Birmingham City Council

At least not as we know it.

More Canals Than Venice

Annabel has said that, needing to prioritise paying work, she’s changing her approach to running the site:

I intend to discover the new in the city, but at a more leisurely pace and in more depth

Which doesn’t sound all that bad really.

The Yam Yam

However, The Yam Yam, a Walsall-based aggregator of local news, is shutting up shop completely. Here’s a fuller explanation of what that’s all about. I was aware of the site but, not living in Walsall, had no particular reason for following it very closely – the number and content of the comments tell you how much the site was appreciated though.

Next?

In a few weeks time we’re going to hear about which of the established arts organisations and council services aren’t going to be supported any more. That’s not going to be pleasant. There’ll still be plenty of good stuff for us to write about on CiB, and plenty of individuals doing good things, but we won’t know what we’re missing.

On the web side of things, it’s worth remembering that most of the genuinely interesting websites around are actually quite fragile things and, if they’re run for personal enjoyment, it’s probably best not to assume they’ll be around forever either. See also Jon Bounds’ comments last month when the harmless bit of fun that was Brummie of the Year turned nasty on BiNS:

I’ll continue to ruminate as to whether the site does its job or is best closed.

On the other hand, I’m all for a bit of a shake-up, some new voices and some new ways of doing things. We’ll see how things pan out over the next little while.

UPDATE

I forgot to end this post with some bunnies: