Designing for Civil Society

Virtual communities conference cancelled: too 'old-skool'?

Last year Amy Jo Kim, one of the experts in managing large-scale communities on the Net, declared that these forums, chat rooms and email groups were now 'old-skool'. Some confimation of decline in professional interest comes this week with news that the annual UK virtual communities conference has been cancelled. Nancy White, who would have been one of the speakers, reflects:

It is ironic, because I've seen a healthy resurgence of interest in and use of online groups and communities, but in a sense quite different from the scene which sprouted all these conferences in the first place. The field has matured in very interesting ways.

Nancy matches expertise in managing online communities with lots of blogging and general sociability, so it's a great pity we won't have a chance to meet again in London in November to talk about the changes in progress. Last time was fun.

Rebuilding the village in our hearts, or maybe heads

Stuart Woodin argues for more heart and feeling in planning our neighbourhoods, to complement the mainly rational approaches of regeneration programmes. We need to rebuild the Village in Our Hearts, he says in an article for New Start Magazine, now online. I go along with much of what he says, but can't help wondering if some of us are head people about how and where we live. Maybe there's some personality preference mixed in with circumstance. Stuart writes:

In most indigenous societies, place and community still play a crucial maintenance role deep in the psyche of the individual. In these communities the link between place (neighbourhood) and the land, home, work, social system (community) and spirit is strong and seamless. Are we now just too far removed from this dynamic or is it possible for such age-old links to be understood afresh and renewed?
The problem is that for a long time now these vital interconnections have been weakening in the UK. The link between the neighbourhood (village) and land was lost forever in the agrarian and industrial revolutions. And in the 19th and 20th centuries towns and cities grew so large that work in the neighbourhood was, for most, no longer a practical option.

Stuart - who is a consultant in the regeneration field (Word download) and closely involved with his own neighhourhood in south London - says that renewal policy has generally missed the 'felt' quality of village, crucial to neighbourhood renewal and community leadership. He offers some characteristics of felt neighbourhood, including a shared use of land, a sense of belonging, order and history, and symbols that are generally honoured by all - maybe an old tree, an ancient crossing point, a view.

It is often these felt qualities of neighbourhood that not only inform conscious and unconscious decisions about how we relate to the neighbourhood, but crucially whether we stay or leave. The tipping point may be something quite simple - the realisation that arriving home lifts your spirits or conversely the feeling that the neighbourhood is unsettling, unsafe or soulless.

New Start have entitled the article "Why we all want the village life", and although I'm not sure that's what Stuart is saying, it does raise the question of whether we have preferences for place that may reflect our personality types. Do extroverts - who, according to type theory, derive energy from their interactions with the external world - prefer buzzy places much of the time? Do cities provide more opportunities for physical exploration, for those who welcome this? Then there's the question of what we may prefer at different times in our lives, and how far we may or may not want the goldfish bowl feel of a small place, or the anonymity of a larger one.
John Major, when Prime Minister , enthused about the village England of warm beer, cricket matches and old maids on bicycles in his 'back to basics' speech. We discovered later that he had been up to something rather different with fellow MP Edwina Currie back in the metropolis. Different places, different passions.
Some people have the money and personal freedom to choose where they live, others are trapped in communities from which they can't escape.
I hope New Start follow up with more articles exploring the complex mix of people's personal preferences, the dimensions of place, and the choices now available through a mix of real and virtual travel. As a Demos pamphlet argued recently, people make places.

Technorati Tags: neighbourhoods

mySociety offer US groups some participation tools

Tom Steinberg, whose organisation mySociety has produced some of the most innovative UK websites for civic and community engagement, is shortly off to the US to interest groups in their participatory tools. He's looking for additional contacts.
The tools include WriteToThem.com, by which people can find and contact their elected representatives just by entering their postcode, and PledgeBank.com that enables people to say "I will if you will". Recently mySociety added Placeopedia.com which enables people to connect Wikipedia articles with the places they represent.
You can read here about how mySociety got started, with a video interview I did with Tom two years ago. Tom has also co-authored a Demos pamphlet Wide Open on open source methods and their future potential.
I met up with Tom again this evening when he held a typically informally get together for supporters, with free drinks at a London canalside pub. I just couldn't resist the invite:

The idea is to give people updates on our projects, ply them with drinks, and then trap them in nets and drag them back to our 'volunteers and friends' dungeon.

No nets were visible, or dungeons or dragons, but plenty of willing volunteers geeky or otherwise. My task was to see if I could make a few extra US contacts ... so this is a start. Tom will fly west in six days, going just about everywhere to drum up some export business, so if you are interested do get in touch. More information and contact details here.
Update: UK's Pledgebank pulls US commitment - and cash

Technorati Tags: e-democracy, engagement, socialtech

People (and some rules) make public places

Not only did Demos offer a better than usual launch last night for their research on public space, but the press release also offers a neat summary and so reduces the blogging effort for those attending. Double thanks, folks.

Car boot sales, supermarket cafes and municipal allotments are among Britain’s most-loved public spaces according to a report published today by Demos, the leading democratic think tank. People Make Places: Growing the public life of cities finds that across Britain’s cities, a wealth of characters – from ‘Mall Walkers’ and ‘Home Birds’ to ‘Displayers’ and ‘Public Spirits’ – are helping to shape public spaces in the most unlikely places.

The authors Melissa Mean and Charlie Tims did a lively double act at the launch with plenty of photos and not too many words on slides, and the panel were brief with comments and sparky in their response to the audience. Drinks before and after, and a video art installation that played our persons back on the walls with distortions alternately mellow and manic added to the buzz (right).
You can read more here, and download the book free. One of the main themes in the research is the need to strike a balance between over-controlled and arid public spaces, and spaces that may be lively, but in which their users are segregated by choice or management ... and so have little interaction. Rules like "no dogs" may do something for hygene but remove one of the main ways through which people find excuses to talk to each other. The report says:

“The current focus of both urban designers and city planners on creating grand plazas and iconic architecture ignores the role of the people who are meant to use them,” say the report’s authors. “A new town square can be carefully, expensively designed, but there’s no guarantee that people will come and use it. Architects and planners need to start with people; they must understand public space from the perspective of those who live and work in towns and cities.”

It adds that the research highlights a number of typical places found in British cities regarded by people as most welcoming. These included:

The car boot sale – Where people feel comfortable passing the time of day with strangers, but are also likely to bump into people they know. There is also a sense of novelty and surprise in the possibility of ‘discovering’ a bargain.
Supermarket cafes – People are drawn by the welcoming atmosphere, and find escape from boredom and are able to relax and linger as they take a break from the hubbub of shopping.
Allotments – Bringing together people of different generations and ethnic backgrounds, allotment regulars report a strong sense of companionship, coupled with the pleasure of learning, often done through trading gardening tips and produce.
The arts centre – Users appreciate the high degree of diversity, and the tolerance of people who are often not tolerated elsewhere. At the same time, cutting edge film and art helps confer a sense of status and esteem.

The report argues that the best public spaces are vibrant and welcoming because they are well used, and that this vibrancy is created by people and communities themselves. It is the use of public space, rather than its ownership, physical design or aesthetic appearance that makes a place public, and any space has the potential to play this role.

There was perhaps a little over-emphasis on do-what-you-will, which prompted George Nicholson, who has management roles both with the successful Borough Market just up the road from the launch, and a local park, to warn again the belief that doing away with rules will lead to safe places that work for all. George does good pictures too.
Steven Clift, e-democracy guru and champion of virtual public spaces, was with me in the audience and confirmed that it is precisely rules and agreed codes of behaviour that make community issues forums a success.
The report started lots of conversations - which was great - but I couldn't help wondering how long these would continue. The report's funder, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, produces enormous amounts of social research which can seldom be faulted on its methodology, scope, editing, or the generosity of free downloads. But does it make much difference?
The issue in many of the areas researched by JRF these days is not so much knowing the problem, but getting the public agencies who can do something about it engaged and working together. I fear that the more research you produce, the more Government and other agencies can say - "ah yes, we know about that and are working on a comprehensive strategy". Few people remember to come back a year after the launch and ask what actually happened. Most funders are correctly strong on funding evaluation of local projects to find if they were value for money. Is anyone evaluating the results of research programmes? Would any think tank propose that?(Addendum: JRF have funded a couple of pieces of work I have done, and they are Very Nice People).

Technorati Tags: neighbourhoods

Time for a participation guide with participants

There are stacks of guides and toolkits designed to help professionals engage with patients, service users, and wider communities affected by public projects and policies. But what is there written from the point of view of the participant? Not much, unless I'm looking in the wrong places.
I've been writing recently on the theme of "participation isn't working" - items here - and coming to the conclusion that change now is most likely to come from people starting old-style campaigns for improvement to services, and maybe using new-style digital technologies to help. For example, citizen journalism is entering the mainstream as Simon Waldman wrote recently, and in Teesside Steve Thompson is showing the way for some bottom-up e-democracy. mySociety is building terrific digital tools like Pledgebank and WriteToThem, and the BBC is doing its bit.
That meant I was particularly interested when an editor of learning materials called up to see I can could contribute a training and self-study module about how to represent other public service users on official committees, and to get fellow users, patients or carers involved in seeking improvements.
Before agreeing a brief, I did some Googling and found research by the National Association for Patient Participation which cites two pieces of work: Training and Facilitation Resources at the University of Birmingham, and the National Consumer Council's Strong Voice programme. The latter offers a substantial toolkit and induction programme to trainers for a £500 licence, and is based on years of development and testing. As a sample page shows (pdf here), it covers some key issues for participants, and suggests that representation is about:

a voice for others
obtaining information and passing it back
being involved in decision-making
accountability
access to the views of others (being represented)
developing a consensus (or not)
experience of users
effective advocacy – getting the message across accurately.

However, both of these resources, are written for trainers - not participant/users. I also found an excellent guide for professionals called "Asking the experts: A Guide to Involving People in Shaping Health and Social Care Services" (disclaimer, it does quote from a guide I wrote a few years back). It provides an extensive overview of the issues, and lots of guidance .... but again it is for professionals.
There are lots of courses and books on the separate issues involved - like being on committees, organising with others, communicating effectively, developing your confidence. But I couldn't find anything which brought those issues together with the challenges of finding your way through the bureaucracy, and deciding how far to go along with the type of participation on offer. I wonder why? Is it because there's an easier market in developing kits for trainers ... and the organisations that fund this sort of work may be disinclined to give too much help to citizens and service users who may challenge them on the services that they offer?
The nearest thing to a guide that I found was on the BBC Action Network: How you can get involved in improving NHS services in England, though it is by its nature fairly broad-brush, and concentrates on signposting.
I'm going to write around a few people who have taken a radical position on user empowerment in the past, and see if they know about something I missed, or might be interested in helping developing something new if there is a gap. Any ideas welcome - add a comment, or you can find me here. I've bookmarked my researches in a rather haphazard fashion - main tags are participation, and health.
My immediate conclusion is that the editor who approached me is right - a new guide is needed. However, a major challenge will be to create something that really works for the reader/user ... with navigation to suit different situations, skills, styles and roles. How to do that? Well, my suggestion would be to involve some users in the development of the guide, in workshops and also online. Otherwise there's a danger that in our enthusiasm to produce a guide for users we becomes just another example of 'experts know best'. Of course experts may know best, if they get the question or problem right ... but how can they do that if they don't ask the users in the first place? I'll suggest the task is to produce a guide with users.

Technorati Tags: engagement, participation

BBC promotes digital citizens

BBC News online is featuring Vloggers get political in Norway - a story about video blogger Raymond Kristiansen who is "aiming to energise a new generation of voters ahead of Monday's elections".

Kristiansen does not consider himself to be a leader in the vlogosphere, which is the community of video-bloggers across the globe.
But he is spearheading the use of vlogs in politics, as an active member of the youth wing of Norway's Liberal Party.
At a recent campaign event ahead of the elections, the leader of the Liberal Party did a photo-op with a local businessman in Bergen. While the mainstream media gathered around to record sound bites, Kristiansen stood in the background, taping the entire event with his small camcorder.

The story led me to another set of pages which I missed back in July, when the BBC featured other digital citizens: a low-cost film-maker, a podcaster making his own radio show, a blogger whose blog lost her a job - but is now renowned for her writing, DIY DJs, and an activist for digital rights. The comment section on the site has enabled other digital citizen (and their critics) to add their experiences and links.
The stories themselves are inspiring. What is also exciting is the willingness of the BBC to both invest in an online campaigning space for citizens - the Action Network - and also to feature digital citizens' own DIY efforts. Definitely worth the license fee.

Technorati Tags: engagement, socialtech

Scotland launches civil society index

It appears that the size, shape and impact of Civil Society can be measured. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations reports on

... the launch of the first self-assessment of civil society in Scotland – the collective term for voluntary sector, trade unions, faith groups and other NGOs.
The report is the culmination of a year long study led by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations which convened a National Advisory Group to carry out the research which will be launched as part the major civil society event organised by the University of Edinburgh from 4 to 7 September.
The main findings from the report show that Scotland is a values-led society in which civil society plays a crucial role in empowering people and that civil society groups have grown in strength since devolution.
The National Advisory Group carried out this assessment of Scottish Civil Society using the CIVICUS Civil Society Index. The findings are displayed in a graphical diamond which allows comparison with other countries.

However, as the Volresource newsletter reported, there is little detail with the announcement, and you have to make a special request to get the diamond. More here about the project - but not yet the results. I've sent off for more.
Update: Ruchir Shah at SCVO has now kindly sent me the link to the diamond

Technorati Tags: engagement

Participation is a culture, not a tick box

I've just caught up with an article by Nick Wilding which elegantly connects three key themes important in participation: developing more participatory organisations; power-holders letting go of control; and adopting an ecological worldview that sees "a radical inter-connectedness between all things". In Slow down... go further he warns that for professionals faced with polices for engaging with the public, "participation could easily become the next thing to do on a check-list in a busy day in a rushed week".

Participation is about much more than a tick-box. It's about a radical challenge to a culture that isn't working at local, regional, national and planetary scales. A culture that has valued profits over people and planet, and limitless consumption over sustainable relationships between people and places. The emerging, participatory, ecological culture requires that we find the time for community and conviviality. Practically, that means getting together with our friends and colleagues who we can trust to learn together about both doing participation and being participative. It means having the confidence to tell each other stories that matter to us in our job-roles as well as people concerned for people and the planet. This needs some practice. And practice needs good, reflective time and a good, reflective space.

Nick then expands on the three themes, and concludes:

This article has been about creating a participatory culture of learning by doing where failures are understood as the best teachers. This is a culture of celebrating successes, of projects that emerge organically as participants slowly build the confidence to accomplish small things first, and then be surprised at how the seedlings flourish over months … years … decades. This is a long-term culture, a culture with its feet and hands in the soil - and its heart and head working together to nurture ecological and community regeneration. This is a culture where the expert is ‘on tap, not on top’. Most of all, this is a culture of (as the Buddhists might say) ‘beginner’s mind’ – that is to say, a culture of learning and inquiry where it’s not the answers that matter but the quality and depth of the questions that we learn to ask of our own practice.

Nick Wilding is a culture change consultant and action research facilitator, and a Fellow of the Centre for Human Ecology. The article was originally was published in Scottish Natural Heritage's annual publication, 'The Participant'.
Earlier here:

• Participation language doesn't work either
• Participation often isn't working. Anyone listening?

Technorati Tags: engagement, participation

What kind of blogger are you today?

Dan Janal asks What kind of blogger are you? and gives options including:

Thinkers: the highest form of blogging. These people offer new ideas and perspectives that serve to inspire us all.
Linkers: they can't think, but they sure can research! Their blogs are full of links to thinkers.
Blingers: they use the blogs as personal mirrors, to say "Blogger, blogger on the wall, who is fairest blogger of all? They'll talk about their accomplishments, people they've met and places they are jetting off to speak at.

I have the answer: split the roles. I'll try and keep on thinking here on Designing for Civil Society. I've set up a links blog at Engaging. And over at Partnerships Online I'll feel free to indulge in some gentle blinging about projects I'm working on. Except ... comments on Dan's blog add more types:

Whiners: They use their blog to complain about any ideas other bloggers voice -- right before attacking them personally.
Zingers: They criticize others.
Flingers: They throw a bunch of stuff, and see what sticks.
Malingerers: Each entry starts with, "Sorry it's been so long since my last posting, but..."
Scoopers: 1st out with a new story that everyone else quotes and blogs about.
Buzzers: always reviewing and/or promoting something.
Regurgitators: no time to write anything original just regurgitate everyone else's blogs.

Maybe we can split it by day. Malingering Monday, Cheerful Tuesday. Whining Wednesday, each with a different feed so readers can choose. Soon life starts to imitate blogging...

Technorati Tags: blogs

Volunteers do jargon too.

Every day the excellent xPRESS Digest from ruralnet|uk provides 15 key items about regeneration and community development. Sometimes, I think, they like a little joke. Recently the number one news slot went to Consultation Response: Active Community Unit Strategic Funding Review quoting:

Volunteering England warmly welcomes the Active Community Unit Strategic Funding Review consultation. They are in support of the proposals it contains. They specifically appreciate, and would encourage continuing commitment, to there being read across with the activity of the Volunteering and Charitable Giving Unit and its current strategic funding review. As some of the questions asked by the Active Community Unit Strategic Funding Review mirror those of the Volunteering and Charitable Giving Unit, a copy of the response to the Volunteering and Charitable Giving Unit can be found as an appendix to this response on this webpage.

Or maybe it is just to remind us of the jargon volunteers as well as bureaucrats have to deal with these days. I tried checking with Volunteering England just what it meant, but no response so far. Their item in full here.