Birmingham Social Media Cafe

The next BSMC will be on:

Friday 24 September 2010, downstairs at the Coffee Lounge on Navigation Street (map)

The listings are on Upcoming and Facebook – if you’d like to add yourself to say you’re coming then people will know to look out for you.

We’re just in the process of confirming a sponsor, so hold tight for that. However, if you’d like to sponsor a BSMC event and get your name known/show off a thing you’ve made in front of a crowd of smart and savvy people then get in touch.

Also on 24 September is the Macmillan Coffee Morning. We might do something for that – we’re just looking into it.

Got something you want to talk about?

We get a good mix of people coming along, so if you want to talk about something in particular then there’s probably someone else who wants to do the same – chats about alternate reality, coworking spaces, how to improve council consultations have all gained traction at the BSMC.

Drop whatever’s on your mind in the comments and we’ll see about finding those other people for you.

Thanks to everyone who came down for the Birmingham Social Media Cafe this morning – a good turnout with some new faces, some good chats and (dare I say it) a couple of interesting opportunities emerging for one or two people. That’s what we like to (over)hear!

The next meet-up will be at the same time and place on Friday 24 September, with a few exciting extras to be announced – details will be up soon.

A slightly shorter round-up of links this week – people must either be on holiday or sheltering from the rain. Or both.

• What would you show from Birmingham to demonstrate how the web can do local better than local tv? | Podnosh – “What is happening here (and in other parts of the country and the world) has in it the start of what the government should really nurture instead of Local TV”
• Screen WM – Driving innovation and excellence in screen media : News – “The Awards are an ideal opportunity to showcase companies and give recognition to their teams for all their hard work and effort.”
• Switchboard survey | Created in Birmingham – Very short survey about the kind of support companies and people in the creative/digital/media might want
• LoTR Online for free « D’log – Codemasters’ Lord of the Ring Online will be free-to-play from 10 September
• 383 Project » New Faces at 383 – Lots of new people have been joining the ranks

There’s probably plenty of news that we missed. Feel free to add it in the comments or tweet it to @BirminghamSMC.

Here’s another rag-tag bunch of the sorts of things that have been happening around the region in the past week. As ever, if it’s not on here then add it in the comments.

And don’t forget that the next Birmingham Social Media Cafe is next week – Friday 27 August at the Coffee Lounge from 10am.

• Film Forum WM awarded funding by Screen WM – “from now on we’re going to take FFWM up a notch, considerably”
• Birmingham Mail launches Communities project | Talk About Local – “Today, the Birmingham Mail lifted the covers off Birmingham Mail Communities, a hyperlocal area of the Mail website which we hope will bring us much closer to the city’s hyperlocal community”. This is on the TAL website and the use of first person confused me until I saw the author is the Mail’s David Higgerson
• Birmingham Post – Business – Business News – Creative industries – New face at McCann Erickson Birmingham – “Gray Dudek is joinging the firm in a board level position as managing director of McCann-i”. In other news, Andrew Bowyer’s also joined from Clusta
• Council spending on websites – “What happens when a council spends £2.8m on its website?” Nice visualisation on the Guardian Datablog
• Community news, local information and events from the Birmingham Mail – The Birmingham Mail are syndicating content from hyperlocal blogs around the city
• Be2Camp Brum 2010 | Meshed Media – Big write-up from the event with photos and videos
• Substrakt – Andy says “I attended and presented at Birmingham’s be2camp yesterday at the Library Theatre” and here’s his write-up
• Big Button | Blog | 10 tips to get marketing results from online video – Informative.
• Birmingham Post – Staffordshire software firm handed US government contract – “Instem has signed a contract for an initial two-year period with the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, worth over £420,000″
• Birmingham Post – Hi-tech firms get chance to expand into Canada – “UK Trade & Investment’s Coventry & Warwickshire international trade team is organising a market visit to Toronto and Waterloo for West Midlands Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies from September 27 to October 1″
• StickyWorld – Exhibition Rooms – All the presentations from Be2Camp
• transphorm.me – “Transphorm.me helps you make a change in your life, track your progress with points and rewards, and share your progress with friends” Mark Steadman’s submission for Django Dash
• Supersonic ) News )) Supersonic Festival Last.FM Radio Channel – “today’s the day we launch our Supersonic Last.FM radio channel”. Excellent.

Got any news that we missed? Add it in the comments or tweet it to @BirminghamSMC.

Coming out on a Friday for the first time since the first one, here’s a snapshot of some of the news, discussions and events that have been going on:

• genzai·chi » DIY Arduino – “Starting on Wednesday the 18th of August we’ll be experimenting with themed hacksessions on a more formalised basis”
• SXSWi Panel Picker – sxswm2011′s posterous – “Voting is now live on SXSWi Panel Picker … so let’s rally as much support as possible for any panels submitted from the West Midlands”
• The Briefcast | Meshed Media – The Briefcast is a quick skim through a report about art/tech/digital/online/creativity. The kind of ones you download but never get round to reading
• We Are Fierce» Blog Archive » Karl Fredricksson’s First Email – The email that sparked Fierce’s ‘My First Email’ project
• Council Websites The Good The Bad And The Need To Improve | Talk About Local – Can a council website really cost £32000 with £500/month ongoing costs?
• New stats on the West Midlands creative workforce « D’log – “More statistics on the West Midlands creative workforce”
• CWSMC » Blog Archive » July round-up – Info about what they’ve been getting up to at the Coventry & Warwickshire Social Media Cafe
• Birmingham Post – Illustrious listing for McCann Erikson man – Oliver Disney from McCann Erickson Birmingham has been named in Media Week’s 30 under 30
• Screen WM: Events – UKTI Mission to Tokyo Games Show – “Amplifying Voices is a collaboration between The Rural Media Company, BBC Radio 4/Radio Drama and the communities of Ewyas Harold and Kington”
• Brum IxDA Reboot Meeting 15/07/2010 – Further notes – Notes from the last meeting
• Gigkick for iPhone and iPod touch on the iTunes App Store – “Gigkick will locate gigs in the city you’re in on that day. It will also connect to your Songkick profile to display your upcoming gigs”. Developed by Anthony Herron
• FLUID – summer update – Featuring work for MTV, Chrysalis Music and SEGA as well as a film poster for The Maid

There’s a bunch of events happening in the next week, including Multipack, Tech Wednesday, A Rack et Hack Hack, Likemind and Digital Playground. Check Digital Brum for info and links.

Got any news that we missed? Add it in the comments or tweet it to @BirminghamSMC.

News of a digital nature from around the region soon to be formerly known as the West Midlands:

• UKGovCamp | Groups | Hyperlocal Govcamp West Midlands | Home – “A group for Hyperlocal Govcamp West Midlands – a smallish midweek affair for West Midlands types taking place in Walsall this September”
• Screen WM – News – New pilot scheme launched to open up digital cinema to rural Shropshire – “UK Film Council awards new consortium £400,000 to run Shropshire Rural Cinema Pilot Scheme”
• Journey times to Birmingham New Street throughout the day – “This was produced as a byproduct of programming along the way of creating Mapumental for mySociety / 4IP. The animation was actually made by Francis Irving, I just set it to music” Matthew Somerville has been at it again
• Retooled — Retooled is a place to find and share experiences of the rollercoaster of redundancy. – “This site was begun by a group of employees who were all made redundant when our company MG Rover closed’
• SUPERCOOL | Branding, design for print, web development and other digital shenanigans | Birmingham – Supercool have a new site stuffed with the work they’ve done to date
• Interview with James Walters, Tomorrow People – James talks chutney, among other things
• Makin Jan Ma Online Storytelling | Kinglux – “In order to help Makin promote his new collections in the run up to London Fashion Week, we have begun a collaborative experiment using social media platforms Facebook and Posterous”
• Screen WM – Flip International Animation Festival confirms high profile guests for November’s festival – “including Clare Kitson, the first Commissioning Editor for Animation at Channel 4, and Andy Gent, Head of Puppets on the recent film The Fantastic Mr Fox”
• Screen WM – Arcade, is now a Guinness World Record holder for creating the first stereoscopic 3D console game – “UK Blitz Arcade, the downloadable games division of Blitz Games Studios, is now a Guinness World Record holder for the first video game to use stereoscopic polarised 3D”
• Birmingham Post – Birmingham Post to produce The Definitive Marketing & PR Handbook for the West Midlands – “This September, we will be producing ‘The Definitive Marketing and PR Handbook’ West Midlands edition, which will be a 52-page high quality A5 glossy product, distributed in all copies of the Birmingham Post, and also uploaded onto the Birmingham Post website”
• TAK! – At the beginning of July 2010 – exactly six years from the day they opened – we closed the doors at TAK! Towers ti explore new ideas & ventures. It’s been fun, thanks for having us!

Got any news that we missed? Add it in the comments or tweet it to @BirminghamSMC.

The next BSMC will be on:

Friday 27 August 2010, downstairs at the Coffee Lounge on Navigation Street

The customary listings are on Upcoming and Facebook – add yourself to say you’ll be coming and people will be able to know to look out for you.

Coffees (and cooler drinks) will be provided by this month’s sponsor News Dash:

News Dash is a project to help community organisations tell their stories, using online and offline methods. It’s being produced by Meshed Media and is part of Say Hello, a Hello Digital project.

You’ll be asked to sing for your supper drinks – nothing too tricky, but you might be asked to give a leave a tip for how a community organisation or charity might use social media to help achieve their aims.

Remember, you can now also follow Birmingham Social Media Cafe on twitter here.

See you there…

Thanks to everyone who came along on Friday – the next event is on Friday 27 August 2010. Listings and info will be online shortly. In the meantime, here’s a (slightly later than intended) news/links round-up:

• DCMS – Review of Arm’s Length Bodies – “A number of our public bodies are set to be merged, abolished or streamlined”. The UK Film Council and Museums, Libraries and Archives Council will be abolished
• Healthy, leisurely scraping at Hacks and Hackers Hack Day Birmingham | Scraperwiki Data Blog – “Health, education and leisure centre data came under scrutiny from Birmingham programmers and journalists at last Friday’s Hacks and Hackers Hack Day”
• Wired – New theatre crowdsources plot in real-time – “‘Tuning Out With Radio Z’ is a unique theatrical event asks audience members to bring a phone or a laptop to write text, send ideas, submit images and make requests to influence the action unfolding on stage”
• ICT Excellence Awards 2010 – Here are the application forms. Closing date is 1 October 2010
• Birmingham Post – Roger Shannon: Vital regional support for film must continue – Roger Shannon musing on the UKFC’s imminent disappearance
• The Stirrer • UK Film Council axed – what future for Screen WM? – And, for balance, here are some opposing views on the subject
• Library branding work that rewrites the book | klm – KLM have done the branding for the new Birmingham library
• MEDIA Mundus (2011 – 2013) – UK MEDIA Team – “MEDIA Mundus is the European Commission’s new international co-operation programme. It will provide €15 million of funding from 2011-2013 for projects which strengthen cultural and commercial relations in the audiovisual industry between Europe and professionals of non-European countries”
• ORB Creative Refurnish JHS Online Presence | ORB Creative – New work from ORB
• FLUID – Brief Encounters – Fluid’s work on the PlayStation Media Kit gets four pages in Computer Arts
• #davethedog — Substrakt – Andy introduces the latest and, arguably, the cutest member of the Substrakt team

Got any news that we missed? Add it in the comments or tweet it to @BirminghamSMC.

Back for seconds, here’s the follow-up to last week’s first in an ongoing series of links to West Midlands digital/tech/social media news:

• Screen WM – News: Major BBC One drama series Hustle returns to film in Birmingham – “The production will once again be supported by investment from the Advantage Media Production Fund, Screen WM’s major production fund from the Regional Development Agency, Advantage West Midlands and the European Regional Development Fund”
• Birmingham Post – Student earns more than £80k from iPhone app – “Nineteen-year-old Greg Hughes came up with a piece of downloadable software which synchronises a user’s iPhone and computer wirelessly – and, at the last count, 12,500 copies had been sold at $9.99 each since it went on sale in mid-May”. It’s called Wi-Fi Sync and available via Cydia
• Custard Factory to host launch of first PlayStation BETA event « Custard Factory – “On Saturday 31st July and Sunday 1st August, the Vaad Gallery at the Custard Factory will be hosting the first ever Playstation BETA event in Birmingham”
• NHS local – Big project developed by Maverick TV, among others – “NHS local is a range of digital services for NHS staff and the public in the West Midlands”
• Birmingham Post – Maverick TV to go behind scenes of supermodel agency – “Birmingham-based Maverick Television is to produce a new series going behind the scenes of the model agency which helped build the careers of supermodels such as Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer”
• Life . News . Fancy some work experience? (20th July 2010) – Life are offering a marketing student a summer placement (warning – the link goes to a pretty infuriating website)
• Made Media » Royal Court Theatre – “Made’s been working on the new Royal Court Theatre for a while now. You could say it’s been a labour of love” New website up and running
• Paul Bradshaw to leave Birmingham City University | Media | guardian.co.uk – “Founder of online journalism MA course to do consultancy, training and writing after taking voluntary redundancy”
• NESTA – Make It Local – “NESTA is offering three local authorities up to £30,000 to spend with a digital media business in their area”
• Speakers and slides: roundup of ‘Open data: challenges and opportunities’ « Observations – Great round up of Monday’s event
• Our Digital City is an online digital snapshot of Birmingham in 2010 – “Our Digital City is an online digital snapshot of Birmingham in 2010 created by anyone with an interest in the City but especially our local schools, young people, families, silver surfers and local businesses”

And don’t forget the next Birmingham Social Media Cafe is next week, on Friday 30 July.

Got any news that we missed? Add it in the comments or tweet it to @BirminghamSMC.

Here’s the first of the promised link round-ups with a focus on West Midlands digital/tech/social media news.

• Timely Information for Citizens – round up – Digital Birmingham – Pretty much as it says in the link
• Big Button Showreel – Big Button have a new showreel of stuff they’ve been producing
• Moving on… | The Moseley Exchange – Story of Studio Bonito, a digital creative agency that started at Moseley Exchange and is now moving up to Birmingham Science Park
• News | ORB Creative – ORB Creative have been named as branding consultants for the Birmingham Repertory Theatre
• Switchboard – World-class connections for the West Midlands – “Switchboard is a network of organisations from the screen, digital, media and music industries in the West Midlands”. One to watch. (Disclosure – I’ve been invited on this)
• Starting your own Web Development Business – Multipack – Lots of helpful advice on the Multipack forum
• appliedeventology – Life Science Event Listings – Interested in medical/tech stuff? There’s a few events coming up around the West Mids, listed here
• Digbeth Day Afternoon – Rare – Blog – “So yesterday some of us went over for our first look at the new Rare Birmingham facility”
• Birmingham Post – Microsoft’s Rare Games starts work on Kinect technology at Digbeth studio – “Rare Games take Anna Blackaby on a tour of the Birmingham hub which will be working on Microsoft’s pioneering motion-sensing gaming experience”
• [Event] Producers’ Forum, 21 July at the MAC – With Suzie Norton, Screen WM CEO, and her Senior Management team delivering a presentation on Screen WM’s 2010-11 strategy and the next phase of support for the West Midlands Film community

Got anything good that we missed? Add it in the comments or tweet it to @BirminghamSMC.

We’ve just been given a bit of cash by Screen WM to make sure Birmingham Social Media Cafe events continue. We’re hugely grateful to them – it’s not going to make anyone rich but it’ll pay for our overheads and give us some money to put behind the counter occasionally if there’s no sponsor.

In return, Screen WM want to make sure the regular meet-ups happen and we’re more than happy to do that. Actually, we want to do a little more so we’ve decided to make a couple of changes to the general BSMC set-up. Nothing huge – we just want to flesh things out and continue to make the events worthwhile attending.

What won’t change

The main event will still be the get-togethers on the last Friday of every month (earlier in December). A chance to come together with others who are exploring how social media fits into their work – to share ideas, get some work done and find new friends and colleagues.

What will change

There are five things to mention:

• Occasional evening events
• Weekly news updates
• You can now follow @BirminghamSMC on Twitter
• We’ll be a bit more diligent with those monthly emails
• We’re going to kill off the wiki (as it’s only been used for spam in the past year I don’t imagine it’ll be missed).

See, nothing all that drastic. Two of those are worth a bit more explanation.

Evening events

The idea is to address certain topics and/or partner with other organisations and provoke crossovers of networks. We’re open to suggestions but are thinking of doing something a few times a year and maybe/probably getting speakers involved.

To get the ball rolling, think BSMC partnering with others to address the possibilities for social media in medicine, professional services, marketing, architecture, sport, green tech, food, education… like I say, we’re open to suggestions.

Weekly news

A round-up of WM-focussed social media/digital news with links to upcoming events (not just ours). If you remember the Friday on Jobplot then you’ll know the sort of thing.

Let us know

The BSMC has always been shaped by the people who attend it. Is there anything you want to chip in? Anything that you think would make the events (the regular ones or the extra evening ones) even better? Let us know in the comments.