web24gov

This is a great interview of Dan McQuillan by David Wilcox at last week's UK Catalyst Awards which gives me real encouragement. It's a real pity that people in CLG will not be able to watch this (unless they do it from home).

Over the last five weeks of my part-time secondment I've been trying to join things up so that Government supported 'awards' and 'competitions' have pathways into funding for innovation and that one funding pot links across to another etc. I'd also like to see Government funding act in a catalytic way by helping the networks that build up around events (like 2gether08, Shine, UK Catalyst Awards) to maintain themselves on an ongoing basis so that ideas can feed off ideas, innovators can meet other innovators and investors, commissioners and so on.

Although, it has to said, that I have been pushing on open doors . . . there are still one or two barriers to be overcome. Watching Dan's interview is a great encouragement.

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

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?

Another restless night. Yesterday I met too many buzzy people than is good for one person in one day. My brain was fizzing.

Yesterday's keywords were openness, collaborative, bottom-up, user-driven etc etc

These words can send shivers down the spine, and rightly so. Proper collaboration can be very costly as is often not very successful. However, in the Web 2.0 world there is an opportunity to collaborate very much on your own terms, with a lot less effort and in some cases without knowing who it is you are collaborating with.

In the last couple of years I have done a sponsored cycle ride. I blogged my way from Land's End to John o' Groats in 2006 and 2007. Like many fundraisers today I registered with JustGiving so that my sponsors could donate securely online and GiftAid could be recovered. The JustGiving 'portal' allowed me to design a 'widget' for me to put on my blog. Here it is:

I’ve met some very buzzy people over the last few days which has prompted further thoughts on the widget factory idea.

Widgets are produced to deliver real-time, relevant information, or services to a 3rd party website. Obviously, widgets need a system behind them to draw the information or service from. The challenge is that many Government websites were not designed to deliver services in this way. And, it is unrealistic that they could all be re-engineered in the short term to do so.

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?