Dissident

Mark Prisk talks about the issues of running a small business in Briatin today

As a small business owner myself, struggling under the ever increasing burden of government regulations and stultifying tax, I had a vested interest in the eCademy networking event that took place on Tuesday 15th July, where Mark Prisk MP was guest speaker.

Mark Prisk  is MP for Hertford & Stortford, Shadow Minister, Enterprise, Deregulation & Competition and Shadow Minister for Cornwall  He presented on "Running a Business in Britain Today".

As a former businessman, Mark has a wide interest in all entrepreneurial activity. He is the vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary groups on Small Business and on Freelancers, the treasurer of the all-party group on Entrepreneurship, and a trustee of the Industry Parliamentary Trust

I captured the full presentation on video (24 mins) - well worth looking at if you have the time - a mix of amusing anecdotes, worrying statistics, and maybe hope for the future. Some key points I noted:

• There are currently 3000 business support schemes in operation, managed by 2000 different public bodies at a total cost to the taxpayer (i.e. you and me) of £2.6 billion (yes...billion!)
• A recent survey revealed that 75% of these schemes have no ideas whether their money is being spent effectively - i.e. there is no measure of success.
• Only half of one percent of business owners of these schemes were satisfied with their service.
• Government does not recognise the existence of home businesses or SME's with less than 50 employees - except of course when recovering business taxes - i.e. they are simply not on the radar.

So, if these statistics are not sufficient to warrant reform of the system, I don't know what is!

See also the Doug Richard's report (he of Dragon's Den fame) on the proposals to overhaul the Government's business support system, which it describes as "complex" and "out of control".

If you want to know more about the Conservative's ideas on small business reform, check out the website. There's also a link to a nationwide survey which Mark Prisk is coordinating to see how a Conservative Government could best help SME’s. Regardless of your political persuasion, if you are a small business owner, you may as well have your say.

 

CoPs at the boundary of institution and innovation

David Wilcox over at Designing for Civil Society has posted some additional comment on the Community of Practice Facilitators Workshop. My thanks to David for his probing questions and insightful comment.

Community of Practice Facilitators Workshop

We had a very good day at the IDeA Community of Practice Facilitator's Workshop on Friday 11^th April. These are regular (bi-annual) events where we get the CoP facilitators (and several guests) together to share knowledge and experience of facilitating one or more of the 300+ CoPs now active across local government.

The day was organised and facilitated by a team from the IDeA, led by Michael Norton, who interestingly enough has just put his toe in the water and started his own blog. I'm sure he'll have lots of valuable things to say about his specialist area - knowledge management.

Socialreporter David Wilcox was there with an eye on proceedings and video camera at the ready. David did a video interview with Michael Norton and me, but not quite sure where this will appear (note - since posted here). David is also trialling video streaming using QIK and his new S60 Nokia so we'll look out for some instant video commentary next time!

One of the key themes for the day was how to make a CoP fly. We used the analogy of the CoP being a hot air balloon, and the need to ensure it could gain sufficient height to cross a mountain range. The injections of hot air being the various activities that a facilitator could take to keep the CoP flying. There's a useful article over at Knowledge Board about this.

We also had a video from Nancy White, who has been chairing a hotseat in the Facilitators CoP for the past two weeks on the topic: Are our assumptions about sustaining groups online out of date in the network era?

My personal interest was in listening to the stories ‘from the coal face', i.e. the experiences of the various facilitators. I have a role as technical steward for the CoP platform, so I want to make sure that the technology is meeting the needs of the facilitators and ordinary members, and that future developments are keeping pace with how the platform is being used. I briefly covered what was being planned for next phase of development, and fortunately the new features seemed to be consistent with what users were asking for. However, I was a bit surprised at how some people were using blogs - not as I had anticipated in that they would be associated with personal comment and promotion on what is happening in a CoP, but in some cases as the vehicle for collecting and distributing confidential CoP comments and documents to just the members of the private CoP. My plans for changing the blog facility from being just internal to each CoP to more of a platform-wide facility to encourage more inter-CoP communication and collaboration may have to be reviewed - though I still think this is a valid need.

Overall it was a very successful day, with lots of useful tips interchanged on how to keep that CoP flying. The benefit of all these type of events is the realisation that you have colleagues out there facing similar issues to you, and can draw on the collective knowledge and experience of a growing cohort of facilitators.

There were a few quotes I will remember:

"I'm not sure that we have permission to innovate in our organisation"

I'd like to think that CoPs do empower people to make change, but the heavy hand of command and control is still evident in many organisations, and could in some cases snuff out that spark of innovation that is in all of us.

"Someone read and commented on my first blog! I got a real buzz out of that - it's not an ego trip or anything, I'm just so pleased that someone thought I had something interesting to say"

Yes, let's have more of that!

"We're all learning together; IDeA does not have all the answers - it's up to us to help each other"

On that note, I went away feeling quite happy with life!

International e-Participation Symposium

The Empowering Citizens Through Technology and Participation Symposium has posted a couple of webcasts of the two-day event. I was presenting on the first day on the topic of building communities in the local government sector, using metaphors to describe how village communities developed around meeting places such as the village hall in by-gone years, and how communities of practice can flourish once a domain of interest is established (I used the Gosport Allotment Holders association as a contemporary example, where the mix of gardening experts and novices find mutual benefit in belonging to a collective). The key point being that just because we now have much better on-line collaboration tools and technologies, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that it's the people that make communities (of interest, or practice or whatever). A message that was probably lost on a speakers platform that was almost exclusively devoted to Web 2.0 technologies as the panacea for enabling more effective citizen engagement with the public sector. Reinforced of course with a veritable blizzard of 'e' prefixes - e-Collaboration, e-Empowerment, e-Participation, which never fail to give the uninitiated the impression that we're all in the technological fast lane (though some of us suffer from deja vu when we recall a similar e-word blitz associated with the previous dot-com era of the mid-90's. It meant nothing then, it means nothing now!).

The Rt Hon Hazel Blears MP gave the keynote presentation on day one. She was clearly well briefed on social media tools, but I couldn't help chuckle (quietly) when she expounded the virtues of Youtube and how  her department (DCLG) were now using it as a key channel for getting their information (aka 'spin') out. I trust someone will have informed her by now that most government departments and local councils block access to the likes of Youtube, Facebook and Flickr, which are all deemed to be  social  playthings, where staff cannot be trusted to use them properly.

I'd like to think that the government is investing in the right 'e-programmes', but I can't help feeling that their inherent lack of agility and the propensity for the big consultancies to sell them hugely expensive and over-complex Web 2.0 solutions will mean yet more missed opportunities. In the mean time, us citizens get on with life as best we can!   

International ePaticipation and Local Democracy Symposium

I will be attending (and presenting) at the International eParticipation and Local Democracy Symposium on 28/29 February. I will be joining Diane Downey (Assistant Corporate Head of ICT - Delivery, Sunderland City Council), Richard Wilson (MD of Involve) and Matt Rhodes (Head of Research, FreshNetworks) in a joint session entitled "Citizen Empowerment: Where do we begin?"  Full agenda here. Download symposium_agenda.doc

I'm anticipating (nay - hoping) the session will stimulate some discussion on the apparent dichotomy between empowering citizens to engage with central and local government whilst at the same time disenfranchising citizens through lack of consultation prior to the introduction of bi-laws and regulations. The proposed increase to congestion charges in London is a typical example (and I have no hidden agenda here, since I neither live in or use a car to commute to London).

I will also touch on the success of the communities of practice in local government as an example of how staff working in local councils are empowering themselves to improve services - quite often without the knowledge or understanding of their respective Chief Executives!

It should be an interesting couple of days.

UKGovWeb barcamp event roundup.

There's probably not a lot more I can say about the excellent UKGovWeb barcamp event that took place at the Google offices on Saturday 26th January that hasn't already been said by the raft of energetic bloggers that made up the majority of the delegates (or at least that was my impression). You can see a round-up of the day's events at the Pageflakes site, catch up on the pre-and-post conversations at the Google Group, or check out the following blogs (with apologies to all I have missed out....can't quite keep up with the blog-rate!). See Dave Briggs, Simon Dickson, David Wilcox, LLoyd Davis, Jeremy Gould, Tim Davies and Nick Booth, with photos on Flickr, websites tagged here and videos here.

It's not really surprising that this one event has generated so much multimedia exposure, given the assembly of so many 'Web 2.0 activists', and I hope this will ensure some continued momentum for this particular self-organising group. I think Jeremy Gould summed this up quite well on his blog:

"We need to find ways to make partnership between those inside and those around government easier - and promote it as as an alternative method to trying to do everything ourselves. We don’t know all the answers individually, but as a collective we can get closer to the ideal solutions.
If we in government want to innovate more, we should also behave more like innovators. The format and style of the barcamp was great and encouraged collaboration and thinking differently."

Best keep an eye on Pageflakes for future developments!

   

Gov 2.0: Truly Transformative Government

I attended the “Gov 2.0, or Truly Transformative Government” seminar held at Portcullis House yesterday afternoon. The event was sponsored by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) and in partnership with the Oxford Internet Institute. The purpose was to look at how Government can exploit the success of the contemporary Internet.

The event preamble stated:
“Usage of government websites is on the rise but has yet to take off like Facebook, iTunes and many other spectacular examples. In this seminar we look at whether government and public services could engage the public in the way music, shopping contemporary Internet for the design of public services and public engagement? Attendees will have the chance to listen and question leading figures in the area from Government, academia and industry.”

I only attended session 2 (by choice – this seemed the more interesting session to me since it was more ‘end-user’ focused):

• Reinventing Government for the Intranet age – Jerry Fishenden, Microsoft
• Citizen redesign of user-centric government – William Heath, Ideal Government
• Small is beautiful: Re-engineering government from the bottom-up – Tom Steinberg, mySociety.
• There was a panel Q&A chaired by the Earl of Errol.

Jerry Fishenden

• Government systems set up as individual silos to meet needs of the individual departments and not citizen-centric.
• Example of young offender, who may be in and out of education several times, known to social services, then police and ultimately judiciary.
• Data on the individual held in multiple places and limited sharing of data/information.

William Heath

• Web 2.0 is anti-hierarchical. Potential loss of control
• Culture of assertive non-listening and spin in government
• The challenge for CIO’s is to manage up, not down
• IT suppliers are contracted to conform to stated requirements, not solve social problems.
• Lack of a clear customer voice
• Citizen's have difficulty getting information from government that will help them with manage the complexities of living in today's society
• Problems for the citizen – the Computer says ‘No!”

Tom Steinberg
Demonstration of FixMyStreet.

• Shows how existing datasets can be simply re-purposed.
• “World exclusive” demo of mashup enabling users to enter house price and travel time to place of work parameters to identify areas on map that match parameters. Many uses – e.g. those seeking affordable housing within required travel time.
• Don’t try and do culture change. Implement what the user needs – culture change will follow.
• Keep things (projects) small
• Heavyweight project management (e.g. Prince 2) can be the enemy. Need agile project management and agile development.
• Stop wasting money on training; if tools are worth using then training is unnecessary.
• Don’t spend 80% of budget on culture change – double your investment in the technology instead.

Quote of the day (non-attributed)
“There is a stench of failure in traditional project management in government – and quite rightly deserved!”

Q&A (abstract)
Q: Government systems and technology designed to manage highly complex processes – e.g. tax, with incremental change in response to changes in law. Need for

A: Yes, but why can’t HMRC have simple “submit tax form” button on their website?
A:  Government already have most of the personal tax details from previous returns – why can’t they issue tax returns largely completed – citizen then note any changes, sign and return.

Conclusion
Some good presentations, and good insights into what is wrong with Government's use (or misuse) of technology. Nothing really new - the Government can't do agile project management, is crippled by over-large and over-complex projects and only listens to itself! Systems and datasets are designed and developed for one specific use and can't be (easily) re-purposed. The user (citizen) remains a distant - and often annoying - dependency who generally can't be trusted to manage any aspect of his/her life.  Government knows best and will continue to think for us.  In the mean-time, those who live and work in the real world and understand the frustrations of dealing with government departments will continue to strive to be heard and must rely on the handful of innovators and entrepreneurs in the private sector to make small and incremental improvements to their lives.      

UKGovWeb barcamp event

I'm looking forward to attending the UKGovWeb barcamp this coming Saturday 26th January - though  not quite sure what to expect, this being my first barcamp event. However, I'm encouraged by the fact that  the organisers (and primarily Jeremy Gould) have done this sort of thing before and have avoided getting bogged down with over-prescriptive planning at the expense of delivery. Judging from the list of  presenters and topics noted on the barcamp wiki and the very active forum discussions in the Google Group,  there is enough creative energy to carry the day and make it a worthwhile learning and sharing experience for everyone.

Time and scheduling permitting, I will be presenting and discussing the work I've been doing these past two years in introducing social networking and Web 2.0 technologies into local government in order to  improve inter-authority collaboration and provide learning and sharing opportunities. The ultimate objective being to improve council services through smarter ways of working. The following is a brief synopsis of what I will cover:

"Social tools and technologies are changing the KM landscape, making it far easier to connect with peers and experts, and facilitating far more effective knowledge sharing and collaboration. We are moving beyond the factory model of ICT, which focussed on centralisation, standardisation and storage to a more diverse and less regulated environment.

For some, this provides the opportunity to break out of the silo working practices so prevalent across the public sector, and encourages a more productive and collaborative approach to online knowledge sharing. Others see this as undermining the integrity and quality of established (and centralised) knowledge repositories and best practice procedures, and equate social networking with purely leisure and entertainment activities.

Early in 2006 I set about persuading the Improvement and Development  Agency (www.idea.gov.uk) to develop a  social networking/social media platform for local government. This was eventually launched (www.communities.idea.gov.uk)in September 2006. The underlying purpose was to see if Web 2.0 technologies and social media applications would encourage staff working in local authorities to share ideas, best practice and policy initiatives across the sector, without being inhibited or constrained by geographical location or boundaries (e.g. the local council's boundary). Given that most councils were being squeezed by lower budgets on the one side, and pressure to improve services on the other, the only way many of them could drive through any further efficiencies was through smarter ways of working - which is how this overall initiative was promoted.

Despite some resistance from the more senior tiers in local government, who are still wedded to the traditional 'command and control' methods for managing staff and services, the overall strategy has been remarkably successful. The platform was launched in September 2006, and membership has grown from nothing to over 7000 registered members - and still growing. There are over 200 active communities on the platform (which is free to join for public sector employees) with representation from nearly all the 400+ councils in England and Wales.

The key challenges in developing the strategy (and still to be entirely overcome)  were:

1. moving from a culture of knowledge repositories (people-to-information) to one of knowledge collaboration (people-to-people),
2. introducing a sceptical and mature staff demographic to the concept of virtual collaboration using social computing/Web 2.0 facilities and
3. creating, developing and growing effective communities of practice in local government, where command and control systems are prevalent." 

I would be interested in hearing from anyone at the barcamp who has tried a similar approach for encouraging shared learning, or is considering doing so in the environment they work in. I'm happy to share the lessons I've learnt, and anxious to pick up any hints and tips from those who have already trodden this rocky path.

I'm particularly interested in any anecdotes from delegates on how they have addressed the three points mentioned above.

I'm also interested in hearing views about how important the technology is in encouraging communities of practice or interest to develop.

You can follow the planning for this event (and presumably the outputs from the day) on the aggregated Pageflakes page that Dave Briggs - "the Web 2.0 dynamo" - has set up.

Public Sector Social Media Meet

Dave Briggs has posted details of an event being arranged on 26th February as part of the Community of Practice for Social Media & Online Collaboration. This will be of potential interest to anyone working in (or for) the public sector who is using - or thinking of using - social media/social networking applications to support improved collaboration shared learning. The event is both an opportunity to see and learn how others are applying Web 2.0 technologies in their departments and as a showcase for anyone wishing to contribute information about their pet project. I've been a member of this particular CoP since Dave started it off and can highly recommend it to anyone who is currently struggling with the breadth and scale of the technology options available to them in this particular domain. Full details of the posting here:

Members of the Community of Practice for Social Media and Online Collaboration are meeting up at the Learning and Skills Council National Office in Coventry on 26th February 2008 between 10am and 3.30pm for a day of Web 2.0 fun and frolics, including:

• The benefits of using social media in the public sector, real life examples
• Building social web sites: blogs, wikis, forums and social networks
• Making social online video
• Group discussions on where the potential is for social media to make a real difference and a "how do I?" : Matching tools to problems
• Future developments of the CoP

If you aren’t already a member of the community and you feel it would be worthwhile attending please join us here and sign up on the wiki to say you’ll come.