Culture Professional

This event series has been designed for people who work for cultural organisations in a variety of roles; as well as artists, practitioners and freelancers who work within the arts. We anticipate attendance from all sizes of organisation and all specialisms from theatre to music to galleries and museums and beyond. If you consider your organisation or your work to be artistic or cultural then these events are for you. These events have been curated to have new and interesting content for professionals at all levels and all roles within an organisation. This is for CEO’s and artistic directors in addition to technician’s, marketeers, arts administrators and fundraisers. 

Data

Put simply, data is a set of raw facts. Examples of data include: historical sales records, museum inventory, birth weight and eye colour of babies born between 1950 - 2000. For data to be of any real value to us, it needs to be manipulated into a form that can be readily understood; that’s where developers, designers and geeks can help. 

Often we’re too close to the data that we hold, constrained by necessity, in order to simply get things done.  A Hack day can offer you a fresh perspective on the data or resources that you hold!  

You might find your data in spreadsheets, company software packages, online or on network drives but if you are not sure where to look just drop us an email and we can help you uncover those hidden gems. 

If you have any questions about your data or would like to talk through your assets and resources with a digital professional who promises not to frighten you off with acronyms and jargon and is here to help no matter how silly you think your question might be then please email:
CultureCode@codeworks.net
and tell us your name, phone number, the name of your organisation and ask your question. We will endeavour to help in any way we can.

Geek

In the computing world the term “Geek” is used as a source of pride.  Geeks are adept with computers, use the term “hacker” in a positive way and are experts of all things digital.  They have the knowledge and creativity to turn your data into something amazing!

In a 2007 interview, Richard Clarke said the difference between nerds and geeks is “geeks get it done”.

Hack

Hack Days have been running since the 1960s in the technology community as a way of developing fast prototypes using data. Hack days usually consist of a group of talented developers and designers who create digital solutions over a 24 hour or 48 hour period. At the end of the hack, this powerhouse of talent present a number of prototype applications/websites/widgets/visualisations that demonstrate a range of solutions. To see examples of products that have been created at recent hack days have a look at:
http://wiki.musichackday.org/index.php?title=The_Inhuman_Microphone
http://wiki.musichackday.org/index.php?title=Songs_to_Tweet_to
http://vimeo.com/user5817916/history100
http://wiki.musichackday.org/index.php?title=File:ThisWasMyJam.png
http://culturehackscotland.com/portfolio/lucky-frame-vs-edinburgh

The CultureCode Hack will bring together cultural organisations, talented developers and interesting data sets to create exciting new things. The Cultural sector will have an opportunity to unlock their hidden data sets to see what some of the best technical minds can create with this often unused resource. 

Proof of Concept

In this particular scenario, a Proof of Concept will ultimately be a digital product (web site, App, Widget, visualisation) using your data, designed to show that an idea or a device can work. It will not be a completed product but a prototype that will demonstrate the possibilities so you can see its value.

Rapid Prototype

A process where a proposed solution is built into a working model in order to demonstrate the solutions effectiveness.

The prototype is produced in a short space of time merely as a demonstration so that a decision can be made whether to develop it further, it is not a finished product.