Presentations and speeches from Annual Conference

We held our Annual Conference, titled ‘West Midlands: Fit for the Future?’, yesterday in Sutton Coldfield.
The focus of the conference was on the economic recovery of the West Midlands, rather than the recession, and how we best position the West Midlands for the economic recovery.
The conference followed on from the book West Midlands: Fit for the [...]

Live blogging the Observatory’s Annual Conference

Our 2009 Annual Conference, titled West Midlands: Fit for the Future?, takes place tomorrow in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham.
You can keep up-to-date with comments and tweets about the conference as it unfolds on the day using this CoverItLive liveblog (replay the liveblog here).
You can add comments directly in the liveblog itself or by sending a tweet [...]

Roundup from Sharing Information Digitally event

Yesterday’s event at Millennium Point looked at the whys and hows of making public data more accessible.
There were also some practical discussions looking at using social media and online tools to improve sharing data and information.
Richard Wilson, from Sandwell PCT and Chair of the Population & Society Group, chaired the day. You can listen to [...]

Follow ‘Sharing Information Digitally’ event live

You can keep up-to-date with comments and tweets about this event as it unfolds on 7th October using this CoverItLive page.
You can add comments through the CoverItLive page or by sending a tweet containing the hashtag #wmrosid.
All the content surrounding the event—photos, useful links, videos, blog posts, tweets, and so on—is aggregated on this Pagecast. [...]

Improving data visualisation for the public sector

Two new resources to help public sector researchers improve the way they visualise data have recently been launched.
DataViz, at www.improving-visualisation.org, is a new website launched by OCSI containing a gallery of visualisation types (which you can browse by tag).
There are also useful case studies on what makes for good visualisation, practical steps for improving visualisation [...]

Web service API for Observatory’s search service

A new search engine went live on the Observatory’s website last month. The aim is to provide you with better search results — ranked by relevancy — and more detailed controls over refinements to your search results.
Another feature is that the search service provides search results from other regional organisations’ websites; the search isn’t [...]

Summary of data, mashups and APIs event

Last Wednesday, I went to an event at Fazeley Studios in Birmingham to explore innovative, useful and important applications of data.
The event — titled Data, Mashups and APIs — was organised by Birmingham Social Media Cafe and sponsored by The Guardian, Barefoot Wine and Screen WM.
I won’t try and summarise the whole event. A huge [...]

Observatory hosting event on sharing information digitally

The Observatory’s Population & Society Group is hosting an event exploring the whys and hows of making public data more accessible. We’ll also look at using social media to improve sharing data and information.
This full-day event will be held in Birmingham on 7th October. With speakers from the Guardian’s Free Our Data campaign, Lichfield District [...]

Observatory launches new book ‘West Midlands: Fit for the Future?’

A new book from the Observatory, West Midlands: Fit for the Future?, was launched yesterday.
The book aims to stimulate debate, promote discussion and influence policy on the future growth of the West Midlands region. The focus is on the future prosperity of the West Midlands, rather than on the effects of the recession, and exploring [...]

Draft new menu structure for wmro.org

It’s just over 12 months since the re-launch of the Observatory’s website www.wmro.org. Since the re-launch last year, our range of research has widened and there is a new focus on particular themes.
To try and help visitors to our website more easily find the research and data they want, I’m considering how best to restructure [...]

Crowdsourcing policy, visualising debate and evolving consultation

I attended a session on crowdsourcing public policy at the recent LocalGovCamp event, an unconference for local government held in Birmingham.
Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a task traditionally performed by employees or contractors and opening it out to a large group of people. It’s mass collaboration to collectively achieve a task or refine something [...]

LocalGovCamp unconference for local government

LocalGovCamp is an unconference for local government being held in Birmingham at Fazeley Studios on 20 June 2009.
The event will be will be a gathering of people interested in how local government needs to adapt to a world of social networks and data sharing.

Seminars at Herefordshire Information and Research Network

The Herefordshire Information and Research Network are hosting a series of seminars over 2009–2010.
Each seminar includes a presentation on a specific topic, updates by participants on their own research activities and opportunities for networking.
Seminars planned for later this year include the State of Herefordshire Report 2009 and results of the Herefordshire quality of life survey.

Association of Regional Observatories launches new website

The Association of Regional Observatories have launched their new website at www.regionalobservatories.org.uk.
Features on the the new site include the Association’s news feed, an aggregated news feed from all regional observatories, newsletter and reading room.

Association of Regional Observatories launch newsletter

The Association of Regional Observatories published their first newsletter (PDF, 344KB) this month.
The May 2009 newsletter features news on how Regional Observatories across England are supporting policy making with better evidence.
Features include what the West Midlands might look like after the recession, and the launch of Insight East, the new economic intelligence centre for the [...]