In the clamour to claim to know what web2.0 actually is, and hail council x or y as being a proponent of this ephemeral web2.0 label, it troubles me that we are in danger of diluting the message that “social-web-ites” are really pushing.

To me that message seems to be the democratisation and enabling of people or groups of people using what is confusingly also called web2.0 – a.k.a. “joining up people”, or “enabling the web of people”.

This is really radical and is seen as threatening for many working in local government organisations.

In order to embrace and promote this democratic movement less prominence should be given to website bells and whistles, and more given to real attempts to permit the clustering of social interactivity on council turf.

It is going to be hard enough to identify, highlight and reward either the emerging signs of Local Government use of web2.0 (connecting people) or web3.0 (self connecting data) without having to stop and applaud the use of screen widgets, no matter how useful they may seem.

That’s just usability, look for the real stuff.

none – Google does that for you! “swimming pool opening times in xxxxxxx”, that was my point, the service already exists if thats what you want.

Even though it sounds convenient to have services tailored to perceived need, I think in reality most people want to keep control over a lot of stuff – maybe I don’t want that extra bin?

Agree with you about the trust factor. In part I also think many people are already too lazy and don’t take enough personal responsibility/too quick to blame their woes on the Govt. so even though that kind of technology could be available theres maybe wider considerations too?

“device” = PC, phone (maybe kitchen appliance or your wristwatch) anything with a browser on it.

Which information do you pull?
This would be the key job of the council – in fact their only task, is to broker, manage, oversee and respect my requirements.

The setting you made on your device will automatically bring back a list of services, the questions you will be asked may well depend on the level of privacy you told your device you hold dear.

The data on your device goes and finds what it needs, this isn’t fairy stories, what is almost unimaginable is the public having enough trust in government, and gov and suppliers agreeing to the few simple standards that would be needed.

So imagine another scenario, I and my family move into a council owned property. We have 4 children, and I tell my device its new location and list some of my personal details, and with whom I want to share those details.

The bin company’s actions to leave me a second rubbish bin (joke), the housing stock repair contractors decision to turn up and check the heating flu for co2, the grants section’s decision to send me a form to fill in for a redecoration grant … are, with the correct permissions, mere IT formalities which fire off on their own.

Why do I need to google the council website for things I don’t even know exist? ( never mind the vagaries of the 3 tier shire local govs … er, which council do I google that for?)

There are also other aspects to local authority sites. When I was deciding on somewhere to relocate to I looked at lots of different sites to get an idea of what areas were like – it makes a big difference to see a council thats gone to some effort to promote their area and the services they provide.

In any case for those people that prefer to have a google type of approach to getting info – why not just use google for that anyway?!

(For me, an sms alert the night before collection, telling me what bin they want left where would be fab…)

But some folk can’t afford a “device” that’s conscious of where it lives, some that do won’t want to give it some sorts of permissions, some simply won’t be comfortable with letting the council interact with their device at all, etc. etc. etc.

Some folk – and it may even be the majority – will simply want to find that information themselves, from a single authoratative point. For some that will be a phone call, and for some it’ll be a website.

And I don’t think we have the solution of how to find information really cracked yet for that last group. So, I don’t think it’s sad that this discussion is about making finding information on council websites easier/better.

http://davepress.net/2008/10/17/do-councils-need-a-website-at-all/

… but sadly, not.

Isn’t this what should happen with bin collections?

My device knows where I live, ergo it knows who is my council.

My council in turn knows where I live (because I gave my device permission to tell them), and the council knows when my bin is to be emptied.

So why don’t they let me subscribe to the service that picks up when an exception will occur? (bin lorry cannot get down my street)

Better yet, the council should selflessly slide themselves (and their spin) out of the way and simply broker (negotiate, organise, delegate and monitor) an agreement between my device and the company who empty the bins.

So the bin company now contacts me if there is an exception.

Even better yet, when the bin lorry cannot get down my road, the team on that truck who ACTUALLY EMPTY MY BINS should trigger a tweet/txt/email to be sent me that I should leave my bin out overnight.

If I tell my device where I live, and tell it to subscribe to exceptions, then shouldn’t the council be building the necessary infrastructure to let my data find the supplier data which it needs?

This is web3.0 thinking, not web2.0.

Maybe Simon called it right – the future direction of council websites, is no website, or rather some subscription engine, ning or pipes-like.

That may not necessarily even have a gui.

That is doable now in a variety of forms, what is missing are probably the will to do so and the agreed standards .

And, hey, when I go on holiday for 2 weeks – my device will automatically tell the team on the bin lorry not to expect my bin on x day, if I give it permission.

Maybe we should be highlighting what is pushing the envelope on the web of data and applauding those breaking the chains of the cms suppliers not holding up cute drag and drop gui elements and links to flickr as being somehow ‘cutting edge’.

And I agree with Harry – it’s radical for local government, not in the wider internet world – but I think it’s worth exploring if user evidence shows that it can help a proportion of council site users.

But there’s other sorts of sites where the same problem exists. That is, where visitors are trying to find relevant information out of a vast weight of pages. And in those sorts of sites, the seemingly simple strategy of categorising information, and leading users down a hierarchy has been outcompeted by the simple search box. Google is the mammal, Yahoo the dinosaur.

Categorising large sets of pages for multiple audiences is actually pretty hard. And implementing search isn’t particularly difficult. Hitting Google with the search string “site:barnet.gov.uk council tax” gets pages of useful responses for example.