These are my links for November 24th through November 28th:

• Open Sourcing Google Project 10^100? – Social by Social – 170,000 ideas have simply disappeared. Only Google knows what they are.
• Sarah Lay » Blog Archive » Social networking for councils – "Carl Haggerty of Devon County Council had re-branded social networking as business networking in order to get chief officers to look past what they thought they knew toward the potential of such a system."
• NN News & Blogs | Networked Neighbourhoods : passionate about local digital – The key differences between the different types of local citizen sites were brought sharply into focus by a simple four-box model. Hugh also offered some insight into how different types of sites may be best used:
• Changing the acoustics for citizens’ voices – Neighbourhoods – initiatives imply significant changes to the acoustics for citizens' voices. Organised community action – in meetings around the town as in Castleford or (especially) online as in some of William's examples – is starting to bring about a far more audible articulation of local people's views and experience than we have had before. And don't be fooled by the rhetoric from above, which to use Alison's phrase tends to mean 'big people not listening': much of it is in spite of, not because of, official action.
• A Manifesto for the Social Organization | The Idea Hive – "We are entering the era of the social organization, because, like a school of fish, or a swarm of bees, a social organization fluidly dances with the ever changing music that engulfs it, rather than trying to control it. For, as shown by the story of King Canute trying to hold back the tide, attempted control over elemental forces is ultimately futile. Change is on the way."

The focus of the November Central Birmingham Social Media Surgery was to try and get those who had been to previous surgeries to come back and build on their skills.

On a blustery Friday night at Fazeley Studios, a number of people returned to the surgery with questions, ideas and ways they wanted to develop their organisation using the web.

Peter and Jean Rookes had attended a surgery a while ago and had set up a blog. But time constraints and forgotten passwords meant it had been left dormant and they were eager to get it up and going again to continue their work. Their main objective was to find a way of uploading documents to the blog so colleagues could easily view reports. I spoke to them before and after the surgery to find out if they’d got what they came for.

We also welcomed back Audrey Miller who brought along her husband Duncan. Audrey came along to one of the first Social Media Surgeries and set up her blog www.jdcbirmingham.wordpress.com for Jubilee Debt Campaign Birmingham. This time, the couple were interested in posting up photos from those involved in the organisation World Friends, so friends and families form their home countries to see them. Here she explains:

There were also those who hadn’t attended a surgery before – such as Lee McLaughlan from Moseley Round Table. Sometimes it’s just about sitting down with someone who has a mind full of ideas which may help you with your problem.

I notcied John Newsom from Balsall Heath is our Planet had returned to the surgery to build on his blog, which you can see here. He has changed the theme and added a number of pages with contact details, links to other sites and information for anyone wanting to know more about the charity.

Although this surgery was particularly focused on those who had encountered social media and now wanted to improve and deepen their knowledge and understanding, all of the surgeries encourage people to come back and learn more. Many from last week’s surgery said they would like to return every month to build on what they know, and sit with new surgeons who may offer different advice.

These are my links for November 15th through November 23rd:

• Mandleson, ethics, culture, commerce and copyright law | SMLXL – Engagement Marketing and Communication principles from Alan Moore – "Replace fear of the unknown with curiosity"
• Ordnance Survey maps to go free online | Technology | guardian.co.uk – "Brown's announcement comes after Ordnance Survey said, earlier this year, that moving to a free model would cost between £500m and £1bn over the next five years. But a separate study, by a team at Cambridge University, commissioned by the Treasury, found that making all OS data free would cost the government £12m and bring a net gain of £156m."
• Do music artists fare better in a world with illegal file-sharing? — Times Labs Blog – "This is the graph the record industry doesn’t want you to see. It shows the fate of the three main pillars of music industry revenue – recorded music, live music, and PRS revenues (royalties collected on behalf of artists when their music is played in public) over the last 5 years."
• compfight + a flickr™ search tool – Very simple search engine for creative commons images on flickr
• Start | AWMist – Advantage West Midlands uses open street map to bring together different businesses. "AWMist has information about several thousand ICT and electronics businesses, research institutions, and other organisations in the West Midlands. It fosters collaboration by helping businesses to find partners in the area."

These are my links for November 9th through November 14th:

• Building the “Local” website, not a council website « Carl’s Notepad – Shouldn’t we take the same approach as we do in the “real” world and position our information and services as part of the community and not expect people (and i include myself here) to have to visit a local council website to access information or perform a transaction.
• WTop Ten Things a Brand Must Be to Go Social | Simon Mainwaring – "Brands live or die on the good grace of their pro-active, connected customers. They can be your greatest allies or quickest destroyers. It is a privilege for a brand to enter their lives and any attitude short of that is a fast track to self-absorbtion and self destruction."
• Pezholio » Blog Archive » Who said Social Media can’t save councils money? – Pez saves Lichfield Council £3.22 and more importantly some poor resident a fruitless phone call – all thanks to twitter!
• Stephen Hale at fco.gov.uk – Stephen Hale at the Foreign Office writes a great post on the web and government. He belives you have to a clear clear web strategy but above all: "make sure it's ambitious." Well worth a read.
• There’s too much kick-boxing « Audit Commission newsroom blog – The Audit Commission (a customer) finding it's voice: "We say there’s too much kick-boxing going on. That was just in case you were already yawning. In fact, there’s too much tick-boxing going on."

These are my links for November 9th through November 14th:

• Building the “Local” website, not a council website « Carl’s Notepad – Shouldn’t we take the same approach as we do in the “real” world and position our information and services as part of the community and not expect people (and i include myself here) to have to visit a local council website to access information or perform a transaction.
• WTop Ten Things a Brand Must Be to Go Social | Simon Mainwaring – "Brands live or die on the good grace of their pro-active, connected customers. They can be your greatest allies or quickest destroyers. It is a privilege for a brand to enter their lives and any attitude short of that is a fast track to self-absorbtion and self destruction."
• Pezholio » Blog Archive » Who said Social Media can’t save councils money? – Pez saves Lichfield Council £3.22 and more importantly some poor resident a fruitless phone call – all thanks to twitter!
• Stephen Hale at fco.gov.uk – Stephen Hale at the Foreign Office writes a great post on the web and government. He belives you have to a clear clear web strategy but above all: "make sure it's ambitious." Well worth a read.
• There’s too much kick-boxing « Audit Commission newsroom blog – The Audit Commission (a customer) finding it's voice: "We say there’s too much kick-boxing going on. That was just in case you were already yawning. In fact, there’s too much tick-boxing going on."