Inside #1pound40

Two very different experiences this week have had me musing on whether there’s a north-south divide in how social media is used.

Looking first at the #1pound40 event in London. It was an intriguing concept – for just £1.40, the opportunity to share knowledge and ideas with some of the leading lights of the social media UK whirl.

There were Tuttlers, journalists and broadcasters; there were geeks, students and marketing types; the venue was impressive (Reuters in the Daily Planet like environs of Canary Wharf) and the whole event had an air of expectation.

Something was going to happen. SOMETHING IMPORTANT.

So, a couple of days later, why do I still have this niggling feeling that, if something did happen, I must have missed it?

Perhaps this feeling was in part provoked by my experience the night before at Leeds Social Media Surgery.

Leeds surgeons

The surgery was an opportunity for charities and not-for-profits to come and find out about social media and see if it could help them in their work. I spent the evening talking about blogging with a woman who wants to provide the opportunity for interaction via a blog for workers in the mental health sector, as well as hearing about an impassioned campaign to help Palestinians where I was able to offer some basic advice about libel. In this setting, the social media tools were just that – tools to be utilised as part of a wider aim.

Back to London and what was described as ‘a curated unconference’, the purpose of our gathering was to explore issues raised by social media – questions such as if Twitter was a force for good, whether journalism was being democratised by the tools of web 2.0 and my old favourite – who can be called, or call themselves, a journalist?

Unlike other ‘unconference’ events I’ve been to, there were no sessions or pitches and instead small groups at tables discussed the issues between themselves before sharing their individual pithy conclusions via Twitter.

(As an aside, oddly for an event which ended up being monopolised by talk about Twitter, the backchannel wasn’t always in evidence – in fact when it was projected behind the panel at the end of the event it proved to be such a novel intervention that it completely distracted both panelists and audience!)

As the sessions concluded I took stock – had I learned anything? No. Had I contributed to anyone else learning anything? No.

It felt like we were all saying the same thing, speaking the social media speak. The digerati in full flow – agreeing with one another.

Some of the topics touched upon digital inclusion and the potential for political engagement through social media, but while we were talking, tweeting and pontificating, who was actually listening? What do the views of a bunch of always-on wired meeja professionals in London have to do with delivering news and information services to people working in tough but essential spheres such as the mental health sector, or living in areas where broadband access is still an aspiration not a reality?

That’s not to say it wasn’t an enjoyable event – I caught up with some people I haven’t seen in a while, put some faces to Twitter avatars and met some completely new people I’m sure I’ll enjoy following. As a meet-up, it was most conducive.

But all in all, for me at least, it was an afternoon inside the echo chamber, the reverberations of which will probably not even reach Islington, let alone Leeds.

There’s some other coverage of these two events that I’ve seen, as follows;

* The Guardian’s Mercedes Bunz gamely attempted a live blog of #1pound40 here and here.
* Leeds Social Media Surgery organiser John Popham summed up the evening here.
* The echo chamber is one of the topics which Christian Payne (AKA @documentally) also discusses in this audioboo which considered the psychology of Twitter.

• Blagetty Blogetty Bragitee!: Hyperlocal is here to stay (Help Me Investigate)
  The two papers returned very similar results. In four weeks, Sussex Express produced an average of 4.15% of council news in its news pages and The Argus, an average of 4.46% over five days.
  (tags: hmi, hyperlocal helpmeinvestigate beatblogging)

• MA students start hyperlocal blog
  Students on the MA Online Journalism have been putting their knowledge to the test with a new website aimed at providing news around Birmingham's city centre area.

  The site – Hashbrum.co.uk uses an innovative design created by Alex Gamela that combines a map of Birmingham with a slideshow of multimedia material as ways to navigate to articles.

  (tags: students hyperlocal birmingham beatblogging)
• 7 Reasons Why Blogs Are Vitally Important | Social Traffic Espionage
  Your Blog is the most important part of your Social Media strategy. If you don’t already have a Blog start one today. It’s that important.
  (tags: blogging blogs)

• Jeff Jarvis: The Future of Journalism is an entrepreneurial, collaborative Process — CARTA
  We really are about process. Journalism and news is a process that doesn’t begin and that doesn’t end. When you think like that, I think you open up your world to collaboration. One of the lessons from Google is that it always puts out new products as a beta. And it says: “This is unfinished, it’s imperfect, help us finish it!”
  (tags: collaboration jeffjarvis journalism)
• Social media makes inroads to older audiences « Bristol Editor’s Blog
  Where will traditional newsrooms be in 18 months? If they’re continuing to bury their collective heads in the sand, the future will be bleaker than the last 18 months. And God knows, that’s been bad enough for 1000’s of journalists in the UK already.
  (tags: socialmedia twitter)

• FOI Friday: 10 things we’ve discovered this week thanks to the Freedom of Information Act « David Higgerson
  7. Money sitting in the council’s bank from planning applications

  When I used to cover local government, I always thought it seemed a bit like blackmail for a council to grant planning permission but only if a developer handed over cash for public improvements. Such a deal is know as a Section 106 agreement (catchy, eh?) and while councils have to discuss in public at meetings about such deals being made, they don’t have to announce when the money’s spent. So the Worcester News used FOI to find out how much was in the Section 106 pot at Worcestershire County Council. Answer: £2.7million. Some questions to be answered there, it seems.

  (tags: newspapers beatblogging council)
• Thinking of a journalism start-up? Here’s a checklist « Adam Westbrook
  It’s a big change in mentality for some journalists. I’ve been to several events and meetings recently where hacks have insisted people will have to pay for news “because journalists have to eat”.

  This is upside-down thinking. People don’t buy iPhones because Steve Jobs needs to eat. They buy them because they are an innovative product which satisfies a demand people are willing to pay for.

  And so it must be if journalists are to be entrepreneurs.

  (tags: journalism business resources ideas)

Next Tuesday will see the first Social Media Surgery held in Leeds – so what can you expect to find going on?

I spoke with Leeds organiser John Popham about the launch event as well as an old-hand at these surgeries, Nick Booth of Podnosh in Birmingham.

John: ” People were asking me questions about social media things but this has really come about because I was at the first year anniversary of the surgeries in Birmingham which happened about three weeks ago and people were asking why we weren’t doing it in this region.”

So he’s started it!

Nick explains how it’s worked in Birmingham: ” They are aimed at small charities, community groups and active citizens.  They are resolutely informal.  Volunteer surgeons pitch up and we sit them next to people who are trying to make a difference in the places where they live.  They talk to each other, share skills and go perhaps help people set up web tools.  The beneficiaries are welcome to come back time and again to get more help.”

He also offers this recipe to the event.

The Leeds event will be formulated in much the same way and John has already heard that other Yorkshire locations are interested in setting up similar events in Huddersfield, York, Sheffield and Hull so next week’s event could be the first of many.

Sharing some of the experience from Birmingham, Nick says a year of the surgeries in the city have raised awareness in the city about the potential of social media for social good.

“We have also helped to stitch together a few more squares in the patchwork quilt of very, very local blogging. That quilt will, eventually, prove a real democratic asset to the city.  We didn’t keep track of every group that has been helped – because at the beginning it was very informal.  We know of 22 sites we have helped set up – about half of those are still busy.

“We have also helped a lot of people who were already using the web.   We know that the idea has spun off to places as far a field as Sydney, Barcelona and soon South Africa plus surgeries cropping up in a growing number of town/cities in the UK.”

To be in at the start of all this, the Leeds Social Media Surgery is at Round Foundry Media Centre
Foundry Street, Leeds, LS11 5QP from 5.30pm – 7pm on Tuesday, November 10 . Map here.

See you there!

• A Year After BBCs Local Video Defeat, Local Papers Haven’t Kept Their Promise | paidContent:UK
  But, on an average day, none of them match the frequency of output the BBC had proposed – nine extra short news, sport and weather reports for each of its 65 regions.

  Grappling with debt, lower revenues and real long-term threats to their survival, it’s understandable that publishers’ new media investment in 2009 hasn’t exactly matched previous years. But consumers that missed out on the video news promised by the BBC have a right to ask: where is the video news the newspaper industry promised?

  (tags: newspapers video bbc)
• Every journalism student should blog | Joe Gullo
  Blogging helps because it enables you to write and express your ideas. My goal is to write on my blog everyday about something either relevant to journalism, something going on in my life, college – anything that can help me express myself. I feel this is a good outlet for expressing my views and opinions.
  (tags: blogging blogs)

Brighton’s Argus is to tap into the city’s network of PCSOs to provide content for its network of hyperlocal websites – blogging their beat you could say.

Web editor Jo Wadsworth told me that the officers will be working alongside students that have also been recruited to cover stories for the 25 sites.

After training from Jo, the community police officers will be able to upload their appeals and news directly to the sites and she’s also hoping they’ll develop into forums similar to one currently running in Preston Park.

As reported in the Press Gazette this morning, the newspaper has been working with the training organisation Journalist Works, activity which has been going on for over a year with the students pitching in material to the websites for the past six months.

The contributions are unpaid and are in many ways treated as an extension of the sort of work experience commonly on offer across local newspapers, the difference being that the blogs allow those participating a greater sense of ownership of the project.

To that end, the bloggers will receive traffic stats and other analytics plus training seminars on practical skills and going offline with social events is in the pipeline for next year.

The content expected will largely be text and pictures although the students are already creating weekly video vox pops (the latest here) and moving activity into social networks including Twitter and Facebook.

See one of the hyperlocal sites in action here.

• Curating, not moderating, the flow of content and participation :: Blog :: Headshift
  "Climate Pulse tracks a wide range of source for information, comment and content about the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference (COP15). It's different from mere aggregation services because there is an editorial layer and a social layer. The editorial layer allows curators to highlight specific pieces of content. The Social layer gets users involved in tagging and categorising content. In the near future, you'll even be able to take away a widget containing the flow from Climate Pulse – a widget that lets your friends, contacts or audience to not only consume but to contribute their own content, straight from your site, back into that flow."
  (tags: socialmedia media community collaboration beatblogging social participation UGC)
• Cultivating the Community Managers
  They are restless, isolated, frustrated, and unsatisfied. They are getting more support and recognition for their work externally than they do within their own organizations. They are looking for really rewarding challenges and an environment where they can do innovative and ground-breaking work. They are in organizations that still view them as their social media or community outpost but they are not ready to think about social media or community as a business strategy that incorporates more of the organization – effectively leaving them in the desert with no water.
  (tags: socialmedia business community blogs socialnetworking management)
• The Media Blog: Are journalists who tweet value for money?
  Media people are using Twitter as an instrument for sharing and crowdsourcing, for networking and live-reporting. A journalist with a popular blog or social media presence can only be positive for the publication’s brand.
  (tags: twitter value)
• IJNet – ICFJ offers online course on freedom of expression in the digital age
  Journalists from across the Arab world, North America and Europe are invited to participate in an online training course entitled “Freedom of expression in the digital age,” which will be held December 4, 2009 to January 22, 2010. Deadline to apply: November 27.

  During the five-week course, participants will develop skills in producing multimedia content, including writing and blogging for the Web. They will also learn to manage online communities that attract constructive, responsible dialogue. Through an exploration of sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, participants will learn how social networking is being used in news coverage and how journalists can best use citizen-produced content in ways that promote intercultural understanding.

  The course will be held in both English and Arabic to allow for dialogue between journalists from different backgrounds.

  (tags: training journalism)

• Newspapers aren't doing as badly as you think. – By Daniel Gross – Slate Magazine
  First of all, there's nothing ipso facto shocking about a decline in patronage of 10 percent in six months. Many political blogs and cable news shows have seen their audiences fall by much more than 10 percent since the feverish fall of 2008.
  (tags: newspapers advertising)
• The hype(r) local digital journalism | Monday Note
  Well. There are two ways of considering such move. One is to say: Great, community members take over the coverage that matters to them, they use all available tools: social network, live blogging, Flip-camera produced videos, to give local stuff the exposure it needs.
  Another view is this: Doing local journalism is as complicated as any other kind of reporting. Poring over local financial records requires the same amount of time, dedication and expertise as digging into a national political party’s finances. Yes, citizen-like journalists will do fine reporting on “lighter” issues such as the state of schools or of the sewage system. But uncovering and preventing what really matters, such as the misuse of public funding, rigged bidding procedures for large projects and so on is a very different story.
  (tags: hyperlocal local news)