A community around using social tech for social impact

Social tech in Big Society

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Exploring how can we use social technology, blended with other methods, to support practical action in the context of Big Society.

Members: 19
Latest Activity: Oct 11, 2010

How this group started

See the Forum and comment wall for latest developments. Here's the background.
A group of people from community and voluntary sector networks met at Communities and Local Government on August 25 2010 for a briefing from Steve Moore of Big Society Network on a forthcoming programme of local events. Two issues emerged at the end, related to online networking and social technology. The first was how to continue and expand the conversation about Big Society online. The second was a narrower focus: the part that social tech can play in supporting social action. That's the area of interest promoted by Social by Social, so I offered to host this group, and Emma Thomas of Youthnet, and Mike Locke of Volunteering England kindly agreed to help develop and facilitate.
* There's some relationship to discussions about the Social App Store here.
* More about Big Society on socialreporter.com
* Our first discussion is on Networking in Big Society - how do we do it?

Discussion Forum

Networking in Big Society - how do we do it? 4 Replies

This isn't really a tech issue ... but we do need social technology to help.Although there's a lot to disagree about in the Big Society approach - is it a smokescreen for cuts etc - the one area…Continue

Tags: bigsociety

Started by David Wilcox. Last reply by Jeff Mowatt Sep 27, 2010.

An innovation hub for Big Society 1 Reply

This was first published at socialreporter.comAs the blogging, tweeting and media coverage of the Big Society idea increases (…Continue

Tags: bigsociety

Started by David Wilcox. Last reply by David Wilcox Sep 26, 2010.

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Comment by David Wilcox on October 11, 2010 at 14:10: There should be an announcement in a week's time about the innovation hub that I blogged about recently http://socialreporter.com/?p=1055
This wednesday 13th there is a small meeting at the end of the day in London to plan a challenge in the hub around tech-enabled social action. Do get in touch if you are particularly interested. I'll have more info, hopefully next week, with an invite to join in.

Comment by David Wilcox on September 26, 2010 at 13:31: Thanks Tracy - I've just posted more official confirmation of the Innovation Hub here.

Comment by Tracy Currer on September 24, 2010 at 12:47: Great stuff David > We love to hear more and get involved somehow

Comment by David Wilcox on September 23, 2010 at 12:30: I've just blogged a piece on socialreporter.com about the prospect of an innovation hub, to be announced next month, that could support and advance social tech for social good projects ... and help make sense of Big Society. I'll also put it up as a forum post shortly.

Comment by David Wilcox on September 15, 2010 at 15:06: Hi Thomas - the connected communities work (http://www.thersa.org/projects/connected-communities) is really significant - thanks. Would you be interested in blogging (or re-blogging if already done) a piece on Social by Social? I would suggest in the main blog space. Let me know if I can help

Comment by Thomas Neumark on September 15, 2010 at 14:52: The RSA's new report is out today (http://www.thersa.org/projects/connected-communities). It looks at networking in general, not focusing on the tech aspect of networking, but I think it's of great relevance to the whole Social by Social approach. Happy to discuss if anyone is interested.

Comment by Tracy Currer on September 6, 2010 at 20:49: Thanks for this David - Great comments by Steve

Comment by David Wilcox on September 6, 2010 at 20:40: Steve Clift of e-democracy.org blogs about Your Square Mile, and raises some questions here.

Comment by Jeff Mowatt on September 1, 2010 at 11:45: Support or the lack of it has to be the greatest of many obstacles we've faced in our endeavours. While social tech may be used to empower the disenfranchided it may also be a means to disenfranchise others. A classic illustration given recently in this announcement and my unsuccessful attempt to respond to it.

Regrettably this isn't an isolated experience. I blogged recently on the experience of being solicited for ideas on innovation to be sniped at anonymously for "advertising".

OK then I'm advertising but what am I selling other than something we've put our own money into, published to protect our intellectual property..

Where other than the world of social enterprise will one find innovation held back by as much as a decade, by those who "won't see" where progress has been made.

.

Comment by Andy Gibson on August 31, 2010 at 16:18: Thanks David - and hello again everyone! There are a lot of good ideas and resources starting to emerge here, so my main thought on this at the moment is that we should begin by pooling the resources that we know about. Perhaps we could bring together (online and face-to-face) a broad selection of representatives from the "community organising" world to share resources, and document what comes out of it as the starting point for this work? I'm particularly interested in both the digital and cultural elements of this work, but there will be many tried and tested tools and techniques from the sector that the new generation will not be aware of too.

Also I wanted to call people's attention to a good book that my Mindapples.org colleague Tessy Britton has published on new forms of community building, called Hand Made. Well worth a read as a starting point for new ways to frame and define the sector, and sits nicely alongside the digital tools that David, Amy and I have been writing about. I'm sure Tessy can be persuaded to come and talk about it if we arranged a meetup!

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