Attending my first TeaCamp for aaaaaages yesterday, I had the surprise pleasure of bumping into Paul Canning, everyone’s favourite eGov firebrand. Paul was buzzing about the recent Public Sector Forums meetup, which featured plenty of Better Connected related dust-ups, but also some more positive stuff around the developing [deep breath] Public Sector Web Managers’ Group.
The aim of PSWMG – which Paul is keen to rebrand as Public Sector Webbies – is to provide a voice for those people working in public service on web related stuff but who aren’t IT, Communications, Marketing or any of those roles which are already well represented. Many of those working with the web these days actually have jobs which incorporate all of the above, then some more. The trouble is, no one knows who the webbies are, what they do, or what they know about and so they don’t often include them in discussions that they could have a really positive impact on.
So, we all had a bit of a chat about it over a cup of tea or two yesterday, and it sounds like things are going to start moving soon, based on the foundations already set by Dan Champion and others. Let’s hope that the decision makers take notice.
dave – office is hysterics over here. firebrand? lil’ moi?