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CityCamp London

2010-10-19T14:40:00.000+01:00

CityCamp London

This October the CityCamp movement launched its first UK event in the vibrant city of London, where participants gathered in their masses to the three day unconference to discuss how technology and innovation can make the capital a better city to live in. While the whole event was split into three highly stimulating and interactive days of presentations and conversations, this blog reviews the first day, Friday 8th October, which included a mixture of diverse speakers and a sofa interview, which together produced an interesting and thought-provoking afternoon.

The event was attended by people from various sectors, including representatives from small companies such as Learning Pool and LinkedGov; big companies such as IBM, Accenture, Microsoft and Google; local government officials including Leo Boland, and designers, citizens and journalists. Together the speakers and audience discussed a broad spectrum of topics including the impact of government transparency and local governance using the web, the benefits of open/ linked data, social/participatory media, and mobile devices, and the impact of technology on urban cities.

The event opened with Leo Boland, the Chief executive of Greater London Authority, who spoke about the benefits of technology and the municipal challenges we are currently facing. He explored the concept of ‘the good city’, drawing on Ash Amin’s work, who defined technology as the “life-support system of cities, which without, our urban life would end as we know it.” He continued by asserting how the current government is committed to involving and engaging with citizens. He ended stating that Technology helps generate ideas, changes how we look at the cities and generally makes cities better places to live in.

He was next followed by John Tolva, Director of Citizenship & Technology of IBM, who gave us a fantastic presentation on the lessons we can learn from Unmaking Urban Mistakes by looking at system design and the networked city. Tolva’s chief argument focused on data asserting, informed communities are stronger and more adept at asking the tough questions needed to resolve urban issues. The third key speaker, Matt Jones from Berg then talked about, ‘Vertigo: Standing on top of the 21st century in one of the world’s biggest cities’. He proposed technology allows us to see the details as well as the whole system, so we have a better understanding of what’s happening around us.

After a short break, the unconference continued with RSA’s Matthew Taylor leading a sofa Question and Answers sessions, where Councillor Steve Reed (Labour), Councillor Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group at London Assembly, and Councillor Paul Osborn from Harrow Council (Conservative) were all interviewed by members of the audience on how technology has transformed the way they work and accessibility issues.

During the interview, they talked about how new quicker means of communication, such as email have affected their profession, revealing in some cases that public officials have to to build barriers to filter the public’s emails as they find it overwhelming. This did seem slightly worrying considering they are the people we vote in to represent us and listen to our concerns regarding local issues.

The unconference closed with five Lightening talks which all centred on ‘Making change happen.’ Especially interesting was Nathalie McDermott’s presentation on ‘Inclusive Culture’ where she described her work with disengaged groups, including providing a radio station for the benefit of prison inmates and a "SavvyChavvy" website for the gypsy traveller community. Likewise, the presentation by Emer Coleman and Chris Taggart on Open Culture ended the event nicely, by once again highlighting the benefits and importance of Open data, giving the audience a lot to think about.

Overall I found CityCamp London brilliant, and what made it most inspiring and refreshing was the incredible amount of energy and desire to improve things from all parties involved, including the organisers, speakers and the audience.

On a final note, a special mention must be made to the event’s organizers, Dominic Campbell, Futuregov and all others involved who did a fantastic job and deserve a massive pat on the back for all their efforts!

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BLOGGING THE SOCIAL ISSUES

2010-09-22T16:02:00.001+01:00

People, places and projects is what's interesting about social affairs and in 15 years of writing for national newspapers and magazines, latterly for the Guardian's Society section, writing about 'what works' is the part of my job that I really enjoy.

I launched The Social Issue to focus on individuals, communities and organisations that make a difference; The Social Issue isn't just a platform for opinions but will inform and spark discussion. Given the spending cuts, there's even more reason to share solutions in a jargon-free, accessible way.

By hosting guest posts from members of the public as well as from frontline practitioners, senior managers and experts, The Social Issue will be able to add a little something extra to the vast amount of great information already available online.

Thanks to Saba Salman.

If you have any articles you would like to write about on innovation in public services please contact us on Innovation@kent.gov.uk

- A special thank you to Saba Salman for the picture above taken from the Social Issue.com.

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CITIZEN POWER AND CIVIC HEALTH

2010-09-18T15:00:00.000+01:00

“The hard reality of spending cuts is forcing us to re-think what public services are and should be”

The global financial crisis was a shock to the system. It changed the landscape of public services for a generation. Local public services across the country are looking ahead to a period of severe financial constraint and the public sector is facing between five and ten years of severe spending restrictions.

Society is not the same thing as the state, but the state provides the building blocks for an inclusive and equal society in which everyone can flourish. The Big Society and Your Freedom should therefore not involve the dismantling of the state, but rather help recreate a public sphere in which all citizens are better able to engage with the state and with each other. Without this approach, we could end up with a very small society that ignores the people we should be striving to enable and protect.

From as early as 2009, both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition have began to endorse the shift from centralised to decentralised government and affirm the significance of innovation to recovery and public service. Our last government published a series of reports calling for innovation rather than just improvement in public service reform. It laid out the role for central government as one of responding to and facilitating innovation through a smaller and more strategic state, and suggested that innovation will follow from devolving power to users and localities.

Few would argue with this approach; the question is how to a) reverse the trend towards increased centralisation, and b) build the capacity to make such a shift viable. This is significant particularly in the context of predicted public sector cuts and a widespread assumption that Government is responsible and therefore accountable for local service failures.

While technology-based innovation can be introduced from the top down, social innovation involves creativity and consequently is not something you can dictate. For instance, innovative solutions that involve co-design cannot be squeezed through conventional processes. They only work when people want to work together and are motivated to get involved.

“In promoting the good of this whole aggregate, the good of individuals is contained and promoted.”

Each place is unique, whether a village, town or city and one of the most common things people share is where they live.

Citizen Power is a collaboration between the citizens of Peterborough, The RSA, Arts Council East and Peterborough Council to explore new ways of making the city a better place to live.

The Peterborough Citizen Power report highlights the growing strength amongst place-based schemes and provides evidence of how a connection to one’s local area and community can provide the motivation for a more creative approach to innovation.

The RSA’s Citizen Power work in Peterborough is essentially a scheme to develop a range of methods for making mass involvement in civic life happen.

Right now, within the Citizen Power programme of work, Peterborough are embarking on a Civic Commons project that aims to provide an opportunity for citizens to build knowledge and confidence in a range of themes and to understand different perspectives on local and national challenges.

The Civic Health project is about developing a tool that can be used to both measure as well as develop the capacity people have to shape the communities they live in. The tool will collect information that local authorities can use to understand how much ability people have to shape their local area and how they may better focus their efforts. It will bring together knowledge about local organisations, support groups, community leaders and funding opportunities into a 'civic directory' that the community can draw upon and use in the future. But more than just using the tool to understand the 'civic health' and vibrancy of a particular neighbourhood or place, it should also be used to encourage and enable people to participate in their community.

Through a mixture of surveys and individual case-studies, the tool should be able to paint a clearer picture of the skills and qualities people need in order to get involved in their communities. This information can be used by local bodies to understand which areas or groups of people are most in need of assistance and where to better focus their efforts. But more importantly, the tool can be used by local community groups themselves and the results played back so that people can reflect on their own skills, opportunities and behaviours.

The tool will also be designed so that it can collect not just information on behaviours and skills but also information about local organisations, community leaders, people who wish to be more actively engaged, and funding opportunities into a local 'civic directory'. The directory will be easily accessible and everybody in a particular area can tap into to it. This would allow it to really bring out the hidden opportunities and assets that everyone has and then link them with other people who may want to join up, get help or collaborate with one another - connecting the dots, which I personally think is a great feature.

The first pilot of the tool will be trialled with recovering drug users involved in the Recovery Capital project. At a time when power is being handed back to the people, we can't assume that everybody has the ability to take advantage of these opportunities, especially the most vulnerable. So looking at the ability of people recovering from substance misuse and how they can be involved in the community, how they might access and shape the recovery services they use, their emotional well-being and a whole host of other areas will be key.

An immediate benefit of this scheme is that it allows Government to become more sensitive to the difference between communities, as place based innovation is different in each location, and centrally designed frameworks need to be tailored to meet those unique conditions.

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CAPITAL IDEAS - HOW TO GENERATE INNOVATION IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

2010-09-16T13:00:00.001+01:00

"It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something." Franklin D. Roosevelt, governor of New York, (1933).

When you think of the word innovation what springs to mind? Gadgets? Science? Technology? In fact these days innovation is something which affects our every day lives. Whether it's using a social media website on your phone or taking the latest medication to cure some horrible bug, innovation will have affected your life in one form or another.

Likewise if I asked which would you associate more with innovation; public or private sector I expect most of you would reply private. And you’d be right! In fact studies show, in the private sector, innovation accounts for a staggering 85 percent of their economic growth.

This said, innovation is needed just as much in the public sector. In fact, since the credit crunch crisis, there has been an unprecedented amount of talk on the topic and calls for introducing more of it. Yet despite all the ‘talk’ of the need to be innovative, there has been little specific action in bringing it about. So the big question is how do you get the ball rolling?

How do you generate innovation in the public sector?

One organisation who believes they have developed an effective system to generate ideas for innovation is the American company ‘Centre for American Progress’ whose new project ‘Capital Ideas; Doing What Works’ has been created to promote government reform to efficiently allocate scarce resources and achieve greater results.

Their report highlights the problem area for the public sector is generating new ideas and also stresses the importance for innovation. They claim not only does it reduce costs, but it also creates better products and help increase market shares. They too refer to the great success private firms have experienced from using innovative ideas to improve their sales and products, and maintain that understanding innovation is crucial in business strategy.

In this report Capital ideas’ argue innovation is essential for tackling complex social problems and make the point that as problems become more complex we need new and better ways to tackle these issues.

That requires a much stronger system of innovation - from a constant flow of great ideas through evaluating the effectiveness of different approaches and then scaling those that are most effective. The report begins with a guide line of what they believe are the steps which social innovation follows from inception to impact six simple steps.

First step, they suggest that we need to identify the priority field where innovation is needed. This seems logical as solutions derive from problems and it is near impossible to think up a solution if you don’t have a problem to start with. In their cycle they assert teams should prompt, inspire and diagnose where the biggest issues are before any suggestion of solutions come forward, as the impetus for social innovation is often social problems.

Secondly they suggest that we should open up spaces for ideas. Proposals and ideas. Once a problem or new possibility is understood social innovators set about generating ideas for solutions.

The next stage is the fixing incentives and prototyping and pilots. This is basically the testing stage where you may want to take controlled trials. This refining process will allow you to find if your innovation needs tweaking and allow you to squeeze out any mistake.

Next is working out how you are going to finance your Innovation. For this finding revenue streams, writing supportive legislation and assembling the human and technical resources would be crucial.

Scaling and diffusion. At this stage the idea should start to take off. Reaping social economies of scale through expansion, replication and diffusion. Social solution often require government intervention and public-private partnership to grow.

And finally at stage six you will be able to introduce systemic change and watch your idea change lives and save money...

So by following these six steps we have a clear idea of the social innovation cycle, the process we should be using to introduce innovation.

But are there any other actions we should be taking to help us actually generate ideas? The Capital Ideas report finished with a number of recommendations which they think could help organisation s and particularly the public sector to generate ideas better.

Tapping in house talent

This I thought was a great idea. Unleashing the creative talents of agency staff, who have enormous potential to be creative and also frontline workers who would have a powerful insights on ways to improve the way things are done - seems like a no brainer. And yet surprisingly all too often agency leaders do not seek these insights, instead referring to own a small pool of their own similar minded workers who may not see things from the same perspective or be able to offer as diverse and varied ideas.

I think it is always important that leaders find ways of really listening to their staff, and encourage them to generate ideas to improve the way things are done, is a vital component of innovation strategy.

Dedicated innovation team

The report's second recommendation comes from viewing how private sector firms succeed. They claim private companies often have a whole team whose chief role is dedicated to researching and developing innovative ideas.

These teams are provided space to think creatively about ways to enhance the firm’s long-term prospects. That they invest the manpower and resources into this research highlights how important they see innovation and this seems to be the chief difference between the private sector and the public sector. Therefore a key recommendation would be for public sector organisations to take a similar approach by setting up dedicated teams with responsibility for ensuring that the organisation is able to generate potentially innovative ideas.

Budgeting for innovation

Of course during a time when money is tight, no ministers or councils will be thrilled by the idea of pouring large sums of money anywhere, however this report heavily stresses that it is the public sector’s approach of only allocating small amount of their budgets to innovative practices which prevents them from coming up with amazing potential to really invest in generating innovative ideas and scaling up those that are proven to be the most effective. For example, the Young Foundation’s Launch Pad, Regional Innovation.

Shifting perspectives

You could use participatory appraisal to understand community problems. Developed in the 1980s, this approach works by really trying to understand the perspectives of those who live in poor communities in developing countries. Sometimes simply walking and noticing things can be surprising powerful tool for seeing possibilities in a new way.

Seeking outside wisdom

Why does the public sector only rely on the public sector? Collaborate with outsiders to help solve problems. Capital Ideas suggests could be key methods of obtaining important information, especially as Government do not have a monopoly of wisdom. The public sector could really benefit from collaborating with the private and non-profit sectors to develop innovative solutions. This can be done either by working with successful commercial organisations that can help the government be more innovative or by harnessing the energy of those in civil society who want to help address social issues but are rarely asked for their thoughts. Example – DeepDive, Innocentive.

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BEYOND LIGHT BULBS AND PIPELINES

2010-09-13T12:00:00.003+01:00

‘Innovation is the process of identifying, testing, implementing and spreading ideas that add value’.

Innovation is not a new topic. We know public sector leaders have been discussing innovation for numerous years. However the agenda has been given added impetus in recent months by the impact of the recession on public spending. Anyone who reads the papers will know that the public debt we are accumulating because of the economic downturn has led to deep cuts further down the line. After a decade of vast sums of money being pumped into public services, the tap has now been firmly turned off.

Yet despite these cuts, people are more demanding in what they expect from public services. Also government targets are getting tougher and tougher. The need to "achieve-more-with-less" moved from being the latest Civil Service buzz phrase to a very stark reality with the announcement of “George Osborne's first budget which indicated that over the next four years, certain departments will have their budgets slashed, by almost 40%.” So the reality is that the public sector faces higher public expectations, stronger targets, and less money.

For many, including some government officials, the only solution out of this crunch is to innovate in how we deliver our public services. This report by Sunningdale Institute for the Cabinet Office argues that there is an under-developed appreciation of what public sector innovation might mean in practice and how it can best be supported. The report also provides a useful account of what innovation means in different circumstances and describes an approach to leading and nurturing innovation in the public sector. The headline here is that we need to develop a framework which provides a repertoire of types of innovation and relevant support models which key stakeholders can use to design innovation into their own organisations and begin to fill the gaps in innovation support.

"There is danger that government departments are constrained by what they do. Sometimes you need to have a near-death experience to get innovation on course. The public sector is facing enormous cuts. That is a golden opportunity for innovation and collaboration." James Gardner

A key finding of the report is the negative approach to motivation. Most of the systems which control work carry implicit messages that innovation is not recommended. All of the people interviewed maintained that the incentives against innovation are greater than those for it.

Recommendation 1

Systems audit: develop and implement an innovation audit of systems such as HR and finance, commissioning and procurement, IT systems and estates and building management and other systemic controls, to assess where traditional practices might be adjusted to create more space for innovation.

Recommendation 2

Strategic leadership: ensure that the right kind of innovation and the right kind of support systems are in place and that leaders create the space, rewards and recognition for developing and adopting ideas. This is critical if we are to develop successful innovative approaches, which allow us to succeed in our aims.

More than just good ideas

Lots of bright ideas will not improve services or make a dent in the deficit unless they see the light of day. To make the most of the more-with-less opportunities innovation presents, we need to bin the imagery of light bulbs flashing on above people's heads, along with the one-size-fits-all approaches.

Recommendation 3

Education: to support, and develop a more subtle and sophisticated understanding of what innovation is and how it can be supported. Coming up with imaginative ideas alone is not enough. The challenge is to identify how to make innovation practical and accessible; ensuring that they are spread, and adapted and adopted by others.

Thinking differently

At its most basic, innovation requires public servants to reconsider what they do; redefining problems and approaching them from different perspectives. This report looks at how organising services around places and citizens can achieve better outcomes at less cost. Those involved state the power of engaging with citizens and understanding services from their perspective. From this starting place, the pilots are now rethinking public services in their locality.

The 13 Total Place pilots have been a catalyst for public servants from across agencies to come together to do just this. The Croydon pilot, for example, engaged with frontline workers and managers, utilised video ethnography and collaborative techniques, mapped customer journeys, and took advantage of brokering organisations to challenge their thinking. Building on this insight, the partners have developed a new vision for early years support in Croydon, with a focus on working with families, building resilience and social networks, early intervention, targeted interventions and joined-up support, which they estimate will achieve "significantly improved outcomes at reduced cost". The ability of public servants to take a step back, redefine the issue they face and revaluate their approach will be vital over the coming years.

Recommendation 4

Creating the right environment: making opportunities for platform innovations from which other innovations may spring. This means being continually open to new ideas from both inside and outside the organisation, and making the most of networks, scouts, intermediaries and brokers to nurture and spread innovation.

The level of discretion held by frontline workers will affect the type of innovation needed – continuous improvement (e.g. lean) may work for those with limited discretion (e.g. benefit delivery staff), but won't work for doctors and teachers.

Recommendation 5

Engagement: where possible, innovations should be co-produced with frontline workers and citizens.

Overall the key point from this article that the public sector dictum of the time must be: different and better for less. But this will not happen by itself, it will require top officials to take on the strategic leadership responsibility for making it happen, leading and nurturing innovation throughout the public sector.

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The Show Must Go On

2010-06-11T16:30:00.005+01:00

Well, my role as Research Support Officer is coming to an end but the work that the Technology Transformation Team are carrying out on innovation I’m sure will continue to inspire many more individuals and teams within and outside of KCC, hopefully well into the future.

In this blog post I’m just going to share with you some of my highlights working with the team over the past year, so here they are!

1) Business Plan Research Project

I had the privilege of writing my own research report on the 2010/11 directorate and unit business plans for KCC. One hefty read it was but out of it emerged the main themes for 2010/11, along with planned innovative projects and concepts which in the end helped to shape the work that the team are doing today, a piece of work that I am extremely proud of.

2) Innovate To Save

Well I certainly got to test out my event organising skills here! This involved continuously encouraging (begging/pestering) KCC staff to attend some fabulous sessions with amazing speakers, stressing out about the contact list, running around Maidstone trying to find suitable Christmas decorations, making posters and musn’t forget gluing together folders to make cardboard boxes…to create a monstrosity of a display! An overall success was granted after months of hard work, thankfully!

3) Transformed By You

I never dreamed that in my role I would find myself having several ‘Blue Peter Days’ as people in the office liked to refer to them as, cutting, sticking, gluing and of course using the infamous sticky back plastic! Again, I found myself using these skills for our two Transformed By You Events, one with the lovely innovative folk at Medway and another with the University of Kent Digital Arts students. A fun and interesting day was had by all, with some fabulous prototypes emerging, from iphone apps to electronic fridge magnets that kept you updated with recycling information to qr codes in the community.

4) Working on the Virtual Presenter & Gaming Projects

It was really nice to get heavily involved in projects and watch them flourish over time. It was wonderful to see the finished product on the gaming project, but not so wonderful being given the task of helping to wrap up the final report! I hope the Virtual Presenter project is just as successful and I will wait in anticipation to see it up and running, and of course test out its ability to provide answers to small talk such as ‘Will you marry me?’!

5) iNews

How could I leave out iNews? As editor I have been very proud to locate, edit and publish articles, as well as writing my own on topics of interest. I hope I have produced some interesting reads for you all and I have really enjoyed watching the Google Analytics rise over time (and receiving cupcakes as a reward for this result!), I hope that this continues at a steady rate!

As well as these I will never forget getting stuck in the blizzard with Carol and it taking us 5 hours to get home, attending conferences with Noel, working on projects with Greenhouse, co-designing a workshop with Sidekick Studios, being involved on the CLG Bid and so on.

Well there you have it, my last blog post (maybe, maybe not!), so there is nothing left to see but thank you to the Technology Transformation for giving me a wonderful first step on the career ladder as well as providing me with some friends for life. Good luck to the team with your future work and to all our readers, watch this space for some more interesting articles! Over and out.

- Kirsty Russell

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Race for Digital Inclusion

2010-05-28T10:44:00.000+01:00

• Do you want to be a part of creating life enhancing opportunities for the 4 million individuals who have never been online?
• Are you working on an innovative, inspirational or educational Digital Inclusion projects?

If you answered yes to those questions than this automatically entitles you to become a partner of Race Online 2012 and access the online Race Online 2012 partner toolkits which include a Race Online 2012 certificate, online media and communication materials to help you promote your initiatives and spread the word, plus access to the Race Online 2012 web news feed offering 24/7 digital inclusion news updates.

There is both a moral and economic imperative for the wider community to take the issue of digital inclusion much for seriously. It's also essential to business that the UK is near 100% online as this will create efficiency savings, attract investment, open opportunities and improve work force skills.

Race Online 2012 wants any organisation of any size to get involved and help tackle the issue. From encouraging business partners to sign up, to teaching friends and family to get online, or by donating old IT equipment locally - there are opportunities for all businesses to make a difference. It's simple to sign up and it only takes five minutes to register.

Please click on this link http://raceonline2012.org/get-involved to become an official Race Online 2012 partner, where you can explain what your organisation is doing or can do to help make the UK one of the first countries in the world to establish a fully online, internet enabled society.

Picture: A man and a woman sitting at a computer with a yellow poster covering the entire wall behind them which reads 'Inclusion Digital' with thanks to CampusParty for publishing on Flickr under a Creative Commons license some rights reserved.

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BIN MASTER - THE POWER OF THE FRIDGE MAGNET

2010-05-26T13:00:00.000+01:00

A fridge magnet using GPS to get real time information on recycling

An idea developed at Transformed by You on Campus

What is the problem?

There is currently a lack of understanding and easy access to real time information on bins and recycling. Therefore the group came up with a solution in the form of a ‘fridge magnet’ device. It can be available as an application for iPhone

Who is this for?

People who have little time

How would the idea work?

With a light at the top of the screen, this will flash red when there are new updates and green when it is collection day. It would provide updates – News on bin services, latest news in the community as well as a calendar which will be colour coded with when collection days are and what time.

For special collections, there would be a special box where you can type in a query about a special collection, for example if you need furniture removing, which will be sent straight to the specific recycling department.

It would use Google Maps for GPS tracking of where the bin vans are to avoid traffic, as well as a function where you can order new bins liners and bins. ‘Other information’ option will allow the user to find out about which products and materials can be recycled and which bin they go in, an FAQ section, allow them to report vandalism and where their nearest recycling centres are.

In terms of changing behaviours, the magnet would link to an online dashboard and send SMS/email alerts whoing a progress chart where individuals can track how much they have recycled compared to their neighbours.

The team believed that this could one day be essential kit for the household and could be rolled out to different services, for example Kent Highway Services.

This could cut down phone calls to the Contact Centre regarding collection dates.

What is needed to make this idea successful?

- A special thank you to a picture of an idea from http://transformedbyyou.uservoice.com and a picture of a fridge magnet from Gadget Reviews.

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LET'S GET DIGIT WITH IT

2010-05-24T12:00:00.033+01:00

What is the problem?

Kent County Council is required to publicise and promote information on positive leisure time activities and related facilities in the county and to keep it up to date. KCC does this currently using a database driven directory website (www.togogo.info).

But what else could we be doing with digital technologies to give young people quicker and more convenient access to information and things to do and places they can go? The overall goal is to encourage more young people to participate in “positive activities”.

What would they find cool, naff, useful, easy, valuable…? What’s important to them?

How can digital technologies be used to promote positive things to do to teenagers in Kent?

Who is this for?

Young people

How would the idea work?

It would be a website driven by quarterly live music festivals promoting positive activities to teenagers.

Using Bluetooth ‘chip’ wristband and a ‘DigiMe’ account would enable people to update their events and receive further promotions, as well as volunteer in exchange for free gig tickets.

What is needed to make this idea successful?

- A special thank you to a picture of an idea from http://transformedbyyou.uservoice.com.

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GRADLINK - CONNECTING THE PEOPLE THAT MATTER

2010-05-21T14:30:00.000+01:00

Connecting job seekers and employers to provide support for unemployed graduates

An idea developed at Transformed by You on Campus

What is the problem?

Every year over 11,000 students graduate from universities in Kent, and many more return to the county after finishing degrees elsewhere in the UK. Currently, only 30% of local graduates go on to find employment in the county, which means a huge loss of talent for local businesses in Kent. It is vital that Kent retains more skilled graduates if our local economy is to grow over the future years. But how best do we encourage them to stay?

The problem seems to be two-fold:

It is not always easy for graduates to find information about local graduate jobs, particularly for those who have not studied locally.

It is not always easy for businesses to access information about local graduates and match graduate skills to their business needs.

Is there a way of using technology to match up local graduates with local businesses, and encourage more employers to recruit graduates?

How can digital technologies be used to increase graduate retention in Kent?

Who is this for?

Graduates looking for work and employers in need of graduates.

How would the idea work?

It would be a website that connects graduates seeking employment and potential employers in one place.

Use personalised profiles, databases and career events.
Providing support for unemployed graduates in Kent through networking as well as allowing individuals to advertise themselves with portfolios to possible employers.
The main themes are connecting everything in one place, personalised searches to what matches the individual’s skills, interests and degree.
Starting with a launch day with a speed dating theme allowing employees and graduates to understand each other’s needs.

What is needed to make this idea successful?

A special thank you to a picture of an idea from http://transformedbyyou.uservoice.com and a picture from students from the University of Kent.

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TIME WELL SPENT - A POINTS BASED SYSTEM TO REWARD VOLUNTEERING

2010-05-19T12:30:00.003+01:00

An online tool offering a points based rewards system for volunteering

An idea developed at Transformed by You on Campus

What is the problem?

Voluntary groups need volunteers with a range of professional or specialist skills to help run certain aspects of their organisations. KCC is running a Volunteer Your Skills campaign. The campaign aims to help attract people to volunteer their specialist skills and expertise and match these skills with the needs of voluntary groups and organisations. www.kent.gov.uk/volunteeryourskills

Things to consider:

The campaign covers all age groups and people from all sorts of backgrounds.
The main skills identified by voluntary groups were: finance and funding, marketing, IT and computing and trustees.
The main things we need to do are:
Make it easy and convenient for people with skills to register their availability
Be able to match up vacancies with available skills
The solution needs to consider the needs of the volunteers, the needs of the voluntary organisation looking for the skills and the role of intermediary or broker agencies such as a Volunteers Centre

How can digital technologies be used to help voluntary organisations reach volunteers with professional and specialist skills?

Who is this for?

People with specialist skills who have time and organisations who are in demand of these skills

How would the idea work?

The purpose is to develop a volunteering program in Kent, supported by local businesses which will hopefully help build community spirit through offering a points based rewards system.

Primarily a web service but a reliable phone services will be offered in libraries, job centres and through SMS messages for those without access to the internet.

The website will allow users to set up a profile, look for volunteers and volunteering opportunities, invite a friend and claim rewards from sponsors. Volunteers will enter various details such as name, skills and availability. Opportunists will enter basic details and any opportunities available.

CRB checks will also be put in place through the Kent Volunteer Bureau. New members will get complimentary points. Points are also calculated by multiplying the volunteer’s star rating by the time spent on the opportunity. Points are then exchanged for rewards.

The rewards – various sponsors will offer a variety of products and services for a set amount of points, for example cinema tickets. The sponsors in return will receive free publicity and advertising to the whole community.

The rating experience will be two-way. Joint rating based on a five star system would be encouraged.

What can be done to make the idea successful?

A special thank you to a picture of an idea from http://transformedbyyou.uservoice.com.

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MAGNIFEYE - REPORT IT, RATE IT AND REWARD IT

2010-05-17T14:00:00.002+01:00

An idea developed at Transformed by You on Campus

What is the problem?

Community safety means cutting crime and the fear of crime as well as reducing the effects of nuisance, antisocial behaviour, drug misuse, fires and road accidents - all the things that harm people or affect their quality of life.

Kent is generally a safe place to live and work. A safe community is one that is free from crime and the fear of crime and from antisocial behaviour. It is a community where people feel safe in their homes and safe on the street; where they are protected from dangers like fire and where their children can go to school without being bullied.

The things that affect our quality of life are linked to a huge range of different social and economic factors. Education, health, housing, poverty, family life, truancy, policing, social exclusion and employment all play a part in creating the sort of environment that either feels safe or unsafe. It is because the root causes are so varied that we tackle these issues by working with many other organisations that play a part in our communities, as well as with voluntary agencies and local neighbourhoods.

How can digital technologies be used to support community safety and help make people feel safer where they live?

Who is this for?

People who need to report problems in their neighbourhood.

How would the idea work?

It would allows users to report graffiti, anti-social behaviour, etc in their community. Linked in with Google maps to allow users to exactly pinpoint the area of interest. Users of the application will also be able to identify problem ‘hot spots’ and areas where pro-social behaviour is being carried out.

What can be done to make the idea successful?

A special thank you to pictures of smart phones showing the application: with thanks to students from the University of Kent.

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Best of the Links

2010-05-14T10:25:00.005+01:00

The sun is finally shining, and I am really hoping it stretches out into the weekend. For now though, here are my favourite links of the week, a mixture of events, qr codes, iphone apps and social media goodies, enjoy.

Bid and Borrow -- For £20, a way to try the iPad before buying (or before it's available)

Sweza uses QR codes to preserve graffiti

In the Future, You Will Know Everything You Wish to Know

If you're part of a community group in Kent, you could win up to £5,000 to develop an environmental project in your area

RememberMe - drop by Oxfam on Oxford Rd to donate cloths, memories and stories using RFID & QR codes

28 May 2010 - Heather Sim the founder and chief executive of Space Unlimited, will be giving a lunchtime seminar entitled, "Uncommon sense: the role of risk-taking in innovation". The seminar will focus on the topic of risk-taking and innovation.

Patient Opinion - Out of the Box conference for patients & service users

McDonald’s Pioneers Facebook’s Upcoming Location Feature McDonald’s fans will be given the ability to check in at a location using a status update on Facebook as early as this month, AdAge reports, and then see a featured product targeted to that location.

How businesses and ordinary people can use small actions to ignite major change

@GOOD Asks: How Does Technology Affect Human Relationships?

"We are Enabled by Design" event - tickets on sale now!

Stop & Search mobile app developed by young entrepreneurs with @CDIGlobal to help defuse local tensions with police

Last but not least the Go London Innovation Competition finals are today which has aimed to encouraged people to think about how they can get active and challenged Londoners to put forward their ideas on how they can get moving. Follow @Go_London or use the hashtag #golondon to follow the progress of the event on Twitter!

- Kirsty Russell

Picture: A business card with a large barcode/qr-code on it with thanks to Chandra_Marsono for publishing on Flickr under a Creative Commons license some rights reserved.

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• Get on the Learning Bus!

UNCOVERING SUPPORT

2010-05-13T11:19:00.001+01:00

I asked a blogpost ago how groups developing ideas in workshops can build momentum for their ideas and make them sustainable after the excitement of the event.

The best evidence I've seen so far is the mapping carried out on the Big Green Challenge. What was striking from the findings was the need to

"uncover what support these communities need to transform their bright ideas into viable solutions...and work through strong relationships and existing networks"

What might this mean in practice though?

Uncover what support these communities need to transform their bright ideas into viable solutions

It can be tempting to pre-define what package of support should be offered to groups. However, without knowing in advance what ideas or even prototypes they will develop or who will be part of these groups, this approach can be counterproductive. It also means participants are less likely to feel collective ownership over the process of taking forward the prototypes.

On the other hand, not providing any options for further support would make it harder for the prototypes to be developed further and the relationship between ourselves and the groups would be confused.

Would a combination of support for peer networking and signposting to structured support from other appropriate organisations be enough?

Work through strong relationships and existing networks

The Big Green Challenge research suggests signposting the groups to organisations related to their challenge area who the event organisers have a strong relationship with could work - especially with community embedded intermediaries some more institutionalised (such as community action networks) and others more self organised (i.e. meetups). It also recommends encouraging groups to make use of their own relationships to take forward their prototypes.

So, which of the following does it make the most use to showcase the prototypes to?

Self organising groups to work out if their meetups can provide a space for continuing the conversation around how to take forward the prototypes.
Corporate boards to showcase a new way of getting people’s ideas and making the best use of their skills to suggest new approaches to developing digital services
Economic and technology boards to showcase the prototypes to
Investors to showcase ways of taking ideas which become investment-ready
Pre-commercial procurement initiatives

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ON THE MOVE - QR CODES OR TINY ID?

2010-05-10T13:00:00.002+01:00

An idea developed at Transformed by Yo

What is the problem?

How can people quickly get information on local services on the move

Who is this for?

People constantly on the go

How would the idea work?

Use QR codes whereby smartphones would take a picture of the QR code, translates it into a url and takes you to the webpage – it’s the ‘evolution of the barcode’.

Possible uses:

Exploring local areas of local interest and history: To replace boards (QR code could send you to google map of exactly where you are, more information that wouldn’t find onto a board, options for different languages, etc).
Planning applications: Lamppost outside house, take a picture and it takes you to the planning application online that you could then read at home.
Church/community information board, bus stops: Not sure where you are, QR code would include geographical information of where you are and just ask where you want to go.
Library books: Replace barcode with QR code which would then take you a website where you can find out when the book is due back, which library it is from, where you can buy the book online, etc.
Blind and visually impaired: More here

What is needed to make this idea successful?

Research market penetration data and raise awareness within potential services that may benefit.

What can be done to make the idea successful?

Build on the day by carrying out further research to help define business cases for projects

Chris Orton has researched market penetration data for QR Codes here and here for smart phones

He has also suggested an alternative for mobile phones, called tiny_id.

See the diagram below and tell us what you think?

A special thank you to a picture of an idea from http://transformedbyyou.uservoice.com and a picture from Chris Orton of the tiny_id diagram.

DESTINATION OPPORTUNITY - GET ON THE LEARNING BUS

2010-05-06T12:30:00.004+01:00

Put entertainers on buses to connect older people on community activities

An idea developed at Transformed by You on Campus

What is the problem?

Why are groups defined as “hard to reach” by councils actually hard to reach? – is it that the groups are hard to reach or are the services limited?

Who is this for?

Hard to reach groups, older people and bus passengers.

How would the idea work?

The idea is that we talk to bus companies and public services and we put on existing bus routes some entertainers – poets, Kent Fire Service (how to check your fire alarm), gardeners who are interesting in setting up etc.

The benefits for public services are more custom, social responsibility, a lot from sponsorship, captive audiences – possibly those who are hard to reach as well as older people who will already have free bus passes.

Passengers have a more interesting journey and benefit from community information. At the end of route, the destination is related to what has been spoken about on the journey.

Passengers could vote on topics and possibly book slots on journey. For example, 6 minutes to talk about cookery.

It could be used for "weeding" trips - where pupils would visit the older local residents and help them out, in return for those people coming in to school to talk about their life experiences.

What is needed to make this idea successful?

Need champions like parish councils and community groups, as well as a trial run over a short journey to see if the idea could work in practice.

What can be done to make the idea successful?

Build on the day by carrying out further research to help define business cases for projects

Research demographic information that bus services may have about passengers on certain routes

Look at existing examples of where this may have worked, such as here.

Some of the issues coming up are committing staff to the volume of "trips" that would be required to bring a noticeable benefit and finding the people who could offer their time and pass a CRB check could be the answer.

Work with frontline services to involve people to see how their online service needs match those prototypes

Chris has contacted his local primary school to see if they would be interested in using the learning bus concept for “weeding trips”.

Who would be interested in helping take this forward?

A special thank you to a picture of an idea from http://transformedbyyou.uservoice.com.

QUESTION TIME - WHAT WOULD YOU ASK YOUR COUNCIL?

2010-05-04T12:00:00.004+01:00

An idea developed at Transformed by You on Campus

What is the problem?

‘Local government do not know what or listen to what the citizens want or need’. Citizens want a real, open, transparent conversation (“we want a dialogue not a monologue”) with local government on subjects that matter to communities, as voted on by the communities.

Who is this for?

The general public

How would the idea work?

Local government needs to find a way of collecting content from multiple channels (Twitter, on the phone, via email, etc) in the community, and has to be very searchable – using tools similar to Amazon.

What is needed to make this idea successful?

Less calls from the public about problems that have already been dealt with, more engagement with the community on what they want/need, could potentially save money

What can be done to make the idea successful?

The group didn’t come up with a prototype as such, but the council champions are looking further to discuss how realisable their idea was.

A special thank you to a picture of an idea from http://transformedbyyou.uservoice.com.

TRANSFORMED BY YOU - WASHING UP

2010-05-01T15:00:00.000+01:00

Transformed by You

View more presentations from Innovation in Kent.

Coming next week, we will be showing you all the ideas and prototypes developing at our Transformed by You events.

The first we organised with local people working with Medway Council and their Innovation Centre with support on facilitation from David Wilcox and Amy Sample Ward. The second followed swiftly with students in partnership with the University of Kent and with the facilitation help of Simone Jaeger, Eleanor Ford and Gavin O'Carroll. Who knows there may be more!

As a special teaser, here's the first prototype, aptly called call of duty and the start of a conversation on how we can tackle some of the tensions how we influence change in our own organisations when we return to the ranch after these events.

The slideshow provides an introduction to Transformed by You and shows some of the processes used.

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INNOVATION FOOD FOR THOUGHT

2010-04-30T10:17:00.010+01:00

I am just having a read of 'Innovation - The Path of Embracing Change to Create Value - 4th Innovation Best Practise and Future Challenges Report' which landed in my e-mail box yesterday. Absolutely fascinating read right from the start. It consists of a collection of findings from 45 interviews with 40 companies across the world (Australia, UK, Denmark, South Africa, etc) which has been pulled together by Dr Bettina Von Stamm and funded by the Innovation Leadership Forum. Bettina gives some 'upfront observations' and then organises the findings into categories: Company Vision and Strategy, Company Culture and Industry Context.

Some food for thought:

- There is a gap between those who 'get innovation' and those who’ do not’ keeps widening.

- Innovation mindsets is not finding people who constantly come up with breakthrough ideas but one that is open to change, likes to challenge and be challenged, is focused on creating value and very importantly, appreciates diversity in all its different guises.

- Those who buy into the rationale of innovation but not the 'emotional' consequences of it continue to focus on processes and structures rather than turning towards addressing behaviours and cultures.

- When aiming to create a more innovative organisation using the word 'innovation' can be one of the obstacles!

- Create realities - there is a great difference between 'telling' and 'showing', using prototypes and other ways to make an idea or concept as real as possible This is very true - Sidekick Studios came down to our offices to meet us last week and we wouldn't have been able to understand the complete awesomeness of their Voicebox writing robot!

- Silos, be they functional or between business units, remain a frequently mentioned barrier to more successful innovation. I also found this in my Business Plan Research Report, with many of the units and teams within Kent County Council stating that they would like to break down the 'silo mentality' that exists within the organisation, and will work on this through 2010/11

- A focus on behaviours - one of the participants stated that during project review meetings, they do not start with budgets or project plans, they focus on relationships, looking at how well they work together.

- Collaboration with external parties seems easier than collaboration within the business boundaries.

- Innovation needs to be clear and transparent, otherwise people will withdraw.

- Addressing a challenge or opportunity through different lenses - 'when the conversation moved onto the fact that people tend to stick too closely to Horizon 1 it occurred to me that the three horizons could also be used to develop more impactful concepts and ideas At our event 'Transformed By You On Campus', when coming up with ideas to tackle their challenges - such as Future Digital Online Services and Graduate Retention in Kent - they were encouraged to see the challenge through the ideas of a child, Google, Richard Branson and a library assistant.

- In one of the participating organisations members were given some 'spare time' to work on their own ideas.

-Engaging others in innovation is a combination of credibility, personality and attitude.

- 'The responsibility of selling is ours' - Successfully 'selling' innovation is about understanding others, it is about talking to people in their language.

- Our Catalogue of Innovations was also featured in the report, which can be found here, go have a look!

'When we started on our innovation journey we began by making a catalogue of all the innovations that had been happening all over the organisation but no one had really noticed. Rather than having an ideas competition or starting a suggestion box we went around the organisation to talk to people. We did not ask ‘what innovations have you made recently’ but asked them where they had changed or improved things, developed new offerings, that kind of thing. We got many things the individuals involved would not have classified as innovation, in fact, we got 40 great examples. This made people realise how much innovation was actually going on and it gave then confidence.'

- Kirsty Russell

Top picture: Shows a wooden path on a beach with extends to the sea with a blue sky and yellow sunset in the background with thanks to stuck_in_customs for publishing on Flickr under a Creative Commons license some rights reserved.

Bottom picture - Shows students at our event 'Transformed By You on Campus' sitting around a desk with post it notes looking at a paper about Google, with thanks to Paul Sinnock at University of Kent for taking and publishing the pictures.

STOP TYPING, START PROTOTYPING

2010-04-29T11:55:00.003+01:00

"We have lots of opportunities to come together and people are excited to share and collaborate, but nothing ever “happens.”

A provocative remark by Amy Sample Ward on the many events taking place across the innovation sector. This prompted me to try and benchmark a series of events we've been hosting called Transformed by You with a website documenting the methods that this sector is using - Social Innovator.

Local Innovation Workshop

View more presentations from Innovation in Kent.

Our model does use platforms for engaging citizens, idea generation and deliberation and it helps facilitate participation. Is it trying to do much at once? Or should it focus on a particular pinchpoint in the innovation process that public services really struggle at? And how much can we expect in a day from people's passion and energy?

Why are we researching this?

To put this into practice, our brief for Transformed by You was “to inform Kent County Council (and the participating partners) on which innovative concepts are worth fast tracking and showcase the collective expertise of local innovators to stimulate greater engagement between our organisations and the wider community”.

So how do fast track these innovative concepts, how do we showcase the collective expertise and how do we stimulate greater engagement?

Firstly, it seems we need to take into account what Amy Sample Ward calls "project spaces" - the open and accelerated approach to project development we have introduced for Transformed by You if we are going to fast track and showcase this new way of prototyping to our colleagues internally.

To me, there seems to be three areas that are critical to sustain momentum and build legitimacy for this model; how we select the best way of taking forward the prototypes, how we develop or support spaces to take them forward and how we encourage the use of prototypes. Is there anything out there that helps tackle any of these areas and how have they worked?

Presentation describes the aims and approaches of the event, while the picture shows the innovation process and was first published at www.socialinnovator.info

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How can we tackle these tensions?

2010-04-27T11:30:00.000+01:00

Innovation often depends on the right kinds of difference. That’s why we invited different groups of people to Transformed by You. People who are involved in formal groups or programmes and those who are more involved in informal groups and activities, we need to explore the difference in the nature of support required, the capacity constraints more informal groups face and the time required to engage them after the event..

One question we can also ask ourselves is, do we aim to influence a change in our own organisations to reflect this or do we instead provide greater support for groups to develop these digital services themselves as community applications?

Equally, how can staff themselves be more involved in this process?

We know we need to make better use of the limited resources available – time, technology, knowledge, money and of course our most important asset, staff themselves. But before that we need to identify and develop people’s motivations, openness to ideas and solving problems. Then we can look at how we incentivise and reward those innovative behaviours, particularly their confidence and resilience in this difficult climate.

By valuing staff not just for their expertise as “critical friends” to local innovators but their capacity for being open to new ways of engaging people and solving problems to areas they are responsible for.

We often focus on systems to manage innovations and trying to define people as innovators. However, the Everyday Innovation report shows that the best predictors of getting staff to generate ideas were induction programmes that emphasise innovation, work time devoted to developing new ideas and team incentives. Steph Gray goes further and lets us into a few secrets on how to be an everyday innovator (see how many you already do and you'll see you're probably innovating too!). Something I've found to work well is when you "connect things together in a new way".

Using challenge-based activities could then help acknowledge and tackle the tension between the potential increase in competition between staff in a difficult climate and the need to empower them to be able to be more willing to combine their efforts.

Hosting these activities over very short spaces of time, will also recognise that there may be less time allocated to staff to innovate but they can still have more freedom and opportunities to innovate.

How can we tackle these tensions?

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Digging For The Future

2010-04-15T10:00:00.003+01:00

I remember Charlie Leadbeater when I was at Demos. You'd hear he'd be making a visit sometime soon on the way back from his trips around the world – discovering and documenting innovation in the places other people didn't go to – from the slums to the boardrooms. He hasn't stopped doing that and this time he travels back in time and takes us to the 17th century with his new pamphlet “Digging for the Future” for the Young Foundation.

Although it sounds more like the motto behind a 1950s food growing programme, it is actually about how we can learn from the Diggers, the long lost cousin of the more famous Levellers. How they faced a similar depth of crisis, how they called for a fundamental transformation to the way we organise themselves, and how innovation and new technologies played a role...even back then.

What struck me more than anything else in the comparison is “the chasm between our need to have a sense of purpose and our incapacity to muster the collective commitment to do so”. Indeed, the same could be said of innovation. Many organisations profess the need for being more innovative, yet fall short of letting their staff develop new ideas, not so much because they might improve things but rather they might risk disrupting “the way it’s done around here”.

Some people believe that those who are innovative are just lucky to be in the right place at the right time, because they've not just been allowed but empowered to change the culture they work in by their next line of management. This is why often it is only really those who benefit in the rewards of innovation who really believe in it. Others might want to but either do not have the freedom to or may not believe in it because their organisations don't practice what they preach. But this can become a circular argument - if everyone waited for the perfect place and time to start making their new ideas happen, then we’d still be waiting for innovation.

So let's turn instead to the core tenet to the Digger's plan; “groups would plant and tend crops, and feed and sustain themselves, by taking unused land into common ownership to boost food production and provide employment”.

What unused assets could public services hand over to communities to boost production? And how could technology play a role? How could councils and communities work co-creatively?

Leadbeater describes how collaborative innovation was just as much at the heart of the debate in the 17th century as it is now:

“The Levellers wanted to raise food production through mutual ownership of underused land that would allow new technologies like manuring to take hold. One of the key issues for our generation is how best to share socially useful knowledge, especially through digital technologies and the web.”

In fact, why not start thinking about these unused assets like an allotment? There is a byelaw where groups of people can demand the right to a plot of land if they can justify it will be used to produce food.

In an allotment like with ideas, the first thing you have to do is plant seeds. But should we carry on the analogy and argue that you need to wait for the right conditions to plant your idea – in the good times when everyone is up for a brainstorm or is it when there is a frosty crisis like we're in at the moment that new ideas are most in need?

Ultimately what's most important is to make sure your seeds turn into fruit or veg is to nurture them – to water them regularly, place them in the sun and protect them when the frost comes. The soil too needs to be nourished even after the crops have been dug up so next year they can have a fertile ground to grow. Just like a juicy tomato, you need to do the same with ideas. But to return to the initial argument of Digging for the Future in the context of organisational culture, you also need to do the same with staff if they are to be confident and empowered to innovate.

What have we forgotten with this analogy? What's unique with allotments is that they're communal – people join one over a shared passion and come back regularly to gossip about how their crops are growing, share tips for newcomers and sometimes even compete for prizes, like who grows the biggest marrow. How can we encourage this within organisations and maybe even more importantly between councils and communities, so that local authorities can act more like “gardeners” than “umpires”?

- Noel Hatch

Picture: Four silhouettes digging on a hill with a sunset behind them, with thanks to Wessex_Archaeology on Flickr for publishing under a Creative Comms license with some rights reserved.

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Call of duty

2010-04-13T14:18:00.010+01:00

An idea developed at Transformed by You

What is the problem?

Councils aren’t aware of street based problems in real time and the public are not reporting these problems. How do you solve this by co producing services with the public?

Who is this for?

People who need to report problems in their neighbourhood.

How would the idea work?

It would be a gaming version of ‘Fix my Street’ where you can report faults and gain points. It would be mobile based with three functions - a report strand, an update strand and a community/social gaming strand.

The community would be able to rate how ‘urgent’ the problem is and prioritise where your report goes in the queue. Catherine sums it up here

“We want to develop a mobile app which combines reporting of issues your physical community (broken lights / potholes / unkempt land etc etc) with a gaming approach. We thought this had strong elements of co-production as well as being channel authentic – and so we created “Call of Duty” – which will be flying of the shelves at Christmas….. “

“Why? We could have just designed a mobile app for street scene reporting – a kind of phone based ‘fixmystreet’ – and I know that other councils are thinking about just that (for example Lewisham iphone app ) and its a really good thing to do. But we thought that adding a gaming element added in two additional benefits:

It would be more fun – when did the idea of doing something useful become unfun anyway?
It could be used to link people in the area together – using the gaming community to build local community

The game itself should be fairly simple – you get points for:
reporting an issue (5 points)
rating an issue (1 point)
doing something about an issue (10 points)
(points clearly indicative at this stage – currency to be established!)

We assumed that the app would know where/when you were reporting something (probably with a photo) and that you would just be asked to firstly suggest an outcome – do you want it fixed by the council or do you think the community should deal with it for example – and then prioritise the issue by being shown a list of current issues and being asked to place it in the right place in the queue. We felt that this moved the user passed just complaining and gave them some sense of the whole picture. Other users could then ‘rate’ that prioritisation. You would be able to track the status of your issues, as well as getting updates on things that have been dealt with in your area (you might see some before and after pictures for example)…..btw – there is clearly a whole back office integration piece to be done here but we decided not to worry about that…..again – it was a Saturday

The gaming element would contribute a leader board where you could see who else has been active and where you relate to them – you could also have viral options so that you could share issues with your community to get support for your prioritisation. At this point I started getting drawn into a whole top trumps thing where you got rated for the types of things you report, how you fix them etc etc….

The final element was some way of linking game currency – points – to some kind of real world rewards – for example cheap entrance to a swimming pool. We felt that this would provide additional motivation and acknowledge the fact that you are ‘working’ for your community. We also wanted to make it possible to donate your game currency to local charities etc so that they could benefit.

This is not an unachievable idea – as long as you can remain committed to the idea that it does actually have to be fun and to engage with some actual game designers rather than the poor folks who will have to make it work with the back office systems. Its strengths are, I believe, in the fact that it tries to use the channel in a ‘native’ way without actually compromising on the social goals of the project. The first step to doing this would be to do some focus group work around establishing motivations and looking at what the game currency would need to look like.”

What is needed to make this idea successful?

“What can be achieved when you actually think appropriately for a channel and when you don’t get constrained with what is currently possible? What happens when you accept the fact that you probably won’t get anything built for at least a year – so why not look that far ahead in terms of the technology? And what happens when you think that actually it should be fun to do stuff for and with your community – and look at building something to do that?
Gaming is a growth area for online – as is augmented reality – and both of these come together in this idea. So – are you intrigued or was this just a way to pass a rainy saturday?”

Who was involved in the group?

What can be done to make the idea successful?

Build on the day by carrying out further research to help define business cases for projects

Work with the informal social economy such as mobs and mutual support services to embed the prototypes into the community

Shape The World

2010-03-30T09:54:00.000+01:00

The nominations for The Economist's Innovation Awards 2010 are now open. This is your chance to nominate the people who inspire YOU. Join us in deciding who is worthy of receiving one of these world-renowned innovation awards.

Our panel of judges

We are delighted to announce that the following individuals have joined our panel of 32 judges this year.

Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, CEO, Vestergaard Frandsen (2009 Innovation Award winner)
Robert Guest, Washington Correspondent, The Economist
Julie Meyer, Founder and CEO, Ariadne Capital (2009 Innovation summit speaker)
Lesa B. Roe, Director, NASA Langley Research Center (2009 Innovation summit speaker)
You can view the full list of judges HERE

The Ceremony and the summit.

The Award Ceremony will take place on October 21st at the Science Museum, London with the summit following on from the celebrations on October 22nd.

We look forward to receiving your nominations.

We are The Economist. Live. Be inspired.

Picture: An advert for The Economist saying 'Shape the World' which has been placed next to a row of stairs, with thanks to clry2 for publishing on Flickr under a Creative Commons license some rights reserved.

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Promoting Criminal Justice Innovation

2010-03-26T10:04:00.003Z

Should the UK create a new institution devoted to promoting innovation within the criminal justice sector? What would this body look like and how would it function? And how could it help support local innovators interested in addressing difficult problems like chronic offending, the re-settlement of ex-offenders, and low public confidence in the justice system?

As an American who works for the New York-based Center for Court Innovation, I’ve been given the unique opportunity to spend six months addressing these questions with the support of the Hadley Trust. During that time, I’ll be based at the Young Foundation, an organisation that brings together insight, innovation and entrepreneurship to meet social needs, based in London’s east end.

At first glance, it may seem odd to bring someone over to the UK from a country known for historically high rates of crime and imprisonment. Yet the last fifteen years have been a very promising time for the criminal justice system in the United States, as thousands of new, “problem-solving” court experiments like community courts, drug courts, mental health courts, and domestic violence courts have been launched and crime has declined sharply – as have public concerns about safety.

Fascinatingly, much of this innovation has been driven from the ground up, rather than centrally directed. My organization has helped play a role in this process, launching over a dozen demonstration projects in partnership with the New York State Court System and helping criminal justice practitioners across the country (and the world) launch their own problem-solving experiments.

My organization has also spent the last decade working with officials in the UK, most prominently in helping to set up the Liverpool Community Justice Centre. And in recent years, we’ve found increasing levels of interest in the model of the Center for Court Innovation itself, rather than any one of our specific projects.

Obviously, encouraging a culture of innovation and risk-taking within the criminal justice sector in the UK is no easy task, and last year, I co-wrote an article for the think tank Policy Exchange that lays out some key challenges. My job in the next six months - working in partnership with practitioners and policymakers in the UK - will be to explore these challenges in greater detail.

- A special thank you to Aubrey Fox, Senior Project Developer at The Young Foundation.

Interested in learning more about Aubrey's work or the Center for Court Innovation? Contact him at aubrey.fox@youngfoundation.org.

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Grazia launches first 3D augmented reality issue

2010-03-24T10:00:00.001Z

Fashion glossy Grazia has become one of the first consumer publications to introduce augmented reality (AR) technology to their magazine.

This week’s issue of Grazia uses AR and 3D motion graphics to bring Brit award-winner Florence Welch and content from the magazine to life.

Readers can hold up pages of the magazine to a webcam or iPhone and unlock special content, from a performance by Florence to a 360 degree look at products on the fashion page.

Banana Republic is the first brand to integrate the new technology into their ad campaign, with a look at their new Spring chinos range.

At the launch of the new issue, Jane Bruton, editor in chief of Grazia, said: "This will be a stunning issue of Grazia for readers to experience. Augmented reality aims to give readers more ways to engage with the magazine and a sense of control over the content."

Emma Sheller, vice president of gap marketing for Banana Republic, said: "Augmented reality is an exciting new technology which gives Grazia readers and both our existing and potential new customers the opportunity to engage with our brands and collections in a much richer, more compelling way."

Angie Moxham, MD of 3 Monkeys PR, said that the launch represented an exciting new opportunity for PRs.

"In terms of PR, I think this is great idea. The one thing the publishing industry needs at the moment is a differentiator and this is original, innovative and above all, fun. This will undoubtedly open up a whole load of new doors and opportunities for PRs and their clients."

More information and clips of the AR content can be found here.

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Agenda for Transformed by You

2010-03-17T14:34:00.000Z

If you've signed up to ’Transformed by You’, then read on, if not sign up now! We hope it will be an interesting, exciting and productive day for all of us. The whole event will be interactive and fluid but to help move things along an informal schedule is outlined below.

Who are we?

Hosts: Simon Wakeman ( MC for the day) and Carol Patrick

Lead Facilitators: Amy Sample Ward and David Wilcox

Support Team: Charlotte Edwards, Adam Fox, Tracey Gleeson, Sean Hale, Noel Hatch, Leanne McMahon, Chris Orton, Tom Phillips, Ian Proctor, Kirsty Russell and Hollie Snelson

Centre Manager: Matthew Payne

10:00 - 10:30: Registration and networking (Foyer)

10:30 - 10:45: Welcome and overview of the day – Hosts (Darwin Room)

10:45 - 11:05: Warm-Up and Introduction - Lead Facilitators (Darwin Room)

11.05 – 12.35: Morning Session – All (Breakout Rooms)

12:35 - 13:30: Lunch (Foyer)

13.30- 13.40: Recap, Review, Recharge- Lead Facilitators/All (Foyer)

13:40 - 14:50: Afternoon Session - All (Breakout Rooms)

14:50 - 15:50: Storytelling – Groups reps/All (Darwin Room)

15:50 - 16:00: Thank you and What's Next - Hosts (Darwin Room)

LocalGovCamp - A Survivor's Guide

2010-03-12T10:32:00.001Z

Travelling up on the 7am ghost train, I sat with a colleague heading to London for other reasons. When asked, I said I was off to an unconference. “Are you a Roman Catholic, then?” was his reply. Say it slowly, and think about penguins. You’ll get it.

The day taught me a lot about the unconference toolkit. I’ll remember to take mine next time. You need to take:

1) Your geek-alarm – it will go off. It’s usually the site of the scraggy pullover or the laptop adorned with campaign stickers that does it. Expect them to be outnumbered by real people, though.

2) An intact sense of humour – particularly at what might pass for “breakfast”, if provided.

3) Some means of time travel. - I like the unconference way of designing the agenda , allocating time-slots, rooms, etc , by benign mob rule at the start of the day. A bit annoying when you go to your chosen second session, and find that while you were in the first, they moved it forward to run simultaneously, in another room. This gave me a good opportunity to commandeer a plug socket for 45 minutes to charge up my laptop. I’d have selected a different session, but there wasn’t one I was keen on – an unconference risk. You’ll have plenty of choice, and no shortage of other session refugees with whom to network, hunt plug sockets, etc.

4) A two way adaptor in your toolkit – no one’s laptop batteries last like the adverts say. Less chance you’ll come to blows over the plug sockets.

5) A very open mind. The nature of these things is to challenge. Challenge what you’re doing, and what you’re not, challenge what you believe and why you believe it.

Anyway, localgovcamplondon:

Justin Griggs (NALC), Hugh Flouch and Will Perrin ran a cracking opening session for my day, enigmatically headed “Harry Potter and the Vicar of Dibley”. It was about grassroots (ie Parish) local government and community engagement. My introduction to the concept of “ram-raiding” your local council. Very thought-provoking comments about areas where the local active on-line community far outnumbers the people who voted in local elections.

When it comes to “Embedding Social Media”, the early adopter local authorities quickly floated to the surface. Not yet sure whether anyone is really learning from anyone else’s experience, or whether all are just ploughing the furrow they think will suit them best. Or should that be “all reinventing a similar wheel”? And what does happen when 170,000 residents have a Facebook page, but only 20,000 buy the local paper? The demographics are going to be so much more important than the widgets.

“Naked Council” was, for me, the session of the day. Nothing technical, not even hugely well attended, but as an intellectual exercise, Anthony Zacharewski’s (The Democratic Society) premise that there was value in trying to determine what local government would be like if invented today, with no history, preconceptions, or statutory framework was compelling. And very hard to keep it truly “naked”, if electoral democracy and accountability still need to be built in. team@nakedcouncil.co.uk will get you on the mailing list.

Local by Social was another session about mainstreaming social media. Social by social had limited resonance at local levels, say its protagonists. Local by Social is a re-run, focused on local impact. I like the comment that “Social media cannot be on the list of things perceived by local councils as “threats”.

The Internal Comms session I attended suffered from end-of day delegate fatigue. I believe it is vital to distinguish between the types of conversation that exist, and those within an organisation are important. Yammer and its ilk give people a “safe” place to learn social media skills, to storm, norm and perform. Takes courageous managers to encourage it. It might bite, and might be all the better if it does, from time to time. It might throw up the weird and off-the –wall. That way lies innovation, of course.

If they do it again (localgovcamplondon, that is), I’d go again, because it would be different. But I’d take my toolkit.

- You can find the #localgovcamp Twitter stream here, photos here and videos here.

- A special thank you to Tom Phillips, Community Liason Manager for Kent County Council for the wonderful blog post.

Picture: A wall of sessions written on post it notes organised into different rooms and times for #Localgovcamp @ Birmingham with thanks to jamie_garner for publishing on Flickr under a Creative Commons license some rights reserved.

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• Videos, cupcakes and magical things
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• Poll Time!

Is the tail getting too long?

2010-03-11T13:18:00.001Z

The words "crowdsourcing" come up time and time again as successful ways to involve people in co-creating the answers (and questions!) to the massive challenges we face in public services.

Let's not even pretend we can get anywhere near being as responsive to these issues as we'd like to. Even Google can't. But what we do need to watch out for is that we don't allow a divide to be created between the 1% which is allowed for the crowdsourcing but which doesn't impact on the real decision making processes and the 99% of the decision making to be made behind closed doors, which itself does have an impact on what and how services are designed. They shouldn't be separate worlds, but often they are.

Paul Clarke covers this debate well in Hard Wired State

"How many of these ideas are actually crossing the seemingly vast divide to become ‘production’ public services? We have a few ideas about why this might be the case: not enough will to change; would it scale?; procurement never works like that in practice; sure, you can design smart new services but can you sustain them?… And so on…"

And because of these tensions, many the people innovating at the edges feel the emotions above. To put this in context, this image was a visualisation of people's tweets on the Social Innovator launch at NESTA.

We don't claim to have the answers to any of this, but we thought that we ought to try and tackle what we can as early as possible in this journey. That's why we've hopefully been pretty honest that for this event we will seed challenges we've crowdsourced with staff that they can see are key issues. People can then vote them to the top of the table or relegate them to the dropzone, if they disagree with them or think we've missed issues out, they can even suggest their own. On the day, you will be able to pick a challenge and get into a group to come up with ideas to tackle it.

Why get people to vote? This is less about going for xfactor style democracy which is probably not the best way to tackle digital inclusion. No, it's building on the pledgebank principle, ideas are more likely to take off if the challenges they help tackle are issues which people actually believe in. So if we put one of our challenges up there and the participants don't vote for it, that gives us a pretty good clue!

It's not me, it's you...

Have a look here and you'll see the newes t challenges submitted. What do you think?

Do you have any better ideas? Add them on, it's as simple as writing your idea in the "I suggest you" box.

Tell us what challenges you want to work on the day. You can either vote on those we've put forward or suggest your own!

Manchester or Middlesborough?

The league table of challenges seems to be changing all the time. What we've found is that the most popular ones are the most general like "helping people share skills in their communities" or "finding out what's going on in your local area" whereas simila r but more specific challenges are mid table or in the drop zone.

Something that's been going around my mind today, is will the more general challenges mean people get more freedom to brainstorm what idea they want to develop that tackles that challenge or will it mean more time discussing what that challenge actually means and less time developing it into a prototype?

Videos, magical things and cupcakes - what type of event is this?

2010-03-10T11:47:00.000Z

On Saturday 20^th March, we’re going to be bringing people together for a day to develop ideas and prototypes that tackle local challenges that you think are important. Sign up here if you haven't already!

A few people have asked us whether this event is going to be like a conference, a consultation or even a crowdsourcing crowdpleaser. Well we can guarantee it won’t be either of the first two and we would need all the cupcake creativity of twuttle to be able to pull off the latter. Today is their first birthday, so this post is dedicated to them.

Anyway, there are different ways of organising events that blend socials and innovation - short meetups, all day events and even weekend camps.

Groups are organising meetups right across the county, with @canterburygeeks and @meejahub to name but a few, with some like @twuddle evening having its own special branch @twampon. We were particularly inspired after meeting #tuttle 101, themselves inspired by Lloyd Davis’ Tuttle Club.

Public servants too are self organising to get their heads around how to be more open and collaborative using the web. People like Dave Briggs have been helping them do that in really creative ways, with events like LocalGovCamp and UKGovWeb and in the third sector, NFP Tweetup and Netsquared have been leading the way.

Others like Steve Moore and Amanda Gore are getting together people from other sectors to get ideas around how technology can tackle critical social challenges, from 2gether08, Reboot Britain to 2morro.

And then there are challenge type events like SICamp and Netsquared Challenge, who work over a whole weekend or more to get people to come up with ideas and turn them into prototypes. It was my own experience taking part in this and meeting the winners of a recent SICamp that really convinced us to try mixing up the sociability of meetups with the impact of innovation camps.

Tomorrow, we’ll tell you a bit more about what we mean by challenges, but in the meantime let us know if you have any questions, or if there are any similar meetups, unconferences, barcamps going on that we should know about – we’d love for you to come down to Transformed by You.

Social Innovator

2010-03-03T22:18:00.001Z

We were at the Social Innovator seminar yesterday. More on that later, but in the meantime, this hopefully gives you a flavour of the online conversation around the event and the launch of the website. Wondering if the adjectives are about the emotions of the people at the event or what trying to innovate for social good do to us!

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Raising the Funds

2010-03-03T13:30:00.001Z

Have you ever had to raise sponsorship for a charity run and thought to yourself ‘there must be a more interesting and fun way to do this than knocking on neighbours doors and begging work colleagues to write their name and how much they are willing to give?’

Well, I may have found a way.

Whilst researching for the blog I came across The London Project. The group had just won an award and really wanted to pick it up, however to do so they would have to fly from Atlanta to London which would cost in the region of $10,000! So, they came up with an innovative way of raising the funds. They offered individuals the chance to buy an item for them to place in their suitcase to London, whether it be a rubber chicken, a chimp, a toilet seat or a feather boa.In return they would place the purchasers logo on an item and take a picture of it in front of a London landmark. Not only did they manage to hit their goal and go to London, they had a lot of fun in doing it:

‘We're here in London! Walking around everywhere and taking in the sights.

Yesterday we saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. There were a lot of bagpipes and funny hats.

Also, they brought out this huge dog that looked very majestic, yet alien-like at the same time.

From the B-Pal we went to Big Ben. Which we decided is more like Medium Ben. We got some great photos of it and Parliament later as the sun set. Around that time we went onto the London Eye. 450 feet above London! It was incredible. From there we got some great shots of The Brandy Agency's rubber chicken. And we had a very memorable tea party in honor of HEDDY.

Looking forward to visiting agencies today. We'll keep you posted.

Thanks again to everyone for helping us get here. We could not have done it without you.’

A similar initiative was featured on Springwise not very long ago called ‘Needs for Sale’. There were many charities that artists Christine and Justin wanted to support, but couldn’t raise the funds to do so all by themselves. So, they decided to paint items that the specific charities may need, such as ‘Phone calls to our troops’ for the Red Cross and ‘A Nice Home’ for Habitat for Humanity, set a price and enabled people to donate the money to that particular charity. They’ve also set up a similar websites called Wants for Sale. These are paintings that they themselves as a couple would like to buy, for example a painting of ‘A Little Shopping Spree in SoHo’ is currently on sale for $2,500 and a picture of a cooker on fire has just been sold for $220 to pay for the couple to take cooking lessons.

Want: 'To Get Into The Museum of Modern Art'

Want: 'Gambling Money for Vegas'

So next time you want to raise some money, why not encourage people to donate by getting creative and giving them something in return for their money? You never know, it might be more fulfilling then pestering family and friends or taking a loan out for that trip to Las Vegas !

To read more about the London Project please visit here: http://www.thelondonproject.com/index.html
Needs for Sale: http://www.needsforsale.com/
Wants for Sale: http://www.wantsforsale.com/

- Kirsty Russell

Top picture: A painting of a 'Pop Art'/Andy Warhol style painting and on the right a photograph of Andy Warhol's famous Marilyn Monroe painting which is hanging in the Museum of Modern Art.
Picture Below: A painting of red and black gambling chips with a photograph of US dollars next to it. Thanks to justin_and_christine for publishing on Flickr under a Creative Commons license some rights reserved.

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Adopt a New Way of Thinking

2010-03-03T11:05:00.004Z

Did you know that there are two different ways of thinking: divergent and convergent? Neither did I until I picked up a preview of Paul Sloane’s new book entitled ‘How to Be A Brilliant Thinker’.

Sloane explains that ‘convergent thinking’ is our normal state, which involves examining, criticising and analysing a concept and its consequences or outcomes when we hear it. Too many of us use and rely on this in everyday life, which has been shown in an experiment by psychologist Wason (I attempted to explain this in this blog post however I don’t believe I can put it any simpler than in the book chapter!). The experiment basically showed that students had a set of beliefs and assumptions, and we look for evidence to confirm these all the time instead of questioning them. For example, if we have a belief that all squirrels are grey we are more likely to go out and find more squirrels that are grey (and confirm our belief) rather than looking for squirrels that are different colours.

‘Divergent thinking’ on the other hand is more of a spread of ideas. This involves stretching our imagination and making wild, seemingly unrelated connections between two ideas. It’s basically us accepting that in fact there may be squirrels of a different colour rather than believing that only grey squirrels exist. It allows us to use our imagination to explore all sorts of new possibilities.

I felt that the first chapter of the book was very interesting and I enjoyed how he included elements (although rather complex) of cognitive psychology, science and music examples to illustrate his points however I do feel it could have been a lot sharper and more concise.

Now that I know about these different types of thinking, I am looking forward to borrowing the book out of the library and learning about how I can adopt divergent thinking in everyday life.

- Kirsty Russell

'How To Be a Brilliant Thinker: Exercise Your Mind and Find Creative Solutions'
by Paul Sloane
Published by Kogan Page (3rd Jan 2010)
ISBN-10: 0749455063
ISBN-13: 978-0749455064
Picture: A participant at a workshop exploring divergent thinking by drawing with a marker pen on a flipchart, with thanks to Chris_Corrigan for publishing on Flickr under a creative comms license with some right reserved.

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Poll Time!

2010-03-01T11:00:00.003Z

Online Surveys & Market Research

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Have you started using WorkTogether yet?

2010-02-26T10:10:00.004Z

Work Together is a development of the IDeA's Partnership and Places Library - an online repository of good practice stories about different organisations working successfully in partnership in local areas. The new site takes the great content from the library and adds a wealth of social networking style features to it, enabling for a greater sharing of experience and knowledge.

Anyone will be able to access the content on the site and also leave comments and be involved in discussions - all without needing to register or sign in.

Registration does have many benefits though. Signed up to Work Together and try out the following:

* Create a profile, listing your knowledge and experience - and the ability to find and connect with others who have similar interests
* Join and create subject and location specific groups to share stories and information with others

Write your own blog, or collaborate with others on project blogs about partnership working initiatives in your area.

The site is a prototype and is in constant development as the design and functionality is improved to meet the needs of users. A development group has been established on the site to receive feedback and inform users about new developments. We would welcome your feedback on this site via the group.

Work Together is a prototype site for the Knowledge Hub, an ambitious project to create a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing throughout the whole of local government. Findings from the Work Together project will inform processes and technological considerations for the Knowledge Hub.

The prototype phase will last until the end of March so we would encourage you to explore the site and give us your comments as soon as possible so that we can develop the site to meet your needs and ensure we have as much valued feedback as possible to help in the development of the Knowledge Hub.

If you have any problems with accessing the site or have any technical questions please contact Dave Briggs at dave@learningpool.com.

- A special thank you to Romilly Rogers from IDeA for the blog post.

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Here Comes Everybody - Book Review

2010-02-24T12:00:00.001Z

I was told by the Chief Executive of Patient Opinion at #mps09 (the conference myPublicServices – blog post can be found here) that this book would change my world, and in a way I guess it did.

Having only recently joined the Technology, Research and Transformation Team, I thought I didn’t know too much about technology, however this book completely changed my opinion. Technology doesn’t have to be all ‘high tech’ and ‘new fangled’ to change the way people live their everyday lives at home, on holiday, at work, etc,.The important point is how this technology is used. Shirky gives the example of the founding of VOTF (Voice of Faith) a small group of 30 members who wanted to act upon a scandal and after two months the group had over 25,000 members. The group merely used ‘the internet model’ to spread their message and as Shirky states ‘what technology did do was alter the spread, force and especially duration of the reaction’.

As we saw in late 2009, the same occurred when Daily Mail writer Jan Moir wrote an article about the late Stephen Gately from Boyzone. Readers were outraged by her claims that his death was linked to his sexuality. Celebrity twitterers Derren Brown and Stephen Fry urged their followers to complain and Jan Moir became a ‘trendy topic’ indicating the frequency with which it was mentioned on Twitter. Other members of Twitter sent messages to the BT, O2 and Marks and Spencer Twitter pages asking if the companies intended to remove their advertising from the webpage showcasing Moir's offending article. The Twitter uproar appeared on Friday afternoon to have been successful, with all adverts removed from the article after half past three.
Being a fellow Social Scientist, the chapter that really caught my interest was ‘solving social dilemmas’ which is as follows:

Two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated both prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal. If one testifies (defects from the other) for the prosecution against the other and the other remains silent (cooperates with the other), the betrayer goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence. If both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only six months in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a five-year sentence. Each prisoner must choose to betray the other or to remain silent. Each one is assured that the other would not know about the betrayal before the end of the investigation. How should the prisoners act?

Skirky argues that we face many of these situations in life. Dilemmas where there will be risks, where we have to trust other people who we may not even know, which may not ever be completely solved. Despite these worries, human beings are social creatures. Social psychological studies have shown time and time again that we NEED social interaction. Even the famous Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs does not forget social interaction. Shirky argues that this makes social situations like the prison dilemma unavoidable but social tools can be used to aid this interaction. "The internet augments real-world social life rather than providing an alternative to it. Instead of becoming a separate cyberspace, our electronic networking are becoming deeply embedded in real life." I think this story I read today on a fellow Twitterer’s blog highlights Shirky’s point:

'Well what horrendous weather we are having! Had a phone call at the beginning of the week requesting 150 cupcakes for a young lady who sadly passed away on Christmas Day. Of course I was more than happy to help! The funeral is in Tunbridge Wells tomorrow morning and I knew that if I waited till tomorrow morning we would not have been able to get out with the snow so had to think of something drastic. For anyone that knows me I am a huge lover of "Twitter". It is a fantastic way to meet new people and to network! Anyway I "Tweeted" a plea for anyone with a 4x4 vehicle to assist me in getting the cupcakes to my friends house in Wadhurst, as she is the lady doing the other catering for the funeral.A lovely lady from BBCKent sent me a message and suggested that the local BBC Radio Kent might be able to help. Within an hour I had received a phone call from them. I was interviewed live on the radio asking anyone in the area if they could help me. Within a few minutes of my radio interview a string of listeners had contacted BBC Radio Kent offering help! How amazing was that! I called the nearest caller to me, a lovely man called Roger Little from Biddenden who said he was more than happy to help as he had a large 4x4.' - Sally Howell-Bewsell, blog: http://thekentcupcakery.blogspot.com/

What I really like about this book is the way Shirky starts with a case study and works his point around it. Too many authors feel that the best way to put their opinions across is just to say it, but having an example to build on not only captures the reader’s attention, but it makes the point more realistic. However, I did feel that this wasn’t a book that you could dip in and out of as you pleased. Shirky has a tendency to skip from one idea to another when talking about a topic of interest so to stay fully aware of the journey he intended to take you on, you do have to read the whole chapter fully. No good for anyone who has a busy schedule and just wishes to read bits and pieces on a train journey!

Overall, I believe that anyone could read this, whether you are a technophobe or have your blackberry glued to your hand. Technology really has and continues to affect everybody, whether we choose to accept it or not, or even notice it for that matter. So, if you have the time, go and have a read about flashmobs, the Mermaid Parade and how the internet has transformed the world to name just a few. It really opened my eyes and I’m sure it will do the same for you.

'Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organising without Organisations' by Clark Shirky.
Publisher: Penguin Press
ISBN-10: 1594201536
ISBN-13: 978-1594201530

- Kirsty Russell

Picture: Clay Shirky talking at a conference with the cover of the book 'Here Comes Everybody' projected onto a screen behind him, with thanks to wayneKLin for publishing on Flickr under a Creative Commons license some rights reserved.

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Kent & Medway Innovation Camp - Transformed by You on 20 March

2010-02-22T12:00:00.001Z

Do you have ideas on how you can improve your local area using the web or other technologies? Do you want to get together with others to see how you can turn these ideas into prototypes of new online services in just a day?

Come and join us on 20th March where you will be able to do all that and more!

Tell us and vote which challenges you want us to put forward

Find out more in our frequently asked questions

Tweet about it using the hashtag #transformedbyyou

If you have any other queries, feel free to contact us on 01622 69380 (Noel) or 01622 696109 (Kirsty)

How will it work?

In advance of the event, we want you to tell us what challenges you want to work on the day.

You can either vote on those we've put forward or suggest your own! The deadline for voting will be 14 March. The top 10 will be the challenges we work on the day itself.

On the day itself, you will able to get into groups to brainstorm ideas on how to tackle these challenges and develop prototypes based on the ideas you come up with.

Is this for you?

We're looking for a wide range of people to come along on the day - you don't necessarily need to have technical, computer or IT development skills - your thoughts, ideas and active participation in the workshop could help make a real difference to services that are provided for people in Kent and Medway.

How can you get to the event?

The venue is located directly off the A229, which can be easily accessed by both the M2 (junction 3) and the M20 (junction 6). There are also good public transport links. See map here.

Event: Brush Up On Your Lateral Thinking

2010-02-19T11:00:00.002Z

Spend the morning of Monday March 22nd with renowned speaker and author Paul Sloane at the magnificent Glazier's Hall in London. Paul wrote The Innovative Leader and 18 other books on lateral thinking, innovation and leadership. Clients for his workshops include Bayer, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia and Shell.

The morning is a mixture of talks, interactive workshop modules and question and answer sessions. It is highly interactive and participative. You will learn practical creative thinking methods that you can put into immediate use for you and your team. It is ideal for busy executives who want to improve their personal effectiveness or to accelerate the creativity and innovation of their teams.

What will you learn as an individual?

* The 7 lateral habits of highly innovative leaders.
* 5 ways to generate radical ideas for your business.
* 3 ways to evaluate and select the best ideas.
* How to boost your personal creativity.
* How to turn creative thinking into new products and services.

What will you learn to benefit your organisation?

* What is impeding innovation in your organisation and actions you can take to fix this.
* How to build a culture of creative entrepreneurship.
* How to run dynamic and effective brainstorms.
* How to set the vision, goals and metrics for innovation in your business.
* How agile, innovative companies tackle the problems you face.

Agenda

9.30 - 9.45 Registration - Tea and Coffee
9.45 - 11.15 Innnovation and Lateral Thinking
11.15 - 11.30 Break - Networking, Tea and Coffee
11.30 - 12.40 Putting Innovation into Practice
12.40 End

If you want to take advantage of the early bird discount then you have just a few days left to book a place for you or a colleague on this workshop on Monday March 22nd. The seminar costs just £99 + VAT if you book by Feb 22. Thereafter it costs £150 + VAT. We send an invoice and you can pay by cheque, paypal or bank transfer. The price includes: 1. Seminar 2. Workbook 3. Refreshments.

For more information and details of how to book, please click here.

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Want high levels of job satisfaction?

2010-02-17T13:30:00.003Z

Could 'helping people' be what you are searching for to achieve job satisfaction? Graduate trainee Matthew Genner and myself, Kirsty Russell, share our views on working within the Public Sector:

'Sat across the table from me Joanne started to talk passionately about the frustrations she has faced since seeking asylum in the UK around seven years ago. Joanne is a fully trained and highly skilled midwife. Having fled persecution in her country of birth, she wished to become a midwife in the UK. However, due to the laws governing asylum seekers she wasn’t allowed to work until she was granted the right to remain, a process which can take years. Once she moved from seeking asylum to becoming a refugee, Joanne once again tried to get a job as a midwife. This time another problem arose. Joanne had been out of work for too long and was told that she would have to go back and re-train from scratch. Not a refresher course designed to allow refugees to transfer their skills and apply them effectively in the UK, but instead three years of fulltime training teaching Joanne what she already knew. With no money this was not an option. Joanne had missed out on a career which she loved and Sandwell had missed out on utilising the skills of one of its residents in an area where there is a shortage of workers.

Listening to Joanne and hearing stories of others like her brought to life some of the problems facing refugees; a human face to an often misrepresented group of people. Monday mornings aren’t supposed to be this interesting but working in local government has provided me with many opportunities to meet people from a range of backgrounds, to listen to their problems and then work as part of a team to help solve them. I was listening to Joanne at a conference hosted by the Scrutiny Unit at Sandwell MBC who are currently carrying out a review looking into the services provided to refugees and how they can be improved.

For the past few months I have been helping officers to organise the event and it was rewarding to see around 50 people engaged in such important and stimulating discussions. The final recommendations of the review will be published later in the year and will allow the borough to significantly improve the services provided for refugees, helping them to flourish in the difficult situations which they face. Although I have played a very small role in what will be a thorough and complex review it’s been rewarding work in which I have learnt a lot.

When I left university last year I had little idea of where to go. The variety of work which I have been able to witness taking place in local government and the numerous projects to which I have been able to contribute has now given me a better idea of what I want to do. Local government may have a reputation of red tape, men in grey suits and a life of being stuck behind a desk but I’ve found it to be a stimulating, varied and, whisper it quietly, exciting environment. I have also met many friendly and inspirational characters who will go out of their way to help others. If you’re a graduate and want something more rewarding than a company car and bonus at the end of the year then local government is a fantastic place to start looking.'

'Being on a graduate placement within KCC, I have to agree with the post above. I know with confidence that the work I am doing on the Innovations Team is slowly, but surely, changing the way that the organisation runs and the services that we provide to members of the public. It's extremely satisfying to know that my psychology background is directly useful in regards with our bid on anti social behaviour, that the gaming student we are working with could potentially design a successful game which changes people's recycling behaviour, and that by maintaining and editing this blog, I can help to inspire and bring together different people within Kent and beyond who are interested in 'innovation'. I am extremely proud to work for an organisation that puts its customers' wellbeing first, and with staff who are not only friendly and helpful, but have my career development in their best interests. So if you are interested in putting your degree to work and passionate about helping people, then you should seriously consider working in the public sector.'

- Kirsty Russell

How have other young people/graduates who have just started working for Local Government found it? If you have any stories or experiences I would love to hear them, please e-mail me on kirstyjoanna.russell@kent.gov.uk

- A special thank you to Matthew Genner, Graduate Trainee for Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council.

Picture: A black and white photo taken from a low angle showing a woman dressed in graduate robs throwing her graduation cap into the air with thanks to -Weng- for publishing on Flickr under a Creative Commons license some rights reserved.

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Making sense of it all

2010-02-15T19:14:00.002Z

If you didn't make FutureGov Measurement Camp, this is a snapshot of the conversations happening. Thanks to all @FutureGov for facilitating @willmcinnes @marshallmanson @pymblewizard @shahneerav @joodoo9 @lesteph @ingridk for presenting

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Are you up for iBorrowing?

2010-02-15T11:19:00.003Z

The iBorrow project at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU), partly funded by JISC, is one of thirty-nine projects that form part of the second phase of JISC’s Institutional Innovation Programme.

One of the principal goals of the project was to provide 200 thin-client (atom-based) netbooks for students and staff to borrow and use within Augustine House, the University’s new state-of-the-art library and student services centre, as “easily as picking up a book from a shelf”.

When the University embarked upon the Augustine House building programme, which represents the largest single development that the University has ever embarked upon, a lot of research went into the make-up of flexible and adaptable learning spaces. It quickly became apparent that some of the questions about students’ activities within such learning centres, which our building programme raised, did not have authoritative answers.

The iBorrow project provided us with an opportunity to understand how students use mobile versus fixed computing devices within large-scale learning spaces. Furthermore, the project would also provide a demonstration on how an institution could implement software and desktop virtualisation using location-aware technologies and deploying these across a wireless network. The project also touches upon the “green ICT” and “low carbon” agenda.

Moreover, coupled the hardware is location-related information that is overlaid with additional information that can support a better understanding on how the University’s students, academic and support staff have reacted as groups to the way that space, pedagogy and technology have been integrated. One of our aspirations is that it would provide us with valuable intelligence on how resources are being managed within Augustine House, thus allowing us to plan for the future.

Augustine House opened in September 2009 and the iBorrow netbooks went “live” in October 2009. One of our concerns would be that students would simply not use the netbooks – we needn’t have worried, for as soon as the cabinets in which the netbooks were held in were opened, the students flocked towards them and were eager to see what they were all about. The processing power of the servers that were supporting the software and desktop virtualisation of the netbooks literally shot through the roof. On average, we are looking at between 250 and 350 people using the netbooks per working day. One of the affordances of using the netbooks has been to see how the students are using the different spatial configurations with Augustine House. Furthermore, some students are preferring to leave their own laptops at home and use the iBorrow netbooks instead!

Our next big concern was that a number of the netbooks would be disappearing out of the people within the first few days or weeks of the netbooks being available. To our utmost, and pleasant, surprise this has not happened (yet!). An unexpected, or unanticipated, outcome of the “laptop borrowing scheme” is that students are returning the netbooks back to the cabinets to be charged up ready for the next person. The interesting thing here, is that no one has prompted them to do this nor are there any big signs or posters that shout “thou shalt do this” at them; it would seem that they have developed a form of “collegiate pride”.

More information about iBorrow can be found on the project blog, and you can see for yourselves the iBorrow netbooks in action in Augustine House by going over to the project Flickr site. If that has whetted your appetite, then you would be interested to learn that the University will be running a national conference called “Learning Spaces and Technology: The iBorrow Project” which takes place in Augustine House on Thursday 25th March, 2010 from 11:00am until 4:30pm – we would love to see you!

- A special thank you to Wayne Barry, Learning Technologist at Canterbury Christ Church University for the blog post. wayne.barry@canterbury.ac.uk

Picture:A girl sitting at a desk with a white laptop in front of her which reads 'iBorrow'.

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The Innovation Shortlist

2010-02-12T10:30:00.004Z

The 2010 MediaGuardian Innovation Awards shortlist has now been announced:

Launch

Load &Go
O2 & ZenithOptimedia / Channel 4 / The Outfit

Load & Go was a bite-sized rom-com that ran in the centre break of Hollyoaks every day, with characters discussing the plot lines and demonstrating the benefits of O2's Load & Go card. Recognised by the viewers as entertainment in its own right, the soap within a soap got people talking, took them online to find out more and delivered brand and sales results for O2.

Teenage Kicks
NHS Leicester City & The Rocket Science Group
www.hey-babe.co.uk

Aiming to reduce incidences of teenage pregnancy in Leicester City, a shocking viral film was created, showing a teenage girl giving birth on a school field. The unbranded film was placed on YouTube with the pioneering strategy that it would most likely be removed for breaching the website's graphic content. A media campaign then followed using a new branded version of the viral to increase awareness, backed up with an informative website, online drama and competition.

PR

Mystery Packages
RNLI
Proximity London

With a need to target a younger audience for support and donations, the RNLI engaged 12 of the UK's most prolific young vloggers as ambassadors. Each vlogger was sent an anonymous 'mystery package' inviting them to rebrand their generation, challenging negative perceptions of young people. The resulting films received almost a million views, and via these 12 people 11% of 15-20 year olds in Britain were reached.

ComputerTan
The Karen Clifford Skin Cancer Charity (Skcin) & Limelight Public Relations
www.computertan.com/

ComputerTan is an innovative hoax campaign, engaging a hard to reach audience with an important message about skin cancer. On visiting the website, users click through to the free tanning trial, and their computer is converted into an array of buzzing UV bulbs. Shortly afterwards users were confronted with shocking images and facts about skin cancer as well as a link to Skcin's website.

Blackpool: J'aime la Tour
visitBlackpool & SKV Communications

VisitBlackpool's humorous viral film playing on the similarities between the Eiffel and Blackpool Towers generated talkability and achieved a revaluation of Blackpool. An exclusive was given to the BBC which sparked take up amongst other media and overwhelming public awareness.

Advertising

It doesn't have to happen
Home Office & Manning Gottlieb OMD
www.bebo.com/itdoesnthavetohappen/

This campaign to reduce knife crime created a community of young people to deliver its message. The campaign name, its direction and production responsibilities were all created by young people, with the message being delivered on Bebo and on the ground.

Kasabian Football Hero
Columbia Records / Umbro & Sony Music Creative
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XjwoVqM_qE

Sony teamed up with Umbro to promote the release of Kasabian's single 'Underdog' and Umbro's new sportswear line. They programmed and built a giant 'Guitar Hero' game, played with footballs by football freestylers. The game itself showcased the new Kasabian single as well as the new Umbro clothing line. A short documentary of the project was released on YouTube.

Lips Number One Hits: Lips Jukebox for Xbox 360
Xbox & AKQA
lipsjukebox.xboxemea.com/

To celebrate the launch of Xbox's karaoke game, Lips: Number One Hits, AKQA created an entertaining and shareable online application. The app used facial recognition technology to position animated lips on Facebook users' photos, encouraging them to create and share karaoke videos with their friends.

Creative

Hopper Invasion
Sony Ericsson & Dare

The Hopper Invasion enabled users to inflate spacehoppers by the power of Twitter and the #pumpt tag, extending a campaign idea online and beyond. 245,000 hoppers were created by more than 17,000 people, pumping the hoppers in the warehouse, live, by the power of Twitter.

House of Cards
Shelter & Leo Burnett

The House of Cards campaign was created with no budget, but raised awareness and money for Shelter. As well as a traditional media campaign, the concept was extended to an exhibition of leading British artists, a talent competition and an auction.

onedotzero_adventures in motion festival identity 2009/2010
onedotzero & Wieden + Kennedy
code.google.com/p/onedotzero-ident/

The festival identity actively involved onedotzero's core audience of design and computing enthusiasts in the creation of an innovative design piece. Identity assets were generated by users and interacted with at a Nokia-powered identity projection at BFI Southbank.

Technology

Accessible Newsreader
CBBC
www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/newsreader

This project was developed to open CBBC's news content to disabled audiences, initially designed to cater for complex motor disabilities such as cerebral palsy or spina bifida. The simple clutter-free interface displays a rectangle around a menu item, and then moves between each option on a timed delay. When the desired option is highlighted it can then be selected via the enter key.

Scraperwiki
Scraperwiki Ltd
www.scraperwiki.com

ScraperWiki is a data store which allows developers to scrape, store, aggregate, and distribute unstructured public data in more useful, structured formats. The ambition is to fill ScraperWiki with thousands of public data sets that can be used by journalists, researchers, developers and public bodies.

To see the rest of the shortlist please visit here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/megas/shortlist

Picture: A man standing in front of a microphone on a stage at the Media Guardian Innovation Awards Ceremony, with thanks to joellybaby for publishing on Flickr under a Creative Comms license with some rights reserved.

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The Digital Marketplace

2010-02-10T11:00:00.003Z

What and When?

An event hosted by Stratford on District Council and Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council on 12th March 2010 at the Heritage Motor Centre, Banbury Road, Gaydon, Warwick, CV35 0BJ from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm.

Why?

Both Stratford and Solihull were awarded Beacon status for their work in respect of digital inclusion. However the work we are doing with our partners plays an essential part in the transformation of our Council services. We are using this event to share this work and demonstrate some of the key projects in respect of transforming service delivery and increasing digital inclusion around the needs of our customers.

Our partners which include the NHS, NHS Direct (West Midlands) Coventry and Wolverhampton Universities, Warwickshire Police, Volunteer Action, BT, the West Midlands Ambulance Trust, members of our LSP and Councils from across the West Midlands region, as well as key private sector suppliers will be present to demonstrate the work we are doing to improve the quality of life for our residents and workers and improve the experiences for visitors.

You will also have an opportunity to see the work we are doing with our communities in respect of increasing local participation and to provide our residents and communities with the tools and capabilities to solve their own problems.

The marketplace will have the following themes:-

·Promoting and enabling independent living

·Increasing public participation in the way services are delivered and developed

·Increasing opportunities for learning and increasing knowledge

·Strengthening the Local Economy and encouraging investment

There will be over 70 market stalls showcasing our work with officers on hand to provide advice and guidance to local authorities on our approaches, successes and lessons learned.

You will be able to meet with strategic leads from our councils and partners, elected members as well as the opportunity to discuss projects with development and delivery officers ranging from Total Place, front line service delivery improvements, community projects, deprivation mapping, self-managed community learning programmes, the Warwickshire Direct Partnership which uses a single CRM across all Councils in Warwickshire, through to our regional plans for providing a single regional solution in respect of the increase of migrant and transient workers and our joint work with universities in respect of e-tourism

There will be demonstrations covering areas such as intergenerational work, independent living solutions, connecting our communities programme, joint work with social housing partners including rural community housing projects designed to improve skills and job opportunities, providing free or subsidised broadband in high-rise blocks, interactive poster developments using RFID technology through to our plans in respect of e-tourism and integrated health services.

We will showcase the work we are doing on increasing back office efficiencies and automation to reduce duplication. You will have the opportunity to see demonstrations on how we have automated certain key administrative systems (mileage, subsistence, annual leave, sickness) which have reduced administrative burdens significantly through to the plans we have for developing a single 'tell us once' system across all service areas, interactive on-line public participation meetings and the work that we have done using Lean Systems Thinking in areas such as Planning, Revenues and Benefits, Customer Services and life events.

The following link provides a snapshot of an earlier marketplace event held in 2008. Whilst this event was much smaller, the following provides a flavour of what you can expect:- http://blip.tv/file/1625240/

Highlighting Issues

The event will be covered by the Municipal Journal and Birmingham Post as we want to use the event to highlight the growing issues for rural areas in respect of skills gaps, poor connectivity and lack of knowledge about services against our plans to improve quality of life through our partnership plans and activities. Through this event we aim to :-

·Raise the profile of digital inclusion as a relevant topic to local authorities and their partners

·Position digital inclusion as relevant to CAA and the performance management framework

·Engage senior level representatives from local authorities, their partners and sector organisations to highlight the growing issues for rural areas in accessing services and increasing skills and job opportunities

·Highlight the importance of robust connectivity to rural economies and their development and prosperity.

Picture: A busy marketplace fruit stall surrounded by customers with thanks to alessandro_pinna for publishing on Flickr under a Creative Commons license some rights reserved.

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The Best Things In Life Are Free

2010-02-08T13:00:00.010Z

Sometimes we forget that the best things in life are free, especially when it comes to innovation. I have invited Jon Harvey, Director of JonHarveyAssociates and keen blogger to discuss his view on this...

'Nearly a year ago, I established a newsblog with the purpose of documenting, supporting and celebrating the small and creative ideas that are making a difference in the public and third sectors. Since then, I have managed to find and write up approximately 300+ innovations that frontline staff have implemented to save a bit of money, improve a part of practice or simply make work easier and better. People have visited the blog from all around the world, as well as the UK, and it has had nearly 10,000 page-loads!

The blog is based on the simple premise that when it comes to improving an organisation, the best place to start is with the people who work in it. I think the best organisations are the ones which have created and maintained the conditions in which people feel able and moved to come forward with their ideas for improvement. I think far too many public (and commercial) organisations have become too dependent on the ‘bring in the big teams of expensive experts’ approach to transforming services. The worrying fact is that vast amounts of tax payers money are spent (and will be spent over coming months) on these large programmes of change – when so much more could be done with ‘home grown’ talent! (There is an ongoing debate on linked-in about this if you want to engage in it: http://preview.tinyurl.com/yhljd2l : Why do public sector organisations keep on hiring consultants on vast budgets to create new structures / systems etc. when so much could be done with the existing staff?)

I have managed to find the ideas by searching the net, spotting posts from various organisations on twitter (and the like) but mostly through writing to local authorities, the police and so forth. Sometimes I get a nil or formal response ( such as “We don’t have a list of small creative ideas in our council...”). But often I get a reply that delights me. I am delighted because I know that someone has had the bright idea and made it happen. I chose to use a blog – as this was simple to keep up to date, made the information dynamic and encouraged interaction. Most people just read the blog – but I am having an increasing number of comments being posted. Using a blog format does come with complications – as some public organisations ‘block’ blogs. But I think this will change as people up to the power of Web 2.0 to interact and engage with people – be they fellow professionals or citizens.

There are so many ideas on the blog (and it is still growing) – I do not have favourite as such. However, the one example I use to illustrate what the blog is all about is a scheme in Wandsworth about garden sharing. I imagine they found they did not have enough allotments to match demand and then Age Concern highlighted the problem of isolated older people with gardens to spare. People are now matched up – gardeners get somewhere to grow vegetables, the older people get company and garden that looks good – and everyone wins! It is an imaginative solution to a problem. There is more information here. I also adore the idea from Kettering of recycling boxes on wheels for people who found lifting them tricky. This is another example of where frontline staff listened to their citizens and implemented a great idea!

You can visit it here: http://smallcreativeideas.blogspot.com/ Please browse and search for ideas that could help you. Moreover, if you have an idea that you would like to share with the world – please email me. (jon@jonharveyassociates.co.uk) http://jonharveyassociates.blogspot.com/ (my ‘other’ blog!)' Thanks!

Appeal on Twitter: Why do you use blogging?

Picture: A cartoon showing two stick men. One is saying 'Are you blogging this?' in a speech bubble and the other is replying 'You wish!', with thanks to teemus for publishing on Flickr under a Creative Commons license some rights reserved.

Twitter responses:

DavidWilcox - Blogging in the knowledge ecosystem: outboard brain, incubating ideas, learning http://bit.ly/5BtTPC

DavidWilcox - Tougher to get exact value from blogging because of shift to Twitter. I use to evolve narratives. Story/sense emerges from posts/links.

laurenivory - New to the game- to me blogging is reflection and freedom. Can develop your view in a blog- see it as a tool for learning :)

MorningReverie - Blogging is personal - plus, use of tags = easier to find what u want to read/easier categorising.. can show talent??

Mickelous - I blog to give a personal view on learning technologies. I often refer people to posts so I guess it reaches out there a bit!

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The 5th Feb Low Down

2010-02-05T11:00:00.013Z

Here are my favourite links for the week, go have a read...

The Go London social innovation competition launches today! Get your bright ideas in to get London moving at http://www.go.london.nhs.uk/ #golondon

Young social reporters now have lots more interviews up from young people in a digital world event #ypdw2010 - http://bit.ly/cMCmOo

"Stop talking about innovation" - follow Peter on his new blogsite http://peterharrisonblogs.blogspot.com/ #blog #innovation #management

New blog post: Top hyperlocal blogs http://scottishroundup.co.uk/2010/02/01/top-hyperlocal-blogs/

New post on money matters and @Financial_Tales http://redjotter.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/financial-fairy-tales/ ( one for @gandy )

Six Emerging Technologies That Will Impact College Campuses http://bit.ly/bZ8DR2

Public Libraries Take Information Literacy to the Next Stage http://bit.ly/96V7e0

LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival 2010 http://bit.ly/a8wd5j

The App School – Creative Innovation Lab: The App School Creative Innovation Lab We’re on the look-out for young p... http://bit.ly/cnWorr

Bristol City Council ask the public to review their bus services http://bit.ly/cyTAfY

Attitude Really is Everything http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blogs/attitude-really-is-everything

Why the Social Web can't be ignored http://literacyispriceless.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/why-the-social-web-cant-be-ignored-2/

The World's First Tweetup on an Aircraft: http://www.penn-olson.com/2010/02/03/breaking-the-worlds-first-tweetup-on-an-aircraft/

NASA Astronuat Tweets From Space http://www.penn-olson.com/2010/01/22/nasa-astronaut-tweets-from-space/

Lessons Learned fr http://www.smartertravelsutton.org.uk/: http://tinyurl.com/yhjoo6y

31 Interesting Social Media Data Visulisation Tools http://pulse2.com/2010/02/03/31-interesting-social-media-data-visualization-tools/

OpenAmplify - identifies the parts of speech in text and captures indicators of emotional meaning http://davidkuhta.com/2010/02/semantic-technologies-in-action-openamplify/

Staffordshire Moorlands District Council

On-line Digital Inclusion Conference

Putting People First: using digital inclusion to promote life chances within a rural community

You are invited to take part in an on-line conference, hosted by the IDeA, on 2nd 3rd and 4th of March 2010

As a Beacon Council for Digital Inclusion we wish to share our experiences in using digital technology to improve peoples’ lives through improving access to services and tackling social exclusion in a rural setting.

Specific topics will include:

·“Talking Heads” - A series of brief podcasts from a range of people including our Chief Executive, Heads of Service and members of the community, with their views on digital inclusion and the differences it can make.

·Digital inclusion - the journey

·How the use of data has transformed our ability to reach vulnerable people and achieve efficiencies

·Working with partners to improve peoples’ lives

This free conference is intended to be a shared learning experience for everyone who is striving to make a step change in digital inclusion. To take part you need to take a few minutes to register on the IDeA’s Communities of Practice website at http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/

If you require any further information or have any queries, please contact Louise Walker, Beacon Co-ordinator Staffordshire Moorlands District Council Tel: 01538 395758 Email: louise.walker@staffsmoorlands.gov.uk

- Kirsty Russell

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Everyone Has A Story To Tell

2010-02-04T11:46:00.003Z

Last year BBC My Story, invited adults to write a true personal story and enter it into a UK-wide competition with the chance of having it featured on a BBC television programme in 2010 and even published as a book.

Over 7500 people entered the writing competition and 30% were adult learners who had level 2 literacy qualifications or lower.

The winners of the competition will be announced later in the year.

Kent had a good number of entries thanks to their Libraries and Skills Plus Centres who held sessions in November.

The tutor’s worksheets and lesson plans are still available to download for free on the BBC My Story website – you can find them all here

- Written by Eleanor Gloster, BBC Learning Project Manager for Kent, Sussex and Surrey

Picture: A graffiti stencil saying 'Insert Your Life Story Here'. The writing is in black on a yellow background, with thanks to Auntie P for publishing on Flickr under Creative Comms Licence, some rights reserved.

Call for facilitators!

2010-02-02T15:15:00.001Z

Transformed by You on Campus

25 March 2010 from 9am-5pm @ University of Kent Digital Media Hub, Canterbury, Kent

What do we mean?

We are bringing student innovators together for a day to develop prototypes of online tools that tackle local challenges. See the presentation below for more details on the approach.

Local Innovation Workshop

View more presentations from Innovation in Kent.

Who do we want to involve?

We are inviting students from the Digital Arts and Engineering Course. Facilitators will be invited who can help out during the day to create the glue with participants, while critical friends will provide advice on how the ideas could work in a public service environment.

We want people who can create the glue with participants as well as facilitate the activities within the group and make sure activities are completed on time.

As well as facilitators, we will also invite “critical friends” to drop in and out of groups and provide advice on how the ideas could work in real life. We will also invite people who can provide general support on the day.

What does the analysis show us?

The success of this day will be based as much on the quality of relationships that are formed, as it is on the event itself. To incentivise people to achieve something, we want to let them experience and test out different ways they can get involved. The organisers will seed facilitators to lead discussions that captivate people.

There are different ways of organising “innovation camps” - from informal meetups like at Teacamps, all day events like at 2gether08 to weekends like at SI Camp. Whatever type of activity is chosen, there needs to be a balance between centrally coordinated and self-organising activities.

Bottom-up activities are very popular but they’re also very new to people, so we want facilitators to make it as comfortable as possible for people to self-organise, or if it senses people are finding difficult to do that, then playing a more “supporting” role by suggesting ways forward.

How would the day run if you were facilitating?

9am - Guest presentations

Organisers will introduce the agenda and approach of the day and the challenges set. They will also introduce you as facilitators.

10 - Group 1: Brainstorming ideas in response to client’s brief

Students work in teams of four to come up with ideas

Facilitators support the session

University working with teams

11:30 Coffee break – teams discuss initial ideas with mentors

12:00 Brainstorming session resumes

1pm - Lunch

Group 1 teams briefing Group 2 about their ideas

2pm - Group 2: Prototyping solutions to ideas

Facilitators support the session

University working with teams

3pm - Coffee break – teams discuss initial prototypes with mentors

4pm - Presentations of developed prototypes to the client

5pm - Close

What would you require from you prior to the day?

We are looking for a short submission response detailing how you will provide the above requirements and any other inclusions as you feel are appropriate.

The submission must include:-

1. Your background including any previous work in this area

2. Costing including VAT

3. Any ideas and feedback you have on the approach to facilitation and organisation of the day

4. Your name and contact details

All responses to be returned by 12th February 2010 at 5pm to innovation@kent.gov.uk.

The submissions will be evaluated based on previous experience, understanding of the requirements, cost and the best value offered to Kent County Council.

The successful applicant will be contacted by 19th February 2010. It is anticipated that an initial detailed meeting with the organisers of the event will take place within the following 5 days.

For any further details please contact Noel Hatch on 07515992174 or noel.hatch2@kent.gov.uk.

Are there any rules and boundaries?

Rules and boundaries are useful to ensure that you as a facilitator and the participants know where you stand. These are rules we expect facilitators to apply:

Respect others, no idea is a bad one! Listen. Feedback. Ensure everyone can take part and speak. Be trustworthy and build trust. Maintain any confidentiality if a participant requests so. Balance your speaking time to enable participants to take part. Prompt return from breaks.

What challenges shall we set the participants?

We will set the participants a variety of challenges. Although each group can only pick one, it gives people a wide selection they would want to brainstorm ideas based on these. Examples of challenges could include developing prototypes or mockups of ideas on how to “find out what’s going on in the local area”, “report problems, “help people help each other”.

What will the venue provide?

The venue hosts a room where the people can meet and network and breakout spaces where people can get into groups and develop their ideas. These all have wifi internet connection. There will also be post its, pens and flipcharts provided as well as refreshments.

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LocalGovCamp is ON!

2010-02-01T13:00:00.003Z

This will be an all-day event (9am - 5pm) on the 4th March 2010 in partnership with IDeA. Venue: Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9AG.

LocalGovCamp will keep it *very* local so as to not get confused with UKGC10.

Themes will be relevant to anyone working with local government in the social media/digital engagement space. We are aiming to create spaces for discussion and engagement, the sharing of experiences and creation of new ideas. Conversations are encouraged. We will have lots of parallel sessions and break-out spaces. In the tradition of localgovcamps, you set the agenda in the beginning of the morning and afternoon sessions.

Apart from local authorities, MPs, councillors, ICT and social media specialists, we are inviting arts centres and other local heroes to work with us on involving their existing communities in learning how to engage online.

So even if you’re not able to make it for the whole day, come for however long you can!

You can register for your ticket on the Eventbrite page.

'Over 25 authorities are booked onto the LocalGovamp in March and I'm really looking forward to meeting with colleagues from around the country, many of whom I follow on Twitter or have emailed but never met. Social media and its implications for public sector work is a fast moving, ever changing area. It's really hard to keep up with all developments so these events are a great way to share stories and experiences. I hope to learn a lot from the others there and contribute what I can!' - Hollie Snelson, Internal Communication Manager for KCC.

- A special thank you to Anke Holst, whose blog can be found here: http://theanke.wordpress.com/

Picture: The LocalGovCamp logo: orange background with 'An unconference for local government' written underneath.

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Wordle of the Week

2010-01-29T12:30:00.001Z

Myself and Noel have been playing about with Wordle and here are our results. The top picture is my Wordle of the team's Delicious tags (themes we are working on), which can be found here: http://delicious.com/KCCInnovation. The second is Noel's wordle of Innovation within Kent.

Fancy giving Wordle a go? Find it here: http://www.wordle.net/
Find more information about the uses of Wordle in this presentation (for KCC staff only): http://knet2/directorates/chief-executive-s-department/teams-and-units/business-solutions-and-policy/change-through-innovation-team/news-and-events/Andy%20Collett%20-%20IBM.pdf/view?portal_status_message=Changes%20saved

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The Social Civic Nudge

2010-01-25T12:00:00.002Z

It seems like such a simple idea – people are talking to each other online and they are even talking to each other about civic issues – surely we can use the social web to increase levels of democratic participation?

Anyone who is interested in using the social web to effect levels of citizen engagement is following this train of thought – and there are already many really interesting trials and pilots in place. Online is not the only potential solution to the problem of how to engage people in the democratic process but many factors make it a good place to start. However so many projects start to drift towards the 'just another website' zone rather than really looking at how to really use social media to make a difference to democracy.

Why? Because the shiny technology distracts everyone from the fact that this is all about people. The good news of course is so is democracy.

Social media makes it far more possible to interact in a meaningful way with large groups of people than traditional contact routes. This means we have the chance to involve more people, first to listen, then to discuss and then finally in the decision making process but there are a lot of ideas and structures that need to be put in place to make this possible.

Firstly we need to embrace the idea that this really is social – you can't expect the public to have relationship with 'the council' – they need to interact with actual people and this involves finding ways to equip officers and members to take part in these conversations. This is not going to be easy – there are practical problems to be addressed around how to draw boundaries around personal, political and operational issues.

There is also the question of identity – identity is malleable online with many people choosing to use a screen name. At the heart of it, democracy is about standing up and being counted – and this accountability needs to be accommodated in the online world as well.

But perhaps the biggest hurdle is how we can influence social conversations towards democratic actions. The social web is inherently self-managed and organic – people talk about the things they are interested in and it is very difficult to predict what will catch their attention (have a read of the comments on this news item on the tragic destruction of an office chair if you don't believe me – http://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/1151898.chair_destroyed/). But they also use blogs, Facebook and twitter to talk about local issues and civic ideas (there are some excellent examples here: http://networkedneighbourhoods.com/).

One route to influencing people is to do is overtly as part of the conversation - but whatever the content there is a real danger that by getting involved and not hitting the right tone that you can shut down the conversation or move it somewhere else. This is less likely the stronger your social capital is in a space but there is still a fine balance between enabling people to connect to democratic process and making them feel as if you are trying to influence their decision when they get there.

Another way to approach this is to build online spaces which encourage democratic behaviour. “The nudge” has been explored in a recent book by Cass Sustein and Richard Thayler (http://www.nudges.org/) and it talks about the architecture of choice. It provides real world examples of what they call 'choice architecture' which is a way of “”nudging us in beneficial directions without restricting freedom of choice”. These ideas are being looked at seriously by people and the book is worth a read.

But is it enough to nudge people to participate or do we have to face the idea that we are actually changing the relationship between citizen and government? Does using social media to influence behaviour actually influence all of the stakeholder behaviour and bring about a more co-produced decision making process? Read the book, but choice architecture needs to be used cautiously so that it is not just another attempt to control the process.

Co-production describes a state where decision making is truly shared. NESTA / NEF have recently published a discussion paper which talks through many of the issues of co-production which is describes as “a new way of thinking about public services has the potential to deliver a major shift in the way we provide health, education, policing and other services, in ways that make them much more effective, more efficient, and so more sustainable. (http://www.nesta.org.uk/areas_of_work/public_services_lab/assets/features/the_challenge_of_co-production).

So the question is it possible to build online spaces which can be architected in order to bring about a new relationship between citizens and government where decision making is shared? What would these spaces look like?

- A special thank you to Catherine Howe, Operations Director for Public-i Group. http://www.public-i.info/

Picture: The front cover of the book 'Nudge' by Thaler and Suatein. The cover is white with a large grey elephant nudging a smaller elephant, with thanks to .nele for publishing on Flickr under a Creative Commons license some rights reserved.

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Sick of all the 2009 reviews and 2010 technology predictions?

2010-01-21T14:00:00.002Z

I'm certainly fed up of reading so many reviews and predictions so I have compiled a comprehensive list of them for you all so you only have to look in one place!

Review of 2009

- Apps on Mobile Phones

This was a big trend in 2009 with Apple’s App store going stratospheric.

- Windows 7

Much, much better!

- All hail the rise of Twitter!

The patron saint of Twitter, Stephen Fry has been a member since 2008 but it wasn’t until during 2009 that it really took off. Celebrities, businesses and members of the public are now twittering away alike and we wonder how we ever communicated and shared our thoughts without it.

You can follow me @kursteekins.

- Spotify

The depth of the catalogue, the availability of the mobile application and the simplicity of the interface have introduced the idea of having a music collection in the cloud.

- Video on Demand

Another trend that has exploded this year, with every major British broadcaster (Channel 4, ITV, etc) jumping on the band wagon. Thank goodness otherwise I would have missed the New Year’s Day episode of Doctor Who as I was otherwise engaged (napping). On a side note, Tennant will be sorely missed.

- Vodafone's Access Gateway

I hadn’t heard about this one before but it truly is a genuine innovation – a small box which uses a broadband connection to boost mobile phone coverage. Ideal if your office or home is in a black spot, it's the first of its kind.

A few others to mention – Sat Nav came to the mobile phone, netbook sales increase, real-time search revolution, Amazon’s book reader & Android.

Predictions for 2010

- Tablet computer

The Guardian states ‘If the rumoured Apple tablet computer does make an appearance next year, as is widely expected, there’s a good chance that it will transform the market in the same way that the iPhone has done.’ However, I have just read on Twitter that Microsoft have just beaten Apple to the punch, for more information see here: http://timesonline.typepad.com/technology/2010/01/microsofts-tablet-beats-apple-to-the-punch.html Still, whoever gets there first, this will be a big hit in 2010.

- 3D TV

Sky and Panasonic have both confirmed that they will release 3D TVs, and Sky has announced that it is launching a dedicated 3D channel. The satellite broadcaster will even be filming the World Cup in 3D, although those games won't be broadcast live. However, viewers may need a new television to enjoy 3D pictures and manufacturers have not yet confirmed how much these sets will cost.
- Connecting Offline and Online World

No one has really put it in these terms, but it’s the idea that technology will caused a mjor overlap between our offline and online world. Gaming will come more realistic, our iPhones will be able to recognise a building and bring up an instant wiki about it, guide us on digital and physical treasure hunts, remember the names of people we meet so we don’t have to and potentially communicate with cash registers in stores relieving us of having to pull our credit or debit card out.

- Work Boundaries Blur

I found this interesting, especially as the team have been researching into the potential of virtual presenters within the work place. One article states offshoring, remote working and virtual teams will become more widespread, personally I think this may be a bit ambitious for one year however they do state that in 2008 41 million corporate employees globally spent at least one day a week teleworking, and 100 million worked from home at least one day a month, so who knows?

- Cloud Computing

Finding it hard to work at home without access to the shared drive at work? I know I am! Well maybe 2010 is the year to change that with cloud computing. Never heard of it? Neither had I until I was researching for this article. Cloud Computing is where you can upload all your info to a "cloud" which makes it easy to access it from anywhere. Sounds good to me.

- Wifi EVERYWHERE

So simple yet so true, wifi could even be attached to vehicles!

- Ereaders

They have already appeared on the market but apparently there is going to be an explosion of them in 2010. It would be great to carry around 500 books with you at all times but personally, I can’t beat the smell and feel of the real thing.

Let me know what you think of the predictions and review of 2009, are there any you would add to my list?

- Kirsty Russell

- First picture, a Windows 7 Home Premium Software Package placed on a table, with thanks to chris_fritz.
- Second picture, the spotify logo on a green background with a blackberry next to it, with thanks to dekuwa.
- Third picture, a 3d tv mounted on a wall with a person facing it wearing 3d glasses in the foreground with thanks to numerama.
- Fourth picture, an illustration of three computers with a cloud above them with various words in it such as Youtube and Google Docs, with thanks to librarian_by_day.
All pictures have been uploaded to Flick under a Creative Comms licence with some rights reserved.

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Are you an avid reader?

2010-01-18T12:30:00.003Z

Announcing the first ever Big Book Swap – a unique charity event which allows participants to share their passion for reading whilst contributing to The Pelican Post, an amazing organisation which aids literacy in developing countries by providing a quick and easy way for people to send children’s books to schools in Africa. This event will take place on Wednesday 20th January from 5.30pm until 9.00pm at The Royal College of Physicians in Regents Park, a great centre of learning and home to some of the country’s oldest and most valuable books.

The premise of the event is simple – bring along a copy of your favourite book, inscribe the cover with a message for your potential “swapees” to tell them why you think it’s worth reading – if it inspired you, made you laugh out loud, shed a tear, or even changed the way you looked at the world. Leave it behind for someone else to discover and find your own next great read! Spend a couple of hours browsing the selection of books, sit down and have a read, chat with friends over a drink from the bar, and listen to our guest speakers talk about their own passion for reading and how books have influenced and moulded them as individuals.

As this is a fund-raising event we will also provide ample opportunity for people to delve into their pockets and donate to The Pelican Post – most notably with a fantastic raffle offering some great prizes. We will also tell you how you can make a tangible contribution to a child’s life by logging on to The Pelican Post website (http://www.blogger.com/www.pelican-post.org) and purchasing a book for a school chosen by you.

The Big Book Swap was really a very simple idea which came to organiser Kim Dunsmore on the bus home one night. After six years of taking an interest in what fellow commuters were reading without ever seizing the opportunity to discuss the book in question, Kim decided to set up an event which would allow strangers across London to come together and share the books which have shaped their lives. Aware that The Pelican Post was simultaneously trying to raise awareness of the literacy issues affecting Africa’s schools, Kim decided to encompass a fund-raising element into the event and The Big Book Swap was born. With co-organiser Kim Thomond firmly on board, The Big Book Swap team hopes to launch a successful initiative which will be replicated in cities across the country and even further afield (we’ve already had a potential organiser contact us in Brussels!), with numerous literacy charities benefiting from our participants' collective love of reading.

So, come along to The Royal College of Physicians on Wednesday 20th January anytime between 5.30pm and 9.00pm prepared to inspire and be inspired and help our inaugural Big Book Swap go off with a BIG BANG!

Visit www.bigbookswap.co.uk for more details.

- A special thank you to Kim Dunsmore, organiser of the Big Book Swap for the blog post.

Picture: A stack of books, with thanks to anna_t for publishing on Flickr under a Creative Commons license some rights reserved.

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