Chairing the Steering Group for #LocalGov Digital

Some people many have noticed a few random tweets last week around LocalGov Digital.

I am pretty chuffed to say that I was elected Chair of the Steering Group for LocalGov Digital for at least the next 12 months 🙂

WTF is LocalGov Digital I hear you ask?

That is a good question and more will come in the coming weeks but essentially this is what we are about:

We are a practitioner network created and functioning in the spirit of local government’s sector-led improvement agenda.

Our overarching purpose is to raise standards in web provision and the use of digital by councils across the country, and to create a digital framework that is flexible enough to respond to local needs.

We exist to support improvement strategies in the delivery of services so that local government can be efficient, productive and serve local needs.

Our belief is that an overarching and fundamental principle is that local government is and should be ‘open by default and digital by design’.

At the centre is a steering group which connects the wider network with national bodies such as the Local Government association (LGA), government departments and other partners involved in improving how services are delivered to citizens.

Where on earth did LocalGov Digital come from?

A group of passionate local gov folk who felt that if we didn’t doing something ourselves and we didn’t start pulling our thinking together and start to coordinate our efforts better we would probably look back in a few years time and wonder why we didn’t do anything to help ourselves as something we didn’t like or want was being done to us.  So it came about because no one else was doing anything and we felt we needed to have something.

The involvement of the LGA also meant that we could get the group formalised and the initial members of the steering group could be formally asked to participate via the current employers. In my case a letter was sent to my Chief Executive asking for my involvement in the steering group and was met very positively, which was reassuring.

What next?

Well to be honest, a lot of hard work and collaborating to start delivering some early outputs and also getting a web presence out there and a public group to help facilitate collaboration across the sector as well as others.

I’ll be writing again soon about what i think i can bring to the group and what I think the role of chair means in the coming year…but for now if you want to get connected follow #localgovdigital on twitter.