In the wake of widespread disappointment surrounding Google Wave, an open discussion at Social Media Cafe Manchester helped to put the technology into focus and answer many of the questions posed by it’s critics.

Sat in the Manchester Bar in the BBC, Oxford Road, we waited with baited breath to see if any major revelations would come to the fore. Initially we were disappointed. There were many people in the audience who simply hadn’t used Google Wave, or who had at best merely dabbled. So much of the first twenty minutes were spent explaining how it works, and getting input from the audience as to it’s downsides. People discussed the incredibly slow speed, the frustrating scroll bars, the difficulty in navigating long multi-contributor Waves and many more ‘detail’ gripes, adeptly hosted by Lexusperplexus, @lexplex_ (apologies, not sure of his real name)

However all of the above are distracting from the concept. There were two particular figures in the audience last night who shed much light on the subject. One worked for the BBC (Ian Forrester, @cubicgarden), and the other was a developer (Paul Robinson, @p7r) who had been involved in the beta stage of Google Wave. Between them they explained quite clearly that Wave is the technology, and that Google Wave as we know it is merely a preview of how the technology might work.

It was admitted that the interface is far too clunky, that it is not intuitive, and that by rights it has been released to a confused audience far, far too early, leading to misinterpretation and apathy. Had Google have waited maybe a year or two longer, and launched a slicker product, with a clearer description of it’s purpose, maybe the audience at large would ‘get it’.

But it was in the answering of two questions that perspective was finally found. Firstly, and most importantly was the revelation that Wave is a technology that is not specific to Google, but that will in time be used via a range of ‘Wave’ clients – much in the same way we use email now, ie through Outlook or Apple Mail etc. And secondly, once this is in place, the performance speed of a Wave will be much improved as it will no longer mean every Wave going into and out of Google’s servers, rather it will utilise local servers as we are used to with email and the internet now.

With this in mind we can now see clearly how Google’s Wave interface is simply a vehicle in it’s infancy, designed to show us how digital communication and collaboration will be in the very near future.

I suspect that much of the confusion has arisen from Google’s desire to be ‘first to the party’, and to hide the fact that the technology is not exclusive to Google. Understandable from a business point of view, but given the poor response it’s had I think Google would have benefited from a more transparant approach…

Andy Chesters

I’ve started to notice a huge increase in hashtags in twitter later, it seems everyday there is an interesting conference or gathering of “experts” talking about various topics related to web 2.0, gov 2.0, democracy 2.0, participation 2.0, enterprise 2.0 , leadership 2.0 – i think you get the trend here. There is also an increase in the many smaller gatherings on a more local basis based around the traditional ( i say that reluctantly) tweetup format. Most of the time, i’m wishing i was there with everyone else, but instead generally settle for the twitter stream.

After a recent Exeter event #tags which essentially built upon the existing Exeter tweet-up – but wasn’t a tweet-up in itself, more of a informal “experience sharing” (i must confess i’ve never actually attended one – shame on me i know).  It was after the event that some interesting discussion started on twitter – it wasn’t making any waves (not the google kind) and it wasn’t particularly controversial, but it did get me thinking.  How do the many different types of meeting title differ in reality, or are they all just the same but “branded” to position it as something “different”.

Why am i even posting on this subject, well, for me it is about managing expectations and in a more socially connected world we can share or expectations and we can also report when something fails us or doesn’t deliver what it promised. I also think that the fact that these kinds of meetings have evolved out of these connections is something that needs to be maintained and if new opportunities for connections are identified then we need to be clear about what the focus is and what is expected of the people attending.

Another reason why i think it is important is that we need to be clear that anyone can initiate a meeting, based on their network, so you can have more than one type of tweet up in a locality, obviously it could benefit people to connect those tweet ups but it may not, groups may have a particular reason for coming together. I am assuming here that if people interested in a particular topic, lets say “eLearning” want to connect in a tweet up format then that is perfectly normal. If i’m not interested in elearning then i wouldn’t attend, or if it was related to a particular music band, again unless i’m interested i wouldn’t attend.

So i guess i’m kind of arguing for some consistency in how events are communicated (i say that instead of marketed for a reason as they should be inclusive and participative) and not “sold” to me as must attend event. After all social media puts you and me in control – we have the power to choose and more importantly influence.

OR this could all be worthless as i have asked myself “does it really matter what its called?” as long as it delivers value.

Ok lets starts: NB, this is not an exhaustive list and is only meant to stimulate conversation, if you disagree, comment, if you know of others, comment, either way don’t stay silent if you have something to say )

Tweet-up

As every good researcher  does nowadays – I did a search on google for “what is a tweet-up” and found an excellent definition, which for me sums up exactly what a tweetup is supposed to be about, so i won’t try and reinvent the wheel here, but the thing to remember i believe is that it is about meeting up with people because they are on twitter – hence tweet-up – obvious but still needs to be said.

A tweetup is an event where people who Twitter come together to meet in person. Normally we connect with our friends online after we have met them. At a tweetup you meet the people you might only otherwise know virtually. Like finally putting a name to a face, a tweetup is a great opportunity to really connect with the people in your network and share just a little more than 140 characters at a time.

Via Socialhat.com

I’m assuming that this is only related to twitter and that if you were a Yammer user you might well attend something called a “YamJam” or something like that. But i could be wrong, i don’t use Yammer, so i’m only guessing, but i definitely like the sound of a “YamJam”.

Twestival

The best explanation comes from the twestival website itself.

A Twestival or Twitter-Festival is a global series of events organized by volunteers around the world under short timescales, which bring people offline for a great cause.  Twestival is run 100% by volunteers and independently from any not-for-profit; although the organizing teams do work closely to outline an achievable and measurable fundraising target.  Twestival also sets out to identify key skills of volunteers and match these with the needs of the cause; particularly communications strategy, tech integration and social media training.

Via Twestival.com

Social Media Cafe or Social Media Club

Again a search or two later on google and it seems the consensus is that a Social Media Cafe is a place for ALL people interested in social media to gather, get acquainted, and to plot, scheme, and share.. emphasis on open and interesting conversation!

There are some great examples of Social Media Cafes around the country Birmingham, Manchester and of course London, which in fact calls itself the “Tuttle Club“.  If you want to know a bit more about  Social Media Cafe’s and the Tuttle Club then check out this video by Lloyd Davis.

Closer to home Cornwall has a Social Media Cafe as does Devon, But again i’ve not attended either,  this is mainly due to the fact it has been in Plymouth, and my view is that they should be locally based. Devon is just too big or a county to easily get around to organise a Devon wide Social Media Cafe – perhaps we need to consider a sub set e.g.  Exeter, East Devon,  Torbay, North Devon and of course Plymouth, but that has to be a crowd driven process. by posting this , I have now just made my contribution to the discussion.

Barcamp

Slightly more formal and an informal way then the events above (< does that even make sense!!).  Anyway the definition of a barcamp is a user generated conference (or unconference), which is open and participatory. It also relies on the participants to provide the content.

I’ve attended 2 barcamp events (UKGovWeb and LocalGovCamp) and they were both excellent, in my view this is the best type of event to attend for learning and exploration around particular issues. It doesn’t rely on any key-note session or “expert” analysis. It simply relies on the collective knowledge of those participants who have attended and the willingness to share the knowledge and learning they have.  The key aspect of both of these events were that they were free to attend (funded by sponsorship and volunteers) and they were on a Saturday. This in my opinion made sure that those who attended had a real interest and willingness to share and connect with others. That for me is a true test, would you connect even if your work weren’t paying you?

In my opinion it is the most inclusive and interactive of this style of event. But i would say that as i used to work in the Local Agenda 21 arena (from 1998-2003 ) and Open Space Technology was very much part of the community consensus building process.  It assumes that the community or participants are best placed to resolve and answer their own issues and questions. If not then action is devolved to people to find out and report back.  Why i think it works so effectively now is the tools for collaboration are easy to access and the sharing of information pre and post event is easier.

Local variations have now started to appear in the form of LocalGovCamp Lincoln and i hope this continues and develops across different sectors. Perhaps we should pull together and organise and BarCampDevon and look to the voluntary, public and private sector to collaborate on improving services for all. If you are interested let me know via the comments section, as i’d be keen to explore the practicalities of taking this forward.

Likeminds

Ok, not strictly an event format or style as such, but i can’t write this post without at least referencing the recent likeminds event in Exeter. What was interesting about this event was that it was organised, promoted, marketed and pretty much run on occasion did sneak into the more traditional formats of having key-note speakers and panelists (i was even one them!!). It did go to the next step however and integrated social media into the event itself using twitterfall for audience feedback,  and ustream for live broadcast (over 550 people watched live). As much as i enjoyed the event, i met some great people, connected dfaces with twitter ID’s and it is rare such as well attended event happens in Exeter – it didn’t provide me with the same opportunities that a BarCamp style event would have.

It did however generate huge twitter interest and even within hours of being raised during the event, started promoting t-shirts – surely that demonstrates the power of these tools.

So what?

Like i said earlier, why do i really care bout this, well for me, the type of event will determine whether or not i will attend (shallow i know but i’m pretty busy like most and if i don’t think i’ll gain from something i won’t attend). My preference of course as a participant is the inclusive barcamp style and i’m convinced that any participant of a barcamp style event will probably say the same. I have and will attend an event regardless of format, just to meet people – after all it is in those connections that i learn the most. I’ve also (recently in fact) sat through nearly 30 hours or death by powerpoint and i did learn, but i didn’t feel like i participated in an event, i felt like i was talked at and too most of the time…took me back to my school days.

So what about all the new events that are popping up, well for me, they are starting to take some of the “open” and “inclusive” principles away and are reverting back to more traditional styles of conference delivery. It may well be that this is what people are seeking and i have nothing against this approach. But i just don’t think it is in keeping with the ethos of the social web as a whole, which is inclusive, equal and participative, knowledge is shared and is not considered as “power”.

These are only my views and my opinions and on that note – Enough said. :0

Day 55 – Social Solihull: Today was the first Solihull Social Media Cafe, and I went along to represent Solihull MBC.  Soon I’m going to be taking control of the council’s twitter page and other social media, so it was great to spend a couple of hours bouncing ideas around and seeing what people want.  We had 15 turn up in total and hopefully next month’s will be evn better!

The next meeting of the Cornwall Social Media Café has been confirmed for Monday 23rd November from 6.30pm at the Vertigo bar in Truro – for full details and booking please click here.

If you’ve never come along to a CSMC before, it would be great to see you! We’re a friendly and eclectic mix of students, businesses, academics, the public sector, artists, social enterprises and other walks of live who all share a common interest in social media.

Following last month’s presentation from Tuttle Founder, Lloyd Davis, there will be no formal structure to the event. Guests are invited to turn up and chat to their fellow Tuttlers from 6.30pm in the upstairs Pink Room.

If you have any questions about CSMC or this event please contact Aren, Laura McKay or Fiona.

We look forward to seeing you on the 23rd!

As you probably know, I encourage people all over to start their own social media cafe rather than trekking to the nearest big city and then moaning about how long it’s taken to get there.

I want to be absolutely clear, I own nothing here. I have no control over or responsibility for anything that these groups or their members do or say. Neither do they owe me or the Tuttle Club any allegiance – any affiliation is purely informal and may be as tenuous as the fact that one of the founders may have once said something to me about being interested in what we’d done. I have a feeling though that if I’d tried to franchise the idea with contracts and fees and branding and such, they wouldn’t be springing up quite so perkily.

We’re all in it together, kid.

Outside the Central London group (that’s us) I am aware of the following social media cafes, tuttles and tuttle-inspired events. I’m sorry if I’ve missed anyone out. If I’ve left something in that died long ago, let me know.

In the UK, working roughly upwards from the southernmost (though my geography isn’t *that* good) …
Cornwall
Devon
Brighton
Hove
Lewes
Tunbridge Wells
Rochester
Twickenham has kukutana
Thames Valley
Oxford
Bath had a meeting and there’s a facebook group but not sure if there’s any more.
Cardiff has Trydan
Cheltenham
Cambridge has Twig
Coventry & Warks
Solihull
Birmingham
Lichfield
Black Country
Derby
Manchester
Edinburgh

In mainland Europe, I’m only aware of:
Barcelona

In the Land of the Free:
Boston, MA
Long Beach, CA
@langley started something in Denver, CO but it appears to have closed…
Chris Heuer has run a social media cafe at Citizen Space in San Francisco, CA
New York City, NY

So who’s going to get going on Asia, South America, Australasia, or Antarctica…?

Photo by woodleywonderworks on Flickr cc-by

The next meeting of the Cornwall Social Media Café (CSMC) will take place from 6pm on Wednesday 21 October at CUC’s Tremough Campus in Penryn. (map). The room is Seminar Room L in the Daphne du Maurier building, and it will be clearly signposted ‘Cornwall Social Media Café’.

It’s a bit of a special one, and we’re very excited about it.

We’re delighted to announce that we will have a VIP guest speaker in the form of Lloyd Davis, the original founder of the Social Media Café / Tuttle Club concept, and legendary man-about-the-social-media-scene in London. You can read more about Lloyd at his blog www.perfectpath.co.uk, and follow him on Twitter at @LloydDavis.

Lloyd will be delivering a talk on social media collaboration earlier in the day to students at UCF, and will stay on at Tremough to talk to the Cornwall Social Media Café in the evening. He’ll share with us the history of London’s Tuttle Club – on which CSMC is modelled – and give his expert view on where he sees social media heading in future.

I’ve attended a couple of events hosted by Lloyd in the past and I can personally vouch for the fact that he’s a very engaging, knowledgeable and inspiring speaker, as well as being generally a lovely person. Definitely worth making a trip to Tremough for!

Lloyd’s talk will be followed by informal networking, giving you the chance to catch up with other CSMC members and make new friends and contacts from Cornwall’s business, academic, media, not-for-profit and public sector communities.

If you’ve never attended a CSMC event before, this would be an excellent one to start with. You’ll get a great introduction to the Social Media Café concept from the founder himself, as well as getting to know other keen social media users from across the county.

CSMC events are free to attend, and new members are always very welcome. All we ask is that you register your attendance in advance so we have a rough idea of numbers on the night.

Teas, coffees and biscuits will be served on arrival.

In the meantime if you have any questions, please contact Aren, Laura or me.

Looking forward to seeing you on the 21st!

Having moved back to the UK from Mexico, my wife and I decided to move to Cheltenham instead of return to live and work in London.

Although massive fans of the big city we’d pretty much had enough of hectic, polluted megapolises after living in Mexico City (population c. 25 million) for four years.

So here we are. Having moved back in June we have finally readjusted (although not to the cold) and are now looking at our future here.

Having worked in media, both on and offline, I am looking to move into the digital world in the South West, but have always wondered:

Is there (digital) life outside the M25?

Many would have it that there isn’t. When I informed friends who work in the industry (and are based in London) that, shock horror, I was considering moving here, they were almost aghast.

What? Online? In the south west?

This was said time and time again, so much so that I really began to believe that I couldn’t possibly entertain the notion of a decent career outside the capital.

After really very little effort or research I could see straight away that this was very short-sighted.

According to The Top 100 South West Creative Companies 2009, the top ten digital agencies had a combined annual turnover of £32,361,714. The number one dagency, Sift, netted just over £7 million.

Of these 10, eight are based in Bristol, suggesting that my quest for work may be focussed there, but the fact that there are ten in my view is very healthy.

In terms of media owners the obvious company to mention is Future, based in Bath, and publisher of titles such as totalfilm.com and metalhammer.co.uk. With presence in both the UK and globally, Future is increasing it’s digital arm every year and tops the South West’s top publishing company list.

Finally, there seem to be healthy communities of people here (admit it, we’re geeks) who want to explore the possibilities of digital and social media in the South West. In Bristol, Brrism (Bristol Social Media) holds monthly meet up’s to talk shop, whilst I shall be heading off to Chelteham’s DigiTalks tonight (I’ll post to give my feedback).  What with various tweeps looking at starting up a Cheltenham-based Social Media Cafe, things look pretty healthy here.

I’m confident that digital life does not end at the M25, but would love to hear from you if you are a social media consultant, if you have your own digital agency or are pushing the boundaries in digital publishing. I’d love to promote you (and then maybe one of you can give me a job ).

Alternatively if you run or attend a social media community in the South West (or anywhere outside London really) it would be great to promote you too. It’s a regional love-in!

Devon Social Media Cafe meets for the first time tomorrow (Tuesday 15 September) in Plymouth and among the VIP guests expected at the inaugural event are Leader of Plymouth City Council, Councillor Vivien Pengelly, and Shadow Leader of Plymouth City Council, Councillor Tudor Evans, who is a prolific user of social media websites such as Twitter.

Aren Grimshaw, one of the organisers of the Cornwall Social Media Cafe will also be speaking about the Cornish Twestival, a charity event organised by social media users that took place on Saturday which managed to raise over £2,500 for local charity CHICKS.

Devon Social Media Cafe has been set up by public relations consultants PR Dogs Limited after they were asked to advise a number of business groups on the best ways to use social media.

Director John Taynton said: “We are delighted by the enthusiastic response there has been from businesses and organisations to the formation of the Devon Social Media Cafe. Social media is a very valuable part of the marketing mix but people are often unsure of how to make the best use of it.

“Devon Social Media Cafe will allow companies and individuals to exchange ideas and formulate best practice. I do hope businesses and other organisations will find it useful.”

The event is tomorrow (Tuesday) at Bar HaHa in Plymouth, from 6.30pm onwards. Spaces are still available and there is no charge but anyone wanting to attend is asked to reserve a place online at: http://devonsocialmediacafe.eventbrite.com/ or telephone 01822 600100.

This week is a homage to gaming and geekery following on from losing my Social Media Cafe Manchester (@smc_mcr) virginity this week (and what an enjoyable experience it was too.) Debate, digital gaming and a little drink were on the agenda amongst other things.

I participated in the session ran by Professor Ben Light AKA @doggyb of the University of Salford (also see Something for the Weekend) looking at the convergence between gaming and social media. It certainly got my grey matter working… although no one was brave enough to demo Singstar to the social media masses.

smc_mcr also provided the opportunity to hear about some new and exciting projects in Manchester. The first of which is MadLab Manchester Digital Laboratory (@madlabuk) which is launching in October 2009 – loving the logo for these guys too. MadLab will be a space for innovation and discovery for creative folks and digital type bods. One of their first events is being run in conjunction with Manchester Science Festival involves football and robots but has nothing to do with Peter Crouch!

The second exciting development is Umbro Industries where great Manchester ideas are being rewarded with cash. Up to £10,000 every three months will be on offer to the cities new generation of pioneers. Creative concepts can be submitted at umbroindustries.com where they can be rated or slated by the general public. Each quarter a shortlist will be judged by a crack team including Mike Pickering of Hacienda fame, David Pullan – Chief Marketing Officer for Manchester City Football Club and Trevor Cairns – Chief Marketing Officer for Umbro.

Get those thinking caps on!

c/o tonythesuperperson licensed under Creative Commons.

As I wrote earlier today, the September 2009 meeting of Manchester’s Social Media Cafe is tomorrow (Update: is tonight! But it was tomorrow, when I wrote this). Slightly later than planned, I’ve written previews of the upcoming sessions, so if you’re still not sure which of the sessions you’d like to go to, or just want to find out more, then I hope that the below ‘preview’ blog posts are helpful.

• Social Media Cafe Manchester session preview – “SocMed Actually”
• Social Media Cafe Manchester session preview – “Digital Games and/as Social Media”
• Social Media Cafe Manchester session preview – “SEO/social media debate”

I welcome feedback on all of the above. Perhaps I will keep doing this in the future, a bit earlier too depending on when the sessions are filled!

See y’all tomorrow.

Given my background in student activism, I’m always excited to see leaders from higher education attend and present at events like the Social Media Cafe Manchester. Continuing this mini-series of blog posts, I caught up with another presenter who will be at tomorrow’s meeting.

Digital Games and/as Social Media –Professor Ben Light @doggyb

Prof Light (or Ben, if I may!) is Professor of Digital Media at the School of Media, Music and Performance, University of Salford. Which is a pretty cool title. Personally, I’m excited that lecturers (professors, no less) are using social media, let alone lecturing in the subject. In my days at university (not that long ago!), the concept of an electronic presentation was still alien to some of the lecturers who taught me.

Ben will be looking at media convergence: how it happens, why, and some of the implications arising for users and designers. Since March 2006, Ben has been engaged in programme of research that has focused upon how users and designers are making digital games and social media work for them on an everyday basis.

This might sound a tad daunting, but he says, “the session won’t be technical”:

“You don’t need to understand the nuts and bolts – it’s suitable for anyone who has an interest in social media and digital gaming.”

…which sounds like a lot of the people I know who go to SMC. I certainly have been enjoying my Wii of late.

Talking of games consoles, Ben’s bringing an exciting twist to the meeting: SingStar on PS3! He’ll be using it as part of his presentation, which will include a lot of photography and video. I wondered why he was bringing along the popular karaoke game for the PS3:

“SingStar is one of the games I have been studying.”…”I’m bringing it along to demonstrate it and the online community [associated with it] ‘live’.”

I hope the BBC wifi holds out and I have no doubt that we have some secret SingStar fans in the crowd (ahem @realfreshtv!)

I know Ben’s putting his final touches on his session this evening, but I asked him what he hoped participants would get out of the session:

“It’s very much about knowledge: how are people using social media, how it’s linked with games. Who are the developers in social media/gaming environments and who are the users – it’s not as obvious as it sounds.

“What ethical issues arise in such spaces? For example, I could talk about ‘grief play’, identity work and social inclusion/exclusion.”

Intriguing. It sounds like Ben will be covering a new area for the Social Media Cafe meetups and doing it in a novel and engaging way. I, for one, can’t wait to get involved.

Professor Light tweets @doggyb and his personal blog is at benlight.org.

Many thanks to everyone who made it to Vertigo on Tuesday night for the August CSMC meeting – our largest ever! It was great to see so many people from different walks of life, and from across the whole county, come together because of a shared interest in social media.

The full attendee list was as follows (please let me know if I’ve missed anyone!)

• Jess Bartlett, Worldwide Financial Planning
• Fiona Campbell-Howes, Radix Communications
• Caroline Carter, Southwest Business
• Jay Cochran, Truro College
• Matt Collins, Ampersand Industries
• Andrea Edlin, Niddocks Internet Marketing
• Rob Edlin, Niddocks Internet Marketing
• Dan Goodwin, White October
• Aren Grimshaw, Tonick Media
• Gerald Hofmaier, Digital Frost
• Mat Hill, Vitality Monthly
• Matt Hollands, graphic and web designer
• Chris Humphris, graphic designer
• Chris Hunt, University of Plymouth
• Jonathan Lea, Follett Stock
• James Martin, Pirate FM
• Laura McKay, Deborah Clark Associates
• John Merlin, photographer and web designer
• Annie Moore, Cornwall Council
• Kirstie Newton, Cornwall Today
• Mark Picken, mpad
• Rachel Picken, mpad
• Toby Parkins, UKNetWeb
• Luke Tudor, IT South West
• Tim Warren, Radix Communications
• Caroline Williams, mpad

After drinks in the garden and conservatory, we took over the upstairs room once again, where Aren updated everyone on plans for the forthcoming Cornwall Twestival Local event planned for next month.

Cornwall Twestival Local will take place at the Bedruthan Steps Hotel in Mawgan Porth on the evening of Saturday 12th September from 7.30pm to midnight. Reflecting the hotel’s stunning coastal location, the theme will be ‘Beach Chic’ – formal evening wear with a beach-inspired twist.

Planning is already well underway, with ten event sponsors and three media sponsors signed up, and a raft of fantastic auction prizes donated by local businesses. You can see all the details on the Cornwall Twestival blog.

Tickets are on sale now (click here to book yours) at £20 each – although if you’re very quick you may be able to snap up one of the few remaining early-bird tickets at just £15.

Aren called on CSMC members to spread the word about Twestival to their online and offline contacts, which many have already been doing. We also saw a surge in Twestival ticket sales following Tuesday’s meeting, thanks to CSMC members signing up, so it should be a good night!

Toby Parkins of UKNetWeb made an excellent suggestion – to offer ‘apology’ tickets for those who can’t attend on the night but would still like to make a donation. These are now available on the Twestival ticket booking site priced at £15 each.

There will be no CSMC meet in September due to Twestival taking place, so we hope to see as many of you there as possible. Plans are already afoot for the October meet, though, and we should be able to update you on that very soon.

In the meantime, if you have any questions or suggestions for speakers, venues or activities for future events, please do contact Aren, Laura or me.

The next meeting of the Cornwall Social Media Café has been confirmed for Tuesday 18th August from 6.30pm at the Vertigo bar in Truro (see map)

Attendance is of course free, but we do ask that you register in advance so we know roughly what kind of numbers to expect. Register here.

If you’ve never come along to a CSMC before, it would be great to see you! We’re a friendly and eclectic mix of people from business, academia and the public sector who all share an interest in social media and what it can do for our work and social lives.

As well as the usual informal networking, we’ll be discussing the plans for the forthcoming Cornwall Twestival Local, to be held on 12th September at a glam coastal venue!

Aren Grimshaw will update the group on the plans for Twestival, which will again be part of a global network of events, but this time with the aim of raising money to support a local charity. It would be great if you could take a moment to vote for the charity you’d like Twestival to support.

Because of Twestival there will be no separate CSMC meeting in September, but exciting plans are already afoot for the October meet, with a very interesting London-based speaker confirmed for the evening. More details soon.

If you have any questions about Twestival or CSMC, please contact Aren, Laura McKay or me.

Look forward to seeing you on the 18th!

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club está basado en Tuttle Club

Tuttle Club es un grupo de gente que se reúne de manera informal para hablar y trabajar sobre los temas de la “social media”.

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club 5:  jueves 23 de julio a las 11h en el Coffee Lab de Citilab-Cornellà.

Es gratis y todo el mundo es bienvenido regístrate aquí

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Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club es basa en Tuttle Club

Tuttle Club és un grup de gent que es reuneix de manera informal per parlar i treballar sobre els temes de la “social media”.

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club 5: dijous 23 de juliol a les 11h al Coffee Lab de Citilab-Cornellà.

És gratuït i tothom és benvingut registra’t aquí

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Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club is based on the Tuttle Club

the Tuttle Club is a loose group of people who come together to talk and work around social media

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club 5: Thursday, July 23rd at 11:00 in the Coffee Lab at Citilab-Cornellà.

It’s free & every body is welcome – register here

Many thanks to everyone who turned out in torrential rain last night to attend the fourth meeting of the Cornwall Social Media Café at the Greenbank Hotel in Falmouth.

Aren and Laura had promised us something a bit different this time and they didn’t disappoint: after informal drinks in the bar overlooking a stormy Falmouth Harbour we were all ushered down into the basement for a spot of speed networking. Anyone who’s been speed dating will be familiar with the idea – you get four minutes to chat to someone you haven’t met before and find out three things about them before moving on to your next ‘victim’. Only we weren’t sizing up potential girlfriends or boyfriends (or I don’t know, maybe some of you *were*), but looking to meet new people, share tips and experiences of using social media, and make some useful contacts.

With a varied crowd and quite a few newcomers, this session worked very well. I certainly got to meet some interesting people from completely different walks of life from my own – like Steve Cannon, diversity officer for Devon and Cornwall Police, Dean Harvey, who’s organising the multicultural Respect Festival in Truro in August, and Jacqui from Pentreath Industries, a charity that helps people recovering from mental illnesses to get back into work.

Lots of online and offline contact details were exchanged and I gather that some potential business partnerships were forged over the mini chocolate mousses, so it must have been a good session for others as well!

The group later repaired to the bar where Tim Warren and I had a great chat with Sam Lanyon of ConceptShed, sometime inventor and interactive exhibition display wizard, who actually does work from a genuine shed. And just as I was pulling on my wellies for a rainy walk home (from which I was saved at the last minute by the lovely Matt Collins from Ampersand Industries giving me a lift back to Penryn), Aren and Laura collared me and asked if I’d like to help with writing this blog (seeing as I’m a copywriter and all), which is why I’m here at the CSMC blogging controls now.

All in all a very good night and it was great to see so many new faces.

The full list of attendees is as follows (please let me know if I’ve got anything wrong or missed anyone):

Andrea Edlin
Aren Grimshaw
Ashley Hayward
Barry Frost
Charlotte MacKenzie
Chris Humphris
Dean Harvey
Dorian Spackman
Fiona Campbell-Howes
Gerard Hofmaier
Jacqui from Pentreath Industries (sorry Jacqui, didn’t get your surname)
James Martin
Laura McKay
Matt Collins
Peter Graves
Piers Roberts
Rob Edlin
Sam Lanyon
Simon Hill
Steve Cannon
Tim Warren
William St Aubyn

Annie Moore of Cornwall Council sent apologies.

Many thanks are due to Rob and Andrea Edlin of Niddocks Internet Marketing for sponsoring the event, and to Aren and Laura as always for organising.

The date and location for the next meeting are yet to be decided, but Aren did announce that Saturday 12th September will see another Twestival coming to Cornwall – this time it’s Twestival Local, one of many such events being organised by Twitterers around the country in support of local charities. More details on that to come nearer the time, but in the meantime mark your diaries!

Look forward to seeing you at the next CSMC in August – and if you have any questions or suggestions for speakers, venues or activities for future events, please do contact Aren, Laura or me.

BBC Manchester, Oxford Road

This month’s social media cafe was another triumph for the community and came with the extra special glow of being held at the BBC in Manchester, complete with Tardis in the foyer. Thanks Ian!

I’ll refer you to Tim’s roundup of the sessions at the cafe (they were good) as he had the opportunity to flit around. I settled in to watch the chaps from Cahoona and events management agency Ear to the Ground discuss the Cutting Room Experiment, a project described in classic hyperbole as the ‘biggest user generated event in the world’.

My thoughts on the Cutting Room Experiment

I have to admit, when I first saw the press release from Manchester City Council, my heart sank. The press release, regrettably, reads a bit like the classic ‘public sector tries to do social media, misses the point’ with a smattering of buzz words: ‘flash mobs’; ‘user generated’; ‘unique event’, complete with manufactured quote from a director. It’s unfortunate that this was the first piece of publicity I saw.

What I saw next, thankfully, was a pretty darn nice website, complete with integrated social media PR campaign that picked up some great coverage online. This was followed up by a ‘blog launch‘ at the Bay Horse, suitably bribing people with the offer of a free pint in exchange for a short (and painless) presentation from the team.

I think this quickly shattered my misconceptions. Though not my misgivings.

In the end, Cutting Room Experiment turned out to be just that, a bold experiment, blessed by the usually control-hungry public bodies that sponsored it and one that achieved its key successes – 400 people there, extensive media coverage, and awareness raised of the location (though these GPS co-ords are not the square).

However, while I’ve already alluded to degree of hyperbole that did surround some of the marketing (‘biggest’ user generated event? ‘world first’?) the presentation was refreshingly honest when it reflected some of the highs and lows of the exercise. In particular, David (Ear to the Ground) pointed out that “It’s hard to turn a devoted online audience into a vibrant offline one”.

And this is a key problem for any online social marketeer. It’s easy to make people sign-up to an event and click through, but will they actually turn up? I ‘counted myself in’ to a couple of events, even posted my own (slightly tongue-in-cheek) event – but I didn’t go. My main aim was to see the alka seltzer rockets, provided by the Manchester Science Festival team but unfortunately I missed the slot.

From my own personal experience, I imagine that a risk of this sort of ‘user generated’ process is that some people just won’t go unless they’ve got one killer event and that might be the event that they themselves organised, or for which they had some personal buy-in (e.g. employee/volunteer). Perhaps the truth is that an online community where ‘buy-in’ is limited to ‘agreeing to the possibility that you might attend’ is a difficult one to convert.

Cutting Room Experiment though, had the benefit of a local community and they did tap in to this with flyers; the killer piece of info that was perhaps missing from the presentation was being able to know how the attendees (who weren’t staff or volunteers) had heard of the event – online, or offline. I suspect it was the former, whereas arguably you needed more of the latter, particularly those who lived locally.

To conclude, it’s hard to criticise something into which a whole lot of people put a lot of hard work, and which produced some stunning results. However, I have to wonder whether this experiment, conducted largely online, needs to have much more of an offline aspect in order to make sure that the numbers for the ‘real world’ event does materialise.

The venue – keeping it social

Finally, the BBC was a great one-off venue and I, like many young (ish) meeja whores, am naturally excited by anything taking place there because of the weight that the BBC as a brand can lend to it. However, the Social Media Cafe, despite being less than a year old, has definitely established itself as a key hub of digital networking and knowledge sharing. Stopping in at the Beeb every so often would be great, but I think the social aspect of the cafe would be better served by sticking with a venue where turning up late without being signed-up (for example) won’t cause any organisational stress for those who’ve worked hard to secure those spaces.

Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment or vote in this non-scientific poll:

This month’s Cornwall Social Media Café is going to be an altogether more relaxed affair with the emphasis on us all getting to know each other a little better.

After three successful events in Truro, we’re now taking the Social Media Café out on the road with next week’s event taking place in the Greenbank Hotel, Falmouth on Thursday (16th July).

Although there will be no formal speaker or ‘unconference’ style discussion we hope to get everyone mingling and talking a little more. There are some really interesting members in the group and it would be good to encourage the conversations started at events to continue online.

We will be working with you on the night to ensure that everyone gets to meet everybody else. The idea being to find out more about the interests of your fellow CSMC member, their social media profiles (Twitter IDs, Facebook usernames etc), their blogs or websites and anything else you might like to share with each other.

The evening will get underway from 6.30pm. After some informal chat we’ll look to hook you up with other members from 7.15pm. Thanks to this month’s sponsor, Niddocks Internet Martketing for offering to support the evening, it means we can provide everyone with a light snack shortly after 8pm.

Please book in for the event using the usual EventBrite booking system which can be found here. Also, why not encourage your contacts to join us by sharing your booking on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn? – the more the merrier!

We look forward to seeing everyone next week.

Aren & Laura

(@arengrimshaw & @laura_mckay2009)

fotos Birmingham Social Media Café 26/06/09

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club está basado en Tuttle Club

Tuttle Club es un grupo de gente que se reúne de manera informal para hablar y trabajar sobre los temas de la “social media”.

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club 4:  jueves 9 de julio a las 11h en el Coffee Lab de Citilab-Cornellà.

Es gratis y todo el mundo es bienvenido regístrate aquí

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Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club es basa en Tuttle Club

Tuttle Club és un grup de gent que es reuneix de manera informal per parlar i treballar sobre els temes de la “social media”.

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club 4: dijous 9 de juliol a les 11h al Coffee Lab de Citilab-Cornellà.

És gratuït i tothom és benvingut registra’t aquí

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Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club is based on the Tuttle Club

the Tuttle Club is a loose group of people who come together to talk and work around social media

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club 4: Thursday, July 9th at 11:00 in the Coffee Lab at Citilab-Cornellà.

It’s free & every body is welcome – register here

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club está basado en Tuttle Club

Tuttle Club es un grupo de gente que se reúne de manera informal para hablar y trabajar sobre los temas de la “social media”.

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club 3:  jueves 2 de julio a las 11h en el Coffee Lab de Citilab-Cornellà.

Es gratis y todo el mundo es bienvenido regístrate aquí

———————————————————————————————————–

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club es basa en Tuttle Club

Tuttle Club és un grup de gent que es reuneix de manera informal per parlar i treballar sobre els temes de la “social media”.

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club 3: dijous 2 de juliol a les 11h al Coffee Lab de Citilab-Cornellà.

És gratuït i tothom és benvingut registra’t aquí

———————————————————————————————————

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club is based on the Tuttle Club

the Tuttle Club is a loose group of people who come together to talk and work around social media

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club 3: Thursday, July 2nd at 11:00 in the Coffee Lab at Citilab-Cornellà.

It’s free & every body is welcome – register here

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club está basado en Tuttle Club

Tuttle Club es un grupo de gente que se reúne de manera informal para hablar y trabajar sobre los temas de la “social media”.

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club 2:  jueves 18 de junio a las 11h en el Coffee Lab de Citilab-Cornellà.

Es gratis y todo el mundo es bienvenido regístrate aquí

———————————————————————————————————–

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club es basa en Tuttle Club

Tuttle Club és un grup de gent que es reuneix de manera informal per parlar i treballar sobre els temes de la “social media”.

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club 2: dijous 18 de juny a les 11h al Coffee Lab de Citilab-Cornellà.

És gratuït i tothom és benvingut registra’t aquí

———————————————————————————————————

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club is based on the Tuttle Club

the Tuttle Club is a loose group of people who come together to talk and work around social media

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club 2: Thursday, June 18th at 11:00 in the Coffee Lab at Citilab-Cornellà.

It’s free & every body is welcome – register here

As many of you will be aware, last month’s Social Media Cafe attracted a lot of discussion around the Government’s Digital Britain report – an action plan intended to secure the UK’s place at the forefront of innovation, investment and quality in the digital and communications industries.

As a group many of us felt that the report just didn’t go far enough, and in fact many felt it would not put us in a competitive position for the future. A focus for this concern was our own local situation with uncertaintly about what plans, if any, were in place for Cornwall.

To help us get the answers we need we are delighted to have Nigel Ashcroft, Director of NGA (Next Generation Access) for Cornwall and colleague and NGA Development Manager, Julian Cowans at the next meeting to answer your questions.

So far questions have been a bit light off the ground and we are keen to maximise on this exciting opportunity to gain insight from those in charge of our digital future here in Cornwall. At the bottom of this post I have copied the questions recieved so far through the EventBrite bookings. Please take a look and add your own questions to the the comments at the end of this post.

For more information or to help jog your memory why not refer to the Digital Britian report, the details of discussions at the previous Social Media Cafe or read the final feedback report submitted by the Digital Britain Unconference team available through the linked text.

We look forward to seeing you at the next event on Tuesday 16th June – Don’t forget to book your free ticket online here.

Questions received so far…

• Please can you give details of the speed of broadband Cornwall can realistically expect, and by when?
• Why do broadband speeds vary so much mine goes from 960 to 5300 download and but are constant at 368 upload?
• What are the different types of technologies being considered and what are the related speeds/throughputs/performance of each?<
• What effect do you think it will have on Cornwall and it’s economy to not gain Next Generation Access broadband?
• Do you have any evidence of how Next Generation Access Broadband would help Cornwall’s economy?

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club está basado en Tuttle Club

Tuttle Club es un grupo de gente que se reúne de manera informal para hablar y trabajar sobre los temas de la “social media”.

El primer encuentro será el jueves 11 de junio a las 11h en el Coffee Lab de Citilab-Cornellà.

Es gratis y todo el mundo es bienvenido  regístrate aquí

———————————————————————————————————–

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club es basa en Tuttle Club

Tuttle Club és un grup de gent que es reuneix de manera informal per parlar i treballar sobre els temes de la “social media”.

La primera trobada serà el dijous 11 de juny a les 11h al Coffee Lab de Citilab-Cornellà.

És gratuït i tothom és benvingut  registra’t aquí

———————————————————————————————————

Barcelona Social Media Café/Tuttle Club is based on the Tuttle Club

the Tuttle Club is a loose group of people who come together to talk and work around social media

The first meet-up will be on Thursday, June 11th at 11:00 in the Coffee Lab at Citilab-Cornellà.

It’s free & every body is welcome - register here

¿Quién es Harry Tuttle, el héroe de Tuttle Club?/¿Qui és en Harry Tuttle, l’heroi de  Tuttle Club?/Who is Harry Tuttle, the hero of Tuttle Club?

Future broadband speeds and Cornwall’s digital future were topics high on the agenda at last month’s Cornwall Social Media Café when we discussed the government’s Digital Britain report and how this might affect the county.

To follow this, and try to get some answers about the future of broadband in Cornwall, at June’s event, which will be held on Tuesday June 16 from 6.30pm at Vertigo Bar in Truro, we’re delighted to be joined by Nigel Ashcroft, Director of NGA (Next Generation Access) for Cornwall and colleague and NGA Development Manager, Julian Cowans.

Nigel led the the Objective One actnow project, which helped more than 10,000 businesses to make the most of broadband and is now at the helm of delivering the next level of broadband infrastructure, referred to as ‘Next Generation Access.’

The next stage of the project, which is being led through Cornwall Council, wants to secure a private sector investor to to take Cornwall to the next level of broadband connectivity.

The event will be a great opportunity to learn more about the future of broadband in the county and Nigel and Julian will be happy to answer individual questions about how NGA will affect Cornwall and what speeds of broadband the county should really expect.

So if you want to know exactly how NGA plans to place “Cornwall at the cutting edge of broadband infrastructure and open a new world of opportunity” or what role The Convergence Programme (2007-2013) will play in NGA with its pledge to put the digital infrastructure of Cornwall at the heart of the programme make sure you sign up and send through any questions you’ve got prior to the event.

The structure of the evening will follow a similar format to last month and it is for this reason why we have chosen to have the event at Vertigo again. Light snacks will be available as last month, sponsored by CSMC member Toby Parkins from local web developers, UKNetWeb. We had some great feedback on the venue and felt it worked really well to use the separate upstairs room for the dicussion. 

Aren and I also want to stress that the Q & A session isn’t a complusary part of the evening and only those who want to partake should. The evening will be split with informal networking followed by the Q & A session with Nigel and Julian.

Looking ahead to next month we’re keen to give spread our wings and plan to hold an informal networking event in Falmouth.

Please book in for the event here or email any questions you would like answered by Nigel or Julian to either myself laura.mckay@dca-pr.co.uk or Aren at aren@tonickmedia.com

!!!

Over 20 people attended the second Cornwall Social Media Cafe, at Vertigo Bar in Truro last night (May 12.) UKNetWeb kindly sponsored the food, which meant guests were able to sample a selection of delicious tapas.

We kept a relaxed format but also used the opportunity to let CSMC members feedback on the government’s Digital Britain interim report.

The final Digital Britain report is intended be a plan to ensure Britain’s place at the forefront of the global digital economy; however, it has received much criticism since publication for its lack of vision.

At the centre of concerns for many people running businesses in the county is the fear that plans to extend super fast broadband across the UK, including rural locations such as Cornwall, are not far reaching enough.

A series of events across the UK, entitled ‘Unconferences’ have taken place to provide discussion through the Digital Britain Unconference organisers who will then feedback to the government before the final report is published.

The lively debate was led by local copywriter and business owner, Fiona Campbell-Howes (@patroclus) of Radix Communications in Penryn.

Fiona kindly offered to write a brief report to feedback from last night’s event which she has posted on her blog.

Those present at the event included (if I’ve missed anyone please let me know):

Me (Laura McKay)
Aren Grimshaw
Toby Parkins
Toni Eyriey
Dan Parker
Jesse Cochran
Rob Edlin
Andrea Edlin
Annie Moore
Jon Baker
Fiona Campbell-Howes
Richard Collett
Rachel Picken
Mark Picken
Dan Hinchcliffe
Wo King
Darren Norbury
Bob Northey
John Hillman 

Those sending apologies:

Jo Wood
David McGuire
Claire Hawke
Olly Brand
Shelley Fletcher

To those who couldn’t make it, Aren emphasised at the end of the evening that those wanting to voice an opinion on location and the structure of future events to do so on the blog.

The booking system we used via Eventbrite allowed us to get an idea from those who signed up for the May event so we’ll write that up soon and get plans underway for the June event.

Laura (@laura_mckay2009)

Aren (@arengrimshaw) and I attended the first event in the Professional Lecture Series at University College Falmouth last night (Tuesday May 5).

Emily Bell (@emilybell), Director of Digital Content for Guardian News and Media, provided us with a fascinating insight into the contentious subject that is the ‘Future of Journalism Ten Years From Now.’

Many fellow CSMC group members were in attendance, including Fiona Campbell-Howes (@patroclus), Andy Coote (@andycoote), David George (@dgthekneelo) and Shelley Fletcher (@shelleyfletcher) (apologies if I’ve missed anyone.)

Instead of re-inventing the wheel, Fiona Campbell-Howes has written up a fantastic précis of Emily’s lecture which can be found here.

All credit to UCF and Paul Innman, (@pinman) for organising the first of what will be a fantastic number of free lectures.  The strap-line to the series is appropriately titled ‘sharing world-class expertise’ and if the first one is anything to go by then the rest should certainly live up to that.

Hope to see as many of you as possible at the May Social Media Café, next week (Tuesday 12^th) at Vertigo in Truro. To book in for this event click here.

-Laura (@laura_mckay2009)