I was enormously proud of all the people who turned up today to help voluntary groups in Birmingham better understand the power of the social web. I’ll revise this tomorrow but just want to pop up some links before stopping for the day….
http://gerimoshers.wordpress.com/ is the new experimental blog of one visitor who will use it to explore social media before plunging her network of volunteers who support victims of domestic violence into the world of the conversational web. Why this blog? She wants to write about older folk who like to mosh!
http://jdcbirmingham.wordpress.com/2008/10/15/our-new-blog/ is the first full post for a blog established for the Birmingham branch of the Jubilee debt campaign. This might be their first trackback!
8 tea arts blog.
Leonardo experienced an epiphany in audio.
We didn’t stop. Lots of social media types were helping several people at once. About 14 folk turned up to offer knowledge, I reckon closer to 3 times that came looking for help. The photo above is the room we booked, others spilled out into the hall ways where they talked and looked and listened and learnt. When we called a halt some people moaned and asked for more!
So I’ll find the other posts for this tomorrow, digest and re-write. If I’ve missed a blog created there let me know and I’ll add. But in the meantime thanks to BVSC for supporting the idea and to everyone who came along and helped spread the word.
You are a star Nick – Fantastic to have such a good turn out!
Well done – I gave a quick mention to this on my blog – sounds like you all really enjoyed it and no doubt lots of new ideas will emerge – keep us posted and really sorry I couldn’t make it to help out.
[...] Nick has posted more links to the organisations we helped on his blog, can I ask you to look at the blogs that were created tonight and try out leaving a comment … it’s what makes the “live web” come alive! [...]
[...] I had a chat with Gary from First Light at the Birmingham Social Media Surgery last night and he seems keen to experiment with the format in their work and see how best to use it – perhaps showcasing the work they do, promoting their own (and, just as importantly, others) events/projects and all sorts of other things to boot. Good to see. [...]
Evenings like that are precious, and keep you running on air for weeks. Brilliant, Nick!
Nick – what an inspiration to us complacent bunch in London mostly talking to each other:-) Maybe the arrival of Amy Sample Ward from the US to bring Net Tuesday and more from Netsquared will be a catalyst. I’ll point Amy over
[...] Podnosh [...]
[...] Shabby Brum, shadowy software, dodgy signs and a punch drunk pony Posted on October 16, 2008 by Paul Groves After what appears to have been a very successful Blog Action Day, both globally and locally, everything is back to “normal” today: [...]
Well done Nick, Paul W, Paul H and everyone who made the surgery happen. I’m totally inspired by what a few people with enthusiasm and a few hours can achieve, count me in for London!
Wow – looks like this was a huge success, Nick. Brilliant stuff. Really inspiring.
I’ve been thinking NFPtweetup, on 24th Nov, could work in a similar way. Would be a more positive use of our time than just a get together.
What are your thoughts?
This is such an incredibly exciting thing – the more we can use new technology to get interesting and valuable stories and activities out there the more vibrant a place Birmingham will be. We really can bypass the usual channels, it’s wonderful that it’s being embraced so widely! Can’t wait to get stuck in…
Go for it Rachel.
We organised this in a week using our own networks and those of the third sector organisations in Birmingham. Time of day though is important – a lot of community groups and vol orgs folk also have work to go to. This was 5.30pm to 7.30pm.
We described it as a surgery and come any time, but most people turned up at 5.30 – which meant we were rushed from the first moment, so stressing the come any time or perhaps even staggering into two sessions, the 5.30 one and a 6.30 start might help.
[...] Delicious LinksGroup Project – FeastsideHappy Robot Music: Omnia Opera, Betty and the Id, Windscale gigBlog Action Day happenedStef Lewandowski " Jubilee Debt Campaign, BirminghamBAD08 Birmingham Social Media Surgery: provisional results [...]
[...] I suspect this is just a small part of the work Steve has done in Birmingham but if you’re seeing him at Plus then it’s worth keeping in mind that he’s part of what was an interesting time in Brum. A particularly interesting history is that of the deign agency Sidelines. It was organised as a co-operative that designed: “Newsletters; bulletins; annual reports; information leaflets; promotional material and occasional publications in the form of pamphlets and booklets designed and produced for community groups”. In its function it reminds me of the work at the recent Social Media Surgery in Birmingham. Here’s a fuller discussion, again from the Bisthon archive about Sidelines: “The Sidelines design and publishing agency was conceived by Brian Homer as a ’sideline’ to his editing work on the local paper ‘Birmingham Broadside’ in around 1977. Homer had become involved with producing design work for the Community Development Project in Birmingham, and for the Handsworth Law Centre, All Faiths for One Race (AFFOR) and other organisations, and when community groups began making requests to him to carry out design and production work for their publications, he went freelance from ‘Birmingham Broadside’. He separated himself from the magazine in 1978, having seen the potential for more work, and was joined on many of Sidelines original work projects by an informal network of artists, photographers and journalists, some of whom had previously worked on ‘Grapevine’ and ‘Birmingham Broadside’. They transferred the knowledge and expertise gained through this work to set up Sidelines as an alternative design and publishing agency that specialised in working for community groups, offering a professional service at affordable rates. In addition to community organisations, work was commissioned by trade union groups and produced material for May Day demonstrations, and also designed ‘Searchlight’, the international anti-fascist magazine. It began by designing for print publications, but later became involved with bigger projects.” [...]
[...] First of all the inspirational: Lots of Birmingham bloggers, too many to mention got together last week to hold a Birmingham Social Media Surgery to help voluntary groups in Birmingham better understand the power of the social web. Nick Booth blogged about it here. Brilliantly done all, I hereby offer to make the tea at the next one. [...]
thnaks for helping me set up my blog!
you were are a nice friendly and very helpfull bunch.
I hope you do this sort of thing again…as i now need to learn how to use my blog…i’m anything to do with computer’s ill-literate ( or maybe thats insulting the term!)
[...] What are we measuring? Pete Ashton has a specific target in mind for Custard Factory clients. He wants 50% of them blogging by next year and at the moment 18 of them are. Anything with content that can be subscribed to counts. So Pete has a baseline to work on, it’s measurable and specific. What’s the appropriate measure for the city as a whole? There are some EU benchmarks which are worth considering and tell us lots about the national picture for e-commerce (UK is 2nd in the EU for enterprises selling goods online) but they only cover part of the story. So my first question is really: What’s the measurable? Is it an E-commerce one or a ’subscribable content’ one or something else? Why should Dean the Builder care? Dean is knocking a hole in the wall of my living room on Friday (it’s okay, I asked him to). He comes recommended by a neighbour. But Dean is just a phone number and a cheery smile – he’s legit and everything but works alone or in a small team and picks up work based on personal contacts. He’s got tons of work so what’s being online got to do with Dean? There’s plenty of places you can see a generic rationale for getting businesses online but little tailored to specific sectors. Dean is reasonably priced, in fact I think I’m getting a bargain for the work he’s doing. He doesn’t need to advertise for more work but I wonder if there’s a place online where he could pitch for higher value work? Same effort, more reward should maybe be his goal. So the real question here is: Do we need a sector-specific approach or a wider there’s-something-for-everyone approach? How do we make change happen? I like the Social Media Surgery approach. Get some keen people in a room and give away your knowledge for the greater good. Is that scaleable across the city? Seems a tough task if it is. Are there enough online experts to go around? Perhaps instead there’s a staged approach to take. Business leaders could start to use the tools themselves and hope that others follow. Perhaps identify and support a specific business on its digital media journey (no I’m not asking Dean, he’s got a hole to create). I’m unsure a ‘let’s-do-workshops’ approach will work at this scale. It’s a ‘heart-and-minds’ thing isn’t it? So: what are the specific actions we need to take? On the ground working with businesses or a big fat PR campaign? Who’s on board? Which businesses in the city are already doing this stuff? The media/creative industries ones certainly are and they should really be demonstrating to others the benefits of working online. I suspect the business sector as a whole is still very firmly of the belief that websites are brochures. At best they can show off stock. Perhaps you might sell stuff through it. But online as a way to build customer networks, social media as a tool to position yourself as the supplier of choice, as a way to continue the conversation started at the golf course – that thinking seems a way off yet. But there are useful corporate examples out there and maybe a public/private coalition could help drive this forward. Which brings me to: Who is the ‘we’ that need to make change happen? Digital Birmingham + Chamber of Commerce? + Universities? + Tech firms? + a network of leading bloggers/social media types? [...]
[...] The Birmingham Jubilee Debt Campaign (click on the name for a hyperlink the site) created a free blog at our last session on October 15th. Within a couple of days they were using it to report a very successful campaigning weekend and they’re still telling their story. They keep entries short and simple – which removes that awful sense that doing this is a chore. It only takes a few minutes and i’m quite certain that by now the people behind this blog could show a newcomer how to get started. You’ll also notice, if you click here, how many people have left comments to say hello. That is how friendly and supportive the social web can be. [...]
[...] The Birmingham Jubilee Debt Campaign (click on the name for a hyperlink the site) created a free blog at our last session on October 15th. Within a couple of days they were using it to report a very successful campaigning weekend and they’re still telling their story. They keep entries short and simple – which removes that awful sense that doing this is a chore. It only takes a few minutes and i’m quite certain that by now the people behind this blog could show a newcomer how to get started. You’ll also notice, if you click here, how many people have left comments to say hello. That is how friendly and supportive the social web can be. [...]
[...] Sign up and start thinking about you could present about! I have already put down that I’m interested in running a social media surgery which worked so well at the UK Youth event in September, and which is being pioneered amongst the blogging community in Birmingham. [...]
[...] BAD08 Birmingham Social Media Surgery: provisional results [...]