Lowestoft Web Design - Blue Lobster IT

Blue Lobster IT, Award Winners

In 2009, we were delighted to receive the Business Link – Business Start Up Award and an award for Innovation & Skills Engaging Education. On top of that, we were also finalists in another four categories:

Outstanding Business of the Year Award

Community Impact Award

Business Excellence and Innovation Award

Business Growth Award

It was a fantastic evening, at the Potters Leisure Resort in Hopton, with fine food and entertainment. We feel so proud :-D

Business Link Business Start Up Award

This award will be won by a successful and outward looking new business that has established its position within the marketplace through a mixture of sound business techniques, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurialism.

The judges will be looking for evidence of success in the following broad areas:

Identification of market opportunity, sound planning and development of the business.
Progress against plans and a clear commercial understanding of product, competitors and markets.
Evidence of commercial success in delivery of key objectives of the business plan, including sales, revenue and profitability.
Evidence of forward planning for sustainable business growth and success.

Innovation & Skills Engaging Education Business award - (Funded through the Waveney Economic Partnership) (Proposed by Mick Lincoln Head Denes High) Innovation & Skills Engaging Education Business award

A plaque (gold, silver and bronze) will be presented to the top three business who demonstrate their commitment and engagement in working closely with schools and students to enhance their prospects raise their aspirations and show that there is a future for them when attaining high achievement and returning to our area.

We're pleased to welcome David Smith to Blue Lobster IT. David is an excellent graphic designer (with a degree in Graphic and Typographic Design) for both print and web. In the few weeks since he's been with us he's been working on a scuba diving website, marine parts website, a GIS (Geographical Information Systems) website, two or three lots of business cards and a dozen or so logos and branding ideas.

Next time you pop in, do say hello to him.

Blue Lobster IT are proud to be supporting the My Grand Idea, part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week, together with the Make Your Mark Campaign, Graphics Matter, Picture Studios and the Lowestoft Journal. The event will be held on the 20th November 2009 and will give young people between the ages of 14-18 years the opportunity to pitch their ideas against The Dragons. This really is an exciting opportunity for young people with ideas to make them happen.

You can find out more about the event, and how to enter, at: www.mygrandidea.co.uk and you can follow mygrandidea on Twitter too.

EMECO Data Tools: Regional scale information products for environmental policy needs

Authors:

Keeble K¹,²  Mills D¹, Forster R¹, Rees J¹, Keeble S²

¹Cefas, Pakefield Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk, NR33 0HT

²Blue Lobster IT, Quayside Business Park, Lowestoft, Suffolk, NR33 9NW

As part of the European Marine Ecosystem Observatory (EMECO – www.emecogroup.org) initiative we have developed a suite of web-based tools that enable rapid integration and visualisation of multi-platform, multi-parameter, and multi-national data. The purpose of the Data Tools is to deliver policy-relevant information products in a transparent and auditable manner that increase confidence in the outcome to formal environmental assessments at a regional scale.

Users are able to select and view data from novel and traditional monitoring platforms as integrated data sets (XML, CSV), time series charts, and maps (KML and bespoke assessment maps). The assessment maps, currently of the greater North Sea, are composed of a data “mash-up” displayed in set of policy-defined water bodies. These outputs are generated “on the fly”.

Currently available data sources include ICES, the Cefas SmartBuoy and Waveney programmes and satellite derived chlorophyll. This allows users to create maps of various parameters including chlorophyll, nutrients, oxygen, and temperature. The user interface is interactive and intuitive making it easy to select time periods, parameters, water bodies, and platforms of interest. For each water body the user can reveal information on the value of the selected parameter, its standard deviation, and estimates of confidence in the value of the selected variable.

Future developments include extending the geographic domain of EMECO to the Celtic Seas in the context of a new Western Shelf Observatory. Incorporation of new data sources are planned including benthic biological data. EMECO has already put in place a European network poised to meet the challenges set by the new European Marine Strategy Framework Directive. Further development of the Data Tools will take place to align them with the need to determine Good Environmental Status as required by the new directive.