5:37
Andrew Mitchell telling us how great Birmingham is, and how the Tories enjoy coming here, and how thriving a blogging community we have. Creep

5:37
Last time they came the Tories had a lovely reception from the people of Birmingham. That’s partly why I moved here too.

5:39
“If we don’t dictate things the market will” (Andrew Mitchell, paraphrased; a lot)

5:40
Birmingham’s coalition council has been good for democracy apparently, and is a good model.

5:41
“The whole concept of the Big Society … is an answer to the self-evident fact that the state can’t do everything” – Andrew Mitchell

5:42
“There is such a thing as society, it’s just not the same as the state” (Andrew Mitchell). Hmm… :-/

5:42
Baroness Warsi will be joining us later, apparently.

5:44
“There is a strong opportunity to change the way our civic activity works…” (Nick Booth, worrying that we’re retreating from that).

5:46
“The trick is not just to put everything in the public domain, but to put it there in a way that’s accessible” – Andrew Mitchell

5:47
“Is there any tension between Cllr Whitby and David Cameron” re elected Mayors? (Simon Gray). No, according to Andrew Mitchell.

5:48
Is AM ‘Minister for Birmingham’ or not? Question now being asked.

5:49
Difficult having a regional minister, because there are so many regional interests. – Andrew Mitchell

5:50
Rather than rushing in, we’re going to think about it. (Andrew Mitchell re regional ministers and mayors, etc)

5:50
Having trouble hearing…

5:51
Sorry if this reads a bit randomly, I’m also having trouble focussing.

5:52
Alison Smith: what are the Conservatives’ digital priorities?

5:53
“People who have disabilities … should not be impeded in any way by any changes that we may make” – Andrew Mitchell

5:55
Digital content (eg streaming) tends not to be accessible. If disabled people are expected to engage with politics accessibility needs to be better. (I think that was the gist of what Alison was saying.)

5:56
Nicky Getgood: what can you do to help people do interesting things with local, redundant spaces?

5:58
“In the past the balance of power has rested far too much with developers and not the local people” … areas surrounding people’s homes has been too much in the hands of developers, who hold neighbourhoods to ransom in that respect. AM

5:59
Oh hear we go, he’s slagging of John Prescott. Yawn.

5:59
‘Here’ we go, I mean. Sorry.

6:01
“Any smaller plans [for Sutton Coldfield development] now that the larger ones have been put to one side?” – Najm Clayton

6:02
Apparently they’ve asked lots of people and have a ‘permissive’ blueprint; engine is economic investment and growth, so until then… erm, no. I think.

6:03
But he’s doing everything he can to make Sutton Coldfield attractive.

6:03
And he’s off. Many thanks to Andrew Mitchell for his time, that was quite interesting.

6:05
Some centre-right policy wonk is handing out business cards. They’re blue.

6:11
Baroness Warsi has arrived.

6:18
Had a quick and interesting discussion with Baroness Warsi on why social media is worth taking notice of. Many of us wouldn’t be in this room now if it wasn’t for Twitter. Interestingly her Question Time non-appearance was due to an eye infection, and that if it wasn’t for social media-ites people would still be unaware of that. So she’s not completely dismissive.

6:20
Alex Hughes has been drawing cartoons. Hopefully I’ll be able to link to some later.

6:25
Sam Coates (their ‘digital’ man) says the point was simply to get ministers to meet alternative media publishers. In which case I applaud them.

6:25
And now I go, because I’m running low on battery.

6:41
I’m back briefly to give you Alex Hughes’ artistic interpretation of the meeting: http://bit.ly/cMdeab

6:41
Erm, don’t follow that link. Apparently it’s a zip file. Hang on…

6:47
…Here it is: http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/564489/2/Drawnalism/ConConf2010?h=4bb671

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He goes on to say how Farmers Markets are a nice cultural thing. Or something. Have a listen anyway:

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I realise that even among beginners there will be a wide range of expertise levels. Therefore I ask attenders to have at least started trying to write a Rails application.

It doesn’t matter how far you’ve got with it – you may only be halfway through the first page of a tutorial and are stuck trying to install something – but this approach should give everyone a context for being there. In other words: rather than trying to learn together from different starting points, we can each bring a problem that we need help with and collaborate on concrete goals.

When?

If you’re interested please indicate on Doodle your preferred times for a first meeting.

Update

The most popular time for a first meeting was 7.00pm on Tuesday 4 May, so that’s when it will be.

Where?

The first meeting is being held in Room B225, Birmingham School of Media, Perry Barr. (Many thanks to Paul Bradshaw for arranging the room.)

We’ll see how this first one goes, but we might try for any subsequnt meets to be more central. If you have any suggestions let me know in the comments below. We need a space that:

• is free to use;
• is available late on weekdays;
• has free, reliable wifi;
• can comfortably accommodate a number of people working together, without disturbing others.

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I hadn’t been particularly struck by the outside of the building, but now I’ve been inside I see the external fabric in a much more forgiving light. The interior is completely unrecognisable to anyone who was familiar with the building before: it’s light and airy, has a lot more public space, is wheelchair accessible and has lifts to the upper levels; there’s free wifi throughout, big windows with fabulous views of the park, movable seating in the theatre, a fantastic gallery space… I could go on and on.

We were even given samples of the food, which was amazing; I forgot to photograph it, but essentially it was high quality canapes. I expressed a concern that the food has upped its game too far, and out of the comfort zone and pocket of most people; I often used to go to the mac precisely because I could get no-nonsense grub – stew, fish and chips, lasagne – for three or four quid. I was assured though that the menu is still in that price bracket, but more inviting.

I also hadn’t realised how close to the budget they were, with only a fraction still to raise. And I’m told that apart from the setback of a few months when they discovered that the lido underneath the building was still there and needed removing, the project was delivered on schedule.

I took a load of photos (on my iphone I’m afraid) which you can flick through here:

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In April I’ll be running three low-key pilot events here in Birmingham, where each time one person will share their knowledge of a report that they’ve read. They’re aimed particularly at people whose line of work expects them to be knowledgeable in this area, but anyone is welcome.

I’m calling them ‘pilots’ because if they don’t work I won’t have committed to anything long-term. I’m also a bit worried about them not being free to attend: the room I’m using needs to be paid for so I’m having to charge a £3 entry fee. I don’t have any real problem with that, but I think people have grown to expect this sort of thing to be free.  (I’m not making any money out of this, I’m simply spreading the financial burden.)

The events are taking place in Moseley Exchange on three Mondays in April, from 6.30pm.

1. Monday 12 April
   Simon Whitehouse will talk about ’Policy options for geographic information from Ordnance Survey‘ and Ordnance Survey OpenData (eg about implications for public bodies opening up their data, the sort of new products that might be created, and pulling maps into your own blog posts).
   More information on Simon’s session [external link]
2. Monday 19 April
   I (Michael Grimes) will share my understanding of the Hansard Society’s recent report ‘Digital citizens and democratic engagement‘.
3. Monday 26 April
   Stuart Harrison will give a flavour of SOCITIM’s recent ‘Better Connected’ report on council websites.

Registration details (Eventbrite)

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I had been incensed by a cashpoint in Birmingham’s International Convention Centre. It charged £2.50, which at the time was almost a pound more than other charging cash machines. Yet I knew full well that there was a free cash machine just a few minutes’ walk away. I felt the ICC was taking brazen advantage of people’s ignorance and I wanted somehow to leave a note there giving directions to the free machine; but more than that I wanted a systematic way for anyone to do the same.

There were problems with this:

• how to find quickly the information you want to share;
• how to generate that information if it doesn’t already exist (eg, nearest free cashpoint on a map);
• how to impart that information quickly and accessibly;
• how to leave that information to hand without:
  • causing criminal damage;
  • requiring extra tools (eg Post-It Notes);
  • risking it being removed straight away.

We came up with a solution involving tagged Audioboos & an abstract symbol left nearby, but this had drawbacks:

• as it uses Audioboo an iPhone is required;
• it relies on the chosen tag being unique;
• it relies on digital tools & prior understanding of the system (eg the user must have gps & have enabled browser to broadcast their location);
• (in theory) it detects when someone requests tips for a given location, but doesn’t map the required information;
• it doesn’t solve the problems of finding the information in the first place.

But now we have foursquare. And foursquare works on more mobile devices than just the iPhone.

With foursquare we can add information about a place from the comfort of our living room (I just added a tip about the Brindleyplace cashpoint to the ICC entry) and people can see that in context. For example, if someone is in the ICC their mobile device will tell them there are tips for their location and they can see mine alerting them to the existence of a free cashpoint. Brilliant.

I get the impression that this wasn’t quite the intention of foursquare’s ‘tips’ feature, but I can see that if enough people use it businesses will have to sit up and take notice: they may have to start trying harder to fleece people than simply relying on ignorance.

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Simon Gray just tweeted a small but important change that would vastly improve accessibility for visitors:

“My advice to the custard factory, btw – a big sign in the window saying ‘reception’ would be a massive bonus for visitors…”

And that’s just one thing that would make a big difference: I’m sure there are many more. I think it’s high time we compiled a list of little but important changes that could be made, and then lobby for them to happen.

So if you have any please add them in the comments below.

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As a crude record of what I wrote, what follows is my Twitter stream for that event. All I’ve done is take the html from Twitter Search and pasted it here without its stylesheet. The tweets appear in reverse chronological order.

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In their own words:

“Birmingham, England, was the centre of the world pen trade for more than a century, employing thousands of people, pioneering craftsmanship, manufacturing processes and employment opportunities especially for women [...] Located in a former pen factory, The Pen Room recalls the history of some of the companies involved in the trade”.

Visit The Pen Room

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Nikki and Charlie, who facilitate the BARG events, organised a bunch of us to meet at the vegetable market yesterday afternoon (it’s empty – and relatively clean – on Sundays).

Table-tennis on Birmingham's market stalls (Photo by Nikki Pugh)

We bought sets of bats and balls from a pound shop, but quickly discovered that the balls were useless. No matter how hard you hit them they seemed to give up after the first bounce. As Antonio pointed out, “when the ball starts going backwards you know something’s not right”. So we splashed out on some better quality balls, which worked a treat.

There were about nine of us altogether, but we were joined by at least three passers-by who wanted to play.

There are at least 32 tables though: imagine filling them all with games of table-tennis on a Sunday afternoon?

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