Attended my first CKO Public Sector Summit, held at the Bath Priory, on 23-25th April 2006. This was the 5th year for the event , organised by TFPL and sponsored this year by Thomson Sweet & Maxwell. There were quite a few ‘old’ hands there who had attended all of the previous events, and a good deal of camaraderie was apparent, though as the ‘new’ boy I was made to feel very welcome. I was most impressed by the many years of knowledge and experience assembled in one place, which provided for some very stimulating discussions across the dinner table (excellent Michelin-star restaurant), which usually got slightly louder and more animated later in the evening as we settled into the brandy and port! However, don’t let me paint a picture of decadence and excess, particularly in view of other ‘public sector’ news hitting the headlines (John "two jags" Prescott is, to quote one tabloid, now referred to as "two sh*gs" Prescott)! No, there was some very serious and thought-provoking presentations, supplemented by a series of group discussions and workshops, covering subjects as diverse as EDRMS, wikis, blogs, social computing, Google and Transformational Government. I don’t think we solved all the problems in the public sector, but I think we all came away with some new perspectives and learnings that might help us when we’re back doing the daily toil. But apart from that, I for one made some new friends and contacts which I hope to nurture in the coming months. I can understand why so many of the delegates keep coming back to these summits – roll on the CKO Summit 2007!
The Dissident
Came across an interesting web site the other day – Demos – which provides a refreshing perspective on e-democracy and empowement of us ordinary citizens. Was thinking of popping along to an event they are running on Thursday 11 May (Demos, 136 Tooley St, London SE1, 5-6.30pm) The blurb states "Web 2.0: Where’s the democractic dividend?
Is Web 2.0 a new way for companies
to sell to consumers? An opportunity for consumers to take control of the
corporate communications channel? A metaphor for a new kind of democratic social
interaction? A tool that allows well-networked elites to increase their
networking capabilities? All of the above?" Should be interesting.
Also worth taking a look at Mysociety, which is a good example of a community site working in the public sector. Some great facilities for e-campaigns and finding out a bit more about what your MP has been up to! There’s an article about Mysociety on the Improvement & Development Agency (IDeA) web site – check out article on Mysociety .
The Dissident
Briefly checked out a new (? – well, new to me anyway) community web site at www.myplace.com. looks pretty neat and has some rich functionality – blogs, etc. I’m sure it could be adapted for business purposes, e.g. for developing public sector communities. Note to self: do a more detailed analysis of Myspace.
The Dissident.
Interesting fact: eGMS – so much for the
government’s "mandatory" metadata requirement; 73% of central and 42% of local
government websites fail the requirements on every single page, including
important sites such as direct.gov.uk, the Cabinet Office, and Number 10.
Indeed, the "e-GIF Accreditation Authority" site itself makes no attempt at all
to comply!
Have long thought that the IPSV (Integrated Public Sector Vocabulary) is becoming meaningless – seems many local authority web sites are ignoring it – or at least only ‘pretending’ to comply by allocating one term (e.g. ‘Local Gov’) from the list to their subject tag for web pages I mean, why bother when search engines can provide more accurate subject context from analysing all the content from the page?! Still, more on this topic later…it’s primary source of irritant for me!
For more details on central and local gov web site rankings, check out Sitemorse
The Dissident
An interesting new development courtesy of the ODPM – the TALK web site (Transferring Across Local Knowledge). The blurb says "this
will go beyond key products, manuals and reports, to investigate and
publicise local knowledge and know-how to help practitioners accelerate
their change programmes.web site". See: TALK
It was announced at the Local eGov Expo on Wednesday (5 April).
I’m wondering how this will differ from the IDEA Knowledge web site IDeA ? Is it another case of re-inventing wheels in the public sector (this particular band waggon has more wheels than I’m able to count!)? Still, knowledge management is important and we just can’t have enough of these web sites (not sure irony comes across very well in blogs?!)
The Dissident