http://www.instantatlas.com/placesurvey.html

1. Good spot. I’m thinking of grouping any ‘how to…’ guides under ‘Help’ (section 9), so would put the how to submit a resource guide in there.

2. On naming section 5 – containing the Resource Catalogue, Policy Model, downloadable maps, and so on – I’m currently favouring ‘Tools’.

What do others think?

Separately, I received some feedback offline suggesting moving ‘Our publications and data’ (3.1) out of ‘Our research’ (3) and over into this to-be-named ‘Resources’ (5) section. Must admit I quite like this idea.

In general I think it looks good and should hopefully encourage us to review the relevance of existing content.

I have one suggestion to make. 2.3 Environment & Rural – I think the two need to be seperated. Environment should stand alone and then I would suggest the nature of our rural work lends itself to either a stand alone rural tab or an Urban/Rural tab to fit with our work for the regional assembly. Most of the work on rural is to do with the economy/skills/housing issues rather than environment.

(1) On our current site there’s a page soliciting submissions http://wmro.org/standardTemplateNF.aspx/Home/Resources/ResourceCatalogue/Submitresources that isn’t featured. Future policy will still be to invite external submissions so where will this page (or a derivative) go?

(2) The Resource Catalogue is an information service in its own right, not a category, so it should be on the same level as the integrated policy model, maps etc. At present we use a top level category of ‘Resources’ although I know you don’t like this as it’s a term that few site users will immediately understand (although it works for me). My suggestions for a category name that might be better convey its content are: Information services, Our products, Data centre, Information tools, Data tools, Data services, Utilities or maybe even Stockroom.

http://www.artfundprize.org.uk/2009/winner.php

International insights on civil leadership and public service innovation (PDF, 50 pages, 471kb)

From the announcement on idea.gov.uk:

“The report provides advice on how to use international exchange to advance the understanding and practice of civic leadership and public service innovation in local governance. It includes illustrative examples of creative civic leadership in Brazil, Colombia, Netherlands, Sweden and the USA. The report concludes with a series of suggestions on how to improve approaches to civic leadership and public service innovation in the UK.”

Thanks a lot for taking a minute to read the post and for sharing your comment.

I just listened to the podcast and found it very encouraging and interesting. It is a great example to show that differences can be put aside and that active citizens and councils can work together. It is not easy, but certainly can be done.

I had a look to your website ‘Podnosh’ (http://www.podnosh.com/blog/home/) and will definitively keep an eye on it. I am sure I will find there great examples for the region.

Thanks again for your comment and please stay in touch.

Where to start. You are absolutely right about how a blog can help draw together threads, encourage people to collaborate and get things movings. let me share with you a couple of examples of work I’ve done that may be relevant to you and this story.

Back in 2005 i was interviewing active citizens in Birmingham and captured a conversation between two of the board members at Attwood green, about how they had turned conflict into cooperation. You can find it here, it’s worth a listen because they’re both strong personalities:

http://www.podnosh.com/blog/2006/07/11/the-worst-slum-in-europe/

Another thing that may interest you is a local site looking at environmental inequality in the West Midlands, it follows on from a conference in February Called Better Environments, Better Lives:

http://betterenvironmentsbetterlives.wordpress.com/

It would be great to meet at some point.

Local residents are involved in the project throughout research, conservation, habitat restoration and community education programmes.

You can see ‘before & after’ photos of their restoration projects at:

http://www.warleywoods.org.uk/restore.htm

It appears to affect the majority of the region; which is a shame. This could reflect why such low LGBT population figures exist; even in the urban metropolitan areas.

Maybe in years to come the region will become more accepting?

Businesses, local authorities, schools and charities were recipients of international accolades, and cash awards for saving thousands of tonnes in carbon emissions annually and leading the way in sustainable innovation, education and design.

It was great to find out that examples from Coventry, Hereford and Shrewsbury featured among the winners.

Details the Ashden Awards and the winner’s story can be found on http://www.ashdenawards.org

People counted as unemployed in the claimant count measure of unemployment (those claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, 175,500 people in the West Mids) do have to take part in New Deal after a certain amount of time claiming – 6 months for those aged 18 to 24 and 18 months for those over 25.

The official measure of unemployment (currently 249,000 people in the West Midlands) is measured through a survey of the population. Not everyone who is counted as unemployed in this survey will be claiming Jobseekers and so wouldn’t have to take part in New Deal.

The Flexible New Deal won’t be introduced until October this year and will again be for people who are claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance.

Hope this answers your question!