Ungeekery: the real magic behind social media

One reason I like the social media scene and its growing networks is that people are generally friendly, open and willing to share new ideas. Geeks, techies, webbies are not (beneath the surface) entirely obsessed with code and cool tools, whatever the popular perception.

However, because (read more...)

Asking the Alice question after Amplified08

If you are around London, and interested in new/social/creative/digital media, it seems that barely a day passes without the chance to go to a free or low cost event and network with others of similar interests. The landscape is getting crowded, and as you see many of the same faces at different events you might wonder if there could be a more effective way of networking.

This occurred to Toby Moores (above) and friends, so they got together and organised Amplified08 last week, hosted by NESTA. I’ve quoted below from the first newsletter explaining how Amplified aims to build towards a nationwide event, or series of events, involving up to 10,000 people. That’s the potential power of networking networks. But is “more” enough? Do we also need to know why, and towards what? I’ll come to the Alice question later. (read more...)

Simon checks Colalifesaving pods on the front line

I’ve written before about Simon Berry’s extraordinarily effective Colalife campaign using social media to encourage and persuade Coca Cola to use their distribution system to get simple medicines to children in Africa. Simon has used Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, blogs – and the BBC – to recruit support, engage Coca Cola, get to understand how their system works, and then receive an invitation to Dar Es Salaam. The trip was partly to join a 2-day stakeholder meeting about research into wider use of the distribution system. (read more...)

The Web 2.0 magic may be fading …

Is our love affair with social media as a way to change the world for the better, while having fun, coming to an end? Maybe the ungeeks are pushing back, even where enthusiasm was previously unbridled. Maybe the party’s over. Perhaps the bubble has burst, again.

The memes and cliches are flying because yesterday this tweet popped into my Twitter stream from Roland Harwood, who works for NESTA, the body funded to make the UK more innovative: thanks for your doc that i received today. “the web2.0 magic is fading…” see you tomorrow. (read more...)

Social Innovation Camp – now you can vote

Social Innovation Camp have extended their competitive-collaborative model for bringing together those people who have ideas for social change with web developers and others who could help put them into practice.

Earlier this week at the monthly SI Camp meetup we heard how 115 proposals had been (competitively) submitted and whittled down to six for the SI Camp weekend December 5-7, where the collaboration takes place. It was foody as well as techie. Details here. (read more...)

Open, Closed and slightly Dissident approaches to digital mentor bid

The Government’s £900,000 plans to support digital mentors in disadvantaged communities has produced at least three different responses and approaches.

These range from standard “closed” competitive bidding, through to an open collaborative process driven by UK online centres, which I wrote about earlier. Then there’s a bit of dissident muttering that maybe this way of funding development isn’t such a good idea anyway, which I’ll come to in a moment. (read more...)

Giving facilitators the Flip

Carrying out interviews and capturing informal conversations on video at an event is a useful way of creating a record … but can it be used to enhance the discussions as well? After my experience last week with an event run by the Innovation Exchange, I’m convinced that it can. (read more...)

Playing with Lego? No it’s metaphorical modelling to explain the power of the interactive web.

Inaugural lectures – by which new professors celebrate their appointment – can be a bit, well, academic. Not so that of David Gauntlett, now chair of Media and Communications at the School of Media, Arts and Design, University of Westminster.

David chose November 12 for his (read more...)

Social Media Games with Moo

The Social Media Game, that I initially developed with Beth Kanter and Drew Mackie, is a great way to help people get to grips with what tools, when, where – and explore what might happen. Now Tim Davies has worked out how to develop the game cards with Moo.com. The game is Creative Commons licensed to make this collaborative development easier.

Simon leaves ruralnet|uk – lucky Defra

Since the mid 1990s ruralnet|uk, led by Simon Berry, has been at the forefront of innovation using social media for social innovation – and not just in the countryside.

Now Simon has announced on his blog that he is moving on to take up a secondment in Government to work on Defra’s Third Sector Strategy and the new Greener Living Fund, and won’t be returning to ruralnet|uk when that ends. (read more...)