ACAS’ social networking guidance

ACAS – the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, who you’ve probably heard of on news reports about negotiations between employers and unions – have published some guidance for employers on how to manage staff use of these sites at work.

Smart phones, internet, tweeting, blogging – we have accepted all of these innovations, and many more, as part of our working lives, helping us to work more flexibly, stay in touch for longer and respond to each other more quickly.

But is it all good news? Some estimates report that misuse of the internet and social media by workers costs Britain’s economy billions of pounds every year and add that many employers are already grappling with issues like time theft, defamation, cyber bullying, freedom of speech and the invasion of privacy.

So how should employers respond to the challenges posed by social networking tools at work?

New research from the Institute for Employment Studies, commissioned by Acas, advises employers to:

  • draw up a policy on social networking
  • treat ‘electronic behaviour’ in the same way you would treat ‘non-electronic behaviour’
  • react reasonably to issues around social networking by asking ‘what is the likely impact on the organisation?’

Worth checking out.

Starting up DaveMail

I had a go at doing an email newsletter once before – put a signup form here on the blog, got quite a few people to subscribe, and then never got round to sending a single issue. Useless!

Part of my trouble then was that I wasn’t that comfortable with the software. Recently though, for a few projects, I’ve been playing with MailChimp and been dead impressed with it. So, I thought I would have another go.

Click here to sign up for DaveMail, a weekly email newsletter that will feature a fresh article that won’t get published here on the blog, plus a list of great links for anyone wanting the best of the web’s coverage of digital engagement and other technology stuff.

I’ll be publishing every Sunday, so there will hopefully be at least one nice email waiting for you on Monday morning!

Clouds v cartels

Interesting article by the erstwhile US government CIO Vivek Kundra, in the New York Times:

AS the global economy struggles through a slow and painful recovery, governments around the world are wasting billions of dollars on unnecessary information technology. This problem has worsened in recent years because of what I call the “I.T. cartel.” This powerful group of private contractors encourages reliance on inefficient software and hardware that is expensive to acquire and to maintain.

Kundra posits that an increased use of cloud computing as being the answer to this problem. As Andrea DiMaio points out though, that might not quite be the solution, after all…

Let’s take the cloud. Vivek and others have done a lot to move the federal government in that direction. On the other hand, if any significant economies of scale must be achieved, there will be only a handful of suppliers that can provide what is needed. When migrations will accelerate and thousands of workloads, application and data will be in some form of cloud – be it private, government or public – why should cloud suppliers not establish a cartel? What evidence do we have that they really want to pursue interoperability and portability – so that their clients really have choice about where to source their IT services – as opposed to sharing the market as usual?

What I’ve been reading

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to.

You can find all my bookmarks on Pinboard.

Social Media for Emergency Planning & Resilience

A quick plug of this great workshop being delivered through the Public Sector Web Network (about which I will shortly have some very exciting news!).

Social Media for Emergency Planning & Resilience

Thursday 22nd September 2011, Park Plaza Hotel, Leeds

This workshop is aimed at all Category 1 Responders as identified in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 which includes the usual “blue-light” emergency services as well as others:

  • Police forces, including the British Transport Police
  • Fire services
  • Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
  • HM Coastguard
  • Local authorities
  • Port Health Authorities
  • Primary Care Trusts, Acute Trusts, Foundation Trusts (and Welsh equivalents), Health Protection Agency
  • Environment Agency and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency

A category one responder or other organisation planning for major incidents should:

  • have the capacity to process between 3,000-20,000 items of social media traffic per day during the response phase of an emergency *routinely monitor social media for operational data and potentially for triggers for emergency response
  • understand the potential of the global online community in emergency response
  • understand the implications of online culture in managing an emergency.

This workshop will help attendees to not only maximise the benefit of situational intelligence but also manage social media flows robustly and warn and inform the public effectively.

Please contact Nick Hill at nick@publicsectorforums.co.uk to reserve a delegate place!

Workshop Facilitator: Ben Proctor 

Ben has a background in Public Relations, Information Technology and Emergency Planning. In 2008 he saw that emergency response and crisis communications were going to be strongly affected by developments in mobile and online technology so he set up Likeaword to become a centre of expertise in digital skills for emergencies. Ben is based in Shropshire, UK but works across the country with category one responders and other organisations looking to manage their response to emergencies. He works with emergency planning and business continuity professionals as well as with corporate communication specialists.

Agenda

1 Welcome and introduction

2 Check we’re all on the same page

  • quick summary of civil contingency arrangements, the roles and responsibilities of responders and individuals within responders
  • quick round up of social media, related online technology, and relevant mobile technology
  • introduce an emergency scenarios to be explored during the day as a desktop exercise

3 Use of social media for warning and informing the public

Social media offers responders a simple, low cost broadcast medium and many responders have begun to use it in this way

  • case studies of effective uses of the technology
  • discussion on strengths and weaknesses of the technology and the risks inherent in its use including discussion of the implications of power and telecoms failure
  • discussion on how social media for warning and informing can be integrated into emergency plans
  • run desktop exercise to examine how social media for warning and informing could be introduced into management

Lunch

4 Managing feedback in the social media space

Social media allows all individuals and organisations access to the same simple, low-cost broadcast medium. Individuals may ask for clarification, they may challenge or may spread rumours or contrary information.

  • case studies of effective uses of the technology
  • discussion on strengths, weaknesses and risks of various approaches (passive, reactive, proactive)
  • discussion on integration into emergency plans
  • discussion on the training and exercising implications of effective management of feedback
  • re-run desktop exercise with new injects to model social media feedback

5 Working with the online community

Social media and online technology gives responders potential access to a worldwide community of relevant skills. This section will introduce the topic.

  • case studies and examples of interesting and effective community engagement in emergencies (and independet community response)
  • discussion on the implications for responders

6 Wrap up

  • re-cap over the day’s learning
  • opportunity to cover points that may have been missed
  • some suggestions for further reading and discussion

Address:
Park Plaza Hotel
Boar Lane, City Square
Leeds
LS1 5NS
Map and Directions

Start Time: 9:30 am
End Time: 4:30 pm

Price: £200.00 + £40.00 Surcharge

Please contact Nick Hill at nick@publicsectorforums.co.uk to reserve a delegate place!

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