Solace Graduates conference (london) (7.12.10)

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Building Online Community

Are you ready to harness the potential of the social web?

Solace

7th December 2010

Catherine Howe

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This is not a presentation about technology

The most important thing to remember about the virtual world is that it is actually very real

And so are the communities

“New communication media means that new social phenomena are going to arise that differ

in significant ways from everything we've known. We are going to have to get used to the idea that the word "community" is going to have

to stretch to include groups of people who communicate socially and work together

cooperatively and never meet in the real world.”

Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community; Homesteading on the Virtual Frontier

(http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/)

And that was 10 years ago

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We are living in the Network Society

The Internet is having a profound effect on society – we are moving from an industrial to an information or networked age

This means there is a pressure on old ways of working

Think about the millennial generation who have been brought up expecting information and responsiveness to be constantly and immediately available

The internet culture is colliding with our traditional structures and putting huge pressure on them

It’s the SOCIAL part of social media that’s important

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“Until we rebuild, both from the bottom up and from the top down, our institutes of governance and democracy, we will not be able to stand up

to the fundamental challenges that we are facing”

Manuel Castells, The Internet Galaxy

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The Social Web has its own culture

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What does this mean on a more practical level?

Today virtual communities are as likely to gather together people who live on the same street and those that live thousands of miles apart

“In a context of a world which is, indeed, increasingly interconnected the notion of place (usually evoked as ‘local place’) has come to have totemic resonance.”

Doreen Massey

Hyperlocal communities connect people separated by time and not necessarily space

Three useful references:

• Networked Neighbourhoods: http://networkedneighbourhoods.com/

• Talk about Local: http://talkaboutlocal.org.uk/

• Podnosh: http://podnosh.com/

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The social web is about the people and the content

This is no longer a question of getting people to visit your space – you need to engage with them in theirs

Buckshaw Village Forum

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http://www.buckshawvillage.com/

Harringay Online

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http://www.harringayonline.com/

Brighton Issues Forum

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http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/bh

I Love Tunbridge Wells

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http://anke.blogs.com/

Admiral’s Way, Test Valley

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http://www.admiralsway.org.uk/

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None of these have been created or run by the Council though they may have been helped

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Previously you controlled the resources and so you knew you would be involved

How will you make sure you are an essential part in the process?

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People are talking……

……they’re just not talking to you

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Why should I care when I am facing massive budget cuts?

Because you need to stay relevant

You know you need to be part of your community to lead it effectively

You know you need to understand the culture in order to be able to support it – the social web is in fact another country and most people are in the process of moving there

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Because Government is becoming more Open

These are the communities that you are opening your data to – these are the armchair auditors

These are the communities who are most able to be your collaborators in the delivery of services because they are already collaborating

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Just a moment on Open Data

Open data is – if done well – a power shift. If its done badly it’s a witchhunt

But whatever it is the Coalition Government seems committed and its not something you can walk back from

Once the initial shocks are over the potential is an ecosystem of innovative applications

http://data.gov.uk/linked-data

#opendata

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Openly Local

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http://openlylocal.com/hyperlocal_sites

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As your communities start to self organise more effectively you need to understand where you add value to this process

Its not about resources anymore

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Government needs to curate the process of co-production

You need to design for a change in culture

Co-production – what do you mean?

Co-production: Involving all participants in both the design and delivery of a service

It describes a new kind of relationship with the public – one where we expect them to act not just comment

•And some references:

• http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/assets/features/the_challenge_of_co-production

• http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/co-production-people-outside-paid-employment

• http://www.govint.org/

• #coproduction

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To do this you need a co-productive space

LOCAL CIVIC

SPACE

Presented by Catherine Howe, Chief Executive Public-i

We’ve designed Citizenscape to do this…

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Your event horizon should be 5…10…15..20 years in the future

What kind of relationship with citizens will you have when you are in charge?

How do you help shape that now?

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Thank you for your time

Catherine Howe, Chief Executive, Public-i Group Ltd

catherine.howe@public-i.infohttp://curiouscatherine.wordpress.com/http://blog.public-i.info/@curiousc