Written by Nicky Getgood on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 ( One response )
Tags: andymabbett, birminghamcoachstation, digbethcoachstation, links, mappamercia, openstreetmap, pigsonthewing, toblog
Mappa Mercia: Birmingham Coach Station – Thanks to Andy Mabbett for clocking the last line of this post about Open Street Mapping in Digbeth at the coach station:
The taxidrivers I spoke to weren’t too impressed with only 4 spaces in their taxi rank.
I can imagine. Anyone know the number for a private minicab?
Written by Nicky Getgood on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 ( 2 responses )
Tags: andymabbett, links, pigsonthewing, toblog
ER V111 POST BOX DIGBETH on Flickr – Photo Sharing! – Thanks to Andy Mabbett for this. Edward VIII postboxes are rare, in that not many got made before he abdicated. But there is this one Digbeth – can anyone tell me where?
Written by Nicky Getgood on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 ( Start discussion )
Tags: andymabbett, links, oldbirminghampictures, pigsonthewing, toblog
Old Birmingham Pictures – Digbeth – Many thanks to Andy Mabbett for forwarding this link to me – some lovely pictures of the Digbeth of yesteryear. Includes old pubs (like The Royal George) and businesses that are long gone. Makes one wonder how things will be different thirty years from now.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Sunday, July 12th, 2009 ( One response )
Tags: andy mcmillan, andymabbett, belfast, Blogger/Twitter/Whatever, bmibaby, Brumbloggers meets, brumvsbelfast, build, cupcakecamp, iced coffee, jason roe, karenstrunks, opencoffeebelfast, phil o'kane, ryanair, Social Media Cafe's, Social Media Surgeries
Andy Mabbett asked how Belfast Social Media Surgeries and Cafe’s are doing. Now, I don’t know much about Belfast’s social media scene but I was lucky enough to meet someone who did – Phil O’Kane, a Belfast photographer who took part in the 4am Project, met up with Karen Strunks and I for a drink (and didn’t make it home until the following morning after falling asleep on a sofa, but that’s another story). He seemed to know his stuff, so I took the opportunity to milk him for the information Andy wanted.
Seems their social media cafes are more commonly known as OpenCoffee Belfast, ‘an informal meet-up for people with an interest in technology, the internet, business and startups’ in Charlie’s Coffee Shop every other week.
Rather than our Barcamps, Belfast has San Fancisco export Cupcake Camp, ‘an ad-hoc get-together where participants bake and bring cupcakes to share and socialise. It’s organised primarily over the internet, making use of the most modern communications to get people involved.’
For the more tech savvy, there’s Build, ‘a leading-edge event covering design, standards, best practice and accessibility on the web.’ It’s organised by Andy McMillan, who seems to have a bit of a habit of organising good stuff like events, fringes and photo walks in and around Belfast. Good chap.
There’s quite a bit going on down south too, which many from Northern Ireland make the effort to go to. Phil feels because there’s more money and people in southern Ireland, the scene seems to be growing a lot more down there.
There’s the Irish Blog Awards, for congratulating those who’ve done a job well done, which Phil had a grand time attending in 2008.
There’s also Blogger/Twitter/Whatever meet-ups, ‘an informal gather of people who are interested in (but not limited to) blogging, social media and the web’ that sound not unlike our Brumbloggers meets. BTW’s have popped up in Dublin and Cork. They’re organised by an Irish blogger called Jason Roe, an interesting man who caused a very heated debate after he noticed a little ‘bug’ in Ryanair’s online booking system and blogged about it. Rather than thanking him for highlighting the error, staff proceeded to leave some pretty angry coments on the post. Ryanair’s official response to this bad behaviour?:
“Ryanair can confirm that a Ryanair staff member did engage in a blog discussion. It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won’t be happening again. Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel.”
So it seems Ryanair don’t like bloggers half as much as BMI Baby, who are itching to fly us to their destinations.
Anyway, I digress. My point is, Belfast and Ireland have a very healthy social media scene. But how does that compare to Birmingham’s Brumbloggers meets, Social Media Cafe’s, Social Media Surgeries, etc.? The Birmingham social media scene has been the subject of much internal and external attention, discussion and debate of late. It seems to be thriving to the point where people are actually taking steps to prevent it disappearing up its own arse.
I’m loathe to say Birmingham wins this one for being awesome, for fear of sounding far too self-congratulatory, so I’ll leave the outcome up to you. But it is nice to swap notes with people from other places and see what’s going on elsewhere. And it was lovely to meet Phil, even if he was unconscious by midnight. Lightweight.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 ( Start discussion )
Tags: andymabbett, custardfactory, Digbethisgood, flea, links, pigsonthewing, toblog
F.L.E.A. on Flickr – Photo Sharing! – Andy Mabbett went wandering around Digbeth the other day, here’s one of his snaps.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Sunday, January 18th, 2009 ( Start discussion )
Tags: andymabbett, bbc, billgood, Digbethisgood, links, thepoliticsshow, toblog, twstampings
The Politics Show West Midlands: 18/01/2009 – Many thans to Andy Mabbett for making me aware of this.
In the shadow of the new Birmingham, the original Brammagen. Welcome to Digbeth.
Digbeth features in a piece about how local industries are dealing with the credit crunch, it includes an interview with Bill Good, Chief Executive of TW Stamping building supplies factory on Charles Henry Street. You can watch it again on BBC iPlayer by following the link, the feature is approximately 30 minutes into the show.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 ( Start discussion )
Tags: andymabbett, antoniogould, big city plan, birminghamitsnotshit, birminghammail, catnip, duck bath, dykepools, editorialgirl, emmajones, faunography, graphiquillan, jonbounds, julia gilbert, peteashton, pigsonthewing, shonamcquillan, simon gray, twitter, winterval
‘Digbeth police station evacuated,’ reads the Birmingham Mail, ‘after suspicious package was discovered inside…A cordon was placed around the station and a number of roads were closed off.’
However to Twitter addicts such as myself this news was, like, so last hour. We’d been discussing the road blocks, traffic jams, suspicious package and bomb squad for hours. So much so that, after viewing the search results, Pete Ashton went and wondered aloud if Digbeth could become top-rating, trending Twitter topic for the day.
It was like a red rag to a bull. If you tweeted, you simply had to mention Digbeth. Even if, like Antonio Gould, it was to say you weren’t sure what to say about Digbeth.
Pete Ashton’s blogged about the internetty aspects of today’s little exercise, so let’s get on with the important stuff:
- If you spoonerise Digbeth you get BIG DEATH says Emma Jones.
- But if you’re sticking to strict anagramming like Shona McQuillan you get THE BIG D, which is still pretty cool.
- There are Killer Badgers in Digbeth according to Emma Jones. In the Police Station, apparently. Part of the Anti-Terrorism Act, I think. They’re better at extracting intelligence than bog-standard dogs. I shall be risking life and limb David Attenborough-style to get pictures of them for the Faunography trail.
- Me and that bloke down the pub aren’t the only ones who think Digbeth is derived from DUCK BATH. Andy Mabbett says so too, so it must be true.
- Or perhaps it’s not. Jon Bounds says it means Dyke Pools after finding this great site that says so. It seems slightly better informed than my bloke down the pub, and has some fantastic photos.
- Mind you, what does Jon Bounds know? He’s not that fussed on Digbeth because it’s not near enough to Moseley or town. Shame on you Jon, it’s well worth the short ride on the 50/five minute walk from the Bullring.
- Shona McQuillan turned it all on its head and stated: Digbeth in suspicious package. Yes, that’s right. It’s called the Big City Plan.
- Daniel Davies lost his sandwiches in Digbeth. Rest assured, if I find them I will be photographing them for you all to enjoy in the new Digbeth Food Wastage category. Yummy.
- Prize for top Digbeth tweet goes to Julia Gilbert for saying, “You can read more about Digbeth at digbeth.org.” I pay her well. In shoes.
As you can see, our efforts weren’t in vain and it all left me rather distracted and excited this afternoon. Oh yeah, there was some stuff on Winterval as well, which made Simon Gray wonder if that could be a trending topic too. Go on, Tweethearts: you know what to do.
