RT @SixEightKafe: Birmingham Loves Photographers - Meet up & Guest Lecture at 6:30pm 22nd June #birmingham #photography

Nice review of the Flatpack Festival that takes a wider look at Digbeth's regeneration

"It is simply because Brummies, as a product of their insanely complicated road network, have evolved to be brilliant oblique thinkers. Londoners, living at the centre of a hub and spoke system of roads, are inclined to be crass, direct thinkers."

The Juneau Projects boys have a blog.

Pontential place to sell TTV stuff?

On Tuesday, the City Council voted to move to a new system of governance. You can be forgiven for not realising that there was a change in the offing, but the governing party wanted to do it quietly and I don't think that they've done it properly.

John Madin, whose iconic architecture helped reshape postwar Birmingham, tells Steve Sampson of his distress at seeing his creations bulldozed

Eye on Moseley has been gathering evidence from the Birmingham Mail of a breed of sub-standard beings with special powers living amongst us. Keep an eye out for Amazing Man, Bone Boy, Death Charge Mum, Crucifixion Man and, most intriguing, Tragic Cop.

is a marvel and not just because it's lightyears ahead of anything they've produced before. It's an interactive Google Maps mashup that hooks into live timetable and travel information. The only downside is it's desktop bound but I can see this being on mobiles very soon. Fantastic example of taking data and making it work. 10/10

Nice overview of what we're up to in Birmingham at the moment featuring an interview with Nick Booth.

Another attempt to map the free (and paid for, but that's not so interesting) wifi hotspots in Birmingham. I've added my regular haunts in Kings Heath / Moseley and Digbeth. Part of the wider <a href="http://wifi-in-uk.co.uk/">UK Wifi Map</a> project and was set up by <a href="http://edrussell.blogspot.com/">Ed Russell</a>.

Great post that asks "So just what is it about the Birmingham Central Library that generates such loathing (and almost as as much passionate support)?" For the record I like the outside of the building but think the inside needs gutting, so I'm up for this notion of repurposing it it as an art gallery or similar. <i>via <a href="http://www.birminghamitsnotshit.co.uk/2008/12/the-great-inverted-ziggurat-of-birmingham-why-is-it-so-misunderstood-inversion-layer.html">BiNS</a></i>

The official website for the Number 11 day when we'll be spending "eleven hours on the eleven bus starting at eleven am" on November 11th. If you're doing it go sign up now. Annoyingly I'll be away on a course that day so I can't do it. Buggeration...

Well, photos of the outside and the atrium - no images of what the platforms will be like yet. Looks pretty good, if at times like a sleeping robot.

DJ Marc Reck is involved in a massive 12 hour event featuring 25 different promoters and the like and it's gotten him musing about the nature of such things. This quote particularly jumped out to me:

"Often, it seems that that the underground scene, its venues, and respective promoters often gets missed out of the discussion about why Birmingham is not on the map, which in this city confuses me, as at least from my eyes, the more underground events and venues, have bought a range of different music, experiences and culture to me over the last 15 years."

Russ L's essential roundup of what's going on in the region. You can always guarantee to find at least a couple of things of interest in there.

is Birmingham's long mooted digital festival happening in October. They have a blog and, shockingly, seem to be using it very well indeed. Have we turned a corner? I think we might have done. Pete is happy!

A penguin, previously employed as a bin at the Custard Factory, has escaped and is staging a rooftop protest at the nearby Spotted Dog pub. This is my account but ongoing reporting is being done by Nicky at <a href="http://digbeth.org/">Digbeth is Good</a>.

A "stop 'em in the street" fashion blog for Birmingham which, I think, is just what the city needs right now. Magic. <i>via <a href="http://www.birminghamitsnotshit.co.uk/2008/08/style-icons-of-birmingham.html">BiNS</a></i>

Nicky curates the, well, phenomena is probably the wrong word, of everyone on Twitter announcing to the world that they're going to see Batman on a big screen. More fun that you might imagine.

John Mostyn blogs a pice of investigation he undertook to discover whether Birmingham is the highest city in the country. It isn't, but fourth isn't to bad, after Bradford, Sheffield and Stoke-on-Trent. Manchester is 26th, which is satisfying in a petty way but the big surprise for me is Winchester at number 14. It never seemed that high when I lived there what with the coast being so close. I guess the UK's cities tend to be by large rivers so none of them are particularly high.

Jon Bounds' notion for a special Birmingham day where you're encouraged to spend 11 hours on the number 11 bus route on November 11th and document your adventures.

I've always had a liking for the Fluxus movement so a series of events in that spirit taking place in Birmingham warms my little heart.

Aston University Lakeside Centre in Birmingham.

"Employers were still getting to grips with sectors such as digital media, which are very different to the traditional manufacturing which once dominated the region, an inquiry heard."

Bradshaw and Geary pushing the agenda forward.

A business in the Custard Factory who do the Birmingham Book Festival amongst other things.

Specifically, for me , the Feasibility grant.

Collating Twitter, delicious and Flickr stuff about the local elections

Live streaming hosted by Sir Adrian Goldberg from 10.30pm

"Our mission is to Provide a one stop solution to allow the not for profit and public sectors to create wi-fi "hotspots" that links the digital revolution to social and economic improvement."

Jon Bounds has started at wiki for Birmingham with some rather neat mapping involved. Like Wikipedia only different. And about Brum. Get adding stuff.

Catherine O'Flynn reflects on the Art of Ideas talks of last week.

"Coworking is the social gathering of a group of people, who are still working independently, but who share values and who are are interested in the synergy that can happen from working with talented people in the same space"

Tuesday 11 March at The Electric Cinema, Birmingham. I should blog more about this but for now SpagGaz has the details.

A nice photo by Bill Phillips pretty much succeeds.

D'log digs up some websites that "might be useful for artists starting to think about the possible public art benefits in the city centre"

The Gay Birmingham History Project was formally launched on Thursday. Love the Bull icon.

Dunc reports on a gig he put on, including wondering where a band from Sweden should spend the day in Birmingham

Matt Zenbullets has built a Birmingham Bloggers Aggregator to help him navigate the local scene. Handy.

A business directory site with user reviews that's just expanded outside of London. I've been having a play and quite like what I see.

Along with the coach station and the possibly forthcoming Metro extension. Looking good...

I'm posting this because I think it's cool but also because it could be dead useful for getting to obscure venues in darkest Digbeth. And I think it's cool.

"Retail Birmingham also work closely with Marketing Birmingham to help coordinate and manage a number of other projects including Style Birmingham. The news area is well worth checking out given Retail Birmingham’s overarching of lots of other well know

A new website for the central Brum Business Improvement District, built by 383. BiNS has commentary.

Next one on 23rd Feb. "We’re going to hysterically applaud a total stranger for doing something completely normal. "

They've revamped their meetups which now take place every second Saturday at the Old Joint Stock. Next one is 9th Feb

Ian Edwards, aka H4NUM4N, has started blogging.

Intriguing history of cold war tunnels in Birmingham