The Campaign Company Blog

From Elliptical Galaxies to Potholes......

I have previously mentioned Grid Republic as a social network for a scientific or medical purpose, whereby a community of people across the world get together to use their spare computing power to do distributed computing with a capacity in terraflops - ie very big - through a rather clever screensaver download.

However this is a passive form of science where one just allows one's computer to be used for a wider purpose.

Yesterday evening I discovered Galaxy Zoo - a far more exciting piece of scientific endeavour where you can directly contribute to the scientific work online.

In this case you are helping astrophysicists to map distributions of various types of galaxy (elliptical and spiral are the two broad forms, but there are lots of sub-groups) by joining the online team (now 115,000 strong since the project started in July 2007) assessing photos of over 200 million objects taken by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). This will assist with a far greater understanding of the lifecycle of galaxies, many of which go through mergers to move from spiral to elliptical - our own Galaxy's probable fate.

Whilst computers can be used to assess many things, when it comes to indistinct photos of two merging galaxies edge on to earth view the eye and the brain are still superb tools. However the sheer amount of data being generated means scientists and their students do not have the time to do this themselves and should they be wasting their discovery time anyway?

This is a project where anyone online at home can help.

You need no prior knowledge to take part in the work. Once you join Galaxy Zoo you are given simple online tutorials and in order to start assessing pictures you then take a short online test where you have to get 8 out of 15 pictures right - this is because they get up to 35 people to look at each photo and then recheck any disagreements between viewers.

Having passed the test you can then assess photos. For someone like myself who spent every non cloudy night from the age of 10 to 11 outdoors in the evening doing astronomy, this is a much warmer experience and could get quite addictive in a Sudoku sort of way! I did 45 galaxies last night and have resisted doing it tonight only so I could blog about it.

Apart from its benefits to astrophysics, I have started to think whether such a system could be used in other more terrestrial areas of activity.

A few came to mind:

• Assessing the millions of earth satellite photos to identify issues such as climate change and land use. On a more local level TCC has a project called Carbon Crime Stoppers and I wonder whether a photo assessment system could work with that?
• It could be used for community engagement where residents could both submit and assess street scene photos that either other residents had taken of the Council regularly took from its front-line staff going about their daily duties with handheld PDA's. This of course would be a culture change for local government where it effectively employed teams of online resident non-professionals. However creating resident buy in with the prioritisation of street scene issues could be a great way of developing community cohesion in the future.
• Assessing biodiversity in local authority parks and gardens through the taking and assessment of photos. Again this could bring together communities in worthwhile projects.

The above are just tentative thoughts and I would welcome further suggestions.

What is interesting is that this sort of project could give young people a strong and empowered role in any local activity. Galaxy Zoo says it has young people from 8 years old upwards assessing photos.

Therefore in years to come both science and community cohesion could strongly benefit from online communities collaborating to solve problems. What might have started as project to understand galactic evolution could be just the thing to massively expand the collaboration between local authorities and the communities they represent.

Do something good with your Xmas cards!

As the company that proudly devised the Recycling for Real method of consultation, we were pleased to read about the Woodland Trust's Christmas Card Recycling scheme launched last week by Anna Ryder Richardson (she of lovely houses and jungle fame).

The target this year is to collect 100 million cards, which will enable 24,000 trees to be planted and save 2,600 tonnes of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases - the same as taking over 800 cars off the road for a year!

Special collection bins will be available throughout January at mainland WHSmith High street stores, Tesco stores, any TK Maxx stores and M&S stores.

So now that it's twelfth night and your decorations are down, get yourself down to one of those places now, do your bit and feel extremely good in the process!

Global Cool

‘Global Cool’, a new 10 year environmental initiative was officially launched earlier this week. The idea of the campaign, says its founder Dan Morrell, is that:

‘Over the next 10 years the solutions-based campaign of Global Cool will be launching a series of educational and entertaining programmes, and inspirational and upbeat global events, aimed at empowering individuals to make a difference.’

The campaign is backed by a host of celebs who plan to ‘bring entertainment to the environment, put on shows and make programmes and send you playful texts and generally sing to you and tell you stories and tease you until you care.’ The website’s quite fun – particularly like the ‘CoolTube’ video section.

It's Christmas again... well almost!

After a fantastic response to our Christmas e-card we are delighted to announce the winner of our charity prize draw. The £500 donation will go to Diabetes UK, nominated by Sue Ellwood of the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). As promised, the first twenty people to submit their choice will also receive a free water-powered alarm clock - all those of you will shortly know who you are!

Didn't like your Xmas pressies?

Then swop them for something you do like! ChanceXchange is a free service where you can trade unwanted films, cds and books for things that you really do want. Now I wonder if someone has West Wing 7 to swop . .

Good 'elf from Sarah

As Sarah is saying goodbye to the company this week she wanted to show off a usually well hidden talent.

Please click the link below and enjoy...

http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=bae9927f0435cfe5fc22d40G06122004

True or false? Christmas facts

Below are statements about Christmas - can you work out if they're true or false?  (Some of them aren't directly related to Christmas, but interesting anyway)

Saint Nicholas of Myra, the original Santa Claus, was the patron saint of children, thieves and pawnbrokers.

A traditional Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig prepared with mustard.

On Christmas Eve in 2001, the Bethlehem Hotel had 208 of its 210 rooms free.

On Christmas Day in Belgium, it is legal for police officers to throw bananas at children

Cows don't have upper front teeth

The word 'mistletoe' means 'dung on a twig' in Anglo-Saxon

It was illegal to celebrate Christmas in England during the mid fifteenth century.

The Canadian Post Office has given Santa Claus his own official postal code at the North Pole.

NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) tracks Santa and his sleigh every year on radar.

Whoever has me as their secret Santa….

...then I think that other Chimphouse residents would be very pleased if you bought me a pair of these:

http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/17/electrolux-unveils-vacuum-shoe-concept/

Vacuum Shoes – brilliant!!

The (Kitchen) Appliance of Science

A bit of a confession to start with – I wasn’t very interested in, or for that matter very good at, science at school. All those chemicals, molecules and Bunsen burners were never really my thing, and I think that is a shame as really this kind of subject ought to get us all thinking – particularly bright young minds in schools.

Now, although this post will concentrate on science I think there is a deeper element to it; that of getting young people (particularly boys) interested in learning at school.

Well, the other day this all came back to me when I was flicking through the (best ever) edition of food monthly in the Observer. I never normally read it but this edition concentrated on the future of food and particularly the recent developments in ‘molecular gastronomy’.

Rather than the elitist stuff normally printed about Heston Blumenthal there was a great article about a French chemist called Herve This (pronounced Tiss) who was pioneering this type of cooking years before the Fat Duck was taken over by HB.

Anyway, This has discovered the following:

• how to uncook an egg.
• produce 24 litres of mayonnaise with a single yolk
• baked an egg for an hour at 55°C, managing somehow to leave the yolk 'exceptionally smooth and tender'.

And, over 10 years ago he was investigating colloids (substances that are neither completely solid nor liquid, such as emulsions, mousses and gels) and devised a system of formulae based on the dispersion of gases, liquids and solids within each other.

So, where am I going with this? Well, some of This’s teachings have made it into the French education system - former French Minister of Education, Jack Lang, introduced La Casserole des Enfants into schools and Hervé came up with a list of 10 different experiments that could be carried out by primary- school children.

I thought this was a brilliant way of getting pupils interested in what they are doing. Carrying out experiments with everyday food – think about it everything that happens with food is part of a chemical reaction, such as mushrooms turning black after being chopped.

Getting a bit carried away with this blog but seriously, how cool is this? Or is it just me. I reckon I’d have been loads more interested in chemistry and science if someone had been teaching me this kind of stuff.

Read the article here: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/futureoffood/story/0,,1969723,00.html

I can’t say how interesting the food monthly supplement was this month, particularly the Spanish restaurant El Bulli, the Head Chef of which came up with an excellent dish (amongst the many innovative creations) of a gin and tonic, which is served in a glass but is the consistency of a foam!!! Cool.

But as I say, there are deeper things to this post than merely being impressed with the way food is prepared these days. Anyone got any ideas on how to make school more interesting?

I’ll do it, but only if you’ll help me do it

Victor Keegan writes in the Guardian today about how Citizens' democracy is having an impact. He talks about a new pressure group, Open Rights which has recently been set up to campaign for 'people's rights in the digital age when decision-making is dominated by governments and the huge lobbying power of the music and publishing industries'. It's apparently already become a force to be reckoned with, having had an impact on making the Gowers review of intellectual property rights, published this week, more consumer-friendly.

The group was set up through Pledgebank.com – a website through which people promise to do something as long as a specified number of others pledge to do the same. It’s one of a growing number of social initiatives started by MySociety – ‘a community of a small paid core of developers in the middle of a larger crowd of volunteers, friends, and supporters – which builds websites to give people simple, tangible benefits in the civic and community aspects of their lives. Other sites it has built include:

writetothem.com – through which you can contact your MP, councillor or MEP

hearfromyourmp.com - which invites MPs to tell constituents what they are doing petitions.pm.gov.uk – which makes it easy to send petitions to Number 10

NeighbourhoodFix-it – coming soom, to help people to report issues such as graffiti in their local neighbourhood by marking the trouble spot on an online map.

Is anyone aware of anything similar?

And I’ll pledge something if the rest of TCC do too – any suggestions?!

A great fact for a Friday

Jonathan expressed frustration today about the use of the semi colon - when to use it, and when not to.  The website Essortment gives a pretty good explanation, I've quoted below:

'The semicolon is a simple piece of punctuation, much easier to work with than the comma because it follows fairly clear rules. If you learn the two simple rules explained here, you'll rarely go wrong. It has two main uses, which are both easy to identify. You use it to connect two independent clauses together into one sentence, and you use it as a super-comma. You can use it in a few other unusual situations, but they come up rarely, and there are other ways to handle those situations. Learn them if you want to be perfect, but if you learn to recognize the two primary uses, you will do fine as semicolon user.'

If you want any more information, this is the site to visit:  http://msms.essortment.com/semicolon_rcnr.htm

It's pretty good!!

maps are still cool

Jack and Sarah have recently blogged about our Emotimap work in East Sussex. In the meantime, Londoners have also been mapping their area through the Museum of London’s ‘Map My London’ project – a kind of online variation of our emotimap which invites Londoners to map their memories of their local neighbourhoods. Check it out at www.mapmylondon.com. At a conference I was at today, a representative from Transport for London also talked about a similar-sounding new project they will soon be launching which will also involve maps and people sticking flags in particular areas to describe what they think needs doing there. So GPS Satnavs might be all the rage right now, but the trusty map lives on in the consultation world!

Maybe team Hannah can add this to the Carbon Crime-stopper goodie bag?

An apparently series (and ingenious) suggestion from Japan.

Eco-friendly bra doubles as shopping bag

Lingerie manufacturer Triumph International Japan has unveiled a new type of brassiere that can be converted into a shopping bag. Called the "No! Shopping Bag Bra" (NO! reji-bukuro bra), the environmentally-friendly lingerie is designed to promote the reduction of plastic bag consumption, a key objective of the revised Containers and Packaging Recycling Law hammered out by Japanese lawmakers in June.

Each year, Japanese shoppers receive an estimated 30 billion plastic shopping bags, which, in terms of the oil resources needed to produce them, amounts to two giant tankers full of oil (millions of barrels). About 30 per cent of these bags are thrown away without being reused, and since the consumption of plastic shopping bags contributes to environmental problems such as increased energy usage, trash buildup, and global warming due to CO2 released in the garbage incineration process, there are urgent calls to reduce their usage.

When the bra is being worn, the "shopping bag" portions are folded away inside the bra cups, where they serve as extra padding. The bra quickly converts to a shopping bag by removing the bag portions from the cups and connecting the hooks on the bra's underwire. The lace cups serve as decoration along with the shoulder straps, which are disconnected and tied to the top of the bag as ribbons.

The bra - available in red, blue, green, yellow and pink - is made from the Teijin Group's ECOPET brand of polyester fiber, which has been recycled from plastic bottles through the company's patented EcoCircle recycling system. Triumph International Japan has a long history of developing eco-themed bras, with such creations as the Recycle PET Bra (1997), Eco-globe Bra (2004) and Warm Biz Bra (2005).

Falling off a blog...

Today is my last day working for The Campaign Company. It's been an interesting experience. When I joined I'd been freelancing for a while and so it was great to be part of a team once again. In particular, I've really appreciated working with so many funny and supportive people.

TCC is so much more than I expected. I spent ages trawling the web for direct competitors, but there's no one out there who has the same breadth and depth of experience and work areas.

One of the things I particularly admire about TCC is the lack of cynicism. It was built on a genuine belief that people really can be empowered to participate in democracy - from local forums to the global village - and make a real difference to their lives.

In particular, they are hugely successful at engaging with young people - quite an achievement at a time when young people are often dismissed as apathetic. No doubt this is due in part to the number of employees who can be described as young(ish). In fact, I remember scanning their website before my first interview, worried that you obviously had to be young and good looking to work here.

Which brings me nicely onto my final contribution. Having failed to upload the latest photographs of our team to the website, I'll post them here and maybe they'll find their way to the right place...

 

So it's goodbye to Jonathan.

Farewell to David.

 

And of course au revoir from me...

craftivism.com

I told you knitting is for cool people these days! Set up by a graduate of Sociology whose MA focussed on knitting, DIY culture and community development, this site is based on the idea that ‘activism + craft = craftivism. That each time you participate in crafting you are making a difference, whether it's fighting against useless materialism or making items for charity or something betwixt and between’. It's about the not-so-radical notion that activists can be crafters, and crafters can be activists. The site also has a blog, ‘documenting the crafty life. Stitch by stitch by political stitch’.

Come Off It

November 4th is Come Off it Day - the brainchild of Dave Hampton, the self-styled Carbon Coach who invites us to 'flick the switch and commence generation of one of the world’s largest and most overlooked power sources – not Megawatts but Negawatts! Negawatts are created by harnessing people power or, more specifically, people's power of restraint.'

You can also watch the video, with Alistair McGowan extolling the merits of wearing warm jumpers and sounding off about patio heaters.

Environmental Tip of the Week - Toy libraries

The National Association of Toy & Leisure Libraries runs a national scheme called Play Matters, which loans good quality toys to families with young children. There are over 1,000 toy libraries throughout the UK, serving approximately 250,000 children. From an environmental perspective, it is often better to borrow than to buy. Click here for more info.

From supermarket till to Prime Minister?

Last night, Sarah and I were fortunate enough to go to an advance screening of 'The Amazing Mrs Pritchard' - a new BBC drama about a normal woman who works in a supermarket, but then becomes Prime Minister. So disillusioned is she with politics that she decides to create her own political party, the Purple Alliance. Boosted by public support, several MPs switch over to her, until she has enough to form the majority party.

She is played by Jane Horrocks, supported by Steven Mackintosh (you'll recognise  him from loads of programmes...Adrian Mole, Buddha of Suburbia, etc). Sarah's pictured with him here:

Okay, so it's a very blurred pic (don't know why I was wobbling so much) so you can see who he really is by clicking here.

The show's on screen in the first week of October and is made by Kudos - who also make Life on Mars, Spooks, Hustle, etc. Pure quality all round - not least from the writer, Sally Wainwright.

So make sure you tune in. It features lots of political cameos and is funny, moving and enlightening. A must for both political hacks and normal people.

Posing at the TUC

Senior TCC managers claim to have been busy working at the recent TUC conference in Brighton. Yet this is all one of them has to show for his efforts:

A canny likeness, I'm sure you will agree. And nice to see the mobile phone hasn't been surgically removed yet.

Is it right to create fake content for YouTube?

You may have heard of the popular video blog that's been gripping YouTube in recent weeks - that of LonelyGirl15. It appeared she was just that - a lonely girl with a strict father, talking about regular teen issues such as boyfriends, sex, popularity, the meaning of life, etc.

She got a huge following but there was lots of speculation about whether this was part of a big advertising campaign or something similar.

It's now been revealed that it was indeed scripted - but by some relative unknowns who created it on a shoestring. Go here for the full story.

It will be interesting to see if there's a backlash on YouTube and similar places. We've already seen the reaction to corporate videos. But can you stop it happening?...probably not. Is it ethical...as BB would say: you decide!

New TCC product!...culinary engagement

After a weekend spent cake-baking and decorating, and then refereeing 15 three-year olds at a bun fight, the inspiration came for a range of new TCC products, utilising my new-found skills....

Democracy cake: allows everyone a slice of the action! Build your own cake (in the shape of your own particular local authority, perhaps?..or maybe utilise the alphabet and spell out just what you want...or even make your local politicians eat their words?), add a sprinkle of youthful enthusiasm and a few drops of essence of engagement. The results are tasty, to say the least.

And then there's the new TCC podcast: How to have your cake and eat it.
Tune in to watch me demolish every last crumb, whilst sharing my insights into the world of community engagement. Warning: contains talking with my mouth full.

If you can't see the podcast, make sure you come along to the Let's Eat! event next week. Have your say on the latest toppings and stay around for the grand finale - Let's Blow!...working together, I just know we can extinguish those candles.

All of these products have been thoroughly researched and tested. Indeed, the latest TCC opinion poll reveals that 93% of TCC employees think I am a great maker of cakes, whilst a disappointing 37% believe I have now graduated to being A Proper Mum.

Back to the recipe book...

Remember when August was a quiet month...

Time was, that August was the opportunity to sit back and relax, and think about the previous months' hard work and autumn's challenges.

No longer!  This week sees TCC undertaking a major consultation exercise in Cumbria, working in London with the Department of Work and Pensions, Ministers and a collection of young people from all over the UK developing strategies for combatting child poverty and undertaking focus groups for the Bakers' Union in Guisborough and laying the foundations for a Democracy Wall in North Yorkshire.

Look out for regular updates on all of these in the blog!

We are all worms. But I believe I am a glow worm

This weekend Katy and I spent Saturday afternoon having some extra curricula fun and games, and visited the CWM - Cabinet War Museum.  Although slightly dubious at first, we ended up spending hours in there, re living the war years in the bunker, where everything is left exactly the same as it was in 1945.  The Churchill Museum was full of endless memorabilia, and, significantly, great quotes such as 'We are all worms.  But I believe I am a glow worm'.  We definitely recommend it, you learn lots and you can play hide and seek in all the bunker rooms.

Vlogmap

One for Jonathan - Vlogmap.org is a website mapping over 1,000 video bloggers and podcasters worldwide. The site includes a video blogging handbook for new vloggers, community forums and chats, news from the vlogging world and much more!

Respect: Biggin' Up Black History

Last year whilst grocery shopping in Croydon Market I was stopped by some very nice people from Croydon Council brandishing a video camera and microphone. They asked if I could spare a couple of minutes to talk to them about the war. Having recently been one of those people vox-popping at a Videoqube event myself, I empathised and happily agreed. Several months on, enjoying some afterwork drinks with colleagues in the Warehouse I was approached by a familiar face – Jenny – one of the interviewers who gave me a copy of the DVD, including my 15 seconds of fame! The film is really interesting and follows six teenagers from Croydon as they learn about World War II, undertaking research and conducting interviews to gain a better understanding of the sacrifices made by servicemen and first generation immigrants from India, the West Indies and Guyana. You can get a taster of it, and learn a lot about the men and women from the Commonwealth who served during World War II and helped the rebuild of the UK on www.bigginupblackhistory.com

Kings of dot comedy

Interesting article from Saturday's Guardian guide, on the new wave of comedy that is growing up on the internet.  Really shows how new digital mediums can allow for content that goes beyond the online gimmick and becomes genuinely good!

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1826042,00.html

Turn off the air conditioning, take off your clothes

The TUC has called upon British employers to adopt a more relaxed dress code because of the ongoing heat wave.

As well as making workers more comfortable, this move will also allow firms to turn down the airconditioning - good for the environment, and sweetens the deal with the promise of reduced electricity bills.

Full story here - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/18/heatbusting_call/

Friday afternoon......even though it's Monday.

http://www.eatmyhamster.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BtNN6M97q8&search=japanese%20pranks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o2-M4HNbn0&search=japanese%20pranks

http://www.dabreakupsong.com/

Save the Hoodie!

David Cameron's speech about showing more understanding of 'hoodies' reminded me of something a young man (or 'hoodie') representing EC1 New Deal for Communities said at the Youth Matters NDC/NMP consultation event we organised a while back. He was talking about how all too often young people are wrongly percieved as being threatening when they are hanging around in groups, when in fact they are not causing trouble - they just have nowhere else to go and as he put it, their 'only crime is being young'. The rolling out of Youth Opportunity Funds will finally put the power into young people's hands and go some way to ensuring that there are things to do and places to go for young people. TCC is doing a lot in this field already, but I think that everyone should also join Lady Sov's Save the Hoodie campaign!

As the Lady says, 'For too long we've been wrongly stereotyped for what we choose to wear, and now the Hoodie - a piece of clothing - has been getting the blame for everything from anti-social behaviour to criminal activities. Lady Sovereign and her Save the Hoodie Campaign aims to show the jobsworths tryong to ban it how wrong and misguided they are - so we can wear our Hoodies with Pride once more!'

The site includes an on-line petition, photo gallery and save the hoodie internet game. Our very own Lady Sarah Sov models how it's done:

Community telly

It wasn't until I saw my little brother paddling a huge telly around Brighton Pier at the weekend that I actually logged on to find out what TVBrighton.com was all about. And it's a little bit like what our friends at ShoreditchTV are up to... but for Brighton! Community TV is clearly the way forward, as is pedalo marketing!

Rise Festival

If you're at a loose end this Saturday (July 8th) come along to the Rise Festival at Finsbury Park! You can also volunteer to be steward like i am if you want - they're still recruiting helpers.

'Rise: London United' is a free outdoor music and entertainment festival organised by the Mayor of London in association with South East Region TUC and the National Assembly Against Racism (NAAR). It aims to celebrate and develop London as a great multi-cultural city with an active commitment to the elimination of racism. Now in its 6^th year it's Europe’s largest free anti-racist festival, attracting crowds of around 80,000.

Confirmed acts for this year include Common, Graham Coxon, Sway, Buzzcocks, The Wailers, Roy Ayers, Killa Kela, The Duke Spirit and many more.

As part of the festival there will be a Rise week of events from 1 –8th July, on a London-wide level celebrating diversity and opposing racism through a programme of arts, cultural, sporting and social events.

More info on the website

Welcome to the TCC Blog

The Campaign Company (TCC) is a communications consultancy. 

We believe that the success of organisations depends on their ability to connect with people. This connection can only happen when there is a lasting and genuine dialogue between themselves and the communities they serve.

This connection ensures that organisations make good decisions that lead them to thrive – because better decisions are made when people have had the opportunity to participate more fully in the decision making process.

We work with many local authorities, health trusts, New Deal for Communities, Trade Unions and other bodies to increase member or public participation in decision-making processes.

We have extensive experience in community engagement, membership development, strategic communications, issue-based campaigns, political management, youth engagement, fundraising, democracy development, public opinion research, event management and marketing

Our experience and record of success in encouraging and increasing public participation, coupled with our agility and unique package of skills puts us at the cutting edge.

We have decided to launch a blog to better engage with our clients.  We hope that you will find it useful and feel able to contribute to it.