LocalGovCamp Lincoln – Post thoughts

The Think Tank in Lincoln - host to LocalGovCamp

The LocalGovCamp in Lincoln last friday was an awesome day made even more awesome by the top people that we had attending. There was a palpable level of entusiasm and excitement in the Think Tank that really came out in the quality of the sessions and the level of discussion. There was emotion (@davebriggs and @ShoeButt are now required to have a make up hug) and above all everyone was open to sharing their views and opinions (because, let’s be honest, we’d all be boring if we thought the same way) on a number of subjects ranging from mapping and e-petitioning to social media usage and hyperlocal communication.

Personally I was massively pleased with the turnout (although there were some notable exceptions who I hope to see at future events), the location at the Think Tank, the quality of the catering and the fact that everyone went away with new ideas and contacts.

The stylish unagenda chart, filled with pretty post-it's for the sessions

 @Liz_Azyan asked me (as did a number of other people) what I thought the purpose of LocalGovCamp is. I think that, at its most basic level, it is an opportunity for likeminded people working in or with an interest in the public sector, whether they are web professionals, comms guys, councillors, contractors – to get together, share ideas and keep up to speed with the ideas and developments of their peers. It is so important that we endeavour to work together and share our findings; we’re not in a competetive industry and we should all be ensuring that we’re on a level playing field. This kind of thing also breeds creativity, allowing us to look at the technology available, take what others are doing with it and put our own slant on things. And the current technology gives us the power to do this.

But then, if you’re reading this, you most likely don’t need me to tell you that!

A big thanks, once again, to all attendees; friends and long distance colleagues all. There wasn’t a pledge wall at the camp but let’s all take away ideas and try and make a difference. See you at the next camp!

P.S. I’ve got some notes from the sessions I attended that I plan on writing up over the next few days so keep them peepers peeled. I’ll also be aggregating all the information to flow from the event on the LGCLincoln blog so go sign up for the RSS there if you haven’t already…

(photo credits to @iamadonut)

LocalGovCamp Lincoln – the website!

Quickie post – in the interests of having a “hub site” for the Lincoln arm of LocalGovCamp, I’ve set up this on WordPress.com – http://lgclincoln.wordpress.com/.

If you’re interested in the Lincoln event, pop here and register to the RSS to keep up to date.

LocalGovCamp Lincoln

Big announcement for me; I’ve finally got the set up together for holding a LocalGovCamp in lil’ ol Lincoln!

The date is 23rd October and the venue is the Think Tank. I’m still in the process of organising sponsors and will update here as often as I can, as well as on the LocalGovCamp blog.

Please go and sign up here to attend!

LocalGovCamp – Exclusion and Social Media

The third session of the day was a good discussion about Open Source software, however I won’t be blogging about that as I didn’t really take notes; too much interesting discussions going on.

The fourth session, however, was a nicely heated discussion on how the take up of social media and how it is potentially excluding certain areas of the community. For my part I threw in the arguement of whether the councils implementing these technologies should be educating in their use. I’ve tried to list the general points of discussion below.

• Some people probably don’t use these services out of choice, not awareness; how much use would education be to them?
• If the council goes out educating, would it be seen as somehow forcing these solutions on the community?
• Not education, awareness.
• How do we address the digital divide? Non-spot areas?
• Councils should probably identify digital enablers in the community to spread the word.
• How much should concillors themselves be leading on this?

Not a huge amount of points but there was some good discussion on the back of this and id certainly changed my views on the subject.

LocalGovCamp – Community Activists – Busy Body DoGooders

Very interesting session from Will Perrin, discussing community activisim. Here’s my notes:

• Using bogs and social media to report issues to council. Empowering the community.
• Community activism goes on whether councils like it or not.
• Can significantly help and improve community; organise events, improve facilities, join community.
• Government written editorial bad; one sided. Community driven sites repurpose council content to be more readable.
• Friendlier face for community
• Elected members get involved; council officers not interested
• Starting to get recognition; site mentioned in Guardian and Digita Britain
• Funded enterprise to educate communities across country to be able to engage and work with councils – looking for paid volunteers.
• How can work be done to connect these sites to the “Community Activist” sites? Talk to local councils, “watch the customer”, councils should look at channels and address where appropriate. Practices need to change.
• Ensure partnership working? Don’t just deliver the service and then assume buy in?
• How do you stop nasty comments, local nutters? Just monitor and delete; be vigilant.
• Is it activism or desparation?
• Hyperocal Alliance
• Is there a danger for misinterpretation, one sided discussion with “activist” websites?
• Activism alliance. Perhaps there should be a centralised site to bring all these different activist sites together? Pull together disparate groups who may have the same views? What about groups with differing views? Alliance with LA’s?
• Does the concept of “activism” deter the target audience.
• Good for remote rural areas; simple free tech; WordPress.
• Should work alongside traditional face-to-face methods; some people do not like doing things online.
• Good way to get message across quickly, bypassing media. However, is the openness a mistake? With media there is a “safety net” for providing accurate information? Should be good relationship with media.