Only hackers can judge hackers

And only a hacker can know a hackers' worth. We might not know it but looking back at the history of the early internet we actually inherited a valuable change in attitude from the early geeks and the dynamic they established in their usenet newsgroups!

A long time before the graphical browsers came along they needed a way to freely share knowledge. They did so by sending emails to all members of a group, which was a great way to get feedback and join efforts. Together they developed a creative and collaborative practice, in their area of technological interest. This method of peer-to-peer knowledge exchange, production and distribution is today being applied in all sorts of areas, online and in the real world.

The attitude we inherited is that we as 'consumers' or 'users' now turn to our peers or people in the same boat as us, for advice on what to do and where to go. You shop for a camera, you check reviews by other people who have bought it before. You have a software problem, you search for other users who have had the same issues – and hopefully solved them. Experts don't always get it right, nor do they always agree with each other. This kind of gives everybody the right to chip in and the internet makes this possible. Twenty people sharing their subjective and contradictive views on a certain issue can now have the information edge over an expert. People are increasingly making informed decisions based on the experiences of their peers rather than simply being told what to do.

Often it's easier to accept support, advice and real life examples from somebody who has gone through the same experience themselves. I’m not saying you can replace experts, but in many cases they can be complemented.

Earlier this month we launched freeasabird.org.uk, a peer-support network for women coming out of the Criminal Justice System. Like most peer-to-peer projects, the community has shaped the network, and takes the lead in producing the content and managing the site. The focus of freeasabird is on sharing real life examples of how women ex-offenders have got back on their feet, whether it’s sorting out housing, getting new qualifications or finding a job. People coming for advice or help can choose to take on board the opinions of others or not. Of course not everybody will have had the same experience, but users will share enough to be able to learn from each other. And we hope they will be inspired and motivated by other people’s’ stories to move their lives forward. As a model, peer-projects have gone a long way and have an even longer way to go. Technologies come and go, companies and software applications come and go, but the principal of peer-to-peer exchange as a tool to empower communities is clearly here to stay.

Caspar Below, Freeasabird Project Manager, Media For Development

IJP's income is used to develop various MFD projects, including Freeasabird.


Watch this space to hear about how we continue to explore this model of mutual aid to build communities that can help themselves. Visit freeasabird for advice, stories and films for and by women offenders. Books: Cyberchiefs, Autonomy and Authority in Online Tribes. Mathieu O’Neill.

Bridging the development gap

Almost exactly seven years ago - just before Christmas 2002 - I was sitting in a classroom at Wandsworth Prison discussing a new project idea with a small group of prisoners. We were thinking about setting up a radio station inside the prison, complete with a learning facility, with the idea that radio might be an excellent hook for encouraging prisoners to get involved in education for the first time. Setting up a new project takes time, patience and money and we suspected that anything inside a prison would draw heavily on all of these. Sure enough, it was eighteen months later when Radio Wanno was opened by Cherie Booth as a unique new learning and broadcast facility at Wandsworth Prison - and by then we had all come up against the numerous challenges of working inside a prison.the idea being discussed casually over a coffee and the project launch?

What the development of Radio Wanno also demonstrated to us was one of the biggest challenges that any entrepreneurial organisation coming up with bright new ideas has to contend with: who wants to pay for that crucial period of time between - which in the case of Radio Wanno was eighteen months. It's an especially big question for us at Media for Development (MFD), where we're in the business of coming up with fresh ideas of how different media can be used to change people's lives, for the better. And so that's where IJP comes in: our idea was to establish an income-generating arm of MFD that would help cover our project development costs. This bridge between a great idea and it's realisation, means projects can be developed and get off the ground. It's only three years since the launch of IJP and already Naomi and her dynamic team are supporting us in that objective, as well as having their own clearly defined vision of making great films which help other organisations achieve their social objectives.

Things have moved on in a big way at MFD since the launch of Radio Wanno - we've now worked in over 30 prisons around England and next year we'll start new media-based initiatives in other parts of the criminal justice system both here and in the UK, as well as internationally. So if you're reading this as someone who's commissioned a film from IJP or you've been on one of the IJP production teams, thanks for the contribution!

James Greenshields, CEO, Media for Development

To see other projects for which IJP has funded the development, visit the IJP website

Radio Wanno has won 3 Koestler Awards for production, with 79% of it's students going on to achieve NCFE accreditation. "Radio Wanno has educated me in computer and studio skills, it's given me confidence to speak in front of others, but most importantly it has given me a way out of crime' - NCFE graduate

Phones can be more scary than you think!

It's a pretty extreme way to sort your life out but, for me, going to prison allowed me to do just that. Really. Of course, the simple daily grind and routine, slamming doors, jangling keys and shouts of 'Get your hot water ladieeeeeeeeees' probably wouldn't be enough for anyone to turn the corner but mine was a sentence laden with opportunity; opportunity I seized with great relish.

It started with a course (sorry if a song just popped into your head), a BTEC in digital media. If I say so myself I did very well, getting an overall distinction and a massive boost to my confidence and self-esteem. And that led to the ultimate prize, a placement with IJP as their first ever Production Assistant, commuting daily from prison to their offices in London. An actual job! Like a normal person!

Obviously getting the job wasn't as simple as just doing well on the course and I'm not sure that was even a factor. The application process was like that of any job including an interview at which I was more than a little nervous. But I got through it and thanks to that and some serendipitous timing regarding eligibility for licenced release the first placement was mine. I'd have loved a glass of champers to celebrate but I was in prison so I had a cup of tea. Closely followed by another one. And then maybe one more. I do like tea.

The job itself was completely different from anything I'd ever done before. It wasn't mind-numbingly dull for a start. Every day offered me a new challenge, new people to meet, new things to arrange, the odd article to write. Before I hadn't even known I could write.

There were challenges I probably felt at the time I could have done without, for example approaching Monty Don and Grayson Perry with invitations for the company launch. They looked at me as though I was mad. Maybe it was my manic fixed grin? While in prison I had also inexplicably developed a phobia of using the telephone and looked for more creative ways of avoiding it ('No really, their preferred method of communication is morse code/semaphore/beacon lighting'), and I gave a speech at a conference which was the single most fear-inducing experience of my life, worse even than my trial (which was no picnic). I was rubbish too. I'd written it before I got there and simply read it out without looking up once.

Although I felt it was disastrous it hasn't stopped me from doing it since (similarly with me never looking up) and I have IJP to thank that I now have the confidence to put myself in that position despite being useless at it. Strangely enough the phone hasn't been ringing off the hook with offers of engagement as an after-dinner speaker. Just as well as I probably wouldn't answer the phone anyway.

Fiona writes a successful blog and is currently working on a book for publication. Prior to her placement at IJP Fiona completed her studies at the Media House, a project managed by Media for Development, IJP's founder organisation which runs various projects using media as a tool to re-engage and empower isolated communities.

Saturday Night at Secret Cinema

As we get closer to Old St tube station the people in white multiply. We stream towards the venue past long lines of people putting on decontamination suits bearing the legend 'Nostromo'. Joining our place in the queue we pass a window where a group of astronauts argue around a table. We finally enter the building through a vibrating airlock...

It all started when I received an email from Secret Cinema, London's latest pop-up happening for cinephiles. Sign up to the website and Secret Cinema will eventually invite you to the next screening - film to be revealed and venue to be announced. All you know is that it'll happen on a certain date somewhere in London.

We emerge in a huge concrete space foaming with dry ice and filled with over a thousand people in their white hooded suits. A disembodied head sits in the corner of the bar and an alien form slithers round the stairwell. We sit in front of a huge screen clutching our popcorn and a glass of wine, and the lights go down...

There's a lot to be said for the power of anticipation. I lost count of the number of emails I exchanged with my sister speculating on which film we were going to see. As it turned out neither of us got it right, despite the very obvious hints (well done, movie buffs, Nostromo is the space ship in Ridley Scott's sci-fi classic Alien).

The lights come up again. "That was brilliant!" enthuses my sister. We hang around a bit listening to a DJ mixing alien beats live (even worse than it sounds) and then head off to a nearby bar for a drink where, to be fair, they don't bat an eyelid at our decontamination suits.

I think it's a love it or hate it type of event, but if you like a bit of intrigue and are excited by the idea of dressing up...Secret Cinema could be your next big night out.

Naomi Delap, Managing Director, Inside Job Productions

Empowering magistrates through film

When I was asked by IJP to make a film for London Probation to give magistrates an in-depth understanding of what happened to people serving community sentences I felt excited, if slightly daunted by the vast scope of issues the film could cover. One magistrate told me he sees the same people in court time and time again and wanted to know why, and what measures could change this. Another said that understanding the kinds of day-to-day issues many offenders are struggling with would help him sentence more appropriately.

We decided to focus on the stories of three individuals undertaking different intervention programmes as part of their sentence plan. The Women's Programme is a 3-month intensive couse aiming to build self-esteem, assertiveness and life skills to prevent re-offending. Lots of the women have difficulties saying 'no' to their partners or kids, and end up living outside their means and resorting to crime. They work on thinking more positively about themselves, the goals they want to achieve and how to manage bills and money. The women we met felt the course had given them the tools they needed to change their future.

The 9-month Domestic Abuse Programme was quite an eye-opener. It's not just about physical violence, but about all the other nuances of power play in personal relationships. The man we filmed was still together with his partner and child. His partner said he had really changed since doing the programme - he understood her needs better; listened more; and differences were now being resolved through talking rather than escalating into full-blown rows and fights.

Our final contributor was someone who's spent most of his adult life in and out of prison. Currently on a methodone prescription, he was attempting to break his heroin addiction and cut down on drinking. He was under intensive supervision and had daily appointments with different agencies. He told us that in the chaos of his life this structure was what kept him feeling safe. I hope the short amount of filming we did with him will help give magistrates a better understanding of the deeply-rooted, complex issues in people's lives that can lead them to keep re-offending. And that many need multiple interventions and different kinds of support before change really starts to happen.

Rosa Rogers, Producer/Director, Inside Job Productions

The scales aren't so bad

The Media Trust's latest report 'The Marketing & Communications Needs of Charities' provides a succinct summary of the communications issues facing third sector organisations today. The highlighted issues will be all-too-familiar amongst the communications agencies working within the sector, where a general lack of strategic expertise and experienced marketing presence on boards often makes it hard to address communication issues strategically.

This is coupled with the increasing demand in today's climate for measurement and accountability of marketing and communications spend. Without strategic marketing representation at board level, a vicious circle can ensue where measurement is overlooked at the planning stage of campaigns and projects, leaving only testimonials and anecdotal feedback to illustrate the true contribution of media in the overall mix. Measurement is a bit like trying out a new diet a week; if you don't get on the scales before you start, you have no idea whether Atkins works better for you or whether you should stick to Weightwatchers.

Organisations such as the Charities Evaluation Service are doing some great work in helping provide advice, guidance and tools to assist with precisely this challenge, but there also lies a responsibility with the providers of marketing expertise and services themselves. Including a measurement element into a project plan to measure success may require some initial thought, but the results are invaluable.

These issues are exacerbated by the lack of awareness as to the variety of ways in which communications can transform and address various issues for not-for-profits without being in the form of all-singing-all-dancing billboard campaigns. It's easy to think about communication in it's most simplistic sense, delivering increased donor support. For many organisations however, effective communication can play an important role when used as a facilitating tool at a more central level.

Take one of our recent films, commissioned to help keep magistrates and judges fully up to date with the variety of community-based schemes available to assist in offenders' rehabilitation. For busy magistrates, carving out hours to read about the various programmes that can build confidence and influence behaviour to aid reform is a tall order. The film enabled London Probation to deliver against a policy-related objective, cost effectively generating a better engagement with and understanding of these options to its time-poor audience.

The great thing about well-executed media communication is its ability to illustrate the general through focusing in on the personal, capturing audience's imagination and giving greater capacity to cut through the clutter. At IJP we strive to deliver innovative solutions that do just that. And we hope that by working with our clients to facilitate effectiveness measurement, we are helping to advance the use of media in the third sector, raising the bar in order that organisations can better compete with their private sector counterparts, and maybe loose a bit of weight in the process.

Louise Brown, Marketing & Communications Manager, Inside Job Productions

People Will Always Need Good Pants

I went to see the lovely people at Pants to Poverty yesterday to talk through some film ideas. This organisation is really worth checking out if you haven't already. Born out of the Make Poverty History campaign, the idea of making, wearing and selling 'good pants' as a way of raising awareness about social and environmental issues has grown into an exciting and sustainable social enterprise.

Now selling three collections of underwear a year across 16 countries, Pants source the cotton in their pants from Zameen Organic, the world's finest farmer-owned marketing company for Fairtrade and Organic cotton. Based in Hyderabad in India, Zameen Organic is co-owned by the tribal cotton farmers in the Vidarbha region, where on average 26 farmers commit suicide every day due to unfair trade. Since Zameen has started its work, there have been no suicides amongst their 5,000 members and farmers earn approximately one third more than farmers of conventional cotton.

Pants use their influence, their products and their fans to campaign against 'bad pants'. The production of 'bad pants' embody all sorts of evils such as the pesticides used in cotton production which poison whole communities and the child labour used in garment factories. So Pants to Poverty hold pant-wearing protests, bad pants amnesties and lobby multinationals producing pesticides to effect change. Not only that, and this is the really clever bit, they demonstrate that the solution already exists - it is possible to produce cheap, organic, Fairtrade cotton, because they're doing it.

I love the fact that social enterprises like these ones are reinventing the way we do business, and having a lot of fun along the way. So now there's no excuse for wearing bad pants.

Naomi Delap, Managing Director, Inside Job Productions

To find out more (and buy pants) visit http://www.pantstopoverty.com/

Education through film

I was called by IJP about a job sometime in May, I think it was.

They had a client who wanted to make a film about prisoners with mental health issues. One of the service users of this organisation had died in police custody and they wanted to do something about it - they wanted to make a film which helped to build bridges; to train people involved in the criminal justice system in how to deal with this vulnerable group.

One of the main reasons why I got involved with film-making was to fight discrimination and unfairness. It's kind of hard to do this when you're making a property show in Miami, but I've always tried to maintain a dual existence, where sometimes I just have to work for the cash to feed my kids, and sometimes I'm able to do what I truly love, like this job.

My aim here was to present the three people in my film who were former prisoners as fully rounded human beings, so's whoever was watching the film couldn't dismiss them as one of 'them'. If you can do that, and elicit empathy in the viewer, then the salient points that you're trying to present to the viewer will hit home - they'll want to know how to deal with these people.

So I set out to capture a little bit of what made these characters tick. We only had a two day shoot, but it's all about getting people into situations where they feel comfy. I also looked at ways of filming them where I could use a few special effects - to show their alienation in the past or how it might actually feel to be ill. The next step was to get professionals involved - politicians, psychologists - people who could punctuate what the three characters were saying, who could give an objective overview about 'them'.

When it feels right, when all the elements work together, it's a great feeling. Not because I think I'm a cool guy and I've done a great job - no I'm not saying that! - but because I know people are going to get something out of watching it.

It's all about consumption.


Ed Harrison, Producer/Director, Inside Job Productions

Media to re-engage

Yesterday's article 'Inside Sell Blocks' in the Guardian Society raised some interesting and challenging questions about the nature of prisoners' relationship to employment. The movement from worklessness into sustained employment can be challenging for this group not least due to the significant experience and skills barriers faced. For work schemes designed to increase the chances of employment on release, addressing the various and numerous barriers to employment is key. Building on fundamental factors such as an increased sense of satisfaction, achievement and ownership through work result in increased confidence and motivation. This plays a crucial part in encouraging independence and the effective transition to meaningful employment. Aside from the factory production lines referenced in the article, there exist numerous smaller schemes which operate across the wider third sector to provide individuals with a more engaging introduction to the world of work.

The IJP training scheme aims to build the foundation on which such a transition can be made by engaging individuals with contemporary subject matter in a fresh a creative environment. Today media permeates more areas of society than ever, representing and serving us based on any number of facets through which we identify ourselves. Whether through political motivations, cultural background, taste in music or viewing preferences, there exists a plethora of channels out there through which expression, information and connection can be sought. For trainees exposed to the various aspects of working in a thriving media company, getting hands-on experience in a sector that is both dynamic, involving and which typically overcomes the isolation of circumstance, can be the first step to their engagement with working life.

Louise Brown, Marketing & Communications Manager, Inside Job Productions

More films for good

When I started up Inside Job Productions in 2006 it was really exciting to move away from the old world of broadcast and into making films with a direct social purpose. Ten years of TV and radio had given me some great experiences, like working on a pig farm for a year, filming a mother giving birth and eating worm pie (that was local TV you'll be unsurprised to hear!). But it was time for a change, and I hear the same message from many of the freelancers we work with. It's very rewarding to be making films not just to entertain, but to be used as tools by many brilliant organisations across the third sector.

Now, after three fascinating years, IJP is re-launching with a new website and a bigger team, enabling us to make the same kinds of great films, but for more people. Our fearsomely organised Production Manager, Tracey Blackwood, provides support to all the IJP teams out there filming and editing. And Louise Brown, razor-sharp Marketing and Communications Manager, is making sure that more of the right people are finding out about who we are and what we do.

It's always easier to explain the value of the films IJP makes by giving some examples. 'Coming Back to London' is the fifth film we've made for Blundeston, a prison in Suffolk. Aimed at prisoners released back to London area it looks at resettlement support available in the capital, but also examines the things that might have changed: can you remember London before Oyster cards, congestion charges and a smoking ban in pubs? Our latest commission is for The Refugee Council: we'll be producing a series of films for a new website aimed at supporting refugee teachers who want to teach in the UK, telling the stories of refugees and the schools which employ them.

I'm very passionate about the power of film to effect change as well as simply reflect life; and I'm excited that IJP's expansion will contribute to the use of more films for good.

Naomi Delap, Managing Director, Inside Job Productions