Our First Week Interning with the Federation of Small Business

     We all came to the Business School on Monday not knowing what the next 3 weeks were going to entail. The day started with a briefing from Simon Hanson, our project supervisor from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) North-East who set the project in motion. Over the next three weeks we will be helping the FSB investigate open data usage, examples of  open data best practice from across the globe and identifying how the FSB can best market a campaign to help the North-East region become recognised as the best region in the UK for its usage of open data.

    The briefing also gave the four Newcastle University interns a chance to meet the three Xiamen interns, none of whom had ever been to the UK before. We all had a tour of the Business School and Newcastle University – however typical British weather prevailed and it poured it down with rain! This is a picture taken by Yawen of the Courtyard next to the Armstrong Building.

    On Tuesday we began the task of researching our project on Open Data, and we found some really interesting examples of how Open Data can be used all around the world. For example in New York open data has been used to create an app for smartphones, that when it is held up in front of a map; it brings the maps to life!

    In the afternoon we all had a Chinese Taster Session – an opportunity for the Newcastle students to learn some Chinese sayings and calligraphy, which was a lot of fun and enjoyed by all!

    Wednesday morning we did some more research and worked hard, so in the afternoon the Newcastle students decided to show the Xiamen students the Grainger Market and other parts of Newcastle. We visited Newcastle Castle and had a group picture taken on the old drawbridge. We also walked over the River Tyne with the sun shining, which was the perfect time for a photo opportunity! Then we went down to the Quayside and across the Millennium Bridge to Gateshead where we visited The Sage and Baltic Art Gallery – this was interesting to see different interpretations of contemporary art.

    On Thursday we visited homeless charity, Emmaus. We learnt about different fundraising activities the charity does in order to raise their public profile and their future projects for creating an Emmaus Community in the North East of England. They were interested to hear suggestions from us about how they can raise their profile on social media, and how they can secure the future sustainability of their business. We were given a tour around the shop and at the end the opportunity to make some small purchases for ourselves!

James, Yawen, James, Zhouqi, Jack, Dandan & Asif, our GEO interns from Newcastle and Xiamen working with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB)