Tag: gcpodcast

Birmingham Photospace – who's portrait would you like to see?

Birmingham Photospace
Birmingham Photospace

Jon Bounds (in his inimitable way) has spotted this post on the Birmingham Photospace blog.  It echoes something I’ve thought about doing with the Grassroots Channel Podcast, but have to act on.  This is what the snappers hope for:

Say Liz comes in to have her portrait taken.  Once she’s had her image taken, she’ll be invited to suggest how she may like Matt (who is next in line) to pose. (She may ask him to smile, to frown, to stand or slouch, to display the object he bought earlier from Artsfest. She’s limited only by her imagination (and the laws of decency!))  The photographer will take a few frames, and then Liz will get to choose which one she would like to exhibit.

Not quite as crowdsourced, but I’ve always fancied doing an interview with a Birmingham active citizen and at the end asking them who I should talk to next – then following their nose to the next wonderful person.  Perhaps a photographer would like to share the project with me?   I’ve done a few of my own.

Neville Davis of the Sparkbrook Neighbourhood Forum
Neville Davis of the Sparkbrook Neighbourhood Forum

Perhaps you can teach me to be better with the camera and I can help you schuusch up your audio stuff?  If you think it’s a good idea please nag me below .

Update:

Besides the comments below we also have this, from Matt Murtagh (who is very good at taking pictures):

I’d be interested in that, the artstfest thing is kinda my idea…

Thanks, Matt.

Linda Hines MBE: No pay made her powerful

I have a guilty secret. I have favourites.

Among the dozens of brilliant people I’ve interviewed for the Grassroots Channel Podcast, Linda Hines is right up there amongst the ones who really made an impact on me.  She is an unstoppable pragmatist and optimists (and has even begun blogging, although we still need to help her along with this).

Linda is a volunteer director of the Witton Lodge Community Association and has just been awarded her MBE for services to the community in North Birmingham.

It was Linda who told me that “no pay makes me powerful” – something which should be the mantra of volunteers everywhere. Listen to why she does what she does through this link or by clicking on the arrow below. Then you might understand why she has been honoured.

 

Podcast: Solving a Stinking Mess in Bordesley Green

Margaret Bannon on the Grassroots Channel Podcast
If you have a stinking brook in your front yard what do you do? Margaret Bannon of the Bordesley Green North Neighbourhood Forum took advantage of the Neighbourhood Performance Reward Grant (NPRG) – a £10,000 pilot programme – to allow residents groups more control over money. This youtube video shows you briefly what happened in Margaret’s neighbourhood and the audio podcast expands on what was done and what was learnt.

The NPRG was created by the Birmingham Community Safety Partnership and is currently being evaluated by the Digbeth Trust.

Grassroots Channel Spiked by the iPhone

13,587 programmes were downloaded from the Grassroots Channel Podcast in December 2007, 30% up on both November 2007 and the month just finished, January 2008. Would I be right to speculate that this mini spike is caused by Christmas playtime for people with the new iPhones and iPods?

No help from looking at the figures for the previous Christmas. December 2006 saw 3786 programmes downloaded, but in January 2007 you lot consumed 5219 programmes – an increase caused mostly by us putting 8 new programmes and a pdf on the channel in 1 rather bonkers month.

December 2007 was not only our best month for downloads, it was the moment when the total number of Grassroots Channel programmes delivered breached the 100,000 mark. (Smile to ones-self – punch air). The channel sets out to (mostly) tell the stories of active citizens in Birmingham’s neighbourhoods.

The most popular programmes since our first outing in October 2005 have been:

1.Soweto Kinch on life in B19. The award winning brummie Jazz star (Amazon here) on his remarkable album collaboration with Moira Stuart and why he still lives in B19.

2. It Shouldn’t be So Common. Simon Walker of Curio City talks about the murder of Alex Mendez, who visited Birmingham from his home city of Boston to support this project in Ladywood.

3. I am the Grass Now. The neighbours from Balsall Heath who volunteer to keep open Edward Road Police Station.

4. Does no Pay Make you Powerful? Linda Hines and Michelle Ashmore of Witton Lodge Community Association get tearful as they talk about how people power is transforming Perry Common.

5. Generating Market Forces. The story behind Kings Norton farmers market.