designers

Work in digital, and in Cambridgeshire/Lincolnshire?

December 22, 2011 By Dan Thornton

Just a quick note to say the date has been set for the next Digital People in Peterborough meetup. It’ll be January 19th at The Brewery Tap in Peterborough, right by Peterborough train station.

Digital People in Peterborough (#DPiP) is an informal gathering of geeks, whether you’re a developer, designer, database admin, blogger, app developer. It’s a chance for freelancers to get out of the home office, and for those in large companies to chat with likeminded people. We meet around once a month in a pub setting for an informal gathering, and also arrange some more unique events (Such as a successful family BBQ and fun day last year for digital geeks with kids).

If you’re in the area, there’s the:

So there’s no excuse for not popping along and saying hello.

Note to potential sponsors: We’ve got some ideas for some very cool events over the next 12 months, so if you’d be interested in supporting or sponsoring the group in some way, please let me know.

Geeks, BBQ food and a bouncy castle…

June 30, 2011 By Dan Thornton

That headline makes more sense when I explain that the first ever Digital People in Peterborough Family BBQ takes place on Saturday. I’m still continually amazed that an off-the-cuff idea to see if any local people involved in mobile and websites fancied a couple of beers has grown into 40+ people in the local area signing up on the DPiP website, the Facebook page or following on Twitter.

Not only that but we’ve even expanded from the monthly pub gathering to include a curry night, and now an attempt to get all of us out into the sunshine and involve our families with a BBQ at Afro-Caribbean restaurant Embe. It’s somewhere I’ve heard good things about, so I’m looking forward to sampling the food – and not only are they providing the BBQ for £5 per adult, but they’ve also very kindly agreed to provide a bouncy castle for those of us bringing children!

How great is that!

Plus, having had a quick look at their menu, I’m already trying to work out when I might be able to come along again to try some of the dishes they have on offer…

We’ve already got 11 or 12 confirmed people, with families, coming along for something a bit different, so if you’re in the Peterborough area, and you’re at all interested or involved with any sort of digital business, consider yourself invited. You can be a blogger, marketeer, developer, systems admin, mobile app creator, collect retro consoles, or write online for a living. We’re all really friendly, and if you want to find out more about us in advance, just take a look at the website, Facebook or Twitter in advance!

Second chance to meet Digital People in Peterborough

November 10, 2010 By Dan Thornton

Last month I finally asked if anyone fancied coming along to a meet up for people working in all aspects of digital in Peterborough, UK and the surrounding area. And fortunately I didn’t end up sitting on my own in the pub, as around 12 people came along for a pint and to chat. It was great to meet a load of talented people, catch up with a couple of people I already knew and be able to find out how much we had in common etc.

So, as it went so well last time, we’re doing it the same way again this month, on Thursday November 25th from 7.30pm, in the Brewery Tap pub in Peterborough.

There’s more details and the chance to meet up with other digital people in the Peterborough area online at http://dpip.spruz.com (No www), or via a public Twitter list I’ve created for Digital People in Peterborough. And we’ll be using the Twitter hashtag #DPiP.

It’s likely to be the last one before Christmas, so hopefully everyone can make it, and in the new year, we’ll look at what we can add to the drinking and chatting to make it even more useful for everyone…

The first ever DPiP pub meetup…

October 29, 2010 By Dan Thornton

The first meet-up of Digital People in Peterborough took place last night, and seemed to be a resounding success judging by the comments and conversations in the pub, and responses on Twitter (hashtag #DPIP).

Personally, it was much needed. I’ve been up to my eyeballs in freelance work for a number of clients, meeting and chatting to people about some possible permanent roles in the future, and keeping OnlineRaceDriver updated as my main public-facing personal project.

So it was great when around a dozen people showed up last night, with a wide range of talents and interests – designers, developers, marketing, website owners. Everyone huddled round a table and started chatting, and I think that a good few contact details were exchanged and potentially some interesting new ideas were hatched…

It was great to find so many talented people are based in the area, whether they’re working for large companies, small companies or freelancing, and to be able to find out more about what they’re working on.

The plan is to meet up once a month, so I’ll share the details of the next event soon, and possibly introduce some chances to learn more about each other, specific projects and share some know-how…

Incidentally – if you happen to run a pub or suitable venue in Peterborough for 10 – 20 geeks to turn up for an evening (especially if you have plug sockets, wifi and somewhere reasonably quiet to chat), let me know!

And finally, huge thanks to everyone who was able to make it – my fears of sitting alone in the corner of the pub were unfounded! And really big thanks to @joffff for helping to organise and round-up interest, and @pjeedai for his help and buying some food for everyone to share…

Twitter continues to expand the team…

February 2, 2010 By Dan Thornton

Twitter has been making some more hires recently – first up is Robin Sloan, who joins to handle media partnerships. Sloan previously worked as a strategist and executive at Current TV. During the first presidential debate of 2008, Sloan built an application to overlay tweets on the bottom of the screen. Spookily he was also the author of Twitter’s 5 billionth tweet.

Also joining is user experience designer Mark Otto, who worked at ZURB, an interaction design firm whose listed clients include TinyPic and CC:Betty. And finally Dan Webb, the London web developer behind Twaudio, which brought MP3s to Twitter through direct uploads or recording.

(Hat tips to Venturebeat and Louis Gray)

Louis estimates the total number at Twitter to be around 158 following a regular weekly pattern of hiring. It seems as if the desire to evolve and most importantly monetise, will be the main drivers. After all, the user experience of the Twitter website hasn’t changed in great detail for some time (The main added features have been the new Retweets and Location), and meanwhile 3rd party clients are constantly finding new ways to improve on the default experience.

Beyond the UI for consumers, this could really be about improving the experience for the monetisable advertisers, marketers and customer service teams. Big businesses are generally used to working with well-polished, expensive systems, and polished controls/dashboards for business use will add to the draw for mainstream business.