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?

With budget cuts looming, there is a greater need to be more innovative in delivering public services online and self-services can be used to deliver more for less. So local council website s are looking like a more attractive channel to move away from the costly business of servicing customer enquiries via the phone or face-to-face to self-service through the local council website.

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.

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.

Digital Engagement – Empowering Citizens and Government through Digital Innovation

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.

Learning Pool’s Community Evangelist: Dave Briggs from Liz Azyan on Vimeo.
Hope this was useful!
Liz xxx

Are you a twitter addict? Have you wondered why you get so wrapped up in twittering? Day and night then night and day? LOL Its like you couldn’t see your life without it. I mean, do you remember when twitter when down not too long ago, although I don’t twitter everyday, I did panic for a bit hoping it doesn’t last for long as I felt I really needed to tweet! LOL And the funniest thing about it for me is.. I think I could not function my professional life without it. Even my research depends alot on the communication I ‘give and receive’ on twitter. Here is a couple of thoughts on why ‘YOU’ and ‘I’ might love twitter..

Its been a long journey for LGEO Research and myself over the past 9 months. If I was pregnant, I’d have a baby right now! Well, let’s consider LGEO Research to be my baby and my baby has gone through a wonderful 9 months growing and learning from the inside and finally now my baby is being released to the world to deliver all the knowledge that has been consumed.

What’s even greater is, LGEO Research will continue to grow and learn just as it has before, but hopefully the process will be faster and able to reach even more people than before. These next few months ahead, LGEO Research has plans already put in place to be ‘Here, There and Everywhere! So be sure to keep a close eye on the blog. It will a busy few months of accelerated growth.

So this was my first ‘gig’ at a conference. Have to say I was really shaking in my heels but glad to say I manage to pull through it with the support of a wonderful group of people who were very supportive and interactive throughout my session. Thank you to all who were there in my session. I really enjoyed talking to you all.

ScotWeb2 was certainly a different experience from any other unconference I’ve been to. Usually an unconference would consist of a big group but this event was quite an intimate one, which I believe worked towards their advantage.

This was the snipet about the event just in case you’d like to know what it was all about!

Digital Democracy has been working for two years with the Burmese community in Thailand,Bangladesh, India, and China as well as with resettled Burmese populations in Indiana, Washington, DC and New York. D2 staff have published and presented research on Burma with an emphasis on technology use by displaced Burmese groups. In addition to Burmaʼs borders, we have conducted research in Cuba, Armenia, Mali, Zimbabwe,South Africa, and Israel.

This interview covers the following issues and questions:

Steven talks about his most recent project – Neighbourhood to neighbour engagement.
Steven talks about how local authorities get involved within this online neighbourhood.
Citizen to citizen engagement and value.
Does the local authority make themselves known as an authority to the public within the online community?
Mix of email and online forum.
What are the main tools that you use? Groupserver.org
People need to choose their own technology.
What does it mean to you to have an open government?

So, a few weeks ago I was in Olympia attending the Building Perfect Council Websites ‘09 (#pcw09) to conduct a workshop on social media (which was alot of fun by the way ! ). While I was there, I managed to interview Robin Christopherson (Head of Accessibility) and Diana Robinson (Sales and Marketing Manager) from AbilityNet . I’m hoping to gain more knowledge on accessible websites as I go along. So hopefully LGEO Research will feature more news on AbilityNet in the future to keep local authority website developers up-to-date on how to make their websites more accessible.

If there was one area I’m very aware and concerned about in health care, it would definitely be mental health care. I have had various of experiences dealing with mental health issues among students while I was a sub warden and I also have very good friends who suffer from with bipolar disorder and anxiety disorder. I have also experienced living with people with bulimia, anorexia (who also always used to cut herself to relieve the pain) and was on alot of anti-depressents at the tender age of 20. Its certainly made me more aware of hard it is to live with a mental illness and what a daunting task everyday life could be for them.

*To get spreadsheet of #psfbuzz, click here.

So, its been a few days now since I attended the PSFBuzz Web 2.0 event in Manchester. The presenters covered a lot of topics relating to social media and web 2.0 strategies for local authorities. And it seems that from the feedback gathered from the floor and feedback forms, the event was indeed a success. This was probably due to a number of reasons from the professional and efficient organization by the Public Sector Forums (PSF), to the presentations and down to the people …

This video features the creative and unique ways the U.S. Air Force is using New/Social Media to communicate and collectively generating ideas, experiences and knowledge with each other, family and friends as well as the public. Its truly an inspiring example of how we could use new/social media when we start using these tools with our head and heart rather than using policies or rules and regulations as our starting point. For me, new/social media can only be successful when it creates and invigorates meaning in our lives or to the lives of people who use them.