An online notebook
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An online notebook
Something like Wikileaks couldn’t happen in local government, could it? Well, it looks like something similar is kicking off in Lincolnshire, with the Watching Lincolnshire County Council blog. It’s a whistleblowing site, where disgruntled employees are sharing rumours, gossip and…
This is a post that has been brewing for a long while, so sorry if it smells a bit. The basic concept hit me during FutureGov‘s excellent CityCamp London event, and keeps reoccurring as I have chats with people and…
Since moving house back in October, my local government district is South Holland, in south Lincolnshire. I’m no stranger to it – this is where I grew up, before leaving to go to University. It’s good to see the local…
So my post about whether local government needs skunk works got quite a reaction both in the comments and on Twitter, so it’s obviously something people are interested in discussing. How can we move the debate forward? Let me sketch…
Simon Dickson has been doing his best to keep us up to date with the government skunkworks, the project to form a tight group of innovators in central government to work on new ideas. If you’re new to the idea…
The Local by Social online conference (various levels of sign-up required) is turning out to be a bit of a triumph. Yesterday saw some fascinating discussions about various elements of technology (mostly web) enabled change. Well done Ingrid (and team)!…
I’m taking part in an online conference on the LGID Communities of Practice platform (registration required) that’s running between 3 and 9 November. My bit will be on the 8th, between 1.30 and 3.30pm, and I will be talking about…
Another example of a nice informal council website asking for ideas – this time in Barnet and focusing on financial issues. How can the council save money? Meanwhile, Walsall Council is using Delib’s Budget Simulator tool to get residents engaged…
Nice, informal, consultation site for what Leeds residents would like to see in their city:
At Public Sector Online (which Elaine did a marvellous job of writing up on the LP blog) last Monday, the question was asked – as it often is at these events – what could be done about the fact that…
I spent an enjoyable afternoon at the advisory group for the Knowledge Hub (KHub) last Tuesday (sorry for the delay in writing this up…). Steve Dale chaired the day which featured a number of updates about the project, in terms…
An interesting item on NESTA’s website, with some accompanying useful resources, summarising the recent launch of the ‘Small is Beautiful’ paper on innovation in local government. NESTA supported the Local Government Information Unit to analyse the entries to its ‘Small…
The Knowledge Hub is an ambitious project by Local Government Improvement and Development (what was the IDeA) to provide two main things: a new platform for the Communities of Practice to replace the rather clunky current one; and to provide…
Today Learning Pool are exhibiting at the Enchancing Local Democracy conference, organised by South East Employers. There are some interesting speakers on the agenda, and the workshops look good too – especially the one in the morning run by Catherine…
I wrote up quite a bit of what was said at the Local by Social event yesterday, but didn’t add much in the way of comment or analysis. This post makes up for that. I’ll try and sum up what…
LocalGovCamp Yorkshire and Humber was a great day, superbly organised by Ken Eastwood, Kevin Campbell-Wright, Melanie Reid and a host of helpers. It was by a mile the least involved I have ever been in one of these events and,…
This week saw the launch of a new local government digital engagement project – Let’s Talk Central by Central Bedfordshire Council. The Learning Pool online innovation / social media / loafing around team – that’s me and Breda – were…
Being part of something big is really nice sometimes. Take being on the Learning Pool team, for example. Now, quite a few people read this blog, and my gibbering on Twitter – but really, relative to the number of councils…
…is the title of a startlingly well written and interesting paper from Anthony Zacharzewski of the Democratic Society. Download it here (PDF warning).
Warwickshire County Council‘s approach to open government and IT strategy is impressive. Check out their IT strategy blog, where they detail their use of the cloud, for example, and their open data site. Great stuff, and good to see it…