Scrutiny in the spotlight: Networked Councillors and the Scrutiny process

Scrutiny in the Spotlight workshop

Role of the Networked Councillor in Scrutiny

Catherine Howe, Public-iNovember 2013

What’s the plan?

Explore what we mean by networked councillor

Discuss some of the tools which they might use

Talk about what this means for scrutiny Gaze into the future a bit

Self Publication: Disintermediation of the Media

Virtual Community and Social Networking: Wide scale use of Networked Power

Collaborative Culture: Creating a sharing economy

Radical Openness: Disruption of the democratic relationship

Networked Technology: Smart Cities and new streams of information

Customization, Making and Self-Service: Disruption of manufacturing and the industrial economy

Technology or Social Change?Any of these disruptions might be a point of entry for how someone

thinks about digital

So what is a Networked Councillor?

An effective community leader in a digital and networked world

The range of networked behaviours

Communicative Tell people what you have done

We have developed a model of Networked Councillor behaviours

Collaborative Discuss with people what you are doing

Co-productive Agree with people what you could do together

Digital tools are important.

Networked thinking is essential.

Here and Now

There and Then

One to One

Broadcast

Networked

This is a whole system change but in a democratic system the elected

representatives are crucial

We need to create Networked Councillors.

This needs more than just showing them how to use Twitter.

We limit ourselves by simply considering changes to the way we communicate

What kind of tools are we talking about?

Good uses for content creation on a range of devices

Smart phones Quick video/audio interviews Photography Twitter

iPad/tablets Twitter Creating pictures, video and audio Email, blog reading Light editing of video, audio, pictures

Laptop Blogging, writing, editing Full editing of media (pictures, video, audio) Detailed work – spreadsheets, etc. Responding in detail to emails, blogs (commenting)

Some examples of online tools & their uses

Blogging

Can be updated regularly and posts (like this one) don’t have to be long

Allows residents to comment on issues – and for councillors to respond

You can go into detail and combine different media (words, pictures, video)

Audience can include anyone (you don’t need an account to read and is easy to publicise)

http://www.cllrandrewwallis.co.uk/unrestricted-filming-at-cornwall-council-meetings/

Great for showing the full range of your views

Facebook

Allows quick sharing of media content (any content)

Can connect to much wider group, who often are unlikely to use other social media

Great for managing large number of friends

Can run pages (public) and profile (public or private) separately

Facebook algorithms make some aspects of using it abstruse

Privacy issues for some – in particular keeping private/public separate

https://www.facebook.com/Alison.Her

Great for finding people and being social

Twitter

Great for quick responses and conversations

Share links to content (news, blog posts, videos)

A social tool – for talking with others, not for broadcast

Audience is smaller than than Facebook

Great for helping to build links with individuals and organisations (through reciprocity)

https://twitter.com/jasonkitcat

Great for finding people and sharing news

LinkedIn

Shows network of connections

Demonstrates skills and experience (good for digital footprint)

Establishes links with business community

Audience is professional and (mostly) employed

Difficult to see full profiles

You have to pay for full access

uk.linkedin.com/pub/councillor-webb/1a/23/393

Best for managing your formal network

4,489 live viewsCoveritLive interactive chat had 3,981 page views & 242 comments#ccwebcast trended on Twitter

“I strongly believe that these numbers prove that by enabling people to take an active role in the debate, by marrying up

the available technology with transparency and democracy - a direct line into the

Chamber - we can encourage more people to take an interest in local politics.”

Matt Bond, Communications Specialist Cornwall Council

Webcasting

Connect Social

Gives councillors identity on webcasting Shows their democratic record – allowing you to trace their activity Audience is completely open Can integrate other social media activity

Designed to provide a single place to connect to your content

People struggle more with the social skills than the technical

ones

It’s not just help with the technical skills –

It’s about understanding culture and behaviour online

How do I deal with conflict?

How public do I have to be? What can I talk about?

Do I have to have a Facebook page?

What does it mean when some one ‘RT’s me?

What do you already use social media for either personally or professionally?Do you have any networked councillors?What is there role in the scrutiny process?

Table questions

Exploring the skills in your council

And how are these tools used in scrutiny?

There is the opportunity for the public to contribute to the agendaThe format follows a topic rather than a formal committee structureThe process can involve many different people from different networksOpenness is at the heart of the scrutiny processIt can work well with other digital democracy projects such as open data

Scrutiny is a great place to startIdeal for more open democracy?

There are many ways to use social media in scrutiny in a meaningful

way

New approaches to evidence

Embed open government principles

Work more responsively

Extend the reach of the process

Open up the agenda setting

Examples of Networked Councillor qualities in Scrutiny

Open by default Comments from the public are

encouraged during meetings via social media and other channels

Digitally native Minutes of meetings and related papers

available online - meetings are either webcast or live tweeted and widely

disseminated online

Co-productive Decisions are shaped with active

citizens who continue to participate actively in the outcome

NetworkedDecisions are communicated via relevant

networks rather than being simply disseminated centrally

What is the role of information in scrutiny?

Open data

How do we define ‘evidence’?

Blogging in Scrutiny

Emma is using her blog to explain the budget process in non-council language

Twitter updates around scrutiny

Both officers and members are using twitter to highlight what is happening in scrutiny

Webcasting in action in a highly sensitive scrutiny case

http://www.coventry.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/114228

Webcasting a difficult issue makes it clear you are being open

Using an online community forum to engage people in Party Houses Scrutiny

Going to people’s own spaces can involve a much more diverse group of people

http://bhccresidentcommunity.ning.com/BHscrutiny/partyhouses

Tough Choices Devon

http://www.toughchoices.co.uk/

Text here??

CityCamp

http://citycampbtn.org/

Text here??

NHS Citizen

Total hits over both days: 2234 (1650 live, 584 archive)

Margaret Hodge

Text here??

Good Scrutiny award winners

Text here??

Decide on a topic that you want to work on – it could be anything that is topical in your council or even better in the local communityWhat would a ‘networked scrutiny’ process look like?What tools would you use?What bits of the process would you change?Who would be involved?What is stopping you??

Table questions

How could you use these ideas in the future

Social media and the digital realm can be challenging.

It is the poorer for the absence of our democratic processes

Catherine Howecatherine.howe@public-i.info

Thank you for your time