Archive for the 'Social Media' Category

Got Mine Got Yours

Published by Katie Lips September 13th, 2007 in Social Media and Social Inclusion. 0 Comments

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“What’s the harm in putting up a smoke alarm, like a lucky charm watching over pops and moms” raps ‘Controversy’ - aka Stephen-remell Coleman who’s a firefighter on the red watch at London’s Wimbledon Fire Station.

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“Got Mine Got Yours” is a rap about how smoke alarms save lives and it’s getting quite an audience thanks to a write up on the BBC website, and perhaps more importantly as the rap video is reaching people on YouTube, the video sharing website.

According to the BBC site: “He says he wants to target low income and ethnic communities, and that hip hop allows “free expression of ideas, views and opinions”".

This is a fabulous example of using social media (youtube.com) to reach audiences that might not otherwise come into contact with a Fire Service; it’s also an incredible well produced ‘music video’. In the five days since it appeared on YouTube, over 2000 people have seen it. Of course, it’s also a great rap!

To view it on YouTube, click here.

… Camera, Action!

Published by Katie Lips September 12th, 2007 in Social Media, Emerging Technology and Projects. 0 Comments

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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!

‘Friends’ & ‘Social Unity’? Moving fast in the social space

Published by Katie Lips July 7th, 2007 in Social Media. 0 Comments

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Another BBC article recently highlights ‘user promiscuity’ in social sites.

“MySpace is running out of breath, while Bebo and Facebook are fast catching up. That’s the message from the latest figures on social networking in Britain. MySpace has long been the leading site for young networkers who want to run their social lives online. But research firm Nielsen/NetRatings says May saw a drop in UK traffic to MySpace, while Bebo and Facebook continued to attract new users. “

Facebook it seems is more compelling for its community who spend longer, and ‘do more’ on the site. As more and more projects, organisations and brands aim to connect with the social software generation, it will be important to keep up with the social software fashion trends; who’s doing what online and where?

Offtopic : I just bought an arrow storage shed from eCopyus !I’m very happy :)

Research highlights Class Divide in Social Sites

Published by Katie Lips July 6th, 2007 in Social Media and Social Inclusion. 0 Comments

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The BBC recently published an article on Social sites (MySpace and Facebook) and class divide. The article is based on recent research by US PhD student Danah Boyd from the School of Information Sciences at UC Berkeley. The research highlights that Facebook users are more likely to come from wealthier homes then MySpace users. The research is based on interviews with American teenagers, but are things so clear cut here? As part of the OurOpenSpace project we will be ensuring our work is accessible to as many young people as possible; regardless if family income or education; but the research raises important points when deciding which social network to work with if you intend to reach a specific group of people. Social networking sites all have a clear focus, in my opinion MySpace is more music oriented so anyone more focussed on entertainment will flock there rather than the slightly more serious looking Facebook. Similarly, people go where their friends are; which might not be a natural choice if their friends weren’t already in one or the other social site. We’ll be keeping close tabs on this topic in relation to social media and social inclusion projects.

Image: BBC

Youth Tech Blog

Published by Katie Lips June 6th, 2007 in Social Media, Youth Engagement, Publications and Links. 0 Comments

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Youth Tech is a great blog I’ve been reading. It’s “a discussion about using technology in creative ways to enrich the lives of youth.” It’s an American site but has a lot of excellent resources in this area.

The Fire Service on Flickr

Published by Katie Lips May 23rd, 2007 in Social Media and Emerging Technology. 0 Comments

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As we continue with our Emerging Technology projects we will be using the best in online software to share our work with our readers. We’re using Flickr.com to share our photos. For anyone not already familiar with the delights of Flickr, Flickr is a (free) online Photo Sharing Community. You can use it to store and archive your photos and to share them with your friends, colleagues and community. I have used Flickr for personal projects for ages and I love it. It’s also a great way to find people interested in the same things (work or fun) as you are. We will be sharing images from the Youth Engagement projects we’re working on via Flickr. A small selection of work so far is already there at our Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ouropenspace/

TALKing Local Government

Published by Katie Lips May 21st, 2007 in Social Media. 0 Comments

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TALK is the very new “social computing system for Local Government”.

“It’s here to support your projects, communities of interest and working groups by providing spaces where you can collaborate on wiki pages, write a blog or learn more about initiatives that are happening across the sector. TALK is about the people who make the sector work. It’s about bridging the knowledge gap between authorities and projects and it’s about learning more about your colleagues.”

TALK is a mix of articles, discussions and resources; and certainly seems to be an interesting initiative.   Whilst the service is very new, as more and more local government thinkers participate, it seems set to grow into a valuable resource.

An initiative by

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