The ‘Birmingham: It’s Not Shit’ blog (“Mildly sarcastic since 2002”) has started a game of “blog tig” (others might call it blog tag) in an effort to find out who else is blogging in the UK’s second city.

Bounder, who writes the blog, sets up the following rules:

1. “Each player starts with an odd, but fun, fact about Brum and one odd, but fun, fact about their blog.
2. “At the end of your blog, you need to choose two people to get tagged and list their names.
3. “Tag your post “birminghamUK” and “brumblogtig” (the second one is a memetag).
4. “People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (with their version of the post) and post these rules (or link to them here). They can tie it in with their particular subject if they so wish.
5. “Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

“I think we’ll be able to watch the chain unfold over on technorati. I also think that it’s fun to tag people you think not enough people read – but that’s totally up to you.”

It’s a great idea – a viral thing right down to its rules (“a bit like a game of consequences, a bit like a chain letter”) and another example of the power of tags.

Now, my blog isn’t about Birmingham per se (though I often write about online journalism taking place here), and I’m not even from the city originally, but I’m game for anything, so here’s my pass-it-on:

Birmingham fact: The inventor of the Baskerville font lived and worked in Birmingham. A sculpture of the Baskerville typeface, Industry and Genius, stands in the city’s Centenary Square. The letters point to the sky so you have to lean over it to see them.

Blog Fact: The blog has gone through a number of names and addresses. Originally it was a general blog called ‘More Blogs About Buildings And Food’.

I’m tagging Stef Lewandowski and Todd Nash.