Yearly Archives: 2015

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Year: 2015

A Digital Toolkit,
for the Arts?

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See your copy here…

Making Digital Work – A digital toolkit for Arts and Culture is one of the latest publications available from The Digital R&D Fund for the Arts.

This is a stunning piece of work, encapsulating business modelling, ideas curation and potentiality for delivery , route mapping and success measurement – all through the meta-filter of the arts and culture agenda.

The toolkit is not a complex piece, nor is it exhaustive, but it does contain processes which any arts focused project can use to identify new opportunities, to plan the business case for the digital work, focus on audience and user value, collaborate, design, build and engage, then evaluate and share.

Simple and effective solutions to arts project planning and delivery in the digital domain.

interneticon You can view the full document or download sections here…

‘The arts sector is fizzing with ideas and creative ambition. Large and small organisations are using digital technologies to deliver dazzling online experiences linked to live events, useful services for learners, interactive displays in physical spaces and so much more’. Source: The Concept – Digital Toolkit

Whether developing the concept in mind with the Six Hats methodology or taking a more mainstream approach to idea development by using the Business Model Canvas, then the toolkit from The Digital R&D Fund for the Arts offers plenty of opportunity to use the techniques best suited to your management team, volunteers or funders.

We like the Business Model Canvas. Using it with our Third Sector clients is a good way to encapsulate the business argument and key considerations for the community enterprise. You can see an example on www.enterprisingcommunities.today here.

Using it here, in the arts and culture context, the main headings have been adjusted to include clarity of thought in the project overview, sales and marketing, operations and resources, staff and management…and finance too.

Contemplating a digital arts or cultural project then the web lends itself to testing, data collection, evaluation and storytelling derived from a completed project. The digital toolkit contains much that is useful in using and shaping output from new media and new technology, within the context of arts delivery.

We recently wrote, on our Communications EAST Toolkit page about The Growthverse, a very useful web service that can help you decide upon and plan deployment of your new media, user relationships and feedback methodologies. We commend it to arts professionals too. Although it is intended for tech start-ups, there is insight to be gained from exploring it, we would argue.

In summation, this is the toolkit for arts and culture in the digital age, bar none. The closing pages contain useful links, not only to the Digtal R&D Fund, but also to the Nesta Creative Enterprise toolkit, a variety of digital capacity resources from the Arts Council and the Design Council Guide to Design.

If you are a practitioner…connect to the internet and diary some laptop time, you will need it.

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Enjoy The Fling!

The Fling Festival is taking place today on Saturday 4th July at Hylands Park in Chelmsford.

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Where is the The Fling?

‘An abundance of local talent across four music stages, including Paolo Morena, Little Donkey, The Midnight Barbers, Secret Company, Stealing Signs, The Kubricks, Creme de Chevre, ukulele group D’Ukes,  Band of Fools, Tall Dark Friend, Ady Johnson, Animal Noise, Papa Shango,  Bakerside and 12 piece group Nat & The Noise Brigade,  who will be bringing their eclectic mix of brass, wind, strings and more to Hylands Park…’

However, there is talk set amongst all the music and song.

This RSA Fellow supported event runs from 12.00 to 21.00 in Hylands Park on Saturday 4th July. Adults only. Tickets from £22,  There are over 300 performers in the programme including live music and cabaret.
Malcolm Noble FRSA, the Fellowship regional Chair, is leading a debate in the Provocative Forum tent. The motions being debated include:
  • Who cares if the Scots go for independence?
  • The UK needs to leave the EU now.
  • What’s wrong with a Tory government anyway?
  • Who needs Human Rights?
  • The only way is austerity.

Nothing contentious there then? Looking forward to a great day!

The Fling Festival is produced by the Cultural Events Team at Chelmsford City Council

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The Blue New Deal
from NEF

 

This new research report from the New Economics Foundation (NEF) is a refreshing look at our coastal communities and their economies.

It provides proposals for action, which are leavened through a recognition of history and localised specialist skills. The analysis is elevated beyond the ordinary ‘top down research’ by emphasising the need for socio-political and economic frameworks in coastal communities which re-connect people  with nature and the coastal landscape – a series of contours that are geographical, industrial and philosophical.

The report takes us out of the ivory tower and into the sand dunes.

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See your copy here…

pdfIcon4  You can view, print or download a pdf copy of this NEF report here…

Previous NEF research has already looked at how  a low-carbon economy can generate new jobs and economic entities,  that can offer secure, decently paid and satisfying work in a more equally distributed economic landscape. See more here…

The essence of the New Blue Deal is to build on existing initiatives and create a mixed framework of five changes and economic thematic deliveries, which are sustainable, inviting and inclusive to the communities of focus.

  • Ÿ Ÿsustainable fisheries and aquaculture
  • renewable energy
  • coastal tourism and related activities
  • Ÿ innovative approaches to coastal management
  • opportunities to re-connect people with nature

‘For the fishing industry, for example, NEF analysis  shows that restoring UK fish stocks to healthy levels and promoting lower carbon emissions through
quota allocation across the main UK fishing fleets would mean an extra 457,000 tonnes of fish landed each year, leading to an additional £268 million
GVA (Gross Value Added) and a 24% increase in employment, the equivalent of 4,922 new jobs’.

Source: Carpenter, G., Esteban, A. (2015) Managing EU fisheries in the public interest: Results from the Bio-Economic Model of European Fleets. New Economics Foundation. Results calculated using 2010-2012 performance. New jobs estimate is made up of fishing jobs (11%) andprocessing jobs (89%). Retrieved from: http://www.fisheriesmodel.eu/

The report looks at a variety of UK locations, with fishing being a key focus of course. However, other work is highlighted. Engagement and partnerships that work across responsible tourism, leisure and recreation.

From Anglesey Adventures, a business working in the outdoor leisure arena, to The Venus Company, working in its chain of cafes to ‘…balance customer needs with environmental and social considerations’. We particularly liked the feature on Learn to Sea, a ‘sea school’ project in South Devon. Using the coastal spaces as an educational resource which informs children and young people, but which also carries forward the ideas of sustainability, economic durability and environmental awareness into the next generation.

Here at conversationsEAST we are incredibly fond of the Suffolk coastline, for example. But we look at areas around communities like Great Yarmouth or Lowestoft, with their long tradition of fishing and livelihoods from the sea. Whilst we recognise that ‘Big Oil’ does provide jobs and technical advancement for some sectors of the community, without doubt, creating a recognisable  influx of highly specialised employees from external sources.

Whilst this fosters economic activity which is vital, it does not reposition those communities to explore, create and sustain their history with their coastline and enable them to encourage the growth of entry level and intermediate skilled work.

The New Blue Deal does.

You do not need to spend long with the NEF document to see, in your mind, how your favourite stretch of coast can become a thriving community – a nexus of education, social and community enterprise, ocean facing and non-exploitative at every level.

We commend this report to our readers. If you would like to explore and track the New Blue Deal there is a new NEF website available here. http://www.bluenewdeal.org/

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Have you been to a Type 1 Discovery Day?

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Discover JDRF here…

To Ipswich on Saturday 27th June, 2015 with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).

A Type 1 Discovery Day.

JDRF, as a registered charity No: 295716, delivered a day of great science and support to parents, carers and children whose lives have been touched by Type 1 Diabetes.

The event was held in the Waterfront Building at UCS in Ipswich, with the visitors able to get to understand Type 1 better, but also to meet the enthusiastic, caring and knowledgeable team from JDRF.

The younger children were catered for in a separate area of the University, just down the corridor in an adjacent room. They were entertained, energised and informed by the team from Mad Science. A great way, in a superb learning setting, to free parents and carers to concentrate on the business of the day in the University auditorium. (A great idea we thought – Ed.)

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Keynote speakers on the day:

Dr. Martin Tauschmann of Addenbrookes Hospital was in attendance to give the audience up to date news and information on the Artificial Pancreas Project.

A key part of Dr. Tauschmann’s exposition was that ‘…the closed loop is on its way’. He went on to illustrate the changes in technology and equipment which has, in very short time revolutionised both take up and delivery of insulin to patients in an automatic or semi-automatic fashion.

Five years of intense clinical research has resulted in test equipment which makes decisions for the patient every 12 minutes, adapting and measuring doseage to suit the persons ongoing status.

Research, like that funded across the JDRF spectrum of activity has several aims. They are ‘…to achieve, for the person concerned, reassurance, peace of mind, confidence, safety, better control and the ability to feel much better in the first half of the day’.

Dr. Tauschmann stressed how important funding from JDRF was, given the long lead times from pure research to delivery of a finished product, in terms of new pumps and e-control mechanisms for them. Each study taking some five months to appraise, with another six to twelve months for completion and publication.

(It was at this point we wanted a representative of the Google Foundation, the Android development team or Apple, to burst into the auditorium to announce a new development partnership with Addenbrookes and JDRF. Using smartphone technology and manufacturing expertise to help close the loop very quickly indeed…Ed?).

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The sun shone on parents, carers, children and Ipswich…

John Hassler-Hurst and Dr. Gerry Rayman of the Ipswich Diabetes Research Team at Ipswich Hosital gave an informative and well illustrated talk on the depth of research, innovatory approaches and inclusions to practice of a national nature which had all been fostered at Ipswich hospital.

In 1985 the Ipswich team were the first to attempt to discover if a dedicated Centre for Diabetes had utility as a resource. A self evident truth held by all now. The team at Ipswich are part of a research energy which exceeds any other District General Hospital in the UK.

They have broken ground in several key areas of care and research we were told. ‘In technology, education, kidney function and eye disease’.

Jahn Hassler-Hunt, the lead Paediatric Research Nurse for the Ipswich team completed the presentation by giving the audience a very detailed analysis of the most recent and current research areas.

From the effect of Interleukin 2, to the enhanced clinical outcomes which can now be expected, how very young children can be included in research methodologies and how Centres, such as Ipswich, can offer seamless access to research and care provision right through to adulthood.  A very important part of process for children and young people on their health journey.

The event was rounded off by a JDRF volunteer, Kevin Black, who is a public speaker of some proficiency and humour. Kevin gave us details of not only his own contribution to the work of JDRF and how this has supported his own family, but also illustrated forthcoming JDRF events which everyone can take part in. (We offer details of some below…) We enjoyed his talk and it left us uplifted.

 

Forthcoming JDRF events:

London Bridges – One Walk  Sunday 27th September, 2015.   See more here…

Cambridge Coffee Morning  Girton College  Friday 2nd October 2015 at 10.30am  See more details here…

This was a stimulating and informative event, for those attending and those with an interest in finding out more about how to support the work of JDRF.

If you have someone in your life touched by Type 1 then getting involved with the charity as a volunteer or a donor is a great way to support the work, the research and quality outcomes for children and young people.

phoneIconYou can make contact with JDRF in the East of England here on their web pages.

phoneIconYou can donate on-line anytime here.

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In praise of the micro-business

This month Benedict Dellot of The RSA has, in the report The Second Age of Small – Understanding the economic impact of micro-businesses, produced a provocative and informative clarion call to recognise the sustaining energy and output of the micro-business in the UK.

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See more here…

In his detailed analysis Benedict informs us that the micro-business excels in sectors where relationships are the key to business and operational success. ‘Microbusinesses (excluding sole traders) are 4 percent more productive than the sector-wide average in human health activities, 20 percent in education and 38 percent in social work’.

In a well argued section of the report Benedict looks back at the proto-industrial period, pre-1750, when the notion of industry was tempered by the small, local producer – often the basis of what we might now call the ‘family firm’.

It is the Twentieth Century and The Age of Oil which reconditioned our thinking, the RSA Action and Research Centre argue, to believe that the large corporation is the sole standard bearer for commercial enterprise success.  Writing in the 1970’s…

E. F. Schumacher, who, in his book Small is Beautiful,
lamented that his generation suffered from “an almost universal idolatry of gigantism”, and instead called for “production by the masses, rather than mass production”.

The data presented in this RSA Report underscores the importance of the micro-business to the welfare of the UK economy, as well as recognising that the small business is a driver of social welfare in the localities that they operate in. ‘There is also a geographical element to consider. Evidence shows that small firms are more beneficial than large firms for the local economies in which they operate’.

To those of us who work in the social business sector, helping charities and mainstream businesses to actively adopt sustainable business practices linked to social outcome, we clearly recognise the power of this observation.

The Dellot thesis draws nine principal conclusions from the analysis…

1. The UK’s micro business population is booming
2. Many see this as a bad economic omen and a sign of a fragmented labour market
3. But our research finds that micro businesses may help to spur productivity
4. … and innovation
5. … and job creation
6. In any case, the value of micro businesses is not well captured by conventional measures
7. Five key factors help to explain why micro businesses have become more economically viable
8. Rather than be preoccupied with micro businesses we should pay more attention to the activities of oligopolies
9. We can shape our economy – the status quo is not predetermined nor inevitable

Each of them, in the report, is well argued and provides comfort to the small business owner, and should give the nascent micro-business entrepreneur confidence for the future. If you have spent years working for yourself, or have just joined the entrepreneurial drive to create socially minded businesses, then a high level of satisfaction to be gained awaits you.

Micro business employees are the most satisfied workers – Microbusiness employees score highest on most indicators of job satisfaction, including influence over their job, involvement in decision-making and good relations with management.

Detailed, thought provoking and telling in its analysis. We commend the latest Dellot opus to our readers.

pdfIcon4  View, print or download a copy of this report here…

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Conference June 20th – postponed…

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Event postponed – with regret…

The team were just preparing the final exhibitors mail-out for the ‘Marketeers’ at this year’s regional conference when news reached us that the event had been postponed to the Autumn.

This does give us a chance to consolidate the number of market place spaces we can offer, and although disappointing, does allow the team to renew their commitment to promoting your project or cause with all our usual vigour.

Watch this space for updated news on a refreshed calendar for our regional activity.

interneticon  You can check out the Marketeers web pages and more information here…

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Unlocking local capacity – revisited

unlockinglocalcapacityPic-mIt has been a couple of years now since OPM published Rob Francis’s report Unlocking Local Capacity. However, with a new government and a fresh round of cuts in train, the content of the report around how and why unlocking potential is of interest to Local Authorities, remains highly topical.

The detail of the report looks at three key areas…

  • Unlocking individual capacity
  • Unlocking community capacity
  • Unlocking Council capacity

When looking at the individual the report examines the issues of trust, how both residents and elected members perceive each other and the veracity and effectiveness of creating new types of conversation in the local arena.

pdfIcon4 View, print or download this report here…

‘These questions are central to discussions about localism, empowerment and what central government calls the Big Society; but they are being asked with such urgency because acute financial pressures demand it’.

It is perhaps a sign of how difficult these issues are, in dealing with relationships with the local state, regardless of political tone, as much of the observations in the report can, to those of us with long memories, sound a long echo back to the heady days of the New Deal for Communities programmes. (This set of Wikipedia links make for an interesting historical narrative about community change…Ed.)

There is an interesting debate established in the report about the subject of ‘incentives’, or rather about the carrot or stick approach to behaviour change. This will always be a thorny issue to wrangle with, not least because with any positive reward programme some will be rewarded for establishing behaviours that others consider the norm.

Another issue is the perception of ‘deviance’, an uncomfortable psychological nomenclature, when used to describe residents who may have been disenfranchised socially and economically by the state for some period of time.

This video of a recent RSA lecture nicely bridges the first two chapters in the OPM report. Alienation, lack of reality and individual empowerment are all part of this reflection by Sir John Elvidge…

See the movie on YouTubeThis RSA video freely available to all here…

The second chapter of the OPM report looks at collective responses through volunteering, in the context of changing landscapes with joint, collaborative action. We found it interesting, in revisiting this report, which makes much mention of the then current Big Society idea, that volunteering was seen as something new.

This despite a long, long history of community collective action through the charitable sector, arguably dating back to the early Victorian era two centuries ago now. Newness and efforts to stratify and comodify volunteering persist in the thinking of central government still, as seen in the refreshed election promises to incentivise the company volunteer.

The third sector of the report looks at how councils have and are changing in this redefined landscape. New sources of funding for community projects, new discussions with residents about core budget allocations as a means of establishing recognised community priorities and how to avoid ‘resource capture’. That is to say, those who shout loudest get the most!

‘This report makes the case that when it comes to local people doing more for themselves, it is not enough for councils to simply get out of the way; that capacity in most cases needs to be unlocked, not unleashed’.

This summation of the report is telling. It urges Councils to ‘…have a different conversation’. To shift the local authority debate away from ‘what do you need’ towards a focus on ‘what can we all do that would make things better?’

We particularly liked the urgency of the demand that Councils should ‘…keep hold of the boring stuff’. Governance and the workings of the committee are not everyone’s dream aspiration.

Where the tree will be planted, where the tea and cakes will be served and what colour should we paint the container…much more engaging questions in socio-political landscape change?

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Eastern Region Conference
UCS, Ipswich – June 20th

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Book your place here…

The Conference:

As the conference season gets under way, here is a key date for your Fellowship diary. Our Eastern regional conference is taking place athe UCS Waterside Building in Ipswich in Suffolk.

You can see the conference details and book your place on the Society’s usual Eventbrite pages here.

See more conference detail here.

Location: Waterfront building, University College Suffolk, Neptune Quay, Ipswich IP4 1QJ       

The Market Place:

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See more!

The Market Place forges connections among the regional Fellowship and has become a lively feature of the annual conference.

interneticon  Visit the dedicated Market Place web pages here.

If you are interested in having a stall/conversation point at conference please make contact with the Market Place team here..

emailIcon4  helpmarket (at) conversationseast.org

Stalls are set up for a variety of projects which fit well with the RSA mission. They may be community based or extend across the region but the common feature is that they are a great way to connect face-to-face with Fellows and others who are engaged with the Fellowship in pursuit of their social change and support aims.

Stallholders invariably have a passion for their project and are looking forward to showing how they are empowering people to apply their creativity to emerging opportunities and challenges.

The principal Market Place activity will be in the main Foyer (where lunch is also available) from 12.30 until 2.00, but conversations will be taking place with exhibitors all day we are sure.

So either avoid the initial queue for lunch or grab your lunch-bag and graze the stalls.

You’ll find plenty of highly nutritional ideas and stimuli in The Market Place.

See you there?

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Cambridgeshire Timebanking Partnership
…can you help?

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The Cambridgeshire Timebanking Partnership are keen to ensure the sustainability of their Timebanks by diversifying their funding.

The Partnership have  decided on a development programme to institute a major raffle and an Auction of Promises. The Partnership  are looking to develop this ambitious campaign which can be run on an annual basis.

What is needed is someone with the skills and knowledge to act as a ‘raffle’ project mentor.

Ideally, the Partnership is looking for someone who has successfully run a major raffle in the past, who has knowledge of the process, paperwork and also advice on attracting prize donations and increasing ticket sales.

To provide support to the Partnership Project Manager, with an initial meeting for key development advice, and then the sharing of documents or telephone support if required.

If you are in the Fellowship network in the East of England, do you have ‘raffle’ expertise and the time to support The Partnership in this interesting funding development project?

The short video below gives you a flavour of the activities the Timebanking Partnership have been able to facilitate…

If you can help please contact Wendy Lansdown of the Community Engagement Team of Cambridgeshire County Council – see it on-line here on 0345 045 5200.

If you do help – thank you.

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Equality in Education?

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Pasi Sahlberg addresses his audience…

A year has now passed since in April 2014 the Finnish educator Pasi Sahlberg – discover his work here… and Peter Mortimer – see a collection of his articles in the The Guardian, UK, ex-Director of the London Institute of Education, met to discuss with a London audience the testing subject of Inequality in English Education.

With an ever increasing press for change in social and economic inequality and the drive for more standardisation and accountability by test, the time is absolutely right, we would argue, to spread the work of the Equality in Education Network that emerged that day in April 2014.

The short film linked below, from the event, shows Pasi Sahlberg delivering a critique of  GERM, the Global Education Reform Movement. Although presented with a light touch, the argument bites deep. GERM offers no improvement in educational outputs overall, he argues.

See the movie on YouTube   You can see the original talk by Pasi Sahlberg on YouTube here…

‘Competition is seen as the right way, striving for pan-education standardisation and test based accountability is now the norm. Education is seen as an industry, a business opportunity…’ Pasi Sahlberg 2014

Pasi develops his argument by looking at two key themes. Inequality and equity. In the frst case, using Finnish data he argues that the Finnish system of tax distribution and social equality has had a profound performance effect on education in his country. In the affluent West, he argues, those nations that have the highest levels of inequality have the lowest quality educational outcomes.

In the second case, equity, the presenter’s data is used to analyse how international education systems serve all the children of a nation. What is the aggregate benefit to a nation by educational system? Here Pasi illustrates the dramatic journey of Finland again, tracking forty years of improving educational attainment . Often within the context of a turbulent socio-political landscape.

Mr. Sahlberg astonishes his audience by announcing that he has read all five volumes of the most recent PISA Report – find key OECD findings on-line here…, at five hundred pages a volume. He has discovered, despite the policy debate and process changes that recently emerged in the UK, two key PISA recommendations – found in the fourth volume.

  • School choice and competition are not related to performance.
  • Greater equity and autonomy over curricula and assessment seem to improve performance.

The speaker closes  his argument with five key recommendations about the delivery of a nation’s educational infrastructure. Although not revolutionary, they are seemingly perhaps counter intuitive at first,  when assessed against current UK policy and practice, we would argue.

  1. Co-operation is key – collaborative work should be the driving force across teaching, political activity, headships and governance in schooling.
  2. Place less stress on early learning, and much more focus on play.
  3. Be less confrontational, the key players in education should always strive for consensus.
  4. Achieve less accountability, but make, what systems there are, trust based.
  5. Have less school ‘choice‘ and strive always for a more equitable school system.

This is a telling case for Equality in Education.

Call to Action:

At conversationsEAST we would like to support the work of John Bayley and his colleagues in the nascent, London based, Equality in Education Network.

Is there an opportunity for a network group in the East of England?

Make contact with us through our ‘contact us’ slider above and we’ll let the Eastern Region team, and John, know of your interest. We should have an event in the region to revivify the discourse?

Other items of interest on this topic…

You can see and listen to Peter Mortimer’s talk, at the same event, on Inequality in English Education here. Again, delivered in gentle terms, but with a telling cutting edge about current policy.

See the movie on YouTube  See Peter Mortimer speak on Inequality in English Education here…

Finally, if the need to examine global inequality issues has grabbed you, it is well worth revisiting The Spirit Level. You can see Richard Wilkinson speaking  at TED below…

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Image credit:

News Desk image by Markus Winkler, Creative Commons, Unsplash...

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