Tag: democracy

15th February 2010

Stuff I've seen February 14th through to February 15th

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.
Council newspapers: Revealed – the people who believe what’s written in them « David Higgerson – David Higgerson chewing over the problem of council publishing things that pass as newspapers "the councillors were praising themselves for the way they dealt with the snow – citing evidence from Lambeth Life. That’s a newspaper run by the council."
The €4 Million Govt website that you never heard of « Damien Mulley – In a single sentence: 4M quid spent, no stats on usage.
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".

9th September 2009

Stuff I've seen September 7th through to September 9th

These are my links for September 7th through September 9th:

DC App Store – Wonderful.
Birmingham Post – News – West Midlands News – Birmingham City Council website goes live at last – The most disappointing comment I have ever read from a council employee: "How many of our residents are actually interested in council meetings?". I am. This from the man behind Birmingham city council's £2.8 million pound website devamp. The person who said it, Glyn Evans, director of business transformation at the council.
Newsquest give power to the public with a set of hyper-local blogs, but have they thought out potential problems with the news model? « How to microblog in high heels – Hanah Waldram reflects on the problems of news organisations wanting to use content from hyper local blogs without thinking through either payment or protection.
Public Strategist » Blog Archive » Innovating innovation – Part 1 – Really useful reflections on innovation in government: "There is little point saying smugly to a hard pressed operational manager that if only they stepped back from the day to day pressures they could switch to a radically better way of doing things. There may well be a radically better way – but the stepping back may be an insuperable obstacle."
Copyright, enforcement and the creative industries: keeping ahead of the game in the 21st Century Economy | Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – Minister David Lammy talking to Americans about copyright: "more than 6 months of consultation showed me the critics are right about one thing. The mechanisms by which copyright operates are too complex. Licensing, rights clearance, getting permission to use works… these are all being challenged by the Internet and consumer expectations."

6th September 2009

Stuff I've seen September 4th through to September 6th

These are my links for September 4th through September 6th:

Google Wave as the future of citizen consultation by Michele Ide-Smith – "At the moment consultation processes in local government are generally still fairly archaic and ‘having your say’ might mean filling out a survey or attending a public meeting, exhibition or focus group."
Why town and parish councils are important #nalcconf09 #localgovweb – Paul Geraghty sticks his neck out – Great piece from Paul: Town and parish council websites should be the aggregators of all local information "Town and parish councils are neither cash-rich nor tech-savvy, so the only way they are they going to be able to swim in these streams is if they can develop and adopt a shared code base, using the SAAS (Software as a service) model to make a tool which – thanks to "place" (location) – unlocks data feeds from around the web."
Are you taking the mick? « Talk About Local – Humour in community activity: "next time you’re met with local plans, politics or problems that would be funny if they weren’t so angering, perhaps just try highlighting the funny. Point out the silly and match it."
Promising Practices in Online Engagement | Public Agenda – "For those who believe that citizens deserve the best possible opportunities to become partners in problem-solving, the public cannot be viewed just as an audience to politics or merely as customers of government. Instead, the public should be treated as a vital resource for effective problem-solving and community-building." via @simonwakeman
What really needs to change? « Co-creating an open declaration on public services 2.0 – Co creating an European e-government manifesto: "the aim of the above is to pull together a clear focused group of ideas that on the one hand, people can identify with (i.e. be able to say: “yes, I support that!”) and on the other, give a clear message to governments and a clear standard against which their response (and actions) can be judged."

22nd June 2009

Derbyshire County Council elections – a social media experiment.

Above is Sarah Lay from Derbyshire County Council talking about her recent experience of using social media to tell the story of the council elections of 4th June 2009. As SOCITM the organisations which represents the folk who run council websites, puts it:

County Councils saw their web traffic double last Friday and Saturday thanks to their provision of a sophisticated online election results service coupled with use of social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds and email alerts.

Sarah describes how the council announced the results straight onto twitter (followers trebled), plus offering an election map and a virtual council chamber. They also used a Facebook fan page (yes 74 people claimed themselves fans of a local election) where people were able to have their own conversation about the results.

In effect they by-passed mainstream media. This system treats journalists just the same as any other citizen, offering us all the same information at the same time and space to talk about it. However this is also good news for journalism, because it allows the professionals to spend increasingly precious time checking for truth and getting to the bottom of the implications of the election, rather than simply shoveling fact.

Sarah has written in much more detail on her own blog. In the first of two posts, on election day itself, she wrote with great passion about preparations:

All of this has been going on for a number of months (not full time) and has been a learning curve and exciting project for this team to get into. For the first time we have had a significant presence internally in promoting and reporting on elections. It’s provided an opportunity for us to raise awareness of our work internally and work with colleagues in other departments to enable everything to happen.
Our results system will hopefully be the jewel in the crown of what we’ve done so far. We won’t know until the dust settles tomorrow and we have some feedback from Derbyshire voters, councillors, other officers and colleagues in the public sector who are kind enough to take the time to have a look.

After the elections she said:

I am still a little emotionally charged from the adrenalin of working at such pressure yesterday and giddy with the joy of how well our team worked together on the day and in the run up. Now we just need to decide what to tackle next!

Simon Wakeman at Medway Council was one of a number of people who gave support and encouragement to Derbyshire and other councils embarking on this path. He has written about how a variety of local authorities used the social web on election night. Also on Sarah’s list of supporters was Al Smith in Newcastle.

All the above was recorded at the truly wonderful localgovcamp, held here at Fazeley Studios in Brum