coComments related to bounder

Great news, especially pleased

2009-04-07T13:52:26.640+02:00

Great news, especially pleased to read this bit: "When Digital Birmingham were working up the bid we went on the basis that we shouldn’t presume what kind of services could be developed, or indeed, what kind of data sources could be made available to develop them. Instead we’re focusing on putting some resource into generating the collaborations, discussions, creativity and debate from which new services can spring." Three months is a short period of time to do anything huge, but the low cost to trying these things should mean that any useful ideas that come out of it can be supported somehow. I'd hope and suggest that the whole project is tied up in an atmosphere of practically doing things from the off — explaining concepts by doing, and using every bit of time available to contribute to real problems/issues/opportunities. Do we know what outcomes would make the project considered a success by the government?

The delay to the Central Libra

2009-04-03T23:48:35.576+02:00

The delay to the Central Library listing decision started when Margaret Hodge was reshuffled in October (I think) last year - since then Barbara Follett has been responsible, but no word has been heard.

Hmm, maybe, maybe not - the me

2009-04-03T00:54:34.914+02:00

Hmm, maybe, maybe not - the mechanisms of access haven't changed so much — people were invited to come, and there was a press conference.

>"It's like liberal evangel

2009-04-01T17:31:46.933+02:00

>"It's like liberal evangelism" I like that, great phrase.

@Fiona, I see where you're com

2009-03-30T19:17:31.426+02:00

@Fiona, I see where you're coming from, but I feel your definition of conversation is unnecessarily limited — you can converse with any number of people, over vast spaces of time and (er) space — although it practise people converse with a limited number of people over a limited timescale even online. To me "interactivity, collectivism, exchange, communication, participation" and "dialogue, discussion, response, exchange" would be a couple of good collections of synonyms — implying that "conversational" isn't as far away from being a good term as you think. Totally open to someone (please!) finding a better one tho'.

Very interesting, it's a perce

2009-03-30T13:50:19.573+02:00

Very interesting, it's a perception thing I think — using Twitter as an organisation is very different to using it as an individual, and watching the timeline (even in a "continuous partial attention" way) is not an efficient way of finding the important information. So really the only benefit of following twitter users is to allow them to DM you — apart from helping people feel "listened to" who have the (unfounded and quite old fashioned) idea that social media sites can't be asynchronous. I think it's important for an org to set out "how it uses twitter" — as much in the bio on a profile page as possible, and in more depth on a twitter landing page linked to from there. A an aside, is DM-ing a good thing to encourage? Responses either have public value (and should be seen by all?) or are private and perhaps should be being dealt with by the appropriate officer rather than the person responsible for twitter?

@Jo, we just start using it —

2009-03-30T11:54:27.369+02:00

@Jo, we just start using it — there was a tangle between "social network" and "social graph" for a while last year. As we start to study these things more, we'll need proper accepted definitions, which might mean breaking things down more.

@Hannah I come down quite stro

2009-03-26T17:59:39.372+01:00

@Hannah I come down quite strongly on the idea that automatically doing stuff in conversational media is a bit odd — it's almost like jarringly including an advert (however related) into a natural chat with a mate. It's certainly not quite as cut and dried as that, but different people have different thresholds for how much machine conversation they will put up with. But, do you want people to have to "put up" with stuff — if you only have 4 blog posts a week then surely you thing they're all good stuff? Good enough to hand-write something extra/different/interesting to point twitter to it?

@TheIMP completely, that's why

2009-03-26T11:47:17.757+01:00

@TheIMP completely, that's why I heartily recommend not to auto-post anything at all (except on clearly marked dedicated accounts).

http://backtweets.com seems to

2009-03-26T09:23:19.119+01:00

http://backtweets.com seems to do URL tracking with RSS, which is great.

@andy "Web accessibility for t

2009-03-16T14:21:29.351+01:00

@andy "Web accessibility for those that know they _should_ but aren't sure why"?

@Nico yes, I'm sure it is. We'

2009-02-26T14:55:25.775+01:00

@Nico yes, I'm sure it is. We're yet to see if it does work in the end (and how much the twitter avatar thing impacted alongside other protest). It would have been a step too far to explain in a few seconds to local television news tho'.

Completely agree Mick, it's al

2009-02-19T17:44:47.427+01:00

Completely agree Mick, it's always been a sensible thing to do — I wish we all could learn the history so we could know that it's King's Heath etc, but accepting that's not going to happen consistency is the right thing (and this is the only consistency possible).

>A thought experiment & ‘co

2009-02-19T10:22:33.377+01:00

>A thought experiment & ‘control’ question: Are there council jobs which would not benefit from what particle physics types know? @Tim While all knowledge is good, I think there's a separation between knowledge — and knowledge/skills that give rise to understanding and communication. They don't need to know how the internet works to get the benefits of communication, just as they not need to understand strong an weak forces to understand why welding the pipes back together works. (if indeed that's how welding actually works)

Simple, glib, answer — none, a

2009-02-19T09:51:35.422+01:00

Simple, glib, answer — none, as all jobs benefit from a greater understanding of the people you work with and for (and vice versa). That's what social media can do.

And to kick that off he's Nick

2009-02-17T02:08:49.504+01:00

And to kick that off he's Nick Booth talking eloquently about the process: http://socialreporter.com/?p=509.

Pontins have bluecoats, not Bu

2009-02-09T20:26:09.628+01:00

Pontins have bluecoats, not Butlins (who have redcoats) - those of us who had a childhood infected by Hi-De-Hi (Maplins, who had yellowcoats) will care about such things ;)

>It’s a marketing issue, re

2009-02-09T17:52:31.187+01:00

>It’s a marketing issue, really - we want people to know that a lot of this stuff is easy, cheap and accessible to their organisation… It's easy and cheap, and can be done by anyone who cares to try - so it's not geeky. >Maybe this whole issue is analogous to professional chefs sharing their skills and knowledge? Um, no don't see that - the word chef doesn't have negative connotations. I can't think of another area of work that degenerates itself so readily.

I've said it before and I'll k

2009-02-09T11:14:58.429+01:00

I've said it before and I'll keep worrying about it - "geek" is not a helpful word when trying to increase people's usage/awareness of computer tools. It sets up a division between people who do/can and those who don't - even if one doesn't already exist. I've been to too many talks/conferences/places where people were trying to help explain something really exciting useful or even game-changing and they started by saying "this is a bit geeky, but". No, it's really exciting/useful/important and if you take a few minutes to enthuse about how it can meet a need or solve a problem then it suddenly becomes a worthwhile thing to use — making it something that people are happy to try and test (and learn to use). There are enough barriers to people making the most of of technology and it's associated concepts, without people trying to "reclaim the language" and causing confusion at the same time. I think I shall try and write about this properly, stay tuned…

I'm getting this error too. My

2009-02-05T02:51:11.263+01:00

I'm getting this error too. My site is an upgrade, but all files were cleaned off and the 1.0RC version uploaded. The RSS Importer Module is listed, can be enabled, but when you try to administer you get that error - in my case: Fatal error: TPL: [in line 0]: syntax error: file '.tpl' does not exist in /*********etc/upyerbrum/popular/class.template.php on line 923

"These technical developments

2009-02-01T18:11:14.040+01:00

"These technical developments could improve the effectiveness of policy development in consultation, but will require new skills amongst policy makers and communicators." Indeed, the greatest problem of the Big City Talk project (after the actual translation and the politicing to get it accepted) has been how to feed comments back to Birmingham City Council — comments of this nature are a discussion and as such can't be separated out and stored separately.

I'd also suggest to look at wh

2009-01-28T17:51:25.338+01:00

I'd also suggest to look at who these people are following — they have good "twitter sense" and it'll help you to get wider with your networking. Twitter Grader is an "interesting tool", but is pretty flawed location-wise. It bases it's locations on the exact text in the location field in twitter, which are subject to people using the exact format you're searching for. Twitter search's tweets by location is much better - it uses real location data. So my (@bounder) location - set by iPhone to lat/long- is picked up for Birmingham, even though I haven't got "Birmingham, UK" in the text box - (it doesn't "rank" tweeters, tho', you'll have to decide who's interesting for yourself).

I'm still struggling on with C

2009-01-24T13:06:15.687+01:00

I'm still struggling on with CoComment - it works, but the RSS updates are sporadic. Sometimes they'll come through straight away, sometimes a week or so after.

New Street should be great for

2009-01-19T21:09:37.918+01:00

New Street should be great for pedestrians, but is instead a horror of avoiding religious conversion, flyering, charity collection and having surveys done to you. I would seriously consider any control the council has to ban any of these actives, you are not willing to linger over a walk down New Street - but bolt head down to you destination. A real pity as it has some fine architecture, some of the examples of our more independent shops and also often is host to good street entertainment.

Cafe Press is ok, but you do h

2009-01-19T18:47:53.115+01:00

Cafe Press is ok, but you do have to watch how much you order as the goods are shipped form the US — and if you go over £20 (around there) have to pay VAT and also Post office charges. Spreadshirt.net are ok - very good at vector images, but a little slow and expensive. I've been most impressed with Creative Craving who I'm now using for much of the BiNS shop : http://www.creativecraving.co.uk/shops/bins-shop very quick (2 days) turn around and huge variety of colours/styles

Yes, bizarre. It was blocking

2008-12-05T00:38:09.502+01:00

Yes, bizarre. It was blocking sending email via SMTP too - which hung up my iPhone a couple of times until I realised what it was.

Hi rob, If you (or anyone) se

2008-12-03T11:47:02.751+01:00

Hi rob, If you (or anyone) sees the results instead of the voting buttons then someone else using the same computer (or the same IP - internet address, sometimes an office will share one) has already voted. It's only possible to vote once per computer.

Those 34,000 photos are only t

2008-11-28T21:31:47.924+01:00

Those 34,000 photos are only the ones where they've managed to spell it right too ;) "Embracing the weird" or even just the art is a fine aim - I've long been a fan of the "cow parade" a travelling city-wide art thing where life-size fibre glass cows (augmented by artists, designers, or other people) are placed around town. It did wonders for Manchester when it was there, it connects parts of the city centre, it encourages exploring and it is simply fun. It makes you smile. Berlin is doing something similar with bears at the moment (the bear being part of the city's crest), and Liverpool has done it with superlambananas. Both even better for having a connection with the city heritage. Love the painted buildings idea, I'd like the Big City Plan to make a commitment to do something art-weird every year for 10 years - in different places, mediums, some permanent, some temporary, but all big, wide, simple to understand and lasting for a month at least.

Hi Guys, I've asked the ques

2008-11-28T13:30:36.763+01:00

Hi Guys, I've asked the question to the Central News team, here's what they said: "Thanks for your email regarding Bob. We have had quite a few actually from our viewers, which I think is testament to his popularity – he’s an institution in television really. Bob is ill. We’ve mentioned it a couple of times on the programme. But truth is, illness is a personal/private thing and we haven’t been able to say too much. We hope he’ll be back very soon, but we really can’t promise – Bob will be back when he’s well enough. But I’d like to stress he definitely hasn’t left. He’s very much part of the team." I'm sure we all wish him a speedy recovery.

Very nice, I look forward to s

2008-11-26T19:36:48.305+01:00

Very nice, I look forward to seeing it.

Nothing as far as I'm aware. I

2008-11-24T19:58:10.979+01:00

Nothing as far as I'm aware. I'm normally working when Central News is on - hasn't he been on recently?

I'll add a vote for Ikscheltas

2008-10-11T13:19:15.275+02:00

I'll add a vote for Ikscheltaschel (http://www.myspace.com/Ikscheltaschel) Danish rap miesters where one member is a 12ft dragon. They don't rap in Danish, but some sort of made-up language - fantastic.

Frank Sidebottom.

2008-08-29T20:44:34.623+02:00

Frank Sidebottom.

Sorry Len, that's not so easy.

2008-08-25T00:21:46.229+02:00

Sorry Len, that's not so easy. Best way is to think about what colour your photos were and to zoom in to the areas of the artwork that are similar to that. People have found that your own pictures leap out at them, so hopefully you'll be able to find yours.

@dave, I'm not being an appoli

2008-08-19T11:08:19.829+02:00

@dave, I'm not being an appoligist for BCC, but the image comes from iStockPhoto - whose images are watermarked so they couldn't have just downloaded it. I was worried about this too, so I spent a good while comparing the images available on Google — some are similar (it must be a popular Alabama vantage point), but the one used is definitely from an image library. When you get there it's clearly labelled Alabama, so they may be stupid, but not ignorant of copyright.

I've been combining RSS to email (from Pingie, which was very quick) with the mobile phone email address. I've got DMs set up (forwarding from GMail) and @messages (RSS of tweetscan search). Popping a Pipe in the middle could refine what you get more, especially if your twitter name is sometimes used in conversation as mine is.

>enter all their listing de

2008-08-15T16:41:30.381+02:00

>enter all their listing details into one .csv file (using excel or whatever) Good idea — Google Docs spreadsheets can be a set up to have a web-facing form input. Even if it wasn't a direct copy of your DB structure it could be a central point you could all draw info from.

Oh, and yes the structure does

2008-07-11T18:00:25.068+02:00

Oh, and yes the structure does seem very formal - I'll be in the bar mostly.

Hi Paul, Friday's do is at Pe

2008-07-11T17:35:08.172+02:00

Hi Paul, Friday's do is at Penny Blacks in the Mailbox - Saturday's is at the Old Royal. See you at some point over the weekend no doubt.

Mind you The Post is quite luc

2008-07-11T01:09:42.793+02:00

Mind you The Post is quite lucky, it could be seen in the same way a blog post, inviting comment… "The Daily Link Dump"

Good point Mark. With Delicio

2008-07-10T14:57:09.791+02:00

Good point Mark. With Delicious I can see a reason, the posts give time based (and theme based) context. They mean more when posted to a blog rather than as separate links. That said if a blog does nothing but republish delicious links then it's worthless. I wouldn't advise anyone to subscribe to by delicious feed really, I use it for a wide variety of purposes, things tagged "work" come here, those tagged "birminghamuk" go to BiNS and others go some other places too. It's just a mash of my mind, not useful. The way to use delicious feeds is more to subscribe to a tag you're interested in. The Twitter thing is a bit odd, I can see the point of a digest (for yourself as much as anything) but it needs to be tucked away. Of course I first set it up "because I could", I don't think I would these days if I hadn't already. In fact, I'm going to turn it off.

@Abdul Some people don't like

2008-06-18T18:21:21.486+02:00

@Abdul Some people don't like graffiti style art, no matter what it says. Rightly or wrongly (wrongly I my opinion, but they are entitled to their artistic judgement) they believe that it contributes to an air of lawlessness. No-one has reported what Aldi's manager or the Police have said, that Aldi don't like it is neither here nor there if the work has permission (from the building's owners, which it seems to, and also from the local council planning dept, if it needs permission under law).

Oooh, phone scandal. I must sa

2008-05-20T12:01:39.918+02:00

Oooh, phone scandal. I must say I don't really have a problem with the "you must sell tickets" thing per se (although transparency would be nice), but that's a very good point. Anyone who's actually been to one of these things care to comment?

lesway, thanks a million it wo

2008-05-19T18:49:36.574+02:00

lesway, thanks a million it worked. my eeepc folder was 2.6.4-eeepc and the usb drive didn't mount as D: - but your instuctions were great so I could work those odd bits out myself. Now to use the thing as portably as I hoped :)!

Sorry codather, can't understa

2008-05-12T15:16:08.151+02:00

Sorry codather, can't understand that at all. Is it possible that someone could post a very simple step-by-step for linux newbies?

That's interesting Stuart — if

2008-05-09T19:55:45.399+02:00

That's interesting Stuart — if, say, they'd decided to make every photo level horizoned at 5ft and pointing due north would it be more interesting to you for being less subjective?

A distinction all the same Ma

2008-05-07T22:16:57.197+02:00

A distinction all the same Marc, I suppose what I meant was that an experienced journalist/columnist was shocked by the response to his blog post. More experienced bloggers (journalists or not) could probably have seen it coming (not that that makes it right, or him wrong).

>one of his guest bloggers

2008-05-07T20:03:12.486+02:00

>one of his guest bloggers According to Roshan (in the comments to his original post): "I'm just doing a job the Post management assigned me to do. But this is not a personal blog but a Post blog...If that helps." - odd that it's one of the staff that caused the controversy rather than the guest bloggers? (didn't want to raise it there as it would have distracted from what I hope will be a fascinating debate)

@Chris In this case, yes I th

2008-05-07T17:51:00.473+02:00

@Chris In this case, yes I think. The Jug's closure is nothing to do with daily profit and all to do with land prices, planning permissions and location.

Cath's Post article is the ess

2008-04-09T20:49:34.847+02:00

Cath's Post article is the essay, and Matt Price's is also in a da Post. Saved you some scanning there Pete.