Hello lovely Weekly Blog Clubbers, it’s me, Kate Bentham, as your week 50 host. Yes, that’s right 50 glorious weeks of top blogs by top bloggers. Award yourself a pat on the back, a high five and a slice of lemon drizzle cake for making it to week 50. In honour of this momentous achievement Ross Wigham came up with a great entirely optional theme of Landmarks – which could of course relate to landmarks in life, work or even landmarks on the land.
After suggesting the theme Ross Wigham blogged about Landmarks and reflected on some significant moments in life, on being a parent, some recent successes in work and wearing tweed, all of which are classed as landmarks but what do they all matter if being happy isn’t in the mix? Chris Bolton also took up the Landmarks theme this week in Why us Welsh make the best guides at German Museums We loved the fact that Chris rates the museums on 1) Attendance Interaction, 2) Go Backwards Factor and on 3) Boring my Family Later with the new information he discovered. We note that the Welsh factor will also boost a museums rating on Chris’s chart.
It’s hard to escape the fact that Christmas is just around the corner, especially as the first signs of Christmas started to appear in October, and so naturally we’ve had a few blogs about Christmas this week. First up is My Advent Challenge by Ben Whitehouse. Hats off to Ben who has set himself an amazing challenge of blogging on each day of the advent (we sometimes struggle with the weekly blog club challenge) The blogs so far include book reviews, favourite songs, and a great letter to Santa. We look forward to the remaining days of advent to see what Ben blogs next.
My well-travelled Christmas Tree by Kate Bentham looks at Christmas decorations from around the world. Kate shares photos of some of her favourite decorations, which include a dreadlocked snowman and a holly clad boomerang. A lovely collection. Finally on the Christmas theme we have Carol Woolley who is singing her way to Christmas with the classic Mud song I wish it could be Christmas every day….. Carol has been busy performing concerts with the band she is part of, singing some classic hymns and some modern day tunes. I wonder if they do my favourite, Fairytale of New York?
I often find I become quite reflective over the Christmas and new year – thinking about the lyric in the John Lennon and Yoko song which starts with ‘And so this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over and a new one just begun’. I’m starting to think about #my2013wishes and it was great to see that Louise Brown was also thinking about some of her hopes for the new year. In Turning online into offline in 2013 Louise talks about the important relationships she has made online, and especially on Twitter, and how she hopes that in 2013 some of those relationships can be developed into offline relationships. We certainly hope to be able to meet up with Louise in the new year.
In the learning and development section this week we have 2 blogs. Andrew Jacobs is keen to connect with others in public sector learning and development who also blog. Andrew asks Are you using old tools? and suggests that for facilitators to retain their expertise and to be successful they need to consider using new tools like blogging. In Chris Bolton’s second blog this week he also talks about using new tools. Chris has recently upgraded from a clockwork cat timer to a digital stopwatch devise. In Facilitation Essentials #1. Why I upgraded from a clockwork cat timer to a countdown /stopwatch app Chris shares the impact this has had on his students and how it has helped to deflect any angst or frustration they may have had towards the facilitator onto an inanimate object.
Dan Slee has been using old tools to communicate with people who are used to using new tools. In EXCLUSIVE: ‘My #Hyperwm Blog Newspaper Hell’ blog Dan shares his pain of producing a print newspaper for Hyperwm. Dan talks about meeting deadlines, not taking editing as rejection and swearing a lot. In his second blog this week Ross Wigham shares how the television or film industry has had an impact on tourism and the economy in the area. His local authority has been able to tap into the impact of the Silver screen and have signed up to the Filming Friendly Charter to proactively encourage further filming in this beautiful part of the country.
Two interesting posts this week looking at data, records and information. Mark Braggins looks at the supply and demand for open data in the UK and is surprised by the requests being made and those not being made – especially around geospatial data. Open sesame: UK open data is a great read. Janet Davis also looks at openness of data – but from a healthcare point of view, and asks who actually owns medical records. In Do I look gruesome in this? Janet explores the rights of the patient in the sharing of medical records for teaching, and also considers how a patient would feel if those records were shared through social media. A challenging subject.
Two blogs from a health perspective this week, on the Ayrshire Health Blog. The first But Why? by Susan Munro looks at team work in patient care and explores why a professional may be involved in a patients care even if they aren’t necessarily the lead carer. Susan answers the why question by suggesting it is whoever the best person for that patient is. We really like Andrew Moore’s proposal in Giving something back where he suggests a time bank of co-production to help improve patient care and to support the organisation. When there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day already Andrew acknowledges there would need to be a significant organisational culture change for this to work.
Phil Jewitt has also been looking at culture change to ensure his local authority become truly social. In Relevance Phil suggests that for residents to feel able to engage it must be something meaningful to them, otherwise it becomes a bit of lip service and box ticking. Phil summaries with how while it’s good to talk it’s more important to listen. Gareth Morgan also looks at his organisation in SHADES OF BLUE Gareth talks about how different elements of policing all make up the culture of the police force and represent the continued dedication of officers. The elements maybe different but they are all a shade of blue.
One organisation which needs to look at its interaction with customers is the shop described in Eddie Coates-Madden blog called A man without a smiley face should not open a shop Eddie shares photos of notices he saw in a shop window warning customers on what will (dogs) and won’t (snotty nose children, pushchairs) be welcomed and tolerated in the shop. We doubt this shop has any customers, and wonder if this might also contribute to unsustainable high streets.
Finally a look into the past with a photo shared by Richard Overy This photo not only shows a Dairy-Man but Richard has also been able to share some information about the life and death of the man in the photo. We love these glimpses into the past, and also because Richard demonstrates that a blog can simply be a photo with some words around it – and we can all manage that, right?
So, I make that 18 top blogs for you to enjoy this week. You lucky, lucky people. Of course Weekly Blog Club is not only about the blogs, but it’s also about those that read, share, like and comment on blogs. It’s about the coming togther of all of these people and elements which makes the club work, which has made the club work for 50 weeks. There is also one more important factor to Weekly Blog Club and that’s Janet, who has curated the club since setting it up at the beginning of the year. Thank you Janet.
If you would like to volunteer to look after Weekly Blog Club, there is information about what is involved on the Admin info page, and you can suggest a week (or even weeks) that you could do on the Who looks after Weekly Blog Club when page.
Have a great week folks, see you next time.
Kate
Summary of Week 50 posts
- Giving something back by Andrew Moore
- SHADES OF BLUE by Gareth Morgan
- Dairy-Man by Richard Overy
- Relevance by Phil Jewitt
- Why us Welsh make the best guides at German Museums by Chris Bolton
- Turning online into offline in 2013 by Louise Brown
- My Advent Challenge by Ben Whitehouse
- Landmarks by Ross Wigham
- Do I look gruesome in this? by Janet Davis
- My well-travelled Christmas Tree by Kate Bentham
- Open sesame: UK open data by Mark Braggins
- Are you using old tools? by Andrew Jacobs
- I wish it could be Christmas every day….. by Carol Woolley
- Facilitation Essentials #1. Why I upgraded from a clockwork cat timer to a countdown /stopwatch app by Chris Bolton
- Silver screen on the Ross Wigham blog
- EXCLUSIVE: ‘My #Hyperwm Blog Newspaper Hell’ blog by Dan Slee
- But Why? by Susan Munro
- A man without a smiley face should not open a shop by Eddie Coates-Madden
Working in local gov, managing a frontline service for families. I love Shropshire, love family and love information and blog about all three. There is also the occasional mention of cake and caek.
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[…] morning (Sunday) I had the rare luxury of doing whatever I liked. I therefore settled down to read: A Landmark Week – and every one of the eighteen Weekly Blog Club posts – ‘cover to cover’. If […]