Tag: birminghamuk

Stuff I've seen April 18th through April 21st

These are my links for April 18th through April 21st:

  • Better ways to share information digitally « Observations – The Observatory’s Population & Society Group is planning a seminar in the summer to investigate and discuss how research organisations in the West Midlands can get better at sharing information digitally. Do you have any thoughts on this?
  • Google News Timeline – Google News Timeline supports lots of different types of queries that you can add by clicking on a checkbox below.
  • Birmingham City Council Press Releases – An independent site that purely exists to allow a space for commenting on Birmingham City Council Press Releases.
  • World Bank API – Welcome to the World Bank Developer Network! – The World Bank's first API offers 114 indicators from key data sources and 12,000 development photos (see all sources). We are releasing this API because we believe this information can be mapped, visualized and mashed up in an unlimited number of ways that will help develop a better understanding of trends and patterns around key development issues.
  • The Conservative Party | News | The Blue Blog | Making Government data work for you – "MySociety are campaigning for Parliamentary bills to be published in an internet-friendly format, so the public could be kept up-to-date with their progress through Parliament. Thankfully, David Cameron agrees – it’s a great idea, and one that could lead to a UK version of OpenCongress (or, better still, our version of YourOwnDemocracy – an ambitious US project still in its early stages) becoming reality."

“Can we talk?” – a new measure for liveable cities.

I’ve been asked by MADE to write 200 words for the Birmingham Post. They’re gauging opinion before the Technical and Environmental  Mayor of Copenhagen speaks in Birmingham next week. Klaus Bondam will be at Town Hall on April 6th to share with us how he expects Copenhagen to stays a wonderful place to live.

I was asked about an hour ago and the deadline is tonight.  Here’s a bashed out draft of what I fancy saying. Please encourage, discourage amend etc in the comments. Does anyone have details of that survey that put us the 2nd best place for social media behind, is it Chicago?

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Is this a good place to talk?  It’s not a question we often ask about cities.  After all the whole point of a city is that we can connect, trade and work.  Non of that happens without talk, does it? No it doesn’t, and neither does innovation.

Conversation is about scale, it happens where it’s easy for people to gather in small groups.  The ICC is evidence that we know about audience on a grand scale, but how well do we do small scale gathering?

We need many places where we can meet, deliberately or by accident.  That means a city which is easy to walking but above all has many interesting and modestly scaled places that people want to go.   It means a tolerance of other’s ideas and interests, a city where people also like to listen.

These are partly planning issues and partly cultural issues. How good are our public services at setting the example and being interested in us, how good our our planners and designers at encouraging the interesting?

And of course we don’t just want to talk to ourselves. Birmingham needs take part in a global conversation.  So our schools need open access to the internet and our school teachers and pupils helped to have the confidence to take part in sharing and developing ideas with people across the planet.

Oh and Birmingham doesn’t have free internet access in the city centre, whatever our PR folk may so. So Birmingham Fizz needs to be turned of or turned into a proper free wifi service, so we can finally start hearing each other speak.

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Well?

Stuff I've seen in the last couple of days

These are my links for March 28th and March 29th:

  • Living with rats: Why communty activists are angry. – Julian Dobson: “communities aren’t built and nourished on information, useful as it is. They’re built on relationships – forged by people who have found common cause, who’ve had arguments and battles, who have learned to celebrate success together. People who are focused on the next policy objective or yesterday’s ministerial demand don’t have the time or the energy to build such relationships, even if they want to.”
  • Audiences central add a social media module for their customers. – One of the organisations I’ve worked with over the last few months gets it’s head down to share their knowledge of social media with arts orgs in the West Midlands.  Abby Corfan includes one example: ” Birmingham Contemporary Music Group have been busy capturing audience reactions to their recent concert, and have created their first video broadcast. This was done very simply (and cheaply) using the video setting on a digital stills camera- tv on a shoestring! You can keep up to date with BCMG’s latest news on twitter @BCMG”
  • Nicky Getgood on Where is the Whitby Bus? – Where is the Whitby Bus? A game for Brum Twitter crowd concoted on the pub after last week’s social media surgery for voluntary groups. Nickys says: “In his response to the Big City Plan bus-thieving debacle, Clive Dutton said, ‘I really do hope we can move forward beyond this unfortunate experience’. Can we heck, where’s the fun in that? So if you’re on Twitter hop aboard and play Simon Howes’ ‘Where is Whitby’s bus?’ game. If you can make it stop in Highgate you’re already doing better than the council.”

Birmingham the Curio City – podcast

Programme 17 from the Grassroots Channel and the story of the people striving to reunite a community divided by powerful economic forces. Community artist Sanj Cavanagh and volunteers Julia Downer and Cherie Moore are working with children to create new music and theatre at the Curio City shop in Five Ways in Birmingham. Plus some news from the last podcast and our nomination for the News Statesman New Media Awards.

Links:
Friction Arts (dead link)
The Bostonist (redirect)
New Statesman New Media Awards (dead link)
Alex mendez’s story on the Grassroots Channel