A return to the “old skool” – Social Media challenges in the Public Sector

I have started to realise much more now (better late than never i always say) is that one of the greatest challenges to the public sector engaging in social spaces is “does society as a whole really want us there?” i suspect on face value the answer is No. But if you look at this from the viewpoint of Public Sector Reform and considering the future budget position Local Government needs to consider this as a matter of priority in my eyes.

The recent post by Paul Clarke over at HonestlyReal talks about changing focus and understanding the real purpose of local government.

There is the opportunity if we allow it to happen for the public sector to consider a completely new model of business. One which enables local people to determine how best public, private, voluntary and community resources should be defined to deliver local services.

Now one of the challenges presented here is the concept of “local” (offline and online) becomes slightly more complex and requires us as service providers to think about and acknowledge the complex lives people lead and the way in which they live them.

What we are really talking about is challenging the way society itself works and how it can be supported to provide leadership to its own communities alongside Public Sector organisations. We are in effect challenging society to develop more fruitful and more meaningful relationships to enable them to support themselves. Social Media has started to enable people to reconnect in more convenient and timely ways.

An interesting article in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago Charles Leadbeater which argues that relationships and mutual self-help rather than the reforms, such as those in Government’s “Building Britain’s Future”, are the key to more effective public expenditure.

There is a project called Southwark Circle that does this kind of thing, a quote about this project on the Particle Website states

This is a social reform challenge, not just a public service reform challenge.  The question is not just “What can public services do to improve quality of life and well-being for older people?” but rather “How can a locality mobilise public, private, voluntary and community resources to help all older people define and create quality of life and well-being for themselves?”

For me this just reminds me of what my Nan and other older people i talk to used to say to me about when they were young:

“Communities helped themselves back in the day, neighbours would support each other and would help each other out, we didn’t have or need the same kind of support you lot have today”

Are we seeing social media facilitating a return to traditional and “old skool” values around community and neighbourhood support.  I see the main difference being the “community” and the “neighbourhood” that people relate to is more complex and far reaching (offline and online) than ever before.

If this is the case, then the Pubic Sector truly has a huge task ahead, not only support itself to transform the way we engage with people and our own staff, but to acknowledge those communities who are already engaged but also nurture communities (offline and online) to become part of the wider public service delivery model.

What the web4 is that – Hanging with Mr Cooper

Thanks to @ianjukes for tweeting this to me as it has now made my brain ache with the programming power that must be happening here. Enough said, watch for yourself

Or try it yourself here, (you need a webcam fitted)

a Concept for Devon Online – version 1

This is a work in progress and I welcome any thoughts ideas or references which would help me steer this concept in the right direction.

Overview
A pan Devon website which provides up-to-date information that enriches the experience of people who live in and visit the county. It would aim to be the number one online information resource for the County of Devon!

It would deliver value through:

• Facilitating information exchange – Devon to Devon, Devon to the world
• Supporting and encouraging online participation and e-democracy
• Being demand and service focused – one stop shop to local and national public services
• Encouraging Trust – Brand recognition, validity and reliability of content
• Ensuring aggregation – reusing existing content and services where practical and possible

The site will be focus around 4 broad customer groups:

1. Resident – Access to services and information
2. Business – Economy and enterprise, services and information
3. Community – Engagement and participation, connecting people and communities
4. Visitor – Showcasing and Discovering Devon

It is important to note that these areas are to guide the development and to focus the information and service provision, however teh site will be fully customiseable and therefore this “structure” is to assist with an organisational content repository.

Resident – Access to local council services 24/7
It would;

• give access to all council services in Devon, with relevant links to national services such as TV licensing and Car Tax via directgov (Web services)
• be reliable, trusted and contain up to date local information
• provide useful features for residents, such as entertainment and activities, things to see and do, maps, driving directions, local news and weather
• focus on fresh information such as cultural activities, TV and movie guides and local events, all updated daily (links with Existing TV listings)
• ensure it provided an easy to use and simple layout and navigation
• provide access to in-depth information and statistics about Devon and it’s market and coastal towns
• Foster and support a user, customer, and commercially focussed culture within ourdevon and its partners
• Use tagging and Mashups to aggregate local content and links

Business – Local economy, enterprise and advice
It would provide and support:

• advertising space for local Devon based businesses, complimented by various emarketing activities and services
• opportunities through the Devon Community Directory to promote groups and businesses in Devon with free community webpages facility
• give access to all council business services and provide links to businesslink.gov services
• provide a gateway to the countywide procurement portal for tenders
• provide a gateway for investors to obtain key information and statistics
• provide a gateway for employment and job opportunities in the county

Community – Engagement , participation and connecting people
It would provide and support

• a local consultation and engagement portal supporting eDemocracy
• opportunities to submit ePetitions
• Participation through Issues Forums: Next generation online forums and facilitation
• Promote communities in action
• “Citizen” and Community Life Blogging
• Promote pride of place through
• Digital photography
• Placeblogging and Community Blogospheres
• Podcasting
• Video Blogging
• Community and group collaboration
• Online Social Spaces
• Online Community Calendars
• Online Council events and webcasting of local meetings
• Online engagement tools for community groups and local government

Visitor – Showcasing and Discovering Devon
It would

• provide tourism information such as events, things to see and do and accommodation
• support the existing Discover Devon theme based approach for example, cycling, walking, food, natural Devon etc
• provide opportunities for Devon people to show what they do
• promote the extraordinary wealth of culture and diversity within the county
• support the Devon brand – shifting perceptions concept

Outline Architecture

The architecture needs to support the separation of the “backoffice” and the “presentation layer”. This enables the delivery of widgets/mash-ups etc from locations outside of the main council platform to be integrated more effectively and within the overall style and design of the main site.

The basic principle is that the site is a hybrid mix of mash-ups and standard text and services.

The following represents the broad tools that are shaping my thinking in terms of functionality and user interaction:

• Blogs—each member can have their own blog, and blog entries can be aggregated into collective views (e.g., most recent posts, most active contributors, highest rated posts, etc.)
• Microblogging—users will be able to share there thoughts and ideas, as well as receiving updates from others about important information linked via SMS
• Discussions—create threaded discussion forums where members reply to posts from other members
• Wikis—a post from one member can be edited by another member, maintaining version and author history
• Videos—upload and share videos
• Photos—upload photos, embed images in posts, create photo albums
• Calendars—mark events and posts on a personal or group calendar
• Tagging—members can “tag” content to allow other members to find that content via “tag clouds.”
• Mapping—apply “geo tags” to display content or member location on a map
• RSS feeds—use RSS to incorporate content from external sources, or create RSS feeds to syndicate content to other sources and users
• Podcasts—upload and syndicate podcasts
• Bookmarks—mark and share URLS with other members
• Voting & Rating—vote on content and aggregate the results
• Status-members can update the community and their friends on what they are doing

Any thoughts or comments welcome

If you don’t want anyone to know, don’t share it.

I have been on leave this week helping out at home whilst my wife recovers from an operation. It has been interesting staying in touch via the various methods i have available: blackberry email, phone, text, instant messaging, twitter, facebook, linkedin and my blog. What has been most interesting is the glimpses into peoples lives that give you just enough information to feel connected but not too much that you feel your space is being invaded by the various means by which we can all stay in contact.

It does raise a question around, how much information is considered to be useful to people and should we only share information with people in the context by which we have connected ourselves.

So for people who i have connected as friends i am happy to share a particular kind of information compared to those people who i classify as colleagues or peers. For me personally i would consider all those people i connect with a friend and if you know something i should know then i would love to think you would share it with me.

Am i supposed to be using different tools for different groups, if so that doesn’t seem to fit my life as i am finding that i use each one in different ways depending on the nature of communications not the audience or group i want to connect with. So it almost forces me to either share too much or not enough information to make my contributions valuable to others in the medium. This is why i have chosen the chinese proverb “If you don’t want anyone to know, don’t share it.” as the title of this post.

I guess for now i am going to have to learn as i go, unless someone knows the unwritten rules about this kind of stuff?

Over the last week or so, i have been thinking about the future and how i can use different tools within my council to help facilitate change and better ways of working, but i need to remember that i can do things now, and i am by starting and using this stuff myself.

Another chinese saying “yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift, that is why they call it the present”

Navigating the future

I had a very interesting day today. I was at a Leadership workshop at Exeter University. It was facilitated by Liselotte Lyngsø from a company called Future Navigator. On the whole i thought the day was great, i watched and participated with people learning how to juggle with 3 balls and talking about larger toilet seats for the well endowed man…and these do really exist!!!

During one part of the morning Liselotte held up a sign which stated “quiet exams in progress”, which she had taken from the door, she raised the question, would this still be appropriate in the future , if young people are learning by collaboration and are sharing knowledge to get things done. If the expectation is that learning is partly a collective journey then how can you measure an individual. This also mirrors a culture difference between the West (United States of Me) and Asia (a collective approach). We need to start to think about this as leaders now as these are the workers and consumers of the future (i’m not talking hundreds of years i’m talking maybe 3-5 years) and it will be there expectations we will be aiming to exceed…

All i can say is that in some areas of my work rapid change will be required to embrace and support a new cultural co worker who will drive collaboration and knowledge sharing to new heights.

The workshop raised a lot of questions for self reflection which i will need to digest and no doubt use this blog to share some of those thoughts and reflections. One reflection i think i can share now is that i need to listen and hear what my kids are really saying to me more. They are only 2 and 4 years old but already offer insights and simple observations which are great to pull you out your normal frame of mind and get you thinking out of the box.

Now the weekend is upon us and i suppose many people will be waiting in line for petrol in response and in fear of a fuel crisis. Another point from today, how much of our lives are driven by our fears and not our hopes and dreams. For me at present it was slightly higher in the fear column then dreams, which is something i am now going to work on.

The question you need to ask yourself if you want to do the same thing is “why are you living?” This is something which is obvious when you turn up at events like today, but each moment of our lives should, in theory that is, be lived to the maximum, but the reality is that we are all struggling to balance the “wishful thinking approach to life” with the reality that actually happens. For most this may mean, putting things off for another day or week and for others it may mean skipping the gym and getting a pizza on the way home and not having time to spend with the family or friends.

All obvious stuff i think you will agree, but how many of us actually get the balance right?

Changing the subject we managed to get about another 15 strawberries from the allotment yesterday and each and everyone i managed to eat (the kids ate the most) tasted superb, fresh, juicy and so sweet.