• The Big Debate – Ten more ideas – Birmingham Post – Business Blog – "Be ambitious and aim… low. It sounds mad, but I think some people were discussing the problem with large projects / initiatives having lots of money attached, largely that they're often then crippled / stifled by paperwork and a need to 'report' on outcomes. "
• Developers are great but… « Emma Mulqueeny – "when they do open it all up, please take time to look through what has been done, and see what clues you can find to making your own businesses better – in and outside of government."
• SI Web and New Media Strategy – Executive Summary and Moving Forward – "This Smithsonian Web and New Media Strategy was created through a fast and transparent process that directly involved, and continues to involve, hundreds of stakeholders inside and outside the Institution. This strategy feeds into the Smithsonian’s comprehensive strategic plan."
• Secretary Clinton Announces Civil Society 2.0 Initiative to Build Capacity of Grassroots Organizations – In her remarks today to the Forum for the Future, Secretary Clinton announced Civil Society 2.0, which will help grassroots organizations around the world use digital technology to tell their stories, build their memberships and support bases, and connect to their community of peers around the world.
• Innovation Exchange » Innovation for Personalisation: A call for ideas (West Midlands) – “We need to work together with passion and commitment to help everyone lead fulfilling, independent lives. This is an important event for the JIP in helping us to find high-potential innovation projects that are making personalisation a reality”.
  Eric Robinson, Lead on Personalisation, ADASS and Corporate Director of Social Care and Health, Staffordshire County Council

  Personalisation depends upon our ability to innovate in social care – to develop new services, relationships and organisational approaches. Across the West Midlands, people in the public and third sectors are already using their passion and ingenuity to deliver personalisation. But no one person has all the answers and we can always do better.

One of the hazy areas in the British law is regarding defamatory remarks made in comments on an article. It is accepted if the comments are post-moderated and the publisher has not seen the comment they are not liable, providing when they are notified they remove the comment.

Another grey area is deciding which websites constitute ‘publishers’ because there is a defence if you can prove you are simply a platform for a forum.

There’s also the part of the law (from 1849) which still says every new publication of a defamatory comment (every click, copy paste, link) acts as a new act of libel. Combined with the nature of the internet means you can sue a publication from anywhere in the world in this country, attracting so-called ‘libel tourists’ come to London to sue, although California recently ruled against such practises.

Here’s an extract on US Libel law concerning the internet on wikipedia:

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 generally immunizes from liability parties that create forums on the Internet in which defamation occurs from liability for statements published by third parties. This has the effect of precluding all liability for statements made by persons on the Internet whose identity cannot be determined.

Basically libel laws in the US don’t apply to anonymous comments on blogposts. UK publishers online want “immunity for defamation arising from comments”, “widening the Freedom of Information Act to apply to organisations who receive public money above a certain amount” and making libel laws clear for internet users.

• Poles, Politeness and Politics in the age of Twitter « The New Adventures of Stephen Fry – “the most fatuous and maddening aspect of the press’s (perfectly understandable) fear, fascination and dread of Twitter: the insulting notion that twitterers are wavy reeds that can be blown this way or that by the urgings of a few prominent ‘opinion formers’. It is hooey, it is insulting hooey and it is wicked hooey. The press dreads Twitter for all kinds of reasons.”
• Investment to The Media Bus | Futurebuilders – Futurebuilders invests ion a mobiel media training bus: “We have just offered an investment of £344,573 to The Media Bus. £297,527 of it will be a loan and £47,046 will be a grant. The Media Bus is a social enterprise in Poole that was set up by White Lantern Film as a solution to the growing demand for educational projects and digital media training in locations with poor technical resources.”
• Supporting Birmingham Conservation Trust if you’re in business – A whole load of ways businesses can support one of my favourite charities – Birmingham Conservation Trust. Non of them cost you any more than a little attention.
• Beware the instant online anger of the HobNob mob | Nick Cohen | Comment is free | The Observer – The heart of this piece on the power of online movements is the final very fine paragraph: ” A mob fighting a good cause is still a mob. To fight back, you need to remember that although the internet age is hugely expanding the number of complaints, the old rules still apply. Whether you are the owner of a tiny blog or the editor of a national newspaper, if someone points out an incorrect fact, you correct it; if someone challenges an argument, you argue back; and if someone says that you must think what they think, you ignore them.”

City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism students already take a class in entrepreneurship. Jeff Jarvis, who teaches there, thinks should learn to be stewards of journalism – learning for example how to set up hyperlocal sites, invite and train collaborators, and turn the news site into a successful business.

Details of the hypothetical news model from CUNY can be found here - and it is in the process of being translated for the UK.

It is clear from developments in the US – which the UK will duly follow – journalism students need to be taught or encouraged to do entrepreneurship to make sure they take off in the new climate – rather than fall flat on their face because their traditional skill-set no longer stands up to what the market demands.

At the meeting we heard how older and redundant journalists are desperate to learn new media skills – and many are trying now to find time outside of work hours to train themselves up and start their own hyperocal sites.

It was considered whether some training could be offered to the unemployed to allow them to contribute to hyperlocal sites while they look for work.

The point was also made students need an incubation period after leaving journalism school where they are given support in starting their own businesses online and any advice on what they are doing – putting them in contact with the relative right people.

At CUNY they realise the old career path no longer exists because journalism isn’t how it used to be. They’re setting students up with the knowledge and tools for creating hyperlocal enterprises (how to create business models, pitching, how to sell advertising, how to build a website). If British counterparts want to keep up they also need to be trained in a way which recognises the new journalism skills require for a new age of media.

With the decline of regional news coverage are we in danger of losing reports which hold the local council to account. Someone asked how much council reporting was actually going on anyway – are we seeing local reporting though rose-tinted glasses and not realising how little is done by regional media. Some councils actively try to stamp out probing news coverage by refusing journalists access to certain meetings and councillors.

Councils need to be open to bloggers and hyperlocal reporters and treat them like other news organisations (which is by no means an ideal relationship either) – by being given access to council meetings and documents and councillors themselves.Live-streaming council meetings (with a permanent easy to use archive)  was agreed as a way to allow both journalists and active citizens to get hold of material to analyse and identify issues worthy of reporting or campaigning.

But can we rely on volunteerism for reporting civic justice and public affairs?

Someone pointed out many print newspapers rely on work experience and forms of volunteerism to do even their most investigative journalism (interns worked on the Daily Telegraph’s MP’s expenses story and the Guardian saw hundreds of volunteers analyse the original data from the same story once it was released.)

But councils are also publishing their own print material.

Some argue council newspapers should be banned altogether, like William Perrin from Talk About Local (below). While others believe with increased transparency between local authorities and the public in the form of releasing government data, councils and journalists are free to present the information in whichever way they see fit.

Reporting council meetings isn’t just about documenting what was said. Journalists hang around before and afterwards speaking to councillors, double checking facts and comments and making sure they know exactly what’s going on behind what was said in the public domain.

Paul Bradshaw has suggested council news network – making sure the standard of council reporting information is to a standard of reporting which we would expect from publicly funded organisations, such as the BBC.

All were agreed something needed to be done as the landscape of news changes to ensure council meetings were made available to the public in the way they desire.

US Hyperlocal News Market –

Whether networked or single locality journalism, hyperlocal start-ups all have some sort of editorial position and a hierarchy and production system which favours skilled editor roles. The voluntary start-ups often have an authentic and raw feel, but can be inconsistent in maintenance (thus professionalism) and attract small audiences. Hyperlocal sites which have a media parent, such as the recently launched Guardian Local and Associated Press’ Local People sites provide an instant audience, content pool, and access to the technology and resources, but can lack innovation which is prohibited by the internal politics of the media legacy of the publisher which need to be followed.

Models from the US showed how giving content providers (who write and upload articles voluntarily) a platform to publish content rewards them with being pitched next to writers on a site which give them credibility and an impetus to work hard. Similarly deputised editors will work on the basis they feel privileged to have access and control over content. GroundReport and The Huffington Post are good examples of this.

The final slide in the presentation on hyperlocal models shows government funded sites while delivering high quality of coverage would gain limited audience and less sustainable.

• mySociety » Blog Archive » Harassment problem leads to FOI strangeness – Interesting story about how government departments are making quite subjective judgements about which information to release through FOI: "Today we have a strange story about a department that appears to think that it has a duty not to release information under FOI if it makes people angry."
• We Share Stuff – Accredited course in Social Media – A triumph for wesharestuff: "We’re really pleased to announce what we think is the first officially accredited course in understanding and using social media for those with no previous experience. We Share Stuff has developed the course and it’s now part of the OCN framework (WSS are an OCN Centre), as three units of 10 learning hours each."
• Data is what we want – but why? – Birmingham Post – Business Blog – Paul Bradshaw explains in simple terms: "The best analogy I can think of is polymers. When the technology behind polymers was developed in the last century, it created a whole new market – innovative producers could create new products, and cheaper ways of producing old products. Similar opportunities are available with the release of data – release postcodes for businesses to use cheaply or for free, and you have the opportunity for new businesses creating applications based on location. Release transport data and others can tell you which direction to head in for the next bus."
• Blog | Birmingham Conservation Trust – Really interesting film about The highline – a community campaign to save an old elevated railways line in New York as a green park. Fascinating ideas about how to galvanise community.
• Green shoots of recovery – Birmingham Post – Lifestyle Blog – Kate Copper: "The accidental empires of the 20th century weren't forged in workshops (not even facilitated ones), but in back bedrooms, unused garages and fusty university research labs. At the forefront of this revolution were pizza-fed, caffeine-fuelled nerdy boys who couldn't get a date. These brainy T-shirted lads did weird math, challenged their mates to do even weirder stuff — not in order to make money or lead a revolution, but simply to explore what it was that they could do."

The second slide shows from 2001 circulation numbers from regional and national news started to decline. And yet slide three shows how comparatively little time readers spend online than they do reading newspapers – so is less news being consumed all round?

Far from it, was the consensus from those at the conference. News is being consumed today more than ever. But the relatively little time readers will spend skimming across webpages is no incentive for advertisers to migrate online – hence the combination of the digital revolution and the recession has meant job cuts and a number of regional papers no longer able to continue.

Some points in the discussion focused on whether quality journalism would be lost as regional newspapers fold and are not emulated in a similar way online. It was argued some regional news journalists, with the added work load from staff cuts and times pressures from uploading their own content online, no longer have the time in their day to do what is known as ‘investigative’ or ‘accountability‘ journalism.

Others felt local media was still providing this necessary service of holding authorities to account. Either way it was agreed things could be done to make sure accountability journalism continued – streaming council meetings and making sure bloggers were treated as local media by authorities to ensure cooperation were some suggestions.

There was talk about the impact of the changing times on the quality of journalism. ‘What makes good journalism’ was too controversial a debate to get into – but in defence of online journalism those from the US said the bigger news organisations could no longer get away with just putting up every article or anything online – but had to make sure content was equal or better in quality than print.

Trust was another issue raised – trust of the voice being important for readers, regardless of the way the news is delivered. It is also the strength of the social capital gained from reporting local events which is more important than how it is produced.

This opening discussion on the state of news today was a precursor to looking at hyperlocal models later in the conference. But there is a common misconception hyperlocal websites are trying to emulate gaps left by regional media online. It is true part of the reason online news start-ups have appeared is ex-journalists trying to fill the gaps in news coverage regional media have left behind. But hyperlocal sites are sprouting up all across the UK and most of them are not news as we know it. They are created by citizens (voluntarily) inspired by having some information they wish to publish, and now being able to do so with online tools and social media. These sites focus on a particular community or single issue of interest.

“We have to radically change our view of engaging a community and who our advertisers are and business efficiency through volunteerism.”

Part of the debate about the future of news is coming to terms with the fact it will not be reborn as an online version of what was there before. The media is integral to our living in a democratic society and noone doubts the value of news and accountability journalism – but citizens publishing news and information of interest to them are making sure democracy increases rather than fades out with regional news.

Arranged by Minister for Creative Industries Siôn Simon, and chaired by CEO of GroundReport Rachel Sterne and founder of Talk About Local William Perrin, the conference – called C&binet Seminar – was a collision of talking heads about their experiences and thoughts on the state of local and national news and their plans or predictions for the future of journalism. Those in attendance included Editor-in-chief of The Guardian Alan Rusbridger, Editor of Citizen Journalism at The Huffington Post Matthew Palevsky and Paul Bradshaw from Birmingham City University’s MA in Online Journalism (see a full list of attendees below).

Sessions focused on a number of areas in the debate, introduced with a presentation from those with particular knowledge of a field, and were followed by passionate discussions with attendees drawing on their own research and experiences. A number of key issues emerged and we will be running a series of blogposts featuring key points which were raised on the following subjects:

• The state of newspapers and the value of news
• Hyperlocal news models
• Council reporting – who should do it?
• What the journalism students need to know
• Freeing up public data
• Libel laws for online journalism

The aim of the discussion was to draw out anything concrete which the government could do to aid or help the growth of news coverage from grassroots hyperlocal blogs to media organisations migrating online. From the outset it was accepted hyperlocal news, community websites and online coverage were positive entities and the opening debate shed light on the state of traditional and online media in the UK and US – and problems with both models. Later Rachel Sterne broke down the different types of hyperlocal sites in the US - you can see her slideshow on the GroundReport website here.

At the end of the meeting people made suggestions of possible answers to the question which had brought them together – what should the government do? Here’s Paul Bradshaw’s notes and observations and William Perrin talking about what he thinks the goverment should do when it comes to hyperlocal news.

Here are some suggestions from other attendees (see a full list on the Talk About Local post):

-Set standards for publically funded information
-Clarify legal responsibilities and liabilities of publishers of user-generated content
-Prevent councils from distorting publishing market by running ad-funded propaganda newspapers
-Require the BBC to make video news content available to grassroots publishing and not just legacy players
-Require councils to audio/video stream meetings and provide an on-demand archive
-Get more people online
-Get rid of draconian libel laws
-Subsidise local public service reporting
-Free up government data intelligently and faster
-Open arts funding to journalism
-Support grassroots digital training for active citizens
-Encourage experimentation with low overheads to low cost of failure.
-Release postcodes and other geo-data
-Find geo-location tools and standards for information
-Have clear vision and strategy for democratic renewal
-Monitor civic impact of citizen journalism
-Develop guidelines for councils to treat local bloggers like local press
-Work with schools and a valid local platform for area-wide learning of citizen journalism.
-Immunity from defamtion arising from comments
-Add journalism as an act of supported volunteering

Attendees to C&binet Seminar ‘09:

• Richard Allen (Facebook)
• Nick Booth and Hannah Waldram (Podnosh)
• Jon Bounds (Blogger)
• Paul Bradshaw (Senior Lecturer in Online Journalism, Magazines and New Media at Birmingham City University)
• Roland Bryan (Northcliffe’s Local People project)
• Hugh Flouch (Networked Neighbourhoods)
• Joanna Geary (The Times)
• James Hatts (Bankside Press)
• Sarah Hartley (The Guardian)
• James Heath (BBC)
• Jeff Jarvis – via Skype (Journalist)
• Tom Loosemore (Channel 4)
• Ruth MacKenzie (DCMS)
• Douglas McCabe (Enders Analysis)
• Matthew Palevsky (Huffington Post)
• William Perrin (Talk About Local)
• Sylwia Presley and Neha Viswanathan (Global Voices)
• Damian Radcliffe (Ofcom)
• Alan Rusbridger (The Guardian)
• Siôn Simon (Minister for Creative Industries)
• Rachel Sterne (GroundReport)
• Julian Thompson and Michael Delvin (RSA)
• Tom Watson (MP)

Typically the consultations stretch back about 3 years and involve the various organisations which form Be Birmingham, the local strategic partnership.

The site itself has been made by an internal team at Birmingham City Council.  We were approached to make a a promotional video, which ended up being very practical: a simple to guide to how to start using the site:

You’ll notice one other thing which has happened since we made the film.  The site has an RSS feed.  It gives you general updates and the moment and I’m sure they’d be willing to consider a wider variety of  rss feeds – for example by ward or constituency if you think that would help you. So  there’s room to offer feedback here, use it if you get a moment.