If you’re based near Birmingham keep your eyes open, there are more.

It has been many years since I last did any court reporting and I remember the scramble to get out of court and either get to the court press room or recover your mobile from security.  Recording devices like cameras and microphones are banned in UK courts.

Have things changed at all? Would it be OK for a reporter to follow this American example and (from the brilliant Spokesman Review – the paper which practically invented the open newsroom)  tweet progress – presumably using a mobile phone?

Priorities listed here:

Terms of Reference

The Commission will focus on young people aged 11-19 and will:

• Examine what citizenship means to young people


• Consider how to increase young people’s participation in politics; the development of citizenship amongst disadvantaged groups; how active citizenship can be promoted through volunteering and community engagement; and how the political system can reflect the communication preferences of young people.


• Lead a consultation with young people on whether the voting age should be lowered to 16.

The Commission will report to the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Justice, and the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families in spring 2009.

Views can be sent to the YCC mailbox – ycc@justice.gsi.gov.uk

From here:

With Drupal version 7, due later this year, Buytaert hopes to include technologies that will make sites running Drupal part of the Semantic Web, Tim ­Berners-­Lee’s vision for making online data understandable to machines as well as people. If Drupal hosts a website containing a company’s Securities and Exchange Commission profile, for example, other sites could access just the third-quarter revenues, without having to retrieve the whole profile. The goal of sharing data in smaller, better-defined chunks is to make Drupal a key part of the growing eco­system of websites that share structured data. If this effort succeeds, it will ensure Drupal’s continued relevance to the still-developing Web.—Clay Shirky

Hat tip Paul Miller of the School of Everything.

This weekend I learned that BMAG is aiming to find a whole bunch of new visitors to its many attractions. Today Jon Bounds asks what new stuff will get people involved?

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery have just come into some money, £300,000, and they’re going to use it to create a gallery showing Birmingham’s history from medieval times to the present day. I’m sure we used to have something a bit like this (a local history room anyway).

But anyway — apart from getting some of the industrial history stuff back from Thinktank, digging out the system that did push-button playback of “I can’t find old Brummagem” and providing some of the Library’s Baskerville collection — with a decent home what should it have?

Here’s some suggestions:

Dennis Mortimer’s beard from when villa won the European cup.
Every plan and architects model for a regenerated Brum, all google-earthed up and you can rum simulations of how the city would have looked if they’d come to pass.
An interactive exhibit that allows you to do the voice over for Telly Savalas looks at Birmingham – a bit like Singstar where you have to match the pitch, speed and not laugh when you claim to have “dallied in Dale End”.
Dana International – well she’s not doing anything at the moment.

Jon says we need to “Fill Brum’s new local history museum with proper stuff:” I’m thinking he means less highbrow more pattern shaved eyebrow. Jon has a talent for this, but I’m going to have a crack….:

A blue Goldfish in a toilet bowl.
A multi coloured flying saucer a la ELO.
Any Osbournes who aren’t that busy just at the mo.
A selection of skirts warn on Broad Street from 1308 to 2008.
Carl’s chin.
My mates son Archie – cos he has a perfectly preserved Brummie accent.
Camp Hill Flyover.
BOZOD.