Posts Tagged ‘ndi09’

What’s the Hashtag? 29/05/2009

A few months ago I think my first question might have been, what is a hashtag?  So, for anybody still as unenlightened as I was: hashtags are a way of marking your message on Twitter so that it can then be grouped with other messages using the same tag.

That sounds really boring, doesn’t it?

But there have been a number of events that I’ve either attended, watched on telly or even not watched on telly where I’ve also followed the hashtag and found it really useful.  For instance, at the recent Digital Inclusion Conference there were a significant number of delegates, and importantly, people who hadn’t been able to attend, who were using the hashtag #ndi09 to follow what was going on across the conference.  This form of Live Blogging meant that a lot of interested people who couldn’t take two days away from work to attend the conference, but were very interested in the subject matter, could contribute to the discussions.

More – What’s the Hashtag?

Birmingham at #ndi09 08/05/2009

John’s already given his report on the National Digital Inclusion Conference 2009, so I thought I’d reflect on the work put in by the two Birmingham groups who were there.  Representing the voluntary sector, we had We Share Stuff who were “there to share” and to demonstrate to people at the conference the benefits of social networking tools.  Representing the public sector, we had Digital Birmingham and its partners, who are founder members of the DC10+ Network, the co-sponsors of the event.

There was a session centred around the work being done by grassroots organisations to tackle social exclusion using digital technologies.  For this, Digital Birmingham got Priara and Shazia from Saathi House down to talk about their “A Conversation About Diabetes” project which teaches English skills using digital technology in order to improve access to health .  Priara is a very impressive speaker and for many of us was a highlight of the conference as she was able to talk about a practical example of digital inclusion from personal experience. More – Birmingham at #ndi09

Digital Birmingham is a Birmingham City Council initiative and part of a city wide strategic partnership of more than 40 public, private and voluntary organisations

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