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Category: Public Sector

Connect to survive? The implications of the digital divide

Connect to survive? The implications of the digital divide

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I’ve posted a presentation to Slideshare that I gave last month as a keynote presentation for an audience primarily made up of local government staff. The presentation illustrates the growing velocity and volume of on-line connections being created in the wake of Web 2.0 and the prevalent demographics of those considered to be ‘connected’ and those who are not. I was trying to raise the awareness of the audience that being part of the on-line digital community (and in particular…

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What has Web 2.0 ever done for us?

What has Web 2.0 ever done for us?

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The following is an abstract from an item I produced for the IDeA in response to a media query about the impact of Web 2.0 on Local Government. What is Web 2.0? The term ‘Web 2.0′ was officially coined in 2004 by Dale Dougherty, a vice-president of O’Reilly Media Inc. The term was intended to capture the feeling that despite the dot-com boom and subsequent bust, the Web was ‘more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping…

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International e-Participation Symposium

International e-Participation Symposium

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The Empowering Citizens Through Technology and Participation Symposium has posted a couple of webcasts of the two-day event. I was presenting on the first day on the topic of building communities in the local government sector, using metaphors to describe how village communities developed around meeting places such as the village hall in by-gone years, and how communities of practice can flourish once a domain of interest is established (I used the Gosport Allotment Holders association as a contemporary example,…

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International ePaticipation and Local Democracy Symposium

International ePaticipation and Local Democracy Symposium

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I will be attending (and presenting) at the International eParticipation and Local Democracy Symposium on 28/29 February. I will be joining Diane Downey (Assistant Corporate Head of ICT – Delivery, Sunderland City Council), Richard Wilson (MD of Involve) and Matt Rhodes (Head of Research, FreshNetworks) in a joint session entitled “Citizen Empowerment: Where do we begin?” Full agenda here Symposium Agenda.  I’m anticipating (nay – hoping) the session will stimulate some discussion on the apparent dichotomy between empowering citizens to…

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100 Banned Words – again!

100 Banned Words – again!

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For anyone who may have missed my earlier blog – published 12 December 2007 – about the Local Government Association’s publication of 100 words that public bodies should not use if they want to communicate effectively with citizens – well, it seems this has sparked some heated debate (and vitriol) from readers of the IDeA site that carried the original article. The LGA’s list of the tope 100 ‘non-words’ included tortuous vocabulary such ‘capacity building’, ‘improvement levers’, ‘place shaping’, and…

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100 Banned Words

100 Banned Words

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Oops, missed this event in my ‘Days That Change The World’ diary, but apparently it was National Plain English Day yesterday, 11 December 2007. To mark the occasion, the Local Government Association (LGA) published a list of 100 words that public bodies should not use if they want to communicate effectively with local people. Local government leaders say that unless councils talk to residents in a language that they can understand, then the work they do becomes inaccessible and reduces…

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HMRC loses personal details for 25million people

HMRC loses personal details for 25million people

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So, we wake up today to the news that our favorite government agency – Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has been responsible for the loss of personal data for 25 million people. The data included names, addresses, bank details, national insurance numbers etc., so possibly of mild interest to the criminal fraternity out there. What I can’t get my head around is why the Government spends so much time, effort and money on developing standards such as e-GIF, which…

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Communities of Practice in Local Government

Communities of Practice in Local Government

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The Community of Practice platform at the Improvement and Development Agency is an integrated set of Web 2.0 tools that is being used to support and facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing across local government communities. I produced the specification for the platform early in 2006, and the platform was launched in September 2006. I was encouraged by a recent news item on how the strategy continues to flourish, with the following quote from Marilyn Leask, the IDeA’s Head of Knowledge…

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Online Community Organizer

Online Community Organizer

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Reading Seth Godin’s blog this morning I came across what was a very relevant item for me, about jobs for the future – the Online Community Organizer. The proximity of Seth’s description of this role with the position I’ve identified and am currntly recruiting for the Information Authority couldn’t be closer. I trust Seth will not mind me replicating the post here: "If you want to hire a union organizer, you probably know what to look for. Someone with resilience,…

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Job vacancies at The Information Authority

Job vacancies at The Information Authority

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I thought I should make the most of this blog to publicise a number of job vacancies that will be advertised in the Guardian this coming week. The positions have been created as part of the strategy I’m developing for the Information Authority Secretariat. The Information Authority has been established as an independent body to set and regulate data collection and reporting standards for all organisations involved in further education and training in England and Wales. A key component of…

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