We were invited to the resident involvement day at Soho Community Centre, Birmingham by the Resident University. We were on hand to give an insight into how social technology can be used to support community related endeavours. There’s already quite a burgeoning online presence for Soho, sites like http://sohowardbirmingham.com/ and http://www.sohofoundation.org.uk/.

The Soho Finger Neighbourhood Forum team, who are in the process of developing an online space, seem to be the link between services / information and residents. They are residents too and so have a more vested interest in what is said and wanted by local people. We showed them some of the more direct tools available online such as the range of services available from My Society.

A few issues regarding the community were raised during the introductions so I attempted some hands on examples of how technology could be used for such matters. I recorded a quick interview with local resident, Reg Everall, who was concerned about the growing problem of bird droppings.

He felt this is on the increase due to the lack of awareness of the consequences of feeding the birds scraps of food. If the community was made aware that the not only was it causing an increase of bird droppings but also not good for them, the problem could be eradicated. Reg suggested leaflets in a few languages (Soho has a diverse ethnic community mix) which could be locally distributed. I suggested that maybe having the same leaflet available online along with some audio version might increase awareness as well as provide a resource for other neighbourhoods to use.

So I was using technology for a number of things here. Initially, to record concerns by local residents, which I uploaded and shared with others at the event in a matter of seconds. I also embedded this into a page I created on the day, quickly and easily, using free tools (There are many simple tools to enable residents to express themselves online). I then suggested how technology could be used to help solve the problem. A leaflet could be produced, with a simple sentence in the main 3 or 4 languages of the neighbourhood. “Please! Do not feed the birds”. I found a leaflet used by Stroud MBC for this very purpose (pdf). With the right links, a few other language versions could be reproduced and also replicated online. The message could also be recorded by local residents in other languages and feature prominently on a Soho related website. All this could be produced very quickly, easily and cost effectively.

Here’s the page I created on the day to quickly take a snapshot of what was happening at the time: http://bit.ly/sohocomm

The tools I used on the day were: wrrtn.me for a place to put the content I created, audioboo.fm where I uploaded the interview, recorded on my phone, bambuser.com where I streamed some live video from the event.

Here’s an introduction to social media I wrote for participants in Birmingham’s Resident University some time ago. It’s aimed at active citizens who are new to the social web, but you may find something useful in it.

Over the last month or so we’ve been doing a series of workshop sessions with brap — who work to promote equality — on giving some of their clients an introduction to the opportunities social media might offer their businesses, charities or social enterprises.

Each session was for four hours with around six people — with two trainers. We originally thought that that would be plenty of time and that boredom would be setting in by then — but there wasn’t a session where we wouldn’t have liked to extend just a touch. After some very brief introductions, the first thing we did in each session was to divide into groups of two and play the Social Media Game.

The game is a great way for people to start thinking about the big picture of the social web, how different tools, techniques and ideas work alongside each other — and it also acts as a way to quickly see some of the options that are available. We’ve been playing the game slightly differently; smaller groups (so we can make sure everyone has grasped the concepts behind the cards), tighter questions which the teams can alter to more closely reflect their real situations, and we’ve done an updated set of cards (which you can download here to use or alter yourselves).

After this we worked more directly with each person and started them going on something that might prove immediately useful to them: starting a blog was a popular one, as was learning how to monitor the social web. But the main idea is just to have a go — that might be Facebook, Twitter or even a quick video cast (shot on iPhone so excuse the appalling sound):

We’re hopefully going to be doing some follow up sessions to see how people are getting on… will keep you posted

We’re really pleased to announce what we think is the first officially accredited course in understanding and using social media for those with no previous experience. We Share Stuff has developed the course and it’s now part of the OCN framework (WSS are an OCN Centre), as three units of 10 learning hours each.

As it’s platform agnostic (it doesn’t prescribe certain sites or tools) and also driven by the learners as to use, it’s applicable to anyone that wants to get to grips with the social web and gain the confidence to get involved.

We envisage it being useful to businesses, young people — almost anyone — with the bonus of a real qualification at the end of it. We’re now looking for opportunities to deliver it… the fun starts here.

Check out the full details and the course itself here.

Great news last week when We Share Stuff got the go-ahead to run some form of social media workshop / info point (whatever we come up with before the dates!) at this year’s National Digital Inclusion Conference on 27th-28th April.
While the conference is aimed at the leading stakeholders and practitioners, we felt the conference fee would stop many more interested parties getting involved. Thanks to Helen Milner, of UK Online Centres, we have secured a space at the conference to promote the benefits of social media and to hopefully create some useful debate regarding the digital inclusion agenda.

We are now in the throws of organising something. Initial ideas include some form of social media surgery along the lines of those set up by Nick Booth and a live twitter debate, hopefully with some prominent twitterers. We also have a few more ideas up our collective sleeves which we’ll flesh out over the next month or so. Watch this space!

Following on the NIACE digital inclusion conference, we have set up a few ‘guides’ on current Internet usage. It’s really just to see if by providing a simple ‘how-to’ get involved with the social web, we can begin to build adult education related networks, if at all!

The ‘We Share…‘ series will be an ongoing thing and hopefully beneficial in understanding some of the barriers that practitioners / tutors etc face when learning how to the make the most of the social web in an educational context.

Here is ‘The social web’ as defined on Wikipedia.

The Social Web is currently used to describe how people socialize or interact with each other throughout the World Wide Web. Such people are brought together through a variety of shared interests. There are different ways in which people want to socialize on the Web today. The first kind of socializing is typified by “people focus” websites such as Bebo, Facebook, and Myspace. Such sites promote the person as focus of social interaction. To do this a profile is constructed by each user. In many ways the profile is similar to a passport.

The second kind of socializing is typified by a sort of “hobby focus” websites. For example, if one is interested in photography and wants to share this with like-minded people, then there are photography websites such as Flickr, Kodak Gallery and Photobucket.

There are also two ways in which people socialize with each other in the Social Web. The most general and most common type is always at a distance and only on the World Wide Web. In such socializing there is never face to face personal contact. Much of the socializing on Flickr is sharing of photos and making comments on the photos of others. However, where Flickr members come from a common local geographical area, then they are inclined to get together physically for a common photoshoot. This exemplifies the second type of socializing through the World Wide Web: that which leads to real physical contact. Typical examples of the latter arose historically from social networking both within and outside schools and colleges. Facebook’s origins are in the facebook of college students from Harvard University.

The Social Web may also be used to refer to two different, yet related concepts. The first is as a description of web 2.0 technologies that are focused on social interaction and community before anything else. The second is a proposal for a future network similar to the World Wide Web.

In terms of digital inclusion and adult learning, this can be the thing that currently ties everything together. Get involved with the social web, find the relevant networks and start sharing resources, news, applications – anything you like really.

There is a lot of stuff out there and it can be tricky knowing where to start. We like to get people using this stuff straight away so as we’re here, maybe we can get things going using a simple online application called ‘Twitter‘. This application is best described by the blurb on their website…

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

You only need an email address and password to start using Twitter and it’s really easy. Once you have registered, go to our twitter page and click ‘Follow’. We then get a message telling us that you are following us, we’ll follow you too. From then, we can send each other messages or ‘tweets’ about anything at all. In this context, it could be about learning resources and how to find them, other social web stuff, answers and questions..etc. From ‘following’ us, you can also follow any other relevant Twitter user and so we start to build our network of people who know stuff! probably more importantly, we start the conversation. It’s best understood by example so go get yourself a twitter account and we’ll show you where things can go!

http://www.twitter.com/

We mentioned, a short time ago, about our plans to hold a regular surgery for voluntary and community groups, assisting and supporting them with all the gubbins that the Internet has to offer. Well, we now have a launch date, so put Sunday 23rd November in your diaries as the ‘We Share Stuff’ team will be at The Red Couch cafe, Erdington each Sunday morning from 11:00am to around 1:00pm. The surgery will be free to attend and the cafe itself serves a wide selection of drinks and snacks. So if you’re curious about the Internet, want to know how to get a voice online, or merely want to drop by for a chat, please do. The atmosphere is real friendly and we promise not to bombard anyone with jargon. It’s all about showing you how easy the Internet is becoming. If you want to let us know in advance of any particular things you may be interested in, or just to let us know you’re coming along, please add a comment to this blog post or give us a quick call. We look forward to seeing you there!

We Share Stuff is chuffed to announce that we will be running a free Internet surgery every Sunday morning at the Red Couch Cafe, Erdington. We have taken the blueprint established in the Custard Factory run by Birmingham blogger extraordinaire, Pete Ashton. We will be available to answer questions and support community groups, businesses and individuals on the wonderful world of the Internet. Blogging, websites, micro-sites, youtube, facebook et al.. they’re all up for discussion and how they can be used to increase activity, awareness and what not. The sessions will start off as a first come first served basis. The cafe serves a wide range of food and drink and is located on the High Street in Erdington.

Many thanks to Cafe manager, Taf, for letting us use the premesis. In fact, The Red Couch will probably be the first business to use the service after briefly experiencing what we have to offer, they’re keen to get a blog going and get involved…which is what it’s all about… The surgery plans to start early November, we will announce more details on here as and when we have them.

We turned up at Blog Action Day a tad late due to other engagements. By this time, things were in full swing. All the tables were full, the surgeons were talking their stuff and the patients were listening intently on the benefits of blogging. This is exactly how it happened.
Again, it proved a healthy demand for this knowledge exists within the community but we kind of knew that. What the group, and more so, Nick Booth for being the lead organiser, proved was a way of making it happen that proved useful to both attendees and hosts. It wasn’t just a case of filling spaces to satisfy funding requirements. One question came up about how the event was organised so quickly and effectively. I heard Nick mention that it happened because “we’re all networked”.
The event worked well, the people who attended came because they knew, or thought they might gain something from attending. This event didn’t really look at the real crux of the Digital Divide. Exchange the people in that room with people who didn’t want to be there, who couldn’t care less – then what do you do? how can you use the technology to encourage them to be more active? get involved with community stuff? improve their education?
Ideally, those who attended the surgery will take back what they ‘learnt’ to their projects and groups and promote the technology. Hopefully it will encourage further exploration. The event was a great starting point though, and proved what can be achieved with a little organisation and belief.