The BBC filming was an invaluable experience but for me it highlighted the difference between how you can allow a story to develop online compared with needing to have elements pre-defined when you start filming. My challenge for Inside Out was based around a FOI request and inquiry with City Council’s press office as to the amount of cycling improvements that had been made in the last few years. I then hit the road to see how the improvements had been installed.

Obviously, filming time is precious and to have a crew follow me round each improvement would have been expensive. The Inside Out package is about the state of cycling in the city, so just me peddling on my bike would be wouldn’t have answered the general question ‘Is Birmingham safe for cyclists?’. Instead this is a montage sequence with some on the spot conclusions at the end then plenty of context and ‘right to reply’ by the council.

I was pleased to see that my Belgrave Middleway coverage was used as a way to introduce but something my online footage allowed me to do was show the extent of the law breaking and to back that up with stats.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Within the confines of the TV programme you get an impression of what happened but you don’t get an in depth investigation. Furthermore, the point of Birmingham Cycle Data was to explore many cycle stories that affect Birmingham cyclists. It mainly using data visualisation to display how a question such as ‘Is Birmingham safe for cyclists’ is a complex one that can’t have a simple answer.

I’d love the opportunity to now take the council cycling improvements story to my website. Ideally I’d display them on a map to visualise the scale of what the council has installed and where. Maybe even gather footage and evidence of me and others tackling them. This in conjunction with the larger exposure of BBC 1 programme would build up a more detailed picture of cycling improvements in the city and make suggestions how they could be further improved.

For now though you’ll have to just put up with my talking ‘helmet hair’ head.

I was at 24Carrots on Saturday and bumped into two producers asking for our opinions on BBC 6Music. I was more than happy to be filmed as 6Music is my favourite radio station.

I’ve been listening ever since I got a digital radio for Christmas 6 years ago and pretty much like every show they do (except George Lamb – and I’m not even going to hyperlink that!) but a final thing occurred to me later on that I’d like to share.

I have this theory that Britpop wouldn’t have happened if Radio 1 hadn’t brought in the changes they made under Matthew Bannister. The most important element wasn’t the notorious clearing of DJ dead wood (which is incidentally why I dislike Lamb, I remember Simon Bates) but the re-invigoration of the playlist. Suddenly eloquent intelligent pop was being listened to by a mainstream audience. Of course it still had to strike a national chord but it was listened to.

I met Mark Riley (AKA The ‘Hapless’ Boy Lard) at Depercussion Festival in Manchester a few years back and told him how much I liked his 6music show. He was appreciative of my praise but added “Yeah. but it should be on Radio 1 shouldn’t it…”

Many people of my generation have a soft spot for Mark (Radcliffe) and Lard but it wasn’t just their sense of humour or deep respect for music but also the breadth of art and literature covered in the show. In fact many people I know have favourite comedians, poets and writers that can be traced back to Mark And Lard. Bannisters changes elevated art to be discussed on air even giving some airtime to comedy shows in their own right for the likes of Collins And Maconie, Lee And Herring – paving the way for the superb Blue Jam by Chris Morris.

I know radio’s changed and we’re now all filtering our way through our own personalised schedules these days but there’s something to be said for a broad range of interesting art to be available on the mainstream. Bringing arts and comedy shows onto 6music might be moving away from the ‘music’ part of their edict. So where else do we go for our cultural spark? Is it Radio 4 or should it be Radio 1?

I recently headed off to the BBC to hear Nic Newman present his paper ‘The rise of social media and its impact on mainstream journalism’. They recorded the session so you might want to keep an eye on Reuters site for a better recording.

You can right click ‘save target’ for the MP3 here or listen below.

The discussion took place in the chamber facing a picture of Lord Reith which the chair points out at the beginning. Some notes and live twittering to accompany this talk can be found at Caroline Beavon’s site. This is the post from Chiara Bolognini.