links for 2009-07-11

• Groundswell – social web consumer profile
  Social web consumer profile by age, gender and country.
  (tags: socialmedia tools research marketing social web2.0 socialnetworking tool metrics)

links for 2009-07-10

• Openly Local
  A They Work for You for local government. Nice addition to the landscape
  (tags: gov2.0 localgovernment councillors)
• Opening up local government data – a local TheyWorkForYou « countculture
  (tags: councillors gov2.0 transparency localgovernment)

links for 2009-07-09

• Should a Social Media Editor Use Social Media?
  Ummmm – yes. We need to be very careful who we hire if we jump on the social media bandwagon in local government.
  (tags: socialmedia MSM NYT)
• Google – Local Government
  Using Google products for local government… Interesting.
  (tags: google localgovernment gov2.0 advertising promotion analytics)

links for 2009-07-08

• formbyplan – home
  Formby Parish council community plan…on a wiki!
  (tags: wiki parishes gov2.0 sean+brady)
• The Cost of a Dysfunctional Community | Above and Beyond KM
  Don't sneer at the concept of knowledge sharing, until you've counted the cost of disfunctional community
  (tags: KM knowledge.management community facilitation open)

A councillors guide to social media (outline only!)

I’m starting to draft a short guide for councillors and social media – based on the Councillors connected: social media online conference (just published a draft conference summary here; sign-in required), the recent LocalGovCamp session on councillors and social media.   It will be published in short hard-copy format and a more expansive and linkety web resource.

And, of course, I’ll be drawing on a host of wonderful resources that are already out there – such as the recently published Social by Social, LGIU’s recent discussion paper, Civic Surf’s blogging resources and the wisdom of the social media localgov crowd (I’ll be trawling through your SlideShare presentations and blogposts, but please, please, please feel free to drop any useful resources in the comments section.)

I’m going to try to do this in a social media way – sharing drafts as I go, maybe even a wiki!

Here’s my jotted down outline, for a start?  Any suggestions?

What is social media?

A brief explanation of what social media is, and I’m thinking about including something based on the 10 social media myths for local government

Conversation with communities

A section about the benefits of social media in connecting with communities, creating conversations, identifying issues that area already being talked about and using that to create “customer insight” to improve services and enrich local democratic engagement.
Getting started in social media

Dipping your toes in the water…

Campaigning and social media

How social media can be used to campaign on issues or for office.

A few social media tools…and how councillors and councils are using them

Outline explanation of some of the popular social media tools, how they can be used, especially in the context of local government (with some real life examples)

Building engagement

Fellow councillors, party members and council officers may not be on the social media bandwagon.  Steps for overcoming resistance.  (Not sure I really know what to do with this one!)
A word of warning

How you can avoid trouble in social media… e.g. how gaffes and faux pas can be magnified by social media, falling foul of the code of conduct, a bit of netiquette? and the risks of not engaging at all.

Sources of support

A bit of signposting to further resources…

links for 2009-07-07

• CivicSurf » NALC to get really Local Councillors online
  Shane McCracken highlights some of Justin Grigg's excellent aspirations to get parish councillors online. It's the really local that really counts.
  (tags: shane+mccracken civic.surf blogging councillors parishes justin+griggs)
• FutureGov » Features » How we learn to stop worrying and love local government: FutureGov does its bit to help Reboot Britain
  Excellent session yesterday with lots of great contributors. Emer Coleman's presentation was top form and Dom's vox pop film of local gov opinions is ace (at the link).
  (tags: localgovernment dominic+campbell emer+colemen)
• 1 rule and 6 steps to embracing Social Media in Local Government « Carl’s Notepad
  (tags: socialmedia localgovernment carl+haggerty)

links for 2009-07-01

• Denham outlines plan to renew local democracy – Corporate – Communities and Local Government
  MAAs, city regions and restoring trust in political life
  (tags: clg localgovernment John+Denham)
• Public Strategy: Information powers on
  Reflections on Australian Gov2.0 efforts…it's the people.
  (tags: gov2.0 engagement citizen2.0 citizen Australia)
• Update on digital engagement in Home Office « Emma Mulqueeny
  Good stuff from Emma.
  (tags: socialmedia twitter digital engagement government Home.Office)
• Walking straight into it…. « Lords of the Blog
  LOL from the House of Lords
  (tags: politics just-for-fun)
• Building Britain’s Future: the next step to better policy discussion online at Helpful Technology
  Promoting engagement when a policy is not a consultation.
  (tags: consultation web2.0 gov2.0 policy engagement)
• Stephen Hale – Yammer in the Foreign Office
  Some thoughts on Twitter, Yammer and interactivity.
  (tags: knowledge tools twitter Yammer stephen+hale FCO)
• Evaluating Online Participation Web 2.0 Engagement
  Alice Casey's slideshare looking at mixed methods for evaluating online engagement. Something we need to do more of. (Via DavePress)
  (tags: engagement online participation web2.0)

links for 2009-06-30

• LGiU-SocialNetworking.pdf (application/pdf Object)
  (tags: socialmedia government uk web2.0 localgovernment)

Holiday snaps

I’ve been back for over a week, but I’m only just now getting around to uploading my holiday snaps.  My mother was visiting from the US a couple of weeks ago and we took a quick trip across the channel and up to Bruges.

I’ve always wanted to see Bruges and it is indeed a beautiful city.  We took a boat trip on the canals and a horse and buggy ride round the city.  Our driver gave us historic tidbits about Bruges in clipped tones, we got the last buggy ride of the day and I think he had preferred to just go home.

When we passed the town hall, I said “Oh, we must go there.”  I said it in a semi-sarcastic tone, not because I didn’t want to go, but because I did.  I wanted to cover my town hall “trainspotting” tendencies with a bit of faux-irony.

“Yes, Madam, you must go there,”  the driver said, a bit affronted by my apparent disdain of their civic monument.

“Oh, we will go there.  She means it.  We’ll all have to go,” my husband and my mother informed the driver wearily.   My husband especially has been dragged through many a foreign city hall.

And, of course, we went to the city hall in Bruges.  It’s a fantastic building, a tribute to their trading riches and civic power.   It’s not exactly a working town hall.  The mayor and members of the top team seem to have offices in the building and there were meeting rooms, but there were no public facing services beyond the display of the building itself and a museum of the city.

There was an interesting painting in the hallway of Napoleon and the Mayor of Bruges.  The mayor was wearing his civic regalia and a cocky smirk – as if to say “Ha, ha…you may be Napoleon with all your centralised power, but I am the Mayor of Bruges.  In my world, we set our own taxes and spending and have locally determined priorities.”

An unsatisfactory central-local settlement

But then I noticed that the mayor’s face had been cut out of the picture and then later restored (it was less apparent in the dimly lit hallway than in the photo.)  I pointed this out to my husband and a French tourist (who was wearing some of those audio-phone things for people who are curious but not as cheap as we are ) explained the whole story to me.  Only he explained in French and my French is rubbish, but I did manage to pick up that there had been a falling out between the mayor and Napoleon and the mayor had been decapite.  In life, as in art.

So much for locally determined priorities.

links for 2009-06-25

• P E O P L E P O I N T S: Digital Britain – and the ones who say no thanks – OxIS, 2009
  Digital divide is attitudinal?
  (tags: digital.empowerment digital.inclusion digital.britain)