The ‘producer led organization’ open space session: the values of fair trade are the most important thing you have to offer to the world. There is a need to upgrade skills (primarily producers so they can represent themselves). Consumers need to be hit in the face by what fair trade producers are doing.

Faire trade 2.0: technology as data. Big discussion about how is that data used? Changing the supply chain. Also how consumers can collaborate online by amplifying the fair trade message. A woman in the audience thinks that young people are trying to reinvent the wheel by putting debates that have gone before them online (hmm – even if they are simply ‘putting someone else’s ideas online’ surely that’s a good thing if people who would not ordinarily have seen them might come across them online?). Personal relationships that can be built online could have a positive impact in 20 years or so.

Who defines fair trade? Producers should define fair trade and consumers have the power to boycott or not. The WFTO is perhaps already there, and we hope FLO will get there in due course.

Equitable sharing of the labour: producers could work to build the structures of fair trade movement within their own continents. Meanwhile northern fair trade organsations could be lobbying, negotiating to get the fair trade movement forward in governance. The ‘one voice’ (with all working to their strengths, collaborating, communicating).

“Government should…” session. Should it be the government that is responsible? There is a sense of burn out amongst activists; they’re not sure where they’re going next. With issues such as corruption, they have lost a bit of faith. It is not just shopping; ‘don’t just buy, do’.

(This is an open space session so I will try and draw out the main themes of discussion as it flows).

Studio Allaya is a craft based organization that supports producers so that they can take charge of their own enterprises themselves. Climate change is a part of this.

Café Direct is at the end of a 3 year project: chaotic weather conditions had impacted sales however the producers did not see this as a result of climate change. There is a need for education of climate change alongside fair trade. It would make sense for fair trade organsations to partner up with organisations that specialise on climate change.

75% of the environmental issues of coffee trade is the kettle boiling over here, not where it’s made.

Sustainability is seen as an add on – it must be a part of fair trade.

Children and young people are ‘where it’s at’ with climate change – it sits well with this age group, they are open to learning and can carry it forward. They’re the future (and not corrupt!). Children of the 80s and 90s are ‘brand obsessed’ and move from one project to the next (we talked about children of the 60s/70s growing up worrying about the costs of electricity so cutting back on expenditure; and children of the 80s/90s not having money worries or long term concerns about energy resources and the climate – yes it was a generalisation; however children of today are the ones who will be living with what we do – or don’t do – now).

There is a short window of time to change as by 2050 we will see the impact of climate change and fair trade has to play a part of this now.

‘Our land is barren; not because we can’t grow on it but because we can’t sell from it’

Environment education is needed at both ends of the chain; producers and consumers.

‘Live simply’ : do we really need to buy flowers in winter? but if we stop now – we have already instigated the supply-demand… ‘To trade or not to trade: let it be fair trade’.

We need to address adaptation requirements of producers; what are the climate change implications for them? Should it be funded by the big organisations as they are getting so much benefit from fair trade?

The fair trade movement will need to move from an ‘enable-centric’ market to an ‘equal-centric’ market.

We need to adopt a more cautious approach to consumption: FLO (fair trade labeling) is one part and the other is the fair trade market run by WFTO-type organization.

Could social media could help change this?

Trade negotiations may seem dull but when it comes to rich countries ripping off poorer countries the fair trade movement can understand this and empathise with this so should be a part of that process. (Mike Gidney).

How far do we see campaigning for long term sustainable change going? Buying fair trade does help of course; but for the long term we need to be campaigning in a more robust and coherent way.

The EU is trying to downgrade the political component and look at the technical negotiations. These do not make headlines though; as you need to fully understand these technical aspects in order to report as a journalist (also it is not very exciting!). EPAs campaign has done a good job of raising the profile but still the ACPs are in a weak negation situation. There is a race between the EU and the US for a market share in China.

‘Engagement v boycott’

This was later summed up in the closing session: ‘from the producers’ perspective, networks are not succeeding as much as they could as they have been sidelined somewhat in political activism; dissipated somewhat as fair trade has gone mainstream. This is a travesty for the 76 countries from the ACP; we must bring this to light. It is treated as a technical issue but it’s not – it will kill people’.

Immediately after the session, I made an Audioboo thinking about what I’d heard and how different the mood was from a similar session at Brighton last week:

16:08 Absolutely packed session on the Creative Industries at the #nesta fringe meeting in Manchester

Jonathan Kestenbaum says opportunities and barriers are great; lots of issues to discuss; about 5 mins from each panelist. Then discussion.

Timforchange Just realised martha lane fox is on the panel, great online entrepreneur. 

Martha Lane-Fox

16:09 Digital is exciting but more technical people  don’t always have the necessary levels of business acumen – so this is a key issue not to be forgotten.   Digital inclusion is ‘hyper-relevant”. It’s right and it’s economically valid. Unlocking more people and including them unlocks more markets.

16:10 Creativity can be unleashed through inclusion. [mentions her activity as 'semi-royal visits].  Deprived iner city wards can also particpate – example of Knowle West near Bristol and www. greenfootprints.org; an initiative of Lil – a gardener who created gardens and new media with young people – this is a great initiative for the local economy and society.

16:14 Timforchange Martha lane fox recommends social action project between elderly + youth see www.greenfootprints.org.  

Simon Waldman – Guardian Media Group

16:15 Fear and excitement characterise the media over the past few years of radical transformation. Very exciting and very scary.  Need smart innovative start-ups as well as MSM – need to help media businesses trasnform.

Three specific things to highlight:

• BBC and good governance; need to make sure BBC behaves well
• A more liberal approach to newspaper ownership; especially cross-media
• The world and ecosystem of search and content aggregation

Tremendous times to live in. And possibility of great growth -[ but care needed to preserve what we've got].

Sue Woodward – Sharp Project and Manchester’s Commission for the New Economy

16:20 Second biggest media hub in UK, lots of radio, lots of old and new media. 100,000 students. 60,000 people in hardware and software. 87,000 people in creative industries.  Important is the continuing commitment from City government. And Manchester has a major internet exchange. Sue mentions importance of new investment of new networks. Need to expand the infrastructure of the City Region.

16:22 Digital infrastructure needs significant investment to create new businesses and new jobs. Needs infrastructure Capex which cannot come from existing infrastructure. Needs intervention. [Audience approves, perhaps, certainly reacts!]

Jonathan Kestenbaum says we need politicians who have been ‘out there’ in the real world – introducing Jeremy Hunt as someone who qualifies for that description.

Jeremy Hunt – Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

16:24 Started as a publisher and we concluded that the internet would ‘kill’ course directories. So we became an internet company. Spoke to Martha [laughter] at lastminute.com [she obviously has no recollection of this at all].  It’s exciting and there are opportunities. Internet can transform the lives of non-technical users. Anecdote of his Grannie and ‘the Silver Generation’ using a chat room. Groups of people can be lonely and the internet can make powerful connections.

16:24 Timforchange Jeremy hunt went to get advice from martha lane fox, when setting up his company ‘hot courses’. She doesn’t remember.

16:26 There is a broader internet phenomenon which is about the democritisation of innovation and the creation of a new ‘Trade Route’. For the UK this is a huge opportunity and if we get it right we can capture the opportunites. Our regulation is too heavy handed – Communications Act 2003 is not sufficient to deal with the reality of the internet. Media ownership rules are not helpful to new business models.

Need to ‘de-regulate on a massive scale’.

16:29 Intellectual property is an issue and we won’t vote against Mandelson’s bandwidth throttling plans.

16:30 Need new models for local media and we need to look at the potential for local TV – we are unusual in not having our own local TV stations.

Need much faster development of fibre infrastructure – ducts need to be open; like the developments in France of opening up France Telecom’s duct infrastructure.

16:33 Timforchange We need to make much better progress in getting uk connected-roll out of high speed broadband. #cpc09 #nesta

Now moving on to Questions and Discussion

Martin Smith Ingenious Media – alarming talk about the Digital Economy bill not going through. The creative economy is £58.3 bn. Need to get a bi-partisan approach to the bill.

Richard Mollet BPI – tax treatment of IP and innovation is to change. Any comments from Trasury colleagues?
[Couldn't hear name] formerly Dir of Innovation and Strat NHS choices. West Midlands SHA contract on local TV and Health? Any joined up thinking?

“Top-slicing of the licence fee is mad and we won’t support it” – Jeremy Hunt MP.

Sue Woodward makes the point that we can use technology to save cost and help people live longer in their own homes.

Q from Debbie in York (via internet) – about media ownership – but it’s about the print industry being able to consolidate geopgraphically.

Q from: Nick from Channel 4 – re cuts in public spending. How can Govt spend be used to drive innovation and improve health – example of Maverick TV.

Q from: Andy Cook – who represents Magazine Publishers. Cites importance of Google search – a real concern because of the power of Google.

Q from: Jeff – Quadriga Consulting – how can Governemnt act as an exemplar of how to use digital media?

Jeremy Hunt – “The money has all gone and we need to recognise that”

Hunt continues; need to create an environment that supports risk taking.  Government can be an exemplar in the sue of IT. But we need to learn the lessons of failed government IT contracts. Mission creep results in over spend.  Need small-scale projects that can be innovative and result in useful new initiatives not strangled by bureaucracy.

Sue Woodward gives example of Sharp Project – ’spend buttons’ but get new space from an old warehouse. Doesn’t necessarily need big money. Needs more basic conditions and flexibility.

Simon Waldman – Google does not invest in content in the UK. They are an innovative business. They have grown the internet in the UK probably better than the BBC has.

Martha Lane-Fox. Google is concerning and needs to be watched. But has no solution. Maybe we can encourage diversity in search-engine use?

Q from webcast re tax breaks and tax take from internet users to be ploughed back into new developments.

JH says ISPs are ruthlessly competitive. Can’t see price going up.

Martha Lane-Fox says tax credits made no difference to lastminute.

Q from: Caroline Deal – Media trust – any plans for joining up by taking young people ‘off the dole’ and helping them to be creative and become a new gen of digital and social entrepreneurs?

Q from: Ian Forrester from BBC SW (via internet) re ‘bandwidth throttling’ causing a problem with innovation.

JH says Welfare to Work will incentivise creative industries to create new jobs.

Sue Woodward – some educators see media studies as ‘not proper’ needs a change of tone as they can support new educated software engineers and physicists – creating high value jobs.

[session ends at 1700]

I’m on my way home from the Birmingham Social Media Cafe “Data, Mashups and APIs” event, sponsored by The Guardian.

The purpose of the event was to present a range of ways that open data is being generated, processed and implemented, ranging from maps showing live data on where trains are on a map based on train time information, to lists of how many times the police use tasers in different parts of the country, from the Guardian Data store.

Here’s Christian talking to Michael Brunton-Spal about the Data Store:

Most of the data being showcased at the event was in some way being used to improve accessibility to useful information by the general public, and to advance the democratic process by presenting data in ways that makes it easier for us to hold our various elected bodies to account for what they do on our behalf (particularly, the MySociety suite of sites and services).

Christian talking to Matthew Somerville of MySociety about data, government and FOI requests:

One of the pleasing things about being there with an Amplified hat on (both Christian Payne and I went along) was that the language used about data information was similar to the way that we approach the sharing of ideas at Amplified events. The pooling of intellectual resources in this kind of way can only be a good thing, and it’s great to see The Guardian leading the way in making the information in their data store available for anyone to mash-up, remix, and visualise in whatever way they like (with proper accreditation, of course).

Amplified events are all about digging deeper into ideas, tossing them around, building on each other’s thoughts and processes and documenting those so people outside can benefit and maybe run with a particular project or find collaborators, or inspiration. When people from different networks are exposed to the ideas that have been percolating within each of the groups, all kinds of collaboration of fresh thinking can ensue. That’s what we hope to continue to facilitate.

So many great ideas have come out of the various Amplified events so far, and we’re looking forward to seeing what comes out of the £1.40 conference that we’re holding in November in London – more on that soon!

We’ve had a week to recover from the frantic Amplification of the CSLive event last week

The relationship between the civil service and social media is an awkward one, at best. Of course, many many civil servants are using social media platforms in their non-work life, but unclear policy statements on what they can and can’t do online makes it tricky for them to be ‘out and proud’ as civil servants, and very few are able to use social media services for work as anything other than a glorified RSS feed.

So what we ended up doing was 4-fold:

• Documenting the actual sessions (Joanne and Lucy did an outstanding job of writing up and commenting on much of the stuff coming out of the keynote sessions, often updating them in real-time for anyone who wanted to follow online.)
• Reportage from around the conference floor (Christian and Benjamin did a fair bit of this on the first day, via Qik, which gave a pretty fun overview of what was going on…)
• Recording conversations that were happening outside of the structure of the event – trade shows are incredibly predictable affairs, but the conversations that go on in the corridors and over coffee often have far far-reaching implications, if only those blue-sky thoughts could be documented and built on. We did some of that, with civil servants of all levels
• Informally consulting on – and demonstrating – the way that social media works, what it actually is, how things are found, how stories are followed and how information gets out.

The recorded conversations was, I think, the hardest element to get right - on the first day, a lot of people were, understandably, very nervous of being recorded. The initial idea had been to run a ‘diary room’ where people could candidly be video’d about the conference, their work, and anything else. That didn’t happen. Most civil servants are, on pain of death, instructed not to talk to ‘the press’ about what they do. We looked like the press. FAIL.

So we shifted it to conversations about social media, and then if they had anything they wanted us to record off the back of that, we’d do a little ‘interview’ – very friendly and controlled, nothing scary or job-threatening.

What I loved about these recorded conversations is how the people I spoke to accidentally answered each other’s questions. Those who were fluent in social media – particularly Jenny Brown and Nick Jones – explained their relationship to social media while working in goverment in terms that the rest of the interviewees – who outlined their issues and fears about social media – would understand and hopefully be able to implement. One of the best things about working with the COI is that they are right at the heart of all of these conversations. Most of the people I spoke to that were forming social media policies within their departments were doing so in conjunction with the COI. That’s great news.

So it would seem that we now need to build a platform whereby this stuff can be share AFTER the event between the people who contributed.

So here were the Audioboo interviews with those who had questions about social media:

Firstly, Darren Weale of the Home Office - a lovely bloke, who seems to get the potential of social media, but who outlines many of the concerns that Civil Servants have about its usage:

Maxine MacKenzie has more hands-on experience of social media at work, thanks to her working at Direct.gov, but again, is all too aware of the problems of ‘unmoderated’ communications when social media is viewed as a broadcast/advertising channel. Here comment that “social media isn’t just the remit of the comms team, but for everyone at direct.gov” is really smart (and once again, advised by COI):

Rachel Neaman of the Dept of Health was perhaps the most wary of the role that social media plays in disseminating information, working as she is on the swine-flu situation, trying to get medical information out to people that need it. In this 2-part interview, it’s apparent that she’s deeply committed to people getting the best info that they can, but I think that many of her fears about the way information is shared on social media platforms would be put to rest if she jumped in and started talking to people (her faith in newspapers to do a balanced job of getting the information out there seems scarily misplaced, having seen the misinformation about swine flu over the last few days.)

Which leads nicely onto the two people that I spoke to in the civil service who most fully seemed to grasp the potential for social media in both internal and external government communications – Nick Jones of the COI, and Jenny Brown, who works with the MOJ web team:

None of these conversations were being recorded elsewhere. The rest of the audioboos recorded – by me and the rest of the team – are findable on the audioboo site. Please feel free to take and embed any of them you find interesting and want to comment on - this stuff is out there to be discussed, to be shared, to be agreed with, disagreed with, quoted, and used to learn. The ongoing conversation will be exponentially greater than the sum of its parts as the web of information builds and commenters add value to each other’s findings

We’ll start with Alastair Campbell’s opening address, detailing the theme of the event, ‘Innovation in Action: what does it mean?’.  Keep refreshing this page for updates to the live blog.

09:48 Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s pre-recorded message is screened, thanking the civil servants for their efforts and indicating the financial crisis.

09:50 Alastair Campbell is introduced as our host and he is appreciative of a short intro.  He notes that he was asked to speak about his time with civil servants, and after initially refusing he decided to accept but now wants to sell his book outside!

09:55 Campbell tells the story of his first dealings with civil service as a new government minister.  It took him awhile to adapt and he felt that his PA was loyal to his predecessor.  Tried to replace her initially but he was unable to replace her. Then as time went by and they worked it out, he found her indispensible and was one of the few people he could not do without.  He received the same loyalty his predecessor had done.  This is the practice of the civil service: the assistance and access to information and resources that would otherwise be extremely difficult to access.

09:59 Campbell notes that in times of crisis – Diana’s death and the Omagh bombing given as examples – the civil service machine simply kicks in and communicates, feeds, supports and facilitates all that is required to deal with the crisis.

10:01 Civil Service machine necessary so that the actions of the government can be executed.  Yet the public service ethos is under significant attack in public mindset.  This means civil servants become far too defensive about the good things they do.  The very fact that you go in to the civil service there is an understanding of the public service ethos and work ethic.

10:09 When it comes to the changes in the structure of government, implications are substantive for the civil service.

[[JJ's note - lots of story telling here but not actually sure where we're going with this.  Apparently Campbell is trying to make civil servants feel happy about themselves, but not sure whether he's dancing around the issue of forthcoming widescale change in the civil service, or whether he's just promoting his diaries!]

10:16 Around the world there is surprise that there is such a small circle of special advisors around a minister. Those special advisors are not independent but they are impartial, and thus there is a mutual understanding and respect for the tasks and responsibilities they carry out.

10:19 Any bigger organisation has to have some strategic element and there is no larger organisation than government.  The only way we can respond to serious issues is to operationalise the benefits of a well-run department of special advisors.

[JJ's note: still don't know what Innovation in Action is meant to be.]

10:22 Number 10 on Campbell’s list of things you have to do to make the machne of government work is: “Encourage innovation in an organisation in a non-blame culture”. If civil servants feel that they have an opportunity to improve the outputs of ministers they should be able to do so – going above and beyond what is expected of them.

Question 1: Media and politicians direct their attention to old media and not enough to new media. [YAY!]

AC Response – media is completely transformed. Biampbell worries less about both new and old media as people are generating their own understanding of what is happening. Need to ensure the core strategy is strong, clear and understood internally and that all media are being used to transmit messages.

Question 2: How far do you think the media generally understand what the civil service is and what it does.

AC response: Understanding is not deep but they don’t really care about that. Journalists rarely are interested in the activities of the civil service because it is rarely newsworthy. Civil Service need to communicate their functions themselves in order to ensure raised morale and recruitment quality.

Question 3: Look forward to reading the book. If you are to be a footnote in history, what would it be?

AC Response: A FOOTNOTE??? To be frank, I can’t see much thinking about what I will be remembered for.  Because we are a democracy you remember a leader for their programme changes across a range of areas.  You don’t remember individuals within the team outside of the leader.  Campbell believes he was able to make some changes in communication in part because of changes in media.

Question 4: If there’s one thing that slows things down in civil service it’s ‘getting sign off’.  How do you circumvent.

AC Response: Errrm.  A well run department is one with clear direction and leadership and which works well.  Yes Campbell occasionally circumvented process but only as a privileged advisor.  Yes it’s frustrating, but sometimes, taking the time if it’s necessary is a good thing.

Question 5: You said if the brown smelly stuff hits the fan, you should stick your head above the parapet.  What do you mean by that?

AC Response: When things go bad, you take a lot of hits.  You need to still be there because it’s better to take those hits and to explain, apologising where necessary and to set out a forward plan.

Question 6: How do you ensure interest in modern media age?

AC Response: politicians with the abaility to speak clearly in 140 characters and have authenticity and candour will be more attractive to new media.

The program for the day is at nlabresilience.eventbrite.com and the hashtag is #NLAB – follow the twitter discussion here.

Also worth checking out the NLAB site here.

I’ll be recording some thoughts via Audioboo as the day goes on, here’s the first of them -

[1:33] Here are the terms listed on the flip-chart, and their descriptions (via struct.ning.com)

• Mobbability
• Influency
• Ping Quotient
• Protovation
• Open Authorship
• Multi-Capitalism
• Longbroading
• Signal To Noise Management
• CoOperation Radar

And here is Sue Thomas’ round-up of the terms, and today’s attendees judgement of their own proficiency in those areas, from the NLabs site.

Interview with Yaryare, from a Somali community internet radio service:

Video commissioned by NLAB by Andrea Saveri for today:

Two more Audioboos with attendees:

Here’s Toby Moores’ 2 minute description of how he is ‘Amplified’:

And finally, a round up interview with attendee Pip Greasley:

With all eyes on TED at the moment it’s worth noting that there’s a brand new university being put together with an almost one of a kind program and faculty:

Singularity University aims to assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity’s grand challenges.

Lots more to read over on the Singularity University website.

Photo credit: PhotonQ-Columbo Investigating the Singularity by photonquantique (CC licence)

It’s actually a fair call.  Shirky has probably been in social media longer than most of the people on the Digital Britain Steering Committee and he’s certainly done a lot more to convince businesses and government officials alike of the value of new media.  But Shirky himself is an academic, and he’s not as connected to the British technology business scene as he’d need to be to really deliver on a costed, and tactical Digital Britain report.

But the Amplified collective are connected to British business and the social media, technology and creative scene.  We are the kind of people who should be participating in this kind of decision making because we collectively have experience across a wide range of sectors and we can cost projects, connect with providers or services and think creatively about how to solve access and participation problems.  We make decisions about the values and problems associated with interfaces, protocols and infrastrcture every day.  We mediate connectivity and we filter for meaning.

In short, the Amplified community are probably the best qualified group of industry professionals to advise on digital policy in Britain today.

But we weren’t asked to contribute prior to the publishing of the Interim Report at all.  And where we have been asked to respond – as all British residents and citizens have been given the option to respond – it is in writing to the Digital Britain team, or by participating in TED-style Digital Britain summit events across the UK in April and May.

If Amplified’s ambition is to make the UK into the most connected (and perhaps connective) place on the planet, then we need to be involved in the decision making process here because we actually know what is going on.  We’re not a bunch of disconnected researchers and policy wonks, but creators, entrepreneurs and networkers who can best advise on how to pull off a strategy that will actually result in a genuinely Digital Britain.

I’m suggesting that Amplified set up some topics in the regional events in February and May (and in between) that can actually help solve universal access to broadband services affordably and efficiently, and that focus investment on social media technologies and services that will assist the British economy.  Let’s show them how it’s done.