Songkick – Personal Live Music Listings

New favourite thing alert!
Songkick is a service which scans your listening habits and tells you when bands you like are playing.
I signed up and after downloading a quick app and scanning my Itunes (took about 5 minutes), I had this on my profile page:

I love all of these bands to pieces and they’re all playing [...]

DConstruct – talking was better than the talks

DConstruct was good fun, although as usual 90% of the value for me was outside of the talks (and it really was worth it – I had a great time).
It did leave me thinking – do we really need speakers at conferences any more?
I read so much on the web at the moment that I [...]

Birmingham Bloggers’ Meetup

Just got back from the meet up at Rooty’s, going to write a very quick one before bed. It was a great evening – really good fun and loads of good ideas to think about.
I think the Brum social media cafe idea that was coming out is killer. I’d definitely join and will help out [...]

Graphjam. Pop culture piecharts ahoy.

Very much in the B3ta.com vein, check out Graphjam for some real, user-generated goodness. Very funny.
Some good ones:

I really want to write something profound about the social objects but I’m just too tired. I will soon, I promise.

Save the Spotted Dog! (or for non-brummies, a lesson in how to use social media to save your local pub)

This is great.
If you’re not familiar with the goings on in Digbeth, Birmingham then the basic story is that a few residents of brand new flats in Digbeth (well known capital of the Brum music scene) are complaining about the noise. The Spotted Dog is right in the firing line and is under threat of [...]

A Web Page for Every Species

This is one of the most fascinating posts I’ve read this year so far. It’s the story behind The Encyclopedia of Life.
It has it all: An ambitious idea way ahead of its time; an eight year story from idea through to conception; a fascinating mix of world-wide collaboration, physical devices (a handheld species identifier if [...]

Wishful Linking: Daily Links for Creative Professionals

Mark McGuinness’ new project is a must for anyone working in the creative sector.
I’ll let him explain:

I’ve just created a new blog, Wishful Linking, to share links that may be useful and/or interesting to you as a creative professional. So if you’d like me to send you links to web pages about creativity, creative careers, [...]

Don’t give ANYTHING away for free. Do you hear me??

I went to a C4 event last week about the legal issues around collaboration and Intellectual Property.
Nothing particularly earthshattering to report; however I must say I was surprised with what seemed to be a rather negative attitude towards Creative Commons (a new set of alternatives to Copyright, some of which allow others a greater [...]

The Social Global Microbrand

A concept I use a lot in my work is that of the Global Microbrand, a company that "stays small but sells all over the world".
Working with social enterprises and other socially focussed organisations I started to realise that this concept could apply quite neatly to an organisation’s social impact as well as its financial [...]

Tool Tips: 10 sites that make running a business easier (Digital Central)

Post of the week this week goes to Stef Lewandowski for Tool Tips: 10 sites that make running a business easier on the new, improved Digital Central website.
Whatever kind of business you’re part of, check this out. You’re bound to find some useful stuff in here. Great stuff.
Great to see that one of the top [...]