Next Tuesday will see the first Social Media Surgery held in Leeds – so what can you expect to find going on?
I spoke with Leeds organiser John Popham about the launch event as well as an old-hand at these surgeries, Nick Booth of Podnosh in Birmingham.
John: ” People were asking me questions about social media things but this has really come about because I was at the first year anniversary of the surgeries in Birmingham which happened about three weeks ago and people were asking why we weren’t doing it in this region.”
So he’s started it!
Nick explains how it’s worked in Birmingham: ” They are aimed at small charities, community groups and active citizens. They are resolutely informal. Volunteer surgeons pitch up and we sit them next to people who are trying to make a difference in the places where they live. They talk to each other, share skills and go perhaps help people set up web tools. The beneficiaries are welcome to come back time and again to get more help.”
He also offers this recipe to the event.
The Leeds event will be formulated in much the same way and John has already heard that other Yorkshire locations are interested in setting up similar events in Huddersfield, York, Sheffield and Hull so next week’s event could be the first of many.
Sharing some of the experience from Birmingham, Nick says a year of the surgeries in the city have raised awareness in the city about the potential of social media for social good.
“We have also helped to stitch together a few more squares in the patchwork quilt of very, very local blogging. That quilt will, eventually, prove a real democratic asset to the city. We didn’t keep track of every group that has been helped – because at the beginning it was very informal. We know of 22 sites we have helped set up – about half of those are still busy.
“We have also helped a lot of people who were already using the web. We know that the idea has spun off to places as far a field as Sydney, Barcelona and soon South Africa plus surgeries cropping up in a growing number of town/cities in the UK.”
To be in at the start of all this, the Leeds Social Media Surgery is at Round Foundry Media Centre
Foundry Street, Leeds, LS11 5QP from 5.30pm – 7pm on Tuesday, November 10 . Map here.
See you there!
Dim Sum Digital 
This is a great initiative and one which I’m sure local community groups will be more than happy to lap up. Leeds doesn’t have anywhere near the same level of online activism that places like Manchester and Birmingham seem to have – it’s a city waiting for enlightenment!
One small correction to this article – it’s not the first social media surgery in Leeds. I’ve held a couple of such surgeries for umbrella organisation South Leeds Health for All and its many local groups (although these surgeries are very irregular, especially now my job requires me to travel the country).
Great blog you have here, Sarah – I read every day!
LikeLike
sorry about that John – the organisers thought it was the first. I’ll be sure to mention this to them tomorrow – and maybe see you there? Would it be fair to say it’s the first in this particular format?
All the best and thanks for kind words 🙂
LikeLike
Hi John
As Sarah says – we thought we were the first – happy to correct that misapprehension; and very happy to hear that you have beaten us to it with some good work.
Hope to see you at one of our surgeries soon. And let me know when you are doing yours, I’d love to drop in.
LikeLike
No problems John – probably won’t be running one for a while as I’m on a secondment with my ‘proper’ job which has me travelling the country as an editorial trainer, so it’s difficult for me to get to Leeds during most weeks (and I need family time at weekends!).
I’d love to meet up at some stage tho. My project (which is currently seeking funding) is the South Leeds Information Project, which is looking to set up a media hub in the area.
The media hub will help improve residents’ access to information, and also empower local people and groups with a voice by providing access to and training on a variety of media both in-print and online such as blogs, Facebook etc. We aim to run a news website and an in-print community newspaper amongst many other things, including setting up a community reporters scheme.
Hope to get the chance to meet up soon.
LikeLike
Sadly I’m down in Horsham delivering training on JP’s new CMS all this week – otherwise I’d be there in a shot! It would be fair to say it’s the first one in this format though. I’ll probably make contact with John Popham at some stage – it seems common sense to link up his project and mine at some stage.
Cheers Sarah. John
LikeLike