Timely information to citizens: Innovations in engaging citizens with service design and delivery

Dave HarteBirmingham City UniversityDigital Birmingham

dave@daveharte.comhttp://twitter.com/daveharte

Timely Information for Citizens

Birmingham – Open City

Social Media surgeries

BeVocal.org.uk

Project progress and issues

Birmingham Open City

“Here's a few ideas - lots more.”

“The Open City Plan is a Web2.0 approach to generating collaboration, discussion, creativity, debate, data mashups and open source tools to enable the people of Birmingham to answer one question: "What do I want the city to be like in 25 years?"

Stef Lewandowski – 4iP application

Birmingham Open City

“The problem is, that no matter what the Council do to try to communicate what is happening as part of the [Big City Plan] process, they are limited by their own requirements, party political fighting, out of date communication policies and structures.”

Stef Lewandowski – 4iP application

Social Media Surgeries

Timely Information

social media spirit + mash-up culture =

Who knows but could be good!

Clay Shirky – Cognitive Surplus

“Desperate Housewives essentially functioned as a kind of cognitive heat sink, dissipating thinking that might otherwise have built up and caused society to overheat”

Clay Shirky – Cognitive Surplus

“Someone working alone, with really cheap tools, has a reasonable hope of carving out enough of the cognitive surplus, enough of the desire to participate, enough of the collective goodwill of the citizens, to create a resource you couldn't have imagined existing even five years ago.”

Timely Information

social media spirit + mash-up culture + cognitive surplus =

Who knows but could be amazing!

Timely Information

“RAW DATA NOW”

Timely Information

An experiment in encouraging citizens to use public data in new ways

Brings together the story of  how social media is being used for social good in Birmingham.

Gentle introductions to data stuff

How the project works

1. Social Media Surgeries – identify citizens’ concerns (+ capital equipment)

2. Source some data

3. Find clever people to help mash it up (or whatever)

1. Identify citizens’ concerns

Moseley:

Strategic planning document

new ways to consult citizens

Support resource centre

‘Train’ active citizens

2. Source some data

West Midlands Regional Observatory

API key

Be Birmingham

Making performance data public

2. Source some data

Birmingham City Council

Corporate GIS

Bins / Recycling / Graffiti / Lamposts / Trees etc. etc.

School catchment areas?

3. Find clever people to mash it up (or whatever)

The issues (not insurmountable)

Citizens: some are too far behind the curve.

Data: Too much hugging. OS issues.

Clever people: scepticism

A digital economy opportunity:

Cognitive surplus + Raw Data =

new and exciting area of the digital economy

Digital Participation“Increased awareness would lead to more people engaging in digital participation. Building awareness of what it is possible to do quickly and easily online could encourage greater participation.”

(Ofcom Citizen Participation research)

Summary – this project

Birmingham – vibrant scene to make this happen

Data – still too much emphasis on City creating a resource from the data

This project about showing there are enough active, concerned and geeky citizens to create the resource for you.

Summary – wider context

Power in People’s Hands: Learning from the World’s best Public Services:

“Transforming accountability of services through real‑time, highly local information, often delivered digitally”

“Empowering citizens in the information age – using new technologies to ensure access to services and information about their performance”

“Shift away from bureaucratic information systems”