Creating Community Conversations - Gallomanor

UK GovCamp - Mission Accomplished?

I went to yesterday's UKGovCamp mainly to catch up with people I don't see enough and to stay in touch with what is happening in the Digital Gov world.  I don't think I was alone. The majority of people gave the impression during the introductions that they were there to learn.

I don't think it was always like that.

My memories of the first UKGovCamp in January 2008 are of a smaller, angrier, and impatient group of people who were there to work out how to change the way Government did digital.

IIRC there were conversations about publishing content and data in a machine readable format, about government gaining a human voice, about becoming more agile (although I don't think we used that word) in procurement and development. We wanted innovation.  Lots of it.

We talked about ways to get decision makers on board. We knew what had gone before wasn't good enough and we wanted to make it better. It was very exciting.

It seemed to me yesterday that the session which generated the most excitement was the last one. Mike Bracken, the GDS Digital Director, gave an overview of what he and his 180 strong team are up to. The room was packed, at least 5 people came to the front to take photographs in a mini-papping session.

One department web manager asked Mike when they should expect to turn their domains off. It was a brilliant question. Very simple but massively loaded with other issues.  Prime among them being: is it worth us innovating with the imminent move to a single domain? It encapsulated something for me that has been apparent for the last 6 months. If you want to be doing cool digital stuff in government then you need to be in GDS working on BetaGov.

In 2008 it was the people participating in UKGovCamp that were doing the cool, innovative, digital things in Government. Now we are looking at others doing that innovation and wondering what impact they will have on us.

In one sense it is mission accomplished. Mike Bracken acknowledged the debt that GDS owed to GovCampers. We wanted that innovation, we helped create the environment that meant it could happen. GovCamp succeeded. 

But there is a danger - it was said that in today's economic climate we can't afford to let "1,000 flowers bloom". The innovation currently being displayed at GDS means that this is not a big concern at the moment. But how about in two years or five years when those innovators move on, or a new generation of users need services. Where will the innovation come from. UKGovCamp 2017?

 

 

And that was Gallomanor in 2011

It hardly seems like two minutes since schools started back in September. The year has slipped by so quickly that it feels compulsory to record a few of the highlights. Here goes:

January

The year started with the arrival of Rosie Schultz. I'm not entirely convinced Rosie knew what she was in for. I'd interviewed her over the phone just before Christmas and offered her the job there and then. I don't think she believed me. It was the right decision to give her the job. She's been brilliant all year. Highly organised, positive, good with our scientists, teachers and funders. As the year has gone on she's taken on more and more responsibility and as a consequence our events are happening very smoothly.

January saw one of the year's social highlights. Mark Roberts, an IAS double alumni, invited Sophia and I to dinner at Lincoln College. It was an experience I'll remember for a long while. Thank you once again.

February

was quiet.

March

We ran I'm a Scientist with 6 zones in March and for the first time one of those zones was sponsored. The Institute of Physics sponsored the Space Zone and it was a great success. It was a very useful learning experience for us. Zone sponsorship creates extra pressure in terms of crediting the sponsor, recruiting scientists with a connection, providing access to student members, keeping the sponsor informed and providing a bespoke evaluation report. We getting good at it now.

Towards the end of March we also heard from the Royal Academy of Engineering that we had been successful in winning an Ingenious Award to run I'm an Engineer, Get me out of here! in March 2012. Unusually we had left ourselves plenty of time to pull that project together and I am delighted that the planning is in rude health. You can read our mid-term report.

April

Thanks to Wills and Kate I took up golf again after 12 years. We also brought months of work with Dr Rob Aldridge to a head and submitted an application for a People's Award to fund Decipher My Data - Flu!

May

We attended the Science Communication Conference in force this year. We gave a session on I'm a Scientist. We let the audience choose what we talked about and held a live chat between the audience and some scientists who had taken part before including Tamsin Gray live from Antartica. Dan Hannard, a teacher from Woodkirk Academy spoke about his experiences with the event and really impressed the crowd with his passion for teaching. Some suitable refreshment followed that evening, but the next morning I was asked to step in at the last minute for a speaker who wasn't able to make it. That was fun.

June

June was big. We had 23 zones in I'm a Scientist. That stretched the server to the limit and we don't want to do so many again concurrently. The RCUK and IoP both sponsored zones and Nelson Thornes sponsored the teacher communications. It was also very exciting to be hosting I'm a Scientist - Australia. The wonderful Kristin Alford and team at Bridge8 got some funding to run 3 zones at the same time (12 hours ahead in fact) as the UK event. It was tiring as I tried to stay up occasionally for their live chats, but very satisfying to see the event do so well on the other side of the planet.

July

We were ready for a rest, but at the end of the month the Wellcome Trust let us know that our bid for Decipher My Data had been approved for a People's Award. It was two days before the end of term and we rushed out a quick email to our teacher lists and were blown away by the response.

August

Now you didn't really expect us to do anything in August did you?

September

We spent September preparing for the Autumn. We had much still to do this year. Our good friend Prof Stephen Curry was putting the final touches on the film he had produced partly funded with his prize from winning the Imaging Zone in June 2010. It is a wonderful film that we highly recommend you watch.

October

For the first time in 8 years we weren't running I'm a Councillor, Get me out of here! The project had become an increasingly hard to sell event in the face of the swingeing cuts that local authority youth budgets have faced. We're looking at some developments to the site and format that may revive it as a longer term, lower intensity opportunity for councils to use.

Even without that project we expanded the team. Andrew Beeken is spending a day a week with us (virtually) making the websites look the way they should.

October saw the offical launch of the Decipher My Data site. We're really pleased with how the project is developing and every week brings more schools on board.

Sneaking in at the end of October was Katie Tomlinson. Katie joined us to work on both Decipher My Data and the other projects. She's slotted into the team quite nicely.

November

Oh, what a month! The beginning of the month saw us at the Wellcome Trust pitching for a second Society Award for I'm a Scientist. We asked for 50% for the next 3 years and in return we've promised to double the size of the event. We asked our friends to their support via Twitter and we displayed those messages on a Powerpoint slide projected during the Q&A session. It really was a highlight of the year to see hundreds of messages of support posted. Wonderful. Thank you. A couple of days later we had a phone call to say we were successful with our bid. It's fantastic and lays the foundation for another 3 years of work for the company. Again a massive debt is due to Stephen Curry and Dan Hannard who joined us for the presentation to give the unadulterated truth of what it is like to take part.

The good news didn't stop there. The Institute of Physics confirmed their sponsorship of 4 zones for 2012. The Physiological Society confirmed sponsorship of a Sports Zone and we ran the Subatomic and Zinc Zones sponsored by the STFC.

Running alongside this we've been developing a version of I'm a Scientist for the Wellcome Sanger Institute. Julian Rayner took part in March 2011 and thanks in part to his enthusiasm a group of 17 senior genomics scientists have been using our site to connect with local school students. Instead of an intensive 2 week burst the engagement is going to take place over 12 months with lots more scientists taking part from time to time. We'll see how it develops.

Further developments came from across the Irish Sea. We found we'd been successful in applying for funding to run 5 zones of I'm a Scientist as part of Dublin City of Science 2012. And also from closer to home. A group of electrical engineers, statisticians and psychologists won a major grant which involves us working with them and a set of local primary schools over the next couple of years.  We'll be starting in earnest in 2012.

December

Blink and it's gone. Christmas always makes December a short month. The biggest thing is of course the traditional Gallomanor Christmas party. Traditionally Sophia and I pitch up at the Garricks Head in Bath, drag some unsuspecting associate in to join us and enjoy fine food and wine. This year is different. Sophia and I will be there as usual, but we'll have Rosie and Katie there along with 3 friends and colleagues. Declan Fleming, who's been the educational driving force behind Decipher My Data and an enormous help on the other projects. Gareth Coxon, who uncomplainingly delivers design after design for us. And finally, Mike Little, who makes Wordpress and the web do things they probably shouldn't. They've all been brilliant supporters of Gallomanor and we couldn't do it without them.

January 2012

There is already one thing about January 2012 I can write. The company is on an upward curve. We took on two new full time team members in 2011. We're going to continue to grow in 2012 and in order to make is easier to recruit we're leaving the beautiful quiet Bradford on Avon for the bustling metropolis of Bath.

From the 3rd January 2012 the company's new address will be:

7-9 North Parade Buildings

Bath

BA1 1NS

01225 326892

Come and see in 2012.

Thanks for applying

We interviewed three excellent candidates for the new Project Wrangler role on Decipher my Data (#iasdata) yesterday.

More about who'll be joining us soon (they'll be writing their introduction), but this post is about some short feedback for those who applied but didn't get to interview.

The quality of candidates was impressive. Lots of good degrees, lots of excellent extra-curricular activity, lots of good covering letters.  The people we interviewed stood out for various reasons. One included examples of her student magazine writing and showed a little bit of design flair on her CV. Another stood out with a lovingly crafted cover letter in whch every word had been written for us. The third had additional experience above and beyond the other applicants.

The one piece of feedback that I'd give is that when applying for a job write something that gets your personality across. Don't write something that you think the HR department of ICI (a defunct British bureaucracy from the last century) might have written. Don't write as a corporation to apply for a company trying to engage young people.

Just one example:

"I'm writing in support of an application for a position on your team as part of the 'I'm a Scientist, Decipher my Data! project' at Gallomanor"

OR

"I'm a Scientist, please employ me"

Guess who got the interview.

 

Help needed on Decipher my data!

I'm a Scientist, Decipher my data! is about making data real for secondary school students. The first in what we hope is a series of projects is called Flu! and is funded by the Wellcome Trust. We need a passionate science/engineering graduate with a burning desire to do SciComms to help us make the project a success.

We want you to be curious, well-organised & communicative. We would like you to have a strong interest in online engagement and the digital skills to match. If you've got all that AND a good joke to tell, then you're a shoo-in.

We're based near Bath/Bristol with good train links. You'll be joining a small, but rather good team with lots of potential. However the starting salary is a miserly £15,000 pa. We're keen for you to start soon so please send an email and a CV to work@gallomanor.com as soon as you can. 

It's worth having a quick read of feedback given to previous applicants: http://www.gallomanor.com/2010/01/workgallomanor-thank-you.html

 

There is no closing date. We'll post here when we've filled the position.

SCC2011

It's good to present on the first day of a conference. You get it out of the way and can start to enjoy the social (read liquid) elements in much more depth. The danger is that on the second day you might get asked to step in for an ill speaker. I wasn't feeling too bright myself but with the Science Communication Conference having an online engagement theme I could hardly leave the Future of Online Session a speaker short.

Needless to say I thoroughly enjoyed myself at the conference and well done to Alice, Toby and the King's Place staff for a very smooth running conference.

What follows are some thoughts, links and comments that I didn't bring up at the time.  It's as much for my own benefit as anyone elses.

We kicked off the Online Engagement themed conference with a keynote from Tim Radford. Tim can tell a story or two and he's been around since Yuri Gagarin went into space so he's got a few to tell.  You can tell why he is so revered as a science journalist.

Tim made some very good points calling upon the science community to "get your protests in early" and to engage with the public because without that engagement science will be vulnerable to the whims of politicians. What he said had resonance with our Science Is Vital work. My favourite part of the session was the question from a PhD student researching the use of sensational headlines by certain parts of the media. Tim's riposte was that "all headlines have to be sensational. If they didn't create a sensation then no-one would read them." It was a well put reminder that a hyperbolic headline might be sensationalism (in a derogatory sense) to a New Scientist reader, but that an academic geeky headline in the New Scientist is also sensationalist, but just for a different audience's sensations.

However all was not perfect with Tim kicking off the online conference. He only refered to online engagement twice.  Once to declare Twitter a waste of time and secondly to lament that people getting their news online were not subject to the diversity of opinions that someone buying from the newstand would get. We can argue about Twitter (and it can be a waste of time if not used well) but not being able to see that a Google search can provide immense diversity is strange. Try Nuclear Power. You get Greenpeace and the World Nuclear Association on the same page.

Whilst Tim was a great speaker I'm not sure it was wise to have him kicking off the conference because it did not start a discussion of online engagement at all.

The day continued with some speed networking which as before works very well. If I can find the name of the person who works out who meets who I'll post it in an update.

After a swift lunch Sophia and I spoke about I'm a Scientist.  We'll write up that session sometime soon, but I just want to thank Dan Hannard from Woodkirk High School who blew me and the audience away with his talk. Thank you Dan.

The final session of the day was Democratising Technology. I went to hear Cory Doctorow and he didn't disappoint. You can follow him @docotorow. The other two speakers showed us some fun stuff that has come out of the Maker Faires such as the exhilirating looking Jet Ponies, but I couldn't help feeling that the Maker Faires were really a modern version of Steam Rallies that are common place out here in the West Country. Interesting but not exactly a new concept.

Post-event drinks courtesy of the BSA Crest Awards were swiftly downed followed by more at the very nice The Fellow pub with roof terrace.

Day Two started with copious quantities of orange juice and the request to step in for Jonathan Druro in the first session. Vicky Reeves was on the original line-up and took the brunt of the questioning. In the few minutes preparation I had, I felt that speaking about the AlphaGov experiment and the trend towards open data in government might add the most value. 

Government isn't normally seen as a bastion of web innovation and the behemoth of Direct.gov.uk doesn't inspire confidence. However the Alpha.gov.uk team (and many other lower profile govt webbies) are changing that, treating Google as your homepage and creating a very flat heirarchy site that cuts the extraneous content and delivers transactions quickly. The other defining aspect of the experiment is how much of their work is being done in the open, in full view of their potential critics.

The other trend I spoke about was open (and interlinked) data. My theme was that people are making data available and letting others decide how to use it. By publishing data you are engendering trust even if no-one actually looks at the data. Take Civil Servant and MP expenses. The vast majority are so dull and mundane and honest that very few people would ever read them. But it is the fact that they are published that leads to people trusting them. At least more than they used to.

And once your data is published make sure that others can use it easily. Councils in England now are required to publish all spending over £500. Sites such as OpenlyLocal have aggregated that data so you can see who's paying who. That site links though to OpenCorporates which use Companies House (and similar in other countries) data to build a database showing the links between companies and the revenue they derive from governments. When linked to the Who's Lobbying this will show either the wonderful efficiency of the private sector or the corrupt nature of the private sector depending on who you view and your viewpoint. David Waldock has written up the session in more detail.

The Tyranny of the Web followed with the ever excellent Ed Yong and a talking dog from Jonathan Sanderson alongside Pippa Hyam from Dialogue by Design. Ed reminded us eloquently that we need to distinguish between the Tool and the Tool User. It is wrong to blame the internet if it is the people mis-using it that are the problem.

Jonathan, perhaps too subtlely drove home the message that you to select your audience online. Broadcast TV perhaps does that for you by scheduling. The internet perhaps lulls you into a false sense of security, a Fields of Dreams, Build it and they will come mentality. The power of Google makes you think the right people will find you. If only. His talking dog with 35 million views reminds us the difference between mass audiences and an echo chamber.

Pippa was playing the devil's advocate. She professed to be shocked by her discovery of "astro-turfing". I'm sure she must realise that it happens in the "real-world", it's just that online it is easy to track and prove using IP addresses. As evidence of the tyranny of the web, astro-turfing is fairly poor.

Two more sessions beckoned. Kathy Sykes, Paul Manners and Robert Winston took to the stage with the ever-present Sue Nelson to discuss the future of public engagement. It was a wide ranging conversation with questions from the floor. Some of them might have been leading.

My key quotes (paraphrases more accurately) were:

Kathy Sykes: Include the public in your research governance

Robert Winston: Industry needs to be more involved in public engagement and there needs to be more spent on online engagement.

The final session of the day before I caught the early train home was on CitizenScience. With our work on I'm a Scientist, Decipher My Data I thought this would be useful. And it was. Karen Bultitude chaired with knowledge and authority while Marek Kukula and Chris Davis spoke in detail about their SolarStormWatch projects. But the star of the show was Julia Wilkinson who is a very dedicated citizen scientist indeed.  Julia told us she is motivated by:

• Getting feedback from the scientists on the discoveries being made
• Getting her name on an Academic Paper
• Being thanked by the scientists
• Her general interest in the subject

I don't think Julia is atypical. Her motivations are really simple and it highlights the importance of the two-way communication in this type of project.

I'd have liked to have made Bright Club, but it'll happen one day...

I make no apologies for the length of this post. I hope there's a useful reminder or anecdote in here for me at least. But to finish with a summary:

• SCC2011 was excellent - in organisation, in delegates, in balance between sessions and networking
• There were many excellent sessions with knowledgable speakers

However

• Some chairs were not knowledgeable, particularly on online matters
• Kicking off with the excellent Tim Radford was probably not the right idea

And if it had been over 5 days I might just have met all the people I wanted to but with so many I did want to catch it was never going to be the case. As it was an excellent two days. See you next year.

 

UPDATE: Ben Craven is the master of speed-dating algorithms.

Another effect of Science is Vital campaign

I spent the train journey along the gorgeous Limpley Stoke Valley going to Bristol reading the 2011 Public Attitudes to Science Summary Report.

It is a great read. 24 pages stacked full of information about how the UK public view science.  It's a positive story full of improvements, but without a sense of Mission Accomplished.

It demonstrates that most of the public don't understand how science is conducted, and nor how it is funded. It tells us that although use of the internet for gathering information about science is still quite low (only 19% put it in top 2 sources of information), it is more important for 16 -24 year olds.  And it is this age group that are least engaged with science.

I recommend anyone interested in the area has a read.

I can't finish though without explaining what made me chuckle and grin.

On page 21 & 22 the report addresses the issue of public funding of science.

76% in their surveys agreed that "even if it brings no immediate benefits, research which advances knowledge should be funded by the Government".  

Later in their workshops that support was quite as apparent. The difference was enough for the report authors to insert a footnote saying

"that the fieldwork took place when the Govt announced its Comprehensive Spending Review. During this period, there was considerable media coverage as well as an online campaign in favour of public funding of science, which may have affected responses to these questions"

I love the fact that the Science Is Vital campaign might have distorted MORI's findings. We just need to make those attitudes stick.

 

FOOTNOTE:

Jenny, Richard & I have been invited to give a talk at OpenTech at University of London Union on Saturday (21/5/11) about the campaign. Feel free to give a standing ovation if you're going to be there ;)

Online camaraderie

There is still an outdated stereotype of heavy web-users being anti-social and introverted. "Go out and get yourself a life."

Over the last few weeks as we've been looking at other science engagement events and comparing them to I'm a Scientist it struck me that in our case online is so much more sociable than the options that involve heading in to schools.

Scientists heading into schools tend to do so on their own. Sure they are supported by teachers, but they don't have anyone else in the same position with whom they can share their experience.

Contrast this with the camaraderie that exists around I'm a Scientist: on the site, through twitter and in meet-ups in campus coffee bars.

Already this year the scientists are tweeting about Zone envy, fear of emails from us and the gob-smacking committment from scientists last year.  Have a look through some of the choice things we've already seen for IAS2011. You'll need to click "Load more" at the bottom - there is a lot happening already.

The AV Debate

It was no surprise to hear Radio Five cover the AV debate this morning (starts at 7:10 am - one hour in probably).  It was surprising to me though to hear what a poor, destructive and destroyable argument that Matthew Elliott of the No Campaign put forward. If my memory serves me right (and that is more important than what they actually said):-

The argument against:

• Cost - the No campaign has built an estimate of £250 million
• Clegg the Kingmaker - all elections will be decided by Nick Clegg
• Gives BNP supporters two votes

The argument for:

• Politics has become sterile because it is aimed at 150,000 undecided voters in marginal seats
• 1/3 of all seats have not changed (party) hands since 1945
• More democratic parliament with more vote counting for something

In addition the Yes campaigner destroyed the counter arguments:-

• There is no additional cost (except maybe more pencils) associated with AV (Ed note: unless councils decide to invest in better counting facilities which I am sure will in order to make the overall election process more cost-effective). The No campaign is trying to make out that electronic counting is needed because of the Scottish example where two systems in concurrent operation make electronic counting the preferred option. Apparently Australia manage to use AV without electronic counting.
• Clegg the Kingmaker - In Australia there have only been two hung parliaments under AV, compared to four in the UK in the same time under First Past The Post (FPTP). (Ed note: And Clegg's hardly been the Kingmaker, most of the No campaign have portrayed him as a Tory puppet so far, can't really have it both ways...)
• Give BNP supporters two votes - I didn't really catch the counter-argument to this but I don't understand the problem. You could easily argue that those wanting to support the BNP can only give them half a vote or...  The vote that counts will be the one that tips a candidate over 50%.  If a 50% + 1 of a constituency happens to vote for BNP then that's the democracy not working, but it is at least democracy.

I was genuinely surprised how Matthew Elliott, a seasoned campaigner who use to run the Taxpayers' Alliance, had nothing constructive to use in his argument and how easily his arguments were countered.

Shortly after I saw Evan Harris challenge David Allen Green to a debate on AV. Hell, after hearing the No campaign's argument even I would challenge him ;-).

Loin of Lamb and Apple Charlotte

Last Friday Sophia and I finally made it to Oxford to have dinner with Dr Mark Roberts, winner of the Fluorine Zone in June 2010. Mark and his girlfriend Elsa had joined us for our post-event party in Bristol. As a way of saying thank you for a night out with cider-swilling, tapas-munching IAS staff, he invited us to dinner at Lincoln College.

A tour of his Biochemistry Lab gave us a sniff of what he does during the day. We saw some rather specialised state of the art equipment including inverted microscopes, Ultrasound machines to break down cells, and -80°C freezers. We also saw some distinctly low-tech gear such as a VHS recorder (thankfully now used to prop other equipment only) and a French Pressure Cell Press which breaks down cell walls through sheer brute force. 

As interesting as that all was, the magic moment was still to come.

We walked back to Lincoln College and went for a pre-dinner sherry in the Senior Common Room.  A bell rang in the distance and Mark asked us to follow him. In my mind I had envisaged a nice cosy dinner in some staff common room, so I was a little surprised to turn a corner and find a hall full of students standing behind benches waiting for us to take our place at the top table. Grace was said in Latin for a couple of minutes and dinner was served.

It was fascinating to hear, see and feel the history of the College. Founded 1427 by the Bishop of Lincoln (Oxford fell within the Diocese of Lincoln at that point apparently), benefactors and more recently valued staff adorned the walls and a wooden plate from the 15th century was used to let the serving team know we were finished.

More interesting was the conversation about the nature of the college system. Is the rather unusual Harry Potteresque dining set-up a good thing or an alienating practice? It's certainly different from most people's dining experience but the communal eating experience has benefits. The small size of the college, 300 undergraduates, is appealing, as is the multi-disciplinary nature of the students and staff.  Our table was graced with a Biochemist, an English lecturer (apologies for incorrect terminology) and a Mathematician.

It was a fabulous, unforgettable experience. Thank you, Mark. Thank you very much.

work@gallomanor - Project Executive

We're hiring again.

We're calling the job Project Executive and the role is to make our projects happen and to help us improve them.

We want someone who is organised, very web-literate, passionate about democracy and engagement.  Someone who is curious and pays attention to detail (curious and attentive enough to have read this post and now knows to mention what their favourite music is in their application letter).  The ideal person will also possess a fine sense of humour.

We're looking for someone to be based in our Bradford on Avon offices and will consider flexible hours for the right candidate.

We're offering £15,000 pa and are looking for someone to start in January.

To apply please send a letter explaining why you're the bees-knees for the job and a CV to work@gallomanor.com. Closing date is 21/12/2010, but get your application in early as a fab candidate might get appointed before then.

Finally, if you're looking for a few tips for applying then check the feedback we gave to those who applied last year - http://www.gallomanor.com/2010/01/workgallomanor-thank-you.html