Vietnam

Two amazing weeks travelling up Vietnam from south to north. I started and ended my journey in two typically crazy Asian cities: Hoi An and Hanoi. But the real Vietnam, the one that makes you want to go back and soak up a bit more of the culture, is the towns that lie between the two cities. Even the busiest towns have a feeling of calm bustle about them. There is a definite sense this is a developing country, everyone has their own little plan for a brighter future, but there are no signs of leaving behind their traditions in the face of development; as the cliche would have you believe. Vietnam is exactly what you expect from South East Asia, and one over on Thailand for having a smaller tourism industry.  

Singapore

Strong contender for the most glamorous place on Earth. Not the best place for a backpacker to meet people or save money, but certainly a civil place to get through jet lag.

Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Bali

It's been a long time since my last post. A lot has happened, perhaps the most exciting was my first time travelling. With my 60 litre backpack on, an empty SD card in my camera, and a tearful mother at Heathrow, I ventured out on my own. Most people can't believe I went alone. Even on the plane on my way to Asia I was warned against travelling alone: "cause you're a woman, it's too dangerous". Shame that this is the way we are taught to live. I wasn't alone really, I was on 14 strong backpacking tours some of the time and traveled with a friend at one point. I was only "alone" alone for 12 days (Singapore and Bali). Funnily enough I learnt the most about myself in those days, as the cliche goes.

Radio Gaga

It's funny how you graduate and spend months looking for work and worthwhile experiences, then suddenly everything comes along at once. I am now working at Imperial, where I did my Masters, on media for a project that tells stories about the future of technology. This unexpectedly includes being involved in producing videos for the project, which is about as fun as science communication gets for a geek like me - today I spent the day interviewing an academic at a recycling plant in West London. I shall post some videos when they are all polished and pretty.

I did a two week placement at Whistledown Productions mainly working on Radio 4's wonderfully journalistic Feedback. I'm hoping to make some BBC radio magic with them mentoring me.

Last but oh-so not least, I recently completed a Live Radio project at the Roundhouse. It was about making live magazine radio shows for young people; imagine Radio 1 at its absolute best. This the area of radio I have had near to no experience of making but listen to all the time, so it was truly eye opening and exciting. The project culminated in 4 radio shows about Roundhouse's Rising Festival weekend which showcased new musical talent. 

This is a package I produced about the amazing artist Ophelia:

And here is the show I co-presented (eek):

Rising 360 Episode 3 - ft Wildebeats, GAPS, Mariam The Believer by Rising 360 on Mixcloud

Listen to the other 3 shows here.

Travelling to the Wonderland

This installation at V&A is one of the best I have seen in a while, the more you look the more details you find. It's by Xu Bing who was inspired by a Chinese fable called Peach Spring Blossom where a lost fisherman discovers a wonderland behind a mountain where the inhabitants live in harmony with nature.

Blogging for Imperial CreateLab

I initially heard about Imperial CreateLab from a friend I made when I was making the Imperial Hackspace Podcast. Suffice to say he's pretty clued up about social enterprise and innovative design happenings at Imperial College. So when they started looking for a blogger for the Createlab website he suggested I might want to do it. It just so happens that I had come up with an idea for an app, and Createlab's blog would be the perfect place to document my journey of taking an idea to a fully fledged start up.

Find my first blog post here or read it below. When it was published @ICreatelab tweeted about it, followed by 9 retweets, potentially reaching 12.8K people. Now that is exciting! In a social media kind of way.  

So you've got an idea for a startup, now what?

It used to be that everyone has a book in them, now everyone has an app in them. And I reckon I have a pretty good idea for an app. But as someone with no business or coding skills it could easily remain just that. You always hear about people who are sitting on their million dollar idea or invention that they will make happen “at some point” or “when I have the time/finances”, but you just know it’s not going to happen. And there’s a good reason for that: it’s hard!

Making an idea into a prototype, doing thorough market research and getting people to invest in your business is the long and winding road to a successful business. I have been told, and I have found out quite quickly, that it requires hard-work, patience and lots of determination. Determination can be the first thing separates the wheat from the chaff and the business leaders of tomorrow from the sitting-on-an-idea wannabe’s.

"It requires hard-work, patience and lots of determination"

If you are someone who has an idea for a start-up business know this: if there is money to be made by fulfilling a particular need there will be other people working on it. So moving the idea forwards quickly can be key.

Dealing with Intellectual Property

My very first issue is that I do not have the expertise to know what my next step should be. Of course there are many others who are literate in all things startup but surely it would be unwise to share my idea with them?

Wrong! Of course you want to protect your Intellectual Property but as we mentioned it’s a long road to make something out of an idea, not many people are going to put that level of work in. Sharing your idea with someone who can help you think about how to move it forwards can be a very valuable thing. As Millie at Createlab told me knowing when it will be useful to share your idea is probably the second thing that separates those that make it to those that do not. That’s not to say you should not be careful about it, I would not share my idea with an employee of Google. And I also will not share the full idea with you. As lovely as you are, you could be anyone. All I will say is that I’m developing an app that encourages a balanced life.

Criticism

"Embrace criticism and in the end you have something that you know your customer wants"

The other useful thing about telling someone your idea is getting critical honest feedback. So far I have told three people who work in start ups my idea and they all think there is something in it, but first I need to do thorough customer research to find out what the exact needs are and get a clear idea of who my customer is. One of the people I spoke to was Mark who I met at a Createlab Drop-in mentoring session. He said that people are already solving the problem my app would address in their own way with what is available to them, so perhaps there is not as much of a need as I thought. At a point like this anyone who believes in their idea would defend it through reflex. But actually he has a valid point and all criticism is incredibly useful. From this conversation Mark helped me to realise that finding out what people already do to solve the problem should be part of my market research and through this I can figure out a way to make my solution better. 

Allowing your business idea to be your baby that is perfect in every way is another quick route to failure. Lean start-ups work on the principle that you make a prototype, test it with the customer, improve the prototype, test again and repeat. You go through this cycle again and again until it is the product is right. This method embraces criticism and in the end you have something that you know your customer wants.

Next steps: Market research

My next step will be a substantial amount of market research to answer some key questions about my customers. To get good answers you have to ask good, non-leading questions; so I shall be investing in a book that has been recommended to me “The Mom Test” by Rob Fitzpatrick. See details below.

Reading list:

·         Website: Custdevcards Ideas on how to have more useful conversations with your customers http://custdevcards.com/

·         Book: The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick “How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you” http://momtestbook.com/

While on placement at BBC Science Radio

In October 2013 I did a placement at BBC Science Radio. I got to work on lots of amazing science stories for programmes like Science in Action and Frontiers (in particular the episode on Self-Healing Materials). 

It involved finding, researching and sometimes pitching stories, contacting contributors and pre-interviewing them. This last bit is incredibly exciting and slightly nerve-racking because you are probably talking to a world class professor and asking her "silly" questions to make sure they can explain the science well and that you've got the science right. Needless to say starting a conversation with "I'm calling from the BBC.." really opens doors. 

I pitched and wrote a story I was researching for Science in Action to the News Online team. Read it below or follow link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24750897

Bat virus clues to origins of Sars

By Keeren Flora, BBC Radio Science Unit

Researchers have found strong evidence that the Sars virus originated in bats.

Two novel Sars-like coronaviruses were found in Chinese horseshoe bats which are closely related to the pathogen that infects humans.

Critically, the viruses infect human cells in the same way, binding to a receptor called ACE2.

This suggests coronaviruses could transfer directly from bats to humans, rather than via an intermediate species like civets as was previously thought.

The results are reported in the journal Nature.

According to Gary Crameri, virologist at CSIRO and an author on the paper, this research "is the key to resolving the continued speculation around bats as the origin of the Sars outbreaks".

This Sars-like coronavirus is around 95% genetically similar to the Sars virus in humans, the research shows. And they say it could be used to develop new vaccines and drugs to combat the pathogen.

The Sars outbreak between November 2002 and July 2003 resulted in more than 8,000 worldwide cases and more than 770 deaths. This, along with the ongoing endemic of the Mers-coronavirus demonstrates the threat to humans from novel coronaviruses.

Dr Peter Daszak is the president of the EcoHealth Alliance and an author on the paper published in Nature. He said: "Coronaviruses evolve very rapidly. The ones we are seeing are exquisitely evolved to jump from one species to another, which is quite unusual for a virus. So the big question is why are they emerging now?"

At wildlife markets in China other animals and humans come into close proximity with bats, creating an ideal environment for the virus to jump between species. Also, those hunting in or living near bat caves have a significant risk of infection from such viruses, which are excreted in bat faeces.

Understanding the origins of infectious diseases like Sars could help scientists tackle future infectious viruses before they emerge, through knowing where they are likely to arise and which families of virus we are most vulnerable to, and taking action to prevent initial infection.

Dr Daszak said it would cost "about $1.5bn to discover all the viruses in mammals. I think that would be a great investment because once you have done it, you can develop vaccines and get ready with test kits to find the first stage of emergence and stop it."

A Pair of Human Hands

A film Chrissie Clark, Simon Roach and I made for our Masters course.

The Jam Jar

 

Jam Jar Florists found in Peacock Yard. http://jamjarflowers.co.uk 

The Yards are full of studio spaces that house crafts people and artists, like Jam Jar Florists and Lute-makers Sandi and Stephen who we made a film about. See it here   

Kew

Old Weather

It’s not very often that history and science come together, but that is specifically what the Old Weather project is all about. Old Weather is a citizen science project where online users transcribe old ship logs to find weather data that can be used by climate scientists. In so doing the citizen excavates forgotten stories of the 19th and 20th century ships straight from the logs.

Many thanks to: Joan Arthur, Alexandra Eveleigh, Fredi Otto and the makers of Old Weather.

Go to Old Weather

Neighbourhood Watch

Long Live Southbank

Pretty bits from Edinburgh