Stap isi

25 August 2010

The big payback

Why participate on the web? Web metrics give you some of the story – visitor numbers, content accessed – but how do you quantify trust? And how do you explain to senior staff the benefits of participating online in the first place?

Social Web – Reputation Management Cycles diagram by Laurel Papworth – CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

I’ve used this graphic many times to help get the point across.

— b3rn   community, the persuader, trust   Aug 25, 11:46 AM   #   Comment [1]

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

3 January 2009

A daily dose of strategic accountability

Here’s a great interview with a city manager who blogs.

Kent 360 has become an essential part of my job, as it gives me a chance to share information and insights that aren’t always evident from media coverage. Plus, I believe it helps create an atmosphere of trust as residents can see that we’re trying to be as transparent as possible, and trust is the foundation of local government.

One of the surprising benefits of the blog is the way it forces me to constantly look and talk about what we’re doing, what we need to be doing, what other cities are doing, and other ways to achieve our objectives.

My blog is like a daily dose of strategic accountability that makes me continuously reassess the alignment of what we’re working on in the short term with our long term goals. Even in preparing the stories, I am forced to constantly think about our strategic priorities and what I’m doing to effect change.

With our busy lives, it is easy to let the little things in life take precedence. The blog creates a framework that challenges me to explain how the little things contribute to bigger things; and if they don’t, it becomes fairly obvious once I am forced to explain it on the blog. Of course, the readers let me know when I stray too far.

It’s good to read a real world appraisal of social media tools:

I want to add that blogs make our jobs both harder (from a time perspective) and easier (the more people understand the issues, the better the quality of community decision making).

Dave Ruller hits many of the points made by Steven Schwartz, Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University, in this August 2008 article in The Australian.

Might send both links to the boss on Monday.

— b3rn   blogging, trust   Jan 3, 11:02 PM   #   Comment

16 December 2008

Guidelines for local government employees online

Although we’re bound by Codes of Conduct and the like, we’ve yet to write guidelines for NSW local government employees online.

Fortunately a number of draft and formal guidelines have been published by government agencies both here and abroad.

• Interim protocols for online media participation – Australian Public Service Commission
• Draft guidance for New Zealand State servants using social media – State Services Commission, N.Z.
• In Development – an SSC blog: Staff Contribution Guidelines (PDF) – State Services Commission, N.Z.
• Social media policies – do you have one? – NSW Public Libraries
• Principles for participation online – Civil Service, U.K.
• Draft social media and online participation policy and guidelines – Devon County Council, U.K.

How about we set up a collaborative space to write a general set of guidelines under a Creative Commons licence that Councils could freely adapt?

— b3rn   blogging, guidelines, trust   Dec 16, 08:49 PM   #   Comment [6]

17 October 2008

The case for social media #2: Trust

Demos, the think tank for ‘everyday democracy’, has a report online called State of Trust: How to build better relationships between councils and the public. It looks at what they call the “worryingly low levels of public trust” in politics and democratic institutions.

It’s worth paying attention to Demos because their methodology is good. That is, they talk to lots of real people.

Many of their recommendations for improving that level of trust could include social media components.

Continued...

— b3rn   blogging, identity, the persuader, trust   Oct 17, 10:05 PM   #   Comment