Recommended reading… what China will do next, the failure of humanitarian intervention and a vision for online consultation

Here’s what’s been keeping me enthralled on the commute this week…

1. With China projected to overtake the United States in terms of economic output within the next ten years, many commentators are again speaking of a new ‘Asian century’ and the ‘decline of the West’. At Chatham House recently, Niall Ferguson drew on the last 600 years of world history to offer an insight into the changing global balance in terms not only of economics but also of geopolitics and ‘soft power’. Transcripts, video and audio are on http://chathamhouse.org.uk/events/view/-/id/1945/.

2. Adam Curtis consistently causes me think again about what I think I know. His new documentary series, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace is classic Curtis fare: sinsiter music + archive footage + dogma + elites perpetrating that dogma + scathing critique = licence fee well spent. But I am an even bigger fan of his blog, and this article on the ‘idea of humanitarian intervention‘ I found provocative against the backdrop of Mladic’s arrest, extradition and trial.

3. Consultation is a ‘set piece’ of government. Doing it better online is a coalition commitment. But how? As well as tackling search, usability and agile development on a centralised government website, an Alphagov sub-team also turned their attentions to consultation and policy engagement. What they came up with was a succint and persuasive proposal that deserves attention and further development, particularly what it has to say about ‘layering’. There’s an introduction from Neil Williams and a copy of the deck on the Alphagov project blog- http://blog.alpha.gov.uk/blog/a-vision-for-online-consultation-and-policy-engagement.

Stuff what I has been reading: 01/03/10 – 08/03/10

'b is for: books - my path to personal freedom' by samie.shake

I have been most engrossed in the following essential reading which you may also ‘enjoy’:

1. ‘The Challenge of Co-production‘ by David Boyle and Michael Harris for nef and NESTA

www.neweconomics.org/publications/challenge-co-production

‘Our public services face an unprecedented set of challenges… Reform can’t confront these challenges effectively; radical innovation in public services now needs to move from the margins to the mainstream. The question is what analysis and principles should inform this radical innovation.’

The answer, argued in this discussion paper, is co-production. It defines co-production and sets out an emerging sector through case studies in order to build a better understanding and stronger evidence base for a method that asks both those delivering and using services to contribute in equal measure.

2. ‘Report on Departments‘ by the Better Government Initiative

www.bettergovernmentinitiative.co.uk/sitedata/misc/BGI-Report-on-departments—rev-25-Nov.pdf

‘The quality of Departments’ work depends on their ‘human capital’, built up over a long period through appropriate recruitment, career management and training practices. The Centre has an important input to make in all of these areas.’

The Better Government Initiative aims to canvass the widest possible range of views, and to publish concrete recommendations which will be of practical interest not only to all three major parties, but also to the public more widely. The ‘Report on Departments‘ provides an interesting insight into the balance between the Centre and Departments, and makes a series of cross-cutting recommendations to optimise their relationship.

3. ‘7th Annual Audit of Political Engagement‘ by the Hansard Society

www.hansardsociety.org.uk/blogs/publications/archive/2010/03/03/the-7th-annual-audit-of-political-engagement.aspx

‘The seventh annual Audit of Political Engagement, is the most important since the series was launched in 2004. It is published after a horrendous year for Parliament and just ahead of a general election.’

The Audit of Political Engagement series is a longitudinal study, providing an annual benchmark to measure political engagement in the UK. Each Audit presents the findings from a public opinion poll survey, providing detailed commentary on a range of indicators that have been chosen as key measures. These indicators enable tracking year on year the direction and magnitude of change since the Audit was first published in 2004.

Walking the walk

Inspired by colleagues in DIUS, BERR and POI Taskforce, I’ve been working with a small team at COI (Adam Bailin, Seb Crump and Tiffany St James) to quickly pull together some social media activity around the consultative review on the UK government’s guidance on improving its websites.

It’s the first time we’ve had a go at a corporate level, so we’re evaluating it as we go.

I pulled a short briefing together on what we are doing, where and why; I thought it would be worth sharing for anyone who is interested in the background…

Background
The Transformational Government Digital Policy Team is opening its TG116 (‘Measuring website usage’) and TG128 (‘Measuring website costs’) guidance to stakeholder review.

The exercise has been identified as an opportunity to evaluate ways in which social media can facilitate the Review.

Purpose
This will be the first time that COI has used the social media for the purposes of a consultative review.

It is projected that using social media in this way will open the Review out to a wider pool of participants, offer a more efficient means of facilitating the Review, provide the process with greater transparency and produce a stronger end-product.

The pilot will help COI capture and measure activity and results. The resulting evaluation will then be available to inform future practice (by COI and other departments).

Define, don’t emulate… Thoughts on the UK Government’s Director of Digital Engagement post

The UK Government is about to hire a new Director of Digital Engagement. The submission deadline for applicants will pass in a few days time.

Whoever gets it will find the gig well-attended but demanding. They are going to have to play a long and blindingly brilliant set. It’s make or break. Pull it off and digital engagement goes mainstream; fluff it and it’s back to support slots on the campus circuit.

Just four years ago, when I started working with Government on digital engagement projects, you could count the people who were interested on two hands, easy. Today, digital engagement is known to every layer of government, factored into most communications and is building a head of steam in the policy-making process. True it’s still quite innovative and niche, but those in the vanguard are in demand and earn respect.

In some ways we may have come too far. At times I am sceptical of the value in an out-and-out Director of Digital Engagement. I think my preference would be for a Director of Engagement who has no bias toward on- or offline, with perhaps a Head of Digital working for them. A time-limited taskforce working with departments to stimulate practice, build core capacity and promote evaluation would also have worked well.

I’m also apprehensive about parts of the job description, particularly the target of ‘two departments whose use of digital engagement are recognised in the digital community as being world class’. Why only two? Why digital community recognition and not citizen satisfaction? And, in the absence of consensus on ‘best practice’ digital engagement in any sector, how is ‘world class’ defined?

Scepticism aside, the appointment will be an exciting moment. I count the creation of this post as one of the rays of recognition dawning across our democracy about the importance of digital media to good governance. It feels good to bask in that light. It’s an amazing job – high profile, focussed and hugely significant. I, for one, can’t wait for them to get started.

On that note, here is a suggestion to the new Director of Digital Engagement for six quick-wins:

• Don’t emulate, define… no government can claim it is ‘world class’ at digital engagement – no, not even the Obama Administration. The opportunity to lead is right there for the taking (and sharing). That’s the winning state-of-mind.
• Plug in to analogue… good engagement is balanced engagement. It may not be as high-profile, but ‘offline’ engagement is brimming with innovations; so seek out your peers from other disciplines and integrate your efforts.
• Go walk about… before going out to the market, tour around the government departments and agencies and you will be encouraged by all the great digital work that is going on already. You’ll meet people deserving of credit, people who want to help you deliver on those lofty targets.
• Codify it… develop a charter that sets out the responsibilities of citizen- and government-users of digital engagement. In particular, reassure the public about the sanctity of their data, so that they are more wiling to share the good stuff that makes for more informed and efficient policies and services.
• Prioritise delivery… the communications and policy communities are pretty well-versed on digital engagement, ‘frontline’ delivery staff not so much. Their competency is absolutely key to winning over the public.
• Take regular readings… pre, interim and post-activity evaluation is going to be all important for determining and justifying what has been achieved. But remember, give departments time to pull the figures together and not all big numbers are good numbers.

For some further reflection and good advice, have a look at http://digitalengagement.uservoice.com.

And, if any of the interview panel read this: don’t be tempted by bullying ‘wonks’. Know-it-all, pseudo-counter-culturals are ten-a-penny in this field; let’s have someone who is dynamic, objective and positive to be around.

You gave us your money, now give us your feedback

Was part of a good discussion today about 1) highs-and-lows of the digital year [almost] gone and 2) hopes and fears for the year to come.

Barack Obama’s use of digital media featured highly in both. We spoke about our shared admiration for the election campaign, and our shared aspirations for what might happen after January 20th 2009.

What excites someone in my sort of role about what the new US Administration might do with digital, is how it might excite other leaders around the world and encourage them to keep pace.

Only time will tell if the adventurous, inclusive and integrated approach to digital we witnessed during the presidential campaign will translate to an average day in the White House. But I think the portents are positive.

Where there’s a will…

Tonight is the Hansard Society’s eDemocracy event in the Scottish Parliament, and on Friday its the Scot Web 2 Conference at Edinburgh University.

I was looking forward to attending both, but I’m going make neither. Illness in the family.

I want to apologise to Alex Stobart in particular for dropping out because I was due to be leading one of the sessions.

At both events I wanted to make some time for discussing the issue of political will for engagement, and more specifically online engagement.

Is there the will amongst our politicians to involve the people of Scotland in the democracy of the nation, I believe there is. But it’s a will that is blocked, by what I’m not sure – it could be party politics, it could be resources, it could be a cultural thing. And if we figure out what the block is – well, what do we do about it? What is the vision of the e-enabled Scottish polity, what is the role of the elected representative and how can we as citizens, activists, practitioners and critics support them and hold them to account?

This issue is key. I’ll be interested in what the speakers and the delegates at both events have to say on the matter.

Getting Together with Transport for London

I quite like Transport for London’s ‘Together for London‘ network site.

The idea instinctively appeals to me. I used to live in London and, when I moved there, I was surprised by the lack the manners on public transport and the reticence of passengers and staff to intervene. Now, I’m moving there again and I’m not looking forward to the commuting; any campaign to improve the experience of using London’s transport system would be warmly welcomed.

First off it’s a OK looking site, with a decent, if conventional architecture. There are some general styling/display issues that will get sorted in time, no doubt. I’ve got a bigger problem with the avatars. I wonder if people aren’t just a bit tired of creating avatars. I can see what they are trying to do, and I like the idea of the avatars and campaigns being brought out of the site and on to the bus, train or bike lane, but the quality is too low and I don’t think there will be many people rushing out to wear their avatar t-shirt. ‘Naf’ is the word that comes to mind when I see the avatars and the design concept – looks a bit like kids were forced to design the site for a school competition.

I think I will use this site. I intend to follow an contribute to some discussions and campaigns, I may even start my own. But I will be on the watch for this descending into an all-out grieving-post. Two things will stop that happening, responsibility for both falls to TfL.

Democracy 2.0 – Event Presentation Slides

Last Thursday I gave a presentation on eDemocracy in Scotland for Urban Learning Space in Glasgow’s Lighthouse. This is the first opportunity that I’ve had since then to post about it – things have been pretty busy (that’ll be obvious from the irregularity of the posts on this blog).

It was first public-speaking gig since November last year. I had quite enjoyed the lay-off (for a while there it felt like I was doing one every week) but I really enjoyed getting back into it – although there was definitely a bit of rust. What felt particularly good was the chance to speak about Scotland, its experience of eDemocracy and what might happen in years to come. It’s a subject that is never far from my mind but I’ve had few opportunities to present on before this.

eDemocracy Scotland: Creating a national conversation?

The Scottish Parliament is often lauded as being a crucible of innovation around parliamentary procedures and public engagement methods. In terms of eDemocracy, the Parliament’s ePetition’s service is by far one of the most prominent in the world. But an ePetitions service does not an eDemocracy make.

It would be fair to say that beyond Parliament’s online petitions, Scottish-based eDemocracy has been a slow-riser. But rising it is. On February 1st 2008, Holyrood Conferences is holding Scotland’s first dedicated eDemocracy conference to discuss progress to date, how Scottish eDemocracy fits into the wider polity and, of course, where to next.

I will be delivering the Conference’s presentation on the technological infrastructure underpinning Scottish eDemocracy. A refreshing change to the vision-thing presentations I am used to delivering.

As well as looking at the issues through a parliamentary lens, other sessions will look at the Scottish Government and the civil society in Scotland.

For more information, visit http://conferences.holyrood.com/content/view/253/.

Hope to see you there!

UK Government & Social Media… Ones to Watch

I was lucky enough to start work with the UK Government just as it began to take an interest in what we are now/currently calling social media. That was 2005 and there was hardly anything happening. Today, it’s a different story.

With a host of initiatives on the go, I thought I’d pick out 10 that I think are particularly interesting:

1. Ministry of Justice – BarCampUKGovweb was an idea floating about waiting to happen, and Jeremy Gould got it off the ground. It’s the first event of its kind for the UK government.
2. National Health Service - The Our NHS, Our Future activity is putting a lot of weight on its online engagement components. The issue is meaty and its an intriguing opportunity for NHS stakeholders to direct its development. But will the people come? And how will the government tie up their online with the offline activity?
3. Foreign and Commonwealth Office – when David Miliband arrived, engagement shot up the agenda, particularly online. Not content with just the Secretary of State blogging, staff from across the FCO were invited to get in on the action and duly did.
4. Government Communications Network – the Social Media Review and associated activities, being led out of the GCN, is taking on the challenge of helping an area of government so used to controlling the message to adapt to a new communications environment.
5. Downing Street – it’s use of ePetitions was the biggest UK eDemocracy story yet. But will it see out the winter? Well, yes, but with parliament planning its own online petitions system, will time be called on the government’s biggest and most infamous social media experiment yet?
6. Communities and Local Government – the CLG rebuilt its corporate website using community software. The CLG was one of the first departments to make a conscious effort to utilise social media. The use of deliberative forums by a range of policy teams is worth watching alone, then you factor in the blogs and wikis and you start to realise the importance of this department’s activity.
7. Defra – the software that runs the CO2 calculator, complete with the government data, has been made freely available under general public licence. Google has used it in its carbon footprint widget.
8. DirectGov – according to the ONS, 6 in 10 of the UK’s web users have accessed government services via DirectGov. So, where to now? Is there room for a social media angle in the next phase of development?
9. Ministry of Justice – OK, I’m a bit bias but Digital Dialogues, which is in its final phase, has been putting data about government blogs, forums, webchats etc in the public domain since all this social media interest kicked off.
10. SS/SIS – a bit of a flippant inclusion. I’ve no idea what they’re doing with social media but whatever it is, it’s bound to be worth keeping an eye on.

Please flag up any others you know about. Maybe there’s some similar stuff going on elsewhere in this big globe of ours.