First this shows up as Sarkozy attempts to recast himself in Obama’s image.

Then commercial America gets the right idea and adds the appropriate tag line: 20% off!

I’m wondering why Darling & Brown didn’t appropriate the graphic scheme for promoting the VAT cut.

(Note: I have made further additions to this map since writing this post, so it is probably in its final form, though I would like to find out how to use the OpenStreetMap as shown below instead of the Google map.)

This is a mapping of photos taken as the bus crossed canals, brooks or rivers. The next version will show other features with different symbols: parklands, industrial greenspaces, wild/derelict spaces and so on. Essentially, the map will be accompanied by a very long list of photos and photo data. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to handle the instances of places that fit multiple categories, like canals with industrial and wild features. The nice thing would be a means of searching on a particular type of space, and having the map show only those sites and their accompanying photos. But I don’t see how I’m going to do that, and will settle for the kitchensink result.

This map is a plotting of Geosetter data onto a Google map via the GPS Visualizer scripts, but has also seen some work with GPSBabel, GPSies.com, Fotki and Photobucket. I had to convert the GeoSetter KMZ output to KML, then modify the XML data in a spreadsheet, upload it in its revised form, run it through Google maps and set it as an iframe on this post.

Addendum:
I’m hoping to find a way of adding the information to an OpenStreetMap (OSM) tile base, but as the map below shows, it seems that OSM is rendered as static png tiles that can be drawn over using Google drawing tools. To see the OSM background, select it from the dropdown list at upper right in the map.

OSM has a nifty JPEG export function that I can set as a background map in Trackmaker. The track data shows up as a blue line.

But the photo locations have to be imported from Geosetter, which I cannot do directly. Instead, I have to export it as a Google Earth file (*.kml), then load that into Trackmaker. Geosetter is a bit underdeveloped in that regard, as it seems to be missing various Save and Export capacities. But damn is it good as a photo::GPS synch tool!

The OpenStreetMap has much better information about parks than Google maps, but it doesn’t have the same level of interactivity, e.g., I can’t make anything other than a static superimposition of my track and photo data, so it ends up looking like this.

But it’s a start.

This is a plot of the points where my 11A met an oncoming 11C. 21 times. You can almost see them bunching into twos and fours.

GeoSetter is really fab as regards filtering and mapping on the desktop. I can use it to filter by IPTC keywords, so all the photos keyed with ‘11C’ get mapped directly, then exported as KML, uploaded to GPSVisualizer and into the form you see above.

The GeoSetter desktop looks like this.

It auto-synchronises my GPS trackroute to the photos using the date/time of each, then plots it on a map. There’s also a facility to upload data and photos to a photomapping website called locr. It will also go to Google Earth, and I’m wondering if there’s a way of doing a slideshow, animating the sequence of photos with trackpoints.

In any case, I’ll be mapping the greenspace info as time allows and posting about that, too.

I managed to make one complete 80km circuit on the 11A between 12:55 and 15:20. According to my GPS unit, that is, which apparently includes the vertical travel as well as the horizontal. I think the horizontal distance was more like 35km.

While riding in the upper front left seat of the 12:55 from Acock’s Green I also managed to take 139 photos, most of which were of publicly accessible greenspaces: parks, cemeteries, riverways, bits of derelict land and a few of the horizons. These are currently being uploaded to my Zoto account. The intent was to stop at every park, take a nice photo of each, then catch the next 11A. This plan changed when I realised a) that there are far more greenspaces than I’d identified on maps, and b) there wouldn’t be enough daylight to do all of them. So I opted for a passing view from my stagecoach seat. Several of the places I passed are worth a revisit, so that’s already on the agenda.

I also tried to snap every 11C. One of them slipped past undocumented, just north of Ward End, but I think that was the only one.

The majority of photos have flaws, from poor focus, scratched window glass, or solar flare. Image quality doesn’t make the trip, so to speak. But they are indicative of things: greenspace, buses, the Outer Circle context.

This bus looks like it may have had 11ers aboard

I’ll be returning to Bromford Lane for a longer reccie

Including a visit to Rookery Park.

Today, on the back of various lists, D of D’log adds a suggestion to the d’logue by going to 11 on a list of ten things he’d like to see happen around town and on the cyberwebs.

No.11. An open online list of professional creatives, based in and around the city, who are willing to consider requests from genuine non-profits for free or low-cost “for the public good” work.

I was kinda thinking of a solution the other way round. It’s better to crowdsource parts of a solution rather than lay a given burden on any one expert. While a directory of services is a good thing to have in any case, I’m thinking that a given charitable group would stand to gain more specific support if they published a list of things they want to do, and that tasks could be picked off by any number of people. It means that while a group might not get everything they need, they’d get at least some of it, which is more than groups tend to get when it’s an all-or-nothing prospect.

The idea would be quite similar to a barter exchange.

An example that comes to mind is that of website setup and design tasks, which range from the relatively simple stuff to more complex things that require more comprehensive knowledge. For instance, while I could help someone set up a basic webpage, blog or even a Content Management System like Drupal, I wouldn’t be able to tweak a Drupal installation.

If a voluntary group needed something a bit more sophisticated than a default setup, the tasks could be split among several people, so that no one person was pressured into being the sole support provider.

A scheme to coordinate this sort of thing would be relatively easy to set up. Applicants would answer a series of questions and set out their requirements in discrete lists. These could then be selected piecemeal by people in a position to offer support.

A broader advantage is that this approach seeds a community. Let’s call it item no. 12 on a list of ten.

Whereas central government and national support services for charities are good at putting certain resources about, they have neglected a range of crucial skills and resources, thwarting the efforts of smaller, newly established groups. Councils are left to fill in some of the gaps. In Birmingham this has included the Birmingham Voluntary Service Council (BVSC), B:CEN, the Community Chest funds, and others. Some of those services and funds have assisted with things like IT skills, but there still seems to be a critical gap in access to support.

Returning to the example of a Drupal installation - suppose my voluntary group were offered support for that task, with the stipulation that we then help others as the need arises. Over time a web of skills develops that raises the level of expertise among the people who need it, and who then sustain the community through their efforts.

If the resource gap were substantively addressed by regional experts in the manner I’ve described, Birmingham would have developed a model for communities around the nation. Kinda makes sense for the city of DIY entrepreneurs.

I was out pushing a mower today, so missed the best public space news of the year, as announced here, here, here, here, and here. It’s that good, and worth repeating again. Something to replace the dowdy box known as New Street Station, the service entry to Birmingham.

The slinky roofline made of glass and/or metal panels (mmm hott!) is a cheeky/cheerful update on C19 Exhibition style buildings, inclusive of the former New Street. If Selfridge’s is Mae West, this is the train of her gown.

But the designers/promoters are not telling us whether there’s any connection between the two structures. They aren’t showing us any context at all. So while I’d like to see how this slinky shed relates to the Bullring, I am more concerned that it’s just another statuesque building plonked into space without a thought for the way people will experience the transition from their train to the wonderful world of Brum.

The new design - if it gets built - is far better than any mainline station between Manchester and Paris, but if it neglects to announce Birmingham to the new arrival, it’s taking a half step forward rather than the whole step the city deserves.

I say mainline station because at least one London Underground station does very much what’s required. The Jubilee Line station entrance at Canary Wharf is a piece of sculpture in its own plaza. It’s a pleasure to walk in and out of that portal. Going in, one can imaginatively anticipate the prospects of travel, of a journey. Coming out, one feels acknowledged, welcome. Try to say that about going in or out of the current New Street or Snow Hill stations. There’s nothing inviting or inspiring about either.The word that comes to mind for both is insipid. And that’s not the kind of first impression I want anyone to have, nor the kind of day-to-day reminder.

If you want me to think that Birmingham is a lovely place to visit, or live, start at the train station. By giving it a grand portal. Make me happy to go in and out of that place every day.

Mae West’s train deserves a bit of red carpet. A landscape that gives it room to move, to show off. So where’s the plan drawing, the sense of context for this new shed?

Examples? I’ve come up with one, so far. I know there are others, and that there ought to be a word or phrase to describe the work these words do. But I can’t come up with any others at the moment.

The one? Unpatriotic. You know, when this word is deployed, that the intent is to malign the character of whoever is unlucky enough to be on the receiving end. You also know that this single word is meant to dismiss any further discussion around a given topic. It is even employed to shift the focus away from other topics and prevent further discussion there too.

So if a radio loudmouth L is discussing the economic views of political candidate X, and says ‘X is unpatriotic’, you know the remark is intended to divert discussion away from the economic issues and focus a wave of irrational abuse on X. What I am looking for is a word to describe the tactic L has employed. Is ’scare-mongering’ the best we can do?

The tactic is partly about stereotyping, but it’s more than that. We can use stereotypes without a clampdown on discussion. We can say ‘hoodie’ or ‘no-go area’ without intending to condemn or instill fear. So part of what I’m looking for is about the intimidation through words. Stereotypes may intimidate, but not necessarily.

Other examples of intimidation might include the use of  ’commie’ (now ‘liberal’), or ‘atheist’, as all-purpose silencers. These are pejorative adjectives, and are a subset of the speech tactics I’m thinking about. They are effective at shutting down discussion, but there are other, less personal ways of getting the same result.

One might think of it as a way of suppressing dissent. If you start labelling something in a way that effectively stops further enquiry, what’s that act called? Stifling enquiry?

That’s pretty close. Let’s try it on another example. Recently, the Policy Exchange suggested that Government roll up current regeneration funding streams and give the money directly to councils to use at their discretion (with Audit Commission scrutiny). The press generally took that as a call to abandon northern cities, as though London tank-wonks had foolishly let the social-economic Darwinist (e.g. Tory) cat out of the bag. In this case, the press effectively shut down discussion of the report by characterising it in emotive terms certain to rile people who already feel let down.

So, did the press stifle enquiry? No, not particularly. I can find the link to Policy Exchange, read the report for myself, and make decisions accordingly. But news editors did stifle debate by pandering to old stereotypes and using other tabloid tactics. A broader discussion on devolved regeneration schemes is worth having, as are discussions on whether Oxbridge can be developed responsibly, sustainably, and on whether the ‘best and brightest’ truly do leave their home towns. Did the press make a clear effort to foster that discussion? Nope, other than a bit from commenteers on the sidelines. 

The reading public is susceptible to this sort of manipulation (though they needn’t be), so they are complicit in constraining the discussion. But if we take the public and the press together, we can say the broader public enquiry was stifled before it began. We can then ask what tactic was used to stifle further enquiry. In this example it’s got to be some sort of misrepresentation for the purposes of reinforcing a stereotype and closing off any further exploration of whether something is or isn’t as described. More broadly, does this discursive tactic have parallels in the way discussions are handled around topics of national security, immigration, economic policy, social welfare, political reform, and any number of hot-button topics? Does it have parallels in the way we think about places, about behaviour and lifestyle, about each other?

I want a word or two for it, not a sentence. What’s the word for it? Pre-emptive scare-mongering? Discursive strangulation? Stifling enquiry seems the best description so far. But maybe there are better words for it.

This is a brilliantly simple idea that lends itself to all manner of manipulations, so I plan to do something, hopefully something mapwise. This might consist of traveling in 11 degree segments, wandering for 11 minutes, 11 metres, or setting off to 11 compass points.

The first bit of preparation is to come up with a reasonably accurate GPS track of the route. So I improvised one last night and have stored it as a GPX file for public access. Open it in GPS Trackmaker or similar. If you want to see a display now, open this GPS Visualizer page and copy the GPX file URL into the field labeled ‘URL of static data on the Web‘, then press the button labelled ‘Draw the map‘.

Having made a rough track, a couple of things caught my eye:

• The outermost points of the route are almost diametrically opposite each other, and the midpoint of that diameter is a tree near MacDonald Street in Highgate. The tree at the centre of the Number 11 universe sounds like a great site for some kind of activity. Releasing 11 bus-shaped balloons? Putting eleven 11s on tethers and spinning them through the air? Pretending to track the progress of eleven toy buses in a scaled version of the route?
• From that point, the route can be divided into segments. I started by dividing it like a twelve hour clock, and located 11:00 near the junction of Church Lane and Church Green in Handsworth Wood. This might be a good spot to do 11 minutes and 11 seconds worth of activity.

The circular character also provides other opportunities, such as dividing the route into eleven segments (of 32.72 degrees) starting from the nearest stop (mine’s on Vicarage Road). Perhaps each 11th becomes a space for different actions.

Perhaps, in direct imitation of Paris, je t’aime, 11 one-minute movies will be produced and collectively titled Brummagems, oui luvs yer.

Thanks to Jon Bounds and Travel West Midlands, I have a one day bus pass that will probably be used for the longest journey I can manage, complete with photos.

I did this last year, when my last three 2007 Daysaver cards were about to expire. I used one of them to visit points between Moseley and Halesowen, alternating between bus and foot, taking photos all the while.

Halesowen was one of three places I’d considered visiting by bus. The other two were Wolverhampton and Water Orton, but didn’t get to. I am probably going to use my new Daysaver for the Wolverhampton excursion, to take in some of the canals and countryside around Oxley and Moseley. I will document it, of course, using camera and possibly GPS.

I have some variations on this idea, one of which involves a group effort - people with Daysavers spending a day doing the same, and creating photojourneys, perhaps with the assistance of TWM or regional cultural/development agencies. Another involves producing artefacts like maps - perhaps a combination of GPS tracks, photos, and objects found en route. The latter suits my solo purposes, but is not something I’ll have the resources to pull off for some time. Perhaps by the 2010 expiration date!

The question of GPS is iffy, because the only unit I have access to is a Garmin eTrex. The reception is basic, and the sampling rate is very low, so most of my tracks are intermittent - particularly when it involves being inside a vehicle.

The Halesowen excursion track is shown below, and the orange segments are a good illustration of the GPS losing satellite connections over various distances. Some of these were on foot, others on the bus. A better unit would have more frequent connections and produce a better track.

Producing a map track like this is no longer special, and with the advent of Google Streetview, tracking a series of local scenes will also become commonplace. But mixing up one’s own images and producing one’s own cartography has the potential to be a richer, more engaging process and result.

The GPS is useful in this regard because some GPS units, like the Garmin Gecko, make it somewhat easier to synchronise one’s photos to the track. (I tried this along the Holder’s Lane footpath at the Open Streetmap party in April, but never got the hang of the software.) What I’d like to do is use the track as a proportional datum for organising a physical display. For example, a piece of string scaled with relative intervals, elevations and orientations becomes an organising device for photos and other sorts of objects. Alternatively, some sort of folding paper - be it a booklet or an origami polyhedron - would make a tactile representation of one’s excursion. A roomful of these would make an interesting, fun exhibit.