Question: Was this said to me by a Chinese animation company, or a Bristol based digital marketing business?

Answer: Both, if I paraphrase – and therein lies a challenge.

In this post-digital landscape the cost of entry for new service businesses is lower than ever before, and competition is now global - with the result that regardless of whether you promote quality as your USP, there is pressure on price.

But at the same time this technology revolution is knocking down the traditional, aggregated distribution models and creating opportunity in entirely new emerging industries, and in new models of exploitation within rapidly evolving existing business sectors.

The difficulty for small companies (and true whatever your business - digital, design, marketing, publishing, production etc) is however the same as it ever was - how do I create the time away from core business to develop new products or services? And even if I create the time, how do I extract enough margin from existing business to fund this development time?

At a talk at the Pervasive Media Studio recently Evan Grant from interactive agency Seeper described a kind of internal “arms race”, the clients they work with constantly demand “the first” or “the newest” so Seeper is in a permanent state of development – luckily they have 12 year track record behind them so are able to invest to re-sell.

Darius Pocha from Enable explains their approach to the issue, launching a new agency called Moksha to create content and experiences for brands, “With Moksha our aim is to create innovative concepts where clients pay for the value of the idea rather than the number of hours it takes to develop and execute it.”

So is there a solution? – not a simple one, but there are opportunities for you to try to solve the problem in places you might not immediately look. And despite being public funding they do not have the stifling bureaucracy and constricting criteria you’d expect.

The Media Sandbox scheme was set up to tackle exactly this issue. Experimentation requires space and resource, so over the past two years Media Sandbox has made small development investments in everything from mobile services to ARG’s, software development to multiplatform content. The ethos of the Sandbox is about community and collaboration – open innovation – but since when did any idea emerge fully formed?

Simon from Slingshot, who received a Sandbox award in 2008, says “Sandbox was a great catalyst for us. The commission gave us the opportunity to develop a methodology and an aesthetic. The ideas we generated during this process needed further backing to take them from plans to services, which we received in the form of a TSB feasibility award. MSGE, the game system we developed, is now the core of our business and at the heart of the set of products we are commercialising.”

The call for ideas for Media Sandbox 2010 is open now and the scheme will make 7 x £10,000 investments to develop new projects using open data and/or pervasive experiences (link).

As referenced by Simon, another call currently open is with the Technology Strategy Board. Focused on the development of innovative products and services to pre-figure the internet of the future they will invest £18M in collaboration R&D over the next 12 months (link)

Last word to Andy Parkhouse from Team Rubber “we’ve generated real benefit in the past from our involvement with funding schemes like the Media Sandbox. Creating space for innovation has allowed us to develop new ideas for products, over time this has enabled us to diversify our sales pitch and delivered revenues to the bottom line.”

If you are a creative business who needs to find an answer to the question at the top, I’d recommend you take 5 minutes to look at these two schemes – gift horses and all that….

Contact Victoria (victoria@watershed.co.uk) or Mark (mark@markleaver.net) if you need any other information or advice.

Mark Leaver – July 2010

Passion is important. It's passion that fuels any great idea and when you mix passion with technology, content and context, you can make brilliant things happen.

The South West is full of passionate people, so to kick off this years' scheme we ran three ideas labs: Pervasive Experiences were explored in Plymouth & Gloucester; and in Bristol we challenged you to consider open data and the B-Open strand of this years' scheme.

From accessibility, to gaming platforms, to transport applications, to broadcasting - ideas were collectively shared and discussed and we know there are more ideas out there. So what are you passionate about? What needs do you or your audience have? What barriers do you foresee? How can you respond in future-facing ways?

Applications are now open for Media Sandbox 2010 (deadline 28th July):

- You can download the application form and learn more about submitting an application here.

You can also:
- Learn more about the two theme strands here.
- Find out what data is available from Bristol City Council here.
- Find out what other data sets people have requested here.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Many thanks to all the ideas lab participants, Formation Zone, Tamar Science Park, Designed in Devon, Plymouth Media Partnership, Gloucestershire Media Group, Connecting Bristol and Bristol City Council who were instrumental in making this years' events a success.

Thanks also to Sirius, one of Europe's most experienced Enterprise Open Source systems integrators, for supporting the Bristol networking and drinks session.

More pics from all the events on Flickr.

• Bristol Air Quality
• Bristol Harbour Water Quality
• Bristol River Water Quality
• Bristol City Council Energy Management

Statistical data is also available and includes:

• Indicators of quality of life in Bristol
• Bristol Census Data
• Bristol Crime Data
• Bristol Health Data
• Bristol Education Data (Key Stage Results)
• Bristol Population Data
• Bristol Department of Work and Pensions Data
• Bristol Deprivation Data
• Bristol Health Data

In the future feeds and datasets will be added for:

• Car Parks
• Venues
• Events
• Councilors

Existing RSS/Atom feeds you may be interested in are as follows:

• Online Services
• Leisure Online Services
• Libraries
• Museums
• Twinning
• Ask Bristol
• Avon & Somerset Police
• Bristol weather
• Consultations
• ePetitions
• Recruitment
• Web casts

If you have an idea that relies on content from a data set not included on this list please comment on the 'What data is available?' page, as we're keen to source other data sets you might need.So, get your thinking caps on and don't forget to book a place on the Ideas Lab next week.

Details: 30 June 2010 | 1 – 6pm | Watershed, Bristol | Free, booking essential

For full details about the event and how to book, visit: http://www.mediasandbox.co.uk/b-open-launching-media-sandbox%E2%80%99s-open-data-strand/

When: 6-9pm, Monday 28th June 2010
Where: Board Room / Room 2. Level 4, Llanthony Warehouse, Gloucester Docks, Gloucester, GL1 2EH

Bringing together leading technology, artistic and media talent, Media Sandbox is a commissioning scheme to support South West companies/organisations to research emerging possibilities in digital media.

In 2010, four £10,000 commissions will be awarded to research projects exploring innovative Pervasive Experiences - ground-breaking ideas that dovetail mobile, wireless and sensory technologies with content and context, to create meaningful experiences.

This free event will take the form of a mini ideas lab and will offer the opportunity to examine the theme, generate ideas, find out more about the scheme and meet some interesting people.

Media Sandbox will open for applications on 30th June 2010. The application form will be available for download from 23rd June. Whilst it is not mandatory to attend, we do advise anyone considering applying to come along.

The ideas lab will be held at Board Room / Room 2, Level 4, Llanthony Warehouse, Gloucester Docks, Gloucester, GL1 2EH.

This event is free, but booking is essential. To reserve a place, please email victoria@watershed.co.uk

This event is organised in collaboration with Gloucestershire Media Group.

The session was facilitated by the brilliant Seth Honor, who did a fantastic job of teasing out all the possible ideas in the room (aided by a hooter).

Everyone had the opportunity to spend a minute pitching an idea, then all ideas were voted on and the top five worked up into more detailed propositions.

Ideas ranged from the future of TV, to guided walks, personalised radio, locative archives, augmented reality for estate agents, attaching stories to objects, tagging your local area, bio-feedback in gaming and more. Phil Stenton, Director of Calvium, quickly worked his way around the room discussing the feasibility and possibilities of ideas.

Thoughts and propositions were feed back to the whole group and some really interesting discussion took place: if you personalise radio how do you keep the notion of 'random'? If people can tag their local area with comments how will abuse of the system be managed? To stream video from a mobile device to many people, how can we overcome the bandwidth problem? How do you bridge the gap between the collective experience of TV and the individual experience of devices? Could our own hearts become game characters that we control through emotional response?

The session closed with a quick word from everyone on how they were feeling - inspired, excited, thought provoking were just a few. I was certainly inspired and I look forward to our next Lab in Gloucestershire (details coming soon). More pics on Flickr.

Many thanks to Formation Zone, Tamar Science Park, Designed in Devon and particularly Karen Stockdale and Kurston from Plymouth Media Partnership, who were instrumental in making this event a success.

Bringing together leading technology, artistic and media talent, Media Sandbox is a commissioning scheme to support South West companies/organisations to research emerging possibilities in digital media.

In 2010, awards will be made to six research projects exploring innovative Pervasive Experiences - ground-breaking ideas that dovetail mobile, wireless and sensory technologies with content and context, to create meaningful experiences.

This free event will take the form of a mini ideas lab and will offer the opportunity to examine the theme, generate ideas, find out more about the scheme and meet some interesting people.

Media Sandbox will open for applications later in the year. Whilst it is not mandatory to attend, we do advise anyone considering applying to come along.

The ideas lab will be held at Room 011 Roland Levinsky Building University of Plymouth, Drake Circus PL4 8AA

Sign up by registering at  info@pm-p.com or calling the office on 01752 346530

This event is organised in collaboration with Plymouth Media Partnership, Formation Zone, Itamar Science Park & Designed in Devon.

Thanks also to the Creative Industries KTN and Bristol Media, who helped the event go off with a bang.

Media Sandbox 2010 will open for applications later in the year. Please keep an eye on this website and sign up to our mailing list for the latest news.

This years’ theme is: Pervasive Experiences

We’re looking for ground-breaking ideas that dovetail mobile, wireless and sensory technologies with content and context, to create meaningful experiences.

For more info visit the 2010 Sandbox page or download a PDF

Sandbox Surgeries will also begin this week. These drop-in sessions will be held at the Pervasive Media Studio and offer the opportunity to discuss any aspect of the scheme, such as the application process, potential ideas or partnerships. Surgeries will be held every thursday lunchtime until 28th January (with the exception of the 24th and 31st December). More info and registration details on our events page.

If you have a brilliant idea, this might be the perfect opportunity to pursue it…

Simon have also designed a brilliant game especially for the event. Based on the classic 80's board game ‘Guess Who?’, we'll be challenging you to become super sleuths in the race to win a £25 iTunes voucher. You’ll also meet some interesting people along the way.

For info, the agenda is looking something like this:

6.00pm  Registration, drinks & nibbles
6.30pm  Welcome from CI KTN's John Cass, followed by a short talk from Wired's David Rowan
6.40pm  Lightening talks on recent projects from Simon & AntiVJ
6.50pm  More drinks, nibbles and a chance to play 'Who is this?'
7.45pm  Exciting announcement about next year's Media Sandbox scheme
7.50pm  Lightening talks on recent projects from youarehere & Mobile Pie
8.00pm  More drinks, nibbles and more 'Who is this?'
8.30pm  Announcement of the game winner plus thanks from CI KTN

If you haven’t booked yet, don’t worry there’s still time. For more information and to register, please visit our events page: http://www.mediasandbox.co.uk/events/

We look forward to seeing you there.
Victoria

7 December 2009 | 18:00hrs | Watershed, Bristol | Free, booking required

Digital Content will change more in the next seven years than the last 20.  Are you ready?

What's going to happen to TV & Film? Could you spot the next Spotify, iplayer or wii? What will become of news? Are you ready to get the most out of next generation networks? How do we unlock the power of social media?

Working in collaboration with the Creative Industries Knowledge Transfer Network (CI KTN) and Bristol Media, we're co-hosting the Digital Lounge, an exciting event to be held at Watershed on 7th December.

The event will be an opportunity for you to get involved and help develop the themes and ideas being explored by the Creative Industries Knowledge Transfer Network as part of a UK wide project on technology focused innovation.

Following the success of recent Media Sandbox and Technology Strategy Board projects, the Digital Lounge will feature project highlights from Simon Games, Mobile Pie, youarehere and more. The event will offer a chance to hear about immediate funding opportunities and network with other leading innovators.  We'll also announce the latest news on next yearsʼ Media Sandbox scheme.

Drinks and light bites will be served.

To register please visit: http://digitalloungebristol.eventbrite.com/

This event is organised by the Creative Industry Knowledge Transfer Network, in collaboration with Media Sandbox and Bristol Media.

It is supported by Digital Communications KTN, Digital Systems KTN, Simon, TIGA, IPA and PACT.