From the monthly archives:

March 2008

Back from Amsterdam conference

by stephencoleman 31/03/2008 in Bristol

I’ve just returned from a two-day conference in Amsterdam, organised jointly by Amsterdam University’s School of Communication (ASCOR), which is the biggest communications school in Europe, and Leeds University’s Institute of Communications Studies (ICS), which is the biggest communications school in the UK. We were talking about the changing nature of political communication. Not only [...]

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Introducing Professor Stephen Coleman

by Stephen Hilton 28/03/2008 in Bristol

Some people effortlessly span seemingly irreconcilable divides, for example, by being both anti-establishment and mainstream; a leading academic and a man of the people; a commentator on technology and perhaps also a bit of a technophobe?
Stephen Coleman, Professor of Political Communication at Leeds University, is one such enigma and personally I am delighted that [...]

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Sign up for the ‘New Media Workshop for Business’

by Kevin 28/03/2008 in Bristol

Do you want to increase sales using a new generation of web applications? From online video and conference webcasting to training and ecommerce, speakers will outline strategies for interacting with web visitors and keeping a website sticky to increase its effectiveness at selling goods and service. Hosted by Mendip Media, sponsored by Connecting Bristol and [...]

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Does the End of Civil Serf mean Civil silence?

by Matt 27/03/2008 in Bristol

Civil Serf, the civil servant secret blogger, was silenced recently after Whitehall launched a hunt to find her. Whatever your political persuasion, and some of her posts were not flattering to her employers, one has to ask, surely, that isn’t a blog part of free speech? By definition, it is the [...]

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Jonathon Porrit on Climate Change

by Kevin 27/03/2008 in Green ICT

Jonathon Porritt is Programme Director of Forum for the Future and Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission. He is an internationally respected writer, broadcaster and commentator on sustainable development, and writes regularly on the agenda in his blog.
In this recent interview on Local Gov TV he outlines how the Climate Change Bill will [...]

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Lords of the Blog

by Andy 21/03/2008 in Bristol

For my final post I thought I’d point you to “Lords of the Blog” – a group effort by nine members of the House of Lords. As Shane says, it’s a dreadful name, but the content is pretty interesting.
Since I got the link from Shane, I should mention CivicSurf, the new name for his [...]

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Why e-democracy matters

by Andy 20/03/2008 in Bristol

One of the criticisms of e-democracy initiatives – for example, politicians using sites like Youtube – is that they represent a society dumbing down, disengaging with policy and embracing trivia.
Then you see what’s happening in the current US election.
In the last 24 hours, Barack Obama’s speech on race in American politics has received over 1.6m [...]

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American Apparel: Legalise LA*

by Andy 19/03/2008 in People

Reading a magazine on the train last night, I came across this ad for American Apparel:

I thought was really strong and provocative. Whilst campaigning businesses aren’t new, it’s still rare to see a company come out and take a strong position on an “unpopular” issue like immigration reform, making a direct call for legislation and [...]

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Kiva, Fundable and the Keta Sandlanders

by Andy 18/03/2008 in People

I’m often looking at innovations in giving and charitable behaviour. One of the big trends that seems to be emerging is direct person-to-person social giving and lending. Connected to the ideas in my “big green bookshop” post, it brings together ideas about community, technology, charity and even business.
Kiva is one of the most well known [...]

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