Archive for November, 2009

In Birmingham we are currently trying to find ways of measuring our usage of Social Media tools. Suggestions we have are based very much around measuring the number of times an organisation Tweets, how many followers it has, how many comments are on its blog, what the analytics are, etc.

Now, my level of interest in such things hovers somewhere around zero, to be honest. But the discussion did make me think about another way in which we could categorise our use of social networking tools, particularly in relation to other means of communication.

For instance, if we look at how widespread the adoption of a communications tool might be, we see quite a range. Most organisations right now have individual enthusiasts who have set up their own social networking presence, often without the knowledge of the wider organisation. We can compare that with a communications tool such as the telephone which is available to anybody who has contact with the public. And in between these two ends of the range, there’s another which is typified by one or more employees within each section or department being given the responsibility of using that particular tool. More - Social Media and Councils: A Fragmented Adhocracy?

A recent Consumer Expert Group research report, commissioned by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in October 2009, highlighted the barriers many people with disabilities have when accessing the Internet and also provided valuable recommendations to central government.

The barriers disabled people face are actually very similar to non-disabled people, however, the solutions required differ immensely.  With the launch of the Consortium for the Promotion of Digital Participation, and the appointment of Martha Lane Fox (national Digital Inclusion Champion) 2009 was the year this debate really took off in the political realm.  Approximately 17 million people are digitally excluded, many of whom have disabilities.  This report focuses on the disabled, and how this exclusion can be transformed.

More - Digital participation: People with disabilities

Last Tuesday I helped to launch Birmingham’s e-Safety Strategy on behalf of Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board.  My presentation, which is below, talked about the different work that Digital Birmingham has done around the Home Access agenda and then covered Social Networking Sites as a new technology being used by young people that professionals don’t always have a full understanding of.



So I spoke about the Aston Pride project to provide computers in the homes of primary and secondary school children and also the Computers for Pupils grant which has been used by the city to launch 40-50 Birmingham e-Learning Foundation schemes in Secondary Schools across the city. The latter means that more money is coming back in to the system to help provide kit to more kids. More - e-Safety Strategy Launch event

Last Thursday, myself and Matt Butler from Birmingham BEST went down to London for a Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) event about Social Media and councils.  It was a mixture of talks and panels about how politicians can use social media, which tended towards the campaigning value rather than talking with constituents, and possible usages of social media within local government.

Because there was a lot of content, I’m going to split these posts up between the political and council based bits with this one concentrating on the politics side.

The first keynote speaker was Iain Dale, the Conservative political blogger.  He was a very engaging speaker, often because he spoke of the effects that his blogging had made upon his personal life.  It had already become obvious that at least one person had strong opinions about him before he stood up as they had called him a liar on the Twitterfall in the room.  Iain used this opportunity to say how he had been targeted by some people he considered to be political obsessives as a result of his writing. More - Local Government and Social Media event - Political

There are many ways to learn, and/or to be taught.  In the digital age that is upon us, it is inevitable that learning environments would become digital as well.

Virtual learning environments (VLE) are very effective, and means that the individual can interact from any location with an internet connection.  The flexibility and mobility of this type of learning is invaluable.

More - Learning in a virtual environment