Behind the scenes of Open Space South West #OpenSSW

With the Open Space South West website going live earlier this week, I thought I’d share some thoughts about how Open Space South West came about, who is involved, as well as share some personal thoughts about what I’d like to see happen and what I hope will be achieved (managing my own expectations).

The first thing to say is that Open Space South West is a real collaborative effort between Public-i and Devon County Council - helped by the multiple other organisations and people who are contributing time and money.  In fact all CityCamp, GovCamp and similar events are collaborative efforts and that in itself is a great testament to people’s individual passion as well the passion and commitment of private sector organisations to help support the public sector around innovation and service design.

I’d like to acknowledge the work being done by Public-i colleagues (primarily Tanya Harris) in helping to organise the event as I’m not really a detail person and Tanya has had experience of this through helping to organise the first City Camp Brighton Event as well as various other events and activities. As well as my team in Devon who built the website as I don’t have those types of skills

You can read more about the event and the programme on the website www.openspacesouthwest.info.

What are you personal expectations?

At  basic level I simply hope that the event is a success, in that people come, participate, feel inspired, are challenged and go away thinking about new opportunities and a new network of people who can help or share their learning. Not much to ask I know

I’m actually nervous about the event and I feel anxious about it. I’ve organised a couple of internal social media forums and they went well, so I don’t really know why I feel that way…I guess it might be because this is bigger, has a wider audience, is more public and will be compared in some ways to other similar events…But I need not fear as there is the added bonus of actually working with Public-i who have experience with these kinds of events

What is it like collaborating with Public-i?

To be honest this is the easy part, It does help that I’m actually employed by them for 2 days a week, but even without that advantage it would be the same. I’ve known the folks at Public-i for quite a while and I really like the way they work, how they think and most of all they are all great people. So working with them collaboratively has been easy.

How do you manage working for both private and public sector organisations? 

I’m not sure I do to be perfectly honest, I’m actually pretty hard on myself, so I actually currently believe that I’m not doing very well for either public-i or the council (i know that it isn’t actually true) but i do push myself to do better all the time.

Actually it is managing my time that I find the hardest, as it requires me to be far more organised than I’m used to as well as comfortable with if I’m honest. But that also involves my voluntary work as well as my family, both of which have suffered a little and my outlook is that i work to live, not live to work.

The contract was only for six months and there will be decisions to be made about what happens next (but that is another blog post for another day).

What does Public-i gain from you working with them?

Catherine Howe would be best to answer that, but from my point of view I’d like to think it was the way I look and think about things. I wouldn’t say I was especially different in skill sets, I mean probably worse off – I’m not that creative, I can’t code, I’m not a designer, I’m not especially good at sales, I’m not really an expert in any area – but it is in the “general” and the “overview” where i think my value comes from…connecting ideas, having ideas, pushing ideas forward, working with people to make things happen…I’m sure other people have various views on my skills and you are welcome to share them openly here if you wish…nothing like 360 feedback or as Carrie Bishop called it 3D feedback

@carlhaggerty @MartinHowitt @tonyparker64 Or maybe like 3D appraisals since 360 implies a flat circle...

—
Carrie Bishop (@carriebish) April 26, 2012

Personally my view on myself is that I’m not a cog in a wheel, or a critical member of the team, but when I’m around different ideas are considered, perhaps new ideas, people feel challenged, maybe even inspired…I do believe however I can sell an idea.

What does Devon gain from you working with Public-i?

In a number of ways and this also makes me think that actually this whole opportunity should be more widely available to other public sector folk…what i mean from this is that I think people and organisations on both sides would benefit if those people who wished to seek new challenges and experiences were allowed to temporarily take development opportunities with a private sector organisations. You see and read all too often now that there is a massive brain drain happening within the sector and all the best people are leaving…yes some great people are leaving, but lets not forget and lets not underestimate the huge amount of latent talent that remains, waiting to be unlocked and let free…this is where events like open space south west come in for me, opening up new connections and opportunities for new people to be the leaders.

In my situation, I believe the council gains from my personal learning and development as well as from the new experiences and different ways of working. It financial gains of course for a short period of time from my reduction in hours and lets not kid ourselves that these are really good motivations for allowing this in the current climate.

It also benefits because it allows me personally to experience new opportunities, new challenges that I’d perhaps not get access to in my organisation. It can also benefit from my experience of new projects in advance of when the council may choose to move forward, so the organisational learning is reduced.  This was and still is the motivation behind my voluntary work and involvement, however voluntary work can be limited in terms of quite in-depth experience in some places.

There are a wide range of benefits all round and if more people in the sector were given these short-term opportunities and then welcomed back into their councils, then local government would be better off for it.  After all the sector as a whole needs to think differently about how we manage people, how we retain quality people and inspire a new generation of local government and public sector workers.

What are you looking forward to most?

Listening to the speakers and being inspired, meeting new people and making new connections – after all It is people who really make the difference.

That #localgov #contentstrategy stuff is spreading

You know when you start to see or read more about a topic as soon as you start focusing on it…well I’m getting that feeling with content strategy and in particular content strategy in local gov and the public sector.

I’ve come across 3 great posts today, one of which was highlighted via my content strategy partner in crime @sarahlay on twitter…

@carlhaggerty of interest to you? contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/12/climb-…

—
  (@sarahlay) February 10, 2012

When I picked this tweet up I was actually already reading and digesting this post on Creating Content that serves a civic purpose… and what made this seem more than a coincidence was the related link at the bottom of the article that Sarah linked to (see image below) – was actually a link to the article I was already in the middle of reading.

Anyway, moving beyond the strangeness that happens in the social web and onto some of the interesting points that are highlighted in these posts.

One of the most basic levels which I think we often forget is this list provided in the Civic Purpose article

To make sure the content you create in the public interest fulfills its responsibilities, there are a few standard rules you should follow:

Use plain English and avoid jargon, as the diversity of the audience will likely span the socio-economic spectrum.

Focus on what the consumer needs to know, and how the particular services or information offered on the site can help. Limit information about why or how the government entity achieves its goals, as this extra information can confuse or frustrate people who visit the site looking for answers.

Format content in a clear, compelling way. Government websites must compete with consumer websites that offer similar information (and all the bells and whistles they offer such as compelling graphic design, widgets, social media icons, and content rich blogs).

Check — and double check — your facts. For many citizens, information shared by the government has an innate relevance and gravity, while others automatically doubt information from any level of government, and dismiss it as self-serving. To gain the trust of both audiences, it is critical that the content be factual, accurate, have transparent input, and be beyond reproach. It may also be appropriate to have your content reviewed by experts to ensure accuracy.

Information needs to be easily accessible and relevant, even though government services rarely compete with private sector services.

A .gov (or equivalent such as gov.au, gouv.fr) extension provides an air of authority, so be sure to reserve these URLs for your content, if possible.

The last point about the domain providing an air of authority rings true for me right now, as one of the key outputs of the content strategy that I am writing is that we aim to create a “Single Domain” and this in local gov terms may not be a single technology platform either. But the key point is that we should recognise that our content has a level of trust already and we should be able to build on this and ensure that wherever our content is pulled or pushed across the web the trust and authority remains, otherwise it may lose its purpose and meaning.

Moving onto the post that Sarah linked to written by Rahel Bailie - the examples of how engagement of content should be seen is a great way to explain how traditional local government webpages should evolve and reuse content from across the wider website as well as incorporate other relevant content. Rachel suggests:

….Encouraging engagement means presenting content that presents opportunities to get involved, at opportune places on the site. To do that, the architecture of the website needs to be well thought out, and the content should always appear in consistent ways and in consistent places. In the case of home owners recycling, a home owner interested in a greener community should be able to find information about how the recycling program fits into the larger sustainability initiative, and ways they could get involved, from participating in a neighborhood initiative to sitting on an advisory committee. The logical places to show these opportunities is not only on a community advisory page, but in the places where interested constituents might go for other information such as on a neighborhood page, on a page with other recycling-related information, in a Facebook post that links back to information on the site, or in a sidebar on a page about green communities….

….The decision of whether or not to engage with a government organization is a choice on the part of the constituent; providing that opportunity is the responsibility of the organization…

The last post which I found really interesting was primarily aimed at “how non-profits can profit from content strategy“.  It highlights some key areas when thinking about content strategy which are equally applicable to localgov in my view…I’ve not copied the whole post but have simply listed the headings below.

• You’ve gotta start somewhere
• Document what you have and what’s working.
• spend time on workflow
• Know your audiences
• Pay attention to your business model
• Use your money wisely.
• Keep hope alive

The first and last points for me are probably (right now anyway) the most important to keep hold of, as it is very challenging for many people to unlearn what they know about local government web management.

 

Why I think #LocalGov hasn’t really cracked #Facebook

This won’t be a long in-depth post, I won’t be quoting research or statistics.

My thoughts are quite simple really and if I compare the relative success of twitter by councils as opposed to facebook, it isn’t really rocket science why it hasn’t worked.

Lets start with a few key things about twitter.

1. you only have 2 privacy settings – Open or Closed
2. twitter is a wider environment not specifically tied into people’s personal or family social networks.
3. twitter is not about existing networks but actually helps people to build and connect to larger ones
4. you don’t need approval to follow someone (unless you’ve blocked your account)

Now compare that to facebook and you can start to understand some of the complexity that exists for councils before even reaching someones stream.

1. the privacy settings are multi-level, multi-user and are only becoming more complicated as each month passes.
2. facebook is more about existing connections and networks
3. the process of connecting requires both parties to approve.

So take these simply things and then think about how a council fits into this picture.

I appreciate I’ve simplified so much here but you don’t need me to tell you all the differences between them….

So my assumption and conclusion is that twitter is great for those people who want to find out information without having to seek approval from people…in fact a bit like subscribing to an RSS feed but with opportunities to actually engage with the content.

The use of facebook will only ever “really” work for local government when we actually already have connections with people…so it really could be seen as an extension of a CRM system as opposed to a communications platform as it is about existing connections and not about creating new ones.

Once you see it in this way, you’ll start to think of more appropriate ways to use it.

So the reason local government hasn’t cracked facebook is because it is trying to reach “new” people and not focusing on adding value to those people it already has connections with…this is one reason I believe libraries make such good use from facebook.

Credit where credit is due

Earlier this evening I saw a link to a Guardian website article written by Richard Wilson, which made me smile and happy but also slightly embarrassed.

The article talks about 7 steps to get started and I strongly agree with the steps outlined and in particular the lack of focus on skills and people to exploit opportunities with organisations.

Richard was very kind to give me a mention and credit for a successful project the council ran last year but also again this year around our budget consultation which we call Tough Choices.

Now I have to be honest as you can’t hide the truth in a social world but the success of last years project and the early feedback from this years has had nothing to do with me…one thing is that I wasn’t in post last year although was supportive of one of my team Russell Taylor in pushing forward ideas. Again this year whilst being in post, the practical work and ideas have come from colleagues within communications and I’m very proud of them as it has been a pleasure to watch from a far.

Richard’s point however about having people inside the organisation is valid, I can’t claim to have any direct impact on the success of these projects – maybe I’ve helped in soft ways through encouragement and support however that is hard to measure and only others could say whether or not they believed I helped in any way – but this is exactly the point that Richard eludes to around in house skills…it isn’t really about whether or not I directly got involved but the fact the council decided to appoint me as a Digital Communications Manager, this recognises and demonstrates that the opportunities presented by social and digital tools, channels and approaches requires co-ordination, drive and direction from inside the council and not via external people who do not understand the culture and politics within the council in order to make progress and work round issues in tactical and essentially covert ways…

Looking at the final point “get good advice” is something I am always keen to seek and I’m fortunate and feel privileged to know and be able to seek advice and support from (in my view) some of the best and inspirational digital and social minds in the UK if not Europe and beyond.

So credit where it’s due.

Just a sample of the people from within my council who deserve recognition for a variety of reasons:
- Russell Taylor
- Martin Howitt
- Lynda Bowler
- Hannah Wicks
- Stian Sigvartsen

Just a few of the people who I feel honoured to know and call friends:
- Dominic Campbell
- Catherine Howe
- Hadley Beeman
- Emma Mulqueeny
- Dave Briggs
- Richard Wilson
- Nick Hill
- Julie Hawker

A is for alpha, B is for brave

I’ve been thinking a lot about the new experimental government prototype website www.alpha.gov.uk and the ripples it will create among web developers and designers in the UK public sector and beyond.

I’ve played with the site and found it very usable, others have commented that it doesn’t look like a traditional government website (which is good) and it is clearly focused on what people are trying to do and reduces and strips out pretty much all of the content which simply get in the way of conducting a transaction.

So what will it mean for the rest of the public sector, in particular Local Government, well my personal view is that it will have a profound effect on how local authority sites are designed and developed over the next few years.

One council who I feel are already doing aspects of what Alpha is looking to prototype and demonstrate is Liverpool City Council.  A site which has stripped out content and focused on what people are actually coming to the site to do….an excellent example, I’m sure (hope) there are others.

What I think has been the barrier for anyone doing this before is a legacy mindset from eGovernment and the 100% of services online ethos. This was right at the time as it pushed councils to actually create an online presence, but for those that has already built a successful online presence it merely handicapped what was already a reasonably good formula – invest time and effort the most popular services and do just enough for the rest, and when stats show services becoming more popular find out what people want and then deliver it. That was the approach in Devon anyway, and it had its flaws but it worked, probably better than now if I’m honest…but we are where we are and we move on.

The key thing is we *must* recognise that old approaches are not supporting new organisations.

We all need to be *Brave* and use the stats and evidence that we can all access reasonably easily to demonstrate to our council managers and leaders that delivering 100% of effort on 100% of services online is not only pointless, but it reduces the ability to improve the services which are actually used by people and will support cost savings in organisations – So we need to ensure that we spend the majority of effort on the most used and popular services.

It is this break from tradition and a return to “old school local gov web” values that Alpha is demonstrating for central government as well as providing *permission* for local government to follow a path it has previously been on…

However this time we can benefit from a wider set of learning around open and linked data, social web, content standards, accessibility.

I remember when I first started as the Corporate Web Manager for the council  back in 2003 I considered the local government information architecture question – the same question that Andrew Beeken mentions is his blog post:

Wasn’t all this information, to all intents and purposes, the same? Sure, everyone had different rates and some councils provided a different range of services but, ultimately, everyone had the same set of information.

Pay council tax, apply for benefits, planning applications, yadda, yadda, yadda. “So,” I asked. “If we all do pretty much the same, why do we all run wildly different systems?”

The answer was, simply “Because that’s the way it is.”

Whilst I still broadly have this view, my thinking now is that – Yes we do fundamentally all have the same services and a consistent approach would certainly help citizens in engaging with local government – but the residents of Devon will naturally have a different online behaviour to other parts of the country and this will in turn mean that different services will be more popular here than in other places.

What should be consistent in my opinion is the user experience at the transaction and service level…this is where I think Alpha can provide some lessons for local government.

All in all, this is an exciting time and I am looking forward to seeing and hearing more about how Alpha informs and influences the future of government online in the UK.