This weekend whilst taking an Autumn stroll around Portobello market, I stumbled across this incredible exhibiton. A group of street artists had created this area and it almost felt like stepping into a different world. Some of the pieces were at Glastonbury this year and there was also a lot of Banksy influenced art covering the walls of the disused space. Mutate Britain really is worth a visit, much better than the Tate….

Since my brush with the Commons Five last year, I have followed the movements of similar young campaigners, reading about the many protests and projects they get involved with.

Climate Camp hit the headlines last week, when hundreds of environmental activists “swooped” on Blackheath from meeting points across Central London. The site was chosen for its legacy; notably it was the location for the Peasants Revolt of 1381. The heath also provides a poignant view over The City, where buildings making crucial climate decisions, such as Canary Wharf and The Gherkin, can be seen.

On Saturday, I jumped at the chance to go and have a look at Climate Camp (officially, Camp for Climate Action) for myself. I wanted to know what was going on there, and didn’t have a clue what to expect. Would groups of environmental protesters be gathered round shouting, holding up boards with angry messages on? Would it be a huge sit-in, with campaigners lazing around in the sun, discussing what they each do to help the planet? After the drama of the “swooping” and the secret location of the camp, press coverage had become very sparse, with only the Guardian giving updates of activity down at Blackheath. The questions rolling in my head certainly needed to be answered.

Approaching the Camp, I was unsure as to whether visitors were even allowed on site. Campers had decorated the perimeter fence with bold slogans, bright coloured climate warnings and messages to multimillion pound companies. Over the entrance, a banner read “Capitalism is Crisis” and campers gathered on hay bales, welcoming visitors.  As Climate Rush campaigner Tamsin Omond wrote in the Standard, “The idea is that you join in.”

We were directed to a site map, and given a guide to the camp – which included an itinerary of every single event planned for the week. The first, and lasting, impression we all got from the camp was the huge amount of things there were to do there.  There were workshops giving campers a chance to share stories, swap tips about reducing carbon footprints, debate issues such as the Copenhagen summit, learn about how to stage a protest, and get multimedia training in how to set up a camera on a tripod. As well as all that, there was evening entertainment, huge communal meals, yoga classes and morning camp meetings. The camp also catered well for children, offering activities such as bread-making, arts and games.

The whole camp worked on a voluntary rota, with a jobs board at the front of the site and people putting themselves forward every day for different roles, included serving dinner and cleaning the toilets.

As we wandered round the bright coloured tents, I felt as if we had stumbled upon a self-sufficient community. Everything within the camp was built all together and there was a peaceful, relaxed atmosphere about the place. Not quite the violent Climate Camp the Daily Mail predicted, eh?

I saw Leila Deen, the campaigner who threw green custard in Lord Mandleson’s face earlier this year, enjoying herself around the camp. We were offered fruit smoothies – which had been made by cycle-powered blenders, and invited to sit in on some of the workshops. I chose ‘How to Communicate Climate Science’ which was a brilliant back to basics chat by two young guys, explaining the basics behind climate change. Some of the workshops were a bit more heated, but the ‘anything goes’ atmosphere meant you could chop and change between tipis.

There didn’t seem to be much police presence, apart from two officers who did quiet a lap around the perimeter of the camp in the late afternoon. The police had set up a cherry picker with CCTV to watch over the camp. One commentator on Twitter, denny, said: “Wondering how @CO11MetPolice reconcile the phrase ‘neighbourhood style policing’ with spotlights and CCTV on a cherry picker. #ClimateCamp“

For me, Climate Camp was hugely inspiring. Not only has the camp proved that you don’t need  to make a huge song and dance to get people talking about an issue, (although a few protesters have been up to some antics today around London) but it also proves that people can get along living in a simple, low-carbon lifestyle. The main focus of the camp was educational, and it wasn’t organised to cause mayhem and disruption.

As we left the camp before sunset on Saturday night, I looked back at the large-scale police CCTV watching the camp prepare their dinner, and couldn’t help but feel like the campaigners were sticking two fingers up back.

After a month of planning, gathering news and Twittering like crazy – Dalston People has finally launched as the first hyperlocl news website in the area.

The website, for which I am Community Publisher, is part of Associated Northcliffe Digital’s new pilot project, The Local People. I pitched the idea of a hyperlocal news site in Dalston to Northcliffe back in May, and since then the team have been working really hard to design and create the site.

Dalston, to me,  seemed an obvious choice for a website of this kind. There is always something going on in Dalston, whether it be a gig, an art show, a protest or a new development. The community is made up largely of arty types and it has been continuously labelled this year as ‘the new Shoreditch’. Some even went as far as saying E8 is the ‘coolest place in Britain’. I felt I had a strong pitch for the Northcliffe team to create a website for Dalston.

Since the launch, I have been working hard to get as many people registered on the site. Three days in, and I already have 50 registered users – which is fantastic. However, the hardest challenge will be to get users contributing news and comments and engaging in discussions. Hopefully once the site has been running for a few weeks, one or two will get the ball rolling. We shall see! But for now, I’m very happy with the look and layout of the site, and am hoping the community of Dalston will begin the use the site in anyway they feel comfortable.

Any questions or queries about the site, please contact me!

The story of the MPs expenses has not yet drawn to a close, the Daily Telegraph revealed last night.

Andrew Pierce, assistant editor of the newspaper that broke the milestone story, said that journalists were still working with the data.

Referring to the team working on the scoop, Piece said: “They are still in the bunker, if that gives you a clue.”

The story, which according to Piece covered 240 broadsheet pages of the Daily Telegraph, took a close working team of journalists to produce, based away from the newsroom in what was known as “the bunker”.

“They were working morning noon and night. Only a handful of people knew what was going to be in the newspaper the next day.”

He added that it was old fashioned journalism at its finest and that the newspaper and website had benefitted significantly during the four weeks the story ran.

(L-R) Pierce, Alton, Greenslade, Brooke and Tall at Frontline Club, courtesy of Priyal Sanghvi.

Speaking to an audience in London last night, Pierce said that the task of going through the data was hard work but it paid off.

“It was our job to go through the lot, and I’m glad we did look at every single person.”

The newspaper decided to go through the unorganised information systematically, and each splash coordinated with a different theme.

“We started with the cabinet, then the shadow big hitters and then husbands and wives, where we discovered the term flipping.”

“Then we discovered the accountancy fees which gave us extraordinary momentum.”

Pierce said the team were shocked to discover some of the items the MPs had been claiming for.

“When the Daily Telegraph acquired this information, we had no comprehension of the level of abuses.”

Pierce defended claims that the Daily Telegraph had been involved in a bribe, saying, “Fleet Street has survived on leaks for years.”

Media commentator and Guardian blogger, Roy Greenslade, chaired the panel and speculated that the newspaper had paid their source £75,000.

Pierce refused to confirm any sum, denying that money had been involved. He also insisted that he wasn’t involved in this stage of the process.

Roger Alton, editor of The Independent congratulated the Daily Telegraph on their “flawless job”, and said the paper was setting the agenda for every other news organisation in the country.

The panel speculated that the story could expand to expenses of the European Commission and the salaries of the BBC.

Heather Brooke, FOI campaigner and Stephen Tall, Lib Dem activitst, also attended the event which took place at the Frontline Club in London.

Michael Daehn, a social media consultant was sick of using job websites like Monster to search for his next employer.

He set up a website GetMikeAJob, and offered prizes to anyone who could find him any sort of employment.

The prizes he was offering were genius – car washing, Krispy Kremes, a social media or marketing consultation for your business, anything he could think of!

With regular diary updates, readers were informed of Mike’s progress, and of course his frustrations.

Mike “freaking out” on Day 21

But fear not – by Day 25 he got a job!

What a great idea, and with Facebook and Twitter pages too, Mike was demonstrating his skills at the same time.  Watch this space for GetAlisonAJob!

For Bloomberg’s former multimedia editor, Abhik Sen, the debate is redundant.

“In five years time pretty much everyone will have to be a multimedia journalist.”

As the times change, news organisations are increasing and expanding their multimedia coverage of big stories. Journalists’ skills are improving and graphics are becoming more sophisticated, so much so that the most substantial part of a news story can now be found online.

Abhik gave the recent example of  the swine flu story:

“Online there was a comprehensive 360 degree view of the story. There were interactive maps, pictures, figures, videos, first person accounts and graphics. This holds true for pretty much every big story now.”

The BBC’s ‘Swine Flu: mapping the outbreak’ interactive graphic.

There are a good five or six multimedia packages or reports that can be done by news organisations. Abhik talked us through the main ones at a talk at City University this week:

The first is the news driven package. This involves a quick turnaround that can fit into a rolling news agenda. It is the most basic form of a media package. Links and tagging in these packages are very important so readers can quickly access all of the material on offer.

This BBC news story is a basic example of this type of package. The turnaround on this video must have been relatively quick, as there is only one location and one subject in the film.

The evergreen package is designed to stand the test of time; it may still be relevant in years to come. There will be no sell by date on the package. It is usually a piece that requires thought and deliberation.

Detroit Free Press’ 40 Years of Respect tribute to Aretha Franklin is a great example of an evergreen package.

Interactive graphics are great for transforming chunks of dry or difficult information into a good piece of journalism. It saves readers the bother of trying to interpret the statistics themselves and you can make important subjects come alive.

The Guardian’s interactive package on Obama’s 100 Days in office is a fantastic example of a good graphic illustration of a story. It includes all of the elements that only a multimedia piece could.

Calendar and diary based reports are great for being a bit creative. You can find a way of covering an event in a original and refreshing way, and you can complement other reports by building on what has already been done.

The G20 Summit reporting is a great example of this type of package.

Abhik said that the planning stage is the most important when creating a multimedia report. The most important questions to ask is ‘What do I really want to communicate through this work?’.

Heather Brooke has finally been given some credit for her role in the MPs expenses saga.

The journalist and writer has broken many stories to the press before, dug around using the Freedom of Information Act, and revealed many secrets to the public – but this is no doubt one of her biggest achievements to date.

The Guardian’s G2 featured her brilliant article today, where she described fighting with the Commons for the past five years in order to get the expenses information made public.

“When I explained that I was after a breakdown of MPs’ expenses, I was met with a baffled silence,” she said.

Definitely worth a read, especially the quotes from the head of the House of Commons Fees Office, Andrew Walker:

“There is checking where there are receipts. Where there are no receipts there is no checking.”

Last October, journalism postgraduate students at City University were treated to a lecture on making Freedom of Information requests by Heather.  Her enthusiasm and love of this kind of investigative journalism was very apparent, and in her G2 article she mentioned how she has always wanted to be that kind of reporter.

After all of her efforts, she admitted in The Guardian that she was “livid”  that The Telegraph managed to get hold of the data before July 2009. On the other hand, she added that as a campaigner she was thrilled to see it out in the public domain – where it should be.

Today, Heather wrote on her ‘Your Right To Know’ website:

“Is this the apex of my campaign? My 15 minutes of fame might now be coming to a close if the Commons actually comes clean, gets rid of the corrupt and institutes a new transparency regime. That actually looks as though it might now happen.”

I am sure that there will be plenty more to come from Heather though, and I’m glad she finally got the credit she deserved.

Watch her top five tips on Freedom of Information requests (courtesy of XCity)

“There are jobs out there and there will be jobs”, said Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC’s technology correspondent.

What a refreshing talk he gave to postgraduate students at City University today.

Rory admitted that nowadays journalists are expected to be able to do a lot more than when he graduated, but he said that having a specialist interest may be key to landing a job.

“If you are interesting and passionate about something then there will be opportunities out there.”

He said that there is now tremendous pressure on journalism graduates to be able to do “everything under the sun”, but he said that if you have one or two really good skills then it is just as important.  

Image taken from BBC

The self-confessed Twitter obsessive was just as tech-savvy as I expected him to be, opening his backpack to reveal not only an iPhone, but a BlackBerry and a gorgeous little Flip Meno Camera. Using his Apple Mac, he showed us a number of tools he uses in order to keep on track of technology news, including reading websites TechCrunch, GigaOM and Techmeme.

During the lecture he also posted part of his talk onto AudioBoo and, of course, took a Twitpic of us all listening intently. (Link to follow later, depending on how the shot looks!)

Rory said that he became interested in the internet in the mid-90’s, after being a business correspondent at the BBC. He said that he was even awarded the title “Internet Correspondent” for a few months in 2000, before the BBC decided that the internet was over and he went back to his old job.

But he insisted that the internet was bringing exciting change and was finally made Technology Correspondent in 2007.

Rory’s blog dot.life on BBC

Thinking about my specialism, I would definitely say the internet and new media really interest me.

Luckily this blog has been a really good platform to demonstrate my skills and help get myself noticed. The more I discover online, the more I want to know!

But I don’t feel like I know quite enough yet to be able to call it my ’specialism’. What do others think? How much of an expert in a field do you have to be before you can call it your specialism?

Rory admitted that he still doesn’t know everything about technology, and would have no idea how to “defrag a hard drive”, but that doesn’t matter.

Once I have gained more hands-on experience in web development and new media I will be at a better position, but for the moment I am going to have to stick to the line “I am willing to learn.”

All those idiots on The Apprentice sure do wind me up sometimes.

If they are supposed to be “Britain’s brightest business prospects” then there is no hope for any of us.

Listen to all of the candidates best fighting talk – but with a bit of a twist. Genius!

With all the scandal over “smeargate” recently I thought it would be interesting to hear the political commentators’ views on journalism through new forms of media like blogging.

So yesterday I attended the Foreign Press Association event “Westminster and New Media” where bloggers such as Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale were on the panel.

I wrote the event up for Journalism.co.uk:

Journalists should have reported the Damien McBride affair earlier, political blogger Iain Dale, told an industry gathering yesterday.

The system where journalists have close relationships with spin doctors has to end, added Dale, citing the case of former Prime Minister’s aide McBride, whose emails containing unfounded rumours about Conservative politicians were exposed by blogger Paul Staines, better known as Guido Fawkes.

“Paul’s blog is important in setting this – he has no interest in relationships with MPs,” Dale told an audience at the Foreign Press Association.

Dale said he had no doubt that Derek Draper’s planned, anti-Conservative gossip site, Red Rag, would have gone live had Staines not broken the story: “It would have only lasted a matter of days though.”

Online media, in particular blogs and newsgathering using mobile, is breaking down traditional news models, panellists at the event agreed.

“It is now possible for anyone to get a scoop,” said Staines.

“Citizen journalism is tremendously exciting. Ten years ago, these people had no influence and now, since they have got mobile phones or digital cameras, they are empowered,” added Dale,

But, while new media is changing traditional newsgathering and publishing processes, there remains the issue of making money from blogging, said Dale.

“The news hasn’t quite cottoned on to them yet and advertisers are nervous about them,” said Dale, who claimed his site attracts more traffic than The Spectator’s website.

“There is a lot more comment around [on blogs] than newsgathering, as it’s cheaper. News gathering takes time too,” said Staines, who ran his blog for free for the first four years.

According to Dale, there is not yet an established economic model to make a living out of blogging, but there soon will be: “I think we are at the stage where five or six blogs in the UK could make a living.”

The panel was asked how readers are expected to know if stories written on low cost blogs are true.

“If I find out that a story is wrong I will hold my hands up. If people don’t trust me then they won’t read my blog, so I care about what I write,” said Dale.

Staines agreed: “People trust your brand, and you have a reputation. I am a lot more careful now when I get a story. I’ve done 6,000 stories now, and which are wrong? They are few and far between.”

Dale admitted he had been been threatened on three occasions for things written on his site: “It has all been resolved now though. I have no doubt that it will happen again at some point.”

At the end of the talk I asked Guido aka Paul Staines whether he was familiar with the fake Luke Akehurst blog. He said he had read it yes, but he wasn’t aware of the recent update – caused by me. Oops.

Guido Fawkes aka Paul Staines