Tag: sms+

Why do people attend Social Media Surgeries?

Yesterdays Social media Surgery in Low Hill, Wolverhampton was attended by Jerome Turner, research fellow on the Creative Citizens research team at Birmingham City University. It was Jez’s first time at a surgery and he’d come with lots of questions for his research about why people chose to come along to either give or receive help.

Jez recorded some of the answers and shared them with us via  audioboo and you can listen to these below .

Patient Pat Fullwood came along for assistance setting up a Facebook page for her Neighbourhood Watch group and for support on a page she’d previously set up for the Long Knowle Community Association.

Jaswinder Singh Chagger (aka Handsome) came to look at how he could use Facebook and Twitter to connect with organisations across the city of Wolverhampton.

James Clarke from WV11.co.uk came along as a surgeon again and he said the thing that makes him keep coming back is being able to share his knowledge with others “opening their eyes to a whole new world”

Building civic engagement in Wolverhampton one neighbourhood at a time

Yesterday saw us host the first in a whole series of Social Media Surgeries we’re involved in around Wolverhampton.

It took place in an area of the north east of the city called Low Hill. It was set up and managed like all other social media surgeries except instead of being supported by just one organisation, it’s being supported by a partnership of public sector organisations from across the city that includes council departments and housing  associations.

The thinking behind this means we’re able to support a more diverse mix of people to benefit their communities and improve civic engagement across the city with input from lots of different areas.

Yesterday’s event was really well attended and, with support of “surgeons” from our public sector partners, were able to help:

One attendee on returning back to work even declared it the “best social media surgery ever“. I’m not sure we’re impartial enough to be the judge of that but I’m sure looking forward to the next one in Low Hill and the others due to be arranged across the city.

Stuff I've seen January 16th through to January 22nd

These are my links for January 16th through January 22nd:

  • Puffbox.com » Archive » Creative Commons coming to data.gov.uk – "There's something almost unnerving about the launch of a government website getting so much positive coverage. But today's been data.gov.uk's big day, and everyone seems to agree it's a jolly good thing. For now.
    James Crabtree's piece for Prospect magazine hails it as 'a tale of star power, serendipity, vision, persistence and an almost unprecedented convergence of all levels of government'. The New Statesman says it's 'a far more radical project than it first appears… a clear break with the closed, data-hugging state of the past.' We're all getting quite excitable, aren't we?"
  • Unlocking innovation | data.gov.uk – Advised by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt and others, government are opening up data for reuse. This site seeks to give a way into the wealth of government data and is under constant development. We want to work with you to make it better.
  • News Corp is foolish to block linking | Media | The Guardian – "Linking is a right. The link enables fair comment. It powers the link economy that will sustain media. It is a tool for accountability. It is the keystone to free speech online."
  • The Through the Viewfinder photography of Pete Ashton – My mate Pete keeps on forging new ways to make money from networks, trust and creativity: "As part of my plan to make lots of money from my photographs I’m encouraging you to download high resolution versions of my TTV photos to make cool things with them and I don’t mind if you pay me or not."

    There’s a new section in my shop: Roll your own. That explains how I expect this to work so go read it before reading on.

  • African Social Media Surgery launch | Technology for Community Empowerment – I am almost impossibly excited by this first social media surgery in Africa: "The Social Media Surgery will be managed by Craig Ross and the rest of the RLabs Superstars. What excites me about this initiative is that the management and our surgeons will be men and women who use to disempower their community through drugs and violence, who are now giving back and empowering citizens through Social Media."