Brrism - Bristol Social Media

Jimmy Wales in the Cathedral

2011-01-13T10:29:00.003Z

When I was 8 I remember walking down the corridor at school on the way to the hall where we would all watch an Apollo landing on the TV. At the time it seemed like we were going to the moon every year and it wasn't really something that I was going to get worked up about. But, as it turned out, it wasn't a "once a year" thing and we've never been back to the moon since. Perhaps I should have paid more attention?

This morning I went to Bristol's Cathedral School to see Jimmy Wales, father of Wikipedia, deliver a morning assembly address to school children. I wondered if they, like me, were a bit blase about the whole thing. Perhaps Wikipedia, to them, was just a quick way of getting the homework done?

If they were indeed blase then they can be forgiven, the real question is "do the population at large realise what a monumental achievement Wikipedia is. It is now the eighth most trafficked website in the world and the English language version has more than 3.5 million entries. It also supports 257 other languages. Not bad for an organisation that employs less than 50 employees. Talk about drawing on the power of crowdsourcing.

Obviously there's a cast of thousands working behind the scenes but the point is that this "thing" called Wikpedia has mobilised those thousands and allowed them to self-organise. What a powerful thing that is. If only governments could tap into that sort of crowd-sourcing-mobilisation. Perhaps Wikipedia is an example of "The Big Society" done right?

Anyway, back to the Cathedral.

Jimmy Wales has given so many interviews and presentations that I'm sure he could do them in his sleep. But, despite him leaving on the 05:25 from Paddington, he gave a remarkably lively presentation and one that was tailor made for the kids. You can see it here. (Apologies for the poor quality video, it was hand held in poor light and my camera can only handle 10 minutes of video at a time.)

I don't think that most adults realise what a world-changer Wikipedia is and I'm sure that the kids only dimly realised it, if it all. But it was quite refreshing and funny when one of them thanked Jimmy for helping him with his Biology homework. Huh, I never got that sort of help. All I had when I was a kid was moon landings.

What would you ask Jimmy Wales

2010-12-21T16:01:00.002Z

There are just 4 shopping days till Christmas but, more importantly, just 23 blogging days till Jimmy Wales comes to Bristol. We all know that its traditional in Britain to leave Christmas shopping to the last minute and hope that a Christmas Eve dash to Cribbs Causeway will come up with the goods. I'm not sure if the same holds true for blogging about Jimmy Wales' visit though. Maybe I can persuade all of you to make a metaphorical dash to Cribbs and help me with the blogging? Or perhaps I should wrap this up in a bit of social media jargon and say that I'm "crowdsourcing". Or how about I just come out with it and say: "Help! I need you to come up with some blogging ideas for his visit."

To make it easier, the first thing that I'm asking for are some SHORT QUESTIONS for a five minute interview that I'm hoping to do with Jimmy. The interview will be videoed and uploaded to BrrismTV and there will also be an accompanying blog piece.

Please leave your ideas (either for blog posts or quick questions) in the comments section below or, if you'd rather submit your question confidentially use the form below.

Remember that Jimmy does countless interviews and has heard all the standard Wikipedia questions by now. Also bear in mind that Jimmy's press office will have final say regarding whether we can ask the question.

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Loading...&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

Jimmy Wales is coming to Bristol!

2010-11-23T10:14:00.000Z

According to Wikipedia, Wikipedia was founded on January 15 2001. Obviously, since Wikipedia is full of untruths and inaccuracies, I thought I'd better check my facts. But even Encyclopaedia Britannica agrees that January 15th 2001 was the day, so it must be true, mustn't it? ;)

In ten years Wikipedia has progressed from a tiny little backwater website into the seventh most popular website in the world and now has 3.4 million articles in its English language version. Even more amazing is that, unlike Britannica, this was done with just a handful of paid staff - the entire encyclopaedia was written by unpaid contributors, people like you and me. (If you want to be part of this amazing phenomenon be sure to read this page.) But despite this global-scale crowdsourcing , none of this would have happened without the efforts of one man - Jimmy Wales. And the amazing thing is - he's coming to Bristol!

This is a very rare opportunity to hear from someone that's created something that's had such a big impact on the world so make sure your diary is clear on 13 January 2011 12.00-13.00. It'll be at the Victoria Rooms, University of Bristol and if you want a ticket send an email to jimmywales-bristol@bristol.ac.uk.

This event has been organised in association with Bristol Festival of Ideas, Connecting Bristol, Bristol City Council, BBC Anchor Trust and Wikimedia UK. I'm sure Brrismers will join me in thanking them for doing this. :)

Brrism11 - eDemocracy/Open Data/Social Media Systems

2010-07-07T11:34:00.004+01:00

Brrism11 takes place on 21st July at thePervasive Media Studio and we've got some interesting social media related topics to discuss. As usual we're using our short presentation/long discussion format (5 minutes from each of the presenters followed by a 45 minute "open space" style discussion where you are free to join whatever groups you are interested in). The speakers are listed below.

(For meeting time/venue details, and to sign up for a free ticket, please go along to the EventBrite Page.)

Social Media eDemocracy

During the election a local Bristol company, Evans Finch ran a Election 2010 Challenge website which allowed people to submit ideas on how the country could be run better and allowed people to vote on those ideas. The site was slick, well executed and its a good example of how Social Media can be used to find out what issues are foremost on the minds of our fellow countrymen.

Experience from that website showed that people were keen on a more open, digital and most of all participatory democracy. Fancy that! Here are just two of the suggestions:

“e-voting open to all UK residents on all laws, statutes,motions & other parliamentary business. Bring parliament to people OPEN DEMOCRACY!”
“Create a system to let the people vote on government bills being passed through the commons.”

Chris Keegan from Evans Finch will be talking about the site and ideas submitted through it and asking “how can Social Media be used to usher in an era of neo-Athenian democracy”?

About the Speaker

Chris is a veteran of the video games industry, working on games from WWII Bomber Simulations through to Destruction Derby via Massive Role Playing Games. He is currently the Managing Director of Evans Finch a local company specialising in producing innovative Social Media Applications. He brings a wealth of technical knowledge from the interactive world as well as deep insight into games design, which he now applies to the curiously difficult task of encouraging people to push buttons on web-sites. Despite all that, he's not such a bad chap and may even be worth following on Twitter.

Open Data in Bristol

The concept of Open Data is gaining momentum in the UK, pioneered by advocates such as Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, and with vocal support from initiatives such as The Guardian’s Free Our Data campaign. Bristol City Council recognises the important of this global movement and has recently launched B-Open, an initiative to encourage Open Data in Bristol.

In this Brrism talk, Mark Leaver will talk about B-Open and how you can get involved. And, in true Brrism "open space" style, we've got some issues to discuss. Is Open Data still in "geek to geek" mode or is real public value beginning to emerge? Is the "digital divide" a consideration if we are trying to create public value or public services? Or is Bristol about to go through its moment of clarity where the public sector realises that other people (that means you, gentle Brrismer) are cleverer, quicker and more in tune with demand?

About the Speaker

Mark Leaver is an independent consultant concentrating on the development of projects combining creative media and digital technologies, with a specific focus on making strategic connections to international markets.

With a background which spans a range of organisational structures, including regional development agency, dot com start up, national broadcaster, international corporation and independent consultant, Mark has successfully developed businesses and delivered innovative project ideas across a range of media disciplines.

Mark was one of the originators of the Media Sandbox (with Clare Reddington) and is currently part of the 2010 scheme, including specifically the B-Open open data strand in partnership with Bristol City Council.

Understanding the social media system

A couple of Brrism's ago we briefly looked at systems modelling as a way of thinking about social media. Following that we began to develop a definition of a 'system' that could be used to describe Brrism. That work is ongoing and contributions are welcomed. In this 5 min presentation, a view of Brrism will be described that builds on this definition and begins to outline the system using the Soft Systems approach. Afterwards, as always, will be a healthy discussion on how we can further develop the systems view and alternative views that could also be used.

About the Speaker

Having taught systems theory at the University of Plymouth and developed a systemic approach to change management for his research,John has spent the last 10 years applying his knowledge of systems theory to University-Business collaborations. John prefers the discussions and shared knowledge that arise from developing systems models a lot more than complying religiously to the nomenclature of any particular theory. Follow him on Twitter.

Brrism10 Videos now available (Privacy/Inside/On the Move)

2010-07-02T10:36:00.001+01:00

We had another great Brrism on June 17th and, if you weren’t there, the videos below will give you an idea of the content. Remember that “Brrism Talks” aren’t conventional presentations, instead they’re more of a scene setter for the 45 minute “open space” discussion that follows. (Read more about Brrism meeting formats.)

The next Brrism meeting, Brrism#11, will be held on a Wednesday 21st July and it'll be our last meeting at the Pervasive Media Studio.

The speakers are:

Chris Keegan - Evans & Finch - eDemocracy
Mark Leaver - Media Sandbox - Open Data
John Bradford - Science City Bristol -

The tickets are, as usual, free and will be made available next week. The tickets will be announced on Twitter first and then via email so follow us on Twitter or sign up for the Brrism email list to make sure you're the first to know.

By the way, sorry for the late posting of the videos but I've been on holiday. I went to Scotland and it was very wet and windy!

What is Social Media?

2010-06-17T12:09:00.002+01:00

At the May Brrism meeting, we asked "What is Social Media?" - here are the definitions that made it as far as the white board:

"Social media is a virtual tool that enables you to talk to people you don't know about things you care about."

"Heard it on the grapevine" Marvin Gaye

"Social media is about talking to people without leaving your house."

"Word of mouth 2.0"

"People > Power > Publication"

"Conversation > Publications :) Conversation > Publication"

"It's networking"

"Social media is nothing... unless you have something to say = CONTENT"

"We grunted, we talked, we sang, we social media'd = Evolution"

"Social media is purposeful transmission and receipt of of information. Sometimes the info being transmitted is not so purposeful - Ants have it right!"

"Social media is everything that everybody says it is... to them" (that's my one people)

So, what do you think?

Brrism10 - Privacy/Inside/On the Move

2010-06-03T15:07:00.003+01:00

Brrism10 takes place on 17th June at thePervasive Media Studio and we've got some interesting social media related topics to discuss. As usual we're using our short presentation/long discussion format (5 minutes from each of the presenters followed by a 45 minute "open space" style discussion where you are free to join whatever groups you are interested in). The speakers are listed below.

(For meeting time/venue details, and to sign up for a free ticket, please go along to the EventBrite Page.)

Privacy and Social Media

Personal privacy and social networks are not mutually exclusive but they certainly make unlikely bedfellows, especially in light of the recent Facebook uproar. The problem is, there are so many competing - and conflicting - interests that muddy the waters. Social networking companies like Facebook, Google, and Flickr want to turn a profit; Advertisers, employers, government and myriad others want as much information as possible about individuals and their activities; Libraries and archives want to collect information about social networks use for future study; And then there's the individual, people like you and me, who just want free access to social media tools and, at the same time, keep certain parts of our lives secret.

These competing interests raise interesting questions. Can the law provide a privacy framework which meets the aspirations of such interest groups, yet protects privacy for individuals in specific contexts? Is a privacy scheme that requires understanding of a 5,830 word policy (interpreted via a 45,000 word FAQ), and the click through of over 50 privacy buttons, with more than 170 options, the best way to enable the average person to limit access to personal information? Or is it all a storm in a teacup to the congenitally open Facebook generation.

About the Speaker

Andrew is Reader in IT Law in the School of Law and Department of Computer Science at the University of Bristol, where he is the Director of the cross-disciplinary Centre for IT & Law. His areas of research include data privacy, intellectual property, cybercrime and e-commerce. Recent projects include work on Privacy Impact Assessments in the UK (Information Commissioner's Office); archiving of personal digital archives (British Library); and privacy in cloud computing (HP Labs). He is personally agnostic about adopting social networking technologies, but on utility rather than privacy grounds, as he does read their privacy policies. He will admit, if pressured, to being on LinkedIn.

Social Media Inside

Social Media on the Inside: It looks like Social Media isn't a flash-in-the-pan and is here to stay. Could you imagine a world without Facebook, Twitter or Brrism? Could you go back to just email? Most organisations are considering what Social Media means to them. Some are banning access to Facebook from their infrastructure whilst others are developing sophisticated social intra- and extranets. What is a social intranet or extranet? How would you justify spending your organisation's money on such an initiative (particularly in the current climate)? Where's the return? What might it look like? What are some of the technical choices? Who is the Stig? As is Brrism tradition, the plan is to put up some slides, demo. some stuff and kick-off a debate.

About the Speaker

Ever since graduating in 1989, John has been working in the IT industry and has loved (mostly) every minute of it. He wrote his first piece of code in 1983 on the BBC Micro. It drew a bunch of coloured triangles and from that moment on he was hooked. Over time, the coloured triangles turned into enterprise applications for a range of companies including British Aerospace, EDS & Sema Group. In the summer of 2008 he co-founded Surevine, specialising in enhancing communities and unleashing people power within organisations, typically using Social Media. The advent of Social Media, Mobile Computing (including the iPad), Cloud Computing and Geolocation means John is more excited than ever to be in the IT industry and truly believes we ain't seen nothing yet.

Anywhere, Anytime Access

We love using social media on the move - but what's the best way to do it? What phone do you buy, what apps do you run? Not as simple as you might think because they're not really phones - they're actually tiny computers and so its not just about buying the best phone but working out what "app story" you're buying into. Sam Machin will be asking: Apple, Android or other - who's going to win and in what timeframe. And, once you've decided that, what's the best app to use for Twitter, geo-location and many more. Sam doesn't have all the answers to these questions by the way - but as per Brrism's user generated content model he'll be facilitating discussion to allow you to discover the answers yourself.

About the Speaker

Sam Machin has worked in the Mobile industry for 12 years, most of that time has been spent at the convergence point of mobile and the Internet. After seeing far too many false starts he has a real hope that the truly mobile Internet is here. He likes to think of himself as a 'well rounded geek' he writes occasional code mostly in python and even more rarely blogs about the mobile industry. You can also follow him on twitter.

Brrism9 - Videos now online

2010-05-25T13:05:00.001+01:00

We had another great Brrism on Wednesday and, if you weren’t there, the videos below will give you an idea of the content. Remember that “Brrism Talks” aren’t conventional presentations, instead they’re more of a scene setter for the 45 minute “open space” discussion that follows. If you want to understand more about the full Brrism treatment of the topics, you’ll have to come along to a Brrism meeting. We’re trying to overcome that restriction by encouraging Brrism attendees to write blog posts so, if you have written something, please add a link to it in the comments section below. Or, if you manage to write your blog post before Michael writes his (i.e. this one) then you'll get your outbound link for free - like John Bradford did with his blog post.

The next Brrism meeting, Brrism#10, will be held on a Thursday (rather than the usual Wednesday) on the 17th June. The speakers are:

Andrew Charlesworth – Social Media and the Law - University of Bristol
Jon Atherton – Social Intranets - Surevine
Sam Machin - Social Media on the Move - Orange

Good News/Bad News

2010-05-11T11:27:00.007+01:00

Brrism was launched in August 2009 at the Pervasive Media Studio and we’ve since met every month, apart from December when we took a much needed break for mince pies. The PM Studio is a really nice venue in the centre of town, with wifi and overhead projector and is a nice size – it can comfortably hold 30 people but any more than that and it gets a little cramped.

Engineering the Brrism meetings so we hit that magic 30 figure has been a never ending struggle and the EventBrite event booking service has been a big help. Over the months I’ve hit on the strategy of releasing 40 places with the expectation that people will cancel at the last minute. I’ve also taken to releasing the tickets in two batches of 20, the first of which I publicise via Twitter, the second via email.

Over the months, Brrism has gained a reputation as a being a well organised, informative and fun event, and hitting the “magic 30” is no longer about drumming up demand but more about controlling numbers. For example, last week the 20 twitter-publicised tickets went in the space of 10 hours and the 20 email tickets in the space of 2. After the tickets go, I still get emails from people asking to be put on the wait list. (But, due to the fact that I oversubscribe the event, there isn't a wait list.)

So, in the immortal words of Roy Scheider "we're gonna need a bigger boat".

So that's the good news. The bad news is that the Pervasive Media Studio are getting busier and I’ve just been told that, irrespective of the size of the boat, we need to find another one. So, sad as it sounds, we’re hunting for another venue.

This is what we need:

A regular venue (Brrism needs a permanent home)
Capacity - about 40-50
Location - city centre preferred
Facilities - Wi-fi and overhead projector.
Price - free or close to free
Other - OK with food/drink being consumed on the premises

Does anyone have any suggestions? Please comment on this blog or message Brrism on twitter.

Given that we’re looking for free/close to free its worth pointing out what the venue could get out of this:

Attract a new audience - a group of bright, technically literate people will walk through the doors of your venue each month
To get to sponsor Bristol's burgeoning social media community for little cost
To be able to put social media onto your organisation’s agenda
To be able to engineer knowledge transfer between your organisation and Bristol’s social media specialists.

Given that you’ll be assured of a guaranteed place at the monthly meetings you might prefer to look on it as a debenture…

Update: Thursday 13th May

Thanks to everyone whose helped with getting the message out there about our need to find a new venue. I've got a couple of leads, one of which being Spike Island which I am following up on tomorrow and I'll keep you posted on progress. Some of you have asked about the upcoming Brrism meeting and I'm happy to say that that's going to be at the PMStudio as normal. We've also got a few dates already booked with the PMStudio so we won't be needing to move for a month or two.

Retweeting thanks to:

jodereza, Blokesbags, Diggerbitdeeper, SarahEBale, SevernStudios, jaywilliamsPR, CoWorkingWest, montagecomms, PRBristolblog, bristolbuddies, Fulcrum_CR, EmApocalyptic, niteglow, atkirby, dpoyser, indycube, andrewtf, jamesainsworth, MarketingDonut,

Brrism9 - Ask Bristol, Monitoring & Systems

2010-05-06T09:54:00.001+01:00

Brrism9 takes place on 19th May at the Pervasive Media Studio and we've got some interesting social media related topics to discuss. As usual we're using our short presentation/long discussion format (5 minutes from each of the presenters followed by a 45 minute "open space" style discussion where you are free to join whatever groups you are interested in). The speakers are listed below.

(For meeting time/venue details, and to sign up for a free ticket, please go along to the EventBrite Page.)

Ask Bristol

Social media has increased the opportunities for local authorities to connect with residents in new and low cost ways. This talk will introduce Bristol City Council’s use of social media in the Consultation Team which has focussed on increasing the use of existing e-participation tools at www.askbristol.com and providing new opportunities for two way communication between the council and residents. Discussion will look at what social media tools the council should be getting involved in and if some should be avoided? How can we make better use of the tools that we are using such as wordpress, twitter, youtube and cover it live and should we make more use of facebook? How should the council use social media to increase people’s involvement in neighbourhood partnerships to allow them to have more influence over their local area?

About the Speaker

Anna McDermott is a Consultation and Research Officer at Bristol City Council. Over the past 10 years the team has built up a very good reputation for e-participation. Anna was project manager for the Citizenscape e-participation project using web 2.0 for citizen engagement, which enabled the trialling of interactive mapping, video, online discussion and petitions for public participation in one online space which acted as a pilot for the ‘virtual town hall’ approach. Anna has worked in the team to build on this experience making use of social networking and online participation tools.

Social Media Monitoring

Social media is all about conversations but the problem is that there are just so many of them. Its like walking into a cocktail party in a room the size of an aircraft hangar. Who’s talking about you? Who’s having the conversations with which you should engage? And, given the nature of the conversations, what should YOU say?

Nigel Legg will be talking about the role of social media monitoring in all this. What tools are out there and how should they be used – both in context of the corporation and the individual.

About the Speaker

Nigel works with media and marketing agencies, and businesses in the hospitality industry (bars, clubs, and cafes) to help them use social media to promote themselves and their clients, to increase brand awareness, and potentially improve sales. Follow Nigel on Twitter.

Social Media Systems

We live in a world of systems: financial systems, eco-systems, solar systems, one-way systems and many more. Social media has made this system-soup worse. Most social media tools can be plugged into other tools that can give rise to all sorts of unintended consequences for that big connecting thing sitting in the middle of the system – YOU!

Understanding systems is therefore very important and so John Bradford will be talking about systems theory without ever using intimidating words (like “systems theory” or “Weltanschauung”). Instead he’ll be using common sense examples and, during the open space session, marker pens and whiteboards will be provided to allow you to use your new found systems knowledge to work on improving a system that we are all
familiar with – that of Brrism itself.

About the Speaker

Having taught systems theory at the University of Plymouth and developed a systemic approach to change management for his research,
John has spent the last 10 years applying his knowledge of systems theory to University-Business collaborations. John prefers the
discussions & shared knowledge that arise from developing systems models a lot more than complying religiously to the nomenclature of
any particular theory. Follow him on Twitter.

Brrism and the Ash Cloud

2010-04-19T14:16:00.000+01:00

Brrism 8 was due to feature a session called Social Media on the Move but the presenter, Sam Machin, has been marooned in San Francisco by the ash cloud. Sam was in San Fran for the Twitter developer's conference Chirp and so the ash cloud has a big silver lining: Twitter are letting him work out of their offices until he can get home.

This leaves us with a minor hole in the agenda for Wednesday and so I'm currently preparing a session called Social Media and the Government. In it I'll be summarising the views of the main parties with respect to social media technologies, quickly revisit the Digital Economy Bill (which has now received Royal Assent and is therefore law) and also look at the long term influences that social media promises for the way we'll be governing ourselves over the next few decades.

Let's hope that Eyjafjallajökull calms down and that the wind changes so Sam can come home and, hopefully, present at May's Brrism. (You can follow Sam's return home on his Twitter account. Sam, I hope you’re going to be geocoding your tweets!)

As I write this I see that there's only one ticket left for Brrism8 and so if you can no longer attend then please let me know so that I can make your ticket available to someone else.

Brrism8 - Mobile/CoWorking/Personal

2010-04-07T14:15:00.003+01:00

Brrism8 takes place on 21st April at the Pervasive Media Studio and we've got some interesting social media related topics to discuss. As usual we're using our short presentation/long discussion format (5 minutes from each of the presenters followed by a 45 minute "open space" style discussion where you are free to join whatever groups you are interested in). The speakers are listed below.

(For meeting time/venue details, and to sign up for a free ticket, please go along to the EventBrite Page.)

Social Media on the Move

Anywhere, Anytime Access

CoWorking

Working for yourself, not by yourself

Work used to be a place you went rather than a thing you did but then came along email/mobiles/the web and then, all of a sudden, the life-work boundary became very blurred. This was even worse for freelancers whose place of work is also the place they live and so, a few years ago, some freelancers from New York decided to start the "Jelly" coworking movement. Social media and the web has enabled this meme to cross the Atlantic and Bristol now has a thriving coworking community. New kinds of physical workspace are being constructed to complement the virtual worlds in which many of us work. What will these places do for our productivity, creativity and community? Will they be able to restore the work-life balance to equilibrium?

About the Speaker

Lee Cottier is a Bristol-based freelancer. As well as his "day job" as a teacher/trainer/coach, he's somehow accidentally carved himself a sideline as a local "champion" of the coworking movement. Under his twitter alter-ego of @CoWorkingWest he's spreading the message of "working for yourself, but not by yourself" and has been organising Jelly coworking events locally for the last 6 months.

Social Media and Me

The Commerce Free View

At last month's Brrism Richard Churchill presented "Social Media is Rubbish, discuss" so this month we're redressing the balance with "Social Media and Me" which takes a more Panglossian approach. This is presented by Heike Harding Reyland who, despite being a voracious user of social media in all its forms, does not use social media in her job. This makes her perfect to talk about social media from the personal perspective and all that entails.

About the Speaker

Heike is living proof that social media is the great equaliser because although she "only makes cakes for a living" (her words, not mine) she is more adept in her use of social media than many social media professionals. She tweets from HeikeM and, as you can see, listens to Radio6 and cares very much about what's going to happen to it.

Bristol, Search and Group Dynamics

2010-03-03T16:20:00.015Z

Brrism7 takes place on 17th March at the Pervasive Media Studio and we've got some interesting social media related topics to discuss. As usual we're using our short presentation/long discussion format (5 minutes from each of the presenters followed by a 45 minute "open space" style discussion where you are free to join whatever groups you are interested in). The speakers are listed below.

(For meeting time/venue details, and to sign up for a free ticket, please go along to the EventBrite page.)

Connecting Bristol

Creating a world-class Digital City

Connectivity, Technology and Media are the cornerstones of a prosperous and ambitious city like Bristol. These three ‘Digital Elements’ enable the city to, do more business; to present a modern face to the outside world; and to engage effectively with local citizens and communities. Bristol already has a wealth of digital expertise and talent, in private and public sectors, in academia and in our communities. However, we believe that Bristol and the city region can reap wider benefits from this success if we adopt an approach based on "open" "green" and "social" innovation. This talk will explore what this might look like in practice.

About the Speaker
Stephen Hilton leads Connecting Bristol, which is Bristol City Council’s Digital City Partnership. Stephen’s varied interests include Web 2.0, Digital Inclusion, e-Democracy, Next Generation broadband Access and ICT and the Environment. Previously, Stephen worked as Bristol City Council’s Consultation and e-Participation Manager. During this time Stephen established a leading role for Bristol City Council in the area of local e-Democracy and e-participation. Politech Institute named Bristol as European City for e-Democracy and Stephen received a personal award as BT Government Innovator of the Year in the National Government Computing Awards. You can follow Stephen on Twitter.

Search in the Stream

How Live Content is changing Search

Social Media has not only changed the way that web content is generated but it has also changed the way in which web content is found. This session centres around the realisation that the web is now a stream and that content is now fragmented, distributed and much more real-time than it once was. What are the new rules? How can we exploit new content types. And live content types.

About the Speaker
Justin Gale is based in Bristol and has a senior worldwide role focusing on search and digital strategy for Hewlett Packard. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.

Internet Classics

A group is its own worst enemy

The internet isn't that old but its old enough to have its "classics" - i.e. articles (or blog posts) that have passed the tests of time and are still being cited long after their writing. These articles deserve to be brought to the attention of a new audience and discussed in 2010. We're starting off with an article that was written 7 years ago which, in internet time, was eons ago. Its called "A Group is its own worst enemy", its by Clay Shirky and it talks about group dynamics, specifically group dynamics in the context of social software.

About the Speaker
Michael Corbett is Bristol Social Media's founder, organiser and master of ceremonies. He's an independent consultant who specialises in social media and its socio-technical implications for organisations. You can connect with him on Facebook, LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.

Three Speakers and a Hoe Down

2010-02-04T13:59:00.006Z

Brrism's second meeting of the 2010 will take place at the Pervasive Media Studio on the 17th February. Read more and signup below.

Not only is this Brrism's second meeting of this new decade, it is also the second meeting with the new YouTube format. Here's the lineup:

Writing the Social Media Future. Writers such as George Orwell, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Neal Stephenson have created fictional futures exploring the impact of future technologies on humanity. Despite only being works of imagination, speculative fiction can stimulate discussion about how humanity could be affected by technology in the future and, as Orwell demonstrated in 1984, these can be frighteningly close to the bone. In a unique blend of social media future gazing and fiction writing, Brrism is collaborating with local author Emma Newman to generate themes relating to the future of social media, leading to the creation of an original short story written by Emma after the meeting for the Brrism community. (Editors Note: Emma is a soon-to-be-published author who writes novels, short stories and flash fiction (stories of 1000 words or less). She got her publishing deal through networking on Twitter, and has been podcasting her novel a chapter at a time for the last six months. If you have a few minutes, I'd recomend a quick peek at her website before the meeting.)

Social Media is rubbish, discuss. Did you know that social media is a cure for cancer and will single handedly reverse all climate change problems within our lifetime? OK, so I may have made that up, but don't you think that all this social media hype is getting out of hand? In order to make sure we don't all get carried away by this shiny new internet stuff, Brrism asked Richard Churchill to put on his best Victor Meldrew voice and ask us if we're not getting just a tiny bit carried away by all this shiny new internet stuff. He takes a common sense tour of social media and points out that it's important to use the right tools for the job and not get sucked in by the hype.

The WikiMedia Foundation. Wikipedia has already changed the world. From its launch in 2001 its become the 6th most popular website in the world and is the boon for enquiring minds the world over. But Wikipedia is just one project borne out of the Wikimedia Foundation and so we've asked Steve Virgin, board director of WikiMediaUK, to talk to use about the foundation's other projects and what local initiatives are being led from the UK.

The Hoedown. Every Brrism has a hoedown and February is no exception. This one's called Arranging the Comic Strip and will get you talking, get you on your feet and get you in the right frame of mind for the Brrism OpenSpace that follows. Take a look at the pictures from previous meetings to get a feel for what happens when a bunch of interesting and intelligent people come together at a Brrism meeting.

Thanks once again to the brilliant Pervasive Media Studio for lending us their premises for the event.

Brrism enters the Video Age

2010-01-18T17:12:00.010Z

I first heard a recording of my voice when I was 7 years old. My dad had this funny old reel-to-reel tape recorder (purchased in the 1960s) and I was convinced that it was the recorder that was making my voice “sound all funny”. I soon discovered that it wasn’t. I really DO sound like that.

Several decades later, the same thing happens but this time with digital video. Once again, I think it must be the camera that’s making me “look all funny”. And once again, I realise that it isn’t…

This Wednesday, Bristol Social Media (Brrism) will be holding its monthly meeting at the Pervasive Media Studio. People have complained at previous Brrisms about the difficulty in finding the studio (we've even had people who've given up and gone home without getting there) and so last week I decided to do something about it. Sam Downie and myself went out and shot the video below. Sam did a great job of shooting and editing the video – I’d like to take this opportunity to thank him – but, despite his video skills, I still look and sound funny. Strange that...

Seriously, if you haven’t been to the Pervasive Media Studio before, I’d suggest you have a quick look to familiarise yourself with the location of Bristol’s very own “Platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross”. Just remember to turn the volume down. ;)

Constructive feedback on the video is welcome too – please leave a comment on the YouTube page.

If you click on the video frame you’ll be taken to YouTube and you might notice that Brrism has its own YouTube “channel”. This is because, at this coming meeting, each of the guest speaker’s 5 minute presentations will be videoed and uploaded to BrrismTV. These videos can be embedded on other people’s blogs (just as the video was embedded in this blog) and its hoped that the videos will be used as a prologue to all other social media items about that particular topic. (In other words, people start with the video and follow links to other blogs/websites/tweets about that topic.) Is this taking us towards a meeting format for the social media age? Judge for yourself at the meeting. It won't be perfect and I’m sure it will need a bit of and tweaking around the edges. Brrism aims to be as innovative as the social media that it focuses on.

The three speakers for Wednesday are Paul Smith, Lee Cottier and Colin Rainsforth. Break a leg, guys and don’t worry if you think the camera will make you look/sound funny: It does that to everyone!

Brrism5 - Time, Politics and Community

2010-01-06T14:57:00.012Z

It's a brand new year, a brand new decade and Brrism has a brand new format. Every Brrism meeting now consists of three topics and an icebreaker. For the first meeting of 2010 (which takes place on Wednesday 20th at the Pervasive Media Studio) the line up is as follows:

The Digital Economy Bill with Paul Smith (twitter, blog). Paul is a PPC which I normally take to mean "Pay per Click" but Paul assures me that it means "Prospective Parliamentary Candidate" which gives him an added incentive to be interested in the Digital Economy Bill which is currently making its way through the House of Lords before progressing to the House of Commons and being made law. This is your chance to find out about the bill, discuss it with fellow Brrismers and decide what action to take (e.g. change ISP, write to your MP, etc etc). Pre-meeting discussion can take place here (registration required).
Social Media versus Time Management with Lee Cottier (twitter). The first of January is the day that we traditionally make our New Year's resolutions with the second of January being the day that we traditionally forget them. Lee will be telling us how we can rethink our habits around social media such we can work more effectively and not get sucked into the Twitter/Facebook/etc time-waste. Pre-meeting discussion can take place here (registration required).
Social media tools for the Brrism Community with Colin Rainsforth (twitter, website). Brrism's "pattern of use" so far has been a great deal of activity in the week of the meeting followed by 3 weeks of inactivity. It would be great if we could generate conversations that would transcend the meetings and allow us to act as an integrated community throughout the month. Colin has much experience with social media tools as well as being involved with online communities before the likes of Ecademy and Facebook made the term popular. Pre-meeting discussion can take place here (registration required).
Icebreaker: The 2009 Memory Game. 2009 was chock full of interesting news stories concerning social media and this game refreshes your memory, gets you talking to other people at the meeting and allows you to have a lot of fun.

As usual, Brrism is free though we do like people to chip in a quid or two to cover the food and drinks that are provided. Also be aware that there will be digital cameras at the event and if you are on the run from the police it would be best to stay away as your mug could end up on the internet. You will also have to sign up on EventBrite by using the form below.

The venue is always hard to find. There is a map here or email the venue for directions.

A New Logo for Brrism

2009-12-16T15:35:00.010Z

The great thing about the web is that it makes everything so visual and exciting. The downside, of course, is that everything that is not visual and exciting is doomed to be lost in the background noise.

Back in the summer, when I wasn't even sure if Brrism would get off the ground, I realized that if it did not have a graphical identity it would also get lost and so, armed with a Creative Commons image, an open source graphical editor (the GIMP) and approximately 30 minutes of spare time I came up with the Brrism “prism” logo. This logo featured on Brrism's Twitter account, the EventBrite events pages, the blog, etc etc. The logo has done its job. But the time has come to put the "dark side of the moon" logo out to pasture and to come up with something a bit more professional.

Karl Louden of MakeDesignEnjoy designs logos for a living and when he offered his services to Brrism free of charge I gratefully accepted. Karl facilitated some logo brainstorming at the last Brrism meeting and came up with the design you see on this page.

I like it for a number of reasons:

It’s simple and easily recognizable
The shape works at large and small sizes (right down to favicon size).
The shape is distinctive enough to be used in different colours and still retain the Brrism "essence".
It makes Brrism look friendly, human and fun. (Come to a meeting and you'll realise that's what we're about.)
The shape of the b looks like a hand with the index finger extended or a thumbs up sign. Both of which have positive connotations.
It’s memorable
All of the people that I’ve showed it to so far have liked it.
Most importantly, it draws attention to the double r in Brrism. (The double R is necessary for uniqueness - URL & IDs - and for SEO. As well as reflecting Bristol's Brrizzle burr.)

I've been involved with logo design in the past and I know what a sensitive, subjective subject it can be. Past experience has shown me that you can't please everyone all the time and also that, sometimes, logos can attract initial skepticism only to later grow on people. But this is very much a collective community and so I ask: What do Brrismers think of it?

Please let’s have a discussion on twitter (hashtag: #brrismlogo), the wiki, LinkedIn group, or this blog (leave comments below). Negative comments are, of course, welcome - so long as they are constructive. If you don't like the logo, please say why.

We will, of course, be able to discuss it face to face when we meet again (the next Brrism meeting is scheduled for the 20^th January). Over to you, Brrismers...

December's Fail Whale

2009-12-01T15:55:00.001Z

I don't know what the world is coming to! Real life gets in the way of social media and December's Brrism is cancelled due to mince pies.

But don't worry. Brrism is returning in the New Year with a new, revised format: future Brrisms will feature three speakers and three separate discussion streams.

The next Brrism will be on Wednesday 20th January with the following line up:

The icebreaker will be the "2009 Social Media Memory Game".

Watch this space for more details.

Brrism 4 - the one with the daemons

2009-11-23T17:21:00.014Z

Everybody brought along a daemon to last week's Brrism event. There was a snow leopard, lions, bears, mice and even a giant panda. The daemons were of the Philip Pulman/Golden Compass variety and they were all part of the Brrism icebreaker.

We'd experimented with an icebreaker at Brrism3, and now with the experience of Brrism4 under our belts, the icebreaker is here to stay. Icebreakers are a wonderful technique to use and, in the Brrism context, they seem to: Increase energy levels in the room, encourage people to open up and start talking to each other (an effect that persists long after the icebreaker finishes) and, from what I saw, foster a sense of community. Which, after all, is what Brrism is all about. And they're good fun too!

Social media is more about people than it is technology and so this post is mainly about people. Peter Tecks (Giant Panda) turned up to the meeting with more cameras and re-chargable batteries than you could shake a stick at and his photostream can be seen here. (Videos will be online soon and we'll also post the photos to facebook.) Ady Harold (Roe Deer) was "twitter scribe" and broadcast #Brrism tweets from her twitter account. Sam Downie (Snow Leopard), webcast the entire proceedings from his Mac and, much to my amazement, a few people watched the webcast from home! Karl Louden facilitated a Brrism Branding session which has started off a conversation about what we want Brrism to be (in terms of mood, brand values etc). More from Karl later. We also had some lovely catering for the event but on that topic I'm sworn to secrecy! The only thing I can say is the caramel shortbread was superb...

We actually had some serious discussion about social media too. The theme of the meeting was Social Media Machinery. The problem with "social media" is that it is a collection of disparate tools and they all need to be connected in order to achieve some overall aim. The interesting thing is that this particular "machine" consists of people as well as technology. (William S. Burroughs called this part the "soft machine".) The cogs and levers not only consist of Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, etc but also consist of individuals, groups, process and, strangely enough, games. Hence the daemons.

The overall turnout wasn't as good as usual and I think that may have been due to a last minute date change. There were also a few people who were off sick (including one who's still suffering from the lurgy even as I write). But despite that, virtually everyone at the meeting piled over to the Watershed for Apres Brrism. Which makes me think that Brrism has turned the corner in terms of being here to stay. Social Media is alive and well in Bristol!

You and your Daemon

2009-11-16T17:13:00.021Z

This blog post is aimed at people who are attending this Thursday's Brrism event. If you've haven't signed up yet, there are still a few tickets left on EventBrite.

Bristol Social Media events aren't just about social media - they are also designed to be entertaining, fun and encourage networking. That's why we had the Who Are You Hoedown at the last meeting. (If you are interested in hoedown please read the Brrism blog entry or what other people said about it on their blog: Ady Harold, Emma Newman, Team Rubber.)

The hoedown was incredibly well received and the only bad thing I heard said about it was that it was a bit long. So, naturally, we're going to do a another icebreaker - only shorter.

This one's called "You and your Daemon" and, as well as ticking the usual boxes (fun, icebreaking, networky) it also has relevance to the Brrism Branding session that we are running at the tail end of Brrism4.

The way it works will be explained on the night, all you have to do right now is to choose your daemon. In case you haven't read the books or seen the film then a daemon is the animal that represents your inner self, your hidden self. If your inner self is a perfectionist and concerned in getting things absolutely right then you might like to take a look at this YouTube video to make sure you understand the concept. Otherwise choose the first animal that pops into your head - you might find that your subconscious chosen the right one for you.

Once you've decided on YOUR daemon simply fill out this form and we'll make sure you've got a natty little name badge when you arrive at the event on Thursday. See you there!

Brrism4 - Social Media Machinery

2009-11-09T11:48:00.012Z

As everyone who’s watched this video knows, its very important to “hook your twitter into your facebook and plug your blogfeed into your reader” and, in a tongue in cheek way, we’d have to agree. Plugging things together is important but the real idea behind Social Media Machinery is about using different social media tools in a coordinated way to achieve some sort of objective (business or otherwise).

The fourth Brrism meeting takes place at the Pervasive Media Studio on Thursday 19th November. It's meet at 6:30 for 7 PM start and after 2 hours we'll decamp and carry on the conversation over a drink or two at the Watershed. If a picture paints a thousand words then this photo album will give you an idea of what to expect.
Thanks once again to the fantastic Pervasive Media Studio for the use of their excellent facilities and, once again, you must sign up on EventBrite (see below).

Previous Brrism events have “sold out” so grab your ticket fast but please don’t sign up unless you’re pretty sure you can attend – otherwise you’re denying a ticket to someone else.

Everyone’s welcome, social media expert or beginner alike. And if you are a beginner then we promise that no one will offer to “hook your twitter into your facebook”. Or at least I hope they won’t…

Agenda

Intro, overview
Social Media machinery – Developing systems, copying best practice, how to construct the Brrism social media machine (discuss & collect Tweet Seed)
Google Wave – overview & demonstration (discuss & collect Tweet Seed)
Mixer
1 hour long unconference session where Brrismers can pick up on topics picked up in the Tweet Seed or simply discuss their own stuff.
Brrism branding – MakeDesignEnjoy have offered to design a Brrism logo. This is where we brief them.
Washup & decamp to Watershed

What on earth is "Tweet Seed"?

Brrism3 - The one with the Hoedown

2009-10-24T18:35:00.013+01:00

I was never a big fan of Friends but the one thing I liked was that they always gave the episodes straightforward titles. Even after all these years you’ll probably remember "The One with Ross's Wedding" or "The One with Joey's Fridge" just because the titles map onto the way that we organize memories in our brains.

The original title for the third episode of Brrism was “Who Are You” but I’m sure it will be remembered as “The One with the Hoedown” judging by the feedback and the blog articles that have been written about it. If you weren’t there you could read Ady’s (from Sticky Media) blog post or Emma’s (from Your Nisaba). The pictures tell their own story. The hoedown generated a huge amount of energy in the room, got everybody got talking and (this is only my impression) improved the sense of community around Brrism.

The Hoedown was the creation of an old friend of mine, Penelope Else, who sweated blood over the format and, ironically, the actual namebadges. All I did was come up with a the name. Thank you very much, Pen, you deserve a round of Twitter applause. (Social Media Experiment: If you enjoyed the hoedown, please tweet with the hashtag #thankspenelope.)

I’d also like to thank Lee Cottier who facilitated the feedback session at the end. I chose Lee to do this not only because he’s a great facilitator but also because I want to stress to people that Brrism is not mine – I’m just the catalyst (if you recall the Starfish and Spider terminology of the first Brrism). The reason why I have had to put so much of me into the event is that groups are a bit like snowballs. You have to push them a long way before they gather enough snow to carry on rolling on their own. But the snowball seems to be picking up pace. People have started to volunteer for Brrism jobs. Not just the sexy ones like volunteering to speak at the next Brrism but also the boring ones. I won’t list all the volunteers here (you’ll get a mention elsewhere) but I’ll pick out Paul Matthews of UWE for a special mention since he has volunteered to bring along the food and drink for the next meeting! You wouldn’t believe how heavy all that beer, nibbles and fruit juice is to carry so I’m totally over the moon.

The results of the feedback session were interesting. Some of you it seems are so interested in social media that you end up boring the pants off your friends/colleagues/partners. I can relate to that and so Brrism is appreciated as a place where we can talk about this interesting new field without fear of stifled yawns or rolled eyes. People also said that they were impressed with the turnout and energy levels. (Yes, I was too!)

From a negative point of view, it seems that Brrism has so many social media channels that attention is diluted, messages get lost and confusion sets in. The group self-solved this problem and we agreed that a Brrism portal (acting as an index to social media channels) is the way forward here and there’ll be another blog post about that soon. There was also talk that the sessions need to have more of a practical element to them. That’s probably true and the reason why the first three Brrisms have had a “high level concept” as their theme has been the result of my experience with the Bristol Knowledge Café (run by Bristol’s own Ed Mitchell). I think the conceptual approach works for the BKC but future Brrisms will be more practically oriented. Again, watch this space for a future blog article about the future format of Brrism.

Thanks for reading so far and, if you came to the meeting, thanks for your input too. I hope you can come to the next one – it'll be held on November 18th at the Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol.

Post Blog Updates:

Rubber Ductions also wrote a blog post (but there were more people there than their picture suggests!)

We also said at the meeting that we would try an experiment where we would tag our delicious entries with the tag "brrism" if we thought they'd be interesting to other Brrismers.

Who Are You (October's Brrism Meeting)

2009-10-07T15:31:00.007+01:00

The persona you project (via social media) dictates the response you'll get. This is hard enough for individuals to get right but its even more difficult for organisations where the "persona" equates to the brand.

The third Brrism meeting takes place at the Pervasive Media Studio on the 21st October. It's meet at 6:30 for 7 PM start and after 2 hours we'll decamp and carry on the conversation over a drink or two at the Watershed. The previous two Brrisms have attracted about 30 people apiece and attendees have ranged from business owners, technical managers, social media newbies and even the local MP.

The meeting will be similar to the first two but with a few minor tweaks. If you attended the last meeting, you'll have received a brief questionnaire and, if you responded, we listened to what you've said. You asked for more mixers/icebreakers/networking opportunities; and you asked for more practicals/how to. We think we've taken this on board and so this is the meeting line up:

Who are you? Online identities determine the response we get from the social media "universe". How can we see ourselves as others see us? How can we put across what we think we're putting across? This session will comprise of a very short presentation from @KobB coupled with a group exercise that also acts as an icebreaker and mixer.
Twitter Tools. A quick tour of twitter tools and how they can help you.
"Ready, Steady, Social Media" - this is a bit like "Ready, Steady, Cook" but involves less food, more social media and a lot more audience participation.
Knowledge Cafe - (what's this?) this is an informal networking session where you can form your own groups, talk to who you want, and do your own thing. NEW: Give other people a heads up as to what you want to talk about in the Cafe by adding your name to the wiki page.

Its FREE to attend and there's FREE Wi-Fi at the venue so please bring your laptops. You'll get a lot more out of the Who Are You session if you do, plus we'll be doing an informal demo of Google Wave and, if you have a laptop, you might be able to join in. Laptops are also good because tweeting during the event is positively encouraged. Just remember to use the hashtag #brrism. Or, even simpler, just put brrism in your tweets and they'll pop out here. (Where, if you've signed up for the wiki, you'll find you can use threaded replies.)

You must sign up on EventBrite!!! (We were oversubscribed for the first event.)

Can you help?: I'm looking for people to help with the next Brrism. Here are a list of meeting jobs. Plus, if you know someone who would like to speak at the next Brrism please let me know. Note: speakers are not allowed to use the platform to sell anything.

Sorry, Brrism is sold out

2009-08-13T08:59:00.007+01:00

Brrism is sold out? Really? Really!

I suppose that's both good news and bad news. Good news that Brrism is so well supported. Bad news in that some people will have to be turned away.

If you haven't been able to sign up I'm really, really sorry. The problem is that the venue, the Pervasive Media Studio, struggles to hold more than 30. We are working to find a bigger venue for the second event (scheduled for September 16th) but obviously that doesn't help you right now. If you'd really like to come to the launch event then please email me and we'll see what we can do.

If you are lucky enough to have signed up on EventBrite or Twtvite or Facebook then please bear in mind that since the event seems to be oversubscribed then it wouldn't be good if you've "booked a seat" and on the night you're a "no show". We all have to stay in an wash our hair sometimes but, if you have signed up but now know you can't come then please email me.

Of course, the above doesn't apply to Pervasive Media Studio residents because we can't exactly turn you away from your own studio can we? But if you plan on coming and haven't signed up, please could you drop me an email just so I can anticipate numbers.

Venue Owners: if you own (or are responsible for) a suitable venue and you'd like a way of attracting a sizeable number of Brrismers to your venue then please drop me a line. You must have space for about 50 people, wi-fi and, preferably, PC projection facilities.

The Birth of Brrism

2009-07-06T11:02:00.001+01:00

Brrism – It’s Brrizzle for "Social Media"

Is Bristol Britain’s premier digital city? After all, its home to a cluster of new media industries, part of Silicon Gorge and has recently been named as one of Britain’s Science Cities.

It’s always been a surprise that, given this level of switched-on activity, there’s not been a forum for social media types in the city.

This is changing with Brrism, which is Brrizzle for Bristol Social Media.

We’re aiming Brrism at:

Bloggers / social media geeks
Website publishers / managers
Journalists / Writers
Artists / musicians
Photographers / videographers
Activists / social entrepreneurs
Businesses/marketers
Academics/researchers/writers

The first event is in Bristol on Wednesday evening, 19th August.

Meetings organisation will follow the ethos that social media tools themselves follow – a mixture of the pre-planned-predictability coupled with the ability to self-organise on the fly.

The Pre-planned predictability:

The third Wednesday of the month
At the Pervasive Media Studio
6:30 for a 7PM start
Finish at 9 followed by drinks at the Watershed
A meeting theme which will be in the form of a 10-20 minute presentation/web-based-show-and-tell
A brief self-organisation period (i.e. how will the rest of the meeting be run)
An hour long “open space”
The venue has Wi-Fi and so live tweeting, video casting, etc is positively encouraged. (Meeting hashtag = #brrism)
Wrap-up/wash-up session at the end
Drinks at the Watershed afterwards
Meeting resources on delicious

Self-organisation on the fly:

We’ll decide what groups to split into (and what the groups will discuss) on the night. NB you are free to self organise! If you want a group that doesn’t discuss the meeting theme at all then that’s OK too.
Law of Two Feet states that you can leave any group and join another whenever you like (please be civil about it and remember that “social” is a big part of “social media”)
You can bring your own food and drink but please respect the Pervasive Media Studio – let’s not abuse their trust in us.
Next month’s meeting (theme, organisation, etc) can be discussed via twitter using hashtag #nextbrrism

The key point of all this is sharing is to have energising discussions, learn from each other and to have fun!

The first theme for the first meeting will be “The Starfish and the Spider” and you can get a feel for the book by its Wikipedia article. I don’t want to pre-empt the discussions (I really am keen to allow the group to set its own direction on the night) but I am hoping it could spawn some interesting conversations on how Brrism itself should be run.

Thanks for reading. My name is Michael Corbett and you can follow me on Twitter, be my friend on facebook or simply meet me at the Pervasive Media Studio. I’m looking forward to meeting you. You can also follow Brrism on Twitter.

Many thanks to the Pervasive Media Studio (@pmstudiouk) and Ed Mitchell (@edmittance) without whom this first meeting would not be able to take place.