blog.

I have had the pleasure this morning to support Les Compton of Bristol City Council with presenting our website Go Places Do Things at the Engage event at the Watershed.

The workshop was arranged to discuss digital tools for participation and active citizenship with participants from the UK, Germany and Denmark.

ENGAGE is a continuing professional development programme for European youth workers who wish to understand the new ICT-enabled culture and explore how web 2.0 and social media tools can help to extend and enhance their practice.

Les and I went along to talk about our participation with young people while developing and evolving the GPDT site, as well as discussing the challenges that we have faced and the plans for the future. We discussed the access we have given to youth workers and other activity providers for adding their own events and direct feeds that have been set up from the BCC events online and 1 Big Database.

After Bristol the programme will move to Aarhus, Denmark and then on to Hannover in Germany where participants will continue to develop their understanding of how developments in ICT and online technologies can amplify and extend the voice of young people in European society.

The session was really interesting and we had the opportunity to discuss the other online solutions that people have set up, as well as talking about how to get young people to participate and engage as young editors on website content.

I will certainly be following the progress of the programme via the Engage website and will be looking to keep in touch with some of the participants at the workshop.

Google and Youtube announced one of the most far reaching and ambitious (and ruddy exciting!) user generated content experiments yesterday.

Life in a Day is a film project, asking people the world over to upload a film of a day in their life - specifically July 24th, 2010.

The idea is to get as many people as possible to upload their films, which will then be sifted through by such illuminati as Ridley Scott (no less!) and edited down to a feature length film to take to the Sundance Film Festival.

Never ones to shy away from a challenge, we'll be weilding our acting / production / general 'luvvie' skills and winding up to the big day on 24th July.

Keep you posted with any storylines as they take shape, and of course any news of irreconcilable artistic differences!

Any ideas of what we should do, or if you want to submit something for us to include, get in touch!

As we announced previously Connexions West of England is now called Learning Partnership West and we have just launched their new website.

This is the first phase of the project set up to promote the new brand and services. Additional phases are in the pipeline that will see the introduction of user accounts for access to additional features and a whole new area for the Shared Commissioning Services.

You can see the website here and LPW would love to receive your comments on the site and/or questions about their service.

The new Connexions West website (a delivery branch of LPW), which will be purely tailored towards their young service users, will be launched at the beginning of September. It will include a new website design and tools such as an online CV builder and eConsultations – making the organisations online offering far more interactive.

Whilst we normally write about matters of the web, we think it's sometimes good to pause and reflect on other creative disciplines that can inspire our general life. 

Here are two short pieces that are brilliant and worth seeing no matter what you're interested in. Thank you to Creative Review for spotting them first.

Parkour flipbook animation:

Amnesty International: Death to the Death Penalty:

If you're like me then you get very excited about the World Cup for a very short amount of time, and it's a great way to feel patriotic and part of something bigger than your daily life. 

So in honour of the possibility of England staying in the World cup long enough to give us something to shout about, here's my 4 favourite websites to see live scores (especially when you're at work during the matches):

No.1 : Yahoo Sport

Colourful and bright, this is a good option if you want photos and articles to distract you once you've glanced at the scores.

No.2 : Soccerway.com

Whilst the live matches are clearly laid out and pleasant to look at, the rest of the information on the page is a bit oppressive.

No.3 : Flashscores.com

Minimal and clean, this layout gives it to you on a plate...if you don't mind ignoring all the advertisements.

No.4 : Google.com

Last but not least, Google have been kind enough to reward anyone searching with anything relavent to the 'World Cup' the latest scores for matches on at the moment.  With a clear and instantly readable layout, good old Google have sneakily given us everything we've ever wanted....again.

Originally started in 2006, the Easton Arts Trail (Bristol) is proving to be 'one of those community things' that actually works.  This year, the Easton Arts Trail 2010 took place in 30 different venues, including open houses, local churches, community venues, cafes and pubs, with over 55 artists and arts groups exhibiting artwork, performing and running workshops and other activities.

Focus' Simon M. and Emily B. were two of hundreds of people who followed the trail through small start up studios, hijacked pubs and peoples living rooms.  Simon M. also took the opportunity to exhibit some photos from his brother-in-law's front room, which were well recevied.

With councils cutting budgets left right and centre, this is one project that seems to have really made the sun shine in Easton and Bristol would be a lesser place without it. Check out their website for more information: www.eastonartstrail.co.uk

As part of National Families Week, Emily went along to the launch event for Bristol City Council's Bristol Parenting Hub website last Wednesday, and met the Deputy Lord Mayor!

The site, designed to signpost parents of children and young people of all ages to key pieces of information regarding their children's upbringing, had a great response, and we hope to see user numbers grow over the coming months.

We're always looking to add to the information carried on there, so take a look and let us know what you think!

Working with Bristol City Council, we relaunched their Go Places to Play website at the end of last week.

The updated site carries much more information for parents and carers of young people about Bristol's parks and green spaces, including the ability to search for the nearest green space to you through a postcode finder feature.

With many new parks and green spaces opening in Bristol throughout the Summer, try visiting the site to find your local play area. You might be surprised!

I've just checked the News and have become aware of our new Olympic mascots "Wenlock" and "Mandeville", my first thoughts were "what the heck are those things" but after watching a rather entertaining animation of their creation, i started to realise that they aren't that bad, I mean even if you hate them, you should take pride in what's representing our great country. For once everyone should have some national pride!

Our guest blogger - Mr P. D - work experience student.

"The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win" (Sir Roger Bannister)

Well thanks Roger, we weren't in it to win it but it certainly was painful. The Focus team have succesfully completed the much anticipated Bristol 10km race. Paul and Duncan have been pounding the streets for the last 2 months in preparation for the big race and it was well worth it. The guys were joined by almost 9000 other runners dressed in an array of outfits from Scooby Doo to flamingos and even a man dressed in a suit smoking a pipe.

The event was brilliant, well organised and great fun. Well done Bristol!! I think there may be talk in the office of a half Marathon next!