I hear-by outlaw the tiresome term social media. ( thanks )
Tag: Birmingham UK
Podnosh is based in Birmingham in the UK, so often we write about exciting things that are going on near us.
Ending Government "lockdown" on the internet.
Really good clear suggestions from the World Wide Web Consortium on, amongst other stuff, how some basics need to be put in place to allow the web to really play a part in modernising the way we govern ourselves. You can find the whole report “Improving Access to Government through better us of the Web” at this link. Here’s an extract:
How Can Participation and Engagement Be Achieved?
Access of Public Servants to Web Sites that Citizens Are Using
Public servants need to be given access to the Web sites that citizens are using in order for them to be able to engage. The “lock-down” culture that exists in many government IT departments often restricts access to the more interactive Web sites for security reasons. This badly hampers the effective engagement with online communities by public servants.
Clear and Simple Rules for Public Servants
Governments need to set clear and simple rules for public servants to follow so they can be confident about engaging online without risking their career.
Training, Support and Cultural Change
There needs to be training and support for public servants in the use of appropriate tools and techniques to use the web to engage, particularly for the development of public policy. Engaging with online communities over the development of public policy will involve significant culture change in government. To achieve it will require clear leadership at senior levels. As the use of the web for engagement is so new in government there are few people with both the practical knowledge and the seniority and experience to provide this leadership.
Allow Comments on Policy Documents
Policy documents need to be presented in formats which allows for comment and discussion in a granular way. Fragments within such documents need to be directly addressable. In consultation documents for example, the relationship between the questions for discussion and the proposals to which those questions refer need to be made explicit. The RDFa [RDFA-PRIMER] based ArgotConsultation [ARGOTC] which was developed for the UK government is an example of the type of technology required for publishing consultation documents in ways that enable engagement.
A digital King Cnut?
Interesting to see that even the government recognises that attempts to control copyright infringment on the net may soon turn out to be a waste of time. That’s not going to stop them trying though.
In the new paper (pdf here) on a future Digital Rights Agency, there is a plan to introduce legislation to ensure that Internet Service Providers can and do have folk for peer to peer and free downloads of copyright material.
Our vision is for the legislation proposed and the rights agency to form an
integrated approach to content online, and we need to ensure that taken
together they create an environment where investment in creativity online is
rewarded, and deliver a practical solution to online infringement. This would
provide a comprehensive framework that helps legitimate and attractive digital
content to flourish while ensuring it is not fatally undermined by people taking
creative products for free and without permission, either through peer-to-peer
file-sharing or other threats that may emerge in the future.We have set out here a model which allows industry to keep control of how
this environment is created. This model depends on a strong rights agency
that can and does require specific actions of its members. We do not wish to
be more prescriptive in legislation – that would not be the best outcome for
anyone – including rights holders. We recognise that we would run a real risk
of legislating to require specific actions that may turn out in practice to be
ineffective and to address only the short term problems, without the ability to
flex to deal with new situations as they arise. However, if we are not
convinced that industry is willing or able to deliver an effective rights agency
we will need to think about alternative ways to approach the issue.
On top of that the government has no desire to act as a regulator. Instead those who have most at stake in control will be asked to create the rights agency.
we are inviting industry to come together to create a body that could tackle those parts of this agenda that are for industry to deal with. In pursuit of that we are happy to work with industry as a convener and a facilitator in this process.
The problem with this approach is that it risks handing too much control of what we do on the internet to large businesses, which will presumably seek to further control us as an audience. That in turn is likely to stifle the open-ess that makes the web a powerful tool for innovation.
Make a film for the big city plan.
I’ve just received an e-mail from Richard Rees at the city council encouraging me to mention the digital challenge which the council is throwing out for anyone who wants to contribute more to the big city plan process. Thanks for prompting me to do this, I meant to write something when the competition launched last month.
The council want you to use video or still photography to express your opinions about the plan. You can win a flip camera. It’s a great idea and I would encourage you to use any combination of video, still and or audio to show what you want changing in the city centre. How about a two minute world wind tour of your neighbourhood?
Sadly I can’t enter because the rules appear to prohibit people who are professional image makers from doing so.
If you want to take photos or make a short film then the closing date is April 20th and the rules are here. If you want to read the big city plan (work in progress) as the council expresses it please go here, if you would also like to look at a plainer English version please go here.
Some of you may know I took part in creating a plain English translation of the plan for the bigcitytalk site. It was mentioned as an example of the future of consultation (link to mentions of Birmingham) in the Cabinet Office sponsored Power of Information Report:
The original Power of Information report was one of the first to be re-worked and presented on CommentOnThis as an experiment. CommentOnThis was an early innovator in reworking government consultation documents online so that they can be used more easily. More recently a team of civic bloggers in Birmingham has translated and re-purposed Birmingham’s ‘Big City Plan’ on the web in Big City Plan Talk.
These technical developments could improve the effectiveness of policy development in consultation, but will require new skills amongst policy makers and communicators. A plan for supporting the change needed in policy development skills should be developed by Government Skills by end 2009, with a concomitant training plan from the National School for Government.
The big city talk site saw a conversation emerge involving 274 comments. Not sure how those comments have accounted for in the consultation report itself. The council tells us:
All attributable comments submitted to date have now been processed on our consultation database and are visible to all. As of 4 March, a total of 1,864 comments from a total of 273 contributors have been logged as follows:
Directly into the consultation portal: 719
Via e-mail: 679
Post 409
Other 57
I’m imagining big city talk would best be covered by other? What do you think?