Amazing things are happening in Scotland: Part 2

gratuitous shot of the Firth of Forth

So, as I was saying, exciting things are happening in Scotland...

1. I failed miserably to talk, eat and tweet concurrently (I know, I know, I let the sisterhood down...) at #tartantm, but the event was a great success, with public sector types tweeting from all corners of the country! James Coltham has a nice write up (and some nifty time lapse photography) from the Edinburgh event on his blog. So successful was the whole shindig, that there's already a second load of tweetups planned for 28 March, when the topic will be 'social media and the future of journalism'.

2. Sally Kerr, Web Manager at Edinburgh City Council, has kindly let me help out with rebooting the Scottish Webteams Forum. The Forum was created by Sally way back in 2004 to provide a Scotland-wide platform for public sector webteams to discuss issues and developments, share knowledge and consider partnership working opportunities.

We've decided to try a hybrid traditional conference/unconference format for the relaunch event. The morning session at the City Chambers will include formal presentations on:  

• Direct Scot's prototype findings
• Aberdeen's experience of implementing an open data approach
• the key role that customer experience played in delivering Edinburgh's 4 Star SOCITM site for 2011
• some exciting social media stuff happening in Edinburgh

The event is sponsored by web solutions company Squiz, and we'll decant to their lovely offices just up the road for an afternoon of 'user generated content'! Rather than try to guess what folk want to hear about, we thought it'd be nice to give attendees the opportunity to set the agenda - in true GovCamp stylee :). Anyone can suggest any topic (within reason!) for discussion sessions. There will be opportunities to suggest session topics in the run up, and also on the day itself. Suggestions so far include:

• social media and records management
• the EU Cookie Directive
• social media policies

 

[NB. We also decided to update the group's name - so the 'Webteams Forum' is now the Scottish Public Sector Digital Group (SPSDG) to reflect a slightly enhanced remit.]

We're literally down to a handful of places left - so if you haven't booked, then do so soon! Or if you can't make it in person, follow the #spsdg Twitter hashtag on 29 March. Or read the write ups on the new SPSDG blog.

3. Oh, and just to confirm that good things do come in threes, it looks like the eagerly anticipated IslandGovCamp is a goer!