On my desktop this week… ‘Between Red-39′ by Sea Hyun Lee

'Between Red-39' by Sea Hyun Lee

This stood out at first because it evoked thoughts of a mystical mountanous lost world created by a collage; then it reminded me of Chinese restaurants (?!); then I was surprised to discover it was done in oils on canvas.

What a feat of artistry! I think it’s wonderful.

The talent in question Sea Hyun Lee. You can gaze over more of the ‘Red Between’ series on the Union Gallery site.

Think I first saw it on ffffound.

The UK Online in 2009

• Are you an average web user?
• What makes some people upgrade their connection, while others don’t even have dial up?
• Why do some people think they spend too much time online?
• Why do so many of us trust what we read on the web?

These questions answered and more by the 2009 Oxford Internet Survey produced by Oii.

On my desktop this week… ‘They’ by Micah Lidberg

'They' by Micah Lidberg

Mixed-media eerieness from Kansas City, illustrator, Micah Lidberg.

Desktop selections have being pretty ‘dark’ lately.

On my desktop this week… ‘Crows’ from Suzuki MotoDen by Louise Z Pomeroy

'Crows' by Louise Z Pomeroy

Louise Z Pomeroy is a fantastic young illustrator whose stuff is all a bit subtly twisted and distrubing. I picked this out because it was one of the least edgy options that would be suitable for my office, and also because corvids are my favourite family of birds. That OK?

Hat-tip to Booooooom for the find.

What did the London Summit achieve?

Evaluation has always been important to digital engagement – what did you set out to achieve, did you get there, what metrics did you use to reach that conclusion?

There is a particularly big push on at the moment because Andrew Stott, the new Director of Digital Engagement, has indicated that identifying ‘best practice’ in this area as one of his early priorties.

At a recent Heads of Digital Engagement meeting, Stephen Hale, Head of Digital Diplomacy at FCO, gave a thorough, frank and superbly produced evaluation of the digital engagement activity around the recent London Summit.

The London Summit evaluation report – the numbers, the performance indicators, the channel combinations and user surveys – has been published on the Summit website.

Anyone who is interested in evaluation of digital engagement ought to read the report, particularly ahead of running any big set-piece events that combine the on- and the offline. That said, they don’t come much bigger than the London Summit.

For more of a ‘snapshot’ of day-to-day digital engagement activity, check out the results of Emma Mulqueeny’s tweet-round, which captured what various departments, agencies and local government authorities use on a daily basis to work with and in response to the media.

On my desktop this week… ‘Occipital Prolapse’ by James Roper

'Occipital Prolapse' by James Roper

Hypermass!

More from James Roper at www.jroper.co.uk.

Evaluation of ‘Improving Government Online’ Review

COI ran a consultative review of guidance on measuring website costs, quality and usage. The Review started on 27 March 2009 and ran for a period of three weeks under the banner of ‘Improving Government Online’.

Due to the fact that the proposed end-users of the guidance were already well-disposed to the use of collaborative editing tools online and because of the successes of other ‘early adopter’ departments, the Digital Policy Review team was persuaded of the value in trying a new approach to reviewing that used a range of ‘social media’ applications to place the draft documents in the public domain for open review and comment.

I advised on the applications to use and their set up (reporting the process in an earlier post). I also a carried out an evaluation independently of the Review team, so as to capture not only their own specific experience but to also to encourage wider evaluation and critique of the use of ‘commentable’ or ‘interactive’ documents was by government reviews and consultations.

Headlines

1. The format of the Review attracted participation by a small, knowledgeable group of end-users;
2. The new Review format generated a greater number of comments that provided a more precise set of amendments for the Review team to consider;
3. The Review team was unfamiliar with the format but quickly found their rhythm and became more confident;
4. The Review team will use the format for future reviews because it strengthened the quality of the guidance and made the process easier despite generating greater traffic than usual;
5. Future use of this review format would be welcomed by participants and spectators who interacted with this exercise.
6. The format allowed the Review team to indicate where they made specific amendments to the guidance as a result of reviewer input.