Tag: hyperlocal

Links for August 12th through to August 13th

These are my links for August 12th through August 13th:

  • mySociety » Call For Proposals 2009 – My Society wants suggestions on what they should do next: “We need your help to decide what mySociety builds next.
    Our previous calls for proposals have led to WhatDoTheyKnow.com, WriteToThem.com and Pledgebank.com.”
  • The Imperative for Government to Engage Online | Open Forum | Independent public policy think-tank, blogs & forums | openforum.com.au – Matt Crozier: “Most of the time, the great silent majority is completely missing in action from public policy debates. If you are one of those people (and most of you are) then ask yourself, when was the last time an interest group asked your views? Or checked that their passion aligned with yours before campaigning on your behalf?”
  • Case study on Facebook engagement « Al Smith – Al Smith details what he did with a group of Newcastle citizens who were using Facebook to have a go at the council.
  • The Seven Laws of Journalism – This Semester « M. Appeal (Mass Appeal) – “Grow a pair.” (via @joannageary
  • Sarah Lay: Getting noticed: The Five Step Programme | DavePress – Sarah Lay does a guest Post for Dave Briggs: “So, how to go about raising your profile and getting social media offerings to the table? I’ve worked up a list of five approaches.”
  • Brooklyn Typology – “The subject of continuous residential development since the mid-1600s, every trend in American architecture and urban planning has inscribed itself onto Brooklyn’s moraine and salt marshes. Brookyn Typology is an investigation of borough’s population and urban form. It consists of 2100 photographs taken in a sample of blockgroups in Brooklyn, plus detailed Census, historical, and typological data about the residential and housing in area. Together, the interlinked photographs and data form a portrait of the urban fabric of Brooklyn.”

Neighbourhood blogs encourage participation in council consultations

When Seattle in the USA asked residents to fill out a survey about their neighbourhoods the results came back with something that doesn’t surprise me. The neighbourhoods that responded the best were the neighbourhoods with the most active hyperlocal blogs and websites.

As Cory Bergman puts it:

the top neighborhoods had something in common — and it’s not population. “They already have a really strong blog presence in the neighborhood,” said Katie Sheehy with the City of Seattle. “There’s a lot of people already engaged in neighborhood issues through the blogs, and I think that’s what’s driven a lot of people to respond.”

The top neighborhoods are essentially a list of the most popular neighborhood news sites in the city — all of which have plugged the survey. From the West Seattle Blog (which makes up multiple neighborhoods in the list including West Seattle Junction and Columbia City, etc.) to our own My Ballard (Crown Hill/Ballard) and PhinneyWood (Greenwood/Phinney), and Capitol Hill Seattle and Central District News (Central Area). While many of us who run neighborhood blogs have known the sites drive community involvement, this is a great way to visualize the impact.

Go here to see a useful graphic. Hat tip:  Laura Oliver and Andrew McKenzie.

Stuff I've seen August 10th to August 12th

These are my links for August 10th through August 12th:

  • pachube :: connecting environments, patching the planet – Welcome to Pachube, a service that enables you to connect, tag and share real time sensor data from objects, devices, buildings and environments around the world. The key aim is to facilitate interaction between remote environments, both physical and virtual.
  • haque :: design + research – The domain of architecture has been transformed by developments in interaction research, wearable computing, mobile connectivity, people-centered design, contextual awareness, RFID systems and ubiquitous computing. These technologies alter our understanding of space and change the way we relate to each other. We no longer think of architecture as static and immutable; instead we see it as dynamic, responsive and conversant. Our projects explore some of this territory.
  • Introducing GrowthSpur – Recovering Journalist – Wow – very bold claims for growth spur: “How much money? We believe, based on our research and experience, that a well-run, sophisticated local site can bring in more than $100,000 a year in revenue from advertising, e-commerce and other sources. GrowthSpur exists to help local entrepreneurs achieve that level of success—and more.” I suppose it depends what you mean by local.
  • From Grierson to Podnosh – a history of Participation | daveharte.com – This is ridiculously flattering bu also well worth a read: “From the moment we were taught how to white balance a video camera it felt like we were being given tools of dissension – not to be frittered away on shallow subject-matter but rather to be used to tackle dominant ideologies and tear down class structures. Sounds pious now I know but video’s ease of use and its directness felt that enabling. Ultimately we fell a bit short of changing the world but it was fun trying for a period there in the late 1980s.
    So how does the participatory work within Social Media fit into this?”
  • MediaShift . Five Ways to Use Mind-Mapping Tools in the Newsroom | PBS – Very useful post, which, naturally enough, quotes a Brummie.

Things I've spotted on August 10th

Here are some o the things I\’ve been reading August 10th from 16:48 to 19:57:

  • In Defence of TheYamYam – Jonathan Walker – The Yam Yam on Jon Walker’s blog sets out to defend what I think is at best a very odd basis for a site: posting scans of local newspaper articles. Perhaps it’s a response to inadequate tagging from newspapers.
  • Empowering Citizen’s in the Information Age | John’s Idea – John Hayes of the IDeA says local authorities should respond to newly web empowered citizens by:
    “1. counting what counts: collecting high-quality data in the first place, and combining performance data with information on wider social outcomes so that citizens have reliable and balanced information at their fingertips
    2. opening up information for use: making information (including performance and financial information) available so that citizens can compare services and make informed decisions, drive improvements in services, and hold government to account from the bottom up
    3. opening up information for re-use: making information and data available so that it can be easily re-used by citizens – mobilising a wealth of expertise to facilitate innovative use of data by citizens
    4. harnessing the power of networks: using interactive technologies, such as web 2.0, to break government monopolies on information creation and open up dialogue between and among citizens and professionals.”