Few tidbits from the Guardian travel section over the weekend:
Britain's glorious seaside kitsch Crabbing and candyfloss, garish graphics and 70s pop, caravan parks and pebbledash and crumbling piers – oh, and fabulous views. Our writers describe what a great British seaside holiday means to them.
The 20 best short-haul hotels.
Ten jewels in Britain's coastal crown.
Monday, 9 August 2010
Thursday, 5 August 2010
Social entrepreneurs in Big Society
Background.
Links to:
Update.
CHISEL kids - CHISEL is an acronym for Crime prevention. Health & personal safety, Identity awareness, Sports & fitness, Education support, Lifeskills & mentoring and are the key objectives of the programme.
Pinkstinks - a campaign and social enterprise that challenges the culture of pink which invades every aspect of girls' lives.
Mapping for Change - an innovative social enterprise that exists to support the development of sustainable communities. We specialise in providing participatory mapping services to communities, voluntary sector organisations, local authorities and developers using a suite of innovative tools for communication.
Links to:
Update.
CHISEL kids - CHISEL is an acronym for Crime prevention. Health & personal safety, Identity awareness, Sports & fitness, Education support, Lifeskills & mentoring and are the key objectives of the programme.
Pinkstinks - a campaign and social enterprise that challenges the culture of pink which invades every aspect of girls' lives.
Mapping for Change - an innovative social enterprise that exists to support the development of sustainable communities. We specialise in providing participatory mapping services to communities, voluntary sector organisations, local authorities and developers using a suite of innovative tools for communication.
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
The Tuttle Club
The Tuttle Club is a loose association of people finding a way of working better together both online and off-
There's no need to sign up - everyone's welcome at our Friday morning meetups. They run from 10am to midday at the Centre for Creative Collaboration, 16 Acton St, London WC1X 9NG.
There's no need to sign up - everyone's welcome at our Friday morning meetups. They run from 10am to midday at the Centre for Creative Collaboration, 16 Acton St, London WC1X 9NG.
Time Magazine's Top 50 sites of 2009
Here's the list. Sadly no comment on each of the sites, or any categorisation. One for a rainy day...
Are Hyperlocals Replacing Traditional Newspapers?
Short piece from Time Magazine focussing on the US story.
The President’s SAVE (Securing Americans’ Value and Efficiency) Award
"In 2009, President Obama called for “a process through which every government worker can submit their ideas for how their agency can save money and perform better.”"
Ideas here.
Ideas here.
Where Geeks meet Government
Rewired State.
"Rewired State runs hackdays where developers show government what is possible, and government shows developers what is needed."
"Rewired State runs hackdays where developers show government what is possible, and government shows developers what is needed."
Roundtable discussion on civic involvement and local sites
Good/useful write up from a session I went to earlier in the month from Kevin Harris.
Monday, 26 July 2010
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
Visual Economics
Some great visualisations here:
What BP could buy
Food consumption in America
Republic of Facebook
What the world does online
What BP could buy
Food consumption in America
Republic of Facebook
What the world does online
India's police welcome arrival of 3G phones
Extract: "Software developers are already coming up with a range of applications unique to the Indian market, including a police site that allows you to mail in photos of badly parked cars." (BBC News)
Excellent.
Excellent.
Speakers and slides: roundup of ‘Open data: challenges and opportunities’
The Observatory and Andrew Mackenzie co-produced an event called Open data: challenges and opportunities, held in Birmingham on 15th July.
Presentations and audio all here.
Presentations and audio all here.
App Inventor for Android
Promises "You can build just about any app you can imagine with App Inventor."
Kizoa.com - Slideshows Made Easy
Kizoa is a slideshow maker that is usable by just anybody, at absolutely no cost. It will let you take as many pictures as you want and concatenate them together in order to come up with a slideshow that can also include music and sound effects.
Ten ways journalism has changed in the last ten years (Blogger's Cut)
Useful article from the ever reliable Paul Bradshaw.
Making sense of the web during a crisis
Interesting article from the BBC about SwiftRiver, an online mapping tool that can be used to collect and plot reports and information coming in from citizens and organisations via e-mail, SMS, the web and Twitter.
Sunday, 11 July 2010
Friday, 9 July 2010
Apture
The Apture Site Bar is a new way to give readers more information without leaving the page. (With thanks to Joanna Geary.)
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
Clay Shirkey at the RSA (and LSE)
Summary from Ingrid Koehler at IDeA whic summarises the idea of a creative hierarchy; personal, communal, public, civic.
Amazon's blurb for his new book Cognitive Surplus states: "For decades, technology encouraged us to squander our time and as passive consumers. Today, tech has finally caught up with human potential. In Cognitive Surplus, Clay Shirky examines the changes we will all enjoy as our untapped resources of talent and good will are put to use at last."
It continues: "Since the postwar boom, we’ve had a surfeit of intellect, energy, and time - a “cognitive surplus.” Shirky argues persuasively that this cognitive surplus - rather than being some strange new departure from normal behavior - actually returns our society to forms of collaboration that were natural to us up to and through the early 20th Century. He also charts the vast effects that our cognitive surplus - aided by new technologies - will have on 21st Century society, and how we can best exploit those effects, and how the choices we make are not only economically motivated but driven by the desire for autonomy, competence, and community."
Dave Briggs, has blogged from a similar event at the LSE, as has Mary McKenna, both of them pulling out many of the same themes. In short, stop watching television and do something useful!
Amazon's blurb for his new book Cognitive Surplus states: "For decades, technology encouraged us to squander our time and as passive consumers. Today, tech has finally caught up with human potential. In Cognitive Surplus, Clay Shirky examines the changes we will all enjoy as our untapped resources of talent and good will are put to use at last."
It continues: "Since the postwar boom, we’ve had a surfeit of intellect, energy, and time - a “cognitive surplus.” Shirky argues persuasively that this cognitive surplus - rather than being some strange new departure from normal behavior - actually returns our society to forms of collaboration that were natural to us up to and through the early 20th Century. He also charts the vast effects that our cognitive surplus - aided by new technologies - will have on 21st Century society, and how we can best exploit those effects, and how the choices we make are not only economically motivated but driven by the desire for autonomy, competence, and community."
Dave Briggs, has blogged from a similar event at the LSE, as has Mary McKenna, both of them pulling out many of the same themes. In short, stop watching television and do something useful!
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
Christian, the lion who lived in my London living room
You've seen the YouTube clip, now read the article (even if it is in the Mail).
"He travelled by Bentley, ate in fine London restaurants and spent his days lounging in a furniture shop. The story of Christian the pet lion - and his eventual release into the wild - is as moving as it is incredible."
"He travelled by Bentley, ate in fine London restaurants and spent his days lounging in a furniture shop. The story of Christian the pet lion - and his eventual release into the wild - is as moving as it is incredible."
Mooli's £5 lunch
Looks great! based at 50 Frith Street, Soho (recommended in the Standard yesterday).
Cricket on Outdoor Screens
All part of the Great British Summer with one of the three screens just around the corner from work too!
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
BWPI Poverty Blog
BWPI (Brookes World Poverty Institute based in Manchester) has set up a blog where BWPI researchers can disseminate their research, raise awareness of poverty-related news items and provide comments. It provides a forum in which to find out about and engage in discussion on recent research and events connected to poverty in the developing world, the UK and elsewhere.
Just give money: Can cash transfer schemes end poverty?
Instead of relying on an expensive aid industry, it is better to transfer money and resources directly to poor households so they can find the most effective ways to escape poverty, argues Armando Barrientos
Monday, 28 June 2010
Health advice smartphone app launches in South Africa
"Afridoctor is the continent's first personal mobile health clinic. It was created by Blueworld, a social media company in based in Cape Town.
It offers a "snapdiagnosis" service, in which patients can send pictures of their ailment to a panel of doctors who will then contact their patient with a diagnosis within 48 hours."
Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10407081.stm
It offers a "snapdiagnosis" service, in which patients can send pictures of their ailment to a panel of doctors who will then contact their patient with a diagnosis within 48 hours."
Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10407081.stm
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