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When you go to networking events in here I think that it’s genuinely a lot more laidback and a lot less – yes, it’s more pleasant than London. It’s not quite as frenetic. I don’t think that…I can’t think actually of really having met many people when I’ve been out networking where I’ve just thought “You strike me as a deeply unpleasant person”. Whereas you were shaking sticks at them in London – they were everywhere. And so I find that – and maybe it’s because of the level of competitiveness that London drives.

WHY COMMUNITIES AND NETWORKS?

• Communities and networks let us look beyond the formal structures of organisations to the social worlds in which they are embedded.

• This ecosystem affects the way that a cluster can operates. • Information to be shared across organisational boundaries, affecting

both firms and individuals• Networks can overlap with each other, allowing different types of

knowledge and expertise to be shared (eg. arts and technology?)• Communities shape and are shaped by their social and cultural norms• Is it acceptable to help out people in other companies with their work?• Is it normal to keep long working hours?

• Communities and networks do not always act in beneficial ways…

OPENNESS AND SHARING?

• Members of Brighton digital community describe it as being relaxed (compared to London) and more conducive to openness and sharing.

• Co-working spaces facilitate these practices, including The Skiff and The Werks

• Overall: 19% of companies feel that they receive help from other businesses, and 42% feel that they give help in return.• Most help perceived to be given by consultancies• Most help perceived to be received by digital content

companies

Someone came up to X at a networking event, he’d moved to Brighton and he was like “We’re your competition, we’re going to destroy you.” I don’t know, X probably just ignored him. But that is not generally speaking – obviously I can’t speak for the whole of Brighton – that is not the Brighton way. I never met another company that is like that because usually it’s like “We’re your competition, anything we can do to help each other out, we’ll share resources, give you some freelance”. It is just like that seemed very different and it was almost like “Go back to London if you’re going to be like that.”

UNFUSED? ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY

• Despite strong presence of both technology and artistic communities in Brighton, there appears to be little intersection between the two.• Differences in practices, resources, constitution and

location; artistic community perceived to be less catered for than technologists.• Brighton Digital Festival and White Nights are

spaces where these overlaps do happen.

• Some individuals bridge the gap, but see themselves as unusual and (sometimes) outsiders rather than the the norm.

It’s very easy for geeks to find other geeks. It’s harder for artists to do the same. Artists don’t need to sit down and exchange skills in the same way that technologists do. I was at dotBrighton this week to listen to a world expert who gave up hours of his time to give you a crash course in his technology. You wouldn’t get that for basket weaving in Brighton and you wouldn’t get that for other art making skills. I guess because there’s probably an expense with equipment and stuff for getting arts going, and also I think artists tend to be a little solitary. They feel that they do their training when they go to art school and then they just get on with pursuing it and it’s not as if you suddenly need to get a new skill.

QUESTIONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS

• Open communities are often characterised as being excellent at generating value but terrible at capturing it: does this describe Brighton?

• If there is no single “Brighton digital community”, what smaller sub-communities exist?

• Brighton is an attractive place to live, especially for people wanting to put down roots – does this affect community dynamics?

• “If I want to find someone who can build me a robot arm, I’m only 2 degrees of separation from someone who can do that” – Why the disconnect between the arts and technologists?

THANK-YOU!

@gsvoss