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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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Have you started using WorkTogether yet?

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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LocalGovCamp is ON!

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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The Social Civic Nudge

For a while now, we at the Young Foundation have been interested in how councils can use hyper-local media to strengthen dialogue and collaboration at the local level. We have a bit of experience in the hyper-local & Web 2.0 field, having been involved with fixmystreet, Social Innovation Camp, a now defunct neighbourhood’s wiki and the excellent, newly launched, Maslaha.

This summer we were given money from DCLG’s Empowerment Fund to see how local authorities could practically use hyper-local media. A few months ago we sent out a proposal councils across England - asking for them to partner with us on a new project called Local 2.0. Quite surprisingly, nearly 40 councils sent submissions to us (we even had an enquiry from a local authority in Australia; they weren’t willing to pay travel expenses…). We ended up choosing three councils to work with: Kirklees, Kensington and Chelsea, and Kings Lynn and West Norfolk.

They are all different both in characteristics and what they want from Local 2.0. Kirklees are keen to develop shared spaces where online services, public sector information and community content are combined around hyper‐local needs and interests. Kensington and Chelsea want to develop local networks that can help residents connect and collaborate, and in Kings Lynn we will be seeing how hyper-local media can compliment the work of their neighbourhood management service.

We’re still at the beginning of the project and there will undoubtedly be lots of lessons which will be useful to others out there and I am sure we will learn lots from other work being done others. Our main method of communication will be through our blog, so please look in for regular updates.

- A special thank you to Mandeep Hothi, Associate in the Local Innovation Team at the Young Foundation for this guest post.

Picture: 'Local 2.0' written inside a street sign placed on a brick wall.

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Local 2.0 - Councils getting hyperlocal

If your business sells to consumers, then how can you make use of social networking websites to help promote your business? This guide gives practical examples of how to use a business profile to help build more sales.


Social networking has been one of the fastest growing sectors of the internet in recent years. These free to use community sites help consumers stay in touch with their friends, and are surprisingly addictive. The original first generation of social networking sites are now huge, and newer niche social networking sites for different audiences, interests and even geographic regions are now starting to emerge.

But many business owners still haven’t got to grips with how to use this powerful new audience to promote their business.

Most consumer-facing social networking sites allow you to create a profile page for your business; some are free and others will make a small charge. Your profile will usually include photos, a brief description, and contact details for your business. Some sites even let you set up a regular feed of news from your website, add message boards for users to comment on, upload videos about your business and send messages to your followers.

Once your profile is set up, other users can choose to become followers or friends of your business, either by finding you in search results, or virally by word of mouth. You can also promote your social networking profiles with a badge on your main website.

Once you’ve got a social networking profile, you can start to make use of this powerful new marketing tool, in a number of different ways:

Find new customers for your business:

Social networking can help you spread the word about your business. Social networking works by letting users share what they are up to with their friends, and because they are friends it is likely they’ll be interested in the same things as well. So when a social networking user becomes a fan or follower of your business, all their friends will find out about it as well, and this type of viral marketing is probably one of the most cost effective forms of marketing there is.

Communicate easily with customers or followers:

Most social networking sites allow you to contact users who’ve chosen to follow you. This can be a quick and cost effective way to stay in touch with people, and also avoids your emails being caught by spam filters as messages are broadcast within the social networking site. Of course you shouldn’t abuse this facility be messaging people every day, and so messages are best saved for genuine news and offers.

Promote your latest special offers or deals:

Social networking sites are a great environment in which to promote special offers or deals. Because social networking sites operate a ‘closed community’ you can send out better offers than normal which cant be seen by the rest of the world. This also makes it easier to track responses. And because social networking users are usually highly active, sending an offer to your group of followers can be a quick and easy way to drum up extra sales.

Carry out market research and get feedback:

Your own group of social networking fans and followers also gives you a ready made source of valuable research and feedback. If you’re planning to launch a new product you can see what your group thinks first, or you could just ask them what your business should be doing to improve. You’ll get surprisingly constructive and honest feedback from your followers, and they’ll be delighted to have been asked.

Publicise business events and occasions:

If your business is holding an event or a special occasion, social networking can help you publicise it in advance. This could range from a one day sale in a shop to a live event or gig in a pub or bar, or a special dining evening in a restaurant. Many people use social networking sites to organise their social lives anyway, so it’s a really relevant place to promote an event to your followers with a message or update on your page.

Give your business a web presence without a website:

If you don’t have a website for your business, you could even use social networking sites to establish a web presence instead. Most social networking sites make your business profile page visible to all web users and search engines, not just their own members. And there are plenty of social networking websites around to reach a surprisingly wide audience for little effort or cost.

Create and build groups or campaigns:

Social networking sites can help you mobilize and attract support for an issue or campaign which directly affects your business. For example, if you are campaigning to have the high street pedestrianised, or support local producers, start building a groundswell of support online on a social networking site. Word can spread virally and before you know it you could mobilise significant support.

Help your existing website perform better in search engine results:

Most social networking websites allow you to create a profile page, which can usually include a hyperlink back to your own website. Leave your profile page visible to the rest of world in your account settings, and it will soon be found by Google and other search engines, which will see the link as another vote of popularity for your site.

A special thank you to Peter Parsons of http://www.kent.co.uk the new local social networking website for business and consumer web users in Kent.

www.kent.co.uk

Picture: An overview of social media tools and services, including blogger, twitter and youtube. With thanks to FredCavazza for publishing on Flickr under a Creative Commons license some rights reserved.

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Gaming & Training: The key to a kinder, more intelligent mankind?

‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know’ is a phrase commonly heard when an individual is looking for a job. However, the networks that are needed for someone to get ‘a foot in the door’ of a particular job are not always accessible; here is one solution: Job Clubs. A job club, sometimes known as a networking club, has been described as ‘a group of individuals who get together on a regular basis to support each other through the job hunting process’. Not only does this allow an individual to expand their existing social networks, but the group also provides a form of support group through encouragement and empathy, which can be particularly uplifting in times of an economic recession. The exchange of job leads, business cards, resumes, ideas, and information that occurs in a job or networking club can also motivate members and teach everyone valuable career strategies and techniques.

Is is successful?

The Job Club has been widely researched, and its positive effects have been replicated across numerous settings and populations, including handicapped individuals, college students and graduates, welfare recipients, white and blue collar unemployed individuals. Many studies have found that individuals who participant in a Job Club are far more successful at finding employment than those who participate in other programmes. Some studies have also found a relationship between job clubs and higher start salaries, higher self-efficacy, lower depression, greater advancement and higher job satisfaction.

The Expert Opinion

Experts recommend that a job club should consist of between 2 and 30 members, and should meet on a regular basis (weekly or every fortnight). The psychologist, Azrin, states that job club efforts will be more successful if job seekers have a specific goal, have considerable knowledge of the employers they wish to approach, are well acquainted with their own skills, and follow a particular pattern in the way they conduct their research.

Where to start looking?

So, where can you find a job club? You can start by looking in your local newspapers or contacting your local council. Your local library may have more information, or an internet search may reveal job clubs in an area near you. If you can’t find one, why not set up your own? Job Clubs UK provide free tips and advice on setting up the job club and will help promote and recruit individuals as well!

Below are some ideas on how to keep the Job Club fresh and interesting:

• Expert speakers could be drafted in, from JobCentre for example, to give presentations on CV writing, application forms and interview techniques.

• Job Club and Book-Club could be blended together. Each member could read a book about an aspect of job-hunting and share the best ideas from the book with the group. Members can also pass out helpful articles about job hunting.

• Members can bring resumes, both so you can critique each others' and so you can exchange them and distribute members' resumes when opportunities present themselves. • Club members could take field trips to tour companies of mutual interest. Informational interviews in small groups may even be possible.

• Part of the meeting could be spent conducting employer research, especially if laptops or other computers with Internet access are available.

- Kirsty Russell
Picture: Individuals meeting around a coffee table, with thanks to Mybloodyself for publishing on Flickr under a Creative Commons licience some rights reserved.

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