These are my links for October 5th through October 9th:

• ‘Big society’? Let me explain | Ian Birrell | From the Guardian | The Guardian – "At its core, the big society is an attempt to connect the civic institutions that lie between the individual and the state – and these range from the family and neighbourhood to churches, charities, libraries, local schools and hospitals. It is born out of recognition that our centralised state has become too big, too bureaucratic and just too distant to support many of those most in need of help, and that it deters people from playing a more active role in public life."
• Why Facebook’s New Groups Will Change the Way You Use Facebook – the new feature offers an improved signal-to-noise ratio, increased context for communication and a big improvement in user privacy, thanks to respect for the contextual integrity of conversations.
• HyperLocalGovCampWM 1 – How organisations can use social media for internal communication | the albert memorial is still there – "…if you think about it, a workplace blog is effectively a hyperlocal blog – or depending on the nature and size of the organisation, a series of workplace blogs."
• Snowblog – Reflections on Birmingham – "By the way, now that the British Waterways quango is to go, who will sustain the magnificent canal system here?"
• YouTube – Harvey Milk Speech – Harvey Milk Speech