Author: Nick Booth

16th February 2010

givv.org is genius for charities and people who donate to charities.

givv.org. allows you to make one monthly donation to a charity — givv.org. allows you to make one monthly donation

The site www.givv.org is simply brilliant. It allows us subtle control what we give and to whom. When you offer someone control it tends to make them feel better about doing something.

As a charity donor it allows you/me to make one single monthly payment into an account then choose how to apportion that.

If this month I want to support disaster relief I can, next month I split it between that and a home based children’s charity. In fact I can split it as many ways I like – picking up local charities for a while, changing my interests from young people to building sonervation.

I can then decide whether I let those charities know I’m supporting them or not, either joining their netowork or avoiding it. That means I can also have some control over how many times they send me daft envelopes with silly pens in.

As a charity trustee or administrator I get one lump sum payment a month from givv.org rather than lot of different payments. Especially for the smaller charities (such as my favourite, Birmingham Conservation Trust) it may improve the chances to get small yet manageable donations from a much wider group of people. When someone opts to share information with you the chances are that will also be a more fruitful relations – better rewarding the effort put into nurturing it.

It’s very clever and I hope something similar comes to Britain soon. Of course don’t let the wait put you off making a donation here 😉

www.justgiving.com/birminghamct/donate

Tip top hat tip for Chris Unitt.

16th February 2010

Local blogs for neighbourhood managers in Handsworth and Birchfield

Let me introduce you to two new blogs about neighbourhoods in Birmingham, both run by public servants

Hands on Handsworth is written by Tracey Thorne – the neighbourhood manager for Handsworth in Birmingham. Be Heard in Birchfield is being nurtured by Yvonne Wager – the neighbourhood manager for that particular part of the city. (Click here to see Tracey’s explanation of neighbourhood management.)

Both Yvonne and Tracey are in jobs funded by Be Birmingham – the local strategic partnership. They were inspired to start a neighbourhood blog by their colleague Kate Foley who had been running Life in Lozells – a site set up originally to address the problem of all the bad news you find when googling Lozells. Kate explains in more detail in this video made by the Chamberlain Forum.

What do they do?

They talked to us about helping them develop these sites during the social media surgeries we ran in Lozells last year. Both are built on WordPress with some changes to the backend that make it a little easier to blog and listen to what the web is saying about your neighbourhood.

There’s also a simple events system with mapping, and the sites include a facility to easily turn plans into commentable consultation docs. We also provide a service that ensures the software stays updated, plugins don’t clash etc, plus training and support on using it well.

Tracey is a natural – she really enjoys writing for the site and is on a roll. Yvonne is equally enthusiastic but needs a different sort of support, so it is taking a little longer.

Why bother?

The sites are the neighbourhood managers’ home in a wider web conversation. It’s only fledgling at this stage. The point is that over time they help the neighbourhood managers share information, ask questions, pool expertise and begin to collaborate in new ways with their community. I’m not convinced they should attempt to become THE site for their neighbourhood.

Such an idea concerns me, because if THE site gets switched off or someone begins using it to be self-serving that’s a problem for the whole neighbourhood. Instead I’m interested in how we can nurture a range of online resources and voices in a place. These blogs form part of that process – providing a tool that can also help neighbourhood managers link to and encourage the wider conversation.

What do you think?

It will take time and patience for these sites to bed in – but what do you think? Could you encourage them by commenting a post or do you have any advice for Yvonne or Tracey?

15th February 2010

Looking back at February's Social Media Surgery and a brilliant turnout

The view from above the social media surgery at thestudio — A great turnout at February's Social Media Surgery in thestudio

Well, it seems sometimes you get what you wish for. February’s Central Birmingham social media surgery had a really good turnout. Nick decided to make me ‘organiser’ for the night and, perhaps, it would have been best if it had been a quiet night.

But, largely because everyone was so nice and actually knew a lot more about what was going on than I did, it ran very smoothly. A big thanks in particular has to go to the surgeons who did a really good job to juggle the large numbers of people, who often had very different interests.
We had folk in looking for help with everything from Twitter to Google Analytics on the evening – and from lots of different organisations.

Feryal Iqbal, of Friends of the Earth and Localise West Midlands, seemed very happy with the help that she received. Feryal will be working with both the organisations and wanted to learn how she could set up a blog, as she explains in this audio interview.
Feryal interview Social Media Surgery february

It was also great to see Neil Holland, from the Midlands Arts Centre, who wanted to find out a little bit about how to use social media.

Andy Mabbett helped the Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery set up their own WordPress site, which they are already using to publicise their petition to force Birmingham City Council to restore the listed chapels there.

Susi O’Neill, who is a Web 2.0 surgeon in Nottingham, also popped in – and helped Martin Miley, Rick Cokayne and Martin Field of the Birmingham Social Investment Trust. Martin (Miley) and Rick wanted to set up a site for the Civic Centre Residents Association. And, thanks to Susi, they now have their own Posterous site.

Chris Crean, of Friends of the Earth, was keen to see how social media could support the campaigning work he does within the organisation, as he explains here:

Clearly I need to work on lighting for the next surgery. But I’m really hoping we get an equally good turnout again next month, when the surgery will be on March 9 – a Tuesday – from 5.30pm to 7pm. See you then!

15th February 2010

Stuff I've seen February 14th through to February 15th

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".