An Interactive Charter for overcoming the barriers to open gov

[Tim Davies]

Hello all

At the LocalGovCamp in Birmingham we had a session based on exploring
the hurdles to open government (http://is.gd/1tCC0). The day-to-day
frustrations of blocked websites, out-of-date browsers, insufficient
policies, mismatched skills, and lacking leadership or management for
social tech.

Since then we've continued to develop the list of '50 Hurdles of Open
Government' which gave rise to this session on a wiki where anyone can
add to them, or, ideally, add ideas for overcoming them which is here:

http://www.practicalparticipation.co.uk/socialstrategy/

**An Interactive Charter**
And working with Paul Evans of the Local Democracy Blog, we've
launched a project to create a 'Charter for Change'. The sort of
statement of aspiration to use social media, and commitment to remove
the barriers to it's use, which organisations can sign up to - and
which can be used to catalyse concerted action to unlock the potential
of social media in local and national government.

Between now and 25th July we're working to collaboratively draft the
Charter through Mixed Ink (if you've not come across it before, think
of it like a more deliberative wiki) and it would be **absolutely
fantastic** to get input into that charter from LocalGovCamp folk.

See http://www.interactivecharter.org for details and to add to, edit
or remix the draft charter.

**Involvement welcome**
This is an open project, and we'd welcome all input, ideas and offers
of input. We launched the idea last Monday at Reboot Britain with the
support of Tom Watson (MP), Helen Milner (UK Online Centres), Jeremy
Gould (ex Whitehall Webby) - and already have had lots of positive
input.

We're particularly on the look out for authorities and organisations
who might be early adopters of the Charter once it is drafted.

All the best

Tim Davies
Consultant & Action Researcher, Practical Participation
Blog: http://www.timdavies.org.uk | Twitter: @timdavies

[Michele Ide-smith]

Tim this is an excellent idea. Although I wasn't able to attend
Localgovcamp I will be very interested to follow updates to the wiki
and participate in this project. We are about to embark on a project
internally at Cambridgeshire County Council to determine our strategy,
policy, processes and guidance for staff on using social media for
communications and engagement. Thankfully we are over one of the main
hurdles - our Chief Exec has ensured that access to social media sites
is unblocked for staff.

Thanks for getting it started!

Michele

__________________________

Michele Ide-Smith
Web Development Manager
Cambridgeshire County Council
Tel: 01223 699710
Email: michele....@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

On Jul 12, 11:22 am, Tim Davies <t...@practicalparticipation.co.uk>
wrote:

> Hello all
>
> At the LocalGovCamp in Birmingham we had a session based on exploring
> the hurdles to open government (http://is.gd/1tCC0). The day-to-day
> frustrations of blocked websites, out-of-date browsers, insufficient
> policies, mismatched skills, and lacking leadership or management for
> social tech.
>
> Since then we've continued to develop the list of '50 Hurdles of Open
> Government' which gave rise to this session on a wiki where anyone can
> add to them, or, ideally, add ideas for overcoming them which is here:
>
> http://www.practicalparticipation.co.uk/socialstrategy/
>
> **An Interactive Charter**
> And working with Paul Evans of the Local Democracy Blog, we've
> launched a project to create a 'Charter for Change'. The sort of
> statement of aspiration to use social media, and commitment to remove
> the barriers to it's use, which organisations can sign up to - and
> which can be used to catalyse concerted action to unlock the potential
> of social media in local and national government.
>
> Between now and 25th July we're working to collaboratively draft the
> Charter through Mixed Ink (if you've not come across it before, think
> of it like a more deliberative wiki) and it would be **absolutely
> fantastic** to get input into that charter from LocalGovCamp folk.
>

> Seehttp://www.interactivecharter.orgfor details and to add to, edit

[Jon]

Hi Tim,

i think this is an excellent idea. I've been harping on to my
colleagues for years about moving on from IE6 to firefox or chrome
perhaps... or even IE8... but its never high enough up on their
agenda.... so many of my colleagues are still stuck on IE6 which is
no longer fit for purpose (was it ever?) :)

so i totally support your project and hope it makes a difference,

cheers,
jon.

On Jul 12, 11:22 am, Tim Davies <t...@practicalparticipation.co.uk>
wrote:

> Hello all
>
> At the LocalGovCamp in Birmingham we had a session based on exploring
> the hurdles to open government (http://is.gd/1tCC0). The day-to-day
> frustrations of blocked websites, out-of-date browsers, insufficient
> policies, mismatched skills, and lacking leadership or management for
> social tech.
>
> Since then we've continued to develop the list of '50 Hurdles of Open
> Government' which gave rise to this session on a wiki where anyone can
> add to them, or, ideally, add ideas for overcoming them which is here:
>
> http://www.practicalparticipation.co.uk/socialstrategy/
>
> **An Interactive Charter**
> And working with Paul Evans of the Local Democracy Blog, we've
> launched a project to create a 'Charter for Change'. The sort of
> statement of aspiration to use social media, and commitment to remove
> the barriers to it's use, which organisations can sign up to - and
> which can be used to catalyse concerted action to unlock the potential
> of social media in local and national government.
>
> Between now and 25th July we're working to collaboratively draft the
> Charter through Mixed Ink (if you've not come across it before, think
> of it like a more deliberative wiki) and it would be **absolutely
> fantastic** to get input into that charter from LocalGovCamp folk.
>

> Seehttp://www.interactivecharter.orgfor details and to add to, edit

[Toni Prug]

> i think this is an excellent idea. I've been harping on to my
> colleagues for years about moving on from IE6

"Tom Watson MP has spent the last few days asking government departments
when they intend to upgrade their web browsers from IE6. Yes, that's
Internet Explorer 6. ... "

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/15/government_browser_wars/

toni

[Jon]

yep outrageous isn't it toni - there is just no grasp of the
importance of a decent browser on any level - security, functionality
etc etc.!!! drives me mad.... fortunately major web apps are now de-
supporting IE6 which is helping the business case!

[Toni Prug]

Jon wrote:
> fortunately major web apps are now de-
> supporting IE6 which is helping the business case!

yes, good point. the more we push for integrating web apps that enable
cross-organisation and volunteer-inclusive (following the example of how
software and networking protocols developed last 20 years)
participation and collaboration in local gov organizations, the harder
it will be to ignore the need for having good freely available software
implemented. Yet, it's a chicken-egg scenario: how can anyone propose
using such web apps, if all there is in most places is IE6.

toni

[Jon]

you know the really maddening thing is that it is soooo easy
(technically) to deploy a better browser! there are so many
application management tools out there that can just push through this
sort of installation overnight to thousands of networked machines e.g.
landesk.

the main barrier that people cite to me is that 'our existing 3rd
party solutions rely on IE6 so we cant upgrade IE6 till those apps are
upgraded'. I suspect this is nonsense, and even if true, why not just
push firefox 3 out and run two browsers?? When i say that they come
back with oooh FF is not microsoft and we're a microsoft shop - and
our users will need so much training to adjust to it. Again i believe
this is nonsense as most users probably have firefox at home!

i despair... ive tried so hard to convince people.... ultimately they
rely on the 'its not a corporate priority' excuse....

but i see light at the end of the tunnel - apparently an upgrade to
IE7 ?! might be on the business plan for 2010-11!!! Don't even get
me started on patching windows on the desktop and our DMZ servers....

[Nick Booth]

you need to blog about this. In fact why uk government still uses IE6 is a legitimate blog on its own.