I had a quick look round MAC – the  arts centre in Cannon Hill park in Birmingham – thanks to Neil Holland and others from the comms team there. This video doesn’t show you everything, just a taste.  There’s plenty more to see when it opens on May 1st  with a gig from Misty’s Big Adventure  and lots of other goodness – including a new commission from Stan’s Cafe and some new audio walks for the park

Jamie and Jean work on the Civic Centre Residents' Association blog

At another brilliant Central Birmingham Social Media Surgery in thestudio we saw a host of exciting and interesting projects either getting off the ground or being developed still further.

It was particularly nice to see a few repeat customers, not least Sally Rew who was down with Sheila Arthurs to do a bit more work to their blog for Active Arts with the help of Andy Mabbett.

Matt Kinson and Lucy Hales, from the Waterloo Housing Association came down. They were helped by Gavin Wray – and seemed really happy with their time – learning about how they could make better use of social media. You can find out more about what they did here:-

Nick was helping people from the Birmingham Conservation Trust with their site. And it was great to see that Rosie, who was down on the night, has already posted an interesting piece on their blog. Meanwhile, the Civic Centre Residents’ Association also came down for a second visit. This time, Jean Varney came down with Martin Field and was helped by Jamie Garner. Jean was keen to learn a bit more about how to use the posterous that had been set up the month before by her fellow residents, Martin Miley and Roy Cockayne, with the help of Susi O’Neill. It looked like they had fun!

Also a big thanks to all the surgeons, also including Mark and Alan Coulson who also were on hand to help out.

It was also great to see the Birmingham MappaMercia OpenStreetMap group out in force. They’re the guys who were responsible for the gritting routes map, which appears to still be growing.

Anabel Palmer and Dylan Martlew at NDI10

I’ve just got back from  the National Digital Inclusion conference – very, enjoyable.  I was particularly interested in the strand on social housing and digital inclusion which has spun off the work chaired by Helen Milner on just that problem.

At the forefront of  the case that Social Landlords are key to tackling digital inclusion is that 70% of their tenants do not have internet access at home.   It is a figure that appears in the first sentence of the introduction to the  Social Housing Providers Digital Inclusion Action Plan 2010 (pdf):

Research shows 70% of people who live in social housing do not use the internet. That means they’re missing out on all the benefits, opportunities and conveniences computers and the internet can provide – essential public services, instant communication, commercial comparisons and online bargains, job searches and applications.

That figure is sourced to the Office of National Statistics, 2008 and it seems that things are changing quickly. Anabel Palmer of Southern Housing Group and Dylan Martlew of Knowle West Media Centre have both recently done research on internet availability in the home of social housing tenants.  One found 56% of households are connected,  for the other the same figure was 67% with internet access. Listen to them sharing their thoughts on this:

Naturally we would need to check that they are measuring exactly the same but are these numbers an oddity?  There’s no reasons to suppose they are.  Southern Housing Groups 2008 survey found 30% using the net, which matched the national figure then.   Now they find 67% using the net.

It does not mean that there is not important work to be done by social landlords to help close the digital divide (for those who want it closed).   Many of their tenants might benefit from much wider use of digital tools – but have never really been exposed to them, or may have barriers to using them.

But it does show how quickly internet access is being taken up by those who see some sense in using it.

• The State of Social Media Around the World 2010 –
• JFDI vs Being Boring – "Don’t let strategy and process get in the way of doing good stuff. At the same time, don’t JFDI and find yourself exposed."
• New Proposal – “Community DigiLand Bank Register” « Birmingham Social Investment Trust – Interesting idea – perhaps citizens can put and on the map and someone in the council can flag it if they own it – with information about who to talk to?: "One idea that came out of the discussion would be for the public or council owned land to be registered and available for all communities to view on a new web based ” Community – DigiLand Bank Register”, maybe using googelmaps as a base and thereby allowing citizens to geotag and photo any plots they become aware of or are interested in."
• WxWM – Sue Ellen Haz A Thirsty | Saturday Social 13th March 2010 « WxWM – "There are no tables booked. We live life by the seat of our pants and guffaw loudly in the face of caution and planning."
• OGC – Home – "The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) is an independent office of HM Treasury, established to help Government deliver best value from its spending"

• MADE – Talking cities lecture series – "MADE’s thought provoking lecture series, supported by Cudos and Birmingham Architectural Association, kicks off on 11th March with a talk by Irena Bauman, Bauman Lyons Architects, entitled Happy Cities – Stitching the Disconnections"
• Shona McQuillan | Artist and Illustrator | Birmingham, United Kingdom – Blog – "What struck me when I arrived is that it wasn't all about the usual suspects; curious shoppers ambled in to see what this was all about, too. And busy it was – with sales made on the first night."
• Green ICT Surgeries | Voscur – "Voscur would like to help members tackle their negative impact on the environment, which seems to be an inevitable part of running a modern office or organisation.

  We are running surgeries for up to 5 organisations at a time to introduce members to the Bristol Green ICT community developing around the the Green Bristol ICT website (http://www.bristolgreenict.org.uk)"

• Using the internet for effective citizenship – at the Citizenship Foundation we believe that effective civic engagement – or more specifically, effective citizenship – requires critical reflection by all involved; not simply the release and management of data by one party and the voicing of opinions by another.
• Leadership services – Leadership 20:20 | National Council for Voluntary Organisations – "We have launched a Commission on the future leadership of civil society, to give emerging leaders a chance to have their voices heard and discuss some of the major issues affecting both our sector, and our world. As well as contributing to this key agenda, our hope is that Leadership 20:20 develops as a network for civil society’s emerging leaders to share ideas, share information and learn from each other."

• GSA Dialogue App Demo – "From establishing any kind of web presence at all, through increasing understanding of the nuances of online interaction to pioneering a technological innovation; whether it's a case of expanding the uptake of proven methods or better joining up online activity with the 'real world' process, how can government organisations more effectively connect people with governance and decision-making online? We want your ideas, suggestions and comments – as front-line staff or as citizens."
• Telegraph invents comparative degrees of atheism. Dawkins = “athiest” | Online Journalism Blog – "The vitriol is being generated because volunteer moderators who have invested hundreds of hours building an online community, and the members of that community, have had their community summarily yanked from beneath them, and had their means of communicating with each other turned off. "
• VentnorBlog Denied Access to Coroner’s Court | Isle of Wight News:Ventnor Blog – We were told by the coroner’s officer, Richard Leedham, that the coroner, John Matthews, didn’t recognise us as a member of the press (despite VB publishing articles for four and a half years and NUJ membership for longer) and he didn’t want us in “his court.”
• Unlocking the potential of mass localism | Left Foot Forward – government’s impulse is to identify what works locally and try to ‘scale-up’ the approach to other communities.

  This, we argue, is the wrong approach as it undermines the ownership and applicability that makes local solutions effective in the first place. Rather than stretching particular solutions, mass localism means supporting mass innovation.

• Thoughts on OSM design, and looking forward and back – OpenGeoData – The problem of community at Open Street Map: "Everyone in OSM has basically been contributing for the kinds of extended periods of time as above, not the minutes or hours. Many see someone contributing so little as wrong or pointless. I say just the opposite. The people who spend minutes or hours disappear because we just don't welcome them."

The surgeries are informal place to find out about social media

So what if you’ve never been to a social media surgery? You might have a few questions, right? We thought it might be good to answer a few.

So what is a social media surgery?
Social Media Surgeries are just a fun, informal way for people to meet and learn how to use social media for social good.

What is social media?
Social media is a loose term that is applied to a range of tools that use the world wide web to bring people together and communicate – including blogs and social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook.

How do social media surgeries work?
Our surgeries consist of patients (the people who come to learn stuff) and surgeons (the people who can answer their questions). We pair surgeons with patients, so that the patients can learn all about how to use social media.

Who should come to social media surgeries?
Our surgeries are for anyone involved in community and voluntary organisations who is looking for new, more effective ways to communicate about the work that they do. Patients don’t need to know about computers. It’s much more important that you are keen to learn and that you have something to say!

Who are social media surgeons?
The surgeons are all terribly nice people who’ve volunteered their time for free to help people. They come from a variety of backgrounds, but they all want other people to be able to make good use of the power that comes from effectively using social media.

What happens when you get to a social media surgery?
Imagine a big coffee morning, except it’s probably in the evening! We pair surgeons with patients after quickly finding out what people would like to learn. You get to sit with a surgeon who can help you with whatever question or issue you’ve got.

What can you expect to get out of a social media surgery?
Well, that’s entirely dependent on what you want to get. Lots of people who come want to set up blogs – simple websites where they can publicise what they are doing. Other people are interested in using Twitter, or other social networking services. Often people come back to learn more and more. Sometimes people who first arrived at surgeries as patients become surgeons themselves.

Is there anything I need to bring?
No. The surgeons have computers, so you don’t need to worry. Of course, if you have a laptop and can carry it easily then please bring it along.

Where can I find out more?
To find out how the surgeries started you can read this post. John Popham, who runs surgeries in Yorkshire, has done a good job of explaining things in this podcast. This site, Podnosh, gives details of new surgeries in Birmingham and elsewhere.

Where are the social media surgeries?
We run the Central Birmingham Social Media Surgeries, but there are surgeries elsewhere in the country, too. Acocks Green runs its own, there are surgeries in Yorkshire, and there are Web 2.0 surgeries in Nottingham and others starting elsewhere.

Surgeons and patients at February's surgery at thestudio

We’ve just booked up three new dates for the Central Birmingham Social Media Surgeries – April 7, May 6 and June 8 – with the lovely people at thestudio, in Cannon Street, off New Street.

It’s great news, because we’ve been able to extend our original arrangement where we get the space in thestudio for free. It seems that the management at thestudio is quite happy with it, too – as long as we remember to buy a few drinks at the bar and clear off at 7pm, as we’re supposed to. We’ll issue reminders for these events closer to the dates, but if you’re looking for the next surgery it will be on March 9.

Have a look here for more details.

• Open Government Ideas Look All the Same: Are You Surprised? –
• Nodalities » Blog Archive » Richard Stirling Talks about data.gov.uk –
• When using open source makes you an enemy of the state | Technology | guardian.co.uk – "It turns out that the International Intellectual Property Alliance, an umbrella group for organisations including the MPAA and RIAA, has requested with the US Trade Representative to consider countries like Indonesia, Brazil and India for its "Special 301 watchlist" because they use open source software."
• digital economy bill – massive lobby remains | Tom Watson MP – "If you counted the number of people who are working full time to bounce this Bill through the Commons on behalf of big publishing interests I bet it would run into three figures. Those that want to protect the Internet connections of the nation’s youth? Probably one or two."
• Are newspapers selling linkspam? (Again?) | Online Journalism Blog – "Clever as this idea may sound, the newspapers may want to research what happened when other publications tried the same approach. The Irish Independent, the Economist and The Times are among publications whose PageRank has been penalised by Google."
• RAWM and Charity Builder UK – "RAWM has joined forces with Charity Builder UK to offer a £300 a year web service free of charge to RAWM members.
  Charity Builder UK (CBUK) is a new online service which has the potential to transform administrative tasks in your organization. Designed for charities and community groups, it provides advice on lots of important topics such as human resources, health and safety, volunteering and governance."