The Grittier Side of Life: What Snow Can Do for Citizen Engagement

User Generated Content in full effect

As someone who is passionate about social media and its power to give citizens and communities a voice I was pleased when a tweet I sent last week about Birmingham City Council's efforts to grit the roads and pavements of England's second city was picked up by the BBC News. While it is easy to be sniffy and dismiss stories about snow and gritting as nothing more than banal 'local interest' I believe my experience offers some useful insights into how social media can support citizen engagement.

Bag is Beautiful: What Makes a Bag for Life Great?

Bag is Beautiful: which is your favourite?

As some of you may know, I've got something of a soft spot for supermarkets. No matter how much I am told about their role in perpetuating everything that's bad in society, from environmental destruction to in-work poverty, all of this ill-feeling melts away underneath the reassuring glow of the fluorescent lighting. If for some strange reason you don't share my misplaced love of big retail I suggest you come back next week, when I'll hopefully be looking at something more interesting.

Green Shoots of Growth 

Up Close and Personal with Morrisons' Bag for Life

Still with me? Okay, then allow me to begin. Today I want to give a shout out to Morrisons for their inspiring range of fruit-themed bags for life. That's time, the humble bag for life. It may not hold the answers to how Britain can avoid a triple-dip recession (clue: it's not about an in/out EU referendum) but for it's definitely providing me with some much-needed  green shoots of growth this January?

What's so special about Morrisons' bag for life, I hear you ask? Like all the best things in life, it's something of a mystery. If pushed, I'd have to say it's the supremely bright and breezy colour scheme. The bag pictured centre stage makes great use of green. As students of colour theory will know, green is the colour of nature ans is said to symbolise growth, harmony  freshness and fertility. Could this be the reason I feel so positively predisposed to Morrisions' offering?

The Bauhaus of Supermarket Design

Own Label: Groundbreaking design work from Sainsbury's 

I suspect there's more to my love of Morrisions' bags for life than their colour scheme. Looking at their representations of fruit I'm reminded me of a great book I got for my birthday last year. Own Label tells the story of Sainsbury's groundbreaking Design Studio between the years 1962 and 1977. Flicking through the images contained in the book, I can see parallels between Morrisions style. Sainsbury's designs are arguably more coolly modernist than Morrisions' cartoony illustrations but they both display a willingness to deviate from the pursuit of photorealism. Is my enjoyment of Morrisons' bag simply a bad case of nostalgia?

Whatever the underlying reasons for my fondness of Morrisions' Bags for Life, I'm just glad to know they're out there in the world, doing their thing.

Share Your Views on Bags for Life

What's your take on the current state of the Bag for Life scene? Do you think I'm wrong to lavish so much praise on Morrisons offerings? Maybe I should be focused on a Bag for Life from an up and coming retail outlet instead. Or perhaps I simply need need to get out more. As ever, your thoughts are appreciated.

Filling the Frame: Continuing Adventures in DSLR

Down by the Canal (well, River)

Last Thursday I wrote about my first real efforts to get out there and make real my New Year's Resolutions on photography. I'm pleased to say, nearly a week later, I've managed to keep hold my resolve, despite the inevitable dip that comes from re-joining the ranks of the so-called strivers in January.

So what have I been up to, I hear you ask? A couple of things, mainly. Firstly, I've brushed off the metaphorical dust from my Canon DSLR user manual and got re-acquainted with its many, many features. I now realise I've only using a fraction of what the camera has to offer. I now realise I definitely need to put away the flights of fancy I have every now and again about upgrading my camera until I can actually get the most from the equipment I've already got.

Importantly for me, I've also been making a conscious effort not to over-think my photography and instead put that time into practising taking shots. Hardly radical thinking but it's amazing how easy it is to get caught up in the detail and lose sight of why you actually wanted to take photographs in the first place.

Indoor Photography Master-class

It was with this thought in mind that I started taking some shots inside my flat last Friday afternoon, just as the sun was beginning to set.

The first few shots I took were simply of an assembled Ikea chair, with a reggae poster on the wall and, rested up against the wall, a still to be assembled chair in a box lurking in the background.

Shooting on Manual, I chose a very shallow depth of field (f1.8) and focused on the chair before re-composing so that the subject would not be slap-bang in the middle of the frame. After reading the manual, I had a clearer idea of how the controls worked and was to adjust the shutter speed in order to ensure the shot came out properly exposed.

Portrait of an Ikea chair

After getting a nice result with this shot I then had another play at re-arranging the scene to bring one of the frames on the wall into focus. Again, I chose to work at f1.8 and then re-compose. While I'm pleased with the shot I got I am not entirely clear whether 1.8 was a 'good' option. Over the coming year I hope to get a better idea of when to choose a very shallow depth of field and when I would be better off selecting a smaller aperture.

Roots of Reggae in fine focus? Possibly not

Down by the River*

As fascinating as the Ikea chair was, I knew that if I am to actually develop my photography this year I would have to step outside of my flat. This startling revelation led me to bring my camera to work on Tuesday and take some photographs down on the canal close to the convention centre.

As luck would have it, Tuesday wasn't the most photogenic of days. That didn't stop me getting a few nice of narrow boats while on my lunch break. After seeing the boats lined up in a row I saw an opportunity to test out different depths of field and shifting the focal point to get a different look.

f 2.8 with a focus on the purple narrow boat

f22 this time, again focusing on the purple boat

Back to f2.8 but with a focus on the furthest away boat

* technically a canal.

Next Steps

Overall, I'm pleased with the progress I've made so far in taking my photography more seriously. Through the shots I've taken over the past week I've proven to myself that I can take shots on Manual mode and, with a bit of perseverance, get them to come out looking quite respectable.

Next up, my challenge is to get more comfortable adjusting the camera settings and to start to get a better idea of how I decide which settings work best in particular scenarios. I hope to get the opportunity to take some photos this weekend as currently my calendar is looking less than crowded. I will let you know how I get on.

As ever, comments and suggestions are most welcome. A big thanks to Karen Strunks last week for the encouragement and tips. If you've not come across Karen's work in photography and social media you can check out her website at:: http://www.karenstrunks.com/

Dial M for Manual: Adventures in DSLR

I read on Twitter this afternoon that if you stick to something for more than 13 weeks it's likely to be a long term habit. This really made me think I've got to work at making photography my habit if I'm to have any chance of realising my New Year's resolutions in this area. Spurred on by this unsettling thought, I set out this evening after work on my quest to become Birmingham's answer to Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Every Picture Tells a Story

Wet Night in Birmingham: from one of my recent Photo School assignments

 (Please excuse me for giving this post such a hackneyed title. I blame Rod Stewart's recent whirlwind of activity to promote his latest Christmas wares. I can't promise things will get better from here on in but I will certainly try.)

I am writing this post on a wet Saturday afternoon in Birmingham. What light there was earlier is beating a hasty retreat, leaving in its wake nothing but a grey and dreary expanse. Despite the weather's best efforts, however, am feeling upbeat and energised. What can explain this state of affairs? I can only put it down to having got myself along to Matt & Pete's Photo School this morning.

Since moving to Birmingham earlier this year I've attended Photo School several times already and have learned something new about photography each time. I'd like to use the rest of this post to show you some of the photos I've taken at Photo School and share what I've learned from Matt & Pete.

Getting n0ticed in Birmingham

Since I left you

As part of my ongoing efforts to get out more and feel more connected in Birmingham I got along last month to Birmingham Social Media Cafe, a regular get together of people interested in exploring creative uses of  blogging, Twitter, Facebook and other tools. At the meeting I was introduced to n0tice, a digital update on the trusty community noticeboard which is aiming to be the place where you share "what's happening near you?". Since then, I've been playing with n0tice to see what it has to offer. Here's what I've learned so far.

First Impressions: what did I n0tice?

The first thing to say about n0tice is that is there is a lot going on. While the stated ambition of n0tice may be laudably simple, to allow you to share what's happening near you, the way it approaches this task is multi-faceted. From what I have learned so far , n0tice consist of:

• A public-facing n0ticeboard service, Here people can share and discover local observations, events and secrets in much the same way they might post an update on Twitter or Facebook, only with discovery being primarily driven by locality. People can access n0tice via a regular web browser but the service really comes into its own on the iPhone and Android mobile apps.
• A developer-focused API. Over at n0tice.org there are plentiful examples of the various different ways the technology behind n0tice can be used to power other services and activities. n0tice.org currently focuses on crowdmapping, community noticeboards and using n0tice to host a social classified business.   

Getting to grips with n0tice

 So far, I've had a bash at using both the public-facing and the developer-focused sides of n0tice. Of the two, I would say the developer side feels the most well-considered. Using the helpful 'how to' guides provided, I was able to quickly set up my own n0tice board dedicated to street art in Birmingham. With a minimum of trial and error I was also able to link my n0ticeboard to Google maps so that posts were rather niftily pinned to various locations around Birmigham. Embedded below are the fruits of my afternoon's labour, which I was really quite proud of.

From little acorns.... my first n0tice board

View Larger Map

My first crowdmap of Birmingham Street Art (the crowd so far consists of my posts  but I can hope)

Reflections on n0tice

While I was quick to understand n0tice's potential as a web infrastructure tool, I was less clear on what everyday users would make of n0tice as a mainstream service offering. Given the fact that I and most of my friends already spend a sizeable proportion of our free time on social networks such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, I am not convinced people's desire to know what's happening nearby is make n0tice, in its current form at least, an essential destination.

 Right now the immediate user experience for those who do venture upon the service is also a little uneven. For starters, it would be quite easy for people to confuse no0tice.org, the home of n0tice's developer resources, with the public-facing n0tice.com site.

Once you're on the main site, n0tice.com, it's not immediately obvious what to make of the various posts, as initially they are not filtered according to your location. Of course there is a button you can press to filter by your location but it doesn't immediately strike you as something you should need to do.  I experienced a similar kind of confusion when I went to post a report on n0tice, as a result of if not being immediately obvious whether my post would be visible to the whole n0tice community or restricted to a particular n0tice board. In themselves, these points of confusion may seem pretty trivial (I'm working on the whole pedantry thing) but the service design will need to be sharpened if n0tice is to expand beyond the ranks of social media practitioners and early adopters.

The good news is the issues I have is much to like about n0tice, particularly for developers and those wishing to incorporate n0tice technology within websites. I was chuffed at how easy it was to put together my own n0tice board for street art in Birmingham. I was even more chuffed when I was able to follow the clear instructions on n0tice.org and overlay my posts onto a Google Map, something which I had previously considered to be the preserve of out and out techies.

n0te to future self

 Looking to the future, I feel n0tice should focus on developing its offerings to developers and publishers. By doing so I believe n0tice technology could become part  of the everyday infrastructure of the web. I'd love to see n0tice technology incorporated within the social networks that I already use, so that I easily share and discover local content without having to invest additional time and effort. Doing so would, I hope support n0tice financially and enable the refinement of the service's consumer offering.

Two weeks or so after being introduced to n0tice, I remain intrigued by the service and the possibilities it offers. I will continue to experiment with it, both in my spare time as well as in a work capacity at Groundwork UK. I look forward to seeing how the service continues to evolve and improve.

Morrisons: The Rose that grew from Concrete

A bright future for Hagley Road beckons?

Since moving to Birmingham in May I've found myself strangely fascinated by the rapid development of the new Morrisons supermarket on Hagley Road, next to the Five Ways roundabout I pass everyday on my way home from work. Today, the supermarket threw open its doors to customers for the first time. Like some Z-list celebrity, I got myself along first thing this morning to witness this momentous occasion. This is my story.


Supermarkets: the endless love affair

Readers who know me will know that I've got something of a soft spot for supermarkets in general and Sainsbury's in particular. I know, I know, supermarkets are perhaps the ultimate expression of late capitalism's empty consumerism and environmental destruction in pursuit of profit.

And yes, arguably given my first career was in local government I suppose I should care more about the undue influence supermarkets with their (allegedly) vast land banks have on the Planning system and functioning competition in this country.

Luckily, however, all of these feelings of mild unease fade away as soon as I cross the threshold an am bathed in the perpetual daylight of supermarkets' brutally efficient lighting. Then, all of a sudden my years spent as a student trolley-wally and checkout assistant at Sainsbury's somehow collude to make me turn a blind eye to the emptiness of modern capitalism and enjoy the rush that can only come from a trip around a supermarket with a footprint of a small developing country.


Morrisons on Hagley Road: The Rose that Grew from Concrete?

Given the soft spot I carry for supermarkets, my expectations for the new Morrisons were reasonably high. I believe it was the late Tupac Shakur who described in his poetry the rose that grew from concrete.Without wishing to reach for the pseud card so early into a post, it's only mildly hyperbolic to suggest that as I witnessed the store's emergence over the summer and into the autumn I believed it could very well be that rose.

While it's fair to say I am writing this post with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, for those of you who aren't familiar with Birmingham, it's worth pointing out that Morrisons doesn't exactly have much competition in the roses stakes. Hagley Road is, after all, (in)famous as the home of Spearmint Rhino, not to mention the most randomly laid out Tesco known to man. Still, I'm told it's important to have hope.

First Impressions of the new Store

The hottest ticket in town: 10 minutes to go until the official opening

After queuing patiently with around 30 or so my fellow citizens I was allowed into the store at just gone 9 o'clock. First impressions of the store were good. I'd heard Morrisons knew a thing or two about how to run a deli counter but nobody had told me their fresh fruit and veg game was this strong. Forget everything you thought you knew about refrigeration, it turns out fresh vegetables should be kept at their best with a fine mist of water vapour. I don't know if this is an environmentally friendly method but who cares when it looks this (literally) cool?

Greenery in the Mist

My sense of wonderment didn't stop at the fresh fruit and veg area. Like a Zombie in Dawn in the Dead I shuffled along to the brightly lit counters offering all manner of freshly prepared foods. By now most of us will act faux-nonchalant at the magnificent sight of a row of freshly prepared in-store pizzas but one thing you positively can't front on is a bar serving fresh fruit salad. Sadly, I'd already breakfasted otherwise I dare say I would have been tempted to dig deep and make a real and lasting contribution to my 5-a-day target.

Fresh fruit, fresh thinking

Sadly, my first visit to the new Morrisons was not entirely care-free. After spending too much time in the company of designers at thinkpublic I'm sorry to say I've become something of a font snob. And as much as I enjoyed my Monday morning visit to Morrisions, the supermarket giant's approach to the written word cut me deep. Upon leaving the store my eyes were burned by the sight of a 'see you later' sign, written in a handwritten style that wouldn't be out of place next to Comic Sans. After reading a brilliant book on the groundbreaking work of the Sainsbury's in-house design studio, the sight of this sign made me question the concept of progress.

Sign of the Times: Had Morrisons not read Just My Type?

Moving On

With my curiosity over the new Morrisons now sated I am hoping I won't ever feel the need to blog about a supermarket visit in this much depth again. Nevertheless, I hope my paean to Hagley Road's renaissance has piqued your interest in the new Morrisons enough to make you want to pay a visit to the store. And if for any reason you can't make it to Hagley Road, I'm sure there'll be a supermarket near to you that's equally deserving of your time and attention.

Social Media Gets Sociable in Birmingham

The Atrium Bar @ The Studio, home to Birmingham Central Social Media Surgery Photo: The Studio

 Since moving to Birmingham in May and starting in my new(ish) full-time role at Groundwork UK I've been what you might call a lapsed blogger. Hopefully this blog post should stop the rot and, you never know, it might be the start of something beautiful.

It may be a cliché but I've usually found it's a good idea to write about what you know (hence my three-part tribute to the late, great MCA). With this in mind I'd like to share with you my  experience of volunteering at the Birmingham Central Social Media Surgery after work on Tuesday.

No Sleep 'Til Birmingham

My new city showing some pride

 It's become a bit of a cliche/increasingly trite opening (delete according to your disposition) for me to start off any post with an apology for not keeping my blog up-to-date. You'll be pleased to know I'm not going to go down that route today. Instead, I'll like to tell you a bit about what I've been up to over the past couple of months.

Those of you who know me in real life or from Twitter are probably aware that back in May I undertook a pretty major life change and moved with my girlfriend from glorious South East London to England's second city, otherwise known as Birmingham.

The Tipping Point

Sadly the South Circular did not offer any such reassurance

We decided to make the switch for a few different reasons but probably the biggest one was quality of life. For the past couple of years it has seemed as though every weekend has involved travelling the length of the country to visit friends and family who lived outside of London. After a particularly nerve-shredding trip back along the South Circular after a friend's wedding in Stockton something inside us clicked. Wouldn't we be better off finding a way of living (and working) that didn't so closely resemble planes, trains and automobiles?

It was at this point that we started to seriously consider the possibility of moving out of London. To galvanise ourselves we made a pact; whoever landed a job first would determine where we ended up and the other would hand in their notice. Seeing as I was working freelance at the time I'm not sure it was the fairest of deals. Still, who am I to quibble when it give us the push to start believing we really could get our act together?

By some miracle, in next to no time I saw (well, technically it was Sarah ) a role going at Groundwork, the community charity with the green heart. Located in Birmingham and with the suitably on-trend words Innovation and Collaboration in the job title, it seemed like the perfect opportunity. I'm pleased to say I was called for an interview and, on the day, managed to woo the panel with my experience of social innovation and my fondness for all things Web 2.0 (I'm afraid to say I may even have bandied about this term ). All of a sudden, our dream of starting a new life outside of London was actually happening.

Keep It Moving

Moving day in Forest Hill. Note the Sainsbury's elephant bag.

 In the interests of brevity and out of respect for you the reader it's probably best that I gloss over the shenanigans of our move. Sufficed to say, I'm very grateful to my big sister, who also lives in Birmingham, for letting us stay with her while we looked for a flat. I'm even more grateful to Sarah for the amazing work she did researching and viewing flats.

Since I Left You

London 2012 fever hits Birmingham

 So what's been happening since I bid farewell to SE23? Mainly, I've been focused on settling into my new role at Groundwork. I'm still settling in  but overall I love working for an organisation which has such a positive impact on local communities. If you're not a regular Gardener's World viewer (and if not, why not?), I highly recommend you check out the award-winning work superstar horticulturist Chris Beardshaw  has been doing with Groundwork, as part of our Urban Oasis campaign.

Cliff working the crowd at the Olympic torch relay in Edgbaston

Other than work, I've been settling into life in Birmingham and taking advantage of the fact that both my sisters live in the city to enjoy more family time. So far, I'm finding Birmingham agrees with me. I can walk to work in the morning rather than squeeze onto the Overground And after work, I'm but a stone's throw a way from any number of lovely bars and restaurants. And while I'm not going to suggest Birmingham can match London for cultural happenings, I've already been able to get along to see some great live music, attended a design expo and an abstract photography course, saw Cliff light the Olympic torch and,  just last night, an amazing British Reggae evening featuring the likes of Dennis Bovell and Steel Pulse. Not bad for Birmingham, eh?

Part of the Art In The Dancehall exhibition at The Drum in Aston, where I also saw Steel Pulse, Dennis Bovell and Tippa Irie

Looking ahead, I'm hopeful Sarah and I will settle into life in Birmingham and will be able to enjoy a good quality of life while still doing rewarding work. Now that I'm feeling more settled in Birmingham I hope to blog more frequently about the work I'm involved with at Groundwork and life in England's second city.