Tag: Citizen Journalism

David Cameron, Tom Steinberg and Information Scraping

Has David Cameron been talking to Tom Steinberg at MySociety?  His announcement yesterday suggests he has because he wants to make ‘scraping’ easier.  Scraping is the process of harvesting information from government websites and reusing it – hopefully for public good.

The Conservative leader quoted a really good example with the mysociety website theyworkforyou which provides collated information about politicians and what they do and allows you to contact your MP. Last month I met Tom Steinberg at the UK Gov barcamp.  What stuck out in my mind is how extending theyworkforyou to include councillors can’t be done at the moment because councils don’t make details of councillors available in a consistent format.   That in turn makes automated collection of this  information a nightmare.  Freeing up data is a key part of Tom’s Power of Information review  and he  also talks about it here:
[youtube]7J7EKYWQLRU[/youtube]

So I think it is quite remarkable to see something as apparently prosaic as consistency of data making it into a policy statement from the leader of the Conservative Party.   In his speech he explains how freedom of data will make it easier for social enterprises, charities, community groups to identify and understand local need and solve problems. He’s right.

Local MP Tom Watson is looking for what to do with his new ministerial interest in web strategy.  I’m sure you’ve already had this conversation Tom, but in the spirit of the social web please say that you agree with Mr Cameron and do what you can to get those standards  in place and used.
By the way – yesterday MySociety launched  GroupsNearYou.  I did a tiny bit of testing (adding data and telling them what I thought) in the development stage.  Please go on there and add details of groups near you, the sooner we do that the sooner we can stop more public money being wasted on more online databases of well – groups near you.

I hope you are not a journalist…

An Italian blog recently referenced a twitterquake experience I shared with Jon Bounds and Joanna Geary (and before you reach for the irritating cliche yes the earth did move for all 3 of us – which is why we were blogging at 2am – partly to reassure each other that we were not mad and the earth had just moved).

I left a thank you on the Italian blog (only polite) to which the response included a comment which  translated along the lines of “I hope you are not a journalist..”

Well I am.

I was trained as a journalist and paid as one for the best part of 20 years. I have worked with some of the most intelligent, passionate and honest people I could hope to share office, head and heart space with. In almost every piece of work I do I use story telling skills and in doing that I try to tell people things that are new(s) to them. I remain a member of the NUJ.

Just because the publishing business model is becoming confused it does not mean that journalism is dead. I admire journalists and journalism. I dislike liars, dissemblers and self publicising ego maniacs – whether they are working journalists or not. If your instinct and skill is to tell people the truth quickly and honestly then you are my sort of journalist – whether you are paid or not.

Twitter and the Birmingham (ish) Earthquake.

twitterquake

I thought I was going mad – but only if Jon is too. We both know that twitter knows best and (thanks again jon) the Dutch are tracking the story for us.

Update 3 Jo Geary found this link – 4 earthquakes dotted arou nd the country – nearest is Nottingham. Beats phoning the police press line.

Update 4: Others experienced it in similar ways with confirmation coming through twitter of similar.

http://johnleach.co.uk/words/archives/2008/02/27/300/

Should I laugh at “Well, either a fat bloke just fell out of bed or there has been a minor earth tremor in
Nottingham“? In Leeds Ross at Democracypr tells us: “And the BBC web site? A note on the ticker – “Reports of tremor felt in West Midlands. More details soon.”
No need to bother, I’ve found out all I need use my own network of citizen journalists.”

Update: 01.33 Lisa Dowd on Sky tells us that because she can’t get through to the police she can’t really tell what has happened and only new it was an earthquake because she felt it last time – the Dudley earthquake. Get social Lisa – we can tell you what’s going on.

Update: 01.35 Joanna has google map up with epicentre before sky know what’s what.

4Talent – Social Media for the Creative Industries.

Gaping Void advertisingA while back Antonio Gould sat in my back bedroom and we talked about social media. He’d come round to record some ideas about podcasting for his fifth and apparently final Birmingham made Channel 4 media cast. It is a great listen. Antonio has a clear and enthusiastic delivery, well produced, with loads of very useful content.

The aim is to encourage creative businesses to use all forms of social media, but starting with basics like a blog or perhaps a podcast. I think the lessons apply equally to social enterprises and to local and community groups.
Mark McGuiness makes a compelling case for a realistic use of a blog. It’s like “networking on steroids”, he tells us before adds oddles of great advice and pointing us to copyblogger, one of my favourites gapingvoid of Hugh Mcleod’s Global Microbrand idea, and David Airey.

Emily Martin of Black Apple makes a great case study. Antonio met her when speaking in America about Etsy. She explains why her online home craft business (“I carry my original paintings and prints, and all sorts of curiosities”) benefits from the relationships established through blogging: “It’s not something that will be articulated in the business schools, but people get attached to you. It’s ephemeral and that’s why they like it”.
Indeed – the ephemeral is tricky to measure, but that doesn’t mean it has no value.