- Journalism.co.uk :: Help Me Investigate: How working collaboratively can benefit journalists – Birmingham Post reporter Tom Scotney reflects on the first story he wrote as a result of working with Help Me Investigate (I’m one of three people behind the site): “what’s most important when working like this is to recognise that you’re part of a process, not the end result of it. Which means giving credit where it’s due, getting the facts right, and making clear in the article the process by which it was created. All the sort of things that ought to be standard practice for a reporter anyway, but are more crucial then ever when using a source like this. And the risks are higher – get things wrong and you not only look stupid, but also like you’re stealing the work of others. So there’s no room for complacency – but get it right and you’re becoming part of an investigative team that’s bigger, more diverse and more skilled than any newsroom could ever be.”
Author: Nick Booth
Links for August 12th through to August 13th
These are my links for August 12th through August 13th:
- mySociety » Call For Proposals 2009 – My Society wants suggestions on what they should do next: “We need your help to decide what mySociety builds next.
Our previous calls for proposals have led to WhatDoTheyKnow.com, WriteToThem.com and Pledgebank.com.” - The Imperative for Government to Engage Online | Open Forum | Independent public policy think-tank, blogs & forums | openforum.com.au – Matt Crozier: “Most of the time, the great silent majority is completely missing in action from public policy debates. If you are one of those people (and most of you are) then ask yourself, when was the last time an interest group asked your views? Or checked that their passion aligned with yours before campaigning on your behalf?”
- Case study on Facebook engagement « Al Smith – Al Smith details what he did with a group of Newcastle citizens who were using Facebook to have a go at the council.
- The Seven Laws of Journalism – This Semester « M. Appeal (Mass Appeal) – “Grow a pair.” (via @joannageary
- Sarah Lay: Getting noticed: The Five Step Programme | DavePress – Sarah Lay does a guest Post for Dave Briggs: “So, how to go about raising your profile and getting social media offerings to the table? I’ve worked up a list of five approaches.”
- Brooklyn Typology – “The subject of continuous residential development since the mid-1600s, every trend in American architecture and urban planning has inscribed itself onto Brooklyn’s moraine and salt marshes. Brookyn Typology is an investigation of borough’s population and urban form. It consists of 2100 photographs taken in a sample of blockgroups in Brooklyn, plus detailed Census, historical, and typological data about the residential and housing in area. Together, the interlinked photographs and data form a portrait of the urban fabric of Brooklyn.”
Stuff I've seen August 14th through August 15th
These are my links for August 14th through August 15th:
- Birmingham Local Food Directory :: Loaf Online – Loaf Online is a blog about local food in and around Birmingham. Great content, a directory of local food suppliers and looks proper tasty. More superlocal than hyperlocal but I like it a lot. Another example of people seeing an information vacuum and just getting on and filling it.
- Widgetbox › Investigations on Help Me Investigate Widget – New widget for investigations from Help Me Investigate
- Social seniors and Social Media Surgery in Sydney« stuff and junk – This is a quick blog post from one of the people who took part int he first social media surgery in Sydney Austrlai. I love the quote: “Which brings me to my third thought – I can’t think of a generation better suited to social media than that of our senior citizens.” I agree, especially when you link it to a passion for real world community.
- Birmingham Post – Life & Leisure – Post Features – Blog Street central – Good piece about our very local social media surgeries by Jo In in the Birmingham Post: “There are many lovely things about the surgeries, not least that the line between the surgeons and the patients becomes increasingly blurred.”
- Welcome to the NPIA’s Citizen Focus and Neighbourhood Policing Programme Website – The NPIA’s Citizen Focus and Neighbourhood Policing programme is responsible for a number of key projects including; The Policing Pledge, Confidence, Citizen Focus Hallmarks and Crime Mapping. More information on these and our other core stands is included on the following pages:
Neighbourhood blogs encourage participation in council consultations
When Seattle in the USA asked residents to fill out a survey about their neighbourhoods the results came back with something that doesn’t surprise me. The neighbourhoods that responded the best were the neighbourhoods with the most active hyperlocal blogs and websites.
As Cory Bergman puts it:
the top neighborhoods had something in common — and it’s not population. “They already have a really strong blog presence in the neighborhood,” said Katie Sheehy with the City of Seattle. “There’s a lot of people already engaged in neighborhood issues through the blogs, and I think that’s what’s driven a lot of people to respond.”
The top neighborhoods are essentially a list of the most popular neighborhood news sites in the city — all of which have plugged the survey. From the West Seattle Blog (which makes up multiple neighborhoods in the list including West Seattle Junction and Columbia City, etc.) to our own My Ballard (Crown Hill/Ballard) and PhinneyWood (Greenwood/Phinney), and Capitol Hill Seattle and Central District News (Central Area). While many of us who run neighborhood blogs have known the sites drive community involvement, this is a great way to visualize the impact.
Go here to see a useful graphic. Hat tip: Laura Oliver and Andrew McKenzie.