Podnosh

These are my links for February 16th through February 18th:

• Experimenting with the online presentation of a Bill « UK Parliament Labs – Last year the House of Commons published the Equality Bill in a trial format. The text of the Equality Bill and its Explanatory Notes was published as one document, with the Bill text and Explanatory Note text interwoven throughout the document.
• Digital citizens and democratic engagement – eDemocracy – ‘Citizens do not want the passive, broadcast-only relationship with their MPs that has existed until now, they wish to communicate and engage, to track and contribute to the democratic debate. Higher levels of engagement and wider participation in the democratic process will happen when citizens feel that they are a central part of it. This presents a challenge for Parliament – both for MPs and the House authorities.'
• Fantasy CMS for government – "Vendors should be mindful of the power they yield, for as long as they still yield it."
• Citizensheep » Manage your online reputation –
• TWITTER GRITTER: Case study: Gritting and social media. « The Dan Slee Blog –
• Screen WM – Driving innovation and excellence in screen media : News – "The first project to launch, ‘Jailbrake’ , run in conjunction with Social Innovation Camp aims to find ways to use simple web and mobile tools to help break the cycle of re-offending by the many thousands of young people who get caught up in the criminal justice system each year. The call for ideas is now open and the closing date is 26th February 2010.

  Ideas are welcomed from anyone with an interest in this area, whether you are part of a Local Authority, youth offending team, service user or a software developer, designer or funder who can help turn the ideas into live projects."

The next CENTRAL Birmingham Social Media Surgery will take place on Tuesday 9 March from 5.30-7pm at thestudio.

Thestudio is in the middle of the city centre – situated on 7 Cannon Street, B2 5EP. To get to Cannon Street take a right turn off New Street after H&M. You can see the location on their map here.

Read the rest of this entry »

givv.org. allows you to make one monthly donation

The site www.givv.org is simply brilliant. It allows us subtle control what we give and to whom.  When you offer someone control it tends to make them feel better about doing something.

As a charity donor it allows you/me to make one single monthly payment into an account then choose how to apportion that.

If this month I want to support disaster relief I can, next month I split it between that and a home based children’s charity. In fact I can split it as many ways I like – picking up local charities for a while, changing my interests from young people to building sonervation.

I can then decide whether I let those charities know I’m supporting them or not, either joining their netowork or avoiding it.  That means I can also have some control over how many times they send me daft envelopes with silly pens in.

As a charity trustee or administrator I get one lump sum payment a month from givv.org rather than lot of different payments.  Especially for the smaller charities (such as my favourite,  Birmingham Conservation Trust) it may improve the chances to get small yet manageable donations from a much wider group of people.  When someone opts to share information with you the chances are that will also be a more fruitful relations – better rewarding the effort put into nurturing it.

It’s very clever and I hope something similar comes to Britain soon. Of course don’t let the wait put you off making a donation here  ;-)

www.justgiving.com/birminghamct/donate

Tip top hat tip for Chris Unitt.

Let me introduce you to two new blogs about neighbourhoods in Birmingham, both run by public servants

Hands on Handsworth is written by Tracey Thorne – the neighbourhood manager for Handsworth in Birmingham;  Be Heard in Birchfield is being nurtured by Yvonne Wager – the neighbourhood manager for that particular part of the city. (Click here to see Tracey’s explanation of neighbourhood management)

Both Yvonne and Tracey are in jobs funded by Be Birmingham – the local strategic partnership.  They were inspired to start a neighbourhood blog by their colleague Kate Foley who had been running Life in Lozells – a site set up originally to address the problem of all the bad news you find when googling Lozells. Kate explains in more detail in this video made by the Chamberlain Forum.

What do they do?

They talked to us about helping them develop these sites during the Social Media Surgeries we ran in Lozells last year.  Both are built on WordPress with some changes to the back end that make it a little easier to blog and listen to what the web is saying about your neighbourhood.  There’s also a simple events system with mapping, plus the sites include a facility to easily turn plans into commentable  consultation docs.  We also provide a service that ensures the software stays updated, plugins don’t clash etc, plus training and support on using it well.

Tracey is a natural – she really enjoys writing for the site and is on a roll. Yvonne is equally enthusiastic but needs a different sort of support, so it is taking a little longer.

Why Bother

The sites are the neighbourhood managers’ home in a wider web conversation. It’s only fledgling at this stage.  The point is that over time they help the neighbourhood managers share information, ask questions, pool expertise and begin to collabroate in new ways with their community.  I’m not convinced they should attempt to become THE site for their neighbourhood.

Such an idea concerns me, because if THE site gets switched off or someone begins using it to be self serving that’s a problems for the whole neighbourhood. Instead I’m interested in how we can nurture a range of online resources and voices in a place. These blogs form  part of that process – providing a tool that can also help neighbourhood managers link to and encourage the wider conversation.

What do you think?

It will take time and patience for these sites to bed in – but what do you think? Could you encourage them by commenting a post or do you have any advice for Yvonne or Tracey?

A great turnout at February's Social Media Surgery in thestudio

Well, it seems sometimes you get what you wish for. February’s Central Birmingham social media surgery had a really good turnout. Nick decided to make me ‘organiser’ for the night and, perhaps, it would have been best if it had been a quiet night.

But, largely because everyone was so nice and actually knew a lot more about what was going on than I did, it ran very smoothly. A big thanks in particular has to go to the surgeons who did a really good job to juggle the large numbers of people, who often had very different interests.
We had folk in looking for help with everything from Twitter to Google Analytics on the evening – and from lots of different organisations.

Feryal Iqbal, of Friends of the Earth and Localise West Midlands, seemed very happy with the help that she received. Feryal will be working with both the organisations and wanted to learn how she could set up a blog, as she explains in this audio interview.
Feryal interview Social Media Surgery february

It was also great to see Neil Holland, from the Midlands Arts Centre, who wanted to find out a little bit about how to use social media.

Andy Mabbett helped the Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery set up their own WordPress site, which they are already using to publicise their petition to force Birmingham City Council to restore the listed chapels there.

Susi O’Neill, who is a Web 2.0 surgeon in Nottingham, also popped in – and helped Martin Miley, Rick Cokayne and Martin Field of the Birmingham Social Investment Trust. Martin (Miley) and Rick wanted to set up a site for the Civic Centre Residents Association. And, thanks to Susi, they now have their own Posterous site.

Chris Crean, of Friends of the Earth, was keen to see how social media could support the campaigning work he does within the organisation, as he explains here:-

Clearly I need to work on lighting for the next surgery. But I’m really hoping we get an equally good turnout again next month, when the surgery will be on March 9 – a Tuesday – from 5.30pm to 7pm. See you then!

Click below to listen to the podcast

Click here to download the podcast

These are my links for February 14th through February 15th:

• Richard Sambrook: Big Thinker | Big Thinkers – Transparency is the new objectivity
  Balance used to be the watchword of the regulated UK news environment
  Now that is not enough. Trust is built through transparency.
  This can be liberating and it means “showing your workings”- as you did when doing maths at school- and admitting mistakes.
• Council newspapers: Revealed – the people who believe what’s written in them « David Higgerson – David Higgerson chewing over the problem of council publishing things that pass as newspapers "the councillors were praising themselves for the way they dealt with the snow – citing evidence from Lambeth Life. That’s a newspaper run by the council."
• The €4 Million Govt website that you never heard of « Damien Mulley – In a single sentence: 4M quid spent, no stats on usage.
• Federal Agency Ideascale Dashboard – Very neat – I especially like the bit which says which departments are short on ideas and could do with a little love. "To satisfy the Open Government Directive agencies are soliciting your ideas on how to make them more transparent, participatory, collaborative and innovative"
• Google Buzz: Not fit for purpose – Really detailed post on the many flaws with Google Buzz: "I have enough problems managing my email already, I don’t need Buzz to add to the cognitive load".

These are my links for February 13th through February 14th:

• Local council elections in 2010 « LGiU – the local democracy blog – At the BBC I loved organising and doing election coverage. (Genuinely did) This post shows that while the Local Government Information unit was thinking there are 166 local councils holding elections on May 6th the researchers I used to rely on, Rallings and Thrasher reckon there are 176. This can't be a tricky single data source problem to crack!
• Google Code Blog: Announcing Google Chart Tools –
• BBC – The Virtual Revolution Blog: BBC Digital Revolution rushes for you to download and edit – Argued for this in 1999 – great to see it happening. The most embarrassing bits of the rushes (un-edited video) are the ones when the producer reporter is making people do/say what they need them to do. That may well be the stuff left out! "Releasing rushes like this is an experiment, and there are some limitations. We're not releasing all our rushes, for two reasons. Firstly, we have a compliance procedure at the BBC which means that all online video has to be viewed by a senior manager – there's simply too much footage to do this properly. We do estimate that we will be releasing around 5 hours of interview material, featuring 20-30 interviewees, and up to an hour of other content."
• Blogging and Facebook for councillors – Councillor Mary Reid offers you the benefit of her experience. She offers top tips on how councillors can make the most of blogs and social network media. (thanks to @pigsonthewing )
• PC Ed Rogerson (hotelalpha9) on Twitter – This is one of my favourite bits of the web for the crossover between social media, very local stuff and public service: "Just had a meeting with my Sergeant. I've been instructed to conduct more speed checks in Starbeck and to seize tobacco off children."

I think it is only a matter of time before we switch from hyperlocal blogging to hyperlocal “mapping”.

Below is a short TED2010 talk from Blaise Aguera y Arcas of Microsoft Live Labs.

He is demonstrating augmented-reality mapping technology from Microsoft. It’s quite a substantial extension from where Google appears to be just at the moment and shows glimpses of great possibilities.

If you serve neighbourhoods,  interested in very local media or work for a news organisation, whether press, web or broadcast then it may be worth sparing a few minutes to watch this:

These are my links for February 12th through February 13th:

• Stop selling scarcity « BuzzMachine – If you are selling a scarcity — an inventory — of any nonphysical goods today, stop, turn around, and start selling value — outcomes — instead.
• WEB: So, what makes a good council website? « The Dan Slee Blog – Great piece from Danslee: "You’re in a rush. You’re going swimming. You’ve three minutes to find out when the nearest leisure centre closes… and you’re face with a council website. This could be a pleasant experience and for many it is. But if you’re unlucky you’ll be faced with a sprawling brick wall behemoth of a website written in a funny language riddled with jargon. Oh, Lord. It’s not gritting information, for example. It’s a winter service plan. Your opinion of your council suddenly plummets and you hurl abuse at the screen.
• Mark Thomas talks sense about the Digital Economy Bill by Andrew Dubber – "Most people in the world do creative things for no money. The vast majority of music in the world is made for cultural reasons that are not economic. To suggest that the only reason to be creative is with the expectation of payment is utterly offensive."
• Let’s learn to respect each other « Let’s Respect – "I am trying to make everyone learn to respect each others differences." via @steventuck
• Misspelled nemesis club » Blog Archive » Hacker Culture and geek groups in Birmingham, West Midlands – Birmingham has a vibrant community of geek/enthusiast groups, of which I’m proud to be a part. That said, it’s sometimes hard to find or even know about all of them, without the right. So collected here are the groups I know of:

These are my links for February 7th through February 12th:

• What do people talk about at social media surgeries? | Gavin Wray – So, what really happens? What do we talk about? Here’s a summary of a chat from a surgery in Fazeley Studios on 19th August 2009.
• Welcome to TweetyHall – “TweetyHall is an easy way to find out what the people who represent us in our local communities are up to; for councillors and candidates it’s a simple way to tell people why they should vote for them.”
• Digital Inclusion Unconference – defining digital inclusion | We Share Stuff – “I was surprised that we were all pretty much agreed on what we meant by “digital inclusion” — that it was (and this is my wording, worked out now):  the confidence to use technology when appropriate, and to know where to get help if neede”
• Richard Taylor | Should We Buy Our Councillors iPads? – “I think councillors ought be free to choose the technology which suits them best; be it pen and paper, a laptop, or even a tablet. I would expect councillors to equip themselves with the tools they need for the job out of their allowances, or independently.”
• mutuo » Commission on Ownership – “Modelled on the highly influential ‘Commission on Social Justice’ (1992-1994) the objective is for the Commission on Ownership to produce an authoritative report that establishes a new and clear understanding of the influence that ownership has on the governance of our country.The key questions for the Commission are:

  • Does ownership matter?

  • Does ownership affect fairness in Britain?

  • What, if anything should Government do about ownership?”