Wednesday, 5 August, 2009

Local Gov is self organising

As much as I enjoyed being involved in organising LocalGovCamp, when emails started to be sent to the group asking when the next one was, I was quick to distance myself from it. These things can take up a lot of time, and the reward is rarely financial.

I’d mentioned at the event in Birmingham that one way forward might be for regional events to be run by groups of councils together. This idea has been taken up with some gusto by several local authorities and their friends, and some remarkable things are now starting to happen.

Stephen Hilton at Bristol was the first to step up and start getting an event going for that area, with the help of Shane McCracken at Gallomanor.

The second follow-up event to start being organised will be for London authorities, and there seems to be a real desire in the capital to run this sort of get together.

Second, Andrew Beekan at Lincoln City Council is working with the University in the city to host an event there.

Thirdly, Jon Hyde at Cheltenham Borough Council is organising an event in his neck of the woods, but with a particular focus, on project management within local authorities.

Last but not remotely least, last week Ken Eastwood at Barnsley announced an event for Yorkshire and the Humber, to be organised along with Kevin Campbell-Wright at JISC. This event will also have a subject focus, that being remote working and the issues around that – a vital topic in the current climate of reduced budgets for local government, as well as the need to reduce carbon footprints.

The are two really interesting things here I think.

  1. Firstly, the new tools are being used to bring people together around these events. Twitter, WordPress and Ning, as well as more traditional tech like Google Groups, are being used to make it easy for local gov folk to self organise. It’s Here Comes Everybody, innit.
  2. Also, there is a massive industry around providing events to local government. They are generally pretty pricey and need teams of events managers to get them going. Or do they? It’s now being shown that local government can organise its own events, on whatever subject matter they choose. There is the potential here for some real disruption in the industry of local gov events, and I would argue that anyone who makes a living out of this needs to pay attention to what is starting to happen.

So, if there is a LocalGovCamp event happening anywhere near you, make sure you get along. And if there isn’t, JFDI and organise it yourself. You simply don’t need to wait for anyone else anymore.

PermalinkLocal Gov is self organising

Monday, 3 August, 2009

Guest post on DavePress

Things have been a little quiet on this blog of late – being on holiday didn’t help – but I guess I have just been rather busy doing stuff and haven’t had the chance to blog nearly as much as I would like.

So, I thought I would open the doors to the odd guest post from DavePress readers. I already have one ready to go later this week, but would like some more.

So, if you’d like to throw something together, along the lines of digital engagement and the public sector, do get in touch and we can see about getting it published. You’ll get the chance to be read by quite a few people in and around .gov.uk and beyond, so it might be a good opportunity to get some of your ideas in front of some new people.

I’ll give it a go for a few weeks – maybe one guest post a week? – and see if people find it useful.

PermalinkGuest post on DavePress

Sunday, 26 July, 2009

Bookmarks for July 11th through July 26th

Stuff I have bookmarked for July 11th through July 26th:

PermalinkBookmarks for July 11th through July 26th

Monday, 13 July, 2009

WP Sauce

I threw this together this morning, it’s called WP Sauce:

WP Sauce

It simply pulls together the stuff people are bookmarking in Delicious about WordPress.

I have added pretty much zero value to this, however, all the hard work was done by Steph and released by his department for folk to use. The script is called Bookmarklist.

The best way to use the site is to dig down in the results with the tag cloud in the top right of the screen. So, if it is WordPress themes you are after, just click themes in the tag cloud. Likewise with plugins, or maybe tutorial.

Hopefully this will be a useful resource, not least because it will keep itself updated more or less automatically. After all, no-one’s going to stop bookmarking WordPress stuff for a while, are they?

PermalinkWP Sauce

Saturday, 11 July, 2009

Saturday, 4 July, 2009

Bookmarks for June 3rd through July 4th

Stuff I have bookmarked for June 3rd through July 4th:

PermalinkBookmarks for June 3rd through July 4th

Developing a community game

Social media game

I have run the social media game many times now, and it always turns out differently and is always rewarding, and interesting.

Basically, it is learning and FUN!

Here is a PDF of the cards I used, which I put together about a year ago for the 2gether08 conference. It’s based on the original by David Wilcox and friends, which has subsequently been developed in a different direction into the Social by Social game.

I’ve been involved in building and managing online communities for a while now, and it looks like I’m going to be doing even more in the near future (more on that later). To help refine my own thinking, and as an aid in planning online community work, I’m putting together a version of the game specific to to community building.

The game will work as normal, with teams asked to produce ideas around projects or problems which an online community could help solve. Then, in this version, the teams use three sets of cards to develop a strategy for what that community needs to work effectively. The sets of cards are technology, roles and activity.

Here are the cards I have thought of, under each category. Have I missed anything obvious? Anything you would change?

1. Technology

Hopefully these are self explanatory:

  • Blogs
  • Forums
  • Profiles
  • Status updates
  • Wikis
  • RSS feeds in
  • RSS feeds out
  • Embedable media
  • Polls and surveys
  • Email alerts
  • Respond by email
  • Email newsletters
  • Groups
  • Event listings
  • Document sharing
  • Social bookmarking
  • Chat
  • Third Party Applications
  • Public and private spaces

2. Roles

Note – these are my definitions for the purpose of this game. You might not necessarily agree with how I describe certain roles – let me know in the comments if you would call them something different!

  • Community manager – overall responsibility for success of the community
  • Community cultivator – helps to develop conversations and use of the community
  • Digital curator – finds good content on the community and elsewhere, and brings it to members’ attention
  • Social reporter – creates content around the subject of the community, whether text, images, video or audio
  • Community evangelist – someone to promote the community and encourage new members to sign up
  • Moderator – ensuring content is appropriate for the community, works with members to ensure conversation stays on track
  • Technology steward – helps manage the tech side of the community, provides help and support on how to use the features available, plans for future development
  • Domain expert – someone with a deep knowledge of the subject matter of the community
  • Facilitator – someone with a wide range of skills who can support the community by providing a little of all the other roles

3. Activities

These are a touch verbose right now, and will need to be a bit more succinct to fit on the cards!

  • Plan community activity in advance
  • Identify existing communities (online and offline)
  • Identify enthusiastic potential members
  • Identify relevant websites to promote community
  • Promote community through social networking sites
  • Run hotseats
  • Seed content and discussions
  • Run online conferences
  • Develop user guidelines and policies
  • Communicate with members and potential members using backchannels

It would be awesome to get feedback on these ideas before I set @davebriggswife to work with the laminator!

PermalinkDeveloping a community game

Thursday, 2 July, 2009

#GoogleLocalGov

Google UK

Do you work in local government?

Are you free on 7th August?

Fancy popping down to Victoria in London to visit the Google offices?

Oh, and get to hear from the real experts about how to make the most of Google services, whether search, analytics, maps, advertising, widgetising content, and more?

For the princely sum of, er, nothing?

Then you’re in luck.

Pencil that date in your diary. Keep an eye on #googlelocalgov on Twitter. More information will be released as it is confirmed.

This will be a ticketed event, and it will be first-come-first-served when it comes to places. You can’t afford to miss this one!

Permalink#GoogleLocalGov

Tuesday, 30 June, 2009

Evaluating online engagement

I’ve mentioned before that we all really need to start evaluating the online engagement stuff we’re all doing. Alice Casey‘s presentation provides some great pointers for where to start and what to consider:

My main argument was that a good evaluation tells a compelling story through combining qualitative and quantitative information in a clear format to key decision makers and practitioners.

PermalinkEvaluating online engagement

Monday, 29 June, 2009