Techies reveal their creative side for charity

Another one of the five finalists was Bill Ayers, whose entry — the Lean, Green, Wind-powered IT machine — was based on the concept of wind-powered remote working, using a 1kW turbine to power a server running Windows Small Business Server.

Email is provided by Exchange and Outlook using Cached Exchange Mode, which Ayers claimed is tolerant of intermittent connectivity — something to be expected when using wind as a power source.

Ayers's project was also interpreted by Ross Garth:

"A picture, displaying the four elements (wind/air, earth, fire and water), is combined with IT 'elements'. This shows the correlation between nature and technology. The picture portrays a combination of production, destruction and the interaction of humans," said Garth. 

Finalist Johnson Manuel Devadoss developed an automatically updated screensaver for the Devalois children charity, which provides information on missing children. The 'Missing Kid Saver' runs photos of children, as well as contact details in case of a sighting, as the screensaver on the PC of anyone who signs up for it.

The Missing Kid Saver was interpreted by Sian Murphy, an artist and a ballerina with the Royal Ballet company.

"My work has always been concerned with the dislocation of what we see and the actual reality behind things, especially the pain behind the fantasy of childhood hopes and dreams and the real events that life actually imposes," said Murphy.

"In my own profession as a classical dancer, the general public perceives a choreography that seems beautiful and effortless, yet the experience of creating the performance is one of constant pain, blood and sweat; the razors of the tiara, the bloodstains of the points. And yet, paradoxically, it is a labour of love," Murphy added. 

Conservation charity Fauna & Flora International provided the inspiration for Jyoti Majithia's entry. 'EcoSpaces' is essentially a web presence for the charity that can be updated using a mobile device.

Fixed internet access is rare in the developing world, but mobile connectivity is much more plentiful. Experts in the wild often don't have the equipment to send emails or update sites online, according to Majithia, so sending information back by mobile makes much more sense.

The artistic interpretation of the Ecospaces entry was the work of Paul Gabriel, who is employed in retail.

"The painting addresses the ecological issues of today. The juxtaposition of various landscape vignettes alludes to the contradiction we see in everyday life. A thriving landscape may be viewed at one moment, only to see a scarred wasteland the next. Beauty exists within minutes of tragic [despoilment]. Is ecological devastation as imminent as we're told? Why do we find landscapes that contradict the prophecy?" Gabriel said.

The People's Trust for Endangered Species is a conservation charity, created in 1977, with a special focus on UK mammals. Martin Newman's entry, 'Mapping our Changing Wildlife', proposed a system to allow "citizen scientists" to input information about mammals killed on roads, using mobile devices or PCs.

The system uses the "spatial-analysis capabilities of SQL Server 2008" and mapping technologies, such as LiveMaps, to track where and when mammals are being killed on Britain's roads.

Mapping our Changing Wildlife was interpreted by Andrea Smith, a trainee art therapist.

"My idea around this project was really to try and emphasise the surveillance data through an interwoven map. I wanted to try and show the diversity of the many hours of tracking across a wide spectrum, each string recording and sending a piece of data that entwines to give a three-dimensional image of the hours put in. I wanted to create a simple analysis of something that is both spatially interactive and conveys the multitude of data collection," Smith said.