Celebrating 50 years of Private Eye at the V&A: A timely reminder of the power of low-tech

A wall of Private Eye front covers. Editor Ian Hislop has picked his favourite one from each year of publication

The Friday Late event celebrated independent publishing, everything from zines, to tumblrs and typography.

The Victoria & Albert Museum threw open its doors until 10pm for amongst other things an analog tumblr, arty readings and the opportunity to create your own magazine. Read the rest of this entry »

How can Parliament engage with communities online?

Took a trip over to Portcullis House last night for an event titled ‘Parliament and Online Communities’ (part of Parliament Week) – it brought together a mix of people who run independent local news sites in South London, large online communities and messageboards like Mumsnet and interested government open data types.

The question we had to mull over was essentially how can Parliament engage more with online communities, and both make itself more open and also get good quality information from its select committee inquiries on a whole range of different issues.

Parliament faces a big challenge, as outlined by Matt Instone – its head of online engagement – how does it take the mass of information which is being produced by the institution and make it accessible to the general public, and at the same time make people aware of what Parliament is and what it does. And crucially, how it is different from the government.

He was essentially saying, how can Parliament serve a million and one niches? Read the rest of this entry »

Web and transparency on Cardiff agenda

Two events happening shortly in Cardiff which look interesting and will hopefully ask questions about openess and transparency in both central and local government.

The first is the Senedd 2011 event. It’s a bit vague on what the discussion will actually be on – the general theme of the web and transparency and the Welsh Assembly. The panel has some people with a track record of lobbying and opening up debates on issues, so what they have to say will be interesting.

There’s more details about the event, which is free, on the Vote 2011 website.

Then the Talk About Local Unconference comes to town. An unconference is a cool format where instead of being shoe-horned into a set programme of workshops and seminars, the attendees decide them instead. So, if you’re interested in a certain topic – e.g. making local councils more transparent – you put a post-it up at the start and see if anyone else is interested. If they are, you get a session and people share their knowledge and thoughts.

I’ve been to a Talk About Local Unconference before, and wrote this report – featuring Staffordshire oatcakes – in 2009 about what I learned from it. If you run a hyperlocal, community or blogging site it’s a really useful event to attend and I know it’s given me a lot of ideas and enthusiasm for what we’ve been doing with Blog Preston.

You can find out more about the event in this post I did for yourCardiff and sign up for free on the #tal11 Eventbrite.

I’ll be tweeting from both events, so follow me on Twitter @ed_walker86 and the hashtags #senedd2011 and #tal11 for all the latest.

Image credit to Michael Gwyther-Jones, showing the Pierhead Building in Cardiff Bay

Round-up: What the US election means for charities/marketing/nonprofits

Seemed to be a trend over the last few days as some great posts popped up about what the US election and in particular the Obama campaign means for marketing professionals, charities and nonprofit organisations. Here’s the best:

Seth Godin kicks off with a great take on what the elections meant for marketing professionals. He definitely believes that online is the place to be for campaigning.

Kivi was quick off the mark with what nonprofit organisations can learn marketing wise from the election. She focuses on the ability of the Obama to fundraise from a whole spectrum of people, small amounts building to one huge total. She also links through to the Getting Attention blog which has a good piece about what the election taught us about email marketing.

The Charity Place has a piece about what nonprofits can learn from the Obama campaign, and it’s more of the same. Engagement, make friends first and then ask for money – not the other way round. I think that’s an important one, build a connection and then ask for the money.

Tomorrow’s News, Tomorrow’s Journalists: If I had a million dollars to save journalism

The above was the question posed for the November debate on Tomorrow’s News, Tomorrow’s Journalists and I gave my answer as ‘I’d invest it in people’.

The post is here, or you can read it below:

First off, I’d rather have a million pounds (British Sterling) than dollars to save journalism with. But exchange rates aside, let’s get down to business.

My strategy would be to invest in people. Invest in getting journalists to do that saving. You can’t do things alone, you need a good team with good people. I’d probably shed some dead wood from the news room, maybe coax a few people to leave early and get some fresh blood in.

I’d keep the subs, but expand their role to include a lot of backroom stuff – like picture uploading, digital media production, video editing. I’d keep the print edition but I’d make it follow online’s lead. Maybe just have one good strong print edition per day, and throw everything into online.

I’d develop strong supplements based around local issues, and not be afraid of trying something new. I’d link these supplements with mini-sites online built around that issue.

I’d invest in training for my staff, I’d employ the Google technique of 10% time for my reporters. i.e. 10% to go off and cover what YOU want and what YOU think needs covering.

I’d put a bit of money towards having trainees in. Not expecting them to pay for everything. There would be a pot of money so that kids can come in and get experience, learn about being a journalist, in a good environment, and not be skint afterwards. You never know, they might even bring a good story in with them – and that’s got to be worth the money.

I’d invest in a CRM (customer relationship management) system for my newspaper, logging user comments, offering them personalised news updates, and beginning to build an idea of who my readers really are. So I know that Joe Bloggs in the North of the city responds well to this type of news. Then I have something to sell, I’ve got proof of effectiveness, readership and grabbing people’s attention.

So to sum up, good journalists, probably better paid, more of them, getting some 10% time, with a good online setup.

Twitter voter report – will we see it in the UK?

Been watching the twitter voter report tick over, it’s incredible. So much data. Will we see anything like this in the UK when the next general election rolls around? You can’t beat it for that ‘being there at the polls’ feeling.

While the world watches American politics, I got a knock on the door from my local councillor

Obama. McCain. Battleground state. Sarah Palin. Early voters. Record turnout. Robocalls. Twitter vote report. It’s all going off in American politics – but spare a thought for the British local councillor.

On a chilly night, I was watching the news and cooking my dinner and the doorbell went. I thought it was my girlfriend, as usual not bothering to use her keys, but instead it was my local councillor. I’ve just moved into the Sharoe Green area of Preston, Lancashire, and been here about four weeks. So while the world was focusing on America, my local councillor wanted to ask me about street lighting and crossing the busy road next to my house.

It was nice to be asked, give my view and the councillor looked like he gave a shit about what I was saying. He asked my opinion on a few other things and asked if there was anything else I could help with. We discussed housing/home buying (all the time him looking a bit cold, but still caring) and he gave me his card.

So, while the world gets wrapped up in the American elections and the outcome, spare a thought for the local councillors who are dealing with often small problems that have a big impact on local people’s lives. It’s also a lesson to politicians and journalists alike, get out there, talk to people and you’ll find out things. You can’t sit at a desk all day and expect it to come to you on a plate, or via the web, real people and real stories and issues are always on the doorstep.

Andy Dickinson made a good post about the value of journalists getting out onto the beat, and it’s a good one. While the social web allows you to interact with communities and find out issues on discussions forums, blogs etc – nothing will ever beat going to find a person and find a story and get opinions. People make stories after all.

The same goes for politicians. While we want them to be using emails, twitter, blogging etc – we still like to think that they are around on the streets, listening and making changes happen in the local community. Let’s hope that politicians carry on doing what my local councillor did. In this crazy age of global politics, raise a glass or virtual glass to the likes of Councillor E.P.Fazackerley.