Stap isi

16 July 2009

We have a problem

A U.K. report (PDF) suggests that while people are happier with where they live, local authorities are getting none of the credit.

Satisfaction with council is down.

But – “no councils that communicate well are poorly rated overall.”

Dominic Campbell asks the question:

Crisis in confidence in local government driven by crisis in communication?

Last year Demos worked in four local authorities, and came to a similar conclusion about the importance of being seen to be communicating.

People’s perceptions of decisions, and of their fairness, seem likely to be formed by a wider range of factors, including a sense that their voice and opinion was heard and a sense that the decision was subjected to strong scrutiny. This means that the way a decision is communicated, discussed and scrutinised by backbenchers may be at least as important as the outcome of that decision.

I’m not suggesting that we focus on presentation to the detriment of process. But we really need to sweat the small stuff.

— b3rn   engagement, listening, trust   Jul 16, 10:25 PM   #   Comment

19 April 2009

The Muppet - Superman Continuum

By Councillor James Cousins of the London Borough of Wandsworth.

“My central contention is that online engagement is about being yourself online and, therefore, learning to use new tools rather than changing your behaviour.”

Prepared for Councillors Connected, an online conference exploring how councils and councillors can use social media to communicate with and engage communities, effectively deliver services and empower local people, facilitated this month by the UK Improvement and Development Agency for local government (IDeA). You will need to register to get access to the rich vein of materials.

This video is an excellent accompaniment to the CivicSurf documentary.

— b3rn   councillors, engagement, listening, politicians, tools, trust   Apr 19, 10:05 PM   #   Comment

9 December 2008

Local information awareness

Or Bodging up a D.I.Y. DARPA for your LGA.

It’s a good idea to monitor mentions of your council and local area.

• You can learn a lot just by listening.
• You can respond to questions or issues in a timely fashion. (There’s also a growing expectation from people online that their comments about services or products will be picked up. Some companies respond to mentions with unsolicited customer support, on Twitter for example.)
• Internally you can promote the use of the net for community engagement and service delivery by raising awareness of the conversations happening there daily.

Here is one approach to automating the task, using Yahoo! Pipes to aggregate, filter and sort information from multiple sites and sources.

Continued...

— b3rn   listening, search   Dec 9, 09:57 PM   #   Comment [1]