Designing for Civil Society

Audience isn't "audience" any more. It's online

I've been talking to some broadcasters recently about now they are rebalancing their work to take more account of the online world, and how they find out what "the audience" think about their efforts.
I'm particularly interested in the second bit: how to consult, engage, discuss with what-used-to-be-known-as Audience (viewers and listeners) when trust in TV news is falling and we spend more time on the Net than watching TV.
Some of the concern to engage stems from loss of ratings and ad revenue - and finding where eyeballs will go next. Some research, like the BBC Trust review of bbc.co.uk, is a formal process to ensure the people who make programmes are fulfilling their duty to provide appropriate services to license payers.
I'm not a great media expert, and my conversations were limited, so forgive me if this sounds a bit naive - but I think there is a shift of model needed here.  It used to be that marketing and research people would find out what people watched, and what they were interested in, and tell the people making programmes. 
Similarly, researchers on behalf of the BBC Trust (formerly Governors) would find out what license payers thought of what they were getting, and the trustees would use this in their policy guidance to broadcasters. Their role (as in any charity) was to act on behalf of the beneficiaries. Now things have changed. The audience is consuming content online as well as through radio and television... but they are also creating it through their comments, discussions, video uploads and so on.
So does it make sense any longer to see such a clear distinction between "audience" and content-producers? If not, shouldn't any consultation and engagement processes involve everyone who is party to what ends up on screen, on air? If the BBC Trust - or Channel 4 - is thinking about future services for public benefit, shouldn't consultation/engagement involve staff as well as service-user producers/audience?
I've always found that community engagement processes in regeneration, for example, failed when "the community" was involved, but council officers, politicians and others were not. Ideas and recommendations were developed, but didn't get implemented because "not invented here". Maybe a new approach is already being planned, and if so I would be really interested in how the "whole system" engagement process will work.
Meanwhile Gez Smith at Delib give this really useful summary of new internet usage data and thoughts on what it means for e-democracy.

The latest data from the regular Oxford Internet Survey has been released, and, as ever, shows some interesting trends and information about who uses the net across the UK, and how. 
67% of the population currently use the internet, up from 59% in 2003. There are still gaps between the age groups, 31% of retired people using the net, compared with 81% of those who work and 97% of students. There are also educational and income differences, just over half of those lacking further education are online, compared with 90% of those with a university education. Only 39% of those with household incomes below UKP12,500 per annum use the net as well. 
All good stats, but two bits really stood out for us. Firstly the fact that 85% of net users are using broadband, and dial up connections could all but disappear over the next few years, which it really has to if people want to make full use of the net. 
Second, and this is even more interesting, only one in ten people had used the net for political activity. This is perhaps to be expected, given the still relative infancy of e-democracy in comparison with other online services. Of course, the debate over what constitutes political activity online is still to be resolved, if it ever can be, and i suspect that lots of people are actually engaging in what might be termed political activity in civic society terms without directly realising it. 
Combined with this, apparently older people were more likely to engage in civic activism online, which is again probably more reflective of the definition of civic activism used by the survey, given that other reports consistently find that young people are very political, just not in 'big P' ways. 
So, in summary, it can now surely be said that not to use e-democracy has become an exclusionary act, given two thirds of the population are there to be accessed through it. I'd wager the stats on people engaging in politics and policy through the net would creep up if there were more opportunities for them to do so as well.  Perhaps a more stick than carrot approach is beginning to be required to bring civic society and participative governance online?  Click here to read a full copy of the Oxford Internet Survey report

Fair enough if Gez is waving the stick at institutions who fail to use the potential of new media for engagement. Need some ideas on how to do that? Ask the "audience".

Technorati Tags: e-democracy, engagement

The power of new media, from Stop The Traffik

The project that most powerfully caught my attention at the New Statesman New Media Awards was Stop The Traffik, which won the Advocacy award against Oxjam and Intelligent Giving (who did, however, win the Information and Openness award). Here's how the award citation went:

STOP THE TRAFFIK, is a global coalition of over 800 organisations, working together to fight against people trafficking; by raising awareness on a subject that is little known or understood. It aims to expose people trafficking, lead governments to action and unlock freedom.
The coalition’s determination to succeed is clearly visible online, where pages of its website have been translated into 20 languages, from widely spoken languages like Chinese and Russian to the less widely spoken languages of Khmer, Igbo and Lithuanian. The clear design and excellent information architecture of the site enable visitors to quickly get to grips with the subject matter and how it is affecting people across the globe, as well as discover how they can make a difference.
In addition to a traditional web presence STOP THE TRAFFIK has set up a mySpace area, created viral videos, put together downloadable PowerPoint presentations for businesses and made available to download many other campaign resources.
The judges thought the site was very well thought out and an excellent example of how to use digital media as a tool for advocacy, campaigning and education.

At the ceremony I was able to talk to Strategy Director Peter Stanley, and ask him about the way the coalition started, and its scale of operation.

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As he explained, there are many organisations campaigning in the field - but they haven't always joined up their efforts very well in the past. The Internet brings at least two benefits - the ability to collaborate online, and the scope for people to create their own films on YouTube to contribute to the campaign.

Click To Play also at blip.tv
Peter went on to talk to my wife Ann about how their chocolate campaign had led children to explain to their parents why they should switch to Fair Trade chocolate - because their Easter eggs might well be made with slave labour. The next time someone asks what difference new media can make, I'll have a good story to tell.

Technorati Tags: awards, advocacy, stopthetraffik

New Media Awards ... in modest new media

The New Statesman New Media Awards last night managed a combination of stunning rain-free setting (College Gardens behind Westminster Abbey), a highly-engaging cross section of media types and politicos, and a reminder through one of the winners (Stop the Traffik) of the darker side of the real world outside. More on that later. I took my camera along to try a bit of very modest new media myself.

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First of all I have another example of what happens when you give the camera to someone else, in this case the distinguished technology analyst Bill Thompson, who writes for the BBC about the online world. I was wandering about with my pocket-sized Sanyo Xacti when Bill decided this was the time and camera with which to demonstrate the MySpace picture-of-me-and-my-mate technique recently learned from his daughter. It is even more embarrassing than the last one, but this blog is dedicated to an open approach, so I feel it can't be suppressed. 

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I then went inside the marquee to a more coherent introduction to the awards by another BBC technology correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones. He's recently been researching Facebook, where remarks that he lacked online contacts led to the establishment of the group Befriend Rory Cellan-Jones. It has 411 members. In our joint video interview Bill recalled a year when everything went terribly wrong ... but this year it all went smoothly, with some insights from Mike Butcher into the judging process.

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We also heard from Labour MP Barry Sheerman, who made us all feel good by suggesting new media was contributing to a potential revolution in education and career development.

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The New Statesman is, of course, a Labour-supporting publication, but this year demonstrated an even-handed approach in the awards by offering no impediment to the choice of Tory leader David Cameron as winner in the Elected Representative category, more for the Webcameron site than his constituency one. I was one of the judges, and as the awards site says:

What impressed the judges was Cameron’s continued engagement with the project, the genuine use of it by the public and how the site had encouraged others in politics into using similar online communication and engagement methods.

Perhaps it is just as well we didn't give the award to one of the other finalists, Councillor Andrew Burns, for his Really Bad Blog which is showing a Normal Service Will Resume Shortly post at present. It is still carrying comments, including Watch Live Sex NOW!!! On another site, of course.
David Cameron was in Rwanda, so couldn't turn up in person. Instead we had a rather good stand-in performance from Ed Vaizey MP, Shadow Minister for Culture. I missed his opening line about being David's avatar from Second Life, but caught most of the rest.
Of the other winners, I agree with William Hilderbrandt about the winner in the Advocacy section.

Perhaps the most impressive example of the way new media can connect people was this year's advocacy winner Stop The Traffik (STT). The website, which is little more than a year old, is campaigning to end human trafficking has exploded into a global coalition of more than 800 organisations with its website translated into 20 different languages.
Peter Stanley is STT's strategy director and said: "A lot of our success wouldn't be possible without the New Statesman. We're now speaking to 120 of the largest multinational corporations, to the UN, to MTV and celebrities. We have people organising events and concerts, sending us money they raised for us that we knew nothing about."

I interviewed Peter Stanley, and will write a further item about that.
The crew at MySociety are quite rightly pleased with their success in Modernising Government (No 10 petitions) and Contribution to Civil Society (FixMyStreet). Futurelab won the education section with Create-a-scape, enabling teachers and students to create mediascapes using a PDA handheld computer, headphones and a digital map of their area. Intelligent Giving were a worthy winner in Information and Openness, providing independent assessments of over 1500 charities "to help you give happily and with confidence".

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The winner of the Young Innovator award, 21-year-old James Wheare, created Livebus which gives users real-time bus information across three counties. Judges were impressed by his plans to expand it to the whole of he UK. At the awards James said he was feeling a bit guilty since he now has a job, and hasn't updated the site for some months. Expansion may take a little time.  That's the problem with innovators - on to the next thing.
I think congratulation are also due to Kathryn Corrick for chairing the judging, Charlotte Eisenhart for organising just about everything,  New Statesman publisher Spencer Neal, and sponsors Atos Origin. Can I come next year, please?

Technorati Tags: newmediaawards, socialmedia

New Statesman New Media Awards

As Simon Berry reports here, the Open Innovation Exchange lost out to some very worthy competition at the New Statesman New Media Awards yesterday. Neighbourhood Fix It won the category of  Contribution to Civic Society, where we had been moved from our original nominated slot in Modernising Government. No 10 petitions won there.
You can see the whole list here, including the news that the Tory leader David Cameron won in the elected representative section. I was at the awards ceremony, and will be blogging more later.

Technorati Tags: newmediaawards

Government looks inwards for nonprofit innovation

The Cabinet Office has chosen a Government-funded unit to lead development on the Third Sector Innovation Exchange. This is the project where a group of us tried to be innovative by running an open process to develop the project, and were shortlisted for plans for an Open Innovation Exchange.
Work on the £1.2 million project will now be led by the Innovation Unit. Press release and advert for the £60,00 a year job of director here.
The Unit was set up in 2002 by then Prime Minister Tony Blair  to promote innovation in education, and is now funded by the Department for Education and Skills. Their partners are the voluntary sector chief executives' body ACEVO and social software developers Headshift, who created the award-winning site for Demos.
I don't want to sound a note of sour grapes here. This is clearly a very strong and competent consortium. However,  I feel that innovation among nonprofit organisations (and elsewhere, as I wrote here) is most likely to come from open, collaborative processes, not just from inside. Of course, the innovation unit may well be planning something really innovative here. Maybe they could now post their winning bid. You can see our (failed) one here, as well as the process by which we developed it.
We haven't given up on open source innovation, and will now be developing an exchange focussing on new media. I do sincerely offer congratulations to the winning consortium, and have no doubt my friends at Headshift will do them another whizzy site ... so we'll certainly be able to see what's happening.

Technorati Tags: openinex

Creating futures for the common good

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At the recent conference on Futures for Civil Society I was able to capture two different (though not necessarily conflicting) viewpoints on the rather fuzzy space where we hope things will be done by individuals and organisations for the common good.
The first was from Geoff Mulgan, who is chairing a commission of inquiry into the Future of Civil Society, and other from Kierra Box, founder of Hands Up!
Geoff is a former Director of Policy at 10 Downing Street, now director of the Young Foundation.
Kierra has a modest web site, and a passion for helping other young people do things which make a difference, by following their enthusiasms, networking with others, and having fun.
In the videos I shot, Geoff talked about the strategic issues and the ways that childhood, the world of work, and media have changed. He felt that the issue of how to develop greater social civility would be a major concern ... being respectful of others, recognising their needs, being empathetic. 
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Kierra wanted to see more direct action: not just signing a petition, making a donation, but finding others who want to do something to make a difference. She was highly sceptical of compulsory volunteering, which she found people talking about, and many of the formal government consultations. "Patronising people who can't wait to get away from their work at 5 o'clock" sticks in my mind, but listen for yourself.
I got the feeling from both Geoff and Kierra, in very different ways, that simply more of the same from voluntary organisations wasn't going to be enough to promote a more beneficial civil society.
(What is civil society? The commission suggests three aspects: associational life, the 'good' society, and arenas for public deliberation. I like the way Common Purpose puts it in in their charter, without saying "civil society". I suppose I should know, because it's my blog title, but that's because it started at a workshop of that name. I increasingly wonder how useful the term is ... but that's a longer post).
I was glad that most of the conference was taken up with conversations around tables, rather than Powerpoint presentations. It was organised by Third Sector Foresight and the Carnegie UK Trust, who are running the inquiry.
The inquiry web site promises reports from the workshops they have been running around the country, and an analysis of these and other research should be available this month.

Technorati Tags: civil society

Giving the camera to someone else

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Last week I was at an excellent knowledge cafe about video run by David Gurteen, where Brad Meyer, of I-T-L, was telling us about his work. He had used video to bring together two groups of people who otherwise had difficulty communicating. 
I was fortunate enough to be sitting at the table with Brad, and since I had my camera with me, I wanted to capture something from him directly. But the session was about how the introduction of video cameras to a situation made a difference to the dynamics of communication. So why just talk about it ... why not do it? 
I handed the camera to Jason Bates, of Beaufortes, who was sitting with us. I didn't give Jason any warning, but I think we ended up with a better interview than I could have done - plus some observations on how the experiment had changed the nature of the conversation. At Brad's suggestion, I also used a very simple technique to get Jason's persmission to use the clip. Watch the end and you'll see.

Technorati Tags: gurteen, socialmedia

On stealing virtual sex beds, and the risks in Facebook groups

An evening of presentations and discussion on Internet law may not sound gripping, but I'm really glad I went along the other day to an event organised by Lizzie Jackson of e-mint, and lawyers K&L Gates.
E-mint is a 500-strong association mainly for managers of online communities ... the people who host, moderate, encourage and occasionally police our behaviour when we get together in one place on the net. Anyone interested in online communities can join in. Since you might wonder, it's named after The Mint where a few people got together in 2000 for a drink and came up with the idea.
Lizzie has been around online communities forever (well, at least 10 years), leading the way at the BBC and currently doing a PhD on "hosted space" at the University of Westminster.
E-mint has played a large part in discussions about creating safe spaces for children on the Net, and has a partnership with CEOPS (The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Force). It's partly thanks to them we have codes of conduct and industry self-regulation rather than legislation on these and other issues.
Anyway, Lizzie met up with Paul Massey of K&L Gates, who offered to talk to e-minties about the risks and liabilities that hosts and managers of online communities may face, recent cases like the one between Viacom and YouTube/Google, copyright, terms and conditions for your website, when to take down offending content ... libel, defamation, obscenity, harrassment and much more. At first it looked as if it might be a Covent Garden pub's upstairs room get-together, but City hospitality prevailed, and we ended up with stacks of canapes and plenty of liquid refreshment at L&G Gates.
We all learned lots, with substantial presentations from Paul, his colleagues Dominic Bray and Sarah Stone, and Q and A after. I'm not a great fan of text-heavy Powerpoint, but they did give us great advice, and hand-outs. Will they be up on Slideshare, I wonder? That would be an additionally generous offering to the online community. And if there is a next time, maybe some chance to talk to each around tables, as in the excellent Gurteen Knowledge cafes.
Among the stories we heard was the one about a man in the Second Life virtual world suing another for copying and then selling his (virtual) sex bed. Then there was the case of the childcare expert threatening to shut down Mumsnet because of remarks by contributors.
One of the big issues for people hosting and facilitating online places is precisely the risk that community members will say something defamatory.  If you just let people say what they like, there's a risk that objectionable content will be posted and viewed. However, if you do moderate, your involvement could open you up to action if something gets through.
This issue sparked some discussion on the e-mint mailing list under the heading Damned if we do and damned if we don't.
I asked at the meeting whether someone who sets up a group on Facebook could run the same risk, and it seems that is a possibility.
Apart from the interesting content, it seems to me that the event was a great example of the mutual benefit that can come from social media professionals meeting specialist advisers informally. The e-minties learned a lot from the lawyers, and the lawyers were able to get the latest buzz from a rapidly-moving field. And of course, when we hit that problem in Facebook or elsewhere we'll know where to go. On second thoughts, let's just be careful out there. The law isn't too clear in some area, and that means the potential for a lot of legal time on the clock. I'll dig out those handouts.

Minister urges nonprofits to campaign for policy change

The new Minister for the Third Sector, Phil Hope, got off to a good start with his constituency of voluntary organisations tonight when he urged them to campaign more strongly - without fear that it might jeopardise their grants.
He was speaking a couple of weeks into his new job at a reception on the eve of a conference on Futures for Civil Society, organised by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and the Carnegie UK Trust.
The Minister said that the message from the new Government, under Prime Minister Gordon Brown, was that community and voluntary organisations should not only help provide a voice for the most disadvantaged, but aim to change the policies of local and central government where necessary.

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"People should not be worried whether they should campaign or not if they receive some sort of grant, or have some sort of contract with the State in all its various forms. The reason why we give grants and contracts to people in the Third sector is to give that voice ... is to say those words ... is to have that campaigning zeal."

After Stuart Etherington introduced Phil Hope, I shot some video of the Minister's speech, which you can see above: warning - it is about 14 minutes long. You can find the campaigning quote about eight minutes in. However, the video is a bit dark and shaky, and fortunately Mr Hope was very happy to come out on to the the balcony and give me a short version below.

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Afterwards I spoke to Liz Cleverley, Performance Improvement and Information Manager at Community Matters, the national federation for community organisations.

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Liz had no doubt that encouragement for campaigning in the speech was welcome. Groups often felt inhibited when they were receiving a grant ... and local councils could feel challenged when groups spoke up.
Phil Hope once worked at NCVO, and has been a consultant in the voluntary sector - so people felt he knew what he was talking about. It also helped that he sounded as if he had written the speech himself ... or rather, didn't need to write it because it clearly came from the heart. I hope he can campaign successfully in central and local government to create the more open culture he is advocating.

Technorati Tags: nonprofit, campaigning

Open RSA in Facebook: re-inventing from outside

I think this is a marker for all membership organisations faced with the task of re-inventing themselves, in an age when people can simply leave and form their own groups and networks online. We can also use this capability more positively to add some push from the outside.

Malcolm Forbes has done this by following through from our RSA and social media event on Monday and set up a Facebook group called Open RSA, which you can find here if you have joined Facebook (it's free).

Open RSA London is a group for all those interested in the RSA, its people, its projects, its aims, its challenges, its vision. This is an open group, anyone can join, not just 'fellows' or staff of the RSA, but we would like as many of them as possible to join in.
This is exploratory - seeing what value can emerge from the use of social networking software such as Facebook.
We have started as a London group but again you can still be a member if you are not in London. We want to encourage discussion, ideas, action, meetings and linkages to other networks and groups. Maybe other Open RSA groups set up in other areas.
The RSA by the way is the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce and 'works to remove the barriers to social progress'. Lets see what happens and also have some fun!

I'm pleased that a previous blog post of mine helped promote the idea. However, the really interesting thing for me was the way that once messages started circulating within Facebook it was possible to organise a meeting (thanks to Ian Delaney), follow up the discussion, check out with people what they felt about a group, and then move forward, all in a couple of weeks.
I hope that Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the RSA, will welcome the idea. He wrote on his own blog about Very many networks following an event in Manchester, saying:

Between now and the start of our new engagement strategy we need to have a substantial and clear headed dialogue across the RSA about how Fellows working together really can make a difference.

Anne Johnson, in response,  asked if there was a Facebook group for Fellows. Matthew's reply: "No, but there soon will be - watch this space". 
I hope the RSA does set up an "official" group. Meanwhile we can get started in our space.
Previously:
Why bother with "membership" in future?
Other items here on the RSA

Technorati Tags: Facebook, rsa