So before the MA Social Media students even started on the course they were getting their hands dirty with the http://bccdiy.com hack day and before week two comes to a close they’ll be doing some social media surgery and live blogging at a local conference.

The ‘Sharing Information Digitally‘ event is run by the West Midlands Regional Observatory and explores “the whys and hows of making public data more accessible, as well as looking at social media as a way of disseminating data and information.”

The event takes place in Birmingham at Millennium Point and the full programme (Word document link) includes me, Stuart Harrison, webmaster – Lichfield District Council, Stuart Parker from www.wesharestuff.org and Michael Cross from The Guardian Free our Data campaign.

In the afternoon there’s a Social Media Surgery with equipment generously supplied by Digital Birmingham and ’surgeoned’ by students from the MA and anyone else who cares to chip in. It should be interesting and is the first of a series of events in the city that the students will get the chance to attend.

Photo credit: Network by clix