Government – Networked Culture

I’ve started blogging over at The Satori Lab

Here is an excerpt of my first post and a link to the rest of the article:

A few months ago, listening to BBC Radio 4, I heard a government minister use a word, or one of its derivatives, well over 48 times in a four minute segment. Well, I only started counting after I had heard it half a dozen times and I stopped counting at 48, but the barrage continued. The word in question: innovation. The problem was, not one of the instances where the word was used had anything to do with real innovation. The word was being loosely employed to denote some aspiration for newness or a mild departure from previous practice.

We have a habit of doing this with brilliant meaningful words and phrases. Casually employing them inappropriately with the effect that we drift from their true meaning and devalue them over time. Take public consultations for example. A beautiful idea in principle, that we should engage in a meaningful discussion between state and the citizenry before some policy suggestion becomes a reality for said citizens. Yet what we get is 180 page documents written in some impenetrable language that is only accessible to lobbyists and their lawyers. And then we scratch our heads wondering where the trust between the citizen and her government has gone…

Read the rest of this post.

Open Data in Local Government

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.

Open Data & The Rewards of Failure

View more presentations from countculture.

In aid of my ammunition gathering mission, if you have any thoughts on this subject, or indeed any ideas for further resources I might call on, please make use of the comments below, or contact me directly.

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)

Government 2.0

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.

Government 2.0 and Local Government Communications on Prezi

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