Comments on: Digital Enabler

By: Socialreporter | Sketching the social innovation landscape

Socialreporter | Sketching the social innovation landscape — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:06:37 +0000

[...] to local authories seeking to innovate using social media … and now that Dave is becoming a freelance digital enabler I know we can expect lots more in the next few months. I’m sure this will join up with the [...]

By: My UKYouthOnline session? | DavePress

My UKYouthOnline session? | DavePress — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 08:13:24 +0000

[...] ideas for new ways of using the social web to engage young people. I’ll be on hand to do some digital enabling and help them decide which will be the best tools to use, and how they might go about getting [...]

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:17:26 +0000

Thanks for all these comments. At the end of the day, I am going to end up doing what people pay me to do (oo-er) but it’s good to have a clear idea of what my proposition is going to be!

By: Kevin Campbell-Wright

Kevin Campbell-Wright — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:48:46 +0000

I’m watching this really closely, because I think there’s a huge need for digital enablers in education and in local government. The problem is, there are three distinct roles:

- Strategic
- Developmental (the building bit)
- Customer Facing (enabling learners or communities)

Generally, it’s perceived that strategic can be done by bosses whether they have Web 2.0 knowledge or not, developmental is put down to techies who don’t know the term social and customer facing is left to CLAIT tutors who don’t know about social media or are bound by the ties of awarding bodies.

Occasionally and, increasingly, we are seeing these roles advertised – but it will be very interesting to see how the sector responds to the freelancer.

These roles are all ideal for freelancers – after all once the strategy is done, they don’t want full-timers hanging on. However, the cost seems to mean public sector look internally first.

I’m hopeful you’ll be able to make this niche….I think it’s an important job and, well, someone’s got to do it!

By: PaulG

PaulG — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:04:25 +0000

Well speaking as a digital plumber, and if skills-shortage or time constraints are a real concern – let me jump in. If you need someone with a bag of PHP hammers, screwdrivers, blutack and with a birds eye view of uk metadata, usability and the sweb… do get in touch.

By: Simon Dickson

Simon Dickson — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:21:36 +0000

I bet you’ll spend most of your time actually building stuff, rather than talking about building stuff. Certainly that’s how it’s worked for me. When I started, the plan was to do more advice than action; it simply didn’t work out like that. Clients aren’t short of advice: professional and amateur, online, books, whatever. But there just aren’t that many people able to actually deliver.

By: Jeremy Gould

Jeremy Gould — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:16:55 +0000

Funny, I’ve been thinking the same a lot recently, partly to write a blog post but partly to describe exactly what you are – integrating these skills into mainstream work. I’ve used the phrase Digital Generalist.