Techo-engagement urged on local councils

A report from the New Local Government Network called Invisible Villages - techno-localism and the enabling council promotes social software as a major force in connecting with local communities and developing networks.
"Social software is an increasingly popular tool for the development of voluntary, bottom-up social networks. Already, some social network sites, such as Orkut, have become popular amongst certain niche communities, as ways of building new relationships on the back of existing ones. E-mail and instant messenger are much more common parts of a typical social life. Informal and private socialising is not in itself a sphere where government has a role, but it is worth recognising how beneficial these technologies can be to communities and individuals”.
The report is by Anna Randle of NLGN, with James Crabtree and Will Davies - who worked together at iSociety, and are now moving to to IPPR. I expect we'll hear more at an iSociety event next week launching another of Will's reports, and the IPPR Manifesto for Digital Britain event.
The authors argue that embracing such social software will allow local government to develop its unique role within localities:
“New technologies offer councils a new and exciting opportunity to exercise their new enabling and pluralist community leadership role, in a way which can help them respond to diverse and complex needs, enable communities to find the resources within themselves to articulate and meet these, and to balance conflicts which might otherwise not be recognised."
As I have written before, I'm sceptical about the potential for techno-engagement at local level. The tools can certainly be an important part of the communications and engagement mix, and social networking models are a good way to unpack notions of "the public" or "the community". However, I'm not sure that they are leading edge.
The latest report isn't available online, and I'm not sure I would venture £10. I wonder if this blog qualifies me for a press copy? Worth a try.