Posts Tagged ‘upyerbrum’

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Very Local Media blossoming in Lozells – but who should keep watering it?

Posted on 9th May 2009 by

I was really pleased to find the first bulletins from Lozells News – a new child led digital service, appear in my feed stream last week:

Lozells News Highlights from can uk on Vimeo.

This is a project from CAN-UK, who’ve been working from Ladywood for more than a decade. Lozells already has the very fine www.lozells.info and the South Lozells Housing Regeneration area is beginning to use the web to tell the story of how it is progressing, see vision-lozells.org.

A couple of things.

The first is the question of how to integrate these a little better and so seed more local story telling? Perhaps a local social media surgery might help? It is a certainly somehting I’d be interested in.

The other is that our own experience of creating local news with young people  in Frankley or Castle Vale (and others) tells us there remains a problem of how we keep things going once the project ends. There’s no lack of enthusiasm from the young people:  Comments like

this was the best week ive had at Frankley, and making this podcast was a great experiance!

and

can’t wait to see if we do anything else

show there is an appetite for more.  It’s rarely an issue of equipment or websites etc, these are now cheap enough and simple enought to leave behind.  I think the problem is often who will take the lead/ownership in your absence.

So thoughts?  How could we ensure that when the project dosh dries up the storytelling keeps flowing?

Posted on 9th May 2009 by
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Posted in Citizen Journalism, Leadership, Local Government | 17 Comments »

4th Social Media Surgery for Birmingham charities, community groups and Volantary Orgs

Posted on 22nd March 2009 by

The new venue for the social media surgeries.

Sorry it is such short notice. The next social media surgery for voluntary groups is this Wednesday March 25th 2009, as a drop in from 5.30 to 7pm.  We have a plush new venue, which is a few minutes walk from BVSC. For all the details and how to sign up please visit the link below:

http://www.paradisecircus.com/social-media-surgeries/

The surgeries are run by a group of volunteers, mostly from the Birmingham bloggers groups. They are willing to show people from the cities charities and voluntary organisation how they can make best use of social media.   If you want to see what people have made of the first three surgeries you might like to watch this video on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEPbtfdIkVY

Posted on 22nd March 2009 by
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Posted in Social Media Surgery, Third Sector | 1 Comment »

Make a film for the big city plan.

Posted on 9th March 2009 by

Dominc Campbel phot of Big City Plan poster Birmingham

I’ve just received an e-mail from Richard Rees at the city council encouraging me to mention the digital challenge which the council is throwing out for anyone who wants to contribute more to the big city plan process. Thanks for prompting me to do this, I meant to write something when the competition launched last month.

The council want you to use video or still photography to express your opinions about the plan.  You can win a flip camera. It’s a great idea and I would encourage you to use any combination of video, still and or audio to show what you want changing in the city centre.  How about a two minute world wind tour of your neighbourhood?

Sadly I can’t enter because the rules appear to prohibit people who are professional image makers from doing so.

If you want to take photos or make a short film then the closing date is April 20th and the rules are here.  If you want to read the big city plan (work in progress)  as the council expresses it please go here, if you would also like to look at a plainer English version please go here.

Some of you may know I took part in creating a plain English translation of the plan for the bigcitytalk site. It was mentioned as an example of the future of consultation (link to mentions of Birmingham) in the Cabinet Office sponsored Power of Information Report:

The original Power of Information report was one of the first to be re-worked and presented on CommentOnThis as an experiment.  CommentOnThis was an early innovator in reworking government consultation documents online so that they can be used more easily.   More recently a team of civic bloggers in Birmingham has translated and re-purposed Birmingham’s ‘Big City Plan’ on the web in Big City Plan Talk.

These technical developments could improve the effectiveness of policy development in consultation, but will require new skills amongst policy makers and communicators.  A plan for supporting the change needed in policy development skills should be developed by Government Skills by end 2009, with a concomitant training plan from the National School for Government.

The big city talk site saw a conversation emerge involving 274 comments.  Not sure how those comments have accounted for in the consultation report itself. The council tells us:

All attributable comments submitted to date have now been processed on our consultation database and are visible to all. As of 4 March, a total of 1,864 comments from a total of 273 contributors have been logged as follows:

Directly into the consultation portal:  719

Via e-mail:  679

Post 409

Other 57

I’m imagining big city talk would best be covered by other? What do you think?

Posted on 9th March 2009 by
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Posted in Government | No Comments »

What do bloggers look like?

Posted on 29th January 2009 by

[youtube]bEPbtfdIkVY[/youtube]

This video was a quick one shot at the Social Media Surgery for voluntary groups in Birmingham this evening (should say 2009 – my bad). Despite the leading questions, I hope it gives you a sense of how people from community groups feel about the help they get from volunteer bloggers and social media folk. About 25 “recipients” (real people) plus  the social media surgeons who were in no particular order:

Jon Bounds, Pete Ashton, Jon Hickman, Joanna Geary, Gavin Wray, Benjamin Brum, Simon Whitehouse (see here), Abby Corfan, Phil Oakley, Watfordgap, Danny Smith, Katie Spragg, Mark Steadman.

For a more general view please have a look here. Pete shot this and uploaded it there and then to demonstrate embedding. Bless him!

Posted on 29th January 2009 by
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Posted in Citizen Journalism, Government, Local Government | 7 Comments »

Birmingham Social Media Surgery for Voluntary and Community Groups III

Posted on 21st January 2009 by
The third social media surgery for voluntary and community groups in Birmingham is next Wednesday, January 28th 2009 at BSVC 138 Digbeth, B5 6DR, (map).  Please feel free to drop in anytime between 5.30pm and 7pm where volunteers from the Birmingham bloggers group will show you how you can make best use of social media. It doesn’t matter if you are the head of communications at a major charity or an active citizen in your neighbourhood, if you’re at all curious come along.

To helps us predict numbers please sign up using the form you will find here:   www.paradisecircus.com/social-media-surgeries/

Tools like blogs, podcasts, video and social networks can give a real boost to campaigning organisations, often for no or little cost. So these experts are offering you approachable one to one help and support because they believe it can help. You may just want to see what is possible and go away and think about it. You might be itching to set up a blog and start using it, either way you can get help appreciating the best use of the internet for your organisation. If you’ve been before please feel free to come back.

This surgery is organised as a collaboration between bloggers in Birmingham and the Third Sector Assembly.

Posted on 21st January 2009 by
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Posted in Neighbourhoods, Social Media Surgery, Third Sector | 2 Comments »

Big City Plain and two nubs.

Posted on 20th January 2009 by

Big City Plan Talk.jpg

Many, many evenings of voluntary work went public last night with a site to complement Birmingham’s Big City Plan consultation.

www.bigcitytalk.org has been built by Jon Bounds who’s worked patiently with other Birmingham bloggers Julia Gilbert, Nicky Getgood, Michael Grimes and myself to translate council speak into clearer speak. Stef Lewandowski has also been among a number of people who’ve supported and encouraged this, not least through conversations with the council.  I don’t think it’s flawless – so please feel free to comment about the site, but more importantly please use it to comment about the big city plan before February 6th.
We want to help move beyond the traditional consultation approach of citizens or organisations making comments to government and for government. Instead we are keen to create an online place which will encourage a more public conversation about how we will shape the city centre over the next 20 years.

Fortunately it has been met with some enthusiasm from other people.

Midge describes it as “something that Joe Public could actually get involved with AND comment on”. Shona has already used it to have her say on the options for Digbeth. Mark Steadman wants people to use the site – pronto (consultation on this phase of the plan ends on February 6th), one Simon is chuffed to see the it built on free and open source software WordPress whilst another Simon is impatient to see more people commenting.

BiNS reminds us of one fundamental truth about planning for our city: “You know how big and complex Birmingham is, well it is. Very.”   Digital Birmingham reflect on this as “another example of how far ahead Birmingham is in its use of social media. Digital technologies coupled with a highly-motivated group of citizens makes for a very powerful combination.” Something I think is very true!

For me Dave Briggs gets to one nub here (I declare a situation can be double nubbed)when he asks two questions:

Readers working within local government: how could you make the most of the civic energy in your area, to work with residents to create something really worthwhile?

Everyone else: What’s going on in your local area that you could take a bit of time out to help out with, or improve?

So I’d like to add that extra nub with a third question aimed at publicly funded media like the BBC: Should you be doing this sort of stuff? If so how will you need to change your rules of engagement?

Posted on 20th January 2009 by
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Posted in Government, Local Government | 4 Comments »

Isowish for the unselfish gene.

Posted on 18th January 2009 by

I so wish that I could become a film making, illustrating, small holding farmer » I So Wish | Making wishes that come true.jpg

A couple of my friends, Stef and Dubber,  set up this simple site a few months ago. It is much more interesting that it may at first appear.  After all this looks like a selfish site. Tell us what you want, it says.

But what makes Isowish social, worth joining and interesting is not making a wish but being part of a community that might help grant one.  Some of the wishes are deeply personal, beyond anyone’s power to grant. Yet even these elicit encouragement and support from the Isowish community.  You may not be able to fix a problem, but you can make people feel better.

Isowish demonstrates a simple truth, that generosity is the key to social web.

Posted on 18th January 2009 by
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Posted in Government, Leadership | 1 Comment »

Hurrah to everyone on this list. (have I missed you?)

Posted on 11th January 2009 by

Created in Birmingham Linking up Birminghamâs Artistic and Creative Communities-1.jpg

I just want to list a few bloggers who’ve thrown their weight behind Created in Birmingham to win the UK blog category in these awards. CiB is run by a number of my friends and the impact they’ve had on Birmingham in the last year or so deserves recognition. When I last looked it was running just behind Melanie Phillips, the Daily Mail columnist.

http://2008.weblogawards.org/polls/best-uk-blog/

You can vote every 24 hours (click here) from each computer you use between now and 10pm UK time on Jan 13th.

Thanks and a little bit of link love to:

Ian T Edwards “CiB is a great resource for keeping track of creative endeavours in Birmingham.  It’s not run by the council or some company.  It’s run by ordinary people who are doing it in their spare time.  It supports artists and other creative types.  In return the Birmingham online community which is strong, is getting behind CiB to support and canvas for it in these awards.”

Digbeth is Good “CiB is thoroughly deserving of this award, it’s done a brilliant job of covering the arts and creative output of Birmingham and has been a true inspiration to others interested in blogging. I’m pretty certain Digbeth is Good wouldn’t have been born without it”.

Daniel Davies “When I moved to Birmingham I didn’t know a soul. Thankfully, I had the Internet and I stumbled upon a pokey little blog which advertised creative events around the city. Created in Birmingham is vital asset to Birmingham, connecting the creative community and providing a simple enough approach for anyone to find it useful. Its also independent, free from the pressures of advertisers to plug content and its readership is actively encouraged to contribute

Birmingham Hippodrome urging people to vote for Created in Birmingham

Birmingham Hippodrome

Karen Strunks: ” I am grateful for CIB’s support, and if it wasn’t for them, this wouldn’t have happened. It was through CIB’s website that the magazine found me.”

Laura Whitehead:  “as an ex res of Brum it is a fine and creative place”

Ordo Paginarum: “the blog is doing an excellent service for creative types in Birmingham”

Ed Russell Community Matters

Paul Henderson:

Clare Edwards: Blogging Solidarity “all the key blogs in the area have got behind it and it is a great example of how the good work of Created in Birmingham has gained them respect from all sorts of quarters.”

Ewan Spence:  “Go Brum… there is something special about every blog, but one that promotes the arts and culture that’s away from the mainstream is extra special; and if you need to find abstract artists in the Aston Area, then CiB is a perfect fit.”

Mail Watch

Pete Ashton (also in the race but the bloke who set up CiB)

Rachel Gilles.
Chris Unitt (CiB is his baby at the mo) “I’m not sure of the chances of winning, especially as this is essentially a popularity contest and the other blogs have huge readerships, but I’m doing my damndest to get people voting. It often feels like I’m stretching goodwill to breaking point every time I send another reminder and for that reason I’ll be pleased when the voting period is over”

Bob Piper

Bluemilkshake

Blue Gal

Liberal Conspiracy (this is one is mostly anti Mel)

Other Excuses

The Stirrer

Podnosh (!)

Nosemonkey is sacrificing their own vote. Thank you:  ” vote often. To those still voting for me – thanks, you’re very sweet, but even I’m not voting for me any more.”

Citizensheep twice! Here he tries to help Neil Clark, who’s also on the shortlist, appreciate the extent of real support CiB has.

Indymedia Ireland

Indymedia England

Never Trust a Hippy.

Matt Bowles
John Band

Kebabablog
Art Stalking “I’m keen for them to win not just because I think their hearts are in the right place, but because it’s a way of saying that Birmingham has a strong creative community.”

Parboo

Bostin (through a facebook group)

Spaghetti Gazetti

Joanna Geary “It has changed the way I think about my industry, about the businesses that form it and the organisations that claim to support it.”

Gavin Wray

Peter Bacon “Strength and influence are both crucial to the vitality of the arts and creative industries, and strength and influence are greatly enhanced by those who link us all together.”

Shona.  (politer than sometimes) “If you don’t, I will scweam and scweam and scweam and scweam. And you wouldn’t want to be responsible for a breach of the peace now, would you?”

Benjaminbrum

Sunny at Pickled Politics “You’ll be doing humanity a favour.”

Anthony Herron  “It was started by Pete Ashton, who is also up for the award but who has already asked people to vote for CiB instead. Pete is renowned for his blogging and he puts a massive amount back into the community, along with Chris Unitt, who has been running CiB for the last year now. CiB is about to be taken over by Kate Spragg for the next year or so I guess. Let’s not forget the contributors and people who’ve help CiB start up – Stef Lewandowski, Danny Smith,  Frankie Ward, I’m sure there have been a few more.”

Birmingham City Council Webteam, for linking from the front page of their site.

The Birmingham Post sums up what’s going on. If I’ve missed you off please leave a comment – if you blog vote CiB in the next few days let me know and I’ll add you to the list.

Posted on 11th January 2009 by
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Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments »

Fixmystreet for iphone.

Posted on 4th January 2009 by

picture of the e-well being award for fixmystreet

Bit slow on this – especially given that I saw the man behind it, Birmingham based clerverman Matthew Somerville, before Christmas. (Must listen more).

However if you have an iPhone, this application will help you make best use of the award winning  www.fixmystreet.com – the place to report problems in your neighbourhood. Even news blogger Jeff Jarvis wants it so much he’s (be)moaning that he can’t get one in the USA! Thanks to Greenerleith.

Posted on 4th January 2009 by
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Posted in Government | 2 Comments »

Twitpanto – one helluva social object.

Posted on 23rd December 2008 by

A triumph darling.  Jon Bounds and catnip (with a huge host of help) amused the entire interwebs (well a bit of it) with the worlds first Twitter Panto. Besides creating the wordle above, Matthew Somerville pulled together the script and audience in one wonderful social thingy. Actors Online reckons it brought the house down (how often must they use that one?) and the whole caboodle got brum happy too.

Updates:

I Googled twitpanto at about 10pm December 23rd and found – for the first time in years – that there were no ads to accompany it. Twitpanto is a real thing that really happened but so far ahead of some long tail curve that not even mighty google knows where it fits. Surely a Christmas miracle.

Chris loved it because:

  • It was absolutely chaotic but it absolutely worked
  • The audience participation – it’s an important part of a panto and seeing over 50 tweets of ‘oh no it’s not’ and ‘oh yes it is’ come rolling in was fantastic
  • It was popular – not a penny was spent on promotion but it spread because people liked the idea. #twitpanto was the top trending topic on twitter and so far my tag search is showing over 1,300 uses of the tag (and they’re still coming)

    • Birthday boy Lloyd Davis appeared as himself (I’m sure he looked different in Brazil) and described what happened as “an anthropological treasure trove”. Nick Burcher also enthused:

    a great demonstration of the versatility of Twitter and really highlighted the difference between Twitter and more ‘traditional’ social networks like MySpace and Facebook (where it would have been difficult to re-create the immediacy of #twitpanto and would have been even harder to follow it!) A collaborative, non-sponsored effort, #twitpanto was a great example of how social media can facilitate an expansive conversation between like-minded individuals just for fun and just because……

    Tom Roper professes a liking for the vulgarity of panto and wasn’t disappointed to find twitpanto “rowdy, bawdy and sometimes hard to follow, just like the real thing”.

    Emma Jones (Dandini!) concludes:  “pantomime is such a great match for Twitter – it’s all about the instant feedback and audience participation!, echoed by Robert Anderson: “My first job after leaving university was in panto– Jack and the Beanstalk in York, if you must know. Many of the audience told me that they didn’t go to the theatre during the year but always went to the panto. Why? Because it was social, populist and they could get involved. Crucially they enjoyed the show and told their friends about it– retweeted, if you like. Could it be that the panto spirit sums up what two-way communication (ie the social bit) is all about?”

    Posted on 23rd December 2008 by
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    Posted in Miscellaneous | 7 Comments »

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