Category: Citizen Journalism

B:cen launches Youtube Channel.

Three films which set out how diversity networks are supporting active citizens in Birmingham are the launch videos for the Youtube Channel for the Birmingham Community Empowerment Network. The diversity networks were the subject of quite a strong appeal from the Bishop of Birmingham – who argued on the Grassroots Channel that they should be supported, not allowed to wither.

B:cen (which has employed me on a freelance basis for a good three years) will lose all of it’s funding from November this year, and is now campaigning to try and persuade Birmingham City Council and the Birmingham Strategic Partnership to continue to support the networks (not b:cen as a body) established in neighbourhoods in the city and by groups of shared interest across the city.

Back to the videos, made by another local community film maker Rachel Smith with interviews by Paul Slatter. One is about the Podminions podcast channel which I share purely because I agree with everything they say (and vanity)…

but I think my favourite happens to be Mark on the Disability Network – ‘cos he’s always made compelling arguments for networks as a tool for strengthening communities…

If you want to keep tabs on more films as they are put up, go to the channel page and use the subscribe button to stay up to date.

Upyourend – getting your blogpost on a map of Brum or GEOTAGGING 2

Jon Bounds mentioned his new thingy upyourend on facebook which led me to ask the question how do you geotag a blog post? Jon’s given us this answer.

So decided to get started by geotagging my recent podcast on Clean Medina – the Jihad on Litter in Small Heath. Indeed geotagging is a potentially a powerful tool for neighbourhood news and local blogging. It should also help public bodies keep track on who is sayng what about which neighbourhoods.

I added Geo as a plugin for WordPress (this blog still runs on 1.5 – something Jon and I will probably change soon) which asks for the Longitude and Latitude – and then adds though to your RSS feed. Now how do you find this. It turns out that lat and Long on UK postcodes are protected as the intellectual property of the post office. Jon suggests using something called an API key (which made my head implode). I found that if you tag a location on a google map and then look for directions to that location the latitude and longitude turn up – see the top left hand side of this image of the location for my blog post.

In this case I’ve tagged the post upyerbrum – which should feed through onto upyerend, but if that wasn’t the case upyerend would need to look to your feed – so you need to email Jon and tell him where your bimringham based geotagged feed is.
So there you go. I presume this will soon appear on upyourend. Oh and er will the site allow us to filter by most recent? Yes i know – it’s just something you knocked up at 2am and can I back off with the questions and requests please. Thanks Jon.

Bob Piper offline because of censorship….

.. according too David Nikel and the Diary of Chis K. And local uber blogger Bob Piper is not alone according to Chris

Tim Ireland’s Bloggerheads blog has vanished this evening. Iain Dale reports that this is because Tim’s webhost withdrew its services after receiving a legal threat from an Uzbek billionaire named Alisher Usmanov. Other sites affected include www.boris-johnson.com. If this is a case of bullying billionaires vs bloggers, GO BLOGGERS!

Update 21st Sept 09.30. Chicken Yoghurt has a simple explanation of why Bob is down:

A point of clarification: Of the blogs mentioned above, only Craig Murray and Tim Ireland made blog posts concerning Alisher Usmanov. It is these blog posts that were objected to by Usmanov’s lawyers.

Boris Johnson, Bob Piper and Clive Summerfield have lost their sites for the simple reason that they were hosted on the the same server as Craig’s and Tim’s sites and went the same way when the plug was pulled. They are NOT associated with the dispute with Alisher Usmanov in any way.

How crude!
Further Update Tom Watson is now hoping Bob’s plight will unite local bloggers from across the political spectrum:

This guy Usmanov is some unifying oligarch. He’s got Iain Dale writing in support of Tim and Craig Murray. All we need now is that idiot James Graham and Prague Tory (who we should congratulate on his recent wedding) to join in and we’ve got the biggest show of holding hands since the last night of the proms.

(James – I have no opinion or your idiocy or otherwise!) Tom (himself an MP) adds that he thinks the decision of the web host company was a little hasty – given the profile of the people they’ve cut off

Unfortunately for the hotshot lawyers, one of them happens to be a democratically elected Member of Parliament with regular columns in a number of national newspapers. Oh, and he wants to be mayor of London. Who would you put your money on to win the battle of hearts and minds?

Tony at the Morning Star has compiled this hat tip list which shows the breadth of interest and bears repeating: Wonkos world, Chicken Yoghurt, Curious Hamster, Pickled Politics, Harry’s Place, Tim Worstall, Dizzy, Iain Dale, Ten Percent, Blairwatch, Davide Simonetti, Earthquake Cove, Turbulent Cleric (who suggests dropping a line to the FA about Mr Usmanov), Mike Power, Jailhouse Lawyer, Suesam, Devil’s Kitchen, The Cartoonist, Falco, Casualty Monitor, Forever Expat, Arseblog, Drink-soaked Trots, Pitch Invasion, Wonko’s World, Roll A Monkey, Caroline Hunt, Westminster Wisdom, Chris K, Anorak, Mediawatchwatch, Norfolk Blogger, Chris Paul, Indymedia (with a list of Craig Murray’s articles that are currently unavailable), Obsolete, Tom Watson, Cynical Chatter, Reactionary Snob, Mr Eugenides, Matthew Sinclair, The Select Society, Liberal England, Davblog, Peter Gasston Pitch Perfect, Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe, Lunartalks, Tygerland, The Crossed Pond, Our Kingdom, Big Daddy Merk, Daily Mail Watch, Graeme’s, Random Thoughts, Nosemonkey, Matt Wardman, Politics in the Zeros, Love and Garbage, The Huntsman, Conservative Party Reptile, Ellee Seymour, Sabretache, Not A Sheep, Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, The People’s Republic Of Newport, Life, the Universe & Everything, Arsenal Transfer Rumour Mill, The Green Ribbon, Blood & Treasure, The Last Ditch, Areopagitica, Football in Finland, An Englishman’s Castle, Freeborn John, Eursoc, The Back Four, Rebellion Suck!, Ministry of Truth, ModernityBlog, Beau Bo D’Or, Scots and Independent, The Splund, Bill Cameron, Podnosh, Dodgeblogium, Moving Target, Serious Golmal, Goonerholic, The Spine, Zero Point Nine, Lenin’s Tomb, The Durruti Column, The Bristol Blogger, ArseNews, David Lindsay, Quaequam Blog!, On A Quiet Day…, Kathz’s Blog, England Expects, Theo Spark, Duncan Borrowman, Senn’s Blog ….