We had a great workshop at Donegal on Friday – I have done a full research note on my blog but the highlights are that Daragh and the team have got a great group together who are keen to start campaigning around getting government buildings to use sustainable energy as well as getting more cycle lanes in Donegal!!
Archive for July, 2009
Brussels Meeting
Was great to meet other partners this week. Thanks to Brano for hosting and to Paul for finding such a great hotel! I had an invite from Max Dixon at GLA yesterday to speak at a Tranquil Spaces conference in London. He’s particularly interested in our wok on Citizenscape so I think this will be a great opportunity for dissemination.
Breakout groups
We have now broken out into two groups. Paul is taking one group through the Viewfinder site and Stu is going through the filming with the second group
Donegal Citizenscape Workshop
17th June.
Welcome to the Donegal Citizenscape Workshop. We have 7 participants today who are all very interested in the environment and web technologies. Today we are hoping to demonstrate the citizenscape concept, and train users on the various widgets of the site and agree on a theme going forward from today. Already all our users here today have highlighted all the various web technologies they use on a day to day basis; Facebook, twitter, google search, youtube, bebo, etc
Students create films for Citizenscape in Bristol
Film Students from the University of Bath who work with a studio in Bristol to get experience at real life film projects will be going out next week to film three short films. These films will be used as ‘virals’ to raise awareness of the issue of environmental noise pollution and direct people to the work being done through Citizenscape in Bristol. The light hearted film’s will use acting students from the university, encouraging people to find out more for themselves through the Citizenscape site. The films will be posted in a number of online locations including green.tv in order for them to travel. The great thing about this is their ideas are much fresher than we would hope to produce ourselves! Perhaps there are students in the other regions who would like to do something like this?
Green campaigner in Bristol promotes Citizenscape in weekend papers
A local green campaigner, Glen Vowles, got a double page spread in the Bristol Evening Post at the weekend! A summary is here http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Noise-pollution-Bristol/article-697403-detail/article.html which I have also added to the Citizenscape site.
He talks about environmental noise pollution and links to Ask Bristol and the noise map we have created. He got the information across in a really interesting and engaging way and it’s good that people outside of the council are talking about noise pollution as an issue. Glen Vowles is a blogger and also runs a local group, Campaign for A Sustainable Knowle (an area in South Bristol) so it’s great to have his support. Thanks Glen!
Masters student collecting data from residents in noisy areas
A masters student from Forest of Dean council is using Bristol’s noise data to study the relationship between modelled noise levels and the annoyance about noise felt by local residents. The study focusses on noisy areas around the M32 motorway. Residents from these areas are typically in our ‘harder to reach groups’ so at the same time as inviting them to take part in the research they will be directed to Citizenscape to get involved. This is a great opportunity which has come at just the right time. It’s a result of all the hard work Steve Crawshaw has already put in to mapping noise levels in Bristol and promotion of that work. It also emphasises the importance of making contacts with people who are also working in your area of interest and working with partners to mutual benefit.
Citizenscape on BBC Radio Bristol!
Steve Crawshaw, our traffic noise expert and Lloyd Dunseith a student from Bath Spa university who worked on the traffic noise promo video were interviewed live in the studio on Radio Bristol this morning. It’s on the i-player until Friday 27th March. It starts at 1:40 into the show.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p002f7yx/Graham_Torrington_20_03_2009/
The interview went really well, getting across the key points about raising awareness of environmental noise pollution, what individuals and the council can do about it, and how we are using e-democracy tools through citizenscape to inform and promote discussion. It was the film that Lloyd and the students worked on that sparked off the BBC’s interest in the topic. This really show’s the benefit of working with partners in the local area. Lloyd spoke about making the film and working with the council on the project. The BBC want to do a follow up interview in a couple of weeks, perhaps out in the city.
The first and second parts of the three part film are up on the council’s youtube site now:
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=M4tYmt9LJcc&feature=channel_page
Now the challenge is getting the film to travel. You’ll have to watch this space for the third installment, that takes a different angle on things….
Filming Vox Pops in Bristol
On the 24th Feb Steve, Bryn and I hit the streets of Bristol to do some vox pops of residents to see what they think about traffic noise pollution in the city. It was the same day as the Bath University students were out filming, and we thought that may attract some interest. In reality people were pretty much leaving them to it, so we went off to some different locations and approached people and asked if we could interview them on film. As always, you have to ask five people for one to say yes (not everyone wants their five minutes of fame, especially when it’s the council asking!) but the willing volunteers we did speak to were really good and had a lot to say. This helped keep morale high during the day and we got 11 seperate interviews, with the necessary permission slips signed off. We went to a range of locations, some noisy (which had obvious problems with sound quality of our videos, but also proved a point!) and quiet places such as parks and popular lunchtime spots. We are gradually getting the videos loaded up on the council’s youtube site - http://www.youtube.com/user/bristolcitycouncil
Photos from behind the camera are here -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/murrayjarvis/sets/72157614385029022/
