I am a
Social Media innovator, implementer & enabler, social activist, iPhoneographer, web entrepreneur, photojournalist, bon viveur, dad, geek, Manchester City fan, husband, political & social commentator, radio presenter, Titanic Brewery fan boy and all round good guy. (I’m not sure on the ordering of those labels. I may possibly need to work on that a little.)
About Me
I have been publishing on the internet since 1995 and I specialise in dealing with difficult on-line communities, opposing views and moderation. My work is showing people how to use the internet to help them get a voice on-line, whether this be for simply connecting with family & friends, building a community, dealing with an issue that affects them or helping them to engage with democracy.
Democracy is the single most important thing in this country and the second most important thing is to engage with your MP & councillors or if you are one of the latter, your constituents.
I am one of the founders of Pits n Pots, the nationally acclaimed local political & news website. The site was founded in 2008 and has covered events of local and national interest ever since. Tony Walley hung up his keyboard in August 2011 and I continued to run the site. I was lucky enough to gain support from the Journalism Foundation in late 2011 and am currently looking at ways to make local websites such as Pits n Pots sustainable in the current market.
I was one of the founders and subsiquently the chairman of Potteries Media Community Interest Company, which is the organisation behind 6 Towns Radio.
I’m currently working with some very talented and dedicated people to create a new Internet only community radio station Knot FM based at the YMCA in Hanley, which will focus on North Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent.
I also help organise the Stoke-on-Trent Social Media Surgeries, and SSSSMS which happen around the city and Stone & Stafford on a monthly basis.
I occasionally do radio as well. I present a regular Sunday morning breakfast show with @thecurrentmrsr which is syndicated to a number of small stations. I also occasionally produce and present an alternative music show, bringing my eclectic mix of musical genres to anyone who can bear to listen.
This is
where I live on-line. I write stuff on here from time to time, things that interest me or annoy me and things that I think may interest or annoy you. Some of it will be work related and some of it won’t. Regardless of the subject everything on here is my personal opinion. Twitter is the best place to follow what I am doing at any given moment, or FourSquare or Gowalla, by signing up to this concept and having this type of unhealthy interest in my life should be more worrying for you than it is for me.
For hire?
Social Media
I work at Talk About Local, if you want to hire me to do social media stuff, this should be your first point of call to see if what you want fits in with what we do. If what you want doesn’t fit in with what we do there, then feel free to contact me to discuss, I won’t do anything that compromises or conflicts with Talk About Local. If what you are looking for isn’t in-line with my work at Talk About Local and something you think will be interesting or fun for me to do then contact me to discuss.
Speaking
I speak at conferences and events regularly. I speak about Pits n Pots, Social Media and Local Government. If you would like me to speak at an event you are organising, please get in touch with me.
Photography
I mainly take pictures for pleasure now, although occasionally I do some commercial work covering interesting news stories or events. My massive erection is still available for hire, but my time is limited so I will be choosy about when I take paid work with it, if it is something that interests me and give me plenty of notice then you are in with a pretty good chance, if it is something boring that you want doing tomorrow then sorry it’s not likely to happen.
Profile Pictures
