) with wisdom from founders and the media who love them.   more »

the 4,000 odd year old iPad of its age

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Enjoyed listening to Charles Cecil and the panel talking about collaboration between video games and other creative media (and remembering to include comics, books, music, tv and film). Ubisoft sharing a platform with a flash games company, an indie movie company and BBC Kids TV and chaired by TIGA and paid for by NESTA. Having read this far, do you want to know what you missed by not being there? OK, read to the end, here   more »

<flame on> I can't write anything better than has already been written or said by people like Techcrunch or Cory Doctorow about the Digital Economy Bill.

Rather than analyse the immense ignorance, stupidity and blatant special lobbying by Geffen and Murdoch and their empires  that is embedded in this ...   more »

Doug Richards has fired me up with his post on the requirements for massive societal change to create a culture of entrepreneurialism in the UK. It comes on the day that the UK will be told when it is to go to the polls for the most important election in 30 years. And it is time for me to get off the fence. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown paid clever lip services to the entrepreneur. They launched a cloud of buzzing, brightly coloured initiatives to support small businesses. From the Technology Standards Board, to NESTA, to Gordon’s own ‘Regional Development Funds’, they made a lot of fuss and noise. Sadly, it was all rather badly co-ordinated, with no follow through and even less real economic value. Funds were diverted to pork barrel projects (as any political finance always is) and thousands of mid-rank civil servants were able to re-launch their careers and improve their fully funded final salary pension schemes. None of that really matters, and pretty well none of it will prove to have had any lasting impact, in say, 10 years. What does matter is the underlying major forces that the Labour government set in motion. ..... The sad thing is that I have no idea how to change that without massive social upheaval. Do you? If you do, I for one, will vote for you.   more »

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Vital equipment, made from simple, readily available materials. Click on the photo to read more!

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