Hmm, the blog was looking a bit neglected so I thought it was time for an update on all things codegent. Nope, the silence isn't because we have all nipped off to the seaside with our bucket and spade for the Summer but more because we have been busy little bees.

So what have we been doing? Well in the last month we have launched two massive social networking portals - cmypitch (a community for entrepreneurs) and b-live (a specialised careers service for teenagers). In addition to that we had our Euro phrase books to hand with the creation of a series of multi-lingual sites for Skechers Footwear (Thanks to Todd for all the free shoes - see above!) and snuck in the latest version of Ask the Cast for Cartoon Network's Boomerang channel.

In the production kitchen we have some really cool stuff coming your way. A CBS Outdoor viral campaign that will blow your socks off (or at least distract you at work for a while!), then "The Big Film" for The Gherkin that I have been twittering on about for ages (its looking sweeeeeeeeeeeet) and a sexy social network promoting Rugby 7s! Yummy!

... Serve with a side of O2 (a microsite launching their new TouchFLO handset), sprinkle a dash of ethical fashion e-commerce and drink down a full-bodied glass of Sarah Beeny - Yes, 'er off the tele! A tasty treat indeed.

Actually there are a few more to mention but I think you might get a bit bored if I keep going. Plus what will I write about next month? Busy times, but great projects... long may it continue :)

We are ecstatically pleased to be able to announce that we will be developing the lead sales and marketing tool for the restaurant and bar at the top of the world famous 30 St Mary Axe building AKA The Gherkin!

We haven't exactly set an easy stall out for ourselves with our design solution as we intend to develop a truly immersive web experience that will simply rock your world! More details in due course...

Obviously this has required many codegent team trips to the top of the tower, usually around lunch time or at the end of the day... drink o'clock. Long may our on-site "Recces" continue and our client's fantastic hospitality last :)

Watch this space people!

Boomerang (part of the Cartoon Network) asked us to create a site to promote the new series of two of their children's TV shows: 'My Spy Family' and 'Life with Derek'.

In response Codegent designed and built Ask the Cast (www.askthecast.co.uk). The idea was to get children to engage with the characters by allowing them to upload videos of themselves posing questions to the characters in the shows.

Using our FilePipes system, which allows users to easily upload videos either from a webcam or from their phones or videocam and then encodes to flash on the fly, children can record themsleves asking the question and submit it to the site.

Codegent has a wealth of experience working with user-generated content and young people. For Boomerang, we introduced a parental consent stage to uploading the video. Users can rate videos but cannot write comments.

The site has only just been launched and video questions are appearing on the site as they are approved by the Boomerang team.  Once the best questions have been answered, the TV characters will answer them online and on the TV shows.

This is a great example of online and broadcast content working together to create a fun and engaging experience for the audience.

We're pleased to have won some work with the V&A. More details to come, but we're going to be using some funky technology to provide an interactive feature that we haven't seen anyone else do yet. Exciting stuff!

Watch this space....

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.

Ooooh exciting new project

We can't say who, but we won a new project last night that we're really excited about. Once contracts have been sorted I'm sure we can press release it. But it's a sweet, sweet win on so many levels.

Firstly, it's in a really interesting market for us, one that we're really passionate about. The guys we'll be working with are great - and its nice to feel that the effort ahead of us will be adding to people's lives. Also it's a great project for Red5 - we are going to be able to show some really great applications of the technology.

(also, the competition was pretty stiff - we know two of the agencies we were up against very well)

So, watch this space.

Nice new win for Codegent

We've just found out that we've won a competitive pitch with the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists (at least we will have done once all the contracts have been signed). We're really happy to have won this for a number of reasons:

• The project is in the area of recruitment where we have loads of experience
• The project itself will be a really interesting one - although we can't really say much more about it yet.
• We were approached to submit a proposal by CSP (always nice when someone has heard of you).
• We reckon the opposition were as keen as we were to win it ;-)

Happy days...

O2, BT, Gillette, Premier Foods, Swarovski, Illuminations, BBC, American Express, Ideal, SCONUL....

2006 has started brilliantly. We’ve produced several new sites projects for clients including BBC, Swarovski Catwalk Report, American Express and Ideal. We've also picked up some work with a number of interesting new clients. As a growing company it’s not that unusual to see our order book grow month on month, but 2006 so far has been unprecedented.

January and February saw us working on a large project for Novartis to introduce an Over-The-Counter drug. We can’t say much about it, but it will be launching in late March.

For SCONUL (the Society of College, National and University Libraries), we are building a new search engine for people researching documents across the network of libraries, called find it!.

We have also picked up some work with BT, a research portal for O2, some online advertising work for Gillette, a series of microsites for Premier Foods and an animated online training tool for PwC.

We’re also redeveloping television production company, Illuminations' main website and have just won the contract to redevelop fashion and jewellery company, Swarovski’s ‘swarovskisparkles’ site.

All this work has come from referrals – the best marketing tool of all is getting people you’ve done work for before to be so happy that they tell everyone they know.

Roll on the summer.

Take One Museum is a six part series for BBC4. Each episode is a 30 minute presenter led journey around a different museum.

For BBC Interactive, we are taking one of those shows and creating an interactive broadband version as a pilot for further interactive television projects in the new year.

The idea is to take the linear TV show and at key moments, give the user the chance to pause and watch further, deeper content. This will effectively make the programme more of a user-led experience.

This is an exciting step in the convergence of digital television and online entertainment and is our eighth project for the BBC in 2005 - we love it!

2.7 million copies of the CD Rom deisgned and built by Codegent appeared in the 4th June edition of the Daily Mirror.

For more details read about the site in our portfolio section.