Advert 1007

The PRS for Music Foundation has announced the launch of New Music 20×12 as part of London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. PRS are looking for 20 brand new musical works, of outstanding creative excellence, each lasting 12 minutes. PRS have up to £10,000 available for each of the 20 commissions and each of these will be broadcast round the world on BBC Radio 3.  Open to composers, ensembles, festivals and music organisations that have a proven track record of being able to successfully promote, produce and host new commissions. The deadline for applications is the 1^st October 2010.

http://www.prsformusicfoundation.com/newmusic20×12/index.htm

Grants to Help New, Innovative Visual Arts Projects (UK)

The Elephant Trust offers grants of up to £2,000 to artists and institutions (priority is given to small organisations and galleries) for new, innovative visual arts projects based in the UK. The next deadline for the submission of applications is 28th June 2010.

http://www.elephanttrust.org.uk/docs/intro.html

4iP Awards (UK)

UnLtd, the charity for social entrepreneurs has announced that it has teamed up with Channel 4 to launch of a new funding scheme (4iP) to help individuals turn their digital media projects into a reality. Grants of up to £5,000 are available to help individuals develop early stage digital media ideas and prototypes and to turn these prototypes into social businesses. There are two themes that 4iP is looking to support. These are; using the web and mobile to keep an eye on how government, organisations and elected representatives use their power; and exploring how digital tools, games, applications; and services can help people change their lives for the better whether that’s their health, wellbeing, finances, work/life balance or dealing with unemployment. To discuss your ideas and to obtain an application form please contact 0845 850 1122 or email mailto:4ip@unltd.org.uk .

Applications can be submitted at any time.

http://www.unltd.org.uk/template.php?ID=179&PageName=4ip

bdaily business news network and our sister company, bgroup creative agency are seeking to recruit an experienced web platform developer to lead the development of the bdaily suite of products.

These products include the bdaily site, the bdaily CMS system with its associated search services, and our flatscreen TV content delivery network. On the back of recent investment we are aggressively developing this suite, so we have need of an individual who will be able to work with our business development and strategy teams to produce specifications for these products, then lead our development team in developing them to exactingly high standards.

The successful individual will have 5+ years experience in developing for the web platform, and will most importantly know how to architect applications in a HTTP-friendly way and produce secure, performant, scalable code in the language of their choice. Also absolutely essential are good communication skills, the ability to think and plan logically, the ability to project plan and manage deadlines, a desire to change the face of local media forever, and experience working alongside creative and interaction designers to produce brilliant user-facing results.

The majority of bdaily’s current codebase is written in object-oriented PHP. You must therefore have either good PHP skills or a willingness to learn. Future technical direction will be at your discretion.

bdaily’s sister company, bgroup are a successful regional creative agency, working predominantly in the health, education and enterprise sectors to deliver creative campaigns, digital marketing, web sites and applications. You will also have the opportunity to bring your expertise to bear on these projects where appropriate.

In return, we’ll offer you competitive pay, fun,flexible working conditions, gorgeous city-centre offices overlooking the quayside, and the requisite ‘dot com startup table tennis table’.

To apply, please send your CV in the first instance to Siobhán Bales (si@thebgroup.co.uk)

The closing date for applications is the 17^th October 2010.

CBA-DFID Project Development Fund (UK)

http://www.cba.org.uk/CBA-DFID/progdev/index.php#deadline

The Neville Shulman Challenge Award 2010 (UK)

http://www.rgs.org/OurWork/Grants/Expedition+and+fieldwork+grants/Neville+Shulman+Challenge+Award.htm

• New technologies
• Multi Skilling
• Cross Platform Technologies.

To be eligible to apply individuals must; not be in full time education; be over the age of 18; work in TV, radio, publishing, music, film, games or digital and creative service, and have over 12 months paid industry experience; if you are freelance, you are not on a contract of a year or more; companies must have an annual turnover of £100,000 or more and employ less than 250 people.

The deadline for applications is the 15th March 2011. For further information click on the link below.

http://www.visionandmedia.co.uk/FundingOpportunityDetail/The_VisionMedia_Training_Fund/1799/27.aspx

The Vision+Media Training Fund (North West)

Quick summary

Role: Experienced developer. Must have
software engineering and web skills.

Company: CustomerSure Ltd (new startup, no
website yet).

Type of work: Develop new SaaS application -
business software.

Technology: To be agreed, but order of
preference is (1) Ruby on Rails (2) PHP (3) .Net

Salary: Guideline figure £30k-£35k+, but all
terms are negotiable for this initial role and
salary will not be a barrier for the right person.

Opportunity: Work with an experienced software industry professional to build a great new company and share in the success.

Background

A new start-up company requires an experienced software application developer. The job to be
done is to design, develop, test and bring to market a business software application and then
continue further development and innovation of the software as the customer base grows. This is
the first appointment and you’ll be confident to undertake this development task yourself. You’ll be
working with the founder of the company – someone who has plenty of experience in the software
industry and well developed ideas on the scope and content of the application, but also someone
who wants you to have plenty of freedom to contribute your own ideas and expertise.

This is a rare opportunity to create a new commercial software product for a large and relatively
untapped market in the field of customer service. Market research indicates healthy potential for
the application. There will be flexibility to influence the product itself, how the business develops
and to shape our working practices. Our paramount goals will be customer satisfaction, profitable
growth of the business and making a great place to work.

The Company – CustomerSure Limited (there’s no website yet, but we do own the domain names)

This company’s purpose is to design, develop and bring to market some new business software for
small and medium sized companies (SMEs). Our web-based software will help businesses to engage
more closely with their customers with a view to improving customer satisfaction, increasing repeat
business and generating more referrals from existing customers who are satisfied. A more detailed
description of the solution will be given at interview. We’re strong on commercial experience of the
software industry but looking for a talented development professional. Perhaps someone with
technical skills and the desire to help build a great software company, but who hasn’t yet had the
idea or found the right opportunity.

Is it right for me?

This is a great role, but it won’t suit everyone. The technical skills are listed in a later section, but the
attitudes and temperament are even more important:

1. Creativity and vision. The desire to create a successful software product and, working with
customers, continue to innovate and differentiate it, combining good ideas with appropriate use

of emerging technology. Because this market is under-developed there are few direct
competitors, but enough to confirm there is customer demand. What we’re aiming for is to
adopt some of the good ideas and techniques made possible by the Internet and which may be
used in other areas of e-commerce, to combine them with our own knowledge of what’s
required (gained through operational experience in business) and to work with pilot customers
to bring the benefits together into a package suitable for a wide population of SMEs.
2. Hard work, resilience and a sense of humour. There’s a lot to do. Releasing a product to
customers is incredibly rewarding but there will no doubt be tough times and frustrations along
the way. The role requires experience, productivity, perseverance, attention to detail and a firm
commitment to doing a thorough job that fulfils what customers want and forms a well-
engineered foundation for future development.
3. People are paramount. This will be a small team and working relationships are important. So is
the ability to empathise with customers and not only listen to their needs but also build
relationships with them and observe what they do in order to suggest new features to help their
businesses.
4. Values are important. We want to be known for integrity, clarity, reliability and outstanding
customer service. The right person will find that environment appealing.
In contrast it’s unlikely that you will enjoy this role if you need the structure of a big company
around you, if you need to be told what to do at a detailed level, if you’re not willing to pitch in and
be flexible, if you are intimidated by a blank canvas, if you don’t like working closely with customers
and getting frank feedback from them and if you don’t have the confidence to use your technical
experience and contacts to make decisions.

Ethos

The minimum goal of the company is modest – to earn a living doing something we enjoy by making
sure our customers are delighted with our software and services. Beyond that minimum goal, the
aim is to grow the business significantly, to be the best at what we do, to be known for good ideas
that our customers value and to be role models for excellent customer service. These are much
more bold and ambitious aims, but while they are challenging they are not unrealistic – the ideas
and the business plan have been reviewed positively by experienced entrepreneurs and business
people. If we are successful in growing the business we will be able to create a rewarding and
fulfilling working environment in which people have the chance to develop their own capabilities as
well as share in the success.

Key working relationships

You will be working closely with the founder (Guy Letts), pilot customers who agree to participate in
development and the design agency (who are creating the brand identity and the look and character
of the website). Some development may be sub-contracted to a specialist supplier, in which case
there will be contact with them, and we may be able to parcel up some work suitable for graduates
or placement students, who would require supervision. Post-launch there will also be work with
business partners (resellers) and third party developers who wish to integrate. In the early days,
until we grow, there will be a need to handle customer technical support.
Guy Letts potted biography: 12 years at Logica working on large bespoke software projects. Initially
I was a programmer, eventually systems architect, then moved into project management. 1 year at
British Airways helping to match technology solutions to business problems. Most recently 13 years
at Sage, 10 of which I was responsible for product development then 3 in a commercial role
responsible for support and customer services. The combination of experience in development and
services led to this idea and I resigned from Sage to set up CustomerSure. I haven’t written any code
for over 20 years but I still retain a strong interest in product design. I’m told by the people I’ve
worked with that I’m good at usability and understanding customers’ business needs, that I’m calm
under pressure, strong on integrity and good at sharing experience. I have good contacts in the
industry and a desire to make a resounding success of this business.

Technology

Our approach to technology is that we value sound engineering, simplicity, security and high
performance in order that our customers get the business benefits they need, delivered in a way
that is fast, reliable, cost-effective and enjoyable for them to use.

No firm decisions have been taken on the technology stack, but a tentative order of preference is

1. Ruby on Rails
2. PHP (possibly with Drupal)
3. Microsoft
It is more important to get the right person/people, so this is only a guide at this stage and a final
selection will be made in conjunction with the successful applicant.

The product will be a Software as a Service (SaaS) application. Hosting will most likely be with one of
the major cloud vendors in order to minimise the in-house work and expertise, and to provide
resilience, security and scalability.

Technical Experience Required

- Web application development including one of the frameworks above or mainstream equivalent
- Technical design – experience of application architecture, familiarity with industry and open
standards and build/buy/open-source decisions;
- Must have a strong foundation in the theory and practice of OO;
- Database design and development (preferably MySQL);
- Internet security and privacy design;
- Fluency in a structured, test-driven, agile development methodology;
- User interface design – passionate about usability;
- System administration and configuration control;
- Familiarity with social networking and user-participation technology, including deployment of
wikis & forums;
- Several years’ experience of standards-compliant HTML, CSS and cross-platform browser
compatibility;
- A formal qualification, or equivalent experience, in computer science, engineering or other
numerate subject;
- Ability to scope, estimate and deliver high-quality software.

Summary of Responsibilities

In general, work will be collaborative and many responsibilities will be shared pragmatically. The
business plan assumes there will be further recruitment, but the timing depends on the rate of
growth in revenue. In order to give an outline of the role during the first phase the table below
indicates primary responsibilities:

Developer

Guy Letts

Shared

Architecture

Design

Develop

Test

Deploy

Maintain

Document

Customer Technical Support

Functional design

Non-technical website content
(methodology, advice,
customer service resources…)

Marketing

Sales

Channels to market

Partner relationships

Promotional material

Legal and Financial

Functional testing

Help authoring

Customer enquiries

Recruitment

Everything else

Salary and Benefits

As it’s a new company and a new role there are no fixed terms and conditions and indeed no office
yet – these are decisions I’m waiting to resolve with the successful candidate. For guidance, I think
it’s unlikely that anyone earning less than £30-35K will have the experience required…but as with
most factors at this stage there’s flexibility. I certainly want to make it an attractive option that
appeals to the best person. Salary is not the only parameter available and the terms need to include
appropriate remuneration and rewards for success and so they’re open for discussion.

If you’re not sure and want an informal chat please get in touch.

Application process

If you would like to discuss the role I’d be more than happy to talk things through, please contact me
by email in the first instance. If you wish to apply please send a CV to guy.letts [at] googlemail.com

The selection process will consist of the following stages: (i) CV review (ii) telephone interview to
establish a shortlist (iii) a more formal interview, a technical/programming exercise, a review of
examples of prior work and references. I realise it’s a big decision for you too, so I’ve included the
biography above and should it come to it I’ll be happy to give the names of any number of people
I’ve worked with over the last few years so you can ask what it’s like to work with me.

Thanks for taking the trouble to read this, please feel free to phone if you’re interested in finding out
more, or to forward this on if you know someone suitable.

Guy Letts

guy.letts@googlemail.com

The aim of the project is to try and help these young people to engage a bit more with school and they are going to create some kind of sculpture to display either inside or outside the school building.  We have been thinking about a junk metal sculpture but are open to suggestions around the materials used.  The artist will need to be CRB checked.

If you are interested in this project and would like more details, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Liza Dundon on email below. 
  
Liza Dundon | Outreach Manager
Rural Arts

The Old Courthouse, Westgate, Thirsk,
North Yorkshire, YO7 1QS
T: 01845 526536
E: liza@ruralarts.org
W: www.ruralarts.org

More information here: http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/

See attached document for full details and contact Garry Moore on the details below if you are interested.

Exec Producer pack

Garry Moore – Director

S.H.A.M. Films Ltd

(0191) 5522729

07784072256

• Using the web and mobile to keep an eye on how government, organisations and elected representatives use their power; and exploring how digital tools, games, applications
• Services can help people change their lives for the better whether that’s their health, wellbeing, finances, work/life balance or dealing with unemployment.

The awards are available to individuals over the age of 16; as well as informal groups. To discuss your ideas and to obtain an application form please contact 0845 850 1122 or email mailto:4ip@unltd.org.uk .

Applications can be submitted at any time.

http://www.unltd.org.uk/template.php?ID=179&PageName=4ip