Category: Miscellaneous

15th August 2009

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:

14th August 2009

Things I've spotted August 13th from 19:06 to 23:31

Here are some o the things I\’ve been reading August 13th from 19:06 to 23:31:

Fermoy town’s out of date website an embarrassment – News, Frontpage – Corkman.ie – Bloody brill: "town clerk Ray Owens admitted that there was no member of council staff actually trained to manage and maintain the website. "Nobody can actually do it, that's where we are falling down," said Mr Owens.
Your Boss Doesn’t Care About ‘The Conversation’ – So what the hell IS ‘X’?
Apps for Democracy Finland – Kansalaisosallistujan työkalut | MindTrek – Finish competition for data applications
Social Media points the way for Corporate Website Development « Carl’s Notepad – "I see a model where corporate websites are essentially delivering packages of “information and services” into the wider Internet community or even social networks. This would essentially allow people to participate in particular topics, based on their preferred community." Carl Haggerty doing a very nice job of thinking through new council websites. Wonder if the new Birmingham one will take this into account? 😉
Capital Funding for social media…how to get it « Policy and Performance – Nice clarification from Ingrid

12th August 2009

Stuff I've seen August 10th to August 12th

These are my links for August 10th through August 12th:

pachube :: connecting environments, patching the planet – Welcome to Pachube, a service that enables you to connect, tag and share real time sensor data from objects, devices, buildings and environments around the world. The key aim is to facilitate interaction between remote environments, both physical and virtual.
haque :: design + research – The domain of architecture has been transformed by developments in interaction research, wearable computing, mobile connectivity, people-centered design, contextual awareness, RFID systems and ubiquitous computing. These technologies alter our understanding of space and change the way we relate to each other. We no longer think of architecture as static and immutable; instead we see it as dynamic, responsive and conversant. Our projects explore some of this territory.
Introducing GrowthSpur – Recovering Journalist – Wow – very bold claims for growth spur: “How much money? We believe, based on our research and experience, that a well-run, sophisticated local site can bring in more than $100,000 a year in revenue from advertising, e-commerce and other sources. GrowthSpur exists to help local entrepreneurs achieve that level of success—and more.” I suppose it depends what you mean by local.
From Grierson to Podnosh – a history of Participation | daveharte.com – This is ridiculously flattering bu also well worth a read: “From the moment we were taught how to white balance a video camera it felt like we were being given tools of dissension – not to be frittered away on shallow subject-matter but rather to be used to tackle dominant ideologies and tear down class structures. Sounds pious now I know but video’s ease of use and its directness felt that enabling. Ultimately we fell a bit short of changing the world but it was fun trying for a period there in the late 1980s.
So how does the participatory work within Social Media fit into this?”
MediaShift . Five Ways to Use Mind-Mapping Tools in the Newsroom | PBS – Very useful post, which, naturally enough, quotes a Brummie.

10th August 2009

Things I've spotted on August 10th

Here are some o the things I\’ve been reading August 10th from 16:48 to 19:57:

In Defence of TheYamYam – Jonathan Walker – The Yam Yam on Jon Walker’s blog sets out to defend what I think is at best a very odd basis for a site: posting scans of local newspaper articles. Perhaps it’s a response to inadequate tagging from newspapers.
Empowering Citizen’s in the Information Age | John’s Idea – John Hayes of the IDeA says local authorities should respond to newly web empowered citizens by:
“1. counting what counts: collecting high-quality data in the first place, and combining performance data with information on wider social outcomes so that citizens have reliable and balanced information at their fingertips
2. opening up information for use: making information (including performance and financial information) available so that citizens can compare services and make informed decisions, drive improvements in services, and hold government to account from the bottom up
3. opening up information for re-use: making information and data available so that it can be easily re-used by citizens – mobilising a wealth of expertise to facilitate innovative use of data by citizens
4. harnessing the power of networks: using interactive technologies, such as web 2.0, to break government monopolies on information creation and open up dialogue between and among citizens and professionals.”