A bacon shop in Digbeth! Only open in the mornings though...

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.

How does a South African see Birmingham when guided through it by Jon Hickman? Here's how. (Marlon's work in Cape Town is fascinating. Hope to investigate it more thoroughly later.)

Nikki is working on a directory of "useful spaces" where meetups, coworking and adhoc events can take place in Birmingham from cafes with wifi to venues that are friendly and cheap. You can submit spaces in the form on her site and add more details to the spreadsheet. All powered by Google Docs and a nice illustration of collaborative writing and crowdsourcing.

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.

Actually, noise complaint, singular. This is absurd. The Rainbow is one of Birmingham's better music venues and is an vital part of the Digbeth ecosystem. I predict a riot over this.

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.

The 28 Days Later explorers break into a derelict building in Digbeth and take photos of the 70s glories the find inside. Love the clock. <i>via <a href="http://digbeth.org/2009/02/bradford-house-birmingham-1767-archived-uk-urban-exploration-forums/">Digbeth is Good</a>

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>

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>.

Fantastic looking piece by Stan's Cafe that's looks to be part performance, part installation, part something else entirely consisting of 6.7 billion grains of rice, one for each person on the planet. CiB has the links and there's a neat video trailer which makes everything clear.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/iDWcuBygAUw&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iDWcuBygAUw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

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>

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.

Fucking fuckers. Fucking fuckstick fuckers. I mean, what the fuck goes through these people's minds? Sigh...

A summary of the launch of Channel 4's new public service investment fund. Very interesting.

Launched yesterday in Brum, this looks to move Channel 4's public service remit from broadcast to "networks" with a £10m pot of funding for projects. Very interesting.

Keri Davies, aka the Archers writer I know, has a blog.

Community blog..

I knew getting Nicky to run the Digbeth is Good blog would be a fab idea. Great roundup of what's happening in the East of Birmingham this week.

Plenty of room to fill in all the coworking spaces, official or not.

A great example (in my view, for what that's worth) of how an event can use Twitter to connect with and inform an audience.

Jon Bounds tries to draw up some guidelines based on the Artsfest Using Twitter conflab.

Very interesting discussion on Podnosh following a volunteer's efforts to use Twitter to promote Birmingham's Artsfest in a manner which some people found to be ill advised. Raises some issues about what's the right way to do this stuff.

Set up by me during Thursday's meeting, this should hopefully be where interested parties can discuss ideas and plans for this new community radio station in Birmingham

Saw him play recently. Nice quirky singer songwriter stuff. Has some mp3s.

The WordPress BarCamp is now being held at The Studio off New St, a much better venue I think. Same dates: 19-20 July. Looking forward to it!

Details and architectural plans for the new coworking space in Moseley

The forthcoming co-working space in Moseley has a blog.

7 Inch Cinema discover that the flipbook animation device was patented in Birmingham in 1868.

by local music types on the whole. Warms my heart to see this. My work here is done.

a blog-hub for people in Birmingham who use internet stuff. Lovely name!

Local cats, critiqued and ranked.

Mixed feelings about this. Martin can be a pillock sometimes but he's the best councilor I've ever come across. That said, he probably screwed up here.

One week on Chris does the linkage and draws a line.

Surface sent a take-down email to Created in Birmingham. We responded by rephrasing the offending bit in LOLspeak.

The Getgood Guide to the ten best boozers in Digbeth

"A monthly coffee morning that's open to all and has no agenda other than simply to get people talking. The Birmingham event is held at Saint Caffe on St Paul's Square, on the third Friday of each month."

"providing social media skills to the community and teaching them how to harness these abilities for the good of the community."

Meet on the first Monday of the month in Moseley

Handy list of all the wards and their canidates