Alan Stanton shortlisted for Online Councillor of the Year Award

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on February 3, 2012 at 15:35

Thanks Alan - the webteam are too busy to do more than their doing already I guess - I have suggested a profile page and a users group to the IT department in the past but they're probably snowed under, even if it would make the website dramatically better and their life dramatically easier eventually.

It's quite hard for any department to take on the challenge of incorporating unpaid volunteers with loud voices and free time to do work that the department pays their own employees for, but  hey, life's a beach!

It's particularly a challenge to the IT Department Council Officers who make tactical decisions (shall we give the users what they want?). I'd like to name them, detail what they've actually done personally and expose their websites plans and process to public view, but I don't think it'll help, so won't. All the documentation is secret when it needn't be, so who knows what opportunities there are? If they learned to trust the user group, good could result.

'Interference', however, can easily be seen as totally undermining and simply not worth the risk, particularly as the measure of the success of a Council Website is difficult to quantify in an award winning way.

You remember they decided to do an online usability survey and paid £15 to everyone who completed it. No doubt they commissioned a team of consultants to help validate the exercise and then do the makeover that ensued. We're not allowed to know how much that cost.

An unpaid user group is a way to avoid the 'cuts' argument that gives every voice a way to block any suggested change.

A users group would be able, under the control of the IT department, to represent the views of the users and actually do a bit of the work themselves - help me get one formed, will you Alan?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on February 3, 2012 at 18:57

Chris, I've left a message with a link to this thread, for Paul Barnet, manager of Haringey's web team.

While I agree with your general point about the value of User Groups, I don't underestimate the need for some paid staff to properly liaise with volunteers - and in some cases actually support them.

You're right that sometimes "the cuts" is excuse number 102 for why something can't happen. But it doesn't mean cuts aren't real. Services have been cut. People have lost - and are still losing - jobs. And while unpaid/unwaged work has always been one of the bedrocks of society, volunteering doesn't pay the bills.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Seema Chandwani on February 4, 2012 at 1:31

GET ON TWITTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on February 4, 2012 at 8:48

Yes, my comment to Chris was overlong. So here you go, Seema. 140 characters in search of a meaning.

   ________________________________________________________

Chris, I've left a message with a link to this thread, for Paul Barnet, manager of Haringey's web team. While I agree with your general poin

   ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

I also looked at the Twitter pages for Zena and Matt Davies you linked too. (How did you avoid us having to sign-up to Twitter to access it?)

I couldn't get the hang of Matt Davies' stuff. I'm sure there are gems in there. But it's too high noise-to-signal ratio for a slow thinker like me.

By contrast Zena's is minimalism. Simple, clean, uncluttered and leaving plenty of calm space for your own thoughts and insights. It's unoriginal, of course. A reproduction of the John Cage masterpiece, 4'33".

Or if classical music is not your thing, you'll find a death metal cover version here. As you'd expect, this takes the music a helluva lot faster.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Seema Chandwani on February 4, 2012 at 12:59

Oh... its the 140 characters.. you can use TwitLonger or similar.

Come on Mr S, there are moments I dream of watching you & @TottenhamTories or even a few Tory MPs in a TweetBeat :) Zena only started a few weeks ago, very honoured I am one of her 9 that she follows... I was in good company with the other 8.

I had a great surgery with Cllr Browne yesterday & the level of info from HoL; Advise Haringey; Tottenham Journal; Haringey Independent; HSG etc etc is invaluable.

I bet it was only a few years ago you stopped going to the chemist to develop your pics & now you have a flickr.... Come on!!! Just join & observe as a compromise!

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on February 4, 2012 at 11:23

>> I don't underestimate the need for some paid staff to properly liaise with volunteers - and in some cases actually support them.

Who is the master here and who the servant? Does the LBH website serve users or dispense with them? The cost of empowering residents is less than cost of disempowering them. For many, the website is the council.

In other words, LBH spend the entire website budget trying to serve us - so having a user group is great value for money. We're not talking here about a group of well-meaning volunteers, I'm talking about residents asserting their right to control the overall direction and content of the LBH website, and to enable scrutiny to be better directed at those responsible. The website's overall direction and content aims to give us residents what we've paid for, doesn't it, so why don't we have the biggest voice?

Surely, if anyone deserves a 'seat on the board' it's us, Alan, the 99%? You'd be perfect if you haven't given up on what can be achieved by residents using more of their own website. 

Suggested features (a better list would be available if more people made it):

1) A points system so that you earn 'kudos' for taking part - not money though, we're not Tories here. Civic pride.

2) Comments on any and every aspect of the council's remit, to include a 'destination' field so that, for instance, the user can direct the comment squarely at their local cllr if required. Or simply report a faulty lamp post. A system of facebook 'Likes' and 'Dislikes' and Google Plus +1s, with the facebook/twitter feeds of relevant local people. A sort of local newspaper really.

3) A list of (optional) surveys and polls (and results), and an easy way to commission more epetitions.  What would you ask your ward? Surveys can blossom into 'votes' to help attain the long since abandoned holy grail - more than 50% of people voting in local elections...

4) An 'up my street' clickable map, showing specific council services that have reached my area and when. The Monday map would show that refuse collectors had been there etc. Highlight what is available, and what I'm missing by means of a 'used' icon. Showing planning apps. Council meeting webcasts are indexed by speaker and agenda - if that index is used, then we can have Council Webcasts that mention my area or my cllr on my map.

5) 'Youtube'-type access to the LBH 'live' CCTV cameras that are pointed at public areas and archive recordings.  In the same way that you might look out of the window to see if it's raining before you go out, so you can look at the LBH camera view to see what's happening there before you go out. You can see what big brother can see.

Some private companies might want to donate access to views from their private CCTV cameras in exchange for the exposure. Some local businesses might do it in the hope that it might help speed reporting of incidents, and also show a little of what's in stock.

'CCTV' would include the archive of webcasts of all the local area forums and any meetings of local people.

All this stuff is made easier if the users can 'log on' to the LBH website.

I could go on and detail hundreds of services that we all come across whilst surfing.  Not only are these services easy to implement, most are free and there are even sources of free expertise eager to help add them in the public good. All we need is an LBH IT Director to realise how powerful the users can be if given the chance, then harvest that energy.

Imagine if Google ran http://www.haringey.gov.uk - yes, we can. We don't need more money, we need to re-allocate some of the money already being spent, resulting in a better website at probably less cost - what's not to like?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Pressdesk at Haringey Council on February 7, 2012 at 18:15

To save costs, the new website designs were developed in house and low-cost online user testing tools were used, alongside the results from our website survey (completed by 2,400 people last year), to inform development. We did not bring in any external consultants. More information about the website re-design is available here www.haringey.gov.uk/new-web-design

We do welcome feedback and suggestions for improvement. You can email us at content@haringey.gov.uk with any ideas directly, or use the page feedback and site survey to let us know what you think.

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by John D on February 4, 2012 at 9:18

There is too much communication these days ! The medium has become the message.

Life is what happens while you're tweeting.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Hugh on February 4, 2012 at 9:38

Agree - I'm now a bit of a crap Tweeter on my personal and business pages. Too much flapping of wings and vacuous peacocking for my taste. BUT I see this as a gap in an opportunity. Twitter does have a place and a hugely USEFUL one at that. It's a truly spectacular source of info if you learn how to use it (and a good way to be noticed for business/networking).

Alan, as I've already said above lots of councillors use Twitter badly. Probably better to not use it at all. Here's another thought for you though. Twitter is increasingly becoming a place for people to share information by photo and video. It's gained popularity because it offers a huge new audience that Flickr and other photo sharing sites simply don't reach as quickly, if at all.

I was wondering if you'd find it helpful to extend the reach of your great work on Flickr? Your pics will be picked up and shared with a speed and to an extent you'll never get on Flickr. The video below was made to showcase the new Twitter coming soon. Within the first shot or two is an example of a photo embedded in from Flickr.

Feel free to just ignore this post completely if you're absolutely fed up with being henpecked at by bloody Tweeters!

 

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on February 4, 2012 at 12:02

Pope Benedict launched his Twitter account with some pomp and ceremony last June. Ah good, I thought. Shorter encyclicals that won't need a reference library to read. Urbi et Orbi in 140 characters. An occasional heartfelt Motu proprio such as, "I'm dying for a stein of Bavarian wheat-bier - this Italian dreck's like catspiss." But, like Cem, our Benny hasn't tweeted since - Vatican lackeys do it for him. And he complains of shedding "followers" !

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on February 4, 2012 at 15:41

Hugh, I don't regard your post - or anyone else's as "henpecking". Several people are now urging me to get tweeting and - more important, they say - to share information or links to information. Some of the most passionate are Twitter converts. They make an interesting and reasonable case.

I recognise the limitations to Flickr. (So do some of its designers.) For me it was always an experiment - still is. Originally it was a tool. Look, here's a photo of a problem; please solve it. And a means of reporting back to local residents. (It hadn't occurred to me that key people in the Council were so terrified by the twenty-first century that they'd block social media to their own staff.) It was also a way of celebrating the positive aspects of where we live: the attractive corners; the people.

The experiment evolved into a blog - a photoblog which seems to reach more people than most councillors' blogs. Of course many of the "hits" on my pages are people 'borrowing' photos for their own personal and commercial sites. Though I'm also pleased that a few of my photos appear on Wikipedia. (I've painfully mixed feelings about this one.)

Hugh, would you confidently place bets on what will be 'up' and and 'down' in the social media world in a year or 18 months? (With the exception of Clay Shirky, he'd still be worth watching and reading.) Surely you enjoy the fast-evolving experimental feel of all social media? And the sheer fun of being part of that and watching it happen?

The Twitter promotional video you linked to has the strap line: "Discover a faster, simpler way to stay close to everything you care about". Well, the best way I could do that is to spend less time online and more time talking to people face-to-face; and in contact with friends and family. Plus, a promise I made to myself, writing longer more thoughtful pieces in a traditional old-fashioned blog. Coming soon.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by John McMullan on February 4, 2012 at 18:28

A prominent local activist turned up at a meeting with council officers with printed photographs that he actually put under their noses. I'd feel a bit sad if that really was the way to do it but he does seem to get things done.

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next ›
• Page