Whisper quietly, whisper well (Kindles)

I got a Kindle for Christmas. It's just about the best Christmas present I've ever had. Here's why.

I love pressing buttons.

I could end the post right there, but I suppose that might not be terribly fair. Some people might not have one and be wondering if it's worth getting one (hi Kat) and others might be wondering what all the fuss is about and why a girl who is passionate about keeping public libraries open and who loves the smell of pages with print on them might want to turn the dark side.

Firstly, let me tell you what the Kindle can't do.

• It's as useful as a blank piece of paper in a blackout
• If, like me, you're an architecture geek, or a travel geek, or a bike geek and you want to see pretty pictures rendered in full colour, forget it. It renders them in beautiful, crystal clear black and white, but that's not really floating my boat when I know I should be seeing that cathedrals rose window in full technicolour glory
• Apparently the buttons are in the wrong place for some people
• I am short sighted, but even with my glasses off I can't read PDF's in native resolution, and so either I must increase the text size (which is incredibly easy to do) which means I have to use the '5 way' joystick affair to navigate from left to right across the page - irritating - or swich the orientation of the screen to landscape (which is also incredibly easy to do) which then means using the normal page turn button on the side at the bottom or top which just doesn't work very well
• In its experimental bit is a web browser. Forget spawning new windows. So half the web. It can deal with Twitter. Just about. Don't try reading Google Reader natively to read blogs. That doesn't work either
• As someone else has pointed out, the pricing model is bizarre. Painfully bizarre. Leaving me standing in Waterstones checking my Kindle app to see which is cheapest, real or electronic copy bizarre. 
• Tying your Kindle to your Twitter account can be painful
• Wireless reception is flaky. It might just be our router, but I don't think it is
• Some books still don't have an electronic version on offer
• Oh my god, the typos

Things which make me grin every time I pick the ugly grey thing up (did I mention it's ugly? It's ugly):

•  The clarity of the words on the screen is ridiculous. Everyone I've given it to to have a poke and prod has commented on it. On the screensaver. 
• The synchronisation with Calibre is excellent. We'll get to Calibre in a minute.
• Wireless is painless to set up (but see above for reliability)
• Tying the Kindle to your Amazon account is painless
• The user guide it ships with is actually worth reading. Yeah. I read a manual. My geek card is on the counter over ->
• The Kindle store means you can download sample chapters of books for free. It means you don't have to accidentally pay for books you'll never finish. It's a wondrous idea.
• Collections - you can categorise all your books. Yay, thank goodness.
• Deleting is two clicks. One more than is disastrous, one less than would be irritating.
• Lots of classics are free. Which is great if you like classics (I do), not so great if you don't, because nothing else is free. 
• The battery life is immense
• Backing out of a book doesn't lose your page
• The iPhone app syncs via Amazon to your Kindle so whatever you buy in one appears in the other, and ditto what page you were on syncs too
• It weighs nothing. No more concussion for your partner when you fall asleep with a hardback book still in your hands (just me? okay), or if you've got badgered wrists.

I'll post about Calibre another time. This post is already too long.

Another weekend, another social media PR disaster

Boots. I salute you. Because damned if you do and damned if you don't just really bit you on the behind.

UKUncut have been out bringing protest and humour to the streets again today. And Boots have received a visitation due to their alleged (I don't know enough about all this so am using alleged) tax avoidance. It appears, superficially, that while police were outside the door CS gassing protestors, inside someone was tweeting this (via @nksheridan). It appears to come from @bootsmealdeals and appears to be commenting on Boots attitude to the polices reactions to the protestors.

The account has now been deleted. As has @bootsstores. Now ordinarily, my reaction to this would have been woah! overreaction much, and to question why they simply didn't issue an apology on the stream, explain that it had been a mistake and carried on, business as usual, because deleting the accounts simply makes them look a bit stupid, because as the link above clearly shows, nothing on the interwebs is ever actually deleted. Ever.

But then you start to look a little deeper and you wonder exactly how deep the doing it wrong goes. And it goes quite deep. A quick riffle through the boots.com website reveals a blog (I'll not pass comment, it's not fair) and no mention of Twitter, at all. Even in the Contact Us bit. So thanks to other Tweeters, I discovered an account, which has also been deleted, called @bootsstores. The only tweet from this account that I can easily find is this one. Funny Donkeys. Yes, you did read that right. Also, note the user pic.

So, we've got one of two situations here, and neither of them is very happy making for Boots. 1) two accounts which are not actually being run by Boots officially, but are being run by employees are merrily tweeting quite company reputation damaging stuff (yes it's only donkeys but really? First rule of running an official company Twitter account - be friendly but not over friendly and keep it vaguely related to business) because commenting on police action is just not the done thing or 2) you allowed two accounts which were nothing to do with you use your company name and cause quite widespread confusion when those two accounts are deleted, because if they're not you why have you waited until now to get them deleted and if they are you why do they look so unprofessional?

Whichever way you tilt your head, there are some very interesting issues here. In the midst of a backlash against social media consultants, I would argue that now more than ever they are needed (as long as they actually know what they're talking about and it might be helpful is there were some questions somewhere which people could use to filter out charlatans), and I would also argue that Twitter verification is really rather necessary and taking it away leaving a gaping void is damaging Twitters reputation as well as other peoples. The potential for damage to a company not keeping an eye on what is happening on social networks should not need to be pointed out and nor should I need to say no Funny Donkeys.

But it seems I need to. So, no funny donkeys. If you're tweeting from a company account, make it clear it is, put a logo on it. And if someone sets up a Twitter account which might be mistaken for your companies official mouthpiece, hunt them down and ask them nicely to cease and desist and if they wont, get your Legal Department on the case.

Don't be a Boots.

Quick thoughts

My worlds are colliding on social networks. On Flickr and on Twitter. In blogs I follow and on my RSS feeds.

People I followed for their local government insight are becoming friends. People I care about and love talking to. People that are 'offline' friends are increasingly talking to and retweeting words from people I came across when I was embroiled in the whole Digital Economy Act tweetstorm. Offline friends are reading my words on the Guardian and saying well done - and more importantly making it to the end of the article despite not working with either maps or in local government.

Work colleagues are following my offline friends and my partner. My partner is happily chatting away to an old university friend who I met online but whose friendship is now mostly offline and face to face. Partners of work colleagues are advising offline friends on where to buy kit and I am happily phoning sort of work colleagues but not really on a Sunday morning to give advice on Tweetdeck because I like them, not because I feel in any way obligated to. I met the Director of a company my partners friend from university works for on Friday and it was simply acknowledge and accepted that the world has contracted and isn't it a bit odd, but also a bit wonderful.

I speak to many people. Some are in academia, some campaign passionately, some are social reporters, some social entrepreneurs and some just happen to be quite important people. I don't care about the quite important bit, though I respect it, but I don't think about it and I don't change the way I speak to anyone to reflect who they are and how I know them. Everyone is accorded the same courtesy, the same time, the same care if they want it and the same support if they need it.

What I find intensely interesting is that so many 'bubbles' of my life are crossing over - and everyone is getting along just fine. There was a time when birthday celebrations were dreaded as different concentric circles collided and repelled. Now, I don't think there would be a problem with that at all. And perhaps the strength of Twitter is that it reduces people down in 140 characters to their essence, to their interests, to their humanity and suddenly externalised visuals are less relevant and it is only what you feel or think or imagine which is important.

Along side of this, is something even more powerful.

I didn't introduce any of these people to each other. They connected independently (though I acknowledge that awareness of existence might have been through me) and are scheming, info sharing and discussing happily between themselves. From this comes the awareness that social networks are the fuzzy line between friendship and professional association, and that networking does not look the way that it used to look, that helping people out does not require existing in the same sphere, and that we do not need to force cross sector pollination, only to sit and watch it happen in front of our eyes as people connect, share, recognise wise words and pass them on. Would these people have ever met in physicality, before social networks? Probably not. And yet I suspect if you asked any of them if their world had been enriched, made easier, made lighter, or made more interesting by the associations which they are developing in a virtual world, I think they would all answer yes.

Organic growth of networks is happening. Through hubs and influencers and freedom of thought and sharing of information. Even networking cannot happen in silos any more, nor behind paywalls or login walls. Those walls are deterrents, because they are invariably labelled as being aimed at one single group of people. Social networks break down those labels and reduce us to simply humans who are curious, permitting knowledge sharing across boundaries, no longer locking us into neat little boxes, but allowing us to stack boxes one on top of the other, and information to be retrieved easily and quickly, depending on the situation and not the labelling of the situation.

Slowly but surely, we are thinking differently, and it is showing in the way our social networks are changing and in the way we choose to relate to people from different 'bubbles'. I wonder, I really do, what will happen to those people who determinedly remain in their 'bubbles' and refuse to come out.

I'm not doing something to do with work on a Saturday!

Those words came from the mouth of my line manager today. In speaking the words, I supposed there was an undeclared but intimated indictment of the way I chose to spend my Saturday - at an 'unconference' relating loosely to my work, along with 200 or so other people, who had chosen to do exactly the same.

In the process of explaining, I realised something. Well actually, I realised a lot of things. And it seems important to share those things, because if we truly are to expand the circles that the camp and unconference encompass then we are going to be increasingly asked to explain and justify why we choose to do what we do.

Some people work in central or local government because it's a job. It pays bills. It puts a roof over families heads. And some of us don't. We work as an extension of an ever ongoing internal conversation which looks at processed, workflows, systems and services and wants to make them better. The motivation for this questioning is as varied as the type of person you will find doing the asking, but one thing unites us all - passion. A pride and love in what we do, and why we do it and an increasingly unashamed attitude to collaboration and sharing. A determination to be part of the conversation which defines where we go in future and how we get there.

So, the question then becomes, how do you share that with people? How do you explain that talking about how to make things better and sharing ways of solving problems can make deliver you back at your desk on a Monday morning with a new way of looking at the world and with a new assurance that you are on the same page and that you are not walking alone. How do you explain that time passed so quickly while you were at the unconference that somehow you missed lunch and never noticed, that you wanted to clone yourself 3 times over because there were Unlibrary sessions mixed with Flickr sessions and Open Street Map sessions mixed with hyperlocal and there was so much to learn that you'd go again and again and again and give up more Saturdays to heasr it all.

How do I explain to someone that's never experienced the wonder of seeing a grid of 50 empty sessions magically fill in seconds because so many people have something to say but also something to ask and that this is amazing, that yes, some of those people are selling services quietly, be it their own or their companies, but in the majority, expertise and learning is given freely and with no other motivator than that it is a cool thing to do.How do I explain the relief in finding other people just like me, who want to change the world a bit, want to think about how to do that in all seriousness, a group of people who create buzz and enthusiasm, who are Italian with their hands, French in their passion, but terribly British in their ability to queue? So many personalities, so many hubs, so many interpreters, willing to share and be questioned?

Then there's the fact that egos are checked at the door. That job titles are never referred to, only Departments and then only if it's relevant. The liberation of being able to speak freely of problems, but also of successes, of being able to share workarounds and say 'we tried this, it didn't work, if you decide to go for it, try this instead'.

But most of all, the very most of all, how do I explain that I am a different person, almost entirely because of an unconference called City Camp, where I met some people I'd never normally meet, who blew my mind with their simple assumption that the world will change and it will be a good one. That this weekend was an entirely different experience to that weekend but that one could never have happened without the other, that the gift for a shy person of being able to choose and sit quietly and listen, and that that shy person will grow, grow up and start to contribute, will sit and listen but also say something if relevant, that finally, after years of trying and trying, confidence has landed in a lap which had almost given up all hope, that the professional development which I have obtained at these events for free is only counteracted by the personal development which I have taken away with me as I have walked a little taller day by day as I have realised that I do not know everything, but that I do know something - how do I explain that?

Well, I suppose with a blog post. One which comes as a result of a government camp I wasn't even supposed to be at but where I was welcomed, and learnt so very much, about facilitating, project managing, presenting, public speaking, sheep herding, as well as the more obvious things like Agile system design and how to encourage people to get blogging. For free.

Why should you attend an unconference? Because it will change the way you see your job. Your desk. Your team. Your Department. Your role in the behemoth which is government. Because you will feel like your voice is heard, no matter how small and insignificant. But also because you will learn from the very best - because (this girl excepted, I'm still learning) only the very best turn up on a Saturday. Only the best bother.
But it rubs off.

And glitter has a habit of sticking.

Pickles & perception busting

Thanks to the ever interesting Patrick Butler blog over on the Guardian, I have just been forced to accept an unpalatable truth. Councils are invisible. Or rather, not invisible entirely, but simply emerging from the grey swirling mists with orange lights flashing, Mercedes engine roaring, to collect rubbish from bins, before receding into some mysterious place, not to be seen again for another week or fortnight, depending on where you live.

Occasionally, for large swathes of Middle England, a conversation might be necessary to enquire where the nearest recycling centre is, or to buy tickets from a Council owned concert venue, or to enquire where a favourite author might be appearing because they've no idea where the library might be - but even then, a conscious connection between the service they are receiving and the faceless body which might be providing it for them is unlikely.

Councils, have got a serious PR problem. And there isn't anyone left in Communications to communicate what it is we actually do, and nor is there any budget to actually create a means to do so, and anyway, with so few people left, there simply wont be time to educate people about service provision. The simple fact is, many people pay their Council Tax and have no idea why they do so, except that the massive truck with its annoying beeping still turns up at some ungodly hour in the morning and it can't possibly cos that much, surely to put fuel in and where the hell does it all go, all this money? Surely they can do with less. Surely the cuts wont affect anything important, as long as the truck keeps on turning up?

Most people reading this blog know the other side of the story. We know of the indescribale agony of deciding what will be cut is happening right now, as I write you and you read. We know book budgets might be slashed, resulting in libraries simply being repositaries of out of date and irrelevant books. We know shutting Recycling Centres saves money, but that if we do not provide somewhere for people to recycle easily and painlessly, they simply will not bother and all that rubbish will turn back into general rubbish, and that that general rubbish will inevitably end up in a landfil site which, because it is in addition to what we expected to be produced, will push us over our allocated tonnage the government has allowed us, and as a result will cost us more money in penalties imposed by central government - for not meeting our targets. We know that refuse collection is a legal requirement, that we are legally bound to provide that service, and that as a result it must be ringfenced, but that the only thing ringfencing Childrens Services is a moral code. We know the decisions which must be made, we know the choices we will be given and we know this will affect every single service area except waste collection in some way.

Who speaks for the people who will be affected by the withdrawl of those services? Who knows of the impat and risk assessments currently being carried out. Who cares that while in the financial sector, such asset and service stripping would only be made at the end of a comprehensive review which included computer assisted modelling, projections and analysis but that in this sector, our sector, we have no time, no agility, no response, no wriggle room. Service withdrawal causes ripples. Yesterday, a NHS ICT Director pointed out that unless we all mapped where our cuts would fall, on which area within the Borough and on which voluntary group the funding axe would fall - we could end up all collaboratively but accidentally and without knowing withdrawing all support for some tiny but crucial volunteer group. If we could map and model, if we could collaborate across sectors, perhaps we could prevent that happening?

Lessons are being learned. Questions are being asked. In some areas, eyes are being opened. But there is a fundamental lesson which must be learned here, above all others. We are an invisible service to an entire socio-economic group, whether we like it or not. All collaboration to prevent disaster can happen, but will be invisible to most too. The key challenge for all of us in the future will be to ensure two things. One, that we are better at telling the important people what it is we do and how we do it (transparency, open data, open doors, engagement) and two, we need to look to the financial and other sectors in learning how they deal with change, and making it more cohesive, collaborative and risk managed.

Good thing the Localism Bill is heading for its second reading, isn't it?

Mind the (data) gap!

In the beginning, there was just data. It sat there, on remote servers, locked away behind firewalls and closed doors. No one gave it much thought, really, everyone sitting in their little silos, reinventing the wheel every time they needed to write a query or build a visualisation.

Then there was the word. And the word was opendata and it was new and big and shiny. It was bandied and bannered, posted high for all to see. It was used as a light sabre - a weapon to slice through locks, penetrate firewalls, and cast aside the fears of those who curated the hidden. 'Transparency!' was the rallying cry - and many gathered to this banner - developers and programmers, shiny eyed dreamers and central government believers.

Data.gov.uk was born. Linked data and SPARQl were created. Metadata was mooted and the language evolved. Coders coded and corporations released data and all was well with the wor...

Stop.

Hands up who understood all that? No, really, hands up. I'm being serious now. Deadly serious, because this is actually quite a serious subject. Does anyone reading this actually understand anything I just wrote?

I'll freely confess. I was fine until SPARQl and linked data. I understand them as a 'concept' but I don't understand the technicalities of how to make my data, our data, this data linked. I've tried. I've watched YouTube videos, read the page on data.gov.uk but I'm afraid I've found the limit of my ability to understand something and I avoided the linked data session at the weekends unconference for exactly that reason. Everyone else seems to understand and be massively enthusiastic, and I feel stupid. So I'm admitting it.

I'm inspired, entirely, by Toby Blume. I take no credit for this stance. It is his entirely. He thinks I am knowledgeable about open data. And I supposed I am in that I understand the concept and theories behind it and I love data, love reading, it burrowing through it, trying to find the use, the meaning, the stories and the successes hidden deep inside it. But knowledgeable? No. Except from where he is standing, which he freely admits to being right at the beginning, I suppose I am. And from where I am stanidng, Hadley Beeman knows everything there is to know about open data. Emer Coleman. Smart people knowing smart things, and trying to share them and defend them with other smart people.

So, I am in the middle then. I can remember the beginning of knowing nothing and I can look across at another pool of people merrily discussing things I have no understanding of, though would love to. And there's got to be an acknowledgement that all three states exist, and someone has to go back and speak in plain English to those one or two steps back, because if we don't, if we really aren't prepared to bother to speak in plain English, well then we will never have access to Toby's organisations data, no matter how much he might want to provide it, because he doesn't understand even what it is, never mind the irritating technicalities surrounding the difference between a PDF and a CSV. In fact I guarantee you, at least one of those collections of three letters means absolutely nothing to Toby - and until you tell him why, he simply might not care.

Now Toby does care. A lot. I know he does, because he's wrestling with the same frustrations that I am. So how are we going to solve this knowledge gap? Who is going to step forward and explain in simple terms what each and every term means which gets flung around under the open data banner? Who is going to step forward from the developer camp and stop being snarky about all the stupid people who just don't get it, and make sure that those people do, so that the data stream continues, turning into a river and then a flood? Who will stand in the middle and negotiate between the two groups - explaining to one why patience is a virtue and Rome wasn't built in a day but we are getting somewhere, oh yes we are because at least Toby is asking the question - and those who are just like Toby and simply don't understand the possibilities, the capabilities, the implications, the assumptions, the potential?

Someone may well be doing all this already. Link me. Link Toby. Because we are not alone. We are lost. Lost in a sea of confusing terminology, which deters us from trying to do the things we know are good and right. We might be at different levels, Toby and I, but I really think we might both be at the same level of confused.

Utterly.

So can we put a temporary halt on the banner waving and can someone come and help the little people, please? Because, yes, we know government spending data isn't going to change the world, but if you'd only tell us what kind would, I could make a concerted effort to hunt it down for you and provide it in a nice shiny format for you. As long as if it's in something other than CSV you explain to me how to do it. Because JSON just looks like it's missing an A to me.

(Disclaimer: No Tobies were harmed during the making of this post. In fact I have been assured repeatedly that I have not misrepresented him in any way. Repeatedly. He's not clueless, it's important to point that out - he is aware of opendata and all its possibilities. Just struggling with the more technial stuff - and by that I mean the things we as geeks think are non technical, to others appear so. And they are in the majority, whether we like it or not.)

About a girl

I think it might be about time I did an introduction post. There also need to be some declarations of interest, and some disclaimers as 'lots of passion and little knowledge is a dangerous thing' rings in my ears.

This is not a blog, in the main, about what I know. This is a blog about what I do not. A blog, to me, is not about broadcast, it is about an opportunity for little voices to ask questions, and for kindly passers by who might know something about the subject to answer. As I ask more questions and more people pass by, it worries me that there is an assumption that I might speak of things I do not know, or that somehow I will not make it clear enough when I do not.

I know about maps. I know about GIS (though I never did a degree in the subject, I self taught in 2 years instead). I love both of those things very much. I used to work with them professionally, but I don't any longer. By association, I know a little about data and the value of open data because what drives maps but the data behind them? But again - this is not part of my current job, officially. So that's a sideline too.

What do I actually do? Well, apparently I am now a Digital Engagement Adviser. I was a Multi Media Communications Officer. In real terms? I use Content Management Systems to update live websites, do a bit of graphics but not much, a bit of content writing but not much, a bit of css but not very much at all, a bit of HTML which is better than my css but again not by much. I advise on social media. I set up the tools and platforms to allow other people to communicate across them, and I do risk and analysis on the use of those tools and platforms. I assess audiences, try and predict where things will go. I do this for a Council and also for a NHS Care Trust. It keeps me busy.

Outside of that? I don't code. I just know very many people who do and they are tolerant and answer my silly questions kindly. I can fix printers, I can fix computer software issues sometimes. If I want to know about something badly enough, I'll teach myself how to do it. I'm not an expert on anything, not a single thing. I have no qualifications in any of the things I speak of. What I do have is a curiosity about everything. Except football. I've tried and tried but bar a slightly yay for Blackpool cos they're the underdogs and I like their coaches ethics, I just can't summon any enthusiasm. Fortunately, I can usually summon some enthusiasm for about 100 other things so it doesn't worry me too much.

I am a geek. I am a little bit technical but not very much compared to most of my friends. I love just about every kind of music going - in fact all you need to know is that I'm as happy sitting watching the Birmingham National Ballet as I am watching Linkin Park. I ride a Marin mountain bike called Alice.

I am not an expert in anything. This blog is not the blog of an expert. I don't know anything. I just question everything. Here is passion and enthusiasm, but also honesty in the absence of knowledge. I do not believe not knowing excludes you from speaking about subjects.

Tell me this. If no one asks the questions, to highlight the gaps through which the sunbeams shine through, how then do the people who know enough to patch the windows know where to turn their attentions?

If we could all just accept that sentence, things would be so much easier. Oh, and, disagreement is not only allowed but encouraged. I don't know anything. You all do. Share.

More Twitter rules for business

I would do well, one day, to write one of these posts when not a bit irritated. I am a bit irritated.

Last week, someone who had never spoken to me before, out of the blue asked me about my relationship with Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council. Now. If it weren't in my bio on Twitter, I would forgive that oversight, but it's stated quite clearly in my bio on Twitter where I work. Ordinarily, someone not bothering to read my bio wouldn't matter either. However this person was trying to establish a business relationship with Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council.

So here's some free advice. Do your research before pitching at people.

Next. Same person. Asked me for traffic figures for our website. Completely out of the blue, with no preamble and only having spoken to me previously about the aforementioned cock up regarding my relationship with my own Head of Service. Whilst Twitter is informal, I freely acknowledge this, this is akin to striding up to me in the pub when I am sitting at a table in conversation with someone else, interupting, asking a completely irrelevant question to the existing conversation - and then leaving again.

The final nail in the coffin, however, was being berated in public the 3rd time this person spoke to me because not taking up his products meant a lollipop woman was out of a job.

Can anyone guess why I am not inclined to do business with this person, if I can at all help it?

I appreciate that Twitter is a new business tool for a lot of people. But taking the time to find out what the etiquette is, find out who the people are who you're trying to sell something to, can go a long way towards those people actually wanting to do business with you.

This applies to all kinds of business transactions. Being aggressive and pushy simply means I wont acknowledge you. Trying to speak for me, on my behalf in situations, means I will get slowly more and more narked. Going behind my back and agreeing things without any discussion when the outcome directly affects me is simply not the done thing and trying to tag onto the back of something because it is successful when you've never ever spoken to the organiser before simply makes you look like a dick.

Because Twitter is new, and because I am perhaps being a little uptight, everyone gets two chances. Two people blew theirs with me this weekend and it didn't need to happen - they just needed to scope out the person they were dealing with just a little bit better and everything would have gone just fine. If you're not prepared to spend the time to do that on potential customers/collaborators from whom you're going to be getting a lot of money or exposure - I suggest you don't enter into the arena at all.

At the end of the day (#ukgc11)

So, a girl walks into the Microsoft building, right and....

UKGovCamp is still rolling on, somewhere in a pub near Victoria. I am on a train home to Lancashire, with a head full of thoughts, hopes, fears and smiles. As ever, I am just one voice. I will try and link to everyone elses posts once they start appearing tomorrow.

So, as per the last post, I had great expectations of this event but low expectations of myself. How did it go? Well, I suppose the measure of a day, for me, is how much time I spend on Twitter and how much time I spend actually talking to people and interacting. I have posted few tweets today. It wasn't for a lack of content, only that I was too busy having amazing conversation with amazing people. There is nothing lyrical here, only facts, but the facts will speak volumes, I think.

Firstly, thanks to someone who shall remain nameless rescueing a slightly nervous Lou (I knew no one out of the 200 people or so there today - well no one in the 'have actually met them' category - but we'll come to that later) I ended up having coffee this morning and meeting Chris Chant. I liked. Warmth in people is either there or it isn't and so is grace and politeness and I must confess to looking forward with some hope to what comes out of DirectGov next. Big big big task. I hope there is some fun to be had, as well as avalanches of emails.

And so it was that I walked into an unconference for the first time after attending two previously completely calm and already having had conversations about service redesigns and flowcharting geek identification arguments. Always a fantastic start to the day.  The Microsoft building was nothing like I envisioned and throughout the day others compared the surroundings to the two previous camps homes, Google and the Ministry of Justice. I get the feeling that who comes out on top in terms of hospitality is not who you think it would be. And no, I wasn't checked for an iPhone at the door.

One of the first people I met was @pubstrat, Stefan Czerniawski, who may be quietly spoken but should not be underestimated for quantities of fearsome intellect. Him and @curiousc, Catherine Howe, are quite some team when they get going - but again, later.

Introductions were concise, swift, decidedly lacking in ego and read like a who's who of central and local government sparky people. It reflected excellently a bunch of people entirely secure in themselves, who were simply there to learn, absorb, network, explore and question. In other words, I kind of figured at that point I was in good comapny, relaxed a bit, squee'd at Dan Slee who I didn't realise I was sitting next to and tried frantically to make a note of the faces of all the people I wanted to talk to. A lack of Twitter names on badges did make things a bit more challenging, but you know it wasn't the problem I thought it would be and as a result, people in this post are referred to by both Twitter names and real names and I think that can only be a good thing.


What I wasn't expecting was the need to pitch sessions. So I chickened out. Don't judge me. The presentation I was going to give will get uploaded at some point once I've run it past the powers that be (they're named in it, it's only fair).

The first sessions was Reworking the Public Sector, based on a book called Rework. I missed the beginning of the session because of bouncing madly at @shirleyayres - but I got a lot out of it nevertheless.

• Never assume IT want to block everything - there are good reasons
• Don't ask for the solution (Huddle, for example), explain properly the thing you want to do and the business case for wanting to do it (collaborative working across orgs/sectors)
• Pick your fights, don't pick a fight. There's a big difference. Concede defeat (and do it gracefully, I would add to this)
• Working inside government organisations requires you to be a intrapeneur not a entrepreneur
• @publicsectorpm aka Jon facilitates gently and with grace and ensures everyones voice can be heard
• @ingridk aka Ingrid Koehler has a really rather lovely way of putting things

Second session. Now. The mistake I've made at previous unconferences was to go at things at 110mph and emerge at the other end exhausted and bleary eyed, having learnt nothing because nothing had sunk in. I was determined not to make the same mistake again. So I stepped out for some more coffee, some contemplative cigarettes and some fresh air.

Lunch and #lgovsm hacking - it's not working, or rather it is working, but the sheer amount of work attached to it is something I am struggling with. Conversations were had with @carlhaggerty and @808kate, some mentions of ether pad were made, maybe hosting it on the Guardian Local Gov Network, but we concluded there weren't enough people involved in the conversation and Kate and Carl went off to post a session. Somehow this concluded with us crashing Ingrid's session on blogging - and I can honestly say I have no idea how that happened and in retrospect feel terribly rude for not actually taking control of the situation at that point but I'll know better for next time. Ken Eastwood and @kevupnorth aka Kev Campbell-Wright appeared at some point and were hugged, as were @scrumph aka Sebastian Crump and @pigsonthewing aka Andy Mabbett. Who also were duly hugged. Beards were admired, happiness shared, and a growing sense of finding kindred spirits grew and grew. I love geeks. Even people who aren't trad geeks, even people who don't self identify as geeks. Totally happy geek.

People wondered off. I had a moment of realisation that none of this was about friendships to be built and only about business transactions. Then I sat and talked at @robandale, Rob Dale, who works for the Local Government Information Unit and I the tone changed again, as did my own comfort with the subject matter. Which is absolutely not the way around which it should be, and which is something I need to sit down and have a long old think about, because I think we were so absolutely on the same page, though I could be wrong. If I'm right, teamwork in the future, however it may look, is going to be a very fun thing indeed. It also blew out of the water any preconceptions of how people who work for think tanks are. Yes, yes, yes. Lets move on.

I intended to go to the first Agile session on implementing it in an IT arena. I got accosted by the mobile brownie procurement module which was @paul_clarke who proceeded to take pictures which I hope, so very much hope, might be of me. The whole experience was serene, and it was lovely to see the world through someone elses eyes and understand that knowing beauty can be found in the strangest of places - in reflections, in mirrors, in light and in dark./ To add the icing on what was turning into a rather fabulous cupcake, @Dr_Black aka the infamous Sue Black walked through the door. I say infamous because quite frankly she is. If you know anything about Bletchley Park or the British Computing Society, then you know who she is and if you don't you damn well should. I'm stopping there, gushing doesn't become one. (She utterly rocks, just so you know). Then I bumped into @carrybish aka Carrie Bishop and well. I am afraid I sort of embarrassed myself somewhat by squeeing at her about potholes. Yes. You read that right. Sometimes I despair at myself. She was graceful and also didn't laugh at me, and that sums Carrie up just fine - and in speaking to her I found something else - another piece of the jigsaw.

Onwards and finally into another session - Agile applied to general central/local government scenarios. Stefan and Catherine are wonderful foils to each other, complimentary in both style, speech, expressions and their ability one, to express the problem and dissect it and the other, to procure and summarise solutions. It worked so well and was almost a serene experience in that the ease with which difficult concepts were dealt with and almost made to seem easy was deceptive - because we are not talking about easy, we are talking about challenging, work method changing, entire ethos of large organisations modifying approaches. Exciting. Really exciting. And that was the point where I realised I had stopped trying to prove anything to anyone and simply let it go. A moment of light. Found.

Again onwards, this time to Ingrid's blogging session which I enjoyed immensely and was shocked to find I was in the same room as Jack of Kent. Infamy, infamy, etc, etc. But wonderful points made, @davenbriggs aka Dave Briggs said something which wasn't organisational in nature within my hearing and simply enforced my already high regard for the bloke (yes, but it's...complicated and we both know it is but it's okay nevertheless). My favourite message from the session was quality aggregating of blogs and also more info on what the khub will and wont be capable of doing as well as the repeated message, and quite rightly, that the Communities of Practice website is a massively under used resource.

I'll tackle #lgovsm in another post because it needs it and because it wont be positive. And this one is for so much positive.

On to the closing session where it became apparent that large swathes of people had snuck off without saying goodbye (understandable, long day) and then to the pub in which I finally caught up properly with both Shirley and Helen Jeffrey aka @imhelenj - both of whom are an inspiration, and both of whom helped put yet more jigsaw pieces into the right place on the board. More cliffs, and more articulation of something I know to be true, know will definitely happen - and meeting @jacatell aka James Cattell simply slotted a corner piece in - in that we are thinking the same thoughts and along the same lines and yet we're both hesitating and for very similar reasons. @jonfoster also froze with us, and it was a pleasure to meet someone I'm not sure I've ever tweeted with but who spoke gently and with intelligence. It was enlightening and heartening if not a little chilly!

Also in the midst of this, I finally met two awesome people who I've wanted to meet for ages - Ann Kempster and Sarah Baskerville. Stars. Utter stars. I'm not saying anything else, it's been said before - but there was a reason Sarah got a very big round of applause this morning. I hope next time I'm in London they will do me the honour of drinking with me - because even in the brief time I spent with them it was obvious their company should be sought.

And then there's Puffles. Oh dear. Is this blog the place for a Dragon Fairy? Perhaps not. Only know that concealed behind the silliness is someone I adore already but barely know and that civil service talent spotting in the future should not, and hopefully will not, look like how you think it will look. I salute and admire and am honoured. Gushing over. But seriously - awesome.

So, here I am, rattling home. Questioning what that word means. Questioning my place, and my inspirations, conversations I enjoyed so very much and want to continue, disappearing posts and disappearing funding, questioning what I can contribute and which conversations I should be involved in and which not. But I found two things today, two sentiments written across an almost completed jigsaw puzzle.

Confidence.

I have nothing to prove, only aspirations to realise.

With thanks to @lesteph and @davebriggs for convening a fantastic collection of people and creating a box within which to enquire, inspire, aspire and acquire.

Resources

A collection of all web items tagged #ukgc11 - Buzz, Lesteph
Lessons learnt implementing Agile in local government - Slideshare, Michele Ide-Smith
UK Gov Camp 2011 - Flickr, Paul Clarke
Transcript of the #ukgc11 tag on Twitter - What the Hashtag, Carl Haggerty
Storytime at UK Gov Camp - Blog, @likeaword aka Ben Proctor

UK Gov Camp 2011

I am going to UK Gov Camp 2011 this weekend. Saturday, to be precise (disclaimer: I paid, my personal time). And I'm really quite excited. Here's why.

I don't work in central government. I don't have Head or Director before job title. I am right at the bottom of grades before you get to cleaner. Refuse collectors used to get paid more than me. 6 months ago, the word Administrator was in my job title, pretty much.

What I am, unashamedly (and I refuse to be ashamed of this any more) is voraciously curious. About everything. UK Gov Camp is an unconference - something which seems to have escaped the radar of some attendees who requested an agenda, the response to which made me laugh very hard. Unconferences do not have agendas. Which seems to go against the grain with some people as much as their ability to comprehend the basics of quantum mechanics. In the same way that quantum wont work if you look at it, unconferences wont work if you examine them too hard either. Chaos. Reigns. Chaos is good. Occasionally, chaos should be embraced because as when you collide two protons chaos reigns, and interesting things come out which we know now to be quarks but didn't originally, if you collide great minds at high velocity in an unconference environment, similar outcomes tend to happen. Initially unrecognisable and unquantifiable, but eventually completely valuable.

So what am I expecting? Exactly that. Quarks. Sparks. And lots and lots and lots of wrangling and wrestling with difficult concepts, challenging truths and hard to swallow realities. Because that's what the world contains at the moment for both central and local government and where better to come up with solutions and reactions to that, than in the chaos created by an unconference.

The attendee list reads like a who's who of....well actually I don't know. But I can't wait to sit and listen and soak up the ideas generated. I'm not expecting epiphanies (though, actually I am because that always happens) but I am expecting it to be challenging. 200 people, almost all of whom I 'know' or are aware of through Twitter has the potential to be intensely tiring and disorientating for me. But I'll do it anyway, because without challenging yourself you just don't get any better at the things you're bad at.

So far, public sector agile (general), public sector agile (IT), cloud computing, data,gov.uk, use of opendata, apps demonstrations are all firing my neurons.  Interestingly, what has also come out of the event so far, before it's even happened, is the opportunity to meet face to face with other schemers (see previous post) and a great liking and respect for the Learning Pool team. They've been on my radar for a year. It's going to be really nice to find out if they are all as sparky, slightly geeky and inspiring as I think they might be.

So, I'm no packing my worries. I'm packing my netbook, iPhone, Kindle and headphones and heading off down to #thatlondon. And do you know, it really does feel like a little bit of a mini adventure.

#lgovsm - a redux

#lgovsm is a perfect example of why the JFDI approach to life sometimes just doesn't cut it. And I have learnt my lessons well.

Someone once said to me, make a mistake, own up to it, take responsibility for it, learn from it, move on. This is an admission of the first, definitely the second, a step on the path to the third and most definitely the fourth. And this, also, is what blogs are for, because through sharing mistakes, hopefully someone else will learn to, and thus never have to write a similar really rather embarrassing blog post.

The first session involved about 20 people. A similar amount took part in the second session, and it grew a little more by the time the 3rd one came alone. The core attendance tends to stay the same, with people drifting in and out depending on the subject - Councillors and representatives from the voluntary sector have all wondered in and out as well as local government entrepeneurs.

When I first launched it, I anticipated a few people chatting and it take a while to get off the ground. I expected people to be well out of ideas and things to say by the end of the session. I didn't expect journalists and think tank bods to have it on their radar - I wasn't sure anyone would have it on their radar - this is social media and things tend to be unpredictable.

I first realised there was a problem when Ingrid Koehler from the LGID mentioned some people had been pushing for a space to continue discussions generated on #lgovsm throughout the rest of the week. This has now been set up on the Communities of Practice and I am very grateful for this assistance. As an aside, the Communities of Practice is a fantastic resource for local government bods of all disciplines, not just those of us in social media - you will need to sign up for an account to be able to see the content, but I can highly recommend it - it's a brilliant forum to discuss issues and problems but also celebrate successes.

So, last night I did something I should have done right back at the beginning. Firstly, after discussions with @kazwccsocialnet we decided on a topic which should have perhaps been the first one - using social media to support social media evangelists in their organisations'. That right there is going to help enormously, I suspect, because it can be a lonely old place in the face of barrages of 'what exactly do you do for a job again?', blank looks from your mother when you try and explain, glares from colleagues who are facing redundancy, accusations of being peoples pet projects and assorted other rather negative attitudes which it can be difficult to shake off. Add to this that some people are running under the radar of their management in order to even create a Flickr group and the need for this discussion can be plainly seen.

Then between @carlhaggerty, @808kate and @kazwccsocialnet something rather awesome happened. We decided what was wrong with lgovsm, then we decided how to fix it, and then we decided to have lunch on Saturday at UKGovCamp to iron out the details. And suddenly, a bunch of local gov bods have formed a bit of a team, across geographical distances which still boggle me (West Midlands, Devon, Lancashire, London), built entirely over Twitter.

And this is why we bother. This is why I set up lgovsm in the first place. This is what social networking was built for - cross county collaboration between professionals who want to do things better, want to communicate better, want better tools to do better jobs. Twitter is not just a place to chat or network - it's somewhere to sew the seeds of collaboration out in the real world,. which then are applied back again to the digital world. It's where people with similar interests and drives can come together and assist, and build support networks.

If you ask me the value of lgovsm to others, I cannot answer. If you ask me the value of lgovsm to me, I can. It is becoming a professional development learning curve. It is teaching me about the need for planning and for collaboration and learning to stop being independant all the damn time, and to trust in others and ask for help. It's teaching me that geography doesn't matter any more. I am learning about organisation, planning, being agile, moving on swift deadlines and timescales, reacting to problems and solving them, but also on a personal level, I am learning very many things too. Because what we learn on a personal level benefits our professional lives and vice versa. And nowhere is this more true than on social networks.

If the conversations which happened yesterday come to fruition, lgovsm will go from something small and local to something massive and sprawling, but also useful, with interesting outcomes and ideas. There is not necessarily any actions on anyone at the end of these proposed discussions, only greater understanding and little sparks which can be stored to be lit at some future point. Social networking allows us to learn from a very great number of people from all sectors and all interest areas - a great many number of stakeholders.

No matter happens from this point forward, I have learnt, both in the running and hosting as well as in the participation of lgovsm. What makes me more happy than I can say, is that one of the people I originally thought of when setting lgovsm up, is now enabling me to make it more useful, more relevant and of more worth.

Funny how the world turns, isn't it?

Reaching for the top

One of these days I will write something purely factual. This isn't it, for which I'd apologise, but I never made any pretense of this blog being a bastion of well researched evidence, instead it is for the telling of experiences and observations, thoughts and the things which are unclear.

Elsewhere on the web, very bright people are about to wrestle with social mobility and how to ensure that smart people end up in smart places, and not on the end of a Probation Service pen or under achieving and bored, resulting in high sickness levels and disengagement with society.

Yes, you did read that right. And I'm still not going to quote research and statistics at you because I could, really I could, but that's not what this blog post is about. Other people build walls of numbers, I build walls of experience. My experience, organisations experience, life experience.

I used to be a Probation Service Officer involved in the delivery of something called an Intensive Supervision and Monitoring Project. Click the link and go to point 2 for a description of what this is generally considered to be. Our project was based in Tower Hamlets and involved offenders out on Parole from serving prison sentences who had committed 5 or more offences in the previous 12 months. A particular kind of offence tended to qualify offenders for inclusion on the projects - drug motivated thefts and robberies. Of the 15 offenders on our list during my time with the team, 1 in particular sticks in my mind. He was a young chap, about 20 or so and incredibly bright. Unfortunately, he wasn't recognised as being so inside the education system, and so flew under the radar. As he got more and more bored, his interest in school dropped, and his interest in crime rose - because it was problem solving and because he was good at it and because it gave him an adrenaline rush. Eventually, drugs offered similar things and one fuelled the other, until his brightness was eroded by the drugs and he got stupid, and he started getting caught.

I can't tell you how many times he didn't get caught but to give you some idea, the lad had been in and out of courts so often that the Court staff recognised him.

Research shows, his gender is related. Boys under perform at school. I know that article talks about expectations potentially harming outcomes. There is a reason for that. Because that's where I'm going next.

As that article points out, children pick up on expectations, not only of their teachers, but also of their parents. One can outweigh the other. But if you are met with both as you grow up, then you can find yourself expecting nothing of yourself, because no one else expects anything of you. Don't believe me? Think bright people are bright no matter where they're born and get the same opportunities? Wrong.

Aspirations are luxuries. I've said it before and I'll say it again, when you're concentrating on paying the bills, the rent/mortgage and how much money you've got left in your purse at the end of the week, your childrens aspirations and your aspirations for them can go out of the window. Instead, your childrens view of the world can shrink to not annoying mummy and daddy as they have yet another argument about yet another brown envelope which has just dropped through the door. Homework is not considered important in the face of housework which needs to be done. Books are absent. Inspiration is non existent. Exposure to the world of work in these situations is rare because oftentimes, parents are not working, or are working in construction, administration, or other service industries - and there is no perception of a world outside of these areas.

Even when it comes to work experience, which should be an opportunity to widen horizons, connections which some children do not have through their parents play a part. Everyone else in my year (or so it felt) went to work in interesting companies and organisations which either their parents or their parents friends worked in. I went to the library for a week (because all geeky people who like reading books should aspire to be librarians - I'm not knocking the profession but it was suggested to every child in my year who indicated they liked books by some random piece of software which processed the boxes we'd ticked) and then I went and photocopied for a week at a local estate agents. Stop laughing at the back - and those who know anything about me will be laughing, believe me.

Children do not know possibilities are there unless they are told they are there. Now, I know background is less important than I thought it was, but I still turned up to university (my parents never mentioned university as a possibility once, my attendance was entirely down to my best friends parents to whom I owe a great debt) feeling like I had been dumped into an entirely different world. Everyone looked different, wore different clothes, had entirely different life experiences, had actually been outside of the country once (I went on a school trip to Paris), had eaten in restaurants (sounds ridiculous? I'm not lying, you try eating in a restaurant for the first time and not knowing the correct way of ordering, in what order, eating with which cutlery, it's mortifying) and actually really feeling like a fish out of water.

Moving into the world of work straight away and skipping universirty wouldn't have been any less confusing, because I had no idea of what a normal working day looked like. My previous experience of work had been working 12 hour days 7 days a week at the local Co-Op to attempt to mitigate some of the massive amounts of debt I was getting into - and of course, I thought that work ethic was normal. So, of course, my first job after university was as a data entry clerk for a local insurance company. Because I simply didn't know any better, I had no contacts to help me find something appropriate and I thought it was all I was good for, because no one had ever told me I wasn't.

In order to succeed in this world, there are many tools which are needed if you are born into a place where those skills simply don't exist. I'm not, by the way, telling you this so you ever look at me with pity, for if you do I shall ignore you entirely. I am telling you this so that you can at least go away with a better awareness of how lucky you are, and at the absolute best, you can go away and make life a little shinier for someone else.

• Confidence. Some people are told from a very early age they are good at certain things, excel at others, and good grades are celebrated, recognised and sometimes rewarded. The impact of none of those things happening can often result in under achieving people because they simply don't think they are particularly good at anything. Positive re-enforcement is absolutely the most important thing. Access to people who have the time to do that is helpful. Whether that's physical access or digital access, I personally don't think so, but other people may have research to hand which disproves me. 
• Aspirations. You can't aspire to be something or do something if;
• you don't know what is out there to aspire to be - so better information on career paths available absolutely has to be a priority. I don't know how the Careers Service has developed but I promise you, a less dynamic, helpful, interesting or useful experience I've since to have. Please make it relevant and interesting and capable of acknowleding that some people do not fit in boxes. Indeed, some recognition, please, that people who do not fit in boxes need to go into think tanks, civil services, GCHQ, and many other places would be absolutely fabulous. It's not talent spotting, it's simply acknowledging there is a space for everyone in the workforce and behind a library counter is not the last resort for people you don't quite understand
• you haven't got the belief you have the right to aspire. See point 1. We're going to keep coming back to this.
• Expectations. If no one expects anything of you, if you have no targets or deadlines or grade levels to head for, well what's the point? Really? Some people can motivate themselves endlessly, but not everyone. There has to be somewhere to go to say 'I did this and it was frikking awesome', somewhere to share enthusiasm and passion, or it dies. Some recognition is necessary, some feedback required to give a reason to young people to achieve when there is utter disinterest at home born from a complete lack of understanding.
• Influence. This loops back a little to point 1 (Confidence) but it deserves a seperate point, because it is important. There is something inarguable about people spending time helping you to grow and develop. No matter how irrelevant you feel your contribution (because it is not valued in your home or educational environment) if enough people spend enough time nuturing, listening, answering questions and discussing, eventually it is impossible for the subject of that time to disregard the opinions, or the worth implied by the time invested of all those people. The simple fact is, again positive re-enforcement is key. Having somewhere to go to express unformed ideas and opinions, somewhere to take the first steps in learning how to discuss and debate like an adult, is essential. 
• Celebrating intelligence. Our society revolves, in the main, around a celebrity culture which places high regard on looks, size, singing or acting talent, and none of the ability to think. Role models for young people who want to learn as much as possible in a short time as possible are few and far between. The recent Stargazing Live event run by the BBC is a big step in the right direction, but the lack of scientific, mathematical or literary programming on mainstream TV doesn't help. Exposure to people who are bright, like to think, who are intelligent and are entirely comfortable with that reduces the impact of young peoples experience of intelligence being something which marks you out as different, often results in bullying and ends up being seen as a negative atttribute and not a positive one. Something has to be done to mitigate this, whether it's a joint venture between smart minds who don't mind sharing, or whether the exposure of young people to blogs which like to think increases. The balance has to tip and the digital space is the place to do it.
• Mentoring. As previously mentioned, the only reason I went to university was the assumption I would be from my best friends parents, one a teacher, the other a Police Officer. That assumption led to me filling out a UCAS form without really thinking about it, there was simply an assumption that with the grades I was achieving (despite everything) I would be going. So I went. Not the best reason, in retrospect, though I am so glad I did. Mentoring needs to fill the gap for those who aren't lucky enough to have a best friend who crosses the invisible lines. Tucking people under your wing can be a massively time intensive undertaking if you're not careful, but it is also massively rewarding. You get back exactly what you have the time to put in. But in the process, your team might end up with a graduate who sparkles instead of one who simply knows how to fill in an application form really well. You don't know, if you don't try. 
• Acceptance. Young people who aren't necessarily from the same background as you, might feel a little bit self conscious about that. Accepting young people as bright, but with chips around the edges still is absolutely essential. Don't expect perfect etiquette. Don't expect no lapses into text speak, though gentle nudging in the right direction will be appreciated. Do expect great things of them, but allow them to fail as well as succeed. Failure can look daunting to people who are not used to it, no matter what background they come from. Going from being the brightest goldfish in the bowl, to swimming with what may appear to be a bunch of sharks initially can be intimidating and requires a big shift in outlook, from inside to outside, from learning independantly (lack of parental interest will mean studying alone will have been the norm) to learning from asking questions, debating and being wrong. Sometimes endlessly. Allow people to be wrong. 
• Motivators. Money isn't necessarily the motivator for wanting a good job and to be successful. I am not denying it's on the list for most people. I'm not denying that if you have grown up with nothing, suddenly having enough money to afford a book whenever you want one isn't really nice. But some people are motivated by being able to work with people just like them who like to think and do and question. Others are motivated by wanting to pass their knowledge, passion and enthusiasm on. And some people are purely motivated by money. Don't make assumptions, you need to cater for all of them and you need to tailor possible offered outcomes to take into account all these things.

All of the above comes from experience. My experience. I guess that might be obvious. But I remember vividly how I felt at 12, at 16, at 18 and at 20 years old. I wish very much the web had existed then. Because it was only in being exposed to other people who liked to think that I learnt it was okay to, that it was expected in some quarters, that it was celebrated and encouraged. If we can pull people in, if we can accept that at the moment the people we might be trying to reach might only have web access in libraries or at school because a broadband connection is not at the top of priorities at home, and we acknowledge that everyone needs to be helped just a little bit differently but that there are common threads, I believe digital can be the answer to starting ripples in places never reached before. I believe digital can do the same thing for others that it has done for me.

I believe there are thousand of people out there, feeling just how I used to feel. And I believe they can be, if they want to be, the leaders, thinkers and innovators of the future.

Bringing something different to the table, can often result in a redesign of the table.

Innovation (and JFDI)

There is a discussion, elsewhere, on whether skunkworks (the link is to Dave Briggs' post on the subject) can work in local government, and in passing whether local government is the right place for innovative ideas to be thought of, thought around and then implemented.

It's an alien discussion to me. I don't know if that's because I am not a manager or because even if I were I would be wired the way I am, but I just can't agree with the belief that local government is full of boring, unimaginative, follow the line painted on the floor types. Even in my old Department, Enviromental Services, there were more than enough big ideas, small ideas and frankly, ridiculous ideas to go around. For example, in the face of cuts and despite refuse collection being ringfenced as it is a legal requirement for a Local Authority to provide waste collections, someone pitched the idea that collections should switch to 4 days a week, terms and conditions should be re-assessed and changed and as a result, a large amount of money has been saved, contributing to the over all pot of savings. (I don't know exact figures but I can get them if anyone is interested, it's just no one in that Department tweets yet!).

The same amount of bins are being emptied, but the way in which they are being emptied is more efficient, better use of time, gives crews 1 day off a week, doesn't effect their pay, but reduces costs and overheads on vehicles, yard space and overtime. That, right there, is thinking outside of the box. Doing more with less. Thinking differently. And I don't think the person responsible will mind if I say that he's not exactly in the top 5% of known innovators in our LA. In fact thanks to being 3 miles away from the Town Hall on a remote site, hardly anyone knows who he is which is a whole different story around being better about shouting about the stars that we do have, but there you are.

Stories like this, as a result of internal consultation, are coming thick and fast. Our Chief Executive asked for ideas on how we could save money. He published every single one on the intranet, and every single one got a response from someone in a relevant Department about whether it was a valid suggestion, if it wasn't why it wasn't with supporting statistics, and if it was viable, where the suggestion had been sent and who it was sitting with to be implemented. One of those involved using Eco Font across the whole organisation to save money. We already set all new printer installation of drivers to print double sided and in black and white - but there's always one more idea, one more step, another level to take things to - perhaps in the absence of someone seeing that it was possible that a suggestion could be made about printing double sided across the whole org, and seeing it being implemented, perhaps the eco-font suggestion would never have been made?

If you sit and think that innovation, ideas, changing cultures, suggesting and doing the ridiculous things is not possible, as a leader, that attitude will permutate throughout your organisation. If you decide that whatever suggestion someone makes will receive consideration and you are transparent about the process in examining those suggestions for their validity, you will cause a snowball effect. Employees right now have to feel valued. Have to feel listened to. Have to feel that they are not simply throwing words into the wind.

Being dynamic is a weird thing. The people who are, don't think they are. My old Head of Service, over in Environmental Services, most definitely doesn't think he is. But he is. Because he sees a problem, thinks about it for a bit, writes a proposal, consults the unions, and then he implements. And the last stage of the process is the most important but with the attitude of 'we cannot innovate in this space', the last stage will never be reached.

We must do more with less. We must accept the voluntary and community sector cannot fill the gaps, that big society is a concept, and we must accept that there is simply no money any more. Instead of becoming frustrated and depressed and demoralised, it is imperative that those people left behind in the great cull are continually updated and communicated with, but also continually encouraged to inspire, to lead, to dare to think, to destroy boxes and shoot for the skies. Social media can play a massive part in this, but it must be a part of a wider strategy, one of openness, transparency, humour, determination, leadership, dynamism and passion.

It's going to be a tricky one.

Smart girls

Yes, yes, more self indulgence. Now that's out of the way...

I am girl. I am smart. For 50% of the population, there the story ends. I'm afraid that for the other 50%, it's really rather more complicated than that. And here's why.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO presents a wonderful TEDWomen talk on 3 points. Sit at the Table. Make your partner a real partner. Don't leave before you leave. You can see the talk in its 14 minute entirety below, it's worth watching.



So.There are a number of issues here, for me. One, on the right hand side of the page where this talk is embedded on TED's website, other recommended videos are listed. When I looked, not one was by a woman. Which, okay, is fair enough, it's probably a random alogorithm generated listing. But all the same it would have been nice if...

Two. What is she actually saying, and in the process of listening did you check out her shoes, how she looked, what she was wearing and that her hair is immaculate but her nose is most definitely not LA? I'm guessing so. Like @fredgarnett on Twitter, did you make an assessment of her as a woman and conclude that she was a masculinised woman, who'd had to 'cross over to the other side' to become a COO? And if you did, do you have any concept of how insulting that is, not only to her, but to every other woman who quietly and secretly wishes they could be standing where she is?

I am cute and fluffy. So, I suspect, is Sheryl. 5 year old kids don't tend to cling on to women who are not cute and fluffy when with their children, on leaving them to get on a plane. So what I actually suspect has happened here, is that someone has made an assumption based on nothing more than either her job title, or the way she dresses. (I should state clearly here that Fred's assessment is based on an anti-capitalist stance and not an anti-women one and that I like the bloke really rather a lot and respect him enormously). A common occurence I suspect.

The problem is, cute and fluffy means, as Sheryl has excellently pointed out, you get second place behind those not so cute and fluffy. It means you take someone at face value when they say 'only 2 more questions' and out of politeness and the wish to adhere to societal norms, lower your hand, meaning other people's questions get answered and other people's names are on people's radars, not yours. Cute and fluffy means everyone knows you care, and so take full advantage of that, meaning you end up doing ridiculous amounts of work on a voluntary basis, to discover that the person who asked you to do it did have some funding but it went to less cute and fluffy people than you, because they refused to do something for free. It means you are not taken seriously, you are not sat at the table, you are not in the loop, you are not listened to, you do not receive conference invites, you do not get asked to shape policies and strategies despite knowing much more than those writing them in some cases thanks for personal life experience.

Instead, what happens, and I speak from 15 years experience here, what happens is you are humoured, token gestured at, doors are held open for you, people's attention wanders off and you don't call people on it, you are ignored entirely and practically walked into, it is always assumed you will take notes be it your job or not, you will always be the one making tea or coffee, whether you manage a team of 15 or not, and you will always and I do mean always feel patronised or invisible at least once a day and usually more.

Cute and fluffy does not win. When guys moan that nice guys don't get the girl, I usually react in one of two ways. Utter irritation or with a reply along the lines of 'then stop going for the girls you wouldn't be happy with if you got them anyway'. So, through discussions with assorted people this morning including @rich_w, @emmamaier, @curiousc (whose blog post sparked some of this), @fredgarnett and finally @mmarymckenna (who also contributed to some epiphanies this morning with this post on what the world looks like as CEO of a start-up.) I have come to some conclusions of my own.

• I need to stop whining
• Cute and fluffy doesn't win. Somehow I need to balance that with morals, ethics, politeness and confidence, belief and determination whilst never verging into arrogance. How on earth do you do that?
• Women, in general, do not leave their hands up. Whatever the reasons for this, it's putting us on a back foot in any number of situations. Leave your goddamn hand up.
• If you know the answer to a question, answer it.
• Decide what you want to do, stop bloody dithering and just focus 100% on getting it.
• Things will go wrong. CBT asks the question, what's the worst that can happen? What actually is the worst that can happen? Failure. Pfeh, been there, done that.
• Work out how to balance a need to follow with a curiosity about leading, and work out if 'I'm not old enough yet' is an excuse or a reality.
• Pass what I've learned so far on to as many women as possible and pick up girls who are strong and determined and opinionated and help as much as I can with retweets and replies and help and connections.
• Push, as hard as I can, relentlessly and determinedly, for some kind of mentoring system for women, over and above one for social mobility.
• Accept I am cute and fluffy, but also smart and curious and stop beating myself up for being me and just accept it and work around it. But also accept that image is everything whether I like it or not, and first impressions count and I must ensure always to remember that.
• Learn to hide my emotions, not to stop feeling them.
• Stop being embarrased when people pay compliments ansd definitely stop being embarrased about liking to think, ask questions, explore, probe and dance on the edges. No man would ever dream of apologising for any of those things, so why the hell do I think I need to?

I suspect there are very few men who would feel the need to write this post, nor that there are many men who understand why on earth this post is here. But for me, it is a declaration, of what is, what needs to change, and where I want to be.

#flumap

To be parsed as flu map and not flumap. Etymology aside though, whilst the following is not local government related, it is big society and NHS related, and I work in a shared service team between the Council and the NHS and so for once, the thinking which follows, I have actually been paid to do. Little good it will do me, mind :O)

#flumap, as a concept, has two strands to me. One of those strands has been neatly solved by an existing app created by two Bostonites in their spare time - HealthMap. Or at least I think it has, as HealthMap allows the tracking of pandemics and disease outbreaks across the world by searching and processing freely available data in digital format. It does rely on the use of smartphones and the take up of the iPhone app has obviously been predominantly in the US and Europe, but the simple fact remains that it can flag up seemingly unrelated outbreaks of disease quickly and for free - no resource is required. Interestingly, it is also aimed squarely at service users and not public health professionals, though there is nothing to stop public health professionals using the spewed out data to plan and respond.

Response is something I have spent the last week or so pondeirng as I got dragged into an evolving discussion locally on using social media for emergency planning and response for health. As so often happens, bright ideas don't happen in meetings inside four nondescript walls, but on the walk to somewhere - in this case in the freezing rain down to the local bus stop in order to get back to the other desk (I'll explain this mad desk hopping one day).

I wondered about a different kind of #flumap. A local one for local people. Essentially, what I'm proposing is using Facebook to create a group (or in our case hijack an existing group called BwD Winter) in order to allow people within the community to crowdsource assistance in times of emergency. So, for example, currently, H1N1 is the issue on the table. I wondered if it would be possible to use Facebook to allow people to self identify as people who required tamiflu (whether they'd been officially diagnosed or not as access to tamiflu is not restricted, I don't think, to those with an official diagnosis as official advice says to not go out in public once you start to display symtoms) and declare themselves exempt from the Data Protection Act in doing so. Then, someone (me) would map these people using Google Maps. In theory, what would then happen, is that people locally who were picking up tamiflu for someone else anyway, from a pharmacy also indicated on the map as having stock, would collect tamiflu for the person flagged on Google Maps who they didn't know, as well as the person they did - since they were going anyway.

If it were to work, it would remove a lot of pressure from the care network as well as health professionals as in times of emergency those are the shoulders most weight tends to fall on - not everyone has family around the corner who they can call on to go and collect some needed drugs for them.

So what I am really talking about is the opposite of a #flumap - I am talking about hyperlocal resilience, volunteering and crowdsourcing in order for everyone to be looked after and no one to be left out.

So my next question, of course, is would it work, do we have the resources, is this something someone else can pick up as an idea who do have the spare time and resources, does it have to be hosted by local government or NHS Trust, and how can this model, if it were to work, be used in flood situations and other emergency planning situations.

Or, you know, I could be just selling pipe dreams. Again.

Inconsequential people

Job titles are funny things. Today, someone has told me that they assumed I was on the GIS team, someone else has asked me if I know @marcschmid and what my relationship is like with Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council.

Other people have done funky stats reviews on their blogs. So I'm going to do the same, but before I do, let me make something abundantly clear. I am a Multi Media Communications Officer who works for Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council. I am 33 years old. I am female. And I am invisible. We'll come to the invisible bit later.

The first post on this blog was made on 12th February 2009. But there was a huge gap between that and the next one and so, we really should say that this blog started almost exactly a year later on 20th February 2010.

There are 76 posts on this blog, across 10 months, which averages at about 7.6 posts per month or roughly 2 posts a week. Not prolific but certainly someone who has something to say and possibly says way too much.

All the following information only applies from May 2010 to date as it took me that long to work out how to install the stats.

Total page views for this blog are 21,285. Average views per post works out to be roughly 200-300 depending on how niche the content is.

Top 3 posts were:

A little bird tweeting
13 Nov 2010, 18 comments 6, 435 Pageviews
BWD winter - one Council, two people, a lot of det...
29 Nov 2010, 10 comments 1,799 Pageviews
Some random Twitter 'rules'
2 Jan 2011, 10 comments 898 Pageviews

A total of 219 comments have been left on the blog. Every single one has been read and most have been replied back to. Visitors to this blog are mostly referred here via Twitter, although there are some slightly more interesting referrers in the form of  favstar.fm and iconfactory.com - interesting because I haven't paid for advertising anywhere. In fact I haven't publicised this blog in any way at all, except through Twitter and entering it as my website when leaving comments elsewhere.

Firefox is the most used browser to view this site - 6, 373 of you use it, compared to 3, 668 who use Google Chrome. No, I am telling the truth, I'll do a screencap if you ask. I'm as shocked as some of you will be. Visitors have come from the UK predominantly, with a few thousand from the US, thanks to a mention I suspect from TweetyHall. But, Russia, South Korea, Ireland, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada and France are also there. I am a teensy bit worried about one of those countries appearing in this list but also heartened.

2010 was the year I stuck my head above the parapet, with this blog. It was the year I formed opinions which are constantly changing, where I met people who are kind enough to accord me the courtesy of disagreeing with me and helping me see why I am wrong, and the year I learnt that I might be able to write a little bit better than I thought I could (which defaulted to 'I am crap at everything').

When you stick your head up, and speak, and you are honest with your words, people come and shoot at you. The snipers come, searching for the elusive cry of 'headshot!'. This is not a popularity contest. This is not a 'look at me, I'm brilliant I am' blog. This is where I come to think and wrangle and wrestle and think. Most of all, think, about what we do, how we do it, why we do it and how we can do it better. I am wrong. I am wrong in so many ways, on so many levels and so often. I disclaimer things until I am blue in the face because I do not pretend to anything absolutely, only to think something at a particular time and want to share it, to see what others think too. I like transparency, I like openness, I like thinking, I like collaboration, I like honesty, I like real, I like local government.

I don't like cowards.

If I could have any job in the whole wide world...

I never had any idea at all before. But thanks to inspirational people taking the time to talk, share and explain about the challenges and insights they have into their own world, I am starting to work it out. And it's a really nice feeling. I wanted to share this, because I think one of the fundamental flaws of the career advice young people are given in education is the absence of any kind of opportunity to talk to people from different sectors, and be inspired by them.

So my random suggestion for today, is for schools to convene some kind of Q & A panels for year 9's before they make their GCSE decisions (I assume it's still year 9 you do it in) where young people can have the opportunity to listen to representatives from local charities, local small to medium business, local social enterprises, local government as well as central government and national corporations, to be inspired, be informed and to ask questions. Before they choose work experience, before they choose GCSE subjects and before they become embroiled in paths which extricating themselves from will take time and effort.

I know a lot of young people are given these opportunities through parents and friends of their parents. Not all children have that opportunity. I genuinely think that this kind of careers advice would seriously lead to different outcomes.

Some random Twitter 'rules'

The first thing about Twitter is; there are no rules. No user guides to agree to on sign up. You can report someone for spamming you (sending repeated unsoliciticed messages, whether you're following the account or not), but you cannot report someone for being rude, obnoxious, irritating or having a bad day.

This is my very personal top 10 of things which wind me up on Twitter. I'm allowed a negative post every now and again, and I think we're running on a ratio of 1:9 at the moment. There's a mix of business and personal account gripes here. Not everyone will feel this way. (I think I've slapped enough disclaimer stickers on this now).

If you follow me, I expect you to at least make a passing attempt at 'engaging'. Because you followed me. Not the other way around. I didn't go looking for you, for some reason, unbeknown to me, you decided I might be an interesting person to have on your stream. So, when I talk to you, please don't act like I've committed some heinous offence. It's rude. I don't care how many followers you already have. I don't care how busy you are. I don't care that this account is a work account and I am not making you money so I am not worth talking to. You followed me. Talk to me, at least once, engage, just once and I will tolerate you. I might even like you. But everyone gets 2 chances. Then they get unfollowed. And I don't care who you are.

I don't expect you to care. I don't expect you to read everything. But please please please understand this is a two way transaction/relationship in the same way real life interactions/transactions/relationships are. Talk back. Don't broadcast at me. A certain comic shop - I am looking at you. You could learn much, very much, from the lovely, personably, charismatic @danacea who singlehandedly ensures I will shop at Forbidden Planet for the rest of my adult life. Also, don't say you get social media and do nothing but broadcast. This is not about bloody broadcasting. This is about engagement. If you're going to talk the talk you'd better walk the walk too. Or I will not trust your judgements nor your recommendations.

I will help you promote your business to the death if I believe in it and I wont if I don't because I just can't, I'm sorry. And don't expect me to retweet your stuff automatically, all the time and don't get annoyed when I don't. Something didn't hit a note with me. I'm picky as hell about what I retweet, if I weren't I'd ended up spamming (see above) everyone elses streams with things which didn't resonate with them. Which simply isn't the way Twitter works. Twitter is turning into many things it wasn't designed to be and peer reviewed content is one of those things. If I say something is fantastic or awesome, I mean it. I really do. Some of the people I follow, I click on every link they retweet for exactly the same reason - I trust them. They're my filters. I am grateful to them, not spiky with them.

Don't spam me. Human or bot, don't spam me. Filling my entire Tweetdeck column with tweets from the same account repeatedly, a tweet per second for however long, is going to make me cross. If it's coding which is the issue, please ask someone how to sort it so that the tweets which are scraping whatever site you're pointing Twitter at have intervals. 10 minutes would be good, 5 minutes tolerable. Ditto, if you've linked your Facebook page to Twitter to auto-tweet content, then please bear this in mind when posting multiple seperate updates to your Facebook page. I will unfollow even if I really want to read the content.

If you end up as part of a massive rolling conversation, it's okay to cut some people out and take the content off into a side conversation. Don't be bitchy/cruel/horrid to other people who were part of the conversation. They can still see what you're typing, because everyone who follows both of you can still see everything that you're typing. And it will upset people, people will call you on it and people will lose respect for you. It's okay to be you on Twitter, absolutely, but humiliating other people in public is just as uncool on Twitter as it would be in person, and the outcomes might be a little different to what you expect.

 I don't care who you are. I respect who you are. I am not talking to you because of who you are, I am talking to you because you are interesting or fun, fascinating or smart. I'm going to talk to you the same way everyone talks to everyone else on Twitter, which is possibly a little more informal than you are used to. If you want to join in the conversation, get used to it. Don't take offence. It's not disrespect, because chances are, one we've chatted a bit, I'll actually read your bio, process who I've just been speaking to, gulp a bit, and then carry on talking to you in exactly the same way. Because what you do in your day job does not define you and should not define you. You are more, you bring more to the table than just that. If you only want to talk about work, that's okay, but don't get annoyed at other people for personalising their streams.

Delicate one this, said elsewhere, but I'll say it again with a little more restraint. I am a girl. I like talking to people. I've been talking to people this way for a very long time. I am at home here. Don't ruin my happy space by hitting on me. If you insist on hitting on me, please do it by Direct Message where I can gently and politely explain that I have a boyfriend. Because I'm not having that conversation, any kind of that conversation, in a public stream. Conversely, I talk to people in a friendly way. I call people 'hon'. I am not hitting on you. It's just how I am with everyone I like and am comfortable with. Same goes for other girls - or rather I imagine same goes for other girls, but the DM rule still applies.

Other times you should take it to DM (direct message) include getting down to the nitty gritty of business transactions, asking someone to telephone you or to ask them if you may telephone them, to exchange phone numbers or Skype contact names or, indeed, any kind of personal information which you might not want your whole stream to know or see. That's the obvious stuff out of the way. The not to so obvious stuff is harder to quantify, but if you're getting into long conversations with just one person, and it's not something other people are going to learn from, take it to DM - for example if you're asking for tech support and it's getting complicated and involved.

It's okay to not be relentlessly positive. In fact, relentless positivity just makes me wonder if you're a bot. But relentless negativitiy is quite difficult to deal with when it is in your stream all day every day. Eventually, I'm going to unfollow you, no matter how sympathetic I am to your plight because it's winter and I hate winter and frankly, I am trying my hardest to stay cheerful as it is.

Scheduled tweets. You might think you're being incredibly clever. But when I respond to an auto-tweet of yours and you don't answer back once or twice, I will forgive you. If it becomes clear that every single one of your tweets is auto-tweeted, then I'm unfollowing. I want to engage with you - and if you want to sell me things, I suggest you hang around to answer any questions I might have about your new spangly product. Because if you're not there to answer questions, I will simply go and buy it from someone else who is around to tell me what I want to know about their products. Be quick, or be dead (get off the stream).

#justsaying