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!

I’m thinking mobile apps to monitor fitness, smoking cessation, and nutrition (done – http://www.pure-mac.com/iphone/health.html).

Managing long term conditions with online support (getting there – http://www.jmir.org/2006/3/e13/ and http://www.managinglongtermconditions.com/conference/telehealth.html)

Using Wordpress for corporate web presence (http://www.barnsleyhospital.nhs.uk/)

Online community potential (http://www.netmums.com/)

Rich content readily available (http://www.nhs.uk/Pages/homepage.aspx)

Spirit of innovation in IT (http://www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/ and http://www.institute.nhs.uk/)

Interest in internal communication (http://www.nhscentreforinvolvement.nhs.uk/index.cfm?Content=103)

Commitment to (customer/patient/people) power and engagement (http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/NHSConstitution/index.htm)

Commitment to web standards and accessibility – well, it’s there, just needs a bit more articulation and oomph.

Ultimately online should support the aims of the service, and – as it is a political animal – bold aims could get marginalised at the expense of immediate demands. But it’s a fantastically exciting environment to be in at the moment. I count myself fortunate to be where I am right now, helping a health service organisation with its external and internal web presence.

Quite how it will work out, no-one knows! But I reckon the ingredients are there… it just needs the right ideas to become the right reality. It’s a challenge, but I’ve never felt as committed to something that could make a real difference. It’s all good.

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!

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!

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.

(Before I rant – I know little of the CDT; it seems to be engaged in some really positive work, and I support its work and objectives as a whole. I’m probably over-reacting, but then it is a blog.)

Now this question is wrong on lots of different levels.

One, it’s a leading question, in the spirit of ‘when did you stop beating your wife’. There’s no real right answer. It leaves little room for an informed debate about what Moseley represents to the local community and wider user base.

Two, it disregards the efforts of an active and engaged nightlife community that week in, week out, bring hundreds of people into Moseley and cement its reputation (rightly or wrongly) as an interesting place with a vibrant community.

And three, it reinforces a perceived gap between old and young (rich and poor? homeowners and tenants?) in Moseley; that there’s an active and creative population who are almost at odds with an older, more established, more ‘conservative’ community.

Now I don’t know the full background to the survey. The question may have been the students’ own, so I shouldn’t be too harsh. But it shouldn’t be included in a survey by a community group. Better to have a series of focus groups with the stakeholders, for example. More relevant research methods would allow for a better view of the perceptions of Moseley nightlife.

And the perceived gap between old and young is an interesting but ultimately empty opinion. People from different backgrounds often have different views on life, even have a different language, and it’s only a question of communicating in each others language to find common ground. If you think it’s real, then it is, but if you think it isn’t, it isn’t. It’s a personal opinion. If you think it exists and it upsets you, do somethiing about it.

Anyway, what really disappoints is the feeling that the survey question was there for the sole purpose of allowing someone to say that ‘there is a negative perception of Moseley nightlife’. That’s not a community survey, that’s a witch hunt.

Moseley is a great place – one of the best in Birmingham. But if it is to continue, then the whole community needs to support each other. From pubs, shops, restaurants and businesses, we are a community made up of different people with different views. Why try create a sense of negativity? Help each other. Or people will just pack up and leave, harming the community for years to come.

The web is an essentially social phenomenon. It puts people in touch with each other.

I’ll take my past few weeks for example.

I took redundancy from my last job at the end of the year. Since then, I have immersed myself in electronic devices, with a lovely new mobile phone, laptop, and an ever increasing digital footprint.

I have met, say, 20 new people involved in social media scene in Birmingham by browsing blogs and following links (including using Facebook). I am hopeful that I will be able to further these relationships from both personal and professional points of view (I should be starting a new job next week).

I take a keen interest in displaying terrible golf abilities; I used an electronic device (laptop) to arrange a golf weekend for myself and three friends, and it was a very social event indeed (although I’m not sure how much good it did for my health).

My mobile phone has enabled a lot of contact with friends old and new, and helped me with driving directions on more than one occasion.

I am hoping to use Facebook in earnest to help promote a local festival, and so bring even more people to an immensely social event.

And, previous to these past few weeks (I’ve been quite busy), I met my wife through the internet.

My taste in music has expanded exponentially. I have more knowledge now than I could dream about. And I know that, if there is something I am not sure about, I can find an answer of reasonable accuracy within minutes.

What Dr Sigman seems to have done is fail to see technology as a communication tool. It’s perhaps apt that his work cannot be seen online, so we can’t get to the full facts easily. Facebook et al are fantastically social tools, that postively encourage increased interaction, bringing it with those added benefits of socialisation that Dr Sigman espouses. The web transforms society, bringing people together. But thanks, doc, anyway, as perhaps we do need reminding that this is an essentially sociable space.

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?

On further, preliminary research (ie Google), there are some interesting views.

Jason Falls comments: “The problem with trying to determine ROI for social media is you are trying to put numeric quantities around human interactions and conversations, which are not quantifiable.”

Aaron Urchmacher has come up with some practical tips on qualitative and quantitative measures of success – customer engagement, search engine rankings – and advises “…have a success metric in mind before you begin”.

Further views come from KD Paine covers this in more detail – certainly I will be exploring her views. But her reported views are that it is about what you are gaining from the conversation (comments etc) – and this is difficult to quantify.

Marketing metrics are an interesting area at the best of times. Businesses have spent years measuring the wrong things, and that’s really coming home to roost (cf the High Street). Customer interactions and results can be measured, but they are often ignored (customers and their interactions).

So isn’t this just a reiteration of the arguments about measuring the right things? That what matters to business isn’t cold, easily understandable data, which can be read and processed from the comfort of an office? You should be out there listening to your customers every day, delivering the best solution for their needs?

Heresy indeed to the traditional marketing model of push push push.

But can we not change now? Won’t it be easier in a year or two’s time when a business has an active community of advocates, engaged in the development process, rather than just recipients of the (albeit economically necessary) waste that is mass advertising?

Can we not start measuring the right things?

It’s funny that this web thing has gone from championing SEO and PPC through its ability to measure results, to move on to championing the ‘conversation’, which proposes a completely different concept of measurement. But the theory is there, from the balanced scorecard onwards. It’s just going to take a seismic shift in business attitude to see the benefits.

It’s a fascinating area to me, and I’m keen to hear other views. It may be even something I cover in my upcoming Masters.

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.

It’s a bit late for me, struggling to find work and with a dwindling redundancy package to offset my mortgage arrears.

So I’m a little miffed when our glorious leaders attempt to encourage the consumerist agenda by lowering interest rates, reducing VAT and generally trying to encourage us to spend.

As if.

Faced with uncertain times, what is the natural reaction? Show more discipline. Believe in self-sufficiency. Protect yourself. Food and shelter, that’s all you need, Maslow would have us believe. Thank God for the scientists.

These are the principles that were drilled into our forebears through National Service. It was self-discipline as much as obedience. Just do, don’t think, or question. When should you start to question? Ever the seen The Hill, with Sean Connery? He was good then.

And now those self-same leaders that were so smug when their beliefs held strong, when the stock market grew, property values soared, and life was measured by possession, are still trying to peddle the same old lie.

Spectacular fail.

As we obey the concept of self-discipline the world system falls apart. Muted mutterings from Davos echo of a humble realisation; it was wrong. They were wrong. We were wrong to believe them. Even now, they are still wrong. What do you want me to do, cash in my meagre redundancy payout and buy a 48 inch HD-ready TV? Tell me, how can I protect myself, framed in your unhappy utopia? How can I obey you?

It’s all rubbish. From National Service to the dwindling concept of a welfare state, society’s debt looms larger than the paper-based debts of the global trading rooms. Everything is wrong, angry brainwrong. There is no solution, just periods of time whilst we await the accommodation of alternative beliefs and the revival of an empirical failure. We are all stupids and the stupid thing is that we still live with this shit.

Interesting times.