I've bits & bobs to share

With the sale of Instagram to Facebook being announced yesterday I thought I’d dig out this web page I found earlier in the year which shows how large the service is. Presumably this is potential Facebook have seen, although I’m sure maybe more than half-a-dozen or so people may now be closing their accounts ;-) and there won’t be 60 pictures a second being uploaded any more! 

However, based on a quick back of cigarette packet (well corner of a post-it as I don’t smoke) calculation, I reckon Facebook could have got similar quality photos fun and quirky photos for about a tenth of the money they paid by buying all the old stock on ebay of these and restarting production of these. We could all share them on Pin boards and share them with our friends … just need to invent and over-hype an Interest-ing website for that now …

Three and a half years ago a chap I barely knew invited me along to an unstructured event with a curious title. (And it was in the evening 60 miles from home!)

I’m so glad I took up the invitation from @podnosh and went to that first surgery in Birmingham as it left a lasting impression on me and I’m pleased to read has now been recognised for its true value.

We joke in the post-surgery ‘de-briefs’ (official title @ncvsjo!) about the basking in the #socialglow, but what matters MOST and what ‘s already happening is people leaving the surgeries eager to get back to their communities and organisations and put into practice what they’ve discovered. And then to return next month and share it with us.

Thanks also Nick for inspiring me to follow your recipe and champion the cause of Social Media Surgeries in numerous other locations up and down the country from fields to festivals, conferences to coffee shops and even offices to trains. An evening in Birmingham is now nothing compared to the slightly ‘enthusiastic’ taxi driver who rescued @johnpopham and I from Harrogate one night!

Although I lost the ‘blog thing’ a while ago (I really must address that one!), I’ve blown the dust off my blog to share my thoughts from back then (Blog Action Day 2008). Although some of links are broken, many of the precious things created then such as the Court Lane Allotments blog and what has become CanalScene are still very much active and that aim to spread far and wide is certainly happening.

If Big Society means anything then this is an example of it working well, people who can-do helping people who want-to so that we all-grow.

Be inspired, if there isn’t one nearby - set one up - you won’t regret it and you might just enjoy it!

Well done mate!

This is very good!

Although written from within a local authority, these 15 challenging statements from @helreynolds on the @comms2point0 blog can just as easily apply to any sector. As I read them, so many rang true for charities I’ve been involved with. “Work is not somewhere you go, but something you do” - oh yes!

This should be something you have on your desk or pinned up on the wall so that whenever doubt or concern is raised you can quickly dispel their fear and hopefully move step-by-step closer to being a digital organisation.

Useful information for the library about use of technology and browsers amongst Learning Pool local government users.

Wonder what the comparison to the VCS would look like … anyone confessing to using an 800x600 screen?!

Some good examples of bad examples here!

QR codes are great - really great if used correctly!

Look forward to seeing this list from C4LPT produced each year. It shows how web-based learning tools or ‘on-line learning’ doesn’t have to be a formal programme, but that there are many and varied ways to gather knowledge and learn from other people.

Great to see Twitter at the top again!

Thanks