Bookmarks for January 10th through January 24th

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

You can find all my bookmarks on Delicious. There is also even more stuff on my shared Google Reader page.

You can also see all the videos I think are worth watching at my video scrapbook.

That was the #ukgc11 that was

Govcamp agenda

GovCamp this Saturday was a delight, thanks to the wonderful people who attended, those that helped out, and the good folk at Microsoft who looked after us all so well.

This year there has been so much written online that I don’t know what else I can add! The easiest place to go for content is GovCamp buzz – as well as Twitter, Delicious and Flickr.

Don’t forget to also look at the lovely collection of content that Lloyd Davis (the event’s facilitator in chief) is curating over here.

Helpful, with hooter

All I can think to do is to thank Steph for being such an awesome person to work with on this. His ability to get stuff done, and to understand things which involve numbers and money, meant that, despite the scale of this year’s event, it was no more disorganised than usual.

His willingness for me to take all the limelight to satisfy my cravings for attention is also much appreciated.

Thanks, mate.

Both photos by the magnificent Paul Clarke.

Participation, and participating

Recently I’ve been thinking a fair bit about the ‘participation deficit’ – the fact that too few people are contributing too much to society. It’s what informed my post about my view that we need more councillors.

No even half baked views or ideas yet, I’m afraid, though I’m mulling over whether to have a discussion session about this on Saturday’s GovCamp.

In discussion on Twitter about this, though, Anthony pointed me to an excellent (if lengthy!) slidedeck he has put together which includes stacks of interesting research.

Also relevant is his paper on how better engagement can save money for councils:

Democracy Pays White Paper
It strikes me, collecting these online resources and chatting online with people about issues, that we lack a decent platform to really discuss and collaborate on ideas like this. A sort of mixture between a research tool and a discussion platform.

What does it need?

  • The ability to clip, store and share articles, posts and documents like Evernote
  • The ability to easily share thoughts ideas and arguments blog-style
  • The ability to draw in discussions on other platforms, whether twitter, external blogs etc
  • To be able to comment on any of the above
  • A neat way of browsing through content and examine how it all relates to each other, similar to a mind map or Google’s wonder wheel

Does this already exist? Am not sure it does!

Learning Pool talks Social Care e-learning in Manchester and London

Learning Pool Social Care briefingsIn the run-up to Wednesday’s publication of the health and social care bill David Cameron is discussing his plans to overhaul public services, including the NHS, today.

You can voice your thoughts on Cameron’s plans with other social care professionals by grabbing one of the few places remaining at our free expert-led Social Care briefings taking place in Manchester on 19 January 2011 and London on 20 January 2011.

>> Manchester Social Care Briefing, 19 January – Reserve here

>> London Social Care Briefing , 20 January – Reserve here

With the move towards refreshed Common Induction Standards planned for 10 June 2011 and against the background of ever changing public sector climate, you will learn from industry speakers and see how e-learning can achieve care provision whilst delivering significant efficiency savings.

For the Common Induction Standards, less than five months remain of transition window for social care practitioners to move from the old standards to the new before the old standards are removed.

From the Social Care Institute of Excellence (SCIE), will be Colin Paton who will introduce their work in the area of e-learning with the London delegates and share the results of research SCIE ran with Ipsos MORI into the e-readiness of the social care sector.

Warwickshire County Council’s Carol Judge, an expert on Safeguarding Adults and DoLS, will be discussing the changes that are on the horizon in these areas and also her experience in using e-learning as a way to reach out to GP’s.

Shedding light on social care in the 21st century will be Ophira’s Lyn Meaden. Lyn will be looking at the massive challenges ahead in adult care, from partnership working to efficiencies and how Learning Pool Social Care can help you tackle some of these.

Representing the third sector will be Alzheimer’s Society who will share their experience of the Dementia e-learning module that they worked on in partnership with SCIE. Wrapping up with the event will be an open table discussion when delegates will have the opportunity to ask speakers further about their areas of expertise and network with other delegates.

If you cannot attend Manchester or London, you can request the speakers’ presentations from the briefings here.

Plus, you can visit www.learningpool.com/socialcare to create a free account with your .gov.uk or .nhs.uk email address.  For a demo of  Learning Pool Social Care please email hello@learningpool.com

UKGovcamp: 5 days to go!

The biggest get-together of folk in the UK with an interest in how the public sector uses technology happens on Saturday, just 5 sleeps away. The list here says 204 people are coming, not counting our sponsors and hosts. Gulp. It’s just as well we have a proper grown up in charge of getting us all organised for the opening session.

Here’s a few things you might find useful in the meantime:

  • Stay tuned to the UKGovcamp site and jump into the UKGovcamp 2011 group or follow the #ukgc11 hashtag on Twitter where people are starting to talk about session ideas and more.
  • In terms of logistics: yes, there will be wifi and should be projectors in most rooms. Remember to bring a Mac->VGA adapter if you’re presenting from a MacBook, and people with spare 4-way extension leads are likely to be very popular.
  • The event registration opens from 9.15am, with kickoff at 10am, and will run until around 5pm. The venue again: Microsoft UK Customer Centre, Cardinal Place, 80 Victoria St, SW1E 5JL (that’s the entrance near Pizza Hut, not the one nearest Victoria Station)
  • The day itself will be run on ‘open space’ principles, without a pre-planned agenda etc etc. But given some of the people who’ll be there, we’re keeping one room aside this year as a ‘Demo Room’ with a bit more of a schedule. So for example, if you’d like to see Huddle in action, or kick the tyres of Delib’s CitizenSpace you’ll be able to go along at a predefined time and chat to the team behind those great apps. If you’d like to demo an app, it’s not too late – just drop me a line and we can get you on the running order for that room.
  • For years we’ve banged on about ‘but how do we get this stuff in front of the real decision-makers?’ To an extent, I’ve always tended to feel we should just get on with it for now, and those guys can catch up in their own time. But we’ve got a great bonus opportunity this year to showcase some of the ‘highlights’ from GovCamp to an invited audience of senior IT folk in government, at a smaller, separate follow-up soirée on a weekday evening hosted by Microsoft during February. So keep that in mind if you lead or participate in a great session on Saturday…
  • I’ve put together a quick aggregator for UKGovcamp stuff, and we’re hoping to be able to livestream the main room during the day for people who can’t be there in person. Fingers crossed on that one.

Finally, spare a thought and a click for our tremendous sponsors – 16 so far – who have really stepped it up a gear this year. The great news is that as well as having the normal Govcamp experience with t-shirts, nibbles and all that jazz, we’ve been able to build up a little kitty to keep the Govcamp love going on throughout 2011.Under the auspices of MoreOpen, we’ve been able to help our friends at ShropCamp get off the ground, and we’ve got a thematic Govcamp on email marketing in the public sector on the cards for Spring too thanks to the generous GovDelivery. But there’s more in the pot, so if you find yourself inspired to Govcamp in your part of the country or part of public sector, let us know and we might be able to help get the ball rolling.

Remember, if you now can’t come to UKGovcamp but have a ticket, please let us know and we’ll offer it to someone from the waiting list.

Phew, I think that’s it. See you there!

Doing away with social media officers

Andrea Di Maio reports on the US Defense department doing away with dedicated social media officers:

No more specialized offices, no more social media silos, no more experts or consultants building new strategies. Social media is a tool, amongst many others, for public affairs professional to do their job more effectively and efficiently.

The next step is to realize that every single employee and soldier will end up using social media. Not for fun or as an additional task, but as one of the many tool to do their work.

This makes the point far better than I did recently.

Perhaps there is a role for a dedicated resource getting the use of emerging technology embedded in the working culture of an organisation.

The ultimate goal of anybody doing such a job, however, should be to make themselves unnecessary.

Who Owns My Neighbourhood?

Who Owns My Neighbourhood?

Who Owns My Neighbourhood? is a cool new project from Kirklees Council. Supported by NESTA, according to the blurb it:

…is a service that helps local people take responsibility for the land, buildings and activities where they live and work.

Basically, you bung in a postcode from the Huddersfield area and it plots who owns which bits of land on a map.

The project blog expands on this:

Who Owns My Neighbourhood? aims to give people a starting point for getting things done in their own neighbourhoods. We hope this service will make it easier for people to have conversations about their local area and for us to answer each other’s questions by sharing what we know. We want people to think about what personal responsibility we are each willing to take for the place where we live, and how we might be able to help each other to look after it.

Will be an interesting project to track.

Free social media seminar for public services in Edinburgh!

Learning Pool is delighted to be running a unique free event in association with the Scottish Improvement Service for those working in public services in Scotland who want to get the most from the social web.

This highly interactive session, facilitated by yours truly and my partner in crime Breda Doherty, will provide delegates with everything they need to get started with social media and to ensure they have a strategy for success.

The seminar will be hosted at COSLA’s offices in Edinburgh on Wednesday 2nd February – you can find out more details and book your place online on the Learning Pool website.

The session will cover the following topics with a mixture of engaging presentation and practical exercises:

  • Why social media matters
  • Designing your strategy
  • The social media toolkit
  • Governance and risk
  • Making your strategy work

We look forward to seeing you there!

We need more councillors, not less

The MJ reports on Buckinghamshire County Council’s successful bid to reduce the number of members elected to it, from 57 to 49, in the name of cost cutting.

County deputy leader Bill Chapple said: ‘I’m delighted the commission is taking our proposals forward. We are living in a time of austerity when tough decisions have to be taken, and in making these proposals members are supporting the cost saving process.’

Drawing up new divisional boundaries will take account of an average 7,750 voters to each member, 1,050 below the national average. Mr Chapple said the revised ratio would maintain a ‘good democratic representation for the electorate, and save £100,000 a year.

Not commenting specifically on this example, but I think that, in general, we need more councillors, not less.

I mentioned my reasons in an earlier post. Basically, we have too few people doing too much, and a rethink about the role of the elected member is needed if we are to attract more people to get involved.

Cllr James Cousins argued persuasively on Twitter that if councillors took a more strategic view on issues, rather than getting bogged down in operational stuff, they would then be able to do better with fewer numbers.

It’s certainly a view I have sympathy with. Having been a member services officer in a previous life, I have far too many memories of trying to coax from councillors their views on a strategic report, rather than just having typos pointed out to me.

However, I think the thought of spending hour upon hour in town hall meetings and reading countless numbers of reports is still going to put off a large number of people getting involved.

As well as more councillors, we need better councillors. People with drive and ambition, people passionate about issues with fresh perspectives and different attitudes and cultures. Not only will this make council chambers more representative but it ought to make them better at what they do.

But these people – dynamic types with ideas and enthusiasm – are generally pretty busy being successful at other things. They don’t have a lot of time. Being a councillor right now – even if you take the strategic outlook Cllr Cousins encourages – takes up a lot of time, especially if you want to do it properly.

So rather than just having one or two representatives per ward, let’s have have a few more. Many as many as five or even ten for the bigger ones. These councillors split the work between them, taking on as much as they have time for and preferably the bits they are good at, or at least knowledgeable about.

They work together collaboratively – which would bring in the most culture change, especially where more than one political party is represented. Elections would certainly be very different affairs – but then I would argue that local elections are dominated by either local personality or national politics and policy – rather than specific local policy. In fact it might be that the party system loses its relevance in the local context.

This is, as always from me, half baked thinking. I’ve no doubt that there are stacks of reasons why this is a dumb idea. But I’ve never one been tempted to stand as a councillor, having seen the stresses and workloads it brings. Given the option to be involved, but sharing the effort with others, I might change my mind.