Creating Community Conversations - Gallomanor

Code of recommended practice on local authority publicity - A consultation

It's a fairly important part of the DCLG White Paper Consultation process for CivicSurf. The Code of Practice on Local Authority Publicity has been blamed by many as a major obstacle to helping councillors use blogs. This consultation is a chance to make your views clear on the matter.

I'll be reading this over Christmas and posting some thoughts and responding in the New Year.

[Cross posted from CivicSurf]

"An introduction from Afghanistan" - DFID Blogs go Live

You probably think I’ve got a screw loose to be here, given the bad news you constantly receive about southern Afghanistan.  But I think I’ve got the best job in DFID.  I hope I can explain why – all the ups as well as the inevitable downs – through this blog.  And I hope I can shed a little light on a life that I suppose is unusual by any standards.

Vicky lives on a military base in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.  She doesn't get out much, so she's started a blog to talk about the work she does there for DFID, the Department for International Development.

Vicky is one of five bloggers we've been coaching in the art of effective blogging.  Emily Poskett is a Statistics Advisor in Tanzania and Howard Taylor is Head of DFID in Ethiopia.  There are a couple more in the sidelines who'll hopefully be up and running very shortly.

We're very lucky in that our blogging volunteers are superb writers with extremely interesting lives and situations with enormous scope for great photography.  They are going to provide a fine insight into the work that DFID do and the effect they have on the people of the countries in which and with which they work.

The coaching programme has had its challenges. As you can imagine the budget to fly us to Tanzania was not made available, so coaching is happening online is the same manner as we did with CivicSurf.  The DFID bloggers are in full-time positions working seven days a week and in time zones and work patterns that don't necessarily coincide with our 9 - 5 UK life.  Thankfully Griff Wigley, who has been leading the coaching, works flexible hours.

The site was built by Simon Dickson from Puffbox and it looks and functions fantastically.  He's pushed WordPress beyond existing boundaries and included a very simple to update Google map which allows you to zoom in on the fertile valley within which Laskar Gah is sited and see the contrast with the desert all around.

So please pay a visit and leave a comment and subscribe to the RSS feeds.

What to post on Blog Action Day

It's Blog Action Day on Wednesday 15th.  The topic this year is Poverty.  I've posted some advice for blogging councillors over at CivicSurf to help spark some ideas for blog posts on the day.

Civic Blogging - What's the point?

E-Government Bulletin from Headstar have published a short feature article I wrote based on the experiences of the CivicSurf project.

Gold Medal Winning Public Sector Blogger

Peter Reed rowed his heart out with his other three crewmates this morning to win Olympic Gold in Beijing.  Less well known about him is that he is a blogger and contributes to the also fasirly unknown JackSpeak set of blogs published by the Royal Navy.

Well done, Peter, Steve, Andy and Tom. And Chris, Bradley, Jason, Jamie, Rebecca, Nicole, those who won other medals and those who simply achieved their dream of competing at the Olympics.  Well done.

Send me your stereotypes - YouTube

OK, we can't have her celebrity or looks but hats off to Queen Rania of Jordan who has been running an interesting YouTube project for the last few months.

Back in April she posted a video on the Queen Rania channel asking for people to post questions about the stereotypes YouTubers have of the Arab World and for other YouTubers to help breakdown those stereotypes.

It's interesting because although her initial video is ever so nicely shot in black and white with soft backlighting she hasn't steered away from controversial topics.  Her latest post covers an Arab wedding that was bombed by terrorists.  The comments on the videos are numerous and that initial post has 81 video responses.

Along with some other examples such as RhymingWithOranges it demonstrates that YouTube is not just a place to host video you embed in your site.  It is a social network in itself.  Comments get left, and get rated.  Videos get responded to by video and commented upon themselves.  Word gets passed around. 

In comparison the very impressive No.10 Downing Street site has nearly as many subscribers and lots more videos, but the individual films get far fewer views and comments and I can't find any video responses to the No.10 films.  Downing Street seems to be using the site as a broadcast tool as opposed to a networking tool.  I can understand the hesitancy to network but wonder if they are missing out.

Guide to using Social Media - only one page

The Cabinet Office released "Participation online Guidance for civil servants" today.  It has been some time in gestation but the really good news is that it is only one page long.  In fact the guidance has been boiled down to 5 main points and a paragraph on how it relates to the Civil Service Code.

In summary,

1. Be credible
2. Be consistent
3. Be responsive
4. Be integrated
5. Be a civil servant

The Power of Information Taskforce (don't ask who they might be) is looking for feedback.  I hope they pick it up from here. 

It is good.

Lords of the blog - V Natural

I've been following the Lord (Clive) Soley instigated group blog for a few days now and despite the awful design, name, and technical set-up it is working well at the moment.  In my opinion it is because the blogging Lords are writing in a very natural language.

Of the nine participating peers only two were previously MPs and perhaps this helps contrast them against my particular perception of the House of Lords.  And, since one of their stated aims is to change the image of the Upper House, they are succeeding.

Congratulations, Lords, keep going, but please do ask someone to do some work on the design and techie side - you'd have thought a title for the RSS feed would be right up your street.  Boom boom.

OpenSkies - a high profile project blog

When we start a new project we also start a blog.  I'm a Scientist has started. Cllr2.0 has been going a little longer.  It is good practice.  It helps us market the project, it helps us communicate with a wider group of stakeholders and it helps us define what we are doing.

BA has just started a new project and blog.  I'm very impressed.  The project is a new airline, OpenSkies, to launch in June, that will cross the Atlantic missing out London.  The MD, Dale Moss, is writing the blog for the same reasons as we do.  He is marketing the airline (research and promotion), communicating with stakeholders (there is much on staff recruitment) and he is using it to fine tune the airline.  Neville Hobson analyses OpenSkies in more depth.

His first post has already attracted 91 comments and I bet he is glad he is able to finally talk about it.  When I was involved on the launch of Computeractive magazine we were hidden away on the top floor of the building not allowed to speak to anyone outside the room about what we were doing for nine months.  It was murder to be so secret but great to finally launch.

and now a number 36!

Shane Richmond from the Telegraph is hosting another Open House event and this time focussing on Political Blogging.  In the interest of the Cllr2.0 project, Andrew and I are going along to take the pulse and add a ha'penny.

(hat-tip to Simon Dickson for highlighting it)