Tag: websites

Stuff I've seen August 4th through to August 19th

These are my links for August 4th through August 19th:

Looking back at the first Balsall Heath Social Media Surgery

It’s been manic recently, so I’ve not had the time I really need to talk about our first social media surgery at Balsall Heath. But, now I’ve confirmed that the next surgery – again at the Balsall Heath Forum – will be on June 2 , I thought it was a good time to look at what was a fascinating and quite exciting first outing for the newest Podnosh-run event.

Quite a few Balsall Heathers (or should that be Balsall Heathans?) have been down in one capacity or another to the Central Birmingham Social Media Surgeries in the past, so it was good to see a few familiar faces coming to the Balsall Heath surgery.

Simon Whitehouse was in attendance, helping Nisha Virdi. And John Newson was also down, getting some assistance with his blog for Balsall Heath Is Our Planet from Dan Davies (who, as it happens, also lives very nearby – even if he thinks he’s in Moseley!)

But there were also many new faces who managed to make it down, including – of course – those working at the forum themselves. I spent some time helping Abdullah Rehman and Nowrah Abdul to set up a blog for the forum, which it’s nice to see they’ve been using in the week or so since the event.

Nick Booth was able to help Zainab and Dalal from the Yemeni Women and Children’s Society – and even set up this quick blog post with them on the day. And it was particularly exciting to see Zulfiqar Ali, of the Pakistani Youth Council. Zulfiqar is really good at using online tools already, but he got some help with using RSS feeds and Yahoo Pipes, which hopefully will be very helpful with some of the interesting things he’s doing.

So, all in all, lots of interesting things happened and I’m really looking forward to the next event. Hope you can make it!

To sign up to the next event, on June 2, please visit the Social Media Surgery Plus site.

Stuff I've seen September 3rd through to September 4th

These are my links for September 3rd through September 4th:

  • In Development » Draft Open Access and Licensing Framework released – as copyright works are concerned, NZGOAL proposes that agencies apply the most liberal of the New Zealand Creative Commons law licences to those of their copyright works that are appropriate for release, unless there is a restriction which would prevent this. The most liberal Creative Commons licence is the Attribution (BY) licence.
  • Inaccuracies in newspaper coverage of Cabinet Office job advert – Blunt rebuttal: "This morning several newspapers ran a story about the Cabinet Office advertising for a Deputy Director of Digital Engagement who will be paid around £120,000 a year."

    Unfortunately, every single story contained inaccuracies, from basic facts about the vacancy to fundamental details of what the job is all about.

  • How to stop being embarrassed by your website commissioning :: interactivecultures – "let’s call him Harold" Jon Hickman on form and inspired by the Help me Investigate investigation into the city council's website. (missed this when on holiday).
  • Membership has its meaning « BuzzMachine – "the membership bar has moved up. It’s not enough to let people give you money and promote you. Now you have to invite them to have a real and meaningful role in what you do, even a sense – if not a stake – of ownership and, consequently, control."
  • NTI Birmingham : Gamer Camp – Free: "Gamer Camp offers would-be game makers in the West Midlands the chance to learn how to develop and produce games for Apple's phenomenally popular iPhone/iPod Touch, as part of a four-week training course taking place at NTI Birmingham and Birmingham School of Visual Communication." via d:log