The Tartan TweetMeet will take place on Wednesday 22 February at a number of venues across Scotland, and will allow like-minded individuals to meet and share ideas. There will also be a chance for members of the public to get involved by tweeting questions and suggestions, hopefully leading to some valuable new opportunities for engagement.

Explaining the concept on the event’s website, organiser Carolyne Mitchell (@Cal444) lists the rules for the day:

• They have to be free.
• No business cards allowed.
• There must be a hashtag.
• Come with an open mind and be prepared to share ideas.
• Most of all have fun and make connections

Anyone interested in the event is invited to register to allow organisers to get an idea of numbers. We’re currently exploring suitable venues here in Edinburgh and welcome any suggestions.

You can follow the event at #tartanTM. I look forward to meeting some of you there!

Name labels

Feel free to download and use this label

Download as a printable sheet of labels (designed for Lyreco Multipurpose Labels, 14 per sheet).

GovCamps are self organised unconferences for people that work in and around government. They’re free; have no set, pre-defined agenda; focus on attendee participation; integrate with online stuff and are relentlessly positive, constructive and creative. GovCamps enable folk interested in developing innovation and technology in government to come together in an informal setting to share their ideas. And eat pizza.

There will be two different strands to this year’s event:

• Discussion sessions – the more traditional ‘unconference’ style sessions and presentations
• Hackday – hacking sessions for those who want less of the chat and more making stuff!

We’d love to repeat the success of last year, so sign up and I’ll see you there!

There will no doubt be better places to read about the weekend and projects involved, but here’s a breakdown of my experience, for anyone interested in the process:

19:00 Friday

People gathering for SI Camp. Photo by theps.net

SI Campers gather at the Informatics Forum in Edinburgh for introductions and alcohol

The weekend kicked off with the usual SI Camp ice-breaker of chatting to people before slapping labels on them.

This was a great opportunity to find out more about the different skills and backgrounds that people were bringing to the weekend, as well as to get a better idea of who was hoping to work on which projects.

21:30 Friday

The conversations, and beer, are in full flow

Live link up with South Korea

With the formalities out of the way, including a brief live link up with the South Korean SI Camp happening at the same time, most of us headed to a nearby beer garden to continue the conversations. I was delighted by the level of enthusiasm and excitement coming from everyone, and the fact that many people had come no small distance to be there.

A strong theme I got from several people was that the weekend would enable them to do something that their day job didn’t – to make a real difference to people’s lives. For me, this was a really powerful message and an encouraging sign of things to come.

@prettysimple: Just home from the #sicamped intro drinks, now for a few hours sleep before the real work begins! #sicamp

9:00 Saturday

Coffee and croissants to fuel the day

With a few yawns from those of us who vacated the pub in the wee hours, the event got officially underway with a few instructions, some handy hints, and directions to our allotted rooms. Six teams in total – our team (Lend a Hand) attracting 8 keen individuals.

10:00 Saturday

Meeting the team and hatching the plan

Once in our room (a lovely working space up on the 4th floor), a quick round-the-table gave everyone the chance to say who they were, what they did and why they liked the idea. I can safely say, in hindsight, that we had a great team:

• Catherine (@paisleysays) – my colleague and the person who came up with the idea
• Leah (@lockhartl) – another colleague, bringing web content and social media skills along with an endless supply of enthusiasm and positivity
• James B (@jarofgreen), Steve, James L (@jamestlove) and Neil (@enru) – our developers and designers. These guys would go on to do wonderful things
• Pete – a very laid-back serial entrepreneur and investor, on board to help us get our heads around the business model
• Later on we were joined by James P (@MrJamesPorteous, our 4th James!) and Kirsty. Both brought valuable new energy and James stuck with us until the end

11:00 Saturday

Social Innovation decamp

As lovely and bright as the room was, it proved a little too noisy (a thin partition separating us and the next room) so we decamped to a quieter room.

Having access to two rooms proved useful, allowing the developers to later split off and work in peace whilst the other half of the team could conduct noisier discussions about user journeys, business models and such.

Shortly after, talk turned to our name. Lend a Hand was already in use in a number of contexts, and no decent URL was available for it. After a fair bit of discussion, we settled on Share Care Club. In hindsight we’d probably all agree it wasn’t the best, and is likely to change again, but we had domains to register and brands to build so we stuck with that.

12:00 Saturday

Catch-up

We reconvened before lunch to report back on progress, and to hear from the developers about exactly what they thought would be achievable in the time. Everyone was happy, so we pushed ahead.

13:00 Saturday

Some scribbles.

Mountains of pasta arrive as I make a mad dash for power

The lunch arrived to feed the masses, providing a much needed break and chance to hear from some of the other teams.

Before I could indulge, though, I had to hotfoot it down to a nearby PC shop to grab a new laptop cable – my previous one choosing the worst possible time to die on me (thanks User 2 for having a replacement in stock!).

14:00 Saturday

A moving story from a remarkable man

When I returned, I joined some of the team members who were having a chat with Ralph – an 83 year old gent who had popped in to talk to some of the teams. He had a moving story to tell and his feedback on the potential impact of our idea was wonderful to hear.

Leah would later write about the interview on our project blog.

16:00 Saturday

Not-so-sticky notes

Some free legal advice

Whilst some of the team went off and talked to a few more potential service users, myself and Pete took up the kind offer from local lawyer Dug Campbell (@dugcampbell) of some free legal advice.

Thankfully, no major new issues were revealed, and it was a great chance to flesh out some of our concerns around liability, data protection, revenue streams etc.

18:30 Saturday

Twitter nearly lets us down

Twitter proved a wonderful tool over the weekend, with campers using the #sicamp hashtag to communicate with the central team and post small updates and requests for help.

However, we nearly went hungry when our Twitter stream failed to inform us that dinner had arrived downstairs. Luckily, the massive amount of pizza that had been ordered meant there was more than enough for latecomers.

21:00 Saturday

Into the night

As evening approached, people started to drift home for sleep or other commitments, and by about 9pm the building was significantly quieter.

My main problem at this point, though, was that the proxy server was caching an earlier version of my newly installed blog, and at one point I had to resort to working on my smartphone (not ideal for tired eyes).

A handy tip from SICamp organiser and all-round superhero Glen (@gmehn) got me back on track.

23:00 Saturday

I resisted the lure of the pub, where a few weary but wired campers were heading, and instead headed home for a few more hours work, free from proxy issues.

01:00 Sunday

@prettysimple: Right, that’s me wrapping up for the night. See you all again in a few hours! #sicamp

9:00 Sunday

More coffee and croissants

Gathering downstairs for some caffeine and calories before the second day of hard work, I took the opportunity to chat to some of the other teams as well as some of the people who had been ‘floating’ from room to room offering their expertise in various areas.

Soon after heading upstairs, we were extremely grateful to benefit from a string of visitors popping in to give us advice on business models, our presentation, our branding and lots more.

12:00 Sunday

Crunch time as the technical team deliver

Two of our developers hard at work

We had set a deadline of midday for any coding to stop, as we knew that last minute fiddling is often a recipe for disaster. Shortly after 12, then, we gathered for a technical demonstration of the system.

James B showed us the system – logging on as a potential new ‘sharer’, adding his details, and requesting to join the ‘club’ of the person needing help. He then logged in as the admin, approved the request, and finally sent a test message: “I’ve run out of milk, could anyone get me some more?”.

We held our breaths as we anticipated the next bit… and sure enough, within a few seconds the message came through via SMS to the phones of some of our team.

This had been a major part of our planned pitch – to run a live demo with the mobile number of a member of the audience, and actually have the system send them a SMS, in real time.

We left the room very happy, with just less than 2 hours to pull together the final pitch and put the finishing touches to content and design.

13:59 Sunday

Best laid plans

It had been our intention to come together again at 1pm for a dry run of the pitch. But 1pm came and went and various things weren’t quite ready.

In fact, as the 2pm deadline approached, the reality dawned on us that there would be no time to practice the pitch. Those brave souls stepping forward to present would be doing it unrehearsed.

17:00 Sunday

And what a fantastic job they did

The pitch.

In fact, all presentations were excellent – in equal turns moving, relevant, clever and funny.

I didn’t envy the judges’ task in picking the winner, but when they returned with their verdicts we were delighted with the result. An award from IRISS for us, giving us access to some valuable support to take the idea forward.

Meanwhile, the intriguing concept behind foodradar.co.uk, along with evidence of strong potential to grow as a viable start-up, earned it the top prize of investment and support from several companies.

21:00 Sunday

Following some celebration drinks and a last few excellent conversations down the pub, including some useful feedback from some of the judges, it was time to head home.

prettysimple: Home from #sicamp. Thanks again to our amazing team and the folks at @sicamp. This is just the start of the journey @sharecareclub

So that was my SI Camp. I look forward to being involved in future events. Check out www.sicamp.org for more info.

Update: There’s also a great write-up of the weekend by fellow team member and namesake, James P.

First photo courtesy of theps.net under the Creative Commons license.

The SI Camp judges met last Friday and sifted through no less than 97 entries before deciding on 6 ideas to be developed over the weekend of 17th-19th June in Edinburgh.

Followers of this blog will already have read about my colleague’s idea for Lend-a-hand, a messaging tool for carers to ask family, friends and neighbours at the same time for help with quick-and-easy every-day tasks where a little bit of brief help goes a long way, leaving the carer to worry about more important things.

I look forward to seeing this idea brought to life during what will no doubt be an intense but exciting weekend. If you’re interested in taking part in the weekend, and have skills to offer, find out how you can get involved.

Image by amanky

Earlier today I met with some associates to discuss a possible idea for the upcoming Social Innovation Camp in Edinburgh. The idea had come from a colleague’s personal experience of caring for an elderly relative, and the complications in arranging basic tasks and chores ad hoc – things as simple as getting something from the corner shop or replacing a light bulb. For carers, it can be time consuming and frustrating for the individual and their carer to try to find cover or a helping hand at short notice, and so those simple tasks often end up not getting done, or being done riskily or badly.

My colleague’s idea was for a tool that carers, and the people they care for, can use to easily check if someone in their existing personal and local network of relatives, friends and neighbours can offer a bit of their time. The aim would be to reduce some of the social isolation and stress of caring and being cared for whether the people involved live together or not.

The basic concept

The carer or person being cared for creates an account online and invites their family, friends and neighbours to sign up with their contact details, creating a private, trusted network around that person. The carer, or person being cared for, can then post requests for help. They can do this on the website or via email, text message or Twitter via text message or email, a web post or tweet and the message can be distributed via these channels. When someone offers their time, a confirmation message goes to everyone. To make it easier to respond, anyone in the circle of support could contribute to a credit system so the carer, or person being cared for, can pay travel expenses and other costs.

Example 1

John’s elderly father, Ernie, is house-bound with limited mobility but still lives in his own home. John provides a lot of care and support to Ernie, but balances this with a demanding job. One morning, Ernie calls John at work to say he needs help – a local care home is holding a jumble sale that afternoon and Ernie has sorted a pile of books that he wants to donate. It means a lot to Ernie to be able to help the care home, but John has important meetings all day and can’t help him deliver the books.

John sends out a text message to his network and gets a reply shortly afterwards from one of Ernie’s neighbours, Mary, who was planning to go down to the jumble sale anyway. She agrees to pop in to see Ernie and take the books.

Example 2

Paula has a long-term illness and has good and bad days. Her sister Kay, who usually looks out for her, is abroad for the week visiting friends. One morning Kay gets a text message from Paula with some news that has really upset her. Kay desperately wants to pop home to give her sister a hug, but can’t afford to book an earlier flight home.

She posts a private message on the web, explaining that her sister could do with some company. As a result, a number of friends agree to pop in and see her. One even offers to take some flowers round to cheer Paula up, and Kay uses online credit to go halves with them on the purchase.

Update – to accompany our submission, I knocked up the following graphic using stripgenerator.com:

"Lend a Hand" in action

Like the idea?

We’d love to hear what people think of this idea – and more importantly, if anyone has a similar project or initiative, or would like to get involved. Leave a comment below to get in touch. We need to submit this idea to SICamp by Friday 20th May so time is short.

Got your own idea?

There’s already been a number of meet-ups for interested people to get together and discuss ideas, with the next Edinburgh event at the Melting Pot on Monday 16th May. Sign up now if you’re planning on popping along.

Also find out more about submitting your own idea.

Image by amanky, used under the Creative Commons license.

Social Innovation Camp brings together software developers and designers with people who understand a social problem to help build web and mobile solutions to social challenges.

The emphasis is on using technology to tackle social isolation, and ideas range from bringing people together via an anonymous text messaging service, an online learning resource for school leavers, and a portal to help people support good causes and get involved in action groups.

The deadline for submissions is 20th May so get thinking and submit your ideas.

Last night I finally managed to get along to one of the Edinbuzz Social Media Surgeries, this time at Leith’s McDonald Road Library. The event was buzzing, with around 8 ‘surgeons’ and easily as many ‘patients’.

Although this was my first such surgery, I’ve done various similar things in the past, from running drop-in computing workshops in public libraries to full-on adult education courses, so I was prepared for the challenges that the evening might have presented.

As it turned out, the event ran very smoothly, ably orchestrated by organiser @tomallan.

WordPress for beginners and feeding Twitter

I spent the bulk of the session with Kerry, a PR person who was hoping to start blogging for a local arts initiative. We chatted about the various factors – including issues of budget and technical ability – before settling on WordPress as a good place to start. With that, we headed over to wordpress.com and within a few minutes, Kerry was blogging.

Once that was conquered, we just had enough time to pop over to Twitter, where Kerry had already set up an account and started to follow people. The main problem was that she didn’t really see ‘the point’, and on inspection of her account I could see why – she had never actually tweeted. Again, within a few minutes we’d posted a mention and a retweet, and my advice was for her to go away and feed her account as much as possible. Only by doing that, I said, would other people actually have reason to follow her back – and that would be when the conversations could start.

I hope Kerry went away with a lot more confidence than she arrived with. She was undoubtably keen and, I suspect, just needed someone to tell her she was doing the right things, pressing the right buttons, and that, crucially, she wasn’t going to break anything. Hopefully she will also take this all back to her own volunteer work, to help them maximise their use of these channels.

I found the session personally very rewarding – being a wonderful chance to extol the virtues of these wonderful tools and rave about how I (in all truth) have found the likes of Twitter to be life-changing. I was delighted to see such enthusiasm from all who attended, and I hope the surgeries will continue, in one form or another, for a long time to come.

Further details can be found on the BSI website.

Sadly I can’t make it down to London myself, but I look forward to hearing the discussions coming out of it. If you’re going, and plan to cover it (blog, live-tweet etc), do let me know.

Motor impairments

The day had a motor impairment theme, which is typically a rather under-represented area of web accessibility. There was a bit of discussion around why this was, with the suggestion that it was due to a lack of pressure coming from those representing the needs of that audience. The excellent work of the likes of RNIB has led to a far greater understanding of the needs of visually impaired users, for example, and there is clearly a need for this to be replicated across the board.

Following a nice introduction to web accessibility from organisers Makayla Lewis (@maccymacx) and Graham Armfield (@coolfields), Makayla presented some of her findings from her research on how people with motor impairments (specifically those with Cerebral Palsy) use the web.

Perhaps the clearest message from Makayla’s presentation was how important the web, and social networking in particular, is to many users with CP – providing opportunities to interact with others far more easily. Such opportunities would have been strictly limited before the web, but accessibility issues continue to put up barriers. One telling example Makayla gives is of the user with severe impairments, who relies upon a carer to help them use FaceBook. The resulting lack of privacy is clearly far from ideal, and no doubt limits what they are comfortable doing online.

Makayla then establishes a live phone link with a person with Cerebral Palsy, who talks about the challenges she faces everyday. Problems like buttons being too small to easily click are common, and the user expressed frustration at the lack of help that websites offer. Another clear problem which many people may not think about was the issues generated when a website updates its design. The user stated that sites should really warn users before changing a site – explaining the how and why, and offering support. Finally, she suggested that the option to go back to the old version was always useful. Users with impairments will often adopt ‘coping strategies’ that will have to change when a site changes, so consideration of these users when launching a redesign is essential.

HTML5

I sacrificed a bite to eat to attend a lunchtime presentation by Martin Kliehm (@kliehm) on HTML5, which he called “Of Unicorns and Crocodiles”. It was an interesting showcase of both the problems and opportunities that will come with HTML5 – most notably, Martin suggested that accessibility was still very much a ‘bolt-on’ and that needed to change.

Crowd-sourcing web accessibility

The ‘unconference’ style of the day meant there were plenty of tough decisions about which sessions to attend, but I opted to go along to hear Dr Gail Bradbrook (@FixTheWebGail) talk about Fix The Web. The idea behind the site is to allow disabled users to easily report issues with websites. These are then picked up by a team of volunteers who will get in touch with the site owner, to report the issue and hopefully get it resolved.

I’ve signed up as a volunteer and will blog more about this exciting initiative soon.

Practical accessibility

Next, I went along to hear Karen Mardahl (@kmdk) give a few tips on practical accessibility, including captioning videos and creating accessible PDFs. I’ve written plenty on these subjects myself, and it was great to hear Karen talk about the quick-wins which are so easy to implement, yet which make such a huge difference to users.

Thanks to Makayla and all the others involved in organising the day – I hope it proved to be an inspiration to all those who attended or followed on Twitter, and I look forward to seeing the discussions continue online.

There’s no agenda as yet – in the tradition of GovCamps, we’ll be setting that on the day, but there will no doubt be a strong Web 2.0 and social media theme.

The Informatics Forum in Edinburgh will provide an inspiring space for discussion and engagement, the sharing of experiences and creation of new ideas.

You can find out more, and book your free place for the event, at http://scotgovcamp.eventbrite.com

Also read this preview of the event by Improvement Service reporter David Friel.

Thanks to Lesley Thomson, from the Scottish Government, for getting the ball rolling.

EDIT – the event now has an official site at http://scotgovcamp.wordpress.com