Creating Community Conversations - Gallomanor

BuildingDemocracy - Innovations Fund

The Ministry of Justice* Innovations Fund (that brought you CivicSurf or Cllr 2.0 as it was) is back.  It's bigger than ever with £150,000 to be spent developing new ideas.  Go to www.buidlingdemocracy.co.uk for the details.

There is a difference this year.  Instead of only being able to submit applications directly to the selection panel you can "Float your Idea" first on the website and get advice and improvements from other visitors to the site.  It works in the same way as the Power of Information taskforce's ShowUsABetterWay project.

Although the site does "strongly recommend" floating ideas rather than submitting them straightaway, Jessica Ellis who is managing the project was clear that the selection process would not discriminate against those who go straight to the less public application submitting stage.  So if you want to submit an idea without telling the world and your competitors about it, you can.

Without wanting to be down on the project I would like to point out that Tom Watson's tweet is slightly inaccurate.  You don't win £15k.  Quite the opposite.  We received £15k. last year from the fund but with Norfolk County Council have invested at least half that again as our contributions to the CivicSurf project.

*The eagle-eyed reader will also notice that DIUS (Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills) are involved.

Your Buddy, the President(ial) Candidate

Michelle emailed me again.  She wanted to tell me a little story about her and Barack backstage at the Democratic Convention in 2004 and how she'd broken the tension with a private joke.

Barack likes to tell a story about the two of us standing backstage before his speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention.

The way he tells it, he was too busy in the days before the convention to feel any pressure -- but about an hour before the speech, I could tell he was getting a little nervous.

To break the tension, right before he went out on stage I leaned in close and said, "Just don't screw it up, buddy."

We laughed. And then Barack brought the house down.

What's more I (if I were a US citizen) could be backstage at the 2008 convention if I were to donate $5 or more by midnight on Thursday.

Seeing it in person will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I'm excited about being there, and if you make a donation of $5 or more before the deadline, you could join Barack backstage:

Damn, it's good.  Coming from Michelle Obama and in personal one to one language, the email makes me feel part of the campaign and makes me want to be part of a historic "once-in-a-lifetime experience".

There is a lot to learn from the Obama'08 campaign.

New Consultation Guidelines

A while back I posted about a Consultation Consultation.  BERR yesterday published their new guidelines for Central Government consultations to come into force in November 2008.

The new Code of Practice on Consultation can be downloaded from the BERR site.

"This Code is based on the results of a review of Government consultations in 2007 involving many people who regularly respond to Government consultations. Many thanks to those of you who participated in this review.

The new Code will apply from November 2008 to all central Government departments' formal, written consultation exercises. Other public sector organisations are invited to sign up to the Code. A list of organisations adopting the Code will be published in November. Where the new Code refers the reader to supporting guidance, this will become available by November."

I've not read it yet - too busy - but it does have a very pretty front cover.

Send me your stereotypes - YouTube

OK, we can't have her celebrity or looks but hats off to Queen Rania of Jordan who has been running an interesting YouTube project for the last few months.

Back in April she posted a video on the Queen Rania channel asking for people to post questions about the stereotypes YouTubers have of the Arab World and for other YouTubers to help breakdown those stereotypes.

It's interesting because although her initial video is ever so nicely shot in black and white with soft backlighting she hasn't steered away from controversial topics.  Her latest post covers an Arab wedding that was bombed by terrorists.  The comments on the videos are numerous and that initial post has 81 video responses.

Along with some other examples such as RhymingWithOranges it demonstrates that YouTube is not just a place to host video you embed in your site.  It is a social network in itself.  Comments get left, and get rated.  Videos get responded to by video and commented upon themselves.  Word gets passed around. 

In comparison the very impressive No.10 Downing Street site has nearly as many subscribers and lots more videos, but the individual films get far fewer views and comments and I can't find any video responses to the No.10 films.  Downing Street seems to be using the site as a broadcast tool as opposed to a networking tool.  I can understand the hesitancy to network but wonder if they are missing out.

Gangs aren't like what we thought

Just in time for the government's new youth crime plan, comes fascinating research from Manchester University, who've taken the trouble to work closely with young people involved in gangs. What they've found challenges the picture normally painted of gangs, suggesting that the police approach is 'fatally flawed' and risks pushing young people into the arms of gangs.

The researchers (lead by Judith Aldridge and Juanjo Medina), found that gangs were not highly organised drug-dealing operations.

"In reality, gangs are loose, messy changing friendship networks less organised and criminally active than widely believed with unclear, shifting and unstable leadership."

(Podcast, and Guardian coverage here)

Zimbabwe Twitterer

Sokwanele, a Civic Action Support Group in Zimbabwe, has used Twitter to bring a Flickr group of pictures to the attention of the Prime Minister via his Web team at 10 Downing Street.

The pictures are powerful.

Sokwanele are using lots of Web2.0 tools to bring their message to a wider audience.  They use Flickr, a blog, a website, newsletters, video and Twitter.  They're using as many channels as possible.

Yesterday we were discussing in the office who to try and get to take part in the International section of I'm a Councillor.  Sophia wanted someone from the MDC to highlight the issues in Zimbabwe similar to as we did last year with Myo Thein from Burma.  I preferred to try and find someone from Kenya as the resolution of the political violence there would be a more positive story.

Maybe someone from Sokwanele would be ideal.  Any thoughts?

Democracy duty for councils

According to the LGA's FirstOnline site:

Councils would have a new duty to promote democracy, under government plans announced this week.

Communities secretary Hazel Blears said she wanted every council to run lively campaigns to explain the voting system and encourage first time voters.

I'm glad that democracy is going to get some attention and I like the sound of lively campaigns.  Right up our street.  This announcement again highlights the lack of democracy in the LGA's "my council" campaign.

Show us a better way, says UK Govt

Plain English, £20,000 prize fund for development, minimal rules, transparency.  Surely this can't be government?  But it is.

The Power of Information Task Force has launched a competition to get good ideas from the public on how best to reuse public information.

Brilliant.  Well Done.  Click on the button and go.

Political Disengagement - The Lord's View

[political disengagement] is a symptom of a deep-seated feeling that everything in the world is basically safe and that life will more or less carry on as usual whatever party is in power.

Baroness Murphy has sparked some debate over at the very excellent Lords of the Blog.  Read the comments, some interesting views coming out.

Our NHS, Our Future - Live

Lord Darzi is hitting the headlines today as he announces the NHS Next Stage Review on the 60th birthday of the service.  He has been using a blog for the last six months as part of the massive consultation exercise he has been conducting.  Using a blog as an important part of a consultation as pretty revolutionary.

Simon Dickson built that first site and he also revamped it for the launch of the report today to allow for streaming video, comments and maps.  And it is all built on Wordpress.  Quickly and cost-effectively.  Nice work.