listening to communities 25.02.11 (final)

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Virtual Civic Spaces

Bringing communities together

Listening Communities Conference

25th February 2011

Catherine Howe

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This is not a session about technology

The most important thing to remember about the virtual world is that it is actually very real

And so are the communities

“New communication media means that new social phenomena are going to arise that differ

in significant ways from everything we've known. We are going to have to get used to the idea that the word "community" is going to have

to stretch to include groups of people who communicate socially and work together

cooperatively and never meet in the real world.”

Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community; Homesteading on the Virtual Frontier

(http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/)

And that was 10 years ago

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We are talking about changing the balance in our engagement towards the digital channels

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The most important thing is making it relevant to the community and finding the conversations that are already happening

Why Digitally led?

Its cheaper – the cost per transactions are lower, set-up costs are lower and amendments are low cost

You reach more people - Digital will help you reach a different audience to the usual suspects of engagement

You need to be agile – you can adjust to changes of circumstances far faster with a digitally led strategy

Its easier to talk about difficult issues online – it gives voice to people who are not confident in person and find meetings difficult and it can provide an anonymous voice for difficult debates

It lasts – you want to leave an ongoing conversation as a legacy of the project

Most importantly – people are doing it anyway

A short segue on the Network Society

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

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

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

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

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

spatial configurations.”

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If that was a bit much for a Friday morningThe Internet is having a profound effect on society – we are moving from an industrial to an information or networked age

This means there is a pressure on old ways of working

Think about the millennial generation who have been brought up expecting information and responsiveness to be constantly and immediately available

The internet culture is colliding with our traditional structures and putting huge pressure on them

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What are they be doing?

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What are they be doing?

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http://microsites.oii.ox.ac.uk/oxis/

What are they doing?

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http://www.forrester.com/empowered/tool_consumer.html

The Social Web has its own culture

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“Until we rebuild, both from the bottom up and from the top down, our institutes of governance and democracy, we will not be able to stand up

to the fundamental challenges that we are facing”

Manuel Castells, The Internet Galaxy

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What does this mean on a more practical level?

Today virtual communities are as likely to gather together people who live on the same street and those that live thousands of miles apart

“In a context of a world which is, indeed, increasingly interconnected the notion of place (usually evoked as ‘local place’) has come to have totemic resonance.”

Doreen Massey

Hyperlocal communities connect people separated by time and not necessarily space

Three useful references:

• Networked Neighbourhoods: http://networkedneighbourhoods.com/

• Talk about Local: http://talkaboutlocal.org.uk/

• Podnosh: http://podnosh.com/

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Not forgetting digital inclusion

Its complex – and its still an issue:

Ten million of us in the UK have never used the internet.

Four million of those who are offline are society’s most disadvantaged

But when we get there we participate:

One fifth (21%) of Internet users undertook at least one civic action on the Internet

Once retired people are online they are more likely than students or employed users to be civically engaged.

And we have reached the tipping point with this channel

40m adults in the UK use the web, and 30 million of us do so daily.

This is about changing the balance – not ignoring the other channels

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The social web is about the people and the content

This is no longer a question of getting people to visit your space – you need to engage with them in theirs

And there are a variety of conversations going on

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Mainstream tools – don’t build stuff that already exists

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This is what we think it looks like

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Unexpected things will happen

You can no longer expect to be able to broadcast your message without a conversational channel

If you genuinely want to create ongoing dialogue and engagement then you need to listen

There will be good and bad surprises – enjoy the upside and manage the risk

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At the heart of this are really fantastic events

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And the right digital wrapper

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Our objective it that when you leave the conversations continue

Openly Local

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http://openlylocal.com/hyperlocal_sites

Buckshaw Village Forum

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http://www.buckshawvillage.com/

Harringay Online

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http://www.harringayonline.com/

Brighton Issues Forum

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

I Love Tunbridge Wells

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http://anke.blogs.com/

Admiral’s Way, Test Valley

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

Bourneville Village

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http://bournvillevillage.com/

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

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Previously you controlled the resources and so you knew you would be involved

How will you make sure you are an essential part in the process?

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People are talking……

……they’re just not talking to you

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Why should I care when I am facing massive budget cuts?

Because you need to stay relevant

You know you need to be part of your community to lead it effectively

You know you need to understand the culture in order to be able to support it – the social web is in fact another country and most people are in the process of moving there

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There are incremental savings to be made

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

Change the way in which you work with the public

Enable them to look after themselves to a far greater extent

Yes….this is the Big Society

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Because the conversations will happen anyway

Its government’s responsibility to make sure the outcomes are democratic

Co-production – what do you mean?

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

It describes a new kind of relationship with the public – one where we expect them to act not just comment

•And some references:

• http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/assets/features/the_challenge_of_co-production

• http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/co-production-people-outside-paid-employment

• http://www.govint.org/

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To do this you need a co-productive space

LOCAL CIVIC

SPACE

Presented by Catherine Howe, Chief Executive Public-i

For example…..

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

Its not about resources anymore

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Thank you for your time

Catherine Howe, Chief Executive, Public-i Group Ltd

catherine.howe@public-i.infohttp://Wordpress.curiouscatherine.com@curiousc