Tag: Birmingham UK

Podnosh is based in Birmingham in the UK, so often we write about exciting things that are going on near us.

Tooled Up For School.

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This video appeared on the West Midlands Police Youtube site last week. It is part of the Tooled up for School campaign.

As I write this has been seen a couple of hundred times.  It is a song produced for a dvd which is used in schools to discourage children from carrying weapons.  In it the singer Witness uses the phrase “…goodness gracious me” rhymed with ..”weaponry”.

The video is beautifuly made, the music good quality and getting this onto youtube makes sense simply because, with all public organisations, my view is if you’ve got it then share it, somehow.

But this is material designed to be used in a controlled, adult led, educational environment yet is now spilling onto the social web.

Some questions: Had it been intended to make its way on the social web in the first place would it be the same product? Is this optimised to go viral amongst children who will be tempted to carry weapons in school?  Is it right that the campaign url www.oneknifeonelife.co.uk  essentially re-directs users to part of the West Midlands police website?

The whole programme has been funded by the Birmingham Children’s Fund, Birmingham Community Safety Partnership and West Midlands Police – a force that took to podcasting very early on with the fab Plodcast.

Searching Hansard should be part of the citizenship curriculum.

Emma Mulqueeny writes that Hansard is cool:

What is Hansard?

Hansard is the edited verbatim report of proceedings in both Houses. Daily Debates are published on this website the next working day at 8am. Find out more about Hansard

Why is it cool?

Because, as Robert Brook showed on twitter earlier, you can do wonderful searches such as this one: https://hansard.millbanksystems.com/search/umbrella on umbrellas. Or on any subject of choice…

What fun!

(Am I a little bit sad?)

My response to her last point is an emphatic no, not in the slightest bit sad. Among the tweets I have marked as a favourite is this one from Lloyd:

https://twitter.com/LloydDavis/statuses/894552592

Searching Hansard should be part of the citizenship curriculum.

Bloggers, carrots, local government and recycling:

A few moments ago I received an e-mail from Duncan Gotobed – he who helped by challenging the Charity Commission to explain their wariness about blogging.  This is what he’s asking:

Have you come across any Local Authorities that are considering using a carrot approach to  recycling rather than the stick approach, which involves bins with chips and potential penalty notices?

It strikes me that waste management is going to be a big issue for Local Authorities, with increasing land fill charges as well as a great opportunity for them to engage with different community groups who share a common interest.

Could bloggers contribute to shaping this agenda and if so are they doing it?

What do you think?  Stratford-on-von District Council has been using their twitter stream to share information about recycling regimes etc. Any other, clearer examples of social media encouraging recycling?