I wouldn’t normally write about specific competitions or even gadgets, but Jane Slowey (once my boss for a few months) e-mailed me about a tie-in between her organisation The Foyer Federation and Dixons and I really want others to blog about it. After all it’s a huge improvement on reports that homeless people were paid to queue in Tokyo and the US when the PS3 was released there.
The fundraiser is a competition. Enter here to win a PS3 from Dixons and a proportion of the £1 fee goes to the Federation. (It might also help get round fears of shortages) So think of this as an experiment in attracting a new audience for you and helping a good cause. If enough of us use this link perhaps we can get it onto the front page of technorati. With the tags below we’ll certainly find new readers and give them a way to turn their gaming passion to good use. If you give it a go please send me a link and I’ll add it here, or use trackback or perhaps add a comment with a link. I’d also love to know what effect it has on hits to your blog.
Tag: nptech
Money Matters – but not to success.
I was reading parts of the draft of Charles Leadbeater’s new book We-Think. (well worth a good mooch – and you can comment before he publishes.) He’s grappling with a leadership dilemma part of which can be summed up as: if organisations and professionalism are so precious to us, why are modest online structures able to accomplish so much with networked volunteers?. Read more
Masood heads for The Hague – a new podcast on the Grassroots Channel
Masood Yasin travels from Washwood Heath in Birmingham to The Hague (Den Haag) in the Netherlands to meet active citizens in Holland. Find out what his thoughts are on new approaches to jobs and education to young people plus why he wants to bring a Dutch idea to Birmingham.
Masood made his first appearance on the channel a year ago telling his story in Become a Decision Maker.
The Grassroots Channel is supported by the Birmingham Community Empowerment Network and produced by podnosh.com.
Also we mention listeners who’ve been in touch including Rob Annable in Birmingham.
Links:
R4R Europe (dead link)
Mood Mapping – the highs and lows of street life.
A few evenings ago I was chewing over some ideas which might make a good punt for the 21st Century News Challenge. As you do with these things I was getting a little giddy.
Wouldn’t it be fantastic, I thought, if you could map a neighbourhood by how people feel? It would not only give people living there a sense of how their neighbours are, it would also give public services valuable information on what lifts people’s moods and boosts security, and what provokes fear or anxiety.
I was toying with with technology involving mobile phones – perhaps a neighbourhood text line, where you could send a smiley (or the opposite), which knows the location of the phone? Extra text could be added as tags.
So a quick Google found Christian Nold’s work on Bio-Mapping. (hat tip to architect Rob Annable.) Christian is an artist who combines skin sensors which detect mood with global positioning kit and mapping software. Anyone wearing his kit can walk through their neighbourhood leaving a trail of emotion which can later be viewed on Google Earth. They can also add information about specific places – which may help identify why they felt what they did. Those taking part are in my mind a new form of citizen journalist – the ultimate mood blogger.
The potential for this as a means to get under the skin of a community is enormous. Refine or revise the technology and you can offer an almost instant mood exchange among people.
Would this be insanity – a more insidious version of cctv – or a new way to measure and influence social cohesion and or capital?