Stap isi

30 June 2009

Alright gov

Here are some U.K. L.G. tweeps that are neat.

Actual local authority officers		Activists, specialists & others
	twitter.com/pezholio		twitter.com/davebriggs
	twitter.com/sarahlay		twitter.com/pauloCanning
	twitter.com/SimonHume		twitter.com/peteashton
	twitter.com/carlhaggerty		twitter.com/podnosh
	twitter.com/barryearnshaw		twitter.com/ingridk
	twitter.com/StevenTuck		twitter.com/liz_azyan
	twitter.com/martinxo		twitter.com/dominiccampbell
	twitter.com/Stephen_Cross
	twitter.com/ChimeraX
	twitter.com/abeeken
	twitter.com/alncl
	twitter.com/gecko84

There’s lots more, this is just my arbitrary list. Special shout out to bashley, not from the U.K. but does speak English.

Twitter profile pics pulled courtesy spiurl

— b3rn   twitter, uk, web teams   Jun 30, 08:33 PM   #   Comment

28 June 2009

In an aroused state

Although the Government 2.0 Taskforce is a welcome initiative, the most exciting developments of late have been at OpenAustralia.

OpenAustralia is a volunteer-run open-source organisation that came together to port TheyWorkForYou to the Australian Parliament. They’re currently transforming the Hansard into a searchable, commentable and alertable document, and they’ll soon offer proceedings from State parliaments.

(And if you want to keep an eye on them, just look.)

What’s getting the sloop pointing north is their work on:

• making existing spatial information more useful – myrepresentatives.org has local government area lookups on the to-do list; and
• adapting FixMyStreet as an Australian iPhone app.

Last year I wrote out a story for a FixMyStreet derivative I called TakeMyWaste. It’s the type of web service that councils shouldn’t build in isolation. Back then I thought a local government peak body could drive it. But now I’m convinced that groups like OpenAustralia are better positioned to move such projects forward.

Open source software development is not without its difficulties but it seems infinitely preferable to monolithic projects that require years to specify, tender and deploy – and don’t necessarily succeed.

This particular project could be kicked along with some funding from the peak bodies and possibly one or more councils. Developers might come from the community, councils and/or commercial concerns. Early adopters would help troubleshoot and refine the service. Individual councils could come onboard when they’re ready and their data is accessible.

As well as a FixMyStreet and TakeMyWaste, I’d like to see a location-based planning alert service, like the UK-based Twitterplan built off the PlanningAlerts.com API.

There are some big wins just waiting to be claimed.

— b3rn   innovation, open data, open source   Jun 28, 06:57 PM   #   Comment [1]

27 June 2009

Stimulating #gov2au

On Monday, Labor Senator Kate Lundy hosted the second Public Sphere event in a committee room of Parliament House. The speakers were sourced from her blog. If you wanted to have a say, you proposed a topic in the comment box. (The APS Commissioner and a few others might have been invited. Minister Tanner bum rushed the show.) The presentations were of variable quality, although mostly very good. (Unfortunately some of the more practical presentations at the close of the day had to be shortened.) Web comment – via Twitter, blogs and the official wiki – will feed in to the final report, so public participation has been invited at many levels. The topic was ‘Government 2.0: Policy and Practice.’

In general, I think we need:

• more critical analysis applied to existing or completed gov 2.0 projects in Australia and abroad;
• more specifics about what government can do to drive adoption within and without; and
• a moratorium on Mysociety mentions (replace with OpenAustralia).

Continued...

— b3rn   publicsphere   Jun 27, 12:14 PM   #   Comment

21 June 2009

Coal face gang

Has anyone considered using customer services staff to update the website? They speak to people all the time, know the information people ask for, know how to answer questions. They are a valuable communications tool with a good “general” knowledge of the organisation.

Gecko84, local government web editor, in his blog post CMS control, who does what – a rant inspired by Sarah

I like the idea. Customer service staff – from the front counter to the library’s circulation desk – should be part of a council’s web team.

They’re accomplished referrers, have lots of experience dealing with sensitive items and difficult customers and are aware of the issues that arise when representing council in a public space, so they’re a good fit for social media channels.

When you’re working on an information architecture or considering keywords for search engine optimisation, customer service staff have particular value. They know how constituents ask for information – what words they use, how they frame the question – and what information is in demand. By contrast, senior staff advantage what they think people should be asking. And some are lapsed English speakers, hopelessly lost to organisational jargon.

Finally, if your web services are not satisfying customer requests, customer service staff are the canary in the coalmine.

The second part to this post is about crowdsourcing in government.

We generally take this to mean offering constituents an opportunity to innovate solutions or frameworks. But over the last year – as social media has matured and mainstreamed – more and more council employees are using these tools to discuss issues in their workplace.

It may be born of frustration but the motivation for these blogs or Twitter streams is usually positive – to affect change.

This is incredibly valuable for managers – if they choose to listen!

— b3rn   management, user generated content, web teams   Jun 21, 10:16 AM   #   Comment

17 June 2009

Keeping accountable

In April I made like a fool and said “web 2.0 recordkeeping – it’s not that hard, is it?!”

Now with the heat on, a whole lot of edge cases are appearing. Time to look to the experts for some simple answers! Of course they’re smart enough to avoid that trap…

State Records say they’re building NSW’s first digital archiving solution. I think that means they’re on our side. Their excellent blog Future Proof makes all the relevant resources handy and encourages participation in this daunting project.

Recordkeeping might be the most difficult aspect of local government engagement with the open web. Councils must honour the State Records Act 1998. And it’s not as simple as just registering everything into your document management system.

As an amateur, it seems to me that the legislation probably needs to be looked at again in the light of a white Google search page. But social media cheerleaders (myself included) should also move beyond a simplistic shout for #gov2.0. Transparency and accountability are predicated on good recordkeeping, right?

It’s a fascinating technical challenge.

For a more informed view of the debate, I recommend Records Management in a Web 2.0 World by Steve Dale and the accompanying podcast.

PS I wonder how State Records are archiving their blog?

— b3rn   councils, recordkeeping   Jun 17, 10:36 PM   #   Comment [2]

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