let's be social

Take a look at http://www.letsbesocial.co.uk/cafe for all the info about the cafe, and where it is.

I would really like to see more of you turn up to our humble cafe though, there must be more people in and around Solihull who have an interest in social media, and it’s a really good opportunity to meet some of the people from the Council, and it’s partners who are trying to make things happen!

Please consider a visit, there are usually art exhibitions in the gallery where we hold the cafe, and you get free tea and coffee as well, it doesn’t get much better than this folks (in Solihull anyway)

Hope to see you there, 10am in the Arts & Library Complex Gallery, in Solihull town centre.

We’re finally going to move the focus away from just elected Council Members, and start offering the resources we have to the public for community and voluntary groups now!

We’ll probably skip the session in April so get our heads together and work out exactly how this will happen, such as where we can hold these events for starters!

In the meantime, we’d be welcome for any feedback you may have, relating to things you would like to see, and venues in Solihull which are open until 8ish, and serve cofee, with free public wifi available! (Pubs are not a good venue, as there are many people who will not come to a pub for whatever reason).

Hopefully we’ll have something sorted out for May, this will be more likely if you’re able to help us find somewhere (hint hint)

This month, not only will you be able to visit the best Social Media Cafe in the whole borough of Solihull, but you will also be able to see a rather interesting and controversial art exhibition too!

As usual, it will be 10am – 12pm in The Gallery, above the Arts & Library Complex’s own cafe. More info about the Solihull SMC, including directions can be found here.

Keeley Lowe – Inside Out

28th January- 20th February 2010

This large scale installation purports to be a loose assemblage of old, used and discarded cardboard boxes.

Discovered through a process of interaction and investigation, the work attempts to challenge viewer’s perceptions and aims
to induce doubt about the very structure we assume to be reality.

I had an idea today, why not see how many people we can get out of the house on Saturday the 30th of January, and to walk along well known routes or areas where they live, and take a photo every few metres. Maybe 10, maybe 50, who knows.

Then, you could turn around, and walk back up the other side, and take the pics from the other side. You could then turn these into a video, and post it online.

I think it would be fun to see how many people we could get out doing this. Bonus points if you did one following behind someone else doing one!

There are a number of social media sites out there where things like this could be shared, and it would be a good chance to get out of the house, meet some other people who are mad enough to do the same thing, and then perhaps meet up in a pub afterwards.

Areas I am thinking of initially will centre on Brum, but if enough people live in other areas, there’s nothing to stop you posting details below where you would like to do it, and promoting this post to get more interest!

Initial thoughts would be Digbeth, High St, New St, Colmore Row, around St Philips, Paradise Circus, Corporation St, maybe up and down some of the smaller roads, who knows!

It’s a bit of a random idea, I haven’t thought it through, but it sounds like fun so far!

As for how it would work, well, that’s down to how many people would be interested, so do leave a comment if it sounds like fun to you. Perhaps break up into groups if there are lots, then agree where you want to go, or all head out in a mass pack of loonies with cameras scaring the local populace.

(Although this post does feature an online element too)

On my way back from a staff Christmas party, I came across one of the the Solihull Partnership Safer Communities projects, where they have an emergency treatment tent set-up in the town centre to treat people injured in town at night. Most of these are from trips, falls, and perhaps the odd scuffle.

It’s also there to educate people about the effects of alcohol, and is manned by Police, Ambulance, and Council staff. There are a couple of oversized games to demonstrate this, Operation, and a follow the wire challenge. They should be easy with their large size, but after a few drinks, they prove how badly your coordination can be affected.

So far it’s saved many trips in ambulances which saves the authorities time and money, and means the festive party people don’t have their evening ruined even more by ending up in hospital.

I met Police Inspector Phil Radbourne who writes his own blog about his day to day work as the South Neighbourhood Manager in Solihull. I also said hi to Charlotte Ford from Solihull Council, who was there representing the Safer Communities side of the Solihull Partnership. Within the Council we’re working on a new website for the Partnership, so I really hope we’ll have a blog available soon to help promote work like this going on in the area.

Continue reading

The WMCSMS blog has now been imported into this one, so you only have 1 place to look for all of the Solihull & Acocks Green area social media projects in the area, and any other stuff I am involved in within the general Birmingham area

As this blog develops, I’m now wondering if it should incorporate the WMCSMS blog so that all of the social media projects I’m involved in are all in one place. It would certainly help me but how about people reading it?

Any opinions?

Thanks to David Viner, Gavin Wray, Paul Hadley, and Kate Hughes for volunteering to be the surgeons.

We had Cllrs Bell, Reeve, and Hawkins at this SMS, and all were deeply engrossed in conversation with their surgeons.

Visit the blog for more info

The first two sessions have been booked for Solihull’s Councillors, and these will primarily be an introduction to social media, and how it can be useful to them, and their communities.

CivicSurf have kindly sent out some DVDs and about 70 booklets for me to distribute to the Councillors, and directors, so I really hope this generates some interest in these social media surgeries.

I have been very careful to aim this at the Councillors themselves, rather than the whole council, as these members do not have budget, and are not paid, so I really hope that some of the volunteers from the Birmingham Social Media Surgeries will be willing to help me out here. As this is all about them being able to engage more with their communities, in the same way that we have been helping community and voluntary groups to engage.

In the first two sessions (currently booked for the 7th, and 11th of September) I am only going to introduce them to the concepts, and answer some questions. From this, we should have some people who are genuinely interested in learning, and setting up their own blogs, presence on Facebook/Twitter and so on. I would like to run four surgeries in total with the first towards the end of September, then the other three over October and November.

Without Councillors active engagement through blogs, and social media, I honestly believe we have lost something after spending so long helping community groups make their presence felt online. If they can both engage with each other, and the public together, surely the outcomes will be better for all.

Please let me know by email, or in the comments below if you would like to be involved.