Thursday, 6 May 2010

Brrism9 - Ask Bristol, Monitoring & Systems

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.

Monday, 19 April 2010

Brrism and the Ash Cloud


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.

Wednesday, 7 April 2010

Brrism8 - Mobile/CoWorking/Personal

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

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.


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.

Wednesday, 3 March 2010

Bristol, Search and Group Dynamics

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.