I tinker, wrangle and cajole
I've been taking a look at some of the stats in relation to the live BBC broadcast of an edition of Football Focus from Salford Lads Club. As you can imagine, there is a peak!
Some graphs and stats
In terms of the Salford Lads Club website, it's quite easy to spot when the broadcast took place:
The site received about 20 times the traffic it normally has, which is understandable.When looking at the data for the specific day of broadcast (17th Dec), it was good to see a low bounce rate, and high degree of new visitors.
And on checking the referral routes to the site, I wasn't surprised to see that search was the main route, as the BBC didn't post a direct link (afaik):Looking at Twitter (as I was mainly tweeting via the club that day!), our increase in followers was significant - about 500 new followers over that weekend:
Thinking onAll this is great in terms of exposure for the club, leading to support. As time allows, Ill look at impacts, such as donations, t-shirt sales and whatnot.
On reflection, it would have been great to have had a few more things in place as "calls to action" on the day. But, it was an exciting day, and full of many positives (not just stats!).
One thing I also did afterwards was to use @storify to capture some of the tweets flying around - thanks for all those that made other recommendations of tools to do so. Special thanks to @pauldegregorio for tweet support!
Next steps?
I'll post a project onto the AnalsisXchange to get further insight - maybe also talk to the new Search and Social Media Marketing course at Salford University too. By all means ask further questions, or let me know if you want to take a look at more insights...
I'm also looking into a fundraising / profile raising workshop for charities and community orgs at the club - hopefully after Easter. Please let me know if interested...
The recent Diane Abbott Twitter episode highlighted a minor trend I've spotted in a few tweets recently - making long statements via #hashtags.
Here is the deleted tweet that caused the stir:
And then:
This isn't a commentary on the subject-matter or author. I just don't follow the need to turn a statement into something that is a) difficult to read and b) too long for people to effectively re-use in other tweets.
By creating/using a #hashtag you are building on a foundation of the web - hyperlinks - to point to a place elsewhere. With Twitter, you are either opening up, or adding to, a space for discussion or aggregation of opions (if you're lucky!).
Neither #tacticasoldascolonialism nor #dontwashdirtylineninpublic effectively do this imho.
It's a minor point, but something I see more and more.
In other news, @johnprescott, listening to the interview with Cameron on R4, kicked off a trend with #cameronmovienames. Granted, It's a character-long #hashtag, but has prompted hundreds of responses....
Through mailing lists such as Non-profit Tech Jobs and ProgressiveExchange, I get notice of a lot of really interesting job opportunities on a regular basis.
Today however, I learnt of three others via other contacts and mailing lists, so just wanted to share:
National Archives Traineeship at Manchester Archives
This is a year-long traineeship aimed at diversifying access to the archives profession. Based at the County Record Office in Manchester, this looks like an opportunity to learn the skills but also mix in some social media goodness to the archives, as a means of engagement....
Deadline: 9th Jan!
IT and Data Management at Manchester University
This came up via Open Data Manchester - a post dealing with lifting and processing lots of interesting data around sociological research at Manchester Uni...
Deadline: 11th Jan
40 Different Jobs at Avaaz!
Blimey, the global campaigning platform Avaaz have announced 40 different posts they want to fill - including Campaigners, Fact Checkers and Email Deliverability Specialists...
Deadline: Now
In a different set of circumstances, I'd go for these myself!
Nothing like starting the new year off to find that the region you live in doesn't even figure into the latest Halifax Quality of Life Survery of the top 50 districts to live in [PDF link].
The top 50 is almost exclusively made up of affluent areas in the South East. Halifax take 17 broad indicators for every local authority district, rank them - and then produce (to much fanfare) their league table. It must be some almight spreadsheet - but I can't find any raw data. There is a mention (as in every press release over the years) of:
See separate technical note for more information on methodology of index and data sources.
.. but that only seems to be documented for the Halifaz House Price Index. So I've asked....
In the meantime, Stewart Lee offers some alternative measures for Quality of Life:
A big highlight of the social media surgeries at Salford Lads' Club have been the guided tours given to surgeons and patients afterwards. SLC is not just about The Smiths room, but oozes history and charm - people leave the event buzzing from both the surgery and building...
I've posted up the dates for the next three #slcsms via the nice new revamped socialmediasurgery website - but I'm keen to take this a bit further. So...
Across Greater Manchester, what other iconic buildings could be hold social media surgeries to help community and voluntary groups?
I've an initial list of places I (or Kate) have some (tenuous) contact with - Victoria Baths; Gorton Monastery; Toad Lane Store, Rochdale; Stockport Plaza; Zion Centre.
Can anyone help us make it happen? Know of any other iconic venues that could host a social media surgery or two?
What's involved?
For the venue, they'd be willing to host a group of people from community & voluntary organisations who'd like to be helped with social media stuff by someone that knows. It could be up to 20 people in all reality - and would last a couple of hours. Ideally, we'd like to do more than one, as a regular surgery is far more beneficial. A tour of the venue afterwards would be a real bonus....
In return?
Obviously, the venue people can take part in the surgery! But, I'd suggest there is a real benefit to the venue in hosting a surgery, in terms of kudos, exposure and - as we've seen @salfordladsclub - donations.
A final note: The social media surgeries I've organised have always been on a voluntary basis. This isn't about venue hire costs, or consultants - it's about bring engaged and likeminded people together for a couple of hours... in iconic venues hopefully :)
Aaron from CivicActions shared a great list of non-profit events and conferences happening (mainly in the USA) in 2012.
It would be great to also access this list as a calendar feed, although the data structure may need altering, thus rendering the list less user-friendly that the current state perhaps... one to think on (see Ouseful post on spreadsheets to calendars)
Meanwhile, I've created a Google Calendar for non-profit meetups and events in the NW of England, and added Net Tuesday and the Social Media Surgeries in. People can grab it and embed - will promote it from a more obvious space before the year starts!
Update: also saw this list of events from 2011
At the Open Data Hackday on Saturday, I started a project I've been long meaning to attempt - around the road accident data that has been opened for Greater Manchester.
Context/disclosure: there is a really (imho) junction near our school, which I think merits a pedestrian crossing. I wrote to Manchester City Council, who replied that budget cuts meant it was not a priority, etc, etc. One option was to start a petition and campaign on a single issue - the other was to take a look at the data and (perhaps) some evidence....
So - the idea is to first of all crunch the five years (20005-10) worth of accident data in Greater Manchester, and add information such as ward and super-output area. With that, I'm hoping a Drupal that can group accidents by ward would be a good starting point to look at the evidence and contact local councillors...
I've aggregated the data together and opened all 44,389 incidents in Google Refine. As I've only got a lat and a long for each incident, the next step has been to use the URL function in Refine to bring in some administrative geography data. So far, I've tried two services:
So, currently at the data processing stage.... running in the background whilst I get on with other stuff.
In the meantime, Ric sent me this project from the BBC - which is a useful check:
This office building in Hulme has been empty since it was built around 10 years ago.
The agent (not) trying to fill it were DTZ, who have called in the administrators.
A couple of property websites now state that the property is "no longer available", but who knows if it will result in anything meaningful.
In the meantime, the office-building mothballs continue to cocoon it...
Kasabi, a data marketplace:
BuzzData, a data social sharing platform: The Manchester Bee!(Thanks to Ric from Swirrl for pointing this out!)
I was lucky enough to recently win a Kindle Fire, via the Net Squared community organisers survey!
Marc sent it over from the states, and it arrived today, all packaged up.
I knew that I would not have some of the functionality in the UK. Nevertheless, I wanted to start to use it as a tablet/browser, but I couldn't see the wifi network at all....
...two hours of switching several things on and off, jumping around networks and changing umpteen configurations (including renaming my home network), and I finally got some packets to go up and down. I posted my fix onto the Amazon forum, although it does look like there is a much wider problem to sort.
Plug n Play.
Following the workshop I did on Saturday at the Action for Social Enterprise conference, I typed up my notes, annotated the links I presented, and made a storify:
As always, this is a great way to capture a conversation or discussion - and something to refer people back to. I haven't yet got a discussion within the Storify going yet - but one step at a time!Today I delivered a workshop with a group of social entrepenuers, as part of the Action for Social Enterprise conference in Manchester.
Originally, I was approached by Vanessa to run a workshop on "technology" for the social enterprise sector. This could be anything, so I focussed in down on a certain topic of interest - how to "meet a geek"! It's about looking at how social enterprises can look to find, engage and work with developers and those of a technical nature. Granted, the premise of "meet a geek" can seem a tad forced and cliched, but I think it work for the audience!
There were two main takeaways from the session:
The only downside was that this was *another* Saturday.
Great to work with some of the organisations (eg Global Fund) publishing IATI data today, and seeing positive changes quickly taking place to improve the datasets.
Also had interesting discussions about Open Data Manchester, and plans for this community organisation. Next meetup is on 29th, and I said I'd look at some idea for a mashup/service around road traffic accident data (!), plus ongoing support of the AllotmentData project.
It's all data atm.... although I did do a "git pull"!
I spent quite a bit of today updating the IATI standard documentation. This involved considerable Wordpress action in terms of reading in the relevant part of the schema, plus nesting pages accordingly.
Radio Six Music was my soundtrack.
In the evening, I held a Net Tuesday meetup at MadLab. Peoples Voice Media led a discussion around community reporting and citizen journalism - was a great meetup, and nice to see a few new faces.
I've recently been pulling a list of the 92 top-level football grounds together - as I'm interested to play around with linking this with various aspects of administrative geography and census-type data. It's a niche!
So - I compiled a list and the grounds and their addresses via.. Wikipedia. Took some looking into, as there wasn't a definitive view or dbpedia query - I'll try and update that as I go along.
With this list, I was keen to then use Google Refine to add the name and code of the ward and local authority for each ground. This was quite easy to achieve, using the UK-Postcodes.com API, and the excellent guide from Paul Bradshaw.
The next step was to try and pull in the Lower Super Output Area details for each ground, where I stumbled a little. Using the MapIt service along the same lines, I could bring in some JSON, but wasn't clear as to how to parse it effective. It could have been me.
So - I checked out the Open Data Communities project from Swirrl, and found that a SPARQL query could bring in the LSOA details. Bill gave me some tips on the parsing, which in turn took things on a step further.
And then I went for a lie down.
Had a great day today at the So!VolTech conference that Duncan, Catherine and co organised in Blackpool.
I did a little talk about my ongoing involvement with Salford Lads' Club and their website(s), that seemed to go down well.
After that, I got involved in three workshops:
Was a great day, and good to see new and old faces
My Lords, I very strongly support this amendment. I have a six year-old American grandson, and I have read his kindergarten report. He was making good progress with the computer and the iPad when he was not yet six. We have to keep in touch, and we have to be there. It is very important that this amendment should be supported.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?gid=2011-10-24a.608.0
Baroness Butler-Sloss
Today is my last day at Substance, and therefore my last day working on the Plings project.
It's been a great five years - but I made the decision that it's time to move on.Working within a research co-operative, on a project around youth projects & open data has been a great ride.
Working with local authority officers, central government policy makers, researchers, campaigners, developers and web people has made this ride exhilarating.
It's just time to get off and change tickets.
I created a storify for the London to Paris bike ride we did. Bit shout going out to Donald Hirsch and his brilliant Dieppe to Paris directions!
Next time some asshole in management tells you that you need to add social media features, ask them to come up with the most shocking content that you might ever potentially have on the site and ask them whether they still want goofy smileys and “Like this” buttons after it.
Back in the earliest days of personal computing, we may not have understood how our calculators worked, but we understood exactly what they were doing for us: adding one number to another, finding a square root, and so on. With computers and networks, unlike our calculators, we don’t even know what we are asking our machines to do, much less how they are going to go about doing it. Every Google search is—at least for most of us—a Hail Mary pass into the datasphere, requesting something from an opaque black box. How does it know what is relevant? How is it making its decisions? Why can’t the corporation in charge tell us? And we have too little time to consider the consequences of not knowing everything we might like to about our machines. As our own obsolescence looms, we continue to accept new technologies into our lives with little or no understanding of how these devices work and work on us.
Americans have long regarded the semi-colon with suspicion, as a genteel, self-conscious, neither-one-thing-nor-the other sort of punctuation mark, with neither the butchness of a full colon nor the flighty promiscuity of the comma. Hemingway and Chandler and Stephen King wouldn’t be seen dead in a ditch with a semi-colon (though Truman Capote might). Real men, goes the unwritten rule of American punctuation, don’t use semi-colons.
A man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure.
My Lords, I very strongly support this amendment. I have a six year-old American grandson, and I have read his kindergarten report. He was making good progress with the computer and the iPad when he was not yet six. We have to keep in touch, and we have to be there. It is very important that this amendment should be supported.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?gid=2011-10-24a.608.0
Baroness Butler-Sloss
http://clientsfromhell.net/post/520758269/client-can-you-have-these-wireframes-done-by
Client: “Can you have these wireframes done by tomorrow?”
Me: “Possibly. Can you please send me a list of the functionality required for this site?”
Client: “Sure:
Dashboard
Comments/What are you doing?
Inbox / Outbox / Sent Items
Post News
Files Repository
Pictures
Tasks Manager/Reminders (e-mail reminders)
Calendar (Birthdays, Trips)
Work
Play/Hobbies
Dating
Health
Tickets (for friends/families)
News Feed
Contact Info: Mobile/Home/Work, etc.
Employer
Facebook Connect
LinkedIn Connect
See who’s viewing you in real time….
Chat
Settings
Time Zone
Report a Bug/Suggestion
Twitter Connect
Auto-Reply/Auto-Away Message
Family/Friends List (notes/send-email)
Education Profile
Mint.com Aggregator (Financials)
Health/Beauty
Evite.com
Insurance (Auto/Medical/Home/Renter’s, etc)
Weather (Current/Remote)
LogMeIn (Control your other computers)
Repositories (throw anything in here… and create additional folders)
Music (Upload Your Music Files)
Organize Your Documents (scans/passports/etc)
send resumes, etc.
User Names/Password Keys Organizer
Videos: Link, Upload, Share - via YouTube functionality
Bills Due (activate with link/pw’s)
Google/Yahoo/Bing Search
Movies (what did you watch, where did you watch it, how do you rate it 1-10, and tell us why you think it was awesome - in a few sentences…)
PDF Converter
Accounting
Blast Text out to Friends/Families
Antivirus/Malware Scan
Articulize Yourself (write updates on yourself in article format…)
TXT Reminders
Pet Vaccines Schedule/Certificate
Document Sharing
Schedule/Calendar Sharing/Group
Professor Schedule/Office Hours
bus schedule
university changes updates
birthdays / parties of colleagues
Reviews of Books/Txtbooks
Book Auctions/Repository
Online Coupons
local restaurants/bars
RA/Dorm Schedule
Univ. Clubs nearby
sports team
schedules games
exam schedule / midterms
job firms / hiring / research on companies
job hunting / co-op / summer internships
Class Schedule
Student ID#
POP3 Integration
Rent Due
Taxes, etc.
Scoreboards for fav teams
Groups
Work Documents
Travel Schedule
Flight Status/on Time
Carrier Points Programs
Book Clubs/Restaurant Clubs/Groups
Cell Phone List/Contacts
Built-In Dictionary
School Medical Clinic
Games
gym schedule
‘Homework Reminders’, essay reminders
Menstruation tracker so you can see if you’re late for your period”
http://feltron.com/index.php?/content/2009_annual_report/
Each day in 2009, I asked every person with whom I had a meaningful encounter to submit a record of this meeting through an online survey. These reports form the heart of the 2009 Annual Report. From parents to old friends, to people I met for the first time, to my dentist… any time I felt that someone had discerned enough of my personality and activities, they were given a card with a URL and unique number to record their experience.
I kept track only of who I gave survey invitations to, the number of the card and where it was given. The surveys answers were submitted via text forms, allowing the respondee to write whatever they desired, and leaving the task of making comparisons between the data up to me. I have used only this information to create the report, however accurate it may be. I have strived to sort and collate the data in a clinical and repeatable manner that could be reproduced by someone looking for the same stories I have selected.
The data set itself was messy and overwhelming, and filled with enough information for several more reports. There are inherent shortcomings (like the unrepresentative amount of water recorded), and endearing strong suits (like the exploration of mood). I used several tools to make this task a more manageable, including Processing, which allowed me to map and explore alternate layouts much more quickly than previously, and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.
The printed edition of the report is being letterpressed by Swayspace in Brooklyn, New York. It is 16 pages and printed using 4 colors on 80 lb. French Durotone cover stock, and will be individually numbered, signed and mailed in March.
I am not as dangerous. I’m not as effective in the penalty area any more. That is
something I have lost. I have to get that back. I used to score better goals, great goals. But something strange has happened.
raw data may be the new crude oil, but only oil companies can build petrol stations
Don’t have any meetings about your web strategy. Just do stuff. First you have to fail, then you can improve.
It’s not the despair. I can cope with the despair. It’s the hope that kills you.
You can see the referrals and traffic to an individual bitly twitter URL by copying the URL and adding + sign to it. For example, if you see something like this in a tweet: http://bit.ly/870Ry9 just copy it and paste it with the plus and you’ll see http://bit.ly/870Ry9+. I think that’s pretty neat.
Dear Simon
Actually, you were asking me to design a logotype which would have taken me a few hours and fifteen years experience. For free. With pie charts. Usually when people don’t ask me to design them a logo, pie charts or website, I, in return, do not ask them to paint my apartment, drive me to the airport, represent me in court or whatever it is they do for a living. Unfortunately though, as your business model consists entirely of “Facebook is cool, I am going to make a website just like that”, this non exchange of free services has no foundation as you offer nothing of which I wont ask for.
Regards, David.
* Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.
Translation: I have only made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter.
Blaise Pascal
Around eight years ago I read the story of Ricardo Semler and knew immediately that was how I wanted to run my business. It works like this:
* Everybody in the company can see the accounts at any time they want
* They can ask for any salary they want
* They mostly – with management guidance – dictate their own job role
* Rather than managers hiring staff, staff hire their managers
* Everybody in the company given the above information (including other people’s salaries), police themselves into making a good company a great oneMix into that the principles of W.L. Gore & Associates where everybody has the same job title and the structure grows into a lattice, I think you can see where I want Vagueware to be five years from now:
* Completely flat in terms of management structure (UK law requires there to be a director, and I’m currently sole shareholder, but we can think through a way out this if what I propose begins to work)
* A meritocracy where the quality of your work is what counts
* Staff choosing their own hours
* Staff choosing their own salary
* Staff choosing their own input into each project
* Everybody is accountable to everybody else in the company, not to a boss who doesn’t understand what you do (even if in the early years I have to pretend I do).
should i give up
or should i just keep chasing SPREADSHEETS
even if it leads no where,
or would it be a waste
even if i knew my place should i leave it there.
should i give up
or should i just keep chasing SPREADSHEETS
even if it leads nowhere
Good to see @analysisxchange being featured on the official @googleanalytics blog: / @NetSquared #mcrn2
googleanalytics
Drone pilot finds “river of blood” outside Dallas meatpacking plant:
A succinct website feature-list I mentioned at #mcrn2 yesterday:
Interested in the social benefits of angling and fishing? Check the @anglingresearch conference in Lon on 31st Jan
@kate_is_busy I'm guessing this isn't the storywheel you mention at #mcrn2: ?!
How Nonprofits Make Data Fun and Informative
Cumbria Social Media Surgeries - including one at @lamrt mountain rescue base: ! #cumbriasms
@cerysmatthews playing Sunday morning #6music tunes my kids love to paint to!
The Curious Case of Whose Data is it Anyway?, Tues 24th January 2012, Bangalore - w/ @hapeeg: #iati
@kate_is_Busy - 24 signed up so far: - you're on the way to a @mcrn2 world record :) / @NetSquared
Done a bunch of updates for @mcrn2 events (). Do your twitter thing @kate_is_busy @kate_butler @pontoondock @davedawes !
£25m 4-star Manchester hotel planned opposite The Hacienda site. Missed opp for headline: "The Innside must be built"
Woah. Yesterday I saw @ReverseRobocall. Today I see @tumblr generating 6,200 phone calls to politicians AN HOUR:
Tracking the Open Aid Data events guide on @lanyrd, by @rolfkleef: #iati
Some interesting events lined up for #SMW12: (which is also #halfterm)
RT @opendatamcr: #opendata Manchester 31st January @madlabuk Hope to see you there
RT @opendatamcr: #opendata Manchester 31st January @madlabuk Hope to see you there
ReverseRobocall.com
16th Feb: "Social Media Cafe Liverpool - the reboot" - #smcliv #smc_mcr
listening to #r4 programme about public speaking - #ignite #TED etc - @@ivortymchak @Julianlstar :
The Top Ten Ways to Fail in Tech For Social Change! (via@ruthdelcampo) / @NetSquared
@KatePickering @kate_is_busy reminded me of this:
@kate_is_busy good idea! @JudeHabib where would you hold your #iconicsms () ?
@pauldegregorio I gave you a Big Up in this post about @salfordladsclub :)
@timdavies ah thanks - one for @caprenter to check too...
@bmwelby surprised it wasn't a direct link to a PDF! is there, but I presume that isn't the one?
My local park won the lottery - !
Hoping to be king in the Galette des Rois this year !
RT @mdda: Work with a community or voluntary group & want help w/ #socmed? Social Media Surgery on 12 Jan: #slcsms
#newpost: Digital / Data / Campaigning Jobs Galore |
@kate_is_busy surely an #iconicsms venue... - wifi might be a problem :)