bigsociety – Dave Briggs

Link roundup

I find this stuff so you don’t have to:

Digital engagement – all about people | Stephen Hale – "We know that the potential power of the social web is dependant on people talking to each other, offering opinions, and sharing stories."
When networks fail – Julian Dobson on OurSociety and when a website and a bit of enthusiasm just isn't quite enough.
Introducing the Digital Performance Framework – Alpha release | Government Digital Service – "Managing transactional services is a complex task and can be quite bewildering with many systems and measurements involved. However, because we have digital tools and technologies, we can now pull together data from lots of different sources and inspire action through powerful visualisations."
LearnPod 12 – Eventbrite – LearnPod will be a cracking event again this year – sadly I don't think I can make it.
Stop treating people like idiots: start connecting public service users to the tough decisions that shape them – "One of the most common grumbles heard within the political and governmental classes is that the public doesn’t understand the need for compromise."

What I’ve been reading

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

Civility in service | Public Strategist – "Civil servants should understand the constraints they accept as part of the job. They – and everybody else – should understand the limitations on public speech (not quite the same thing) which are part of the deal."
Using digital tools to build local activism – Nice roundup from the Young Foundation's digital social innovation team
A Simplified Version Of The Online Community Development Process – As always, really useful, practical stuff from Rich Millington.
Middle-class angst over technology in the early years – "Study says nursery staff and 'affluent' parents are spurning new technologies in early years"
How helpful is journalism for People Powered Change? Further thoughts. – More from David Wilcox on community media and recent funding decisions.

You can find all my bookmarks on Pinboard.

What I’ve been reading

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

Google’s Chromebook set to transform how we think about computers | Technology | The Observer – “On 15 June, Google will officially take the next step on its road to global domination. From that day onwards, online shoppers will be able to buy the Google Chromebook, a device that the search giant hopes will change the way we think about computers – and in the process rain on the parades of Apple and Microsoft.”
Open-source is great, let’s explode a couple of myths – Some sensible stuff that’s useful reading for anyone overdosing on the OSS kool-aid.
Workshopping in Peterborough | Kind of Digital – Quick summary of our digital engagement workshop. Want one? Just ask!
Reconciling identity and place | Curiouscatherine’s Blog – Yet more great thinking out loud by @curiousc
Alpha.gov.uk: What’s in Your Stack? – Interesting interview about the tech behind AlphaGov
Faster Future Campaign – Interesting looking rural broadband project based in King’s Lynn.
nexters | big ideas. inspiring society. – “Nexters is the big society network’s new programme to support the UK’s best social entrepreneurs.”
Where technology should be used to improve policy-making, and is not – “what about all the conversations where people share problems, suggestions, even solutions, which do not happen on an e-participation web site, but pop out from online communities where people socialize for reasons that have nothing to do with politics?”
FibreValley – Fibre Valley – Digital Worth Valley – Interesting new community broadband project in Yorkshire.
On becoming Executive Director of Digital in the Cabinet Office – The new digital director speaks!

You can find all my bookmarks on Pinboard.

Bookmarks for January 27th through February 19th

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

Big Society – if the price is right – Interesting views on Big Society from a blogging councillor within my local district.
The impact of IT decisions on organizational culture – O’Reilly Radar – "It's said that with great power comes great responsibility. Among business functions, the IT group has disproportionate control over what can and can't happen in an organization."
Have your say – Code of recommended practice for local authorities – DCLG's online consultation discussing how data should be made available by councils.
Thriving too: Big Society: Community Organising – Why? – Great post on the role of the community organiser
Around the Local Government World in Ten Days – Nice writeup of a bunch of interesting events and meetings by Carrie
Local engagement in the land of big sky and sausages – Great blog post picking up my 'place as open source system' idea by @jiiiii
Are you social or anti-social? – Interesting, challenging stuff from @joannejacobs
What does ‘cloud’ mean for the public sector? – Nice post written by @lesteph for Huddle summing up our webinar chat about cloud in government.
Coté’s People Over Process » The US Federal Government and Open Source – Really interesting overview from @cote
5 Things we learned from UK GovCamp 11 | Delib Blog – Nice summary from the guys at Delib!

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.

Bookmarks for December 30th through January 9th

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

Engagement advice – Mick reports on a good list of engagement tips via @govloop
Our Society – "Our Society aims to connect people who are genuinely concerned to move power into communities."
Can you help? – Personal and Self Directed Learning tool – Carl needs your help to develop this neat learning tool.
Digital Inclusion – Time for a rethink? – Great post from Paul on digital inclusion and whether the debate is somewhat behind the times.
Creating democratic, scalable innovation – Great post from @demsoc on the skunkworks debate.
Local gov blogging – ideas for you – Some great blogging ideas from @ingridk
Moving your Infrastructure to the Cloud: How to Maximize Benefits and Avoid Pitfalls – Useful whitepaper on cloud stuff.
Cumbria County Council public consultation – Have your say on council priorities and budget options – Interesting use of Ning for public consultation by Cumbria County Council.
Nick Davies: The Julian Assange Investigation — Let’s Clear the Air of Misinformation – Make no doubt about it – the Wikileaks / Assange situation is a hell of a mess.
The rise of the parish council – Nice little article in the Guardian about very (hyper?) local democracy.

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.

Bookmarks for December 12th through December 30th

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

Five (grim) predictions for 2011 – Ingrid expresses a few concerns. Let's work to make sure this stuff doesn't happen!
What Localism might mean for local gov web managers by Michele Ide-Smith – Great stuff as always from Michele. A must read for folk interested in web and local gov.
Teach Parents Tech – Lovely: "This site was built by a few folks at Google to help keep tech support a family business."
Barrier Busting – DCLG crowdsourcing blockages to local action with a WordPress based site. Via @simond
Tax protest turns Vodafone’s smile upside down – This is what happens when you use social media when everyone hates you.
Let Us Pay – One of the best summaries of the woes of the newspaper business I have come across.
Social media and the future of the public sector – Great notes on social tech for internal use from @jiiiii
Wikileaks FAQ – Useful resource on the issues raised by Wikileaks.
13 measures of success for government digital teams – Good stuff on evaluation of online activity from Stephen Hale
expertnet – "The United States General Services Administration (GSA) and the White House Open Government Initiative are soliciting your feedback on a concept for next generation citizen consultation, namely a government-wide software tool and process to elicit expert public participation"

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.

Bookmarks for October 30th through December 10th

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

Living with rats: Nine signposts towards Our Society – Good stuff from @juliandobson
Wikileaks and the Long Haul – Shirky on Wikileaks
What the attacks on WikiLeaks tell us – John Naughton nails it on the Wikileaks saga.
Budget consultation approaches by Michele Ide-Smith – Nice summary of some of the recent work from Michele.
I’m not anti-SharePoint – chieftech’s blog – Yup – Sharepoint's problems are usually in its implementation, not in the software itself.
Government data in the public domain – intrinsically good, right? – Great stuff from @rossferg
Connected Kingdom – "The UK has a thriving internet economy. It has the potential to grow even bigger. We want your ideas for ways to make that growth happen."
Learning about content strategy by Michele Ide-Smith – Great stuff on organising your website contributors and getting processes and systems right from Michele.
Innovation functions in large organisations – Great insights from @katebennet on innovating.
eDiplomacy: The US State Department’s Global Collaborative Backbone – Interesting stuff on collaborative tech in US.gov

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.

Bookmarks for October 3rd through October 19th

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

Solace 2010 write up; Localism, hash tags and a reflection on priorities – Great write up from Catherine Howe.
Thriving too: Big Society: Yours Mine and Ours – "So how do smaller networks, organisations and projects engage with Big Society if they don’t feel completely comfortable in the space?"
How #gmp24 happened – "The challenge was to find a way to show people the wide range of issues the police are called to deal with."
The Problem with WordPress at Helpful Technology: Blog – Great summary of what sounds like a great event.
When social media reveal IT’s soft belly – "When I was in Canada last week, I visited two provincial government organizations that offered two intriguing examples of how social media are challenging their IT organizations."
Who Should be Your Chief Collaboration Officer? – Whose in charge of getting people to talk to each other in your organisation?
Jimmy Leach: Keep the blogs alight – "We may not solve foreign policy issues through blogs, but we can at least explain them better."
Open source based Managed Learning platform saves public purse £36 million – Learning Pool saves government cash. Find out how.
Too much money plays against government 2.0 – "Definitely an interesting perspective: transparency is not always a desirable attribute, and government 2.0 is more interesting – and useful – where the are scarce rather than abundant resources."
Local By Social – Series of events around the country by LGID promoting online innovation in local gov.
PDF Europe round up – Great summary of the recent PDF Europe event from @curiousc
Catch.com – Interesting looking Evernote alternative.
Training lessons learned: Code dojo, whiteboards, interactivity – "Training can be an incredibly boring, frustrating exercise."
The four sorts of Innovation-Getter | Kate Bennet – "After working in an Innovation team for the last year it’s become apparent that there are four sorts of “innovation-getters” in organisations."
The Stack: The Fifteen Classes of the Social Business Software Suite – Interesting attempt at classification of social tech

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.

Bookmarks for July 28th through August 5th

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

NHS spends millions on websites that fail patients, says government report | Society | The Guardian – "The NHS spends up to £86m a year on thousands of websites that are difficult to find, badly designed and irrelevant to patient needs, according to a leaked government report."
Open data on the cheap at Helpful Technology – "…without the cost and complexity of building and mantaining a full API to their database, a corporate public sector organisation has been able to support reuse in a quick and simple way."
Retooled — Retooled is a place to find and share experiences of the rollercoaster of redundancy. – "This site was begun by a group of employees who were all made redundant when our company MG Rover closed. We hope by sharing our experiences, Retooled will be valuable to anyone who is going through redundancy."
Straight Statistics – "We are a campaign established by journalists and statisticians to improve the understanding and use of statistics by government, politicians, companies, advertisers and the mass media."
Data.gov.uk chief admits transparency concerns – "Cabinet Office official Richard Stirling, who leads the team that runs Data.gov.uk, said that if he was at the Office for National Statistics he would have concerns about statistical releases and people making assumptions "that aren't quite valid"."
i-volunteer.org.uk – "i-volunteer is a social network that connects volunteers, charities and volunteer managers across the UK."
Does Outsourcing Destroy IT Innovation? – "…those that outsource IT on a wholesale basis "struggle to use IT to drive value and have limited strategic flexibility as the business context evolves and hardware prices plummet.""
The community right to build – do we know if it will work? – "We think that when these reforms come out in the wash at the local level, it will often be the role, and the responsibility, of local (parish and town) councils and their committed volunteer councillors to make planning work positively for local places."
All systems (about to) go – "[the knowledge hub] will be a place to discover a wide range of materials and content to support the development and improvement of local public services."
Council stages CovJam to help shape Coventry’s future – "In what has the potential to become a blueprint for cities around the globe, the council staged the world's first city-wide online conversation with nearly 900 local residents, businesses and public bodies."

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.

Bookmarks for July 17th through July 23rd

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

Rewired State – hack UK online – "A one-day hack providing expert advice and prototyping for UK online centres, providing technical options for improving searching on the UK online centres website for a local centre, leading to an improved and more effective experience for the web user."
Government 2.0 – Best Practices Wiki / Australian Govt Social Media Handbook DRAFT – Interesting attempt to draft social media guidance via a wiki.
St. Augustine’s Tips for Knowledge Workers – "It is undoubtedly true that modern technologies can keep us from getting our work done." Undoubtably? Not sure about that.
Creating The Contribution Society – "It seems to me that social software, and architectures of participation, are two means to delivering on the promise of a Contribution Society, where your worth is at least partially measured on what you contribute, rather than what you own."
Big Society needs Big Democracy | The Democratic Society – "Instead, the Big Society and the network need to focus on creating a wider conversation in communities, which can move away from the Whitehall and Westminster world, and promote local solutions. They also need to create a deeper democratic conversation in those localities, to increase the effectiveness, legitimacy and coherence of local action."
Readness.com – the social news service on Readness.com – "a browser extension for Google Chrome that suggests content you'll enjoy based on what your friends read, as you browse the web."
Four authorities to experiment with Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ | Society | The Guardian – "Liverpool, the Eden Valley in Cumbria, Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire and Sutton and Cheam in south-west London will become "vanguard communities". All four authorities approached the government to experiment with running the parts of their public services they think they can administer better."
MockFlow: Free online Wireframe tool – Cool wireframing tool for websites and apps, with a (limited) free option.
Australian government’s Declaration of Open Government – "The Australian Government now declares that, in order to promote greater participation in Australia’s democracy, it is committed to open government based on a culture of engagement, built on better access to and use of government held information, and sustained by the innovative use of technology."
tecosystems » The #thesiswp Controversy: WordPress, Themes and the GPL – Great summary of the recent WordPress open source community bust up. A good insight into the politics of some of this stuff.

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.