stephen blyth’s blog

When I met Beth Kanter after having read her blog for several years she made a real impression on me. It wasn’t just her committed personal activism, wide ranging knowledge and willingness to share, so much as her phenomenal connectedness that struck me. Set loose on the keyboard and she connects with people, for just […]

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When I was studying for my politics degree I doubtlessly would have taken a course on the intersection of politics and the internet. Had something like this been on offer, of course.
Skip forward to 2008 this might have involved enrolling in a course by the farsighted Howard Rheingold (author of The Virtual Community […]

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Setting out to build a new website or set of online tools can be pretty nerve wracking. No matter what research and insights have been captured, how many people have been surveyed, and advisors consulted it’s hard to know if anyone will actually find what you’ve done as useful and exciting.
The syndrome of […]

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There’s always something that you forget to mention when you’re doing a lecture or presentation. I’ve just got back from running a guest lecture slot with students on the stakeholder communication and image management course run through the Unitec Graduate Diploma in Not for Profit Management, and realise I didn’t talk about creative commons (amongst […]

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I had a disasterous lunchtime session yesterday when I attempted to demonstrate the potential of web 2.0. I could rant and rave about how unfair the world is technology is not foolproof, or perhaps mull on a lesson or two.
My personal guided tour was going to take in social networking, wikis, blogging, social bookmarking, and […]

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As I sit down to write this Simon Berry and his companions will be cycling some between Hengrove and Bristol city centre. The route through Bristol is just one of 48 stages on a 12 day ride from Land’s End to Severn Beach, Scotland.
Even though I have never met Simon, after reading the […]

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My mind is a bit foggy after three days in the sheltered conference land of government information system managers, IT policy makers and techies. And no, it’s not due to repeated use of the key ring pictured.
I’m foggy because of the hyping of Web 2.0 and too much riskease. Murky from the vendors touting expensive […]

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I can’t imagine what horse trading took place behind the scenes before the management at the State Services Commission (SSC) agreed to run a wiki for people interested in using the web for public participation.
If you believe the myths, wiki are risky as people can write what they want without regard to truth or honestly, […]

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On the same day I attended the CIMS project workshop with a smattering of New Zealand community sector leaders (see my post “Collaboration in motion - CIMS”), UK not-for-profit ICT enthusiasts, leaders and technophiles were participating in the second ICT Hub National Conference in London.
Over the last four to five years the UK government has […]

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At a very vibrant meeting of an online participation community of practice meeting on Thursday, Jasmin Callosa-Tarr gave a presentation on participatory 3d modelling. From what I picked up GIS is being used to create real-life scale models of physical environments, then, using skilled facilitation, locals describe land-use, vegetation, infrastructure or even social patterns. The […]

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