Year: 2009

Stuff I've seen September 10th through to September 12th

These are my links for September 10th through September 12th:

  • Google’s PageRank Predicts Extinction Paths | Technology & Gadget News – "The complex algorithm that Google’s uses to rank web pages has been hailed by scientists as a way to predict extinction cascades within ecosystems."
  • Mapping revisited & social change theory « CDI Europe – "The largest opportunity – and the largest experiment – would therefore be to test its social change theory in a space that so far no organisation has consistently occupied: mobile Internet and apps based on smartphones."
  • The Ethics of Openness | Rebooting the System – "Today the default in our discussion of government is negative: they are doing bad things badly, and we are the watchdog who’ll catch the bastards in the act.”
  • At “Blogger Roundtable” To Launch Homeland Security “Dialogue”, DHS Policy Head Heyman Asks For “Shareholders” Input As Part Of “Shared Responsibility” To Help Protect The Nation – "there were three major reasons for bringing the public into the “dialogue”: 1) to raise awareness and engage citizens about the “shared responsibility” for homeland security and address a “sense of complacency”; 2) to include the “shareholders” (ie. citizens) in discussions on how their government should be allocating its resources in homeland security; and 3) to solicit good ideas about how to keep the nation “safe and secure” from across the nation “capitalizing on the knowledge of the public”."
  • Treatment of Alan Turing was “appalling” – PM | Number10.gov.uk – "Turing was a quite brilliant mathematician, most famous for his work on breaking the German Enigma codes. It is no exaggeration to say that, without his outstanding contribution, the history of World War Two could well have been very different. He truly was one of those individuals we can point to whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war. The debt of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, that he was treated so inhumanely. In 1952, he was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ – in effect, tried for being gay. His sentence – and he was faced with the miserable choice of this or prison – was chemical castration by a series of injections of female hormones. He took his own life just two years later."

Next Birmingham Central Social Media Surgery – Wednesday 23 September

It’s almost a year since the first Birmingham Social Media surgery began to help voluntary and community groups in Birmingham make the most of social media and the web.

Now it’s back to school and time to lock in after the lazy summer, and the first central surgery of the new season will be on Wednesday, September 23 at theFazeley Studios, Digbeth.

The Fazeley Studios are on 191 Fazeley Street, Digbeth, Birmingham B5 6DR (link to map), opposite The Bond. Push the large light blue doors with the silver door knob.

So if you belong to a Birmingham based community or neighbourhood group or charity please come and join us, you can drop in any time between 5.30pm and 7pm.

To sign up head over to the BeVocal site where you can also find more information about locally-based surgeries.

Want to know more about Social Media Surgeries and what to expect? You can find out more information about what goes on at a surgery and how it can benefit you here.

If you cannot make September’s surgery why not book the next two surgeries into your diary. They will be held on Thursday 15 October at 5.30pm – 7pm and on Friday 20 November at 5.30pm – 7pm. Both surgeries are Central Birmingham surgeries, which are held at the Fazeley Studios.

Stuff I've seen September 7th through to September 9th

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

Stuff I've seen September 4th through to September 6th

These are my links for September 4th through September 6th:

  •   Google Wave as the future of citizen consultation by Michele Ide-Smith – "At the moment consultation processes in local government are generally still fairly archaic and ‘having your say’ might mean filling out a survey or attending a public meeting, exhibition or focus group."
  • Why town and parish councils are important #nalcconf09 #localgovweb – Paul Geraghty sticks his neck out – Great piece from Paul: Town and parish council websites should be the aggregators of all local information "Town and parish councils are neither cash-rich nor tech-savvy, so the only way they are they going to be able to swim in these streams is if they can develop and adopt a shared code base, using the SAAS (Software as a service) model to make a tool which – thanks to "place" (location) – unlocks data feeds from around the web."
  • Are you taking the mick? « Talk About Local – Humour in community activity: "next time you’re met with local plans, politics or problems that would be funny if they weren’t so angering, perhaps just try highlighting the funny. Point out the silly and match it."
  • Promising Practices in Online Engagement | Public Agenda – "For those who believe that citizens deserve the best possible opportunities to become partners in problem-solving, the public cannot be viewed just as an audience to politics or merely as customers of government. Instead, the public should be treated as a vital resource for effective problem-solving and community-building." via @simonwakeman
  • What really needs to change? « Co-creating an open declaration on public services 2.0 – Co creating an European e-government manifesto: "the aim of the above is to pull together a clear focused group of ideas that on the one hand, people can identify with (i.e. be able to say: “yes, I support that!”) and on the other, give a clear message to governments and a clear standard against which their response (and actions) can be judged."