This seems to be something that plenty of people in local gov are trying to work on at the moment and it's not always easy, so I thought I would just post up where I'm at with it in case it was useful to anyone else, and if you want to be useful to me, then I have no problem with that either ;-)
So, not always easy. I've found getting the organisation to have a peek over the edge into online space has taken time and pursuasion in itself. Getting it to be brave enough to dip a toe in more of the same. Now we're paddling in the shallow end I think we need the waterwings of documented policy and/or guidance so we can go further*.
One of the great things about working in the public sector is that we're all so ready to share, and most of the time it isn't just because we need to as resources / time / support are scant to go it alone. I throw my hands up in appreciation of those who are already splashing about (in a waving not drowning way) and have shared their progress. It got me started.
It started as a policy but soon became more of a guidance document. In my head I envisage it being accompanied by a less formal overview, probably the content of the intranet page which becomes it's home.
I've tried to straddle the line between friendly advice in a conversational tone (if we're talking social media surely most appropriate) and the established style of this sort of document. I've tried to include a bit of a summary of what each network or space is to make it more inclusive to 'beginners'.
There is still some work to do...
Useful talks with Lee Jorgensen (Blackburn and Darwen) highlighted an area I had initially shyed away from; special guidance for purdah periods. I intend to revisit this. There is also some mopping up of duplication and conflicting advice.
I'm not sure whether I am almost ready to suggest this is moving closer to version 1.0 than draft...which is the main driver for this post!
And having written it I am now annoyingly aware that there is no facility to attach documents to this post. So I guess...if you want to see where I'm at DM me on Twitter with your email and we'll take it from there. Hopefully there will be time to talk at localgovcamp too!
*I accept full responsiblity for the mixed metaphor and then pushing it too far. In defence, m'lud, I've not had resonable quota of coffee yet.
Showing posts with label online communication. Show all posts
Showing posts with label online communication. Show all posts
Friday, 22 May 2009
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
Old life vs New life
I'm currently undertaking the Digital Media and Society module as part of my masters. It's been great to get stuck into as it meets up with not only so much of what I am currently working on (online local gov) but also my undergraduate work and first industry (journalism and newspapers).
It's been good to retreive some of that undergraduate learning (hello Habermas, my old friend) and put it into context with the current state of play for both sectors.
But while all this is fascinating learning, the time has come to pick my assignment and get on with the final paper. I find myself torn between my old life and new life when it comes to assignment topics:
It's been good to retreive some of that undergraduate learning (hello Habermas, my old friend) and put it into context with the current state of play for both sectors.
But while all this is fascinating learning, the time has come to pick my assignment and get on with the final paper. I find myself torn between my old life and new life when it comes to assignment topics:
- Old life: Discuss the characteristics of online news journalism, indicating where and why it differs from traditional models and practices. (You may discuss the topic either in general or with specific reference to blogs.)
- New life: It is often claimed that digital technologies have the potential to restore ‘direct democracy’. Explain and evaluate the claim with particular reference to electoral politics.
Option one would be interesting not only as there is so much chatter about this subject at the moment but also as it would be a nice update to my undergraduate dissertation (worryingly 10-years-on).
But I already know which way I will fall. Option two it will be seeing as am in the middle of all our local election online coverage right now (perfect timing). I'm happy with my choice...but it feels a little disloyal and sad to have to choose between my old life and new life.
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
@citizens –local government twitters
I started thinking about this after being inspired by Simon Wakeman’s and Liz Azyan’s recent posts on the whys and ways that local government is using, or could be, using Twitter. The spur into action was Twitter’s change from @replies to@mentions, leading me to spot this one of @Derbyshirecc (the twitter of the organisation for which I work and for which currently I do most of the official tweeting for).
Twitter is not RSS. Why is @DerbyshireCC on twitter if it's not about giving it a human face? *sigh* #LocalGovtFail – 1:31am Mar 14th from TweetDeck.
I think this first part of the post will probably come across as defensive. I don’t really want it to but I think it probably will.
We soft-launched on twitter on 4 March 2009. This was the first step into social media for the organisation. Sure, we have a website but we hadn’t got involved in any other networks.
As yet we’ve not publicised our twitter presence elsewhere online or offline. We’re still finding our feet. Mostly, we’re still learning from other council’s and organisations who have been on twitter for longer and who have different approaches.
Yes, most of our tweets so far could seem like an RSS feed – news, events, consultations. We split jobs off into a separate @JobsDerbyshire account (as an aside I don’t think this one will survive long term and am struggling to identify value in it).
Our intention is to start making our tweets more conversational. We’ve been watching @Dorsetforyou and like their approach although perhaps ours won’t end up being quite so chatty (not saying their approach is wrong, again just my own feeling for our organisation).
We started moving in this direction with ad hoc tweets yesterday – all related to content on our website but more conversational nevertheless.
Where we go from here or where we end up is still very much up for discussion. And all local government is in the same boat really…the general feeling seems to be that we should be getting involved in social media in order to engage with citizens (or talk to people in everyday language) but how and where we do that are still questions to which we’re all trying to find answers.
The @mention tweet is really interesting though – how would we give @Derbyshirecc a ‘human face’?
I suppose I (or another member of the online communcations team) could be the ‘face’ of the organisation and tweet conversationally with followers. There would surely have to be guidelines though of what is and isn’t appropriate to deal with in person on Twitter? Could / should a communications officer have this responsibility?
I think that if we ever do get contacted by one of our followers about a service we’ll be much better off forwarding that query onto a relevant officer (in similar fashion to contact into our call centre) rather than an online communications officer trying to answer directly. So, played out all 30,000 plus staff could need to have access to tweet to the account at various times. Apart from being logistically undoable would this multi-voiced twitter feed be anymore worthwhile than the seemingly faceless one we have now?
How else then? Perhaps the best way would be for our chief executive and leader of the council to have personal twitter streams. Would these contain personal tweets as well as highlighting news etc on our website or elsewhere? The potential here is for ghost-writing (been enough about that on Twitter recently) and possibly having tweets posted by communications officers of one ilk or other rather than the chief exec or leader themselves (I am not saying this WOULD definitely happen, merely is a possibility for any organisation). Is that really any better either?
I would certainly like to see more councillors using twitter or social media to listen to and talk with people. With county elections in June I hope social media and what use it is to them will be something that will be put on the agenda for any new as well as re-elected councillors.
At the moment I don’t think we’ve got @Derbyshirecc quite right but neither do I think we’re completely off track. Although I doubt it looks like it to our social-media-savvy citizens taking a step into the online space is big step forward and we hope to move on from here in leaps and bounds.
Perhaps it may be back to a slightly-tempered but defensive stance: if you aren’t interested, don’t listen; if you want to talk to us, please do; and if you think we could do something better, tell us!
I don't think we joined Twitter with the intention of gaining another broadcast channel although that is pretty much all we’ve done with it so far. I think it would be great if people started talking to us, about council services but also about themselves, via social media. I would love for this to be a starter in the organisation being able to be involved and work in online communities. I do question whether people want to though. In my personal life do I want to talk with my county or district council, my fire service, the police force? No more than I wanted to converse with them by phone, email or in person ie only when I want a service or something has gone wrong.
I want to spend my time talking to people who share my interests or can further my knowledge. I guess I apply some roughly Reithian values to my networks – do they inform, educate or entertain?
I would see an organisation as falling into one of the first two categories and therefore merely broadcasting at me is fine for me.
But I want to know (and I think the organisation should want to know) how people want us to engage with them on social networks, if in fact they do? It is, after all, about conversation and that takes at least two!
Twitter is not RSS. Why is @DerbyshireCC on twitter if it's not about giving it a human face? *sigh* #LocalGovtFail – 1:31am Mar 14th from TweetDeck.
I think this first part of the post will probably come across as defensive. I don’t really want it to but I think it probably will.
We soft-launched on twitter on 4 March 2009. This was the first step into social media for the organisation. Sure, we have a website but we hadn’t got involved in any other networks.
As yet we’ve not publicised our twitter presence elsewhere online or offline. We’re still finding our feet. Mostly, we’re still learning from other council’s and organisations who have been on twitter for longer and who have different approaches.
Yes, most of our tweets so far could seem like an RSS feed – news, events, consultations. We split jobs off into a separate @JobsDerbyshire account (as an aside I don’t think this one will survive long term and am struggling to identify value in it).
Our intention is to start making our tweets more conversational. We’ve been watching @Dorsetforyou and like their approach although perhaps ours won’t end up being quite so chatty (not saying their approach is wrong, again just my own feeling for our organisation).
We started moving in this direction with ad hoc tweets yesterday – all related to content on our website but more conversational nevertheless.
Where we go from here or where we end up is still very much up for discussion. And all local government is in the same boat really…the general feeling seems to be that we should be getting involved in social media in order to engage with citizens (or talk to people in everyday language) but how and where we do that are still questions to which we’re all trying to find answers.
The @mention tweet is really interesting though – how would we give @Derbyshirecc a ‘human face’?
I suppose I (or another member of the online communcations team) could be the ‘face’ of the organisation and tweet conversationally with followers. There would surely have to be guidelines though of what is and isn’t appropriate to deal with in person on Twitter? Could / should a communications officer have this responsibility?
I think that if we ever do get contacted by one of our followers about a service we’ll be much better off forwarding that query onto a relevant officer (in similar fashion to contact into our call centre) rather than an online communications officer trying to answer directly. So, played out all 30,000 plus staff could need to have access to tweet to the account at various times. Apart from being logistically undoable would this multi-voiced twitter feed be anymore worthwhile than the seemingly faceless one we have now?
How else then? Perhaps the best way would be for our chief executive and leader of the council to have personal twitter streams. Would these contain personal tweets as well as highlighting news etc on our website or elsewhere? The potential here is for ghost-writing (been enough about that on Twitter recently) and possibly having tweets posted by communications officers of one ilk or other rather than the chief exec or leader themselves (I am not saying this WOULD definitely happen, merely is a possibility for any organisation). Is that really any better either?
I would certainly like to see more councillors using twitter or social media to listen to and talk with people. With county elections in June I hope social media and what use it is to them will be something that will be put on the agenda for any new as well as re-elected councillors.
At the moment I don’t think we’ve got @Derbyshirecc quite right but neither do I think we’re completely off track. Although I doubt it looks like it to our social-media-savvy citizens taking a step into the online space is big step forward and we hope to move on from here in leaps and bounds.
Perhaps it may be back to a slightly-tempered but defensive stance: if you aren’t interested, don’t listen; if you want to talk to us, please do; and if you think we could do something better, tell us!
I don't think we joined Twitter with the intention of gaining another broadcast channel although that is pretty much all we’ve done with it so far. I think it would be great if people started talking to us, about council services but also about themselves, via social media. I would love for this to be a starter in the organisation being able to be involved and work in online communities. I do question whether people want to though. In my personal life do I want to talk with my county or district council, my fire service, the police force? No more than I wanted to converse with them by phone, email or in person ie only when I want a service or something has gone wrong.
I want to spend my time talking to people who share my interests or can further my knowledge. I guess I apply some roughly Reithian values to my networks – do they inform, educate or entertain?
I would see an organisation as falling into one of the first two categories and therefore merely broadcasting at me is fine for me.
But I want to know (and I think the organisation should want to know) how people want us to engage with them on social networks, if in fact they do? It is, after all, about conversation and that takes at least two!
Friday, 20 February 2009
This so called (online) life...
I've read a couple of articles recently about whether the amount of time we spend online is damaging to us as individuals and a society (Technology is great, but are we forgetting to live? and Online networking 'harms health'). It's something that has been crossing my mind a fair bit recently so it's with interest that I read these, and other similar, articles.
My thoughts are still pretty unorganised but my general feeling has remained pretty much unchanged throughout the years I have been an Internet user; anything in life can become unbalanced and online / offline living is no different.
I think if a person were to be carrying out all interactions online all the time, even when they could make face-to-face or other contact, then the balance has gone and damage to relationships and health are possible, even likely.
However, when used as a means of enriching existing contact / relationships etc then social media really can make a difference to the quality and quantity of communication and knowledge available. Especially in people or groups where more traditional contact might be difficult (rural communities, people with disabilities, those living abroad or far away from family and friends).
I've found I have more contact with family abroad and have made contact with more local family and friends again through social networking sites. However, if this contact remained only online I would see it as of no more 'social' value to me than having their address / phone number in a book somewhere. I might be more aware of them than the address book but there is no more social value to me. Moving from online to offline contact provides that value.
Different channels of communication or contact are more suited in different circumstances - my 90-something grandad hasn't been disowned because he isn't online (or ever likely to be) but rather a face-to-face visit or telephone call suits us both better. However, my friend in Australia (who I actually met on ICQ) is mainly communicated with via social networking sites and email and occasional postal packages of compilation cds. I keep in touch with my husband with occasional online messages but wouldn't dream of communicating with him this way if we were both at home together!
Balance, and purpose then.
For me online communication / social networks / media should be seen and used as an extra channel through which contact can be made and not a replacement for existing means.
My thoughts are still pretty unorganised but my general feeling has remained pretty much unchanged throughout the years I have been an Internet user; anything in life can become unbalanced and online / offline living is no different.
I think if a person were to be carrying out all interactions online all the time, even when they could make face-to-face or other contact, then the balance has gone and damage to relationships and health are possible, even likely.
However, when used as a means of enriching existing contact / relationships etc then social media really can make a difference to the quality and quantity of communication and knowledge available. Especially in people or groups where more traditional contact might be difficult (rural communities, people with disabilities, those living abroad or far away from family and friends).
I've found I have more contact with family abroad and have made contact with more local family and friends again through social networking sites. However, if this contact remained only online I would see it as of no more 'social' value to me than having their address / phone number in a book somewhere. I might be more aware of them than the address book but there is no more social value to me. Moving from online to offline contact provides that value.
Different channels of communication or contact are more suited in different circumstances - my 90-something grandad hasn't been disowned because he isn't online (or ever likely to be) but rather a face-to-face visit or telephone call suits us both better. However, my friend in Australia (who I actually met on ICQ) is mainly communicated with via social networking sites and email and occasional postal packages of compilation cds. I keep in touch with my husband with occasional online messages but wouldn't dream of communicating with him this way if we were both at home together!
Balance, and purpose then.
For me online communication / social networks / media should be seen and used as an extra channel through which contact can be made and not a replacement for existing means.
Monday, 16 February 2009
History: Part two: Or private thoughts in public spaces.
As I left university and entered the workplace in my first ‘proper’ job (Internet journalist) I moved my offline diary-keeping into the online space. I was an active member of Open Diary (OD) from the start of 1999 until sometime in 2001, just before they launched the paid-for version.
I don’t recall what initially spurred me to start publishing my thoughts online (although, clearly, it still appeals!), perhaps the standard attraction of vanity publishing, perhaps because I was online so much of the time it seemed easier to keep writing from the desktop than go back to pen and paper.
It was quite an eventful time in my life so perhaps I just thought I had lots to say and liked having a record I could easily flip back through as I completed university and left full-time education, entered the workplace, moved back to my hometown and transformed a friendship into a relationship (with my now husband).
Whatever made me start with OD it was the community that kept me coming back. I was soon in a circle of seemingly like-minded diarists and we would regularly (in some cases more like religiously) read and comment on each other’s entries. For me it was the best of both worlds – a place to pour out private thoughts, feelings and worries while also getting feedback from people who wouldn't know me in real life. My feelings and experiences were out there in public and yet still remained intensly private.
I valued those comments from diarists I respected as much, sometimes more, than my real life peers. Some of their words still stay with me although I have no complete record of my online entries. Certainly when events in my life were hard to talk about with those who knew me in real life I was able to honestly and openly catalogue them online and receive support from those who read me – it gave me access to people who had experienced what I had (or something similar) when offline there was no such person around.
I know over the time I was with OD I made more than 100 entries and that my usage was tailing off by the time they announced it would split into two sister sites – one paid for and one not. Many of my ‘circle’ went with the paid for service but I lost my diary before I made a decision.
Losing that diary marked the start of a quieter period for me in online life as I moved to my first flat and had no Internet connection. I was spending all of my working day online and exploring possibilities for the space in my everyday job so for a while I didn’t feel I was losing anything by not using the Internet in my personal life.
The value I got from being part of an online community stayed with me though. Not only did it give me the skills I needed for my next job (online community coordinator) but it was there at the back of my mind when once again I found myself in a different position to my real-life peers (more of that in part three).
It’s interesting as well that of the two people from my circle who have stuck in my memory for their unfailing advice and support back on OD a Google search shows that one of them is still with OD (and still looks to be on a similar life path to me) and the other one has an ongoing blog / personal website. We’re all still out in the online space just not tethered together under one banner anymore. I wonder if I should give them a wave?
I don’t recall what initially spurred me to start publishing my thoughts online (although, clearly, it still appeals!), perhaps the standard attraction of vanity publishing, perhaps because I was online so much of the time it seemed easier to keep writing from the desktop than go back to pen and paper.
It was quite an eventful time in my life so perhaps I just thought I had lots to say and liked having a record I could easily flip back through as I completed university and left full-time education, entered the workplace, moved back to my hometown and transformed a friendship into a relationship (with my now husband).
Whatever made me start with OD it was the community that kept me coming back. I was soon in a circle of seemingly like-minded diarists and we would regularly (in some cases more like religiously) read and comment on each other’s entries. For me it was the best of both worlds – a place to pour out private thoughts, feelings and worries while also getting feedback from people who wouldn't know me in real life. My feelings and experiences were out there in public and yet still remained intensly private.
I valued those comments from diarists I respected as much, sometimes more, than my real life peers. Some of their words still stay with me although I have no complete record of my online entries. Certainly when events in my life were hard to talk about with those who knew me in real life I was able to honestly and openly catalogue them online and receive support from those who read me – it gave me access to people who had experienced what I had (or something similar) when offline there was no such person around.
I know over the time I was with OD I made more than 100 entries and that my usage was tailing off by the time they announced it would split into two sister sites – one paid for and one not. Many of my ‘circle’ went with the paid for service but I lost my diary before I made a decision.
Losing that diary marked the start of a quieter period for me in online life as I moved to my first flat and had no Internet connection. I was spending all of my working day online and exploring possibilities for the space in my everyday job so for a while I didn’t feel I was losing anything by not using the Internet in my personal life.
The value I got from being part of an online community stayed with me though. Not only did it give me the skills I needed for my next job (online community coordinator) but it was there at the back of my mind when once again I found myself in a different position to my real-life peers (more of that in part three).
It’s interesting as well that of the two people from my circle who have stuck in my memory for their unfailing advice and support back on OD a Google search shows that one of them is still with OD (and still looks to be on a similar life path to me) and the other one has an ongoing blog / personal website. We’re all still out in the online space just not tethered together under one banner anymore. I wonder if I should give them a wave?
Friday, 13 February 2009
History: Part One
‘eh-oh’ ‘eh-oh’
I hear this noise and instantly smile at the thought of a new message from an ICQ buddy while the petals of a daisy rotate on my mind’s monitor.
One of the first internet-wide instant messaging systems (see Wikipedia for more) ICQ was probably my first real experience on the internet. Or, at least, the first one I remember. And so, I guess, I could say that not only was it the first hook but what set me on this path to the online communications world I inhabit now.
So…when did it all begin for me??? I would guess sometime around mid-1997 or toward 1998. And who introduced me? Well, my then boyfriend of course. He was already using ICQ and playing with MP3 downloads and stuff...he got me interested and then enthused about what lay out there in the online space.
I remember me taking a while to get it and not really seeing the point. And then I found a few people all over the world with similar interests to me. At first the novelty and then the sheer amazement of being able to have a pretty much real-time conversation with someone on the other side of the world that I didn’t even know existed before was overwhelming for a while.
I don’t think it took very long for it (or rather the online me, IndiaBlue) to be a part of everyday 'real' life though. Certainly from September 1999 it was everyday as I had my own computer and own dial-up internet connection (clickety-click, hummmmmm, buzz, bing, bing, click) and from my dank uni room I explored other bits of the internet while ICQ buddies chatted with me.
I explored the possibilities of ICQ as well. The idea of being anonymous and revealing only parts of your identity was there and had a novelty value but no real worth in developing conversations and online relationships (and I’m not talking romantically). It was interesting though to play in such a place and develop my online needs from what I discovered about myself and the medium.
On reflection, I am much more excited and satisfied with the social media I use now as a means of enhancing existing relationships by complimenting other channels of communication than as a way of being someone else with someone you don’t know.
There are few people I remember from the ICQ-era although I do recall having several intense but ultimately short-lived friendships strike up across the messages. There are a couple though with whom ICQ was just the introduction to a friendship which has spread and survived other social media and even crossed over to become face-to-face friendships on occasion.
I don’t even know what ICQ looks like now…I know it still exists. Does it do only what it did back them (instant message and a pretty crude – but fun – real-time chat where you could watch people try and delete something as they went along)? I doubt it. I would guess it must have evolved to survive.
As time went on I followed buddies onto other systems while keeping true to ICQ. I sampled AOL chat with the guy from BJ and the Bear (now there’s a concept I can’t get enough of) and used Messenger as well, which now vies with Skype as my IM of choice.
But by the tail-end of 2000 I was moving away from ICQ toward the raggedy edge of the Blogosphere. And perhaps it says something about the online me that I don’t feel the curiosity to go back to ICQ and see what has become of it but would rather look back on it fondly as the beginning of things…
(Note to self: there are a few ideas I would like to look at further here around the difference between old style / new style social media.)
I hear this noise and instantly smile at the thought of a new message from an ICQ buddy while the petals of a daisy rotate on my mind’s monitor.
One of the first internet-wide instant messaging systems (see Wikipedia for more) ICQ was probably my first real experience on the internet. Or, at least, the first one I remember. And so, I guess, I could say that not only was it the first hook but what set me on this path to the online communications world I inhabit now.
So…when did it all begin for me??? I would guess sometime around mid-1997 or toward 1998. And who introduced me? Well, my then boyfriend of course. He was already using ICQ and playing with MP3 downloads and stuff...he got me interested and then enthused about what lay out there in the online space.
I remember me taking a while to get it and not really seeing the point. And then I found a few people all over the world with similar interests to me. At first the novelty and then the sheer amazement of being able to have a pretty much real-time conversation with someone on the other side of the world that I didn’t even know existed before was overwhelming for a while.
I don’t think it took very long for it (or rather the online me, IndiaBlue) to be a part of everyday 'real' life though. Certainly from September 1999 it was everyday as I had my own computer and own dial-up internet connection (clickety-click, hummmmmm, buzz, bing, bing, click) and from my dank uni room I explored other bits of the internet while ICQ buddies chatted with me.
I explored the possibilities of ICQ as well. The idea of being anonymous and revealing only parts of your identity was there and had a novelty value but no real worth in developing conversations and online relationships (and I’m not talking romantically). It was interesting though to play in such a place and develop my online needs from what I discovered about myself and the medium.
On reflection, I am much more excited and satisfied with the social media I use now as a means of enhancing existing relationships by complimenting other channels of communication than as a way of being someone else with someone you don’t know.
There are few people I remember from the ICQ-era although I do recall having several intense but ultimately short-lived friendships strike up across the messages. There are a couple though with whom ICQ was just the introduction to a friendship which has spread and survived other social media and even crossed over to become face-to-face friendships on occasion.
I don’t even know what ICQ looks like now…I know it still exists. Does it do only what it did back them (instant message and a pretty crude – but fun – real-time chat where you could watch people try and delete something as they went along)? I doubt it. I would guess it must have evolved to survive.
As time went on I followed buddies onto other systems while keeping true to ICQ. I sampled AOL chat with the guy from BJ and the Bear (now there’s a concept I can’t get enough of) and used Messenger as well, which now vies with Skype as my IM of choice.
But by the tail-end of 2000 I was moving away from ICQ toward the raggedy edge of the Blogosphere. And perhaps it says something about the online me that I don’t feel the curiosity to go back to ICQ and see what has become of it but would rather look back on it fondly as the beginning of things…
(Note to self: there are a few ideas I would like to look at further here around the difference between old style / new style social media.)
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