Bio: Clarke Ching is a New Zealander who has lived in Scotland for the last decade. Clarke started out working as a programmer, but he has been successfully managing software development and business projects since 1995. He specialises in introducing, running and accelerating Agile, Scrum, Lean and Kanban projects. Clarke runs the AgileScotland group.

Synopsis: Clarke Ching, author of the Agile parable *Rocks into Gold* and the upcoming Agile business novel *Rolling Rocks Downhill*, takes you on a quick journey through history, looking at three examples of great "Agile thinking". Clarke’s journey starts in late-18th-century Glasgow where James Watt is about to make his greatest discovery (it’s not the steam engine). He then moves to April 15th, 1865, (the day of Abraham Lincoln’s death) where the model used to deliver modern Agile software projects emerged, out of the blue, in one of today’s dying industries. He then leaps forward almost a century to the final destination, Spain, 1975, where the Zara Clothing company open their first store. On the face of it, none of these events has anything to do with modern-day software development, but dig a little deeper and you’ll discover 6 ageless principles for delivering commercially successful technology projects.

Poster download - http://www.glasgow.bcs.org/CCHING_BCSposterOCT2009.doc

Synopsis: "Developing for the iPhone: Technology and Business"

ElectricTopHat have produced three games for the iPhone and are currently working on their first 'serious' apps. The first part of this presentation covers some of the technical issues of interest to budding iPhone developers. With a brief overview of the iPhone architecture, and an introduction to the iPhone SDK and development environment the talk shows how anyone can become an iPhone developer. Having created an app, the next step is to get your app into the Apple store - and once there, you need to get your app seen and generate interest for it. This can prove harder than actually creating your app in the first place, with tens of thousands of apps currently available, and more appearing every day. The final part of the talk provides an opportunity to the challenges in progressing from developing apps, to running a successful business as an app developer.

Map of Location

Synopsis: "Our Society was created in 1957 to translate the grand dream of computing into a compelling public benefit. More than 50 years on, the impact of this computing dream is now pervasive. More than a million people work directly in information technology in the UK alone and computer science lies behind almost everything we touch, from credit cards to kettles. At one level, our work is done but at another it has hardly begun.

BCS now has a clear mission for the next 50 years - to enable the information society, not just in the UK, but around the world. To bring this new dream to reality we need concerted and committed action. We must reject traditional assumptions about what a professional association can and should be, and instead build a world-class organisation for IT that addresses all stakeholders' needs. The challenge and opportunity for BCS is clear. The UK and the world need an IT profession which understands its social impact and has a long-term strategy to address it. We need government, industry and academia to get involved, to vocalise and practise support for our profession. The transformation is now underway to enable that. The time is right, the industry is ready and BCS is stepping up to the challenge."

Yolande Kolstee is the project leader of the AR+RFID Lab, a collaborative initiative of the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague and the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). The AR+RFID Lab explores and experiments with Augmented Reality as part of its work developing innovative applications of emerging ubiquitous computing technologies in the field of art and design. In this presentation Yolande will demonstrate and show a range of the AR+RFID Lab's Augmented Reality projects from recent years. Yolande will be accompanied by Professor Dr.Ir. Pieter Jonker of the Bio-Robotics Lab of the Delft University of Technology. More information about the AR+RFID Labcan be found at:

http://www.arlab.nl

Map of Location

Synopsis: How and why a bakery company known for its teashops developed and built the world's first business computer which was based on the Cambridge University EDSAC.

LEO I remained unique but was used on a bureau basis by other organisations. Further development produced LEO II. A separate company was formed which built and sold several of these machines.

The third and final version was the LEO III, with its faster variations the LEO 326 and LEO 360. LEO I was first used for a live application in 1951 and the last LEO 326 was decommissioned in 1981.

Improving Website Usability Using Google Website Optimiser

Synopsis: Design is very subjective, one man's meat is another man's poison. A website may look ‘pretty' in your opinion, but design is not just about how something looks, it has a job to do - it needs to be usable. If your design is not doing the job it's supposed to do, i.e. making you money, it doesn't matter if it looks nice. Many arguments have been had (and time wasted) choosing one design over another, "I think that one is better!", "why?", "erm... I don't know, it looks better?". To borrow a phrase from Harry Hill, "There's only one way to find out... fight!"

We prefer not to spill blood these days and that's where Google Website Optimiser comes in; science to the rescue. By measuring which page layout is more effective at achieving the desired conversion we can quickly determine which design is best and learn from that to help make design decisions easier in the future. One image or line of copy may mean the difference between being profitable or not. We'll be using lots of case studies to show you how we've started using Google Website Optimizer to run A/B Split and Multivariate Tests in the development of a social networking/gaming site and share some of the mistakes and lessons learned. It would then be good to open the meeting up to discuss how to use optimisation tools to improve website usability.

Bio: Jim Williams is Director of Customer Analytics at WeeWorld and a passionate advocate of using analytics to drive website design. Jim has been working in web analytics since 2002 starting in pharmaceuticals and e-commerce sectors before moving into consultancy. At WeeWorld Jim has introduced innovative data based decision making processes to manage product and marketing strategy. Typically using web analytics and user testing to identify poorly performing areas of the site before employing tools such as Google Website Optimizer to experiment with design improvements and improve website conversions. Jim is also President of the Scottish UPA and an active member of the Web Analytics Association.