This week sees the launch of www.birminghambeheard.org.uk – a database of consultations about and from Birmingham.
Typically the consultations stretch back about 3 years and involve the various organisations which form Be Birmingham, the local strategic partnership.
The site itself has been made by an internal team at Birmingham City Council. We were approached to make a a promotional video, which ended up being very practical: a simple to guide to how to start using the site:
You’ll notice one other thing which has happened since we made the film. The site has an RSS feed. It gives you general updates and the moment and I’m sure they’d be willing to consider a wider variety of rss feeds – for example by ward or constituency if you think that would help you. So there’s room to offer feedback here, use it if you get a moment.
One of the heated debates which took place at the Talk About Local un-conference ’09 – a day designed to bring together hyper-local bloggers from across the country to discuss common issues, problems, share ideas and talk about the future – was how council press officers treat local bloggers.
For example, in Sarah Hartley’s recent article for the Guardian, Stoke Council’s head of PR and communications, Dan Barton, said bloggers were excluded from press breifings and the press table in the council chamber. He said:
Opinion should be encouraged but we do draw a distinction between what is news otherwise we are in danger of de-valuing the role of journalists.
I also like to see good use of maps. Perhaps a next step might be for Westminster to collaboprate with localopen street mappers and start using that. Why? Because in the long term it will help alleviate copyright problems over data and maps.
From Mosman Library's superb flickr feed. Click the image to see the source.
I’m delighted, nay giddy, to see that Mosman Council in Sydney, Australia, is starting social media surgeries at their library. It’s also wonderful to they consider it part of delivering their community engagement strategy.
Birmingham’s social media surgeries are the model we’re working off. It’s an opportunity for neighbourhoods, community groups and local residents to help each other communicate, organise and just do things online.
Mosman Library would like to facilitate this sharing of information and experience at a local level. It’s also a goal of Mosman Council’s Community Engagement Strategy.
Right now we’re looking for ‘social media champions’ – people who are already talking, sharing and doing stuff online, and who might like to drop in and work with those interested in setting up a blog, podcast or social network for their community or group.
The structure is informal – no presentations or talks, just small group or one-on-one discussion with an emphasis on practical examples and advice.
We’ll host the first few meetups in the Library, where we have a meeting room, WiFi and PCs with internet access. It’s likely to be on a Thursday evening, 6-8pm. (Would mornings be better?)
It’s interesting that the surgeries were written into the council’s community engagement strategy (and not it’s not a pdf, it’s a web page). This extract is well worth sharing:
Acknowledge and mentor those community members who are active participants on-line or who wish to be.
Hold workshops for Councillors to encourage their use of blogs and other social media to communicate and converse with the community.
Hold social media workshops at Mosman Library to promote Council’s on-line engagement and give practical support for community participation.
Hold a regular brainstorming session along the lines of IBM’s Innovation Jam or the Guardian’s Hack Day to generate ideas and foster creative thinking.
Make information resources, wherever possible, available under an open content licence, specifically a Creative Commons Australia licence, to promote the use and dissemination of Council’s materials while retaining Council’s rights of authorship.
Continue collaborative projects on-line that allow the community to document and share its local knowledge while also participating in other collaborative spaces, such as Wikipedia and OpenStreetMap (an open data map repository).
Ensure that priority is given to open data formats to allow cost-effective and efficient use of that information by other Council systems as well as external applications and users. When commissioning or upgrading data systems and services, Council should prioritise the building of an application programming interface (API) to that information.
Mosman Library also keep this fantastic flickr account which shows what a huge range of vibrant stuff happens there.
Now, how do I get to visit one of those surgeries?
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