The next Derby/shire Social Media Cafe is this week – Tuesday 23 February 2010 between 6.30 and 9pm in CUBE at Deda, Chapel Street, Derby.
There will be free drinks thanks to sponsorship from Carl Bembridge and the Race for Life Get Social team are hoping to drop in to share how they are using the social web to support women taking part in this year’s events.
Generally it is a chance to network and catch up on all things digital in Derby/shire so come along! See you on Tuesday!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=792c8bbb-5943-46cf-8026-5899e54f9ba1)
The problem with social media cafe is there are too many interesting people and interesting things to talk about in a short space of time.
We had the second meeting of the Derby and Derbyshire Social Media Cafe last night. It was a great turn out and a really interesting talk about hyperlocal by Will Perrin, Mike Rawlins and Nicky Getgood of Talk About Local and Philip John of the Lichfield Blog.
Will told us all about how he got into hyperlocal blogging, showcased some of the sites they are supporting through Talk About Local and explained their model. We then had a look at The Lichfield Blog with Philip John and there were some interesting points about bloggers being accepted by or even working in collaboration with traditional media.
There were some good questions from the group about the potential legal issues of running a hyperlocal blog, the amount of time it takes, community-generated vs organisation trying to embed in a community (BBC Local or Local People were examples) and some general chat about what hyperlocals exist in Derbyshire.
It’s set me thinking about hyplerlocal again from a personal perspective, but that’s another blog for another day.
Attendee list:
I’m trying to do this from memory so if I’ve missed you off, firstly sorry and secondly just let me know so I can add you!
Sarah Lay
Richard Mackney
Colin Mitchell
Will Perrin
Nicky Getgood
Mike Rawlins
Philip John
Emily Robe
Antoinette Burchill
Darren Holden
Karen Thomas
Nick Moyes
Christine Cawthorne
Hadrian Cawthorne
Bel Harvey
Lee Flanaghan
Lauren Noakes
Sarah Barker
Colin MacKenzie
Emma Bryn-Jones
SubVee
warrenfree
cybrum
Useful links:
There were a few sites and posts mentioned in the presentations and chat which people asked me to link to from here.
You can of course find out about Talk About Local and The Lichfield Blog at their respective sites. Philip John also highlighted a couple of posts on his blog – one about some legal information and one about sharing ideas for hyperlocal sites.
I think we should all check out the sponsor’s site as well – Fish Media - kindly paid for the venue and the drinks so I’m sure we’d all like to thank them for that.
If you liked CUBE at Deda then check out the website for opening times – they’d welcome anyone who wanted to pop in for a coffee, bite to eat and use their wifi!
Tag anything from last night – tweets, blogs, photos – with #smcderby and I’ll aggregate when I get a chance!
Tell me what you want!
Planning is already underway for the next meeting – this will hopefully be earlyFebruary.
Let me know if there is a day / time which is best for you so we can try to set a date suitable for greatest number of people.
And is there a subject you want to talk about as a group like we did with hyperlocal? If no-one has anything in particular we can just have a networking session. Get in touch and let us know your thoughts on last night and what should happen next time!
Until then…
by Sarah
So, yesterday the idea that Tim, Paul and I had to start a social media cafe in Derby (and indeed around the county) became a reality.
The first meeting of was held, informally, in the cafe bar at Quad Derby yesterday (1 October 2009)- and a big thanks must go to them for hosting us and supporting this idea.
The conversation was flowing, just as we hoped it would, and we’ve had a great response so far – there will definitely be more meets!
Some of the things I talked about with people and found really useful / interesting included: Google Sidewiki and Wave; promoting and getting organisations to move forward online; monitoring social media both from a ‘knowing your audience’ and a ROI point of view; managing reputation online; being and managing online workers and of course, how the social media cafe is going to continue.
How is the cafe going to continue?
Well, it will definitely meet again in Derby and at the moment I am thinking it might be nice to meet in early December.
I’d propose we meet in a dedicated space this time and have something more formal to head up the session – a case study or debate for example – with an informal networking event afterwards.
What I’d like people to let me know (either comment here, tweet me or through the Facebook group) is:
I’ll set up some sort of event listing where people can register their interest and then we can look at a suitable venue and get the date and time organised.
The Derby meet will be alongside taking the cafe out around the county. There will be a meet in Matlock on 3 December and I’d really, really appreciate hearing from anyone who would be interested in coming along or help organise this one!
Who came yesterday?
I said I’d post the attendance list up so people could follow each other and continue conversations online. If I’ve missed anyone please forgive me and give me a nudge to add you on! Most people seem to be using Twitter as their main online identity at the moment but if you have another space you’d rather use (or think we should look at) then let me know. Here’s the list:
I’d like to say a massive thanks to everyone who came and turned our idea into a reality. I look forward to continuing the conversations online and seeing you all (and more people too!) at the next meet.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=c893377d-38d4-4750-9db8-d8a11316f176)
Thank you to everyone for coming along to the Social Media Cafe event today at Derby QUAD. Lots of interesting conversations and ideas – as well as coffee and cake!
If you have any photos you’ve taken and are prepared to share with us, please leave us a comment with a link to them. We’ll then add them to the blog.
A big thankyou to QUAD for their support and allowing us to use their facilities. Here’s to the next time in Matlock.
By Paul
Ok, maybe not fully mapping Derby and maybe it’s a bit rough round the edges, but this should give you a good idea of the impact of Social Media in Derby and possibly inspire you to do something similar or even better?
A fair few Saturdays ago, I was bored and thought I’d see how much of Derby was on Facebook. I began to search for key areas (political wards or neighbourhood names), issues, people, places etc and plotted them as nodes on a Mind Map using MindMeister.
I tweeted to Tim that I was doing this and invited him to collaborate. It grew exponentially as we both edited it live and quickly moved beyond Facebook into something more indicative of the many sites in use by or known to both of us.
You can view the map for yourself below and draw your own conclusions about what it tells us. Everything on the map is freely available to public searches. All we have done is carry out those searches for you and put them all in one place.
A Mind Map illustrating the extent of usage of Social Media in Derby, UK.
City of Derby Social Media Map by Paul Cole and Tim Cooper is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
The map was briefly made available at LocalGovCamp in a session I ran entitled, “Are we listening?”. This session and the discussions it raised have been covered very well already by Sarah Lay, Jack Pickard and Pete Ashton. All posts are definitely worth a read.
I had hoped to have a hyperlink (the small arrow) from each node taking you straight to each web page. Unfortunately, these have only (mostly) been added to Facebook so far.
You should be aware that there is an issue with the links to most of the Facebook Groups as I incorrectly pasted the link to the search results for the group and not the actual group address. This will take me a while to rectify, if I do it at all. To get to a Facebook group with a faulty link, simply copy and paste the exact title as it appears on the node into the search bar on Facebook. Links I have added for Facebook Pages and other sites should be OK.
The map is presented as is, that is, as it was created on that day. It may not be organised perfectly or logically, but it does its job as far as I’m concerned.
The simple experience of searching for and finding what is out there was a good learning experience in itself. You can take what you want from it or try it for yourself in your city or area.
Please share your thoughts with us.
by Sarah
Just a couple of weeks to go now until Derby and Derbyshire Social Media Cafe meets for the first time. This is a bit of a round-up post of things you might be interested in and a couple of things which have merely been passing through my mind.
So – first off – Emily Robe, a social media virtual assistant from Derby, gave a great interview on Radio Derby’s Aleena Naylor show on Wednesday 16 September. They talked about Emily’s job, how social media can help businesses and marketing through platforms such as Twitter. Emily also gave the social media cafe a mention – so if you’re checking the blog after hearing her on the radio, welcome!
If you missed it you can hear the interview on Listen Again until next Wednesday. Emily’s interview starts at about 1 hour 11 minutes in. Enjoy!
Elsewhere there have been a number of new social media cafes getting off the ground. Lichfield and Devon both held their first meetings on Tuesday 15 September and the Coventry and Warwickshire Social Media Cafe will be launching on Friday 18 September. All three are linked in the Other Social Media Cafes section of this blog.
It’s interesting to see the social media and wider community gather at these events – each run slightly differently on a localised version of the Tuttle model. I’m sure if you are in the area when one is taking place they’d be only too pleased to welcome you to a meeting – take a look at their blogs to see what they’re talking about.
Both of these things got me thinking about what the Derbyshire version of the cafe is, and perhaps even more importantly is not. I’m keen to let it grow somewhat organically from these early days but there are few things I’m pretty sure on in my head. So here is what I think the cafe is and is not. Would be great to have views from other people coming along.
It is:
It isn’t:
So, if you think I’ve missed something vital off these lists let me know. Don’t forget to pop over to Nurphy to join the introductions conversation and see what you think of the platform. Otherwise the blog is open to comments, the #smcderby stream on Twitter is running and the Facebook group and event listing is available too.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=126ba521-3aea-4e17-813b-8e0aa4cb4ac1)
by Sarah
Word is getting out – the Derby and Derbyshire Social Media Cafe launches on Thursday 1 October 2009 in the cafe bar at Quad Derby.
I’m really pleased with the interest we’ve had so far and am looking forward to chatting with so many different people (drop-in any time between 2 and 5pm!) on the day.
I would be eternally grateful if you could reply to this post or sign up on the Facebook event page if you’re intending to come along. While everything is pretty informal – the cafe won’t be exclusively for our use, you’ll have to pay for your own coffee, we have no agenda other than to meet and chat – it would be great to have an idea of numbers!
For future cafes we’ll probably make sign up easier via a wiki or eventbrite (or let us know if you know a better way) but if you’re coming just let me know!
I’d also be interested to hear from you if you’d like to have come but can’t because of the day, time or location. We can then take this into consideration as we plan future meets.
Quad has lots of advice on their website about getting to the venue by car, train, air, foot, bicycle or bus as well as information on accommodation if you want to make a night of it. Take a look at their directions page.
Look forward to seeing you on the 1 October!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=f2fa8816-fad1-4d48-b04c-1eff4758d114)
by Tim
A while ago, Paul Cole and I collaborated to document what we could find about social media activity in Derby. We did this ‘virtually’ using an online mind mapping tool called Mind Meister. Robin Good has published a useful guide to social media tools using Mind Meister, which you can view by using the following link: www.mindmeister.com/12213323.
What became apparent to us while compiling this information is the extent to which businesses, organisations and – perhaps more importantly – the public in the area are using social media. The largest area of activity is on Facebook where we found numerous groups that have been set up on issue-based subjects.
Few businesses and public sector organisations in the city have pages on Facebook, but there are a growing number using Twitter. However, few of these are actively engaging with customers. One notable exception to this, based on my own experience, is Derby Quad (@derbyquad) whose customer service via the Twitter service has been excellent.
[Edit: I've now created a separate page for all of the social media links, which you can visit by clicking on the 'Links' page from the navigation menu or by using the following link: http://socialmediacafe.org.uk/links/]
Let us know if you know of other local organisations using Twitter and Facebook (or other services) and we’ll add them to the list.
by Sarah Lay
I’ve been playing with the idea and various possible set-ups for a while now (not very JFDI but maybe as long as a year). I’ve really been spurred into action though by the inspiration I drew at LocalGovCamp.
I’ve spoken to a couple of other Derbyshire social media enthusiasts and the feeling from them is very positive. There is a feeling that there is a need for an informal meeting place to discuss what we’re doing or what we want to do with social media and online communications. Not only would this be great, from my point of view, for local government and our partners in Derbyshire as we don’t even have a formal setting for these discussions at the moment. But it would also be great to chat with people from the private and third sectors as we can all learn so much through sharing.
So, the rough plan at the moment is to get some time and a venue for sometime in September and start getting people on board. I want to be fairly fluid with where this goes so there will be no agendas and people bring / take what they need to and from each cafe in terms of things to share and actions. More medium term I would like to see it move around the county to take advantage and meet with people from our pretty big geographical area.
It’s still in the early stages but with summer underway the ideas are about to be solidified into plans. I’d welcome any advice from those who’ve already set up a café (particularly looking at your Birmingham), anyone in Derby/shire who wants to work with me on this and generally opinions on what folks think of this.
Watch this space for progress…
© 2010 Social Media Café · Proudly powered by WordPress & Green Park 2 by Cordobo.
Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional | Valid CSS 3
