Airtext - asthma sufferers can breathe again Thursday, September 04, 2008
Thanks to Helen Keegan for the tip about Airtext, which provides free SMS/Email alerts about pollution levels in London. This project is an ESA PROMOTE service in co-operation with 25 London agencies and authorities.
You can set up alerts linked to London borough geographic areas and will be notified if there is expected to be an increase in pollution levels in the forthcoming 12 hours. The emphasis of the site is on "Fore-warned is Fore-armed" and they also offer health advice for those likely to be affected.
posted by John Wilson @ 8:42 AM Permanent Link
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London gets free wifi Monday, July 16, 2007
Coming shortly after The Cloud launched their wifi network in the City of London, London is getting another wifi network, but this one is to be ad-funded rather than subscription.
Being offered by free-hotspot.com and MeshHopper who've partnered to create online-4-free, the service will offer free Wi-Fi access along the Thames River for 22 kilometres from Millbank to Greenwich. This new service will not only provide free Wi-Fi Internet access in hotels, restaurants, cafes and offices along the riverside, but also to people in boats on the Thames.
The free Wi-Fi service will be supported by sponsors, and users will be asked to watch a 15-30 second advert in order to obtain 15 minutes of free wireless Internet service; more adverts will be delivered each 15 minutes. Those who may want to bypass those ads need to sign up for the service provided by MeshHopper.
The free service offers download speeds of about 256kbps, while the pay service offers download speeds of 500 kbps -- equivalent to the speed of modern cellular data connections.
Free-hotspots operates about 1,500 small networks in locations across Europe.
Coverage info can be found here and below is a map showing reported coverage area.
- Millbank Pier
- Westminster Pier
- Festival Pier
- Embankment Pier
- Savoy Pier
- Bankside Pier
- RNLI Pier (on Embankment)
- Blackfriars Pier
- HMS Belfast
- Tower Bridge
- Tower Pier
- St Katherine's Pier
- Wapping Pier
- Canary Wharf Pier
- Hilton Pier
- Greenland Pier
- Masthouse Pier
- Greenwich Pier
- Entrance to Limehouse Marina
- Cutty Sark + Surrounding Area
- St Katherine's Dock (Access Points in the East Basin and the Clock Tower)
- South Dock Marina (Access Points on the Crane and on the Toilet Block)
posted by John Wilson @ 11:07 PM Permanent Link
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On your bike, Monseur
Springwise reports on an amazing new scheme that has just launched in Paris, following on from a similar one in Lyon.
This weekend, Paris placed over 10,000 bikes in just 36 hours, launching an ambitious bike sharing system that is meant to 'lead a revolution in the way Parisians move around the city'. Dubbed Vélib' (from velo + liberté), the program aims to help reduce pollution and keep the people of Paris physically fit.
Customers can pick up a bicycle from one of 750 self-service points. If no bikes are available, renters are directed towards a well-stocked point nearby. After identifying themselves and providing credit or debit card details, users can take out a bike. A day pass costs EUR 1, allowing users as many rides as they like, provided each trip is less than 30 minutes. An additional half hour is EUR 1, with prices climbing for additional time used; the pricing model is aimed at encouraging quick turnover. Bikes can be returned at any service point. Once all 1,451 are in place (end of 2007), the nearest service point will never be far off — one every 300 metres, which means they'll be 4.4 times as densely distributed as metro stations. The number of bicycles will also be doubled, bringing the total to 20,600.
The sturdy grey bikes come with a metal basket on the handlebars and are heavier than standard bicycles, built to withstand heavy use. In line with the program's green image, Vélib‘ maintenance staff get around town on 130 electrically assisted bicycles. A barge with 12 stops along the Seine will pick up bikes in need of major repairs. Cleaning staff drive electric vehicles and use rain collected on the roofs of JCDecaux offices. Like a similar scheme in Lyon, where 10 percent of the city's population has a subscription to the local sharing scheme, Vélib‘ is operated by outdoor advertising giant JCDecaux, which is footing the bill in exchange for exclusive rights to 1,628 Paris billboards.
I'm astonished that London Mayor, Ken Livingston, hasnt already adopted this one for the City. It boast green and health benefits, as well as transportation benefits. It may be that Ken doesn't have billboards to trade, but I'm sure that there are other outlets e.g. the bikes could carry adverts on them; scheme members could agree to receive adverts. The journeys can easily be paid for via mobile phone or oyster cards or at one of the congestion charge pay points.
There's definitely a business opportunity here somewhere.
posted by John Wilson @ 10:41 PM Permanent Link
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OpenCoffee - An excellent blend Friday, March 02, 2007
I spent this morning at the inaugural OpenCoffee event which Saul Klein had organised. Designed to be an opportunity for "money" to meet "talent", over 100 people turned up, albeit not many of those were fellow investors.
The Starbucks venue is located inside the Esprit store on Regent St., which doesn't open until 10am, which was the start time for OpenCoffee. The staff clearly had a big shock therefore to see a large crowd gathering outside the store before it opened and an even bigger one to see them all wander directly past them upstairs to Starbucks. I reckon the security guards thought they had a flash mob on their hands!
Whilst there were a few familiar faces, the event attracted many faces I'd not seen before despite my regular attendance at many of the London web scene events. I listened to some great ideas/ventures and shall certainly be following up on several of these. Obviously not all of the businesses I spoke to suited our interests, but as I've reported before the "funding" dating game is about right price and right investor.
The event is scheduled to be held every Thursday at 10am-12pm, albeit when I left at 1pm it was still going strong. I hope that there will be sufficient interest to maintain this frequency as it would be a great shame if the event petered out from insufficient churn of new faces and too few attendees.
My tips for entrepreneurs thinking of attending are
- don't plan to do demos. For a start, there's no free wifi in this Starbucks, but more importantly this is about making initial contact with the "money".
- be prepared to give a short explanation of what you do and what you are looking for
- find out what the investor is looking for - they may not invest in your space or have min investment thresholds that may rule you out.
- acknowledge that other entrepreneurs have come along to speak to investors too, so if there's interest on both sides after say 5 minutes, then get agreement to a follow up and then move onto the other investors. If they aren't interested, it's not necessarily because your idea is lousy or they are "thick" and don't get it. It may be because your venture doesn't fit their investment profile - most times, they will explain this.
- regularly check that the investor understands what you are describing as you are talking
- have a good supply of business cards with you - lots of people ran out today!
- be approachable and initiate conversations with people hovering nearby as well as encouraging people to join your group/discussion
- circulate; it's why you are there and so is everyone else
- you are not in competition for investor money; if the venture is good enough and the price is right you should get funding regardless.
Details of OpenCoffee "members" and future events can be found here.
More coverage of OpenCoffee can be found here at Vecosys and here at the Guardian.
Labels: event, london, opencoffee, VC, VC startup
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