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?

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.

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.

I recently attended the Digital Engagement Event organized by Ten Alps Communications and managed to catch up with the Ten Alps Managing Director to ask about what was going on their website that supports their events. They have some improvements lined up that they wish to share with delegates. Hope you’ll find this useful!

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.

Here’s a collection of interviews I did during my social reporting job at Socitm09. You can find more about the event at the official blog http://www.socitm09.net

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.

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.

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

This video feature Dave Briggs, Learning Pool’s Community Evangelist on the topic of social media and the challenges it faces in the UK local government. There is a big issue around local government blocking access to social networking/media sites at work. There is also a worry around the use of old technology like IE6 web browser still being used in government. Take a look at the video to learn more.

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

Dave Briggs writes about digital engagement and community building for government. Dave is Learning Pool’s Community Evangelist as well as a freelance consultant.

An interesting affair….

Almost everyday my inbox is filled with information or invitations to attend conferences and events on digital engagement, e-government, social media, local government and everything web 2.0. There’s some interesting conferences and events coming up on my calendar and I thought I’d share one with my readers.