Digital Society
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Hello, GovLoopers! I’d like to introduce This is Govable, a series that will highlight government examples of impressive social media tactics and improved collaboration through technology. This series might not always showcase the biggest campaigns, but it will highlight small, meaningful steps…
Heather Coleman's Blog - GovLoop - Social Network for Government
Thursday, 22 nd March 2012 From 26th– 30th March 2012, drop in to have fun, meet new people and find out about what goes on at your local centre. There will be FREE activities every day.
Westminster City Council
Some interesting developments of recent days and weeks around council homepages has got me thinking as to what might be the best approach for a council homepage. The recent move by a couple of councils in the UK is to mirror the google approach and focus on search. We had a similar interest when Redbridge Council was the first to deliver a personalised homepage and then Lincolnshire Council was the first to move away from a traditional local government based navigation list.
The Council Homepage – Search, Signpost or Both « Carl's Notepad
Blogging and Facebook for councillors
An increasing number of councillors now have blogs or use Facebook, so there is plenty of experience around and many good examples to emulate. In this article, seasoned 'blogger' Councillor Mary Reid offers you the benefit of her experience. She offers top tips on how councillors can make the most of blogs and social network media. Join the discussion by using the comment box at the end.
A key goal of the e-government improvement agenda is democratic renewal. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), which has coordinated the drive to bring public services online, has identified improving the ability of councillors to use technology as a vital part of this process. Andrew Murphy of IDeA Knowledge looks at how one project is helping councillors to meet this challenge.
Councillors' websites – routes to renewal?
Earlier today I spoke on a live webcast on the Future of Workplace Communication as part of Viocorp’s Future Forum series. I took notes during the panel session and posted these live on my blog right after the event. I took notes while the other panellists were speaking: Nicky Wakefield , head of human capital at Deloitte, Philip Cronin , general manager of Intel Australia, and Oscar Trimboli , head of the information workers group at Microsoft. I wasn’t able to take notes while I was speaking myself, so having had a look at the panel discussion which is now archived and can be viewed at the Viocorp site (requires registration), I’ve written out some of what I said during the discussion. Workplace is not a good term to refer to the future – people will be working from anywhere so workplaces will have less impact than they have today.
Thoughts on the future of workplace communication - Trends in the Living Networks
The top 10 trends for the 2010s: the most exciting decade in human history - Trends in the Living Networks
In his excellent book The Meaning of the 21st Century , James Martin asks when in human history you would most like to be alive. For me there is no question that it is now. The coming decade will be the most exciting in human history. The very challenging year of 2009 that we are preparing to bid farewell to helped to tear up the fairly linear progress of the first decade of the century. Now, technological and social change are poised to accelerate far beyond what we have become accustomed to.Sure, you’ve already read enough tech predictions for 2010 and probably have some of your own. But there’s one subset of the tech community that makes a living prognosticating- futurists. So it’s worth a post to highlight a few thought-provoking and entertaining ideas from a few experts. (Note: I would’ve posted this a lot earlier but was in Brazil on vacation for the last few weeks).
2010 tech predictions: a futurist roundup | ZDNet
uncilsites | Town Council Websites
The idea of maintaining so much data must seem very daunting to you reading this page but the reality is that once the information is on-line and in the public gaze, then the public will gladly help you keep it up to date - because it is their website too. Experience has shown that the maintenance of this data takes very little time out of any one's day. Yet, if there is one phrase that haunts me from past conversations with council clerks, committee secretaries and council staff it is this: "Yes its very nice, but we just don't have time to do that". Hence everything I create in my CMS deals with the following fundamental questions: How can I speed up your workflow routine?
The main aspect of anti-patterns is that they are not the result of design - they just evolve on their own - usually for a variety of reasons. Those reasons are very often shared with other similar organisations in the same business, so when you study a number of organisations in a particular field of activity then it becomes quite easy to spot the repeated, unwanted, behaviour. If you were an architect and you were designing a block of apartments, you may well design a few bathroom types. Imagine you have 4 bathroom types in a building of 300 apartments.
Local Government Anti-patterns
Due to essential work to our data centre, our website will be down this weekend. Some council buildings will also lose internet and telephone access. Please note that essential 24 hour services such as Telecare and the Neighbourhood Helpline will continue to operate as normal along with out of hours services for Adults and Children's Social Care and Homelessness.
Sunderland City Council : Digital Challenge homepage
In late 2009, local Authorities were invited to take part in the Britain Works Challenge – a campaign that challenges local authorities to devise effective programmes to address unemployment and availability of digital skills in the local community. Local authorities were encouraged to use their creativity and business skills to pitch for up to 100,000 Microsoft Training Vouchers, to help you launch innovative programs for citizens in their areas. A panel of esteemed industry representatives chose the best ideas and training vouchers were awarded to ensure the suggestions can be delivered. Three bids were selected as finalists who will then present their ideas in February 2010 and a winner was chosen and announced. The training vouchers will be used in synergy with the Britain Works programme which includes training vouchers, the Microsoft IT Academy, Microsoft employ, apprenticeships and access to the Microsoft Authorised Refurbisher (MAR) programme.
Britain Works
For the smartest governments, interactions with citizens are opportunities to share information and improve lives, not "merely" to dispense public services, administer justice and provide a conduit for the exercise of rights and responsibilities. Thus, in places like Ontario and Belgium, data that can be used multiple times on a citizen's behalf — such as in registering a newborn or applying for social system benefits — need be entered only once, eliminating the need for users to input data multiple times when interacting with government online. This also works in reverse, with increased access to government information by citizens enabling a better understanding — and, ultimately, a better stewardship — of government and its resources. This can come about through a variety of means.
Smarter Planet - Smarter Government - Signs of Smart - United Ki
Tom Baker will discuss where Sunderland has come from as winner of the Digital Challenge, the lessons that have been learned and the work that has taken place across the city to achieve a digitally enabled Sunderland. He will talk about next steps and how the work will set a foundation to support others across the country in achieving the same goal. He will set the scene for partnership working, facilitating communities and sharing best practice, a route which has become known as 'The Sunderland Way'. Tom graduated from the University of Nottingham in 1999 and started work at Sema Group, a large European based Systems Integrator, working initially in a technical capacity as an Oracle DBA.