• Building the “Local” website, not a council website « Carl’s Notepad – Shouldn’t we take the same approach as we do in the “real” world and position our information and services as part of the community and not expect people (and i include myself here) to have to visit a local council website to access information or perform a transaction.
• WTop Ten Things a Brand Must Be to Go Social | Simon Mainwaring – "Brands live or die on the good grace of their pro-active, connected customers. They can be your greatest allies or quickest destroyers. It is a privilege for a brand to enter their lives and any attitude short of that is a fast track to self-absorbtion and self destruction."
• Pezholio » Blog Archive » Who said Social Media can’t save councils money? – Pez saves Lichfield Council £3.22 and more importantly some poor resident a fruitless phone call – all thanks to twitter!
• Stephen Hale at fco.gov.uk – Stephen Hale at the Foreign Office writes a great post on the web and government. He belives you have to a clear clear web strategy but above all: "make sure it's ambitious." Well worth a read.
• There’s too much kick-boxing « Audit Commission newsroom blog – The Audit Commission (a customer) finding it's voice: "We say there’s too much kick-boxing going on. That was just in case you were already yawning. In fact, there’s too much tick-boxing going on."

The group divided up into four teams to tackle the following major issues student unions face, and how best to solve them using social media:

• Membership
• Democracy
• Brand
• Reach

The blue team looked at the problem of reaching students:

Click here to watch the video.

The red team – Brand:

The Yellow team – Membership:

See the video here

The green team – Democracy:

This is the question those who run student unions up and down the country have gathered at Fazeley Studios, Birmingham to discuss.

General managers, marketing officers, heads of communications, events coordinators and web developers have gathered to put their heads together with a couple of social media experts in the form of Nick Booth from Podnosh and Jon Bounds.

The two-day conference began with delegates voicing the points and problems which they want to discuss and talk about solving some of these issues using social media.

Some suggestions posted at the beginning of the session

Some of the problems were:

• Getting students to tell us what they want their student union to look like
• Drawing out students’ stories
• Knowing which social media to use for certain situations
• How to do more with less resources
• Getting the message across about what we do
• How can we keep our finger on the pulse
• How can we increase our membership using social media?
• How can we continue to engage using social media with students bored with Facebook?

If you’ve never seen a social media surgery before then John Popham’s video above is just about what you might expect.  He shot it last night at the first such surgery in Leeds, which he started after visiting our first anniversary surgery last month.

Folk in Leeds are  using a similar model to the central Birmingham surgery, you get some idea from this video at the most recent Birmingham social media surgery

It focuses on the informal and matching volunteer webby types to volunteer community types. As we found when we began these here in Birmingham, there seems to be a a great deal of enthusiasm in the digital community in West Yorkshire to get on and make things happen. Simon Duncan thought it a “great success”.

Why then do I say surgeries are spawning?

Huddersfield.  Their first is next week.

York (courtesy of the comment below from the wonder John Popham) is in December.

In South Africa Marlon Parker is adapting the idea for shopping centres and the general citizen.

Cornella near Barcelona will soon have one organised by Chris Pinchen of Citilab – who visited us again in October:

Talk About Local uses the technique and has now spawned the wonderful idea of a social media tent for fetes and fairs.

Lichfield has experimented with one.

Sheffield incorporated one in Unsheffield this summer (umh “unbrum”? – I wonder).

Podnosh has run them in Acocks Green – which was featured by the Birmingham Post and now has a life of it’s own – plus Lozells.  Alan Colson now also runs a social media surgery for councillors in Solihull.

Others include a more business minded approach in  Nottingham, (similar to our own work at Hello Digital)  SCIP in Brighton, and far afield  Mosman, Australia has now used there’s to created a site for their neighbourhood.

Any Missing?

• October Wrap-Up « Blog « WordPress.com – Last month 467,107 new blogs were created on wordpress.com. For more mind numbing statistics click on the link.
• Let me take you by the hand… « Beanbags and Bullsh!t – Really intersting thoughts on social enterprise: "Whether or not their activities are described as ‘trading’ for tax purposes, it’s hard to see how those social enterprises that just provide an outsourced public service in a specific area – and would go bust if the council (or other agency) cut their biggest contract – are businesses in any meaningful sense. Either way, Curley’s point is that these kinds of organisations – that make up a worrying large chunk of the social enterprise sector – are not sustainable unless state funders choose to sustain them."
• Center for Media Justice : Grassroots groups speak up for Net Neutrality – Interesting campaign in the USA to support net neutrality on the basis that a controlled network will discriminate on race ground – and I presume also on the grounds of wealth.
• What do you think about the way that technology can empower young people? | The Youth of Today – "The Youth of Today programme is conducting a survey of 13-25 year olds around the world to better understand how young people use information and communication technologies (ICTs). We are conducting the survey as part of our work on a publication on the subject (coming March 2010)."
• The Future of Politics is Mutual « SoloBassSteve.com: Shiny Happy People Blogging… – We now live in a world where we construct our own media consumption, where we pull together, build our own stories. Politics and the mainstream media are clinging on to old methods of distribution and delivery.
• UNB Student Union | Blog | Our Dirty Linen, Part 1: Communications – I will be working with some student unons this montha dn found this wonderful idea – admitting fault: "Welcome to Part 1 of a blog series that we’ll be calling “Our Dirty Linen.” The idea is simple: we admit to areas we haven’t been doing so well in in the past, we talk about some of the ideas we have for moving forward, and you give us feedback to guide this process."
• Campaign for better connectivity on trains « John Popham’s Random Musings – Yes

• 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 gray 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.

Section 230 was not part of the original Senate legislation, but was added in conference with the House, where it had been separately introduced as the Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act and passed by a near-unanimous vote on the floor. It added protection for online service providers and users from action against them for the actions of others, stating in part that “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider”. Effectively, this section immunizes ISPs and other service providers from torts committed by users over their systems, even if the provider fails to take action after actual notice.

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.