Or, O Hai! Kultcha, as one commenter referred to it.
Anyway, on Thursday 17th November I attended Hello Culture at Zellig in the Custard Factory. It was billed as a day “to explore how the cultural sector can exploit digital technology, innovation, knowledge and skills” and I had a little speaking slot on a panel in the morning about social media and user generated content. More – Hello Culture
We think there is quite a lot of untapped expertise around social media from people who work in the public sector but who don’t actually get to use social media in their job.
So, we want to learn from public sector staff who regularly use social networking sites, in their spare time, such as Twitter and Facebook to inform a number of projects which will shape how public sector organisations use social media.
Initially this will focus on the NHS and the council, following an approach from Darren Wright at the Health and Wellbeing Partnership.
We want to understand how we can better engage with local residents and
get messages into communities using new technologies, and are looking for experts to help us create this approach.
You do not have to use Social Media as part of your work but we would like to look at your personal experience and find out what you can teach us about becoming more digitally engaged organisations. For more information email us here
Passionate Media have teamed up with training providers SSC Learning and are working with them to pioneer a new Social Media Marketing Apprenticeship Scheme across Staffordshire and the Midlands.
Presentations will be held tomorrow about the scheme, where companies can take on a social media marketing apprentices in their business. If you’re a businesses that wants to invest in social media or are a young person who wants to pursue a career in marketing and communications, pop along to The Birmingham Small Business Centre at either 8.30am, 10.30am or 12.30pm.
The Saturday before last Digital Birmingham were involved in putting on Local Gov Camp on its return to Birmingham. Actually, my Gov Camp started on the Friday night when 20 or so ne’er do wells turned up early to have a drink in The Anchor followed by a curry at Manzils in Digbeth. Already, it was invigorating to be part of conversations between such committed people.
Local Gov Camp is is run using the unconference format. Here we don’t have any key note speakers, the attendees run their own sessions if they want to and the agenda is decided on the morning, based on people pitching the sessions they want to run.
Complete the census online
For a 200 year old institution more suited to punch cards and parchment, the Census and the digital age have never been a natural fit. But although 2011 marks only 50 years since computers were first used to process census results (a process which took five and a half years in 1961) the census has come a long way towards embracing digital technology.
This year’s national Census on March 27th marks the first year citizens can fill out their census online, and the local campaign has been gathering momentum trying to persuade brummies to fill out their census questionnaires.
More – Counting Birmingham – Census 2011 and @brumcensus2011
I had a big day out down in London on Saturday at UK Gov Camp, held at the Microsoft offices in Victoria. This event has been running for a couple of years now and is billed as being a self-organised unconference for “government types with an interest in how the public sector uses technology”.
This might need a bit of explaining if you don’t know what an unconference is. Essentially, it is where the agenda for the event is decided on the day and there are no keynote speakers, just workshop sessions.
Anybody can propose and lead a session.
2011 UK Census
I had a meeting at the end of last year with a colleague who is working on promoting this year’s census. The census collects data that a lot of government funding is based on (as well as being an opportunity for deeply conformist types to think they are sticking it to the man) and so councils are obviously keen to ensure that as many people fill it in as possible. This year’s census is the first one that can be completed online, which is one reason why my colleague was interested in how she might promote it through social media
The Ninth Midlands Media Awards are taking place at the ICC, Birmingham next Thursday, 13th May.
This will be the second year that Birmingham City Council have sponsored the Online Campaign award which will be decided by public vote again this year. This award recognises an “individual or group that has used social media tools to make a difference” and with that description I figure that we ought to have a whole heap of hopefuls vying for the prize.
Last year’s winner was Donato Esposito with his Black Country version of Facebook and it’s good to see that the group is still going strong with over 33,000 members as of today.
Nominations are now open, but be quick as you only have until Friday to make them.
Another successful event organised by Digital Birmingham saw 50 local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) explore how using social media and web 2.0 could help them stimulate demand.
More – Businesses learn how to stimulate demand using online chatter
Jon Hickman is part of the Interactive Culture research team at Birmingham City University and is working with Digital Birmingham on the project outlined below. This post first appeared over at the Interactive Cultures blog.
I will be spending much of the coming year or so working with companies across Birmingham on social media and web-based projects. The project, which I am delivering on behalf of Digital Birmingham, is a small part of a much larger programme utilising Working Neighbourhood funds managed by Birmingham City Council. The project will work with sixteen organisations between now and March 2011, and will also lead to a number of events; I will of course also be looking for opportunities to develop some academic outputs from the project.
The project builds on our experiences in our recent project, the AHRC Knowledge Transfer Fellowship in New Strategies for Radio and Music Organisations. I will be demonstrating simple uses of technologies that could make a difference to companies. We will prototype new ideas for our partners, using simple and accessible technologies that could help to make life easier, open up new opportunities, or speak to different audiences. The prototypes will be informed by our research and teaching activities within Birmingham School of Media.
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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