Archive for September, 2010

“Up to” 40mb/s broadband for central Birmingham

BT has just announced fast broadband upgrades for central Birmingham… “BIRMINGHAM CENTRAL | West Midlands | FTTC/P | eta: Sep 2011″

Birmingham indie shops survey

The We Are Birmingham shop is to start a web series in which Pete Ashton explores the indie shops of Birmingham… “So starting in a fortnight I’m going to start my journey, exploring the indie retail landscape of Birmingham” The announcement is illustrated by a great shot of Readers’ World used bookshop by Brett Wilde… […]

Geographer-artists: creative practice as research tool

“Geographer-artists: creative practice as research tool?” is a meeting in Seattle being organized by Dr Harriet Hawkins (University of Bristol) and Dr Phil Jones (University of Birmingham) for the 2011 Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual conference. Papers are invited: “The aim of this session is to explore the use of creative practice as geographical […]

The Fell Types as TTFs

The Fell Types as open-source Truetype fonts by Ignio Marini. So named because they were imported by John Fell of the Oxford University Press, from Holland circa 1670–1672, to bypass government interference in printing. [ Hat-tip: Propnomicon ] Williams Caslon Complete Family Pack

Hackney Dissenting Academy 1

Hackney Dissenting Academy: a potentially potent combination of Throbbing Gristle, Iain Sinclair, and Alan Moore. Presumably named after the radical and controversial New College at Hackney (1786-1796), which featured Joseph Priestley as lecturer.

Dull Men’s Club

The Dull Men’s Club, celebrating the ordinary and mundane. “Raking leaves” is the Event of the Month for October.

Invisible Architecture tour

Historian Ben Waddington is offering a tour of sights and buildings inspired by his article Invisible Architecture… “Take a walk down New Street. The challenge is to get where you need to be without being waylaid by market researchers, religious groups, animal rights zealots, charity collectors in pincer formation, personality testers, Big Issue sellers on […]

Online display advertising sector map – Europe, Sept 2010

Running a potent combination of ad-blockers? You won’t be seeing any of these then… (PDF link)

Big Vault

Finally, Birmingham gets something big from London to do with TV and film… “the Big Vault, confirmation that the government would provide funding for a new £25m centre for the conservation of the volatile and priceless archive of 150,000 film and 200,000 TV programmes it holds. Work has already started on it, and it will […]

Specs on for art

A lengthy report on the Spectator arts funding debate… “The arts doesn’t sponge off the taxpayer, he said, it’s the other way around. The subsidy supports the burgeoning tourism market.” […] the proportion of arts funding to GDP was pretty small 1 if you compared it with the marketing budget of a multinational” 3 percent […]

Data Mashups and the Future of Mapping

Data Mashups and the Future of Mapping (PDF link, 14mb), a new JISC ‘Horizon Scanning’ report. The Sept 2010 report is a useful gallop through the various technologies, and points to the duller-but-noticeable-on-ejournal-databases variety of academic research (Christian Nold is not mentioned). On page 40 the report briefly… “explains why the education community needs to […]

The Family and the Land

Last chance to see the UK’s first ever solo show by Sally Mann. The Family and the Land is at The Photographers’ Gallery in London until 18th September 2010 (some listings say the 19th). Featuring prints from Immediate Family, Deep South, and What Remains. A wonderfully Lovecraftian picture, complete with antique lens & finish: ‘Swamp […]

A chat with BINS

Online Journalism blog has a long interview today with Jon Bounds of Birmingham’s BINS blog. An interesting comment — one that touches on genuine issues of a hyperlocal editor taking a ‘the man about town’ or ‘the mystery man’ approach, when blogging intensively on a city… “Certainly being known personally (and knowing, to an extent) […]

How to retain talented new graduates?

Helga Henry, on how we retain talented new graduates in Birmingham… “When I arrived, to join a law firm in another recession many years ago, each trainee was given a thorough grounding in all aspects of our work, a “buddy” to show us where to buy lunch and an all-important organised pub crawl to welcome […]

UK arts cuts groups/sites

My list of those tracking / discussing / lobbying against the forthcoming arts cuts in the UK… Save the Arts. I Value the Arts. AIR Activists (Artists’ Newsletter group). artsfunding @ Ning. Arts & Business: Forum for Arts, Culture & Heritage. National Campaign for the Arts. Arts Council’s Advocacy Kit & Guide to Lobbying MPs. […]

Fundraising Online : social media fundraising for the arts

A new Arts and Business research paper, Fundraising Online: social media fundraising for the arts (September 2010).

Autumn winds

The left’s last stand

It seems the trades union dinosaurs are hankering for yet another futile re-run of the 1980s, and actually expecting public sympathy. There’s a similar situation among local publicly-funded service organisations, according to a report from the BBC debate on the forthcoming spending cuts, held in West Bromwich… “many council leaders and representatives of public sector […]

Hand Made & Hand Made 2

Hand Made (‘Look Inside’ link), a… “collaborative book with 26 innovative perspectives and [grassroots] projects from around the world, over 230 pages, about new ways of creating connection and community” From the Social Spaces project. Hand Made 2 is in the works for 2011, if you want to pitch your project for possible inclusion. [ […]

20 photos of Stoke-on-Trent’s new sixth-form college