Designing for Civil Society

We now have a Minister for Civil Society - with Government plans to devolve power locally, cut spending, and promote the Big Society as a framework for more volunteering, social action and social enterprise. Doing more with less means greater levels of collaboration, and re-designing the ways that local government and other public agencies work with local organisations and groups.
I'm suggesting - in the forum post below - that the re-design should be done with local interests - not imposed by government. The Big Society Network seems to agree.
This provides an opportunity for those of us interested in how to mix traditional face-to-face collaboration methods with the use of social media to develop new partnerships. A few examples:
* Many people have now used the Socialbysocial game - details here.
* Kent and Medway Councils have pioneered the TransformedbyYou process, and Amy Sample Ward is extending that with howto advice on this Project Spaces wiki.
* At the SHINE unconference for social entrepreneurs Cliff Prior and Geraldine Blake led a workshop to explore what's needed - bottom-up and top-down - to create the sort of environment that will foster sustainable social action locally.
There are many other examples ... and the aim of this group is to explore who is doing what, and how best to make their expertise widely available through a mix of free and paidfor activities.
*There's also a wiki for resources.
* Here's the blog the name originally came from.
If things lift off I'll move across to another more integrated space.