Stap isi

29 September 2009

The twain shall meet

If government is the most interesting new tech startup of 2009 give some credit – especially in local government – to web workers within the institutions themselves. They have mostly been acting on their own initiative (and against the stereotype of the risk averse public servant). They are usually anonymous, but are driving change from below.

Of course the digital activists working outside of government have been crucial. MySociety are the classic example but I’m also thinking of Nick Booth and social media surgeries, Shane McCracken and the CivicSurf project and Will Perrin’s Talk About Local.

Now look what’s happening in England’s second city…

Continued...

— b3rn   councils, uninstitutions, web teams   Sep 29, 06:23 AM   #   Comment [2]

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]

6 April 2009

Introducing LGi a.k.a. Local Government Eye

• Update 2010-01-11 Today I turned off the Pipes and both Twitter accounts are now inactive. Twitter’s new Lists feature provides similar (and better) functionality. Follow twitter.com/b3rn/ozgovlocal or make your own!

I’ve set up a couple of Twitter accounts that aggregate and relay tweets from Local Government Authorities in Australia and their elected representatives:

• OzGovLocal
• OzGovLocalClrs

If you’re a Council (or Shire or Town or Borough…) or a Councillor, follow the relevant Twitter account above, and you’ll be followed back – automatically adding you to the stream.

Credit to Barry Earnshaw in the UK, whose Pipe I cloned.

For more on Oz LG, see:

• Local government in Australia – Wikipedia
• Councils on the web – Australian Local Government Association

— b3rn   community of practice, councillors, councils, twitter   Apr 6, 07:49 AM   #   Comment