An online notebook
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An online notebook
A lot of people are unwilling to innovate online because they’re worried it’ll go badly. After all, there’s a story every week in the media about someone ballsing up online in one way or another. It strikes me, from only…
But certainly not any predictions! In the space in which Kind of Digital operates – which means largely working with public sector people in helping them innovate in the way they engage with citizens and communities using technology – I…
Reading some of the coverage of Instagram's change in their terms of service, you'd have thought a murder had been committed. Or maybe that the world was about to end.
A few years down what might once have been called the Web 2.0 road, well funded companies are finding that they have built their networks, grown their user bases, and now shareholders are looking for some return on their investment. We should not, therefore, be surprised that the rules are changing, that the digital ground we've been standing on is shifting beneath our feet.
Google+ is an interesting - if quiet - place. It's not used by very many people, which is a shame, as the interface is rather nice and it features some really cool bits of technology.
Hangouts, for instance, are fantastic - on demand video conferencing which integrates neatly with Google's other services likes Docs and so on.
However, because so few people are active there, it does feel a bit empty at times. When asked if organisations should use it as a space for engagement, I tend to say no - as time would be better spent working with the much larger existing communities on Twitter and Facebook.
I spent an interesting morning at the Online Information conference on Tuesday - ably chaired by my pal Steve Dale - and the session I enjoyed most was about implementing collaborative technology in organisations - one example was from a big media and communications provider, the other a government department.
Click through to see some of the thoughts that the session inspired me to write down…
A little while ago, Paul Coxon wrote a blog post querying the long term viability of unconferences in the public sector. I didn’t respond, because I felt I couldn’t do so without sounding defensive and chippy. This evening, the weekly…
Social learning is a really interesting concept. It's basically the idea that we can often learn better from each other rather than from an expert or teacher.
There's an obvious usage for the internet and the kind of social tools I write about here in social learning, and an additional argument in favour of making them available within organisations.
At the weekend I got my copy of Rich Millington‘s new book, Buzzing Communities, through the post. It’s excellent and provides everything you need to know about building successful online communities. Thinking seriously about community building is something that I think…
I do a fair bit of training on digital engagement to public sector bodies up and down the country and most of the time it means very different things to very different people.
To some, it means running a corporate Twitter account or Facebook page - which, of course, it does.
To others it means teams delivering services making use of digital tools to engage with service users, to improve the quality of the service being provided - which, of course, it does.
To another group, it means bringing social technology into the organisation, to improve the way people work, learn and generally get stuff done - which, of course, it does.
Then there are those to whom it means an approach to consultation on a particular decision, policy, campaign or project - which, of course, it does.
So all of these things, and a fair few others as well, are a part of what digital engagement means. Often the trouble is that they aren't always considered by those looking to implement digital engagement.
Lloyd Davis has a thoughtful post on his blog about all the content he has been putting online for the last decade and a half:
I want to take stock and put it all in some order. It’s one of those things that really needs doing. I think I know pretty much what I’m doing here now – there’s writey stuff, there’s visual stuff and there’s audio stuff and sometimes it all gets mixed up but that’s about the size of it…
I hate the way that these are all differently integrated – ideally, I mean in that ideal world where I had a team of people to sort this out for me, I’d have everything also hosted independently and from today I’d not be using any of these services as the primary channel/home for anything.
I think Lloyd is right to be concerned - as he sees value in his content he wants to ensure he has some control, or ownership over it.