I’m just showing @drwjl how easily we can blog.
Miscellaneous
Birmingham Hyperlocal Website for sale on e-bay
Posted on 22nd October 2012 by Nick Booth
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.
Which flip camera should I buy? – the update for 2012
Posted on 21st October 2012 by Nick BoothA couple of years ago I wrote what turned out to be an often visited post answering the question: “which flip camera should I buy“.
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.
Good luck.
Day 1 (for John) of Nominet Trust’s “Our Digital Planet” Exhibition in Bristol
Posted on 11th September 2012 by Nick BoothJohn Popham is working for us and Nominet Trust in Bristol for the next couple of weeks. He popped this up on his blog last night.
——-
Today was my first day as Internet Station Manager on Nominet Trust’s Our Digital Planet Exhibition. Our Digital Planet is a touring exhibition highlighting the benefits of the internet, and the Internet Station is an portacabin where people whose interest in the internet is stimulated can come to learn more about any aspect they are unsure of. The estimable Lloyd Davis has already done a stint in the role when the Exhibition was on Brighton seafront, and he will also be guiding it in Cardiff, while I will be back in Liverpool and Glasgow. In all this, we are working with the amazing Nick Booth, and his team at Podnosh Ltd.
In truth, it was a fairly slow day, a useful gentle introduction for me to the initiative, and I was fortunate to be working alongside Kieron Kirkland and Vicki Hearn from the Trust who were able to show me the ropes. A Monday in the middle of a shopping centre, was probably always going to be a quiet day. But, already some interesting issues are starting to emerge. This is true Digital Inclusion activity. Some of the people who approached us had very little knowledge of the internet at all. Nearly all were frightened, about giving away too much information about themselves, about losing money to scams, and about breaking something. They faced multiple barriers to getting online, but a common factor was fear engendered by media scare stories.
It was evident as well, that quite a few of the people who came along had literacy problems. It amazes me that many people who promote the digital inclusion agenda fail to take into account that a fairly high degree of literacy is needed to use the internet, and that, many who don’t go online avoid it for precisely that reason. But, there were a variety of reasons for being there, and not all were total beginners; including the young woman living in a hostel who came in to look at photos of her son on Facebook because there is only one, very slow, computer in her hostel. There was the man who wanted to know how to “unfriend” someone who had been sending him threatening messages on Facebook. And there was the man who wanted to know how to search for cheap coach fares to Blackpool, before going to challenge the ticket sellers at the Bus Station to beat the online price.
One of the interesting queries was from the young woman who came in under the mistaken impression that we were selling broadband packages. She explained that she had no internet connection at home because her previous supplier had been too expensive. “I’m not paying that for broadband,” she said; “that’s a holiday”. I helped her search for a cheaper supplier. Which shows up the great irony. How do you search for the best broadband package when you don’t have access to the internet to do so?
Thanking Volunteers – Eddie Izzard urges Olympic Games Makers to wear their uniform on Monday – so people can say thank you
Posted on 8th September 2012 by Nick BoothI like this (a lot)
Skills in Birmingham – our people, what they’re like and what we need
Posted on 23rd January 2012 by Nick Booth
Great Value(s) P(l)eas(e) - photo by Tony Crider (click to view on flickr)
Later this month the Birmingham and Solihull LEP will start making some decisions about skills and work – asking themselves what skills do employers need and how to make them available.
I know this because of a set of “skills” that are hard to measure or teach.
One is being networked.
Peter Latchford (who’s doing some initial work for the LEP on skills) approached me to see what I thought businesses like Podnosh will need. On 30th January he’ll report back and tell the LEP what small business is asking for. So this is what I’d like them to hear:
Podnosh recruits for?
Values
We are driven by making things better: improving public services, helping active citizens have a greater impact, allowing individual civil servants more freedom to improve lives, supporting good third sector organisations to help more people. We don’t work with anyone – if potential clients don’t share a good chunk of our passions or values we’d rather they found someone else to help them.
So for this we employ or work with people who:
- believe in what we do
- care about it
- are accountable
- transparent
- honest
- have integrity
- are networked
In turn they often know what they want and believe in and are leaders in their own worlds.
They are usually enterprising: Steph Jennings runs her own hyperlocal blog, Josh Hart makes LIVEBrum happen, Gavin Wray has nurtured the Central Birmingham Social Media Surgery for years. They make things happen, adapt to change, accept and learn from failure.
On top of that they are flexible and committed. All seem to have an unstoppable ability to make things work, see things through and to learn everything and anything they need to make that happen.
So we also want to find people who start things themselves (not the same as self starters), can’t help but learn on their own, aware of their strengths and happy to be open about what they want to strengthen.
It may sound like a halcyon world of small enterprise. But these are the people who work at, or with, Podnosh and they all have remarkable qualities (and if it sounds like I’m expecting them to be superhuman I’m not, I could never keep up).
One thing I haven’t mentioned? A certificate in anything.
Certainly there are technical skills and we are looking for more folk who are good at Ruby on Rails, but in our world many technical skills get outdated very quickly. So at it’s simplest we recruit the person, get that right and the knowledge later.
What do you recruit for – what does the LEP need to understand are the skills or qualities we need to help Birmingham’s small businesses thrive?
Update:
Karl Binder at Adhere added these thoughts to the discussion in his post “Total Business”:
So I look for:
- Aptitude, a readiness and quickness in learning
- Love what they do, have a passion for their job
- Flexibility
- Desire to continually try something new
- Recognition that their job role can and will change
- Existing skill set
If I had to sum up my employment strategy in a catchy little sound bite I would say I always looked to ‘employ people, rather than skills’. This effectively means if the person’s attitude is right, they have a willingness to learn and an ability to do so, don’t get disheartened and give up quickly and realise that their role is one that is constantly evolving, I would employ them over someone who was the finished product in one particular area of expertise.
Thanks Karl.
Community Lover’s Guide To The Universe and Birmingham
Posted on 29th November 2011 by Steph Jennings
It’s been a little over 5 months since we first mentioned The Community Lovers Guide To The Universe : Birmingham and we’ve finally found some time to get around to to approaching people to write chapters for us.
Jo Burrill and Birgit Kehler are going to be covering Change Kitchen, Emma Woolfe will be writing about The Friends Of Cotteridge Park, Christ Unitt will be telling us about Created in Birmingham and James Yarker will be writing about Stan’s Cafe “Of All The People In The World” and there are still some email responses pending from other interesting projects we’ve contacted.
We’re hoping that the The Community Lovers Guide: Birmingham will be ready to be published by early next year, but that of course all depends on us getting all the content we need in time. So while we’re making a start approaching the groups from the suggestions in the comments of the last post Can you think of any other people/projects that would like to contribute? A lot can happen in 5 months and we’re just wondering if there is anything happening that may have slipped under our radar.
Seven links and five blogs to delve into #sevenlinks
Posted on 6th August 2011 by Nick Booth
Tom Watson (and Ahmed Al-Omran) blogging at the G20 conference
Thank you Kate Hughes for being so kind on your blog post for the seven links blogging idea – one which encourages bloggers to talk about some of their older blog posts and share who they follow and read. I’ve also read Dan Slee’s post on the same, full of more inspiration.,
Not normally my thing but it’s good to do things differently.
So what seven links from back in my blog do I want to share with you under the chosen categories
1 My Most Beautiful Post: Perhaps curious is a better word for Why doesn’t government have reservists. It was written just after Christmas 2008 at the time the Labour government was pouring cash into the economy to try and see us through a recession. The question provoked wonderful, intelligent responses in the comments section, 2 years later the post prompted an invitation to meet Nat Wei (hello Nat) and was re-vamped for the world of big society. It’s beauty? Simple half finished ideas shared is one of the joys of blogging.
2 My most popular post: (more…)
