Developing policy advice on new technology & tools for the Community Empowerment Strategy Division of CLG
In the Web 2.0 world the only way to control content is to deliver it
Wed, 05/14/2008 - 19:27 — Simon Berry
In the Web 2.0 world the only way to control content is to deliver it and then get in front of as many people as possible.
It's Day 2 and I've decided that I like secondments. It's great to have time to think! And to meet with people virtually and face to face. Had lunch with David Wilcox today which always gets the brain cells going and some good stuff came in over Twitter too. See the Miniblog. Thanks people.
Also talked about community media and recalled the importance of distinguishing the content and the delivery channels.
When communication channels were controlled - firstly by Government and then increasingly by 'media moguls' - content was controlled by the few.
Government departments have messages to get out and increasingly good content, but the trouble is, it is often buried away on Government websites. What if the Government set up a widget factory? Initially this would churn out bespoke widgets for communities who wanted, say, crime stats for their community website. Later, the process might be automated - 'build your own widget'.
This would get Government content out through community channels, suitably filtered to match local need. Any thoughts?
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Comments
Widget Factory
Interesting...
I like the idea of a widget factory creating and collating bespoke widgets to get government data out to where it needs to be seen.
For example, I've tried before (and failed) to put together a Widget that allows young people to search for their local Youth Opportunity Fund panel (http://timdavies.org.uk/2008/01/26/it-possible-mash-data-direct-gov) as it would be great to embed a search in sites instead of having to send people to Direct Gov to track down their YOF. I'd not thought of it before but it would be even better if that widget could pick up data from Youth Opportunity Fund returns and display to someone searching information about the most recently made grants in their area by way of inspiration for them to apply...
It would be important though to get a balance between:
#A government funded widget factory churning out widgets using data that only they can get access to...
#Making government data more open in general so that others can build the widgets they need (and can probably provide them in slightly more free (as in license agreement etc...) ways than government may be able to...)
The Genius is in the Network!
Thanks Tim for this brilliant example (written on 26/1/08, I note!) of what I am talking about. There are two benefits from this approach as I see it:
Its going in the right direction
Totally agree. We have enough data (and services) that make widgets a no brainer for us -witness HMRC's work in Facebook for letting students claim tax refunds.
I think there's real mileage in government funding some of the stuff with MySociety for example and take it to the next level to build APIs and widgets for things like fixmystreet.