Blogging the Local Economy
It may be helpful to say a little about my plans for this blog over the next few months. Last Friday, I wrote about the new Cornerstone pages I’ve introduced to help with navigation around the blog. I will add the new themes I’ve started this month to the Cornerstone pages when enough posts have accumulated. The new themes aim to show how online technology can support action in the real world.
These new categories view the same argument from different perspectives. Whilst they touch on common ground, they will develop in distinct directions.
Mondays: Local Economy
My plan here is to develop a thread about the local economy. As always the Monday “Mutuality” theme is the nearest to my community development background and furthest from online approaches. I hope to build up a picture of the local economy from the bottom up. It seems most of the material online about the local economy is about either developing countries or government schemes in the UK. I start from the view that all neighbourhoods have their local economy, which might be stronger or weaker.
I hope to find examples of grassroots projects to explore some of the changes happening in our neighbourhoods. This is not necessarily about the needs of disadvantaged areas. Adapt examples of grassroots projects for more disadvantaged areas. Economic projects are difficult to get off the ground and it might make sense to test them in more affluent areas. Also, disadvantaged areas are more likely to draw down grant aid. Whilst this might help, it distorts local economies and means neighbourhoods take a step backwards when grants stop. I would like to know of grant-aided projects that have resulted in sustainable economies once grants end.
Tuesdays: Worldviews
Third Sector organisations bring distinctive features to the marketplace. Marketing theory applies to organisations that do not see themselves as part of a market. So, this thread will explore the marketing worldview contrast it with common third sector perspectives. Whilst there are some incompatibilities, there are plenty of examples of overlap between the two.
There are a variety of worldviews or mindsets about the ways in which money circulates in the economy. We need to understand these and work out where worldviews obscure what’s going on within the local economy.
Wednesdays: Organisations
Web designers or consultants must understand organisations. Websites will never work to their full potential if their owners’ business or purpose is not understood. What is their purpose and how does their website support it? The problem is often, especially with third sector organisations, neither the client nor the designer understands the organisation. It is possible to spend a lot of money on a website that does not meet the needs of the organisation and no-one is even aware there is a problem (other than that the website is pain). If neither the client nor the designer understands the organisation then it cannot possibly work. If at least one of them does, it is possible to do a lot more but ideally both need to understand the organisation to be effective.
Thursdays: Blogging
On Thursdays I shall post about how to run a website and blogging is a good starting point. Many of my clients are new to blogging and so this should be helpful to them. These posts will be an aid to remembering the training sessions. They will be helpful for those who are starting out and some of the later posts will include ideas about organising posts which will help those who are further down the road. I may post videos from elsewhere as I develop this theme.
The plan is to use this sequence of posts when I have not been asked questions. If you ask me a question I’ll answer it on Thursday or Friday. I will answer technical questions on Thursdays and other types of question on Fridays.
Fridays: Miscellaneous
The same as last year, whatever takes my fancy. This will continue to be a mix of case studies, website reviews and general observations.
Next week I shall open up a new subcategory about telling stories and in it I will tell stories and discuss how they might be used.