'Alternative Guide to Birmingham' seeks contributiors - PP

Pushy Penguin · Black Bloc

Anyone interested in writing an alternative guide to birmingham/freshers primer/bursting the bubble of university life? Its my opinion that all the material we receive from the university and the guild gives shit information unless you expect to stay within a 1 mile radius of the uni for three years (which is fine if people want to do that!). I was thinking like little guides to each area (locations of good pubs and interesting shops etc) with some maps and transport info. There could also be a club guide in addition. Loads of stuff! Travel info is especially important for me as it would be good for people to be familiar with buses and trains from an environmental perspective. Why does anyone own a car in the centre of birmingham when we are served by a decent transport network (relatively speaking Smile

)?! Something i was also thinking about was working with people i know in aston and UCE to get a bigger guide together covering north of the centre as well.

It could be mixed with other things like a guide to the guild etc and created collaboratively like the radish. I think we would need to have a meeting about it next week in the basement. What time is good (for anyone who is interested) during the week? Im good mon 2-3, after 6 tues,fri or wed/thurs afternoons before 5.

Yours Sincerely
Pushy Penguin
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higuy · Black Bloc

good idea! Personally i think the idea of an alternative prospectus for the university would be good as well!

steven · Black Bloc

Sounds good. I could probably squeeze a meeting in early next week, but I'd prefer anything after about 1PM on Thursday.

gabs · Black Bloc

Count me in. I remember reading a good one produced by activists and students in Manchester
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Juicy · Armchair Activist

there was supposed to be one of these done last year (an alternative prospectus produced by the guild) because i wrote a piece for it about being an lgbt student at uni and in the city.

i never saw one though, i don't think it ended up being produced. i think it was tom goff who asked me to write something......was ages ago tho now...

SimonM · Black Bloc

I think it sort of amalgamated with News of the Guild and became CORE, the termly magazine. New issue just came out, though I haven't seen it yet. The exec will be looking for feedback on it if anyone has some.

Juicy · Armchair Activist

i've seen the new core- its alright- theres a piece on the national demo, a week in the life of the president of the guild (which was swiped from redbrick i do believe- i think i remember seeing it in there), something about what NUS is, a bit about the exec elections 2007, and a piece about the womens association.

thats all i can remember off the top of my head.

Pushy Penguin · Black Bloc

To be perfectly honest i think 'core' is shit, and everyone i have ever talked to about it thought it was terrible as well (the first one was anyway and the new one doesnt really sound that much different if the above post is anything to go by, although it will redeem itself if it becomes one big advertisement for guild elections as i dont imagine anything else will get that kind of circulation or reach except redbrick). It contained very little useful practical information, even about the guild. It was just filled with buzzwords, corny statements by the exec, and quite vague descriptions of guild workings. I dont want to start pretending we can do something with 'core', i say we just get on with it. How about 3pm thursday afternoon?
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"If you wrap the Internet around every person on the planet and spin the planet, software flows in the network."
Ebin Moglen's Metaphorical Corollary to Faraday's Law

Teapotboy · Black Bloc

steven · Black Bloc

3PM Thursday's fine by me. Guild Basement?

Yeah, I'm not enthralled by Core, although the second issue is better than the first by a good margin. Honest.

Oktober · Black Bloc

The alternative prospectus idea got scrapped basicly because they wouldnt do it unless they spent tons on money and staff time on it to make it all proofread and with flashy graphics and all such crap, to make it look "professional", and it was budgeted to cost several thousand pounds, and when the decision came round to us at exec, the choice was do we want to take all this money, shove it in the toilet bowl and flush it away, or do we not want to. I chose not to flush.

Anyway, I say the best thing would be a Birmingham Uni Wiki. I would be the coolest thing ever in the world.

I must say core is the biggest sack of crap I have ever seen, if they had printed it on soft paper, it would have a purpose.

It is a perfect distilled form of everything that is wrong at the guild. It's a glossy little innovations sized booklet, the least inviting medium ever. you then open it and it is all glossy pics and bright colours, with tiny little artices sort of just floating in the midst of flashy graphics. Just long enough to contain a load of pointless crap, but just short enough to contain no worthwhile information.

Take for example the page on the women's association, the first page I read before my mind sickened and mentally vomited out every memory out the rest of the pages.

I is a dinky little article on the women's association, with a little mugshot of Naush, It basicly tells us WA exists, it has in the past done some campaigns, they were good, Naush exists, she is womens officer, this is her grinning mush, she does stuff. The end. Very nice. So What? What is the purpose of this article? To encourage people to engage with the women's association? I doubt it. I am in fact utterly baffled as to the purpose of this article. It doesn't tell people what WA is doing right now, why it is so important or most importantly, it does not encourage people to engage. and not only does it fail to inspire people, if by some freak occurance they are inspired, it does not offer even a vaguest indication of how one would even get in touch with either the women's association or Naush. It doesn't even tell anyone that such a thing as the women's room exists or where to find it up in its little attic cuboard. It doesn't even tell anyone even a simple contact email. WHY WHY WHY??? Why not just put as much as a freaking email on it? do they not want to engage people? if the concept of contact details too much for thier crack addled brains to handle?

It's the same with every single thing in that snivelling booklet, i can't seem to grasp what the intention of it is other than maybe the guild blowing its own trumpet over things it had done.

Oh and another thing, Core is supposed to be the replacement for News of the Guild. News of the guild was supposed to be like the voice of the exec. So heres a question. Why was News of the Guild always written by Tom Goff, and why did us poor non-labour soc exec members not hear anything about the new core, not a freaking squeak. there was nothing brought up in exec meetings about what should be in it, or what message it should even give out. Nor with issue 1. The finished product was ejected directly from the slippery womb of the marketing department, into a screaming blood splattered heap on the reception desk, and I and guessing some unfortunate souls doormats.

Run for students by students? I'd like to know which students are running it, cos it certainly doesn't seem to be exec meetings where the decisions are made.

anyway, sorry to land this rant in the middle of you thread like a freshly coughed up gobbit of phlegm, but seriously. It's all about the Wikis. Bham Uni Wiki, thats what we need.

Oktober · Black Bloc

Oh and teh answer to the question to why does anyone have a car in the middle of brum.

A) Because you can't carry an amp onto a Bus.
B) Buses don't go to Ikea.

A better question would not by why do people own the cars but why do people drive about in them ALL THE TIME, even though they are neither carrying and amp, nor going to Ikea.

Pushy Penguin · Black Bloc

I think you pretty much covered why we should do this independently of the guild, as well as why core is a big pile of rubbish. And the information about its democratic and transparent editorial process (or lack thereof) has been most illuminating. If it will cost several thousand pounds to make the thing look like 'core' (because they certainly didnt spend it on content) then im pretty confident we can do a better job ourselves. I also considered a wiki but figured it would contain more info than could feasibly be put into a booklet we would have to distribute ourselves. Thats not to say it shouldnt be the very place we get the information from and the thing underpining the editorial process! I think the idea of something on paper would be that it would be something which would be useful if people carried it around with them. Everything else could go on a wiki or something similar.

I would contend that you can get a bus to ikea. What you can do (or cannot in this case) once you are there without a car is a completely different matter. But you are right, the question is exactly why you need to use a car with the frequency that some people do...

I take it you will be at the basement 3pm thurs Smile

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"If you wrap the Internet around every person on the planet and spin the planet, software flows in the network."
Ebin Moglen's Metaphorical Corollary to Faraday's Law

Teapotboy · Black Bloc

Also getting a taxi home from Perry Barr (and more to the point waiting for it in the first place) at 3am is neither cheap nor fun.

Enlightened_Bystander · Black Bloc