Posts Tagged ‘Sarah Lay’

Round up of October cafe

October 12th, 2011

It was great to get the Derbyshire Social Media Cafe back underway last night with a meet in the cafe bar at Quad in Derby.

A small group but big conversations about digital in Derby – and plans for getting SMCDerby back on the rails fully in 2012.

Thanks to Nigel for organising and Quad for letting us perch in the cafe.

Here’s a list of Twitter handles for the people who came:

And here’s a flavour of where the converastion went:

  • QR Codes – especially about how Derby Museum and others are using them. Could have done with Nick Moyes or Andy Mabbett to explain more really!
  • BitCoin
  • Digital activism
  • Building and managing networks and flows of information
  • Freedom of Information requests via social media
  • social media surgeries
  • the future of the Derby and Derbyshire Social Media Cafe!

On this last topic the decision was made that the next meet will be in January (date, time and venue to be confirmed) and then every other month from there. I’ll be digging out the results of the survey we ran to see if we can get a handle on format etc but any ideas / requests / offers of sponsorship do leave a comment, tweet me or Nigel or email us!

We’re also hopeful a social media surgery will run in Derby soon – if you’re interested in being a surgeon or a patient leave us a comment and we’ll make sure you get the details.

Until next time – see you online ;)

Social Media Cafe in Derby – TONIGHT!

October 11th, 2011

Just a quick reminder that there will be a social media cafe tonight in Derby.

So, if you do digital in or around Derby and fancy a coffee and chat with other people that do it too come along to the cafe bar at Quad from 6.30pm.

It’s all very informal so there is no agenda – all we ask is that you don’t directly pitch your services to people attending but rather come along and talk about industry issues or opportunities to collaborate. If you’re a non-profit or community group then there will be people at the cafe who can offer you advice on how to use social media and digital too – although again, this is very informal and not an organised social media surgery!

I’m looking forward to seeing lots of you tonight (and hopefully the cafe will become a more regular event again too)!

And if you do do digital in Derbyshire here are a couple of things I spotted which I thought you might be interested in:

Derbyshire Broadband Survey

Derbyshire County Council have two surveys open for residents and businesses to share their experience of internet and broadband in the county.

You can take the survey/s on their website and the information will be used to gauge demand for broadband as well as the current level of provision.

Might be five minutes well spent if you think broadband could be better for your home or business in Derbyshire.

Take the survey on the Derbyshire County Council website.

Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times (15)

This film, documenting a year behind the scenes at the newspaper, will be showing at Quad 21 – 23 October 2011 and shows their media desk correspondent covering the advances which may make print obsolete.

Looks interesting if you’re interested in the past, present or future of journalism and the media.

More info on the Quad website about Page One.

 

A social media café for Derby and Derbyshire

August 10th, 2009

by Sarah Lay

Sarah LayI’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…