Creating Community Conversations - Gallomanor

Virtual Worlds & Councils

There has been some conversation about what role a virtual world such as Second Life should play in a council's engagement strategy.

I'm a sceptic myself.  You need to download and install special software, you need a beefed-up computer, the controls are far from intuitive, and the sight of clothed cats and semi-naked people is somewhat off-putting for serious use.

Still in the IDeA Community of Practice for Social Media there are some fans.  Top comment thought came from Justin Kerr Stevens of extended reach:

Personally, I'd prefer to see my local council in virtual world more akin to world of warcraft... I think I'd be able to make a few more salient points that way.

As you can imagine World of Warcraft is more about disengaging limbs from citizens than engaging citizens with democracy.  I suspect Justin is among the majority.

Listen Up

Jeremy Gould, the Whitehall Webby, has posted Part Two of his Six Approaches for Social Media Adoption in Govt. - Listening.

It is a critical and oft overlooked aspect of using Social Media.  The inclination is that because the tools are so easy to set up and use, we can just get out there and communicate.  It was the first mistake we made on the CivicSurf project.  We got the Cllrs up and blogging as quickly as we could without stopping and telling them to look around and read what is already going on.

We've recently experimented with Netvibes as a way of setting up dashboards, but found them a little limiting.  So we're developing something a little more attuned to our needs.  More news soon.

The other aspect of listening is that it does take time.  Finding and setting up RSS feeds probably comes naturally to those of you reading this in Google Reader, but converting email alerts and updated static pages into RSS feeds is a little trickier, but the biggest barrier to many is that they don't have the time.   Imagine you're in Cambridge.  A Google Blog search throws up some Cambridge, UK items, but also a fair bit of Cambridge, MA, and even Cambridge, ON.  People who aren't attuned to reading RSS feeds can benefit from some editorialisation and fine-tuning of feeds.

So, Jeremy's right more listening is needed and we need to make it easier to listen.  As the trail-blazing Steph Gray says in comments we do need to accept a noise-to-signal ratio we should try to reduce it.  He also points out that listening hasn't had the best take-up in his department and that is understandable.  It isn't that exciting unless you can actually start shouting about what you are reading.

Show us a better way, says UK Govt

Plain English, £20,000 prize fund for development, minimal rules, transparency.  Surely this can't be government?  But it is.

The Power of Information Task Force has launched a competition to get good ideas from the public on how best to reuse public information.

Brilliant.  Well Done.  Click on the button and go.

Sidewalks for Democracy Online

Steven Clift has written an essay outlining his wish-list for redesigning online democracy.

The central idea is:

"The typical e-government experience is like walking into a barren room with a small glass window, a singular experience to the exclusion of other community members.”

I agree.  You're looking at something online and you don't know if you're alone in seeing it, if you're alone in your view of it's impact, you're alone when you want to talk to someone about it.

Steven proposes that government website pages should have "limited public forums" so that people can meet on the "sidewalk" and discuss what they've be reading/doing.  Why not ensure that every page has a comments feature?  Make registration a requirement to help weed out the abuse, but let people talk about their government together.

It's a great idea that needs a cultural change in government.  Let's start with DirectGov.  Shouldn't be a problem.

Conference Live Blogging

David Wilcox and I walked down the Embankment last summer and talked about his idea for social reporting.  This spring it has gathered some momentum and today he and Dave Briggs are at the Digital Inclusion Conference at the Brewery in London.

They have created a site to provide some coverage of the event.  At the moment it consists mostly of videos recorded by David and uploaded by Dave.

You get some sense of what the event is like and does serve a purpose. For example David tries on a glove designed to replicate what it is like to be an arthritis sufferer.  It's good to see new stuff.  Kevin Carey gives an interesting view on digital inclusion and bemoans the focus on PCs rather than phones.

BUT, there are too many talking heads; there is no live feed although Public-i were webcasting apparently; and the live blogging aspect isn't really there.  Come on Dave's let's hear something about the conference.  What's the purpose?  Who is buzzing?  Was it worth paying £295 to attend (not very inclusive - VAT was extra)?  What have you learnt today? 

"ICELE - What is it for?"

Professor Stephen Coleman is getting into his blogging. Yesterday he questioned the role of ICELE and the comments section has hotted up awaiting the arrival of someone to represent ICELE.

Professor Coleman feels that ICELE has produced very little (and the little they have produced seems to be quite well hidden) despite being well-funded.  There didn't seem to be much defence of ICELE in the comments so I jumped in to point the finger at the conditions under which they were created and the role that VOICE had to play in diverting resources and focus from general e-democracy research and promotion.

No 10 Twitters and Flickrs into life

Having recently dipped my toe into the TwitterWorld (or whatever it is called) my attention (h/t Simon Dickson) was drawn to the new Twitttering from no.10 who then today drew my attention to their new Flickr account.

Personally I'm not sure about Twitter.  I think it is because it is so new that established norms for using it haven't developed.  Some people use it instead of IM, others for press releases, and some for getting information out and in v quickly.  Some are witty, some are dry.  However it is undeniably very 2008 and so it's good to see Downing Street start to use it even if it is only for publicising their RSS feeds for now.  I'm sure it will develop.

Also they have finally started to use Flickr, but I'm not sure why.  It's not as though they have a problem with photo hosting and since they have posted the pictures with all rights reserved they're not exactly doing the sharing bit.  Surely posting under a creative commons licence that allowed ordinary folk to use the pictures would have been better?

Guide to Social Media for Organisations

Colin McKay, a Canadian Government communicator and blogger and social media pioneer extraordinaire, has written The Secret Underground Guide to Social Media for Organisations.  It is not a technical guide.  More a cultural, managerial guide to avoid the roadblocks set by IT and legal departments.  Colin has blogged about it himself.

At 23 pages it is a quick and enjoyable read.

[cross posted from cllr2pointzero.wordpress.com]

Blogging Permanent Secretary

Big Kudos to Ideal Government who are hosting Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom GCMG KCVO, the first blogging Permanent Secretary in the UK.

Sir Bonar, perhaps stuck a little in a Civil Service mentality of talking to us, uses his first post to reflect on the "famous talk I always give to fresh young high-fliers when they arrive in the Office is based around what I call the six C’s."  In future I'm sure we will see more insight into the work of a Permanent Secretary.

Sir Bonar - welcome to the blogosphere.

Cameron: data standards to revitalise local politics

David Cameron is often accused of being full of hot air and lacking real policies.  All the more surprising that the majority of his speech to Conservative Councillors Association last week was devoted to the subject of data standards.

He told the councillors that their councils should be publishing data using common standards so that the public and other groups can re-use the data to compare councils and provide services.

Simon Dickson is sceptical about the task involved, but Cameron acknowledges that it is a long-term project.  I'm sure some others in local Govt IT web might have a thought or two.