Opal Community Land Trust: Fill & Download for Free

This is an article I wrote for an internal hospital newspaper in July 1998:On Tuesday 7th July, from 3pm to 6pm, the Queen gave a Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace to celebrate 50 years of the NHS.Forms had been distributed all round the NHS some months previously, asking all those who wanted to go to send in their details, including their job-description, length of service and place of work. These forms were supposed to be made available to all NHS employees well in advance, but in practice the efficiency of distribution seems to have varied wildly from Trust to Trust.The completed forms were entered on a computer, which then randomized them and made a two-step selection, the first stage ensuring a fair representation of all types of post, and the second a fair geographical spread. Roughly 8,500 people were invited, including two employees from the Western General: myself and Ian Jamieson, Lothian Linen Services Manager. The Trust very generously paid our expenses provided we promised to tell Clifford Burden all about it for Scope, thus demonstrating one of the pluses of working for the NHS. I may earn less than the equivalent post in industry, but within reason I’d rather be poorly paid somewhere flexible and friendly than well paid somewhere regimented and rigid.I travelled down by train on the preceding Sunday and stayed in South London with a friend from the National Fancy Rat Society. On the Monday we called in at a local community museum in Blackheath, which turned out to be marking the 50th anniversary with a play reminding people what health-care was like before the NHS (though sadly we didn’t have time to see it). The advertizing poster showed parents hovering anxiously over a sick child, with the title “Can we afford the doctor?”On the Tuesday I arrived at the palace at 3:05pm, to find the whole area between the palace and the Mall packed with NHS employees and their guests, as gaily coloured as Christmas wrapping. The queues were so long that it took at least fifteen minutes to get in.After finally making it through the gates, guests cross the gravelled area in front of the palace and then pass through a narrow section of building and out into a broad central courtyard. On the far side of this we enter a glassed-in shelter where the state coaches pull up, like some vast, baroque ambulance port. At the back of this a door leads into the main section of the palace, and we walk through marble halls and then down steps to the garden.Behind the palace is a wide green lawn on which most of the guests stand chatting and nibbling things. Around the edges of the grass are long, elegantly draped tea-tents from which harassed-looking girls dispense invisibly tiny smoked-salmon-and-cream-cheese sandwiches, enormous slabs of coronary-on-a-plate chocolate fudge cake, little fruit tarts, iced coffee and ultra high quality ice-cream.Two brass bands on opposite sides of the green play in turn, signalling each other by running flags up poles. I identify “In olden days a glimpse of stocking//Was looked on as something shocking//Now Heaven knows//Anything goes”; London Pride; “They’re changing the guard at Buckingham Palace” and the themes from Star Wars and the original 60s series of Star Trek.The Queen and Prince Philip arrive at 4pm. Before they emerge the Yeomen of the Guard form a corridor for them to walk through, but the crowd is so dense that at this stage I can see nothing of the Yeomen below the crowns of their hats, though their pikes tower above the press like stalks of wheat.The weather is mainly hot and bright, with only a few seconds of spitting – fortunately for me, as I am wearing a violet crêpe dress which would shrink-wrap me if it got wet. Most people are beautifully and more or less formally dressed, including a scattering of saris and turbans: though there are a few sartorial mishaps it would be kinder not to describe, and I do notice one white-haired gent who has combined a smart, formal grey suit with a Taz the Tasmanian Devil cartoon tie. There are several men in kilts – most of them from Scotland, including e.g. a dentist from Musselburgh, though the first kiltie I speak to proves to be English and from Barts. The Queen herself is wearing a long open primrose coat (a style which suits her far better than the squarish twin-sets she used to wear all the time) and a rather busy hat in the same colour, and looks fresh and pretty.After watching the Queen arrive I and many other guests go for a walk around the gardens. The setting is quite strange: close to the palace itself high, grassy banks cut off the view of the city and almost create the illusion of a rural idyll, except that several high buildings and, currently, immensely tall yellow cranes loom above the tops of the trees on all sides. I remark to a fellow guest that this is how I imagine Central Park in New York – the enclave of green land surrounded by sky-scrapers – but she says she’s seen it, and Central Park is far barer.The palace gardens are really a small, mildly exotic private park. Behind the central lawn is a wide lake, dotted with heavily wooded islands and promontories on which weeping willows and ornamental conifers sweep down to the water. Moorhens and ducks of various kinds skim the surface or scrounge for cake-crumbs: mysterious half-seen brown shapes rustling and scuttling under the bushes are probably also ducks.As you begin to go clockwise round the outside of the lake, you can still hear the band to your right; but from the left comes the crump and rattle of a major building site. Past that point the music fades altogether – the scenery is pure Botanics, even to the water-lily pond and the discreet species-labels in the plants, but the sound-track is provided by a roaring main road just beyond the trees. The style is pleasantly informal. The open lawns are closely cropped, but the surrounding banks and the woodland areas are left unmowed and misted with long, grey-green grasses, providing wildlife habitat around a decidedly un-natural selection of trees: a monkey-puzzle standing with its feet in an English meadow.In the centre of the grounds beyond the lake is a massive (10ft high?) limestone urn commemorating the battle of Waterloo, its decoration very badly weathered. As you come round the end of the lakes and back towards the palace you pass a little summerhouse in a would-be Classical style: around and behind this is a collection of roses, many of them presents to the Queen with the names of the donors on labels. Beyond that is a high bank covered with a profusion of flowers of all colours, in the English cottage garden manner. On the far side of a gate marked “Private” a mysterious path winds away through the flowers: it looks like a door into the Hollow Hills, though it’s more likely to lead to a gardener’s hut.The Queen and Prince Philip move through the crowd, but with 8,500 guests they can speak to only a small proportion, and I’m not one of them. Someone tells me they think that Fergie is also there, but if so I see neither her nor Prince Philip. Towards the end of the afternoon I do see the Queen from close up (surreptitiously using her umbrella as a walking stick – with which I sympathize, since my own mother walks with a stick).Being a monarchist myself I would normally expect to find the presence of the Queen exciting and impressive, but in this setting she seems almost an afterthought. When I think about it afterwards, it seems to me that when the Queen comes to the Trust she is the guest and we honour her: but on this occasion the Queen is the host and it is the NHS itself which is the honoured guest and therefore the star turn.I have only one complaint to make about the organization, which is that whoever arranged the loos seems to have forgotten that the NHS is rather more than 50% female. As a result, it takes ten minutes to get into the Ladies’, while there is no queue at all for the Gents’. However, some of the most interesting conversations of the afternoon take place while standing in line with my legs crossed. A GP practice manager from Birmingham, in a pale opal-coloured sari, speaks with passion about the lack of health care she saw in India, and declares that all those who knock the British system should be made to go on a world tour and see how vastly poorer the health provision is elsewhere.And all the time, on all the roads beyond the garden, over and behind the music of the bands the ambulances wail past, carrying the NHS – and, with any luck, some of its patients – forwards into the future.As I come away the entrance-hall is lined with the next batch of guests: teenagers in pale brown Scout and Guide uniforms, looking very smart and very young, and reminding me of pale brown photo’s of teenagers in uniform who marched away to the trenches. The platforms of Victoria station are lined with tea-tent clearer-uppers carrying arm-loads of salvaged floral decorations. One of them, an eager young girl of Asian origin, turns out to be a medical student, and we talk about what she might be going to specialize in. Maybe she’ll be a guest at the party that will celebrate 100 years of the NHS.

“How would you plan out a mega-city underground?”I don’t understand where the fascination with underground cities arises but they do have their place. Edmonton in Canada is partly underground and in colder places it might make even more sense. In Coober Pedy and Lightning Ridge in Australia the weather is so intensely hot in part of the year, and the soil is structurally suitable so a lot of living is underground. The miners dig for opal then enlarge the mine a little to live in it.On other planets or asteroids underground living might make far more sense than trying to achieve enough protection on the surface.In broad generalisation, a mega-city seldom works as well as a cluster of moderately-sized cities. Particularly in regard to disasters and managment of epidemics but many aspects of ordinary human interaction as well. Mega-cities tend to occur because there has been an initial lack of sufficient planning and decentralisation before it is too late.Underground it would seem to be even more important to disperse development to a cluster, rather than a single metropolis.Human communities work differently at different scales. Small communities can work on the basis of trust with little formal exchange of money. As you go up in scale through neighbourhood to municipality and beyond you need more-and-more formalised structure.If you were to plan from scratch you might aim to allow people to live in small local communities that are separate-enough to feel a sense of identity but integrated with larger groupings in a graduated way.Working out governance of such a city might be part of the planning. How are the people fairly represented at each level of governance?If you were underground, I suspect that communities would still develop primarily on the one level. It could make a lot of sense to span many storeys, to avoid too much spreading-out, but communication should span the whole of each level, not require people to go up or down to get from one side of the city to the other. That is exemplified in Hong Kong where arcades bridge between buildings at several levels to create a large mall at each level rather than people having to go downstairs then up again to shop at that level in the next building.Communication up and down would be by lifts and stairs, and horizontal communication could be by travelators like horizontal lifts, as well as paths and moving footways. Costs of excavation and construction would mean living at population densities that cars, and even perhaps bicycles, would be out of the question.Planning of such a mega-city gives the opportunity to optimise recycling, energy and supply of services. It might also allow maximum economy in the use of water and other scarce resources.But how might people living underground get their share of sunlight and space? How would they have sufficient physical activity without it being, and feeling, totally artificial?Might each of the small cities of the cluster be built around a light well, with multiple floors looking out into a vast space with trees and other vegetation growing up towards the light? Perhaps even food forests lining the light well.If it were on another planet or asteroid, there might be a great protective screen that could be pulled over in event of hazard but it is easier protecting the opening of a light well than trying to shield the entire of an above-ground settlement.If on Earth, might the land surface above be great parks and forests? Even on alien worlds, might there be arrays of greenhouses because the risks of losing a crop now and again from solar flares or other hazards is a reasonable cost-benefit tradeoff (as against frying the whole community when such an even occurs)So much depends on the circumstances. Where is it being built, and why?I wasn’t going to answer the question but it kind-of sucks you in.Can’t see a reason to do it except in extreme circumstances but the idea does confront a lot of questions about cities, and about planning them.

As content marketing increases in popularity, it seems as though more and more companies are springing up and offering it as a service. The 2017 State of the Creator Economy study (SOCE) found that 8 out of 10 marketers were familiar with content marketing. About 70 percent of content marketers had experience with the concept in the past year. But with so many marketers and brands deploying content marketing strategies, it can be hard to identify the top content marketing companies of today.Here's a look at several of the top content marketing companies in business today, and what makes them the best in the biz.Content Marketplaces & PlatformsIZEAIZEA has the largest network of content creators and influencers thus it's placement at the top of the list of top content marketing companies. It's also evolution of the very first company to offer content and influencer marketing services. Founded in 2006, the company in recent years has grown considerably, either purchasing or partnering with a number of smaller companies. These acquisitions include Ebyline and Zen Content, along with partnerships with Allison+Partners (which was named the "Mid-Size Agency of the Year" in 2015 by PRWeek) and Rubicon Project. IZEA's suite of content and influencer marketing services ranges from an SaaS platform to fully managed influencer marketing and custom content service. The company's newest self-service influencer marketing platform, ContentAmp, is software that allows brands to easily promote and amplify their content on a cost-per-click basis.ScriptedScripted connects freelance content creators and writers with a variety of small businesses and agencies in need of content. Although other top content marketing companies focus on a full range of content marketing services, Scripted sticks to one thing: providing a writing service. Clients with Scripted put together briefs describing what they want from a piece of a content. They can then choose a writer from Scripted's pool of tens of thousands of writers, or use the agency's SmartMatch software to find the best writer based on skillset and budget needs. Once the content is written, a client can review and accept it, or ask for revisions.SkywordSkyword is primarily a content marketing company that allows brands to share their stories. Its platform allows marketers and content creators to produce blog posts, website content, and videos. Along with automating the content production process, Skyword's platform also automates the process of analyzing and management content. Page views, video views, and other essential metrics are all part of the platform.ZerysZerys offers a content marketing software platform to plan, produce, polish and publish content. Offering both DIY and full-service solutions, the tools allow marketers to plan strategy, research keywords, and develop an editorial calendar in addition to access to a network of more than 60,000 writers and content creators. The platform is free to use and marketers only pay for content upon approval. Plus, for those who prefer dedicated project managers to help setup and manage their account, a team of content marketing pros is available with the premium package.TextbrokerTextbroker is a leading article and content writing service offering blog posts, product descriptions, and even technical content. The platform's authors provide content creation in up to 15 languages for as little as 1.3 cents per word. The platform features a network of thousands of writers for hire and free registration. With the self-service option, marketers have the ability to dictate that level of quality and price paid to authors when buying content, but managed services offers additional support and a personal account manager to help you find the right creators for high-level content.Writer AccessWriterAccess is a content marketing and creation platform featuring more than 15,000 US-based freelance writers who are screened and star-rated by performance and customer reviews. The platform lets marketers search for and find writers on their own or a service to match brands with writers based on key criteria. Content prices range from 2 cents to $2 per word and cover everything from articles, case studies and blog posts to web copy, editing and white papers.ContentlyContently takes what it calls a data-driven approach to content marketing. The company and platform were founded in 2012, and at the time were thought to be what would "save journalism." Today, Contently is one of the top content marketing companies in the industry. It matches brands with vetted writers, photographers, videographers, and more. Its goal is to help those brands create excellent content at scale. It's been named one of the fastest growing companies by Inc. And actually received an award for investigative reporting from the ASJA.FiverrFiverr is the ubiquitous freelancer marketplace offering almost any kind of service you can imaging starting at the low cost of only five dollars. Geared toward the “lean entrepreneur,” the marketplace features business-building services including graphics, design, digital marketing, writing, translation, video, animation, music, audio, and programming, just to name a few. For those whose time is money Fiverr is a perfect solution to knock a few things off the todo list like logo design, wordpress customization, voice overs, whiteboards, and social media management.UpworkUpWork is a competitor to Fiverr and offers a similar freelance marketplace experience. Here you'll find a host of web and mobile developers, designers and creatives, writers, virtual assistants, customer service agents, sales and marketing experts, and accountants and consultants. The software allows marketers to find and hire freelance talent. It also facilitates the management of freelance projects transactions. There are three freemium options that range from basic to enterprise, which offers an end-to-end freelancer management system.Content Marketing AgenciesConvince and ConvertConvince and Convert is a top content marketing company that offers strategic advice and consulting for content marketing, social media marketing, and customer experience. It's been named to Inc's 5000 list, as well as one of the top 10 companies in Indiana. Along with offering consulting and assistance to companies looking for content marketing, Convince and Convert operates a media arm, which produces a digital magazine, plus a handful of podcasts and email newsletters.NewscredContent marketing company Newscred has evolved considerably since its early days. It started out as a newswire service, but today offers a host of content marketing services. It claims that its mission is to reinvent marketing. The company has received more than $90 million in funding, and now has offices around the world. With more than 100,000 subscribers, it has the largest content marketing community in the world. It has also licensed millions of articles, and primarily works with businesses on the Fortune 2000 list.Influence & Co.Influence & Co. produces content that aims to position brands as thought leaders in their industries. As one of the top content marketing companies, it has seen significant growth since it began, growing from two to 75 employees between 2011 and 2015. Influence & Co.'s services include knowledge extraction, content creation, and distribution. The agency specializes in executive branding, content marketing and custom content projects.Content Creation, Management & DistributionCurataSince 2010, Curata has used software to help brands around the world reach their content marketing goals. The company offers both a content marketing platform and content curation software. The software allows marketers to share their content to blogs, social media, and other sources with ease. The platform not only allows marketers to measure and analyze the performance of their content. Marketers can adjust or scale their content strategy as well. Curata has received numerous awards for its work. Topping the list is the 2015 Social Tools Summit Best of Show and Owler's 2016 Hot in Boston Award.KapostKapost is touted as “the B2B marketing solution trusted by the world’s best brands.” Built specifically for managing the B2B buyer’s journey, Kapost combines dedicated software with expert service to create thought leadership content that drives revenue and retention. The system centralizes teams, tools and channels with more than 60 integrations with CRM and CMS platforms and open API architecture.PercolatePercolate is an all-in-one software solution for global marketing visibility, coordination, and governance. Giving marketers the ability to manage all their marketing across multiple channels, the software solution touts a roster of more than 800 global brands ranging from GE and MasterCard to Timberland and Marriott. Products include high-level marketing calendars, briefing management and content and social media marketing coordination and distribution.PresslyPressly is an enterprise solution for content curation and distribution. Operating as a content hub, the platform solution centralizes content distribution and optimization across a variety of communication and content marketing channels including Newsletters, CRM software, widgets and social media. Pressy’s array of software solutions allow marketers to provide teams with a central information hub, become thought leaders in their industry, transform sales team into trusted advisors, and even leverage employee advocacy.CanvaCanva is a design platform that allows marketers to easily create beautiful designs, infographics, and documents. The free platform features drag-and-drop functionality and professional layouts. There's even an iPad app for designing presentations, social media graphics and more on the go. Canva also offers millions of images, stock photography, vectors and illustrations along with photo filters, free icons and shapes, and hundreds of fonts.BrightcoveBrightcove is an online video platform for publishers, broadcasters, and digital marketers. It's also one of the top content marketing companies focused on video. The platform's goal is increasing reach and revenue for marketers through video marketing. Its video content marketing suite supports functions that improve lead generation, commerce conversions and brand awareness. This is all accomplished through the uses of branded video players, live streaming distribution, custom calls to action, embedded forms and actionable insights. Plus, a partner ecosystem features seamless integrations with top content marketing tools and services like Marketo, WordPress, Drupal and Adobe, just to name a few.CaptoraCaptora is a top of funnel marketing solution that launches targeted campaigns at scale and with cross-platform optimization. It's one of the top content marketing companies that offer a complete content creation, management and distribution platform. The solution allows marketers to identify and prioritize the content and conversion opportunities. Users have access to content strategy roadmaps and landing page editors complete with templates, forms, calls to action and A/B testing. Plus, detailed analytics provide campaign portfolio ROI measuring, conversion rate reporting. and actionable channel effectiveness metrics.SnapAppSnapApp is one of the top content marketing companies for interactive content. The platform allows you to create personalized content experiences with interactive elements. Such elements include calculators, personality assessments, contests and sweepstakes, polls and surveys, brackets, galleries, quizzes, and interactive videos. The platform facilitates end-to-end content marketing management from creation to publishing to measuring. Features include drag-and-drop tools, built-in responsiveness, and seamless integrations with existing systems.OpalOpal is one of the top content marketing companies for marketing team collaboration. The platform facilitates content marketing production with a structure that aims to reduce complexity while increasing collaboration. Opal’s StoryFirst™ framework takes teams out of silos and connects strategy, content creation, and cross-channel distribution in one place. Think of the solution as a project management tool for content marketing efficiency.Content Marketing Hubs and DamsBynderBynder is a top digital asset management (DAM) platform. The software's main function is to act as a central hub for all company materials and messaging. But the platform goes further to connect teams for same-page, real-time collaborative edits and approvals. Users have access to easy file sharing and storage along with auto-formatting for channels and file types. Functionality also includes brand identity style guides to helps insure all branded content is consistent across platformsUberflipUberflip, the company behind Flipbook, creates custom content hubs that empower marketers to create memorable journeys for their customers. It accomplishes this by delivering what it calls remarkable content experiences. Content hubs are optimized for engagement by various buyer personas so browsers can self-select their own customer journey. The platform features calls to action, marketing automation, data collection, integrations with top marketing tools and services, and detailed insights into content marketing efforts.LookBookHQLookBookHQ is one of the top content marketing companies specializing in content hubs. The platform works to educate prospects and transform them into buyers faster. Software automates a sequence of content delivered in engaging and personalized experiences using data and self-learning algorithms. Plus, analytics data lets you understand how users are engaging with your content and integrates directly with your march stack.WebdamWebdam is a ShutterStock company, so you know this top content marketing company is all about visuals. The platform allows marketers to create, organize, manage and share brand content all on one platform. Products include Workstream, a creative project workflow management system, Webdam, an experience-focused digital asset management system, and Brand Connect, a dynamic brand management guide. The creative solution for content marketers also features integrations with popular apps, cloud security and hands-on customer support.