TYGA is a youth group in Balsall Heath in Birmingham which began with fun and conversation and yet in just over a year has raised thousands for charity through a 500 mile bike ride, travelled to Pakistan to help with earthquake relief and started a regular street clean-up in their own neighbourhood. [...]

 

 Birmingham Podcast TYGA [11:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Mike Overton has fought for years to prevent developers building homes on an old waste tip and clap pit in Erdington in Birmingham, UK. He talks to Emma Lewis of b:cen about the site and why protecting it matters so much to him. Also in the programme a thanks to listeners in [...]

 

 Standard Podcast [10:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Josh Hart at mademedia (a Birmingham based web agency) alerted me to a potent combination of community, marketing and technology.

Josh is exercising more because of a heady cocktail of connections. Two brands – Nike and Apple; two desirable products – the right running shoes and the right mp3 player; the internet and [...]

A few months ago podnosh and b:cen were able to offer some support to the pupils at Kings Norton Boys School in Birmingham. We helped them set up their own podcast channel which they christened Podminions and hosted here on the Podnosh site.

Having opened the door the first group of podminions are now rushing [...]

The Knight Foundation is inviting entries to a $5 million competition to find innovative new ways to use online journalism to strengthen community life.
The 21st Century News Challenge is subtitled “who will build community through new media?”.
That’s exactly what we aim to do here, with the Grassroots Channel connecting active citizens, and Podminions providing a [...]

I just want to make reference to a couple of other bloggers.
Steve Bridger has recently posted about the value of story telling for the voluntary sector and Ingrid Koehler responded on the IDeA blog. Their worlds overlap with mine through a shared interest in the NCVO ICT Foresight programme.
I wont quote what they are [...]

Richard Sambrook (Director of the BBC’s Global News Division – but also someone who blogs outside the BBC site) has alerted us to a interesting new appeal from Charles Leadbeater who has posted drafts of his new book We-think months before it’s publication is due.
We-Think: the power of mass creativity is about what the rise [...]

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