It is often very helpful for local community groups or hyperlocal blogs to be able to record what happens at council meetings. It allows them to capture and share a record of what was agreed – and hold politicians to account in the future. It can also help them celebrate success and show good local government in practice.
many councils across the country are still refusing to allow people to film public council meetings. In some episodes of TV programme Grand Designs, viewers have been perplexed at cameras being stopped from filming meetings of the planning committee considering the self-build projects.
The new guidance explicitly states that councillors and council officers can be filmed at council meetings, and corrects misconceptions that the Data Protection Act somehow prohibits this.
The Health and Safety Executive has also shot down the suggestion that ‘health and safety ‘regulations’ also bar filming, which Wirral Council used to justify a filming ban last year.
The new rules do not apply to Wales, as they have not been introduced by the Welsh government who have devolved responsibility. This led to the situation of a blogger being arrested and handcuffed by the police for filming a council meeting in Carmarthenshire. Wrexham council also banned a journalist from the Daily Post from tweeting a council meeting. Eric Pickles has today challenged Welsh ministers to introduce the new rights in Wales too.
Here’s the document and any and all active citizens and local bloggers should keep this in their back pocket.
Jon Bounds has a talent for the unusual. He’s just listed Birmingham It’s Not Shit – on e-bay. Stating price £1000.00. Previously he’d been asking for offers over £5000.00.
The site is one of the longest standing of it’s kind and gave Jon a remarkable platform over the years to innovate in using the web and represent another view of his native city. This will be interesting.
Things have moved on a good bit since then (mainly that new owners Cisco decided to discontinue the flip) so I just want to update it really.
My thinking on the best kit for social reporting is very simple:
Speed counts more than quality – so shoot in standard definition not hi definition – it uploads faster.
Decent sound often counts for much more than decent pictures.
If you are using a stand alone video camera simplicity matters.
The most sensible thing to use is what you are most likely to have to hand.
So:
Zoom Q3HD
Buy the ZoomQ3HD – Hi Definition Nick you say? Yes – but don’t use it that way - change the video setting from high definition to standard definition. You get a good widescreen image. Prices have come down quite a bit over the last year or so – so you wont regret buying this one. It comes with great sound so also works as a fantastic audio only recorder. Do not buy the ZoomQ2HD - Why? Because it doesn’t come with a built in usb – and that means you’ll have lost the cabel just when you need it.
or
Alternatively: if you can find a standard definition Flip (ideally Mino but any) then buy it – it will probably be second hand but is small, widescreen (which tends to look the part) and very simple to use – keep it in your pocket or bag.
or
Use a smartphone – currently the iphone 4 onwards does a great job, and we’ve been tinkering with the Samsung Galaxy SIII – for audio use audioboo to capture.
or
Your ipad – that can be a fab social reporting tool. But take to get good sound – you’ll will probably need to hold your ipad or phone closer than feels comfortable for decent sound.
Paul Bradshaw is hosting this review by Ofcom’s Manager of Nation’s and Region Damian Radcliffe. Damian has been a patient observer and (I think) advocate for bottom up hyperlocal website’s such as the one’s we help through social media surgeries.
They often provide an information anchor which can be very useful to local government, the police, housing associations – anyone serving a neighbourhood. On the whole I tend to think of local as much more local that is often meant when maintsream media or ministers bandy around the term hyperlocal. They seem to be talking about town size patches – we’re keen to encourage something much more local still.
Tuesday Monday evening was a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours with a broad range of folk from the public sector, BBC and blogging communities in Coventry and Warwickshire.
We brought them together as part of the work we have being doing with the BBC to encourage stronger links and better understanding between mainstream news and hyperlocal blogging. The BBC team n Coventry was keen to reach out to a broad range of people in their patch with an interest in social media.
It was run as a very simple unconference – (more…)
I think I just got paid with a hug. Full of the joys of social media surgeoning Lorna Prescott from Dosti put her arms around me and said thank you. (sorry Lorna for being embarrasing and thank you!)
It is really one of the reasons I love social media surgeries – they make me happy and they seem to make others happy too.
30 people turned up and the proportion of surgeons to patients was just right. This rather dark video shows just how busy and absorbed people were:
I shared the evening with two wonderful people. Michael Dennis turned up thinking he was there to get some help for the St Thomas Community Network - but because he does web development he got wordpress ganged into being a surgeon. It turned out Michael also run a successful ning network for foster carers.
Michael worked with Jackie McGuirk from Dudley Lions.
He helped her understand why social media might help their work. She said up a blog and wrote here first post (and this jackie is your first trackback). The worst part for Michael seemed to me interviewing them both:
Great evening and a great start to surgeries in Dudley.
This time our work is funded through the support Birmingham City Council gives to Neighbourhood Forums in the city . The details are below and you can download them here. If you want to come contact: (more…)
The first table was covering issues of controversy (how to deal with) accuracy and the news agenda – or the broader question of who news is it? Nick Booth took these slightly sketchy notes
Diane Smith of Stafford Direct
Diane Smith has used the social network Stafford Direct to starts to challenge the way the mainstream media was telling the Story of the enquiry into deaths at the local hospital. Below she explains what she ste out to do – why she felt the mainstream media was getting things so wrong and what keeps here going:
Ian Little of the Tenbury Wells blog said the reason he got into blogging was the town council was not very transparent with closed meetings – local paper would cover the council from one point of view, my stories tended to be from the opposite point of view.
Table Three discussing hyperlocal blogs and the BBC - source podnosh on flickr
Access and archives
Bloggers mentioned copyright as the main barrier to exposing content in the BBC archives to a wider, and local, audience.
Frustrated when historical archives are copyrighted, preventing you sharing it with your audience. One volunteer wants to share old photos of areas around Birmingham city centre for others to reminisce, share stories or simply for curiousity. Copyrighted BBC content, in the iPlayer for example, prevents content being put in the public space for comment, discussion and consumption.
There is also a wealth of great archive content by the BBC, spanning decades of local media, that isn’t yet online. There’s lots of interest in this.
Video of Nicky Getgood talking with Robin Morley asking (more…)
The aim was to introduce social reporting – quick and simple ways of sharing what’s going on around you with other people, using social media tools. Sharing information; getting a message across.
A social reporter might shoot a simple video about their neighbourhood. She might make notes at a meeting or conference and share notes with other people online while the event is taking place.
This post rounds up discussion and links created on the day.
