Week 29 resulted in the second highest number of posts in a week since Weekly Blog Club began. Well done, guys! This handing over of blog wrangler duties to someone else for a week seems to encourage more to contribute posts (plus I understand that Weekly Blog Club did get mentioned at LocalGovCamp). Thank you very much to Kate Bentham who did a brilliant job as the ‘voice’ of Weekly Blog club (as well as going to LocalGovCamp and doing other things). I do think that someone else doing it for a week refreshes this blog beautifully.
LocalGovCamp features strongly in Week 29’s posts, not surprisingly, but we also have posts about a couple of Camps. Sasha Taylor was busy writing this week on how far the BlueLightCamp T-shirts have travelled, being worn by himself, Ben Proctor (@likeaword), and “the legend that is Andy Mabbett (@pigsonthewing)” in BlueLightCamp ‘Travels.’ Sasha also wrote about CityCamp Coventry 1st Planning Session – 12 July 2012, and I am sure that all who have attended a CityCamp wish them success in it.
At the end of the week, Sasha was also collaborating with Mark Braggins to write We love #lgovsm about two wonderful local gov social media institutions which featured in discussions at LocalGovCamp: the recent retired We Love LocalGov blog and the Tuesday evening Twitter chat #lgovsm (local government social media). They are writing a second post on the theme in which they promise “to think out aloud about whether #lgovsm and #weeklyblogclub might connect…” – which sounds very intriguing.
Kate Bentham put her thoughts about LocalGovCamp in bullet points rather than a numbered list in My Localgovcamp 2012 list, and reflected on how there were “frontline” people there too this year. The legend that is Dan Slee wrote one of his famous numbered lists (with a football theme this time) to sum up his LocalGovCamp experience in GOAL! 29 good things and a poor football anecdote from #localgovcamp 2012. Stuart Mackintosh had been reading through the LocalGovCamp tweets and noticed how many talked about ‘journeys’ to realising that there is a different way to communicating what a council is doing rather than just releasing press releases. In Why the only way is up, he wrote about his own realisation this year on how social media could be a great tool for councils when he saw it in action over a painful local football story.
Several Week 29 posts were about tools or ways of thinking about things that would help in work situations. Derek Barron pointed us at this thought-provoking post about expert knowledge of clinicians by Eddie Docherty: Putting the ‘expert’ into expert practice (on the Ayrshire Health blog). How much are we ourselves online? John Patterson thought about the issue of our online identities and avatars in Social Media, Employment and Avatar Rights. Rob Stewart shared his experience of an unconference in A weekend of WordPress at WordCamp in Edinburgh (which I found very useful). Janet Harkin’s A to Z of marketing tactics could be very useful to many (I am full of admiration at how she managed to find something even for X), whilst others would gain from Ross Wigham’s post on Northumberland County Council’s use of Pinterest. He put an introduction Pinteresting… on his own blog and the article – Using Pinterest as a comms channel was published on the splendid comms2point0 blog.
Matt Bond was inspired by Coca Cola about storytelling and liquid content shared it in Content creation and the power of stories. Storytelling is at the core of the Weekly Blog Club, of course, and stories can be told in pictures as well as words ( I used both in A gradual progress and fluorescent fashion).
Phil Jewitt, who is very into storytelling, told more than one story with one picture and 3 short sentences in The kite. One of his stories was about family, the [entirely optional] theme for Week 29. Ben Whitehouse wrote a lovely post about a place that evokes that family feeling for him and also gives us a fascinating view of a new community developing in #weeklyblogclub: On Family.
Two people contributed posts on religion from two very different sides of faith. Paul Coxon wrote as much about what he does not as does believe in What I believe: On Religion, whilst Benjamin Welby wrote Frothing at the mouth, this time its Creation.
There was a mini Olympic theme from Irena Souroup, Louise Brown and Carol Woolley. Irena’s contribution – Suicide Cyclists – is about the craziness of limits on ordinary commuting cyclists caused by the Olympics. Louise’s is a fun Olympics playlist: Sport-a-go-go at The Belle Vue vinyl night. Carol’s is about The Virtual Choir, a fabulous example of using the Web creatively that will result in a real world installation on the Millennium Bridge over the Thames during the Olympics and Paralympics. Do look out for Olympiad events in your area. There have been some interesting commissions in visual and performing arts.
Thank you very much, as always, to those who read, comment, follow, Like/Favourite etc, as well as write the Weekly Blog Club posts. If you want to participate as a writer, new contributors are always warmly welcomed and our About page tells you what you need to know about contributing (note: the 1st rule of Weekly Blog Club is not that you do not talk about it – we positively encourage communicating about it!). There is usually someone around to help with writer’s block or to encourage. The [entirely optional] theme for Week 30 is ‘rites of passage.’
Finally, I have been really delighted with how well handing over to Louise Brown and Kate Bentham went, have enjoyed reading their summaries – and I am really looking forward to Mark Braggins assuming the Weekly Blog Club mantle for a week in August. If anyone else would like to do this, please do say.
Janet
Summary of Week 29 posts
CityCamp Coventry 1st Planning Session – 12 July 2012 by Sasha Taylor.
BlueLightCamp ‘Travels’ by Sasha Taylor.
Why the only way is up by Stuart Mackintosh.
GOAL! 29 good things and a poor football anecdote from #localgovcamp 2012 by Dan Slee.
What I believe: On Religion by Paul Coxon.
My Localgovcamp 2012 list by Kate Bentham.
The kite by Phil Jewitt.
Content creation and the power of stories by Matt Bond.
Sport-a-go-go at The Belle Vue vinyl night By Louise Brown.
Social Media, Employment and Avatar Rights by John Patterson.
The Virtual Choir by Carol Woolley.
#weeklyblogclub: On Family by Ben Whitehouse.
A gradual progress and fluorescent fashion by Janet E Davis.
Frothing at the mouth, this time its Creation by Benjamin Welby.
A to Z of marketing tactics by Janet Harkin.
A weekend of WordPress at WordCamp in Edinburgh by Rob Stewart.
Suicide Cyclists by Irena Souroup.
Putting the ‘expert’ into expert practice by Eddie Docherty on the Ayrshire Health blog.
We love #lgovsm by Mark Braggins and Sasha Taylor.
Weekly Blog Club was set up in early January 2012 to encourage people to blog regularly, and especially to encourage those working in and with the public sector, charities and voluntary organisations in the UK to find their own 'voice' through writing.
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