The City Council are attempting to get feedback from the people of Birmingham on their Big City Plan.

That in itself seems quite ambitious to me.  However, the plan is really quite hard to penetrate and the feedback mechanisms do not encourage a deepening of understanding or indeed a conversation.

Well it seems some of my very impressive social web friends in Birmingham decided they could do something about this.  They created a place to talk about the Big City Plan .  And not only does this (online) place allow you to add comments to every section of the plan – which is great, it also allows you to see other people’s comments and therefore develop rather than repeat the conversation – which is also great.  But most impressive of all, these fine people have completely re-written the plan in plain English and posted it alongside the original. 

So, I hear some of you say, where do these people get the brass neck to walk all over the council’s work.  To which I say, what a fantastic privilege for Birmingham to have such active and passionate citizens that they would put so many of their own hours into such a project.

A group of volunteers from the Birmingham Bloggers’ Group has built this site and put this document into plain English, because we wanted a place to discuss the issues and options and help each other (and everyone) understand the Big City Plan.

The site was built by Jon Bounds, and he along with Nick Booth, Nicky Getgood, Julia Gilbert and Michael Grimes have written the plain English text. The help and support of a large number of the Birmingham online community was very much needed and appreciated, especially Stef Lewandowski who has blogged extensively about the Big City Plan.

I want to say an enormous THANK YOU to you all, you have my utmost admiration.  I just hope the council refrain from becoming territorial and incoporate the feedback on this site to their process…

 

This is a truly inspirational website.