Response to call yourself a writer meme, erm, no

Having been tagged by journalist, blogger and sometime drinking buddy Louise Bolotin, I thought I better get on with responding to this meme, Call Yourself a Writer.

Had I not been tagged, this is one meme I could have answered with one word – ‘no’. A journalist, yes, but a writer? Not really. I’ve always seen myself more as an intermediary with the writing part being a means to an end.

Which words do you use too much in your writing?
‘So’. It’s the one I have to check back and remove from just about every blog post I write. Verbally, it’s the word “actually” which pops out all the time and which I have to watch out for in audio/video interviews.

Which words do you consider overused in stuff you read?
“Outrage”. Usually merely a device for the journalist to be able to report an issue and get it past dullard news editors by whipping up some frenzy where there was none. I’m sure readers see through it and are perfectly capable of understanding stories which don’t always have polar opposite viewpoints.

What’s your favourite piece of writing by you?
It’s not really a piece of writing in the conventional sense but I claim it as something of a first for its time – an ‘interview’ with Peter Mandelson the second time he resigned in 2001. He would not do any press interviews for the nationals or broadcast, but agreed to come and do a “web chat” with me because it was a way of connecting direct with readers. Due to his Northern Ireland position, my little web office at the Northern Echo had to be checked out by security spooks with ear wires first, then he came in, drank hot water with lemon and we took questions via email and published them straight away online. Not very sophisticated I grant, but it was one way of doing it without having the proper technology for live chat which is available now.

What blog post do you wish you’d written?
The Drudge Report’s Monica Lewinsky scandal. It was a game changer for blogs as places to break news and it’s amazing to think that was in 1998.

Regrets, do you have a few? Is there anything you wish you hadn’t written?
I do regret being involved in the make-your-own-cut-out-and keep Ruud Gillet wig (Dreamed up in response to his appointment at Newcastle). Trivial waste of a good broadsheet page. Apologies. ‘nuff said. Move on.

How has your writing made a difference?
What do you consider your most important piece of writing? The sort of community journalism I have a passion for probably isn’t going to change the world in Pullitzer Prize kind of way but, going back to that idea of journalist as intermediary, it can help people gain access to decision makers and connect with power. As a reporter I followed a long campaign involving a Northamptonshire man who had some very rare cancers he was convinced resulted from exposure to pollutants from the tanneries trade. Helping him push the bureaucrats and get some recognition for his case was important. I do sometimes wonder what else might have come from that investigation if we’d had had the benefit of the internet.

Name three favourite words
Sleep. Food. Drink. (I’m pleased by simple things).

…And three words you’re not so keen on
Gypsies (usually precedes a thinly disguised piece of racism). Can’t. Goodbye.

Do you have a writing mentor, role model or inspiration?
Over the years, heaps of people have inspired me. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a role model as such but I’ve always admired war reporters and particularly women working in that field. Katie Adie was a household name when I was studying for my journalism exams and more recently Sue Lloyd-Roberts’ reports on human rights issues are examples of how journalism done well can bring about a better understanding of the world.

What’s your writing ambition?
To communicate effectively.

Plug alert! List any work you would like to tell your readers about:
I wish I could find the time to write that book. I probably will at some stage, plenty of notebooks with half-started attempts but in the meantime this blog will have to suffice. Thanks for reading!

Tag time. Here’s five journalists I’ve been impressed by in recent weeks who I hope will also do the meme:

Nigel Barlow

Hannah Waldram

Victoria Raimes

Jessica Best

Adam Westbrook

The rules: If you have time to do this meme, then please link to my original, then link to three to five other bloggers and pass it on, asking them to answer your questions and link to you. You can add, remove or change one question as you go. You absolutely do not have to be what you may think of as a “published” or “successful” writer to respond to this meme, I hope people can take the time to reflect on what their blogging has brought them and how it has been useful to others.

Echo office sign tells familiar story

The hand written sign on the (shut) door of this newspaper district office says the Northern Echo reporter for Richmond has been re-located in Barnard Castle – that’s 25 miles away.

While not an unusual sight at the moment, after all newspaper offices are closing up and down the country, the geography involved in rural areas such as this on the County Durham/ North Yorkshire border shows up the issue on the ground – how likley is it that anyone would travel quite so far to pop in and see a reporter?

There is a mobile phone number provided and the word ‘temporarily’ appears in brackets but I found it a sad sight – it’s not that many years ago that I was the Echo’s news editor based at the Darlington head office – and then we had one, or sometimes two, reporters based here. That was in addition to the office being the base for the sister weekly reporter.

Different times indeed.

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Au revoir to Craig ‘Clay’ McGinty!

So we waved goodbye to Craig McGinty this morning – if tweeting a last 140 character message of encouragement can be classed as waving.

There’s been a few occasions to say farewell to one of Manchester’s best-known (and liked) digital journalists recently – mostly involving mind-bending levels of alcohol – but this morning’s little tweetings were a sober affair.

With his car and dog packed, Craig is setting off to do what so many claim to want to do, but so few are ever brave enough to.

Driving into France for a new life armed with the tools of his trade – laptop, contacts, blog, charm and guile.

I can’t remember when I first met Craig – I think it was probably a Digital Editors’ Network session – but whenever it was, he quickly became a valued and trusted contact and friend.

When we set up Manchester’s Social Media Cafe, he was a great supporter of it and hosted one of the most lively sessions we’ve had to date about blogging and advertising -  coming to our assistance when we realised the budgets probably wouldn’t stretch to Clay Shirky!

It will be fascinating to see how This French Life develops from here on in and I know Craig won’t be a stranger, despite the distances – he is after all, connected.

All the best!

“We should all have ID cards, you don’t know who you’re talking to, it’s dangerous”

There’s been much debate online today about the announcement that Manchester is to become a trial area for ID cards but this video vox from the BBC particualrly grabbed my attention.

As you’d expect from the Beeb, there’s argument both ways, but it’s striking just how fear seems to be the main motivation for those who are “for”.

more about "untitled", posted with vodpod

Elsewhere online I’ve seen little support for the plan across the local blogosphere. A good indication of the temperature of the issue can be seen at what I think was the earliest published poll on the subject from Rob Brown.

Apparently almost 90 % of Manuncunians will rise up and ‘just say no’ if his poll proves correct although a poll on the MEN was running more closely at 63% against at the time of posting.

I’ll leave the final word with Matt Buck’s Hack Cartoon the Cost of an Elephant, unless that is you want the final word.

It’s goodbye to the Manchester Evening News

This morning, for the first time in 20 years, I woke up without having a regional newsroom to go to.

I don’t ‘belong’ to a newspaper, I’m not ‘from’ anywhere, because yesterday, in a scene being played out up and down the country, I packed my desk, handed back my laptop and said my goodbyes.

It prompts an indescribably strange set of emotions – on the one hand  I have a very exciting project lined up (more to come on that in future posts) but almost eight years at the MEN means there’s a lot to leave behind too.

So before I move on, a brief backward glance.

What amazing changes there’s been since I signed up to be what was then Guardian Media Group Regional Digital’s content editor/publisher for “the regional portal ManchesterOnline”. It’s difficult to pull out just one highlight from those years (the 2002 hyperlocal community platform myManchesterOnline maybe?) but unavoidable not to notice the talented journalists who passed through  – Iain Hepburn (just named Scottish Multimedia Journalist of the Year), Paul Cockerton (now web editor at the LET), Jon Barbuti (now BEEB) Lizzie Simmons (also now BBC) and Colm Griffith (now lecturing in online journalism at UCLAN) to name a few who helped make MOL such a buzz but have since moved on.

The move to the MEN in 2005 saw one of my first jobs as head of online editorial being the launch of the paper’s first website. Yes, it is hard to believe now that a newspaper of that the size and stature could exist without its own website!
Those outside the industry probably think website launches are high-tech affairs with banks of silver-clad techies tapping away at Macs. Well the walls of the now demolished Hardman Street office told another story of how it started – scribblings on pieces of paper taped on every available space in the boss’s office leaving it looking like the ramblings of a demented woman! The screenshot on this page is the 2006 evolution of the site – still recognisable?
The site being named Best Electronic News Website ahead of some major nataional players in 2007, was its own reward for all those involved in the launch, journalists, developers, designers et all – it was quite a team and a honour to be a part of it.

Recently, the most rewarding project to have worked on is the launch of the blogging platform generally and, in particular, The Mancunian Way blog.

A collaboration between myself and two prominent members of Manchester’s digital community – Paul Robinson and Adrian Slatcher -  and I would just like to publicly add what a privilege it has been to co-blog with such enthusiastic, supportive, knowledgeable and generally top blokes.

So there it is – eight years in a few hundred words and what next?

An exciting new web project to launch in June but, for now, a bit of a break, plenty of blogging and a month of general geekery starting with next week’s Jeecamp. How about you?

How to get ahead with advertisers – erm..perhaps not!

I’ve seen many strategies to woo advertisers over the years but this novel insult-them-and-they-will-come approach is a new one to me!

Posted here thanks to new Manchester start-up Hive which sent this flyer out earlier this afternoon. (While naked too if the last sentence is to be believed, they really know how to do things differently).

Good luck guys! I look forward to seeing how many “shitty ugly ads” result.

“So what’s the crack? When is this magazine going to print? What’s taking us so long?

Well, have a guess… (as if you didn’t already know). As with many magazines our sole means of funding is advertising revenue, but with current financial climate the way it is (particularly for the small local businesses that we have been targeting) the only advertising contracts we’ve managed to draw up to date have been verbal contracts of the “maybe later” variety. (This from over 400 emails and around 60 face-to-face meetings!!!)

Two things we wanted for Hive to separate it from all the other generic Manchester magazines were a massive level of distribution, expensive flashy printing techniques and NO PROPERTY ADVERTS. These were completely non-negotiable terms which had to be adhered to come rain or shine. Well, rain or shine we were prepared for. What we weren’t prepared for was clouds of eggy fart pissing big fat ambition killing turds down on us.

It’s time to face reality and realise that, for now at least, Hive magazine is going to have to drop all it’s grandiose plans and play the hand it’s been dealt. Unfortunately this means a significantly lower print run, less aesthetic acrobatics and (worst of all) having to go crawling back to the property agencies with our tail between our legs asking for their stupid ugly adverts.

As shitty as this is we’ve had too much interest in this project to admit defeat. And the quality of some of the articles that have been submitted to us have been so good it probably won’t even matter what adverts they’re sat next to, people should still enjoy the magazine regardless. In short, your articles WILL be used, they ARE going to print and it will be SOON. Please bare with us.”

Spreading the word on Manchester’s Social Media Cafe

Manchester’s Social Media Cafe is going from strength to strength since five of us sat in a pub plotting  just over a month ago.

My coverage of its activities is usually contained at The Mancunian Way blog or via @Sarah_Hartley but I thought I’d do a quick signpost blog to a feature I’ve written about it for the Manchester publication Creative Times.

In the time between submitting the article and publication, I should just add that #smc_mcr is now administered via this wiki rather than the Googlegroup mentioned.

Votes needed for museum project

Do you visit museums?

If you’re like the majority of the public then then answer will be ” sometimes”.

But what is it that stops people going more often or from trying out new or different museums?

According to a Mori poll its because there’s “nothing of particlular interest to see”. A massive 41 % of those polled expressed this as their reason for not attending – but the paradox is obvious.

How can people know there’s nothing for them in the museum if they don’t know what’s there?

VOTE for this project here.

It’s the same dilemma that newspapers face when they undertake market research – how do know you don’t like the product if you’ve never tried it?

And so the Comunity as Curator project was born. We saw it as a way of using digital technologies to disrupt an online communities’ everyday search and share activity in order to expose the user to museum content they wouldn’t otherwise experience.

Since the crowdsourcing of the idea I carried out on this blog back in August, this project has caught the imagination of many.

Although quite an involved concept, applying some Web 2.0 thinking into the public engagement of museums seems to make sense to today’s online audiences.

The emails and tweets I received certainly helped shape the final bid which went forward to Manchester Beacon’s Mapping Creativity competition.

Community as Curator has now progressed to within a heartbeat of actually winning the £25k commission to see it become a reality.

And that’s why myself, and the rest of the team behind this bid, need your votes.

Have a look at the summary of the project here and see if you can give it your support. Votes are cast by clicking on the stars at the top of the page.

Alternatively, please leave a comment (you need to be registered to do this).

Whether or not museums are your passion, if you are interested in the democratisation of public institutions using digital tools, then this project could establish a model which could be applied to other areas.

So VOTE, please!

Love the silliness of Twitter

One of the things I love about Twitter is the opportunity it offers for some spontaneous silliness.

Those who aren’t fans of the social network can click off to something else at this point - go, before the involuntary eye-rolling heavenwards starts.

OK, sudden outbreaks of jokes which quickly gather momentum into running gags might not be everyone’s cup of tea but come on – a bit of light relief’s not going to hurt anyone.

We all know know social media can be used to track important news events, make contacts, promote issues and research heavy topics.

But as fellow fans know – it can also be fun.

The best-known, and supported, example was probably the cartoon avatar day held on Paul Bradshaw’s Online Journalism Blog back in April.

And while not as widespread, today’s rash of nonsense about suitable names for new imaginary social networking services shows why such services will engage people – even when it isn’t important.

Kicked off by @charlesarthur (for the non-Twitter initiated, the @ denotes the person’s twittername) it started simply enough with a tweet “Have an idea of a version of Twitter for an old folks home – will call it Mutter”.

Since then we’ve had;

A Twitter for the untidy ( @louisebolotin ): Clutter

A Twitter for coach potatos ( @craigmcginty): Sitter

I suggested a suitably foodie inspired one for the lardy-arsed obese – Butter and since we’ve had suggestions including microblogging for moths who’ve just discovered a light in the ceiling: Flitter,  a network for particle physicists: Splitter and, my favourite, one for curmudgeons in pubs: Bitter.

What does that all say about the state of the nation? Absolutely nothing. What a relief.

And long may it last.

(btw, any tutt tutting bosses reading this - I am off work today).

Crowdsourcing help begged for museum project

I’m using my blog to run a bit of a crowdsourcing project about museums because I think this has some relevance to online journalism thinking too.

The statement below is intended to form part of a funding bid. (Disclosure: yes, of course it’s someone rather close to me, husband the artist/curator Julian Hartley).

But this blogging by proxy does have journalistic relevance. In just the same way news organisations are struggling with engaging audiences, so are museums.

 Feel free to replace the terms “curator” with “editor”, the institution “musem” with another great institution “newspaper” and then let me know whether you think this activity worthwhile, too risky, great, rubbish or whatever.

Btw, @JulianHartley will be tweeting the progress of this project from now on and expect yet another Manchester blogger very soon!

Here’s the description;

Taking its direction from Manchester’s diverse online communities’ search and sharing activity, the Community as Curator project uses these habits as the curatorial frame with which to produce and share digital content specifically created from Museum collections in Manchester. 

 

Online searches and their translation into conversations across social media provides the curatorial context for interpreting the gallery’s collections.

 

As an alternative to the contemporary museological practice of authorial representation, this project situates power in the online constituency.

 
This project recognises that, if a connection can be made between an online users’ interests and Manchester’s cultural heritage, this in turn will facilitate the means for further accessing and engaging in the city’s cultural resources, particularly in those social groups more accustomed to a Flickrstream than a exhibition.   

Community as Curator reflects museums’ concern that the values of their collections are relevant to the diversity of Manchester’s communities – both on and offline.