Following on from Mark Boulton’s tweet a couple of week’s ago (“@markboulton: UK freelancers and small agencies: speak to your accountant re revised rules on R&D. Very interesting developments.”) I have eventually asked my accountant for some more details.
Here is their answer which I’m sure they don’t mind me sharing:
In regards to R&D the tax relief amount rose on the 1 April 2011 and looks to rise again on the 1 April 2012 so there is an opportunity to receive tax relief on more of any monies you spend on R&D.
If you look at the HMRC’s website, one of the main points to note is as follows;
“Your company or organisation can only claim for R&D Relief if an R&D project seeks to achieve an advance in overall knowledge or capability in a field of science or technology through the resolution of scientific or technological uncertainty – and not simply an advance in its own state of knowledge or capability.”
Furthermore, For accounting periods ending on or after 9 December 2009, the project must satisfy the following condition:
“it must be related to your company or organisation’s trade – either an existing one, or one that you intend to start up based on the results of the R&D.”
So it’s quite specific but certainly in a very positive and constructive way i.e. that the R&D should be based on something you will be doing through your company and essentially to aid the benefit of everyone in that field.
Read more details here
“Unknown unknowns get you up in the morning” Bruce Sterling
We all like the serendipidous nature of our social media graph and specialised curated content content but what if the whole thing was a carefully planned ruse and in fact all this graphed content was just being randomly selected by a robot. Not any old type of robot. A clever robot. Would you really be able to tell the difference. How long would it take you. Would you actually be looking. How quickly would you notice when the random started slowly to go wrong. Would you not just put it down to some curation slips, your social media graph with a combined hangover. And really really would you care (if you didn’t actually know the truth) and would you really really care if you did know. Would it make any (real) difference if the stuff you were reading was just plain good robot-impersonating-human curation.
And then what if the stuff you thought was being selected by a robot was actually being selected by unnamed humans in an unnamed part of the world. Again would you notice, when would you notice, and would you really really care (or would you just be confused and apathetic).
Maybe the option is a good old fashioned switch just sitting there on your desk, or maybe by the door when you come home or maybe you’d prefer it in the kitchen by the kettle. Any type will do.
Maybe even a nice pot dial to get some real fine tuning – a sort of fine tune of human and robot.
Or maybe only a combination will do.
//@solle
//London
#quickthought
The curation of Hidden Heroes: The Genius of Everyday Things exhibition at the Science Museum misses a few tricks. It should have extended beyond a limited random (shipping containers?) out into a more expansive random in a much bigger space and filled it with a mass of objects, products, things to expand on the idea of everydayness and mass appeal, mass use, mass consumption and how so many things are entwined into everyday life. It could have been an exhibition that connected these everyday things, their stories, and their history. It could have plucked things from other areas and the stores of the Science Museum and brought them to life under the everday banner. There could have been more education, more access to “How we make use of these things”. It could have avoided the neat repetitive rows (like a respectable peep show) that presented the tip of an iceberg and designed a network of presentation styles driven by real stories and awe and wonderment.
//@solle
//London
