These are my links for October 26th through October 31st:
mySociety » Blog Archive » Harassment problem leads to FOI strangeness – Interesting story about how government departments are making quite subjective judgements about which information to release through FOI: "Today we have a strange story about a department that appears to think that it has a duty not to release information under FOI if it makes people angry."
We Share Stuff – Accredited course in Social Media – A triumph for wesharestuff: "We’re really pleased to announce what we think is the first officially accredited course in understanding and using social media for those with no previous experience. We Share Stuff has developed the course and it’s now part of the OCN framework (WSS are an OCN Centre), as three units of 10 learning hours each."
Data is what we want – but why? – Birmingham Post – Business Blog – Paul Bradshaw explains in simple terms: "The best analogy I can think of is polymers. When the technology behind polymers was developed in the last century, it created a whole new market – innovative producers could create new products, and cheaper ways of producing old products. Similar opportunities are available with the release of data – release postcodes for businesses to use cheaply or for free, and you have the opportunity for new businesses creating applications based on location. Release transport data and others can tell you which direction to head in for the next bus."
Blog | Birmingham Conservation Trust – Really interesting film about The highline – a community campaign to save an old elevated railways line in New York as a green park. Fascinating ideas about how to galvanise community.
Green shoots of recovery – Birmingham Post – Lifestyle Blog – Kate Copper: "The accidental empires of the 20th century weren't forged in workshops (not even facilitated ones), but in back bedrooms, unused garages and fusty university research labs. At the forefront of this revolution were pizza-fed, caffeine-fuelled nerdy boys who couldn't get a date. These brainy T-shirted lads did weird math, challenged their mates to do even weirder stuff — not in order to make money or lead a revolution, but simply to explore what it was that they could do."
This is the second in our series of blogposts on the C&binet conference in London which took place this week. Our first sesssion was introduced with a presentation from Enders Analysis (below) about the state of local media from the newspapers’ perspective. The numbers were pretty harrowing but largely expected.
The second slide shows from 2001 circulation numbers from regional and national news started to decline. And yet slide three shows how comparatively little time readers spend online than they do reading newspapers – so is less news being consumed all round?
Far from it, was the consensus from those at the conference. News is being consumed today more than ever. But the relatively little time readers will spend skimming across webpages is no incentive for advertisers to migrate online – hence the combination of the digital revolution and the recession has meant job cuts and a number of regional papers no longer able to continue.
Prominent voices in the hyperlocal debate gathered at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport today to talk about the changing landscape of news and media and, if anything, what the government should do.
Arranged by Minister for Creative Industries Siôn Simon, and chaired by CEO of GroundReport Rachel Sterne and founder of Talk About Local William Perrin, the conference – called C&binet Seminar – was a collision of talking heads about their experiences and thoughts on the state of local and national news and their plans or predictions for the future of journalism. Those in attendance included Editor-in-chief of The Guardian Alan Rusbridger, Editor of Citizen Journalism at The Huffington Post Matthew Palevsky and Paul Bradshaw from Birmingham City University’s MA in Online Journalism (see a full list of attendees below).
Sessions focused on a number of areas in the debate, introduced with a presentation from those with particular knowledge of a field, and were followed by passionate discussions with attendees drawing on their own research and experiences. Read the rest of this entry »
This week sees the launch of www.birminghambeheard.org.uk – a database of consultations about and from Birmingham.
Typically the consultations stretch back about 3 years and involve the various organisations which form Be Birmingham, the local strategic partnership.
The site itself has been made by an internal team at Birmingham City Council. We were approached to make a a promotional video, which ended up being very practical: a simple to guide to how to start using the site:
You’ll notice one other thing which has happened since we made the film. The site has an RSS feed. It gives you general updates and the moment and I’m sure they’d be willing to consider a wider variety of rss feeds – for example by ward or constituency if you think that would help you. So there’s room to offer feedback here, use it if you get a moment.
These are my links for October 24th through October 25th:
What I (nearly) said at Government 2010 – Neil has some very well structured thinking on government, online consultation/conversation and who's job it is: "People have jobs already. Busy ministers and officials can be forgiven for thinking it’s my job and that of my team to communicate online for them. Challenge is to understand their world, the pressures they’re under, the things they want to achieve, and show how digital can help them do that quicker/better."
genzai·chi » MuseumNext: wild ideas about participation – Nikki on Museums: "I gained a lot through speaking with museum (and psychology!) professionals of all sorts and it has really helped me to better appreciate the sorts of issues institutions might be trying to address through the use of games and playful experiences. Also what the main concerns they may have in doing this and where likely pitfalls may be."
Urban Interface Policy – VURB – "In the smart city, what is written as programmatic software ‘code’ can easily become defacto ‘law’ as it imposes permissioning schemes and identity regimes on it’s participants. So far, the internet, and the open source software that powers much of it, has remained remarkably adaptable to the ideals of democratic and egalitarian societies. Every infrastructural advance, however, goes through a watershed moment where the governing design principles of the technology itself begin to influence the types of societal experiences they might produce. We need to attempt to understand the cultural ramifications of such infrastructural design decisions in this context"
Who’s not using the internet? | Culture | The Observer – "Access to the internet, and the ability to navigate the web has, for example, been shown to produce a significant rise in social confidence among 60 per cent of those who had previously been excluded, while in recent studies of internet usage among individuals who considered themselves to be depressed, "feelings of loneliness" decreased in 80 per cent of cases once people got online, and depressive symptoms were "cured" in 20 per cent of cases. Virtual conversations and interactions are now widely argued to be just as important as "real world" encounters in making people feel attached to a community, or part of a network."
Here are some of the things I’ve been reading October 24th from 22:45 to 23:23:
Steve Bridger › Blogging a crisis: reflecting on some lessons learned – Steve Bridger writes a very fine post on his After Wilma blog, sharing with us why getting the story told is very important in times of crisis. He quotes Dan Gilmour: "Tell the truth. Tell it quickly. Tell as much as you can. People crave a genuine, human voice in times of crisis."
21st Century Councillor – about 21st century councillor – "A 21st Century Councillor is one who is a supported, confident, talented and professional community leader. One who understands but can also transform their place. One who can think strategically, as well as be informed and inspired by their local roots. In short, being a 21st Century Councillor is a role that many more people should understand and aspire to fulfilling for at least a part of their lives. Where this is not the case, change is not going to come through statutory obligations alone."
Huddersfield gets it’s own social media surgery – The whole process is very well summed up: "At the surgery you’ll get chance to sit down and have a cup of tea with someone who understands about web sites and tell them about your group or organisation and what you do. This will be the starting point. Then you’ll be able to look at the kinds of web sites and services that you might find helpful, and see what similar groups are doing. You can choose some services to try out, and even set up a web site there and then if you feel you need some help getting started"
Rusbridger’s Mutualised News – Editors Weblog – Alan Rusbridger: "For the first time since the Enlightenment, communities are faced with the prospect of living without verifiable sources of news," Rusbridger warns. "This feels like some kind of emergency, and it is not clear to me that our legislators recognise that." Sometimes I think news organisations over play how much they really check the truth of the stuff they run.
We don’t want to read your website. We want to write it. | Local Democracy – Paul Evans echoes a number of thoughts on councils and online media: "They are finding that all of these annoying geeks are making it more difficult for them with their FOI requests, their defamatory blogs, and so on. They feel that they’re in an arms race that they can’t win."
Against Transparency | The New Republic – This, from Lawrence Lessig, is really worth reading: "This is not to say the data will not have an effect. It will. But the effect, I fear, is not one that anybody in the "naked transparency movement," or any other thoughtful citizen, would want."
An encouraging week at the conferences – Digigov – David Pullinger of COI reflects on a couple of conferences: "It struck me that there are many talented expert e-communicators across government but hampered by the misperception that Web is IT."
Living with rats: Trafigura, climate change and the power of reputation – Julian reminds us that Trafigura is about our willingness to use tools, not the tools themselves: "The real story, I think, is the power of citizens to change an organisation’s reputation. What matters isn’t the tool – Twitter, Facebook or even good old-fashioned newsprint – but people’s willingness to use it. What’s also interesting is people’s readiness, at a time when politicians’ esteem has hit a new nadir, to defend the rights of Parliament against corporate and legal bullying. There was a glimmer here of what Parliament should be: the champion of the citizen and the exposer of abuses."
potlatch: the economic sociology of receipts – Will is really interesting on the growing trend to give a receipt with everything: "to normalise receipts in cafes or bars is to strive for the perfect, 'dis-embedded' clean exchange, of the liberal-economic imaginary. It depersonalises the interaction and substitutes data for memory. It declares the exchange over, with nothing more owed by either party. Frankly, this is futile, as exchanges always leak into society."
New for 2010: Retooled | Antonio Gould – Antonio's latest job: "The project will work with ex-manufacturing employees from the West Midlands, skilling them up in social media and working together on a challenge which mixes old and new skills."
Volkswagen to Rely Solely on IPhone App for GTI Launch | Advertising Age – Neville’s posterous – Volkswagen of America is launching the newest-generation GTI exclusively on an iPhone app, a cost-efficient approach the automaker said is a first for the industry. How cost efficient? When the marketer introduced the GTI in 2006, it spent $60 million on a big-budget blitz with lots of network TV. By comparison, an executive familiar with the matter estimates the annual budget for mobile AOR services is $500,000. And while an iPhone-only strategy may seem limiting, consider this: In September, Apple reported there are more than 50 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide. By comparison, CBS' "NCIS," the most-watched show for week ending Oct. 18, reached 21 million viewers and commands an average price of $130,000 for a single 30-second spot.
As the cold weather draws us ever nearer towards winter – why not hibernate on the web and enjoy some friendly conversation about social media to warm the cockles.
We have scheduled in the next central Birmingham Social Media Surgery session at the Fazeley Studios, Digbeth for November (please note this date has changed – there will not be a surgery on Thursday 12 November).
The Central Birmingham Social Media surgery will be held on Friday 20 November, 2009 between 5.30pm and 7pm at The Fazeley Studios, 191 Fazeley Street, Digbeth, Birmingham B5 6DR (link to map), opposite The Bond. Push the large pale blue doors with the silver door knob.
This particular surgery has a twist. We are inviting those who have already been to a surgery to come back and develop their skills and build on their sites. Don’t worry if you’ve left a blog dormant for months – the point of this November surgery is to take you to the next level and show you some inspiring things other people have done with social media.
Even though this surgery is aimed at those who would like to improve on their social media skills, everyone is welcome, and we can work with you according to your level and needs. If you belong to a Birmingham based community or neighbourhood group or charity please come and join us, you can drop in any time between 5.30pm and 7pm.
To sign up head over to the BeVocal site to sign up or find more information about locally-based surgeries.
Want to know more about Social Media Surgeries and what to expect? You can find out more information about what goes on at a surgery and how it can benefit you here.
Carl Sheward and Joshua Barwell are two Junior Volunteer playworkers at Pype Hayes Community Focus. Both 16-years-old, when they are not studying for AS-levels they are spending their free time getting those younger than them involved, doing fun days and activities.
For their effort and heart for the community at such a young age, the Junior Playworker Co-ordinator has nominated them both for the Young Persons Birmingham Local Hearts award. They both agree the work is rewarding, and possibly see themselves forging a career in community work. Here’s their story.
This is the story of Dolores Pinkney who runs the Dojo project in Handworth. She has been working tirelessly for her community since she moved to Birmingham with her family in the 1960s, and now she has been nominated by Kevin Duffy for Birmingham City Council’s Local Hearts Awards in the active citizen category.
She says her parents were her inspiration – they opened up their home to everyone in the area and it became a focal point of the community. Now with her brother Hector, who works at Handsworth Library, Dolores has continued her parents’ legacy with the Dojo project. It ranges from jogging sessions on Tuesdays & Sundays to securing the lease to build a community play centre on the derelict site of the Hockley flyover.
Dolores says her motivation is “encouraging everyone that we meet, enabling and empowering,” and if someone is there who needs help, she cannot turn them away. Here’s her story.
