In the spirit of experimentation I’ve just set up a Facebook Group for people who blog in and/or about Birmingham UK. It’s an open group at the moment – hoping we can keep it reasonably focussed on those of us who live here or write about here.
Birmingham Bloggers on Facebook
Need I say more? I hope not.
From a twitter comment by Anil Dash to a t-shirt and a flickr photo – where next? A movement? Maybe, if I new want it meant.
Laura Whitehead and John Buckley first alerted me to this free, international, podcasting, “unconference” being held in Birmingham at the beginning of September. Here’s the blurb – and please let me know if you’re coming:
In case you haven’t yet heard PodCamp UK is a FREE two-day event bringing all the excitement and ideas and energy of a PodCamp to the UK for the first time. This unique FREE event promises to be a brilliant mix of ideas, LIVE music, FREE food, great people and much more…
It’s being held at the New Technology Institute (NTI) on September 1/2 2007, in Birmingham – It’s only six weeks away!
PodCamps are meetups for anyone interested in New Media. The first PodCamp was held in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2006, and they are now spreading across the globe, enabling culture, commerce and connections.
The “Pod” in PodCamp comes from podcasting; but you can expect to find anyone at PodCamp, podcasters, video makers, software developers, entrepreneurs, journalists, musicians, social networkers, marketers, producers, publishers, PR firms, educators, actors, writers, boys, broadcasters, girls and Web 2.0 gurus, all using the internet to communicate with shared media.
Some are beginners, some are experts, but all are enthused by what they are doing, redefining the old media landscape and defining a brand new culture.
PodCamp UK is a free event, an open door on new media, organised by volunteers who have all experienced PodCamps elsewhere in the world. To pay for the venue for two days with food for all attendees, we now have sponsorship from UK businesses Cheeze, Podcast Nation, and Digital Central. Nick Saalfeld from Wells Park has very kindly offered to pick up the refreshments & Jeff Pulver has put a tab behind the bar for the Saturday night social.
Laura Whitehead, neil Emery and John Buckley first alerted me to this free, international, podcasting, unconference being hosted in Birmingham. Here’s the blurb:
This is a FIRST – media coverage is bound to increase as we draw nearer to the first weekend in September. Please contact us if you are interested in joining our sponsors, and helping to make PodCamp UK a truly special event.
Sign-up to attend : http://podcamp.pbwiki.com/PodCampUK
Visit the blog : http://podcamp.com
A few weeks late with this but I just want to share with you the work of a group of year Nine Students at Frankley High in Birmingham.
I’ve been working for Stan’s Cafe and Birmingham Creative Partnerships, with musician Mathew Beckett, to develop podcasting skills in infant and senior school students and staff in Frankley. The most recent results are up on FrankleyTalk (blog every much in beta! any tips to improve it visually gratefully received).
It’s the start of the process for most of the young people, and we have more time in September to leave develop the skills, and hopefully enthusiasm, to continue to use these techniques to raise creativity, aspiration and citizen involvement.
The group pictured above chose to produce a piece of short radio fiction and radio journalism on the connection between boredom and antisocial behaviour. Their starting point was “The tenth pink slip..” – a drama created in less than a day and based on the fear of getting too many pink slips from the police. The tenth one, they told us, means a likely court appearance.
From dramatists to journalists: the next part of the work produced radio journalism exploring the link between boredom, crime and gangs. (listen to “The Estate We’re In”).
One curious frustration was our attempts to invite the police to come and talk to the students. In principle they were willing to help, in practice it didn’t happen. Even a direct appeal from two of the most pink-slipped young men didn’t manage to get the critical interview. Better forward planning which helps the services understanding the value of work like this as a means of talking directly to young people is on my to do list.
The team presented their work twice, once to the rest of year 9 and once to a Creative Partnership conference. If you want to understand what the work meant to the group listen to this podcast (produced by a shy (!) volunteer conference goer who we trained on the spot)
Also read the many comments on the Frankley Talk blog – add to them if you wish.