Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Alan Stanton shortlisted for Online Councillor of the Year Award
Congratulations to Tottenham Councillor Alan Stanton who has been shortlisted in this year's Councillor Achievement Awards.
Whilst I'm sure Alan could be eligible for a number of categories, this year he's been shortlisted as Online Councillor of the Year.
Users of HoL will recognise Alan as a familiar face and many have cause to thank him for his help, his advice or for his preparedness to challenge what he perceives to be wrong.
Some of you will be less familliar with his excellent work on photo sharing site Flickr. The photo sharing site is Alan's online campaign tool of choice. One testimonial on his page states: "É l'Umberto Eco dell'immondizia."
(He is Umberto Eco of the rubbish). The fact that it is in Italian testifies to his international following.
Active on both sites since 2007, Alan has chalked up 1,740 contributions to HoL and has uploaded 2,529 photos to Flickr.
The awards will be made in a ceremony at the top Westminster Council's offices on Victoria Street later this year.
Good luck Alan!
Tags for Forum Posts: haringey council website
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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Good luck Alan. Don't let any of these ones try to convince you that Twitter might clinch it for you. There's a limit to how low a gentleman should stoop.
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Every one of your 'bons mots' OAE has an audience of thousands awaiting it and possibly a more appreciative one than you get by staying in your own backyard. Join us
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Whilst I think Alan would find Twitter a great info channel if he would but relent, based on how most councillors use Twitter, I'm not sure it would help him win this award. Many councillors I've observed seem to mainly use Twitter in broadcast mode.
But I haven't really looked at the Twitter streams of Haringey Councillors. There are eight Haringey councillors on Twitter that I'm aware of. I'll let you decide how effectively they use it.
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Nobody deserves recognition more for their hard work for the community than Alan Stanton.
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Permalink Reply by Seema Chandwani on
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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Best of luck to Alan, it would be very well deserved if he won it.
I've really benefited from his advice and input on some issues. It's always appreciated, especially as it is so freely given and irrespective of where someone lives (ie whether they are in 'his' ward - which I'm not).
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Many thanks for this support !
Although, James, let's not go overboard. There are thousands of local councillors working away quietly in their wards and in particular areas of public service. (Most without even the smallest photo-op.) And some of my colleagues think - probably with good reason - that I should spend less time online and generally causing trouble. And instead more days and evenings on committees and suchlike, always voting at my party's call and never thinking for myself at all.
Also to be brutally honest, I've failed in my main task of persuading Haringey top brass to change their top-down, we'll-tell-you-what-you-need-to-know approach to social media. And to consultation generally!
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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
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Yes, all the best from me too Alan.. and I have to say, it was Alan's pictures on flickr that first got me in interested in the area again.. before I came into contact with Hugh. I still enjoy the banter very much! :o)
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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on
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>> I've failed in my main task of persuading Haringey top brass to change their top-down, we'll-tell-you-what-you-need-to-know approach to social media. And to consultation generally!
All is not lost - we can help!
I created my own password-protected account on the LBH website - all Council Tax payers have one. It's very 'bare', with no user choice and not even a picture of your local Councillor on it (Shame! I hear you cry).
A 'manage your profile' page (free feature of almost all websites so no or tiny costs to LBH) - could be represented by a pic of your local Cllr.
Your profile page can have optional entries for any facebook and twitter accounts you have, and questions:
Do you want to receive emails from the council?
If so, you can opt in to:
1) Be sent council emails concerning consultations in your ward
2) Receive a link every time a new issue of Haringey People is published
3) Join the users group for this website
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Once we have a LBH website users group, we can help the IT Dept enhance the LBH website for us.
I'd like to see a 'personalised' social context based on the interests you expressed in your profile (list of orgs doing good near you, 'green activities', person who can put you in touch with older neighbours who wouldn't mind a visit, pubs nearby holding local meetings etc)....
Technical council-wide challenge to auto-notify residents of things that affect them, but doable without having to build a robot with an uncanny resemblance to Cllr Alan Stanton...
To make it easier, LBH could start marking impacts on documents as 'Borough wide, Ward Wide and Street wide', adding a list of postcodes affected but these are admin details.
Reportedly there are around 1 million UK 18 year olds on Facebook - only half of them (520,000) are registered to vote in UK elections.
Unless the Council's website becomes more like Facebook, it'll become less like Facebook.
So, if you're up for helping Alan realise his aims, what are the next steps?
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Chris, I spoke to a member of the Council's webteam who said customer feedback is invaluable. As I'm sure you've seen, there is a comment box on each webpage and these are used - they tell me - by about twenty people a day. Some of these comments are about broken links; or put forward small helpful suggestions, many of which can be quickly actioned. Sometimes there are wider criticisms or suggestions for larger changes each of which are considered but, as you'd expect, would need to be referred to the team or department running that service.
From my own experience I'd guess that if staff in the other team also have a lively, learning culture, things will be progressed. Though my guess/prediction would be that the opposite is also true. So if change has to be approved in one of the complacent, nothing-to-learn, we're-doing-it-already corners of the Council, there may be a very long wait.
Next step? I suggest you contact the webteam? They'd grasp your overall vision a lot quicker than me.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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