Cipr building online community (19 10 10)(final)

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Building Online Community

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

CIPR: Brighton

22nd October 2010

Catherine Howe


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

Citizenscape a product by Public-i 3

A short segue on the Network Society

Put rather lyrically by Doreen Massy in her book ‘For Space’:

“Multiplicity is fundamental….Space is more than distance. It is the sphere of open-ended

configurations within multiplicities. Given that, the really serious question which is raised by speed-up, by ‘the communications revolution’

and by cyberspace, is not whether space will be annihilated but what kinds of multiplicities

(patterning's of uniqueness) and relations will be co-constructed with these new kinds of

spatial configurations.”


If that was a bit much for a Friday morningThe 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


“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


The Social Web has its own culture


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/



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

Openly Local


http://openlylocal.com/hyperlocal_sites

Buckshaw Village Forum


http://www.buckshawvillage.com/

Harringay Online


http://www.harringayonline.com/

Brighton Issues Forum


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

I Love Tunbridge Wells


http://anke.blogs.com/

Admiral’s Way, Test Valley


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

Bourneville Village


http://bournvillevillage.com/


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


Where does this all come together?

You need to think about a new kind of space

LOCAL CIVIC

SPACE

Presented by Catherine Howe, Chief Executive Public-i


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?


People are talking……

……they’re just not talking to you


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


But there are cost savings here as well

New technologies can bring cost savings to current processes:

Cost of a Council meeting attendee: £180

Cost of webcast attendance: £7.14

But the real prize in terms of cost savings is around co-production of services

Change the way in which you work with the public

Enable them to look after themselves to a far greater extent

Yes….this is the Big Society

Co-production??

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

Its about the genuine sharing of power

But it still needs governance and trusted decision making

•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/


What might this look like?

The culture online is aligned with the values and behaviours of co-production so start there – and it’s cheaper

Build your relationships with your community – expand not just on using the technology to broadcast but develop the social aspect

Build the relationships that you no longer have time or resources to build offline – cuts will hit manpower

Research, reflect, learn – you will not get this right first time



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

Its not just resources anymore – you need to bring balance

Citizenscape a product by Public-i Citizenscape a product by Public-i | Presented to Client x

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Thank you for your time

Catherine Howe, Chief Executive, Public-i Group Ltd

[email protected]://Wordpress.curiouscatherine.com@curiousc

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Cipr building online community (19 10 10)(final)