Watch the inspirational ‘Us Now Film’ that will give you an indication of things to come in future governance. Enjoy! A must watch.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE WINNERS!

I didn’t manage to grab all the winners due to the time constraint, but please enjoy the videos I have managed to capture with these well-deserved winners!
Best Learning Pool Community Member 2009
Ian Leggitt (Bury Metropolitan Borough Council) 

Overall Customer of the Year 2009 
Christine Shakespeare (Basildon Dsitrict Council)

Best Learning Pool Ambassador 2009
Steve Day (Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council)

So, I’m back from the #pslc and now ready to give my verdict. It was certainly an eventful day, with mini croissants and lovely purple people! LearningPool staff were all dressed in purple t-shirts which made it easier to ask for help when needed. Upon arrival, I was greeted by Janet Harkin (LearningPool’s Marketing Manager) and Mary McKenna (MD of LearningPool), who were really lovely and helpful throughout the event. Thank you ladies!

To find out more about my experience at the event, read on….

I’ve been invited to attend an event at Hilton, London Kensington tomorrow (20th May 2009) for the Public Sector Learning Conference – Fresh ideas for tomorrow’s people by LearningPool. As highlighted by Dave Briggs in his post a few days ago here . Dave did make an interesting point when he said Mary McKenna (MD of Learning Pool) must be a good egg because she’s on Twitter. I couldn’t agree more! I myself have experienced such positive and vibrant responses on Twitter, that eventually gave my research a breath of fresh air! I once did a research on the impact of forums and other learning tools such as Moodle to facilitate learning in higher education and large organisations.

I’ve had a Youtube Channel for quite some time now but haven’t properly introduced it to everyone. I used to do the odd video here and there because I enjoy doing it. But recently I’ve been receiving invitations to some exciting events and its great to capture the thoughts of the attendees while I’m there. I’ll be attending and covering at least another 5 events in the near future. So if you’d like to see what I’m up while at these events, don’t forget to subscribe to my channel on youtube at this link

I’ve recently been alerted by Edinburgh Council officials that there has been a twitter account masquerading as Edinburgh Council (EdinburghCC) . It has already captured 38 followers so I thought its important to highlight that this is in fact not a genuine twitter account for Edinburgh Council and Edinburgh_CC is. So for those already following EdinburghCC, kindly unfollow and follow Edinburgh_CC, as this is the genuine council account.

Researchers are sometimes quite hard to come by. They’re usually locked up in the library or room somewhere reading endless amounts of books and articles and once in a while pops out to do some field research. However when one does come by and shares their knowledge, so much can be learned and shared with its communities of practice.

With that said, its such a pleasure for me to introduce the newest member of the research community in local government specialising in social media. Some of you might already know her, she works at Derbyshire County Council and her name is Sarah Lay. Her twitter handle is @sarahlay and her website can be found here Thought Store .

Today I have been invited to attend an exciting event hosted by FutureGov Consultancy (my sponsors to NYC for the Personal Democracy Forum this June). This event marks the launch of ‘Us Now Film’ online that discusses the theory and practice of transforming governments through participation.

Sarah Reid (NHS)

Fiona Legge (Cheltenham Borough Council)

Susan Richardson (Burnley Borough Council)

Stephen Cross (Hillingdon Council)

Diane Sims (Kirklees Council)

The three cool guys from Solihull Council

Turn up your volume to listen to questions please!