Author Archive
Some interesting public sector and health blogs
Posted by: Rob Benson in Uncategorized on July 22nd, 2009
- Our masters at war… http://blogs.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/digitalengagement
- Downing Street WP hero Simon Dickson at http://puffbox.com/
- Interesting slideshow on online social networks for healthcare
- Excellent links to healthcare sites at http://billives.typepad.com/portals_and_km/2007/10/health-care-soc.html
Finally… Moseley website goes live
Posted by: Rob Benson in Community, Social media on May 5th, 2009
Finally have got Moseley Festival website live at http://www.moseleyfestival.org.uk/
Fairly straightforward Wordpress installation. Not sure about the use of Upcoming for the events listing. Would a WP calendar plugin be any better? Might try again next time round.
Creating the site did show me that it is quite quick to create an OK looking site – we are all publishers. And it made me realise that my job as a corporate web monkey is to help people be their own publishers. I’m thinking a few ideas for how this can apply to healthcare – patients sharing information via blog sites, for example. Half of healthcare is about giving and receiving the right information… and there are a million ways to make it easier.
Anyway, off topic now. http://www.moseleyfestival.org.uk/ is pretty simple, i know, and needs a few graphical tweaks to make it nice and lovely, but it does the job, so I’m pretty happy with it. Now it’s the big plug! Twitter here we come!
NHS plans for digital
Posted by: Rob Benson in Community, Health, Social media on March 19th, 2009
Just returned from interesting meeting at which regional plans for NHS digital were outlined. It’s something I need to think more about, but I’m getting towards some ideas on how online could potentially help health service delivery. Read the rest of this entry »
Ginger Fest for Moseley Festival
Posted by: Rob Benson in Community on March 19th, 2009
Ginger? Strawberry blonde? Auburn? Redhead?
You are the MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE!
At least you will be at Ginger Fest at Mozfest, 01 July, 8pm onwards, Fighting Cocks, Moseley.
Competitions, prizes, tales of fear and loathing… come and celebrate the ginger gene at the highlight event of this year’s Moseley Festival.
In the meantime, play Ginger Dawn:
http://www.fingertime.com/gingerdawn/
Ginner rules!
Moseley Festival – share the love
Posted by: Rob Benson in Community, Events on March 15th, 2009
Moseley Festival is an annual series of community events in the Birmingham suburb of Moseley. This year it runs from Friday 26 June to Sunday 05 July.
Over the course of 10 days, it features (variously) music, club and DJ nights, art, a beer festival, drama, sport, open days, street fair, and more – plus the award winning farmers market.
This year we’re hoping loads of the Moseley community will come together to make it a great event. The idea is that, if you want to put something on, please do! An organising committee – of which I am part – can help with advice, support, contacts, and promotion.
The Festival is a fantastic opportunity to do something special for your local community. You could just put something on that you normally do as part of the event. It’s whatever you would like to do.
Drop me a line or comment to let me know if you want to be part of the event. We’re looing at a mid-April deadline for programme publication, so do be quick!
What’s wrong with Moseley?
Posted by: Rob Benson in Community, Economy, Marketing on March 15th, 2009
I was approached at a recent Moseley Farmers Market by two young women (happens all the time) who asked if I could help them with some research.
Turns out they were students asking questions about people’s percceptions of Moseley on behalf of Moseley Community Development Trust (CDT). The subjects sovered what shops would you like to see, how could we improve, general qualitative stuff.
But one question stood out for me. “Do you have a negative perception of Moseley nightlife,” they asked. Read the rest of this entry »
The healthy social media society
Posted by: Rob Benson in Social media on February 26th, 2009
Dr Aric Sigman’s assertion that the increasing use of electronic devices is reducing social contact (see Telegraph technology blog), and therefore is potentially harmful to health, is clearly utter tosh.
The web is an essentially social phenomenon. It puts people in touch with each other.
I’ll take my past few weeks for example. Read the rest of this entry »
What’s the ROI of social media?
Posted by: Rob Benson in Performance measures, Social media on February 24th, 2009
Just coming back from a Social Media summit at Aston Science Park, where a handful of speakers told businesses and consultants about the positive aspects of social media – the ability to communicate, share stories and ‘help their business’.
It was an interesting introduction, but there was a bit of an elephant in the room when it came to spelling out why companies should be doing this, and what the actual results would be. Getting closer to your customers was the driving force behind CRM, and there is much debate about its benefits to the bottom line (sorry, will reference this allegation in time!). What is the return on social media? Read the rest of this entry »
Everything is wrong
Posted by: Rob Benson in Economy on February 24th, 2009
“There’s no discipline these days,” I overheard from some old timers today. Back in the day they followed orders. Things change. No discipline anymore.
But discipline relies on strong leadership, underpinned by uncompromising belief. This was National Service, Queen and country the emblems of a faith system that built strong men and unquestioning obedience.
Now our leaders have been proved wrong. Discipline towards whom? Beliefs in aspiration are wrong. Greed is not good. Whether Iraq or the economy, the doubters have been vilified. Read the rest of this entry »
