Idea Labs

Kind idea-labs deliver real, practical projects for meaningful causes using interesting tech, while providing a place for learners to build their profile and can gain valuable real-world experience as they explore getting into a career in tech. Each lab has a clear deliverable, and the code will be open-source and under the Apache 2 license.

The tech landscape is huge, and we feel that project-based learning as part of a team is one of the best ways to learn. It also gives people a feel for what a real job in tech might look like, linking tasks with actual product outcomes.

Our labs are designed to be "win-win", or perhaps even "win-win-win-win-win". They benefit:

learners/people getting into tech with real practical experience, support, teamwork and group learning
teachers/instructors with strong links to industry and practical projects to augment their instruction
organisations and people with the projects they deliver
the tech industry by kicking the tyres on new technologies and approaches
Kind (us) by giving us experience and an informed opinion as we deliver our mission to help our clients get a great return on their tech investment, and our purpose of wanting to use our skills to do meaningful work

You can read more about the labs and how they work in our white paper.

Lab #1

Data Mesh

From an engineering standpoint we are building a "data-mesh" product using a micro front-end architecture on some great technologies which include Kubernetes, Rust, Typescript, Svelte, Apache Pinot and golden-layout. This is a great opportunity to get experience or showcase your skills in these excellent technologies!

From an organisation standpoint, we're building a platform which shows how quickly and easily engineers can deliver meaningful insights to decision-makers from the information they care most about. To do this well, you need to avoid coordination and dependencies in order to release new features, and the end-result is akin to giving your business its very own "data concierge" (TM)!

You can see this project and read more on github at kindservices.github.io/idea-labs

Lab #2

A Local App
for
Local People

Our last lab was very heavily data and engineering focused. This lab pivots to creating a cross-platform mobile app for the local town of Eyam in the peak district.

For those keen to learn how to create a cross-platform (Android, iOS and web) app, we'll walk you through how to create a compelling and interactive app which can serve both visitors and local residents!

If you've not built an app before, or would like to hone your front-end design craft, get in touch to build and learn with us!

Coming Soon:

Language App

This lab is aimed at mid-level language learners. It's a way for people to hone their language skills in a practical way -- by consuming content (news, blogs, video, etc) in their target language but with automated on-demand assistance.

It's the "phone a friend" option for practical real-world learning, which then creates a personal learning content and flash-cards based on the actual content you want to consume and interact with.

If this is something which interests you/you'd like to be involved with, then get in touch!