Upcoming plings events

As a project about places to go and things to do, it is great to announce some activities we are more closely associated with organising!  Granted, not all of thse are aimed specifically at young people (and so in plings!), but here goes:

Plings promotion events, on plings!

Plings promotion roadshows – 6th March, Hull & Knowsley

Tomorrow (6th March) will see the first of a series of roadshows in some of the pilot local authorities, as part of the local research we are undertaking.

Whilst these events will help to spread the message of the positive activities available locally, we will also be paying close attention to the impact this marketing push will have in terms of take up.  By this we mean both impact of take up of the information, but also of actual events.  More to follow… but we’ve used Plings to publish the details of these events!

Update – we’ve also created Facebook events for both Hull and Knowsley

All About Plings event, 20th April, Birmingham

We have had quite a bit of interest from local authorities that sit outside of the DCSF pilot areas in recent weeks.  So – on the 20th April we are organising an event to start to inform and present the project, and our learning, to these audiences.  We’ve used eventbrite to publish this event and collect bookings (it is free).  So -if you have an interest in positive activity information and would like to understand how your local authority could start to participate in plings, then this is the event for you…

Regional meetings – mid May

As part of our ongoing work with 20 local authorities via the DCSF Information & Signposting Project, we have now arranged a series of regional workshops to act as an opportunity to get together and share, learn and plan in smaller groups – in mid May 2010.  We’ve used Wufoo to publish a form for these events – if you work within one of our pilot areas, please complete our form!

Developer meeting – 18th June, Manchester

Finally, just time to announce a provisional date of the 18th June for this years Developer Meeting.  Last year we were in London (at Google!), so this year we’ve gone closer to home, here in Manchester.  This event is aimed at those witha technical interest or involvement in plings – from local authority web and IT teams, through to those building feeds, apps and all manner of things!  As mentioned, this date is still provisional – so we’ve used Twitter to annouce it, and gather feedback! Please retweet…

More events and details to follow, but please get invovled in our plings if you can!

Jailbrake Chancellor…

Just time to announce (via copy & paste!) a couple of unrelated projects that could be of interest to readers:

Jailbrake
Each year around a hundred thousand 15-17 year olds get caught up in the criminal justice system. Once they come into contact with this system, many are likely to re-offend; to remain part of it and to go on to become part of the adult criminal justice system.

Simple web and mobile tools can empower people to take more control of their lives by providing new ways of organising, mobilising and communicating. Young people are early adopters and this technology provides a way of reaching people who previously were hard to access.

Jailbrake is a competition to find and support great ideas that could slow down or stop the cycle of youth offending using simple web and mobile tools.

More (including a reference to Boredometer!) at www.jailbrake.org – including notice of an ideas event in London on Monday 22nd Feb

Chance to be Chancellor

‘Chance to be Chancellor’ challenges 14 – 19 year olds to take on the role of Chancellor by drafting their own mock Budget and delivering their vision for the future of the UK economy. Chance to be Chancellor engages young people on the big issues of the day from recession to public spending with the competition materials including a lesson plan alongside this years Budget policies. All would be Chancellor’s must prioritise those policies they would choose for public spending and justify their vision in a Budget speech. Along with other great prizes the winning entry will be published in The Times around Budget day to give a young persons perspective on the Budget. Chance to be Chancellor is a great way to deliver citizenship education on the big economic challenges of the day and the deadline is 26th February – for details check out www.payingforit.org.uk/chancellor.

User generated competitions
It is great to see a couple of initiatives that attempt to “crowdsource” ideas and solutions, especially with the involvement of young people. This is building upon a growing trend, including Show Us a Better Way and The Learning Revolution competitions within our domain.

Any ideas on ideas for a positive activities app/solution competition? We’d be interested…

School’s Out

Primary Technology have been busy lately.

Not only have they put together a really handy directory of Web 2.0 tools for use in education, but they’ve put together a quick API onto their handy MySchoolHolidays.com site which makes it easy to find out if it’s holiday time in any Local Authority right now.

Using the Local Authority Codes available from the Plings Wiki, you can query http://myschoolholidays.com/la-xml.php?ons=[LACODE] replacing [LACODE] with the code in question – and you get back a simple response to let you know if school is out in that area.

For example, you can check if it’s holiday time in Durham right now with this link:

http://myschoolholidays.com/la-xml.php?ons=20UE

The response you get back is in XML, so it might not look pretty to the human eye – but it’s nice a machine-readable, which makes it handy for website building.

Knowing whether it’s school holidays right now could be handy for any youth-facing website – allowing sites to switch to the most relevant content without manual editing. MySchoolHolidays.com can also supply holiday information on a school-by-school basis – creating more opportunity for local websites to integrate up-to-date information and share relevant information through national platforms.

New sites in Blackpool and beyond…

RU Bothered

Our friends over in Blackpool have just been in touch to let us know about a re-launch of the local authority website for young people ‘RU Bothered‘.

The new site builds it’s local activity information offering with the Plings platform as the back-end, meaning that for just about any activity or place to go you can get in-depth information.

As we develop more features to enhance Plings information over the coming year, they will be able to slot straight into the RU Bothered site.

And if you’re not from Blackpool, but want to find out what your local authorities positive activity offer online looks like – then Steven has been busy putting together this list, with links to Plings data, or local websites, for every authority in England.

Walking as a positive activity: Plings meets a walking activist

“Everywhere we read about emerging crises: obesity, social isolation and mental health, the demonising of youth, dysfunctional urban places and spaces to name just a few. Walking is frequently offered up as part of the solution” ~ Andrew Stuck, Managing Consultant, Rethinking Cities

Andrew Stuck is a walking activist. Plings was intrigued by the idea of walking activism, so we cornered Andrew after a recent Talk the Walk event he organised on how to get young people more engaged in walking. We started by asking him what it means to be a walking activist.

“I guess I am one of those. I am passionate about the benefits of walking and strive in life and through my work to get more people out walking.”

Talk the Walk

What is Talk the Walk about?

“Talk the Walk brings professionals from the worlds of climate change, play, health, housing, public space design and transport together,” Andrew said.

“Talk the Walks are networking events for professionals working to promote more walking – I try to bring people from different disciplines together to see if we can get some connections and make the world a better place for those on foot.”

The most recent Talk the Walk focused on Childhood, Play and Independent Mobility, and explored how local neighbourhoods can be re-created so children, young people and families can play and move independently. Andrew explained what happened at the event.

“Most of the discussion was weighted towards transport and journey to schools although there was some discussion about public realm management and street design.

“The conflict between government policies to encourage walking on the one hand and yet offering parental choice of schools was one issue often touched upon.”

Can walking be a positive activity?

According to Andrew, walking is part of the solution to a myriad of modern problems faced by young people today. Surely these are good grounds to see walking as a positive activity? After all, most of walking that young people do takes place in their leisure time. And walking contributes to the Every Child Matters outcome of being healthy.

However, Andrew believes that seeing walking as a positive activity is a misnomer.

“I think this is a red herring,” he said. “The majority of young people have no option but to walk.

“Our society has accepted the car as the preferred means of transport and has planned our towns in such a way that those without access to a car are put at a disadvantage.”

Of course, positive activities are, by definition, organised activities. So has anyone tried organising a walking activity?

Andrew mentions Living Streets, who have created an urban street game to encourage 11-18 year olds to walk to school.

He also points out that outdoor activity groups, such as the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, Scouts, and Guides, often include walking, although usually only as part of a wider programme of activities.

Other than that, “there is very little else out there.”

Why is this? What are the main barrier for organising walking events for young people?

Andrew answers briefly, and to the point. “Cars and inconsiderate adults.”

Given this problem, we asked him what local authorities can do to encourage walking as a positive activity.

“Improve access to public transport and devise ways in which they give back public realm to pedestrians from dominance by the car.”

Finally, we asked Andrew to describe an ideal walking activity for young people.

“Anything that offers adventure, exploration and discovery would be good, and anything that provides an opportunity of showing off,” he said.

“The old adage is ‘Get the girls interested and the boys will follow’.”

“more bored young people on our streets.”

The Vetting and Baring Scheme has surfaced on the BBC news today, especially as the shadow home secretary Chris Grayling has commented:

“We are going to drive away volunteers, we’ll see clubs and activities close down and we’ll end up with more bored young people on our streets.”

It is estimated that around 11.3 million adults may register with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) – something like one in four adults. This covers those with “frequent” or “intensive” contact with children and young people – with the parent giving a lift to members of a football team being a focal point of discussion at the moment…

From the point of view of promoting positive activities to young people, what will be the impact? For those working in local authorities and collating their “youth offer” will this mean checks on the data? For those delivering activities, how will an ISA registration be declared to others? Please let us know any thoughts.

On a related topic, an interesting project started yesterday – Safeguarding 2.0. A collaboration between the FutureGov consultancy and Local Government Information Unit, the initial round table discussion was held with the challenge:

“so just how could we draw on the power of social technology to improve professionals’ access to information (be it structured, unstructured or ambient), break down organisational silos and help prevent further tragic events such as the death of Baby Peter?”

I’m not sure how much the Vetting and Baring Scheme was discussed, but looking at the tweets from the event it certainly seemed to stimulate plenty of thoughts (follow the tag #sg20). Anyone interested in knowing more about Safeguarding 2.0 should contact Dominic Campbell at FutureGov.

Win a set of Social Media Game cards

Whilst the national media have been busy telling us that Twitter may not be the platform to use to reach young people (although government departments are making it onto Twitter in increasing numbers), and Neilsen have been debunking modern myths about young peoples media use, we know three things:

• The vast majority of young people’s information discovery (about positive activities, and many other everyday issues) is social. It takes place via people they know: friends, peers and relations. This is often described as ‘word of mouth’, even if face-to-face conversation in fact played no part in it.
• Technology remains a key part of young people’s lives – and social technologies, from the mobile phone through to Facebook, are often the means through which “word-of-mouth” travels. Social technologies can change who is part of the conversation, where people seek information, and how that information flows between people.
• Young people are not a homogeneous group. Young people of different ages, from different areas of the country, and from different backgrounds behave differently. Including when it comes to how they use online media.

Which all means one thing:

• If you’re thinking about how to use social media to promote positive activities to young people in your local area – you need to involve local young people in developing your plans.

The Social Media Game is one practical tool you can use to engage young people in your planning. And we’ve got five copies of a Plings Remix of the Social Media Game to give away.

The original game, and remixes like ours, are avaialble under a Creative Commons license, which means you could just print your own cards and get started using it to explore your strategies for using social media to promote positive activities right away.

However, as we’ve got 5 sets of glossy printed game cards hanging around the Substance Office, we thought we would drop them in the post to the organisations who can leave the best comments below telling us about the most creative idea they have (online or offline) for promoting positive activities to young people. So – leave us a comment before the end of August and we could be dropping a set of Social Media Game cards in the post to you.

Using the Social Media Game

Our version of the Social Media Game is a remix of an original idea by David Wilcox and consists of a set of 20 cards with details of different online tools you might use in promoting positive activities to young people. Each card also includes a ‘budget score’ showing an estimate of how much money and time using that tool might involve.

To play the game with a group, you first need to come up with a scenario for who you are trying to reach. Invite the group to create (writing and drawing) imagined profiles of young people who might be in need of information about positive activities. Then introduce the cards and get the group to explore the different tools available to them, or to suggest some of their own.

You then give the group a set time within which to put together their own strategy for using the social media tools on the cards to promote positive activities to the people in their imagined profiles. You can set a maximum budget so that the group can only use cards with budget scores adding up to a maximum of 8 or 10 points (for example).

Invite the group to feedback their proposed strategy – and think about how their ideas might influence your own plans for using social media.

A conversational game

The Social Media Game is really about creating conversations and opportunities for exploring ways of using social media – rather than being a competitive game (although we’re sure inventive workers out there could add a competitive edge).

Rules

1) To be in with a change of winning a professional printed set of the Social Media Game cards you need to leave a comment below this blog post sharing a creative idea for promoting positive activities to young people.

2) We will judge comments as they come in, and send out packs of Social Media Game cards for the best comments;

3) Telling us about how you might use the cards to consult with young people about their ideal social media strategies for positive activity information sharing in your comment will boost your chances of winning as well;

4) We will keep this offer open until the cards run out, or the end of August 2009;

Find something to do this summer

Our tagging team have been at it again – finding and linking to websites with details of the Youth Offer for young people in the 2009 Summer Holidays.

Whilst we’ve got thousands of activities for the summer available at PlacesToGoThingsToDo.co.uk, we’ve only got 22 local authorities covered by Plings right now. So – if you’re looking to find what your local area is putting on as part of the Youth Offer this summer, take a look at our list of links at http://youthoffer.plings.net/summer09/

P.S. Don’t forget that that http://youthoffer.plings.net/ you can also find a general list of all the websites we’ve found with year-round Youth Offer information on them…

How would you describe it?

Plings contains a lot of descriptions of positive activities. But far too often those descriptions are not written with young people in mind, nor with the aim of attracting young people to get involved in a new activity.

Often we find activity descriptions making it into Plings which have been written more for managers than for young people, or which do little more than restate what the activity title says. If each activity listing in Plings is in effect an advert for that activity – then having good copy matters. We’ve been working with freelance writer David Masters to explore how we can create model activity descriptions which are clear, attractive and engaging. And of course, the best way to get started in that is to go to young people and find out how they would describe different activities.

So, at 2morro festival yesterday we invited as many young people as possible to fill in ‘Describe It’ cards, writing of drawing how they would describe any of a wide range of activities.

We’ve scanned in all the results, and you can see them below, or at describe.plings.net.

(Click an image in the Slideshow below to go to it’s Flickr page where the title will tell you what sort of activity was being described…)

Making activities positive: Sampling, Doing, Reflecting

The definition of positive activities is something we’ve explored on this blog before, and I was encouraged to reflect more on it today after seeing a presentation by Jaime of WotsOn4U in Cumbria (incidentally making great selective use of Twitter to promote activities) about the way they have been seeking out activities to promote through their website.

Jaime showed a range of different activities that young people might take part in, from formal organised youth clubs through to a trip to the town centre to go shopping. Spending Saturday shopping was also a suggestion made by a number of young people Blackburn when we asked them to put together imagined activity diaries in a recent research excercise.

Whilst heading to the shops is unlikely to feature in positive activity listings in Plings, and it probably wouldn’t qualify within the formal definition of positive activities - it does encourage us to reflect not just on what is a positive activity, but what makes an activity, or a week of activities planned by a young person, positive.
Recent work by Participle may offer us some clues. In their work with young people to explore creating a new form of youth development service they looked at three type of experience which could be seen to be part of youth development:

(c) Participle. See http://www.participle.net/blog/view/4/158 for original.

Participle describe doing and sampling activities:

Doing experiences are self-designed projects where young people meet a need or goal in the family, community or workplace. A doing experience could be working with an adult to build a shed, running a campaign to reduce plastic bag usage or setting up a bike fixing business.

…

Sampling experiences aim to expand young people’s sense of what’s possible by introducing them to new people, places and world views.

And reflective experiences offer young people an opportunity to look at what they have been involved in and draw learning from it. Sites like WotsOn4U are already implicity providing some routes to reflection – by inviting and encouraging young people to review media, films and experiences they have been involved in – but there is much more for information providers to draw from Participle’s model.

Right now most activity information is (rightly) about the sorts of experiences described above as ‘Sampling’ experiences. But often it’s not communicated as such. Do we encourage young people to try out an activitity? Or does the presentation of it suggest you need to sign-up and make an in-depth committment to it? And are we designing activity information to exposed young people to a wide range of possibilities, or only a narrow set of things that they were already looking for?

And how can activity information sources become more interactive, to provide more opportunities for reflection?

As we plan for the next phases of the Plings project these are things we hope to explore – but we’d love to get your ideas too…