Scrutinising scrutiny
I’ve just spent the larger part of my day reading about the scrutiny processes of local councils. Of course, this is the sort of thing I do for fun, but there was a serious purpose at hand. As part of my MA in online journalism, but also as part of my work at Podnosh I’ll be looking at how the web can be used to improve scrutiny processes in local government.
How are you going to start?
There’s a lot to do, but I’ve started by trying to answer a simple question for myself: What is scrutiny? That’s what all the reading is about. As someone who worked as the local government correspondent for a pretty decent local newspaper, I should have a fairly strong knowledge of this, but if I’m being honest I don’t. And if I don’t know then I imagine I’m not alone.
Shut up and tell me what scrutiny is Scrutiny – means ‘to search’ and apparently originally meant to ’sort rubbish’ (hmm… interesting!). In its local government context scrutiny is the business of examining and holding to account the decision-making process. The Local Government Act of 2000, required all councils to make decisions through an executive group of councillors, or cabinet. It also set up an overview and scrutiny process so councillors outside the executive could overview the council’s decisions to ensure they met the requirements of the budget and the council’s policy framework. I learned all that from Wikipedia and the Centre for Public Scrutiny’s Introduction To Scrutiny. Whoppee!
I’m going to be writing about this a lot, so I won’t dawdle, but I already have a few thoughts:
1. Scrutiny’s bloody important, because it goes to the heart of the democratic process. It’s how decision making (what government does) is overseen and checked and everyone should be interested in it, because it’s the crucial bit of democracy: we elect people, they do stuff. We need to know about it.
2. Scrutiny is difficult to understand and it isn’t, well, sexy. Which is weird, given point one.
3. I’ve singularly failed to answer how it can be made better. But it strikes me it might be a bit early for that!
These are my links for February 16th through February 18th:
Experimenting with the online presentation of a Bill « UK Parliament Labs – Last year the House of Commons published the Equality Bill in a trial format. The text of the Equality Bill and its Explanatory Notes was published as one document, with the Bill text and Explanatory Note text interwoven throughout the document.
Digital citizens and democratic engagement – eDemocracy – ‘Citizens do not want the passive, broadcast-only relationship with their MPs that has existed until now, they wish to communicate and engage, to track and contribute to the democratic debate. Higher levels of engagement and wider participation in the democratic process will happen when citizens feel that they are a central part of it. This presents a challenge for Parliament – both for MPs and the House authorities.'
Fantasy CMS for government – "Vendors should be mindful of the power they yield, for as long as they still yield it."
Screen WM – Driving innovation and excellence in screen media : News – "The first project to launch, ‘Jailbrake’ , run in conjunction with Social Innovation Camp aims to find ways to use simple web and mobile tools to help break the cycle of re-offending by the many thousands of young people who get caught up in the criminal justice system each year. The call for ideas is now open and the closing date is 26th February 2010.
Ideas are welcomed from anyone with an interest in this area, whether you are part of a Local Authority, youth offending team, service user or a software developer, designer or funder who can help turn the ideas into live projects."
Let me introduce you to two new blogs about neighbourhoods in Birmingham, both run by public servants
Hands on Handsworth is written by Tracey Thorne – the neighbourhood manager for Handsworth in Birmingham; Be Heard in Birchfield is being nurtured by Yvonne Wager – the neighbourhood manager for that particular part of the city. (Click here to see Tracey’s explanation of neighbourhood management)
Both Yvonne and Tracey are in jobs funded by Be Birmingham – the local strategic partnership. They were inspired to start a neighbourhood blog by their colleague Kate Foley who had been running Life in Lozells – a site set up originally to address the problem of all the bad news you find when googling Lozells. Kate explains in more detail in this video made by the Chamberlain Forum.
What do they do?
They talked to us about helping them develop these sites during the Social Media Surgeries we ran in Lozells last year. Both are built on WordPress with some changes to the back end that make it a little easier to blog and listen to what the web is saying about your neighbourhood. There’s also a simple events system with mapping, plus the sites include a facility to easily turn plans into commentable consultation docs. We also provide a service that ensures the software stays updated, plugins don’t clash etc, plus training and support on using it well.
Tracey is a natural – she really enjoys writing for the site and is on a roll. Yvonne is equally enthusiastic but needs a different sort of support, so it is taking a little longer.
Why Bother
The sites are the neighbourhood managers’ home in a wider web conversation. It’s only fledgling at this stage. The point is that over time they help the neighbourhood managers share information, ask questions, pool expertise and begin to collabroate in new ways with their community. I’m not convinced they should attempt to become THE site for their neighbourhood.
Such an idea concerns me, because if THE site gets switched off or someone begins using it to be self serving that’s a problems for the whole neighbourhood. Instead I’m interested in how we can nurture a range of online resources and voices in a place. These blogs form part of that process – providing a tool that can also help neighbourhood managers link to and encourage the wider conversation.
What do you think?
It will take time and patience for these sites to bed in – but what do you think? Could you encourage them by commenting a post or do you have any advice for Yvonne or Tracey?
These are my links for February 14th through February 15th:
Richard Sambrook: Big Thinker | Big Thinkers – Transparency is the new objectivity
Balance used to be the watchword of the regulated UK news environment
Now that is not enough. Trust is built through transparency.
This can be liberating and it means “showing your workings”- as you did when doing maths at school- and admitting mistakes.
Federal Agency Ideascale Dashboard – Very neat – I especially like the bit which says which departments are short on ideas and could do with a little love. "To satisfy the Open Government Directive agencies are soliciting your ideas on how to make them more transparent, participatory, collaborative and innovative"
Google Buzz: Not fit for purpose – Really detailed post on the many flaws with Google Buzz: "I have enough problems managing my email already, I don’t need Buzz to add to the cognitive load".
These are my links for February 13th through February 14th:
Local council elections in 2010 « LGiU – the local democracy blog – At the BBC I loved organising and doing election coverage. (Genuinely did) This post shows that while the Local Government Information unit was thinking there are 166 local councils holding elections on May 6th the researchers I used to rely on, Rallings and Thrasher reckon there are 176. This can't be a tricky single data source problem to crack!
BBC – The Virtual Revolution Blog: BBC Digital Revolution rushes for you to download and edit – Argued for this in 1999 – great to see it happening. The most embarrassing bits of the rushes (un-edited video) are the ones when the producer reporter is making people do/say what they need them to do. That may well be the stuff left out! "Releasing rushes like this is an experiment, and there are some limitations. We're not releasing all our rushes, for two reasons. Firstly, we have a compliance procedure at the BBC which means that all online video has to be viewed by a senior manager – there's simply too much footage to do this properly. We do estimate that we will be releasing around 5 hours of interview material, featuring 20-30 interviewees, and up to an hour of other content."
Blogging and Facebook for councillors – Councillor Mary Reid offers you the benefit of her experience. She offers top tips on how councillors can make the most of blogs and social network media. (thanks to @pigsonthewing )
PC Ed Rogerson (hotelalpha9) on Twitter – This is one of my favourite bits of the web for the crossover between social media, very local stuff and public service: "Just had a meeting with my Sergeant. I've been instructed to conduct more speed checks in Starbeck and to seize tobacco off children."
These are my links for February 12th through February 13th:
Stop selling scarcity « BuzzMachine – If you are selling a scarcity — an inventory — of any nonphysical goods today, stop, turn around, and start selling value — outcomes — instead.
WEB: So, what makes a good council website? « The Dan Slee Blog – Great piece from Danslee: "You’re in a rush. You’re going swimming. You’ve three minutes to find out when the nearest leisure centre closes… and you’re face with a council website. This could be a pleasant experience and for many it is. But if you’re unlucky you’ll be faced with a sprawling brick wall behemoth of a website written in a funny language riddled with jargon. Oh, Lord. It’s not gritting information, for example. It’s a winter service plan. Your opinion of your council suddenly plummets and you hurl abuse at the screen.
Mark Thomas talks sense about the Digital Economy Bill by Andrew Dubber – "Most people in the world do creative things for no money. The vast majority of music in the world is made for cultural reasons that are not economic. To suggest that the only reason to be creative is with the expectation of payment is utterly offensive."
Welcome to TweetyHall – “TweetyHall is an easy way to find out what the people who represent us in our local communities are up to; for councillors and candidates it’s a simple way to tell people why they should vote for them.”
Digital Inclusion Unconference – defining digital inclusion | We Share Stuff – “I was surprised that we were all pretty much agreed on what we meant by “digital inclusion” — that it was (and this is my wording, worked out now): the confidence to use technology when appropriate, and to know where to get help if neede”
Richard Taylor | Should We Buy Our Councillors iPads? – “I think councillors ought be free to choose the technology which suits them best; be it pen and paper, a laptop, or even a tablet. I would expect councillors to equip themselves with the tools they need for the job out of their allowances, or independently.”
mutuo » Commission on Ownership – “Modelled on the highly influential ‘Commission on Social Justice’ (1992-1994) the objective is for the Commission on Ownership to produce an authoritative report that establishes a new and clear understanding of the influence that ownership has on the governance of our country.The key questions for the Commission are:
• Does ownership matter?
• Does ownership affect fairness in Britain?
• What, if anything should Government do about ownership?”
These are my links for January 27th through February 4th:
Peter Levine: a critique of expertise, part 1 – “Although I acknowledge the value of expertise, we can identify several important general reasons why it is never enough and we always need citizens’ participation to tackle social problems.” Thanks to Paul Evans for spotting this.
These are my links for January 26th through January 27th:
News : NDS – The government will create one secure, resilient and flexible network which will enable every area of government to adapt their ICT to best deliver for the public. Other changes include, for the first time, bringing together Government departments, local government and wider public sector organisations to remove unnecessary overlaps between departments and avoid costly duplication of technology.
Giving activities – Part 2: Professional amateur « Project : Arena – "taking journalism into the gift economy where it’s no longer a simple exchange between producers and consumers, writers and their readership. This new form of journalism is confronting issues familiar to many in volunteerism and others who’ve worked for many years in the gift economy."
Open Government Initiative | The White House – "As part of the Directive, federal agencies have answered the President’s call by democratizing hundreds of high-value datasets on every aspect of government operations. While this is meaningful for the technology community and transparency advocates who have been working on this issue for years, the data released will have direct impact on the daily lives of the American people. Here are three examples to consider:"
http://bournvillevillage.com/?p=622 – Bournville hyperlocal volunteer run news reports like, well er, reporters…."Passions ran high at a packed Rowheath Pavilion on Tuesday evening as experts and residents clashed over the best way to preserve Bournville’s future in the light of the Kraft takeover of Cadbury."
These are my links for January 12th through January 14th:
John Popham’s Random Musings – "I have been quite annoyed by some of the accounts of “heroic” struggles to get to work through the snow, because, it seemed to me, that some of them just weren’t necessary." John on why the web doesn't seem to make it easier for people to work without traveling through snow.
Building the “reusable video” player « Carl’s Notepad – "What i’d like is a player which has the ability to pull content from any source, youtube or vimeo or a traditional video storage platform – I’d also like to add value by providing a feature that allowed me to layer content, questions etc over the top to gain additional benefit from the original content. I’d like to be in a position to reuse our existing video archives and repurpose them, or use other public material from either central government or other local authorities providing the content was reusable”"
Official Google Blog: A new approach to China – "we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties."
