Podnosh

This video was a quick one shot at the Social Media Surgery for voluntary groups in Birmingham this evening (should say 2009 – my bad). Despite the leading questions, I hope it gives you a sense of how people from community groups feel about the help they get from volunteer bloggers and social media folk. About 25 “recipients” (real people) plus  the social media surgeons who were in no particular order:

Jon Bounds, Pete Ashton, Jon Hickman, Joanna Geary, Gavin Wray, Benjamin Brum, Simon Whitehouse (see here), Abby Corfan, Phil Oakley, Watfordgap, Danny Smith, Katie Spragg, Mark Steadman.

For a more general view please have a look here. Pete shot this and uploaded it there and then to demonstrate embedding. Bless him!

Early this week My Society urged us to write to our MP’s to insist that the new Freedom of Information Bill should not be used to conceal MP’s expenses.  I sent this to Lynne Jones:

I was really concerned this week to read reports in both left and right wing biased newspapers that parliament is moving to conceal the receipts for MP’s expenses, not simply from open public scrutiny but also from FOI requests.

To be confident that MP’s are spending public money fairly we need that process to fully transparent.  I do hope hope you will do everything you can to ensure that’s the case.

She replied:

I am not sure exactly what we are going to be asked to vote on as yet but I am opposed to special provisions that would exempt MPs from disclosures that other people in other public sector organisations have to make. So as to be accountable, I will put something on my website next week.

Today Tom Steinburg of mySociety tells us that their campaign has worked. Clay Sirky describes it as victory for transparency. Let me give you everything Tom says says:

The vote on concealing MPs’ expenses has been cancelled by the government!

In other words – we won!

This is a huge victory not just for transparency, it’s a bellweather for a change in the way politics works. There’s no such thing as a good day to bury bad news any more, the Internet has seen to that.

Over 7000 people joined a Facebook group, they sent thousands of emails to over 90% of all MPs. Hundreds of thousands of people found out about the story by visiting TheyWorkForYou to find something they wanted to know, reading an email alert, or simply discovered what was going on whilst checking their Facebook or Twitter pages. Almost all of this happened, from nowhere, within 48 hours, putting enough pressure on Parliament to force change.

Congrats – the internets and the mainstream media work together, plus of course the Conservative Party withdrawing their support for the Bill.

Many, many evenings of voluntary work went public last night with a site to complement Birmingham’s Big City Plan consultation.

www.bigcitytalk.org has been built by Jon Bounds who’s worked patiently with other Birmingham bloggers Julia Gilbert, Nicky Getgood, Michael Grimes and myself to translate council speak into clearer speak. Stef Lewandowski has also been among a number of people who’ve supported and encouraged this, not least through conversations with the council.  I don’t think it’s flawless – so please feel free to comment about the site, but more importantly please use it to comment about the big city plan before February 6th.
We want to help move beyond the traditional consultation approach of citizens or organisations making comments to government and for government. Instead we are keen to create an online place which will encourage a more public conversation about how we will shape the city centre over the next 20 years.

Fortunately it has been met with some enthusiasm from other people.

Midge describes it as “something that Joe Public could actually get involved with AND comment on”. Shona has already used it to have her say on the options for Digbeth. Mark Steadman wants people to use the site – pronto (consultation on this phase of the plan ends on February 6th), one Simon is chuffed to see the it built on free and open source software Wordpress whilst another Simon is impatient to see more people commenting.

BiNS reminds us of one fundamental truth about planning for our city: “You know how big and complex Birmingham is, well it is. Very.”   Digital Birmingham reflect on this as “another example of how far ahead Birmingham is in its use of social media. Digital technologies coupled with a highly-motivated group of citizens makes for a very powerful combination.” Something I think is very true!

For me Dave Briggs gets to one nub here (I declare a situation can be double nubbed)when he asks two questions:

Readers working within local government: how could you make the most of the civic energy in your area, to work with residents to create something really worthwhile?

Everyone else: What’s going on in your local area that you could take a bit of time out to help out with, or improve?

So I’d like to add that extra nub with a third question aimed at publicly funded media like the BBC: Should you be doing this sort of stuff? If so how will you need to change your rules of engagement?

The National Trust creates this google map which helps people find National Trust properties and make their way there. No substantial techy shakes,  but what is most significant though is a sense of collboration here.  They tell us it’s a beta and ask for our iddeas about how to imporve it.  That attitude is good news.

The people who contribute to online communities are special – don’t lump them in with the rest of the members, urges Museum 2.0

“And so imagine if, instead of launching a community project and stating, “this is a place where anyone can contribute,” you launched and said, “Only one in a hundred people will share something here. Are you that one?” The idea that the user might be someone special, someone in the minority, is evocative and immensely appealing. If everyone can do it, why bother? If only YOU can do it, the motivation goes up.”

Andy Duncan of Channel 4 talks to Nesta about the future of digital Britain. (hat tip Dominic) He reckons:

1. we must have universal access to broadband services.At the moment we rank fifth of the OECD countries for access, but in terms of speed we are some considerable way behind countries like Korea and Japan.   If we are to
   be a fully digital society, then every citizen must be able to participate.  Anything less would be an implicit denial of full citizenship to some.
2. stimulate demand and here the best way forward must be a combination of public policy and private provision.when by the government’s own admission only 20% of schools have really ‘got it’ in terms of exploiting digital technology to drive next generation learning, we need to ramp up the integration of digital technologies with our formal and informal learning services.   Media literacy is as essential to a full and productive life today as basic literacy was in the world of our grandparents.
3. My third boundary marker for Digital Britain concerns what you could call the supply side of the equation.  For example, there’s the hugely complex question of how to regulate and reward the exploitation of intellectual property in the digital world.  Children and teenagers don’t differentiate between content they access on television and what they access on the net, but our regulatory system still treat them as totally separate.  One way of dealing with this may be to learn from the advertising industry where responsible self-regulation has been a
   success, and it’s clear that, however they do it, the big internet service providers need to take more responsibility for the services they carry.  I’m not pretending it’s easy.  If ever an issue belonged in the ‘difficult box’ for parliament and for society at large, this is it.  But we can no longer dodge it.

MySociety reckons we have 6 days to prevent MP’s burying the details of their expenses.  Click here to see how you can act: “NB. mySociety is strictly non-partisan, by mission and by ethics. However, when it looks like Parliament is about to take a huge step in the wrong direction on transparency, we’ve no problem at all with stepping up when changes happen that threaten both the public interest and the ongoing value of sites like  TheyWorkForYou and WhatDoTheyKnow.”

A couple of my friends, Stef and Dubber,  set up this simple site a few months ago. It is much more interesting that it may at first appear.  After all this looks like a selfish site. Tell us what you want, it says.

But what makes Isowish social, worth joining and interesting is not making a wish but being part of a community that might help grant one.  Some of the wishes are deeply personal, beyond anyone’s power to grant. Yet even these elicit encouragement and support from the Isowish community.  You may not be able to fix a problem, but you can make people feel better.

Isowish demonstrates a simple truth, that generosity is the key to social web.

Seth Godin reckons that

“Newspapers took two cents of journalism and wrapped in ninety-eight cents of overhead and distraction,” and that “if we really care about the investigation and the analysis, we’ll pay for it one way or another. Maybe it’s a public good, a non profit function. Maybe a philanthropist puts up money for prizes. Maybe the Woodward and Bernstein of 2017 make so much money from breaking a story that it leads to a whole new generation of journalists.”.

He is very, very right. (hat tip Ed Moore)

Interesting read from Charlie Beckett from a seminar at my old University, Sussex.

“Any media, be it small scale community projects or a more mass news media organisation, will always be more sustainable and relevant if public participation is built in to all aspects of production and consumption. This all feels part of my vision of future media as more Networked.”

Russell Davies on how we can apply on our online collborative skills to objects caled books: “for the creativity that’s running rampant online to emerge in physical forms in lots of places.”  Very much chimes with how I’m interested in creating content online and then using neighbourhood resources – like school English or citizenship lessons and photcopiers to turn these into pertinent, and easily distributed pamplets/newsletters.

Kent County Council Pic n Mix Mashup “Say, for example, somebody was going to build a third runway at the bottom of your garden and you desperately needed some information quickly. It might be quite difficult to find out all the information – particularly if you haven’t run a campaign before. But imagine if that information is already there. Imagine it being a bit like a catalogue. You might have information from the bird sanctuary about the eggs that are going to be destroyed, and something from the local school. You could manipulate all this data, maps, charts into something else, and then house that on another site. Someone else could come along and add, for example, some data on pollution.”

API’s are good: “It’s not just the API that’s a big deal, Greg Elin, Sunlight’s chief data architect, told me. “It’s the discipline an API imposes,” he said. To build one, an agency has to record and store data in a way that anticipates public use. “Data sharing is no longer an afterthought,” Elin explained. “You begin with the notion that you’re going to share information. And you’re going to make it easy for people.”

Paul Henderson gets his own blog. Paul has one of the neatest social media minds I’ve messed with. His explanation of RSS is un-rivalled (no he can’t say how it works but he’s great at simply explaining what it’s for) and it was he who nailed  social reporting in just one tweet – as you can see if you read this post.

I just want to list a few bloggers who’ve thrown their weight behind Created in Birmingham to win the UK blog category in these awards. CiB is run by a number of my friends and the impact they’ve had on Birmingham in the last year or so deserves recognition. When I last looked it was running just behind Melanie Phillips, the Daily Mail columnist.

http://2008.weblogawards.org/polls/best-uk-blog/

You can vote every 24 hours (click here) from each computer you use between now and 10pm UK time on Jan 13th.

Thanks and a little bit of link love to:

Ian T Edwards “CiB is a great resource for keeping track of creative endeavours in Birmingham.  It’s not run by the council or some company.  It’s run by ordinary people who are doing it in their spare time.  It supports artists and other creative types.  In return the Birmingham online community which is strong, is getting behind CiB to support and canvas for it in these awards.”

Digbeth is Good “CiB is thoroughly deserving of this award, it’s done a brilliant job of covering the arts and creative output of Birmingham and has been a true inspiration to others interested in blogging. I’m pretty certain Digbeth is Good wouldn’t have been born without it”.

Daniel Davies “When I moved to Birmingham I didn’t know a soul. Thankfully, I had the Internet and I stumbled upon a pokey little blog which advertised creative events around the city. Created in Birmingham is vital asset to Birmingham, connecting the creative community and providing a simple enough approach for anyone to find it useful. Its also independent, free from the pressures of advertisers to plug content and its readership is actively encouraged to contribute

Birmingham Hippodrome

Karen Strunks: ” I am grateful for CIB’s support, and if it wasn’t for them, this wouldn’t have happened. It was through CIB’s website that the magazine found me.”

Laura Whitehead:  “as an ex res of Brum it is a fine and creative place”

Ordo Paginarum: “the blog is doing an excellent service for creative types in Birmingham”

Ed Russell Community Matters

Paul Henderson:

Clare Edwards: Blogging Solidarity “all the key blogs in the area have got behind it and it is a great example of how the good work of Created in Birmingham has gained them respect from all sorts of quarters.”

Ewan Spence:  “Go Brum… there is something special about every blog, but one that promotes the arts and culture that’s away from the mainstream is extra special; and if you need to find abstract artists in the Aston Area, then CiB is a perfect fit.”

Mail Watch

Pete Ashton (also in the race but the bloke who set up CiB)

Rachel Gilles.
Chris Unitt (CiB is his baby at the mo) “I’m not sure of the chances of winning, especially as this is essentially a popularity contest and the other blogs have huge readerships, but I’m doing my damndest to get people voting. It often feels like I’m stretching goodwill to breaking point every time I send another reminder and for that reason I’ll be pleased when the voting period is over”

Bob Piper

Bluemilkshake

Blue Gal

Liberal Conspiracy (this is one is mostly anti Mel)

Other Excuses

The Stirrer

Podnosh (!)

Nosemonkey is sacrificing their own vote. Thank you:  ” vote often. To those still voting for me – thanks, you’re very sweet, but even I’m not voting for me any more.”

Citizensheep twice! Here he tries to help Neil Clark, who’s also on the shortlist, appreciate the extent of real support CiB has.

Indymedia Ireland

Indymedia England

Never Trust a Hippy.

Matt Bowles
John Band

Kebabablog
Art Stalking “I’m keen for them to win not just because I think their hearts are in the right place, but because it’s a way of saying that Birmingham has a strong creative community.”

Parboo

Bostin (through a facebook group)

Spaghetti Gazetti

Joanna Geary “It has changed the way I think about my industry, about the businesses that form it and the organisations that claim to support it.”

Gavin Wray

Peter Bacon “Strength and influence are both crucial to the vitality of the arts and creative industries, and strength and influence are greatly enhanced by those who link us all together.”

Shona.  (politer than sometimes) “If you don’t, I will scweam and scweam and scweam and scweam. And you wouldn’t want to be responsible for a breach of the peace now, would you?”

Benjaminbrum

Sunny at Pickled Politics “You’ll be doing humanity a favour.”

Anthony Herron  “It was started by Pete Ashton, who is also up for the award but who has already asked people to vote for CiB instead. Pete is renowned for his blogging and he puts a massive amount back into the community, along with Chris Unitt, who has been running CiB for the last year now. CiB is about to be taken over by Kate Spragg for the next year or so I guess. Let’s not forget the contributors and people who’ve help CiB start up – Stef Lewandowski, Danny Smith,  Frankie Ward, I’m sure there have been a few more.”

Birmingham City Council Webteam, for linking from the front page of their site.

The Birmingham Post sums up what’s going on. If I’ve missed you off please leave a comment – if you blog vote CiB in the next few days let me know and I’ll add you to the list.

If you have been following the fight to get Created in Birmingham recognised as the UK’s best blog you might like to know that one of the other nominees has fallen on their sword.   UK Blogger Nosemonkey’s Vote for me post has been revised to say:

Update: Actually, scrap that. Vote for Created in Birmingham instead. Never heard of them before, but they seem to have the best chance of preventing mad borderline racist Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips from winning….let’s not have a repeat of the most idiotic maniacs ruling the roost. There’s enough of that on this here internet already, thanks very much.

So don’t let them down. Each and every day you can make Nosemonkey happy by voting for Created in Birmingham at this link.  Neil Clark, The View from Here would you prefer Mel or CiB to win?