web24gov

In order to help CLG track the conversations going on about the Empowerment White Paper and provide another demonstration of the power of the Web 2.0 tools we have at our disposal, I have set up a Pageflakes page to aggregate posts from blogs and Twitter with the terms 'Empowerment White Paper' or 'Communities in Control' in them.

My secret wish is that Hazel Blears will see these conversation and will want to get involved . . . . watch this space.
www.pageflakes.com/ewp

I was very grateful to have been invited to contribute to the inspiring 2gether08 event last Thursday. I attended with two hats on.

In my current role as secondee to CLG, I'd gone there to check out my hunch that this is the sort of event and network that local and national Government needs to engage with if we are to make progress with the Government's policy of community empowerment. My hunch was right and at the very, very last minute national Government did get involved with Tom Watson MP using the event to promote the 'mash-up' competion - Show Us a Better Way. Hopefully their involvement will be better planned and more strategic next year.

While I was there I also did a mini presentation and led a 'next steps' discussion with a group of people behind the Coca-Cola Campaign. More on this later.

At the event, during the coffee break, I got a surprise call from Jennifer Tracey (pictured!) who asked to meet to talk about what had happened since Radio 4's iPM Programme first featured the campaign in May. You can listen to an edit of the interview below or by going to the feature on the iPM website. Thanks are due again to the whole of the iPM Team who really helped to get this campaign off to a flying start.

Saw this and thought of you, as the old Post Office advert used to say...

http://www.tom-watson.co.uk/?p=2060

I blogged a while ago on the excellent IDeA CoP platform about the potential of Second Life. Anyway, my council has given the go head to face the brave new world of...virtual worlds, hosting an event on SL on the 16th July.

We thought that it would be an interesting experiment for you to experience this event both virtually (if you can't make it down to Kent) or in real life. An even more interesting experiment would be to start a discussion "on the ground" on the potential of virtual worlds for public services and community empowerment.

Photos by appaloosa and fabuleuxfab

I am very grateful to all those who contributed to the web24gov workshop at CLG on Thursday (19/6/08) especially those who did so on a purely voluntary basis - I owe you one!

The workshop brought together the cognisenti in the application of new technologies (aka Web 2.0) keen to learn about the government's Community Empowerment strategies and civil servants keen to know more about new technologies. And there were one or two people who usefully straddled both camps. The snappy 2-hour session was delivered in perfect pitch by David Wilcox.

A more detailed report of the outcomes will follow but I just wanted to draw attention to one remark that struck a real chord with me.

This is a great interview with Matt Locke. Key points for me are:

• You need to get your services where people are (and they are all over the place these days)
• Delivery in partnership with others

As part of my work on new technologies in relation to the Empowerment White Paper, Peter Blair (CLG) and I are hosting a workshop from 11am to 1pm on 19 June where we will be considering the answers to these questions:

How can we best use digital media to get public services to where people are going to be in five years time?

We'd also like to explore how we get from the systems/processes/culture we have in place today to the systems/processes/culture we will need to deliver what's required in five years time.

The participants will include CLG staff, community development projects, community webmasters and staff from other Government Departments.

From EU Observer:

Plans are being developed to launch a social networking site for MEPs and MPs to boost contacts between politicians across Europe and promote a trans-European democracy.

Discuss.

You might also want to take a look at this blog post by Tim Davies in January 2008: Is it possible to mash up data from Direct.gov?