onionbagblog

This piece was first published on the Online Journalism Blog.

Who are the people behind the blog?

My blog is essentially my own personal online home, where I can create and dump any digital content that comes my way.

My day job involves managing online communities, as well as producing online content for local schools. Sitting somewhere in-between is my blog, hopefully as a platform for local co-operation and engagement.

When did you set up the blog and how did you go about it?

I started blogging in 2003 using Blogger. It was the online equivalent of the old punk rallying call of here’s a chord, here’s another one – now go and start a band. Starting a blog was as simple as setting up an account with Blogger.

I’ve since moved platforms to a WordPress self-hosted site, which offers more flexibility and control over the design. But ultimately it really is still all about the content.

I’ve changed direction, if not focus, in the eight years that I have been blogging. This shift more or less reflects my own offline lifestyle changes from sport, to local community issues, and then my current lifestyle change having moved out of South London to the North Essex estuary wilds. Essentially I blog about what I see around me.

In Lambeth I witnessed an incredibly poor level of local accountability when it came to local council matters. The press gallery for Full Council meetings was often empty, with local journos guilty of being caught asleep on the job.

Through blogging and tweeting about some of the political twaddle that was taking place, I was able to engage the local community in how petty local politics can often appear from the outside.

It is great to now see many similar local blogs carrying on this level of political accountability, as well as the traditional media taking to tweeting from within the Town Hall.

What other blogs, bloggers or websites influenced you?

The mighty Urban 75 has always been an inspiration in terms of community passion, and what is possible to achieve collectively online.

The South East 853 blog often overlaps with similar local authority themes that I addressed in Lambeth.

Lurking About SE11 was an online neighbourhood friend, although we only ever met once by accident, despite constant accusations that we were in league together.

memespring is doing some very interesting work with data journalism in South London.

Since my move out towards North Essex, Keep Colchester Cool and the online/offline creative hub at 15 Queen Street have both offered much support and many opportunities for collaboration.

There is a tangible sense that Colchester is going through a period of positive creative growth. It is no coincidence that this move coincides with the emergence of the Cultural Quarter in the town.

By continuing to blog about hyperlocal matters in my new home of Wivenhoe, I have been able to connect with others members in the community and share ideas as to what direction our estuary town is hopefully taking.

How do you see yourself in relation to a traditional news operation?

The distinction is often one that is made by the traditional news media, and not by bloggers who are simply going about their business. We are all observers and reporters of events that happen around us. Traditional media may make money out of this process, but that is the only difference.

I personally operate best in a news patch that I know inside out. Size is all-important here – I have little interest in what is happening in a one mile radius outside of where I live and work: that is for others to look into.

Traditional media spreads itself thin by the very nature of being tied down to a financial model of covering a greater footprint.

Having moved into a new town, I am slowly, slowly finding my feet, and finding out more about the social history. Being active online in the area is a great opportunity to go about learning more about the sense of history in the place I now call home.

What have been the key moments in the blog’s development editorially?

Covering local sport was a large part of my old blog. I then began to ask more questions about how local decisions were made, and why this supposedly democratic process was often leading towards a shambles of democracy in the local town hall.

Attending my first Full Council meeting was something of a key moment, and one that was almost on par with this despair of watching sub-standard non-league football.

This has led to breaking new stories such as the Lambeth Councillor who attended only 50% of meetings yet still claimed his full allowance ; the local journo who received a police caution for the common assault of a cabinet member and the allegation that the Leader of Lambeth Council ordered an apolitical officer to hack into the email account of a fellow Councillor.

Sadly the downside to this local level of journalism is that you don’t exactly make yourself popular with the local politicians that you are holding to account. I felt some sense of justice when a Lambeth Councillor who left a completely random comment with racist connotations on my blog, was then ordered by the Council to participate in social media training.

Moving forward and I have recently set up a hyperlocal forum for the community where I now live. The Wivenhoe Forum is growing organically, and it has been great to see how locals are joining the online community and starting conversations about how we can make out town an even greater place to live and work.

What sort of traffic do you get and how has that changed over time?

To my great surprise my traffic levels have doubled since my blog took a more rural direction along with my house move.

I prefer the more qualitative approach to measurement than quantitative. Many new opportunities come my way via my blog. I am able to make offline connections in the local community, something that a daily data report of unique users is unable to compare with.

A cursory glance at the tags for this blog post reveals a return to form and blimey: it’s only b****y Lambeth again.

Oh Lordy.

An incredibly clumsy blog comment back in September by @LambethLabour’s Councillor Ed Davie of Thornton ward [top right] couldn’t be left unchallenged.

The Nu Labour twonk suggested that I was a racist for choosing to live in a:

“whites-only Olde English village. [sic]“

Such a sickening comment saddened me, and I felt that Councillor Davie should be made to answer this damaging allegation on my character. And so I filed an official complaint to @lambeth_council, stating that I believed that the Thornton representative was in breach of the Council’s Code of Conduct.

I wasn’t alone in my observation - I heard confirmation on Tuesday evening that the Standards (Assessment) Sub-Committee has met, and has decided to:

“Refer your allegation to the Council’s Monitoring Officer for further action.”

Furthermore, the Sub-Committee has ruled:

“It is necessary to identify one or more specific provisions of the Code of Conduct itself which are potentially engaged by this complaint. The following provisions of the Code have been identified for this purpose:

Part 1

General Provisions

2. Scope

(1) Subject to sub-paragraphs (2) to (5), you must comply with this Code whenever you:

(a) conduct the business of your authority (which in this Code, includes the business of the office to which you are elected or appointed); or

(b) act, claim to act or give the impression you are acting as a representative of your authority;

3. (1) You must treat others with respect.

(2) You must not

(b) bully any person;

5. You must not conduct yourself in a manner which could reasonably be regarded as bringing your office or authority into disrepute.”

The Initial Assessment Decision include:

“Referral of the complaint to the Monitoring Officer to take “other action” (e.g. a written apology, training or conciliation).”

The Final Decision from the Sub-Committee states:

“To refer the allegation to the Monitoring Officer to take “other action” as follows:

1. To write to all councillors with the Standards Board for England blogging guidance and a covering note urging councillors who use social media to do so with caution.

2. To hold a private meeting with Councillor Ed Davie (who may be accompanied by either Chief Whip or Leader of the Council) to explain the concerns and advice of the Sub-Committee.

3. To refer the issue to the Member Development Group for consideration as to whether any further training for councillors should be given in addition to the SBE guidance.”

And so it seems that Councillor Davie is being hauled in for a bit of an ear bender on how to behave when engaging with social media. I greatly appreciate the time put in by the Standards (Assessment) Sub-Committee in investigating this complaint.

But it needn’t have had to reach this stage.

The Chief Legal Officer @lambeth_council liaised with the Chief Whip of the Labour group, as well as with Councillor Davie himself, with my suggestion of intervention, before eventually having to refer the matter to the Standards Sub-Committee in the absence of any response from Councillor Davie.

Over a month later, and for whatever reason, it became clear that Councillor Davie wasn’t going to offer an explanation for his actions. I am deeply offended by being publicly labeled a racist by Councillor Davie. This is a damning slur on my character that I couldn’t allow to go unchallenged.

Having previously been told by Councillor Davie that I have “no mandate to criticise elected Councillors,” I feel that I ought to point out that he has no mandate to make libellous allegations.

I don’t think calling someone a Nu Labour twonk is libellous, although the Nu Labour tag certainly is a harmful character slur.

The Nu Labour apologist flag wavers were quick to step in to defend Cllr Davie. @KieranCasey wins the prize for putting forward the most naive political argument in the history of political discourse, stating:

Following this line of thought, then someone (who is not me) is of the opinion that Councillor Davie is not best suited to civic service.

The cutting edge social commentary from other Lambeth Nu Labour apologists didn’t exactly add further contributions to the debate either. @DaMcEvoy, the self-styled “unbiased” mouthpiece of the Nu Labour love in Weir Residents Association, makes Cllr Davie look like a blushing bride about to be jilted at the altar. His language is almost as colourful as his lively Weir Residents Association website:

For a borough that is rather well engaged with its residents online, there is of course the danger that the odd loudmouth will destroy any positive social engagement put in place, and revert to type as an internet troll. For every @wellbelove and his brilliant embrace of social media, there is sadly a Councillor Davie who still believes that he is back in the school playground.

It’s all about *shhh* co-operation, Comrades.

Yeah, right…

And so fifteen summers of outdoor swimming in South London came to a close for me early on Sunday morning as I bid an emotional farewell to @BrockwellLido. A final creak of the iconic turnstiles, and I exited the cool waters of Lake Brockwell for probably the last time. I didn’t get this tearful after buggering off from Brixton Rec.

The @BrockwellLido close of season coincides this summer with the arrival of the Great Escape. With the lido shutters now pulled firmly shut, the bag packing can start in earnest as I seek to find a new outdoor swimming experience somewhere deep within the wilds of North Essex.

When @AnnaJCowen and I sat down some eighteen months ago to compile a list of Reasons to Stay in London, my plus column consisted of a solitary entry: Brockwell Lido. Cricket almost got a look in, as did track cycling at Herne Hill. Replacing cricket is relative; I’m too crocked now to compete seriously at le velo.

It was the absolute love of @BrockwellLido that *almost* kept me in South London. You can’t survive on the last of the summer wine forever, and a lido lifestyle can be a miserable ball and chain to be shackled with during those dark winter months.

But how to say goodbye to an activity that has been at the centre of my South London #hyperlocal universe for the past fifteen summers?

My love affair with the lido started almost as soon as we first moved into South London during the summer of ’95. I kept on hearing about this mythical outdoor pool during my first few weeks in Brixton. A weekend run around Brockwell Park led me to the formal introduction. We’ve had an intimate relationship ever since.

The start of May until the end of September have been put aside for the past fifteen years as Lido Days. It is an addiction that means my working day is not complete unless I have indulged. Breaking the Brockwell habit is going to come at a high cost.

The attraction is mainly physical, partly emotional. I embrace the freshness of the water washing over me each morning in an almost ritualistic manner, providing clarity and perspective for the working day ahead.

The lido has become my thinking place in South London. Most of my major life decisions have been made here in an environment where I am truly clear of any outside distraction or influence. Ironically, the decision to leave South London was made whilst under the cool waters of Lake Brockwell.

Starting your morning with a gentile introduction, albeit a rather physically brutal and mentally bruising experience, leaves you with positive thoughts that remain throughout the day. Colleagues have long since stopped asking me why I am grinning insanely at 9am.

Catching the dancing rays of the sun as they reflect down on to the pool basin is better than any sterile, soulless Brixton Rec indoor swimming experience. Seeing a flock of geese provide you with a personal flyover is an added bonus.

The lido is MY lido. This is a claim that every other lido swimmer would also no doubt make. It can also be yours if you choose it to be. The experience and routine of the daily dip becomes a highly personalised one. You are in complete control of your own immediate environment. No one can touch you [um, not quite true] and anything is achievable.

I feel that I know every physical feature of the pool, from where the uneven white edges around the perimeter start to crack, down to the gradual tethering of the shallow end and the exact spot where you need to raise your knees to prevent grazing on the pool basin.

I can judge with my eyes closed (and usually they are) the precise point where my feet need to make contact as I push off from the deep end as I turn around to do it all again. I swim blind - not in the literal sense, although the pool is home to a number of sight-impaired swimmers.

I have seen many weird and wonderful sights down by the waters of Lake Brockwell over the years. The bonkers underwater hoover, the official Hold Yer Breath Underwater National Championships, and even having to share my lido experience with some model submarines that tried to dive bomb me in the deep end. That’s not something you see every day down at Brixton Rec.

But perhaps the weirdest experience is that of my fellow lido swimmers. All lovely, all totally bonkers. It is the defining feature of someone who chooses to swim outdoors in a water temperature that your body wants to resist, but your mind wants you to indulge in.

My favourite lido moments are the extremes - falling asleep in the suntrap terrace on a South London scorcher of an afternoon, or swimming in the rain mid-September and being the single custodian of the waters of Lake Brockwell. The mid-winter Brockwell Icicles experience takes this crazed approach to aquatic hedonism a stage further.

The building itself may change, but the ambience remains. I was alarmed over the architectural vandalism that the winter 2006 re-build by Fusion proposed. The demolition of an art deco wall, and then replacing it with a full on body pump style gym, could have killed off Brockwell Lido for me.

Somehow the smoke and mirrors trick has managed to hide away the dirty business of the gym bunnies. What goes on behind that wall we don’t talk about, but at least it brings in the money for Fusion, and guarantees a future for the lido.

Remarkably the unique lido ambience is still more or less in place after the most significant building works in the pool’s seventy-year history. This is a place of community, a place to meet people and a place to escape the nearby madness of the city.

It is this companionship that I treasure the most. Seeing fellow swimmers for the first time in the season is always a diary date to look forward to. Saying farewell at the end of September only reminds you of the winter misery months to come. I confess to slipping out quietly on Sunday, not wanting to cause a scene, not wanting to blubber on my final Brockwell Lido day.

And so where to now? Nearby Colchester has the new Garrison pool (fitness swimming) and Leisure World (wave machine hell.) I’m hoping to continue the outdoor aquatic lifestyle, by finding my own personal space downstream in the Colne estuary.

Perhaps this will be the biggest personal legacy that @BrockwellLido leaves upon me. Outdoor swimming is the purest form in which to participate. But to participate effectively, you need companionship. The unique collision of an art deco building in South London with a collective of crazed outdoor aquatic types, is going to be simply irreplaceable.

I regret that I am not going to be around for the BLU AGM next month. It is a social highlight of the lido season, and provides me with my annual opportunity to ask why I should have to pay twice to swim in pools owned by @lambeth_council. Fifteen years of swimming, and I still haven’t heard a satisfactory answer.

But anyway: come on in - the water’s… Brrrrr.

As far as goodbyes go, it wasn’t a bad one, being sent off to the Hoe with a grand night out at the Battle of the SW8 Blogs held at The Wheatsheaf along South Lambeth Road.

There is something unique about my #hyperlocal patch of South London in that it is fortunate to throw up a higher number of local blogs than probably anywhere else in London. It is no coincidence that a large amount of local online dialogue is spent discussing the failures of @lambeth_council.

Collective contempt breeds community *shhh* co-operation, which is perhaps why this area is so rich in local blogs. But it’s not all about incompetent local authority bureaucracy. Sometimes there is a booze call to arms, and the online becomes the offline.

Which is exactly what happened on Thursday evening at the Wheatsheaf, when the wonderful @AndrewOrange of the Tradescant patch pitched in with the perfect idea of organising an SW8 (ish) Battle of the Blogs in the form of a pub quiz.

Contrary to continued claims from the snipers, this informal network of bloggers has been operating independently over the past few years. Offline acquaintances have been rare. We all tend to cover the same stories coming out of the Rotten Borough, but that is more due to duty than conspiracy.

The Battle of the Blogs served as a brilliant opportunity to put a name to that dodgy twitter profile picture, hit the booze and then laugh at some of the antics of @lambeth_council that we have all been following of late.

I arrived at The Wheatsheaf not really knowing what to expect, but was totally blown away by many of the online names that had come out to compete, and to wish a farewell to @AnnaJCowen and I ahead of the Great Escape.

The scene in the main bar ahead of the quiz was like a Who’s Who of Lambeth activism. There was no representation from @LambethLabour, although to be fair, @imogenwalker had civic Licensing duties. @labourstockwell sent a very kind apology.

It was great to catch up with John Hare once again, whom I spent a charming afternoon with back in May, learning all about the dirty tricks campaign put in place by @LambethLabour over in Herne Hill. With May 6th now behind us, John tried his very best on the night to out me as a Lambeth Green. Close, but no cigar, my friend. Not yet, anyway,

To my great surprise, my fave local Lambeth activist also turned up. I was given the complete rundown of the Battle of Vassall Ward, and only wish now that I was around longer to see this particular #hyperlocal problem be played out in full.

And then just when you think that you have heard it all in the Rotten Borough, I was tipped off about a truly outrageous local story that looks like it will blow up big time. Following, but not participating, in the Lambeth online dialogue via my RSS feeds is going to pass away those long, rural winter evenings.

As for the quiz itself? Well, the #hyperlocal news round compiled by the good @AndrewOrange was testing, and it is with some shame that my non SW8 team ringer, @Darryl1974 did the business for Team Lambeth Shite (although I did pitch in with the answer of “he voted @LambethLabour” to the question: what crime did the last person to be executed at Kennington Gallows commit?)

Overall and Team Lambeth Shite faired slightly better than the inspiration behind the name; the Luscious Lurkers were diligent and asked some probing questions (but didn’t get many answers.) Hold the front page - @StockwellNews ran away with the Battle of the SW8 Blogs winner’s award.

And so a huge thanks to both @AndrewOrange and The Wheatsheaf for accommodating us. @mazlaws, @markvauxhall, @garethwyn and, um, @AnnaJCowen all did Team Lambeth Shite proud as well.

It was fitting that as I left a #hyperlocal pub quiz, I still managed to get lost in walking the short distance back to my SW8 base. Whoops. Even more fitting that the Wheatsheaf hung a picture painted nearby to the Hoe.

There will always be a small part of South London that will be forever Wivenhoe, and in return, I’m sure that there will always be a small part of Wivenhoe that will keep on flying the flag for South London.

Another fortnight, another Lambeth Life. Oh Lordy. But wait - what’s this? It’s only ‘London’s biggest non-daily newspaper.’ Blimey.

I was always taught at school that it’s not big and it’s not clever to, um, use the word biggest. But then that’s local politicians for you, ever keen to reduce everything down to a wily measuring competition.

As for the newspaper angle - are you sure, fellas? The dictionary definition of a newspaper states:

“A publication issued at regular and usually close intervals, esp. daily or weekly, and commonly containing news, comment, features, and advertising.”

As we have already established, Lambeth Life is fortnightly (for now.) It contains comment camouflaged as council news, the features refer to any spaced out mid ’90s DJ passing through the Rotten Borough and as for the advertising? *ahem* self-sufficient. Sort of.

But about that fortnightly print cycle of our favourite local authority information news sheet: those nasty ConDems are about to do something as horrid as place objective editorial control on all council propaganda rags, and limit the publication cycle to four times a year.

Hurrah! The rotters.

“The government will confirm a crackdown on council-funded newspapers and magazines this week as it seeks to protect media groups which claim they cost them readers and advertising revenue.

Eric Pickles, the communities and local government secretary, will announce new guidelines ahead of the Conservative party conference this weekend that will effectively ban councils from using taxpayers’ money to produce free papers and magazines, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal.”

Interesting. Very interesting. Tell me more, my meeja Graun luvvies…

“Under the new rules, it is understood councils will only be allowed to publish free titles four times a year. They will also have to remove any content which appears to praise the council or endorse the quality of its local services, including quotes from local residents.”

Which basically leads to the conclusion that Lambeth Life is f***ed. Take away the “content which appears to praise the council or endorse the quality of its local services,” and all you are left with is a shabby cut and paste interview with Fat Boy Slim every fortnight.

But perhaps the real problem that those nasty ConDem proposals present to the chest beating @LambethLabour publication is where the chuffers to place those statutory local authority adverts?

Reading about a temporary road closure to Piss Alley, SW2, may not be the most riveting editorial piece of copy, but this kind of communication carries legal obligations for any legally obliging local authority.

Dig a little deeper and you find the real raison d’etre for Lambeth Life existing is to satisfy a tit for tat agenda setting war with the seedy @SthLondonPress.

Oh Lordy.

The sex ads that appear in the family newspaper are given as the reason for not pushing local authority wonger the way of the @SthLondonPress pimps. The little bit of local bother between @LambethLabour and @SthLondonPress is of course nothing but a sideshow, and a particularly ugly one at that.

But anyway - this is debate for another time, and probably not around these parts either.

Phew.

And so Lambeth Life lands on my SW8 doormat for a final time, and what do I find on the front cover?

Setting the Lambeth Standard

“Today marks the launch of Lambeth Council’s new service standards that describe the level of service you can expect when you contact the council.”

Which all sounds well and good, especially so when the local authority is looking to lose 400 members of staff in just the first round of local authority redundancies.

I do hope that the hard working staff at @lambeth_council aren’t put up as the scapegoats for the failure to reach this much-lauded Lambeth Standard. Many of the frontline staff are superb - my recent visit to the Parking Department may have left me low on wallet, but I was uplifted in the level of service that was provided.

Nope - the Lambeth Standard (stop sniggering) needs a top down approach if any genuine levels of excellence are to be achieved. A good starting point might be to give a crash course to certain local Councillors, regarding the pledge to:

“Treat you as an individual with dignity, fairness, courtesy and respect at all times.”

Cripes.

“If you send us an email or write to us, we will: aim to acknowledge your correspondence within two working days.”

Which most certainly wasn’t the response I received in relation to the formal complaint regarding Councillor Davie of Thornton ward. My submission to the Standards Committee wasn’t acknowledged for a full seven days, and even then it took extra effort from me to get the due legal process to be observed.

But yeah - the formal complaint is now in place…

All this talk of quarterly publications, the removal of council endorsing content and the Lambeth Standard, leaves you longing to actually get yer grubby mitts on a publication with a picture of grinning local politician to take the p*** out of.

Ah, lookey here - let’s turn to Page 3 of Lambeth Life:

Petition to save Triangle Adventure Playground Underway

“More than 1,000 people have signed a petition calling for the council to rethink plans to close an adventure playground to make way for a school expansion.”

The farce of forcing the Triangle to close to make way for extra car parking space at Archbishop Tennison, just as the BSF fund has been denied, has been well documented elsewhere. It makes you wonder what the *real* reason is for @LambethLabour wanting to cut a kiddies playground.

“Parents and children from the Triangle Adventure Playground have been collecting signatures for the petition, and handed it over to the Council Deputy Leader Jackie Meldrum last month.”

Hang on - the Council’s Deputy Leader? Where was the Head Boy when the kids came a knocking? @cllrstevereed had already agreed a diary date to receive the petition from the children of Ashmole Primary School on September 16th. The appointment had been made via local MP Kate Hoey, who was also present on the Town Hall steps to greet the Glorious Leader.

The working day of a council leader is no doubt a busy one (#lambethcoop meetings, disciplinary hearings, random 3am tweeting sessions) but the blanking of the kids from Ashmole ranks as pretty poor. For Lambeth Life to put up the stooge of Councillor Meldrum, tells you all you need to know about “council endorsing content.”

What we need, Comrades, is a Freedom Vs Censorship debate. And whaddya know - with absolutely no sense of irony, Lambeth Life delivers with a centre page spread on:

Only in the Rotten Borough…

That’s Life, suckers!

See ya, um…

There’s been some strange goings on with the good @cllrstevereed’s twitter stream of late - and I’m not talking about just the content, either. I personally haven’t been blocked from reading the micro thoughts of our local council Leader, but a level of screening does appear to be in place.

If I’m logged in under my own @Jason_Cobb account, then I get an empty page of thoughts radiating from the mind of @cllrstevereed. Sign out however, and I get the Full Monty.

Blimey.

But what of the content, Comrade?

The early bird catches the early worm, and it seems that @cllrstevereed had an awful lot on his mind during the early hours of Tuesday morning. Posting shortly after 3:30 am, the following question was posed:

It’s rather decent of @cllrstevereed to engage in some debate with the fine @kevindcraig - they are both members of the same political party, after all. Perhaps taking this conversation behind the closed doors of the local constituency meetings might have been a better idea though.

You may remember how @kevindcraig is the Secretary of the Vauxhall Constituency Labour Party. A Stop Kev campaign was put in place by a squeaky clean (and recently newly elected) Lambeth councillor, to try and remove @kevindcraig from his post earlier in the year.

The thinking was unsettle Kev, unsettle Kate Hoey, the sitting MP for Vauxhall. That leaves a huge gap to fill in local politics, with the added glamour of the national stage in which to strut your stuff as well.

Keep your eye on the prize at all times, Comrade.

The campaign from the right of @LambethLabour failed of course. Lambeth Town Hall may be nothing but a heard of Nu Labour sheep, but the local activists around the wards are actually quite, um, active.

And so with @kevindcraig democratically elected alongside Kate Hoey, it seems strange that further unsettling seems to be taking place online - and at 3:30 in the morning as well.

Oh Lordy.

Dare we mention the D word? @cllrstevereed certainly did to the Secretary of the Vauxhall CLP.

Unity seems to be the buzzword for the Comrades up in Manchester this week. Time to settle old scores and to come together to fight the nasty ConDem cuts collectively.

Meanwhile, back to @cllrstevereed’s early morning online ramblings, and we find:

Calling a fellow party member in the same borough a “Tory sympathiser” isn’t going to do much to heal those huge wounds within @LambethLabour. Come the cold light of day, and @cllrstevereed was asking:

Hoey’s record on voting for gay rights in the House is indeed open to interpretation. But once again, it seems a strange question for the Leader of a local authority to be posing on a (semi) pubic online social media site.

And so the Stop Kev campaign is about to be, um, started once again.

Now there’s… co-operation for you, Comrades.

I was left in a peculiar position at the London Neighbourhoods Online Unconference, held at the offices of Ofcom on Saturday. On the very same day that the Stockwell Festival was being staged, plus the Lambeth Archives Open Day, here I was, flying the online flag for Sunny Stockwell, just as I enter single digit days ahead of the Great Escape.

The Unconference itself wasn’t so much Talk About Local, but looking ahead to how #hyperlocals can help one other. I have new personal and professional challenges ahead of me. Meeting up with skilled #hyperlocal enthusiasts, and only good could come out of the collaboration and conversation.

The day itself was positioned perfectly as a move away from debate towards dialogue. I still have some reservations about the merits of an Unconference; essentially there is no agenda - you set it yourself.

Around one hundred or so #hyperlocals assembled early on Saturday morning with a stunning view looking upstream along the Thames from Southwark Bridge. The panoramic proved to be the inspiration, and fifteen minutes later, a shared agenda for workshops was put in place.

I chipped in with the slightly mischievous: Local authorities, local media and #hyperlocals: conflict or collaboration?

This viewpoint obviously depends on precisely where your own #hyperlocal is positioned. Sitting here in Sunny Stockwell right now, and sadly the outlook is one of conflict.

A local authority back peddling to try and gain control of the local agenda, and a local newspaper that seemingly turns a blind eye to the sock puppeting style of the lead attack dog journo towards local blogs. This was a dialogue that I wanted to share with other London bloggers, to find out if Lambeth is unique in putting in place such high levels of suspicion.

The session itself became slightly confused. It appeared to crossover with a pre-planned Q & A with the very good @foodiesarah, who is responsible for the #hyperlocal network of sites at The Guardian.

The local authority element got mislaid, but instead we shared ideas about the relationship between bloggers and BIG (ish) media. It would have been decent if representation was here from BIG (ish) media, but with @SthLondonPress taking seven days to publish print copy online, and even a year to update a blog, (blimey) then I’m sure our family newspaper friends had better things to be doing.

The question was posed: are #hyperlocals the enemy? A spontaneous YES! resonated around the room. This *isn’t* by choice, but with the complete failure of BIG (ish) media around these parts to collaborate with the passionate informal network of local news junkies on the ground, this is often how it feels.

An excellent point was made in that media and life overlap. This is a proposition that BIG (ish) media can’t handle. The old linear model of reporting is still a one-way conversation, and the very pace of #hyperlocal life simply can’t translate to the painful process of publishing news content either offline, or even online by the BIG boys.

The collaboration element to the session proved to be the most contentious. @foodiesarah urged all #hyperlcoals to invoice, whenever BIG (ish) media lift our stories. It’s a fine principle to uphold, but the reality is that most of us can’t be arsed to file an invoice to a faceless organisation, and then wait around for a month for a poxy payment. You simply get on, do your thing and find new stories.

This theme then developed into a debate about what alternative form of payment could be accepted, if this collaboration could ever work. Most in the room favoured online links as a form of currency.

#hyperlocals do whatever it is that they do, not for the dosh, but for the sharing and collaboration, plus the passion for their own #hyperlocal news patch. We have stories to tell that BIG (ish) media are too lazy to look out for. Ultimately it is about getting these stories heard.

The value of a link is priceless in terms of gaining momentum. If BIG (ish) media is going to persist and keep on lifting our copy, the very least they could do is to link back to the original. This raises your ranking within Google, and ultimately allows those #hyperlocal news stories to find a voice that BIG (ish) media ignore.

The second session that I attended was all about Finding an Editorial Voice and How to Run a Campaign. This developed more into a debate about moderation - which was nice. It was very useful though for a possible project in the pipeline post the Great Escape.

My contribution was that I don’t believe that anyone deliberately decides to find an editorial voice, or even put in place a campaign. Put crudely - you just do it. #hyperlocals react to what they see around them. Any campaign, formal or otherwise, is simply what follows next.

I shared my experience regarding the bonkers 5am licence for Kelly’s just off the Clap’ham Road. I didn’t realise that I was caught up in the middle of a campaign until I started to become the central point for emails between local residents, councillors and the local police.

I made the point that the most valued contribution that #hyperlocals can make towards a campaign is simply getting the story out there. This was always my sole intention with the bonkers 5am licence. What followed is that m’blog somehow became the online space in which offline action was co-ordinated.

Making Connections and Linking London was a session led by mattfromlondon and @Londonist. Having demoed Londonist during the lunch break, Matt was interested in hearing how the Londonist network can engage the many London #hyperlocals.

I personally veer away from any collective form of blogging. I feel uncomfortable with the “we think…” editorial style. *I* think, which is all part of the process for me in offering one opinion on a #hyperlocal news patch.

I suggested to Matt that Ken Vs Boris will be key for @Londonist. I came up with the idea of actively recruiting a Ken flag waver and a Boris flag waver. This isn’t going to be an objective contest in which to report from the #hyperlcal hustings. Opinions matter out there. The collective “we” will be weakened compared to the singular “I.”

The final session I attended sounded intriguing: How Does #bigsociety Fit into #hyperlocal?

My observation was that #bigsociety, its #lambethcoop little brother and #hyperlocal, all share the common theme of having no dosh. The point was made that politicians don’t seem to recognise that #hyperlocals get things fixed, *without* any initial co-operation from politicians. In my micro patch and blogging about Palfrey Place, or the bonkers 5am licence has led to real action on the ground.

I offered up the point that you should see the story through to the conclusion. It may be a pain to keep on going back over old ground, but online context (and links) are everything. It has led me to understand the complete process that is still rumbling around the botched @LambethLabour email hack, not to mention the continued Streatham Hub strife. Sadly I won’t be around for the next decade to see the Streatham saga through to an end game.

Safer Neighbourhood Panels were mentioned as an example of how #bigsociety and #lambethcoop are doomed to fail. At best, a dozen people turn up at a SNP each month. This is a meeting that truly empowers the local community - you get to set the targets for your local police for each quarter.

If such apathy takes place at such a key decision making process, then you can see how I fail to get excited about #lambethcoop and the empty rhetoric of Power to the People. We elect (and pay) politicians to make these decisions for us.

And that was just about yer lot. An incredibly demanding day, but an excess of ideas and enthusiasm for me to take away for the next challenge. The Many Voices model worked rather well, and led to some genuine collaboration.

But in a day of shared conversations, co-operation and planning, it was perhaps apt that a singular tweet, tagged with the #lno10 hashtag, probably summed up best the London Neighbourhoods Online Unconference:

“If you want to get something done set up network, slow it down, set up an organisation.”

Many thanks to Networked Neighbourhoods for organising such a worthwhile event. Let’s build upon this optimism.