The works means staff sharing more of what they are learning, experienceing, finding and thinking – but online in public.
Jane Slowey
One of the problems we often have to try and solve is how to give people incentives to do something that can seem un-natural even risky. Normally we’ll aim to provide reassurance within the management structure and make it fun to do – turn what could be a chore into something that’s an enjoyable port of the work.
Oddly though Jane Slowey - chief exec at the Foyer Federation – is motivated by something else altogether – something deep in her personality … listen to this audioboo to understand more
Over the last 2 days the Podnosh team hosted 24 science communicators from across Europe. They were in Birmingham as part of the Open Places project which is looking at bringing together 69 science communication institutions and other stakeholders in European cities to partner with local policy makers to tackle socio-economic issues such as employment; education; climate change and poverty from a scientific perspective.We met with them to discuss social media and the ways in which it can be useful to them in their workplaces or on this and other specific projects.
We looked at different platforms such as blogs, Youtube, Twitter and Facebook. Gave presentations on networking, sharing and listening and had brilliant guest speakers Shane McCraken of (more…)
Recently I was having a conversation with Nick about the value of social media, the community links you can build using Twitter and blogs and the value this has in the real world, when I remembered the story of PC Richard Stanley’s blog.
PC Stanley is a blogging police officer and Twitter user from Walsall. He uses these platforms to talk to the “locals” about his job and help give plain English examples of how the police work and why things are done in a certain way sometimes. I read his blog, follow him on Twitter and have personally never found him to be anything less than factual and informative with some nice humorous banter, creme eggs, #foxwatch and competitions thrown into the mix.
A couple of months ago he wrote a piece in response to a news article in the national press where a suspected burglar was shot during an incident and the property owner who had shot him was arrested.
It was a factual piece that explained, from a policing point of view, why sometimes the “victim” of the burglary can also end up being arrested along with the burglar in cases like this. It was written so that it would be easy for the public to digest – and I felt it was. It was informative without being patronising and a good insight into how a decision to arrest someone could be made.
However, what wasn’t easy for regular readers to digest was what happened next. His blog’s comment section exploded with anonymous commentators condescending and, in some cases, outright insulting PC Stanley. It wasn’t an argument about the accuracy of any details in the blog but an inference he was doing something wrong by engaging in this way and “toeing the party line.”
Last Friday, Steph and I spent a great morning in Bexley at Orbit South housing association, with Orbit residents from Kent and Sussex.
We worked with Heather, Paula, Peter, Sue and Jackie to set up their own Posterous blogs to talk about what’s going on in their neighbourhoods and to help them in their roles representing Orbit residents where they live.
Knowing how to update a blog technically is one thing – but it still needs content to bring it alive and keep it going. Here are a few ideas to first get you blogging regularly – and then blogging successfully.
First: who are your users?
Before you can do this you need a clear idea of who your users are. Are they other people in your organisation? Potential partners in other organisations? Existing users of a particular service? People who might be interested in using it in future? (more…)
I’ve just started a blog for the BBC on hyperlocal websites. It emerged from a meeting which Will Perrin organised between local Birmingham bloggers, the BBC’s Head of English Regions David Holdsworth and Laura Ellis – both of whom had been my bosses when I was at the Beeb.
We were discussing the best way for the BBC to connect with an understand the growing movement of very local, or hyperlocal, blogs. I suggested at the time the BBC started blogging about these sites. The why is pretty straightforward.
Something I had learnt back in 2005 when I started the Grassroots Channel Podcast (which told the stories of active citizens in Birmingham) is how making media about people is a great way to establish relationships. Through interviewing people for a podcast two things happened, I established stronger relationships with them, but they also started connecting with each other. The simple idea of understanding each other better and, to a degree, sharing a platform.
It was the case I was making last week at the new currency event. Storytelling is about connecting people and we hope to help do that through this blog. We will concentrate on the wider West Midlands region and the sort of blogs that interest me are outlined in the first post here. Besides taking an interest in the bloggers, what they write and why they do it, I’ll also be talking to a number of BBC newsrooms and production teams and introducing people.
I’m really looking forward to this. I have a passion for both the BBC and for people who use various forms of social media for civic good. I think they’re natural bedfellows. We shall see.
These are my links for August 4th through August 19th:
Read+Comment | Hassle-free publishing and commenting on your documents – Good for consultation…. ‘Commentable’ online documents are a great way to establish two-way dialogue with the people who care about your organisation. But until now, you’ve had to build them yourself, often from scratch, either hosting your own or working around the limitations of your content management system or free tools.Read+Comment is purpose-built on modern, open source WordPress technology with all the configuration and plugins set up for you. Sign up, put your content in, and make the site your own.
Brave New World | John Popham’s Random Musings – A very fine man is now freelance: “There is a big difference between the last time I was a freelance and now, That is the rise of Social Media.”
Abdullah from the Forum and Andrew Brightwell. Picture by Nisha Virdi
We’ve been holding some social media surgeries in Balsall Heath. So far they’ve been supported by the Birmingham Social Investment Trust and our hope is that, after our third event on July 7, we’ll be able to carry them on as completely voluntary events. If you’re interested you can sign up here.
One of the projects that has benefited from our this is the Balsall Heath Forum, (more…)
After a few tricky moments with Wifi (something I’m reluctantly becoming something of an expert in) we were able to impart some help to the church itself, which through Anne Maddox and Mark Hayward is now running its own blog. As you can see from from the post that was put up on the day of the surgery, there are already a lot of interesting things going on with the blog!
Mark, as he explains in his audio interview below, has been in charge of the existing church website and is now, thanks to some help from Nick Booth, equipped to use the blog, add pictures and start to explore the benefits this new approach can bring to the community work the church is involved in.
Mark wasn’t the only person getting help, though. Dan Davies also helped Louise Darwood, who lives in Yardley, with help in setting up a blog and using Twitter.
In the video Louise – who is involved with the Riverside Church in Moseley – explains that she is very interested in becoming more involved in campaigns in her local area and hopes the blogging and using Twitter may allow her to develop her interests further.
This is just the first of our Be Birmingham-funded surgeries in Yardley. There’ll be two more – on June 23 and on July 28 – to look forward to, if you’re interested. And, if you want to find out more about what happened at the surgery, you can read my Surgery Manager’s report on the Social Media Surgery Plus website, here.
May's Central Birmingham Social Media Surgery in thestudio
We’re now looking forward to the next Central Birmingham Social Media Surgery, which will be at the Studio in Central Birmingham on Tuesday June 8 between 5.30pm and 7pm. The address is 7 Cannon Street, Birmingham, West Midlands B2 5EP.
If you’re from a Birmingham-based voluntary or community group and would like to receive some friendly advice on using social media, then you can sign up for the surgery by following this link to the Social Media Surgery Plus site.
There’ll be another surgery in July and then we’re likely to take a break in August, before being back in September. I’ll give you a dates as soon as possible.
If you’re new to the Central Birmingham surgeries then you can find out a bit more about them by looking at this link. And, if you’ve never been to a social media surgery before, it might be worth reading this blog post, which attempts to explain what there all about.
It’s worth reiterating our earlier thanks to the folk at thestudio for allowing us to use their restaurant area for free. The staff have been brilliant – always very helpful and quite patient with our sometimes slightly tardy departures from the building. Hopefully the weather will be good on the 8th and we’ll be able to enjoy the terrace, too.
Although our last surgery was pretty quiet, there were some really interesting outcomes. In particular, it was heartening to see Emma Neil and Hannah Severn, who are both volunteers at the Birmingham Conservation Trust. I’ve written a little about the last surgery, which also includes a video interview with Emma and Hannah where they talk about their experiences.
It was also great to see a number of our brilliant surgeons down, including Gavin Wray, Mary Horesh of Friends of the Earth, Simon Gray, and Heidi Blanton. The surgeries wouldn’t be able to work if it wasn’t for members of the Birmingham Bloggers group, like the people I’ve mentioned above. They volunteer their time absolutely for free and have helped dozens of people.
