A community around using social tech for social impact
Quite sociable
Before Christmas, we announced to the Knowledge Hub advisory group that we'd be using the Social by Social network as our online home for shaping and developing Knowledge Hub. This might seem a slightly perverse decision considering that the IDeA already administers a fabuously successful social network for local government (over 30,000 members and growing).
But really it is entirely consistent with what we're trying to achieve. The Social by Social Network is emerging as a place where we can engage with others who are involved in work in using social media to make things better. It helps to ensure that we're not duplicating what others are doing in this arena and more importantly that we're all learning from each other.
As a founder member (programme level subscriber) of the network, we're also hoping that this space can be developed as a marketplace for local public services and others who want to engage with social entrepreneurs or want to take advantage of social tech, but don't know where to start.
We're also seeing the social media/digital inclusion/ linked and open data government funding becoming a bit crowded. Not so much crowded in terms of the possibilities...there's lots of useful work that needs to be done, skills to be developed, projects and approaches to trial. But the complexity and multiple sources of funding and project learning can be confusing - and if those who are espousing openness and collaboration can't work openly and collaboratively - well, then - who can? And because there's so much to do, avoiding unnecessary duplication is essential - and where duplication or similarity of purpose is useful we must make sure we learn from that.
So is creating another space the best thing to do? Well - maybe... in this case yes, I think so. It would be great for people to be able to come to one space to find out about nationally funded programmes around local government or local partnerships and social media, whether that be for signposting or discussion. It would be great to have a hub for those of us involved in this work to be able to draw on - one with a nice RSS feed and some easy-share applications.
David Wilcox and Amy Sample Ward are our primary collaborators in this space and we're really excited to be working with them. They both have excellent track records in terms of bringing people together to do good things on the Net.
Even more social
You read the book ....now see the other book. In more Social by Social goodness, the IDeA is collaborating with NESTA to develop a version of social by social for local government. We're working with one of the original authors, Andy Gibson to set out the practical benefits of social media for councils and their partners. There will be a strong emphasis on efficiency, improvement and best of all using the tools of the to social web for enhancing local democracy.
But really it is entirely consistent with what we're trying to achieve. The Social by Social Network is emerging as a place where we can engage with others who are involved in work in using social media to make things better. It helps to ensure that we're not duplicating what others are doing in this arena and more importantly that we're all learning from each other.
As a founder member (programme level subscriber) of the network, we're also hoping that this space can be developed as a marketplace for local public services and others who want to engage with social entrepreneurs or want to take advantage of social tech, but don't know where to start.
We're also seeing the social media/digital inclusion/ linked and open data government funding becoming a bit crowded. Not so much crowded in terms of the possibilities...there's lots of useful work that needs to be done, skills to be developed, projects and approaches to trial. But the complexity and multiple sources of funding and project learning can be confusing - and if those who are espousing openness and collaboration can't work openly and collaboratively - well, then - who can? And because there's so much to do, avoiding unnecessary duplication is essential - and where duplication or similarity of purpose is useful we must make sure we learn from that.
So is creating another space the best thing to do? Well - maybe... in this case yes, I think so. It would be great for people to be able to come to one space to find out about nationally funded programmes around local government or local partnerships and social media, whether that be for signposting or discussion. It would be great to have a hub for those of us involved in this work to be able to draw on - one with a nice RSS feed and some easy-share applications.
David Wilcox and Amy Sample Ward are our primary collaborators in this space and we're really excited to be working with them. They both have excellent track records in terms of bringing people together to do good things on the Net.
Even more social
You read the book ....now see the other book. In more Social by Social goodness, the IDeA is collaborating with NESTA to develop a version of social by social for local government. We're working with one of the original authors, Andy Gibson to set out the practical benefits of social media for councils and their partners. There will be a strong emphasis on efficiency, improvement and best of all using the tools of the to social web for enhancing local democracy.
Tags: guidance, idea, khub, localgovernment, socialmedia
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Comment by David Wilcox on January 8, 2010 at 10:16am
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Thanks Roger. Those of us who haven't had a proper job for some time won't/didn't notice the passing of the retirement line:-).
I'm sure Dave won't mind me reposting ... though worth following the original for the discussions. From Twitter I think Dave's in Derry, but I'll tell him we are talking over here ...
Dave Briggs wrote
Enterprise 2.0 is a label Andrew McAfee coined to describe the use of collaborative tools within large organisations, focused on the benefits this offers to non-technical managers rather than technology-for-technology’s sake enthusiasts. In other words: blog, wikis, forums, and social networks are nice, but what does it mean for a service manager? As always Wikipedia is your friend.
McAfee’s book, helpfully titled Enterprise 2.0, is a great read. I’m halfway through it myself.
This ties into what will be a key theme for me in 2010 – that the interesting bits around social software is not the software but the implications of it: sharing, openness, transparency, collaboration, co-creation.
Dennis Howlett posted a while back that enterprise 2.0 is a crock:
Like it or not, large enterprises – the big name brands – have to work in structures and hierarchies that most E2.0 mavens ridicule but can’t come up with alternatives that make any sort of corporate sense. Therein lies the Big Lie. Enterprise 2.0 pre-supposes that you can upend hierarchies for the benefit of all. Yet none of that thinking has a credible use case you can generalize back to business types – except: knowledge based businesses such as legal, accounting, architects etc. Even then – where are the use cases? I’d like to know. In the meantime, don’t be surprised by the ‘fail’ lists that Mike Krigsman will undoubtedly trot out – that’s easy.
It’s an interesting point Howlett makes, that greater collaboration and knowledge sharing through social technology works well in ‘knowledge based businesses’ but that the business case is harder to make otherwise.
How does this fit with government and public services? It’s a complicated one because there are clear examples of where greater collaboration and information sharing would have benefits, but also there are services provided by government which have to follow strict procedure, and to circumvent that would lead to disaster.
I see a clear opportunity to blend technology to produce systems that produce real value to staff working in public services: the intranet, eLearning, collaboration tools like Huddle, communication platforms such as Yammer and more traditional forums, knowledge sharing systems such as wikis. Carl hints at this in his recent post:
the intranet is now just part of what many people are referring to as Enterprise 2.0
The focus on the use of interactive web technology has been on external citizen engagement up til now. But many of the real wins might be behind the firewall.
Is there a conversation already going on about this? If not, let’s start one. I’m tagging this post – and any other relevant ones here on DavePress – as entgov. Feel free to do the same, or if someone comes up with something better, let’s use that.
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Comment by Roger Leslie White on January 8, 2010 at 9:54am -
Hi – my first post to the site and what better place to do it than on the back of a thread initiated by Ingrid Koehler who alerted me to the site through the IDeA’s great communities of practice platform. David (Wilcox) writes:
One good [cross-over conversation] that occurs immediately is the discussion Dave Briggs started around Is Government a Knowledge Business?
My PC won’t (a few minutes ago) follow the link to Dave (Brigg)’s site so I can’t check out the discussion there but here’s some recent personal experience that tells me there’s some way to go yet at least in the UK.
First, a confession – I chose not to make my age public on the site but – aaarrggghhhh – I have breached the not-so-magic six-oh barrier. This has led to two interesting interactions with (not) joined up government.
1. My partner, ever alert to increasing our modest income, contacting a government help line to ask if I could get my over-60s winter heating allowance. Click-click-click of the keyboard over the phone line. “Oh” says the helpful contact centre person, “we’ve been sending him reminders but there’s been no response.” My partner – “What address do you have?” Contact centre person – “57 St Marks Road W11”. Folks, I last lived at that address – wait for it – 30 years ago! My interactions with the state since then? Well, you can guess but they start with – HMRC (annually for income tax return, monthly for payments they’re only too willing to take from me), National Insurance and state pension contributions (every month), passport application (every 10 years), NHS (frequently), DVLA (annually), EU medical card (one-off) and so on and so on.
2. A pre-retiral course (but I’m not going yet folks) with a good presentation by HMG’s Pensions Service. In response to someone’s question about linking different aspects of entitlement the comment “Unfortunately, the department’s three main computer systems don’t talk to each other yet”.
I guess Obama’s statements yesterday about how the US security agencies didn’t pick up the significance of what seems to have been copious intelligence about the would-be Detroit bomber is another example.
So in terms of government being a knowledge business, the theory’s great but there’s some way to go. Now I must see if I can access Dave Briggs’ site…
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Comment by Andy Gibson on January 6, 2010 at 1:31pm -
Yes, thanks Ingrid, all very encouraging.
I'd obviously also welcome your views, either here or to me directly, on the key things local councils and other organisations need to know about social media in their work. I'm particularly interested in any examples of best practice, and also the areas where you're currently stuck. My e-mail is andy[at]sociability.org.uk, if you want to chat offline. Hopefully we can pull some materials together to make your lives easier and help spread the knowledge about what's going on into new and exciting places!
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Ingrid - thanks so much to you, Steve Dale and all involved in the Knowledge Hub for giving us that vote of confidence on top of all the inspiration and open development you shared last year.
We'll be asking your friends and ours to identify some key issues where cross-over conversations are particularly useful.
One good one that occurs immediately is the discussion Dave Briggs started around Is Government a Knowledge Business?
I think we all agree on the importance of collaboration in knowledge ecologies (um, talking and doing spaces?) - and that increasingly this involves working across organisations and sectors.
Dave's discussion highlights the question: can organisations (e.g. councils) collaborate outside if they can't do so effectively inside? I'll see if we can tempt him across here to expnd on this.
Other topics anyone?
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