BASIC CRAFT

Alex Stobart emailed me about Show Us A Better Way - a competition set up by the UK Government to encourage ideas for data mash-ups.

There’s a £20k fund to allocated across one or a series of winning ideas. In a presentation to Tom Watson, I recommended five pots of up to £15k each, which I still stand by as a more appealing and sustainable prospect for entrants.

But this is a good start and will no doubt evolve over time. I’d recommend the POI Task Force pay keen attention to the likes the BBC Innovation Labs if they are going to pursue this year on year.

After a long slog, the Cabinet Office has released its ‘Principles for participation online‘.

These principles formed one small part of a larger piece of guidance I researched and wrote with the COI at the end of 2007. I really enjoyed working on it and have been eagerly waiting to see how it would turn out after coming through the necessary bureaucracy.

They went through a number of drafts but I think that the 5 that ‘made the grade’ are sensible.

For curiosity/reference, the following are the original 10 principles as they stood when I passed over the completed guidance. They are written with civil servants in mind, but I think they’re good advice for anybody finding/sharing/collaborating via social media:

General

1. Be involved… The lifeblood of social media is information and interaction. You will get as much out of it as you put in.

2. Be versatile… Social media needs facilitation and leadership, but there is also a lot of value in participating and spectating as a community member.

3. Be credible… Trust is an important currency in a social media space. Trust can be developed through consistency, thoroughness, accuracy, fairness and transparency.

4. Be constructive… A positive contribution to social media can be made through the provision of facts and figures, and by encouraging constructive criticism and deliberation.

5. Be responsive… The social media space is often informal and conversational. Be cordial, honest and professional at all times. Avoid jargon where possible.

Specific

1. Be official… You should not make commitments or engage in activities on behalf of HM Government unless you are explicitly authorised to do so and have management approval and/or delegations.

2. Be legal… Do not post anything on your blog online that you would not say in public. Standard Civil Service proprietary and ethics apply. Be aware of libel, defamation, copyright and data protection (for more information on legal issues refer to ‘Appendix 1’).

3. Be a representative… Always disclose your position and interest as a representative of the Government. Unless a site demands anonymity, use your real name and provide basic details about your role, team and agency/department/office. Never give out personal details (such as date of birth, home address, home telephone number, etc.).

4. Be realistic… Don’t over-stretch. Social media is more effective and manageable as a team-based activity than an individual pursuit.

5. Be integrated… Wherever possible, social media activity should be should be integrated and aligned with other online communications and offline activity.

Now that we have these principles, let’s now have some action. And that’s where the rest of the guidance - the big bit - comes into play…

Have been thinking about analogies ahead of a presentation I’m to give on eDemocracy in the UK. And with our domestic football season coming to an end, I’ve been thinking along footballing lines and playing about with this angle…

If we think of the web or politics as having football-like leagues, then taking an interest in eDemocracy is remarkably like following a lower-league team. (more…)

A friend of mine sent me an article by Stephen F. King in eGov Monitor. It’s a balanced, insightful review of FixMyStreet, a website produced by data-fiddlers, MySociety.

Funny coincidence, because I’d been getting increasingly pissed off by fly-tipping on my street and the failure of the local council to clear it (despite the fact that street cleaning staff pass it daily). Glasgow City Council’s own online reporting service is so very flat, form-based and practically impossible to find that my mind turned to alternatives.

FixMyStreet is one such ‘community problem reporter’ service. And I heard about another called Community Fix, offered up by Dial Media Group.

The big difference between them is in the looks department - Community Fix has a far better user interface and uses Google Maps which helps, whereas FixMyStreet is simple and functional but very brown and seems to be using quite outdated maps.

The big similarity between them is that neither service can guarantee that the problem will get fixed.

I think this is the fundamental flaw in both. Both sites have good technology going on, but they haven’t thought through the process as well as they could. (more…)

Another shout from this blog to the Economist, this time for its special edition on technology and government.

On the whole a well-written feature which takes in a range of international case studies; the real value of which is to be found in its brevity amidst otherwise verbose analysis.

One aspect I liked was this idea of ‘government in competition’ or, more accurately, government lacking competition that would make it strive for better effectiveness and efficiencies. In the nearby blogosphere, Simon Dickson also raises this facet of the feature and goes along with its conclusions.

I also appreciated this ‘government in competition’ thesis, but was surprised that the author of the feature (or the usually very savvy editors) didn’t take it in a different direction. (more…)

Today was sizing up to be an important day. ‘eDemocracy Scotland: Creating a National Conversation?‘ was going to Scotland’s first ever eDemocracy conference and I was going to be there giving a presentation on the nation’s readiness for an e-enabled polity. But it didn’t come off - pulled due to a lack of tickets sales.

So is that the ‘national conversation’ over? Far from it! In fact, I’m going to up the ante.

Back in the day, Scottish eDemocracy was looked upon as an example of best practice by British and international peers. Now we’re lapsed - a straggler, a wee bit backward even. But the opportunity to get back to the front has not passed us by. We can be a crucible of democratic innovation again - if our Government and Parliament get their acts together.

So I am going to issue the Scottish Government and Parliament with three challenges (I’ve got more but let’s start slowly):

1. Set up ‘Democratic Innovations’ Funds available to Scottish businesses, VCOs and universities. Set aside a small annual budget for up to 10 small-scale pilots over a period of at least 5 years. This would be managed by participation teams in both the Government and Parliament and awarded on a competitive basis in allotments of up to £15k. Evaluations should be carried out for each pilot, and made available in the public domain.
2. Run a ‘Holyrood 360′ exercise - a pilot where the Government would set up an online community of stakeholders and/or members of the public, consult them on a particular Green Paper, then again at White Paper stage and when the Bill goes over to Parliament the community is opened up to MSPs to consult with. From there, both Government and Parliament should be able to engage with the community at various stages of the policy cycle as they, respectively, carry out their reviews and scrutiny. I wrote about this idea in more detail in the January 2008 edition of Parliamentary Affairs.
3. Establish an annual ‘Engagement Register’ containing a set of desirable and achievable awareness and participation targets for the year ahead and the results of the previous year’s activity. The Hansard Society’s ‘Audit of Political Engagement‘ has a useful set of six indicators that could get you started. Of course, the evaluation would need to be carried out by an independent body.

By teaming up in these ways Government and Parliament can spread the burden and send out a clear message to the Scottish people about their commitment and transparency. (more…)

Seems like the National Archives went it alone and got a Government BarCamp off-the-ground. Kudos - though pity it was done on the quiet.

Michael Cross has penned a nice account - essential reading for anyone attending or interested in the upcoming BarcampUKGovweb on Saturday. Their Barcamp wiki is still online.

I’m a Barcamp drop-out - it’s official.

BarcampUKGovweb takes place on Saturday 26th and I was planning to be there, meeting people, having a good time and maybe even solving a few issues the government has with the web. Instead I’m off to my friend Michael Raftery’s stag weekend (it’s going to be a blinder!).

So I wish everyone going to BarCamp the best, I urge them to use the day to make a constructive contribution, and I’d like to give a shout to Jeremy and Michelle for all the work they’ve put into it.

If, like me, you are interested in what goes down on the day, go to the wiki page where you can find all the details and a list of those people who will be blogging from the event.