Talk About Local

William Perrin TAL(WM) Ltd – #PCW09 15 July Olympiawww.talkaboutlocal.org

Modern web tools empowering communities

•www.kingscrossenvironment.com

•700 articles

•four authors

•budget £8/month

•opens up democratic engagement

•empowerment is about information

•Cemex campaign – long running anti social plant operations

•Video of noise pollution – unarguable prima facie case

•Send links to CEMEX CEO UKMEA and Council noise officers

•Successful resolution – plant restructured

•Sheffield forum –biggest web estate in Yorkshire?

•3.4 million posts

•76,000 registered users

•Population Sheffield 450,000

•‘Hi, as a local businessman in Digbeth and vice chair of The Digbeth Business Association l would like to thank you for your articles and interest in our sometimes wonderful district of Digbeth with all our input and continued efforts it can only get better.’

•Stoke-on-Trent Pits’n’Pots

•Campaigning, challenging style

•Reflects local frustration at political scene

•Opens up public dialogue

@willperrin: Speaking to 300 council web managers tomorrow what should i say? #pcw09

@willperrin Council web managers: Their success metric seems to be traffic volume hence emphasis on being one-stop shop not opening up data

@willperrin have them publish the xml file they give to directgov. Encourages reuse of data by people who will use it well :)

@willperrin what's on your about us page and where are your values?

@willperrin ask more of them to provide feeds to planningalertshttp://www.planningalerts.com/getinvolved.php (some do already)

@willperrin 1) stop posting info in .doc etc 2) use permalinks 3) go talk to MySociety about how to make themselves more open

@willperrin "Organisations can't be 'social' but the people in them can - give them the tools and guidance then trust them to get on with it

@willperrin Stop blocking useful stuff!@willperrin #pcw09 I know what I would like you to say to my local council web manager but it is before the watershed!!

@willperrin Stratford-upon-Avon DC was awarded Beacon Status for Digital Inclusion for their Community websites #pcw09 http://bit.ly/3Db79

Talk About Local - creating community sites in over 150 places across England

• UK online centres engage 3,000 people in their communities

• Support to create local sites with free tools

• LA’s can buy TAL sessions for target areas e.g. NI4 laggards

• National roll out Q4 09• william@talkaboutlocal.org