Comment on BBC WM: Do we need to preserve our urban views.

I took a call from BBC WM yesterday asking me for a comment, as a photographer, on former heritage minister John Penrose's idea that the finest urban views in our cities and towns should be protected. Here's the article in The Telegraph.

It's still available on Listen Again for the next 5 days so tune in while you can! It starts 48:20 minutes in.

I think John Penrose's idea is certainly different but I'm not sure how it could be executed successfully in cities where the landscape is always changing.

I don't think views are always ruined by redevelopment. In fact, new buildings and architecture can enhance city's aspects.

Could preserving certain urban views have a detrimental effect on industry? If a business can't build, where will the jobs go and in turn the growth of towns and cities.

What would constitute a heritage view? How would it be decided?

John Madin's Central Library is due to be demolished. I was very fortunate that the Central Library gave permission for access to the building for the 4am Project.

Photo by Mark Wilson

The urban view from the roof top of the library is wonderful, but that particular view won't be there much longer. Though as one building goes, another will appear on the horizon and perhaps offer an even better view of an urban landscape (which of course is all down to personal taste and opinion anyway).

On my 'Being a tourist in my own city' day I took to the 25th Floor of the fairly new The Cube. I was amazed by the views! Those views may not exist if redevelopment had been halted.

Watch on youtube.

I'm all for an ever-changing urban landscape. Unless you touch my favourite building of course!

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2012: The Good, The Bad and The Unplanned

Hello!

I hope you had a magical Christmas time and Santa got you lots of great toys! He was very good to me with lovely perfumes and blingy things. My favourites! How does he know eh?!

I'm just emerging from a few days of completely re-charging my glitter, which means I really, actually, truly did nothing! It was bliddy marvelous. It's so rare I take a few days to do nothing and I really got into the swing of it. And I've just realised that in planning my 2013 diary I forgot to schedule time off - I'm going to correct that right this second....

Right, that's time off booked into next years diary. Now, to look back on 2012!

The Good

I've got all sorts of good from this year!

Here are just a few of my personal favourites:

Speaking at Birmingham Girl Geeks launch event about social media and the 4am Project. Thanks for inviting me ladies! If you are a Girl and a bit of a Geek and you are in, or can get to Birmingham, keep an eye out for their up-coming events. 

Celebrating my best friend's 40th Birthday at a haunted cottage in the middle of nowhere in Wales. I still shudder at the ghostly goings on! It was a real country break with just the sound of birds and the neighbours mooing (they were cows, not humans!). I loved the open fire, but not the cobwebs. Part of me would just love to go back there again, and the other part says 'noooooo, it's just toooo scary!'.

Partying with Bugsy Malone at Fat Sam's Grand Slam. Fat Sam knows how to throw a party! I met Bugsy and he let me hold his splurge gun! What a gentleman. He's from NYC so I had a soft spot for him.

Having an Italian adventure in Milan! I had the chance to explore this beautiful city with it's stunning architecture, designer shops, art and of course the stylish people and not forgetting it has the most fabulous graveyard ever! Honestly.

The A.May.Zing month of May! 10 days of working and living in London. I had such an adventure and so many things fell into place. It was just the place I should have been that month. Now it's given me a taste for London and I've been back a few times since and plans to return very soon!

Being recruited by Brave New Ventures I had no idea what I was getting into or letting myself in for when I was approached by BNV. What a mysterious organisation. I'm still not quite sure what happened! 

Enjoying a Great British Seaside Holiday with my fab Mum We toured seaside towns down south and had one sunny day during the week. Hey, you can't go to the beach and not get rained on the the UK. Sandy sandwiches are a must. It's tradition! Thanks for a fab holiday Mum! 

Taking the 4am Project event to Nottingham and having 40 amazing photographers turn up despite the torrential rain! I still have to blog about this event, but it was a great challenge to take the project to a new city and make it happen and also team up with the Lakeside Arts Centre and their Saturday Night Sunday Morning exhibition. I'm very grateful to all the photographers who came along and took part in the 4am Project photography challenge given the challenging weather! 

Working with the talk about local team! Not just good, but great! However, now it's time to say a fond farewell to the team and take part in new adventures in 2013, which I'll announce shortly. If you ever get a chance to work with any of the tal team, do! If you have an interest in how to use social media from a grass root up perspective, keep an eye on the great work they do in empowering people and communities. It's been a pleasure working with everyone and I'll look forward to the TAL13 conference next year!  

The Bad

This could also go in The Unplanned category, but it was it was more 'bad' than 'unplanned' (not that I planned it!) so it's going here.

Being ill and spending a week in hospital. That was pretty bad. The 'good' is that I am better now. Hurrah!

It took a month out of the year all in all and I resent it for that. And it knocked my confidence in how my body works and also what I could and couldn't eat until I ended up eating the blandest diet ever. Thankfully, I am better and I know I can eat whatever I like again. So, another, Hurrah!

The 'good' for you is that I'm pretty bored of talking about it now, so this'll be the last you hear about it. Unless 1. I get ill again or 2. I feel like I want some sympathy haha.

The Unplanned

I didn't plan 2012 quite well enough. Which in some parts worked out well (Amazing Month Of May and for the Being Ill parts), but that was only by accident. Let me explain.

Earlier in the year I applied for a Clore Fellowship. Naturally I was pretty excited about this, but I also had a feeling that my chances of securing a place would be fairly slim. However, if you don't try for things, you stand no chance at all. What with the time commitment involved in the Fellowship if I had of been successful, and even though I felt my chances were a little slim, I kept the second half of the year free of commitments. In April I got the news that I didn't get a place. I was looking at the rest of the year without as much of a plan as I would ordinarily have liked.

It all worked out in the end and I was able to get back on track with planning but I really think I should have had more of a back up plan. The power of a back up plan should not be underestimated!

FINAL SCORE

I will give 2012 a score of 7/10.

2013, I have very high expectations of you! We are aiming for 10/10!

Thank you to everyone who has brought their positivity to the year! 

I wish you all the happiness in the world and every success for 2013! 

Let's grab it and go out and make our own luck! :) 

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Speaking about my photography career and the 4am Project

At Fotofilia Photography Studio

Last month I gave two talks about my photography career and the 4am Project at Fotofilia Photography Studio. 

David Rann who owns Fotofilia ask me to come along and give two 90 minute talks to his two photographic societies; The Club and F2. 

I spoke about how I turned my passion into a career, and how the 4am Project began and captured the imaginations of photographers around the world.

Fotofilia 4am Project Walk

With a global 4am Project date coming up soon David got some hardy photography souls together and headed out into the rain drenched streets of Birmingham! Check out his blog post about the morning and his DSLR photographs. Thanks for organising the walk and for inviting me along to speak to your photo societies David!

Have a look at everything that is happening at Fotofilia. Not only is there a fabulous photo studio for hire (at a great price), there are classes and lessons and courses. David arranges exhibitions as well as running the photographic societies.

What David said about my talks:

“Karen has now delivered two presentations to the photographic societies we run here at Fotofilia. I had wanted to bring Karen along to speak for some time, having heard many great things about the 4am Project and admiring the innovative concept. 

On both occasions, the presentations were fun, informative and inspirational - (anything that can encourage our members to consider getting up at 4am to take pictures must be recommended). The presentations were well paced and friendly, with any questions being handled honestly and concisely"


If you would like to hire me to talk photography, 4am Project, communities or social media, then give me a shout! 

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New global 4am Project date plus bonus Nottingham event!

I'm calling out to photographers and those with a curiosity and like to try something a little crazy different at 4am on Sunday 25th November.

The 4am Project is back and not only is this another global event, I'm also hosting a 4am Project photo walk in Nottingham city centre!

Tickets are free and places are limited!



Grab some 4am photography inspiration from some of the 6000+ photography archive from the project from 50 countries!



Where to find the 4am Project online....

• Website
• Flickr Group
• Facebook Group
• Twitter
• View the archives

It's really easy to take part! All you need is a camera (and a willingness to get up at 4am!)

If you have any questions, just give me a shout! :)

I am not a Clore Fellow

In February I decided that I would apply for a place on the Clore Leadership Programme.

What is the Clore Leadership Programme?

From their website:

The Clore Leadership Programme is an initiative of the Clore Duffield Foundation which aims to strengthen leadership across a wide range of cultural activities. 

This includes the visual and performing arts, film, heritage, museums, libraries and archives, creative industries and cultural policy and administration.

I had been watching the Clore space for a few years and deemed myself ready to apply for one of the 25 places using the 4am Project and my experience as the basis of my application. I thought there was a very slim chance that I would secure a place, and that it was worth a shot even with the knowledge that the competition would be fierce. If you never try, you'll never know!

As the title of this blog post has already revealed, I didn't get a place. When I received the letter in late April, it didn't come as a surprise, but I was glad to know their decision one way or another so I could make plans for the rest of this year and next. I had to keep my diary clear on the small chance I would be accepted on the course; as the Leadership Programme is quite a commitment time-wise, would have taken up some of the latter part of this year and the first 6/7 months next year.

Even though I didn't get a place, going through the application process was a worth while endeavour! There were multiple parts to the application, and it really gave me a chance to review where I am, what I am doing, what I have achieved, what I contribute in cultural terms and where it all fits in together.

There were quite a few questions to answer, such as 'Why apply now? Why do you want to lead? Give an example of when you demonstrated leadership..'.

As I mentioned, the main basis of my application was the 4am project and of course, my experience.

If you haven't heard of it, the 4am Project is a ground-breaking, creative, collaborative arts project based around photography, and it's a project where I've demonstrated my leadership qualities by using my vision and planning to engage a diverse global audience.

To date the Project has engaged thousands of people in over 50 countries and has amassed over 6500 digital images in its archive.

It's a thought-provoking project which has inspired and challenged participants, from the absolute beginner in photography to experienced photographers. Motivating people around the world to get out of their beds at 4am is no mean feat!

Photo by Pedro Pinheiro

I think the project is a platform for people to improve on their photography skills and their artistic potential as it asks them to do something out of the ordinary. It challenges people’s concept of photography and directs them to an exciting and positive experience which leads to them being able to show their art to the world, inspiring them to continue their creativity.

Photo by Steve Anderson

Being the figure-head and driving force of the Project I do my best to lead by example and have shown my ability to inspire others into taking action and participating in an exciting art-form. I've used my creative drive and ambition for the project to reached a wide and diverse, actively involved audience.

In my application wrote about how the 4am Project has increased access to the visual arts by engaging individuals, who have enjoyed the medium of photography as an art form and how in turn this has developed participants personal and professional growth in the photography medium.

I also mentioned how the project contributes economically to education in the arts sector; students of photography have used the Project as part of their course work and I offer my insight as a leader in the photography field by sharing my knowledge and speaking to students and photography groups. Also 4am Project website itself provides a source of inspiration and reference and I hope the project will leave a legacy for future artistic practice.

Photo by John Garghan

I run the 4am Project in an environment of economic difficulty through my sheer grit and optimism. In this climate of financial difficulty, I think that now is an especially crucial time to nurture, engage and encourage people to involve themselves in creative art forms.

I nourish and replenish the Project by encouraging people to develop their skills and interests in the art and photography world, and I hoped that the Clore Programme would help empower me in creating a sustainable model for leadership in the arts sector. That's not to say I can't do that on my own, but sometimes it's nice to get some help and support. It's an ambitious project, but where there is a will, there is a way!

Photo by Jaubele1

One of the things that I love about the project (although of course I am biased!) is that it's inclusivity means that anyone can take part. I haven't put any restrictions on age, location, gender, or photography ability.

It's had an inspiring effect on participants, observers and established artists and has been very favourably reviewed by the media.

Photo by Hrish Thota

The 4am Project inspires, affects and challenges; from people experiencing an often unseen time of day, to taking part in a community collaboration, to challenging participants to learn more about photography. It's a unique photographic collaboration and offers great potential to engage people in photography and in turn supports people to develop their skills and ambitions.

I hoped that a place on the Clore Leadership Programme would enable me to forge and establish new connections and skills, which would support my leadership opportunities and in turn, support others better and empower them. I was ready for the challenges that the programme would bring!

A place on the programme would have been amazing and given a me a boost in terms of self development. However, it's also not the end of the world that I didn't get a place. I'm used to forging ahead with my own learning and personal development and making and creating my own opportunities. Going through the Clore application was worth it as it made me stop and properly review what I'm doing now, what I want to do and where I want to be and I'm very glad I took a chance and applied!

A huge thank you to Helga Henry, Will Perrin, my best friend and my ace mum who gave me their help, support and advice during the Clore application! :)

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The 4am Project event in Birmingham

What a weekend!

It was all about photography and the often unseen time of 4am as photographers from around the world took part in the 4am Project at 4am on Sunday 15th April.

This was the 4th annual 4am Project event. 4th?! I can't believe it. The time has flown by since I launched this global project April 2009!

It was great to see groups of photographers, as well as those who were simply curious, start to make plans for their 4am photo walk whether that was solo or in groups.

Oh, and I did a radio interview with BBC Wales about the 4am Project and with one of the organisers of the Cardiff 4am photo walk, Matt Appleby. Thank you BBC Wales!




For my city of Birmingham I organise an event on each 4am Project date, and this year I announced a 4am photo walk in Birmingham city centre meeting at St Philips Cathedral.

As is always the way when you organise something, or even throw a party, you have that moment when you think, 'Will anyone turn up?!'. I needn't have worried though. A dozen hardy 4am photographers braved the chilled city air armed with their cameras and tripods to take part in the 4am photo walk in Birmingham! Thank you all for coming along! 

I didn't have a set plan or route for this photo walk, so we all had a little chat and decided that we would start at the St Philips Cathedral area and stay there for about 15 minutes, then wander the short distance to Victoria Square, and then along New Street.

From experience I've found that you don't cover as much ground as you think you will in the 4am-5am photography slot, and it turned out that by the time we reached 5am we had gone half way along New Street and stopped quite conveniently (or perhaps we were drawn to!), a 24 hour McDonalds. Not the classiest of joints, but at least it gave us all a chance to step in from the chilly air and have a nice warming drink.

Here we are!

And here are some of the amazing photographs of Birmingham that were taken at 4am on Sunday morning. 



And of course, it wasn't only 4am photographers in Birmingham that took part! The photos are still coming in on Flickr - check out what other people's views are of 4am! 



A HUGE thank you to everyone who took part in the 4am Project! And thank you for your tweets, and blog posts and for sharing the news!

You can follow the 4am Project on twitter @4amproject and visit the website 4amproject.org

Until next time! :)


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4am Project photo walk in Birmingham this Sunday 15th April

Ok! Here's the 4am Project plan for Birmingham City Centre this Sunday. Yes, at 4am!

Where: Meeting at St Philip's Cathedral, Colmore Row, Birmingham B3 2QB MAP There's lots of parking spaces around the streets off Colmore Row and it should be free as it's Sunday.

 
View Larger Map

Time: 3.45am - 5am-ish

What: We will hit the streets for some 4am urban photography!

What to bring: Your camera. Charge batteries. Memory card. Tripod if you have one.
Wrap up warm! Bring a drink and maybe a snack - it's hungry work!

Take a look at some of the amazing photos taken on previous 4am Project photography walks in Birmingham!

 

After the event: Upload your best 4am photographs to flickr and tag them 4amproject, and geo tag them too. You can find a guide on how to do this on the 4am Project website.

4am Project website
4am Project on twitter

I hope you can make it!

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Spring review of my 2012 goals

Hi everyone!

Well, yesterday was such an exciting day for me. I finally got an iPad!!!

Ta da!

My friend Sas updated hers, and we struck a deal and now an iPad is mine. ALL MINE! ;D

And I'll just say now, I'm in love with it! I'm already looking disdainfully at my poor iphone and it's smallness which was once a feature. But my iPad is shiny and new and BIG! haha. I'll calm down soon I'm sure.

What with yesterday being the first day of spring, and I achieved one of my goals of getting an iPad, I thought this would be a good opportunity to review my goals for this year.

The observant may have noticed that I have a page dedicated to my goals on this blog.

So...let's see how it's going....!

Okay we'll have a look at my health goals which are maintain weight loss, exercise regularly, continue eating well, and take Sundays off.

I'm afraid to say I'm not doing very well in these areas. And Sundays are meant to be Me Days, but I have ended up letting other things overflow into those days. That's my own fault and I simply need to be stricter with myself as I really enjoy a day to chill out, get all beautified and watch films.

I think the biggest mistake I may have made is to stop blogging about my weight loss and my exercise goals because apart from having an injury from running late last year, and taking a break from running all those miles, I have slipped into bad eating habits again.

As a consequence I have put weight on and I'm not doing as much exercise as I would like. So I'm now going to address these areas and get back on track again because that's the only way to go. I felt much better and had more energy when I was eating very healthily and working out regularly. There are so many benefits, it would be madness to undo all my great work.

Let's have a look at my work goals. Continue developing social media skills. Yes, well I'm always keeping up to date with as much as I can with what's new in social media and it's something I'm very passionate about. I use social media that every aspect of my life including work and play and projects and social arrangements.

Launch wedding photography services. Yes I am happy to say that I can tick this one off the list. I launched my wedding photography services in January. I'm only going to take on about three or four wedding photography bookings this year. That's due to my other work commitments. I don't want to take on too much, because it's important that I keep balance just right.

Website make-over on karenstrunks.com Yes I've done this too! It's a one-stop-Karen-Strunks-site. It is quite a basic and simple design, and I will probably play around with a bit more, but it's something that I've been meaning to do for a long time and I'm very happy with it. The benefit of having everything under one roof is that people know what I actually do. The problem I had in the last year or two was that some people only knew me for my photography work, some people knew me from talk about local, some people knew me from the Birmingham Social Media Cafe, or the 4am Project. So now when somebody visits my site they can see all the areas that I'm involved in.

Oh, and I've moved my photography site from karenstrunks.com to karenstrunksphotography.com. Don't ask me how I managed to do it! That was one big learn-as-I-go challenge.

Next goal. Get sponsorship and funding for the 4am Project. This goal is still outstanding. Now there are two parts to this. One is to gain sponsorship, the other part is to gain funding. I've had a few approaches with regards to sponsorship but they haven't been right fit, and it's very important to me that if I find a sponsor they match 4am Project and it's ethos.

The second part to this goal is to secure funding of the 4am Project. Obviously this requires me to apply for the funding from some organisation or other. As you may be aware I received funding from Channel 4 and Screen West Midlands couple of years ago. I'm keeping that option open and I may apply for some funding, but whether I get sponsorship or funding for the 4am Project, it will continue for as long as I want it to. I've been running it since 2009, and it will naturally come to an end at some point. It would be nice to get more sponsorship/funding, and I know that I will have to do actively go out and do that if I that's what I want. So I'm leaving this goal in the air at the moment. There's lots of things to consider, so we shall see!

Things I want to buy. I have put here that I want an iPad (check! See above!), an iMac, and a 10 mm lens. Okay, well I've got my iPad! I don't have an iMac but in the meantime I do have my MacBook pro, and I think I'm not too bothered about 10 mm lens now. If one happens to pass my way, that would be great. But if not that's okay too.

Now to the big one! My life goal. To live and work in new York city. Well, let's say that I haven't achieved that goal. Yet! However, as you can see it's a pretty big goal. And apart from my health goal, and to generally be very happy in life,  this is one that's the most important to me.

Times Square

I find it quite hard to actually talk about this goal. I could a blog post everyday about my passion for New York City and how much it means to me, and how much it would mean if (when!) I achieve my goal to work there. Because it's such a big goal and it's so important to me sometimes I find it quite hard to talk about as I'm so emotionally attached to it. If there is anything in life that keeps me going, it is this goal. I'll say no more about it now, other than whether it takes one year or five years or 10 years, it's one that I intend to achieve. Unless! I change my mind! lol.

So there we are! This is a quarterly review of my goals and I'm pleased to say that 2012 is going really well.  I'm really happy, I'm loving my work and the people I get to work with and meet. I love being kept busy and it's all good so far.

I've decided to make the month of May a month for me. I have a week off to spend on myself. I think it's really important to have that balance. And I'm still upset that I was ill with a cold on my Christmas holidays lol. I am saying no to a lot of things for May (unless it's a trip to NYC!). I'm concentrating on myself and I think that's perfectly okay. If I'm not happy then I can't help other people and be at my best.

And as for the rest of the year bring it on!

How's 2012 treating you so far? What's been the highlights? Are you going to change your goals and review them throughout the year?

I hope 2012 is going well for you! There's never a wrong time to have a quick review of the goals that you have set yourself for the year and never too late to get back on track, and don't forget that you can always change your mind about things too!

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Announcing the next 4am Project date!

Get ready to set your alarm clock for 15th April at 4am!

It's 4am Project time! 


I started the 4am Project in 2009 and it's a global, collaborative photography project that aims to capture a view of the world at the often unseen time of 4am.

It's really easy to take part - and I hope you will! All you need is a camera and a free flickr account. Oh, and a willingness to get up at 4am!

I've set up a Facebook Page and also a 4am Project group on Flickr too, so feel feel to join.

4am Project

This April marks the 4am Project's 3rd birthday. Third! It's been an amazing 3 years and the response to the project has been astonishing. I'm so glad people like it and want to take part!

You can expect a few 4am Project posts over the next couple of months. I have a lot to say about it! :)

In the meantime, you can follow the 4am Project on twitter, see the Press Release here, and put the 15th April in your diary!

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My 4am Project interview in Touch Base magazine 2011 and what I've been up to in 2012

About a year ago I did an interview about the 4am Project with Jayne Howarth for Touch Base Magazine.

I received the pdf recently, so here it is in all it's glory! Thanks Jayne.

If you click it, it will become bigger!

Just wanted to mention that really. I like to keep a note of interviews etc when I can and keep an online record.

2012 is in full swing. I'm just keeping my head down and getting things done. 

Though I have had my first nights out of 2012 last weekend. Yeah, party animal!

They were much needed as I hadn't been out properly since before Christmas - when I managed to catch a bad cold. 

Night 1 was an evening of drinkies and cocktails with a very good friend who I hadn't seen for far too long! She's a fantastic lady, who is so supportive and amazing to be around. 

Night 2 was a party to celebrate Nicky's and Sas's birthdays! Fantastic night and great to catch up with good friends who I had't seen for a while. I also got a bonus belated birthday pressie from Sas! 

Perfect! A lovely mix of Red and Animal Print. My favs!

I had a good excuse to wear my Big Hair Bow!

On Monday it felt like New York City was calling me. I received this stunning gift from a friend. The photo doesn't do it justice. I'm keeping on my desk right in front of my monitor so I look at it every day. 

Then when I got home, I post card from my NYC pen friend was on my door mat! 

They both made me really happy! 

Yesterday myself and Nicky went to Acton in London to deliver a talkaboutlocal training workshop. It went really well, and we have got some new people starting their wordpress hyperlocal blogs. 

I was catching a train back to Birmingham from Euston and mentioned this to my best friend who lives in Cumbria. Well, she was only travelling home from London from Euston at the same time, so we were able to snatch 10 minutes best friend time together! Yay! It's always great to see her, even though it was for such a short about of time. We are meeting up again in Preston as I'm going to Local Gov Camp and we are seeing each other afterwards for dinner. And I just CANNOT wait for March as we are having a long weekend away in a 17th century cottage in the middle of nowhere in Wales! 

Me and my BFF!

This Saturday I'll be going to the first Birmingham Girl Geeks events and doing a little talk about social media and the 4am Project. It's free to come along, and boys can come too! See you there I hope :) 

Next week I'm off to Liverpool for a talkaboutlocal training day. We have quite a few workshops coming up so I'll be heading to Cornwall, Southminster, and back to London a couple of times soon! 

Then on Friday 27th it's the first Birmingham Social Media cafe event of the year. Come along to that too. It's free, and a great place to meet creatives and businesses who share a love for social media. Meegloo are sponsoring coffee! Check out Meegloo's free app too! 

Oh, and I've written a chapter of a book! It's for the Community Lover's Guide To The Universe that Podnosh is curating and the Birmingham edition is called Militant Optimists; people who knuckle down, get things down , give things a go and get the community involved. For my chapter I have written about the 4am Project.  The book should be out in the next few months and an online version will be available to download for free. I'll keep you posted!

Okay, gotta dash! Just a flying update. Say hello on twitter @karenstrunks :)

Tips and advice on starting and running your online community project

So, you have a super, duper idea for an online community project! You want the world to know about it and join in, but where to start?

I’m writing this from the point of view of running the 4am Project. It’s a global photography project that asks participants to capture a view of their world at 4am. It’s had a reach in over 50 countries and over 4,000 images submitted to date. I wear many hats with the 4am Project (and it’s been an amazing learning curve!), from event organiser, pr person, community manager, press spokesperson, advisor to name just a few.

A little while ago I received an email from someone who was starting an online photography project and asked for my advice

I thought I would share some of my experience of running an online community project with you and the approach I have taken. So, with out further ado!

 Planning

Who do you want to reach? Where are they? Why do you want them to take part? How are they going to take part? How are you going to reach them?

I found twitter incredibly useful for growing the 4am Project. I searched for people with an interest in photography on twitter, checked out their individual profiles (and whether they were actually active on twitter,) and I followed them.

Note: I didn’t follow people randomly. I took the time to research each person individually, as there was a greater chance that they would be interested in the project, follow and take part in the project and also tell their friends. I don’t do this so much now as the project has been established and I generally let it grow organically on twitter now.

Because my project is photography based and using flickr, I tapped into the flickr community. Again, I researched groups and individuals and connected with them. I’ll warn you now that both this twitter and flickr method is VERY time consuming, but both yielded good results as I took the time and trouble to do my research as make a personal connection. Where is your new community hanging out?

As you tick one ‘to do’ off your list of plans, others will take their place. As your project evolves and grows you will probably get a host of new ideas! The more the merrier in a way, but before you dive into them, think about what’s going to work the best and what is worth your time. Some things you will have to try to see if they work, but as soon as it becomes apparent that an idea isn’t working for the benefit of your project, drop it and move on.

Time Investment

This one took me a while to figure out, and it still does to some degree.

From day one I wanted the 4am project to be global. I invested practically all my free time in promoting the project (I had no support/staff or £ to pay anyone to do it). It did take over my life, and there were times when I was exhausted but felt I couldn't take a break from it. (I'm quite driven anyway and put 100% into everything). However, I do think that experience has instilled a new discipline in me to manage time/work/effort more effectively which stands me in good stead for other work and projects.

There were times when it felt like the project was controlling me rather than me controlling the project. Be aware of this. The larger your project grows the more people you will be interacting with. They will ask questions and comment. Are you going to be there to respond?

When your project takes off the ground, there may be press interest. You may be asked to do interviews, that might be by email, or on the phone or even in person. You will have to allow the time to do this.

Another extension of your projects is growth may be that you get asked to speak about it publicly in workshops, conferences, net working events etc. Is this something you will be comfortable with? Of course you don’t have to do it, but it can act as a good way to reach a new audience and of course build up your confidence in public speaking too!

I run the 4am Project around paid work (the project doesn't earn any £). And it’s very likely you will have to work on your project outside of your paid work too. So, start thinking now about how much time you can/want to invest in your project, and schedule it into you diary. I've got a better balance with the 4am Project now, by setting aside specific block of time to work on it ie. Rather than, ‘I’ll do a few hours next Saturday’, it’s "I will work on this next Saturday midday-4pm". Other arrangements, social or otherwise will have to be worked around this. I don’t give myself much flexibility in this area, as it would be all too easy to ‘do it tomorrow’. Don’t fall into that trap if you really want to make a go of your project.

Let's talk money!

Do you want to earn £ from your project? Do you want sponsorship/funding? Start working on that now. You can't start too early. I found with the few companies who have sponsored the 4am Project so far, and the funding I have received, that the wheels can turn very slowly. Frustratingly so at times. I have found that to even get a relatively small amount of sponsorship, it has required a big time investment. Weigh up what's on offer, what you actually want, how it will benefit the project, and whether it's worth it.

However, it’s not all about the money! I would say don’t wait for money, unless it’s an absolute critical part to get your idea off the ground. You may not necessarily need any money (though you might think it’s good to have it). What you really need is your enthusiasm, time, energy and you have all the free online tools you need at your disposal.

Hopefully this glimpse into running an online project and community doesn’t sound too overwhelming!

There are a lot of upsides. It can be a lot of fun, it can give you great experience (that can stand you in good stead for future work), it can raise your profile and put you on the ‘radar’, and it will bring you into contact with people you wouldn’t ordinarily have met.

The bottom line

What do YOU want to get out of the project? When you are deep in the middle of it all and it really takes off and it's keeping you really busy, it can be easy to lose focus, so most importantly don't forget why you have started it. Put a sign up. Remember what your online adventure is all about! :)

Say hello on twitter! @karenstrunks

You've got to be in it to win it! Nokia Pitch n Win event

Well, I was in it, though I didn't win it. But I was selected as a finalist!

What am I talking about?

Nokia's Pitch & Win event with a prize of £25,000 development funding and support for a Nokia app.

When I heard about this opportunity I really wanted to go for it on behalf of the 4am Project. I've been thinking for a year or so about an app to support/compliment the project as an addition to making it even easier for people to take part. Not everyone carries a camera with them all the time, but nearly everyone has their phone with them thus allowing for more impromptu photo moments at 4am....

I submitted my application with my ideas for an app and kept my fingers crossed. Soon after I got the news that I/4am Project had been selected as a finalist! Whhhoooo!

Eight finalists were invited to the Pitch n Win day. As you can guess, we all had to pitch (in front of each other) and at the end of the day Nokia and the selection panel would select the winner.

I haven't got any technical knowledge about app building and so I teamed up with another finalist, Anna Powell-Smith. Anna is a whizz in many areas including app building. Just take a look at one of her projects, The Domesday Map, an online copy of the Domesday map. Amazing! We put our heads together and came up with A Plan.

The day itself, held on 22nd June, consisted of a full agenda. It was held at Zellig, the sparkling new addition to the Custard Factory in Digbeth.

The morning consisted of interesting keynote talks from the judges; Andy Cameron who is the Interactive Creative Director at the advertising agency Wieden and Kennedy, Greg Merten who is Nokia's Head of Developer Relations in Western Europe, David Tomson, the found of Ludometrics, and Sten Selander who is the Business Development Director at Nordic Game Programme.

With a break for lunch and a hour to perfect our pitches, it was on the with show in the afternoon! It was a great opportunity to hear other finalists app ideas and hear about their work. There was such a diverse mix!

I didn't feel too nervous come 4am Project pitch time with Anna, my only concern being able to stick to the strict 10 minute time slot. We did. Whew!

After all the pitches were in the panel went off to deliberate. In the meantime, us pitchers had a photo opp and a drinks reception with a chance to mix, meet and mingle.

About an hour or less later, the judges were back with their announcement. Naturally I wanted the 4am Project to win, but it was not to be.

The prize went to the very deserving Alison Smith from Pesky People!

"Pesky People harnesses digital media, content and social networking to profile, challenge and change the lack of inclusion and access for Disabled and Deaf people."

Alison's app idea is brilliant and I can see how it won! It's called Go Genie and it helps disabled and deaf people (and their family and friends) research access to places and plan trips to such places as the cinema, bars, restaurants, theatres, supermarkets, you can read more and watch a video about it here. Congrats Alison!! :)

Even though the 4am Project didn't win on this occasion, the Pitch N Win day was worth attending, it was a great experience and a chance to hear some really interesting key note talks too. A big thank you to Anna for joining forces with the 4am Project. I think we made a great team!

So, the 4am Project app idea is on hold again. For now. Until the next opportunity comes along. It's definitely something I would like to explore at some point for the project! :)

Say hello on twitter! @karenstrunks