One of my first observations about Birmingham was that the academic and business communities seemed incredibly interactive. What I found was that this whole digital community was even larger than I thought, and the people who are part of it are extremely passionate about it, and keen to spread their enthusiasm. There is a quite large grassroots movement for a Digital Birmingham that is made up of academics, businesses, and regular Birmingham citizens alike.

The biggest difference I noticed between Birmingham and anywhere in the US was that Birmingham’s social media scene was constantly hosting events for digital inclusion, to discuss ideas about Digital Birmingham, or to otherwise garner attention for and praise digital efforts around the city. These events took the form of surgeries, blogger meet-ups, social media cafes, and even as large as Hello Digital, and Developing Birmingham’s Digital Districts. Here in America, I’ve never seen such consistent efforts to engage the community in the digital fever. We seem to only have big, expensive, infrequent events like SXSW, #140Conf, and Blog World Expo. Try getting to any of those for less than $300 – it’s likely to be more like $1000 that you shell out to attend and participate. What Birmingham does, I would argue is better, because it is focused locally, with goals reaching globally.

I may be naïve to speak so highly of the Birmingham social media scene – perhaps I didn’t spend enough time there to see the flaws, or I’m glossing everything over due to a tendency to be overly optimistic. But even if this were the case, I truly see a lot of potential for it to become a digital center. There is certainly a group of people very intent on making it happen, at least, and that kind of determination can go a long way. I can’t wait to watch the city and its digital industries evolve.

Thinking about social media in smaller networks like that keeps the expanses of the Internet manageable.  For example, with businesses, it is not about connecting with everyone online, but reaching out to the specific market or audience that can most benefit from your product.  Even for individuals, subscribing to a few local news blogs is a more manageable information flow than subscribing to every global news source available.  Such information consumption can quickly become overwhelming.

Personally, I’ve got TweetDeck and Google Reader organized into different networks by category – real life friends, bloggers, news sources, and social media gurus – but also regionally – Baltimore, my hometown; Syracuse, my college town; and now Birmingham, where I’ll be heading in two weeks to participate in the MA Social Media program.

I’m excited to be joining the Birmingham network, because it seems like the perfect environment for the development of such a program.  When I was in Syracuse, there was naturally an academic community that conversed in social media outlets.  I also joined a group of motivated locals who have a strong Twitter association and meet each other for happy hour each week.  But each of these networks never seemed to intermix.  What I’ve noticed about Birmingham so far – as much as I can observe from across an ocean – is that the academic and business communities seem much more interactive with each other.  Most significantly, I’ve seen that prominent academics reach out to local businesses to offer social media guidance.  People around town – such as the Urban Coffee shop – really seem to grasp the concept of Internet technologies and use it to market themselves well.  Birmingham, more than any other network I’ve been a part of, seems much more like an open, inviting community to join.

I’m hoping that through the MA program, I can learn ways to promote similar network integration and open-mindedness about social media business options. Birmingham is a great example – in a community willing to embrace change, there is often a lot more potential to do good things with the tools at hand.