Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service has recently embarked on a project to explore the potential use of Camera phones in various projects. The aim is to introduce camera phones in projects with young people. Ahead of that, a pilot project is testing the feasibility of introducing new gadgets to Fire Support Network Volunteers. A group of volunteers has been out and about in the community taking pictures and saving them online. So far so good, we’re exploring how they can be used to record the work of volunteers, to record fire hazards (and potential hazards), and to record Fire Safety events and promotional projects.
Pilot project…
Following initial feedback from the group of volunteers we are focusing the pilot on recording the work of the Fire Support Network. The next photos we will gather will be a series of community based events and, once captured, these pictures may be used in promotional activity. We will be using the camera phones as a simple mechanism to capture the work of the volunteers and their activities within local communities.
Technology…
Many phones now come with cameras, so it was easy to decide to use Nokia 6233 handsets which are pretty easy to use as phones and as cameras. We also needed to create some sort of image capture system; preferably online. Our solution came in the form of Flickr.com the popular photo sharing website. We are sending images from the phones to Flickr via email (MMS message), and then we’re using Flickr to manage them. Flickr lets us do all sorts of things such as add notes, create albums, and then obviously to publish them. Of course, using Flickr and MMS / email and 6233 handsets means we’re able to run a pilot project at relatively low cost. The project is testing how this technology can be used, rather than testing the technology itself.
Sharing…
More information on the pilot will be made available here, and eventually we will make some of these images public using Flickr; and here on the blog. Our Camera Action images are currently private whilst we all get to grips with the project, but we are sharing other images from the wider programme on Flickr on the “OurOpenSpace” Flickr page here.
More on this soon!
Zico is a firefighter with Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, he is also the winner of the Northwest Regional Development Agency Young Achiever of the Year Award.
The award ceremony was back in November 2006, but Zico’s story is now on the Princes Trust website.
We are looking to explore potential partnerships within the UK and in Europe to work with Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service and Kisky Netmedia Ltd to establish funding for our emerging technology projects. We are exploring two avenues, one UK Universities and the other with The Merseyside Brussels Office.
Dr David Allen, Leeds University Business School and Dr Anoush Simon from Aberystwyth University visited MF&RS 17th May 2007 and presented their own research groups and discussed the types of projects which they had undertaken. The general conclusion was that we could work together on collaborative projects; however, it was important to note that the scale of the current activity (in terms of thought and scope) was wide and would have to be broken into a number of work packages or linked activities.
After meeting with Laura Bonacorsi European Policy Officer The Merseyside Brussels Office, Ed, Katie and I have decided to approach potential partners in Europe and we have just completed the partner search document and sent it to Laura.
The Community Fire Safety Strategy will be available for download via this blog.
“The Community Fire Safety Strategy is integral to our corporate planning
process. It provides a high level view of our approach and ambitions in
the area of community safety and is underpinned with a series of
individual strategies – arson, youth, violence at work, etc – that deal with
specific themes. This strategy is reflected in the Authority’s Integrated
Risk Management Plan, annual Service Plan and Financial Plan that
incorporate the individual targets and milestones for specific
actions and projects.”
Coming Soon.
I recently started working with The Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service to develop ideas for using Emerging Technologies in Youth Engagement projects. One outcome of that is this blog; a new initiative designed to build a community of practice for people working with youth engagement and new technologies. Another outcome of my work with the Fire Service is that I have been privileged to experience excellent Youth Engagement programmes in action. The Fire service has a best in class training centre based in Bootle, Liverpool, which sees many young people embark upon, and successfully complete a range of training courses. Recently I met with a group of 13-14 year olds on their one day a week course. The highlight of my day was a trip to the ‘Ratrun’ a series of cages used to train Fire Fighters in working in confined spaces. The ratrun goes down a treat with all course participants, and I must say trying on Fire Fighter uniforms went down quite well too!
We have been working to develop ideas for using mobile communications, particularly SMS in youth engagement. One key issue faced by the Fire Service was keeping up continued communication with the young people who participate in a variety of courses, after the courses have ended and they have moved onto other things. The Fire Service is in a position to offer followup courses, or potentially work experience and offers more general support to the young people they have got to know well. Can SMS be used to maintain contact? Will it work better than writing letters or sending emails?
We have implemented and embarked upon a new project recently to answer these questions. We’re using a simple online SMS sending tool to send SMS to groups. Following an initial training period with staff, we’ll be trialling this system and sending regular SMS communications to people on the courses as they start their journey with the Fire Service. We will be publishing our findings and learnings here.
Published by Katie Lips May 13th, 2007
in Youth Engagement and Projects.
The Connect Youth website is a great place to start researching European projects; Connect Youth is the UK national agency for the Youth in Action Programme.
“Along with the European Commission, our aim is to help young people discover Europe. On our site you will find information about Youth Exchanges and Youth Initiatives; European Voluntary Service, Youth in the World and Youth Support Systems.”
As well as information on all the various Connect Youth programmes, there is a useful database you can use to search for potential project partners.
(Image: http://www.connectyouthinternational.com/)
I first heard about Katie Lips and Kisky Netmedia at a Merseyside Managers ICT User Group which took place in the Holly Oaks student bar at the Lime Pictures studios in
Liverpool November 2006. At the time I was keen to set up a project involving ICT and Youth Engagement. My thinking at the time was based on trying to understand how my own children used the internet whilst at school and at home. Further I attended a concert with my kids where only 500 people turned up in the audience instead of the 900 expected. It transpired that the event was not advertised on the net. The organisers did not use the technology available to engage with the youth and look what happened.
I invited Katie to a meeting at Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service HQ and we were joined by MF&RS Youth Engagement Manger Emma Dodd. The subject was to discuss the possibility of working together on a Youth Engagement project using dynamic technical innovation as the channel of engagement and in that meeting the ‘OurOpenSpace’ project was conceived.
Published by Katie Lips May 11th, 2007
in People.
The OurOpenSpace project is very new; we’re just at the beginning of our journey. And as we embark on research, creation, innovation and dissemination in the world of Emerging Technologies and Youth Engagement, we’d like to introduce ourselves; the project team.
I’m Katie Lips, a Social Media Evangelist and Creative Technologist and I’ve been working with Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service to explore emerging technologies and how they can be used to enhance, and to innovate in youth engagement and non-formal education. So far, we have embarked on a series of micro projects which we will discuss here on this blog.
My interest is as a technology user, blogger and as someone who uses Social Media tools and communities on a daily basis. I work on a range of projects exploring leading edge technologies for my company Kisky Netmedia. In previous roles, I have also devised and lead national technology projects in the education sector, having worked with online diaries and with video projects by young people, way before blogs and YouTube were household names.
I have been researching a range of related projects which I will blog about here, and my aim for this blog is to create a collaborative ideas space where anyone working in the field of Youth Engagement can learn about related projects, and share their ideas and experiences. I am particularly excited about this project and working with the forward-thinking team at MF&RS.
