Paradise Circus

You may have seen the new Birmingham City Council site, judging by comments I’d say most of you don’t think it lives up to its potential. But — could a group of volunteers do better?

What does a council site need, can it be scraped together and built in a better way for free?

I’m not volunteering to code, but thought it was worth discussing — so why not pop over to the BCCDIY wiki and see what occurs…

We’ve now got a good mix of meet ups happening in city. I’m wondering if it’s time to do something a little more formal so I’m proposing a series of discussion panels.

To start things off how about “How to be a better blogger”. Get four established bloggers to talk about what they do and follow it with a Q&A. I’m happy to moderate (want to get more experience in this). Hold it in the back room of a pub – maybe the Spotted Dog or the Lamp Tavern – one evening from 7pm. An hour or so of formal then get with the chatting.

If there’s enough interest I’ll start organising it. I’d also be looking for suggestions for people to be on the panel.

The Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol appeared on my radar last week after their Director Clare Reddington gave a talk at C:Cubed last week. Their mission is to see what can be done with social tech in the mobile arena, for example with the mscape platform. There’s more info on their about page but it seems they realised the benefit of having clusters of interesting, curious and experimental people in their spaces on a regular basis as every Friday they turn their offices into a co-working space where conversation is encouraged.

I like this idea a lot and, as such, am wondering if there are any companies or organisations in Birmingham that would like to try something similar. We’re often looking for places to meet and work during the week and if they think they could benefit from having us around the place it’s a win-win.

Any thoughts?

Thanks to Nikki Pugh for the heads up.