Blog posts tagged as 'weeknotes'

Happy new year! So what is BERG up to at the moment? Well for the most part it feels like we’re awakening from a deep slumber, and there’s been a lot of blinking, yawning, stretching and replenishment of caffeine levels.

We’ve been busy unpacking the remaining crates from the Big Office Move of December. Schulze unearthed some unfamiliar output from early studio work that predates many of us. The terseness of the summary page does not do justice to the splendour of the tools it spawned. Schulze is also deep in project work for Uinta, Chaco, and our very own Little Printer.

Denise has been doing a fantastic job fielding the enquiries about Little Printer and BERG Cloud, and is also driving a lot of design thinking around Little Printer as it comes more sharply into focus.

Andy has been unpacking and setting up the workshop area of our new space, and is also working on various aspects of the physical form of Little Printer. The rest of us have been enjoying Andy and Jack’s ongoing argument over what needs to be thrown away, and what is actually valuable enough to earn precious shelf space.

Alex is wrapping up Uinta work, working on designs for our studio stationary, and writing briefs for product packaging design. He’s also managed to set up a studio speaker system which in all likelihood will cause serious structural failure if anyone were to turn the volume up to 10.

Kari has been catching up on studio admin and finance tasks, answering studio queries, and keeping on top of Zendesk tickets. At the end of this month she’s going to head off for some much deserved maternity leave.

Alice has been taking care of address and content updates to our various websites, and is now engaged in some code sketching of Little Printer developer tools. She’s been wonderfully scathing of our local coffeeshop’s customer service.

Phil is porting some embedded code in advance of vendor meetings happening next week, in addition to helping me set up our Little Printer development bench.

Timo rejoined us on Wednesday and is working his magic on a timeline full of exciting footage that was shot last month. He’s also got his VFX Supervisor hat on, and is overseeing some effects work for his Uinta video work.

There are a few notable absentees this week. Webb, Jones and Malia are together in the US and are gradually going to be reabsorbed into the fold over the course of this month. Our last missing person is James Darling, currently in India and rejoining us later this month.

Lastly, I’ve been doing relatively mundane things like making sure our office network is working properly and remembering how to write in whole sentences. This concludes the very delayed summary of week 343!

We have moved office. Joe, Alex, James, Timo, and Nick are on holiday this week. Kari, Denise, Andy, Jones and I are taking holiday for some of the week.

Our new office is so big that all-hands now requires people to move to the same space, acting under an unspoken consensus about where that should be. In our old space I could participate in a conversation with anyone without having to move at all.

As I started taking notes for weeknotes, the tiny human that Kari is currently carrying started kicking her in the ribs. Maybe he wanted to be included in weeknotes too.

There is a list of snags for the new space on the whiteboard. It includes things like "EXTRA COAT OF PAINT ON FOOD AREA PROJECTION WALL" and "LIGHT SW. MEETING ROOM SWITCH DOWN TO TURN ON (REVERSE STATE)". Simon is managing the snags list this week, along with his usual schtick of chivvying projects and people. Andy is putting up lights and hanging shelves, as well as tidying up the old space and returning keys. He has also taken to bringing bacon sandwiches from the Shepherdess for people who want them, which we're all very pleased about.

Matt Jones is finishing some work for Uinta. Kari is showing Berg 9 to people who might want to make it their own. She is also training Helen, pushing various bits of accounting admin, and doing something that I have written down only as 'printers'. This could mean anything, really, do I mean SVK printers? Little Printers? the office printers? I should have taken better notes.

Jack is working on the industrial design for Little Printer this week. He has a seemingly bottomless collection of tops in subdued colours with zips, and today he has brought out a grey knit one that I have not seen before.

Matt Webb is fighting off a sickness that he caught from an Australian and taking Jack out for cake.

Week 341 then, Merry Christmas.

These weeknotes are coming live from somewhere between Gatwick Airport and Haywards Heath, travelling at about 37mph. Joe and I are on our way to see Future Platforms who are doing some development work with us, and our fortnightly review and planning meetings are quite animated.

340 is the number of words that Betsy the Border Collie from Austria can understand. James Darling has hitch-hiked along the A340 near Aldermaston in Berkshire.

At the end of this week we are migrating to our new studio space. Co-ordinating the move of thirteen people from two locations in short time has been a bit of a challenge, and has involved much hard work from people with larger muscles than I. Here’s a little teaser of how our new space looks and how it’s changed over the last two weeks.

In the midst of packing up, we are still very busy on all projects. Timo, Alex and Matt Jones have been moving around Shoreditch by night filming for Uinta, stopping occasionally to watch footage and talk excitedly about what to shoot next over pizza and cola.

Work on Little Printer and BERG Cloud continues on many fronts. James D, Andy, Denise, Alice and Nick are variously looking at IA, infrastructure, manufacture plans, communications, whilst keeping up with the queries and comments we’ve been receiving via bergcloud.com, which have been super. They’ve have been keeping me, Matt W, increasingly-pregnant Kari and Denise busy in particular. If we haven’t quite got to your email yet we apologise, we’re doing our very best!

In January, Matt W (who you can hear on yesterday’s Radio Roundabout) will be clocking up at least 13,090 miles in the air en-route to a Uinta workshop, before dropping in on CES and meeting people to talk about Little Printer across the US. His itinerary is here if you’d like to catch him. Matt J and Joe will be attending at least the first part of this adventure.

This is a mere fly-by of what we’re up to, as usual, but I must now disappear to pack more things into crates.

Tonight, we are having a traditional Christmas dinner and a thimble of sherry to celebrate a year of good work (which I’ve been lucky enough to be part of for the past 7 months or so). I’ve been informed Matt Jones is bringing party games and Joe Malia may do a dance. I’m bracing myself.

After weeks of breathless hyperfunction, the studio has finally decompressed into a state of relative quiescence. This momentary intermission has witnessed a dispersal of people like dandelion seeds riding a collective sigh of relief. Did I really just write that? Jack can be found scaling the spectacular mountains of South Africa while Alice is shrouded in the shadows of York’s historic architecture. Denise spent the early week relaxing amongst the vineyards of Southern France and Nick chose to recuperate in Balham. In front of Battlefield 3 no doubt.

Back in the studio, the Little Printer announcement triggered a wave of public attention that quickly grew to a towering tsunami of electronic enquiries. Zendesk is fast becoming Application Of The Week and customer service is faster becoming a widely held expertise.

Simon has continued to display superhuman project management prowess until today when he conceded the fragility of a mortal shell and bowed out early with an unpleasant sounding cold. He has been involved heavily in pretty much all studio work and continues to be an organisational epicentre from home.

Kari spent the afternoon concurrently introducing Helen to the studio systems and pushing LP emails under the appropriate eyeballs.

Matt Jones is working hard to steer multiple projects for Uinta with one hand while orchestrating proposals and ‘sales’ with the other. It’s like watching Fantasia but with robots and rockets where enchanted brooms once stood.

Alex shifted his attention from creating nicely thought through visual design for Little Printer to nicely thought through visual design for Uinta. He continues to stick rigidly to ‘New Health Century’ when most have failed. Namely, myself.

Denise lends an assured lilt to customer service and continues to carefully broaden Little Printer’s personality.

When not wrapped up in paper suppliers, Andy is working closely with Uri on manufacture and with Durrell and Tom on “the Bridge”. He also attached some LEDs to a pair of gloves which looks well glam and most people thought was proper ace.

Timo has been joined by Alex in Berg 9 this week. It is said that is you listen carefully, at quiet moments in Shoreditch, you can hear the sound of Drum ‘n’ Bass emanating from their lofty tower. I think I saw Alex drag a sub-woofer up there the other day. I hope they’re ok. Timo is working on a proposal for Silverton while editing footage for Uinta and guiding UI thinking.

Matt W is working tirelessly to transform short emails into long phone calls and casting telescopic thoughts into the future to create the roadmap for Little Printer. He is also working on accounts.

James can be found scouting for ways to improve the LP IA. He returns with answers to questions we didn’t know we had. He briefly wore a snood like a sweatband and still looked cool.

Nick has returned from Balham and is now working closely with Tim Bacon to draw a vector between video, data and 3D software to mind bending effect. I just had a glance some work in progress. It’s difficult to comprehend what it all means but it looks incredible.

Lots will change next week. The mounting anticipation is hotter than a … you get the idea.

It’s been quite a week.

BERG Cloud & its first product, Little Printer were announced. We’ve been overwhelmed by the response – it’s been amazing.

As a result, our weeknotes are very, very late.

Schulze was on duty, and before he departed for Africa, he left me these scribblings from our weekly ‘all-hands’ meeting on Tuesday morning (2hrs before we pushed the button on BERG Cloud!):

AJ: final designs on Uinta, working on some Little Printer stuff too

DW: Little Printer! Little Printer! Little Printer!

JM: Uinta, working with Tim Bacon on 3D and also a little on other Uinta brief w Alex and timo. Very husky. Design wookie.

MJ: Working on Uinta projects, teaching at the RCA.

NL: working on Berg Cloud – on radio telemetry and reception testing.

JD: Berg Cloud timezones and being a fashion maverick

AB: finishing the Berg Cloud website, also dev on some final-stage BBC Dimensions work

TA: Finishing the Little Printer film. Uinta material exploration and video prototyping.

MW: Internet provocateur Anne Galloway is sleeping on his couch. He is in Athens for TEDxAthens and working with Schulze to tie down the wild stallion that is Little Printer.

Simon is busy, coordinating all our projects, the BERG Cloud launch, and our impending studio move. Kari is off on holiday and Schulze is on wings to Africa. Before he flies he is stretching versions of the world in his mind to line up a working process that causes molecules and radiation to synchronise into thousands of little printers.

Normal (whatever that is) service maybe resumed in week 339…

It’s week 337, which is a permutable prime. I imagine they’re pretty rare.

For our All Hands this week there were only 6 of us in the studio space, intended for 6. We could breathe. Jack, Timo and Denise were out filming our freshly returned Barry prototype. Nick was almost certainly with them, but he was on holiday so he ought not to have been. Joe and James were quarantined. Jones returned from a NESTA breakfast event where he was sparring with Usman Haque about the Internet of Things.

The remainder of the week was more of the same for the majority above, including the quarantine in Joe’s case. We’ve had just about enough of studio fever round here. Otherwise Alice, James and Alex are presently fighting the wall of todos in the run up to exciting things. Matthew is writing a talk and going over contracts.

There’s a new project with Uinta kicking off, while work on the existing briefs continues apace and new studio space preparations are high on the agenda. We’re excited about moving, but we’ve only got 5 days to have the space turned from an art gallery into a functioning studio with a meeting room and workshop which as yet, don’t exist. Plenty of site visits, photos, details and logistics filling up fair chunk of Simon, Kari and myself’s week.

Also taking up most of the week, from my perspective, was some longer-than-anticipated dental treatment. And due to these week notes being from my perspective, they reflect my week at BERG: quite short. Sorry.

That’s all from me. Back to the studio.

336 is apparently an untouchable number, and the number of dimples in an American standard golf ball.

It’s cold in London, and people are ill.

Kari and Simon are observing Wildfire Protocol, and working from home – both helping run the studio and all our projects smoothly through magical electronic tendrils.

Jack and Timo are in Copenhagen for the beginning of the week, teaching with our friends at CIID.

This week is dominated by work on Barry, for nearly everybody.

It’s building up to something special.

Also, excitingly – we’re very close to agreeing terms on a new space. We love our studio, and we’ve spent almost two years here but it’s too small for all of us now. Getting a new room to work for next year is going to be brilliant. Andy and Matt W are going to do a final look at our possible new place this afternoon.

A studio is not just a place to sit staring at a screen (well, it mostly is) but somewhere that should be a force-multiplier.

Space is the machine!

So, what’s in the machine this week?

Webb’s got nearly all his attention on Barry, talking with potential partners, thinking about next steps around what’s possible, making sure all aspects of the offer are working in unison. Aside from that he’s working on our move, and with me on a bit of sales.

Andy’s mostly on Barry, doing a bit of prodding and progressing on some modelmaking work we’re doing, buying more plastic sample to do more material exploration, and helping with some preparations for our move. In between all of that, he’s having his wisdom teeth out, poor lamb.

Alex is working with Alice and James on developing the web service component for Barry to the designs he’s been working on. He’s also doing a bit of Uinta UI work with me.

Joe’s working hard on Uinta with Nick, and cranking on some video-prototyping for Chaco.

Denise is in Kaizen-focus on the visual and service design for Barry. She’s also doing a bit of partner presentation work with Webb, and will be working with Timo on the filming on the project at the end of the week.

Nick’s doing some data-compression research, nudging Uinta’s foundations along by examining how some new experimental software works on some new experimental hardware, and doing a hell of a lot of work on Barry to get ready for it’s next stage – along with James and Alice.

I’m working on our projects for Uinta – doing some speculative interface sketches ready for more filming with Timo and Jack next week. I’m helping out with Barry – as it’s really all-hands on deck around that project right now – mainly helping Webb with the partner discussions. I’ve also got some interesting meetings to look forward to at the end of the week.

And finally, tonight, I get to see a personal hero of mine, James Burke speak.

Usual weeknotes with a little surprise at the end – I thought I’d give a quick rundown of the kind of music we listen to in a normal week in the office. Enjoy.

Matt Webb is deep in business development – working on a new office space, lots of presentations for the end of the week, and lots of future work possibilities. Always exciting to hear what’s coming up.

Matt Jones is on sales this week, as well as preparing a few workshops, and working on various aspects of Uinta.

Jack and Timo are preparing for some upcoming film work, as well as working with Joe and Durrell on some Chaco related business which is looking lovely. They’re lodged over in our new (temporary) overflow space.

Kari’s doing her usual sterling job of keeping the office (and us) in check.

Myself, Denise, James, Alice, Nick and Andy are all deep in various aspects of Weminuche – design, manufacturing, code, you name it. The progress in the last few weeks has been phenomenal, I wish I could say more about it. Soon!

Joseph Malia is doing baffling things Uinta related, on top of some Chaco work for Jack.

Alice is working on the final bits of Dimensions on top of Weminuche.

Simon is producing what I’m expecting to be the world’s largest gantt chart, and generally keeping his very capable eyes on most of our work to make sure it runs swimmingly.

Finally, here’s a few samples of what we’ve been listening to in the office this week:

• T Williams’ mix for FACT Magazine
• Warp Records’ 2010 sampler
• 14 Tracks from Planet Mu
• Four Tet’s Fabriclive 59 mix
• Rustie’s ‘Glass Swords’ (Spotify)
• My Spotify playlist of the Sounds of the Universe Mailer, from 27/10/2011
• Simon’s Spotify playlist of the samples from the Avalanches ‘Since I left you’ – and the original is here
• AWOBMOLG on Spotify
• Adam Buxton’s Kind of Big Playlist on Spotify
• Leaf office playlist on Spotify
• And finally the soundtrack to Drive, which unfortunately isn’t on Spotify but is completely fantastic, as is the film itself.

It’s a drizzly day in London and I have cold forearms.
Alex, Jones and Jack are in Uinta workshops this week, so the office feels a bit empty and Jones’ iconic eyebrows are missing from my view across the desk.

This week Simon is shepherding, doing a bit of re-planning, pinging off emails and ushering the rest of us into the right places at the right time with his characteristic patience and charm.

Kari is still doing ‘the usual’, a lot of putting things into spreadsheets. This week she is also writing documentation for new financial admin procedures, which I can only hope is more exciting than it sounds.

Nick has his fingers and also some toes in many pies (dexterous feet) this week. He’s working with Joe on Uinta, with James, Phil, Andy and I on Weminuche, applying some polish to Suwappu, moving more google accounts from one place to another, and doing a bit of Schooloscope migration.

Denise is making some very beautiful things for Barry, which I can’t wait to see in the world.

Joe is working on Uinta, making some truly gorgeous looking animations, and swinging his arms around a lot.

James is working on Weminuche with Alex. Right now he is looking at something complicated in Omingraffle and tapping his face thoughtfully.

I am also working with Denise on Barry. Taking pictures from dropbox and making them into real things.

Matt Webb is thinking about January, doing his regular catch ups with the team, financial stuff and meetings.

Andy is thinking about process and working on Barry. Something must be afoot because every time the doorbell goes he jumps out from Statham and runs to the door to collect whatever the postman has brought. What’s he building back there?

Timo is working with Jack on Chaco stuff. He is also pulling together a script for Uinta work and writing a proposal.

The rain has stopped, and Alex and Jones have just arrived back, laden with coffee and fun things for us all to look at.

Onwards.

331 – the week that shall henceforth only be known as Plague Week. Leaves are falling, temperatures are dropping, and the dreaded rhinovirus has claimed no fewer than five victims of our small cohort of thirteen this week. We have a policy in the studio that as soon as someone begins to look a little green, sniffly or generally grotty they are immediately banished, not to return until risk of contagion subsides. Unfortunately it seems our policy hasn’t worked too well this week. Biohazard suits are next.

Last Friday, our weekly demos were stunning. Ninety minutes of brilliant work on all projects. It’ll be hard to follow that this week, especially with so many people out of the studio.

If Barry were a rollercoaster, we’ve just gone over the top of a reasonably lengthy climb and are enjoying the thrill of sudden progress, speed and excitement, though there is still much to come. After various re-planning sessions last week, and a couple of eureka moments this week, things are really happening. Both Matthews, Jack, Denise, Alex, James, Alice, Andy, Nick and Phil have all been working tremendously towards our various short-term goals for this. You know things are going well when Andy becomes an excited one-man percussion extravaganza in the back room.

Last week we started working with partners Future Platforms on some elements of the Uinta and Chaco projects. Progress so far is good, and as they run their projects in fortnightly iterations, as well as our day-to-day communications Joe and I will be spending every other Wednesday with the FP team in Brighton to review what’s been done and plan the next iteration of work. It’s a similar process to that which we’re using for Barry internally.

We’re at the stage where we’re gearing up some communications work around Chaco, Uinta and Barry. Jack and Timo have been sketching and I’ve spent time with them to sketch out timings and logistics. It’s going to be a busy few months for those guys.

Between her numerous other responsibilities, Kari’s been pounding the streets scouting out slightly larger spaces for us to move to locally. Matt Jones and Matt Webb have been looking at our pipeline of work into 2012 and I’ve been supporting by looking at our likely capacity into the new year. They’ve also been out at Wired 2011, returning to the studio rather excited about brainwave-controlled cat ears. And why not.