Birmingham Safe Cyclist Map

As visitors to the HashBrum site might know I've been working on this map for a while now.

My FOI Request of cycling accidents and their locations came through and I was able to put the details straight into Mapalist. I exported as KML and re-imported but for some reason the details about the pins didn't copy.

So, even though these pins look a bit untidy in the larger map, they nevertheless should help cyclists take more care in accident areas.

The key is on the larger map but the general gist is:
Blue hued pin = cycle incident
Pink hued pin = cycle hazard
Primary colour = fatal accident


View Birmingham Cyclist Map in a larger map

Staying Updated
Through an RSS from FixMyStreet I've been tracking potholes that have been reported to Birmingham City Council and also pinpointing any potholes mentioned on the Council's Twitterstream. I will also be tracking my own cycle journeys and keeping an eye on any other hazards I see.

If you would like to add any hazards please feel free.


Bike Away From The Kerb

Robin PC contacted me through Help Me Investigate. Robin suggested I shouldn't just look at mapping data. He commented 'The safe way to cycle is to “get in the way”'. I put Robin's advice to the test, see how I got on:


Sprocket Cycles

I went to Sprocket Cycles, off Allison St Digbeth where Gordon quick-fitted a new bike chain in 3 minutes.

I also grabbed a short audio interview with Gordon talked about cycling safety, National 'Bike' Service and just what is the correct kerb distance?

Listen!

Sprocket Cycles


Cycle Running

I decided it was about time to get out there and start tracking my own cycle routes. On the map below you can see my latest track. Click on the Recent Tracks tab and you can scroll through all my journeys as I wheel about, gathering cycle interviews and other usual daily Hashbrum business!

If you click through to Details beside each track, you can see I've written a short piece on each journey in my Notes section. These act as a summing up of my journey including any safety concerns I see. If you'd like to add your routes and comment on your experiences (and you have an Android or Smartphone) then this App should cost around £5.99. Once you've got it if you could let me know below and befriend me.

I'm also hoping to export this data and it will inform my next map based on experiences of people road cycling in Birmingham.

Find out about my first cyclemap here.


Spaghetti Junctions #1

I'm currently working on game based around a kind-of psycho-geographic version of the 'six degrees of seperation' idea. Basically, the game encourages players to (tenuously) link together Birmingham facts and myths. Here's a version played on Google Wave before Christmas:

[wave id='googlewave.com!w%252Bbh7I02lyA']

It was quite fun but as you can see it collapsed when we used Wave to discuss 'the process' of the game. And I couldn't engage enough people in Wave to make it worthwhile.

It might be more appropriate to run it in Twitter but I think before I jump on there I want to work out how to get people understand how the game runs. I was thinking I might put some rules up either here or on #Brum site.

If it has a click through Wordpress page to I might be able to take the game to a second stage and prove or disprove the facts or myths, offering more background and links away from the focus of gameplay. This might be the journalism but the degree of proven truthfulness could be used as a points system of sorts.

Well there's still a lot to work through... Would love to hear what you think of this idea, or if you have any strong opinions on the following questions then speak your brains below...

Is Twitter the best place to run the game?
Should I be wary of too many rules?
Any ideas how I can get more folk involved?
Should there be a live geo-tagging picture version - and might that get you extra points?
Is there anything we can use to graphically show the facts so it represents a load of spaghetti links?


BCU Enterprise Guests: Daniel Bower, Justice Williams, Ruth Ward

A few weeks back some ex-BCU students came to talk about their subsequent companies and discuss the process of their entrepreneurial endeavours to a large group of us in the MA Suite.

Due to other course deadlines and an annoying internet connection it took a while to get all material on line. But nevertheless I believe the entire session is worth a look.

First we heard from Daniel Bower the man behind eConversations the company which gave the web-world welovelocal.com and the very successful VoucherCodes.co.uk




Next was Ruth Ward Director of Rewired PR. She told her story moving from Willoughby PR to setting up her own department in the company (Neon) to finally stepping out alone.



Finally Justice Williams MBE who has numerous Social Enterprises to her name gave a passionate talk.



FINAL PART TO COME

This was followed by a Panel Discussion and Q&A Session.



We then interviewed all three people directly. Daniel Bower had a chat with Caroline Beavon.




And a clipped interview with Ruth Ward also by Caroline Beavon.

And finally Andrew Brightwell and myself interviewed Justice Williams


I found the session not only helped me think more seriously about my Enterprise project but, in the Q&As in particular I think there’s plenty of rich material which might feed into longer features on the Hash Brum website.

I think some of the comments are particularly useful in ongoing discussions we have had about Birmingham’s creativity.


Pre-Efterklang, The Asylum, Birmingham, 29/10

Tonight I’m going to head off to see Efterklang at a new Birmingham venue called The Asylum .

Poster by rainbow_donkeys
Poster by rainbow_donkeys

I'm still thinking of appropriate ways to write a music review for #Brum. I know that people have done Tweeting events before but trying to stop it being a novelty and integrate it more effectively. If you are going tonight and you will be tapping away occasionally on a keypad, do let me know. If you would rather enjoy the experience but want to get in touch with me via a more traditional route afters then also let me know – although snail mail is probably not the one. All suggestions and comments welcome, even if it’s ‘Why don’t you just enjoy the moment rather than try and flatten it with technology?’

If you have just stumbled across this randomly and you live in Birmingham, you should definitely come along it’s going to be ace! If you’ve found it because you saw them at the Barbican last night, it would be great if you could let me know what to expect.


Hash Brum Meet 3

Third week in and we're getting some content together and having a broader discussion how we can engage with our audience.

You can right click 'save target' for the MP3 here or you can listen to it below.

[audio:http://dandavies23.wordpress.com/files/2009/10/hashbrum3final.mp3]

Please feel free to engage via the comments box too!


Hash Brum Meet 2

So here's the second meeting for the Hash Brum project. And everything we thought it would be is challenged!

In the end we've decided that the best thing to do is go out and get some stories, so hopefully tomorrow we will have some content.

You can right click 'save target' for the MP3 here or you can listen to it below.

[audio:http://dandavies23.wordpress.com/files/2009/10/hashbrummeet2final.mp3]

Right I'm off to bed. This has been the slowest day on Virgin Media ever.


#Brum Meet One

Temporary Logo by Alex Gamela
Suggested Logo by Alex Gamela

This is our first real meeting for#Brum a new hyperlocal news site for central Birmingham. We're still very much in development at the moment and we'd really like involvement, help and suggestions from non-MA Online Journalism students.

It would be great if you could comment on the conversation we had, or you can also track and make suggestions at our #Brum Wiki

You can right click 'save target' for the MP3 here or you can listen to it below.

[audio:http://dandavies23.wordpress.com/files/2009/10/hashbrummeetoneeq.mp3]

BTW We got off to a poor start by not recording the first five minutes!