Quiet Before the Storm

This last week has been quiet around Mancunian Way towers. My co-blogger is off somewhere sunny taking a well-deserved break, and I have been steadying myself for the week ahead. Next week is a big one for the technical, creative and online communities in Manchester.

First and foremost there is an important date next week for those of who are geeks to the core: 21st June.
It was on this date in 1948 – exactly 60 years ago this year – that “The Baby” (or to grown-ups the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine) ran its first program. You may wonder why this is in any way important, and that’s hard to explain without getting very dull but I’ll try in just one paragraph:
The Baby was the first machine to have all the components that we would recognise in a modern computing platform (and that includes the computers inside your washing machine and car). It had “volatile memory” that meant it had the ability to “remember” a program in a circuit and for that program to be updated without physical re-wiring – before then, programs were constructed via a hard-wired circuit. That one advance alone kick-started the computing industry.
It is in recognition of the 60th anniversary that Manchester University is holding a range of celebrations. My eye was caught by the big-idea Kilburn lecture that I look forward to attending.
However, it’s not all just history and academia next week. Between the 18th and the 20th b.TWEEN is running at the Museum of Science & Industry. This is an event that is rare – if not unique – in the UK, whereby people from TV, radio, Internet, social networking, mobile, web development, mobile and gamings industries all gather together and share ideas. This is a forum for discussing the future of entertainment and the technology that impacts on all our lives when work stops.
The programme looks engaging, however it does cost to attend – and if you work for a large multinational, it costs more than if you’re a small indie/freelancer or student – so I’ll be making sure that I blog the highlights I think will be of most interest to clued-up connected Mancunians. I’ll be in attendance for the whole programme and blogging as much as I can. If you’re attending, please feel free to come and find me and say hello.
There is also a start-up culture in Manchester that has timed an event for next week to talk about some of the next big things. Aimed at investors and the business community, Northern Startup DEMO 3 will see a keynote speech from Reshma Sohoni of SeedCamp – a “guerilla” investment and start-up programme for web companies – along with demos of ten new web apps hot off the blocks. I have a vested interest here, in that I’ll be presenting one of my new projects. It does cost £30 to attend (a tenner if you’re a student), but if you’re interested in what the future landscape of web applications in the region might look like, it could well be worth it.
And if all that wasn’t enough for you, or you find the technology scene a tad boring, there is of course the 21st June itself and The Tony Wilson Experience. This Midsummer day, 200 invited young members of the creative industries will gather in Cathedral Gardens with some of the biggest names in design, media and the arts and have what the organisers have called “the longest intelligent conversation ever”.
Wilson was a man who always invoked a reaction in the citizenry of Manchester. In life, at his height, he was often ridiculed and insulted. As he got more and more ill, the city softened, and now we seem collectively engaged in celebrating his vision.
I don’t know how much coverage of this I’m going to be able to provide as I’ve yet to secure myself a way in over the fence, but I’m trying. If you are one of the invited few, please let me know as I may want to appoint you “our correspondent from…” for the day.