Happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Tolstoy Lives are messy. Lives are full of complex relationships and difficult circumstances. All families are chaotic. I mean, I guess they are. Mine is. Certainly some of the most intractable problems that we face in the public sector are caused byRead… Read more »
This is a picture of a largely blank wall in Bristol’s town hall. And it’s an image that strikes me as incredibly forward focused and hugely optimistic. The other two interior walls have the names of the Lord Mayor’s of Bristol engraved in block letters and their dates of service. The dates stretch back overRead… Read more »
The latest social media phenom is Quora. A kind of question and answer forum. Its neatest trick is that it encourages you to re-produce your social graph from Twitter. Ready made followers and people you probably already ask questions of to follow. Anyhoo…there was a question on Quora I answered recently Does open government requireRead… Read more »
I’m lucky to have a job where I get to celebrate the success of others in local government, I work for Local Government Improvement and Development (formerly the IDeA). But that means that I’m often called on for examples of successful implementation of whatever it is I’m working on now. (performance management, partnerships, customer insightRead… Read more »
This guidance was written for a UK audience, but local politicians from anywhere will find everything bar a few legal bits useful. People are now turning first to the web to find everything from information about days out, entertainment, shopping, to making connections with friends and colleagues. People expect to be able to comment andRead… Read more »
This document refers to a publication which focuses on English local authorities (i.e. municipal government), but I think the same arguments hold and it also features a number of international examples. There are a lot of really good, really valid reasons why local government is not always an early adopter when it comes to newRead… Read more »
We had a fantastic London LocalGovCamp yesterday. LocalGovCamp is really a series of events across the country – local government unconferences focusing on the use of social media and collaboration in local government (and it’s not all techy – lots of it is about rethinking the way local government works and radical efficiency). For theRead… Read more »
This post was partly prompted by Andrew’s discussion of lurkers here. Next week, the IDeA will be hosting an online conference on online facilitation – Facilitation Now! . ( I’m really pleased to be a contributor on Thursday the 25th in a session on online conferences.) I’m really looking forward to the conference because evenRead… Read more »
The Guardian is reporting that the data.gov.uk website is expected to launch tomorrow (now today) – but apparently it’s already live – so everything’s in place bar the virtual ribbon cutting by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the guy who invented the world wide web. So what’s the big deal about this? Well – it’s a hugeRead… Read more »
You’ll need to be logged into www.communities.idea.gov.uk to follow these links Yesterday we had a lot of discussion about what it means to be local and providing a local view to people. We also had views from local politicians about using social media and how it helped to humanise their political persona and support informalRead… Read more »