Camp Hill Flyover, Birmingham, 1970 by Lady Wulfrun

Every so often I find myself emailing people who have requested links and/or information about creating community content around a particular subject or issue.  I’m thinking it would be better for me to share that information with everyone, so I’m going to  start copying it into blog posts here.  One topic I get asked a lot about is local heritage, and how bringing this online can generate discussion and get people sharing their memories.  When people ask me about heritage, I usually send them the following:

• People really react to a bit of local history on a community website.  Look at the comments on this post of a photo of 1970’s Digbeth. People remembered the flyover and reacted with their own personal stories about it. Similarly with William’s post about the Beaconsfield Buildings in Kings Cross – people started commenting about their families’ connections to the building, and people tracing their family trees are now coming to this post via genealogy forums.
• Old photos and interviews with older residents who’ve witnessed changes over the years are always popular. Rescue Geography is a project all about collecting and curating  people’s memories of a place, you could explore that for some ideas.
• The Birmingham Irish Heritage Group contribute regularly to Digbeth is Good, which helps bring their activity and a taste of their events to wider audience.
• Another interesting site is: http://ourhistory-hayes.blogspot.com: ‘A site dedicated to the work of Hayes Labour Association, Hayes & Harlington Labour Party, Hayes Communist Party, Trade Unionists, and working men and women of West Middlesex.’

• Last but not least Seaside Voices is a project talk about local are delivering in partnership with Community Media Assocation, People’s Voice Media and UK online centres. We’re working with four UK online centres in seaside towns to help facilitate an online discussion of their town in its past, present and future.  The Seaside Voices websites for Bridlington, Morecambe, Newlyn and Shanklin are examples of sites that will not only look back at the history of a place, but also delve deeper to highlight current activity and look ahead to what’s in store in the future.

If you know of any other good examples of heritage sites, or local heritage content on community websites, please share and comment!

The Audit Commission was asked in digital britain to review the state of council publications, newspapers etc.  Their report to Stephen Timms has emerged on their website (despite carrying an embargo for Monday 25).

There is something in it for everyone but overall it damns expensive council newspapers with faint praise.  The Commission rightly defends councils’ need to communicate.  But the Audit Commission’s core role is assess value for money and impact of spending on council performance:

We cannot draw strong conclusions at the national level about the value for money and impact of communication spending from the data available. There is not a significant relationship between levels of recorded communication spending and a number of different outcome indicators drawn from the Place Survey or earlier Best Value Performance Indicators. Some commentators have cited relationships in a single year, for example between how well-informed residents feel and the extent to which they think the council provides value for money, as evidence of the importance of council communication spending.

However, there is no relationship between changes over time in key variables, undermining any conclusion that council communication spending has a demonstrable causal impact. Frequency of periodical publication is also not significantly correlated with key outcome measures such as satisfaction with the way that councils run things.

I remain of the view that it is wrong for a branch of government to publish something that looks, smells and feels like a newspaper with editorial (eg ‘how well we are doing’).  It isn’t good for democracy, especially at a time when traditional local media is in decline.

Councils do have to communicate – it’s vital that local people know and understand what the council does for them.  But Councils should focus on equipping local people with the skills to communicate for themselves to hold local services to account – the sort of thing talk about local does.  That’s the modern way of doing it – not the C19th newspaper.

( Thanks to Kevin for the tip)

auditcommisionreport auditcommissionletter

On 25th November William Perrin and I were lucky enough to attend a Social Media Workshop at the West Midlands Police Headquarters  in Birmingham, which bought together the likes of talk about local, Podnosh and MyPolice with a small group of people from police forces across the UK to catch up and to discuss the way forward for the police in using social media, following their Policing 2.0 conference in October.

West Midlands Police providing the space and encouragement to talk about the seemingly endless possibilities was a fantastic  opportunity and, as Nick Booth has said, indicative of their open-minded approach:

They have been ahead of many forces with early use of podcasting in the form of Plodcast,  getting officers using  Facebook, widespread use of Youtube and Twitter. More importantly they are impatient to learn and, I think, willing to accept mistakes along the way.

Before the workshop, William told me the police were keen to hear new ideas and suggested I think up some games for them to play with the public, which got me thinking.  Game-playing with the police could be great fun and very easy to create – you have a ready-made team of easily identifiable people in uniform walking around a set, public neighbourhood area.   It could also do a lot to break down barriers between members of the public and the police by creating space for a more fun, informal relationship.

I liked the idea, so I visited the Wiki site Ludocity for inspiration – a collection of pervasive games, street games and new sports under creative commons licenses, which means they can be taken and twisted to play in whatever way one wants.  Looking through the games, I found a couple that could use simple tools like camera phones that many (especially young people) have access to, to playfully reverse the traditional roles and turn the police into the watched and the chased – this was becoming interesting.

The mischievous streak in me was instantly attracted to Glom - ‘a game which uses video cameras to explore the way people relate to each other through looking’.  I nervously explained the guidelines to the Police:

The objective of Glom is to capture as much candid footage of the other participants as possible whilst avoiding being filmed yourself…Once entered into the agreement of Glom participants are subject to being filmed at any time, in any place, engaged in any activity.

They thankfully took it very well, letting me carry on to talk about another photography game, Lumenatio:

The rules are simple. You have to hunt as many other players as possible and not let them shoot you. Your weapon is your digital camera and your allies are perceptiveness, dexterity, intelligence and urban corners…players should be given a swimming cap, that they have to wear during the hunt in a way that the number written on it is visible on the back of their head.

Each swimming hat is marked with a different number, which is the unique individual player number. For the period of the game this number becomes player’s name and the other numbers are their targets. During the game you have to hunt as many of them as possible.

I’ve actually played  Lumenatio before, as ‘Hat Snap’ with BARG in Birmingham city centre.  Trying to photograph the back of people’s heads without letting others snap yours is difficult, and resulted in us all running awkwardly around with our backs against walls, which drew some strange looks from passers-by.

Image by Purple Heather

When I was reminded of this game it occurred me that the Police already wear ‘unique individual player numbers’ – in the shape of collar numbers on their epaulettes.  Members of the public could capture these on their cameras or camera-phones and hopefully, by getting that close, actually talk to the Officers they snapped.  They could post their pictures online, possibly with the police responding with details about those officers, humanising them a bit more to players and website readers alike.

When one Officer voiced understandable concerns about the game another hit the nail right on the head by saying, “Yes, I’d wonder and ask, ‘Why are you taking my photograph?’  But then I’ve started a conversation.”  I was very pleasantly surprised by how open the group were to what I knew might be slightly risque ideas.  I was even more delighted to find out it got some present thinking and creating games of their own.  Last Saturday morning PC 9 Ed Rogerson from Harrogate (@hotelalpha9 on Twitter) invited the public to play:

Lee Shaw won, and got a fluffy hedgehog toy as a prize.  PC 9 Ed Rogerson promises there’s ‘more to come – probably involving Twitpic’.  I certainly hope so.  These games could be a great way for the Police to engage the public in lighthearted and unusual ways and, as PC 9 Ed Rogerson has proved, can engineer real-life meetings and conversations with the people they serve.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho0MYPW9YUs]

This documentary of one man’s journey into the derelict Birmingham Battery building is one of the best YouTube films I’ve ever seen.  Not because of the production skills of creators Living Proof Films (great though they are), but because of the quite emotional narration.  You really do see inside the iconic building from the photographer’s perspective:

You begin to see the building as having a life of its own.  It has characteristics and charms, like a person does.  I must admit, I felt an attraction to the Birmingham Battery.

Although you do learn some things about the building whilst watching it, you are not left feeling you’ve been told all its facts and figures, instead you go on quite an intimate journey with the narrator and learn how he feels about the space.

Expressing a personal preference like this is far from a bad thing – buildings and spaces are not only special because of their architectural or scenic merit, they become special to people because of the responses they illicit or what happens within them.

For instance, many born and bred Brummies I know get quite nostalgic when walking past Snobs nightclub, a nondescript building which contained many a night of youthful abandon and coming-of-age episodes.  During a recent pub conversation no sooner had one person mentioned Snobs than everyone else enthusiastically chipped in with their stories.  It ended with plans to take a group trip there, to share more memories that walking through the nightclub might bring to mind. That’s the great thing about expressing your reactions to a shared space like that – others will be compelled to join in the conversation with their own tales about it.

Jon Bounds highlighted the importance of sharing personal stories about spaces when he created his Campaign for Real Heritage blue stickers, encouraging us to see that what we feel is important about a place holds as much value as the National Trust’s seal of approval, and should be duly marked:

‘…the real people have history too. It deserves recognition, YOUR history deserves a blue plaque.’

Ben Whitehouse spoke of creating a tour of alternative Birmingham landmarks, asking for suggestions of stories rather than traditional tourist spots.

I’d like to put together a list of places around the city (preferably the city centre) that hold personal resonances for people who’ve visited Birmingham, people who live, work and play here.

I’ve been running my own hyperlocal blog Digbeth is Good for just over a year now and, although it initially just contained local news, events and reviews, as my confidence grew it also unashamedly became my own personal journey through the area.  But I found readers reacted rather well to this, sometimes responding in kind with their own take on things.  For instance, an early post about Guardoggy prompted Bobbie Gardner to comment with her encounters of the dog.

So don’t be afraid to get personal with your site, and convey to readers your own reaction to the area as well as news and infomation about it.  You never know, it may encourage readers to chip in with their own stories and your site could become more than an information hub, it could be a place where a community feels free to express itself.

As part of our roll out for the Talk About Local project we are going to be running some taster sessions around the West Midlands.  The sessions will be an introduction in to setting up your own online blog.

The sesions will comprise of:

• An introduction to blogging
• How hyperlocal sites can help you communicate better in your community
• Using blogging as a platform to help with community action and getting your voice heard
• Blogging platforms
• Setting up a blog

If you are interested in learing more about blogging and how to empower yourself online then please fill in THIS FORM

All we need from you is your name, E-mail address and location, so we can arrange a suitable location with our delivery partners UK online centres.  We need about 10 people in one location to make the sessions viable and they are only open to individuals and community groups (corporate training can be arranged).

Once we have enough interest in one area we will arrange a suitable date to run the session.

I’m delighted that Mike Rawlins of PitsnPots and Nicky Getgood of Digbeth is Good have agreed to join the TAL team full time joining me and Clare White who has been working on the project part time.  Mike, Nicky and Clare are some of the best hyperlocal talent around and TAL gives them the opportunity to transfer their skills to communities across the country.    I shall ensure they have time to continue with their existing sites.

Some wonderful people applied to work with the project and I am sorry we couldn’t take on more.  I am also touched that people are volunteering to help left right and centre – maybe we should create some sort of hyperlocal corps to match offers with need.  We shall also be funding further freelance work like Jon Bounds’ marvellous Brum and Stoke-On-Trent aggregators.

We start work as a core team in early August, which allows us to get the show on the road with pilot TAL sessions in the West Midlands, before delivering a robust national product later this year with our partner UK online centres.  We now we have capacity to get the hyperlocal alliance project underway. And as ever we continue to develop partnerships with all sorts of organisations, more on that soon.  As ever, thanks to our sponsors 4IP, Screen West Midlands and Advantage West Midlands – their funding has created two new social media jobs in the West Midlands.

There’s some great innovation out there in hyperlocal publishing in both content and technology.  Talk About Local wants to showcase and support that innovation.  So we have created hyperlocal labs (actually it’s just a web page with some bright ideas on it…) and our first project goes live today.

As our first project Jon Bounds has created a customisable hyperlocal news aggregator for Birmingham’s local sites.  You can read about the pipes based aggregator here and Jon explains how you can do it for your area.

Other small projects will follow over the coming months – any bright ideas, or if you have seen anything good send it in to info@talkaboutlocal.org

For the first time in the UK the government has acknowledged the role of hyperlocal sites in the future news environment.  The Digital Britain report singles out Talk About Local as part of a ‘new possibly disruptive wave of local news’.  Full extract from Chapter 5 para 61:

‘61.  Local websites of all shapes and sizes are providing community news and information to hundreds of thousands of people. Most of these sites are volunteer run, using free publishing platforms like www.wordpress.com with no hard costs. They show that grass roots media can provide an accurate, reliable,popular sources of news and information without regulation or subsidy. Their news values and thresholds are new, reflecting grass roots interests and priorities.
62. Community sites with no costs can serve very small, human news geographies of a single ward or a few streets. Community websites with no old media legacy are able to discriminate between types of media production to suit local needs. The written word and photos predominate, sound and video are in a minority. In some communities with established local sites the readership within the community appears comparable to that of traditional news media.
63. Digital Britain is at the beginning of a new and possibly disruptive wave of local news, generated by communities for communities using free online media. Over the medium term this has the potential to be good for local pluralism and expression as commercial funding for traditional media diminishes. 4IP and Screen West Midlands are making a major investment in Talk About Local to create hundreds of new community websites by giving community activists the simple skills. Digital Mentors are taking a similar approach on a smaller scale.

There is some wonderful hyperlocal stuff going on in the UK.  People are up to all sorts of things on the web – from working out what bands are on, when the quiz night is down the pub, rounding up local news, to fighting campaigns on planning decisions, to city-wide discussions or telling people about the jumble sale at the school, or even tackling local corruption and bad governance.  The net result is empowered, effective people and local communities that define their place online, know what is going on and have a powerful voice.

Lots of people are coming on board to help out – from folk getting on with it themselves to new start ups, bits of government to big newspaper groups.  There are all sorts of approaches – from people out to make a million, to people purely committed to public service, to people doing clever tech things, to people trying to find the future for their media company.

The three of us are involved in very different hyperlocal projects.  We are committed to a wonderful diverse hyperlocal future for the UK.  We want to make sure the energy created as people jostle for position is positive and collaborative, coming together to meet all our aims and more importantly support the a digital future for all.

So where are we going with this? Well we want to know if hyperlocal people in the UK are up for some sort of ‘UK Hyperlocal Alliance’ (working title) dedicated to a positive future for hyperlocal content in the UK.  This isn’t an attempt to form a trade body or a union or a lobby group, just a simple web resource where we can sign up to a simple statement of intent, get in touch with each other and tell our stories.

Let us know by commenting on this post – if we get say 20 people who will go with it, then we shall listen and take things forward.  We shall try to keep things free and simple.  Look forward to hearing from you.

William Perrin – Talk About Local

Dominic Campbell – FutureGov

Kalvir Sandhu – Hophive

…and am now back and posting again after an inter-job vacation. Some posts will follow over the next few days as i catch up with the mainstream media catching up on the problems in commercial local media.  I shall also be rejigging this blog a fair bit to be a pre launch Talk About Local.

But this codemy gem as trad media meets new media from The Landline sets the tone. They should do a follow up for when TV and film meet YouTube.

Thanks to the countless people who have tweeted this my way.
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