More proof that citizens journalism is finding it’s feet here in the West Midlands comes with the campaign to protect Black Patch Park in Sandwell. Simon Baddeley has written about the park for the independent website The Stirrer, keeps this wiki page up to date and now adds this to youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t4OsOZqSLg
I was working yesterday with the Northfield Young People’s Forum (no website yet) here in Birmingham, looking at ways they can use online social networking to widen the conversation and attract more interest for what they do.
We explored youtube – citing the number of comments attracted by this Birmingham councillor for his film on graffiti tagging. The group I was working with all saw the possibilities, and highlighted the need to combine being entertaining with making a point.
Johnnie Moore spotted the video below, which shows how one person who is autistic communicates with the world. It is entrancing and intriguing and it part of a series of youtube films made to suport the work of www.autistics.org – a site which is also using second life to make their case.
The key lesson hear is that to be engaging you don’t need to set out to entertain. You do need to be authentic.
Couple this with news that Google is close to releasing a means of earning advertising income from you youtube videos and (ethics of taking advertising as a proviso) being engaging may also help your group raise money online.
Beth Kanter of the Sharing Foundation explains how they used the internet to raise $100,000 for children in Cambodia. I’ve known Beth through blogging for a few months now, but finally met her in Birmingham earlier this month.
She is an expert on the internet and non-profit organisations and in this podcast she talks about how you combine online tools such as widgets with the power of your networks, whether real or virtual, to encourage people to give money to support to your cause. She also writes about how they raised the money here on her blog and an earlier experiment with ChipIn here. Read more
They have barely got their first life started and already children are being offered a second. The BBC has announced plans to create a Second Life style environment where children can play and create and communicate. The beeb says CBBC world will have an emphasis on safety and responsibility with
no chatrooms or facilities for building new parts of the virtual world
Sounds more like a second life half life? Expect more social web announcments from the BBC now the license fee has finally been settled.
technorati tags: cambodia4kids second life bbc cbbc