codegent

According to New Media Age, Codegent is 'one to watch' for this year. So what are the big predictions for 2007?

Prediction 1
Lot's of video based projects, we've already built 18 Doughty Street and we're in the final stages of a fabulous project for Youth Music. More on that in the next few weeks

Prediction 2
We've made the decision to do our best to work with clients as early on in their decision-making process. In a recent advert in Revolution, we described ourselves as "Digital Shrinks". Talking to people and helping them bounce ideas around is what we do day in and day out and it's what we love.

Prediction 3
We're almost 3 years old now and like any 3 year old, we want to show off about all the great things we can do. So far this year we have got good press coverage in Marketing for the Detox with Evian site, New Media Age for our Youth Music win, BBC's Newsnight for 18 Doughty Street and The Guardian for meettheauthor.co.uk.

We're hoping that in 2007, we'll do more great work, win more lovely clients and get more recognition for it. In short, we're hoping to prove New Media Age right. So, if you fancy popping in for a chat about how digital is working for you or even a moan, we've always got the kettle on and a friendly ear.

Codegent gets Paxmanned!

We have been working on the online political TV station 18 Doughty Street for the last couple of months and launched phase 1 last week. It seems to have taken off rather quickly and is already getting quite a bit of attention from other parts of the media.

The new campaigns section of the website will be discussed on tonight's edition of Newsnight on BBC2.

"The creators say that the mainstream political process is ignoring huge swathes of public opinion - a niche they propose to fill by running attack adverts (campaigns) sponsoring arguments on both sides of the political debate (or so they say).

Is this the start of a new Americanisation of British politics or have the authors misjudged our political culture?"

Well I guess we will find out the result tonight!

More column inches

This is becoming odd - four bits of press in the last 7 days. This time a double page spread in today's Guardian. Not about 'us' exactly (or at all, really if we're honest), but about the site we designed, built and developed over the last 2 years or so for Meet the Author.

Whilst it's still available, you can check it out on the Guardian Unlimited website here:

Read the article about Meet the Author in the Guardian »

Almost famous

It's been quite a good week for us in terms of press. We were in Marketing magazine for our latest Detox with Evian campaign. Then yesterday we were in New Media Age about the Passport to Music project we won for Youth Music. We also heard something is being written about us in AMO magazine.

Codegent is to design and build the digital elements of Youth Music’s ‘Passport to Music’ initiative. Youth Music has developed its Passport to Music as a major new pledge to the government backed Music Manifesto – a campaign for improvement in music education. Research has shown that children often give up learning instruments when they move from primary to secondary school. ‘Passport to Music’ has been designed to encourage the continuity of children’s learning by giving them a digital record of their learning and allowing them to interact with their peers and mentors.

The new site will feature a video diary using the latest Red5 technology that means children can film themselves using just a webcam that will encode straight to flash. Teachers can review students’ diary entries and comment by leaving their own video entry.

David Hart, Director of Codegent said:
“It was great to be chosen by Youth Music for this very exciting project. We have plans for a lot of clever functionality that will address the problems faced by music educators when their students move from primary to secondary school.”

Trish Thomas, Executive Office at Youth Music added:
“We chose Codegent because of the innovative technical solution they offered and their genuine enthusiasm in responding to the brief. We look forward to a successful relationship with Codegent.”

Youth Music is a UK-wide charity set up in 1999 to provide high quality and diverse music-making opportunities for 0-18 year olds. It targets young people living in areas of social and economic need who might otherwise lack opportunity and predominantly supports activities which are held outside school hours.

Youth Music receives £10m a year National Lottery funding through Arts Council England. It has also levered in more than £13.7m in partnership funding from other sources.

He's done it again

For the second time in his career, McD has made a cup of tea. Will wonders never cease?

- oh, and Happy New year, everyone.