Blog posts tagged as 'weeknotes'

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.

Fact of the week: 330 is the number of dimples in a British golf ball according to Wikipedia.

So having been on holiday all of last week, I’m only just catching up with what’s been going on in the studio and am still not quite sure I’ve sussed it all out. Since I’m the one that actually makes up the blog rota, though, I have only myself to blame for assigning myself to write weeknotes the week after I’ve been on holiday. Trust me, I won’t do that again.

When I asked Matt Webb what last week was like, his summary was, “There was drama.” Unsurprisingly, when much of your work is dependent on the whims and wishes and ever-changing timelines of clients, things can go a bit pear-shaped. As regular readers of this blog will know, however, BERG is not a company that has all its eggs in one basket, so one client throwing us for a loop doesn’t completely knock us off balance. Nevertheless, there has been drama and so we’re having to deal with that.

In terms of what various folks are up to this week…

Matt Jones, Jack and Alex (who celebrated his one-year anniversary at BERG today!) are doing work on Uinta in preparation for a presentation on Thursday. Matt & Jack are also spending lots of time doing general company planning and re-planning and thinking about sales. Alongside all that, Jack has his fingers in Barry design. He’s also looking at lots of documents.

Barry is also occupying Alex, Denise, Alice, James, Nick, Matt Webb and Andy. Besides following up with various partners & suppliers and chasing China for quotes, Andy is specifically doing some reflecting on the last year of Barry development. (Side note: Because of my role and the fact that I don’t work on Fridays – thus missing weekly studio demos – I only get to see very small slivers of the progress that’s been made on Barry. I do catch a whiff of the excitement and anticipation around it every now and then, though. And I can say with some confidence: it’s going to be pretty spectacular, people.)

Simon, Alice, James and Nick had a meeting at the pub yesterday to make some decisions around Barry and are now working to implement those. There are still a number of near-term decisions that still need to be made, though. Since Nick, James and Alice are now sitting in the main room of the studio where I am (having previously been based in Statham next door), I’m overhearing lots more about the code and technology underlying Barry. Most of the time I have no idea what it means, but it’s rather fun to eavesdrop on anyway and to see them working to solve problems together.

Joe is mostly working on Uinta this week, fleshing out the system underneath the recently approved “look and feel”. He and Simon will be spending some time out of the studio this week meeting with partners who are doing some work on that project alongside us.

Simon is, as usual, skillfully balancing multiple project and clients and partners – this week it’s mostly Chaco, Uinta, Barry and Suwappu with the occasional random bit of SVK and other stuff thrown in. It involves lots and lots of post-it notes. Which is causing me a bit of anxiety because he’s out this afternoon and the wind is blowing the post-it notes around and I have no idea what sort of system he’s organised them into and if you come back and all your carefully assemble post-it notes are out of order, Simon, I apologise. Blame our need for fresh air.

And as well as dealing with the drama stirred up last week, Matt Webb is planning, thinking about finances & sales and having lots of coffee with various people. I hope for his sake some of that is decaf.

Timo’s holiday has stretched into this week and we’re looking forward to welcoming him back tomorrow.

As for me, I’m working furiously to catch up with all the bookkeeping, replying to lots of general studio correspondence, booking travel, updating spreadsheets, doing customer service for SVK (it’s not to late to buy one!) and chasing non-responsive suppliers and overdue invoices. And eating cake. There seems to be lots of cake this week.

I hope that wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, there’s cake there too. Have a good week!

Alex shared this music video by Biting Elbows. Imagine what would happen if The Office met Peep Show and Doom. The first-person perspective makes this really engaging.

Matt W shared another first-person video from Cinnamon Chasers. Dark and compelling:

Jones shared this beautiful biological lightpainting:

Nick shared Kevin Karsch‘s work on inserting synthetic objects into still images.

Jones also shared Slate’s Robottke experiment. How easily could you be replaced by a robot?

And finally, though you’ve probably seen it already, this is some quantised dubstep dancing that Matt Webb sent round early in the week. If this could be synthesised, it’d make a great music visualisation.

Happy weekends, all (and an especially toasty one if you happen to be in the UK).