Citizensheep » collaboration http://citizensheep.com/blog Michael Grimes lives in Birmingham (UK). This is his blog about anything that he fancies. Wed, 23 May 2012 15:09:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Arguments for open local data http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/06/03/arguments-for-open-local-data/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/06/03/arguments-for-open-local-data/#comments Thu, 03 Jun 2010 11:01:17 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/06/03/arguments-for-open-local-data/

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    • ]]>     One of the challenges facing proponents of open data is persuading others of its value; particularly persuading the custodians of data that making it publicly available is a valuable thing to do, and is in their interest to do it.

    Dan Slee (Walsall Council) and Stuart Harrison (Lichfield District Council) and myself have compiled some arguments for open local data for people to use when faced with making the case for it.

    We’ve also put together the Local Data wiki, so that this work can be continued collaboratively.

    Visit Arguments for open local data

    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/06/03/arguments-for-open-local-data/feed/ 0     Building Britain’s Digital Future: ‘a chance to reinvent deliberative democracy for the modern age’ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/22/building-britains-digital-future-a-chance-to-reinvent-deliberative-democracy-for-the-modern-age/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/22/building-britains-digital-future-a-chance-to-reinvent-deliberative-democracy-for-the-modern-age/#comments Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:01:28 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/22/building-britains-digital-future-a-chance-to-reinvent-deliberative-democracy-for-the-modern-age/

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    • ]]>     In response to Gordon Brown’s speech on ‘Building Britain’s Digital Future’, Ben Whitnall of Delib asked if interested parties would like to group together to take a lead:

    ‘let’s get some interested people together and help design the future of digital deliberative democracy for the government. It’ll be faster, better and, with any luck, more pubby’.

    As you know, I’m very interested in looking at how we can be using the internet for effective citizenship; so I’m definitely up for this. If you are too, please leave a comment on Ben’s post.

    Visit Building Britain’s Digital Future: ‘a chance to reinvent deliberative democracy for the modern age’

    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/22/building-britains-digital-future-a-chance-to-reinvent-deliberative-democracy-for-the-modern-age/feed/ 0     Spreading knowledge of research into digital engagement http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/21/spreading-knowledge-of-research-into-digital-engagement/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/21/spreading-knowledge-of-research-into-digital-engagement/#comments Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:49:03 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/?p=2119

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    1. Would you like more digital engagement knowledge-sharing events?
    2. ‘Digital citizens and democratic engagement’ report: what does it say? Come and discuss it at Moseley Exchange
    3. Socitim’s ‘Better Connected 2010′ report: what did it say? Join the discussion at Moseley Exchange
    • ]]>     A lot has been going on recently with regard to digital inclusion and civic engagement. People keep publishing reports that I really ought to read for work, but just don’t have the time to; and even if I did, many of them are pretty impenetrable. So I’m going to spread the load.

    In April I’ll be running three low-key pilot events here in Birmingham, where each time one person will share their knowledge of a report that they’ve read. They’re aimed particularly at people whose line of work expects them to be knowledgeable in this area, but anyone is welcome.

    I’m calling them ‘pilots’ because if they don’t work I won’t have committed to anything long-term. I’m also a bit worried about them not being free to attend: the room I’m using needs to be paid for so I’m having to charge a £3 entry fee. I don’t have any real problem with that, but I think people have grown to expect this sort of thing to be free.  (I’m not making any money out of this, I’m simply spreading the financial burden.)

    The events are taking place in Moseley Exchange on three Mondays in April, from 6.30pm.

    1. Monday 12 April
      Simon Whitehouse will talk about ’Policy options for geographic information from Ordnance Survey‘ and Ordnance Survey OpenData (eg about implications for public bodies opening up their data, the sort of new products that might be created, and pulling maps into your own blog posts).
      More information on Simon’s session [external link]
    2. Monday 19 April
      I (Michael Grimes) will share my understanding of the Hansard Society’s recent report ‘Digital citizens and democratic engagement‘.
    3. Monday 26 April
      Stuart Harrison will give a flavour of SOCITIM’s recent ‘Better Connected’ report on council websites.

    Registration details (Eventbrite)

    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/03/21/spreading-knowledge-of-research-into-digital-engagement/feed/ 0     Best Online Collaboration Tools 2009 http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/06/11/best-online-collaboration-tools-2009-2/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/06/11/best-online-collaboration-tools-2009-2/#comments Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:00:01 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/06/11/best-online-collaboration-tools-2009-2/

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    • ]]>     I just stumbled across this mind map that was instigated by Robin Good. It shows people's favourite online collaboration tools for tasks such as file-sharing, drawing, writing, conferencing, reviewing and whiteboarding. Although it was developed collaboratively it doesn't actually seem to be editable by users: shame, but a great resource nonetheless.

    Visit Best Online Collaboration Tools 2009

    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/06/11/best-online-collaboration-tools-2009-2/feed/ 0     Buying friends’ time: when should we do it? http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/03/05/buying-friends-time-when-should-we-do-it/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/03/05/buying-friends-time-when-should-we-do-it/#comments Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:30:51 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/?p=995

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    • ]]>     For a long time I had no way of knowing who to ask specific technical questions of, and now – thanks to the power of social media – I suddenly know loads of people on whose expertise I can call. The trouble is, when does the relationship become professional and require a financial commitment?

    This morning I needed some advice on WordPress MU, and was able to think of a number of personal contacts that I could ask. However, I would have been asking on behalf of my employer and therefore would be taking advantage of people’s goodwill by expecting free advice from people who would usually charge for it. So I emailed some of my new friends for their professional rates.

    This has created a couple of dilemmas.

    Firstly, there’s the question of loyalties. If each of my friends have the same skills, how do I decide which to give my money to? I guess I just have to be professional and choose against which will be best value for money for my employer. It feels a bit uncomfortable though.

    Secondly, and much less easy to answer, is the question of boundaries: when are my friends my friends and when are they my consultants?

    I believe that – for most office jobs – the boundaries between professional and personal lives are blurring to the point of being indistinguishable. Thanks to social media, and technology in general, we can now be available at any time for both friends and colleagues. This means that employers who refuse to accept that are missing out by not being where their market is at any point; and are probably therefore unwittingly discouraging their employees from being loyal to their jobs outside ‘office hours’.

    I, and my employer, have benefited hugely from the use of social media by myself and colleagues. Those inane little messages – that take practically no time to send and respond to – help to create personal relationships which can be unimaginably valuable for support on a professional level.

    But, as I’ve said, these sometimes need formalising as professional relationships. The paradox is that, by formally identifying professional connections with friends, do I thereby force them into being consultants during my work time and friends outside of it: and in turn reinforce the work-life divide and the 9-5 ethic that I believe are vanishing?

    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/03/05/buying-friends-time-when-should-we-do-it/feed/ 3     4am Project http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/02/18/4am-project/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/02/18/4am-project/#comments Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:22:07 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/02/18/4am-project/ Our friend Karen Strunks has been taking photos of local areas at 4.00 in the morning. Now she's trying to get the rest of us to do the same. Get up at 4am on 4 April and take some photos.

    Visit 4am Project

    ]]>     Our friend Karen Strunks has been taking photos of local areas at 4.00 in the morning. Now she’s trying to get the rest of us to do the same. Get up at 4am on 4 April and take some photos.

    (And yes, it’s the same Karen who squandered her valuable spare time making the photo story of Pooh and Heffalump.)

    Visit 4am Project

    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/02/18/4am-project/feed/ 0     Big City Plan: consultation or control freakery? http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/02/16/big-city-plan-consultation-or-control-freakery/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/02/16/big-city-plan-consultation-or-control-freakery/#comments Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:01:18 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/?p=670

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    • ]]>     Birmingham’s Big City Plan is an ambitious project to reshape Birmingham for the next twenty years. Not just little bits of it, but lots of very, very big bits. It’s a very, very big deal.

    A group of us wanted to help the process of engaging public opinion, because we felt the documents produced by Birmingham City Council were difficult to understand. So we took it upon ourselves to re-write it in plain English, make it available online for comment on www.bigcitytalk.org.uk, and liaise with the Council on how best to feed back to them any information that we gathered.

    I’ve been putting off writing this post because I was uneasy about voicing my opinion. I wanted to be positive and encouraging, but my experiences were leaving me tired, deflated and deeply discouraged.

    But now the public consultation is officially over.

    That’s right: the citizens of Birmingham, whether they knew it or not (probably not; who ever takes notice of a poster on a lamp-post, let alone takes down the web address?), have had their chance to feed back on the Work in Progress (pdf) document that outlines the Council’s plans. Hark! Can I hear alarm bells already? Surely that extensive document should have been written after a consultation, not before: otherwise what is there to consult on?

    Indeed, when we started re-writing the document it became quickly apparent that the thinking behind it was very muddled. For a start, in each section is a bit of background information followed by a number of options. Who are these options for? If they’re for the reader does that mean we’re going to be asked to vote on which of them is implemented? Probably not, because actually the options appear to be nothing more than a wish-list dependent on budget. In which case they’re not ‘options’ at all and so should not have been included in the document in the first place.

    Then there’s the language. Remember that we were re-writing this in our free time, voluntarily: we are intelligent, enthusiastic individuals, unusually keen to engage with civic life. Yet even we found it incomprehensible, jargonistic and alienating. And there were only six of us. How on earth do they expect to enthuse the other million residents of Birmingham?

    And then there are the acronyms that weren’t explained, and the inconsistent numbering of sections in different documents (a consultation leaflet was also produced which, confusingly, didn’t match the structure of the Work in Progress document).

    The crazy thing is that it’s not hard. Producing a consultation document that the average member of the public can understand is easy, if you really care. Birmingham itself has plenty of top class graphic communicators, journalists, copywriters and sub-editors. The Big City Plan is such a massive undertaking that there are, presumably, the financial resources to make sure the public is consulted properly. It seems that it’s just the will that isn’t there.

    Add to this the disturbing disdain shown by Birmingham Council Leader Mike Whitby, and you could be forgiven for thinking the council actually wants to alienate its citizens.

    The truly depressing bit is that it isn’t a conspiracy. I truly believe there are lots of people in the council who really want this to work. But the bureaucracy of Birmingham City Council seems incapable of understanding how public engagement works.

    Instead of talking and listening to people, they want to control. Take for example the Council recently banning its employees from using Facebook, which the Post reported by singling out two members of the Communications team. If a communications team isn’t allowed to use the popular methods of communication, then it’s being prevented from doing its job. Yet rather than encourage understanding and best use of these new technologies and methods of working, the council simply seems to try ignoring them.

    So we’ll just have to see what happens. I hope they know what they’re doing, and that they’ve learnt some lessons for next time. At least they have now acknowledged, and taken custody of, the information we gathered through the bigcitytalk website.

    Note

    This post was originally drafted two weeks ago. Since then there have been a few public consultation meetings (although after the official closing date).

    A number of other people were involved in the Big City Talk project, in particular Nick Booth, Jon Bounds, Julia Gilbert, Nicky Getgood and Stef Lewandowski.

    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/02/16/big-city-plan-consultation-or-control-freakery/feed/ 3     Google Latitude http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/02/04/google-latitude/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/02/04/google-latitude/#comments Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:00:55 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/02/04/google-latitude/ These are my links for 4 February 2009 from 13:41 to 13:41]]> Google now enables you to follow your friends' every moves. Cool perhaps, but also pretty bloody scary. But, like the sheep that I am, I'm going to gleefully try it out. So blame me when we suddenly realise that we've passively allowed Big Brother to completely control our lives.

    Visit Google Latitude

    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/02/04/google-latitude/feed/ 0     Birmingham Forum http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/01/28/birmingham-forum/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/01/28/birmingham-forum/#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:03:11 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/01/28/birmingham-forum/ These are my links for 27 January 2009 from 23:02 to 23:02]]> Just discovered this rather lively forum about Birmingham (UK). It never dawned on me that would be such things, but of course there are. I haven’t joined it myself yet, but I expect I shall.

    Visit Birmingham Forum

    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/01/28/birmingham-forum/feed/ 0     31 Days to Building a Better Blog http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/01/26/31-days-to-building-a-better-blog/ http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/01/26/31-days-to-building-a-better-blog/#comments Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:02:41 +0000 Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/01/26/31-days-to-building-a-better-blog/ These are my links for 26 January 2009 from 12:46 to 12:46]]> A great set of posts from Problogger showing simple but effective ways of improving your blogging. Watch out, I may try implementing some of them.

    Visit 31 Days to Building a Better Blog

    ]]>     http://citizensheep.com/blog/2009/01/26/31-days-to-building-a-better-blog/feed/ 0