Podnosh

These are my links for March 7th through March 9th:

• The State of Social Media Around the World 2010 –
• JFDI vs Being Boring – "Don’t let strategy and process get in the way of doing good stuff. At the same time, don’t JFDI and find yourself exposed."
• New Proposal – “Community DigiLand Bank Register” « Birmingham Social Investment Trust – Interesting idea – perhaps citizens can put and on the map and someone in the council can flag it if they own it – with information about who to talk to?: "One idea that came out of the discussion would be for the public or council owned land to be registered and available for all communities to view on a new web based ” Community – DigiLand Bank Register”, maybe using googelmaps as a base and thereby allowing citizens to geotag and photo any plots they become aware of or are interested in."
• WxWM – Sue Ellen Haz A Thirsty | Saturday Social 13th March 2010 « WxWM – "There are no tables booked. We live life by the seat of our pants and guffaw loudly in the face of caution and planning."
• OGC – Home – "The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) is an independent office of HM Treasury, established to help Government deliver best value from its spending"

These are my links for March 1st through March 2nd:

• MADE – Talking cities lecture series – "MADE’s thought provoking lecture series, supported by Cudos and Birmingham Architectural Association, kicks off on 11th March with a talk by Irena Bauman, Bauman Lyons Architects, entitled Happy Cities – Stitching the Disconnections"
• Shona McQuillan | Artist and Illustrator | Birmingham, United Kingdom – Blog – "What struck me when I arrived is that it wasn't all about the usual suspects; curious shoppers ambled in to see what this was all about, too. And busy it was – with sales made on the first night."
• Green ICT Surgeries | Voscur – "Voscur would like to help members tackle their negative impact on the environment, which seems to be an inevitable part of running a modern office or organisation.

  We are running surgeries for up to 5 organisations at a time to introduce members to the Bristol Green ICT community developing around the the Green Bristol ICT website (http://www.bristolgreenict.org.uk)"

• Using the internet for effective citizenship – at the Citizenship Foundation we believe that effective civic engagement – or more specifically, effective citizenship – requires critical reflection by all involved; not simply the release and management of data by one party and the voicing of opinions by another.
• Leadership services – Leadership 20:20 | National Council for Voluntary Organisations – "We have launched a Commission on the future leadership of civil society, to give emerging leaders a chance to have their voices heard and discuss some of the major issues affecting both our sector, and our world. As well as contributing to this key agenda, our hope is that Leadership 20:20 develops as a network for civil society’s emerging leaders to share ideas, share information and learn from each other."

These are my links for February 24th through March 1st:

• GSA Dialogue App Demo – "From establishing any kind of web presence at all, through increasing understanding of the nuances of online interaction to pioneering a technological innovation; whether it's a case of expanding the uptake of proven methods or better joining up online activity with the 'real world' process, how can government organisations more effectively connect people with governance and decision-making online? We want your ideas, suggestions and comments – as front-line staff or as citizens."
• Telegraph invents comparative degrees of atheism. Dawkins = “athiest” | Online Journalism Blog – "The vitriol is being generated because volunteer moderators who have invested hundreds of hours building an online community, and the members of that community, have had their community summarily yanked from beneath them, and had their means of communicating with each other turned off. "
• VentnorBlog Denied Access to Coroner’s Court | Isle of Wight News:Ventnor Blog – We were told by the coroner’s officer, Richard Leedham, that the coroner, John Matthews, didn’t recognise us as a member of the press (despite VB publishing articles for four and a half years and NUJ membership for longer) and he didn’t want us in “his court.”
• Unlocking the potential of mass localism | Left Foot Forward – government’s impulse is to identify what works locally and try to ‘scale-up’ the approach to other communities.

  This, we argue, is the wrong approach as it undermines the ownership and applicability that makes local solutions effective in the first place. Rather than stretching particular solutions, mass localism means supporting mass innovation.

• Thoughts on OSM design, and looking forward and back – OpenGeoData – The problem of community at Open Street Map: "Everyone in OSM has basically been contributing for the kinds of extended periods of time as above, not the minutes or hours. Many see someone contributing so little as wrong or pointless. I say just the opposite. The people who spend minutes or hours disappear because we just don't welcome them."

Here are some of the things I’ve been reading February 23rd from 16:39 to 23:38:

• Open Government Ideas Look All the Same: Are You Surprised? –
• Nodalities » Blog Archive » Richard Stirling Talks about data.gov.uk –
• When using open source makes you an enemy of the state | Technology | guardian.co.uk – "It turns out that the International Intellectual Property Alliance, an umbrella group for organisations including the MPAA and RIAA, has requested with the US Trade Representative to consider countries like Indonesia, Brazil and India for its "Special 301 watchlist" because they use open source software."
• digital economy bill – massive lobby remains | Tom Watson MP – "If you counted the number of people who are working full time to bounce this Bill through the Commons on behalf of big publishing interests I bet it would run into three figures. Those that want to protect the Internet connections of the nation’s youth? Probably one or two."
• Are newspapers selling linkspam? (Again?) | Online Journalism Blog – "Clever as this idea may sound, the newspapers may want to research what happened when other publications tried the same approach. The Irish Independent, the Economist and The Times are among publications whose PageRank has been penalised by Google."
• RAWM and Charity Builder UK – "RAWM has joined forces with Charity Builder UK to offer a £300 a year web service free of charge to RAWM members.
  Charity Builder UK (CBUK) is a new online service which has the potential to transform administrative tasks in your organization. Designed for charities and community groups, it provides advice on lots of important topics such as human resources, health and safety, volunteering and governance."

These are my links for February 20th through February 23rd:

• Socitm and LGA prepare open data guidance | Kable – The Society for IT Management and the Local Government Association are preparing advice to help councils make more of their data publicly available
• Pulling down and building up: Citizen Ethics Network « Nick Baines’s Blog – "When I read it I felt genuine hope for the first time in a long time that it might be possible to change the way we talk about ethics, public policy and those who engage in the public discourse."
• Citizen Ethics Network – There is a widespread concern that the winner takes all mentality of the
  banker, and the corrupted values of the politician, have replaced a common
  sense ethics of fairness and integrity. Many worry that an emphasis on a
  shallow individualism has damaged personal relationships and weakened
  important social bonds."
• Iceland mulling plan to become ‘haven’ for journalism – The China Post – "Hoping to make Iceland a global home for freedom of speech, lawmakers are asking the government this week to implement a journalist's dream package of legislation — promising a safe haven for reporters who want to dig deep, hit hard, and avoid being sued. "
• MASHe » Blog Archive » Twitter powered subtitles for BBC iPlayer – "Whilst in the general populous there is still uncertainty over the benefits of sites like twitter broadcasters are already exploring how this technology can be used. A case in point in the BBC/Open University The Virtual Revolution series which is exploring how 20 years of the web has shaped our lives. Its not surprising that a programme of this ilk is exploring how technology can be used to support the broadcast (including allowing viewers to mash-up and reuse clips from the series), it is also the first programme that I’ve seen broadcast a hashtag within its opening credits. The hashtag is a community driven invention which allows comments and content to be tracked across the web including in comments made as tweets."

If you haven’t already then I’d recommend anyone who is interested in the idea of social media surgeries listening to this podcast by John Popham who talks about his experiences visiting three social media surgeries on consecutive nights in Yorkshire.

John does a wonderful job of explaining the simple way that a surgery works – in particular that it is really a conversation – where both people are engaged (the surgeon and the patient) in figuring out a solution to the patient’s enquiry.

As John explains, sometimes people are a little concerned about helping others, because they’re worried they don’t have enough skill to offer solutions.

But the surgeries are good way of breaking down this problem. Firstly, of course, there are others there who can help. And, secondly, the conversational nature of the surgery helps you to understand what might be useful and you can then work together to explore a solution. Even if you know only a little, your support can be invaluable to absolute beginners. You can reassure people that social media can be an enriching and empowering tool – and very much worth persevering with. And that, as it happens, is  what social media surgeries are all about – as John says.

John plans to keep these podcasts going, so keep an eye out for them in the future. And, since I’m on the subject of podcasts, if you’re interested in finding out about my own experiences with social media surgeries have a listen to my own, rather smaller and much less accomplished, effort.

Here are some of the things I’ve been reading February 18th from 09:08 to 21:55:

• 10 Keys to Effective Non-Profit Organization Websites | Vandelay Design Blog – volunteers who are offering their time and services are also critical to most non profits. The website should provide information that tells people how they can get involved, how it will make an impact, and provide them with an opportunity to express their interest in volunteering.
• 5 Ways to Express Yourself More Clearly Online – WebWorkerDaily – The fact that you have a voice doesn’t mean you have to use it at every opportunity. Talk about what’s important to both yourself and your audience — don’t just follow the crowd.
• Connecting 2.0 Communities? « – Tracey helps organisers organise: "I couldn’t help feeling that with a few “tweaks” a good event could have been great and so, I’d like to offer a few suggestions – and – an offer to help put some of them into practice at the next event."
• The Monkey Cage: What Will Make People Trust Goverment Again? – What drives the trend in political trust? By and large, it is the economy. People trust government when times are good. They don’t trust it when times are bad.
• Cardiff bloggers meet-up, March 2010 « How to microblog in high heels – Nurturing the hyperlocal: "Cardiff will host its first bloggers meet-up next month – a chance for newbie, budding and veteran bloggers to be introduced, share ideas and link up."

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."

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."