Posts Tagged ‘socialmedia’
Friday, August 27th, 2010
To Liverpool Wednesday, for an enjoyable afternoon interviewing Aidan McGuire and Francis Irving of ScraperWiki, then an evening at Liverpool’s Social Media Café event.
ScraperWiki is a code wiki that provides you with a maintained scraper to extract data from any public source on teh InterWebs, for any purpose. A great example is the map showing oil drilling around UK shores at the same depth as the Gulf of Mexico Disaster. Thanks to Aidan and Francis for lots of info about what ScraperWiki is up to, and where it’s going - if I can’t find a publisher for the interview (my usual outlet can’t fit it in), I might post more here.
Talks at #smcLiv were given by Mike Nolan, on coping with social media overload, and Jon Bloor, on Publish & (Don’t) be damned. Social Media & the Law. Mike is certainly tapping a rich vein, given the number of information channels we’re all hooked into, and talk around the tables afterwards ranged from GTD through #inboxZero to using the good old-fashioned telephone to cut down on e-mail.
Social Media Café at Static Liverpool, 25 August 2010, pic by Mike Nolan
There was also a talk given by myself, on Open Social Networks - or what to do about FaceBook being Evil. I’ll be writing here soon about GNU social, Diaspora*, and other ways of taking back control of your social media use, but for now please see the article at LinuxUser magazine - and the extracted interview with Evan Prodromou.
Posted in event, review | Tags: blog, datamining, event, GTD, hyperlocal, inboxzero, Internet, Liverpool, opendata, politics, socialmedia, transparency | 1 Comment »
Sunday, July 18th, 2010
I’m at WordCampUK - a conference for WordPress developers and users. There have been great presentations, from Accessibility & HTML5 to WordPress Themes. However the real value of any conference is the corridor time, face-to-face chat with peers, and people doing all sorts of unexpected and fun things with Free Software.
WordCampUK has been a bit short on corridor time, but has made up for it with socials, and lunch-time meetings: today in particular when most of the 3rd sector people got together for a not-for-profits meetup. As promised, below are the details of everyone at that lunch, so that WordPress people working in the voluntary sector can find each other:
Not-for-Profit people working with WordPress
Name/Twitter or Web Link & region or country:
Richard Weltman, NW
Chris Middleton, Notts
Jason King, London & NW
Steve Graham, S/SW
Linda Parkinson-Hardman, SW
Chris Witham, Yorks/Derbys
Daniel Koskinen, Finland
Kristina Krause, Seattle & Kent, UK
Chris Booth, Scotland
Jag Gill, Sheffield
Alex Stuart, Scotland
Chris Murray, Sheffield
Andrew Laughland, Bucks
Richard Smedley, NW
Added in from comments & tweets…
John Adams, Glasgow
Steve Taylor, London
If you’re doing something with WordPress in the not-for-profit sector, please feel free to put your name and link into the comments. I’ve no idea if anything useful will come out of this, along the lines of Plone’s NGO group, or Drupal’s various specialist groups - I just offer this set of links up with a vague hope ;-)
Update
There’s now a mailing list for anyone helping the sector using WordPress - sign up and say hello, everyone welcome.
Posted in 3rdsector, event, review, techie, workshop | Tags: 3rdsector, collaboration, community, event, FreeSoftware, Manchester, networking, socialmedia, twitter, vcs | 3 Comments »
Friday, July 2nd, 2010
I’ll be giving a potted 45min version of the Social Media & the Accessible Web introductory course at the next Green Drinks meeting. 6pm, Thurs 8 July at The Loggerheads pub, Shrewsbury. Also featuring Judy Coleridge, Editor of Shrewsbury Green Guide.
Feel free to come along - Green Drinks is also a great networking event. Meet people from environmental businesses, campaigns and social enterprises from across the region.
Posted in event | Tags: eco, event, greendrinks, Salop, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, socialmedia | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
I’m travelling back from the Connecting 2.0 Communities event held this afternoon and evening at Madlab, in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. An MDDA-sponsored event to give technical and social media advice to community groups. I was arm-twisted into giving a short talk, so rapidly prepared an item on Social Media tactics and strategy culled from our 3hour course.
Firefighting IT problems? Get some IT strategy in your Org!
However the first speaker, Matt Haworth, did such a great job on exactly the same subject, with the wonderful local example of Manchester’s Lesbian & Gay Foundation’s viral response to US hate adverts, that I mentally ripped up my improvised speech, and settled on the least interesting topic under the sun: IT Strategy. IT Happens, I told the unfortunate audience, it drops from the sky as meteorites of randomly-funded PCs, and volunteer-coded websites, and leaves organisations busy fighting fires as IT fails to do what it should, instead of concentrating on delivering the front-line services for which they have so much enthusiasm.
So, what’s to be done? Organisations with chronic IT problems tend to be those which don’t just lack an IT strategy, but often don’t really realise how essential it is to any modern organisation. These groups usually lack IT expertise not just in staff and volunteers, which is understandable, but in their boards of governance, too. In an age when hardware and software is effectively free, IT funding should first go into bringing in outside help to assess an organisation, and help to draught its strategy; something that would pay for itself in a very short time.
Back in my M6-IT days (and before that at BVSC’s MOST project) we ran courses on IT strategy for decision makers in Voluntary Sector groups. In both cases we relied on carrot and stick from partner organisations to bring in attendees who most needed the courses. What can be done? I’d love to hear ideas for reaching groups (other than springing them on an unsuspecting audience like today ;), otherwise third sector groups will continue to fight fires, instead of using IT to grow and support their organisations.
Posted in 3rdsector, event, musing, workshop | Tags: 3rdsector, event, ITStrategy, Manchester, networking, presentation, socialmedia, speaktoageek, strategy, sustainability, web, workshop | 1 Comment »
Thursday, November 26th, 2009
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“Government Digital Inclusion Champion Martha Lane Fox was the Big Thinker at COI last week. She announced the launch of her campaign to Race Online for 2012, which aims to get more people online particularly from socially excluded groups.”
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“Grain edit is focused on classic design work from the 1950s-1970s and contemporary designers that draw inspiration from that time period.
“Site content includes interviews, articles, designers’ libraries as well as examples of rare design annuals, type specimens, Ephemera, posters and vintage kids books from our bookshelves.”
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“For every SoyPrint toner used, you save 2-3 litres of petroleum, and you keep 6 pounds of heavy plastic and a pound of metal out of landfills. This environmentally friendly SoyPrint black laser toner cartridge replaces HP item number 92274A and is compatible with HP 4L, 4P, and 4MP machines.”
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“A suite of reports on Green Infrastructure looking at a number of issues; Green Infrastructure development based on the need expressed within the Region, the opportunities for GI to deliver sub-regional economic plans, an assessment of the CITYgreen computer model for estimating economic benefit, an outline strategy for linking green and grey infrastructure, and a collection of pioneering work on the economic benefits of Green Infrastructure”
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“Harsh Reality #2: You’ve got to give (some of) your best stuff away”
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“Throw out your business plan.” Like it :-)
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“…the potential for danger in the ice field of libel law is terrifying”
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The Hub for UK Tech Events & Groups
Born from ‘Wheres The Geek’, we decided on a brand change partly because we’ve shifted focus a little and partly because people kept moaning about the grammar!
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“THE Bespoke project is an innovative collaboration between a number of different academic and commercial bodies around the UK, including the universities of Central Lancashire, Surrey, Newcastle, Falmouth and Dundee, the Lancashire Evening Post and Nokia Research.
“Highly skilled Bespoke project members work across a number of different disciplines, and include anthropologists, product designers, engineers and mobile applications developers – as well as experienced multi-media journalists.
“We are currently arranging a series of digital storytelling workshops with members, users and clients of groups and organisations as diverse as the Ablaze Youth Group, Callon Kids Community Club, Contour Housing, Fishwick Rangers Youth Development Scheme, Preston FM and Preston College’s Elev8 initiative, as well as individual members of the public”
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“demonstrate that virtual collaboration can drive social innovation, adapting our collaboration process for improved results as experience is gained”
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“Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” “I never worry about action, but only about inaction”
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lowercase “g”
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“In a purpose built facility Recycling Lives provides a multi-agency approach to addressing the causes of worklessness and homelessness through the provision of employment opportunities and skills-training, opportunities for new business incubation, and a strategy for reducing landfill waste”
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There is some hope, but not much. The depressing reality of “An economy predicated on constant growth cannot be the engine of a change that urgently demands less of it”
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Population Control / Reduction = “Way too many of you, just enough of me”. The world can support a huge population, just not on a European/US consumption pattern
Posted in Links & Misc | Tags: accessibility, art, digitaldivide, hyperlocal, malthusianism, recycling, socialenterprise, socialmedia, web | No Comments »
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
I don’t normally join this sort of event, but the theme of this year’s Blog Action Day is Climate Change - and that seems a good opportunity to make a confession: I was wrong.
Not about climate change, I’ve been wittering on about the unsustainability of burning fossil fuels since the 1970s, and changed much about my lifestyle (transport, diet) in the 1980s in order to live more lightly on the earth.
No, I was wrong about the potential of popular mass actions focussed on tiny, incremental changes in people’s behaviour. Very specifically I was wrong about 10:10.
A Simple Step
10:10 asks an interesting question:
What if we resolved to cut 10% of our emissions in 2010?
Not a bad start. What if we got everyone we know to do the same? And what if all this made governments sit up and take notice? Maybe this could be the first step towards a brighter future. Time to stop imagining. It’s happening right now. Sign up today and be a part of it.
I had despaired of politicians making a worthwhile change throughout the Major & the Blair/Brown years, but was ready to accept a popular push could create political change. I just didn’t see any popular pushes working.
Happily, I’ve been proved wrong: 10:10 seems to have garnered unexpected support from businesses big & small, numerous individuals, and is pushing the politicians. It has worked because it has taken the vast, overwhelming problem of runaway climate change, and given us all an achievable, practical step we can take with tangible result. I wish it every success, and happily recall the words of 老子 (Lao-Tsu): A thousand mile journey begins with one small step.
Posted in 3rdsector, event, musing, review | Tags: #1010, BAD09, blog, eco, socialmedia | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
There’s been a lot of coverage of the death of local papers, but does this have to be the end of local reporting? Recently hyperlocal blogs have arisen everywhere from villages to inner-city postcodes to plug the gaps in local coverage.
Sticky notes on the white board describe the session you'd like. Similar sessions are grouped together & given a room & timeslot. Unconference sorted :-)
These aren’t just replacements for local freesheets, but use social media (blogs, & micro-blogs like Twitter) to harness the power of community reporting. Refrigerators dumped on the pavement, dog mess, lack of facilities, secret council decisions - all are aired in public & councils are having to take action. Not all councils are happy about this grassroots-driven transparency, & many are not giving hyperlocal blogs the same access as print journalists.
Against this background comes Talk About Local, an Unconference held last Saturday in Stoke-on-Trent that brought together 88 community bloggers & other hyperlocal activists.
An unconference is built on coffee-break networking
In informal sessions participants shared lessons learned - such as using short interviews & live cameras to get blog posts from those who had much to say but, often thanks to our lamentable education system, were unable to articulate it at the keyboard.
One thread I noted was how online activity drove more meeting & co-operation in the real world, and many successful projects combined these with drop-in centres giving access to computers and training in social media.
I attended not with my community training hat on, but as someone looking at launching a local site this autumn, & went away inspired, and carrying several pages of tips, contacts, & practical suggestions. Best thing about the event? The wonderful diversity of people there - not self-identified social media gurus, but people dedicated to improving their communities by linking up local people and giving them a platform.
Thanks to Will, Nicky, Clare & Mike for organising such a serendipitous event - despite the hiccough with the vegan food, and the train problems, I got so much from the day that I’m still digesting my notes. Watch out for more activity from Talk About Local. If you missed the event but want to get involved, join the mailing list.
Want to see some of these great community blogs? They’re linked from the social bookmarks of the ‘tal09 event (which saves me the invidious task of choosing which to single out). Videos are listed on this YouTube playlist.
Posted in 3rdsector, event, review, workshop | Tags: #TAL09, 3rdsector, blog, community, event, hyperlocal, networking, p2plearning, potteries, socialmedia, unconference | 1 Comment »
Monday, October 5th, 2009
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Another of the remarkable hyperlocal blogs at #TAL09 - wish I had time to bookmark them all!
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Great event yesterday, will blog tomorrow :)
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“For the news that matters in Stoke-on-Trent”
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“Pesky People is also going to be a campaigning website being developed to highlight how to complain about terrible access to websites. It will inform people of their rights, giving creative means to complain. It will cause trouble, it will change habits, it will empower. It will be fun. It’s totally run by Deaf and Disabled people.”
It was my pleasure to meet PP’s Alison Smith at #TAL09
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Blog Local aims to lift the lid on your local community. Our sites act as a hub of local information, views, events, reviews and loads of other good stuff that comes bubbling up from under the surface. We open up local information and put it in your hands. To see an example of what we do, check out http://www.blogpreston.co.uk/
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Democracy Club is a new, independent network of volunteers who want to help internet-savvy transparency groups like mySociety and The Straight Choice to hold election candidates and representatives to account. Constituency volunteers wanted!
Posted in Links & Misc | Tags: accessibility, blog, hyperlocal, politics, socialmedia, socialnetworks, webdesign | No Comments »
Friday, September 25th, 2009
A short introduction & discussion of social media tactics for your organisation. For more details contact Vicky Sinclair at Arcspace
This isn’t an in depth course, but will be tailored quite closely to the needs of participants. There will be more training running at Arcspace in the last 2 weeks of October.
By the way, 10am at Urbis on the 29th is Open Coffee Manchester - hope to see a few old faces and some new ones there :-)
Posted in event, workshop | Tags: Manchester, opencoffee, socialmedia | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
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“I wrote the software that turned mortgages into bonds.”
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Frankenstory is super simple to play! You write the first part of a story below and send it on to your friend… the twist is they can only see the last few words you wrote! They write the next part and volley it back to you. Write two parts each and it’s finished. Now you can both read your FrankenStory in it’s full glory!
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V useful feature-comparison of last year’s darling (Facebook); this year’s (Ning); & the do-it-yourself, Free Software social network platform: Elgg.
Elgg comes off v well.
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An important campaign to complement bottom-up efforts on local food & sustainability with national & European legislation to end the madness of subsidising high-Carbon, intensive farming, & its consequent rainforest destruction.
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Richard Price - the greatest (unknown) Welsh writer on Liberty
Posted in Links & Misc | Tags: art, climatechange, creativity, economics, elgg, environment, liberty, ning, socialmedia, socialnetworks, vegan | No Comments »
