Gary Andrews

The best kind of nights, I’ve always found, are the ones where you end up in a completely unexpected place. Last night, for me, that unexpected place was a fascinating in-depth discussion of Belgian politics and media, and contrasting it with the UK.

This isn’t normally what I spend my nights down the pub doing, but then it’s also a neat illustration of why I enjoy going to the assorted social media meetups. Or in this case, Tweetup.

Back in December, Lolly and I decided we’d quite like a Twitter meetup that was easy to get home from (The Shoreditch Twit is ace, but for those of us south of the river, it’s a bit of a trek back) and the Dirty South Twit was born.

The first one was a nice chilled evening drinking cocktails in Clapham with a bunch of people who’d never really met before, but were all on Twitter. Then we both got a bit busy, remembered we’d do another one and organised the DST2 at the Roxy Bar and Screen in London Bridge.

It also happened to clash with St Patrick’s Day (completely unintentional on our part) and Guinness were kind enough to help the craic with assorted hats, inflatable pints, T-shirts and other goodies. Oh, and free booze. I’ve now got a few cans sitting in my kitchen needing care and attention. They really were too good to us (well, it was the 250th anniversary of signing their brewery lease in Dublin. Any excuse for a party is good enough by me). You can see photos here.

But one of the joys of these events is, as well as catching up with a few familiar faces, you get a chance to speak to people you’d never normally meet, such as PBizzle, Rufus Evison and Julie Bodart and Pascal. Somehow with the latter two, I got onto the topic of Belgian politics and media (not entirely randomly, given that she’s Belgian).

There’s some fascinating differences between the UK and Belgium. It certainly doesn’t sound as if blogging is as big over there as it is amongst the media in this country. The regional press also seems to thrive, mainly because there isn’t one main national paper. Instead the big papers are split between the Flemish and Walloon regions, depending on their point of view. I’d imagine it’d be a similar thing here if Scotland were larger and really agitating for a split from England.

I’ve taken a mild interest in Belgian politics since they went for around nine months without a proper government in 2007 / 08 and found the political system, basket case though it was (probably outdoing Italy in places), fascinating.

Certainly from Julie and Pascal’s point of view, our government seems a lot more stable. Yes, I probably replied, but it also makes it quite dull. And harder to kick the bastards out, I didn’t add. Certainly I’d appreciate something to re-engage me with the political process and makes it seem exciting and interesting again.

Ok, it may not be entirely fun when you’re living in a country that can barely form a government let alone rule effectively. But at least it makes things interesting. Hell, I’m very jealous of America where, thanks to Obama (and, dare I say it, probably helped by the fact Bush was the previous incumbent) politics has become interesting, cool and sexy again. Go on, try and apply any of those three adjectives to our political system, I dare you. You’ll fail miserably.

I’ve gone a bit tangential here. But that’s kind of like the conversation last night. I met some fascinating people at the Dirty South Twit, had some very interesting conversations (I won’t recount the whole Belgian politics and media chat, partly because I can’t quite remember it all) and had plenty of Guinness. And that’s why I love Twitter meetups.

A slightly more coherent, less tangential write-up, with no mention of Belgian politics, is on the Dirty South Twit blog.

written by Gary Andrews \\ tags: Belgian politics, Belgium, Dirty South Twit, Guinness, St Patrick's Day

Or look what we’ve gone and done.

For a culture, that spends a fair bit of its life working online, social media types are, well, pretty sociable in the real world. For one thing, they throw great parties and hold regular meetups. One of the nicest things about Twitter and blogging meetups, is you can turn up and not know anybody and people will still, likely as not, know who you are. Even if not, you’ll at least have a topic of conversation to get you started, which is ideal for people such as myself who aren’t natural minglers.

One of my favourite meetups is Lewis Webb’s Shoreditch Twit, an informal gathering in Shoreditch for people on Twitter. There’s nothing much to it – Twitter (geeks) meet down the pub, often with some kind of theme (the last involved free games of table football. I rule at table football). The only downside is Shoreditch is in east London and is a bit of a trek to get home, south of the river.

Via a Facebook conversation with Lolly, I mentioned I was thinking of doing a South of the River Tweet up (sorry, that sounds a bit wanky doesn’t it). A couple of Tweets and emails later, and with Rich also offering his services, the Dirty South Tweet was born, for us Southern types who don’t want to have such a long journey home. It is, if you will, the Shoreditch Twit on tour. Or something.

Of course, it’s not just South Londoners who are invited – any Twitterer, be it north, south, east or west or even, God forbid, outside of London (what do you mean there’s a world outside the capital?) are more than welcome to join us to, well, drink. And chat. And that’s about it.

We’re still in the process of sorting out there whens and wheres, but should have something concrete very very soon. In the meantime, there’s the blog and the Twitter stream – show them both some love by Tweeting or linking

Any excuse for a drink, really….

What’s really fantastic about this is the idea came from one quick musing on a Facebook post and has already started to take shape just 48 hours later – and the Dirty South Tweet blog is already doing over double the traffic this place does on a good day.

What’s even more fantastic, is just a few years ago, this bunch of people probably would have only known each other in passing, maybe meeting at the occasional event, but rarely making the effort to contact each other via email to say: “Hey, let’s get a group of us together and head out to the pub for a drink.”

Forget your marketing, PR and whatnot for a while. Twitter, Facebook and blogging have made it easier for like-minded people to get together down the pub, without having to utter the words “I’m meeting somebody from the internet,” and having to explain it’s nothing to do with sex.

It’s one of the reasons I love social media. It’s not called social for nothing.

written by Gary Andrews \\ tags: blogging meetups, Dirty South Twit, Shoreditch Twit, social media, Twitter

My friend Steve deserves many hearty slaps on the back and no small amount of congratulations. Exeweb, the forum he created for Exeter City fans, recently celebrated its tenth birthday.

But this isn’t another Exeter City football post from me – Steve’s site is a perfect example of social media in action, and has been such years before the term social media was ever invented.

Going further, you could put forward a significant argument that Exeter City FC would not exist were it not for Exeweb. More of that in a minute.

One thing that is immediately striking about Exeweb is the sense of community on the message boards. There’s a familiarity between posters you don’t often find on forums. Indeed, many of Exeweb’s users know each other offline but got to know each other through Exeweb.

The site has enhanced the activity that brought them together in the first place – supporting Exeter City. Strangers have met up for drinks, shared lifts to away games and even formed their own football team out of it.

Ideas are exchanged and friendships are made, and for exiled fans, the forum is an invaluable resource. These are not geeks or early adopters – they’re just football fans coming together online to share their passion.

Last May, when Exeter made it to Wembley for the Blue Square Premier play-off final, a London-based Exeter fan, Alan Crockford, hired out a nearby pub specifically for Exeweb users and their families to meet and drink before the game. Many new friendships were formed on that day and created a sense of togetherness that wouldn’t have been present if the fans had scattered around assorted pubs.

But Exeweb has gone beyond adding to fans support of the club. It has, quite literally, helped save the club from ruin.

Five and a half years ago, the club was taken over by businessmen John Russell and Mike Lewis. The previous chairman, Ivor Doble, was in his 70s and looking to sell. Russell and Lewis came into town as the proverbial white knights.

Lewis had been involved at Swansea City, where he’d controversially sold the club to £1 to revilled owner Tony Petty. Such was the force of hatred towards Lewis in Swansea at the time that he couldn’t travel to away games at the Vetch without police protection.

Russell, meanwhile, had been chairman of Scarborough when they were relegated from the League. He also had a conviction for obtaining property by deception. Had the fit and proper owner test been in place at the time, it is unlikely he could have taken over the club.

But at the time the pair talked the talk and promised to take the club to new heights, as all owners do. Were it not for Exeweb, they would have taken the club to new lows.

A few months into their reign, certain Exeweb users – a couple of them local journalists – started noticing a few promises and claims from the pair didn’t add up.

Money promised from a chairty event that, bizarrely, saw Michael Jackson speak at the park hadn’t materialised, and a promotional shot that featured new manager Neil McNab had been taken BEFORE the previous manager, John Cornforth, had been sacked. These were just a small number of the strange stories coming out of St. James Park.

Slowly, but surely, more and more members of Exeweb came to realise Russell and Lewis weren’t exactly the saviours of the club and the site’s message boards started to contain closer scrutiny of the pair’s dealings – scrutiny that suggested the club was in serious financial problems.

At the same time, the club’s Supporters’ Trust had been slowly gaining momentum, again thanks to Exeweb. Originally set up to help the club find funds to purchase striker Gary Alexander, the Trust’s aims had changed to getting fan represntation on the board and ensuring the club survived the financial crisis.

Exeweb gave the Trust a much wider audience thanthe offline world could provide it. Some of the key players in the Trust had their passion for Exeter reawakened through Exeweb, or got to know each other through the site.

At the end of the season, Exeter were relegated from the League and the nowRussell and Lewis were arrested (and subsequently convicted a few years later) for fruad. Exeter City FC was in massive debts and Ivor Doble had neither the money nor the energy to help the club.

In stepped the Supporters’ Trust, with volunteers – many of them brought together through Exeweb – giving up their time to do everything possible to save the club. And they succeeded by the skin of their teeth.

The club was hours away from going into liquidation when the Trust managed to get together a deal for the creditors and ensure Exeter still had a professional football club.

Granted, Exeweb couldn’t take the credit for this. But many of the individuals who helped save the club in the weeks after Russell and Lewis’ arrest wouldn’t have got involved had it not been for Exeweb.

As Damien Mills aka Egg, Trust member and one of the earliest critics of Russell and Lewis said in a recent discussion about Exeweb:

“In the summer of 2003, a series of meetings took place at the Exeter Airport Business Park premises of Ian Huxham’s Potbury Signs. Those meetings were, IMHO, absolutely critical in securing Trust control of the club and, in turn, its very future.

I can’t pretend to speak for all those present, and readily admit my memory isn’t what it might be, but I’m fairly sure that some of the key players within that disparate group of people – think former directors Barry Sansom and Geoffrey Styles to name but two – were brought together by ExeWeb.

Certainly, Terry Pavey, who played a very significant role back then, would tell you his passion for the football club was reawakened by stumbling across ExeWeb while exiled in Kent. Moreover, I’m firmly of the opinion that Russell and Lewis might just have ‘got away with it’ were it not for the opposition to them which, to a large extent, grew out of the site.

In short, I think anyone with ‘a bit of Exeter City in their heart’ owes Steve a debt of gratitude – all the more so when you consider ExeWeb is a labour of love for which, it seems to me, he receives plenty of brickbats and nowhere near enough plaudits.”

The Trust is now the majority shareholder in Exeter City. The fans, in this case, really do own the club. I consider myself proud that I’m a shareholder in the club I love.

For all the talk surrounding internet football venture MyFootballClub.co.uk, it’s got nothing on Exeweb. Steve’s site may not own the club, but many members of Exeweb are shareholders. Moreover, it brought together the fans at the club’s darkest hour, and was able to quickly galvinise them into saving Exeter City FC.

Steve has maintained Exeweb largely with his own time and money, and the help of volunteer moderators. Over the years, he’s had a fair few angry calls from people at the club, annoyed at things that have been posted on the forums – although many at the club know how important the site is.

He’s even had offers to sell up. He refused, to ensure Exeter CIty fans could continue to have an independent voice.

Exeweb’s popularity has spread. It has its own fan page on Facebook and there’s plenty of Exeter City supporters who use Facebook as a supplement to Exeweb. As social media tools expand into the mainstream, expect Exewebbers to filter into them.

Steve probably never set out to create a perfect example of a powerful social media tool. He probably never even envisioned the role it would play in the club’s future when he first set it up. But achieved his aim to provide a place online for fans of the club to chat. And that’s expanded beyond his wildest explanations.

I’ll leave it to the man himself to sum things up:

“As it’s evolved over the years, news sterted to pop up on the forum before I could type it up and if there anything people don’t know, they ask and get answers and opinion. As a model of web usability, that is as damned near to perfect as you can get!

What I’m trying to say is that I think this site is unique. The fact it’s survived ten years is testament to all of you as much as it is me.”

Steve, the web and all Exeter City fans salute you.

written by Gary Andrews \\ tags: Exeter City, Exeweb, footbal fans forums, social media

And I’ve got a whole of host posts in my draft folder to prove it.

But then:

1. I got very busy with work.

2. I’ve been feeling a bit run down and not great.

3. I finally had the root canal done. This morning. Thank God for neurofen.

4. Tonight was provisionally pencilled in to do household chores, relaxing and blogging. But then a friend of mine mentioned her new flat didn’t have a working cooker.

If there’s one piece of pain I truly feel after spending three months with a barely functioning Baby Belling, it’s being without cooking space.

Which meant tonight turned into an lovely impromptu dinner party, where the star of the show were Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Guinness and Walnut Dark Chocolate Brownies.

God, I can sill taste them now.

For main course were peppers stuffed with courgette and lemon and coriander couscous, which are ridiculously simple to make. Chop off the top of your pepper and core. Brush down your peppers with olive oil and coriander and stick them in a pre-heated 200 Celcius oven for about ten minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a small bit of water (I’m not great with measurements or terms. Some, a bit and lots are about as far as I go) in a saucepan throw in just over 100g of couscous, with a bit of butter and chopped coriander.  Squeeze in juice from a lemon and a dash of olive oil, stir, cover and let it simmer until the cous cous has absorbed the fluid.

Dice a small amount of courgette and chop a couple of medium size garlic cloves. Take your peppers out of the oven and spoon in the couscous. When the pepper is half full, put a layer of courgette and garlic across and spoon more couscous on top.

Put back in the oven for another 7-10 minutes (or until the betters start turning seriously black at the edges). Take out and serve with salad.

Now you can see why I’ve not managed to write anything coherent tonight.

written by Gary Andrews \\ tags: chocolate brownies, recipies, root canal, stuffed peppers

I’ve just got back from a fascinating evening down the pub catching up with an old friend of mine, who now happens to be working for a local newspaper and it wasn’t long before we got onto the topic of online video – something which forms part of his everyday job.

[Enters broken record mode] 

What was really fascinating was to hear how his views matched mine and, at times, was even more vehemently critical of the efforts of some local newspapers when it comes to online video [1].

Chief amongst his criticisms were:

1. The idea that throwing video online for the sake of throwing video online is a good way to win readers.

2. Journalists aren’t trained properly and are given sub-standard equipment, so produce sub-standard videos.

3. Sub-standard videos damage the brand.

4. Local journalists simply don’t have the time to produce consistent good quality web content.

This isn’t to say he was negative, and could point to some examples of papers within his group producing well-produced web content, be it video, podcasts, or blogging. But the frustration was there – it wasn’t that he didn’t want to do online content, its just the resources and time available were nowhere near enough.

What was somewhat more terrifying was the attitude of senior management to online content. There was no consistent approach to RSS feeds and he’d taken to putting the videos on YouTube himself because it hadn’t occurred to anybody else in the office to do so. Tellingly, the YouTube videos appeared to be getting more hits.

Then there was the inflexible CMS, not to mention the fact that nobody was even mentioning blogging. He’d considered trying to start a newspaper blog but didn’t have time, although he did occasionally expand some of his print articles. The management attitude to online media players such as Bebo, Google, and Myspace was nonexistent. While it’s not surprising to hear these criticisms coming from somebody who works within the industry (and is by no means representative. A more casual acquaintance is much more upbeat about their paper), it’s worrying. Even more worrying is hearing that those who have some nous about harnessing online potential are just giving up and moving elsewhere.

Tonight was definitely food for thought. There were a lot of positive ideas bandied around, as you’d expect over a few pints, but also a lot of frustration. It’s a shame for his paper that he’s moving elsewhere – he’s not just a very good journalist, but also one who’s willing to embrace the web and can see where the problems lie with local papers’ attempts to move into the digital age. 

[1] I’ll freely admit I’m writing from the point of somebody who has done a bit of this and a bit of that, which includes print and broadcasting, but am not currently working on the front line, as it were, of newspaper’s online efforts. 

written by Gary Andrews \\ tags: local newspaper websites, video journalism, Web 2.0, YouTube

Soccerlens again. Why you shouldn’t write off Game 39 just yet.

Incidentally, I’ll be doing a weekly column on non-league/lower league football every Tuesday at Soccerlens, so if you’re one of the two readers on here who genuinely get excited when I start talking about football stuff, please do put it in your bookmarks or RSS feeds.

For non-football fans who read this blog (that’ll be the other eight) you can rest easy, and I may only occasionally post about visiting hell-holes of Britain in pursuit of the beautiful game. Did I tell you I’m off to Crawley on Tuesday?

Finally, please don’t think the football stuff means I’m neglecting you ten. I’ve been a bit busy, outside of the football writing, but normal service will be resumed soonish. Not next weekend though. I’m going out drinking with some Scots (amongst others), so may be having my liver replaced the next day.

written by Gary Andrews \\ tags: Crawley Town, Game 39, lack of blogging, Scottish drinkers, Soccerlens

So, I’m moving.

No, not this blog. I’m quite happy where it is, even if it is occasionally neglected, like a semi-feral cat.

Anyway, yeah, I’m moving. Not today, mind, or tomorrow. Actually, in about a month. But moving nonetheless.

Let’s start again. I’m not being particularly clear or coherent here. Much like Hugh Grant appearing in any film pre-About a Boy.

I’m moving (we’ve established that) to London (not established) in roughly about a month to start a new job.

Yes, you heard me correct. London. Y’know, that big place inside the M25 where the streets are apparently paved with gold. I thought I saw some gold on the street when I was up there at the weekend. It turned out to be yellow chewing gum.

Yes, you heard me correct. London. The place the 21-year-old me declared emphatically, and with no uncertainly in his voice, that I could never see the appeal to and would never move to under any circumstance. That may also be a reason why I’m not particularly good at answering the question: “Where do you see yourself in five years time?” [1].

Fortunately this question didn’t come up, and I made no suggestions about having a sex change and giving birth to emphasise with our audience as I have done in the past. That place still gave me the job though. Mea culpa on both sides, perhaps.

So, anyway. London. I appear to have got a bit distracted from that. Sorry. See, that was only in five minutes. Imagine how much my mind would change in five years. That’s what its there for, though.

Sorry. LONDON. It’s big. There are still things I don’t quite understand about it, but then I said the same about the 3-5-2 system and that does work on occasions. And I did understand Mulholland Drive. I think.

But, yes, London. I’m excited. You can probably tell. When I got the job, I literally danced my way across Waterloo Station concourse.  Well, not literally. That would have been a bit daft. But I understand why Gene Kelly felt the need to hug a lamp post now.

Anyway, London. In one month’s time I’ll be on the verge of moving there and starting the new job, and I’ll try not to get shot inbetween moving in and going to work on the first day, but I can’t guarantee it.

I’m going to miss a lot of things about Exeter. Not least my current residency, five minutes walk from the hallowed turf of St. James’ Park, which means I could sleep in to half two on a Saturday afternoon if I wanted and STILL make the game. Not that I’ve done that, it would just be plain lazy.

I’ll also miss my current housemates who are just the right mixture between wonderful and strange and understand that Simon Pegg may just be a genius and there’s nothing wrong trying to inadvertently re-enact the entirety of Spaced in your mid-twenties, when you all have jobs, and careers and by all rights should be spending Saturdays in IKEA.

Then I’ll also miss the others who make Exeter such a wonderful place, and I’ll miss being close to family, and cats and the fact I have a gym almost literally, but not quite, next to my house, which has meant I’ve not GOT FAT during the 12 months I’ve lived here.

But it is London. And it is big. And I may not quite understand it. But I’m excited. And can’t wait. And will probably still fail to comprehend things, and still ask random questions like: “How many dogs would it take to take down an elephant?” But then some things never change, and some things do and I’m sure London and myself will come to a mutually beneficial agreement of sorts.

Anyway, London. It’s exciting. I’m moving there. All I need now is a room. Or a house. Or, even better, a room in a house.

Don’t suppose you have one, do you? I can cook good lasagne.

[1] Note to self, and others with social tendencies bordering on the inept. “In a mirror,” as an answer will not win you employment. 

written by Gary Andrews