reading . books @ London

While I was in London I was able to read a couple of good books. The time spent in the underground, parks, river side, cafes, museums, etc. where a perfect set to put some of my reading interests up-to-date. Here are some of the books I read together with my opinion on each of them:

1841125792.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V50630598_.jpgAnyone Can Do It: Building Coffee Republic from Our Kitchen Table - 57 Real-Life Laws on Entrepreneurship

This was a book I bought to get my holiday reading season starterd without choosing one of those hard-to-read books. It’s a very simple book on how a sister and a brother built a chain of cafes in London. I think the value of this book in on the entrepreneurship and bootstrapping ideas that are mentioned throughout the book.

1401302378.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V63383464_.jpgThe Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More

The book from Chris Anderson was the one I most enjoyed reading. Having read the (now famous) Wired article, I had already read about The Long Tail concept. But the book goes one step further in contextualizing and explaining how the Long Tail is changing society by leveraging Internet as the biggest distribution channel ever and with almost unlimted customization possibilities.
Another reason that made me enjoy the book was the fact that Adegga is based on the Long Tail of Wine and I was able to understand and develop some of the ideas I have been working on for the project.

1590593898.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpgJoel on Software: And on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and Managers, and to Those Who, Whether by Good Fortune or Ill Luck, Work with Them in Some Capacity (Paperback)

I really enjoyed reading the ideas that the Joel on Software blog author has on sofware development. It goes through very interesting practical analysis of business, marketing and programming. I’ve been trying to apply some of the ideas on time management but working on an open-space and being interrupted every 5 minutes makes it very difficult (I should spend more time alone). Back to the book. It was also very interesting to read the author’s ideas on running a small business based on his experience as Fog Creek Software owner.

0553817280.02._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V56641027_.jpgI’m currently reading Families of the Vine. A book that tells the one-year journey of the author througout wine producers in the the south of France.

Since I returned I haven’t read a full chapter of this book (which I started in London). And it’s not just a matter of lack of time. In my day-to-day I have to concentrate on all the things I have to do. At night, when I finally open the book, I’m too tired to be able to understand any 2 paragraphs.

On a more technical note I have in my bag 2 books that I also brought from the holidays: Building Scalable Web Sites by Cal Henderson and Ambient Findability by Peter Morville.

0596102356.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V52808810_.jpg0596007655.02._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V1129826195_.jpg

I have added all of the books to my book library at LibraryThing where I have been discovering other people that have the same books as me (yes, Social Networking for books).

August 31, 2006 | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment 

Container City

Sometimes if I see a special place (building, shop, garden, etc.) that catches my attention while I’m reading a blog (or browsing the newspaper - yes, I still do that) I tend to take note of the address because I might visit the place in the future. That’s exacly what happend with the Container City that I visited in the Docklands near London.

Container City

Container City is a project that recycles old shipping containers and uses them to build a modular accommodation system. With the recycled containers, the company is able to build a wide range of accommodations like live / work space, classrooms, office space or artists studios.

Cost-effective
The cost of building with such accommodations is for several reasons much lower than traditional construction. For example, being modular means that is easier to reuse the same building technology and materials over and over. Also by building off-site, time and fees needed to build away from city centres are much lower.

Green
Besides that using recycled containers the Container City is already a project with an eco-friendly approach. But there are more good ideas in this matter:

Minimal concrete foundations required (existing structure strong yet lightweight)
- Little noise pollution (Off site construction and fast installation)
- Rain water harvesting (for plant nurseries)
- Photoelectric light sensitive cells (External lighting sensitive to light changes)
- Thermally efficient (uses external walkways and lift towers, double thick insulation and sealed south facing glazed units)

Thinking of sound and traffic polluted cities, one of the main advantages if the time needed to install the building. A week of noise and traffic is an amazing time against the traditional months that buiding sites usually take.

container_city_4.jpgcontainer_city_3.jpgcontainer_city_2.jpgcontainerr_city_5.jpg

Lisbon
Some of Lisbon’s river-front area is still (thankfully - I like cargo containers) being used by cargo shipping (specially more to the north of the city). I think that this area would be great to start a project like the Container City. It would be interesting to be take the chance and be able to develop some innovative, cost-effective and eco-friendly projects (perhaps starting with work studios) before the real state industry (which is neither eco nor friendly) discovers the area.

August 31, 2006 | Tags: | 4 Comments 

BarCamp Portugal this Saturday

BarCamp Portugal will take place this Saturday and Sunday in Coimbra. BarCamp is sort-of-a-conference and this specific one will evolve around the topics of Web 2.0 and Innovation.

BarCamp Portugal

There are around 50 people subscribed to go to BarCampPortugal but only 8 presentations so far. Fred that we are all being shy. I think that when the time comes we’ll (maybe) be more motivated to present a topic.

Information
Date: 2-3 September
Location: Coimbra, Portugal - Dep. de Engenharia Informática, Universidade de Coimbra
Discussion topics: Web 2.0, Innovation, Demos

August 31, 2006 | Tags: | Leave a Comment 

SHiFT is only a month (and a few days) away!

I’m back from the holidays. Preparing myself to attend the (busy) September events. SHiFT and BarCamp Portugal. Lots of new information for both but let’s start with SHiFT.

SHiFT it!
(picture taken in london - not a SHiFT poster - but I thought it was funny anyway)

The program is online and with lots of interesting information. Here are some of the talks:

- Thomas Madsen-Mygdal (Reboot creator) will be talking about social objects in Wear - Learn from wear of objects in the the physical world
- Euen Semple will present The quiet revolution - How social computing will change the workplace forever
- Laurent Haug (LIFT creator - check it, LIFT07 is on the works!) will speak about his experience at CoComment.
- Stowe Boyd (one of my Social Web references) will be presenting We Shape Our Tools, And Then They Shape Us.

For those of you that (like me) are interested in design and usability there’s lots of interesting stuff too:

- Bill Scott (from Yahoo!) will be talking on The Shift from the Page to the Application.
- Peter Merholz (from Adaptive Path) will talk about the new role of design on the new type os systems we work with
- Luke Wroblewski (author of one of my favourite books) will be talking about how the role of design is changing dramatically from mere styling to a core ingredient of product strategy and innovation.

Workshops
There’s one more thing. Actually two more. If you think it couldn’t get better you haven’t read about the workshops. On the day before the conference two workshops will take place. A Creativity Workshop given by the ladies (Dannie Jost & Henriette Weber Andersen) and a workshop on Application Development with Ruby on Rails by Nathaniel Brown.

Are you interested ? So go on and register yourself to get access to all this!

August 24, 2006 | Tags: , , | 1 Comment 

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    andre_ribeirinho_t.jpg My name is André Ribeirinho, I'm an entrepreneur who lives in Portugal
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    Adegga - Social Wine Discovery


    Adegga is a social wine discovery service. The idea is to take the complexity out of wine and allow people to discover wines based other people's choices.