As many of you probably know, I was part of the team who organised So! VolTech 2011, a conference on social media & technology for the voluntary sector. This was the first time I've been involved in organising an event of this type and size so I was, as you can imagine, a bit nervous. So I really just wanted to get some thoughts down from a personal perspective.
Don't be afraid to ask...
I've was really chuffed with the responses I've had from people when asking them to come and share their knowledge and experiences with people on a Saturday for free. There are a whole load of people around who are only too pleased to help out, because they enjoy what they do and they love to share. So the key here is don't be afraid to ask, you'll be awash with offers if this experience is anything to go by.
If you build it, they will come...
I'm sure everyone who organises events (no matter what the topic) has a feeling of trepidation when they make tickets available, are people actually going to come? Well, I can tell you that it took only two weeks from us making tickets available they had all gone - and for a first attempt I think that is brilliant. We had help getting the information out to the organisations who we wanted to target, but again, if you ask people to plug your event a bit they normally will - because this community is all about sharing.
Embrace the spotlight...
Now I am the first to admit that public speaking is not my biggest strength. Up until the week of the event, we hadn't really discussed who was going to compare the day but we decided that it would be me. I can't pretend that I wasn't nervous but actually the more the day went on, the more I enjoyed it and it got easier. If anything, I actually want to do it again!
Test your technology in advance...
Admittedly this wasn't a massive issue for us but there were a couple of things that I felt we could have improved on. We took a calculated risk with the wireless network at the library, we had made contact with the department who runs Wireless Blackpool to check that it would be able to handle 60 simultaneous users and they assured us that it would - but it hadn't exactly been road tested. I don't think anyone had any massive problems with the wireless (do correct me if I'm wrong) but next time round, I'm definitely going to make a bigger point of testing in advance.
Think inclusive...
Our panel at So! VolTech 2011 was entirely made up of men (although one of our workshops was delivered by @Tech_Geek_Girl from Plug In Lancashire), this wasn't a conscious decision but was something that has prompted discussion about the wider issue of changing the gender balance of speakers at social media & technology events - I think it is really positive that this issue has been highlighted because as a conference organiser I know that next time round, I will be proactively seeking out female speakers and hopefully bucking the trend.
So in summary...
I think that most first time event organisers probably go through a similar set of feelings to the ones I did. Things go through your head in the run up to the event... what if no-one comes? What if people do come, but they don't find it useful? What if? What if? You get the idea. The main thing that I can say is JFDI - don't let any of these concerns put you off, because chances are everything will be fantastic, you'll get lots of positive feedback and you'll end up with a warm and fuzzy (and tired) feeling inside afterwards because of what has been achieved.
One last thing!
So! VolTech really made me value that people who are willing to give up their time to help put events such as this together. Without my amazing co-organiser @microwavedrama, all of our speakers (@johnpopham, @josephstash, @stevieflow, @peoplesvoice and @jezmyers), our workshop leaders (@PlugInLancs, @BeGoodBeSocial and @MyLearningPool), our sponsors at @testled and our amazing @_AuntySocial_ volunteers (@BoobLeEnvious and @rjanukowicz), it would have been impossible to make events like So! VolTech happen! So thanks (again) to all of you!
Remember that you can keep in the loop with all the latest goings on in the world of Social Media & Technology for the Voluntary Sector in our new monthly email newsletter by signing up here.
Many of you may have seen in the news yesterday the story of a father who is suing Facebook and the Northern Health & Social Care Trust over his 12 year old daughter posting provokative images of herself on the the social network while in the care of the trust. This got me into rather a debate on Twitter with various people over who was (or should be) responsible, now I don't profess to have the solutions or answers here and I'm playing devils advocate a bit but let us look at the options.
Facebook has made it clear that to comply with US law they do not allow under 13s to sign up to the site, however they have also admitted that monitoring and enforcing this is difficult - and we all know that there are plenty of young people under 13 using the site. Now I'm not an expert on the law so I am surmising somewhat but I would have thought that Facebook would have at the least a duty of care to it's users and should be protecting them - if this means removing inappropriate content then so be it. Further to this, if the images in question were so bad (and obviously we don't know this information) then could they have been ilegal content anyway? If that was the case then this would certainly mean Facebook would be duty bound to remove them (and pass them to the police?).
If you want to go even further than this, then actually Facebook have a moral duty to protect our young people. I have had it suggested to me that there are cost and data protection implications to verifying the age of users on Facebook which prohibit anything being done to tackle underage users - but can we really put a price on the safety of young people?
Let us move on to parents, guardians and organisations with parental responsibility. There is a lot of talk floating about at the moment with a "blame the shit parents" attitude. Most of us sensible, measured people can recognise that most parents keep and eye on what their children are doing (online or offline) but in this age of the smart phone, tablet computer and wireless network, we simply can't expect parents to see every little thing that their child is doing online. Some parents will be users of social networks themselves and I'm sure will be discussing with their children the dangers (these parents have been telling their kids not to talk to strangers for years - why would this be any different?) associated with them, however there will be parents out there who don't have a clue about how these things work and thus can't have these conversations.
This leads me on nicely to education and schools. Now before I start on this, let me be clear, I am not teacher bashing. At the moment we have a situation where (many) schools are blocking access to social networking spaces (whether this be Facebook or any other site) primarily due to a combination of concerns around distraction from school work, reputation management and online safety. I think it is time that we challenged this perceived wisdom and did something radical - like a PSHE which teaches young people the dangers of sharing inappropriate content on social networking sites by actually showing them how easy it is to copy photos from their profiles and share them elsewhere (obviously in a safe way), or a ICT lesson where Facebook is up on the projector and the teacher goes through the privacy settings with the class so they know how to use them. This isn't rocket science and I can't see an excuse to not do it! Why stop at young people? Many parents would and could benefit from this kind of educational session. Schools need to accept that social networking is here and it will be staying - pretending that it doesn't exist is not an acceptable response.
You'll probably notice that I've not included children themselves in this hit list of those which I feel have a responsibility - and I don't think that we can say that children have total responsibility for this, especially not when Facebook, their parents and the education system are failing to educate them on this - I'm sure many will disagree with me.
As I said at the start of this post, I don't profess to have the answers, but I felt like I wanted to get my thoughts written down! Got a plan to sort this out? Post in the comments!
Update - Facebook have responded to the writ against them saying that they invest heavily in educating young people about safe internet usage and also that communication between parents/guardians and their children about online activities is vital. Full story on the BBC here.
Well it has been over a month since the last Aunty Social Connected which was a huge success and it looks like we are set to see more fantastic technology orientated events springing up in Blackpool!
Aunty Social "Connected" - 27th July 2011 at Connexions from 6pm
Yesterday I announced over on the Aunty Social website the second in the "Connected" series of events. For those of you who didn't hear about the last one I'll quickly fill you in on the details! Connected is an opportunity for voluntary sector organisations to sit down with switched on social media folk to start getting to grips with how to use these new tools to benefit their organisation, ask questions and hopefully find solutions! Last time around myself at @nat3mf both delivered presentations to the organisations who came along, however we listened to the feedback we received and this time we are going to dedicate the full two hours to the social media surgery.
So if you work or volunteer for a third sector organisation who wants to get on the social media bandwagon then this event is especially for you! Places are limited to 20 on this occasion (we are looking to source a better suited venue for future events and suggestions are welcome) so book soon at http://asconnected.eventbrite.com.
Wait, there is more. We also need to find more social media surgeons who are willing to give up a couple of hours of a night to sit down and talk social media with the organisations we have coming along. We aren't necessarily looking for "experts" or even people who have all the answers - just people willing to help try and find solutions in partnership with the organisations we're setting out to help. If you think that sounds like you, get in touch with me either by tweeting @TawdryMe or emailing duncan@tlc-online.org.uk!
Don't forget to follow all the action from Aunty Social Connected at twitter with hash tag #blackpsms!
Blackpool GeekUp - 25th July 2011 at a venue to be confirmed
I've been thrilled today to read tweets from @biglesp that he has set a date for the first ever Blackpool GeekUp. For a long while now I've been feeling pretty disheartened that there are lots of fab things going on in Preston, Manchester and other areas not to far away but nothing in Blackpool. At the moment I am feeling like things are starting to change a little bit - which is nice!
For those of you unfamiliar with the idea of a GeekUp I've grabbed this explanation from geekup.org
"GeekUp is a community of web designers, web developers, and other tech-minded folk from the UK. It's a grassroots knowledge sharing and networking social for folks involved or interested in the web and technology industry."
I for one, can't wait to get along to the first of what I hope will be many Blackpool GeekUps. As soon as a venue has been confirmed for this I'll be updating this post to include the full details. You can follow the progress of Blackpool GeekUp on twitter with hash tag #geekupthetower!
Update - Blackpool GeekUp now has a website here. Also the venue has been set as Gillespies on Topping Street from 7pm. Also, I'm going to be giving a talk on the night about Aunty Social Connected! Good stuff!
After seeing some tweets from @timdavies last week at the Children's Rights Officers and Advocates Conference about doing getting local authorities to carry on with youth participation even when budgets are tight I started thinking, how can you do online youth participation on a shoe string.
I cast my mind back a few years and remember quite clearly how it happened in Blackpool and how rubothered.co.uk was born. I applied for a grant from the Youth Opportunity Fund and this is what I included...
- A New PC - £800
- A Virtual Private Server for 1 year - £200
- Some Books - £50
- Some Software - £80
This is where my passion for young peoples views, youth participation and web development met. I spent hours passionately working, teaching myself PHP (what I hope will become my full time career one day) and at the same time building what is now a 100k hits per month website, that reaches out to meet the needs of young people in Blackpool.
Obviously we no longer have a Youth Opportunity Fund however surely this just goes to show that all you need is just over £1000, a passionate young person and some encouragement and you can do put the building blocks in place for online youth participation in your local authority.
Oh, and if you are struggling for a passionate young person who has an interest in web development, check out Young Rewired State!
Within the past 12 months I've had two friends of mine who work (or worked in one case) for two large UK retailers and have been pulled in for their use of social networking. In both cases the comments they had posted on their Facebook profiles had been printed off by a colleague (and friend on Facebook) and taken in to be shown to the manager in their stores. One of these incidents resulted in the person being given the option to resign or be sacked.
At what point does expressing your views on your employer become grounds for dismissal? Can we compare this to offline scenario where you could express your displeasure with a group of friends in the pub after work? In reality what is the difference?
Maybe further to this it calls into question who you should let see your online musings, is any work colleague or acquaintance someone you want as your friend on Facebook? Do you trust them enough? It's scary!
On top of this could your employer be invading your privacy by monitoring these online conversations? It's a lot to consider and many people may never have even had the idea enter their head. I'm not sure I have the answers but it's clear that organisations are obviously starting to take a hard line on their employees use of the web.
Ok so I don't generally blog politics however I just wanted to share this, as people have asked me to.
I recently used the Protest the Pope Website to email my MP (Paul Maynard) expressing my concerns (which I think many others share) about the upcoming Papal visit to the UK.
The email I sent was as follows...
Dear Mr Maynard
I am writing as your constituent ahead of the upcoming state visit of Pope Benedict XVI in order to raise my concerns with some of the policies and practices of the Vatican and the Holy See - the 'state' which the Pope heads and will be representing during his visit. As my elected representative, I request that you pass my views on to your party leaders and other representatives who will be meeting with the Pope during the visit. The leaders should represent the views of the British public during the state visit, and I feel it is important that my views are represented.
I am concerned about the Pope's opposition to women's reproductive rights, gay equality, embryonic stem cell research and the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV has a huge effect on the human rights of millions of people across the globe. In particular, the six main issues I would like to see raised with the Pope are:
1. Opposing the distribution of condoms and so increasing large families in poor countries and the spread of AIDS.
2. Promoting segregated education.
3. Denying abortion to even the most vulnerable women.
4. Opposing equal rights for lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
5. Failing to address the many cases of abuse of children within its own organisation.
6. Rehabilitating the holocaust denier bishop Richard Williamson and the appeaser of Hitler, the war-time Pope, Pius XII.
In summary, I strongly urge you to express these views to senior members of your party, as I feel it is important these issues are raised.
Regards
Duncan Hodgson
This evening I received my response from Paul, which didn't exactly give me any clear indiciation that he was going to do anything with my views other than "bear them in mind". Now I wasn't expecting great things anyway to be fair however as an MP who represents a constituency (Blackpool) where there is a large LGBT community, you'd think maybe this was something Paul should be putting up there in his priorities? Below is his response.
Dear Mr Hodgson,
Thank you for your email regarding the Papal Visit. As I am sure you are aware, this is one of a number of state visits made to this country each year by Heads of State, and I believe it imperative that, as a nation, we greet the Pope with good manners and respect. This does not preclude individuals such as yourself expressing objections, as you have done here, and which I will certainly bear in mind.
Yours sincerely,
Paul Maynard MP.
I can't say I'm satisfied (or surprised) but I'm going to drop Paul an email in response to see if I can prevoke him into further discussion on this matter as I think it's important, if we can't rely on our elected representatives to speak up on these matters, then who can we?