I like scrutiny – it was one of my first jobs in local government to help the process at a smallish borough council. The CfPS does a great job of supporting good practice in the area, and recently this is taking the form of providing advice and guidance around using online methods to engage people with the process.

Cannot find server: reconnecting public accountability is a recent publication looking into this area. The blurb says:

The Centre for Public Scrutiny has published a critical analysis of what internet communication technologies might mean for public accountability. Cannot find server looks at themes in public engagement, and democracy to establish whether emerging social media are likely to enhance or hinder accountability. In an environment where too few accounts of this subject matter adopt a critical position a balanced analysis of the issue was needed. By looking at examples (both hypothetical and real) this publication helps the reader to build an understanding of where social media should fit within a broader engagement strategy.

It’s well worth a read, and is a free download (PDF warning).

Possibly related posts:

• Connected Generation 2010
• Let’s Talk Central
• How digital engagement can save councils money
• Great blogging on #localgovweb
• LocalGovCamp London

Steph has posted about the work he has been doing getting the Power of Information Taskforce report online for interested folk to comment on it before it gets published. It’s a lovely piece of work:

It is in fact a new theme, not the usual CommentPress which has been lying dormant for quite a while. As Steph says:

I think this is a small step forward from CommentPress and CoComment in terms of accessibility, Javascript independence and browser compatibility. It’s also marginally less laborious and slightly more purpose-built than the approach Ofcom took to their commentable consultations. And hopefully its muted style is slightly more pleasing to aesthetes than tools like CommentOnThis.

Best of all, the theme has been made available for other people to use – you can grab it from here.

This post is clearly about medium rather than message, so I’ll comment on the report itself some other time

Possibly related posts:

• Bookmarks for March 16th through March 18th
• Ofqual’s new commentable report
• Open source gov
• Blogging Tsar
• STOP BLOCKING

…is available from the DCMS website.

Possibly related posts:

• Bookmarks for April 30th through May 14th
• Bookmarks for March 18th through March 20th
• Bookmarks for March 16th through March 18th
• Gov 2.0 Taskforce report published