Work continues

Today we are proud to unveil some new features, and a change in colour. Even thought it's still very much a work in progress we wanted to get it out there, let people see what we are thinking and get comments and feedback. Over the next couple of months we will be developing new features, culminating in a big launch party – so stay tuned for details.

We are still keen to get replies to our survey, which you can find at http://flocklocal.net/survey It should only take a minute to fill out and all information is optional.

So, let us know what you think ...

Please bear with us!

At Flocklocal we are currently planning some new stuff, and talking a lot behind the scenes about what we are doing and how we can improve. While it's taking longer than we would have liked, we are still progressing slowly.

In the mean time, you can help us by taking 2 minutes to fill out a very quick survey we have put together - it's at http://flocklocal.net/survey Your feedback is always important,and we'll let you know what's happening soon!

One Small Step competition

Flocklocal has been entered for the Barclay's bank One Small Step competition. The entry page is here https://www.takeonesmallstep.co.uk/Entry/View/6190 although it just shows the 50 word summary. Voting for this competition for a prize of £50k opens on the 7th June so please put in your diary to consider voting for us. Meantime be great if you show your support in the top right of that page link.
We have great plans for the next phase of Flocklocal and this money would really help us deliver the perfect service.

Vote for change at Flocklocal!

As we approach the most uncertain election in decades, we want to tell you your politicians aren't the only ones offering change!

What I did this week - and new features.

The reason we are prepared to work on Flocklocal as volunteers is simple; we believe in the positive good volunteering can do both to the local community and to the volunteer. Which is why not much happened on Flocklocal this week; I spent the days I would have spent working on the website on the grounds of the Knockengorroch World Ceilidh Festival, turfing a roof, carting wood around and cladding a barn.

Flocklocal at the John Logie Baird Innovations awards

James and Gavin took Flocklocal to the award's ceremony last Friday as finalists in the Social Enterprise category.

New features: Follow an interesting group

So we add new features and tweak the design of our site all the time, but one of the features that went live this week seems big enough to warrant a post. It's now possible for a user to follow a group, publicly or privately, and to get updates in their personal newsletters whenever that group announces a new flock.

We sign people up to follow a group automatically when they attend one of their flock's, but it's easy to stop following a group. And if you do, we'll never sign you up to it again, no matter how many Flocks you attend. You can change your preferences from the group page itself or from the “Groups” tab on your user profile.

This feature isn't to say that a person is committed to a group, or that they will definitely attend future flocks – just to say they are interested in that group and may want to know more. As always, comments on this and other features are welcome!

We're looking for a Marketing Manager for Edinburgh

At Flocklocal, we're looking for a Edinburgh-based marketing manager to join our team. As always, any feedback and offers of help are appreciated, and we urge you to get in touch. However, we're also looking for a very specific role - read more for details.

Screencast of our website's features

I had to make a screencast of Flocklocal's features, as I wont be able to present at the final round of the John Logie Baird competition in person. We thought we may as well share it - Read more to see it.

Contact us in even more ways!

Flocklocal recently won a competition at The Melting Pot ( http://www.themeltingpotedinburgh.org.uk/ ) and is proud to announce we will be based out of their shared office space for the next 6 months! That means you can phone us on (+44) 131 2471416 or write to us at "Flocklocal, The Melting Pot, 5 Rose Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2PR".

Logie Baird Awards

Flocklocal has now won through to the National Finals of the John Logie Baird awards in the Social Enterprise Innovator category. We'll be presenting to the judging board on the 25th of this month followed by an awards dinner on the 12th March when they announce the winners.
www.johnlogiebairdawards.co.uk

FirstPort Celebration Day

Flocklocal will at Dynamic Earth on Tuesday 2nd February for a celebration day involving all the social enterprise business's that have received some funding from FirstPort, including ScotlandUnLtd and 4IP. There will be stalls for most of the companies and really looking forward to meeting so many great companies. The keynote speaker is John Swinney MSP, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth.
http://www.dynamicearth.co.uk/events/locations

Glasgow Reshuffle

Flocklocal will be at the Glasgow Reshuffle on the 6th Feb at the Pearce Institute in Govan. Look out for a t-shirt with 'Flocklocal' on it and please say hi. Would love to hear what everyone's up to and how Flocklocal can help you.
details here:
http://www.citystrolls.com/reshuffle10/index.htm

Flocklocal is one week old!

And we're very happy with the reception so far; over 1,200 page hits, events appearing on the site, users signing up and blog posts such as http://www.greenerleith.org/greener-leith-news/2010/1/14/introducing-flock-local.html helping to spread the word.

We'll be celebrating with 1/52th of a cake tonight, and looking forward to the 2nd week. If you can think of anyone who may be interested, pass the site on to them and lets watch this take off!

Welcome to Flocklocal!

After starting at SICamp in July, Flocklocal today opens our website for all to use! Keep an eye on us over the coming weeks as we'll be pushing to make sure as many successful flocks are created as possible. Watch this space ...