From: Dan Jellinek [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: 18 September 2006 14:18 To: egb-html Subject: E-Government Bulletin, 18 September 2006 - multimedia campaign; e-consultation research; e-democracy; spatial data. +++E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN - ISSUE 222, 18 September 2006. - Incorporating Future Democracy Bulletin. IN THIS ISSUE: multimedia campaign; e-consultation research; e-democracy; spatial data. Please forward this free service to others so they can subscribe - full details at the end. We never pass on email addresses. ++Special Notice: Voice Over IP (VoIP) In The Public Sector - 24 October 2006 - Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), London http://www.headstar-events.com/voip06/ . Within five to 10 years, analysts predict that traditional voice telecommunications will be a thing of the past. Increasingly, voice calls are already being carried using internet technologies and cost savings, productivity gains, and specialist new services such as teleconferencing are all there to be exploited. For the second year, E-Government Bulletin is hosting a seminar for all public sector bodies and their private sector partners who are keen to find out more and understand how they can exploit the new VoIP technologies to the full. For more information and to register, see: http://www.headstar-events.com/voip06/ . [Special Notice ends]. ++Contents - E-Government Bulletin Issue 222. Section One: News. 01: DTI Campaign To Raise Awareness Of Rich Media - workshops to share private sector knowledge. 02: DWP Presses Suppliers On IT Service Levels - contractual negotiations for disabled staff underway. 03: E-Consultations Flawed By Mismatched Expectations - research uncovers divergent views of citizens and government. 04: Spatial Data To Boost Liverpool's Online Services. - digital geographical data to be used in call centre and website. News In Brief: 05: Measuring Success - benchmarking report; 06: Communicating Excellence - project winners announced; 07: Google Mash - US library contest. Section Two: E-Democracy - Interview with Tom Steinberg. 08: Making A Difference The Easy Way: The MySociety e-democracy organisation that uses the web to enhance democratic participation, has attracted the Prime Minister's attention and has caused ripples through Parliament. Mel Poluck spoke to its creator. Section Three: Focus - Take-Up. 09: Rich Seams To Be Mined: Rich media content increases interactivity, personalisation and allows for a choice of media on which to receive information. Derek Parkinson writes on a Department of Trade and Industry campaign aiming to encourage the public sector to embrace new digital media to reach the widest possible audience. [Contents ends]. ++Special Notice: Matthew Taylor Is Keynote At 'e-Democracy '06.' - 16 November 2006 - CBI Conference Centre, Centre Point, London. Matthew Taylor, chief adviser on political strategy in the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, is now confirmed as our keynote speaker at e-Democracy '06, the UK's largest ever dedicated e-democracy conference and exhibition. Topics covered include e-voting; the role of the internet in political campaigning in the UK, US and worldwide; citizen-representative dialogue using new technologies; grassroots movements and the net; webcasting meetings; online policy consultation; and much more. Other speakers include Mary Reid, former Chair, Local E-Democracy National Project; Tom Steinberg, Director, MySociety; and Liz Barclay, Presenter, You and Yours, BBC Radio 4. For more information and to register see: http://www.headstar-events.com/edemocracy06/ . [Special Notice ends] ++Section One: News. +01: DTI Campaign To Raise Awareness Of Rich Media. A campaign to raise awareness across the public sector of the potential for rich media, such as video, to deliver cost-effective and citizen- focused services, has been launched by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The Effective Content Initiative (ECI) will bring together private sector suppliers and the public sector in a series of workshops beginning in November 2006. The aim of the workshops, planned to run until mid-2007, is to improve public sector understanding of how rich media, such as video content, can be used to deliver services via any suitable medium, for example, home computers, mobile devices, kiosks and TV. In addition, the public sector - including central and local government officials, representatives of executive agencies and Regional Development Agencies - will gain insights into the content production industry, including a better understanding of how to build a business case for, and commission, rich media content. ECI workshops will typically be made up of around ten representatives from the public sector and an equal number from industry. "DTI welcomes any thoughts on what the public and private sectors would like to get out of these workshops, which will offer industry an opportunity to help public sector content commissioners understand better what content can do for them and what is available from the industry," said a DTI spokesperson. The workshops will also give pointers to smaller companies on how to access a market that has previously been difficult for them to reach. However, the DTI is keen to emphasise that the focus will be on sharing best practice and understanding, rather than simple sales pitches. "The endgame for industry is to sell, but the workshops are not sales platforms or marketing opportunities per se," said a DTI spokesperson. ECI is endorsed by Sir Gus O'Donnell, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service. In his foreword to the ECI brochure, Sir Gus encourages dialogue between the public sector and industry. "By harnessing best practice from industry on the exploitation of the exciting developments in digital media that we now see all around us in our daily lives, we can surely match - and often exceed - the rising expectations of citizens in the way they can access public services. The real prize is effective delivery of services that users find compelling and easy to use, hence reducing the number of those that are excluded through the changeover to digital service access and delivery. To achieve this, the public sector must work closely with and learn from the ICT and creative industries." In addition to the workshops, ECI also has its own section on the DTI website, offering an online source of news, information and contacts: http://fastlink.headstar.com/DTI2 . NOTE: For more on the campaign, see Section Three of this issue. +02: DWP Presses Suppliers On IT Service Levels. Work is underway to establish shorter turnaround times for resolving IT faults that occur on the desktop computers of disabled staff at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The move will mean that technical problems experienced by disabled staff should be solved as quickly as those affecting non-disabled employees. The DWP IT Accessibility Solutions Team is currently in discussion with technology suppliers with the aim of building faster turnaround times into contracts. So far, there has so far been good co-operation from suppliers. "They are interested because there is potential for them to re-use the delivery model on other contracts that will support future customers in meeting obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act," she said. At present, where a technology upgrade or replacement is required for desktop computers with assistive technology installed, or when a fault occurs with specialist access software it's possible that staff with disabilities can't access IT systems until they've got their solution, head of the DWP IT Accessibility Solutions Team Jenny van Tinteren told E-Government Bulletin. Access technology includes screen readers, which "speak" all on- screen content to users, screen magnifiers or speech recognition software installed on their work desktop computers. Van Tinteren's team is in the process of compiling an internal guide for IT project managers, which will cover information and advice on including accessibility in the purchase and design of new IT systems and on setting up in-house accessibility testing. NOTE: Jenny van Tinteren spoke last week at e-Access '06, ( http://www.headstar-events.com/eaccess06/ ), an annual conference on access to technologies by people with a disability hosted by E-Access Bulletin. +03: E-Consultations Flawed By Mismatched Expectations There is a mismatch of expectations between government and the public when it comes to consultation, finds a new report on the use of e-consultation methods among central and local government and community and voluntary groups in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The research by Queens University, Belfast finds that while government typically views consultation as a way of gaining knowledge about citizen's views, citizens want to influence decision- making through consultation and therefore expect feedback on their responses. See: http://www.e-consultation.org/files/ecrp_report.pdf More than half - 57 per cent - of central and local government bodies surveyed don't have any feedback or review structures in place and therefore run the risk that dissatisfied respondents get "consultation fatigue" and stop engaging with public policy, say the authors. The report, based on recent surveys, found that while some public bodies both north and south of the border were experimenting with new technologies to consult the public, the bulk of consultations were still conducted using traditional techniques. "Although some people are willing to experiment, there is no routine use of e-consultation methods," says David Newman, lecturer in information systems at Queens University, Belfast, and one of the report's authors. "The most popular techniques still involve sending out 200-page documents and expecting people to reply by letter." +04: Spatial Data To Boost Liverpool's Online Services. Improved spatial information is set to play a key role in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of Liverpool City Council's online services, E-Government Bulletin has learned. The first stage in using spatial information more effectively will begin next month, when online maps and gazetteer information will be rolled out to staff in Liverpool's call centre, one of the largest of its kind in the country. Staff handling public enquiries will have access to an enhanced online "dashboard" with access to maps, gazetteer information, and service databases. As a result, they will be able to process enquiries more quickly, and identify duplicate reports of problems more easily, said council Geodata Manager Brian Jones. "Because councils deliver so many services it makes sense to group them in clusters, such as environmental issues. A lot of what is reported is reported spatially," he said. Access to spatial information will also enable call centre staff to be more proactive, telling residents about future improvements planned for their areas when they report problems, said Jones. Also in October, the council website ( http://www.liverpool.gov.uk/ ) will launch a map-based service for residents. By entering a postcode, residents will be able to see a map of their neighbourhood with public services such as libraries and recycling points marked, said Jones. "It will be more proactive in the sense of signposting other services that residents might not have thought about originally," he said. News In Brief: +05: Measuring Success: Numerous practical hints for success in assessing progress with e-government at a national and international level are included in a report published by the University of Manchester. 'Benchmarking eGovernment' includes a checklist for those planning and evaluating e-government benchmarking studies: http://fastlink.headstar.com/uman1 . +06: Communicating Excellence: Leeds City Council has scooped 'Best contact centre project' at the Communications in Business awards. Leeds uses voice over IP allowing the public to contact the council via email, voice or the web. Cheshire Police won 'Best converged network project' for its converged voice, video and data infrastructure: http://www.cibawards.com/finalists.ehtml . +07: Google Mash: The first prize of a US competition seeking innovative ways of improving access to libraries has been won by an initiative that integrates library information into the personalised home page of search engine Google. 'Go-Go-Google-Gadget' by John Blyberg won the 'Mashing up the library' contest run by library software providers, Talis: http://www.talis.com/news/press/Competition2006.shtml . [Section One ends.] ++Sponsored Notice: Europe W2i Digital Cities Convention - Olympia Conference Centre, London - September 25-26, 2006 The W2i Digital Cities Convention is a professional development seminar providing local government officials and IT professionals with training in broadband wireless planning and implementation. The conference explores the range of broadband wireless enabled applications and services for cities, communities and regions, including solutions for digital inclusion; public safety; neighbourhood portals; and intelligent transport systems, among others. With an emphasis on local government practitioners' experiences, the convention will serve as a meeting place for technology vendors, service providers, and systems integrators who will feature in the Technology Showcase. These include: BelAir Networks, IBM, Intel, Motorola, Cisco Systems, SkyPilot Networks, and Tropos Networks. For details see: http://www.w2idigitalcitiesconvention.com/ . [Sponsored Notice ends] Section Two: E-Democracy - Interview with Tom Steinberg. +08: Making A Difference The Easy Way by Mel Poluck. Although IT was not directly within his remit as policy analyst at the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, it did influence the e-democracy organisation Tom Steinberg went on to create in 2003. "Government learns from other countries or from the private sector," he said. "The Government wasn't going to be doing anything new unless it had new examples to learn from. With MySociety we're trying to provide examples." The award winning, non-profit body that uses the web to enable and enhance democratic participation, has gone from strength to strength ever since. The MySociety ethos is simple: to improve local life using the internet to connect the public to their decision makers. "We focus on citizens and government working together," Steinberg told E-Government Bulletin. Some initiatives under the MySociety banner are about serving the underserved, while others are simply about providing new services, he said. "There are lots of gaps we fill. How can people that don't know much about the structure or language of government contact their politician? People that don't know about government; what will they type into Google if they don't know who their MP is?" "One of the things I'm most proud of is 'WriteToThem'" ( http://www.writetothem.com/ ), Steinberg said. "We served a lot of people at the margins of democratic involvement: 44 per cent of people [that used it] had never written to a politician. That's a success," he said. The project aims to encourage people to contact their UK local political representative and provides a very simple interface with a search box for people to input their postcode to find them. The site also publishes MP's responses to the emails and faxes they receive from the public. Similar transparency is built into 'TheyWorkForYou' ( http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ ), a MySociety initiative that helps the public "keep tabs" on elected and unelected representatives in Parliament. TheyWorkForYou provides access to recent and archived debates from the House of Commons and the House of Lords, showing the "busiest" debates and enabling the public to rate representatives on the questions they raise in parliament. But it recently came to light that MPs, including Jack Straw, had been tabling questions in Parliament solely to increase their TheyWorkForYou rating, according to Steinberg. "MPs are asking questions to improve their scores on the website," he said. Consequently, an open meeting is to be held on 7 November in Westminster to discuss the way forward for the project, and to address this issue. Another MySociety project to yield unexpected results is 'PledgeBank' ( http://london.pledgebank.com ), which enables people to vote on topics or make pledges to better their community. Last July, a year after its creation, the site received a pledge from none other than Tony Blair ( http://london.pledgebank.com/Sportclubpatrons ), promising to become the patron of a London community sports club on the London version of the site if he received pledges from 100 London based public figures. The plan worked. The project also sparked the creation of digital copyright campaign The Open Rights Group. "We didn't expect it would start Non- Governmental Organisations," Steinberg said. Of the 1,000 people who pledged to contribute 5 pounds a month to the group, over 500 have paid up. Steinberg's latest plans are to develop an e-petitioning initiative in partnership with the Prime Minister's 'Number 10' website ( http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page1.asp ), enabling the public to submit and sign petitions online. Steinberg says the public beta will be out soon, although no date is yet set. Functionality will also increase during the public beta, bringing the methods of constantly user responsive open source development to a government world more used to rigid specifications. Also in the pipeline are the results of the MySociety call for proposals for new initiatives ( http://www.mysociety.org/proposals2006/about ). After a public vote for the best proposals, the team promise to construct websites on the winners, which will be announced in the next few weeks. Among other e-democracy initiatives that Steinberg admires, the online issues forum used in Minnesota and since piloted in Brighton and Hove and the London Borough of Newham merits a mention. "The truth is, there's not much out there," he said. What advice would he give to any similar initiatives in development? "Focus on the really simple tools, but do something useful," he says. [Section Two ends]. ++Section Three - Focus - Take-Up. +09: Rich Seams To Be Mined by Derek Parkinson. The Effective Content Initiative (ECI) is a joint Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and industry initiative that aims to promote the use of effective digital content in the public sector, informed by industry best practice. Endorsed by Sir Gus O'Donnell, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service, ECI aims to raise awareness across central, regional and local government of the potential benefits that can be achieved by harnessing best practice from industry on the exploitation of new media tools and platforms in communications with, and service delivery to, all citizens. The campaign identifies six key ways in which new media content can help the public sector to reach its audience more effectively. These key ways can be illustrated by thinking about how new media might enhance the way a planning application is dealt with, for example. New media enables transactions, such as making a planning application online. It also enables two-way communication, such as discussing that application with the planning officer, whether in real time or via email or messaging. Personalisation is a possibility, offering the person who has just made a planning application information on what is required under building control, any site management rules, or how the council handles building waste, for example. Becoming part of a community is also possible, enabling a person to join a chat room to talk to others who have been through the planning process about lessons learned or ways to do things, or have an opportunity to engage with the local community to hear and respond to any concerns they might have about the application. New media makes rich content easier to receive, enabling a person to download video of a planning meeting which shows how the committee approached difficult decisions and gives an insight into the way they apply their published criteria, for example. Last but not least, new media supports interactivity, enabling a neighbour of a planning applicant to show amendments to the application that would make it acceptable to them, for example. In addition, the campaign highlights opportunities to use rich media and innovative delivery platforms such as mobile phones, digital TV or games consoles to reach sections of society that are unlikely to engage with government on a Personal Computer. Effective use of graphics and video can help to communicate with those who do not have English as a first language or who are literacy challenged. Effective use of audio can help to reach those who are visually impaired. The central message of the campaign is that truly effective use of new media content can deliver a better targeted, more effective and more cost-effective message or service to any group of citizens. ECI workshops are planned to run until mid-2007. These will typically be made up of around ten representatives from the public sector and an equal number from industry. DTI welcomes any thoughts on what the public and private sectors would like to get out of these workshops, which will offer industry an opportunity to help public sector content commissioners understand better what content can do for them and what is available from the industry. In practice, this means that suppliers will have opportunities to suggest ways of delivering and measuring the effectiveness of rich media services, particularly among hard-to-reach groups in the population. "The focus is to explore synergies between private and public sectors which are educational and practical and help the public sector do its job better and achieve best value for money," said a DTI spokesman. It will also help small businesses understand better the needs of Government and improve their prospects of doing business with Government. In addition to the workshops, ECI also has its own section on the DTI website, offering an online source of news, information and contacts. A brochure and flyer are also available to view at: http://www.dti.gov.uk/sectors/digitalcon/effectivecontent/page10175.ht ml Industry and trade associations such as The International Visual Communication Association ( http://www.ivca.org/ ), Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television ( http://www.pact.co.uk/ ), Intellect ( http://www.intellectuk.org ) and WT2 working+together ( http://www.wt2-policyunplugged.co.uk/main/ ) are engaged with the ECI and DTI is discussing specific events with these organisations and their members. DTI also encourages organisations not affiliated to trade associations to contact them direct if they would like to participate in these workshops. This DTI-led work is expected to deliver a significant contribution to the Government's Digital Strategy and the goal of a more inclusive society. It is consistent with the broad principles of the 'Transformational Government' strategy and with improved citizen focus in the Engage framework set out by the Government Communications Group. The workshops will help to inspire new approaches to communication of government content and services, now that the majority of internet connections are broadband-enabled. DTI welcomes participation from central government, executive agencies, regional and local authorities, and industry. If you are interested in attending the workshops, please contact DTI at the following email address: cciebusinessbroadband&[log in to unmask] . [Section Three ends]. ++Special Notice: Place Your Advertisement Here - Reach more than 11,000 in e-government - Largest opt-in/requested circulation in the sector. E-Government Bulletin is the logical choice for advertising any e-government service, product or job. We are the only email newsletter in our sector to receive a circulation audit from ABC Electronic ( http://www.abce.org.uk ), part of the Audit Bureau of Circulation. This shows we have the largest opt-in/requested circulation in the sector: http://www.abce.org.uk/search/headstar . To find out more about advertising and sponsorship opportunities, please email Claire Clinton on [log in to unmask] or phone her on 01273 231291. [Special Notice ends]. ++END NOTES. +HOW TO RECEIVE E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN. To subscribe to this free fortnightly bulletin as an HTML attachment email: [log in to unmask] or for the plain text version email: [log in to unmask] . To unsubscribe from the HTML version email: [log in to unmask] and to unsubscribe from the text version email: [log in to unmask] . 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ISSN 1476-6310 +PERSONNEL To contact us by email, please use our first names and add [log in to unmask] - EDITORIAL. Editor - Dan Jellinek Deputy Editor and E-Democracy Editor - Derek Parkinson Senior Reporter - Mel Poluck Technical Advisor - Nick Apostolidis. - SPONSORSHIP AND ADVERTISING. Marketing Executive - Claire Clinton A searchable archive of our back-issues can be found on our website: http://www.headstar.com/egb . [Issue ends]. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by the NorMAN MailScanner Service and is believed to be clean. The NorMAN MailScanner Service is operated by Information Systems and Services, Newcastle University. ==== This e-mail is intended solely for the addressee. It may contain private and confidential information. If you are not the intended addressee, please take no action based on it nor show a copy to anyone. Please reply to this e-mail to highlight the error. 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