#PdDigital15 – conversation and collaboration

#PdDigital15 – conversation and collaboration

by | May 17, 2015 | #PdDigital15 | 2 comments

People Driven Digital Health and Wellbeing #PdDigital15 seemed like a long way away for a very long time. Then all of a sudden it was very near and there was ever such a lot to do to make it happen… It took place on evening of 13 May and the day of 14 May in Leeds at the Open Data Institute. We’ll be uploading lots of content from the day over the next few weeks, but in the meantime you can find a short clip of Shirley Ayres speaking at our launch here. You can also find transcripts of talks given by Anne Cooper and Mark Brown and a blog post from Shirley Ayres.  #PdDigital15 generated so much content! When Anne Cooper, myself and others created #PdDigital15 it was very simply borne out of a desire to stimulate and amplify ground-up digital innovation which we wanted to see more of. In an age of digital, a lot of events seem very staid and analogue – barely impacted upon by the emergent and conversational connections afforded by online social networks – we wanted to create something different. You can find out a bit more about our thinking here. Catherine Howe co-facilitated the event with me and she has shared a few reflections here which include useful tips to anyone wanting to convene an event which majors on participation and collaboration. We were taken aback by the amount of interest in the event and it suggests to us that there is a real thirst to collaborate on this topic. One of the main limitations of any event is the fact that it is just...
#PDDAwards15 – tipping our hats to ground up digital innovation

#PDDAwards15 – tipping our hats to ground up digital innovation

by | May 4, 2015 | #PDDAwards15 | 1 comment

I can never quite put my finger on how ideas emerge and take shape – for me they are usually through things I read on Twitter, an interesting blog, a serendipitous conversation, or mulling things over when ferrying my kids to and from various activities and friend’s houses (most of my ideas seem to crystallise when I’m driving). The People Driven Digital unAwards are the culmination of all sorts of different conversations with many different people. They are the result of various ideas which the mHealthHabitat team has translated in to reality mostly on account of my inveterate desire to plan and organise. My co-conspirators will no doubt have different ideas and starting points for the unAwards, but here are a five of mine that I’d like to share: The power of recognition – when myself and another team set up the Love Arts Festival awards in 2011, I hadn’t anticipated their impact on people doing amazing stuff in the field of arts, wellbeing and mental health, who often  just don’t get recognised. I was very moved by what the awards meant to people and it brought home to me the value of public recognition, appreciation and validation Creating a community around digital – when we set up the mHealthHabitat programme we chose the metaphor of  a habitat because we didn’t just want to build digital tools and services, we were also motivated by creating a community around digital, health and wellbeing. We’ve learnt that running  events and activities which bring diverse groups of people are one of ways to create a thriving habitat – for me the unAwards...