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The end of the world as we know it

It’s surprising how many people still say “Citizens only visit the website to find a telephone number so they can phone up.” Therefore, it was nice to see it work the other way round this week when a member of the public called

up (via the switchboard) to find out where the epetition pages are on the Bristol site (there is a hotly contested local issue at the moment - with one councillor leading a petition to restrict access to a city centre bridge to cyclists and pedestrians, whilst another councillor feels it must remain open to all traffic).

Thinking about it, there are many occassions now when I only speak to a person as a final resort, after the technology has failed to enable me to sort things out for myself - I get my money from a cashpoint, I shop online, bank online, book travel online etc.

Some will argue that this heralds the end of civil society as we know it; that the human race will become introverted, obsolete and that the dogs or the ants will take over as the dominant species (see ‘City’ by - Clifford D. Simak).



Personaly, I can cope with the dogs running things if it means I no longer have to queue-up in shops (joke!!)

Skating together

I went ice-skating at the weekend – big deal, hardly worth blogging about you may think. The session I attended was for kids with disabilities, siblings and their parents/carers. It takes place every month or so, for an hour, before the ice-rink opens to the blade-footed mob.

I went along for the first time with Tom and three brothers he met at an RNIB summer club last year, the youngest of whom is visually impaired. The best thing for me was that, as a small group of twenty, we had the rink to ourselves. Hockey sticks, pucks and sledges were distributed liberally across the ice and all in all it was great fun. I can also report that contrary to the popular urban myth, no one had his or her fingers sliced off!

Tom has tried quite a few sports and activities with other visually impaired kids. You really haven’t lived until you experienced a group of blind and partially sighted children having a go at archery!

As we left the ice, the disco lights came on and the music cranked up a notch and circling teens started to fill-up the rink. When you are a child and are disabled, the desire to fit in with your peers is far stronger than the desire to look after yourself or to ask for what you need. Given the choice, Tom and his mates would have happily chosen to skate along with everyone else rather than to start early, regardless of any risk to fingers or egos.

e-innovations wiki

Following the House of Lords Innovations Framwork dinner, the ODPM sponsored project has launched an e-innovations wiki – where you can join in the ongoing conversation about the nature of innovation in local government

Community Campaign Project Update

Steven Clift, the US font of eDemocracy knowledge, is helping on the Community Campaign Project. He is facilitating our online, expert advisory group and helping to generate knowledge and interest amongst those who know about community campaigning. Here is an extract from his do wire post about the project

Cllr. Barbara Janke, Leader of Bristol City Council, has today confirmed that she will head-up the pilot stage of the project and give her commitment to respond to new issues raised, particularly by communities whose views are more commonly not represented or overlooked.

We launch the pilot phase next week, you can read today's press release here

Framework for Innovation in Local Government

Trains, planes and automobiles carried seventy participants to last night’s Innovation Framework event at the House of Lords. The event was to be “carbon neutral” – achieved via a donation to an international environmental project. I did my bit by arriving on foot – and what a walk it was!

I lived and worked in London for more than five years but the walk from my hotel near Oxford Circus, down Regent Street (under the Christmas lights), through Piccadilly Circus, across Leicester Square (where crowds had assembled for the Harry Potter premiere), through Trafalgar Square and along Whitehall to Big Ben and the House of Lords still knocks me out.



The event itself was fascinating, less formal than the usual ‘workshop style’ but no less productive for it. Over dinner, my table was invited to discuss ‘constraints’ to innovation in Local Government and how these can be overcome. Other tables looked at different aspects of innovation – how to define, nurture and support it.

Lord Errol was in attendance, as was a mix of local and central Government and voluntary and private sectors. The results of the discussions will be written up and will help to inform a high-level framework aimed at supporting innovation in Local Government.

The Lord himself led a late-evening, behind the scenes tour of the House, which was a surprise bonus and at the same time, a stark reminder of where the power to change things resides.

An unusually high profile day

I am having an unusually high profile day today - I blame it on the blog!

This morning, I was delighted to be asked to join the Debate Panel at the Good Communications Awards 2005, held at the BAFTA building in Piccadilly.

My fellow panellists were an esteemed bunch - Sir Digby Jones (Director General of the CBI), Colin Farrington (Director, Chartered Institute of Public Relations) and Ben Page (Head of the Social Research Institute at Ipsos MORI). I was a last minute sub for Alex Butler (Director of DirectGov) who couldn’t make it.



You can see more photos here

The debate followed a “question-time” format and included quite a few questions from the audience about ‘the three E’s’ - e-communications, e-consultations and e-democracy. I was pleased to find that I had a lot to contribute to the discussions.

John Humphreys of the BBC beautifully chaired the debate, which included audience participation through pre-planned and improvised interactive voting.

All in all I really enjoyed it and I can’t have done too badly as the organisers suggested that they would invite me along again next year.

As if this wasn’t enough excitement for one day, in just over an hour I am off to the House of Lords for dinner. Lord St. John of Bletso and the Deputy Prime Minister’s office have kindly invited me to ‘contribute to the Framework for Innovation in Local Government’. I am not sure what kind of ‘contribution’ will be required of me (hopefully not cash as i am a bit skint at the moment) but otherwise, I will do my best to help!!?