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.

Such Tweet Sorrow launched the other day; a retelling of Romeo & Juliet via Twitter. Telling stories via Twitter isn’t a new thing particularly, but the size and scope of this effort is what sets it apart. The RSC are behind this after all, and from what I gather rehearsals and workshops for this have been going on for aaaages.

Oh aye, and the Birmingham link is the involvement of Mudlark as producers, Substrakt as the website designers and Kate Beatty as the photographer responsible for the shots of the cast.

Exeunt omnes. Divers alarums.

The aim of the game is to move about in the real world to locations that are mapped onto the game world of Love City. Players score points by sending messages to players who share locations with them in the game world. The game was originally launched across 3 cities (Nottingham, Leicester and Derby) on Valentines Day 2007.

Mudlark are currently developing ‘Chromaroma’ a project backed by the 4IP fund and Screen West Midlands. The website describes it as ‘a pervasive online game played in the real world’. It uses smart cards and urban mass transit systems as a currency and environment to allow people to play as they commute, travel and move around their urban environments.

This is one of the most exciting companies I have seen in a long time, who seem to be successfully combining a games company, a TV company and a web company. The website is clean, crisp and outlines what they do without all of the usual alienating mumbo-jumbo speak. They will be getting together with an invited a group of people who are also developing new practices, projects and ideas on a similar ethos on Friday 22nd, and hopefully will be posting any interesting outcomes onto their website.