I’ve just presented my annual lecture on networks and collaboration at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. The presentation has been updated from last year with some new thinking around peer based modes of production.

I’ve just presented my annual lecture on networks and collaboration at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. The presentation has been updated from last year with some new thinking around peer based modes of production.

The following article is a piece I wrote for Monmouthshire County Council‘s internal staff e-zine and republished here with the permission of Helen Reynolds. I thought I would share it beyond those original walls as I have had comments that suggested the piece would be useful [...]]]>

The following article is a piece I wrote for Monmouthshire County Council‘s internal staff e-zine and republished here with the permission of Helen Reynolds. I thought I would share it beyond those original walls as I have had comments that suggested the piece would be useful to other public servants trying to make sense of the value of engaging with social media.

Esko Reinikainen

“I am Spartacus!

If we are to believe Daily Mail commentator Quentin Letts, public servants ought to be faceless automatons. As the privileged recipients of the public coin, we should be expected to function as efficient machines, have no personality, and demonstrate no human emotion. Mr Letts took it upon himself to crucify a Department of Transport employee, Sarah Baskerville, for the heinous crime of demonstrating via her Twitter feed that she is a human, with a personality, and in her own time likes to relax and have a drink. Following this ordeal, a chorus of support from public servants across the UK invaded the social media sphere with labels like #welovebaskers and #iamspartacus.

I spent some time with Sarah Baskerville recently, and I can report that she is a fiercely intelligent woman, a valuable asset to any public organisation, very fun company, and a thoroughly decent human. And that last point is the key, her crime was to reveal that public servants are also real humans, with all that entails.

Now consider the default perception of ‘the council’ by citizens. It is often negative, and we regularly have to overcome some false assumptions or lack of trust before we can engage in constructive dialogue with citizens. Why is that? Is it maybe that we have subconsciously projected ourselves as the faceless automatons Mr Letts requires us to be, just because our wages come out of the public purse? And why am I banging on about this in the social media edition of Team Spirit?

First off, if you are still one of those people who dismiss social media on principle, then you can count yourself among those who, in the 1960’s with the phone, and in the 90’s with email, failed to recognise that what could have passed as a fad has in fact become completely mainstream. The consequences of not accepting that a communications shift has already happened are a potentially crippling competitive disadvantage. It’s also why your kids look at you funny.

The thing with social media is that it is a very human medium. It requires honesty, dialogue, openness; all these things come naturally to us among our social peers, yet are not how most people would characterise relationships between ‘the council’ and citizens. Culturally we face a big challenge, because what social media asks is for us to reframe how we project our personality. As individuals and as an organisation. Or in other words, it has created an expectation that when we promote one of our corporate values as ‘openness’, we will truly live that value. And we will engage with people on the platforms of their choosing, in a manner expected and defined by those contexts.

We are public servants, and the public now has choice. If they don’t get value from a controlled broadcast channel, they will go somewhere else to have the discussions we have a duty to be involved with. And if we can’t engage as an organisation of open and honest humans, it won’t be long before we have to question our relevance… “

I’m delivering my annual lecture at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Arts Management MA on Networks and Collaboration. Here is the presentation I used.

I’m delivering my annual lecture at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Arts Management MA on Networks and Collaboration. Here is the presentation I used.

I’ve been invited to address the CIPR Local Services Annual Conference during the social media masterclass.  Here is the presentation I delivered. As always with my presentations, the visual candy is only an accompaniment, the main meat of the message is spoken. If they record the session I will [...]]]>

I’ve been invited to address the CIPR Local Services Annual Conference during the social media masterclass.  Here is the presentation I delivered. As always with my presentations, the visual candy is only an accompaniment, the main meat of the message is spoken. If they record the session I will add a link to it here later.

A few weeks ago I saw Chris Taggart of Openly Local talking about open data at OpenTech2010.  In recent days I’ve found myself with the opportunity to inform the thinking, of senior managers in a Local Authority context, about open data.  I am particularly taken by [...]]]>

Image via Wikipedia

A few weeks ago I saw Chris Taggart of Openly Local talking about open data at OpenTech2010.  In recent days I’ve found myself with the opportunity to inform the thinking, of senior managers in a Local Authority context, about open data.  I am particularly taken by the way that Chris approaches the issue of risk aversion by managing to to frame the public sector taboo of failure as an opportunity to progress through failing forward.

I will certainly be using this presentation, with a view to that opening the door for us to get Chris himself, to articulate the opportunities that open data  present to a reform minded public body.

Related articles:

• William Perrin says goodbye to the UK’s open data chief – and hello to the new one (guardian.co.uk)
• How the Charities Commission is being dragged into the 21st century (blogs.telegraph.co.uk)
• When Open Public Data Isn’t…? (ouseful.info)
• Reports look at cultural and economic implications of open data (computing.co.uk)
• Local government data: how to make it really open. Five principles for transparency (guardian.co.uk)
• What is Open Gov Data? The Sunlight Foundation: Ten Principles for Opening Up Government Information (zzzoot.blogspot.com)

Last week I made a presentation to the Welsh members of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations – CIPR about government 2.0 and the implications for Local Government communications.

The presentation was specifically made for an audience of PR professionals in [...]]]>

Last week I made a presentation to the Welsh members of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations – CIPR about government 2.0 and the implications for Local Government communications.

The presentation was specifically made for an audience of PR professionals in Welsh public authorities, so for example the analysis of twitter usage is limited to Welsh Local Authorities, but I think there may be some wider interest in the presentation as a whole.

I have had several requests for the presentation so I am embedding it here for easy access. Do let me know what you think about it in the comments below.

Dear friends,

Following from the positive reaction to the first guide, I’ve been asked to follow it up, this time I will go into a bit more detail.  We have learned a lot in the past week about the value (and challenges) [...]]]>

Dear friends,

Following from the positive reaction to the first guide, I’ve been asked to follow it up, this time I will go into a bit more detail.  We have learned a lot in the past week about the value (and challenges) of using new social media to show our support for the protest movement in Iran.

In this guide I will segment categories of engagement, and I urge you not to step beyond your capabilities in choosing which category to confine yourself in, there where you can make the most constructive contribution. Below the general principles you will find sections for the three categories of Supporter, Activist, and Cyberwarrior.

General Principles:

• Immunise yourself from becoming a mis-informant. Knowledge and critical thinking are the key.
• Separate facts from opinions.
• Be extremely wary of any messages implicating Israel, advocating violence, asking for money, or making wild claims about tanks or acid from the sky. Check, check, and check again before spreading information. False information kills people.
• Relational empathy – put yourself in their shoes.  The protesters, the regime, external agitators.
• Think about your audience, who is your message going to?
• Do NOT churn out retweets from any of the #iranelection related hashtags unless you are 100% CERTAIN the information is 100% reliable and safe.  False information kills people.

Supporter

This is the most basic level of engagement.

1. Inform yourself -

First get a basic general understanding of the Iran and the context in which the current protests are happening. A good place to start is this BBC Iran profile page.

Next you want to read recent and accurate updates from the evolving situation on the ground.  The safest way to do this is by reading one of the liveblogs.  All of the information on these has been verified to some extent, and if not, that will be explicitly stated.  Huffington post, Guardian, NYT can be trusted and Andrew Sullivan’s excellent liveblog contains good twitter updates from inside Iran.

2. Inform others

Only once you have  a good grasp of the issues will you be in a position to make a constructive contribution.  Spread the word through your blogs, mailing lists and twitter feeds.  Now that you have done your research, you will recognize those tweets that are confirmed information. You have already seen them confirmed, they are safe to distribute.

3. Show your support

Iranians don’t need or want overt interventions from the outside world, but they do need to know that we are supporting them.  Make noise in your community, gather supporter, go to rallies, wear green, turn your profile pics green, make green ribbons, sign petitions.   Take pictures and post those.  Iranians have thanked us for our moral support and they need to know that is a constant.  The regime can also feel it, but we must be careful not to give them the opportunity to label this support as foreign interventionist meddling in Iranian affairs.

4. Keep the momentum going

We must not tire.  This is a long game.  When the hashtags stop trending, and the next celebrity break up hits the red tops, the brave Iranians still face the batons and the bullets.  We must keep supporting them until they get the change they are after.  They will let us know when our work is done.

Thank you for your continued time and effort as a Supporter of the Iranian election protest movement, it’s really valued!

Activist

This level of engagement requires application and a good deal of time investment, it is not a hobby.  If you are not willing or able to make this commitment, please continue to be a constructive supporter.

1. Read around the subject, get a good grasp of the context. Read up on Iran’s history, internal politics, international relations, regional politics, and shia islam.  To understand the legal basis for the protests, read the Iranian constitution, take note of article 27.

2. It is worth understanding the 3, 7, and 40 day cycle of martyrdom.  It will help you understand when certain spikes in protest activity may happen.

3. Understand the layers of complexity in Iranian politics.

4. Monitor hashtags, there are quite a few now.  You want to be on the lookout for consistently good sources of information.  Reports that in time keep getting consistently verified. Resist the temptation to retweet something *new* and *exciting* until you are sure the info is good.

5. Look for disinformation, there has been a lot of secret police activity on twitter lately.  Some of them are even getting quite good.  They will retweet good info for a while and then they they will throw out a really bad one, asking people to call a (Basiji) number for help with wounded protesters. If you spot someone laying traps like this, you must expose them.  I recommend you follow agitators for a while to learn their patterns. Here is a few to get you started @Aminiran , @rey_diaz , @EyeRanProtestr. When you find one you can notify @FindTheRats who keeps a track of them in his follow list.  There is also a list of corrupt twitterers kept at twitspam.

6. Damage limitation. When you monitor someone on the hashtags RTing bad information from regime or other agents, politely send them an @ explaining why they should not trust that source or spread their message. Even better, ask them to delete their message.

7. Confuse government agents and other agitators. Once you have identified one, have fun with them.  Take on a new persona and befriend them.  Start occupying their time with your sympathy to their cause and create wild goose chases for them.  Learn from the anti-nigerian scammer groups.

8. Identify counter-intelligence agents and methods.  This is a cat and mouse game, both sides are learning fast. There are good communities emerging to provide advice for the protest movement.  The starting point for counter-intelligence is getting a grasp of the interest someone is trying to advance.  They can use blunt force or very subtle infiltration techniques.  Look through the previously linked site and see if you can find evidence of an interested country’s intelligence services trying to manipulate the message.

9. Hashtag discipline – let direction come from iran, like #neda, don’t get creative yourself

10. Monitor for legitimate urgent protester requests and channel them constructively

11. If you don’t have trusted contacts in Iran, channel your information to people in the west who do, if you can’t figure out how to find them, better go back up to the supporters group.

Thank you Activists!

Cyberwarrior

This is where I reach the limits of my competencies so I will simply refer you to people who know what they are talking about.  All I will say is that you must only risk hardware you can afford to lose as you face the distinct possibility of attracting a robust counter-attack.  Also please only engage is surgical DOS strikes against targets that are specifically designated by trusted Iranians, and only during the designated windows of time.

1. If you are looking at providing Proxies or TOR components, this is the place to go.

2. If you want to go hardcore, neda has a net, go find ESR.

The purpose of this guide is to help you participate constructively in the Iranian election protests through twitter.

Today I had lunch with a fascinating man…

He is a man with a passion for the spoken word, and a vision for how the fading oral traditions from around world will have a place to explode back into our consciousness, and feed a void that grows within us.

DS4, the fourth annual International Festival of Digital Storytelling, is back with a vengance.

Acknowledged by the BBC’s Gareth Morlais (read his blog here!) to be one of the two ‘must attend’ gatherings in the calendar for practitioners or fans of Digital Storytelling, DSCymru looks forward to [...]]]>

DS4, the fourth annual International Festival of Digital Storytelling, is back with a vengance.

Acknowledged by the BBC’s Gareth Morlais (read his blog here!) to be one of the two ‘must attend’ gatherings in the calendar for practitioners or fans of Digital Storytelling, DSCymru looks forward to welcoming you to Aberystwyth in beautiful west Wales for a day of inspirational speakers, educational workshops, and invaluable networking time.

Programme details and online registration can be found at the festival website.

Featuring an excellent line-up including Bonnie Shaw from snap-shot-city and one of the most inspiring online community building outfits out there; adventure creator Annette Mees of Coney fame; and the wild man of digital storytelling himself, the inimitable Huw Davies who was (almost) tamed by the BBC, released into the wild, and now he’s back to report on his adventures!

I’m looking forward to seeing some of you in Aberystwyth!