Photo courtesy of He She It They I

We are all localists now.

So starts a new research report by IPPR exploring the political consensus around decentralisation and the barriers to achieving it in practice – Who’s accountable? The challenge of giving power away in a centralised political culture.

The researchers asked a representative sample who they regarded as accountable for the performance of public services. Across a range of services – health and policing, for example – no matter who is charge, the public placed responsibility firmly at the feet of government. However, in other cases – such as education and transport – accountability is more diffuse. Why?

The report considers a number of factors, but of particular importance seems to be good communication. When power is devolved, the lines of accountability must be made clear. The examples of devolution in Scotland and public transport make for interesting case studies in this respect.

However, in the report the authors write:

… ministers may be more inclined to give up powers where lines of accountability are clear and when they can be reassured that once they’ve let go, the public, the media and the oppoistion will accedpt that responsibility rests at the local level.

I do think the authors should have spent longer considering the important influence of party politics and media representation, alongside that of public attitudes and perceptions, in order to get the full picture.

Otherwise, it is an interesting and well set out piece of original research.

In the course of this week I have come across three things that so impressed me that I tweeted them.

Chances are, if you know my blog, then you also know my tweets, but if not:

• Introducing the ‘voicebot’

An installation in Parliament from Vinspired.com. Part of the Voicebox initiative – ‘a data visualisation project, curating young people’s views on issues that matter, visualising the findings, and then setting the data free for you to do the same.’

• Innovation and evaluation are inseparable

GOOD Magazine is hosting a blog-based conversation for participants from across the globe to explore innovative approaches to evaluation. Not surprisingly, it is good – very good.

• How to sell me stuff

Steph Gray is a digital specialist in the Civil Service and a patient man. But even he has his limits. Tired of cold calls and clumsy pitches, @lesteph has posted eight tips on how to sell him right. I’m ditto on all 8.

'Hidden Forms' by Hans Hansen

This photo is going to catch the eye of a blogger who calls his site ‘BasicCraft’.

It was taken by Hans Hansen for a book, Hidden Forms, by Franco Clivio.

I don’t know Clivio but his book is about anonymous designed objects: simple, functional, yet elegant and astoundingly. For Clivio the complexity of the design process is best demonstrated, not by design objects, but on the basis of things from everyday life.

My sentiments exactly.

Found via Creative and Live.

'Little voice inside' by Christoph Niemann

Sometimes you know you shouldn’t look but you’ve got to take a peek.

This and so many other fantastic illustrations are available on Christoph’s site – www.christophniemann.com.

* I gave it this title; I don’t know what Christoph actually titled it.

Phases of technology adoption in organisations

In 2004 – in Lithuania, of all places – Professor Stephen Coleman introduced me to a four-phase model for understanding how new technologies are adopted and influenced by organisations.

Don’t know if he came up with it directly but finding it beautifully simple and functional, I’ve used it countless times since to make sense of how technology use is developing in organisations I have worked for or with.

I was discussing it with Neil Williams over a cerveza recently, and decided to add a fifth phase that I’d like to share here.

Coleman’s four phases (note – I’ve tweaked the names, but not their essence) ran as follows:

hyperbole > resistance > institutionalisation > transformation
Here’s an explanation of each and an example drawn from the world of digital engagement:

1. Hyperbole… a new technology emerges and wows early adopters, whose interest generates intense speculation about what it could go on to achieve. Needless to say that achievement will be nothing short of revolutionary. Augmented reality and location-based services might be good examples.

2. Resistance… Cometh the hype, cometh the backlash. All the problems, bugs and costs come out and the risks mount up. Conservatism kicks in and the mission becomes defending against the technology or its implications. Crowdsourcing springs to mind.

3. Institutionalisation… The technology probably emerged on the basis of a genuine need and, during all the talk of the previous two phases, it has been debugged and improved. Either way, in the third phase the technology is picked up by the mainstream. But – this is crucial – the technology is put to use perpetuating an existing function. For me, data visualisation and commentable documents are currently at this phase.

4. Transformation… Despite being put to a defined, traditional use, once that technology is inside the organisation and being applied to core business, it begins to have a catalytic affect and creates wholly new dynamics. It changes interactions between staff, and staff and ‘customers’; it changes processes and base functions. Ultimately, new technology changes business. Microblogging is a very current example.

I don’t think it finishes there though. For me there is potentially a fifth phase:

hyperbole > resistance > institutionalisation > transformation > normalisation

5. Normalisation… Transformation builds and builds, hits a crescendo and then there is a segue into normalisation. Yesterday’s transformative technology becomes today’s standard, solid, conventional tool. Think email; think blogging.

Naturally, the transitions between these phases are blurs rather than snaps. And, much depends on a range of external factors. Nonetheless, I think that this is a handy model for routine [non-academic] mapping and analysis.

Any thoughts on its validity? Does it chime with you?

Any thoughts where particular applications, types of tools or organisations are on the spectrum?

'Ceci n'est pas une pipe'* by Kevin Van Aelst

Spotted this on the NYT site and it made me chuckle.

It’s a great example of the photographic art of Kevin Van Aelst.

Go check out his site; he’s got great vision.

* I gave it this title; I don’t know what Kevin actually titled it.

'Spanners' by Ross Ferguson

Recommendations for some highly-rated free tools I have been coming in handy at work recently:

Screengrab!
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1146

No Photoshop to edit a ‘Print Screen’ capture? Screengrab is a Firefox add-on that captures what you can see in the bowser, either the entire page, just a selection, or a particular frame. It saves the capture as a decent sized JPG that can then be dropped in a doc to go up to the boss or over to the client.

Screenr
www.screenr.com

Got wind of this on Mashable the other day. I’ve used a number of screen-recording tools before, but Screenr is really slick and the files are a decent size. Perfect for recording an instructional video to walk a colleague or client through an unfamiliar set-up.

dotSUB
www.dotsub.com

Need to add subtitles to a video? With nothing to buy or download, dotSUB is a browser-based tool enabling subtitling of videos on the web into and from any language. Highly recommended for an all-too-familiar tricky requirement. They even have ‘Scots’ language on there, though nothing has been uploaded yet. Race you!

'Ballena' by Pablo Amargo

A whale with four guys using its fluke as a canoe… why not?

You can check out Pablo Amargo’s other works at www.pabloamargo.com.

I’ve been working in the Central Office of Information for just short of 9 months.

I work on an array of the digital media projects, but the area I value most is the use of social media to enable engagement.

It is in the area that I see Government undertaking some of its most open and purposeful innovation. And, I think the fruits of that activity are up there with the very best from the consumer, educational and media sectors.

There’s always more work to be done, but I wanted to draw attention to ten current examples set to advance our understanding and capacity.

[In no particular order...]

1. UK Trade and Investment – LinkedIn Group

www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1769629&trk=anet_ug_hm

A clever use of LinkedIn for stakeholder engagement. The UKTI LinkedIn group brings together trade and investment experts and businesses. It offers knowledge, insight, support and facilitates connections. The group is open to worldwide businesses of any size, sector, or level of international trade.

2. Business, Innovation and Skills – Science: [So What? So everything]

www.sciencesowhat.direct.gov.uk

BIS is the Muhammad Ali of the Government’s heavyweight digital engagement division – tireless, fleet of foot and inventive. I could have selected any of a number of examples but I’ve gone for Science: [So What? So everything] because it is a campaign about to go through change. Expect to see clever use of community to amplify existing UK science content online, and agile use of tools to light up user-pathways to everything from careers to events.

3. Department for International Development – ‘Building Our Common Future’ White Paper

www.dfid.gov.uk/About-DFID/Quick-guide-to-DFID/How-we-do-it/Building-our-common-future

Steph Gray said it most succinctly on his blog ‘this is a sign of the future for major white papers – blending the downloadable PDF with a package of summary versions, background info, video and materials for people who want to engage around the issues online.’ Based on these solid beginnings expect more advances in this area. Have a look at the accompanying SMNR while you are at it.

4. Cabinet Office – Civil Service Jobs API

www.civilservice.gov.uk/developers/index.aspx

The Civil Service site brings all public sector jobs online into one place. But it hasn’t stopped there; there is also the Civil Service Job Service API for government departments to use and incorporate onto their own sites. This is a great example of cross-government collaboration. It has even spawned an iPhone App, which I admit I haven’t used (well, I’ve no use for it do I), produced by Aspire Media.

5. Downing Street – Twitter

www.twitter.com/DowningStreet

1,089,557 followers at the time of writing. Regular, consistent, engaging tweets. Nuff said.

6. Ministry of Defence – Defence Bloggers

www.blogs.mod.uk/homepage.html

‘Defence Headquarters’ already has an impressive track record in use of social media. As this portal page demonstrates, blogs, YouTube and Twitter are being used by a range of staff from press officers to squaddies. MoD has recently developed excellent guidance to help staff navigate between their personal, sponsored and official online profiles; so I anticipate the MoD list growing in length and sophistication.

7. Cabinet Office – Data.gov.uk

http://data.gov.uk/

Nothing much to see at the moment, but with Tim Berners-Lee installed as Information Advisor and departments – like the Home Office – surfacing data sets, we should see some significant movement in the coming months.

8. Cabinet Office – DirDigEng Blog

http://blogs.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/digitalengagement

Off to a cautious start, but with occasional guest-posts from officials like Neil Williams, this blog is set to become the most important touch-point for anyone keen to keep up with digital goings-on across government.

9. DirectGov – Innovate

http://innovate.direct.gov.uk

An excellent platform to enable collaboration with developer communities. In addition to the team blog, you can submit examples of innovative apps or ideas for apps that could be developed. I expect this to be the first of many such initiatives across government; although based as it is on DirectGov, this platform ought to become a focal point for citizen-focused apps. There is already some great to stuff to check out.

10. Foreign & Commonwealth Office – Digital Diplomacy Blog

http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/hale/

Given Gordon Brown’s pronouncement (at TED Global 2009) that ‘technology means that foreign policy will never be the same‘, the work of the Office of Digital Diplomacy at the FCO has taken on even greater importance. Stephen Hale is the Head of Engagement there, and his blog is consistently insightful – ranging across evaluation, tools, policies and all with a unique foreign policy lens.

If you know of examples that ought to have been on the list, leave a comment.

• Tweeting all the way to the bank

Push too hard for revenue in the short term, they might drive away users, undermining a network. Leave it too late to monetise and the business could collapse.

Social media – is it about money or people?

[From The Economist]

• The Irresistible Illusion

There are no self-evident connections between the key objectives of counter-terrorism, development, democracy/ state-building and counter-insurgency. Counter-insurgency is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for state-building.

Rory Stewart knows Afghanistan, and this essay is a expert analysis of the problems with the Afghan ‘mission’; it is a pity that his solution to the problem is not as clear as his diagnosis of the problem.

[From the London Review of Books]

• What went wrong with economics

Of all the economic bubbles that have been pricked, few have burst more spectacularly than the reputation of economics itself.

A spirited but balanced defence of the dismal science.

[From The Economist]