Bumph Box

I wanted a tool which could help me record my moods at any given time. I’m wondering by being conscious of my moods or emotions and recording them, I could effectively control them or at least think about how they affect me and whether I can do anything differently etc. By recording all the data I can maybe get an idea of how grumpy I really am – maybe it should be called the Grumpometer.

Anyway, having a look at available apps (ideally I want to record stuff on the go) nothing really stood out and I thought I could probably knock something together using free existing tools. So, using a combination of Twitter, WordPress and Your Flowing Data. I have a basic mood tracker which can provide me extremely dull information about myself, as long as I remember to input my feelings.

When I want to record a mood, I go to the mood tracker page which I set up on this blog. That basically gives me a list of emotions to choose from. Choosing one of them fires a tweet direct to Your Flowing Data which records the details. You can add extra bits in at this point too. This gets added to the other data and makes it all available in a number of snazzy ways. So I could see how often I’ve been happy on a Monday, for instance.

I’m not really confident it will work due to my cockeyed approach to using tech stuff but we’ll see. It’s usually about having a bash at things. I guess it’s set up so anyone can give it a go if you set up a Your Flowing Data account and you’re on Twitter.

Add this link to your phone to record stuff on the go: http://bit.ly/grumpo. It just about works ok on my 3G I Phone.

Here’s my latest recorded emotion

As ever, looking at trying stuff that fits the old digital inclusion / engagement / participation mould, i’ve kicked off a hyperlocal blog (on the tumblr platform)  for where I live. It’s called ‘Roughly Roughley‘ and so far I’ve put a few links up to the MySociety stuff, bus timetables, weather and a SnapGroup.

I’m keen to watch how it takes off and develop, if I manage to get a number of contributors, to see what kind of stuff they want to put up there. I have a few people in mind initially to contribute but i’m currently thinking about building some recognition.

One of my concerns with the whole hyper local thing, is longevity. I wonder whether a year or two down the line, will we have a load of ‘ghost’ blogs where no one continues to contribute. It will be interesting to see how the sites are curated and if plans are put into place to ensure they continue to be used.

So much going on, I need a better system to organise myself. Anyhows, We Share Stuff is really gaining momentum now, or at least if feels like it is. We got funding from Becta to develop a peer to peer mentoring service. It’s called Five Minute Mentors and we’re in the throws of development and explaining it to orgs ready for testing. Also, we ended up putting in two ideas for the Jailbrake competition, one of which won through! so we’ll be going down to London for a weekend to see if we can create some prototype and push it forward. Other stuff includes some potential partnership work to deliver accredited Digital Mentoring for Social Enterprises and other orgs, a couple of funding bids for young peoples projects.

On a personal level, there doesn’t seem to be as much time as I really want. I got round to installing a network drive to host all my music and photos. The boy amazes day after day and it’s great that the nights / morns are getting longer now.

I’ll be posting more stuff soon.

I’ve entered an idea for the Jail Brake competition. It’s a competition to find and support great ideas that could break the cycle of youth offending using simple web and mobile tools.

Here it is:

Usual Suspects

What’s your idea?

In a similar vein to ‘The Big Issue’ Young people are offered the chance to earn money by selling garments they design, online. They do a basic training course on industry and design then get to design clothes (thinking t-shirts, baseball caps only at present), basic marketing – they get to set the price and have their own online shop – profits are split between them and the company (if it was to become a social enterprise).  Should the participant re-offend, they can no longer participate in the project.

What is the problem your idea could address?

This idea would address unemployment & self esteem.

What’s really new about your idea?

It gives young people a real opportunity to understand the potential of entrepreneurship and do something for themselves. Gets them thinking outside of the usual industry options that are offered.

What kind of impact will your idea make?

There are many young people who are willing to take opportunity to move forward and so if the project can attract the ‘do-ers’, in the first instance. These young people can then become role models / peer mentors to others. Numbers wise, it would be low to begin with but there’s no reason why this project couldn’t become nationwide.

Why might people want to commission or pay for your idea?

Once the process is visualised, I believe it offers an exciting opportunity to really make a difference. There is potential to approach both public and private sector for support.

What do you think the biggest challenge will be to making this work in practice?

Overcoming a reluctant, low on confidence, client group. This is why engaging the ‘do-er’s at an early stage is crucial.

What inspired you to come up with your idea in the first place?

A project we deliver to young offenders using social media. Part of the project was to raise awareness of the possibilities of starting their own businesses. I thought this could maybe  be moved a step closer to reality.

From 1-5, what stage of development would you say your idea was in?

This idea is at stage 1.

What can we do for you?

This project needs staff time and partners. There are plenty of ‘off the shelf’ products to choose from in terms of any online shop options. Time would be important to find willing testers from probably youth offending teams, highlighting the ‘do-er’s. Also, securing a bespoke training package will require time.

If you’re not able to take the idea onward after the weekend, would you be happy for someone else to take ownership of your idea and move it forward?

Yes, but I am quite keen for our organisation to be involved in some way.

http://jailbrake.org/

We hosted an Unconference on Saturday 23rd January 2010 and i’ll be posting some stuff here and over on the ‘We Share Stuff‘ site as and when I get time.

The Digital Mentor Session

Digital Mentors…hmm…Well they need to be ‘people people’, have a strong ear, ability to not force opinion, have patience, ‘get‘ technology. Probably just a few attributes there and it gets me thinking where are the people with these attributes right now? They’re out there doing the work already! Independently in many cases (and often for free). I see the ‘surgeons’ from the social media surgeries who don’t have the weight of targets and crap access / tools and red tape to bog them down. This freedom allows them to do their stuff and it works. Then I see others from the ‘black market‘ of ICT twisting the guidelines (sometimes ditching them altogether) and doing what feels right and getting results. Then there’s those who don’t think twice when they’re helping a friend or colleague with a tech problem or issue. They just do it. Shit, I left my previous job delivering government funded, admin heavy, sometimes pointless courses, training and advice because I saw that we were only touching the tip of the iceberg when it came to using technology for learning and improving social capital. In fact, it managed to steer clear of the iceberg altogether on many occasions and that felt wrong.

So since the Media Trust have renamed their project ‘Community Voices‘ it throws the ‘digital mentor’ definiton up in the air.

Should it stay there?

Not that it’s got any copyright attached to it or anything but it’s a shame that such a term becomes applied because the nature of the role is so varied and flexible.

You ‘get’ it?  yes can you share it? yes. well there you go.

So i’m all in favour of a certain approach. One based on continuing the ‘black market’ ‘under the radar’ way of doing things. We don’t need to be called digital mentors and we don’t need any official guidelines, groups or websites – we know what works and how to stay ahead of the game and we know how to connect so do we need to mess?

#bdyrgi

I was in a large computer store just before Christmas browsing through the latest laptops and something really got to me. There was a pensioner looking a tad confused at all the different makes and models. One of the staff went over and offered assistance. Well, you couldn’t really call it assistance when he pretty much shoved a laptop down the chap’s throat without even discussing his requirements. Obviously, the old fella had to put his trust into this assistant because he really didn’t know (thing is, there’s so much you can do with technology that it’s difficult to know where to begin).

It reminded me of that feeling when you take your car into the garage and you need it fixing but you don’t know what’s wrong with it (because you don’t know how cars work) and you put your trust in the mechanic and hope they don’t rip you off.

Anyway, this bloke was flogged some machine that he didn’t know anything about along with anti virus software and office products. Then I heard it reverberate around the store…”anti virus…office, protection, spreadsheets, norton, office…” Like some crazy conveyer belt.

I did buy my laptop and when the assistant turned to grab the additional items I was like..

‘No thanks, don’t need them’ – he smirked and carried on putting the items through the till…
‘I said no thanks’
‘But your computer won’t be protected’
‘Yes it will’
‘You need office for….’
‘No I don’t’

So what’s my point? Well we look at the problems when faced with digital inclusion and to be honest, I seem to be seeing a whole load of different problems compared to the kinds of problems that seem to get the most attention (and money spent on them). This is just one instance. Where people who are willing to get digitally involved are not getting the support and motivation they need.
We need to get a proper digital mentor scheme out and about, in the stores, on the streets, in the schools, in the libraries, in the community halls, in the Mosques… you know… Outreach.

OK, here are some the things i’m doing leading up to the festive period. Hoping to get a few weeks break before cracking on in the new year.

First up, the Digital Inclusion stuff i’m doing with We Share Stuff has given birth to an unconference which we secured funding for. Very chuffed we pulled this off and i’m looking forward to sharing tips and stories with folks doing similar stuff.

Signed up for the 4am project which is taking place at the Bodies Revealed exhibition in Digbeth. Looking at the subject matter I thought it would make some great TTV so I’ll probably go with that format. However it might be a chance to try some other similar techniques. If I have time tonight to come up with something that is.

Plenty of other things on the go but nowhere near enough time to talk about them all!

Salute!

Despite all my best avoiding efforts, I knew somewhere along the line I would have to do something like this. I have spoken to groups before but I think it’s not for everyone, me in particular. I don’t have the best of times articulating myself and i’m always conscious that I’ll miss something important out. Anyway, I spoke at the ‘Sharing Information Digitally’ event organised by WMRO at Millennium Point, Birmingham. I attempted to tie in some stuff around digital inclusion and how that relates to sharing information, or more-so the speed at which sharing information digitally is evolving (which is pretty darn quick). It wasn’t as bad I thought it would be. My nerves steadied enough for me to get most of the content over in what felt like a mildly jerky fashion.

Below are the slides from the presentation and the podcast which you’ll probably need to listen to to make sense of the slides.

Stuart Parker on Digital Inclusion by wmro

Around March 2008 I tried to get the ‘blog club’ going. The idea was to get a local online community up and running via blogging. I ran a four week thing and got a little interest but it was the blog club that inspired me onto We Share Stuff.

Since starting up We Share Stuff and doing a few other odds and sods, I didn’t really have any vision of where my ‘office’ type of work would take place. I guess at home but as things have evolved and the nature of the work develops, I’m currently like this.

No apologies for the marker on pad sketch. I didn’t want to get all designer tat on this.

So my ‘Triangle of Work’ Currently consists of three locations where I do my ‘office’ type stuff.

Home
The obvious place, but as family life tends to get in the way of work type stuff no matter how you try to switch off, it’s not the ideal place to get anything done. However, during the evenings when things are a tad calmer, I can settle down and crack on with any photography stuff. Also, I’ll get snippets of stuff done when i’m on my own but I tend to not attempt too much from home other than a few emails and getting stuff into the calender.

Harvest Fields Centre
A great venue only 10 minutes away from where I live. (Harken, North Birmingham co-working types) A conference centre, community centre, churchy type place and co-working space all rolled into one. Free wi-fi, decent coffee and friendly staff make it a great space for getting stuff done. It’s a great place for meeting folks too. I guess I do most of my admin and funding type stuff from here. I hope the venue gets the usage it deserves before too long.

Coffee Lounge, Birmingham
Home to much of Birmingham’s online gubbins, including the Birmingham Social Media Cafe. The venue for me is more of a meeting venue. It allows me to catch up with colleagues from around the borough being such a central city centre location (5 minutes from New Street) and having free wi-fi (albeit a tad flaky at times)

So that’s my triangle. I’m keen to persue the co-working space thing and find other solutions to premesis and offices. The nature of my work with the Internet certainly helps that. Always searching for that free wi-fi logo!