Comments on: A digital engagement framework adapted for local government

By: Digital Strategy: How Camden will be engaging with the local community through hyperlocal websites

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 10:28:34 +0000

[...] A digital engagement framework adapted for local government (an academic overview on digital engagement and hyperlocal blogs activities and impact on citizen participation by Michele Ide-Smith from Cambridgeshire County Council) [...]

By: Richard Lum

Richard Lum — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:25:18 +0000

Michele,

Very interesting. I know your focus is more on local government and (presumably) established political communities, but have you ever considered how frameworks like this might be useful in designing the governance system to begin with, either as a design element or in the process of design (historically, constitution-making?).

Also, given the mentions of “governance” above, you might find something like http://www.amazon.com/Governing-Complex-Societies-Trajectories-Scenarios/dp/1403946604/ interesting.

Richard

By: Michele Ide-Smith

Michele Ide-Smith — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:52:33 +0000

Hi Carl,

I must have missed your post on governance so thanks for bringing it to my attention. I am also very interested in levels of governance that may or may not be appropriate for different types of engagement. I did an earlier post on governance in relation to a current project here: http://www.ide-smith.co.uk/?p=350. I am now imagining a huge matrix which includes skills and governance!

There seems to be quite a bit of research going on at the moment to investigate local government approaches to engagement with communities via social media (e.g. Networked Neighbourhoods, Local 2.0, Public-i, IZWE). I am interested to see what comes out of that research relating to governance and participation levels.

By: Carl Haggerty

Carl Haggerty — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:33:01 +0000

Hi Michelle,

This is excellent, it really helps my thinking.

I’m currently thinking about Governance and how this is linked with participation – Some very early thoughts i had are here http://carlhaggerty.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/the-governance-ladder/

What i am seeing is a link between the form and level of governance organisations apply, these can differ within organisations as well, and the level of at least the approach to participation.

My view is that we would need to consider evaluating and adapting not just the participation structures but the supporting governance models to ensure that we can actually realise the benefits of these approaches.

Carl

By: Michele Ide-Smith

Michele Ide-Smith — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:02:04 +0000

Hi Ingrid, I’m sure there are are nuances to the level of participation dependent on skill and attitude. After all the Social Technograph profiles are based on research into ‘consumer’ activity rather than ‘citizen’ activity. And you are right that registration can be a barrier to participation. Which is why I think Councils need to explore authentication services such as OpenID, for example, which would remove the barriers to registration but ensure that citizens are (in theory) accountable. People would then login using the same ID they use to collect email, use social networking sites etc. which is far more natural.

By: FutureGov » Useful links » links for 2010-02-09

FutureGov » Useful links » links for 2010-02-09 — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:02:06 +0000

[...] A digital engagement framework adapted for local government by Michele Ide-Smith via @johnpopham (tags: digitalengagement engagement localauthority gov20 government uk) [...]

By: Ingrid Koehler

Ingrid Koehler — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:59:26 +0000

Hi Michelle, really useful. I wonder if there’s another category which would be something between your bottom two rungs. Someone who might click a voting button or make an *occasional* comment if the barriers of registration aren’t too high.

I think as David Suggests there is something about attitude-skill (as well as attitudes and skills). Recently, I heard of someone who stumbled at the first block – registration. To be fair, it was a slightly confusing situation, but at the same time if you really wanted to you would get past it.

By: Michele Ide-Smith

Michele Ide-Smith — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:03:11 +0000

I like the idea of including attitudes and skills David. It could become a huge matrix though! I’m keen to evolve this as we progress with our project in Fenland. @curiousc is also thinking on similar lines: http://curiouscatherine.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/community-ambassadors-bit-of-a-rethink-and-a-really-long-list/

By: Bookmarks for February 3rd through February 8th

Bookmarks for February 3rd through February 8th — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:01:16 +0000

[...] A digital engagement framework adapted for local government by Michele Ide-Smith – "I’ve been doing a bit of research into citizen engagement models for my MSc research and started to think about how these models relate to digital engagement. I looked at various models and frameworks and combined them to help me conceptualise digital engagement." [...]

By: David Wilcox

David Wilcox — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:30:04 +0000

Thanks Michele – this is terrific. Added roles is really helpful. Already thinking how to bring this into the social by social game. It would be interesting to explore further the nature of the activities – what attitudes and skills are involved.