This picture is a Cyanotype – the classic process using Potassium Ferricyanide (toned in green tea). The cyanide in this case is non toxic but I haven’t yet told Mrs W – I just say I’m getting the cyanide out and she stays well out of the way.

The prints are exposed in sunlight. The exposure time on a bright cloudy day is between 15 and 20 minutes. The shadow highlights complete first at 15 minutes and then the highlight details come through at 20 minutes. The only way of getting a good exposure, it seems to me, is to make a mask to cover up that shadow parts of the final image from 15 minutes.

At Woodhouse Community centre we have been discussing how best to structure the organisation that which “manages” the volunteers and helps create an environment of inclusion, creativity and equality. With Leeds TV I have been helping deliver a course called Independent Programme Makers aimed at empowering communities to participate in the new TV channel for Leeds, and in three local churches I have been discussing ways of getting people involved in online communications.

The most significant connection between all the projects I’ve been engaged with this week is that they have been about encouraging participation and a feeling of shared responsibility.

I’ve been struck by a few comments this week from people who quite understandably see the running of things as the responsibility of someone else – the government, the council, the boss etc. The media is responsible for telling us how the world is, the police are responsible for keeping the peace, the council are responsible for making sure the bins are emptied.

I’m not going to make any grand observations or say anything deep here other than to observe that there are some great people I know who are having a go at making change and not blaming anyone else for failure, they are seeing a need and are having a go at making a difference. They are learning as they go, making some mistakes and growing as a consequence.

Thanks to the volunteers who have: built a garden in Woodhouse, set up a community newsletter, preparing to make TV programmes about their community, organised a community photo safari, commissioned articles for a community blog, started a cinema club for a neighbourhood, opened a community cafe, running a talking newspaper for the visually impaired, set up a clothing exchange and so on and so on.

And seven times a day Thou answerest,
‘I cannot do without thee.
Once did My Son live thy life,
and by His faithfulness did show My mind,
My kindness, and My truth to men.
But now He is come to My side, and thou must take His place.’
From ‘Hebridean Altars’, Alistair MacLean

http://www.northumbriacommunity.org

I’ve been working with the Woodhouse Community Centre in Leeds and a number of local churches in Bradford to improve the presentation of their communities online.

The one big stumbling block, it seems to me, is the availability of decent images. Community organisations are about people, what they do and how they relate to each other. The use of images can show who you are and what you do much more powerfully than endless paragraphs of explanation.

Text heavy websites or magazines are simply not going to be engaging enough for the majority of people these days. Of course we do our best to find images we can use but they are often of poor quality and don’t represent the range of people and activities in our communities.

The safeguarding issues around children often mean that children are not represented on websites at all, or at least very little. The photos we use rarely represent smaller groups where the presence of a camera may be intrusive.

The absence of images can make us invisible – for example whenever my wife an I go on holiday you’d think she went on her own by the absence of photos of me! Our churches may seem to be populated by older people who stand in rows smiling and looking towards the camera but not actually doing anything.

If we are going to do this properly we’ll need three things in place.

1. A policy for obtaining photos and using them online. This means understanding what we can and can’t show, how we obtain permission and what the copyright rules are, among other things.
2. People who know what they are doing – i.e. photographers who understand the rules, the needs of the website and how to take a decent photo. Publishers who know the history of the photos and can make good decisions about how they are used.
3. A place to store and catalogue the photos so they can be accessed by the people who need them.

Here I’m going to suggest that we use Flickr to store and catalogue images. It’s only a suggestion and I’m open to any other thoughts about how to manage an accessible library of images for use on the web and other publications.

Heres a video. To see it properly you may need to use the ‘full screen’ button bottom right of the player.

This ancient toolkit is well documented and discussed, and maybe you’re already familiar with it but if not here’s the gist.

Laddering support through tiers of engagement
They become a follower, engage with the discussion, join a group, then become an advocate.

Empowering Superusers
Offering further support to the committed advocates – the connectors

Providing source materials for user-generated content
Videos, speeches, photos and how-to guides

Going where the people are
Concentrate on the most influential networks and use tools and language people are familiar with.

Ensuring that people can find your content
Making the content discoverable.

Mobilising supporters through mobile devices
Mobile is now an even more essential part of the mix.

Harnessing analytics
Constantly listening and improving outreach materials.

Essentially it’s about giving people on the ground the resources and tools, and trusting them to spread the word.

It’s good stuff and you can download the in depth document here

My own recollections of it are as a building full of crazy life.  Having a BBC dinner sitting next to Del and Rodney dressed ready for Only Fools and Horses, Warren Mitchell and Johnny Speight having an intense discussion over treacle sponge and custard, sharing a lift with Benazir Bhutto, John Prescott having a ding dong in reception.  On one famous occasion the Queen’s double, Jeannette Charles dressed in full regalia , got lost and had to ask directions (that way mam).

In the late 80s I spent much of my time doing evening shifts on BBC 1 continuity and in the next studio, Pres B, was The Old Grey Whistle Test.  Dr Who was filmed at the centre and you would sometimes find mutant aliens stopping for a pee in the gents.

In the basement is a stone which has the inscription “this stone was laid in 1957″ my own vintage. So one can’t help but make a connection.

Anyway,  take a look at this film with some excellent clips.

I’m hopeless at working on my own.  There’s a confession!  If I try to work on my own I’m prone to distractions or tend to trust myself too much, so I need people to keep me focused and to give me a reality check every so often.  I have a home office, and do in fact work on my own for much of the time and so I value the supportive friends whom I see, usually at the local Cafe Nero.

The teams I have worked with in the past have often been based in a single space – round a big table – where the banter is part of the business.  If an idea pops up in conversation it can be quickly evaluated and moved

forward or ditched.  Arguments can be resolved quickly and excellent work praised in a timely and meaningful fashion.  But what do you do if the team isn’t in the same room, a dispersed team?

Increasingly organisations are requiring teams to connect with each other remotely.  This is for a number of reasons – perhaps because its members are part time or because they also belong to other organisations.  It can also be because team members are fast tracking and juggling with several projects or tasks at the same time and so don’t have time to meet.

There is a value in engaging with people embedded in different situations and yet part of a small dispersed team.  Small teams can become blinkered by their own context and not see beyond their immediate environment, they can bed down into thick walled bunkers.  So, having a close knit team made up of people with quite different outlooks can can have enormous value.  Perhaps they can share insights from different parts of the country of the world

At Oblong in Leeds I work part time with a group of volunteers who come and go.  The organisation is run through a series of collectives which come up with ideas and make decisions through their weekly meetings.  Every six weeks there are assemblies of the whole organisation.  The meetings and assemblies have been inconsistently attended, agendas poorly formed and the meetings devoted to catching up.  The problem was communication.  Getting people motivated and briefed before the meetings was the challenge.

The solution we have found is YAMMER.  Yammer is a tool for connecting work groups around an organisation and enabling them to share conversation and resources freely wherever they are.  Yammer works like a simple and well structured Facebook account where you can see to structure of your organisation & who belongs to which team.  You can follow and connect with relevant people and choose appropriate levels of privacy.    Yammer also gives you the opportunity to create networks outside your organisation.

The benefit to Oblong has been a vast improvement in the internal communications and briefing of the team members.  We can clearly see where people belong in the organisation.  When we meet there is an improved level of attendance and commitment and we can devote the time to decision making rather than catching up.

Anyway.  Advert for Yammer over.

Addingham Moorside

What a great couple of days we’ve had.  Yesterday we went to see some friends who have recently moved into a farmhouse on Addingham Moorside, an absolutely superb spot.  From there we walked up to Windgate Nick and it really looked like we were in the Alps.

Today we went to the Hockney exhibition at Cartwright Hall in Bradford – highly recommended with some work I hadn’t seen before.   There’s a great photo of a young DH appearing in a Methodist Church play as a robot. He has a box on his head so I trust it was him.

Cartwright Hall

I’ve been thinking about community websites lately and my conversations with local churches getting more regular.  Already today I have  found myself in a huddle discussing Twitter, Facebook and web design.  Apologies to Deborah who assumed that I have Sundays off from all this   These are just jottings from a couple of conversations.

• Some websites fail because they are seen as a dumping ground for random information and links. Ones with a single minded focus and purpose are much stronger. A purpose might be,  ”to engage with people outside the organisation and grow membership”.  A statement like this would determine the choice of stories, language, design etc.

• Confusion often about whether the site is outward or inward looking – aimed at engaging with new people, or there to serve the internal organisation. An outreach would fail if the content is muddled with material that has little relevance for an external audience.

• Some websites are seen as an isolated activity disconnected from other communications platforms like social media, newsletters, notice boards etc. Much better if there is an wider communications plan and that the activities are linked together – editorially, technically and in terms of design.

• Website design is more than trendy graphics and buttons. A simple layout and clear navigational hierarchy is as much a part of the design. Commercial templates often provide elements which confuse rather than clarify the brand. Much better to choose an unobtrusive and clean template and then focus on the navigational structure, excellent copywriting and photography.

• Economical writing, story structure and a balanced layout of text and images is a very rare to find. Possibly because the writers have little inclination or knowledge to address these aspects.

• The inclusion of consistently presented images and video is a daunting technical obstacle for many publishers. The use of Vimeo and Flickr for hosting and embedding video and photos (rather than uploading directly to the website) is a good option and provides further linkage to social promotion.

• Twitter is good for directing users TO stories on your website. Facebook is a good place to publish stories FROM your website for sharing and discussion.

• Always include a call to action or opportunity for further engagement in a posting.

Not advice just notes.  Feel free to contradict of comment in any way.

The stations of the cross there are hidden away in the trees and a great place to reflect, pray, look, listen.  The music for the mediation is by Tino Alberti who gave me permission to us it.  At first the music seems random and formless but out of it comes amazing grace.

If you would like to use the video a download is available via Proost