Screen West Midlands are hosting City As A Platform, at Aston University Business School and Conference Centre this Thursday, 17 Feb.

In an era of public sector cuts and greater emphasis on local engagement, what happens when a city opens out its public infrastructure, technologies, data and buildings to digital media content developers?

The event starts at 9.30, and contemplates ‘The future for the creative industries’, with a variety of sessions and speakers throughout the day, including keynote speaker Jon Kingsbury, Director, Creative Economy Programmes at NESTA.

Panellists will explore the contours of these emerging ‘urban operating systems’ and consider the implications for society and the built environment through sessions including:

• Open data: the challenges and opportunities
• Contracting: navigating the public sector procurement map
• Make it local: developing public services
• Library as a platform: opening up archives
• Transport: playing the daily commute
• Healthcare: bringing greater benefits through digital

Panellists and speakers come from across the public and private sectors, including the Greater London Authority, Rewired State, Rattle, University of Warwick, Maverick TV, Digital Birmingham, Mudlark, Podnosh, Birmingham City University and In Cahoots.

Limited places are available for this event. For more info, full list of speakers and to sign up, visit the Eventbrite page.

The People’s Archive is a new collaboration between the Library of Birmingham and local digital company In Cahoots, which is set to be piloted this month at ArtsFest, running from 10 – 12 September.

This interactive project invites members of the public both young and old to share their knowledge and help shape Birmingham’s past into a new online resource for the city’s collective memory.

For the very first time one of the Library’s most popular photographic collections, the Warwickshire Photographic Survey, will be made available online, offering a unique treasure trove of buildings, street scenes and events in the city between the 1880s and the late 20th century.

If you’d like to have a look at old Birmingham or think you might be able to recognise a face, or confirm a date, make sure you drop by the Library of Birmingham stand at Artsfest.