An interesting news item today talks about how youth groups and support structures are not prepared for the growth in free running
Sport England are quoted as saying they have had no requests for free running (or Pakour as it is known) to be recognised as a sport. Therefore, it is not is the assumption…
A quick search on You Tube for “free running uk” returns quite a lot of results. Quite how much is by “young people” I don’t know, but there will be a host of sites, blogs and content dedicated to it.
What should a youth group, service or training organisation do? What happens if young people want to do this, and apply for funding? The news item suggests that the lack of national structures mean that training and support is difficult to gather.
If anybody has any experience in the sector of this, it would be interesting to hear more…
OK Plingers, you’ve been posting like crazy on our sister site Pligg, so here’s a round-up of the latest news and views from around the UK. You can expect this at least once a week now, so your next post could be one of our new highlights…
Keep posting, keep checking Plings.co.uk.
First off is this news story:
http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/localnews/display.var.2242909.0.pupils_grill_politicians.php
The UK is fresh form a series of local elections, not to mention the fact that London voted Boris Johnson to be it’s Mayor for the next 4 years. So, a gang of confident 6th formers got in on the act by quizzing politicians
about what matters to them…
That’s not all. We also like our fun here at Plings towers, so were particularly pleased that you guys feel the same.
http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/wnnewslatest/display.var.2141945.0.singer_one_step_closer_to_recording_contract.php
The next Leona Lewis? Over to you…
Like your sports? So do we.
http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133942&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133942&contentPK=20298732&folderPk=78486
Nottingham girl Rebecca Adlington smashed the Commonwealth record on her way to 400m freestyle gold at the British Championships last month. The 19-year-old won her recent heat in a new British record time of 4.04.50 minutes.
“I didn’t just break the record I smashed it,” she said. “It gives me a lot of confidence. I don’t usually do the 400 so it is looking particularly good for the 800.”
These are just some of the best news bites that have featured recently. Want to join them?
Last week we went to see Young Scot, who are one of the partners behind the great website - What’s On Where - the youth offer for Scotland.
When we first saw WOW (launched in Feb this year) we did indeed say “Wow” - using tag, maps, RSS and intelligent search is certainly the way forward.
Equally important is the infrastructure behind WOW. Young Scot are a member of Dialogue Youth - which involves partnerships with each and every local authority Scotland - all 32. Via this, authorities can co-brand their own versions of Young Scot, but also benefit from developments such as WOW.
It was great to meet Gregor at Young Scot - look forward to another visit to Einburgh (the new train service from Manchester to Edinburgh was also a breeze!).
Teenage diving star Tom Daley won the 10m platform title in Eindhoven last month, against a host of tough competition. Daley, born in May 1994, will be just 14 years and 81 days old when the Beijing Games - for which he has qualified - begin this summer.
His Olympic year has already yielded a fistful of gold medals - six at the British Championships in Manchester and another at the Europeans in Eindhoven.
He’s not alone - the one-to-watch is also joined by a host of other teenage talent, including table tennis ace Paul Drinkhall (18) and showjumping star Daniel Neilson (17).
Pretty compelling stuff, right? Don’t wait for me to post stuff up though - you can join in with the click of a mouse.
Fancy being a reporter-in-the-making? Nip over to the Pligg site and upload news for everyone to read. Not only is it good fun, but you’ll also rack up lots of good experience if you want to work in media or with computers…
You can also send the link to your mates and build your own community of reporters.
Get blogging.
I found a page written by Sir Tim Berners Lee recently - entitled “Answers for Young People“. This is the man who invented the world wide web that we currently blog, tweet, flick and pling (!) on. In fact, we might be too busy doing all these things to remember his real aim for the web:
————–
Here is my hope.
The Web is a tool for communicating.
With the Web, you can find out what other people mean. You can find out where they are coming from.
The Web can help people understand each other.
Think about most of the bad things that have happened between people in your life. Maybe most of them come down to one person not understanding another. Even wars.
Let’s use the web to create neat new exciting things.
Let’s use the Web to help people understand each other.
I attended the Open Knowledge Foundation conference, to see some really interesting presentations from those in the field of opening up information (which is much more than code). A particular relevant talk was from Gavin Starks from the AMEE Project - Avoiding Mass Extinction Engine.
AMEE is a platform through which data on carbon emissions are collected from a wide range of sources - government, organisations and individuals. This sets a standard for such data, which is then made available via an API, to developers and publishers - who in turn make it accessible to the people using their sites. Hence, the Google UK carbon footprint project is underpinned through the AMEE platform:
Whilst on a local authority scale, Hertfordshire County Council and partners use the data to provide an online tool:
One of the arguments put forward by AMEE is that by having a neutral platform through which this data can be made available - it is far easier for comparisons of carbon footprints to be made, as the base data is standard and verified.
Behind the scenes, AMEE can also aggregate - completely anonymously - user data and actions, thus being able to chart the reach of pledges and impacts across all developments.
There are certainly some real pointers for Plings in this approach.
I read an short article in the Observer Music Monthly about how vintage Super-8 footage of the band Joy Division had been found. The interesting thing though, was that this was footage of a performance at the Bowden Vale Youth Club, in Altrincham in 1981:
Is this true? Did an actual Youth Club really host such an event? I don’t know, but I just find it hard to believe. But - Youth Clubs hosting gigs by local upcoming bands…. a positive activity..
I checked a few sources and could not find Bowden Youth Club anywhere, and perhaps over the years the name has been changed in the reporting. Anyone with local knowledge, please let us know!
Any Youth Clubs out there holding gigs, also let us know!
OK, so I watch Lost! Yes, I know - it has more plot holes than swiss cheese, but the really interesting thing is Lostpedia. Lostpedia is an encyclopedia of Lost. Simple as that. It is like the Wikipedia we all know about and maybe use, but it is JUST about the television series. What to know who did what, said that, or how unconnected pieces of plot might be related ?- then just head over to Lostpedia. As with Wikipedia, anyone can create, edit and discuss an article on Lostpedia. In fact, there are so many stories, theories and diversions on Lostpedia, that it is very eacy to literally get lost there…
The other day I also heard about Wookieepedia - the Star Wars community-generated encyclopdia! I took a quick look, but know that hours would zoom by should I stay!
The point I am trying to make is that if a group of disparate people can get together virtually ( I assume) to create huge knowledge bases about tv and film series’, then imagine how this could be applied to our communities of geography, such as Places to Go…. This is one of our intentions with the Plings Places - for people to add, edit and check the data that is coming through - a bit like the Knowhere Guide…
In a short while, we could start to see Wikipedia a just a portal (!) page to a whole host of pedias on the subject matter. The tools are there to do this, and get easier to use everyday
