Hi guys and dolls ;o)
Its certainly been a while since I’ve written anything original. I’ve been quite busy getting other stuff sorted that I even missed announcing my 1 year anniversary last month. That’s right peeps, LGEO Research is now 1 year old!!! Yay
Anyways, the new year is here and we’re all already gearing up to face new challenges in our careers and everyday life. Though I have to say my new years resolution is not as exciting as others but hoping “taking everything in my stride” is …

I love it when I can find inspiring speakers and stories to inspire and encourage social media adoption in all aspects of our lives. There are just some things that money can’t buy which is unpredictable and as effective if not more than those big advertising campaigns could ever do. And the best thing is, sometimes, genuine campaigns could later on create profit for those who need it the most. And how was this all possible if not for social media? ;o) Enjoy!

So its been a been a while since LocalGovCamp Lincoln but its never too late to share all those juicy details for all your reading and viewing

I managed to catch up with Helen Williams who is a Socitm Insight Associate as well as a Better Connected Report Reviewer and ask her thoughts on social media in local government.

It was certainly interesting to learn that the Better Connected report will also be reporting on local government social media usage in next year’s report! This is really exciting news for local government from my point of view because as its important to see how we can better local government services online, isn’t it just as important to have a proper and ongoing evaluations on emerging trends and technologies that have an impact on our communities?

The first session was run by Fraser Henderson (Founder and Director of Particitech) who discussed the issues surrounding e-Petitions. Now I wasn’t in this session myself, as I was in the “social networking sites” session (where else would I be …? hehe ;o) ), but I’m gonna have a go at reporting it based on the twitterstream and my own knowledge on this subject! Haha let’s see how well I do ay?

So as you guys already know, I was at the LocalGovCamp in Lincoln last Friday and was fortunate enough to talk to Andrew Beeken (in video above), who was “the man of the hour” and ask him about what he thought about the whole unconference. I mean, I personally thought it was great and definitely different from the previous LocalGovCamp in Birmingham just because it was a smaller crowd and we had more time to chat to everyone who was there. Having the capability to network rather effectively and have a more open table discussion, certainly made this LocalGovCamp a more cosy and intimate affair.

Being a student and possibly sometimes out of the loop on innovative things like this, it was refreshing to listen to Joss Winn talk about WriteToReply.org…

A site for commenting on public reports in considerable detail. Texts are broken down into their respective sections for easier consumption. Rather than comment on the text as a whole, you are encouraged to direct comments to specific paragraphs. The full texts for comment are listed on the right under ‘Texts’.

Its quite interesting to see throughout my research that there are still some traditional web ‘thinking’ going on within the public sector that deters them from fully exploiting the new web’s potential and opportunities. But this is not due to the lack in sufficient technology or gadgets.

It all comes down to insufficiency in skills and knowledge on how the new web is demanding more softer social skills and specific technical skills to enhance public services and public sector’s relationship with citizens on the new web.

Some delegates give their feedback on the Digital Engagement Event in London on 6th of October 2009.

Thank you for all your pics! I compiled all the pics that were clear. Sorry if yours didn’t make it, it was only because it was hard to see what was written. I’ve included all the comments as I feel we need to be real about the challenges of social media and we need to face them instead of shy away from them. If you want to use the pics for your own project, please feel free to do so. You can find the link to the pics here.

This session kicked off with the Chairman’s (@MichaelCross) welcome and introduction speech. I have to say, one of the joys of covering for events like this is getting to meet people like Michael who is an experienced professional journalist.

Michael’s opening remarks points out that this is an interesting time for us and also an important time for issues such as digital inclusion. It was interesting to hear Michael also point out that those challenges might include the possibility of change of government here in Britain. Its a hot topic for some time now and is a great point to ponder on. Its certainly feels like we will be going through some sort of change in school of thought here and everything is up for grabs. And the role of digital engagement will no doubt play a big role in the election coming.

An interview with Josh Bernoff, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. Over the past thirteen years, Mr. Bernoff has become one of America’s most frequently quoted research analysts. His analysis, which aims at a deeper understanding of people and how they use technology, has been cited by sources from The Wall St. Journal to “60 Minutes.”

He is the co-author of the book “Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies,” which offers myriad data-based strategies for companies that want to harness the power of social technologies like blogs, social networks, and YouTube.

Thanks so much to people at @gasstreetworks, @72prufrocks and @Mari_Browne who have helped to kick off this project!

Need more people to participate though. Find out more about this here in my earlier post. Please send in your pictures to either liz@lgeoresearch.com or tweet me @Liz_Azyan. You can find the ppt “Social Media is” here. So print it out and start writing! Then send it to me ASAP! Deadline is midnight tomorrow!!! (9th October 2009)

Beth Kanter is a trainer, blogger, and consultant to nonprofits and individuals in effective use of social media. Her expertise is how to use new web tools (blogging, tagging, wikis, photo sharing, video blogging, screencasting, social networking sites, and virtual worlds, etc) to support nonprofit. She has worked on projects that include: training, curriculum development, research, and evaluation. She is an experienced coach to “digital immigrants” in the personal mastery of these tools. http://chris.pirillo.com – http://www.gnomedex.com Distributed by Tubemogul.

A video created for a presentation to the ACT Minister’s Department, Australia as a means of communicating some of the “life reflecting art reflecting life” aspects of Web 2.0 and modern culture. Video clips are used for education purposes only and used under Fair Use Legislation. No challenge to the trademarks, copyright or intellectual property of the creators is intended.

Social Media Revolution Video. Get the facts!

Looking at the possibilities of using social media for e-learning and collaborative working across UK local government.

So another week, there’s another event for LGEO Research to sink its teeth into! This time its the Socitm’s 2009 Conference: Re-inventing local public services – radical thinking, practical solutions. LGEO Research has once again been commissioned to cover an event but the difference here is I am going to be speaking at the event in one of the parallel sessions to Head of IT’s in various local councils across the UK along with Simon Hume (Stratford-on-Avon District Council) and Martin Greenwood (Socitm Insight Programme Manager) on the subject of “Social media: are ICT managers blocking modern ways of working – and is it a problem?”

I often get asked what is it that motivates me to write and how do I get inspired. Well to tell you the truth, I don’t have a specific method when I’m writing a blog… well at least not one that I would say I stick to. There are different types of blog posts and there are different reasons for every post. So the method varies and might change from one to another. But here might be a few methods that I do use. Feel free to pick and mix!

It was an honour to be invited to attend “Recasting the Net”: A prestigious new series of live and online debates, curated by LSE think-tank POLIS and Channel 4’s 4iP team, designed to explore and discuss the next phase of the web in Birmingham Birmingham on 17th September to discuss the impact of online tools on how we are holding power to account.