Tag: Birmingham UK

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

24th August 2008

CarrotMob or Save the environment by drinking beer.

There are different ways to tackle climate change. In the last month I’ve written about the focussed and globally ambitious cquestrate. Now recent Birmingham Blogger Jonathan Melhuish (and also here) who’s relocated to London tells me you can also do it by drinking beer.

Carrot Mobs work by finding the local business which is willing to devote the largest portion of an half days takings to green upgrades. When a store commits to divert the dosh into making changes you organise to provide as many customers as possible in that afternoon

CarrotMob is a fun community action which rewards businesses that become more energy efficient. The concept is to take several businesses in a community and start a bidding war find the one prepared to invest the most in improving their energy efficiency. We then all flashmob the winning business at the agreed time and make our purchases there. The business then spends the agreed percentage of revenue it took during the CarrotMob on replacing appliances with more energy-efficient models. Everybody wins! 🙂

[youtube:https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LUz0kM1u_jk&e]

It sounds fun and makes a huge amount of sense for each business. Fan Page.

23rd August 2008

The fab moment Lucy Moore realised her Grandfather’s picture was The Big Picture Winner 2008

[youtube:https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Aef5QhThEqQ]

I love this video – keep watching until the end. It shows just how much emotion was invested in The Big Picture – the West Midland’s Guinness World Record breaking photographic art event. One of eight photographs had been chosen as the picture to be used for the World’s Biggest photo Mosaic which was unveiled this lunchtime at Millennium Point in Birmingham. The digital Mosaic can be found here on the site and is worth a zoom in! Some of my pictures are in there – yours might be too – and we’re all joint world record holders!

One thing that made me realise that it had introduced new people to the regional arts world was a simple comment at the unveiling. “Who are all these people, I’ve not seen most of them before” very a very experienced regional arts bod. That is the whole point, to get beyond the usual.
So what of the winning photo Lucy Moore submitted:

As the blurb on flickr says:

Seventeen year old, Tipton born Lucy Moore sent in this picture of her Grandfather, who holds a very special place in her family’s heart after dying in 1987. The family believes the picture was taken around 1926, when her Grandfather, the late Arthur James Bunce was seventeen and an amateur boxer. So powerful is the image, that Lucy’s brother has had it tattooed across his back as a lasting tribute to Arthur.

Congratulations to everyone who took part, including Arts Council West Midlands, Audiences Central, BBC West Midlands and artist Helen Marshall, Then there are others who worked on it: Jon Bounds, Stef, Mark, Chris, Kerry, Lucy, Kate… Plus of course those who also added pictures, like Paul and Elizabeth, Steve, Hanuman, Pete, Pete M, CJ, Rebecca, Richard, Paul, Lee…and hundreds/thousands of others.

23rd August 2008

It takes 90 minutes a story and a network to change someones life:

Yesterday Beth Kanter tweeted this blog post asking for contributions to help a Cambodia orphan pay her fees and stay at University. She asked us the same question last year and within 24 hours Leng had the $1000 she needed for Leng to do a year. Within a few days enough had been raised to help two people with student fees. This time it took just 90 minutes for Beth’s global online network and the trust we have in her to send Leng back for her final year.

Everything accelerates online!

A guide to digital mentoring in the work place…

Neil has written this fine blog post on the parrallels betwen his father in law’s first digital camera and introducing the social web in the work place

“Retreat. Slowly. And never completely. Digital cameras and digital media can make your life better and easier – but not at first. Initially they introduce a problem you didn’t previously have. So our job as web geeks is to create that problem and then solve it, so that any difficulties are quickly outweighed by the benefits.”

Hat Tip Justin.