Become a Council 'Customer Champion'

Join the 'customer service panel' and participate in meetings and/or surveys.

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It looks like a 'top down' approach - many large organisations suffer from this - on the one hand they want to know what their 'customers' think and feel about their services so they can sell more, but on the other hand they want to decide what why when and how they deliver them whatever the customer thinks.

The real key is information - if they really wanted input, by providing the information they hold in secret, they could get much higher quality but they don't really want it, do they?

Many people (especially those who post here on HoL) have far more collective experience than the Council in how to use the internet well and are generous enough to help them for free - that's a resource that can be enabled.  

I'd like to see a user group with the power to steer the Council towards far, far better use of the internet - we know already what they are capable of - asking us what we think doesn't solve the many missed opportunities they are perpetrating.  Make no mistake, the internet is the Council for many people - it really matters how well they run their website.

Collecting info from us and hiding the process so we'll never know, for instance, that a suggestion a resident made led directly to some action, means that the disconnect the Council seem keen to propagate will continue - shame really. They seem to think that they are tail that wags the dog.

Questions arise like:

Where is their roadmap for future developments?

Why is their infrastructure kept secret?

Why are the webcasts such poor quality?  

Why aren't they growing the tech skills base they need locally?

Why are there no discussion forums on their website?  

Why don't Council Officers post answers to 'Frequently Asked Questions'?  

Where is the means for public to-ing and fro-ing on operational issues? Why, for instance, can you not report something in public so others can know of it too? Why can't we use this sort of info to have open 'audits' of Council performance?

Why aren't all Council documents on their website searchable?  Although tech exists to make PDF's searchable, they don't use it so you can't find things you know are there.

Why is their no index of secret information?  

Why can't they use one-to-one and panel-based video conferencing for both Officers and Councillors?

Where is their list of what is considered great examples for them to aspire to?

Saving money and increasing effectiveness by collaborating with other councils in doing the things all councils do using open source software seems like a no-brainer.  What software are they using, and why?

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